Characters Books

Gone with the wind is a novel packed with action, love, distress, hard times, and most of all, scarlet's strong sense of lofe. be it love of the land person, or thing scarlet is so emotional its almost unreal. it is an amazing book and i reccomend it for anyone with atleast a 9th grade reading lvl.
I think that the views expressed in this book about slavery and the civil war are more realistic than in any other book i've ever read. for instance, although uncle tom's cabin was another great book i believe that the viewpoint on slavery is too dramatic. i do not believe that all southern slave owners whipped their slaves.
i hope that reading this review has encouraged you to read this book. Gone With The Wind was deffinitely a book i can and will always remember, and i can't wait to read Scarlet, the sequel!

This is an excellent book that chronicles the making of the legendary screen classic "Gone With the Wind". The book moves in chronological order from it's start as a novel all the way through the pre-production, production and post-production stages of what was to be one of the greatest films of all time, if not the greatest. The book is filled with numerous photos, some of them in color, many of them rare and all of them crisp and clear. There are close-ups of all of its stars (Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia DeHavilland, Leslie Howard), the crew at work, movie posters and it's world premiere. This is a great book that will make an excellent addition to any library!

This book is packed with information and great photographs, both in color and black and white. The majority of the book deals with the filming an abundance of behind-the-scenes shots.

Also of particular interest is the post-production section dealing with the public's reaction to the movie and the section on the Premiere. This is a great book to add to your personal library.

Gorgeous pictures. Wonderful history of the novel to movie story. All GWTW fans should have this.

First I was impressed by the quality of photos - excellent. I come from Poland where, for a long time of communism, the good quality was a rare luxury. I could see every single element of fabulous clothes. Good taste, an unattainable world of really rich people - different from those starving and hungry after war in "Gone With the Wind". A lot of pictures, too little stories and anecdotes, but this is an illustrated story, so I shouldn't complain. Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Clarke Gable are warm and human as private persons. As actors they are shown as professionals.

Interesting insight into some of the actors and a beautifully written story about Methos and his love.

If your a fan of the show grab this book!!!! Just a fan of the movies? You will be lost.

I thought this book did a terrific job of adding highlights and details to the immortals we have come to love watching and hearing about. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories by Laura Brennan, Anthony De Longis, The Postcards from Alexa (series), and Ken Gord. I did not however like a few of the stories, because they droned on, such as the staircase and death shall have no dominion. I am sure they are good stories on their own, but they did not fit in this collection of stories very well, in my opinion.

This is a wonderful book and a must read for all fans of "Highlander". The cast and crew did a marvelous job of joining forces one last time to give us several wonderful short stories. "Post Cards From Alexa" is moving and beautiful. While "Pants" is sure to give you a good laugh. I would recommend this book to any fan of the show or the movies.

Very interesting book. Written not only by professional writers, but also by members of the cast and crew, it turns out to be a good source for new Highlander related stories, for the delight of those who followed the TV series -- and always wanted more.

Some of the short stories complete the ones developed on TV, filling those blanks you didn't see on the show; others, makes you feel as if you were watching a brand-new episode of Highlander. The stories varies from writer to writer, but yet you are able to enjoy all of them equally.

My favorites are "Post Cards From Alexa" (if you like Methos, you'll love it), "The Star of Athena" (Amanda in her better shape), "Pants" (very funny), "Consone's Diary" (MacLeod from Consone's point of view), "The Methos Chronicles Part I" (centuries of Methos' life are covered here) and "The Other Side of The Mirror" (Adrian Paul trapped in an alternative world).

Within a few minutes of reading Inner Drives, I intinctively knew it was going to give me unlimited potential to improve my process forever, both in acting and screenwriting. That was over a year ago and I still read and reread it everyday. An old soul trapped inside me has been set free to create the art I need to show the world. If you have a burning desire to contribute stories that inspire caring, sharing, and growth--BUT ARE LOST AND FRUSTRATED-- Inner Drives will give you an amazing base to start working from. Pamela Jaye Smith's perceptions are like food for the brain and she's tailored the learning process to allow any reader's process to thrive in the mix.
If you're an actor lost in finding a process that works for you, this book will hone your imagination razor sharp and rescue your passion for the craft. Acting classes stress the importance of homework but what does that mean? Where do you start? What is homework? Does creating character biographies seem like guesswork? Do you say your lines a million times in your room hoping for magic to pop out? If so, I urge you to read and reread Inner Drives. Use it like a workbook and watch what starts coming out. Centering your characters using the Chakras will open up a whole new creative world you did not know existed.
If you're a screenwriter who's stuck staring at a blank page, take some time out and start reading Inner Drives. Soak up the Chakras centres, swim in the duality of Sliding Scales, and play with the Pairs of Centres. Feed your imagination to find out what motivates your characters and how you need to test them. Pamela Jaye Smith gives you a map to find the hidden treasures in your storytelling. Mythological archytypes resonate deep within the human chord allowing rich characters, both flawed and fantastic, to show up on the page.

Sean O'Brian,
Actor, Screenwriter
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1694574/

And I thought I knew about acting. You know nothing until you apply this book. You can forget the first two chapters. Go back and read them later for a "wow" crash course in philosophy. Just accept that the chakra system works as viable structure (and how) start at chapter three and apply to your craft. Ms. Smith knows her stuff. I get so excited with this stuff.

So many books on the acting craft never get down to the fact that you are an actor helping tell a story; a story that you tell with other people onstage and offstage. This book will show you you where you fit in to the ensemble and what you need to do so your character is true to life. Like Michael Shurtleff's "Audition," it takes a subjective art form, acting, and makes it objective. You get to view your work from outside yourself, and where to apply everything else you have learned. Not until now have I found anything that helped me do that. I have tried Inner Drives and am having a blast. You will be making choices that people will want to see and keep coming back to you for more. You will never read or act a script the same way again.

Plus, it's a damn good read about movies.

There are some basic principles to writing good characters into novels and dramas and with them the aspiring screenwriter or novelist can produce powerful, three-dimension figures. Inner Drives: How To Write & Create Characters Using The Eight Classic Centers Of Motivation surveys these principles from the world of mythology, using plenty of examples teamed with exercises to help writers structure characters, devise subplots, make logical connections and more. Chapters discuss 'inner drive centers', link art and writing to New Age concepts, and survey archetypes and classic examples.

I don't understand why the consensus rating is 5/5. I found this book extremely wordy and it reads like a history book. If you want dozens of pages on the historical aspects of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If you want to see the same movies quoted and re-quoted over and over as examples of (insert your favorite chakra here), then this book is for you. If your idea of fun is combing through over one hundred pages dripping with hippy-isms looking for the "meat" you can use, then this book is for you. However, if you want a book that gives you a fair amount of background on a subject, fresh movie examples, and then leaves you with concrete ideas and examples of how to leverage the content matter to improve your characters and stories, then this book is not for you.

Notice how many times I repeat "this book is for you" and you'll get the idea of how this books reads. I am disappointed, especially given the 5/5 rating. It's more a 2/5 in my opinion, I got almost nothing useful out of it.

Wow. This is a great screenwriting book -- but it's so much more. Not only does it give you a better understanding of character, but it gives you a better understanding of human nature!

Pamela Jaye Smith has written one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, and in-depth explanations and explorations on the key motivational centers of human beings. You won't ust learn how to build better characters, you'll discover how to develop your own character. No kidding. This is not just a manual for better writing -- it's a manual for better living!

Buy it. Devour it. Apply it. And read it again...and again...

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!

This book is never over your head yet doesn't lack substance in any way. This is something i would give to any Christian tired of a Jesus that only exists in stained glass and books.

Mike Erre challenges the "average Christian" to really take a look at JESUS and how He lived his life - against the grain, counter-cultural, and subversive - and then asks if we too will live in this same way. I certainly felt challenged and convicted. I liked the book's focus not on methods or checklists, but truly on Christ our Savior, and modeling the way we live after Him.

You can tell Mike knows his stuff - his writing demonstrates that; yet it is relevant and accesible to any reader. I highly recommend this book.

Mike Erre is a fantastic writer! His book is to the point, but very entertaining. I would recommend it to everyone!

The Jesus of Suburbia challenges the America church to become what Jesus intended: a fellowship of Christ-followers which redeems and transforms the culture around it, reaching out to others with the incredible love of God. Read this book to rediscover biblical Christianity.

An excellent perspective on how we often sell out the true call of our faith for a consumer substitute. A challenge to guard against being so lulled by the comforts and trappings of suburban-American life that we literally begin to mix values that don't belong in our faith. That's called syncretism and as The Jesus of Suburbia makes clear, it's a big mistake.

To take the vision of this book seriously would lead to a beautiful living out of our faith as followers of Christ in the midst of our culture. This is excellent and accessible material that you can easily use in a small-group setting or to inform your teaching. As a pastor myself, I highly recommend it.

You may also be interested in learning more about ROCKHARBOR Church in Costa Mesa, CA where Mike Erre is the Teaching Pastor. It is a community of faith striving to live it's values in impressively unique ways despite it's location in the plush sun-drenched mall-topia of Orange County. If anyone has authority to speak of the challenges of truly being the Church in suburbia, it is Mike Erre with ROCKHARBOR as a living example.

As the title promises Professor Dan Tretiak does two things marvellously well in this book. It is a fascinating account of the author's search for the details of Maki's life and a superb and comprehensive collection of images of his not so major works, even if the original aim of a complete collection proved to be not possible. Moreover, with his background as a China scholar and teacher, Tretiak has made this book accessible to all: it is a book for both the cognoscente and the novice.

Probably no one could have given us a better modern view of the life and work of the distinctive Japanese sosaku hanga artist, Haku Maki, than Daniel Tretiak. An American academic stationed in Beijing, Tretiak has given most of his recent years to the study of the artist who challenged most of the formulas of late 20th century Japanese art on paper.
Tretiak's The Life and Works of Haku Maki, is not a catalogue raisonné. Maki was too unsystematic and immensely productive to accurately collect all his works, as Tretiak once hoped to do. But it is by far the best book since Festive Wine - and perhaps better - in presenting color images of the diversity of Maki's work and a compendium of others' views of the artist and his unique work.
Maki, the ultimate modernist, is not for everyone. His art has little of the classic Japanese scene, the American's fairyland imagery of the other side of the world. But a simple bowl, a single stylized Chinese kanji character, a single persimmon captivates a Maki-lover. Like a martini, Tretiak writes - it is an acquired taste "but once acquired: unforgettable."
For anyone with that wonderfully acquired taste, this book is a must.

I have long appreciated the subtlety and beauty of Japanese art. It was only recently though, through Dr. Tretiak's excellent book, that I became acquainted with the work of Haku Maki. As with the best of Shinto art and architecture, Haku Maki's magnificient body of work uses simple combinations of color, shape and proportion to create art which is both beautiful and welcoming to the eye. As good as Haku Maki's work is, it is Professor Tretiak who will be giving the lecture today. Dr. Tretiak has brought this important artist to a larger audience, and for that, we should all be grateful.

Review submitted for William I. Elliott, co-author of "Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu". Prof. Tretiak's very readable book combines biography, aspects of modern art history and technical explanations in representing the work of Haku Maki. The illustrations are plentiful and Tretiak's own text is clear. It could be merely a 'coffee table' book, but it is more than that. It is an indispensable book for a proper appreciation of Haku Maki. Techniques painstaking, tedious and even injurious lie in and behind the prints, typically kanji sieved through the artist's imagination. The prints strike me as visually eloquent. Haku Maki was not 'just another artist.' Tretiak's is not 'just another book.' It is THE book and one to be grateful for.

I have collected art through out my life. About 20 years ago, I found my first woodblock print. since then, Woodblocks have become my world. A few years ago, I found my first Haku Maki print. His art has become a major focus in my collecting. His work is so timeless and dramatic. there has always been questions about who he was and what changes he went through to create such works. What kinds of different art did he do? where does my taste in his art fit in his life. Who IS this artist? After reading Dr. Dan Tretiak's book-- The life and Works of Haku Maki -- most of my questions have been answered! It is a pleasure to get such a overview of Haku Maki's life and art. I am so thankful Dan was able to research and connect with people who knew Maki. Dr Tretiak's use of giving an overview of a part of Maki's life and then diagramming that part in more depth is an encouraging way to learn. This book is a great help in understanding Haku maki and the woodblock world of the last fifty years. I give it my highest recommendation.

After months of "patiently" waiting for this title to come out in paperback, my almost 10 year old was thrilled to see its delivery from the UPS man. He LOVED this book, as he has the previous books and thinks they should all be made into movies and/or tv shows. He reads every night before bed, but usually only for about 20 minutes before falling fast asleep. With this book, he was up 2 hours after "lights-out" not wanting to put it down. Now he begins the wait for the next installment to be available in paperback.

I absolutely love this series. I have read them all but book 6, and can't wait for it to be released. I can see this series becoming very popular.

The 5th book is wonderful, but the end bit, which has to do with the Scarlet Hand, is extremely confusing. Furthermore, the 6th book (yes, its out!)has a plot that doesnt really match up with the 5th. Still, its an extremely compelling read, I suggest that you buy it!

I am sure that I am not the target market for this series, as I will turn 56 in less than a week. In spite of that I have to say that I love this series of books. The sisters and their extended family keep me entertained, crying and rolling on the floor with laughter.
I recently discovered these books when reading a newspaper article about the frenzy around the release of the sixth book.

I was a huge fan of the Harry Potter books and since there probably will never be another one am glad to find a replacement that is just as good and sometimes better.

I can't wait for the 7th installment, to find out what myths and fairy tale stories will have new light shed on them.

The adventures never seem to end for fairy-tale detectives Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. This time they are investigating a series of thefts of magical items like Baba Yaga's Wand of Merlin, Morgan le Fay's Wonder Clock, and water from the Fountain of Youth. Usually Granny Relda and Mr. Canis help them solve mysteries, but Sabrina and Daphne are pretty much on their own this time. Granny Relda is busy trying to raise money to pay her property tax and Mr. Canis is finding it harder and harder to stop turning into the Big Bad Wolf. Will Sabrina and Daphne be able to find the thief before they run out of time?

"Magic and Other Misdemeanors" is another great entry in Michael Buckley's delightful "The Sisters Grimm" fairy-tale detective series. Sabrina and Daphne continue to grow as characters in each book, especially Sabrina, 12 years old by the end of the book and not nearly as angry as she was in the earlier books. Buckley does a great job of incorporating fairy tale and other legendary characters such as Cinderella, Goldilocks, some of the seven dwarfs, the Queen of Hearts, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and many more. It's always fun to see how he tweaks the various characters - for example, Puss `N Boots is an exterminator, Cinderella hosts a radio talk show called The Dr. Cindy Show, and the witch from Hansel and Gretel is a (not very good) dentist. There's a wonderful sense of humor throughout the book (the magic mirror's computer still being on dial-up and Granny Relda's "recipes" are just two examples of that humor). There are some scary moments, but nothing too frightening. The reason for the theft of the magical items has been done before, but Buckley somehow makes it seem fresh.

"Magic and Other Misdemeanors" is aimed at ages 9 - 12, but readers young and old will enjoy it.

Miss Elizabeth Mapp lives in the English village of Tilling and there she attempts to be part of the cream of Tilling's society. With a steady diet of gossip, Miss Mapp and her circle of fellow residents flavor their lives with eyes on the goal of status. Benson's sharply observed and satirical tale is part of the Mapp & Lucia series, which pokes fun at English society of the times. Like an early ancestor of "Dynasty" or anything else produced by Aaron Spelling, the Mapp and Lucia stories are big fun for any Anglophile or fan of camp literature.

Miss Mapp rules the tiny English village of Tilling- that is she rules those who matter. It is a tiny circle of people who have enough class to rate her attention - but she manipulates and lauds over them with machiavellian schemes, and intelligent surmises - and she is intelligent.

Benson has written a village with a range of gorgeous characters - from Diva who is Miss Mapp's great rival, to Irene the local artist who keeps embarrassing Miss Mapp with her prosaic pronouncements. Then there is the local Vicar who talks in a combination of Shakespearian English and Burnsian dialect. There is also Mrs Poppit who is an up and coming social climber (hardly worthy of Miss Mapp's notice) and the novel begins with Miss Mapps machinations to the Poppitt Bridge party.

Village life you see seems to run around Bridge parties. In this petty world of card games there is a great deal of opportunity to expose one another's weaknesses and Miss Mapp, in order to be the center of village life in Tilling finds no object too petty to exploit. This is a novel of small things made into huge issues because of the smallness of the village. There is Miss Mapps constant running battle to dress better than Diva, the competition over Mr Wyse's attentions (with his supposed comtessa sister), and the ever pressing desire to be the First To Know all the gossip in town.

The physical descriptions both through the characters minds and from Benson's pen are wonderful for instance Diva is always depicted as whirling around the place - her legs circling. Mrs Poppit is ever present in a huge and weighty sable coat.

This is a wonderful book, and beautifully written. Benson seems to me to be very influenced by Austen - there is the small and claustrophobic atmosphere of village life - the characters (Miss Mapp seems so like Mrs Norris of Austen's 'Mansfield Park') to me - and then there are the odd Austen Names (in this case the Coles feature strongly as a family that is not quite up to snuff - just as the Coles are in 'Emma'). If nothing else Benson writes of English village life in the 1920's with the same Ironic pen as Austen did of village life in the early nineteenth century.

Highly recommended if you want a couple of days of laughter.

This book from the hilarious pen of Benson, is odd in a certain way. After all, Miss Mapp is the queen of Tilling in the book, and undisputed depot who rules with an iron tongue! Where is our dear Lucia, Mapp's sworn enemy, and the pretender to the throne? Well, she is back in her original home of Riseholme, with her dear husband Peppino. Those who know the Mapp and Lucia Saga from the wonderful television series, might find it strange to have Mapp ruling the roost without interference, however it makes for a delightful read (with one oblique allusion to Lucia), and shows that Miss Mapp is a strong enough character to carry her own book. The most significant event (though hardly significant at all really) is the rumored duel between Puffin and Flint over the affections of Miss Mapp. What really occured on that misty morning? Read this brilliant piece of humor to find out. I love it!

Well, after meeting Queen Lucia, I quite enjoyed learning all about Tilling and its dear Miss Mapp. You will wonder who she visited in Riseholm, and you will die from the anticipation of the two ladies meeting up in subsequent books (you won't be disappointed!). The characters are fantastic, the situations are comic, and I absolutely loved this book! I am officially hooked on the entire series! I hope you will try it and love it just as much as I.

Not only will the Reader of today recognize Miss Mapp amongst her acquaintances, dear Reader is only too likely to see *herself* in caricature. (I, for one, am Diva Plaistow; no getting round it.) A delight from the first paragraph, "Miss Mapp" is even more enjoyable if you've read the first two in the Lucia chronicles. Librarina@netscape.net

A village priest and his friend, the (communist) mayor, drive throught their native Spain to Salamanca with many wine and cheese breaks and hillside siestas on the way. Both are having to rethink the choices they've made and will make. In this road trip intimacy they share their thoughts, question eachother's beliefs and make mild attempts at converting the other, always with warm regard. The wine helps. A tender, hilarious and heartbreaking book. Much happier than other Graham Greene.

Entertaining, quite easy to read, and profound. On the surface this is a short novel about about an unassuming village priest (promoted to Monsignor) and the deposed ex-mayor (the more "world-wise" of the pair) who take a road trip. It is set in post-Franco Spain of about the late 1970's. Monsignor Quixote is a devout Catholic, the ex-mayor (Sancho) a devout Communist. Their adventures include run-ins with the police, stops at a brothel and risque movie, an encounter with a robber, inciting a community riot, and so on. They have long talks, with hearts and lips loosened by much wine (which they revere). Monsignor Quixote loves his old car, which in a way becomes yet an additional character in the story. We can all identify with this pair to some degree, be ye Christian or Communist. The mayor is washed up politically. The monsignor has a jerk for a boss (his bishop). It's light and fun, and has many laughable moments, but . . . .

Deeper - the author explores issues within Christianity and (to a lesser extent) Communism. Issues of; the "trinity" and the Holy Spirit, prayer, elitism and insincerity in the church, loyalty and betrayal, "brown-nosing", police oppression, financial scandal in the church, sexuality, "moral theology" vs. righteous brotherly love, generosity and hospitality, comparisons and contrasts between The Church and The Communist Party, etc, etc. A thinking person's feast. Easy to absorb and digest, but dwell on points of interest as long as you like.

The monsignor, though portrayed as a simple man, is a talented wit, as is the mayor, and their exchanges are a joy to read. In his behavior and philosophy, the monsignor is given to "coloring outside the lines" so to speak, which keeps him in trouble with his bishop. But really . . . he is a humble, wise, lovable and loving man, who exercises and lives a pure religion much superior to his rule-abiding, judgemental colleagues. And he is persecuted for it (sound familiar?). Sancho, though more wordly, cynical, and having rejected the chuch, is not so bad a guy either and they play well off one another.

In the end, the monsignor is able to find some good in Karl Marx, as the mayor reconnects a bit with the God he left many years before.

One need not be Catholic to connect with and enjoy this book (I'm not). This is the second Graham Greene book I've read, the other being, The Power and the Glory. A wonderful author - most highly recommended.

A really moving and thought-provoking novel. In this book, Greene brings up all kinds of interesting ideas, whilst maintaining a sense of humour. Unlike a lot of other books that deal with issues like religion, this isn't at all heavy-going, owing to the engaging style of writing.

This is one of the funniest and cleverest novels I have ever read. It is also one of the deepest. Behind the clever adaptation of the Don Quixote story to a context in post-Franco Spain there is a dance of ideas, much as Shaw's plays are a dance of ideas, and the questions dealt with are the biggest and most fundamental that we all have to deal with.

An innocent and un-intellectual Catholic priest sets out on a holiday with a communist politician, and their discussions, always friendly and courteous and greatly assisted by wine, centre on their respective faiths. The communist faith is much the more straightforward - the ex-mayor, defeated at a recent election, finds the general outlook of Marx congenial, he finds that doubt shackles freedom of action, and that's about as far as his introspection goes. Catholicism is about bigger issues altogether, such as do we go to heaven or to hell for all eternity, and the concepts involved, for someone who really thinks about them honestly, are sufficient to unseat anyone's mind. There is no real alternative to thinking about them, so in the interests of peace of mind what people do is to think about them not honestly but either ingenuously or disingenuously. Graham Greene, like Muriel Spark, was a convert to Catholicism, and like Dame Muriel his treatment of it in his writing is wry and ironic. What he really `believed' is not quite clear and I'm sure not meant to be. Indeed he even casts some doubt around the question of what `belief' actually consists of, and rightly so in my own view. At one point Father Quixote admits that a certain doctrine is one that he believes out of obedience, an admirable attitude for traditionalist believers whether Catholic or communist - you believe x because you're supposed to believe it and you'll be in trouble if you don't. Greene quite obviously sees that Catholic doctrine evolved as a book of rules to keep people under control. What started as religious and ethical teaching developed rapidly into thought-enforcement and thought-policing, but the matter goes even deeper - behind it all there is supposed to be a God whose word the ecclesiastical power-structure dispenses, and this God is not, like Marx, someone who certainly exists but only a hypothesis. How much further Greene wishes us to pursue this line of thought I'm not clear, but for me two considerations follow - firstly what is supposed to be God's word is actually a human construct foisted on the hypothetical God, something that to me seems outright blasphemy; and in the second place we have a clearer idea these days what the Creator has created, and such a Creator is not likely to bear much resemblance to Jehovah in the scriptures having to assert his authority against Baal, Dagon etc at intervals. Indeed if there is one crumb of comfort in the contemplation of such a Creator it's likely to be that he will take little or no notice of our insolence in presuming to speak for his intentions.

Towards the end of the book Greene says something to the effect that in the absence of certain knowledge one goes for the next best thing. For him this is `faith', for me it's probability, as best I can assess that. Greene is able, as I am not, to find a sense of `believing' that takes in the soul as well as the mind. When I say that I believe something I mean that it seems to me true or probable, and considerations that bring me spiritual comfort are unrelated to belief in this sense entirely. Greene seems not to go so far, but I venture to think that he's nearer to my way of seeing things than to `faith' in the conventional sense. What is completely unmistakable is the irony with which he observes the way that the devout have of finding support in the scriptures and in philosophy built on them for convenient viewpoints and courses of action.

The book is not so much about the rival ideas, nor even so much about what people do with these as about what the ideas do with people who for some reason adhere to them, as if the ideas had taken on a higher life of their own, dominating and controlling the very people who create them and without whom they could never exist. This may indeed be what we call divine in them. What is divine in a more earthly sense about this book is the humour and ingenuity of it all. It is a simple story as well as a battle of ideas, and a touching one too, with emotion and human affection finally dominant over the intellectual side. A delightful book, a beautiful book and I would even say a great book.

MONSIGNOR QUIXOTE by Graham Greene was thoroughly enjoyable, and touched, as some of Greene's better works are, with a divine stroke of love and genius. And I do mean, divine. It's hard to find the words to praise Greene enough. His novels are so well executed, so elegantly written, so touching and so unexpectedly changing. They read easily, are very accessible. This book references DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes, so I was doubly engaged here, as I had just read it. This book is about a priest, Father Quixote, who lives in El Toboso, Spain. Through a happenstance act of kindness to a man in power in the Catholic Church in Rome, Father Quixote is made a Monsignor, much to his bishop's dismay. His bishop has never liked Father Quixote. Due to his "promotion" Father Quixote has some time to take for himself, and leaves El Toboso with the town's former mayor, who has lost his re-election bid, whose last name is Panza, just like the famous Don Quixote's squire, Sancho, so Father Quixote calls his friend Sancho. Like the first and second sally in Cervantes, Monsignor Quixote and Sancho go forth in the world and have adventures. What I found wonderful about this book was the discussion between these two men about Communism and religion. They trade books and references, and argue principles lightly and engagingly. What is true about both men as Greene writes them is that they are loving people. Sancho is more cynical, but he is kind and is genuinely friends with Monsignor Quixote, and the monsignor, for his part, is truly loving, naive and true. The end of the book is a surprising and stunningly beautiful apotheosis of the ideas expressed within. This is one of my favorite works by Greene, and reminded me in some ways of the life-changing END OF THE AFFAIR. I highly recommend it.

This is a wonderful book for any mom! I got it for a baby shower gift! The author survived having 3 kids and being on the mission field! Very encouraging!

I've read and re-read and re-visited this book for years as I've raised my young kids. I feel that I have been 'mentored' by Mrs. Fleming as I have listened to her input and direction in this book. She is a worthy role-model for anyone who wants to learn to leave a legacy through your family. I buy for it for other moms (especially as they get into the toddler years, not so much the 'first baby' phase).

My sister-in-law wanted this book after getting her a copy I had to get myself one too. This book has been very encouraging to me as a mom, keeping me reminded of God's grace in my role as a mother.

I give this to everyone I know expecting a baby! It's a wonderful book!

This was a great spritual guide for me. I have read it 3 times now and keep going thru it digging out more truths to learn from. Jean gives a lot of great examples on how to raise your children with a spiritual mindset and they helped me alot to gauge where I am at and where I need to re-adjust my mothering. I brought this book for my mommy group in my church and everyone has raved about how much they have loved this book.