Reviews Books

A WONDERFULLY TOLD CAT-TAIL! THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE LOVELY AND APPROPRIATE TO THE PLAYFUL THEME OF THE BOOK.

This is a fantastic story. It sparks children and adults (I'm 53!) the imagination and creativity that will help make the world a more beautiful place. I hence started to write my own children's stories. Amy Tan is my inspiration, and I hope she becomes yours.

I am the mother of 2 boys and have little knowledge of "girl" books. I bought this book for 2 little girls ages 4 and 5. The parents of each girl said their daughters were thrilled with the book and asked that it be read to them twice the day the book arrived. I bought the book because I love Amy Tan's novels and assumed that a child's book would be just as engaging. Amy Tan's story and the beautiful illustrations did not let me down.

The most exquisitely illustrated book I've ever owned! A fun, fictitious way to describe how white siamese kittens get their colors.
It's a bit long for a bed time story, but really fun! Kids ages 8 or 9 and up may be able to read it themselves, but the beginners may have a hard time.

I've read Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" and "Kitchen God's Wife" and had no idea that she's a wonderful children's author as well. I learned about this book from watching the same titled PBS series. The series is cute for kids, but the book is a wonderful story, rich in history and beautifully illustrated. Tan is a gifted writer that children and adults can appreciate.

Used as a review tool for a college course after taking a year off in French. Very useful and helpful.

Yes, David Stillman and Ronni Gordon have done it again. Years ago, when I bought The Ultimate French Review and Practice, I was certain that it was the most thorough French grammar book I had ever encountered. However, the newer Ultimate French Verbs Review and Practice carries coverage of the French language a step further. Don't be fooled by the title. To be sure, this is a book on French verbs, one which provides just about everything one might wish to know on the subject. But, it is also packed with up-to-date vocabulary such as computer and internet terms and a wealth of extra tidbits covering other aspects of usage and French language history and development. I took my first French class in 1961 in a high school language laboratory and have been captivated by the language ever since. I went on to study French in college for four years. Since that time, I have continued to read French and to use the French soundtrack on DVD movies as a means of experiencing the language on a regular basis. Living in West Virginia, I rarely get a chance to speak French. It's so nice to have the two Ultimate books to recall things I already know and to learn new things. One little gem I had never encountered before is the use of "vous autres" to emphasize the plural use of "vous." It is simply the French equivalent of "you all" or "you guys." I had always wondered if the French had a way of saying that. Now, I know. The French, however, go a step farther. They also have "nous autres" or "we all" to emphasize the inclusion of particular groups in the use of "we" as opposed to the generic "on" which is an all-inclusive non-particular "we" and is also rendered as "one, people, you, they, etc." I had come across "nous autres" in high school, but never "vous autres." I haven't nearly exhausted the comprehensiveness of this book. I am sixty years old. I will probably never need another French book in my lifetime. These two should do it quite well.

I already speak French but am rusty. This book is perfect for reviewing and getting back up to speed.. It wouldn't be much help for beginners as a lot of the fundamentals aren't gone over very carefully,

i hadn't believed when i read the reviews about this book,but when i purchased this book,it helped me a lot to learn about french tenses but most importantly french verbs.i think verbs are the real obstacle for learning french. if you want to discern french verbs and tenses you had better buy this book.the thing that made me frustrated about this book was how it badly published. the pages are easily torn apart. yet it is nothing besides how you easily and thoroughly learn a lot about french.

I have taken 2 years of French in college, but I have to say I wish I found this sooner (but still completely satisfied I have it now). It lays out in a clear and rule based form how to handle verbs, meanwhile explaining exceptions in a clear and non-intimidating manner. I love it, and for people who have gone through immersion programs (like me) it is nice - now that you have the basics - to go over everything from a clear and concise standpoint. I highly recommend this book as well as their Ultimate Grammar Review.

Love it! Someone asks "What was Casablanca's rating?" and the answer is at your fingertips! Looking at woofs is so funny, I reread them hundreds of times. Best book to read when you have finished the latest New York Times Bestseller and are waiting for your next book to be mailed. Fabulous!

I love this book! I find myself agreeing with almost everything they have to say about a movie. (Unlike my experience with Maltin's guide-- can you believe he didn't like "Dead Again"?)

My only wish is that they'd put it out on CD-ROM!

This guide covers movies, video and high quality DVD. Titles are set forth alphabetically with meaningful descriptions of each
movie/presentation. Samples of rated movies are as follows:

o Castle of the Living and Dead
o Diamonds Are Forever

This volume is updated each year to reflect new acquisitions.
It is a good value for the price charged.

Since I am a movie buff, I LOVE this book, and read it in bed! It's a good read for anyone wanting to know what kind of movies they would like to see. It's a lot better than anything Leonard Maltin has ever done, and it's also better than Roger Ebert's I hated, I hated, I HATED this movie, which is good, but it contains mostly B-movies.

Anything you want to know about movies, awards and stars can be found in this book.

This book for children is absolutely wonderful.
When I was twelve (in 1958) I read this book.
I loved reading this book very much.
I have never forgotten the title nor the name of the author.
Recently I purchased a pc.
My friends told me about Amazon, that many old and new books could
be found and bought via them.
I was very happy to see The Wind on the Moon appear on my screen!
I ordered it, it duly arrived and every night before going to sleep I read and read, and again it wholly captivated my imagination.
The pictures are delicious.
The conversation between Dinah and Dorinda is too good to be true, and indeed the entire adventure they experience is a dream for young and old.
I never knew this book won a price, and that it was at some stage nominated for best book of the year for children.
I am very happy about that.
How great to be able to make children and all ages forget all the worries they have through writing a quality story full of white magic, bad behavior and noble values.
I love people who write books for children like The Wind on the Moon.

The Wind on the Moon (New York Review Children's Collection)

Believe it or not, I read it as a child in my native Romania, in Romanian translation. The book had its original format and illustrations. I was totally enthralled by the book, and read it over and over again. I even brought it with me to the U.S., planning to translate it... back into English for my own children, when I found out that it has been re-published! I hope that there are new generations of children who will enjoy this book as much as I did.

"When there is wind on the moon, you must be very careful how you behave. Because if it is an ill wind and you behave badly, it will blow straight into your heart, and then you will behave badly for a long time to come." These words uttered by Major Palfrey, Dinah and Dorinda's father, is a foretelling of a year's worth of naughtiness for the two girls. With their father gone, they do their best to make mischief as when they try to do good they end up getting scolded anyway.

First the sisters eat too many pies, steaks and bread to blow themselves up into the shape of balloons. Then, after the village kids prick them with pins to see if they would burst, they cried themselves thin. Their real adventures begin with thoughts of revenge.

With the help of Mrs. Grimble, they bewitch themselves into kangaroos ("I have often wondered what I shall be when I grow up, whether a teacher of dancing, or a circus rider, or a mother of ten, but never, never, never did I expect to be a kangaroo."). With kicks, leaps and bounds they terrify the village people. But their rampage is short-lived. Lassoed by the zoo's owner and caretaker, they are caged and tended as other zoo animals. Here, they solve the mystery of lost Ostrich eggs and free two beasts who become their loyal friends.

Their appetite for naughtiness and cleverness whetted, they turn their attention to freeing their beloved dancing teacher from the county jail. All this is just preparation for the greatest escape adventure of all, rescuing their father from the castle dungeons of a far country.

Eric Linklater's humor shines and the plot zigs and zags unexpectedly. Dorinda and Dinah will be the envy of any child who yearns to take their naughtiness to a higher level.

Caution: Some sentiments in the book may be offensive to some: that fat people are ugly or a person whose face is blackened by dirt looks like a 'negro'.

Overall it is a fun romp with two very naughty girls. Just one thing boggles this reader's mind: Why doesn't their mother ever notice them missing for days or weeks at a time?

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I found it in a dusty corner of the library, and I think I was the only one to have checked in out in years. When I was a teenager, I found it in a booksale at the same library and bought it for 50 cents. I later realized it's a copy from the first printing. As such, it's in really bad shape - especially having once been a library book. I was so glad to hear it was being reprinted.

This story is just magical - I remember getting lost in it. It's one of those classics like the Narnia Chronicles and Harry Potter - a story you can literally sink into and forget where and who you are. These are the types of books that instill a love of reading in kids. I hope to one day give the Wind on the Moon to my own children.

As a child living temporarily with my mother in London, four books got me through: The Wind on the Moon and also The Pink Ballet Slippers by Evelyn S. Dehkes and Ballet Shoes and Theatre Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. However, as others have commented, The Wind on the Moon is the one I've reread the most. My old hardcover edition is well-loved, and it is probably no coincidence that my all-time favorite book also is about two sisters: The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett. It is wonderful to see The Wind on the Moon back in print and to give it as a gift for today's children to discover and enjoy. It is absolutely magical.

Great recaps of the first season with brilliant photography, the best lines from each episode, and some fun behind the scenes info. I'm enough of a BONES junkie that I would buy one for each season!

ok, so I admit it, I am a diehard devoted fan to the Fox TV show Bones. This is an amazing guide/companion/keepsake book to the show. The quality is amazing, glossy full color pages all the way though and detailed glimpses into each episode and a breakdown of each season (season 1 and 2 so far). There's interviews and antidotes galore on the actors, creative behind the scenes of the making of the show. You can't go wrong by investing in the purchase of this book. It's inexpensive and high quality. I almost forgot to mention all those amazing photos of David Boreanaz also.

I bought this book, at first, just to read. But now I use it all the time when I'm watching Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD. It is very informative! A must-have for any Bones lover!

Can't wait for Season 3 to be released. Great going Amazcon. Service as always fantastic.

For anyone who is a fan of the TV shows Bones, this book is a must. There are lots of little anecdotes about the actors as well as information on each of the season one and season two episodes.

informative and fun to read, this is a loving tribute to the music of Cuba and from whence it came. It's historical without being tedious and a real page turner. I love it and recommend it to anyone who digs this kind of music and culture.

It's a first for me to review a book I haven't finished reading. I've been reading Cuba and Its Music for about a year, off and on, as I've read other books and material. What's prompting me to review it now is that this is simply a terrific, wonderful book and the word needs to get out. Full disclosure: despite being a musician all my life, I discovered Cuban music only about twenty years ago. The more I learned about it the more it took me over. This is not the place to go into the reasons, but I will make an outrageous blanket statement and say that what Bach is to classical music, Cuban music is to popular music.

Ned Sublette explains why in his marvelous book. I find myself pouring over passages, rereading and underlining and making notes to myself in the back. I can't take a lot of this at one time. I'll put the book down to pick it up a week later and end up rereading what I'd already read. The prospect of getting all the way to the end of it fills me with joy and dread at the same time. It's not that it's densely written: on the contrary, it's some of the clearest, easiest to read scholarly writing I've ever run across (and that's a lot, by the way).

The book is not for everyone. You have to like music, for starters. Then, it would be good if you enjoy learning about how musical styles originate, travel, and influence other styles. Cuba has been a true melting pot for many of the world's musical traditions, and most have made their way to this country, through New Orleans, through New York, and by other means, to the point that its influence is discernible in almost every popular American genre today. Sublette has traced these influences in the most careful and understandable way, and the result is enlightenment on every single page.

Now I hear that Sublette has another book out on the musical cultures and history of New Orleans. This is wonderful news even if it means I'll spend the next five years finishing both volumes. Amazon won't let me review a book twice, so I won't be able to comment on the latter parts of Cuba and Its Music here. Maybe I'll be able to mention it when I finally report on The World that Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square.

Ned Sublette really knows his stuff. Although he quotes extensively from other authors, his own research and experience combine to make this a wonderfully solid piece of work, and one that is long overdue. Sublette takes us back to the very beginning, unravelling the potent mix of cultures and influences that have gone into what we call Cuban music today. His attention to detail will be appreciated by Cuban music afficionados, for whom many questions will be answered and mysteries revealed. Read this book, and look forward to the second volume!

There is nothing written in English that compares to the scope and depth of this book on Cuban music. (Leymarie's Cuban Fire comes close in volume of information, but it lacks the cogent overview and insight that Sublette masterfully weaves into the details.) This is a history of Cuban music written by a musician (!) who understands the importance of credible research when defining context and cultural antecedents. Furthermore, he uses his perspective as an outsider--he is a North American--to our advantage. Coupled with his examinations of the complexity of a Cuban identity and aesthetic, our North American culture also becomes more transparent.

This is particularly true when it comes to dissecting the story that most conventional Western Hemisphere histories neglect-the profound cultural influence of West Africa. As Sublette notes, "the drum...what an African would call a drum-is conspicuously missing from European music before the sixteenth century." Was it the creolized cultures of the New World that finally gave Europeans license to return to the dance floor after centuries of Church proscription? Sublette presents a convincing case for this, while simultaneously providing an explanation for those among us who are rhythmically challenged...

Readers also benefit from the full spectrum Sublette's perspective--that of a musician who migrates comfortably between the music of the concert hall and the dance hall. "Dancing," he writes, "is an intense listening state. Dancing can be complex and it can be spiritual. African music is almost always music for dancing; and so is Cuban music, which is African music's grown-up child." No armchair scholar talks like that.

Furthermore, his writing is not of that academic ilk that is afraid to offer opinions, or reveal passions. (For starters, he states that he likes Cuban music because he "has good taste.") Nor does he shy away from connecting the dots or hazarding wide-reaching theories. He is the first author I have come across to point out that the geographical origins of the African slaves-those coming to North America from the Senegambia, those to the Caribbean from the coastal areas-largely explains the differences in the musical styles (melismatic vs. polyrhythmic) between these two regions of the Western Hemisphere. Shouldn't this information be part of our cultural literacy?

The subject of this book is huge and Sublette is certainly up to the task. (Did I mention the extensive index?) I have also found, thanks to this text, that I am listening to Cuban musicians (eg. Chano Pozo, Miguelito Valdes, Arsenio Rodriguez) with new ears. That's quite a gift. Chevere que chevere!

This is the finest book on the sociological basis of music I have ever read. Many good books will provide a new fact on each page or two, but I seem to learn three new bits of history on every single page of this extensive analysis of the origins of musical styles in Cuba. But this is more than about Cuba; it is about Al-Andalus/Sefarad and Renaissance Spain and the eary history of the United States, and about northwest and central African peoples, and about Renaissance Europe, and about the early history of Islam and Arabia. It is about differing social policy and its effect on the slave trade. It is about what gave New Orleans jazz the Latin tinge and makes that city a treasure. It is about the distinct origins of the polyrhythmic, polytonal structures of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian music and the recitative, glissando-embellished, monorhythmic music of the blues and later jazz. We learn about Louis Gottchalk's first use of the African drum in classical music [performed in Europe] and why such instruments were banned in England's continental colonies and the early United States since 1739. We learn how Moorish, that is, black, line dance style was once the rage of western Europeans, and led to England's Morris dances. These are among the smallest of factoids that you will encounter reading this highly readable yet scholarly book.

Because I admire and particularly enjoy multidisciplinary cultural histories, Sublette's book is a feast. His explorations are ours. You will be fascinated, and you will be delighted. The book is an education. Buy it.

An award winning anthology of poetry, "Dark Card", is Rebecca Foust's reflections on dealing with her Asperger's Syndrome afflicted Autistic son. The poetry within explains why the chap book is award winning, and why the titular poem was nominated for 2007 Pushcart prize. "Dark Card" is an excellent collection, to be considered by poetry fans everywhere. "Underneath": His face is blank as a kettle pond/dawn, but he feels everything/there is underneath-- //tadpoles, minnows, sunfish, perch/fish-hooks, tangled lines,/frays of fat yarn algae strands,//filaments tethering lily stars/that from above seem free to skim,/milky writhe of swimmers' legs//mossed undersides of floats,/surprising truth of sailboat keels,/their iceberg depth.

The twenty seven linked poems of Dark Card, winner of the 2007 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook award, turn on the poet's experience of raising her son, born with Asperger's syndrome. The narrative arc travels from grief and white-hot anger, to Foust's difficulty in accepting all aspects of her child's disability, opening finally onto transformative acceptance-- a state of grace, perhaps. The resonance of recurring themes and images help mould this collection into an almost novelistic whole.

Foust shows us her gifted, afflicted child as he is. We learn about the syndrome's manifestations, the child's neurological deficits, the wrong-headed practices of institutions responsible for him. When, in the title poem, the boy creates a scene at school, we are shown the coping mechanisms of his mother, as well: she plays the "dark card of the idiot savant ... /...It's my ploy to exorcise their pitchforks and torches/... But it's a swindle, a flimflam, a lie/ a not-celebration of what he sees/with his inward-turned eye:/the patterns in everything---"
The poet's emotions overflow the page. She rages against the possible sources of her son's syndrome. Like a tongue to a tooth, the author worries "...that Gordian- knot neck-throttled curse, /that gene-encrypted, linked-chain curse,//that DES-taken-by-his grandmother curse,/that fumble-fingered-fool-doctor-shaped curse..." . She spits out her indictments in diatribes worthy of the name. Her anger hits its target in "Palace Eunuch":

Don't say you were trying to be kind,
you ball-less prick soft dick eunuch
cowardly coin-counting conservator.
You were practically pissing yourself
in your fear of malpractice,
you were shaking in your green paper booties.

These poems show the many ways in which the quality of life argument is entirely subjective. We see how the boy's behaviors set him apart and make him singular, but we get a rounder view here than in disability poetry purely from the patient's POV (The Hospital Poems by Jim Ferris comes to mind). In one of the best poems, "Asperger Ecstasy," Foust observes the activities that make her son "vibrate with joy." "It can be tying flies under a microscope, knot patterns / the size of this period. It can be cataloging washing / machine brands or the note variations in a symphony, / or committing to memory for joyous recounting / the entire year's schedule for the El-train." As she makes peace with his differences, she begins to celebrate them: "He makes/ meaning from acorns,/ the sky,/knotted bits/ of string." (The Visitation) We watch her empathy swell. She makes us believe her when she says that her son "loves who he is."

Foust's use of poetic devices is as expert as her emotional spectrum is varied. Her line breaks reveal meaning in fresh ways, and her use of sound is a mark of her craft---the sustained vowels throughout "Instrument," the single word lines in the final strophe of "Firstborn," echoing the child's first thin breath; the compound words that heighten the passion in her teeth-gnashing rants. There are allusions to Emily Dickinson's feathered hope and Temple Grandin's empathy, and Foust raises the hair on the reader's arm when she says about her baby, "You freeze my heart to stone/when I measure your foot with my thumb."(No Longer Medusa).

The author reconciles the grim with the hopeful in Dark Card, and her voice never wavers in its fierce emotional honesty. And when, in the extraordinary final poem, the recurring image of her son's Gordian knot "unravels with his years, unwinds, unfolds,/lets loop out in vast uncoiling spirals/whole archives of text,/found worlds," we are moved. The poet has succeeded in making the personal universal. We close the covers, uplifted by Rebecca Foust's courage and her compassionate song.

Life as art ... there is a special gift in the ability to share one's life as art, to issue a challenge to each beholder, to trigger a deeper reaching within and without, to one's coming away changed. The amazingly insightful cover and the signpost of a title dare us to pass through this doorway, to accept the challenge to go beyond and experience what these travelers before us offer to share. Will any two come away with the same experience? I don't think so. For me this journey was worth the beauty, love, and mystery revealed along side the pain of Dark Card. Without the presence of light, we would not even see this silhouette. I am thankful that there are artists and poets who can transcend the dark to share their lives by shining light.

In Dark Card, Rebecca Foust gives the reader a lesson in courage -- the courage of a mother raising a child with a disability, the courage to face the reality this forces upon her, the courage to probe the feelings deep within, and the courage to put those feelings into unforgettable words. This is the open heart of a mother, with all the pain and joy exposed. Read it with respect. It will move you.

I read Dark Card on my vacation. I reacted most deeply to Perfect Target, Sweet Heart, Begin Again - all three made me pause and just feel sick about how cruel people can be to each other and the impacts of seemingly small events on a precious life. It makes me wonder how easily we as individuals and a culture are afraid of vulnerability and the need for eliminating the weak to make ourselves feel strong rather than embracing them. These three poems are marked with tears. There were a few others that really hit me in the gut for how much the emotional content of the poem became my own: Apologies to My OB-GYN, No Longer Medusa, Unreachable Child, He Never Lies, Eighteen (he made it!), Refrigorator Mom. These poems are marked with a check to reread. Thank you for sharing yourself and your son's journey through poetry.

Very well written and captivating non-fiction story about the intrigues around the Sigmund Freud Archives. The character descriptions are interesting, and we are also given some insights into the history and concepts of psychoanalysis. This is done without the text becoming too theoretical. In the Freud Archives is not difficult to read. After reading the postscript I wondered a little about Janet Malcolms use of sources. She is not exactly kind towards Masson, and maybe she betrays him by putting into text words not intended to.I don't know, there was some controversy after the first publication. Anyway, the book is great.

Wow!

This concise primer on Freud's legacy details the evidence behind his theories, profiles three characters who fight over their origins and significance, and questions the wisdom of restricting access to the Freud archives. A brilliant work that fascinates, illuminates, and documents - and deserves to be read by all psychology students. Hint: Freud's conclusion that his female patients were fantasizing about sexual abuse seems more arrogant and less plausible than ever. Further, the decision to keep key source documents locked away in the Freud archives until 2102 emphasizes the lack of transparency and secretive, almost sect-like style of Freud in creating his new "scientific" discipline.

A very entertaining, intellectual, and rather disturbing read for a breezy summer day!

A great read and one that explicates the silence of the patriarchy yet again.

Though under 150 pages in length, In the Freud Archives is so complex that, to serve the potential purchaser of this book, I want to confine my comments to the writer's craft, that is, to how Janet Malcolm constructed her tale, and to notions such as subtext (what the author does not or cannot say on the surface), and to how her book and its topic of the Sigmund Freud legacy might have changed since the book was first published in 1984.

There is clearly a central "character," a protagonist, in this book: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. The opening pages of In the Freud Archives recount Masson's personal charm and dazzling intellect as he begins to appear at psychoanalytic conferences (which lead to his meeting with the most important of the four or five other "characters," Kurt Eissler, the Secretary or head of the Freud Archives). Note that throughout the book, author Malcolm gives more pages to Masson than to anyone else, the final pages of the book are Masson's words, and he is the only person Malcolm shows in the intimacy of his home with his family. Masson seems to be the perfect "main character" because of his internal conflicts (which he makes visible, as Malcolm recounts them). Very quickly, we find out that Masson's words and actions are uncivil, bad-tempered, and generally destructive of friendships; though other people in the book are also similarly flawed, they seem not to have redeeming qualities.

As the narrative progresses, its as though Malcolm realizes that Masson's situation makes the most compelling narrative and she wanted to record moments which "save" him; in other words, it seems to me that there is little to redeem Eissler, Peter Swales, or Anna Freud, but Malcolm gives Masson some moments of truth. For example, at the end of the book, in Jeff Masson's home with Denise, there is a bit of dialogue which Malcolm records that shows Masson does let someone (an intimate friend) question him about his manners. And at two points in the book, Malcolm records Masson saying that the results of psychoanalysis (the conclusions drawn by the analyst about the patient) don't matter as much as how the patient feels about his or her life. Masson asks, "What do you do with something like Auschwitz?" Masson asks this in the context of psychoanalysts' debates on the patient's "reality" versus "fantasy."

A great deal of what In the Freud Archives is about has to do with the current value of psychoanalysis, i.e., its efficacy in assisting the patient to recover happiness in life. If Masson was disgusted with psychoanalysts and their work, and this disgust led him to disgust with Freud and his legacy (thus leading to his being fired from the Archives job), then I wish Malcolm had written more about that point of disgust (at which Masson began to turn away). (However, she meant her book to show the relationship of everyone involved as Freud and his legacy mutated in the 1970s.) Clearly, to me, a key turning point in the narrative occurs when Masson says, "The business of analysis is to . . . get to the [patient's] pain and the sorrow. But they [the analysts] were arguing that there is no such thing as reality--that there is no single Auschwitz. That is the worst thing that analysis has left the world: the notion that there is no reality, that there are only individual experiences of it" (56-57). Be that as it may, or for what it's worth, other people in the book don't have moments of truth like this; Masson doesn't look as "bad" in this book as he thought back in 1984. It's unfortunate that he did not see that. Of course, slowly, but surely, In the Freud Archives is becoming fiction; sooner or later all nonfiction does.

Simply put, this book is a must read if you, the reader, want to be a student of life and of the era in which we live. Along those lines, it seems that because of the value of "pop psychology" and "self-help" books, the legacy of Freud and his archives are no longer worth fighting over because people in general see little at stake in Freud's interpretations of life or of our interpretations of his private life. For one thing, sexuality and the meaning of it doesn't bother people the way it did in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, the average person doesn't spend much time "interpreting" past actions, phobias, fears. If anything, we come to our conclusions about life very quickly, and we move on. Also, we live in the era of Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Covey, and Landmark Education, Inc.,of San Francisco; people interested in moving forward in live spend less time "interpreting" the past and more in conscious actions which bring them fulfillment. However, a general idea people might agree on is that Freud and his work came into being (in Europe) because the rising middle-class people had a sense of their own misery in an era of rapid industrial development and technological change. Analysis, or psycho-therapy or therapeutic counseling, or "self-help"--whatever you call it--responds to the basic human desire to have positive change in life--and to be at peace.

Given that happiness should be easier to find, it is sad--indeed tragic--that the intelligent people Janet Malcolm writes about should find it not only impossible to get along, but also escalate and perpetrate bad feeling. Another unfortunate situation is the tendency of "experts" like Eissler and Swales and Masson to protect their viewpoint at any cost, to the point of declaring people "wrong," people who as writers and thinkers might have something valuable to say. Malcolm's book is a chronicle of intellectual history, a tale of that specific time in the 1970s and `80s when such fights could take place. The copyright on Malcolm's "Afterword" for the NYRB edition is 1997--now ten years ago.

This small well written book is really nothing but a bit of fluffy gossip. But gossip that will delight anyone who has found themselves caught up in the now-venerable controversy surrounding both Jeffrey Masson's book: "The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory" and the furor among Freud followers that resulted from it's publication. Through personal interviews, Ms.Malcolm gives us the lowdown on the brilliant but (to say the least) quirky Mr. Masson as well as most of the other surviving characters (as of 1983) involved in Masson's brief yet productive romance with the keepers of Freud's well guarded letters and library.

Perhaps the surprise here...or lack of surprise, is that those such as Masson, who attempt to push the understanding of any intellectual field beyond it's comfortable boundries will, perhaps out of necessity, find themselves snooping around its often dangerous edges. And perhaps because of the hornet's nest they may stir up, are often a bit on the edgy side themselves.

Malcolm does a fine job of exposing us to Masson's truly obnoxious character, and yet raises a larger unasked question. Does eccentricity alone invalidate an individual's research and ideas, or when one dares to take on the giants, is that same eccentricity a necessity?

Whatever the answer, the almost 25 year tandem printing history of these two volumes speaks to the apparent importance of the contentions reguarding Freud that the voracious Masson dared to raise.

And perhaps simply through daring to raise them, Masson finds his victory.

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

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

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

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

This is the 3rd book in the trilogy! I love it just as much as the other 2 books. I am going to be sad when I am finished with it. I have never enjoyed a trilogy as much as this one!

One of the best books for children ever written. I read it in Russian, when I was a kid. I reread it several times after. I read it to my sons. They both loved it. Why it is so difficult to find? This book should be available to every kid!

I read an abridged version of Sans Famille when I was little, and when I found this book I bought it without a second thought. And the story is just as touching and good as I remember. If you have never heard of this book, read it; you'll love it.

I read this book many years ago in Russian. It is still widely printed there, while virtually impossible to find in English in Canada. It is a beautiful story about a young orphan, Remi. The story begins with Remi finding out that he is in fact not his mother's son, but was found by her husband years ago on the streets of Paris. Now her husband has been crippled in an accident and money has became tight. So to get rid of the boy he secretly (from the mother) sells him to a travelling stranger he met at a tavern.

The book reads very fast and is incredibly emotionally touching. I reread it recently as an adult, and still found it as magical as I did when I was a child.

I read this book when i was less than 10 years old in Vietnamese and it took me almost 30 years to find it in English here. It's one of the most influential books in my life. It's a story of self sufficient, hamonious rapport, and integrity, imho. I would recommend this book and "Nobody's Girl" by the same author to all, especially parents for their children.

I was in third grade. It was the first library book I had ever read. I cried and cried it so emotionally touched me. I read it 3 times. It still is the best book I have ever read. Thank you Amazon for giving me the opportunity to read it again....