English Books

This story is a good one. I liked reading this, especially in a cozy environment. Not my favorite, but I think many readers will enjoy this story. A bit suspenseful, easy to visualize. Makes a great holiday gift!

This was actually the first Phantom Stallion book I read. I won it from our libary when I was ten and I didn't really care for it at that time. I re read it a few months ago and loved it!! This one is a great book if you like mysteries along with horses. It's one of my favorite.

This book was wonderfull!I could not believe that
Sam could make such hard desicion.This book is great
for anyone who LOVES horses or any other animal.I
want everyone to trie out all of the books in the
series.

Sam and her friend Jen are doing a school project in
an old ghost town. They see a horse and when Jen starts thinking
it's a horse that her family lost. She sort of goes crazy trying to catch the mare. I think the fire and ice palominos sound pretty cool.
Very exciting book. better than I thought it would be.

I have read the first thirteen of the Phantom Stallion series, and Golden Ghost is one of my favorites. Like all the Phantom Stallion books, a lot of different story lines are presented throughout the book. You get to know not only the human characters, but also the horses, each of which have their own personality as well. I highly recommend the Phantom Stallion series for any horse lover!

Another entertaining, stimulating and vibrant work from the inimitable Wodehouse. This book of short golf stories is the perfect gift for everyone who is a golfer, or aspires to be one. That is, if you can bear to part with such a brilliant piece of literature! Wodehouse rules!

It`s a nice hole in one , for all the 36 handicaps ! . Enjoy , read this book and your slices and hooks will be painless . Evem if you play with your wife/husband !!!

If you or someone you know likes golf,OR if you or someone you know likes P.G.Wodehouse,I promise you cant go wrong with this book. All of his golfing stories are here and they are all top notch. A keeper.

Great literature is supposed to bring you an appreciation of something you hadn't considered before. Wodehouse's golf stories did it for me like few others. None are terribly subtle--most are told by the Oldest Member, who on the first half-page collars a helpless younger golfer and tells him a story that turns out to be worth staying for. The narration is slightly sarcastic, and there are only two types of stories at heart: guy and girl made for each other get married because of golf, or guy uses golf to avoid girl unfit for him. There's always a subplot of a bad golfer breaking 100 or two longtime rivals in an 18 hole match, but nothing seems to get reused.

Despite using upper-crust characters in his stories, Wodehouse's work exhibits only a fake pretension. Plus there are cool names and recurring characters such as the golf champ Sandy McHoots. It's a bit more comprehensible than some Yoknapathawpa nonsense. A love triangle through three stories features a poet who(gasp) recites his poetry while people focus loses a golferess to a golfer, almost regains her, and then tries to learn golf courting her sister. Nobody is evil, although some people deserve--and get--a good comic socking.

But what makes Wodehouse appealing is how his characters are comically obsessed with golf. I have better things to be obsessed with, but I was able to connect with this and recognize how Wodehouse laughs at them. After I stopped laughing.

I've never read a collection of stories more insightful, easy to follow and enjoyable.

The manner in which Wodehouse has developed the characters in the stories is indeed amazing. One hilarius feature I noticed in many of the stories is the attempt made by the victim (listener) to escape from the oldest member's clutches whenever he begins to narrate a story.

Wodehouse is at the top of his form in this one. Die hard Wodehouse fans should not die without reading this one.

I like to cook but don't have as much time for it as I'd like. I can do the recipes in this book on the weekends, but on workdays, they just take too long.

That's too bad, because the food is very good.

Like a previous reviewer I too have spent time in the U.K. (as I married a Scotsman). The recipes in here are the standards to British cooking. I've tried many other and this is by far the best for anyone wanting to cook British meals in the U.S. The measurements have all been scaled for an American kitchen and every recipe I've tried has come out wonderful. A LOVELY BOOK!!!!

The delight in this book is not only in the recipes, which I have enjoyed immensely. Jane Garmey's wit in the presentation makes one sense a wink at the poor reputation British food generally holds, just as her recipes give it the lie. Generally, British food at its best is wonderful... trouble is that finding it 'at its best' often requires a journey.

The volume is not exhaustive, but presents many classic dishes, most easily prepared (and some which would appeal to, for example, one so avidly traditional as to spend the two months it takes for genuine plum pudding.) It is a pleasant sampler of varied main dish, savoury, pudding, and tea favourites.

I would highly recommend this book to those who enjoy cooking. There are many items here which do not require unusual effort or odd ingredients, and can have wonderful results.

Although the book has no pictures, the recipes taste and look like authentic British foods. The measures have been converted to standard American measures and some traditional British ingredients have been changed to easier to find American ingredients such as sour cream instead of creme fraiche; however, this book would be easy to use in any country. A good basic 'What the English really eat' cookbook!

I am an American who loves Britain and who has lived in England. I think British cooking gets a bad rap, and that's just what the author points out. Just yesterday I made the Brown Windsor soup and it's wonderful, so I'd say I'm off to an excellent start with this excellent book. Hooray!

We have frightening problems in our country (USA) and the world. When you read about the family in this book, our obstacles in life don't look so perilous. It is well written, captivating, suspenseful and touching. It needs to be read to or with children about ten and older, and some discussion with the reading will help children understand the setting. I believe you "Can't go wrong with de Jong!"

It was great to find this. My husband read it as a boy and wanted to find a copy to read to our sons.

This is a touching story written from the perspective of a little Chinese boy and his journey home through war raveged territory. I've read it over 5 times (including each year to my 5th grade class) and it's sweetneess still brings tears to my eyes.

I read this book aloud to my sixth grade reading class. They loved it, and always wanted to hear more. Its also a great way to introduce students to some of the history of China, Japan and US involvement in the war there.

I read this book as a child and, in turn, read it to my children. It has a permanent place in our hearts. It is the well written story of a young Chinese boy and his beloved pig, "Glory of the Republic", who get separated from his family and caught behind Japanese lines when Japan invaded China in the late 1930's. It has some very scary moments. It also has tragedy. I think your child should be about 5th or 6th grade to be able to fully appreciate it. But the book will open your eyes as to what it might be like as a child to be caught in a war. The boy does get reunited with his family, but have your kleenex handy. As a parent you will definitely need it at the end.

I received the book in fine condition in a timely way.
Outstanding!

This book comes recommended by Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World which in turn inspired Robert Buckman, CEO of Buckman Labs, to write Building a Knowledge-Driven Organization. These two books, and two others, Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor, The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Collins Business Essentials) and Steve Denning's The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press) combine with this one by Don Maruska to offer a perfect small library for any person desiring to advance "collective intelligence" and "smart teams."

Some may consider the book simplistic, but I do not. It has just the right amount of text and white space, and its organization as well as its points are compelling.

When the author itemizing the obstacles to cooperation and information sharing: battling egos, conflicting styles, lack of commitment and follow-though, office politics, knee-jerk actions, seemingly irreconciliable differences, an atmosphere of defeatism (or a culture of unfounded arrogance), and a legacy of distrust, he is talking about the $70 billion a year U.S. Intelligence Community that I am so familiar with, and he is probably also talking about the Department of Homeland Security, every local, state, and national organization associated with the catastrophic failure to cope with Hurricane Katrina, and just about any corporation or other organization out there.

His ten easy steps merit listing here, not to rob the book of its punch, but to emphasize that each chapter on each of these steps is hugely sensible, implementable, and profitable: 1( enlist everyone including secretaries and maintenance folks; 2) discover shared hopes rather than differing problems; 3) uncover the real issues; 4) identify all options (in ignored foreign opinion, the US foregos most really implementable options); 5) gather the right information, and all of it; 6) get everything on the table; 7) write down choices; 8) map the solutions; 9) look ahead; and 10) stay charged up.

These are NOT as simple as they sound, nor are they easily implementable without an understanding of the context and the methods that the author lays out in his coherent, concise, and comprehensible manner.

His emphasis on full information, and exploring all the options ("look at the whole tree, not just the limb you are on" all resonate when one thinks about how badly the US has screwed up the so-called "Global War on Terror." First we cut taxes, gutted the Treasury, installed political cronies in key organizations that in turn drove out all the experts long ready for retirement; then we alienated all our allies, provided special tax deductions on gas guzzlers, and invaded Iraq under false pretenses. Now we are creating more terrorists every day than we are able to kill in a year.

For a specific sense of how pathetic our national-security decision making is, see my review of David J. Rothkopf's Running The World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power In New Orleans we had a mayor that left town ahead of the crowd; a governor in denial; a head of FEMA with no clue; and a President on vacation not to be bothered. Not a single one of these have any idea how to actually do reality-based decision-making, or even how to guide a sound inclusive non-ideological decision dialog (not a debate, which the author stresses over and over will destroy the ability to be open-minded).

America is facing some very serious challenges at all levels, from family, neighborhood, and schoolhouse, to statehouse and White House. This book is much more serious than The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and much more likely--when read with the other books I mention above--to help serious people arrive at serious decisions.

EDIT of 12 Dec 07: See the books below for evidence that neither the Executive nor Congress practice decision-making in the public interest:
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches

"Don Maruska has provided an excellent blueprint for decision-making success. His book, How Great Decisions Get Made, is an indispensible tool for anyone involved in leadership, in both the public and private sectors. I have had the good fortune to watch Don use these principles firsthand, and I marvel at how he has translated his 10 easy steps into a clear, straightforward guide. This book is one that is destined to be pulled off my shelf for guidance, time and time again." Dr. Steven M. Ladd, Superintendent of Schools.

Don Maruska is a genius. His 10 Steps to reaching agreement are a simple process that any group or organization should use to deal with complex issues. This simple system removes ego from the decision making process and avoids the "me too' speeched that drag out a meeting, polarize the participants and add nothing to resolution of the issues. Don's system enables the group to reach quality agreements quickly and harmoniously.

I think Don's work is one of the most useful "life affirming tools" I have encountered in my 35 year career. It is useful not only in business, but also in family life with spouse and children. I highly recommend his book and methodology to all who want to simplify their life but also be responsible for their actions. I loved it!

A dear friend of mine had this book and I was intrigued. Although he had an edition that was dated back in the 50's, it was very worn out with its brown loose pages. Depsite that, I read some of the greatest poems that you can imagine and some familiar ones that I knew but not in its entirety. They were some of the most beautiful words written on paper. I decided to get my own copy and got a new edition for my friend and was thrilled with emotion. I knew I gave my friend a renewed treasure that he can now read without worrying about the pages falling out of its binding. I truly recommend this book of poems to anyone who really wants to feel well written words in verses that are truly beautiful and memorable. Get this book!

I have several books of poetry at home, but this one is my favorite. It is a good collection of poetry from the time of Middle English to almost to the present. There are a few modern poets I would like to see included that haven't been yet. Maybe someday someone will update this wonderful volume.

It starts with Middle English poet extraordinaire Geoffrey Chaucer, with excerpts from the Canterbury Tales and other writing. I would like to have seen Beowulf and some Old English poetry included. There are excerpts from anonymous poets of Middle English leading into the "Shakespearean" times where English is becoming more modern.

Shakespeare of course is well represented, with passages from plays as well as poems and sonnets. This is true for some others like Marlowe, too.

By the time after the Elizabethean period, English poets were not confined to England. There are Celtic poets like Robert Burns of Scotland, Dylan Thomas of Wales, and several Irish poets and American poets well represented in the later part of the book.

The poets are arranged chronologically in the book, but there is are indexs of titles and poets alphabetically at the end of the book for cross referencing. This book has over 600 pages, but it is still a small paperback and will fit in a coat pocket, which is where my copy often lives, dog eared and highlighted all over the place!

I had heard of most of the poets in this collection before I got the volume, but there are some I hadn't heard of and am glad to know. This is an excellent beginning collection, easy to carry and easy to read. Being a mass market paperback, the printing is not the best, but the poetry certainly is.

As other readers have said this anthology contains selections from the great poets of the English language from Beowulf to the middle of the twentieth century. It is the kind of book which can be read and reread for years upon years. I would however take exception to the claim that it is the best anthology of its kind. It does not have explanatory material provides no introduction to the poets, no interpretation of their work. There are other anthologies ( Among them ' The Concise Treasury of Great Poems' by Louis Untermeyer) which do so. Nonetheless the bottom line is that this Anthology contains very much of the greatest poetry in the English language.

I too love this anthology. A passionate love of poetry has been part of my upbringing. Let me say that both my mother, Gene Derwood, and Oscar Williams, my biological father, contributed to the selection of the greatest of the great poetry of the English language. Thus we have the contribution of a husband and wife team. Reviewers have mentioned updating this volume, but what has happened is that modern poetry writing no longer follows a firm tradition. Modern poetry is a shotgun blast. There are no recognizable standards for universal selection. Plath is recognized because you cannot divorce her from her suicide. Ginsberg you cannot divorce from his beard and little clanging bells, a media invention. Bob Dylan you cannot divorce from his being a song writer and media invention. If you are not a media invention and only a poet, what chance do you have? So Immortal Poems represents classic taste before media took over the American mind. The media is immortal these days, not poetry. Selecting from contemporary poets not using traditional standards would be difficult to do. I would still love to do it. For those interested in Oscar Williams there is information now available on the web. Just search it with oscarwilliams and see what their world was like in the twentieth century.

As with all anthologies, there will be a number of reviewers sniffing in an offended manner at the dearth (or glut) of Cummings, Yeats, Aiken, or Pope, but any 600 page anthology, by it's very nature, must be incomplete. I purchased this compilation three years ago for long flights and such and it has yet to disappoint. For the size and price of this work, one would be hard-pressed to do better.

As for content, all the major poets are more or less liberally represented. Cummings gets short shrift, and several of Yeats' most memorable pieces "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death", for one) are excluded. Yet I am certain novice and old hand alike will find this work passes the time admirably.

Having been with me through several housheold moves, military action, and cramped backpacks no self-respecting piece of literature should have to endure, my copy is now fairly falling apart. Yet when it expires, I will buy another copy. No other anthology, especially in terms of price, convenience, and memories, could ever compare.

Es un libro muy práctico, interesante y sobre todo ameno, eficaz y sencillo,.... tan solo en un mes aprenderás inglés.

DE CHISTES TAN EXTRAORDINARIO COMO "LO MEJOR DE LA PICARDIA MUNDIAL " NI TEXTO PARA APRENDER INGLES TAN EFICAZ, AMENO, DIVERTIDO, BIEN ESCRITO Y DISEÑADO PARA GENTE DE HABLA HISPANA COMO ESTE !

PARA APRENDER INGLÉS...porque gracias a él, lo aprendieron mi esposa y mis hijos cuando regresé a los Estados Unidos... Y además, se divirtieron leyéndolo y ahora, su pronunciación es IMPECABLE !

para aprender INGLÉS SIN MAESTRO:
EFICIENTE, AMENO, INTERESANTE, BIEN ESCRITO...

PARA APRENDER INGLÉS...porque gracias a él, lo aprendieron mi esposa y mis hijos cuando regresé a los Estados Unidos... Y además, se divirtieron leyéndolo y ahora, su pronunciación es IMPECABLE !

"Inner Drives: How to Write and Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation, " is a great course on human behavior applicable to creating vidid realistic characters with the personality to lead your story. It is adapted to screenwriting but is about story in practically any genre. Learn about your behavior while learning about character creation and his/her effective deployment throughout your story.

Inner Drives: How to Write and Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation

Within a few minutes of reading Inner Drives, I intinctively knew it was going to give me unlimited potential to improve my process forever, both in acting and screenwriting. That was over a year ago and I still read and reread it everyday. An old soul trapped inside me has been set free to create the art I need to show the world. If you have a burning desire to contribute stories that inspire caring, sharing, and growth--BUT ARE LOST AND FRUSTRATED-- Inner Drives will give you an amazing base to start working from. Pamela Jaye Smith's perceptions are like food for the brain and she's tailored the learning process to allow any reader's process to thrive in the mix.
If you're an actor lost in finding a process that works for you, this book will hone your imagination razor sharp and rescue your passion for the craft. Acting classes stress the importance of homework but what does that mean? Where do you start? What is homework? Does creating character biographies seem like guesswork? Do you say your lines a million times in your room hoping for magic to pop out? If so, I urge you to read and reread Inner Drives. Use it like a workbook and watch what starts coming out. Centering your characters using the Chakras will open up a whole new creative world you did not know existed.
If you're a screenwriter who's stuck staring at a blank page, take some time out and start reading Inner Drives. Soak up the Chakras centres, swim in the duality of Sliding Scales, and play with the Pairs of Centres. Feed your imagination to find out what motivates your characters and how you need to test them. Pamela Jaye Smith gives you a map to find the hidden treasures in your storytelling. Mythological archytypes resonate deep within the human chord allowing rich characters, both flawed and fantastic, to show up on the page.

Sean O'Brian,
Actor, Screenwriter
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1694574/

Wow. This is a great screenwriting book -- but it's so much more. Not only does it give you a better understanding of character, but it gives you a better understanding of human nature!

Pamela Jaye Smith has written one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, and in-depth explanations and explorations on the key motivational centers of human beings. You won't ust learn how to build better characters, you'll discover how to develop your own character. No kidding. This is not just a manual for better writing -- it's a manual for better living!

Buy it. Devour it. Apply it. And read it again...and again...

I don't understand why the consensus rating is 5/5. I found this book extremely wordy and it reads like a history book. If you want dozens of pages on the historical aspects of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If you want to see the same movies quoted and re-quoted over and over as examples of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If your idea of fun is combing through over one hundred pages dripping with hippy-isms looking for the "meat" you can use, then this book is for you. However, if you want a book that gives you a fair amount of background on a subject, fresh movie examples, and then leaves you with concrete ideas and examples of how to leverage the content matter to improve your characters and stories, then this book is not for you.

Notice how many times I repeat "this book is for you" and you'll get the idea of how this books reads. I am disappointed, especially given the 5/5 rating. It's more a 2/5 in my opinion, I got almost nothing useful out of it.

And I thought I knew about acting. You know nothing until you apply this book. You can forget the first two chapters. Go back and read them later for a "wow" crash course in philosophy. Just accept that the chakra system works as viable structure (and how) start at chapter three and apply to your craft. Ms. Smith knows her stuff. I get so excited with this stuff.

So many books on the acting craft never get down to the fact that you are an actor helping tell a story; a story that you tell with other people onstage and offstage. This book will show you you where you fit in to the ensemble and what you need to do so your character is true to life. Like Michael Shurtleff's "Audition," it takes a subjective art form, acting, and makes it objective. You get to view your work from outside yourself, and where to apply everything else you have learned. Not until now have I found anything that helped me do that. I have tried Inner Drives and am having a blast. You will be making choices that people will want to see and keep coming back to you for more. You will never read or act a script the same way again.

Plus, it's a damn good read about movies.

I discovered Penny Vincenzi earlier this year and like another reviewer, promptly ordered every one of her books. I've read about six of them so far. I'm rationing them, because when they've all been read, then what? Seriously, I love her storytelling ability. She's a marvelous writer who knows how to keep her audience spellbound. The Lytton family is fascinating and reading their colorful history has afforded me many hours of reading pleasure. Celia Lytton is one of the most interesting characters I've ever read, certainly one I won't easily forget. My only disappointment with the series is the way the third book ended. I simply didn't believe Charlie should be rewarded for his consistently bad behavior. I do hope Ms. Vincenzi will consider writing a follow-up to the series. She left a lot of threads hanging and it would be so satisfying to find out what happens to Jenna, Izzie, Nonie, Lucas, Adele and Jamie (do they get together?), even Cathy and Charlie. All in all, just a wonderful reading experience. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SERIES.

This was the third is the Lytton Family Trilogy of books..
A page turner, as were the first 2 !! So well researched and written.
If you love long family stories you will love these books.
Even the ending of this, the third was just right!
A great read!

I just finished Into Temptation, No. 3 in this superior trilogy, and can honestly say this trilogy is the best thing I've read since Gone With The Wind! I'm 70 years old, an avid reader of anything British and am so thankful I found this series before it was too late! Quick, grab the first volume of this series pronto and stay with it until the very last word on the very last page of the very last volume. You'll never regret it!

This was the best trilogy's I have ever read. I am sorry it's over now. I agree with all the other readers on how great these books were. I am also suprised most people have never heard of these books. I love the old English family saga's. I also loved Barbara Taylor Bradford's Woman of Substance.

This was the book I enjoyed most in the trilogy. It is interesting from the beginning to the end and I was very sorry when I came to the last page. It is one book that I will read again maybe next year.

Olkeloki of the Maasai knows what he has to do. Although it's been many years since the tribal elder boarded an airplane bound for Europe, this time he must go farther still. All the way across the ocean to Washington, D.C., because there he will meet the other two people who can form the points of the triangle necessary to seal a burgeoning tear between worlds.

Undercover agent Joshua Oak knows what evil looks like, smells like, and feels like. He's lived in its midst for the past 10 years, in one assignment after another. Seattle saleswoman Merry Sharrow has a different kind of knowledge - she knows fear in ways Josh doesn't. What these two outwardly dissimilar Americans share with Elder Olkeloki is the ability to see evil that those around them can't perceive - yet. For pouring through the tear between our world and the mysterious "out of" is an ever-growing horde of shetani, a varied lot of demons that delight in both terror and destruction. Although they've always been present in our universe to one extent or another, they've been limited in numbers to those who could slip through small gaps. Even then they managed to cause plenty of trouble. What will happen to humankind now, and to everything else that shares Earth with us, if Olkeloki, Joshua Oak, and Merry Sharrow fail in their quest? The answer to that question must be an unequivocal: You don't want to know.

Alan Dean Foster makes horror readable even for my notoriously weak stomach, because his plotting skills are in top form here. The action is nonstop, the characters are real enough to make the reader care, and the tale's fantastic elements are handled with the matter-of-fact touch that makes suspending one's disbelief quite easy. Joshua Oak's repeated protestations of his own disbelief get old after awhile, though; and so does the gore. Sometimes less can be more. Otherwise, another great read from one of my favorite authors!

This is one of my favourite best books!

I am so very glad to see it is back in print.

For a long time it was almost impossible to find.

I only loan it to friends I can really trust as I do not want to lose my one and only, well thumbed, copy!

This is one of his best books he has ever written! I am glad to see it is back in print. For a long time it was almost impossible to find. This is one of his books I gave out sparingly as a loaner for friends to read only when I had an extra copy as I did not want to let my only copy go.

As a fan of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, Into The Out Of is the only book that made me sleep with the lights on! This book presents the "boogy man" as real and exposes the "darkside" in ways that most would not care to believe. I have read this book several times through the years and have recommended it to many. If you're looking for an entertaining read, this is great! If your looking for facts and figures, try a text book.

I read this book some years back and I have been recommending it to others who can track it down. What a great read - sometimes suspenseful, mysterious, and creepy. This is Alan's best work and it would make one hell of a movie. Give it a shot - you will not be sorry.