Queen The Books

Effa Manley was seemingly yet another "lost" pioneer in Negro Leagues Baseball before being posthumously honored in 2006 with induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She was part of a class of players and executives selected by a special committee chaired by former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent.

But a plaque for the only woman inducted in the Hall of Fame barely touches the surface of an oftentimes controversial life. Author James Overmyer does an excellent job in piecing together a story that is as interesting as any you will read.

Compared by some as the George Steinbrenner of her day, Effa Manley and her husband, Abe Manley, operated the Brooklyn/Newark Eagles and were major figures in the behind-the-scenes operations of NLB.

She was relentless in her battles with other owners, players and sportswriters to make NLB a viable professional sport and business. Effa Manley was also a civil-rights advocate, who led several successful protests in Harlem for equitable job opportunities at white-owned businesses.

She was also critical of how NLB was beholden to white booking agents - who oftentimes became club investors by advancing struggling team owners money for percentages of ownership - and the white Major League Baseball teams to utilize stadiums.

It was at the height of the Eagles greatest success, a 1946 championship, where even Effa Manley's passion and business acumen could not save the league. During that championship season, Branch Rickey had started a new league to compete against NLB. That league lasted only one year, but it was a major opening move against NLB that presaged the future.

And when MLB - through the Brooklyn Dodgers and Rickey - began to integrate its league through the signing of Jackie Robinson, it opened up a raid on NLB rosters, with the best players being signed to contracts with little or no compensation to the NLB teams.

Though Effa Manley successfully challenged Rickey on his attempt to sign (steal) Monte Irvin, the die had been cast. It was an end of an era when the Manleys divested themselves of the franchise that had mounting financial loses.

The final chapter (Appendix A), Effa's Competition: The Other Owners of Black Teams, is a nice summary of the personalities, egos and conflicts that are comparable with the maneuverings and manipulations within any pro league.

This is a story of triumph, as a woman demanded and grudgingly gained respect in a male-dominated sport, sought through protest equality in a racist-dominated society & worked tirelessly to the end for the recognition NLB truly deserved.

One of the better books giving insight into the challenges of running a Negro Baseball team. The players were banned from playing with white players. This book gives an insight what the tough challenges the owners faced. Some of the owners of Negro League teams were white just like Effa Manley. That did not help them at all. It is interesting to see her problems because she was also a woman in a man's sport. An excellent read to give you insight on the history of the game.

The information in this book should be mandatory reading for every women. Men buy this book for your wife, daughter, girlfriend or any women you care about. The techniques Angie Trelstad teaches in this book are State Of The Art and something every women can learn no matter their age or skill level. This book truly could save your life!

Angie Trelstad's courage and grace are overwhelming in this book. She not only sets an example of how to get through the worst of situations, she does this by revealing the most personal facts in her life. If you are a victim, this book lets you know that you will never be alone unless you choose to be, and that fighting back truly begins when the attack ends. This is a great inspirational book to share with the women in your life.

He is called the "Anointed One", the Maz-Sherah, named so by Merod the Priest of the Blood. He feels no different than any other vampyre as he flees with Pythia, a mortal vampire since she put on the Gorgon Mask, from a land torn apart from feuding vampires who want to take over another vampyre's land and believe they have the right to do so. Although Aleric doesn't trust Pythia, she is carrying his child and so he keeps an eye on her knowing she can turn on him at any second.

The veil between the worlds is thinning, and Medya, The Dark Mother, is trying to return to the realm she was exiled from and lay waste to all that opposed her. On the battlefield where the sorcerers fight the crusaders, Pythia and Aleric raise an army from the dying who choose to accept the Sacred Kiss. Aleric, with another vampire, travels to the city of Myrrad. There the serpent God gives him the weapons needed in the upcoming battle against Medya and the Myrrydanai priests at Taranis-H, also called White Robes. Inside the city are Pythia and his two mortal children. If Aleric loses the war, all he loves will be destroyed.

This is the last book in the Vampyricon Trilogy and it ties up all the loose ends and ensures all the key questions not addressed in the previous two books are answered. Although more action oriented than the first two books (see THE PRIEST OF BLOOD and THE LADY OF SERPENTS) in this fabulous series, the characters are fully developed and readers get a better understanding of what motivates them. Douglas Clegg is equally a good storyteller in the horror realm as he is the fantasy area and readers who like him in one genre will also like him in the others. His world-building is so magical that spellbound readers find themselves transported into the Clegg realm to trek alongside Aleric.

Harriet Klausner

Clegg has created a classic with this trilogy and this last book is stunning. This author's imagination is on fire and its a real treat to read book after book that is as creative as these are. Mythology, archetypes, grand themes and dark passions... this is Clegg at his best and the genre at its best.

"If you could have dinner with any figure in history, who would it be?" My answer to this question would definately be Queen Victoria. This is especially true after having read this book. Even though Princess Beatrice "edited" Her Majesty's journal, it is still worth the read. These letters and excerpts from the Queen's journal are full of interesting facts, tender moments, and, of course, fiery quotes. I didn't want to put this book down! Even though I now have finished it, I still like to pick up the book and read little sections. I highly recommend this book for those who really want to get to know the real Queen Victoria. My only wish is that the editor had left the Queen's numerous underlines in tact. He says it was too expensive for the printing (which I can understand), but it really adds a lot. If readers are interested in that, they can find it in quotes in other works. This book is a must have!

This is a wonderful book which is compiled of letters and journal entries written by Queen Victoria. I have read other books about Queen Victoria and find her life to be very interesting. I thought that this book might be difficult to follow because of the format. Christopher Hibbert does a wonderful job with this book making it very easy to follow because of the bits of information he puts into it as the book goes on. The introduction is also very informative. I have trouble putting the book down and highly recommend it!!!!!

Byron Farwell knows how to tell a tale. The best part of reading a book by Farwell is that he doesn't just give you the straight story, he also gives you the background to how it happened, why it happened, and who made it happen. For me the best part of his stories are the historical sketches of the men who fought Queen Victoria's wars of conquest and punishment.

Farwell takes time in each pastiche to tell you how the general got to be a general, how he was considered by his collegues and those who fought under him. There a great quotes taken from contemporary memoirs and regimental accounts that have statements like, " I wouldn't put him in charge of planning a child's birthday party", or " the man had commanded a desk for thirty years, and now they want him to command real soldiers, quite the waste of good men".

It is interesting to follow along and see how so many of these wars was fought for pride or just plain pig-headed orneryness.

When I first began reading this book, I was disappointed, thinking that it was little more that an account of the various military campaigns undertaken during the reign of Queen Victoria, with no attempt to connect these wars with events within Britain itself.

However, very shortly indeed, I realized that this book was nothing short of a tour de force! The author uses wit and a thorough understanding of his subject to draw the reader in, both informing and entertaining!

the author focus on leopold completely.his haemophilia that he didn't let control the life ,or let his mother making him a invald.queen victoria was determin e to keep leopold home with her and beatrice.but he fought to make a life for him self.by going to oxford creating a family of friends who respect his intelligents and independence. he live a life he wanted to live no matter how short it was.of all victoria and albert childern i find leopold and alice the most interesting.

A very good biography on Prince Leopold who's mostly known for his bleeding disease. Unlike other biographies the author doesn't waste time on who his parents are and their backgrounds instead she begins right off with his birth which I really liked. Sometimes it gets tedious going through all the background information before getting to the main subject. I also liked how it completely focused on Leopold when a big event happened like the death of his grandmother and father it focused on the events in relation to Leopold and not the other way around. It was very refreshing. I would like to thank the author very much for this. I also liked how the author never took away from Leopold's story. Many biographies when they bring up one of his siblings or parents will launch into a long discription about the sibling or parent, not this author but this author thankfully doesn't.
You can't help feel sorry for Leopold after reading about all of his injuries. Leopold was always sick or injuried to the point he couldn't walk. He spent so much of his childhood in bed that had to be boring for a child. Especially a boy who just wants to be outside playing like any normal boy. You can't help but feel sorry for him when there's more and more things he's forbiddened to do out of fear he would get hurt. Perhaps Queen Victoria was over doing the restrictions but given how many illnesses and injuries the poor boy had and how close to death he was many times you can understand why. He struggles to try and live a normal life inspite of his disease which I found pretty admirable. This truly was a really good biography.

Twenty-five years ago I read this book to the first graders where I was student teaching and we all loved it. I have been reading it to children (and adults) ever since because it illuminates the truth that we often SEEK relationships to fulfill our needs rather than to take care of them ourselves. This picture book makes it easier to talk about breaking gender stereotypes and becoming the person we were intended to be.
It's also a HUGE hit because we always serve warm gingerbread to everyone while a musician visits to play the slide trombone.

This is a wonderful and sophisticated tale about expectations. A king goes looking for the perfect wife: beautiful and wise and can bake gingerbread just the way he likes it. Of course, the perfect wife doesn't exist and as he becomes ready to accept a good enough princess, he runs into various snags. Eventually he will settle for the wise Princess Calliope, but runs into the snag that she is looking for a husband who can play the slide trombone. They compromise and vow to never mention gingerbread or slide trombones again.
But of course they do. Eventually they do some soul-searching, realizing that the other married them for being wise and kind and mentioning the forbidden words was neither. Eventually they solve their problem brilliantly, settling it once and forever.
This is a must read for anyone getting married. It reinforces the wisdom that each of us is responsible for our own happiness, among other lessons.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It is a great story about a woman's journey through this life as she begins to look for herself and learn how this is done. It is told from a woman's perspective and is positive and affirming for both men and women. My own struggles were written here and I can see the light at the end of my own tunnel. I think men who read this can have a new lense through which to see the women in their lives.

If you are a woman at mid-life (and I think that covers a span of some thirty or forty years), this is the book you should keep under your pillow every night. Joan Chamberlain Engelsman has written a tiny tome (110 pages) that turns into volumes as it rests on your psyche. Ever since Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty have been exposed as bimbos and frauds, women like Engelsman have understood our serious need for tales of out own and have labored to fill the gap. The book begins with the ostemsibly simple myth of a Queen who cannot wear her mother's cloak but must instead fashion her own out of flax that she grows herself, half of her mother's cloak, and yarn from gifts she had previously bestowed on the king, her children her sibling, and which she must now reclaim. As Engelsman is quick to acknowledge, the story of the Queen's cloak is hers only in so far as she was the first to write it down. In fact, the story belongs equally to all of us. For the bulk of the book, Engelsman shows us how she, her students, friends, and colleagues have read and continue to read this myth. The invitation to the reader is clear: use what you can from our "cloaks" but read the myth many times, knowing that there is nothing more truthful than your own reflections and knowing also that your responses and reflections will become enriched with each reading.

As most fans of Eleanor Hibbert know, she wrote with several psuedonyms. One of them was Jean Plaidy, under which, she wrote dozens of well researched historical novels, mostly about the English monarchy. This book, about the infamous French Queen, is written in the style of the Jean Plaidy novels. I can't understand why it was published under the Victoria Holt psuedonym rather than Jean Plaidy, but if you're a Jean Plaidy fan, this is a must read!

Victoria Holt was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. A master storyteller, she would consistently weave a story that would have the reader turning the pages. This work of historical fiction is one of her best. Riveting from beginning to end, this fictional autobiographical account of the life of Marie Antoinette is superb. Written in the first person, with little dialogue, it is the rumination of a life that was to end tragically. Pampered, spoiled, and fun loving, the beautiful Maria Antonia of Austria metamorphosed into Marie Antoinette of France upon her marriage to the Dauphin, who would eventually become King of France, the ineffectual, but benign, Louis XVI.

This is her story, grounded in historical fact and set within the framework of history. This work of fiction about the life of Marie Antoinette, as seen through her own eyes, is fascinating, as it captures the flavor of those uncertain times and the events that led to the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy in France. It is a reflection on how Marie Antoinette's own behavior influenced the fate of France. Indulging in the excesses of the day, she initially gave little thought as to how her actions might affect the people of France or the monarchy. By the time she realized that her actions and excesses had wide spread political ramifications, it was too late, and the fate of her and her husband was sealed. No amount of personal regret could change it.

This book will be enjoyed by those who enjoy good, well written historical fiction. It is little wonder that this book spent two months on the New York Times Best Seller List. It is simply historical fiction at its best.

Dr. John Dee is now considered to be the English Renaissance man. This was not always the case, however, because his first biographers, as the author of this fine biography points out, were either `hard-headed rationalist or muddle-headed mystics.' In present time, researchers and historians agree that Dee was a true Renaissance man because he sought to connect or reconcile rationalism with magic, science and the supernatural. This was not unusual for the time. Copernicus cited the mystic Hermes Trismegistus in his Magnum Opus, proposing the heliocentric universe. Isaac Newton began his career as an alchemist, before moving on to modern methods of pure science. John Dee was the most important scientists of the Elizabethan age. But this is only a somewhat recent recognition because throughout the ages he was considered a charlatan, crook, blockhead and "companion of hellhounds". Benjamin Woolley's fine biography combines history, science, espionage and common sense and attempts to answer how a man of genius that had such a major influence in mathematics, astronomy, cartography, navigation and science in general, could die a pauper and in obscurity.

In 1659, a scholar by the name of Meric Casaubon copied and published a collection of Dee's documents, which contained the recordings of spiritual conversations with angels and archangels, and other dialogues, which could be interpreted dubious at best. After the publication Dee's reputation as a credible philosopher went steadily down hill and has taken centuries to recover. Woolley has done some fine research, using Dee's actual diaries, and has painstakingly pieced together his life and career.

The Elizabethan age was a turning point in Western history. The Reformation was essentially a battle for power and knowledge and a bloody war in the name of religion. But it also set the stage for the Enlightenment, and Dr. John Dee was a precursor to the Age of Reason. He was a man of `science', collecting and studying every ancient text he could get his hands on, (his library is the stuff of legend) but rational knowledge, he truly believed, would only take him so far - he desired heavenly knowledge and wisdom. And it is possible that his spiritual researches into the divine nature could have been the cause of his downfall. Dee did not seek worldly gain, riches and material pleasure; his only desire was to attain the secrets of the Holy. Did he pay the ultimate price for this activity?

~The Queen's Conjurer~ is not a dense historical text, but an informative and enlightening piece of research. It casts some light on an intriguing figure, removing him from modern occult history and in to the mainstream.

I have always found Dr. John Dee to be one of the most intriguing characters of Elizabethan times. Yet, there seemed to be so little information available about him, only bits and pieces and rumors- often spread by his enemies. Here is a most satisfying biography that not only gives you a complete look at the Doctor's life, but is also supplemented with a wealth of associated detail and historical background. This book turns Dee from a shadowy character to a real man, a great man.

What comes across is the amazing breadth and depth of Dee's interests and scholarship. He was already famed for his remarkable intellect and ability as a student at Cambridge. At a time when most scholars barely possessed a reading knowledge of bad Latin, he mastered classical Greek to be able to read the forgotten works of Plato and Pythagoras. He was a personal friend and correspondent to the great men of the age such as Tycho Brahe and Mercator. Dee himself was famed as a great mathematician in Europe (at a time when simple trigonometry was almost unknown in England.) He was offered high positions at the great courts of Europe, but turned these offers down out of a deep seated desire to raise up his country of birth to be their eventual global equal (at this time England was a poor, backward, weak backwater.) Indeed, the first conception of a British Empire, founded upon a strong Royal Navy, was first expounded by Dee.

John Dee was as close to modern scientist as existed in the 16th century. He independently came to the conclusion that bodies of unequal weight fall at the same rate- before Galileo. He was recognized as England's top expert on optics and lenses. He was recognized as one of the top experts on navigation and chart making of his day. He kept detailed astronomical observations that even Tycho Brahe admired. He based his astrological work upon the heliocentric "heresy" of Copernicus. He was an expert in geology and ores and leased his own tin mine. He also collected the biggest research library of the age in Mortlake, which was a gathering place of the greatest minds of England and the continent. In short- Dee was a competent expert in several areas of natural philosophy and applied technology. He believed in detailed observation and record keeping- in both natural, and supernatural, phenomena.

The thing is, Dee believed his accomplishments in the more material and practical sciences to be among his lesser accomplishments. Like Newton after him, his real passion was with the deepest cosmic and spiritual secrets. This led to his fame as an astrologer, and an alchemist, and a cabalist. Dee's passion was to discover the ancient, true, original religion of mankind, the "prisci theology." That is why he could walk easily among both Protestants and Catholics- he ultimately considered both of their dogma's to be equally absurd. Dee had a much more open mind that the "scientists" of later centuries- he studied all unknown forces, natural or supernatural. This was why be studied and practiced natural magic (Agrippa's three books were always open upon his desk for quick reference.) He knew that hidden currents influenced the day-to-day world, and he documented his observations even if he couldn't explain them in terms of material cause and effect. This also led to his interest is scrying and the use of natural sensitives to communicate with spirits. It should be noted, that no one at this time doubted the existence of such spirits- it was as self evident as the existence of God. In fact, many powerful lords of the day employed seers and scryers, including the earls of Leicester, Pembroke, and Northumberland.

All in all, you come away with a renewed respect for Dee. You realize that his only fault was to be born in a society of petty, ignorant, lesser men. It was they that libeled and slandered his image and painted him as a superstitious conjuror. Indeed, the only real mistake that the good Doctor made was to outlive his beloved queen and protector.