British Isles Books

This is a really different kind of memoir. It's personal, yet gripping as a novel would be (part of it is memior, part is fiction). It's also thoughtful and analytical without falling into the trapof being dry or over-intellectualized. I learned as much about myself as I did about the author. The blurb on the back cover is right - once I started it, I couldn't put it down.

This is an intimately written and insightful work. Anyone interested in women, film, or issues surrounding lesbianism will enjoy the work. Beautifully formatted.

In "Home Movies..." Citron uses an interplay of fact and fiction to guide the reader on a journey of secrets. We are never quite sure of who is speaking and yet always sure it is the author's voice we hear. Citron has crafted her written words with the same sense of artistry evident in her films. This book is powerful and artfully written. It is as much about understanding the well-buried and fragmented narratives we each conceal as it is about the story of Citron's individual exploration of her own stories. Communicated through simple language inflected with subtle nuances, the truths among these pages explore the juncture of life and art. Interacting with this text is quite an experience.

This is a really different kind of memoir. It's personal, yet gripping as a novel would be (part of it is memoir, part is fiction). It's also thoughtful and analytical without falling into the trap of being dry or over-intellectualized. I learned as much about myself as I did about the author. The blurb on the back cover is right - once I started it, I couldn't put it down.

This is a great start to this fun new series. Sophie Green is a young British single working a boring job that she keeps wanting to quit. She works in an airport in check in and has a crush on one of her hot Swedish co-workers, while being intrigued by a hot Italian co-worker. Being in the right place at the wrong time leads to a series of events that have her being picked for a super secret spy group. She maintains her cover to her friends and family while trying to save the world and her cat, Tammy. She is 5' 10'' of blonde bombshell, but doesn't seem to have any self confidence. This story has it all, mystery, romance, steamy love scenes and humor. Can't wait to see what happens next!

...so says ParaNormalRomance Reviews. "Kate Johnson has created a wonderful set of characters. This is one book...I would have on my keeper shelf!"

TwoLips Reviews called it "...an outrageously funny story... I Spy? was one laugh after another. It is good to see that a ditsy blonde can save the day and when Luke and Sophie finally hook up readers will just not believe where! I Spy? is one hot read and too funny for words. Readers enjoy!"

Once Upon A Romance compares it to Janet Evanovich's bestselling books: "If you like the Stephanie Plum series, I believe you will like I, Spy? ...This book is modern, quirky, ironic and sassy. I can easily see how this will spin out into an excellent series."

The next book in the series is Ugley Business (Sophie Green Mysteries), available now.

Sophie Green isn't looking for a job in the spy arena, but it finds her and, well, when the offer comes from gorgeous Luke Sharpe, what red-blooded woman could say no? Mayhem, mailed fingers, and manhunts follow, as well as some brilliant humor and sarcasm. You need this book!

actual warning found on this book--

"Warning, this title contains guns, swearing, dark thoughts about cheerful people, incomprehensible Britishisms, and painful sarcasm."

Kate Johnson, whose breezy style fits first person beautifully, writes the sort of book that's perfect escapist fun. Yes, it's chick lit, but it's GOOD funny chick lit and with a plot, too. Sophie and Kate rock.

I have not yet finished this book, as it does take awhile to read. It is very informative and has a lot of intersting facts about this Avalon and Glastonbury; however, it can be difficult to read.

I've just come back from Glastonbury, and having read this book first helped a great deal. I'm reading it again, and am feeling so enlightened. If you love Avalon, you must have this book.

Anyone interested in the background behind the mysts of Avalon will enjoy this book. I found it well-researched, fairly easy to read, and quite informative. A great collection to my library.

Nicholas Mann captures the spirit of Avalon through the combined lenses of history, archeology, mythology and comparative spirituality rarely found in comparable texts. A must-own for anyone interested in Glastonbury, the Arthurian Mythos, spiritual history in sacred Britain, sacred geomety and geomancy. Mann brings a critical yet intuitively insightful perspective to all of the above. Well worth reading more than once!!

This is the best book I've found to serve as a companion on a descent into the depths of "Finnegans Wake." It will deepen a reader's understanding of Joyce's methods. The author's insights are original and exciting - unlike some other books, this one actually made me eager to jump back into Joyce's book, sure I would see things in a new light.

I'm coming close to completing my first reading of the Wake. I understand now that it's a book you need to read many times. For this first pass, though, Joseph Campbell's "Skeleton Key" and this "Book of the Dark" were great guides.

This guy's read "Finnegans Wake" a thousand times, so it seems, and his knowledge of Joyce and environs is wide. I'd recommend "Joyce's Book of the Dark" for you Wakeans out there who need to dig deeper into the book of the delpth.

Unlike any other book in English literature, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) is written entirely on the level of dream consciousness. Joycean scholar John Bishop has tightly focused his attention on the *sleep* aspects of Finnegans Wake. While this makes for a rather monochromatic presentation sometimes bordering the banal, the scholarship, clarity, and thrust of Bishop's presentation are indisputable. At bottom, one really doesn't like to admit there's so much in Finnegans Wake that such restrained scholarship is required to understand just one aspect of it. But then again, this work was the mature James Joyce's magnum opus.

From the text, pages 4-7: "Suppose we charged ourselves with the task of providing in chronological order a detailed account of everything that occurred to us NOT last night ... but in the first half-hour of last night's sleep. The 'hole affair' [535.20], (and a 'hole', unlike a 'whole', has no content), will likely summon up a sustained 'blank memory' [515.33]: 'You wouldn't should as youd remesner, I hypnot' [360.23-24]. What would become equally obscure, even questionable, is the stability of identity... No one remembers the experience of sleep at all as a sequence of events linked chronologically in time by cause and effect."

Joyce remarked to his friend William Bird: "About my new work - do you know, Bird, I confess I can't understand some of my critics, like Pound or Miss Weaver, for instance. They say it's *obscure*. They compare it, of course, with Ulysses. But the action of Ulysses was chiefly in the daytime, and the action of my new work takes place chiefly at night. It's natural things should not be so clear at night, isn't it now?"

Superb scholarship and a major key to understanding the deep strata of Finnegans Wake.

The ultimate treatment of Joyce's confusing classic, Bishop's comprehensive analysis goes beyond typical literary interpretations. Focusing of such diverse influences as Vico's "New Science" and The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Bishop shows the compexity of Joyce, as well as his almost total command of the English language, and language in general. If you've ever wondered about Vico's historical thesis, and want to understand how Vico permeates Joyce, this is the book to read. In the end, you'll come away with a better appreciation of Joyce's text, and a feeling of amazement at Vico's poorly understood, but far-sighted view of mankind.

This brilliant, witty little book is simply the most penetrating essay ever written on the greatest novel of the 20th century, James Joyce's Ulysses. For some odd reason, no critic before Kenner (or since) ever paid much attention to the most salient feature of Ulysses: its stylistic variousness, from the limpid Edwardian tones of its opening chapters through the long internal monologues of Bloom and Molly to the countless genre parodies interlarded throughout. All other critics have been content to dismiss it as a mere humorous quirk by Joyce, unrelated to the main point of the novel. Kenner shows that, in fact, it goes to the very heart of the novel: it is how the modern artist reinvokes the muse.

Kenner's explanation of Joyce's choices is absolutely brilliant. And along the way we get an insightful short history of the objective style and its problems, as well as numerous witty, perceptive asides on sundry matters. This is how literary criticism ought to be written.

What a shame this great little book is out of print. If you're even slightly interested in modern literature, grab a used copy immediately.

I want so much to like Kenner and his fine, early and original work in Joycean scholarship. But I discover myself arguing with him to the point of violent blows. Perhaps this comes from his having something to say.

These chapters originally comprised a series of lectures delivered at the University of Kent at Canterbury in England as part of the TS Eliot Memorial Lectures in 1975. Like Eliot, who based the authority of his early commentary of Ulysses (Ulysses: Order and Myth) on the fact at the time no one in England nor the USA were permitted to purchase the work, Kenner makes several outrageous statements completely opposite the facts of the book at hand. For one thing, addressing a mob of BRitish academes, he plays court jester and appeals to their prejudice regarding the Irish, including their absolute ignorance of Irish literature, myth, history, etc., by stating the Irish, including Joyce, shared that ignorance. For the British the Irish have no history, nor literature, nor mythology, whereas, as later studies such as The Irish Ulysses have proven, Joyce based his novel almost exculsively upon its archetypes, the real reason Joyce removed the Homeric Chapter titles at the last moment, in order not to distract us, instead of the assumptions Kenner presents here.

This brief volume is interesting as a milestone in JOycean scholarship, but its conclusions and judgments must not be taken at face value, as with anything Joycean. It is essential to read the later criticism which refutes, defuses, confuses, complements and deines the statements offered by Kenner. Nevertheless, as noted in other reviews upon this page, Kenner writes in an engaging and a breezy manner, happily opening doors, even if those doors lead on to bricked up passages and cellars without stairs.

Thus, approach this slim collection with caution, and get the more recent commentary, such as Rejoycing, which directly addresses the Uncle Charles Principle which Kenner first presents here.

Worth a reading in an idle moment upon your heroic and indeed Homeric adventure with Ulysses, before engaging in the more serious hand to hand battle with more substantial and later work.

Buy this book cheaply, and read it at your leisure. Then write your own commentary as to how you perceive it so horribly wrong. Unfortunately Professor Kenner is not close at hand to argue with over a small Jamesons. If anything Joyce achieves at least one goal in providing such excuse for lively scholarly conversation as he forges the conscience of our race within the smithy of his soul.

I could not put this down, unlike much of Joyce commentary. I had to read it to the end; it is that engaging. Please see as well his more comprehensive A Colder Eye written nearly ten years later at greater leisure than this brief lecture series, yet with the same engaging brilliance and wit and valuable insights and information. In fact his Colder Eye is as enveloping, enchanting, informing and entertaining as Ulysses himself.

If you're a modern day graduate student (or worse, a professor), you know that modern scholars aren't allowed to write the way Kenner wrote. More's the pity, too: Joyce's Voices is one of the most illuminating short works of criticism, even by New Critics' standards, which for stylistic agility were remarkably high. As Kenner said, he was almost solely responsible for putting the university at which he worked on the map, and it was that level of nonchalant genius that permeates this work.

Viewed first through a comparison between "objective" or "empirical" treatments of experience by other authors, Kenner shows the ways that Joyce sought to illuminate observed experience through a new means: the lens of style for its own sake. Without resorting to the jargon or jingoism that so commonly pervades academia, Kenner reveals Joyce's talent for pursuing his muse through a panopoly of styles and stylistic gestures that leaves one more capable of understanding, and therefore appreciating, Ulysses than ever before.

Well-written essays, concise, and enlightening. Some of Kenner's points blew my mind--and I've been reading Joyce for 20 years (already). Definitely worth a shot.

This critical analysis of Evelyn Waugh's work and life is outstanding. It convincingly describes the beliefs and motives behind his writing and avoids anachronism. If you want to understand the man, his thought and his times this is the book to read.

If anyone who wishes to learn more about the life and the works of Evelyn Waugh, this may not be the biography for him. Currently, there are three major biographies of Waugh-Stannard, Sykes, and Patey. Stannard's work is cumbersome, and often his prose is awkward, but it is certainly well worth reading for its inclusiveness. Sykes is more of a reminiscence of friendship, including anecdotes that he was privy to. Patey is the first author of apply high literary criticism to Waugh in the kind of form that a professor is apt to do. He responds specifically to continual problems raised in Waugh scholarship and provides far more coherent and concrete answers than Stannard or Sykes even attempt. He organizes the biography with an eye on chronology, but also addresses issues thematically which is brilliant, and simple, but what few literary biographies do. Bravo Mr. Patey! Thank you very much for your hard work on this matter. His biography is also meticulously footnoted.

Though half the length of the other standard biographies (Sykes, Stannard, and Hastings), Patey's book is more interesting and more insightful. He provides a context for Waugh's thoughts, so that some of EW's positions seem less strange. Patey also defends Waugh's books against the vicious criticism to which they have often been subjected. Another strength is Patey's explanation of what redeems even the non-Catholic characters. The surprising answer: the ability to love. Patey doesn't carry this point all the way through, and sometimes he seems too sympathetic to Waugh. Still, I'd rather re-read his biography than any of the others.

Critics have tended to split Evelyn Waugh into two authors: the hysterically funny satirist who wrote books like "Vile Bodies" and "The Loved One," and the very conservative Catholic writer who gave us "Brideshead Revisited" and other works. Patey shatters this shallow understanding, demonstrating convincingly that Waugh's satire, like Swift's, is solidly based on a system of positive values -- in Waugh's case, pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic religion. Patey's treatment of this aspect of Waugh, so central to him as a writer and as a man, is simply masterful. I have always found this side of Waugh distasteful, but through Patey, I found myself pulled into an intense and exciting dialogue with Waugh and his beliefs. The treatment of Waugh's life is equally superb. Perhaps more than any other genre, satire requires a knowledge of its historical context to be appreciated. Patey seems to know everything about everyone Waugh ever met, and to have read and understood everything Waugh might ever have read. He has synthesized it all and delivered it in a prose style so clear and unobtrusive that you don't appreciate it until you reflect on what he's accomplished with it. And he lets Waugh make all the jokes. There's much about Waugh to dislike, but Patey provides an understanding of the man and his art that reconciles us to him. And besides, how can you hold a grudge against an author who names a character Aimee Thanatogenous?

Ésta es la historia de la revolución cubano, contada por una
mujer que se unió a la lucha para derrocar a la dictadura de Batista en 1956 cuando ella tenía 15 años. Sus cuentos de esa época sobre la organización en las ciudades y el combate en el campo hablan mucho de la clase de revolución que había comenzado. El cuidado de presos, por ejemplo, era una parte grande de romper la disciplina en el ejército de Batista. En su trabajo después de la salida de Batista y la victoria de las fuerzas de 26 de julio, Tete Puebla ayudó a organizar la vivienda y la educación para las viudas y los niños. Incluidas eran las familias de los peores ayudantes de Batista, que también fueron tratadas con respecto. Ésta era otra manera en que el nuevo gobierno revolucionario ganará amplio apoyo. Puebla cuenta la historia de una clase totalmente diferente de ejército, y una población entera organizada y entrenada para defender lo que habian logrado contra los diagramas y la agresión del gobierno de Estados Unidos. Aprendemos de los cambios desde qué las mujeres eran "solamente decoraciones de la cama." Aprendemos como brilla la revolución socialista cubana, una luz que los ricos de EEUU quiere esconder.

La lucha moderna por la liberación de la mujer en Cuba siempre fue un compromiso de la revolución cubana. En las paginas de este libro se ve este compromiso en acción. Empezó durante la misma guerra en contra de la tirania de Batista cuando Fidel Castro inició una unidad de combate de mujeres como parte el Ejercito Rebelde, el peletón Mariana Grajales. En este libro la General de las Fuerzas Armamdas Revoluciónarias de Cuba Delsa Esther Puebla, conocido come Teté, describa sus experiencias como miembro del Peletón Mariana Grajales, como official más alta femenil de las FAR, como internacionalista, y como dirigente de la lucha por la liberación de la mujer en Cuba, donde hay el solo gobierno en el mundo que ayudó ayer y ayuda hoy esta lucha .A veces, este titulo no está disponible en amazon ( dice " not available on amazon") pero siempre se puede comprar de "booksfrompathfinder"; imprime el frase "new and used" encima de la pagina al lado del titulo del libro.

Esta es una entrevista con la general de brigada Teté Puebla, la oficial femenina del más alto grado de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba. La entrevista fue conducida por Mary-Alice Waters, presidenta de la editorial Pathfinder.

En el intercambio con la entrevistadora Teté recuerda sus experiencias en la guerra revolucionaria cubana. Y la historia que cuenta explica mucho sobre cómo la revolución cubana, a partir de sus días más tempranos, intentó promover la emancipación de mujeres de su condición subyugada.

La lucha de Teté comenzó en 1956, no como una lucha para los derechos de las mujeres, sino como una lucha para los derechos más fundamentales de su comunidad en la ciudad de Yara en Cuba del este, que estaba bajo sitio de los gamberros de Batista. Teté comenzó a realizar tareas para las fuerzas rebeldes conducidas por Fidel Castro, una vez que ellos se establecieron en las montañas, pasando de contrabando armas y suministros. Descubierta por los agentes del ejército, la forzaron huir a la sierra en julio de 1957 donde ella se hizo miembro del ejército guerrillero.

Como combatiente inventiva y valerosa, ella pronto enfrentó el hecho de que no había ninguna unidad del combate compuesta de mujeres. Ella ofreció voluntariamente a formar una. Fidel aprobó el plan, y así nació el Pelotón Femenino de Mariana Grajales (las Marianas). Las luchadoras jóvenes entraron en combate juntas a los hombres, y además de demostrar su valor y puntería, pusieron los cimientos para una nueva forma de sociedad en Cuba.

La Cuba nueva fue nacida de los hombres y mujeres luchando lado a lado, iguales, para liberar la isla de la miseria que se le había impuesto el imperio al norte. Este principio de la igualdad, desarrollado en plena batalla como norma de conducta, llegó a ser un modelo para la nueva sociedad mientras ésta se iba formando.

Después de la victoria de enero de 1959 Teté desarrolló sus capacidades de liderato más allá, trabajando en el proceso de organización de los nuevos sistemas educativos y los servicios sociales que implantaron la igualdad de las mujeres no sólo como principio de la ley, sino además una realidad práctica en la vida cotidiana. Ella sigue siendo soldada en el ejército revolucionario de Cuba.

Malcolm X and Thomas Sankara both wrote about how the reality of any revolution, and any society is shown in the role of women. This is the story of Tete Puebla, the highest ranking women general in the Cuban army about how Cuban women fought and gained an equal role as combatants in the Cuban revolution, how revolutionary Cuban women played a decisive role in the transformation of Cuban society, about how Cuban women led the fight for literacy in the 1960s, and how Cuban women have fought in Angola, in Grenada, and wherever imperialism threatens the revolution, and how Cuban woman are ready to fight, arms in hands, against Washington's threats to overturn their revolution. This is no Cooks tour about the perfection of Cuban revolutionists, but it does show how Fidel fought for women's equal role because they were recognized as fighters. To me the most wonderful part is the description of how the revolution dealt not just with the orphans of revolutionary martyrs, but with children orphaned because their parents were in Batista's murderous criminal army. They were all treated the same, as children of the revolution. Read this book and you will recognize the depth of the lies that Washington, and Ottawa, and London throw at the Cuban Revolution. Read this and you will be able to look forward to the time your country can be transformed as Cuba was!

This book seems to be a continuation of the research done for the Osprey books where I came to know Mr. Embleton's work. As has been mentioned by another reviewer, this is not the end all be all of medieval soldiering resources, as Mr. Embleton says himself in the book. We can not know everything about what was made or worn in this age as not enough still exists to accurately document any given subject. Mr. Embleton's vast knowledge of his subject and in-depth research, I believe, allows him to make very good "guesses" as to what the pictures "mean." I do sincerely believe that this book is one of the better resources and deserves a place on any re-creationist's book shelf. Also, it is a great read! Be sure to check out ANY book with his name associated with it!

While I think the Company of Saynte George has done a great job and certainly has pictured a good amount of their work, I do not recommend that those of ou reading this book take this as a definitive guide on how to be a medieval soldier or think that these photos are perfect; Embleton himself has said that some things in the book are just not right. While the book is very good, if you intend to do any reenactment of the time period, continue doing research for yourself and do not stop with this one book.

A fantastic guide for anyone researching the life of the medieval soldier. Wonderful photgraphy showing the common man-at-arms to the mounted knight. As well as woman soldiers of the age! I highly recomend it.

The Medieval Soldier should be the beginning and end document for any recreationist of the fifteenth century. The level and accuracy of the photographed Company of Saint George living history group is the highest anywhere. The effort to which they have gone to make their work just right is astounding to anyone with an interest in living history, or even simply in seeing a past culture visible in print & photographs. Contained are many pieces of historical information, and picture after picture of immaculate plate armour, costume, and accoutrements made to be as exact as possible, and aesthetically pleasing, too.

A must read for the historical recreation enthusiast.

Kearns has picked works, both known and those lost on the dusty shelves of libraries,of one of the most underrepresented group of authors: Irish women. The extra dynamic of the subject of mothers is an interesting addition. Her collection gives a very good range of works available; her personal essay is quite touching. Both "Cabbage and Bones" and "Motherland" deserve a place on any shelves!

Caledonia Kearns follows up her ground-breaking anthology of Irish American women writers,CABBAGE AND BONES, with another wonderful volume. I laughed aloud at Jean Kerr and Martha Manning and cried at more than one other,incuding Kearns' own essay. A great gift for any time,but especially for Mother's Day.

Neither I nor my mother are of Irish descent, but I found I could relate to a bit of every story in this precious book. I am going to buy it as gifts for my sister and my mother and will definitely recommend it to everyone I know. Even my husband enjoyed this treasure of stories and said he could relate to it. It is one of the very best collections of life stories I have ever come across. It touched my heart and soul as well as stimulated my mind and brought back forgotten memories, both tender and bittersweet. I sat in my chair for a long time after I read it, reflecting on the emotions it had stirred, and am sure it will affect many readers that way. I can now see how, in so many ways, I am indeed very much like my mother. Not just in imitative words and deeds, but in that abstract, deeply seeded manner of heart and self that I just cannot explain in a mere sentence or two. Anyone who reads Motherland will understand. That makes this book more subtly astounding than any amount of 'stars' I could attach to it. My sincere thanks to Caledonia Kearns!!

A must read for all Irish women. Especially endearing was the story called "Trinity" written by Kerry Herlihy. A moving book.

Collection of witty, funny, sarcastic or apprantely innocent quotations from famous and not so famous people.

Book is well organized. Quotations are divided into categories. These categories are given in alphabetical order starting from 'Actors and Acting, 'Advertising' to 'Writers and Writing' and 'Youth'. Surprisingly there is no topic with Z! You may also find some every interesting categories. Just to give you an idea there are quotations on 'Quotations', 'Insults and Invective' and 'Censorship'.

For every quotation there is, along with the author name, a brief description of where and when was it said/used and in some cases why was it used. That adds to the meaning of the quote.

Such as why Winston Churchill said 'And they say the old man's getting deaf as well'.

At the end of book, apart from the keywork index, there is also an author index, in case you need quotes from a particular person.

A useful book for adding spice to your speech and writing or just skim through it for literally pleasure.

Just to quote an example from the book: 'I know heaps of quotations, so I can always make quite a fair show of knowledge' -- O. Douglas

This book was great. I loved every quote. It had a lot of excellent ideas. I will make you laugh and teach you life leason's at the same time. One of my friends loaned it to me and I had to go out and get my own. If you like quotes then you will love this book.

A fantastic book of quotations, and the most comprehensive collection of humorous quotes I've yet to come across. The organization is excellent, with an adequate list of themes serving as the table of contents. Further aiding discovery of the perfect quote is an index of authors/sources, and a very well developed keyword index. Both of these supplemental indices are a bit confusing, but not overly so. They list the applicable theme and the numbered entry under that theme; there are no page numbers given. It's a bit confusing on the first few uses, after that it is simple.

The book is a fun, quick read as well, dense (with its relatively small print) with goodies from John Updike, Cheryl Tiegs, Henry Kissinger, Frank Zappa, George Foreman, P. J. O'Rourke, etc. I heartily recommend it.

This is a treasure trove of humor for all occasions. There are many books of quotations from all kinds of people and for all occasions and topics; but here the book keeps to what is humorous.It is a great source to have handy; but it also makes for wonderful light hearted reading ,just to start at the front and to keep going.It is organized several ways so that a quote on a subject or by personality is easy to find. It was published in Britain so has a lot of lines that are new over here.
Here are a couple I enjoyed;

On being told that his fly buttons were undone,Winston Churchill commented;"No matter,dead birds do not leave the nest."

To her husband a chicken farmer in California,after a flash flood had wiped out his entire flock. "I told you to stick to ducks."

"Oh what a wonderous bird is the Pelican!
His beak holds more than his belican.
He takes in his beak,food enough for a week,
But I'll be damned if I know the helican."

"I opened it at page 96--the secret page,on which I
wrote my name to catch out borrowers and book sharks."
Flan O'Brien

It'd be hard to find a better book of humorous quotes.