C Books

Anastasia's Album is definitely the best children's book on the Romanovs! The main personality is Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna - the youngest daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, and a very lively girl who enjoyed activities and taking photographs. One very charming aspect of this book is seeing Anastasia's very own photo album, which she often hand-decorated herself - drawing and painting borders around her photographs and even adding a little colour to her pictures. Anastasia's Album also informs the reader of the Romanovs' family life up until their last days in Ekaterinburg.

Although the book's main targeted audience are children, Anastasia's Album will charm readers of absolutely all ages! Very cute book!

Since I'm writing a research paper, this was such a useful source for me to use. I loved the pictures and the information. It had so much of it! I was amazed; blown away. This is an amazing book for both kids and adults and I hope you get something out of it too!

This is an excellent book about Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Russia's last tsar. As many know, Anastasia was murdered with her entire family in 1918. This book tells Anastasia's story through her own words. Her letters reflect a happy, secure young girl who came from a loving family. It shows readers a world that is gone and will never return. Though it was written for young children, all ages with enjoy "Anastasia's Album!"

The first time I found this book at the public library I just barely seen Fox's movie Anastasia for the first time. Surprised to find out that Anastasia was a real person, I checked out the book expecting it to be similar to most biographies.

Boy was I wrong. This book absolutely blew me away. Anastasia's album is a wonderful look into the life of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last tsar of Imperial Russia. Imagine my surprise to find out that Fox's movie was nothing like Anastasia's real life, although many of the costumes and sets came from real items. Full of pictures, this book also included bits from Anastasia's real diary. A remarkable biography about a remarkable girl.

I remember this book from when I was a kid, after the 'Anastasia' movie came out my friend had this book, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's full of beautiful photos and pictures the Grand Duchess drew herself. It seems really heartbreaking now that all she got to leave was her scrapbook.

Angel Cats is a wonderful reminder THAT the presence of a Divine Spirit, usually attributed only to the best humans, informs our feline companions as well.

The story "Throwaway Kids and Throwaway Animals Found Each Other" alone is well worth the cost of this amazing collection of stories. Linda Lansdell who shared her story helping inner city troubled teens grow into responsible and loving adults is a very good writer. And it all happened because of the animals that the inner city teens helped care for. All the stories in Angel Animals are good but this one story hits home on what animals can do to help change human lives for the better.

I bought this book and read it after reading Allen and Linda Anderson's other book titled GOD'S MESSENGERS: What Animals Teach Us about the Divine. ANGEL ANIMALS is a feel good and thought provoking book to read! All the well written stories offer a unique viewpoint on the special (some would say spiritual) bond we have with our pets and with animals in the wild. Dr. Marty Becker writes a wonderful foreword and endorses the spiritual theme of the book with enthusiasm. I highly recommend this book and the Anderson's other book, GOD'S MESSENGERS!!!

The connection between animals and people is quite profound. The lessons about fidelity, love, caring and relationships are all in this book. My husband and I took time each day to read one of the stories out loud. I can think of my experiences with various animals I have had and realize the spiritual connection.

Great book about humans and animals! Good reading material for young and old alike.

My mother read this book to me when I was young; now I'm in college and it's still one of my favorite books. It's a wonderful story with great characters. At the end, I always feel like my heart is filling up and overflowing. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I read this book as an assignment for an extra reading group I'm in. There are definately some funny lines in the book, but I don't think the overall story was that interesting. I suggest it to kids ages 11-14. The reason I suggest it to older kids is because younger kids wouldn't understand it so much. I really did like it, though. Give it a try, you might love it!

I have got to say this is a Book of great comedy. It has an interesting flow of characters a lively narrator and hilariously funny pictures. All who I have recommended this book to, loved it. the only problem that I have found with it is the ending. He stops making every one laugh. I thought that he was sort of like Peter Pan and would always be funny. But he turned serious. Still it is absolutely awesome, A must read.

This is a fun book, a sort of send up of fairy tales. The writing style is very loose, and the book is filled with illustrations.

I liked it because it moves quickly. It lacks focus, but at least something is always happening, and the story is strange and quirky. The characters are engaging, and the writing is enjoyably casual.

It's about a prince who makes everyone happy, a princess so beautiful she turns anyone who looks at her into stone, a clumsy giant, and a hunter who shouldn't even be in the book but stays in it despite the author's protests.

It's a quick read, very fun. Recommended for kids and adults, especially if you're looking for something different.

In the beginning Roger is a prince, but not a normal prince. Roger has a strange effect on people. If he gets too close to a person, they could die laughing. When J. Wellington Wizard tells Roger to go on a quest, Roger asks, "Isn't a quest where you have to go somewhere or find something?" J. Wellington says that he sees him entering the Forever Forest, and tells him to take a sack of magic powder, and whenever he sees someone, to dust a little on himself, so that Roger can turn into a thing, maybe even a leaf. Then, whoever he is near won't laugh. Roger sets out on his quest, gets stuck in the Forever Forest, and meets a lot of new people, such as little Lucille, Andrew, and Tom. Some are evil and some are nice. Roger hates it in the Forever Forest, but he knows it will get better and he will be the happiest man on earth.

This was a very funny book to read because the author pretended that he doesn't have control over his book, such as when, in chapter 5, Night of the Frogs, he says that he was just trying to fool Tom because chapter 5 is really called Tom. Tom is a character who is supposed to leave on page 9 but he refused. The author always talks about how Tom can walk in and out of the book, and come back at the perfect time. I thought this book was hilarious, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining.

"A Book is Born" is a truly useful insider's guide to getting a book published, but it's so much more. The book's format invites the reader to share the minutiae of all phases of the experience of 24 women authors as they travel the journey from idea to action to realizing the dream of getting published (and publicized). The women's voices are clear, companionable,and reassuring, and Nancy Cleary's vision of empowering women authors is evident throughout. Especially for those of us who are visually oriented, the book's design--lots of graphics--is wonderful! In the book's final section, "The Secret and Science of Getting Published", various innovative approaches are revealed.(I was so impressed with Nancy Cleary and this book that I contacted her; the result is that she'll be helping me with the publication of my book "There and Back: A Journal Companion for Special Needs Parents".)

Mary Lee Moser

There are already more than enough books on the publishing process and the nuts and bolts of publishing yourself or finding a publisher.

What was lacking was a book that talked about the love/hate relationship I have with my book, that made me feel part of something bigger and let me know I was not alone in my journey.

I thought other authors knew things, and had confidence in their work 24/7 without fail. I thought I was a freak for not being totally sure of my book and my abilities as a writer.

A Book is Born showed me this process is painful for everyone. It is confusing for everyone. It is scary for everyone.

I cannot express how relieved I felt as I got to the end of the book, my only regret was that I wasn't published by Wyatt-MacKenzie...all the women felt so supported by the publishing house I actually thought I might have made the wrong decision regarding self-publishing.

But even if I did make the wrong decision, it's something that happens to everyone. While I write my next book I'll refer back to A Book is Born early and often to remind me my journey is not a unique one, and that the feelings I have while my book is being born are natural and normal.

I wish I had this book when I started out on this writing journey over six years ago. A Book is Born is a wonderful, informative, fun read for all the writers out there. All the inside secrets and how to's are shared in a fun way.

Reading this book is like having a mocha latte at a corner Starbuck's and getting the scoop on this writing journey from some of the best writers there are!

Thanks, Nancy. What a great read!

Trish Berg
Author, Book Reviewer
[...]

Rattled: Surviving Your Baby's First Year Without Losing Your Cool

The Great American Supper Swap - Solving the Busy Woman's Family Dinnertime Dilemma

Nancy Cleary's "A Book is Born" is a hands-on, photo and graphic-filled blueprint for the regular person to use starting when they're tossing around an idea to get published, all the way through actual publication. Told from the point of view of 24 different authors as they journey from book idea to publishing that book, there is always a different voice to tune into if one person's perspective isn't the direction you're interested in. With so many unique voices, Cleary shows that there are as many techniques to prepare for publishing and the aftermath of publicity as there are writers. Very easy to read, extremely helpful for the frazzled writer in the midst of publishing chaos. Cleary breaks the demons of publishing down into easy steps, and offers solutions for the up-and-coming writer. A fun essential for any writer. Cleary's concise and practical book makes the trip toward publication a natural and interesting journey. Definitely order one!

As a first time author, I have been struggling with the complexities of how to get from point A (writing) to point B (published). This book provided really practical information: details about terminology, chronological checklists, and actual experiences related by authors. I enjoyed the tales of the authors even as I was being instructed by them. The book is like a user's manual supplemented with "dream potion recipes", and will undoubtedly launch the careers of a new generation of writers who have been waiting in the wings for stage directions.

Whatever else they do in life, Nancy Cleary and co-authors have left a legacy of impactful guidance that will further the goals of storytellers yet unrecognized.

I read "Cache Lake Country" in 1968. I was delighted to find it in print again...like meeting an old friend.
Thank you.

I'm going to be a little less enthusiastic, but only a little, than some of the other reviewers here. I really did like this book, but for some reason it just didn't quite pull me into the time, place, space the way it did some others- although it didn't miss by much.

This is a very unique book-probably reminding me of my old Boy Scout Fieldbook (a little more detailed and survival-oriented than the handbook) more than a typical non-fiction work. The illustrations are great as well as occasionally light-hearted, and if you are at all handy or have an engineering or for that matter, culinary bent, you will find plenty of recipes and blueprints for food, tools, gadgets- even crystal radio sets or birch bark canoes. While some of these you'd probably have to find some supplemental information to make, most come so well described and diagrammed that you could probably build them or bake them directly from the book.

For me the best part is the author's midwest and at times almost cowboy way of describing life. His time around rough loggers in the days when horses and two man saws were still the order of the day especially captured my imagination. Like many readers, I'm a lot hermit, and the thought of life in a cabin in the north woods with nothing but snow, bear, moose, and wind has a certain charm, and I'm grateful to Rowlands for giving enough of a story to enjoy a bit of that charm vicariously. An excellent and unique book, and for some it will probably become a treasured possession.

I have read a lot of outdoor books over the last 40 years, and this is one of the best. I am going to research the author, John J. Rowlands, because he was obviously a fascinating man who lead a very interesting life. This book tells about 12 months living in a cabin on a lake in Northern Onatario. At the time Rowlands was working as a timber cruiser, evaluating forests for use as lumber. He happened upon his ideal lake and was lucky enough to get stationed there by his company. He was also very lucky to have two great friends living within miles (within signaling distance via the various drums, horns etc. they engineered), on other little lakes. Together the three lived every outdoor boy's dream life of independence and adventure. This book has stuff about canoes, wild animals, sled dogs, snowshoes, knives, axes, the history of the lumber camps, and many boy-scout like craft projects. I just wish it was a lot longer.

A good book but I didn't think it was as easy to read as friends lead me to believe. A tremendous amount of reference material, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I found the book enlightening and informative. Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy and learn from this book.

This book is a beautiful celebration of Calder's gorgeous and playful jewelry. The pictures are lovely and the jewelry itself is simply amazing. It's hard not to feel joyful flipping through these pages. Buy it and enjoy!

This book is an inspiration to anyone who makes jewelry. The use of cold connections is terrific and can show you what can be done without the use of solder.

Merely walking by this book makes my artisan heart tingle. The genius, the simplicity and golden aura of beauty makes this book a "must own." The photographs are gorgeous and the descriptions beautifully written. Get inspired.

Anyone who appreciates well-made, original design in jewelry needs to have and read this book. What an inspiration! Although I was familiar with Calder's mobiles, for which he is most renowned, I was even more impressed with his jewelry designs. All one-of-a-kind. A definite must for the coffee table or even to read and enjoy. As a jewelry designer influenced by other cultures, this has been most helpful in inspiring me to follow my instincts and to design the items I've seen in my dreams. What a book!

Expertly photographed, beautifully styled catalog of A. Calder's jewelry. A great purchase, no regrets.

I am what is commonly referred to as a Civil War buff, what ever that means, and I feel compelled to write you about the work of Timothy B. Smith.

My biggest frustration about a lot of books on the civil is the lack of good quality maps that allows the reader to get a sense of who was where and what was happening on the battlefield. How one could write an account of a battle with out good maps is beyond me.

The maps in Champion Hill are fantastic. Not only for their clarity but the sheer number of them is truly amazing. Needless to say I loved them.

The style of his writing actually left me with the desire to pick it up again to see how things were going on the Middle Road and the Jackson Rd., just like a good mystery book.

I give it an A+.

Keep'em coming but don't forget the maps !!

The reviews tell the story. This is a great book. Champion Hill isn't one of my areas of interest, but every time I saw this book, it ended up in my hands until my wife yelled for us to go. If I were to write a book about my favorite lesser known battle, this is the way I would hope it would come out. Exhaustive research, flowing text, sufficient photographs, and some of the best maps that I've ever seen. There are plenty of them, very detailed, and thank you Mr. Smith for breaking them down to individual regiments! He wraps it up with an Order of Battle (thank you!) and a zillion photographs of the battlefield today (thank you again!). It would be hard to top this book. Even if you aren't into Champion Hill or Vicksburg, you'll love this book for the job the author did. Incidentally, check out his "This Great Battlefield of Shiloh.." as well. I look forward to more works by this author.

Timothy B. Smith's "Champion Hill Decisive Battle for Vicksburg" is a must read. A little known battle but one of great magnitude. Many historians have often over look the battles that led to the doom of Vicksburg. Leading up to to Champion Hill were the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond and Jackson. Timothy B. Smith keeps the story flowing and leads you breathless to the climax at Champion Hill. Such research is much needed and is so well written I could not put the book down. This book is a instant "Classic". The book has lot's of maps to help the reader understand the battle geologically. The timeline is easy to keep up with, which is often very hard to do in a Civil War battle. Also included is a very nice selection of photo's to illustrate the participants as Timothy weave's you though the thick Minnie's. One minute you are charging forward with victory and the next minute you are running for your life!

CHAMPION HILL is, unequivocally, the best non-fiction narrative of a Civil War engagement that I've ever read - and that includes works by Shelby Foote and James McPherson.It generally concerns U.S. Major General Ulysses Grant's capture of Vicksburg, but is more specifically about the crucial Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, 1863, which essentially sealed Vicksburg's fate by forcing its defenders back into the city, around which Grant ultimately established siege lines.

The volume's initial fifteen pages briefly summarize Grant's various abortive attempts to take Vicksburg from the north before he was able to cross his Army of the Tennessee to the Mississippi's east bank south of the city on April 30. The next ninety describe the preliminary battles at Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson. The bulk of the book, 280 pages, concerns itself with the Champion Hill collision between Grant's forces and Lieutenant General John Pemberton's Army of Vicksburg. There's a penultimate 12-page chapter on the battle's aftermath that includes Vicksburg's capitulation on July 4, and a concluding 11-page postscript chapter on the post-battle and post-Civil War careers of the numerous commanders that are named (and pictured) in the text. Finally, there's a 10-page Appendix with the Order of Battle for both armies, thirty pages of Notes, sixteen pages of contemporary battlefield photos keyed to a reference map, and a 12-page Bibliography. I suggest that author Timothy Smith has penned a battle narrative as satisfyingly complete as any you'll ever come across.

Champion Hill was a seesawing, day-long, complex affair, the account of which will likely spellbind the reader to the point of emotional exhaustion. What I found most impressive was the extreme lucidity of Smith's description of the various military units' maneuvers across the landscape mostly described at brigade and regimental levels. The evolution of the Champion Hill clash is traced by forty - count 'em, 40! - marvelously illustrative maps rendered in black, white and gray that coincide at all times with the textual narrative. Smith even goes so far as to depict the field positioning of units during and after disintegration and, in some cases, their subsequent reformation and re-entry into the fray. At no time was I in the least confused about the tide of battle and the organizational identity of the combatants. These battlefield maps demonstrate how such should be constructed, but which so often are not in otherwise faultless works.

For Grant, who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, Champion Hill was another close run thing - more so than it should have been. Generally speaking, each side suffered from committing its forces piecemeal - Grant because of overcautious orders to his chief subordinate on-site, commander of the XIII Corps Major General John McClernand, and Pemberton because of inadequate intelligence as to Federal troop dispositions combined with a rancorous relationship with division commander Major General William Loring. Particularly speaking, the Confederates perhaps lost Champion Hill because of a wayward ordnance train that handicapped beleaguered rebels in the face of fresh, but the last, Union reserves at a critical point of confrontation.

CHAMPION HILL is an obligatory read for any student, casual or serious, of the Civil War. I was sorry to come to the end of the story, a reaction usually reserved for fiction.

Being a novice to the study of the civil war, I found this book to be helpful in my pursuit of knowledge about the Battle of Champion Hill. It was well written and easy to read. Not being one who necessarily understands military tactics or maneuvers, Timothy Smith's book allowed me to follow the battle with a clear understanding of troop movements and placements and was enhanced by the excellent maps. Having read the book prior to a trip to the Vicksburg area, the battle came to life for me because of the knowledge gleaned. I especially enjoyed the personal accounts, pictures and bios of the officers and soldiers.

I think this battle is best summed up by a quote from the book about a young Iowan, Sam Byers, that said, "But, on May 16, 1863, he was just a frightened young man standing with hundreds of other frightened young men looking up the slopes of Champion Hill in an effort to stare down random death.." This is definitely a book that every serious student of the civil war will want in his or her library.

If you want to make chains this book teaches you all you need to know. Step by step instructions are clear and easy to follow. The binding is really tight so it is hard to turn pages without the fear of tearing a page.

Chainmaking is one of the most basic and most advanced techniques in jewelry fabrication: basic in its modest demands for tools, materials, and technique; advanced in its demand for utter mastery of technique. That's not a contradiction. Each step is simple enough, within the range of someone who know which end of the torch to hold. Doing that step a hundred times in a row, identically each time, that's where mastery comes in. In paticular, there's that fusing (welding) step that starts every project. I learned to hard-solder a fair joint, way back when, but never mastered fusing, even when dissimilar metals wanted desperately to form a eutectic.

I'll try again. Results, when they work, are just too seductive. This book gives clear and specific directions - maybe too specific some times. Perhaps I really do need 108 links for some project. Not 110 or 106. But perhaps my materials didn't meet the under-1% precision requirement. Well, if you already know the techniques that the authors assume, you'll read past the over-fussy bits.

I'm just carping, though. This book really stands out. Directions are utterly clear, and nicely illustrated. Admittedly, a bare beginner might struggle, but this book never meant to address that reader. Given hard covers, the spiral binding lies flat easily, or stands open where you opened it. Illustrations really illustrate the techniques - even without pliers in hand, you might feel yourself following along. Projects range across a wide span of skill levels, but this gives no indication which are which. That's OK. These authors address a readership that understands what the words mean and that can rank themselves honestly against the demand each project places on the reader.

I can't wait to get started.

-- wiredweird

This lady has spent years researching ancient techniques and it is to her credit that granulation and woven chain has finally come to America.

These chains are not soldered; they are fused and woven. I recommend you have at least a semester of college level jewelry or several years of soldering under your belt before jumping in with this one. But it worthwhile if you want to make chains that are worthy of royalty, or have a chain for a piece of art jewelry that will do it justice.

This is a workbook, progressing from the simplest and easiest to progressively more complex chains. After the first couple hundred fused links you become pretty adept. After fusing the links, you will learn to weave links into patterns. These are not your ordinary chains. They are strong, beautiful and flexible.

Jean is obsessively precise in her work, so this book is very precise. She goes over what gauges work for which patterns, as well as all the little tips that make a chain look superb. It's a lovely book, very well-written and one to be included in a goldsmith's library.

To get a better idea of the creativity and precision of this lady's work, go to Randy Smith's website: http://www.rocksmyth.com/ and look for Jean Stark's work. Prepare to be amazed at all the lovelies and realize that pictures do not do her work justice, as good as the pictures are. Many of the chains are made with 30 ga. wire, which is not much thicker than sewing thread. Her chains feel like silk.

If you're serious about making fine quality chains, then you need this book. Jean Stark is the guru.

This was just what I was looking for. Clear instructions with photos. A great find!

This is great information with very east to read instructions. Not for the lazy or faint of heart.Great ancient traditions brought back to life.

Each time I teach Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy in my Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy course, I'm struck by what a wonderful text it is. There are at least three reasons for this.

First, it's as good an introduction to the worldview of the late antiquity/early medieval periods as one's likely to find. That worldview is likely to strike contemporary ears as foreign--Boethius' conflation, for example, of the good, happiness, and God in Book III--but it's well worth attending to.

Second, reading Boethius is an education in good argumentation. One can disagree with the premises upon which his arguments rest while still admiring and profiting from the rigor of the arguments themselves. Boethius himself tells us that his method is to "unfold" conclusions "without the help of any external aid"--tradition or authority--"but [instead] with one internal proof grafted upon another so that each [draws] its credibility from that which preceded" (p. 82). And he lives up to his word.

Finally, the existential questions Boethius explores in the Consolation are astoundingly vital today. Here's a guy who was once one of the most powerful men in the Roman empire fallen from grace and facing a very messy death. In writing the Consolation, he tries to come to terms with the fickleness of fortune, the problem of evil (why do bad things happen to good people), the secret of happiness, the issue of free will, and the meaning of human existence. Boethius finally concludes that he, like most humans, had been suffering from what might be called philosophical amnesia. He'd allowed his fast-paced lifestyle to induce forgetfulness of who he was and the way he should live his life. In those final months of his life, living in a solitary jail cell and pondering his own mortality, Boethius begins to remember. Reading his wonderful little book can help us, fifteen hundred years later, to awaken from our own amnesias.

Of all the translations of the Consolation I've read, Victor Watts' is my favorite. But be forewarned: his Introduction to the book will tell you almost nothing about the contents and issues of Boethius' book.

"Consolation of Philosophy" was on the syllabus for a "History of Philosophy" class I took my senior year in college. To say that I loved it would be an understatement. I still have the copy I read back then (academic year 1980/1981) and I have re-read it several times over the years. I treasure this book like none other.

I looked through my copy to type out a passage that I find particularly inspiring, but found that I couldn't because there are so many. I've recommended it to literally dozens of people, and every one to took me up on my suggestion thanked me for it.

Boethius, in his "Consolation" written in prison shortly before his death, turns to the pre-Christian philosophers and the tradition of Rome and Greece for aid and comfort. The work is one of the most historically important works ever written: it is through Boethius that we had knowledge of Aristotle during the middle ages.

The work takes the form of a Platonic dialogue, mixing prose and poetry as the author slowly convalesces with the aid of Philosophy, his "nurse." This literary style has been imitated many times since.

The work ought to be read not only for its historical and literary appeal, but for its arguments, which are as cogent as they were nearly two thousand years ago.

I don't read a lot of philosophy texts, but I read this one after my father died and was surprised to find it very meaningful and truly consoling.

The Consolation is a philosophical treatise written by Boethius (c. 480-524 A.D.) while awaiting his execution after being imprisoned by the Gothic emperor Theodoric. The first time I heard of Boethius and his most famous composition was, as so often is the case, when I was reading another work. The work in question is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'Toole. The main character of O'Toole's novel, one Ignatius J. Reilly, had based his entire life and worldview around the philosophy of Boethius and his assessment of Fortune. A great work in its own right, A Confederacy of Dunces left a lasting impression in my mind and, when by chance I came across a copy of the Consolation in the used bookstore I jumped at the opportunity to see for myself what Boethius had to say.



The work is composed of five books beginning with Boethius struggling to make sense of his imprisonment and pending execution. Confronted with a fate that is seemingly at odds with the virtue and faith with which he has conducted his life, Boethius is about to succumb to the sorrow that is filling his thoughts. Just then he notices the presence of a woman in his cell, the awe-inspiring Philosophy. She bemoans that Boethius, once such an avid student of hers, is now about to abandon all that he had previously gained. Thus begins a journey of reason and contemplation between the two until Boethius in the end finds the consolation that he had almost given up upon. Interspersed between the dialogues of Boethius and Philosophy are a number of poems that range in subject matter and content. More numerous at the beginning of the work, the poems often times serve as transitions between arguments or help to put difficult concepts into a clearer light. Thus a remarkable harmony is reached between prose and poetry that can be appreciated even in an English translation, a rare feat indeed.



It is perhaps significant to understand the time in which Boethius lived a bit better to gain a more accurate reading of his work. Living long after Constantine's conversion to Christianity in the 4th century A.D., it is widely accepted that Boethius was a Christian and believer of the tenants of the Catholic Church (at a time when the Gothic emperor Theodoric, also a Christian but belonging like all Goths to the heretical Arian sect that believed that the father and son were not of one substance). One must find it a bit peculiar than that at no point in Boethius' text is Christianity mentioned in any overt context. To find a believer in his last days before death turning not to theology for comfort, as one might expect, but rather to philosophy has raised many questions about the nature of Boethius' belief. But one only has to look to the title of the work to see that Boethius is choosing philosophy for the subject of his work and could very well indeed have thought theology a better consolation, although one that would be and should be treated in an altogether separate treatise. With this in mind, Boethius draws on the works of the great philosophers and thinkers of antiquity; Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, St. Augustine, the Stoics, and the Neo-Platonists. This feat being all the more remarkable because Boethius apparently relied on his own memory to produce the arguments and passages seeing as he had no access to any literary sources while imprisoned.



Boethius has rightly been called the last classical man. Indeed his thoughts and works can be seen as forming a bridge etween the classical world and the Middle Ages. The Consolation influenced countless numbers of theologians throughout the Middle Ages and direct references are to be found in the works of masters such as Dante and Chaucer. His lonely contemplation of good and evil, fate and free will, fortune and the nature of happiness certainly still have an allure to inquisitive minds to this day.

I've been a fan of PC Hodgell's books since I first came across a paperback copy of Godstalk in my teens. I spent YEARS looking for a copy of the sequel, only to find one in my own public library. D'OH!
While not quite as gripping as God Stalk or Seekers Mask, this book illuminates much of the history of both Jame and the Kencyrath...a MUST read!

Although this book lacks the crispness, depth and beauty of God Stalk, it is still one of the better fantasy books I have read. Although the plot is disappointingly linear and stereotypical the characters, dialogue and descriptions make this a wonderful read.

Five or six years ago I was going through a stack of about fifteen or twenty books. They were SF Book Club monthly shipments that I had never gotten around to reading. There was one by C.J. Cherryh(sp?) but most of them weren't memorable. With one BIG exception.

Dark of the Moon from the very first chapter captured my imagination. This book was able to pull some deep chords in my psyche. Some of the written passages gave me the most indescribable feelings of having been through this before, in a nightmare. The plotline itself isn't as strong as some other books but it is good and the action is very good. The main attraction of this book to me though is the world it's set in. I could imagine countless stories set on this ghostly and fantastic plane. I liked the portrayal of evil in this book as what was once good but is now lost. Evil is sort of a distorted reflection of good so the beauty you see in one is also there in the other.

Even if the book doesn't resonate with you on a deeper level it's still just a very good read. In my opinion the best thing that happened in fantasy in the eighties(weis and hickman are good but I like resolution).

Unfortunately Mrs. P.C.Hodgell's name is so hard to remember, it sounds like an English historian, barrister, something other than a writer of fantasy. The books might come out again in paperback around this time next year. I hope so and I hope you can get a chance to read this book and find out for yourself how good it is.

Dark of the Moon is the fantastic second book of an outstanding trilogy from an author who certainly deserves to be better known and more widely published. The world created is vibrant and powerful, with characters that seem as real as family members. To top it all off, there is a wonderful sense of humour which adds to an already amazing read. This trilogy may be hard to find, but is certainly worth the effort! (There's also a set of short stories out there about Jame.)

If you're a real fan, look for the Kencyr website, which has interesting facts and some book-finding advice! (Reviews aren't allowed to list URL's, so you'll need to do a web search to find it.)

If you enjoy well-written fantasy, DON'T MISS THESE BOOKS!

Dark of the Moon by P C Hodgell is one those books that you put down after you've read it. And consider this burning question why the HELL! isn't she more widely known and acknowledged as one of the leading writers in fantasy? Her world building, construction of characters and plot and most importantly her beautiful fluid prose are matched only by the sparse brilliance of LeGuin's original Earthsea trilogy and Michael Moorcock's original Elric series. In recent times Only Paul Edwin Zimmer's world of the Dark Border rivals her creation for completeness of vision. Though it must be said despite some of the savagery of the action that takes place, it lacks his sense of relentless pressure that his heroes constantly face at least Hodgell has a sense of humour. To cut to chase it is a sequel to Godstalk, where we first met Jamie. In this book we meet her twin Tori mysteriously 10 years older than she. He now leads her people while she tries to link up with him bearing the symbols of heirloom that she has acquired. I found both characters engaging Jamie with her almost naive veiw of the world and strict code of honour and Tori an older version of her, age has given him a cynical sense of deprecating humour. Hodgell skilfully weaves their two stories into a flowing tapestry filled with battle, angst and a resolution of sorts. Its not often that you find a story where the heroes are every bit as interesting as the villians. Hodgell is to be complimented on her handling of magic it exists, it is powerful but it is not convenient. There are strict rules that govern it with echoes of LeGuin in the way it's used. I hope that more people read her books just for her writing...it's that good well enough of my rant guys- read it and enjoy!