Non-fiction Books


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Non-fiction Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Non-fiction
Little Boy Lost (Secret Identity) (Harlequin Intrigue, 580)
Published in Paperback by Harlequin (2000-08-01)
Author: Adrianne Lee
List price: $4.25
New price: $0.01
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $15.99

Average review score:

Loved it too
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-06
I can't add much to what's already been said. Adrianne has never written a bad book but this one is something special. Loved Kane and Carleen's story. If you haven't checked her out, you don't know what you're missing!

A great mystery and a great romance!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-22
Carleen Ellison wakes up unsure where the last week went, or what happened to her little boy. Someone else is pretending to be her, and her ex-husband is playing along. Carlie runs to Kane Kindacid, the man she once loved -- the father of her son -- for help.

Kane doesn't know what to make of Carlie's story, but he's sure she's the real deal. Just as he's sure he never got over her, even after she married his cousin. And now he has to help her rescue the son he never knew he had. Will he be able to let her ago again when this mess is finally worked out?

Adrianne Lee writes a compelling mystery and a great romance about a love that never truly died.

Great Book!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-15
What a fantastic read this is. I almost didn't buy it since it's a secret child book but Adrianne has never led me wrong and she didn't this time either. Don't miss this one!

Wonderful Romance and Mystery
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-01
LITTLE BOY LOST is an all around winner. I literally could not put it down until I found out who the bad guy was and all the truths came out. Carleen has to get her son back from the woman pretending to be her. Everybody thinks she's the imposter! Soooo scary and suspenseful. Great book!

I love Adrianne Lee's Books!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-01
This one was no different. She has the most distinctive writing styles of any romance author today. You won't be able to put the book down once you start. Don't miss her!

Non-fiction
Little Polar Bear Finds a Friend
Published in Library Binding by North-South (1945-07-01)
Author: Hans De Beer (Debeer)
List price: $13.88
Used price: $0.12
Collectible price: $21.80

Average review score:

Great book even for two year olds!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-26
I loved reading this book with my son. I found this book in our library after reading a list at www.bloggermoms.com, and he took to it right away. It gently introduces the concept of how animals are caught to bring them to the zoo, and makes the children sympathize with their plight. Also has some new words such as 'lumbered' 'arctic circle' etc for two year olds.

Great Book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-03
My nephews love all the little polar bear series by Hans de Beer, and so do I. Great illustrations, he meets animals that he makes friends with, and a nice ending. I'd can recommend them all.

Author of "Hobo Finds A Home" editor "Of A Predatory Heart"

Wonderful Story
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-23
I buy this for all of my friends little ones - it tells a great story of accepting differences.

Great illustrations!!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-07-29
An adult might find the storylines a bit repetitive but my 3 year old loves all of the Lars books. We got her some at xmas and she was so pleased that we bought all the others for her birthday 5 months later and she wants them read to her over and over. She even 'reads' them to her younger brother!

Darling book
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-09
My boys love this book ~~ they both grin everytime I show them a page. Right now, my husband and I are on a polar bear kick since the boys both showed an interest in the polar bear at the local zoo.

Lars, a little polar bear, wants nothing more than to have a friend. He soon learns he has to be careful of what he wishes for! He gets kidnapped to be taken to a zoo and along the way, he meets a Walrus and Bea, a little brown bear. They escape to go home and Bea comes home with Lars.

It's a lovely little story with great detailed pictures. It's great to keep the kids' interest while reading ~~ and someday when my boys are older, it'll be a great book for them to learn how to read.

It's a cute addition for any library!

1-8-04

Non-fiction
Mark of the Werewolf
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Bantam (1990-01-01)
Author: Jeffrey Sackett
List price: $3.95
New price: $4.00
Used price: $1.90
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Oh Man!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-01
This is hands down the best werewolf story I've ever read. I can't believe it hasn't been made into a movie.

Loads of fun
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-10
One of the hidden classics, right up there with Harry Shannon's new Night of the Werewolf for imagination and verve. I went on a tear recently with Silver Bullet, The Wild and a bunch of other oldies like Wolfen. This one is fun. If you like furry faced horror track it down.

It was Great
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1999-05-02
I think this book was perfect for my reading needs, it doesn't start really slow and it is interesting the whole way through. This is the first book I read by Jeffrey Sackett but now I am tempted to read another one. This book was a great depiction of a werewolf's life and doesn't have some of those corny superstitions like other werewolf books or movies. This is a must read!

Mark of the Werewolf
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-21
One of the most enjoyable reads I've had in years.The unique way the author re-origins the werewolf is a reverse angle that will keep you turning the pages quickly. I lent my copy out never to see it again, it took me almost two years to find another.I won't let this one out of the house again,that's how good it was!

A compelling read
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-07-03
I first read this book years ago, loaned it away and never saw it again. A few months ago I tracked another copy down in a used book store and, though a little afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered, read it again. It didn't let me down. It's too bad this novel (probably Sackett's best by far) is so hard to come by, as it is really the most interesting and entertaining horror novel I think I've ever read. No other book I can think of mixes classic scares, history, and spirituality in such an entertaining way. At times it can be a little pulpy, but the facinating recollections of the lead character are worth the price of admission. Give it a try if you can find one.

Non-fiction
Masquerade
Published in Hardcover by Schocken Books (1979)
Author: Kit Williams
List price:
Used price: $1.46
Collectible price: $11.99

Average review score:

My Review
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-19
Masquerade

Out of all the characters, my favorite one was Ronnie, because he sounds like into Angel.

I liked this book because it starts of on a party.

Ronnie sees this girl that he liked, but she is wearing a mask, and couldn't see what she looked like. They started talking and said that they would meet at her school the next day. So the next day Ronnie went to school and told Todd that he met a girl at a costume party, that was really pretty, but he didn't see her face. He told them that they were dancing and then they were talking. He also told them that he was going to go to her school right after school. He asked Todd that where were the other guys. Todd said that they were at the court. When Ronnie and Todd got there he told them all about that girl. During class all what Ronnie did was to think about that girl and couldn't wait for class to end so that he could go to that girl school. Right after school Ronnie ran to her school and waited for her to get out. The only problem was that he didn't knew which girl was that one at the party, because the girl was wearing a mask. He asked every pretty girl that if they were the girl at the party. While he was asking some girls, a girl screamed out his name. Once he saw the girl he was surprised, because he didn't thought that girl was pretty. They walked home without saying a word. When they got home and said goodbye, Ronnie told the girl that it was nice meeting her.

The reason I recommend this book it's because it is really interesting and it graves your attention.

Adventure of city life
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2002-07-14
To find the places described in the book around the city ,let me think of the treasure map the vikins leaved behind them.

Mystriuos Masquerade!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-16
This book was amazing! It was my favorite stroy when I was little and still is. All the beautiful and rich pictures helps bring the story to life. It's full of riddles that never end. The Masquerade was well written and keeps the reader coming back to solve the mystory of were the hare lost the moons gift to the sun.

Commercial Costume
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-16
Artist Kit Williams wanted people to look at his pictures-- to study them intently. He found a brilliant device; hidden in the rich illustrations are clues to a treasure. The treasure has since been found (by people who cheated), but it is still fun to study the drawings. Small children will enjoy finding the hare on each page, and will enjoy the charming story as well.

The story is the love tale of the moon and the sun. After falling in love with the sun, the moon sends him a beautiful, gold, bejeweled hare, which she entrusts to Jack Hare to deliver. Jack loses the gift, and the reader is challenged to find it.

For the solution buy it here at Amazon.com But try it on your own first. Hint: Henry VIII had six wives, but only one matters.

I have searched to find this book!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-05
I have searched for this book, like some have searched for the jewel!

WOW. To finally find it. I was given a hard back copy of this book from my father in the mid 80's, probably the 87' printing.

What is this book about?, is it the book you've been searching for? This is the book "Masqureade" by Kit Williams. The book is now out of print, and the treasure has been found (and lost) so to speak since it's debut in the early 80's. Kit made this book to become like a world wide treasure hunt. The rabbit in the story is sent off with a beautiful necklace. A gift from the Moon to the Sun. The Moon has fallen in love with the Sun. But along the way the necklace gets lost. You are supposed to look for clues in the pages, in the riddles and find the hidden pictures to solve the riddle. If you were the first person to find all the clues and send Kit a letter with the details (all the answers being correct) you could go and get this necklace for yourself. You could own it. It was valued at [$$$] at the time the book was released. A year later the riddle was solved and yes the necklace was found. Although the story has a sad ending, apparently the people who found the necklace cheated.[...]There was also a later paperback printing of this book WITH the answers in the book. Since the jewel had already been found.

[...]

Non-fiction
The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts and Walled Cities of the Middle Ages
Published in Hardcover by Da Capo Press (2001-05)
Authors: J.e. Kaufmann, H.w. Kaufmann, and H. W. Kaufmann
List price: $39.95
New price: $74.85
Used price: $8.49

Average review score:

Great study of medieval castles
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-01
If you've been looking for a complete book on medieval castles, you have found the book for you. Although it touches lightly on such on such areas as medieval food, hygene, and battles, the bulk of this book is an in-depth study of castles. The writing is a bit dry, but very informative, covering fortresses from England, France, Itally, and even eastern Europe. I doubt there is much about castles unsaid in this book.

Total Information - Great Line Art - Very Krunchy
Helpful Votes: 32 out of 33 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-17
This book starts from the first few pages with an in depth study of the fortified positions of the middle ages - i.e. castles, keeps, etc. Despite a level of detail that may be too in depth for a beginner, the book itself provides a very readable style and is absolutely full of useful information (krunchy bits) for authors or others wishing to make an in depth study of medieval fortifications (ATTENTION GAMERS!). It has hundreds of high quality, albeit sometimes confusing, line art portraits that show each and every aspect of castle or its related cousins (where is #67 again - its sometimes like Where is Waldo finding the numbers referenced in the subtext). The book also has a great deal of information regarding siege techniques and the weapons used therein - and this information is fantastic in its level of detail and the included line art! The included photos are all in B&W, and some are rather grainy, but by far, they all serve the purpose they were intended to - they show the true grandeur of the castle as it was.

Within the text, the authors do have a habit of referencing other authors, which, if your looking for more on the subject, is good. However, by page 80, they have referenced at least 30 other authors and works (is that not what the bibliography is for).

Outside of this one complaint, the book is absolutely invaluable to anyone interested in the subject!

NOTE: This review references the soft-cover red front edition of the book, which I could not find the link for on Amazon (it may be an out of print edition or not, I am not sure - however, the TOC of the this edition appears identical to mine, so I am assuming that the contents have only been repackaged for the HB binding).

Medieval Fortress by Kaufmann
Helpful Votes: 34 out of 36 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-30
This is an excellent work. It would be perfect for a student
project with a focus on Middle Ages building designs. The author
provides detailed engineering specifications for castles, forts,
a motte and rising towers. The engineering statics implications
are explained in the detailed design process. The work covers
action implementalities; such as, the ram, siege and cannon.
The author spends a portion of the book explaining how
war objects were constructed during the Middle Age period.

In addition, he concludes that an increase in wall size
necessarily means weakening the overall superstructure.
Some time is spent explaining the model diet for the period
which consisted of wheat, barley, oats and fish. This work
will help readers understand the building requirements
for structures created during the Middle Ages. The book would
be valuable for historians, art buffs, architects, engineers
and a wide constituency of other readers.

Just get it - you will not regret!
Helpful Votes: 40 out of 43 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-25
It does not matter if you all ready are a "fort-geek" or some one, who just want a book on the topic: This book will for sure please you.

"The Medieval Fortress" is a nice big (app. 11" x 8.5" or 28,5 x 22 cm), 319p. book, which covers the development of fortified places through out Europe and North-Africa from the early to the late middle ages - when the forts had their glory.
The book is built up of five main chapters. The First deals with the elements of a fortification; the Second deals in general with the different kind of fortifications in different parts of Europe (Islamic, Byzantine, Frankish, British, Norse, Slavic and Magyar (Hungarian)); the Third does the same, but with emphasis on the emerging castle; the Fourth chapter introduces gunpowder and the decline of the high castle walls through the description of several sieges (Constantinople, Rhodes, and siege of fortifications during the Reconquista); Chapter Five goes in depth with some selected fortifications in Europe: Some of the more famous ones and some more obscure. The reader is guided through fortifications/castles in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Low Countries, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, Central Europe (present day Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia) Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain&Portugal, and North Africa. The appendixes gives the names of some more important builders and architects and their titles in different languages (French, Portugese, Spanish, Duch, Sweedish, and Russian), a chronology of important sieges from 623 (Constantinople) to 1529 (Vienna), a history of medival artillery and a glossary.
There are endless amounts of B/W pictures alongside with even more B/W line drawings and plans of forts, just like on the front cover of the book.

This book is a very good buy!

(Review based on First DaCapo Edition, 2001)

A Good General Overview but......
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-17
On the whole, I found this book to quite informative with many detailed descriptions of medieval European castles and cities. On some specific castles the data can be fairly general. I found this to be most obvious on castles that I have been fortunate enough to visit in the past and purchase a guide brochure or booklet from which I naturally compared the data.
I found the section on eastern European fortifications and their developement over the centuries to be very interesting as this was a subject I previously knew very little about.
But I do have one major 'gripe' or dissatisfaction with the book. The detailed and extensive floor plans provided throughout the book all suffer from some serious 'under labelling'. For example, a specific castle floor plan might have 20 itemised (numbered) points or features of interest on it. But when one refers to the "legend' or 'key' to find out what a certain feature is, it becomes painfully obvious that not all 20 features are actually clarified or described in the key. This is a fault that is not isolated and is unfortunately prevalent on the vast majority of floor plans in the book.
I'm not sure whether this problem is peculiar to the published edition I purchased or is in fact inherent throughout the whole published run. In any case it appears to be a large oversite in the 'quality control' department of the book's publication process. Other than these faults, I thought this book to be a good 'read'.

Non-fiction
Mollie Peer: or, The Underground Adventure of the Moosepath League
Published in Paperback by Penguin (Non-Classics) (2000-07-01)
Author: Van Reid
List price: $14.00
New price: $2.88
Used price: $1.51
Collectible price: $14.00

Average review score:

Joyful
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-11
This is a book you must read. I gave the previous outing of the Moospath league "Cordelia Underwood" a deserved 5 stars but this book is even better. The storyline has more dramatic tension (If Cordelia Underwood had a nod to "The Pickwick Papers" then "Molly Peer" has a sideways glance at "Oliver Twist") but the characters are as delightful and the laughs come just as readily. I was reading it in bed and tried to read the episode with the Blue Hubbard Squash out loud to my wife but was reduced to side-splitting laughter with tears rolling down my cheeks. A great read for anyone who likes good words, good people, and a good laugh.

Another winner!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-21
I sincerely hope Mr. Reid keeps writing more adventures of the Moosepath League. This second novel has a more serious tone than the first, but the same detail of characters and plot, as well as the same likable characters who triumph in the end - which is exactly what we want! A real refreshing change, in this day of skimpy plots and shallow characters, with text filled up by expletitives. Thank you so much Mr. Reid!

Just a great as the first one!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-28
As with his first book introducing the Moosepath League, I couldn't put this one down. It is fun and quirky and totally amusing how the Moosepath League can always find trouble but never really seem to grasp the depth of danger they are in. Van Reid has created a wonderful series that is fun to read. I can't wait until he publishes another.

The Moosepath League does it again!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-29
'Mollie Peer' is the second installment in the adventures of the Moosepath League. If you have not read the first installment, 'Cordelia Underwood', you should do so now.

Once again, Van Reid gives us a charming, funny and altogether delightful romp through historic Maine. This time around the story is a little more tense and fast-paced, but Reid still manages to infuse enough humor and romance to keep the reading light and breezy. Reid also includes a great piece of New England folklore when he recounts the Riddle of the Needle, Rock, and Mirror. This anecdote alone is almost enough to justify reading this book.

The members of the Moosepath League are some of the most enjoyable characters I have ever come across in my reading, and I have complete confidence that you will feel the same.

Even better than Cordelia Underwood
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-14
Another great book by Van Reid. Mollie Pier was even better than Cordelia Underwood, though perhaps not quite as good as the Daniel Plainway book. Let's hope Van Reid continues with more Moosepath books. These novels are absolutely terrific!

Non-fiction
Mother, Mother, I Want Another
Published in Hardcover by Knopf Books for Young Readers (1988-12-12)
Author: Maria Polushkin
List price: $2.95
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $37.50

Average review score:

Great Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-18
I bought this book for my 3yr old son, he loved it & to my surprise my 8yr old daughter found it amusing too. The story is a funny take on how sometimes our children get upset with us & wish they had someone else's parents as their own, & how we as parents sometimes misunderstand what our children are really asking for. I would highly reccommend this book to other family's.

I found it!!!!!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-17
My Sister got this book from her Godmother in 1980. I have been looking for this book ever since. Now I found it. I thought it was out of print. This is such a touching story. It shows the insecurities of a mother. She thinks she isn't good enough when the child says "Mother, Mother I want another" turns out the child wants another kiss from her. So cute and touching! Can't wait til I get it in the mail!

Read it another time and another time and......
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-29
In this book, mother mouse is getting her son off to bed and kisses him goodnight. He tells her he wants another, mother and she takes that to mean he wants another mom. What he really wants is another kiss but she scurries off to find another mother for him. Mother mouse finds a mother duck, a mother frog, a mother pig, and a mother donkey and all of them kiss little mouse but poor baby mouse doesn't want another mother! He is finally able to tell his mother that all he wants is another kiss! So she gives him two and tucks him into bed.

I loved this book and so did my 2 year old. The pictures are so detailed and darling. This is one to keep on your list of must-haves.

Mother, Mother, I want another
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-05
This was my favorite book as a child. My mom and I have been trying to find this book for nearly 10 years now. I found it! This is truely the most memorable children's book I ever had. It is the best book you can read to your child!! It is definitely up there in the ranks of Runaway Bunny and Love you Forever!!

This story is a delight!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-09
My 2 year old loves this book. The artwork is wonderful, the animals are so beautifully drawn and dressed and the story is a delight! It's repititious, which is important for young readers and the story is so endearing. It gives you the "warm fuzzies" every time you read it.

Non-fiction
The Newsboys' Lodging-House: or The Confessions of William James--A Novel
Published in Paperback by Penguin (Non-Classics) (2004-02-24)
Author: Jon Boorstin
List price: $14.00
New price: $0.01
Used price: $0.01

Average review score:

Just fascinating
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-25
Started reading this on the book counter at the local B&N and couldn't put it down. Fascinating premise and wonderfully vivid excursion into turn-of-the century New York. Stylish, well-researched and entertaining.

Surprisingly readable and entertaining
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-26
Boorstin has a unique voice and take on the period and an interesting speculation on what I understand to be a missing period in the life of William James. This book gives a vivid and entertaining picture of life in New York a hundred years ago. Recommend.

Will Make You Excited About Your Every Breath & Choice!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-05
"Newsboys'" boasts a page-turning plot as well as the wonderful ability to make you think about important life questions. I read the entire novel during one ten-hour stretch of business travel ... and it made what could have been a grueling day of planes and airports a day of pure joy. The plot kept me entertained, but the philosophical elements kept me both hooked on the book and repeatedly pondering my own life and choices. "Newsboys'" may not be in the same literary league as E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," but it's much better than the current crop of historical novels typified by "Carter Beats the Devil" -- a lot of research in search of a purpose. I finished the book feeling enriched, invigorated and determined to do better at all things. Any work of art that leaves you feeling like that is a great and rare gift.

A Romp through the Psyche of James and Late 1800's NYC.
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-30
The gifted philosopher and psychologist William James suffered a mental collapse at age thirty. This fact is well known by anyone familiar with James' works, but what remains unclear is what happened during his convalescence. "Twenty-one pages (as much as forty-two pages of writing)" were cut from James' diary that surely held some answers about his dark hour. Thankfully we have Jon Boorstin who writes so well from James' point of view that we need to be reminded these writings are actually not James' confessions but historical fiction. "The Newsboys' Lodging House" brilliantly extrapolates upon the missing pages to form a cohesive and believable account of what led James to become the renowned modern thinker and progenitor of Pragmatism and the Will to Believe.

The novel jumpstarts in 1908 Cambridge with a stranger imploring an attention-grabbing question, "Is you my father?" That teaser grabs the reader's unequivocal attention as James elegantly recalls how one chance encounter at McLean Asylum in 1872 with Horatio Alger, a writer of boys' stories, inspires him to leave the asylum and research "the question of evil" among the poor newsboys of New York City.

Boorstin has magically crept into James' psyche and delights us page after page despite many somber expositions that detail James' anguish over evil's place in the world. Reading in fact becomes compulsory as we eagerly await an answer to the stranger's aforementioned question. In the meantime, Boorstin expresses James' ideations in an entertaining manner and more succinctly than several philosophical tomes.

Bohdan Kot

A strange psychological story of an eminent psychologist!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-04
As a lover and student of philosophy, I have a prediliction toward pragmatism. And as I have a prediliction toward pragmatism, I have a fondness for James. And as I have a fondness for James, I found this fictionalized account of a 'missing period' of James's life interesting (if not a bit strange and obviously fabricated).

In this novel, John Boorstin is envisioning James in his thirtieth year. This is when he experienced his mental breakdown leaving him an inch from suicide and in complete emotional paralysis. He had spent quite a few months, we know, in a mental institution, but here, the diary stops - the pages referring to this few-month period have been cut out of his diary, leaving the period a complete mystery.

Boorstin imagines a scenario that as far-fetched as it is (and the author acknowledges that) is interesting and at very least entertaining. James goes to New York with little money where, in fascination with Horatio Alger, volunteers to instruct children at a Lodging House for orphaned kids. It is there he meets a 9-year-old boy called Jemmie and becomes determined to save this child (who James is convinced is good at heart, but slipping into street-life) from the cold and hard world of the streets. Therein, James finds himself ensnared in quite a few 'plots' that gradually help him become his own person (as we know that when the 'missing period' was over, James was remarkably more directed and focused).

As I do not know how many people reading this will be as familiar with William James as us philosopher types, there is one part of the novel I think that may get lost on those not as familiar with James. Though one need not at all be a philosopher to like this novel, the story very much ties into the meaning of James' philosophy of pragmatism wherein 'truth' is said to be dictated sometimes by the 'facts' and sometimes by 'what we personally need to believe'. So as not to get too philosophical here, I will copy one paragraph from the novel that beautifully explains:

"Until this moment, I had thought true belief to be absolute and beyond one's control, the inevitable expression of one's fundamental knowledge of the workings of the world. Now I saw that we created our beliefs even as we cherished their eternal permanence. All of us are bound up in beliefs which express not only our deepest truths but our deepest needs."

This is very much a part of James (both as a psychologist and a philosopher, James being equally adept at both). Boorstin's goal, in this fantastic but quite engrossing tale, is in part to give us a 'real live shot' of what James' pragmatism looks like in practice through James' very own eyes. The result is a very good novel that will at once entrhall you and capture your philosophic imagination.

Non-fiction
NIGHT AND DAY (HOGARTH PAPERBACK SERIES)
Published in Paperback by THE HOGARTH PRESS LTD (1992)
Author: VIRGINIA WOOLF
List price:
Used price: $26.50

Average review score:

a gift of virginia woolf
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-02
the gift recipient of this book was very happy with it and reads a lot of Virginia Woolf.

One of my favorite books of all time.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-28
I have read this book many times over the past 25 years at different stages in my life and I have loved it every time. Virginia Woolf is my favorite author (this and To The Lighthouse are her best works, in my opinion), and have given the book to my daughter, Katharine, for Christmas. (Guess who she's named after?) This book is an "easy" read, unlike many of Virginia Woolf's other novels, and follows a conventional style. However, there is nothing conventional about her writing; I have yet to come across another novelist with her ability to touch on everyday life with such subtlety and nuance. The characters in this book are very likeable - it's as if I have known them in my own life. Love this book!

Night And Day - Review by an author
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-15
For those of you who have disdain for vanity publishers, as some call the self-published authors, be advised that much of Virginia Woolf's work was self-published through the Hogarth Press. She has been hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and one of the foremost Modernists, though she disdained some artists in this category. Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness, the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters, and the various possibilities of fractured narrative and chronology. Her literary achievements and creativity are influential even today. Historic London is the setting of Night and Day. The novel and its characters center around one place in particular the Hilbery home, an eighteenth-century house built on the Thames riverfront in Chelsea, London, a house that doubles as the literary shrine for a great Victorian poet, Richard Alardyce. The emotionally strained and serious Katharine Hilbery gives an American visitor a tour of her poet grandfather's study in the presence of her former fiance. This room is both a "religious temple" devoted to Richard Alardyce and a commercial showroom for which she is the "show-woman" of remains not for sale. Katharine, preoccupied by the interruption of feelings into her life, guides the American through the collection inattentively, thus rendering the effusive American's enthusiasm absurd. This bewildered pilgrim and the home's other specimens--Katharine Hilbery's father, an influential editor of a literary journal; her mother, an energetic though disarranged steward of her poet-father's memory; and their circle of visitors who cannot abide living writers--all point to a critique of a literary establishment and its morbid maintenance of the literary past as the only worthwhile present. Night and Day is a portrait of Virginia Woolf's and (her sister) Vanessa Bell's family home at Hyde Park Gate, ruled by Leslie Stephen, who, as an influential man of letters and steward to the Victorian literary establishment, is Mr. and Mrs. Hilbery combined. ... "He received her assurance with profound joy. Quietly and steadily there rose up behind the whole aspect of life that soft edge of fire which gave its red tint to the atmosphere and crowded the scene with shadows so deep and dark that one could fancy pushing farther into their density and still farther, exploring indefinitely." Woolf's reputation declined sharply after World War II, but her eminence was re-established with the surge of Feminist criticism in the 1970s. After a few more ideologically based altercations, not least caused by claims that Woolf was anti-semitic and a snob, it seems that a critical consensus has been reached regarding her stature as a novelist. Virginia Woolf's peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength. The intensity of Virginia Woolf's poetic vision elevates the ordinary, sometimes banal settings of most of her novels, even as they are often set in an environment of war. For example, Mrs. Dalloway (1925) centres on the efforts of Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged society woman, to organize a party, even as her life is paralleled with that of Septimus Warren Smith, a working-class veteran who has returned from the First World War bearing deep psychological scars. To the Lighthouse (1927) is set on two days ten years apart. The plot centers around the Ramsay family's anticipation of and reflection upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familial tensions. One of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative process that beset painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon the lives of a nation's inhabitants in the midst of war, and of the people left behind. The Waves (1931) presents a group of six friends whose reflections, which are closer to recitatives than to interior monologues proper, create a wave-like atmosphere that is more akin to a prose poem than to a plot-centered novel. Her last work, Between the Acts (1941) sums up and magnifies Woolf's chief preoccupations: the transformation of life through art, sexual ambivalence, and meditation on the themes of flux of time and life, presented simultaneously as corrosion and rejuvenation - all set in a highly imaginative and symbolic narrative encompassing almost all of English history. Recently, studies of Virginia Woolf have focused on feminist and lesbian themes in her work, such as in the 1997 collection of critical essays, Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings, edited by Eileen Barrett and Patricia Cramer. The Hours is a 2002 Academy Award winning film and Best Picture nominee about three women of different generations and times whose lives are interconnected by Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway. All the action takes place within the span of one day.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope and South State Street Journal.

Great writing
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-24
As in the other Virginia Woolf books I have read, what strikes me first and foremost is the wonderful writing. The descriptions are phenomenal, starting with the surroundings and continuing with the character's facial expressions. Some of the passages are pure poetry and the characters are beautifully and consistently drawn out. Oddly, although we know that Katharine is beautiful, we do not get a description of her, or of any other person in the story, with the exception of William Rodney.

Woolf became a little heavy when it went into the minds of the characters who are in crises, but as one reaches the end of the book, all is forgiven.

An excellent read!

The Transforming Power of Art
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-25
Here is an artist at work, painting the nuances of the heart, creating living people, reacting to the subtleties of mood, ambiance, the weather, and external perceptions that make up how we live and who we are. No matter what you think of these people, you have a chance to live with them and understand them, feel their conflicts, their love, and their pains. Virginia Woolf is the ballast that offsets all the one-book-wonder authors, the cynics, the nasty moderns, and those authors who have given up on anything positive in the world. Like Shakespeare, her work will live on long after so many others are forgotten. That's because she offers us art, hope, vision, and the truth about our humanity. It's all here in this book, if you choose to read it.

Non-fiction
Night Mare
Published in Hardcover by Random House Books for Young Readers (1997-09-02)
Author: Vicki Kamida
List price: $19.99
Used price: $7.50

Average review score:

Actually, I am the author
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-01
I really appreciate all the positive feedback on this book. I must say that when I finished writing it, I felt as if I had put together a pretty good book, and I have written many. I'd be happy to correspond directly with any readers at vlforman@yahoo.com. And thanks for reading the book!

Awesome...mysterious
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-14
Janet wants a horse bad, and her parents wont even let her buy half ownership in one. Angry, Janet goes to bed and dreams that she is riding a mystical white mare...and finds out the mare is real and that its owners are living in the arroyo. Or are the mare and her owners real? You'll find out! It is a mysterious book. I loved it. It tingles the senses. The only problem is, Janet is acting like a brat because the white gelding, a lesson horse she rides, isn't perfect and beautiful with a flowing mane and able to jump five feet, so she's mean to it. She acts like the only horses are those who jump the moon and have brilliant color and dainty legs and are like dogs.

a must read for all who love horses.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-15
a great book about a girl named Janet Mashall, who wants a horse. One night a great white horse, she had a wonderful ride. She called it Strom. A must read.

Night Mare
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-03
This is a book about a Girl that wants a horse relly bad and one night her dream came true a horse came to her window and she got to ride it !And she didn't know if it had a home or Not? But there was a clue the night she rided her she was taking her somwhere...So the next day she went to find the horse and she found a ranch...So she found out that she lived there ...And she also found the owners ...And one day the owners and the horse just dissapeared into thin air..Was the horse real ? Are the owners real Or a ghoast?This is a really good book and I think you sould read it..It is at the Denton Replublic Libary...

Great, Awesome, Favorite book of all time!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-12-29
I loved Night Mare. Janet is thirteen and her parents won't buy her a horse. Her coach gladly lends her the stables horse and Janet is ungreatful. The horse is slow and clumsy. When she meets a horse at night she can't tell if it's real or not. She visits again and discovers that the owners were ghosts. Janet alone sets their spirts free.


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