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I enjoy this series because the mystery is always well thought out and it keeps you guessing and second-guessing right up until the big reveal. They aren't overly violent or filled with gory details. They are just clever, fun reads.
This book in particular is a departure for the series in that the bulk of it is a flashback to Mark Sloan's early medical career and his first dabble in the detective world, told in first person. It mainly deals with new characters. With the exception of Dr. Sloan, the other regular characters from this series basically just bookend the story. Lee Goldberg really has the characters down, especially Dr. Sloan. You can't help but picture Dick van Dyke when reading this book. Overall, I would say that The Past Tense is my favorite in this entertaining series.

Lee Goldberg's "Diagnosis: Murder" book series, based on the Dick Van Dyke TV series, got off to a promising start with "The Silent Partner." The books that followed in the series were entertaining but inferior. Now, Lee Goldberg has redeemed himself of "The Waking Nightmare", the previous entry that was mildly entertaining but mostly mediocre and disappointing, with "The Past Tense", a book that's even better than "The Silent Partner" and even the TV series that inspired it.

"The Past Tense" begins when a young girl is murdered during a rain storm in Los Angeles. Her corpse is then carried by the tide to the beach outside of Dr. Mark Sloan's house dressed in a mermaid costume. Things become really interesting when Dr. Sloan discovers the murder is connected to a series of serial killings he solved in his earliest case as an amateur sleuth.

This leads into the most enthralling stage of the book. Lee Goldberg retells the account of Dr. Sloan's first investigation in first-person from Dr. Sloan's point of view. This account is set forty years before the initial start of the novel. Imagine Dick Van Dyke as he appeared circa "Mary Poppins." Readers are finally allowed a glimpse inside the main character's head. Dr. Sloan describes his early days as both a surgeon and a sleuth, as well as his relationship with his late wife and several old friends that take over the roles of the regular cast members of "Diagnosis: Murder" mysteries. The account fits well in its era, even involving the Red Scare in the plot.

This section makes up the entire middle of the novel and, in Goldberg's tradition of providing two mysteries for one with each novel in the series, works as a self-contained mystery story with plenty of twists-and-turns. The approach also distinguishes "The Past Tense" from all of the previous entries in the series, but the novel doesn't run out of steam when it ends. Dr. Sloan and his son Steve, a baby during the time of the `60's killings, spend the final third of the novel sleuthing the connection between Dr. Sloan's past and the murdered woman in the mermaid costume and attempting to catch another killer. These chapters are taut and suspenseful, and the climax is especially hard-hitting and will have readers on the edge of their seats. Lee Goldberg, a writer who worked on the "Diagnosis: Murder" TV series as well as several others, incorporates the quirky humor of the series into the novel, but, overall, this is the darkest and most suspenseful book in the series so far.

This is the first book I've read by Lee Goldberg but it certainly won't be the last.

I thoroughly enjoyed THE PAST TENSE. In fact, I had a very hard time putting it down. When I should have been doing other things, I pushed those things aside until I was finished reading this book.

If you're a fan of the DIAGNOSIS: MURDER tv series, then you should definitely read this book. Even if you're unfamiliar with the series, you should consider reading this book. It has a great story, great characters, and it's very well-written.

This book gave me what I most look for in a book - it entertained me for many hours.

Readers can't ask for much more than that.

Still suffering the emotional and physical after effects from the events in the previous entry, The Waking Nightmare, Dr. Mark Sloan takes a morning walk on the beach outside of his Malibu home...and finds a dead body. The mystery takes an immediate turn to the personal when a strange clue links the murder to the very first homicide case Sloan investigated, back in 1962. Sloan himself narrates the 1962 segment of the story, which is a fine little mystery, and the reader comes away knowing more about what makes the crime solving doctor tick than before. Lee Goldberg (who wrote and produced several seasons of the Diagnosis Murder television series) has added an emotional layer to this mystery that makes it the best in the series to date. Highly recommended.

In the middle of a Southern CA rain storm, Mark Sloan finds a dead college student on the beach near his house. With hair died red and dressed in a mermaid costume, things seem weird. A vile is found inside her that contains pictures from Mark Sloan's very first case.

In February 1962, during another huge rain storm, a dead woman is brought into the ER. Everyone assumes she drowned during the rain storm, but Mark thinks something fishy is going on. When they find evidence of murder, Mark just can't let it go, even when it puts him at odds with the detective, former friend Harry Trumble. Can an inexperienced doctor solve the crime? Even more intriguing, what does this 40+ year old murder case have to do with the present murder?

This book is ingenious. About half of it is set in the past and half set in the present. Really, you get two mysteries for the price of one as we watch Mark solve both cases. Yet they interact in a way I never saw coming. Seeing glimpses of Mark's past was enlightening as well. I really felt like I was back in 1962 for those scenes. Once again, Lee brings events from the series into the book making me wish I'd seen more of the earlier episodes.

These books are fast becoming one of my favorite series around. If you were a fan of the show, you owe it to yourself to pick up this great continuation. Even if you've never seen the series, the plots will pull you in and make you start looking for the reruns. Is the next one out yet?

An excellent book and worth it for both native Cantonese speakers and people learning to speak Cantonese. I'm a native Cantonese speaker (and also fluent in English) and there are lots of slang phrases I have a hard time translating to English and this book helps with it. It should be noted that the vernacular in this book are often particular to the Cantonese in Hong Kong and may not reflect the vernacular of Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou.

There are a few mistakes in the book, however, but not a big problem. For instance, some characters that actually can be written in Cantonese are left "blank" (indicated by a square).

I recommend this book 100%

Excellent book. Though born and raised in Hawaii, Cantonese was my first language. During trips to Hong Kong and Guangzhou to visit family, my Chinese was understood perfectly and they marvelled at how well I spoke colloquial Chinese, but I never realized I wasn't speaking "proper" Cantonese, until I read this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone desiring to learn the usage and context of Cantonese as spoken on the streets of any Chinatown in the U.S. as well as Hong Kong & Guangdong.

Before you purchase a copy just remember this is a dictionary for CANTONESE slang. Cantonese being one of the many Chinese dialogues, obviously not every Chinese speaks Cantonese.
So having said that, I must inform everyone that Cantonese has the most vivid descriptions and usages of slang of the entire Chinese language (yet, being the least awful sounding). How do I know, because I was born in that wonderful city of Hong Kong! It's my native tongue, so trust me, we know how to slang in style~~ However, not all Cantonese slangs are entirely cruses nor are they offensive, you can use many of them safely in any environment. And this book presents the best of them in their original forms, including the usage of each slang and how to apply it within your speech. I am amazed by how accurate the dictionary truly is. The definations are all better than I thought they would be (as well as its entertaining value)! So if you are ever tired from repeating the same old phrases over and over again, then try adding a few Cantonese slangs into your speech to spice things up a little bit.

This is the type of cantonese colliquial I was looking for, one that doesn't just include all the usual phrases that are just slightly colloquial. This book goes all the way in terms of slang language. A lot of swearing and gangster talk is included. When I saw the book cover the first thing that came to mind was the hk movie 'young and dangerous'. Although I have to say ever since my mother brought another colloquial book from hk 'common cantonese colloquial expressions' I found that if you want the usual colloquial phrases like "ar chi don gum say" (ie pretending teeth to be used as gold - I highly take in/treausre every word you say) or "bou yee li" (ie cheating with another woman while married) it'll probably be better to get that book. This book is very slang although it does include many of the usual everyday phrases. The language in this book is probably not used by a majority of civilised hk people although many in hk do swear a lot but I guess they won't use that many variations of harsh expressions. I know this as I was born in hk myself and have visited hk once in a while as I live overseas. I myself do swear a lot in canto (although sometimes I try not to) so this book was suitable for me. It is good as a read for amusment and englightening to what can be said when hk people get pissed or are under pressure.. which is a lot of the time. The yale organisation of the book is very useful for those that can't read chinese as it is in alhapbetical order. It also helps you to pronouce the words if you figure out how to read with the sounding of the high and low tones. Overall I think that this book was well written and it isn't expensive for such a thick book as this I have to say.


hk.style

waited a long time for this to come out, and well worth it..the book is a fantastic contribution to Cantonese language study.
Cantonese is difficult anyway, and has very few good books for those learning the language, in contrast to Mandarin.
well done to the authors and publishers for sticking it out, anyone seriously studying Cantonese will need to learn the wonderfully rich and varied slang, and this really is a serious and valuable work, also rather amusing..thank you!.

A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.

The Raj Quartet comes to its spectacular conclusion with "A Division of the Spoils." Of the four books, I perhaps enjoyed this one the most. The main character (Guy Perron) is observant, funny, and human, so he's easy to like. He is a complete opposite of the story's antagonist, Ronald Merrick. The scenes in which they must work together (Perron is a sergeant and Merrick his officer) are some of the best. I could hardly put this book down and finished it in just a few days.

Please do not let the length of this series dissuade you from reading it! The books are all very compelling and well-written. If you like historical fiction, they are very much worth your time. I would recommend you watch the mini-series (I rented it from Netflix), read the 4 books, and then watch the mini again. You'll get quite a bit out of it that way.

Enjoy!

Anyone reading the reviews for the previous 3 books, knows I have struggled to read these series. However, Scott absolutely redeemed himself with this final book.

The first book focused on the British occupation of India during WWII and introduced us to the "Manners" case - the only interesting bit in a book that had long waffly passages describing India. Who needs to read a history book? This book would have done it... The 2nd book focused more on the "Layton's" and was much more readable as it was the changing India as seen through the eyes of a few key characters. The 3rd book was a boring repetition of the 2nd book and this last book, about the end of the British occupation and WWII was just brilliant!

Like his much more enjoyable 2nd book, this one is told almost exclusively through the eyes of key characters we met in previous books - and it introduces us to the rakish charm of Guy Perron. I always remember Charles Dance's interpretation of Guy Perron in the BBC series making a strong impression on me, but I found the character in the book even more engaging.

This last book in the series was absolutely stunning and made persevering through the whole series somewhat worth it. I say somewhat, because it has been a real trial getting through the denser parts of Books I and III and I wouldn't push this series on anyone, even though the last book is a literary accomplishment.

I try to think if this book is readable without having read the previous books, and although I suspect it is (Scott continues to go back over vast chunks of history from someone else's point of view), it would be a shallow interpretation without the reader gaining all the knowledge from the first 3 books.

This book is just as impressive as the three others of the Raj Quartet. Once again, the cast of interesting characters is huge; the atmosphere of the time is brilliantly captured and the variety of scenes/plots is well mastered. The book is instructive and yet enormously entertaining. The Raj Quartet is one of the most rewarding pieces of literature I have ever read.

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.

Perfect book for a Dora lover. Pictures are inserted wtihin the sentences so your child can read along and particpate with you!

My daughter and I love to read this book together. It is nice and short. My daughter is also learning to spell because of the simple and repetitive words in the book.

My two daughters (ages 2 and 4) request this book be read--at least once a day (along with all the other "Ready-to-Read" books we bought for them). They especially get excited when it's time to go under the sea with Dora. I think this book is probably geared toward the preschool/beginning grade school set. It has big words and colorful pictures. The stories are simple and not too long.
Certain words have little "pictographs" with the word that it's for directly underneath it in smaller print. I suppose this is to help the child learn to read these certain words. Since my daughters are still pretty young (the oldest is now just learning the sounds different letters make; she already can recognize all the letters), we haven't really tried to use these little pictures in that way. Although, we've read this story so many times to them that they "read along" by reciting from memory certain parts of the story. All Dora the Explorer books are great fun for the kids because it involves them in the story much like the TV show does.
I highly recommend it.

My son absolutely loves this book and so does his 2-year old cousin. He enjoys looking at the pictures to "guess" the word and it makes him feel like he's really reading the book. This is his favorite book and wants to read it every day.

We like "Dora in the Deep Sea". My children like it because it has a pretty good story and because it is about Dora, Boots and Pirate Piggy. I like it because it is a good read-aloud, has lots to point out and talk about, and because it allows for a different sorts of interactivity depending on age.

In that regards, Amazon suggests this book for the 4 to 8 age range, but I think it is much more versatile than that. For example, for babies you can read the story and talk about what animals are in the picture and what color they are. [There are seagulls, a variety of silly fish, octopuses, sea anemones, eels, crab, starfish, clams, stingrays, turtles, lobsters, whale, squid, frog, snail, fox (Swiper) and sea horses. There are a great many colors to discuss as well.]

For older toddlers and preschoolers you can `enhance' the story experience by moving your finger over the text, stopping at the `icons' with the intent of letting them fill in the blanks. My children get excited by this because it gives them the sense that they are beginning to feel apart of the `reading'. And if our experience is any indication, they learn that text flows from left to right and top to bottom.

Advanced preschoolers and kindergarteners on up can then begin to use the book for its stated purpose. They can begin to read it themselves. Most words are small: I, am, this, sad, will, the, and help. Although there are harder words for sure: Hooray, swipe, friend, something, clownfish, pirate, and pinch.

Four stars. A pretty good story (see previous reviewers fine summary) about the popular characters from the "Dora the Explorer" TV show. It can be used for babies to beginning readers. It engages children in the flow and process of reading, i.e. how it is done.

My 2-year old daughter loves this book! We've read it every night for the past month and she's still entertained by it. The pages and cover are thick and durable.

My daughter is 22 months and LOVES Dora. She loves reading tis book before bedtime and saying good night to all the animals ans characters. This was an excellent buy!

My daughter is 16 months and this book is a bedtime must-have. The first story is great but the second is a bit long and wordy to keep her attention.

Wonderful book for bedtime! The stories are not too exciting that they work the children up. They teach lessons and are such fun to read. I enjoy this book as much as my Grandkids.

My 12 month old daughter loves this book, I bought it to read to her before bed and she loves it .. she especially loves the little owl in the second story. She has sat in her crib with this book and looked at it for over 20 minutes! quietly! and without noticing mommy got up and left. Excellent book!!

What a powerful novel. Anyone seeking to either whet their historical appetite or emerse themselves in well written, well researched and well balanced account of the early pioneering days of the USA should get this novel and settle into a damn good read.

The people come alive in the book. Exciting to read about the life of the old west.

DREAM WEST captures the spirit of the turbulent mid-1800's and the nearly forgotten stories centering around the remarkable Captain John Charles Fremont (the Pathfinder). This was a refreshing look at one of America's great explorers who pioneered and mapped much of America's western regions. This book includes such historic characters as: the legendary explorer Kit Carson, and Fremont's wife the famed novelist Jessie Benton Fremont, her father the famous Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, cameos appearances from almost every famous politician during the mid-1800 through the Civil War (Lincoln, Grant, Polk, Clay, etc.).

John Charles Fremont was one America's most magnetic personalities. Just to list a few of many remarkable accomplishments, such as:
* He was California's first Governor (albeit for a very short period).
* After California's statehood is approved he was the first Senator for California.
* Became rich during the famed gold rush. Later lost it in a swindle.
* On the Republican ticket as an antislavery advocate he ran for President in 1956,. In fact he becomes a perennial presidential candidate.
* He achieves the rank of major general during the Civil War where he loses most of his battles and resigns.
* Later he becomes a Governor of Arizona and passes much ground breaking legislation.

The only complaint I have with this book (very minor) is the author's lenient treatment of Fremont's war record. In fact Fremont was demoted because he couldn't beat Stonewall Jackson. He lets Fremont off rather easily. Notwithstanding, John Charles Fremont truly was an extraordinary man. This story captures his spirit.

Anyone who has traveled the west has run across historical markers of John C. Freemont-particularly on passes. This is a book of historical fiction. Since James A. Michener died we've been hungry for solid historical novels. David Nevin does a nice job satisfying that hunger here. <I>It was a sad book</I> -a story of an explorer with too much risk-taking, too much integrity, too much trust, and too much self-sufficiency to survive in the world of the military, business or politics. What he did do well with was in marriage and exploration. You'll be captivated by the story on his<I> winter </I> crossing the High Sierras. You may cry at his defeated attempt to cross the San Juan ranges in Colorado. If you like these lessons you'll love the book:
o (1) If you enter politics you've got to play politics.
o (2) People with great personal ambition who do not know how to compromise and horse trade usually get destroyed by those with those skills.
o (3) Don't enter business if you aren't going to learn the rules and watch the business.
o (4) Don't make many enemies If you want to keep from being lonely in your old age.
o (5) When the chips are down only those who love you stay with you-respect and accomplishment will not inspire permanent loyalty-only love does that.
o (6) Never conclude you are a failure in life-the next generation will decide that for you after you're dead.
o (7) Marriage is God's way of helping us see our most hazardous traits-listening and learning this from a spouse can save great pain later.
o (7) When somebody gets a really raw deal those who resent it most are the family not the victim.
o (8) When large sums of money are involved people change.
o (9) Being great at one thing seldom transfers to being great at another.
o (10) I don't think I would have liked Abraham Lincoln if I had lived at the time-some people look better a hundred years later.

Author of the romantic historical, The Rebel's Pledge, a 5 star rated novel of the colonial period.

Dream West is one of the best novels I have ever read. It is powerfully and skillfully written. The story is based on truth about the brave men and women who forged westward. Dream West will move you, inspire you, and enrich your knowledge of America's history.

This book is very interesting and I recommend that you read it. You should read Dude Ranch because it keeps your mind thinking what is going to happen next. The Camden family is trying to plan a family vacation and Lucy hears about this dude ranch that has been around for a really long time. So they think about this, and Lucy asks her dad. He says that she needs to get her family interested in it. So she goes upstairs and talks to her brother and sister about this, and then she goes and talks to her mom about the dude. Her mom asks who will watch the twins? Mary and Matt volunteer to stay home and watch the twins and then the family goes to the ranch. When they get there they go upstairs and put their things away. Then they come downstairs and they eat dinner. Now that they are there they have to work until they leave, but they are working for a good cause. They are there because they are trying to clean up the ranch, so they can open it up to visitors. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys working for a good cause.

bmwgymnist

The Camden family goes to a ranch and the ranch has a few secrets, and the boy has a lost hand will lucy get to the botton of this? read to find out. I Love this book because I love 7th Heaven but also because Licy is a great person and I love the way she handels al the sichuations.

This story has a romantic twist to it. If you like the tv series 7th Heaven like me you will love it! It is the best one !

Dude Ranch is like the best book I've ever read. It has a lot of exciting parts in it. You just can't stop reading it. It's way too good. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. There is also some romantic parts to it too. If you like 7th Heaven like me I know you'll enjoy it very much!! Dude Ranch is the best one out of like all of them.

Dude Ranch is an awsome book! If you like 7th heaven you should read it! There are new characters in it and it also isnt one of the episodes on tv! I read it in two days and I didn't want to put it down! I would give this book more then 5 stars! I cant wait till more new ones come out that are't from the tv episodes! 7TH HEAVEN ROCKS!!!!

Our 4- and 6- year-old children both love doing these puzzle books. Using the popular characters and stickers are a great way to introduce kids to sudoku--it is both fun and educational!

This is a good way to introduce the logic of Sudoku to young children.
I bought it for my five year old grandson but his three year old sister
enjoyed it too - on a different level (sticker fun).
The Dora theme is appealing to young children and the bright colored stickers
make it fun to solve the puzzles.
I am happy to see there is a second book (which I will purchase) so the
children can continue to enjoy the younger version of this adult game.
The only reason I gave it four stars rather than five was because it did not
include numerical examples.

We bought this product for our 4 1/2 year old daughter not sure if she would catch on like her 6 year old sister who does sudoku for kids. She really enjoys the puzzles and only needs some direction from her parents. More than enough puzzles and really appreciated that they provided extra stickers. A great deal for the money and we plan on buying more.

I picked up this book for my 3 year old daughter after she watched her dad doing Sudoku puzzles. Although it is a challenge, once she did a few with us and learned how to complete the puzzles she took off and started completing them on her own. The puzzles keep her attention. She will complete a few of them at a time. Occasionally 1 or 2 are in the wrong place but she definitely understands the concept and works at them well. I have searched but there are no other books like this out there. Would buy any other book that came out like this.

I was confused for a while. I thought Sudoku was mathmatical. I think it was all the numbers and grids that confused me.

But it's not. It's pure logic, numbers are typically used out of convenience but it could be any distinct set of symbols. Dora Sudoku is a good illustration of that point because it uses stickers with pictures on them instead of numbers.

This book is great. When I tell people that I've got my daughter doing Sudokus, they sometimes respond as if I've put my daughter to work at a sweatshop. I guess they see the obsessive way I've gotten into Sudoku and worry that I'm foisting it on her. But I think it's great. Now when I talk about Sudoku we can both get excited together and work on our puzzles. And I'm very impressed with her ability to do them, she's really picked up on it quite well. These are puzzles for kids, of course, two by two boxes within a four by four grid, so we aren't talking about anything too overwhelming. You only need to hold one or two bits of information in your head at a time to solve it. That being said, the logic required to solve the Sudokus is the same logic required to solve more complex ones, just on a smaller scale. Also, the pictures are sometimes similar enough that one would have to pay attention to detail carefully to avoid mistakes. In the easier ones, the four pictures are four different characters on different color backgrounds. But some of them feature the same character in four different poses.

Thumbs up for Dora Sudoku. Anything that gets kids to enjoy books, concentrate, think in steps, and focus on details must be a good thing.

Writing this book has been, obviously, a labor of love for William Mann, whose earlier books convinced me that henceforward, everything he writes is to be treated as the work of an immensely serious, politically committed and ethical scholar. And yet when all is said and done, and a hell of a lot gets said in this book, I remained singularly unconvinced. Unconvinced as to Schlesinger's talent--sure, he made some great movies, but he'd have to have made CITIZEN KANE for the scales of justice to swing back to normal in light of MADAME SOUZATCHKA or THE BELIEVERS. Unconvinced about the frame story, for it seems so pathetic to dwell and dwell and dwell on the miseries of Schlesinger's life after his debilitating stroke when he could hardly speak and seemed miserable in every encounter. Unconvinced even about the title, which seems to have been chosen to echo Schelsinger's greatest success, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, but in that acse why not just call it MIDNIGHT COWBOY? And then in the long run he seemed like a miserable man in every respect of life, looking back, he was never very happy nor does he seem capable of radiating either good will or basic charity. Added to this the contemptible misogyny which, in a Balzacian scene, Mann summons up by asking Schlesinger for his final, considered opinion of the late Penelope Gilliatt. It's unprintable here, and unpleasant even in context of whatever crime she was supposed to have committed.

Are authorized biographies ever a good thing? What's the point of advertising them in that way?

And yet taken as a whole the book is a splendid piece of work, and in giving us the extremely varied picture of a lot of filmmaking atmospheres, from the Angry Young Men scene of the late 1950s in England, to the New American Cinema that MIDNIGHT COWBOY may be fairly said to have begun, to a later day when stars and producers and test audiences made movie making difficult for directors, Mann excels. It's panoramic in sweep, extremely detailed. And maybe the "authorized" label encouraged many in Schlesinger's circle to speak with Mann, including--well, it seems just about everyone. A great story about Madonna's affectations begins the book, which I won't spoil here but it involves her belief that she had a shot in securing the lead role in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. Enough said, go for it!

Two lapses in sense made me doubt my hero Mann for a moment. In discussing the Austin Powers phenomenon, he pronounces that "We've come so far that rebels now go BACK in time rather than forward, when the youth culture borrows relics of the past and jumbles them together into a pastiche of expression and attitude." Surely this has been an attribute of youth culture at least since WWII? Blue jeans weren't invented in the 1960s, they were retrieved from a workingman's past in the 19th century.

And look at this sentence, which touches on the critical reception of MIDNIGHT COWBOY. "Stanley Kauffman in THE NEW REPUBLIC adored the film, using adjectives like 'dexterity,' 'intelligence' and 'perception' to describe John's direction." Okay, maybe I'm missing the forest for the trees, but on the other hand maybe "adjective" has a new definition: "noun"?

Edge Of Midnight: The Life Of John Schlesinger is the authorized biography of the filmmaker whose most famous works include "Midnight Cowboy", "Bloody Sunday", "Marathon Man", and "Day of the Locust". Written with the full cooperation of Schlesinger, his family, and his companion of 36 years Michael Childers, as well as with complete access to tapes, diaries, production notes, and correspondence, not to mention interviews with the actors, crew members, friends and colleagues who knew Schlesinger, Edge Of Midnight accurately traces the singularly amazing career of a dedicated and visionary man. Highly recommended for professional cinema researchers and intrigued lay readers alike.

Poor John Schlesinger. This gifted filmmaker never seemed happy, gave off more than a whiff of bitterness, and even seemed jealous of some of the people with whom he worked.

Most especially, the late Penelope Gilliatt, who authored his finest work, "Sunday Blody Sunday." There has been much misinformation regarding this film. Gilliatt was a brilliant film and theatre critic and a writer of fiction. She was orginally part of the greatly influential team of Kenneth Tynan and Gilliatt at the Observer (London). Schlesinger asked Gilliatt to write the sceenplay of Sunday Bloody Sunday. He thought she was the "right writer." Subsequently, the film was made and received rapturous reviews; it stands today as Schlesinger's finest work, along with his T.V. film, "An Englishman Abroad." The trouble started when Gilliatt received the vast majority of the praise for the film, back in 1971 -- I remember. Pauline Kael went so far as to say that Schlesinger had been inspired by the "delicate substance" of Gilliatt's script, which led him to do his finest work. (And Kael and Gilliatt were NOT friends.)
Perhaps, in addition to Gilliatt's brilliance as a fiction writer, Schlesinger chose the heterosexual Gilliatt to write the script because she had been a champion of civil rights for gays and lesbians in Great Britain in the 1950s, when she was only in her 20s, long before, say, Stonewall in the U.S.A., and fought so that GLBTs could have a place at the theatre and film tables of England under the repressive and homophobic Lord Chamberlain. At any rate, her much-honored script is what the film is remembered for. (Also, Sunday Bloody Sunday didn't get a Best Picture Oscar nod, whatever that silly thing is worth, not because of the subject matter, but because a major English studio was about to go bankrupt owing to the dreadful and dreadfully expensive movie bomb "Nicholas and Alexanda," so the Academy members rushed in to help, or at least tried to, with a Best Picture nomination for it to get the studio afloat.) On its release, SBS was not a commerical success.
Anyway, SBS was a major criticial success. The attention focused immediately on Gilliatt and her original screenplay. Schlesinger charged in one interview that Gilliatt had wanted him to film the scene in which Peter Finch and Murray Head kiss, in long-shot, with the two of them running toward each other in slo-mo and shot side-on. Gilliatt was a film critic of what has been described as sky-rocketing intelligence (at the Observer and at The New Yorker), who received threats for her theatre criticism in support of breakthrough playrights in England. I cannot believe that she ever, even once, suggested, as Schlesinger claimed, that she wanted Finch and Head to run toward each other in slow-mo longshot for their kiss. Read her dazzling reviews of Ingmar Bergman's The Passion of Anna and Face to Face to know that she was simply incapable of that sort of sentimentality. To my knowledge, Schlesinger never offered any proof of the charge, either. The problem was, as I remember the events, he and Gilliatt didn't get along and he simply seemed terribly jealous of the acclaim heaped on her. He called her an intellectual snob, apparently because she was largely self-educated and a genius. She had, according to her friends, a near-photographic memory, was the youngest person ever to pass the entrance exams to Oxford, spoke six or so languages, was a serious writer of fiction and criticism, and had a colossal knowledge of theatre and film. Schlesinger must have felt deeply intimidated. How could he hold his own with her?
The playwright Joe Orton, also gay, apparently had no problem with her erudition, as they were beloved friends, and Gilliatt had many, many loyal and faithful friends in the GLBT community. Anybody who has read her fiction will know the script is hers in its entirety, and she made changes only to repair some structural problems and to accomodate the line readings of the actors, with whom she worked closely throughout the film, especially Glenda Jackson. Peter Finch said her script was the most beautiful he had ever read. How all this must have galled Schlesinger, already a sometimes trying presence to those who knew him. At the end, he made one dreadful film after another, often blaming the result on the actors' interference, etc. In truth, Hollywood had become so infantilized that the work of serious filmmakers was largely abandoned long before Schlesinger's death. All the same, he made two magnificent works, Sunday Bloody Sunday and An Englishman Abroad, and one deeply flawed but beautifully acted film Midnight Cowboy. It's doubtful the rest of his work will survive. As for Gilliatt, her vast body of criticism (film and theatre) is used in university film and theatre classes around the world, many of her short stories will survive as masterworks of the form, her brilliant profiles of Bunuel, Godard, Renoir, etc., are among the best of their kind and will be read long after all of us are gone. And Schlesinger, apparently jealous to the end, will forever be indebted to Penelope Gilliatt for her contributions, and she made many, many more contributions to the film than her screenplay, for as long as he or his film is remembered.

I am lying in the sun in Hollywood and I have just devoured this splendid John Schlesinger biography. I recommend it to every movie fan the world over. It is a lovely book and worthy of its subject.

Being north of forty, it would be impossible to underestimate the importance of John Schlesinger's influence on my life as a gay man. Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday were seismic movie going moments for me. Truly great movies in their own right, both have fully-dimensional gay characters as well as homo-erotic moments that lodged in my young brain and stayed. Jon Voight is a luscious Ken Doll in Midnight Cowboy. And Murray Head could be the poster boy for sexy 70's male in Sunday Bloody Sunday. Glenda Jackson watching Murray's perfect physique as he showered was thunderous for me because every day in Catholic high school I stood next to beautiful boys in showers and I couldn't stop staring and also could not forget none of them would ever be mine.

And thank you John Schlesinger for Julie Christie! The movie-going public will be forever in John's gratitude for giving us Julie.

They say that the music one listens to in our teenage years becomes "our" passion music-wise for our entire lives. Certainly, my life-long allegiance to Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin attests to that.

I feel the same way about Julie Christie. I was too young for Billy Liar and Darling when they came out. But both movies mean a great deal to me now. As do McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Shampoo and Return of the Soldier and Afterglow. I love watching this creature on screen. Julie is sexy to me even though I have no desire for her. And I am as much a fan now as I ever was when I first laid eyes on her. More of a fan probably.

Bravo to William J. Mann for painting a vivid portrait of one of our greatest film directors. And bravo John for your illustrious career!

William J Mann is interviewing famed movie director John Schlesinger at his home in Palm Springs. John has just had triple bypass operation followed by a stroke which has left him paralyzed on one side, confined to a wheelchair, and almost voiceless. Although his brain is far from crippled and he can nod, shake his head, and sometimes answer questions in a brief, unexpectedly pointed whisper.

They spend their days together looking out at the mountains which edge the city, and William sometimes talks with Michael Childers, John's lover and partner for many years. Friends of John's occasionally pop in for a visit - Julie Christie, and Brenda Vaccaro, all tearful and upset at John's seemingly hopeless condition.

Mann uses this sense of immediacy to great effect in Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger. Each chapter begins with a sense of how John is declining and how the author is racing against time to find out as much as he can. By interweaving the present with the past, Mann traces richly varied accounts of John's early struggles and glory days.

The end result is of man who has led a creative, and artistically fuelled life, with Mann offering a poignant contrast between the figure who sits staring at the mountains beyond the window, adrift in silent internal exile, with the sound of his laughter on recorded tapes. John's creative energy and intuition, his penchant for mischievousness and naughtiness, and his willingness to take risks and really push the cinematic envelope for more than twenty years, are highlighted with a candid and sincere accuracy.

And John Schlesinger also gave us Julie Christie, whom Schlesinger chose for the character of Liz in Billy Liar. The world of cinema would indeed by dull without the gorgeous Julie. Much of the narrative talks about the tremendous international success of Darling, and how the movie, not only cemented Christie's stardom, but also allowed John to go on to make even riskier movies.

Mann talks about why Darling was so historically significant and the part it played in the cinematic sexual revolution, which in turn greatly affected the changing sexual habits and attitudes in much of the West. John was determined to raise the bar with onscreen frankness, and he often found himself stymied by the Hollywood old guard who were determined to promise their audiences "real stars looking glamorous in beautiful gowns in beautiful sets, no kitchen sinks, no violence, no messages."

But it was Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday that really pushed the cinematic envelope: Sunday Bloody Sunday, with film's first same sex kiss, boldly rejects "moral" judgment in its account of the middle-class London doctor and the professional woman's feelings and presents both kinds of love as equally natural.

In Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voight's naive hustler from Texas foresees a future for himself in New York as a stud for affluent lonely ladies, but failure plummets him to the city's harsh and seamy underside instead. Midnight Cowboy proved that films, which overthrew convention, that dared embrace radical form and content, could also make money.

Schlesinger admits that he wanted to tell stories that dealt with the human condition, human difficulties, and even the illusions of love. His films were all about adult themes - the difficulties of maintaining relationships, abortion, extramarital affairs, and homosexuality. He wanted to make films about "people pushed on to an edge," and also people who were regarded as the underdog, the outsider in society.

He believed that films needed to be relevant, and that they needed to reflect the changing society. He also wanted his audiences to think, but more importantly, he wanted them to "feel," be it terror or revulsion or compassion or pity. In later years when he couldn't set up the films he wanted to make, Schlesinger damaged his reputation, then his heart and his arteries, by accepting too many potboilers in the desperate, unfulfilled hope of a box-office success that would enable him to work on his own terms again.

Glenda Jackson had a filthy sense of humor. John played a terrible joke on Julie Christie, which involved a feminine sex aid during the making of Far From the Madding Crowd. Sean Penn, although enormously talented, was a nightmare to work with. At the last minute, Brenda Vaccaro refused to show her nipples when doing the love scene in Midnight Cowboy.

The Hollywood brass turned their back on John after the colossal failure of Honky Tonk Freeway, Rupert Everett and Madonna gave the poor man hell on his final disastrous movie, The Next Best Thing - Madonna begging him to do for her what he had done for Julie Christie, while Everett was more concerned with rewriting the script as they were shooting.

William J. Mann has indeed written a formidable account of one director's life, a wonderful patchwork of tidbits including interviews with the people he helped make famous - Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson. Martin Sheen, Ian McKellan, and Dustin Hoffman.

What evolves is a fascinating biography of a man who desired success, and ambition, and even lots of money. It's a portrait of a tormented man who had a quirky pessimism not withstanding and lived a life relatively free of personal demons. Comfortable with his homosexuality, and totally committed to making movies, "his art came not from discontentment with life, but rather from a love of it." Mike Leonard October 05.

This book was intended as a companion for the Bertolucci film Little Buddha, a sweet tale that verges on saccharine--but which offers a beautiful dramatization of the story of the Buddha and his enlightenment. Also: Keanu Reeves doing an Indian accent and trying to look enlightened--can't go wrong with that!

As an introduction to Buddhism, it is neither systematic nor comprehensive. What it does offer the reader is a chance to delve into the different strands of Buddhist spirituality and philosophy, which are represented pretty well here. It's a great book for somebody who only knows a little about the Buddha and Buddhism, and wants to know more without getting a biased or ax-grinding introduction from someone who definitely identifies with one school, tradition, or vehicle within Buddhism. It also contains enough gems--some really good essays and texts here--to satisfy readers who know about Buddhism and maybe even practice it, but are still seeking nourishment and knowledge.

All in all, a fine, well-stocked, somewhat eclectic book o' Buddhism.

This is an excellent introduction and intermediate level book on Buddhism. How can it be both? As an introduction, one would read each chapter through to gain an initial impression of the various key teachings and tenets of Buddhism. As one reads the book for the second or third time, one learns more and sees interconnectedness among topics, chapters, and ideas. Just as the teachers would have you do in their zendos, centers, and temples. If you are looking for a "what are the various types of Buddhism" book, then check out Nancy Wilson Ross' "Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought." This book is more about the different teachings.

This hefty collection of sutras and essays by Buddhists from both East and West somehow seemed a bit leaden. Part of it are marvelous, including the famous illustrated "Ten Bulls" path to Buddhism, but other tortuous explanations of some of the schools of Buddhism (admittedly they don't deal with simple matters or distinctions) left me cold. In the end it felt like Bertolucci's film - a bit overblown.

This is an excellent collection of writings aimed at clearing up confusion one may have about basic buddhist doctorines and the different buddhist schools. It is not a good place to start for the total beginner, since this book seems to be aimed at those who have some knowledge of buddhism and wish to advance their understanding of it. It is not as cut and dry as some of the other buddhist primers available today. One gets a variety of writers with varied insights into the Buddha Dharma. Highly reccommended!!!

The publisher has reissued this book in the Shambhala Classics series under the title: THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS.