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Literature Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Literature
Mandy
Published in Audio Cassette by New Millennium Audio (2002-02)
Author: Julie Edwards
List price: $18.00
New price: $1.18
Used price: $1.15

Average review score:

A young girls secret cottage
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-05
I think this book was read to me in school many many years ago. I remembered it as an adult and purchased it for sentimental reasons. I think it reminded me of The Secret Garden in a way. The seashell cottage was the perfect hideaway that every little girl could dream of making her own. I loved the story of Mandy and found myself wistfully wishing that I had a place like that as a child. What a wonderful story that Julie Andrews has created. I will cherish it always and keep it to pass down to the young girls in my family.

My favorite book as a child!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-30
I read and reread this book about 5 or so times as a child. I simply loved the adventure of it all about the protagonist discovering a home away from home that she could call her very own. This is a fascinating tale for children who love to live in their adventurous daydreams and who love secret hiding places of their own where they can just "be". Although this is a book I would reccomend to children, I wouldn't reccomend it to adults as the plot and drama is very minimal. Adults would be bored of this whereas most children, especially little girls, would be fascinated by the simplicity and beauty described within its pages.

Mandy
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-25
Although this book is aimed to appeal to girls approximately between the ages of 7-13, I was in college when it was first released. Being a hugh fan of Julie Andrews, I of course bought the book and was amazed that I could not put it down! To me, a great book has the ability to transport the reader from their day-to-day life into another time and place. I was mesmerized by this charming story from beginning to end as I am sure every child who reads it will be. Mandy is not only a sweet, likeable orphan, but she is very positive role model for children, showing that if you try hard enough, you can make your dreams come true. I admire her spirit and courage to go after her dream of someday having a real family.
I had read that Julie Andrews lost a bet to her teenage step-daughter Jenny and her promise was to write her a story, which turned into this wonderful book! Lucky for us readers, the result of that bet gave us our first glimpse at yet another one of Julie Andrews' many talents. It's been 30 years now since I first read Mandy and I still have my original version of this book in a prominant place on my bookshelf, along with a hardback copy of Mandy and each updated version that has been printed. All the young girls in my family have read this classic book and loved it as much as I do. I only hope someday a movie version of this beautiful story is produced.

A classic!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-23
I purchased this book with my own money when it first came out thirty-six years ago. I was eight years old. I still have it on my bookshelf and shared it with my own children. This is truly a classic and I hope that someday it will be adapted for the screen!

Much better than "The Secret Garden"
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-28
This book reminds me a lot of "The Secret Garden" without being quite as preachy and overly descriptive. My two daughters absolutely love this book and consider it one of their favorites.

Literature
A Grief Observed
Published in Paperback by HarperOne (2001-02-01)
Author: C. S. Lewis
List price: $10.95
New price: $5.97
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Collectible price: $200.00

Average review score:

A Book of Great Beauty and Intelligence
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-23
Although Lewis was, of course, a renowned and devout Christian, this book will speak to anyone who's lost someone with whom they shared real love. All of the questions, angers, and doubts that fill the mind during the numbing time following great loss are shared in the first person, generously, by Lewis. This is, I think, a beautiful, powerful, and deeply healing work.

A Grief Observed
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-19
This small book is a blessing to those who have experienced a deep and pressing grief. It shows a bit of the journey C.S. Lewis made through his grief experience. It was a brief, beautiful read.

Profound and moving
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-15
Lewis, a confirmed intellectual bachelor, almost comically stumbled into a deeply romantic and erotic marriage late in life. An American poet, Joy Davidman, while visiting him in England was stricken with breast cancer. Her visa expired and she faced a mindlessly bureaucratic forced expulsion which probably would have killed her. Lewis agreed to what he expected to be a marriage of convenience, giving her a right to stay in England long enough to die peaceably. Unaccountably, almost impishly, she recovered and they became man and wife in fact and not just pro forma. Lewis was delighted, swept away and overwhelmed; he became radiantly happy.

This brief moment of joy, was snatched from him, however, as the cancer reasserted itself. Lewis poured out his profound grief at the death of his wife on paper, sharing his thoughts, feelings, longings in a journal which became A Grief Observed. Unlike some of his other works, which are witty, philosophical, almost whimsical at times, this book is deeply personal and profoundly painful, almost raw in its emotional intensity. It is also a deep testament to Lewis's faith. Like all humanity, he faced loss and suffering and death. Lewis, like Job, transforms is somehow able to hand over all this darkness to the Lord in an act of sheer faith.

My own father recently died. I found Lewis's book to be a great comfort and a powerful guide through the grieving process. I strongly recommend this to anyone who has recently lost a loved one.

One note on the edition. This edition contains a foreword by Madeline L'Engle. The foreword enhanced the book, but earlier editions had a longer foreword (or possibly an afterword) by a male friend of Lewis which I found even more moving. I particularly remember a joke in the earlier edition about Lewis being surprised by Joy. If you've read the older edition, know that the supporting material is different.

A Grief Analyzed
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-27
Originally published under a pseudonym, this short book is a thoroughly reasoned but heart-felt analyzation of grief from the private writing journal of intellectual author and academia giant, C.S. Lewis. The object of his grief is the love of his life, his rare intellectual equal and friend whom he met later in life and fell deeply in love with, making her his wife.

Born Atheist, C.S. Lewis became a committed Christian, but spent part of his journalized pages in honest reflection of his anger at God and acknowledgement of fragile faith while in the throes of traumatic, life-altering grief. He boldly wonders and writes the thoughts and words most familiarly held at some point in the minds of others bereaved over their most beloved and cherished.

From page 23: "Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. Apparently the faith - I thought it faith - which enables me to pray for the other dead has seemed strong only because I have never really cared, not desperately, whether they existed or not. Yet I thought I did."

After other thoughts about risks and beliefs, this is said, "And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing will shake a man - or at any rate a man like me - out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover himself."

On page 25, C.S. sees the human side of grieving when others try to console him with spiritual avenues of comfort: "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."

The social leprosy of bereavement is also mentioned on a couple of pages, including this: "Perhaps the bereaved ought to be isolated in special settlements like lepers."

At the end, C.S. Lewis seems to reconcile himself to a conclusion about grieving: "For, as I have discovered, passionate grief does not link us with the dead but cuts us off from them," as he tries to go about cherishing his beloved's every memory with gladness, a smile and a laugh. Not for long, however, is this a workable plan as he writes the next day's journal entry more in line with the natural phases of grief: "An admirable programme. Unfortunately it can't be carried out. tonight al the hells of young grief have opened again; the mad words, the bitter resentment, the fluttering in the stomach, the nightmare unreality, the wallowed-in tears. For in grief nothing `stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?"

As do we all of bereavement ask ourselves when finding that as much as we try clawing our way up the spiral, we suddenly lose our grasp, totally at the mercy of our humanness and that quality that never dies - love.

"Reality, looked at steadily, is unbearable."
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-08
I read on Wikipedia that Lewis had originally released this book under a pseudonym, N.W. Clerk. But, as it happened, so many of his friends recommended it to him as a way to deal with his own grief that he finally decided to publish it under his own name. I do not know if that was actually true, but it makes a great story. He wrote this book after his wife, Joy, died of cancer.

A Grief Observed is one of those books that get recommended in the aftermath of a death. In my case, I think of the books about loss as being divided into two categories: the dead baby books and the "oh god why" books. This is an "oh god why" book.

My flippancy does not do Lewis any real justice. It is recommended for many good reasons. I am sure that there will be a day when I find myself handing a copy to someone I love who is trying to make sense of what they are going through. But I still find myself wanting to be flippant in this review. It is a difficult book to read, and nearly as difficult to talk about in a public forum like this one. I had made the mistake of reading it during a long train ride-- wiping the tears away with the collar of my winter coat.

I would not call it a comfort to read, exactly. I guess that my own grief is still too raw. But he gets it right. He gets the physical arc of grief. He gets the ways in which it changes over time. He gets the way in which loss like this changes and illuminates the nature of the personal relationship that you have with the divine.

What I like most is that Lewis does not pull his punches. He does not find himself falling back on the kind of false homilies with which so many treat the death of a loved one. He is not easy on himself, nor is he easy on God. I recognize the bitter anger in so many of these pages. I also recognize the hopeless love for the dead-- the realization that you are lifting your hands to nothing except imagination and the unknown.

Literature
Dragonology
Published in Hardcover by Templar Publishing (2003-10-01)
Author:
List price: $37.20
New price: $23.99
Used price: $26.33

Average review score:

The book, "Dragonology"
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-02
My four grandsons are crazy about dragons and can tell you anything and everything about them.So, I knew that this book had to be the one I wanted for them.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Dragons
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-05
My friend bought me this book for my birthday and it was the best gift I recieved. I have always loved dragons and this book provides information on the different types, their habitats, and lots more. I loved the little extras like the dragon scales and the packets of dragon dust and even my four year old loved to look at the beautiful illustrations. This book is perfect for anyone who is fascinated by these mythical creatures.

Great book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-13
This book was well worth the buy.
I purchased this book as a gift. The recipient was 7.
Most of the book is still a little much for her yet, but she was beyond excited just the same. There was some that she thinks is interesting now, but as she gets older, there will be so much more for explore in the book. After going through the entire book, you have to remind yourself that dragons truly aren't real!

Lovely and Interesting
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-28
The eleven-year old who received this book absolutely adored it. It has interesting 'facts' about dragons and many interesting special inserts - it's more of a coffee-table type/reference book than a story. If you have a dragon lover, I'd highly recommend it.

Wonderful for the imagination
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-21
I purchased this book for my 8 year old daughter... she is in love with it! Great for any child with an interest in mythical creatures. She loves the "dragon dust". Money well spent.

Literature
Dr. Judith Orloff's Guide to Intuitive Healing: Five Steps to Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Wellness
Published in Audio Cassette by Audio Literature (2000-11-15)
Author:
List price: $25.00
New price: $50.00
Used price: $2.25

Average review score:

Dear Judith,
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-03
Your books are a joy to read. You are a wonderful writer. I couldn't put down each one of your books. I loved all your personal stories and learned so much from you. We have a lot in common. Thank you for being so honest and open.

All your books are up there in my top favorite non-fiction list. The other two super heroes up there with you are Dr. Brian Weiss, "Same Soul, Many Bodies", and Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross, "The Wheel of Life", her autobiography and her best book ever. (Also "The Yeast Syndrome" by Dr.John Towbridge is a must read! Candidiasis is the main cause of everything from athletes foot to severe mental illness.)

I've never read or heard other people talk about some of the things you talked about in your books, although I've felt them, like wanting to go home. I also have a very deep rooted sorrow and I thought it was from child abuse, but I think you're right about it being a global consciousness we sensitives tap into.

I love how you make all the things that I thought made me weird, or weak, make me sound enlightened and desirable. Awesome.

I'm so happy to have found you and I'm looking forward to seeing how all this new information frees me and changes my world.

Thanks for all the love, learning and encouragement. You are so much fun, so warm and so charming. I hope I get to meet you someday, even if it's when we finally make it home.

Good, fun.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-17
Very enjoyable for knowers & seekers. I grew up in L.A., so it was fun reading for me.

When Reason and Spirit Work Together to Heal
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-18
I love this book! It's sound and grounded and keeps its simple enough to follow. Judith Orloff offers a possibility into healing and wholeness as part of a self-care program. Intuition often has answers that the intellect can't find. So when your left and right brain work together ... more healing is possible.

Energy Medicine
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-03
This text gives voice to a near silent wisdom that underlies human evolution in consciousness, i.e., health & wellness, and validates the lives of many intuitives challenged to make sense of a dominant world view. My mindbody, my cells, my emotions all respond to this intelligence in an life-affirming way. This is profoundly healing.

Well-worth purchasing!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-29
I feel very lucky to have stumbled across this book while browsing through one of my favorite local bookstores. I am a seeker trying each day to develop my intuition, look within myself for answers, and feel the power of our Divine Creator flow through me. I am a strong believer in the mind, body, and soul connection and Dr. Orloff does an excellent job in this book explaining our energy systems, the power of the mind to heal, and our very own connection to Source that has been with us since the time of our birth. We all possess the ability to heal ourselves and it is time we start looking within to heal any emotional wounds that have manifested into physical symptoms in order to catch our attention. Dr. Orloff is an amazing Doctor, healer and writer. This novel is very profound and sure to change your life!

Literature
The High King
Published in Paperback by Dell Publishing Company (1988-04)
Author: Lloyd Alexander
List price: $3.99
New price: $0.24
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Create Your Own Review
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-27
Jamin P. review of The High King by Lloyd Alexander, March 19, 2008

The book I read, The High King, was great. The time, setting and plot all fit together quite nicely. The story takes place in Medieval Times but it is a fantasy world. Taran, an assistant-pig-keeper, is now a great warrior and he is the leader of an army of horsemen against Arawn-Death-Lord. There is a catch though Arawn has stolen the sword of Dyrawyn- the most powerful weapon in the kingdom of Prydain. Taran and is companions have set out to claim the sword back for the diabolical Arawn. They have to go to Arawn's lair, which is at the top of Mount Dragon. After many bloody battles they are able to retrieve the sword for Arawns Lair. At the end they end of the book some of Taran's companions go to the Summer Country, while some stayed on the now peaceful and prosperous land of Prydain.

Not Free SF Reader
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-03
Pig boy gets over it, the sword, the girl, the knowledge and the administration job.


Taran finally gets organised as far as the princess is concerned, but, as these things goes, is rudely interrupted by the goings on caused by your usual dark lord of the underworld.

A fantasy hero has to deal with that first, befor eany nuptials, as well as all the nicking off of the supernatural types and a decision for the woman of the piece.


Fast order
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-21
The order came in a few days which was great. The person I orded this for was happy with the book and enjoyed reading it. All in all the order was fast and I was a satisied costomer. Cyndi

The High King
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-12
The high king by Lioyd Alexa is a wearied book that I wouldn't recommend if you are younger than a 5th grader. There is a guy that is going somewhere. Then there was a ogre and it was green. The guy went somewhere to get someone. He traveled a long way. He was on a horse back. It took him a few days to get there.
The guy was a worer and he was trying to beat someone. The person that he was going to defeat was a ogre. The ogre was as mean as a vicious dog. The guy had a sword and the ogre diden't but it had muscle, and it had friends and the guy diden't. The guy had to fight them off with one sword. It took him like 40min to fight them. After he did that he started going again to where he was going. It took him two more days to get where he was going.
He finally got there and the person wasen't there when he got there.

The Perfect Fantasy
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-05
It is NOT my intent to be inflammatory or insulting with this review. However, as humans, we live and die by comparing and contrasting, so I can't help it if I do so. Please don't shoot the messenger because I rate Alexander's series according to personal standards.

Second, I am not merely reviewing The High King here; this is the best place to review the entire Chronicles of Prydain, and so I shall.

I have also heard a little rumor recently that Alexander's books have been recommended in reference to Harry Potter, and I have nothing against Harry Potter other than it is a lukewarm, morally tepid tale in which the characters, magic and plot are only occasionally consistent; however, the likeness between Harry and Taran are, in short, the difference between heroism by circumstance and heroism by choice.

Now to the review and to more (unintentional) offense: The Chronicles of Prydain slightly resemble (especially in the first part, The Book of Three) The Lord of the Rings because they are both drawn from the same Welsh roots. The Chronicles of Prydain are better, hands down, no questions asked. I have always regarded Tolkien as the untouchable master of Fantasy, until now. Here is why Alexander tops the unbeatable:

1. His characters are closer, more human, and more real. They are all easily accessible. They are all ingeniously well-defined. I am not as well-read as I should be, but I have never read a more likeable, fleshed-out and consistent, large cast of characters. His genius shines through.

2. Where Tolkien is mythology, Alexander is what mythologies are made of. The Chronicles of Prydain cut right to the core of the greatest human stories and their humanity--their sacrifice. The individual acts of sacrifice in each of the books are heartrending, and somehow, almost in an act of divinely-inspired propitiation, heart-mending. Frodo's act of sacrifice at the end of Return of the King pales in comparison to the multitude of sacrificial acts that culminate with Taran's decision at the end of The High King. It is awe-ful.

3. The female characters are superb. Eilonwy is a likeable, strong and strong-willed female who is consistently Eilonwy, the perfect foil to Taran, and perfectly balanced. Alexander did not make her a shrew, a feminist, or anything overboard to the point of ruining the character, the story or the consistency. She is wonderfully written and no less a hero than Taran, though the spotlight is not always on her. Alexander was truly ahead of his time in making a female hero so real, so approachable, so likeable, and truly heroic.

4. The plot is seamless. Books one through five fit together as in a panoramic puzzle, with each thing building on the other. Granted, Tolkien wrote in the style of the medieval, and he did so without flaw, but with Alexander, every scene serves the plot. There is not one wasted word, and few unanswered questions, if any.

5. The plot is character-driven. Unlike Harry Potter, where the deus-ex-machina is unbelievably heavy, the plot in the Chronicles of Prydain is character-driven, and hinges on the characters making the right decision without regard to their personal desires. I have only seen one other author in whose books this trait is so pronounced (see Nicole of Prie Mer: Book One of the Latter Annals of Lystra, to start) and so perfectly wielded. However, it makes for the most satisfying plot resolution possible.

6. The characters are hopefully complex and dynamic. I have never read of so many characters that are redeemable--and indeed, we see many of them redeemed. I can only hope to look on life with the optimism that Alexander must have had. His characters, even many of his bad ones, are so lovingly handled, I must hope that my Author chooses to deal with me so mercifully. The Mercy offered in these books goes beyond the pity offered to Gollum and into the redemptive work of One who can transform lives. It is extremely powerful, and the same reason so many of the minor characters are beautifully real and dance off of the pages.

I could go on and on, and fortunately for you, I won't. I am so lucky to have found these books. I hope many receptive hearts will continue to find them for several generations. May Alexander rest peacefully, and I hope that somehow, somewhere, he knows that his Taliesin is smiling.

Literature
Halls of Fame
Published in Hardcover by Graywolf Press (2001-01-01)
Author: John D'Agata
List price: $24.95
New price: $6.26
Used price: $6.33
Collectible price: $29.99

Average review score:

Not Essays but OK
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-10
There are two duds in this book, the one about a college in the dessert, that I'm not sure even exists, but whatever, and the one about museums. But after that I think it's an intersting twist on what 'essays' mean. okay

Judge the book on its own terms
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-13
Let me preface this by saying I was a classmate of John's at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in the mid-90's. I remember discussing several of the essays included in this collection, and being incredibly impressed with both the work and the author. The time, imagination, detail, obsession, intelligence, honesty and humble nature of both the essays and the essayist should at the very least inspire a more attentive read than several of the other negative reviewers chose to give.

It's time to give the Iowa Workshop a break. Just let it go. I mean, really, whether it's jealousy, or a rejected application, or just some strange anti-MFA vendetta, there seems to be a pervasive, generic attack on all who spent time at the school. People, it's just a school, good or bad. It's not some factory that automatically frankensteins each poetry student into some Jorie Graham/Michael Palmer avant-guardian. We actually have our own minds, styles, and ideas, and some of us even hold onto them well after we graduate. Imagine that.

I can assure you, there are few labels that would accurately portray all Iowa workshop students across the board, especially in the poetry program. You have no idea what it was like there unless you were there, and it varies from year to year. I would be uncomfortable judging people who've just graduated the program on the same standards, attitudes and practices I found during my '95-'97 term.

I'm not saying you have to like it, but review the work itself as it is given to you, not the Workshop or the writer's personal life. Why do people have to dismiss or attack writers and their works simply because they come out of a specific school, or because they are popular, or because the author has some success at an early age? Good writing has come out of Iowa, bad writing has come out of Iowa, just like every other MFA program, publishing house, school of thought, or geographical area.

This is an incredible work. Truly dazzling.

And to the reviewer who slams John for "plagiarizing" Dave Eggers, I can tell you that John had already written several of these essays, and published at least one of them in a journal (the Martha Graham piece)years before "A Heartbreaking Work..." was even published.

John is an exceptionally gifted writer and person, but even with all of his talent and imagination, I don't think he has the ability to steal work that didn't even exist at the time. To that reviewer, do your homework before you use serious words like "plagiarism" - John has clearly done his.

To the World: I Accept Your Challenge
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-01
It seems pretty clear that the world has gone insane, since this is in fact the WORST book ever written in nonfiction, instead of what the insane reviews on here are calling the best. So from now on, every good review that this book gets I am going to counter with a negative one. It seems only fair for a book that is not only unreadable but that has copied better efforts by better writers, which has been camoflaged with lots of "experimental" techniques that are neither experimental nor very technically able. John D'Agata is overrated, untalented, and the least informed writer of his generation. These aren't essays, but just masterbatory effects.

hermits are suppose to write well
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 21 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-13
Let me give you the scoop on John D'Agata. I am a student of the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. Before I came I made a point to read everyone's books. I haven't had John D'Agata as a teacher and haven't even seen him yet because he's a freak and a hermit. But this is what I think about his "brilliant" book. Halls of Fame is D'Agata's first book, and you can tell it is. Now that the love fest with him seems to be over, I hope people will be willing to think about this book intelligently. It is a waste of paper. And definitely a waste of money. His "essays" ,if that's what you want to call them, are just hodge podges of bits of information and "observations" that are about as profound as a bowell movement. Just because a guy uses some "experimental" styles while writing in a conventinoal form doesn't make him a "breakthrough!" Get with it people. This is not a good book.

No Hype for you
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-19
Now that the hype is over, please can we finally agree that John D'Agata is 100% the worst writer this country has ever produced!

Literature
The Blue Castle (Voyageur Classics)
Published in Paperback by Dundurn Press (2007-01-01)
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
List price: $19.00
New price: $14.08
Used price: $14.08

Average review score:

Don't Be Fooled By Its Cover
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-10
This is an excellent book, but some may be put off by the cover. The story is great and it is not a "romance" novel as the cover may imply. Very good selection for a book club or just to enjoy on your own.

Totally Unrealistic, Totally Charming
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-16
Fairy tale is the best description for this novel. The drab, old-maidish heroine with the horrible family who blossoms in a new setting and finds the man of her dreams is the most trite of plots. But LM Montgomery has pulled it off by not taking herself or the story too seriously. It's the kind of novel a young girl can adore, and an older, more sophisticated reader can still enjoy. I loved it years ago, and still do!

great book BUT the introduction gives away the whole story!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-20
If you already love The Blue Castle then this is a great addition to your L.M Montgomery collection. However, the introduction contains a couple of errors about the storyline and, most problematically, gives away the ending. Think of it as an academic, analytical essay and read it only after you've read the book.

Delightful
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-05
This book has no chapter which is less delightful than another. Just good reading from start to finish!

Fabulous
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-09
I read this book first when I was 14 and loved it. I ordered it recently on Amazon and was amazed at how at age 28 I easily entered the world of Valancy and fell in love with the characters all over again. Excellent writing, excellent imagery, excellent story line. Loved it. I'm so glad I own it now.

Literature
Musashi
Published in Hardcover by Kodansha International (1995-07-14)
Author: Eiji Yoshikawa
List price: $35.00
New price: $20.83
Used price: $18.49
Collectible price: $50.00

Average review score:

ultimate swordsman
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-10
As a high school student, I first encountered this character in a series made up of five books. At the time, each book was released weeks or even months apart. I was so enamored with the story that I finished each book before the next one was released. But I eagerly anticipated each installment. It was like being hooked on a daytime soap. But mind you, this is no soap opera. This is perhaps the most captivating story I have ever encountered. I am pleased to find this edition contains the whole set in one book. If you are a fan of sword fights that begin with but an intent in the mind of the combatant coming to an end in the deceptively tranquil plains of feudal Japan, look no further. This story reminds you that however perfect the sword is as a tool for killing, the deadliest weapon remains the swordsman and not the sword. Musashi is the ultimate swordsman and his story has all the elements of an engaging epic containing betrayal, honor, struggle, unrequited love, death and much more. The duels of the sword depicted here are like nothing I have ever read or seen or heard about before back then as a high school student and now as an adult. Printing quality and paper quality is excellent as befits a treasure of literature.

Musashi
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-17
Great story!! Full of action and wonderful details so you really feel like you are part of the story. My son who does not like to read cannot help but enjoy this one. Just when he seems a little bored the author has something exciting. A great read for boys or men.

This book is a master piece!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-19
I read this books while I was in the senior high school, approximately twenty years ago, but until now the story is still clinging in my mind and it refused to forget it because this is a best novel I've ever know.Extremely worthy to own it. It seems that Eiji Yoshikawa did a great deal of works to perfecting it.

Yahoo for Musashi.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-10
I remember reading this years ago... now I'm reading the Vagabond comics based on it. So much fun.

A wondrous and highly satisfying novel
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-17
I read Musashi 15 years ago, and I remember it vividly. It's such a sweeping, wondrous novel, I'm surprised it's not more famous than it is. I became a bit of a Yoshikawa fan from this, and visited his home, preserved as a museum, outside Tokyo. A beautiful serene place. Musashi, in retrospect, was highly inspirational to me as a writer, in terms of pacing, character development, and raw storytelling. I recently bought a copy for a fellow writer, who has samurai themes in his works, and I'm sure I will continue to gift this novel to my friends. Enjoy!

Literature
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up
Published in Hardcover by Little Simon (2001-01-31)
Author: L. Frank Baum
List price: $26.99
New price: $16.56
Used price: $5.50
Collectible price: $26.99

Literature
The Lorax (Book & Tape)
Published in Paperback by Collins Audio (1999-07-05)
Author: Dr. Seuss
List price:

Average review score:

GREAT BOOK!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-04
I love Dr. Seuss so much. This book is a great tool to teach young kids how to take care of the enivorment. My favorite Dr. Seuess book. <3

Classic Story Great, but Bad Printing
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-14
I love this book. Well, not the exact book I received, but the original "Lorax" story. The text of the book I received from Amazon is slightly blurred: some sort of printing error, I guess. And of course, it's nigh on impossible to find an edition of the book with the truly telling line about Lake Erie anymore ("...looking for water that isn't so smeary./I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie."). Ah well - it's much better to have this shell-of-a-copy of the tale than none at all!

The Lorax
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-17
This is a great gift for a young child in your life. Not only does it tell a story that sends an environmental message appropriate to the time, but it IS it's own message. I was thrilled when it arrived and I saw the "made from recycled materials" stamped on the front cover. This book can help you start the story of conservation with your kids.

Crazy Environmentalist HOGWASH!
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-02
Right on, all of you people who have given this book a negative review! What a terrible book to give to a child! Who does Dr. Seuss think he is, anyway? - Trying to teach young people about our moral obligations to future generations, and environmental stewardship... it's appalling. Doesn't anyone care about the struggling, rich, conservative business owners (Like the proud, pro-capitalist, two star reviewer Jeffrey Gray); desperately strip mining our mountains, clear-cutting our forests, polluting our streams, for their own personal wealth and gain? What about THEM? Never mind the fact that the current rate of extinction on this planet is estimated at one species every 20 minutes! Who cares that if everyone on earth were to live like the average North American, it would require 4-5 more planets to keep up with the drain on natural resources! I mean, the Bush administration has been trying so hard to keep facts and figures like these from the public that they've even gone to the extent of changing and editing scientific reports on climate change for our own well being... and positive reviews of "The Lorax" are the thanks they get?
If more children were to read this tripe, they might actually begin to understand our inter-connectedness to all living beings, and accidentally inherit a world with a sustainable future. Is that really what we want for our kids?!
Maybe the Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish should think twice before settling in to a perfectly viable habitat with such vast economic potential. (Wink.)
Peace.


An important message
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-28
The Lorax is a wonderful commentary on environmental issues and an outstanding book by a very creative and ingenious author. It helps young children understand the importance of actively saving ones environment, while being entertaining at the same time. This is among the best of Dr. Seuss's works.


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