Journals Books

I purchased this journal as a gift for my daughter who is traveling to Japan in March. The design is beautifully Asian with a very handmade, aged look to it. It was a real bargain for the price, and she loved it.

This is a great journal for several reasons. You should know that I really like journals that lie flat on a table. I'm left-handed, and a lot of journals (particularly ones that are spiral bound) are uncomfortable to write in. This one lies flat, and I love to write in it.

Also, the paper is great quality, and the painting on the front is absolutely beautiful. This journal is an absolute bargain, and I highly recommend it.

I just received this journal yesterday - Simply beautiful! This is my third journal, and probably the nicest of the three. Great inspirational hard cover, and softly lined pages. Very sturdy to travel and take with you places, and enough pages to last a while to fill. I 100% DEFINITELY recommend this journal for anyone who loves to write and store their thoughts and memories for a later date.

It's sometimes difficult to know until you hold a journal in your hands if its quality is worthy of your thoughts. Curious about this series of blank books, I located one in a Border's store so I could examine it closely, and was sold (though I actually bought several of various styles through Amazon due to the greatly reduced price and wide selection).
Just wanted to reassure any curious journal-keepers that this is a very nice book for having paper binding. The surfaces of the front and back plates are silky smooth, taut and very pretty. The spine, being sewn with strings, is tight, yet allows the book to lay completely flat when open. The pages inside are very smooth, practically non-porous grain, and of a medium weight, thick enough for fine-tip pen-and-ink, but too thin for any other medium of drawing or writing element. I'm usually a fan of leather-bound journals because they're sturdier and more aesthetically pleasing to me, but as paper-bound journals go, these are among the nicest I've seen.

Besides the beautiful picture on the cover, these hand-stitched versions are the easiest I've found to write in because they actually lay flat so you can write! They don't seem fragile just because the binding is visible, and it's very unique looking. The pages are very yellow-ish, which I don't mind, but if you only like pure white, you may want to know. Wide spaced lines. They don't have quite as many pages as some other traditionally bound blank journals at comparable prices. But I think they are beautiful for a special blank book you may want for something.

This journal is well made and beautiful to look at. The lining is well spaced. It is an item I am proud to keep on my bedside table.

I am so excited it is at Amazon!

Now that I see all the others I wonder if I should stay with this and buy more and have a congruent shelf? If I have many exciting "flavors" next to each other it make attract unwelcome attention.

Great brand and the hand stitching mat be the thing to look for.

It's sometimes difficult to know until you hold a journal in your hands if its quality is worthy of your thoughts. Curious about this series of blank books, I located one in a Border's store so I could examine it closely, and was sold (though I actually bought several of various styles through Amazon due to the greatly reduced price and wide selection).

Just wanted to reassure any curious journal-keepers that this is a very nice book for having paper binding. The surfaces of the front and back plates are silky smooth, taut and very pretty. The spine, being sewn with strings, is tight, yet allows the book to lay completely flat when open. The pages inside are very smooth, practically non-porous grain, and of a medium weight, thick enough for fine-tip pen-and-ink, but too thin for any other medium of drawing or writing element. I'm usually a fan of leather-bound journals because they're sturdier and more aesthetically pleasing to me, but as paper-bound journals go, these are among the nicest I've seen.

This is the first journal I've gotten from this series so I wasn't too sure what I was getting. But I'm delighted with the book. It's slightly larger than the usual journals. Although it doesn't double back on itself like spiral-bound books, the hand-stitching does allow you to open it up wider than regular hardbacks, so you don't have to crimp your handwriting as you near the crease.

It's sometimes difficult to know until you hold a journal in your hands if its quality is worthy of your thoughts. Curious about this series of blank books, I located one in a Border's store so I could examine it closely, and was sold (though I actually bought several of various styles through Amazon due to the greatly reduced price and wide selection).

Just wanted to reassure any curious journal-keepers that this is a very nice book for having paper binding. The surfaces of the front and back plates are silky smooth, taut and very pretty. The spine, being sewn with strings, is tight, yet allows the book to lay completely flat when open. The pages inside are very smooth, practically non-porous grain, and of a medium weight, thick enough for fine-tip pen-and-ink, but too thin for any other medium of drawing or writing element. I'm usually a fan of leather-bound journals because they're sturdier and more aesthetically pleasing to me, but as paper-bound journals go, these are among the nicest I've seen.

It's a great help to have when you really like Harry Potter! I have been using it for awile, and I love it! I recommend to all fans!

Just a reminder to those who are planning to buy this book... this book is somewhat like a notebook. I personally like to stick things on it. THIS IS NOT A STORYBOOK MIND YOU!!! If you like to write, this can be a journal for you or a diary.

this hp journal is so cool.but i must say the the hogwarts journal is much better.i write my deepest secrets in this book.abt my travels beacuse a train is on it.i dont travel much though but its so cool to have a book to write in .its better than a small note book or a lock dairy which most people use for dairy the point is that this journal is a journal which has been decorated with yr favorit book and charaters pictures and stuff.it ould have benn cooler if it had a pen or pencil attached witha bitof string or a rubber too.but u must buy this.buy the whole set and start acollectin

Just a reminder to those who are planning to buy this book... this book is somewhat like a notebook. I personally like to stick things on it. THIS IS NOT A STORYBOOK MIND YOU! If you like to write, this can be a journal for you or a diary.

I Soooo loved this book. It took me 1 day to finish it, just because It was so good. I couldn't put it down. Read it if you like Harry Potter. Even if you feel kinda out of it because of it's lengthy looks, It really won't take you that long to finish, and you'll end up lovin it in the end. Go Potter!!

"THE HOPES OF SNAKES" is a great and timeless read. These essays may remind one of Edward Albee's tension provoking plays and of David Sedaris's dark humor. The essay 'Take the Long Way Home' can sit right next to that provocative genre of southern writers--right next to Faulkner's "AS I LAY DYING" or maybe "LIGHT IN AUGUST." You can roll Couturier's words and descriptive phrases over your tongue like a sweet mint julep. These essays tangle and weave classic coming-of-age tales through muddy swamps, over rocky shores, and into dark and scary woods to bring us to the point where an enlightened woman with an inclination for the wild can thrive in Manhattan and then return to Washington, DC, to enjoy the roots of an ancestral home and the blessings of motherhood. Couturier trades primeval forests for concrete canyons, but the message is an ancient and ongoing one. Anyone can read this book, but it will take a thoughtful reader to grasp and appreciate Couturier's depth. Don't pigeonhole this group of essays into a nice, neat urban nature read. It is so much more. The writing is likely to spring at you and bite you like a coiled and sleeping snake that's been poked and provoked.

I live near an eight-lane freeway, and every time I hit the onramp, I look for the red-tailed hawk that can be seen most days scanning for his prey from his perch on a light pole. He would no doubt prefer better hunting grounds than this ice plant thatch that shelters suburban rodents, but after we humans filled in the nearby wetlands and covered the hills with house tracts, this is about all we've left for him. My daily glimpse of him is a vitamin to me, and a reminder that I don't have to travel to a national park to have an encounter with wildlife.

For readers who routinely seek soul-restoring encounters with all that is wild, Lisa Couturier's The Hopes of Snakes will be a tonic. To refer to this book as a collection of essays would create a far too stuffy impression of it. Part of the subtitle, Tales from the Urban Landscape, pegs it precisely: this is a collection of personal reminiscences, musings, meditations and analyses that make for darn good storytelling. The common thread that stitches together all of these tales with a seamless cohesiveness is Couturier's abiding respect for wild animals, many species of which are scorned and hated when they edge themselves back into habitats that were stolen from them by humans.

True to its title, there are uplifting tales here, not just of snakes, but of coyotes, turkey vultures, pigeon ladies, and many others. Nevertheless, this is not an anthology of sticky-sweet, cute animal stories. The overriding tone is one of reverence, not sentimentality. Even so, Couturier's poignance is often moving, and when you read "Take the Long Way Home," a posthumous letter of thanks to Mr. Boyd, Couturier's neighbor and mentor of her high school years, you just might find yourself shedding a tear or two.

Even in the deepest heart of a city, the animal world is all around us, as my freeway redtail reminds me every day. The Hopes of Snakes will help you rediscover, in case you ever forgot it, that despite all our collective efforts to turn wilderness into "civilization," humankind does not exist in isolation from our animal kindred.

Students of urban natural history and casual readers alike receive a celebration of Northeast urban wildlife in The Hopes Of Snakes & Other Tales From The Urban Landscape. Her thirteen essays observe urban animals from Manhattan skyscraper-dwelling falcons to mice who live on the subway tracks of New York. Wildlife has adapted to human habitations in surprising ways: hers is a celebration of the underlying world of animals which live alongside people.

Lisa writes about her experiences with wildlife that occupy cities and suburbia and how they interact with humans. As Lisa writes, some animals fare very well while others do not.

Lisa's ability to capture small details about the cirtters with whom she interacts make her essays all the more endearing and important. Although accused of anthropomorphising about the surivivors of the Human onslaught, her descriptions present an important understanding of urban wildlife and enable many otherwise unknowing citydwellers the opportunity to engage with nature's cast outs.

As Julie Warner said in Doc Hollywood: "Most people are merely on the Earth, not a part of it." Lisa Couturier gives us the opportunity to experience first hand those rare species that share their world with the Human invaders.

The Hopes of Snakes is just such a book. From Manhattan to Washington, DC, Lisa Couturier takes her readers on an amazing journey by introducing us to things we may have taken for granted or may never have thought twice (or even once) about. As I have been reading the essays, my family and friends have had to endure my reading passages or quoting from the text, but none acted as though it were much of a struggle because the prose so ably draws one in.

Ms. Couturier not only writes with the beauty of a poet, she teaches along the way so that the reader comes away feeling thoughtful and enriched. I knew nothing about crows other than myths, but now, because I have read A Banishment of Crows, I look for them in the sky, count their numbers, am awed by and respect them.

In her essay, The Hopes of Snakes, she becomes the readers' hero because she does what we wish we could do in similar circumstances.

The essays reflect humor and sorrow and never shy away from the unpleasant. By the end, the reader closes the book, feeling fulfilled by the journey, and yet compelled to assert onself more fully in the environment so that not a moment is lost and the connection will remain.

I have hopes that this will be the first of many books by Lisa Couturier.

I'll admit (and, probably, commit) the tediousness of many reviewers. Sanctimonious and certain, they often slash and burn their way across a landscape that they know only as outsiders. But now and then you find someone who understands a topic deeply, has experience in it, and a sharp and humane eye, all while being amusing. I'd place John Heilpern in this category if his work didn't do so itself.

Theater critic for the New York Observer, Heilpern is passionate about the topic, has seen his own plays produced, and has an unusually keep wit. Although his latest book is a biography of the British playwright, John Osborne, I came across How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway?, which came out in 1999, in a used book store. I'll confess to never having read Heilpern's work before - it was the title that got me, as I'm not the world's largest Mamet fan, at least in the non-fiction of his that I've read of late. And it's fairly unusual for someone in the theatrical community to take on a contemporary icon.

But take him on Heilpern did, as well as writers at the New York Times, American anglophilia, Disney Land (the new name for Broadway), and other topics. At the same time, he's anything but mean-spirited. Many of his pieces put praise where he thinks it's due and tries to analyze what is good and bad about productions. Many of his observations run from the droll to the uproariously funny. And where else can you get a delightful transcript of a lunch between Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.

If you've any regard for theater, or for intelligent criticism of any sort, you should be tickled with this book. Now I'll have to get hold of a copy of his Osborne biography.

I read this book, found some of the most entertaining, informative and lively criticism I've ever encountered, and came to this page to see what others were saying about it. Reading the slams by Booklist and Kirkus made me wonder if I'd completely misunderstood "How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway?" But then I read the raves from Salon and Tony Kushner and other readers, and wondered who the heck is reviewing for Booklist and Kirkus. Booklist calls it "daily journalism," but then the NY Observer apparently is a weekly. It's amusing that Kirkus ends its review recommending a trip to the theater--if their writer got out more, he or she might notice on a theater marquee that it's NOEL Coward, not NOL. (Sorry, my keyboard can't make the little double dots to go with the correct spelling.) A howler like that basically nolifies the rest of the review. You won't be seeing the collected works of either of these critics appearing in bookstores anytime soon.

John Heilpern is without question the best critic of his generation, and his reviews in the weekly "New York Observer" can't be beat! Make plans to buy this collection from the most important living theater critic and England's best export since Archie Leach!

John Heilpern is without question the best critic of his generation, and his reviews in the weekly "New York Observer" can't be beat! Make plans to buy this collection from the most important living theater critic and England's best export since Archie Leach!

At last, readers beyond the subscription list of the New York Observer have the opportunity to read one of the most gifted--and funniest--writers around. As it happens, this book is a collection of his writing on theater (save for the non-theatrical, though rivetingly dramatic, account of Heilpern's struggle with a murderous roommate named Jack the Cat), but this work is a delight for anyone who appreciates finely tuned yet uproarious humor, a handsome prose style and a sensibility that is at once erudite, entertaining and inviting. How good is John Heilpern's "How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway?" anyway? Peerless.

Kristine O'Connell George's poetry is beautiful as these poems lead her observations of a mother hummingbird making a nest, laying her eggs, then the eggs hatching and the young moving out. The illustrations are lovely realistic sketches that capture each stage of the hummingbirds' development. This makes a nice Mother's Day gift. I also bought a copy for a special aunt who loves nature.

If you or I were to find a tiny hummingbird nest in our backyard, we would handle such a discovery in any variety of ways. Some people would probably set up a camera and create a 24-hr live feed to their website. Others would ignore the nest or, worse still, actively remove it due to some odd hummingbird-based-delusion that the creatures were pests. When author Kristine O'Connell George found her nest, she came up with a particularly original way of marking the event. She kept a steady journal and, when all was said and done, she turned that journal into poetry. And she turned that poetry into a book. And that book was illustrated by the all-too-accomplished Barry Moser. And as a result, children's librarians everywhere have the honor of carrying "Hummingbird Nest" on their shelves, ready to be taken out by any inquisitive child with a yen for tiny birdies. Neither you nor I might go this route, but then neither you nor I would have such a fine title to our name. Such is life.

There are 26 poems in this book, all told. At the beginning a single small bird launches itself at a family eating on their patio. It appears that the creature has claimed this area as its own and immediately sets about building a nest in a potted tree. After a short amount of time two eggs appear in the nest. The family carefully checks up on them when the mama bird is away. The chicks hatch and are fed by their mother. Then they grow over the course of 18-26 days. At the end of that time, one of the babies flies away without the family ever saying goodbye. The second bird has some false starts before it finally figures out how to fly, and (after a snack from mama) fly it does. From that time on, hummingbirds sip nectar from the family's feeder and the author says to herself in the Author's Note, "Were any of the fledglings that turned up at our feeder later that spring our hummingbirds? I like to think they were".

The book has the feel of realism to it, helped along by Moser's accurate artistic renderings. The poetry, for its part, is a kind of friendly free verse. All scientifically accurate. All tiny odes to greater hummingbird-dom. I was particularly fond of a poem entitled, "Spiders, Beware!" that cautions all arachnids that the hummingbirds are around and ready to steal their webbing. These poems are rather innocent and don't go in for witty metaphors or particularly original imagery. They're just gentle little pieces that contain words like, "this rainy evening / your quiet wings / smoothly pressed / as you patiently sit / gentle captain / of your cobweb ship". There's even a small hummingbird-ish haiku at the end (though for a superior hum-haiku, check out the one in Jack Prelutsky's, "If Not For the Cat"). At the end of the book is the Author's Note that tells the true story, some quick facts about hummingbirds, and a very nice bibliography of hummingbird resources for old and young readers.

It's really Barry Moser's art that lifts this little book from obscurity, though. If you haven't perused Moser's stunning, "In the Beginning" (with words by Virginia Hamilton) then I'm afraid you've a large gap in the creation-myth department of your brain. Moser's watercolors here are wonderful. In the picture where the hummingbird dive-bombs the family, we see an older woman dropping her breakfast spoon, a coffee cup already turned on its side, and a hand covering her face in what is unmistakably the beginning of a laugh. Moser's dog is mournful and his cat full of the languid grace of the species. There are changes in perspective, in distance, and in view. In this way, Moser creates what otherwise could have been a deathly dull series of illustrations.

Come to think of it, this whole enterprise could easily (in the hands of the less adept) have ended up as some kind of boring practice in nature poetry. Instead it captures a fascinating subject, those winged little paradoxes of the avian world, and displays for us all the wonder that she, the author, experienced once. There won't be a child in the world who doesn't yearn for a hummingbird nest of their own after paging through this light little book. Seriously consider pairing it with the equally lovely and aforementioned, "If Not For the Cat", for a detailed examination of the natural world through verse. A small but strong work.

As a reading specialist I regularly review new children's books. As soon as I saw this one, I thought of my mom. She's a sharp-minded 87-year-old who loves poetry, art and hummingbirds. She gives the artistry, both words and watercolors, of this book an easy five stars.

This book is a tender treasure of hummingbird experiences through the wide-open eyes of a family entranced and the pen of a noted writer clearly in love with her subject.

Written as delightful poems, the story contains many teachable moments following "Anna" through the birth process, portraying the teetering and testing of the young ones' wings, proceeding on to the inevitable empty nest. It was hard to hold back tears as the wonder-filled story touches on the universal, relating to many cycles in our own lives.

The delicate watercolor drawings are beautiful in their own right, yet support and enhance the story in seemingly perfect harmony.

I heartily recommend this book to hummingbird lovers and children of all ages, who, caught up in the flow of the story, will absorb many hummingbird facts before they even know it.

Beth Kingsley Hawkins
Co-Editor, The Hummingbird Connection
www.hummingbird.org

One warm, February morning a tiny hummingbird began building a nest in a ficus tree on the patio of George's home in Claremont , California . For the next two months George kept a "hummingbird journal" of the daily happenings. "I still marvel," she writes, "over the surprising range of emotions one small bird and her family evoked: awe, worry about possible dangers, and laughter when the baby birds teetered on the edge of the nest for their daily flight practice."

George has expertly taken those emotions and woven them into this delightful collection of poems. In "Visitor" we are introduced to the small mother. She is nothing more than a "spark, a glint, / a glimpse of pixie tidbit." In the next poem, however, we see her bravado and determination in action. She becomes a "feathered missile streaking by," ordering the humans off her patio, out of her territory.

Soon two eggs are visible in the "cobweb ship" of a nest. Once hatched, the nestlings, "raisin black / an wrinkled," settle in. In "Flight Practice," George does a superb job at allowing the reader to visualize the drama taking place: "Four curled up feet grip / the top of the nest. / Two tiny motors / rev up for the wing test."

Moser is in top form here. His realistic, incredibly detailed watercolor paintings are small jewels in themselves.

The poems and illustrations combine wonderfully to allow readers the opportunity to vicariously witness nature up-close.

Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff

What a great time I had reading this book. As a fan of the TV series and Hyacinth herself, I was delighted to read the daily account of one year in her life. Very very funny and entertaining. A definite must for anyone who's a fan and a must for anyone who enjoys a great laugh!!!

This adorable little book is ostensibly a copy of Hyacinth Bucket's one-year diary (a gift from Richard). As with any diary, the entries are (of course) handwritten. Also, there are copies of newspaper clippings, invitations, a few annotated photographs, and so on, throughout. The first page, as one might expect, is a list of important phone numbers (all filled in and suitably annotated by Hyacinth with comments such as "dirty hands--must NOT touch wallpaper" next to the electrician's number, for example).

Though the diary makes reference to people and places that were introduced in the series--like Marston Hall (Hyacinth's rural retreat) and C.P. Benedict (the Garden Centre king), it is not a script-based book as is her Book of Etiquette. In fact, it includes incidents that never appeared in the series at all, such as a visit to the Antiques Roadshow. Also, from various comments included in the diary, the reader begins to wonder fairly early on whether or not Richard is seeing another woman (which adds quite an interesting twist!).

In short, this is a light-hearted and thoroughly entertaining (not to mention insightful) book, and it is a must-have addition to the series for all who love this priceless British comedy and that precious Bucket woman. Highly recommended!

I ordered this book on Feb 14, 1999 and have not yet recived this book! 3-5 weeks has turned into 3 months!

The book is pure Hyacinth. It's like reading her mind!

This book is so well written, it really makes you question the type of babble that we sell for books here in this country. The comedic content is wonderful - it's all there - timing and everything!!

Reading this book made me wonder "where are the men of today who are writing like this on these topics?" -- things like soul mates, monogamy/polygamy, affairs, prostitution, romance novels, Darwin's theory of sexual selection, the double standard, the "Madonna/whore complex" (not called that then), sexual harassment, employment discrimination, abolishing marriage, and declining marriage and birth rates all make an appearance in the book. And much of it retains its essential truth. The more things change...

It's especially interesting to see where HLM was right and where he turned out to be wrong. For instance: the book was written just before men gave women the vote (i.e., during World War I, when Mencken was in his mid-to-upper thirties and still a bachelor); Mencken thought women voting would cure politics of rampant corruption -- because women wouldn't allow such shenanigans. This is not to say that he had any kind things to say about the suffragettes. He didn't, and some of what he wrote was outrageously funny. One can extrapolate in a straight line to some of today's feminists.

His basic thesis -- which may or may not have been meant to be taken seriously -- is that women are more intelligent than men, the proof being the ease with which they typically defeat men in the war between the sexes:

"I am convinced that the average woman, whatever her deficiencies, is greatly superior to the average man. The very ease with which she defies and swindles him in several capital situations of life is the clearest of proofs of her general superiority. She did not obtain her present high immunities as a gift from the gods, but only after a long and often bitter fight, and in that fight she exhibited forensic and tactical talents of a truly admirable order. There was no weakness of man that she did not penetrate and take advantage of. There was no trick that she did not put to effective use. There was no device so bold and inordinate that it daunted her."

It would be fifty years before Esther Vilar's "The Manipulated Man" continued with many of the same themes. But Mencken was quite prescient in the section on women's martyrdom, which today we'd call their claim to victimhood or being "oppressed". I could go on at some length about how close his description of marriage is to what prevails today (based on reports which come to my attention), but I'll spare you.

I'm sorry I waited so long to get around to this book, as it's truly a classic written by a great mind -- a highly recommended trip above the stratosphere for all men and, especially, bachelors.

Mencken's "In Defense of Women" has such a bad reputation in some circles that I'm almost afraid to review it for fear of virtual grenades. But surely the bad reputation is unjustified, for whether one approves of Mencken's conclusions or not, it would seem hard to deny the nobility of the his intentions in publishing them. He simply wished to help us rid ourselves of some harmful and incorrect stereotypes. To wit: men think they are intelligent and clear-headed while women are emotional and sentimental. But in reality, Mencken explains, it is men who are prone to sentiment and women who are intelligent and clear-headed. Of course many things follow from both the misconception and the "truth." Although it may be useful to some people to know Mencken's ideas about the sexes (I find this knowledge useful), perhaps the best reason to read "In Defense of Women" is that it is incredibly entertaining. If you are not amused by Mencken's style, or if you are afraid that you might encounter an uncomfortable truth or two, then by all means keep safely away.

This is not a book for faint of heart. No one was better at invective than Mencken, and his defense of women is far more of an attack on men than a defense of the "unfair" sex, as Ambrose Bierce signified our better half. Mencken's basic argument goes something like this: women are pretty bad; men are worse; therefore, women are better than men. This is, to be sure, a gross over-simplification. Mencken's argument is really much more sophisticated and ingenious. He picked it up, he tells us elsewhere, from a madame of a bordello. It contains a great deal more truth than most people would be willing to admit. Mencken's hillarious presentation is recommended only to hardened cynics (which is to say, hardened realists). Sensitive people with "beautiful" souls are well advised to avoid this brilliant book.

Mencken wrote that "Nothing could be plainer than the effect that the increasing economic security of women is having upon their whole havit of life ... The diminishing marriage rate and the even more rapidly diminishing birth rate show which way the wind is blowing . . . large numbers of them [women] now approach the business [of marriage] with far greater fastidiousness than their grandmothers." So as a result, only relatively skilled men are marriageable, and lower-class men go without. By contrast, in the past "even marriage with a fifth-rate man was better than no marriage at all."

Mencken also correctly predicted that even after the influx of women into the workplace, women will still lag behind men economically: he writes that "it is impossible to imagine a genuinely intelligent human being becoming a competent trial lawyer, or buttonhole worker, or newspaper sub-editor, or piano tuner, or house painter. Women, to get upon all fours with men in such stupid occupations, will have to commit spiritual suicide, which is much further than they will ever actually go. Thus a shade of their present superiority to men will always remaijn, and with it a shade of their relative inefficiency, so marriage will remain attractive".

Mencken also predicts loosened sexual mores: "With the decay of the ancient concept of women as property there must come inevitability a reconsideration of the whole sex question."

And of course all these things have come to pass, both in America and in Europe: well-employed women marry later or not at all and get divorced more quickly, and low-income women have virtually abandoned marriage altogether.

Mencken only runs aground when he looks at war and peace. He correctly predicted World War II (in particular predicting wars between France and Germany, and between Japan and America) but thought that it would be so devastating, and wipe out so many of the world's men, that women would vastly outnumber men, which in turn would radically modify marriage- perhaps by causing the reinstitution of polygamy. Had WW 2, like WW 1, killed only soliders, Mencken might have been right. Instead, of course, millions of civilians were killed- including many women, thus limiting the male/female imbalance.

Undoubtedly, HL Mencken was the greatest American mind of the 20th century. It is my opinion that he was possibly the greatest man of letters in the world during the 20th century. He seems to me to be a combination of his two predecessors, Mark Twian and Ambrose Bierce, with all the bad alloyed out.

Shaw? Orwell? Pikers all, compared to the Holy Terror from Baltimore. This book is simply fantastic. Simply reading the preface for the first time left me breathless and in amazement.

The writing is so good, let me illustrate- a black writer was assigned a story on Mencken, because it was heard Mencken was a racist (which he was). Upon reading Mencken for the first time, the man said his original purpose melted away to be replaced with a single question. "How does one write like that? How can I write like that?". I concur- HL Mencken was the finest purveyor of ideas in any man during the 20th century.

By this book. Then buy all his others, starting with the Mencken Chrestomathy's and his Prejudice series. The worst book I've ever read of Mencken is better than the best other book I have ever read.

I enjoyed this book immensely, but probably for the wrong reasons. The book is a bit chewy in places, but stick with it, as it's surprisingly enjoyable on it's own merits. On a more selfish, sadistic note, I had been mecilessly bludgeoned on a regulary basis by a work colleague, a second generation descendant of the Emerald Isle, with tales of Celtic martyrdom and Anglo tyranny, and none of which I felt I had the right to dispute. Then I read the book. After ten minutes of lively debate, challenging all he knew as 'fact', he has not spoken to me since. No-one had ever shut him up before. Heaven. But back to the point, I found this to be a rather good read.

Baby Cromwell, Nottingham, England

R. F. "Roy" Foster author of 'W. B. Yeats: The Apprentice Mage,' 'Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and His Family' and 'Modern Ireland,' has written this experience and interpetation into Irish history and literature. He does a fine job of it. His bravery in massacring every sacred Irish cow as one would have fun reading it. It leaves you with a warm, passionate, giggly feeling. It's entertainingly brilliant look at the past and present Ireland. I particularly love the chapters and passages on Theme-parks & Histories (with some warning from Foster on expliotation); the chapters on Yeats; When the Newspapers Have Forgotten Me: Yeats, Obituarists and Irishness; Selling Irish Childhoods: Frank McCourt & Gerry Adams; and, Remembering 1798. They're totally smothered in clichés and lots of traditional tidbits of fond or fatal memories, known to some as the Irish experience.

Foster cleverly works moments of Ireland's past into narratives of Irish culture on myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result is from a varied interpetation of opinionated and right down funny interlinking essays. In Theme-parks and Histories-Foster writes of the Irish are to remember or commemorate anything. It is worth remembering the upward curve of Irish cultural achievement-referring to W. B. Yeats, Hugh Leonard, Ezra Pound, Cashel Heritage Society and the 2,000-acre Famine Theme Park in Knockfierna Hill west of Limerick. Irish history, the most distinctive achievement for it. His suggestion to form a monument to Amnesia and forget where they put it. As a historian he would be shocked, but as an Irishman he would be attracted to the idea. Foster shows no mercy on his view of manipulating Irish history on political places and Irish poverty and oppression as a commerically packaged heritage park. His exploration of Yeats' authority of the Irish story's fitting moments as the voice of his Ireland countrymen.

Foster leaves teeth-marked criticism of Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Gerry Adams and their devil may care attittude of taking hostages for fortune. Transcending into the bestsellerdom of Irish childhoods. Simply a technique of marketing where Irish version brag and whimper about the woes of their early years' experience. I find this to be an entertaining reading. In some places a bit wordy, but good telling of Irish culture. You may hate or love it. But, if your interest is in Irish history and literature it's quite essential.

Irish people of all persuasions and in all walks of life have developed a talent for building up a national history to their liking and drawing conclusions from it. Roy Foster's essays are about some of the ways in which Ireland's history has been interpreted, embroidered, exploited and packaged. I think everyone will agree there are cogent reasons for preserving the distinction between history and "national fiction". Ultimately, poor history makes poor propaganda, and propaganda in any case is a shabby use to put something as precious as a nation's history. This book is essential reading for people with an interest in Ireland. (I also recommend strongly the same author's earlier "Modern Ireland 1600-1972".)

This book ought to be on the shelf of anyone with an interest in Irish history. Foster has done an excellent job at making his points about the various 'uses' that history in Ireland has been employed for. From downright propaganda to 'memoirs' masquerading as vague truths he unleashes the power of clear thinking and valid sources. For so long Irish history has been treated as 'story' and this book attempts and succeeds in telling the difference. It is so refreshing to see something sensible in print! It is a great source book or reference and could also be read by delving into the different subjects in the index. I would recommend this for all who are involved in getting to know the real history of Ireland and the Irish and how some Irish 'history' came to be written in the first place.

Porter's tongue-in-cheek treatment of the marketing of Ireland is refreshing after an avalanche of Irish hype came from unscrupulous little publishers.The Disneynification of Ireland ,apparently propelled by American ad agencies for the Irish Tourist Board,is treated by Porter correctly as hype to snare innocent Irish-Americans.Porter gets almost every hilarious Irish twist of recent decades in this collection of exposes, including the hilarious, almost unbelievable marketing of the potato famine in Disney-like theme parks.Unfortunately, he closed his collection of revionist chapters without pointing to the biggest Irish hype of all -the invention and collapse of " The Celtic Tiger", based on runaway inflation and a Dublin stock market bubble that aped the rise and fall of America's Nasdaq.Foster's book is a must if you wish a clearer view of the Irish .

To gain a sense of the various stages of L'Engle's life, read the Crosswicks Journals in order of publication. In The Irrational Season, Book 3, L'Engle does not give any easy spiritual answers, yet somehow a sense of comfort prevails throughout the pages. Never preachy, this is a book to savor again and again. We share L'Engle's struggle as she grapples with age-old questions. One is awed by the grace with which this woman deals with conflict, both internal and external, even as she is sharing her deepest doubts. As we read, we become a part of L'Engle's spiritual quest and we make it our own.

I have been a fan of Madeleine L'Engle since I discovered A Wrinkle in Time in the 5th grade. As an adult, I have come to appreciate her non-fiction and adult novels. Irrational Season is probably the best of her non-fiction. The story follows the litergical year and in keeping with the seasons and holidays takes the reader through pain and joy while always maintaining hope. This is an excellent book for anyone who has sometimes felt overwhelmed and questioned their faith only to find that their questioning makes them stronger.

This is classic L'Engle, full of thoughtful observations and solid spiritual food. It's a good book for meditation and healing. And always L'Engle poses questions that give one pause.

I started this book on Christmas Eve...and who knew that this is almost precisely where L'Engle starts the book off at! It was a joyous, challenging, beautiful and often unnerving book that made me flip page-after-page in wonder and awe at the author's very wise words.

Sure, L'Engle sounds a bit like a Christian universalist in some of these pages, but they come from the heart and like all of our hearts, not every thought is theologically right on. So I can easily forgive her for this.For those people getting married, or thinking of getting married, or about to get married within the next 6 months, I'd recommend reading the first 60 pages of this book at least as it will fill you with wisdom, guidance and many wonderful descriptions of what true, ever-lasting love looks like.

Out of "A Circle of Quiet," "The Summer of the Great-Grandmother" and "The Irrational Season," this book comes in a close second out of the three. It's tender, warm, and just what I needed after the holiday season.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to reconcile their belief in God with their intellect. Lyrical and moving (I cried several times), The Irrational Season can be read on its own, or as part of the four-book series.