Titles Books

IF YOU NEED INFO ON THIS SUBJECT THIS BOOK IS A MUST. WHAT MORE CAN I SAY

IF YOU NEED INFO ON THIS SUBJECT THIS BOOK IS A MUST. WHAT MORE CAN I SAY

Retired Commissioner of New Scotland Yard, Sir John Appleby has a difficult and delicate task when he investigates various deaths that have taken place on the estate of his new neighbor, Owain Allington. For one thing, he is no longer officially a policeman. Colonel Tommy Pride is the local Chief Constable, and Appleby isn't sure whether he likes him. When he comes face-to-face with Colonel Pride at a church fête on Allington's estate, they bristle at each other distrustfully.

Then Appleby realizes that Colonel Pride is practically his double. They are both elderly men with a military bearing. Both are wearing tweeds and almost identical green trilbys. In fact: "If he and Pride...were to hunch themselves down on each side of a fireplace, the effect would be... that of ...twinned china dogs..."

In later novels, Sir John and Colonel Pride become good friends (see "Appleby's Other Story" (1974)), but in "Death by Water" (1968) they are still wary of each other. Nevertheless, Pride supplies the police power necessary to tow a car and corpse out of their host's ornamental pond, and supplies Appleby with the information he needs to solve a series of mysterious deaths.

One might refer to Colonel Pride as Appleby's Lestrade, even to a bit of bumbling on the Chief Constable's part.

Michael Innes combines many themes that he has used in other Appleby mysteries: buried treasure; mysterious scientists; eccentric rectors; feuding relatives; and just a touch of spy story. Intellectual arrogance, as in many of Innes's novels is the villain's Achilles' heel.

Never, I warn you, never invite Sir John to dinner, to a church fête, or to your sound-and-light show on the castle parapet if murder is to follow.

Michael Innes (John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) was born in Edinburgh, educated at Oxford, and taught English in universities all over the world. His scholarly career includes works on Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy, but he is better known as the creator of Inspector John Appleby, whose exploits inspired a lasting vogue for literary (and literate) mysteries. If you'd like to experience Sir John at his donnish zenith, read "Hamlet, Revenge!" (1937).

Retired Commissioner of New Scotland Yard, Sir John Appleby has a difficult and delicate task when he investigates various deaths that have taken place on the estate of his new neighbor, Owain Allington. For one thing, he is no longer officially a policeman. Colonel Tommy Pride is the local Chief Constable, and Appleby isn't sure whether he likes him. When he comes face-to-face with Colonel Pride at a church fête on Allington's estate, they bristle at each other distrustfully.

Then Appleby realizes that Colonel Pride is practically his double. They are both elderly men with a military bearing. Both are wearing tweeds and almost identical green trilbys. In fact: "If he and Pride...were to hunch themselves down on each side of a fireplace, the effect would be... that of ...twinned china dogs..."

In later novels, Sir John and Colonel Pride become good friends (see "Appleby's Other Story" (1974)), but in "Death by Water" (1968) they are still wary of each other. Nevertheless, Pride supplies the police power necessary to tow a car and corpse out of their host's ornamental pond, and supplies Appleby with the information he needs to solve a series of mysterious deaths.

One might refer to Colonel Pride as Appleby's Lestrade, even to a bit of bumbling on the Chief Constable's part.

Michael Innes combines many themes that he has used in other Appleby mysteries: buried treasure; mysterious scientists; eccentric rectors; feuding relatives; and just a touch of spy story. Intellectual arrogance, as in many of Innes's novels is the villain's Achilles' heel.

Never, I warn you, never invite Sir John to dinner, to a church fête, or to your sound-and-light show on the castle parapet if murder is to follow.

Michael Innes (John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) was born in Edinburgh, educated at Oxford, and taught English in universities all over the world. His scholarly career includes works on Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy, but he is better known as the creator of Inspector John Appleby, whose exploits inspired a lasting vogue for literary (and literate) mysteries. If you'd like to experience Sir John at his donnish zenith, read "Hamlet, Revenge!" (1937).

A tutor and his reading-party of undergraduates spend a quiet fortnight at a Dartmoor inn, preparing for final examinations. Their usual idea of relaxation is composing scatty limericks. Sometimes the discussion becomes more serious. One evening, the tutor Pettigrew proposes that the passage into manhood requires a rite of initiation. Much to his regret, the discussion turns to the American concept of 'playing chicken.'

That night after the tutor retires to bed, six of the reading-party pile into an ancient automobile and set out on their own version of the supposed American pastime.

You may be wondering where Sir John Appleby makes his entrance into this moody thriller. Not until page 96, well after the undergraduate David Henchman discovers a body on the moor and is hunted, shot at, temporarily cornered in an abandoned bottle factory, and nearly run over.

When David and Appleby return to the scene of the murder on lonely Knack Tor, they discover a body but it's not same one David found earlier. Someone has made a switch, and David slowly begins to realize that he and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner are involved in a second, much deadlier game of chicken.

The best features of this mystery-thriller-coming-of-age novel are the perilous, extended chase scene after David discovers the first body, and his interplay with Appleby whom he at first mistakes for a middle-aged London bureaucrat.

Innes writes this sort of brave, intelligent but basically innocent undergraduate coming-of-age- under-the-threat-of-death novel so very well. His serial detective Appleby has gotten a trifle old and cynical, but when he assumes the role of stern but witty mentor-under-fire he is at his best.

If you enjoy the type of thriller where an undergraduate romp turns deadly, try Innes's "The Secret Vanguard" (1940), "A Family Affair" (1969), "The Man from the Sea" (1955), "The Journeying Boy" (1949), or "Death at the Chase" (1970).

You'll smile at the antics and earnest dialogues of Innes's young men and women right before your hair starts to stand up on the back of your neck, as they accidentally intrude on murder or conspiracy most foul. Poona stuff all around.

A tutor and his reading-party of undergraduates spend a quiet fortnight at a Dartmoor inn, preparing for final examinations. Their usual idea of relaxation is composing scatty limericks. Sometimes the discussion becomes more serious. One evening, the tutor Pettigrew proposes that the passage into manhood requires a rite of initiation. Much to his regret, the discussion turns to the American concept of 'playing chicken.'

That night after the tutor retires to bed, six of the reading-party pile into an ancient automobile and set out on their own version of the supposed American pastime.

You may be wondering where Sir John Appleby makes his entrance into this moody thriller. Not until page 96, well after the undergraduate David Henchman discovers a body on the moor and is hunted, shot at, temporarily corned in an abandoned bottle factory, and nearly run over.

When David and Appleby return to the scene of the murder on lonely Knack Tor, they discover a body but it's not same one David found earlier. Someone has made a switch, and David slowly begins to realize that he and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner are involved in a second, much deadlier game of chicken.

The best features of this mystery-thriller-coming-of-age novel are the perilous, extended chase scene after David discovers the first body, and his interplay with Appleby whom he at first mistakes for a middle-aged London bureaucrat.

Innes writes this sort of brave, intelligent but basically innocent undergraduate coming-of-age- under-the-threat-of-death novel so very well. His serial detective Appleby has gotten a trifle old and cynical, but when he assumes the role of stern but witty mentor-under-fire he is at his best.

If you enjoy the type of thriller where an undergraduate romp turns deadly, try Innes's "The Secret Vanguard" (1940), "A Family Affair" (1969), "The Man from the Sea" (1955), "The Journeying Boy" (1949), or "Death at the Chase" (1970).

You'll smile at the antics and earnest dialogues of Innes's young men and women right before your hair starts to stand up on the back of your neck, as they accidentally intrude on murder or conspiracy most foul. Poona stuff all around.

It's too bad the demons who struck New York on September 11 didn't come from Chelm. Though fools, they'd have learned (from Francine Prose) the utter dementia induced by trying to tackle the New World with the Old.

They'd have been locked up in crates for 50 years, trying to get out. They'd have found that rubbing against party guests in embarrassing places, turning wine into vinegar, curdling the milk and tangling hair doesn't frighten people in a city that knows no darkness, even when the moon doesn't shine.

They'd have known that while gossip was to the Old World "like opening the door and letting the demons in," New World people gossiped all the time. They'd have learned that New Yorkers frightened the demons more than the demons frightened them.

Of course, Francine Prose did not write this story as an allegory about September 11, 2001. The book came out a year earlier. And Sept. 11 was obviously no joke.

Yet post Sept. 11, the New World voice Prose gave to Chelm's mythic Old World laughter and lessons seems addressed to the foolish medieval demons who struck at America's heart without cause: Only those smart enough to adapt survive and thrive. That's why we will win.

It's a good lesson, if only those demons would pay attention. And your kids will understand it, even if the demons don't. Alyssa A. Lappen

This story from Chelm features pictures by Mark Podwal and a tale which requires good reading skills as it tells of the demons of the Polish town of Chelm, where only fools live. The demons decide to move to New York City, but find the big city is more than a match for their spirits in The Demons' Mistake, a fine story of adjustments.

If you are a musician, play piano or guitar and want to delight your friends with songs of one of the best Depeche Mode albums ever recorded, this book is the most desirable sheet music publication you can own. It contains complete transcription of all songs of "Ultra" album for vocal, piano and guitar and although the price is not the lowest, you will not regret your money.

And you will have very nice addition to your Depeche Mode collection.

This book contains the sheet music for the 1997 Depeche Mode album "Ultra". It's pretty basic but it works. All you need to know is how to read music.

I bought this because my son and I had read "Because of Winn Dixie", and loved it. Great for bedtime reading...chapters are not too long, so we can read 2 a night and still get to bed on time. The story is engaging and my son is hooked.

This is an absolute must have for any book lover's library!
I read it in a few short hours! I couldn't put it down.
My 14 yr. old son read it and concluded with the same opinion.

Fred Levit's book is far and away the most helpful and complete Dickens glossary I've been able to find anywhere. I work with high school students who read at various points A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and David Copperfield. Dickens's vocabulary is one of the most extensive of any author's, and it isn't hard for a student to wind up with at best a foggy idea of what's going on at key points, and at worst in a state of total bewilderment, slogging blindly through the swamp. Earlier dictionaries and glossaries we found ranged from completely unhelpful to mildly helpful. With this impeccably researched glossary as a guide, students are now able to navigate the material with a far greater degree of certainty, not to mention a tremendously enhanced appreciation for the richness of the language. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable on the subject myself until I started cross-checking some of my earlier assumptions. My own love for Dickens increased correspondingly. The book gets an A+. No reader of Dickens should be without it.

A glossary that's fun to read. Contains words and expressions that I've not been able to find in any dictionary. Makes reading Dickens an even greater pleasure!

My 8 year old daughter and I loved this book! We laughed and had a special time reading it to eachother. It was fun to see Snow White a bit more modern and the last picture in her story is a hoot!

I picked this book up for my 8 month old the other day. As a "Bookie Monster" (i.e. "One who passionately devours anything with a cover and pages!") and children's writer, I tend to be choosy over the books I purchase for my daughter; I will spend hours in bookstores previewing potential books and picking them apart: "How on earth does drivel like this get the greenlighted by an editor? I've found four words spelled wrong on the first three pages!"

I can't begin to tell you what a surprise this book was. It is beautifully illustrated and written in a no-nonsense, non-dumbed down conversational style. Any adult with a hearty sense of humor will be able to appreciate this work. I laughed out loud more than once as I read through the first page; the classic view of the Queen we grew up with is shattered as she tells her story: She doesn't want your pity; as a single mother, The Queen has had little support in raising Snow White, but has done her best.

A interesting gem from the Queen points out how regular mothers are allowed to fly off of the handle now and then, and folks don't give it a second thought. Stepmothers, however, are not afforded that luxury and branded as evil when they do likewise. That's deep thinking for a children's book, but then again, I am a firm believer in not watering things down for children. They are smarter than most adults would care to admit. Any book that provokes deeper thought in a child's mind gets a huge golf clap from me.

In conclusion, this is a fresh work and a new way of seeing the flip side of the bad guys. If you are weary of tedious tales and the fruitless garbage that clutters the bookshelves of the children's section these days, I highly recommend you pick this one up. I do not have any of the other titles in this series as of yet, but that will change!

88 pages to be read outloud for 4-8 yr. olds. Adapted from the film, this is a must-have for Disney fans. Fifteen chapters appropriate for bedtime stories.

Aladdin is one of the best Disney classics of all time! The story is about a so called Street Rat named Aladdin with his copanion Abu, who befriends a genie and falls in love with a princess named Jasmine. Once he wishes to be a prince to marry Jasmine, but Jafar, the sultin's most trusted advisor, finds out that Aladdin has the lamp he wants. He has his parrot Iago take the lamp and wishes to become sultin. But Aladdin outwits and defeats Jafar. He lives happily ever after with his princess.

ISBN 2894332513 (5 stars) - This is now the third Disney version of The Lion King that I've read, I thought I'd found the best of them in 0307127923. I stand corrected with this one. Although it's small, nearly pocket sized, and it's one of those "novelties", with a pillowed hardcover, this edition is better than the rest (so far!). For the sake of comparison I will, again, merge the reviews.

This third edition is, by far, the smoothest flowing storytelling I've found to date. Leaving out almost nothing, from the beginning to the end, it captures every important moment, running them fluidly together. This makes a much more complete and easy to follow - and enjoy! - story. Brimar's edition seems to be author-less, sadly, so it won't be possible for me to hunt down anything else from the writer - which is only one of two negatives I can find here. The other is that the text is a little small and the font not great.

The first edition I reviewed: ISBN 0717283534 (4 stars) - This is the Disney's Wonderful World of Reading edition of The Lion King. Because there are so many, and they vary so much, I think it's important not to confuse them. Some parents might be reluctant to introduce their child to the story because of the murder of Simba's father and the later killing of Scar. If that's a concern for you, this book might be best passed by for now.

The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, even a step above Disney's usual standard excellence. The story is very slightly disjointed because it's condensed, but the high points are covered and those who have seen the movie will have no trouble following. On the other hand, those who haven't seen the movie might not even notice what's missing! Either way, a chance to read with your child should never be missed and a wonderful Disney tale is always worthwhile.

ISBN 0307127923 (5 stars) - This is the second version of Disney's The Lion King that I've read. All three tell the same story, but this one is a bit better. Hover's adaptation includes more detail and flows more smoothly. The illustrations by the team of Judy Barnes and Robbin Cuddy are very good and the mood of the moment is captured in fantastic colors.

Simba's birth is cause for celebration in the jungle - the future king is presented to one and all, and all show up. Except, that is, Scar. Scar is Simba's uncle, brother of King Mufasa and, until Simba's birth, next in line for the throne. Scar hatches several plans to get rid of Simba and reclaim his place, finally resorting to killing his brother and encouraging Simba to give in to his guilt and run away.

Befriended by Timon and Pumbaa, Simba grows to his full size. He misses his loved ones and, thanks to a chance encounter with his childhood friend Nala and the guidance of Rafiki, Simba returns home to take back his place as king.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This book tells the story of a strong relationship between a mighty lion ruler, Mufasa, and his son, Simba. When Mufasa is killed, Simba leaves the lion pride, thinking his father's death is all his fault. On his journey, Simba is befriended by a kind warthog and meerkat.Simba adopts their carefree motto "Hakuna Matata". The young lion prince grows up with his two new friends not willing to accept responsibility. One night, he sees his childhood friend, Nala, in the jungle. She tells him about lack of food and water at home, yet, he still refuses to return. That night, his father appears in the twilight, telling his son to return home, help the pride, and become king. Simba goes back home and puts everything back into place again. Then he assumes the throne, Pride Rock and chooses Nala for his queen. They soon have a cub of their own. The Circle of Life will continue!