English Books

I was initially skeptical about a book on this sports drink but it turned out to be a very interesting purchase. It is amazing that one sports drink could control upwards of 85 percent of the market but Gatorade continues to deliver. From the Volkswagen advertising strategy to constant scientific improvement this is an excellent look at marketing and management. For those interested in sports marketing this is a must have for that library. The book is very well written and is the write balance of history, modern strategy and analysis to make this a book you will want to read again.

Hands down, this book was one of the best business success story books I have ever read. It was not as dull and boring as one may think, since the author incorporated a great deal of sports trivia into the plot. The history of the Gatorade start-up could not even be told if it was not for the sports behind it. I found the sections on the Sports Science Institute particularly interesting, which is where Gatorade tests the efficacy of their products on actual athletes. Also extremely interesting was the history behind the origination of the traditional "Gatorade dunk" witnessed at the end of every Super Bowl. If you want to know who and when this started, buy this book and read it. You will not be disappointed! It was extremely interesting!

Rovell takes an inside look at how and the process of gatorade became a house hold name and the marketing it took to get there.

Amazing how Rovell was able to piece together such a detailed history of a product which was developed in a basement over 40 years ago. The relatively unknown early history of Gatorade at the University of Florida was fascinating. And the behind-the-scenes account of the part of Gatorade that we all know about, the commercials, was equally interesting and entertaining. I found myself singing 'Be Like Mike' and reminscing about the great Jordan commercials. I definitely would have paid a premium for an accompanying dvd of all the great Gatorade commercials. If you have any interest in Gatorade at all, this is an absolute must read. If you are interested in sports, business, or just want a good story, then First in Thirst is also for you.

This is such a powerful brand story that you may actually get thirsty reading it. Most people have no idea that sweating creates a huge drink market, but author Darren Rovell tells a well-researched, interesting and compelling story about how a group of Florida doctors concocted a simple drink to prevent dehydration. A combination of good science, luck and efficient marketing helped transform this initially unpalatable drink into the world's most popular sports elixir. Along the way, Gatorade marketers forged relationships with athletes, teams and superstars, and capitalized on the public's fascination with sports. The end result was a sales and marketing bonanza. We recommend this brand building saga to all marketers or to anyone interested in just how a drink built a bridge between sports and popular culture. Even if you don't break a sweat reading Rovell's marketing saga, prepare yourself to buy a bottle of Gatorade - you're going to want to satisfy your thirst to check this out.

Yes!! Merry Christmas to me, and to my kids. I have been hoping for years to find this back in print and I can't wait until my girls are old enough that I can read it to them (without the leather men giving them nightmares!). This is a great book and I highly recommend it to Harry Potter fans and the like. The tale of a young girl and her friends' desperate fight to keep a magic amulet from the clutches of an evil warlord and his army of VERY creepy henchmen. For those of you with young children, be forwarned that this book does have some genuinely scary moments. A fantastic story that would make for a great screenplay (just a wee hint for the folks in Hollywood.... cha-ching!). For the rest of you.......now you can own a classic without paying 80 bucks or more for a ragged used copy. Get it.

This was my favorite book when I first read it aged 11 (over 25 years ago!) in a penguin paperback edition. My recollections are of a magical story that gripped my imagination. This has been out of print too long, it's great that it's back and I look forward to sharing it with my son. It will enchant Harry Potter fans looking for something new.

I loved this as a child - I used to make a point of reading it every year so that I would finish it on Christmas Eve as I found it so magical. A real treasure in itself

I read this book as a child and found it enthralling. I'm now 30 and have just ordered a second hand copy online from a rare bookseller to share with my 12yr old daughter. It comes highly recommended = a very good book and to be honest I can not understand why it is out of print.

The Giant Under the Snow is, without a doubt, one of the best children's books ever written. Yet despite being the equal of Harry Potter, The Hobbit and The Princess Bride, this dark magical tale is now almost impossible to find. The story concerns three school children (Jonquil, Bill and Arthur) who are drawn into a battle between good and evil for the possession of an ancient artifact. Not exactly an original premise, but John Gordon's execution introduces some new and creative elements such as the terrifying leathermen. The background behind the giant itself is an inspired mix of inventive writing and historical research which makes the story all the more believable. Another print run is long over due!

This is a great, well organized and efficient book. You do not want to go to CR without it... and it will be the only book you need while you are there! I suggest picking it up months before your trip so you can start practicing the most common sayings. Buen Viaje!

I bought this for a couple I was tutoring (Spanish lessons) because they are moving to CR. I found it helpful and even though I already speak Spanish, I had no idea how differently the Ticos do it!

When I came to Costa Rica I quickly discovered the vast majority of Costa Ricans DIDN'T speak English. Since I only had a limited Spanish vocabulary, I had a lot of problems in daily situations. Then I bought this handy little book and it virtually helped me survive the first couple of years. I still refer to it now and then for important phrases.

Easy to use and usefully organized. Words and phrases you would really use in travel and in every day living. Loads of interesting Spanish that you will only find in Costa Rica. The book's size and sturdiness is also convenient for carrying around.

I spoke Spanish before coming to Costa Rica, but found the people in San Jose spoke with more slang and pachuco. Chris Howard's book helped me to communicate better and with more credibility. When I moved to the coast, the dialect was even more different. People considered me snobby when I spoke like I did originally. His information was even applicable in the countryside. I give this book as a gift to new clients and friends visiting Costa Rica.

A remarkable tale of Hasidic (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews and the miracles that happened to so many in spite of the ravages of the Holocaust.

A mix of prose and poetry, tears and turbulence, you'll want to read it from cover to cover.

One of the great pieces of literature related to one of the worst times in modern history.

Michael

As far as I know, this book was the first collection of Hasidic responses to the Holocaust to make it out of the "Jewish literary ghetto" and into the mainstream, where it remains a popular read in both Jewish and non-Jewish theological circles. It was also the first collection of stories about Jews who did NOT lose their faith during the Holocaust (most of them, anyway -- there are one or two exceptions in the book.) Prior to this, religious Jews in the Holocaust were portrayed by the media as as "cowards who didn't fight back" rather than the religious martyrs that they were. (Most typical of this anti-religious period is the infamous line from the movie version of Leon Uris's EXODUS: "The only god I believe in is a gun.") I won't go into the politics of it here, but, suffice it to say, the post-Holocaust Zionist movement was more interested in freedom fighters than saints.

The Hasidim, however, had a different view of their suffering during the Holocaust. God had not deserted them, even if He seemed hidden in a time of darkness. The Hasidim were telling their own Holocaust stories around the Sabbath table or at community gatherings but, because most of this telling was oral and in Yiddish, it was unknown to the general public. Enter Yaffa Eliach. As a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, she began hearing these tales from her students. Brooklyn College had/has a high percentage of Hasidic students and, through them, Eliach got to know their parents and other Holocaust survivors, including some of the Hasidic Rebbes. The result is a fine collection of true Holocaust stories that will forever change the way you view Hasidic Jews. Courage, as this book demonstrates, doesn't always mean grabbing a gun. It can also mean hiding a child, sharing your food when you yourself are starving, or meeting death with your human dignity intact. To maintain one's faith under such adversity, to continue studying Torah and doing the mitzvahs even in a concentration camp -- these were acts of true resistance that shine through every page of this book. I give it ten stars!

This inspiring book is one of the best books writeen on the Holocaust. I read the book every year on Tisha B'av, the Jewish day of national mourning and never cease to be amazed, inspired and touched by the myriad of stories in this wonderful book. This copy is being given as a token of appreciation o someone I wish to thank.

i must say that I am surprised that no reviews I have come across so far adress what appears to me this books most remarkable feature: Its power of inspiring faith. In fact, I would site this book as one of the most concrete proofs of the existence of God in print. Stories of the divine powers that are granted to the compassionate, the devout, and the faithful surpass all description. Please read this book, I treasure it like a scripture, and the courage, profound faith, and integrity of its characters burns in the heart like fire. i have never wept like I wept when I read these simple stories for the first time, and I continue to draw bittersweet emotional sustainance everytime I read and re-read its pages. There is too many brilliant anecdotes to choose examples, But as I write I remeber the story of the boy whose friend apparently died in a forced labour factory. The young man was piled in the frigid cold of night in a pile of corpses after a terrible illness had left no sign of life in him. The grandfather of the boy kept appearing in his friends dream to tell him the his friend must be "woken up". After the third dream, the youth was more frightened of the dream than of risking his life to escape to where the dead were piled to investigate. The youth found his friend amid the corpses, and when he repeated the granfather's invocation to "wake up", he indeed stirred! The story concludes with the boy warming his friend, bringing him to safety, and survival. It is marvelous and breathtaking to discover that these miraculous and spellbinding stories occurred in the darkest heart of humankind's darkest hours, and that they have been compiled in this manner is a fitting tribute to is subjects.

Yaffa Eliach is to be commended for collecting and publishing these tales. They tell stories of Jews who despite horrible trials and sufferings kept their faith in God, and their decency as human beings. The paradox is often that only when human beings are subject to the worse trials do they reveal their greatness. These stories are stories of inspiration not only for Jews but for all of mankind.

... I reread Heart of Darkness because my "guys" reading group included two who had not ever read it. The story stands up far, far better than I would have guessed. Conrad is really superb, and this shortish novel could well persuade new readers that "literary" stuff is worth their while. I had forgotten how subtle, how grown-up Conrad's expectations of his reader are. Truly quite marvelous.

With trepidation, I splurged on the Norton edition, even though I am pretty hostile to English-Professor post-modern posturing and nonsense. I am glad I got it, however. The wealth of historical documents help make the then-contemporary setting come real. The big surprise for me was Chinua Achebe's fine essay. While "bloody racist" is still over the top, Achebe has a case of some importance, and argues it well. It is even a comfort to find that the knee-jerk responses by assorted literature professors are indeed just as much postie poo as I had expected. (It's always a pleasure to find that one's unexamined prejudices are warranted after all.)

A particular pleasure for me was talking about the book with my daughter, who has taught it to her honors high school English class. She has developed views, and I learned really quite a lot from listening to her. Book, $11.90; my time, $free; finding out your daughter has deep insight and can teach you, PRICELESS.

In short, wonderful story and useful edition.

I read this book for a graduate Humanities course. Buy this edition, it is the best with great critical essays. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, written in 1899 is a seminal work about the ills of colonialism, as well as a postmodern look at the subject of mankind. Conrad's book had a crucial influence on five important works of the twentieth century: J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius, was based on Conrad's book. Another interesting fact is that this work was read by Orson Welle's Mercury Theater Players on the radio and was to be his first movie. After doing some work on it he abandoned the project to do Citizen Kane! I would have loved to of seen what Welles could have done with this story. Conrad's story is so riveting in part, because he himself served as a riverboat captain. High school teachers and college professors who have discussed this book in thousands of classrooms over the years tend to do so in terms of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche; of classical myth, Victorian innocence, and original sin; of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.

Just a taste of the plot reels you in! Marlow, the narrator of Heart of Darkness and Conrad's alter ego, is hired by an ivory-trading company to sail a steamboat up an unnamed river whose shape on the map resembles "an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (8). His destination is a post where the company's brilliant, ambitious star agent, Mr. Kurtz, is stationed. Kurtz has collected legendary quantities of ivory, but, Marlow learns along the way, is also rumored to have sunk into unspecified savagery. Marlow's steamer survives an attack by blacks and picks up a load of ivory and the ill Kurtz; Kurtz, talking of his grandiose plans, dies on board as they travel, downstream.

Sketched with only a few bold strokes, Kurtz's image has nonetheless remained in the memories of millions of readers: the lone white agent far up the great river, with his dreams of grandeur,his great store of precious ivory, and his fiefdom carved out of the African jungle. Perhaps more than anything, we remember Marlow, on the steamboat, looking through binoculars at what he thinks are ornamental knobs atop the fence posts in front of Kurtz's house and then finding that each is "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth" (57).

I especially became interested in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land is one of three books on the nightstand. The other two are Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, and J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla are trying to tell their audience need to read these three books as well as Conrad's Heart of Darkness!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

I'll be honest - "Heart of Darkness" is a great, great work of literature, but I don't love the writing style, and it is not a pleasure to read (for me at any rate).

But it is not quite as hard as its reputation, and it is every bit as important. If there is one, "Heart of Darkness" is the definitive statement on European colonialism, especially in Africa. The symbolic meaning of the story is powerful and unanswerable.

The Norton Critical Edition of any book is usually the best - (not always: with Shakespeare I generally prefer the Signet Classics, and for "Pride and Prejudice" at least the Longman Cultural Edition is the best) - and "Heart of Darkness" is no exception. Like so many other books, you haven't understood this until you've understood what has been said about it. The NCE gives the best collection of critical essays available for someone new to the book.

Let me recommend a couple of easier reads for people interested in the genre of literature about colonialism. First is Burmese Days, which is one of Orwell's better books. It is a much more literal, tangible look at the realities of colonialism, and should probably be read before "Heart of Darkness." The other is The Quiet American (Viking Critical Library), which is less critical of colonialism, but still a very good look at the motivations of various people involved. I am very critical of "The Quiet American," but it is still among the first books that anyone interested in the literature of colonialism ought to read.

Daytime scents of nightmare horrors. Man and his insane ways - bushman, postman, commoner, who to blame? Unless you are familiar with the background of this stunning novel do yourself a favor and get the Norton Critical Edition. For a century Conrad's novel has drawn raves and rage. Each is left to decide where the sanity line lies, to the right or to the left. Upriver or downriver? Riveting every page of the way.

One of the must reads in literature. Probably my favorite novel ever written. The short length is decieving. It is not a novel to be blown through without thought. The themes of this novel resonate more in our day and age than ever before. Literary greatness.

I was looking for this book as I had given my copy away. Luckily, Amazon had it! It is a place that I can 'travel' that offers kindness and hope. Hearts on Fire fulfills me with the strength to stay fully present to others.

If you have an interest or backgorund in the spirtuality of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, you will find this book to be a rich treasure. From Ignatius himself, to Jesuits still serving today, you will discover wise and challenging prayers and poems, each pertaining to specific movements of the Spiritual Exercises. Additonally, appropriate scriptures are suggested for praying the Exercises. If you know nothing about Ignatius or the Jesuits, you will also find this a rich source of meaningful prayer and reflection. I regularly give these booklets as gifts to people seeking good resources for prayer. A special book in deed!

It opens your heart and your mind. It is at once intriging and delightful. Not a book to be read from cover to cover. But one to pick up and read and contemplate.

This was just as I had hoped it would be. I am very pleased with it.

It is seldom that I actually like a book of prayers, rarer still that I enthuse, and only once or twice ever would I actually rave about such a work to my friends. I don't normally think prayer books help; they are after all someone else's prayer and I see prayer as an intensely personal thing that cannot be attained 'second hand'.

Thats probably why, even before joining the Jesuits, I came to appreciate Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. For the Exercises [often called SpEx in shorthand by Ignatian retreat directors) are not prayers you say specifically but guidelines on how to do the prayer yourself. Even here, in Harter's book, this is clearly the purpose...

In effect, Harter brings us meditations on the four Weeks of the SpEx that clearly serve to aid us in our prayer. We read these meditations - from Ignatius, Xavier, Rahner, Teilhard,Hopkins et al - not for themselves [though the glorious quality of their language makes it aesthetically worthwhile even without praying]but for how they might ignite in our hearts (to use the title's metaphor) our own spiritual encounter with God.

Of course it is not the same as making the full Spiritual Exercises (30 days) or the SpEx in Daily Life (8 months to a year, with 1hour of prayer per day) or even doing an 8-day Ignatian retreat. Though it is certainly a book one could take on such retreats (as, in fact, I did recently). The beauty of this little book is that it can be used by pretty much anyone, anywhere. One hopes, as I am sure Fr Harter hopes, that it will also draw more people to encounter God through the Spiritual Exercises.

My granddaughter's favorite book; she especially loves the pictures! I've ordered more for friends' babies as well. Highly recommended!!!

My daughter loved this book when younger than two years old, as I would sing it to her. Now that she is almost three years old, she can understand the humor of some of the illustrations. I expect that as she gets older, she will further understand and appreciate the story that is independently told in the pictures. A sturdy, lovely, enjoyable book.

This is a marvelous bedtime book! The minimalistic verse (that we all know!) matches the lovely and detailed drawings. Perfect for reading aloud and for poring over slowly as well.

Hush, Little Baby is an excellent children's boardbook. The illustrations are wonderful and detailed enough so even reading it many, (many, many!) times to my child, we find interesting new things to look at. Thank you Marla Frazee!

What will hush the baby?

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word" is a folk song that all of us as parents are familiar with. The author has taken this familiar and well-loved folk song and made it into a picture book sure to charm children, parents, and grandparents.

The illustrations start with the parents, their little girl, and a sleeping baby walk past a peddler's wagon. Mom puts the baby to bed, then when she isn't looking the big sister walks over and tips the cradle over. While the parents frantically try everything to soothe the frightened child, the sister suggests they visit the peddler's cart for something. And thus Daddy returns with a mockingbird... and so the story goes.

Both my two-year and five-year-old absolutely loved Hush, Little Baby when I read it to them. My five-year-old looked at the pictures several times and wanted me to sing it to her. Then the book made the round of the family while they looked at the excellent illustrations and commented on them. Some of them even made them laugh.

Hush, Little Baby is a book that won't be read once and forgotten. If you sing nursery rhymes, lullabies, or folk songs to your children and can't quite remember the words to Hush, Little Baby, this is an excellent resource. Not only that but it is made out of sturdy cardboard so it will hold up to everything except possibly a teething baby. I'm keeping my copy to enjoy for my children, and later, my grandchildren.

Armchair Interviews says: You won't be disappointed in Hush, Little Baby.

This book truly is a diamond in the ruff. It seems to be hard to find, but if you can find it, then by all means, buy it immediately! Quinnell has given us a fantastic, intriguing story that takes into the heart of the bleak world that is the pre-1989 communist bloc. The characters are vividly fleshed out, and Mr Quinnell gives a virtual clinic in character development. Although the afformentioned development was a bit predictable, it was fantastic nonetheless. Read this book!

If there is one book that you are going to read this year,"In the Name of the Father" is the one. The plot grabs you from the beginning and holds on until the last line. The plot allows you to believe that the situation actually exists, and if you think of the time line along with actual historical events, this book makes the reader wonder if the story wasn't non-fiction.
A.J.Quinnell is the best author I have ever read. I'm surprised that he isn't required reading for students. I have read all of his books (except one, and that's because I can't find it) and I can honestly say that each one was as enjoyable as the first.
If you are looking for intrigue, fast-paced action, a book that you can't put down and are ready to lose a little sleep at night because you have to read one more chapter, read this book.

Id already read Man on Fire and Siege of Silence before In the Name of the Father, and I loved it. Its just what Ive come to expect from AJ Quinnell.... which is a masterpiece of writing.
Wasnt very long, but the story and realistic was he presents it was incredible... It takes place quite some time ago and I didnt understand some of it due to my lack of history of the USSR and Soviet Union but I managed. What a great book. If you havent read his others, please do so, they are amazing as well !

It appears that most of the reviewers here are young, some of whom have offered such statements as,"Wow! This novel makes you believe that there really WAS a Mirek Scibor, and that he really WAS employed by the Vatican, disguised as a kidney specialist, to kill Yuri Andropov."

Well, folks...I got news for you! A.J. Quinnell, the author, was the REAL DEAL. As he himself explained, he had been an intelligence officer--a spy. That had been his job. And THAT is why his book seems "so real," aside from the fact that [get ready!!] Mr. Quinnell himself clearly stated--in several television interviews that I witnessed when the book was first released--that his book was taken from FACTS that he had heard in the intelligence circuit. He appeared on all the morning talk shows for about a week.

He said, in fact, that the world of intelligence--just like any other profession--has its coffee houses, "after-set" joints, etc. It's a circuit. And ON that circuit, he learned that Yuri Andropov had been MURDERED by an employ of the Vatican. He decided to write a novel about something that REALLY happened.

To us, it all sounds like conspiracy theory. But he said that it was very natural, during the Cold War, even for enemy spies to meet in Vienna [a well-known gathering place of spies of all kinds, for you young folks who may not have known that], and have dinner, drink liquor, and generally exchange news that they'd heard. It's a profession. They hung out, exchanged ideas, shared news, etc., just like people in any other profession.

He said that he could easily tell, by the pattern of information he was receiving, that the rumors were on target. He would know!

I LOVE this book!! I'm 53 years old. The book came out in the 80s, and I still read it--over and over again. One reviewer hear hit it on the head: the book is, in a sense, very inspirational, in that you feel like anything can be done.

The leader of the Soviet Union, at that time, was the most guarded human being on earth. Yet the Vatican [well, or so the "fiction" goes] was able to plant a fake "kidney specialist" right inside the Kremlin...well, I can't tell you the rest of the book! Read for yourself.

If your life is very busy, and you have many things on your plate, DON'T READ THIS BOOK!! Because, if you do, you'll be HOOKED! You'll be reading it once a week.

Here's what REALLY, REALLY bugs me: How on EARTH has Hollywood missed this novel!!!!! The Cold War is finished. But SOMEBODY should create a flick of this book, before Cold War memories die. [Spielberg, WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!!]

This is a very solid effort by the author. It gave me a bit of a chill during a few parts. This is an interesting story line. I did not think it would work as well as it did. After all the Vatican is not really known for this type of activity. Never less, the author pulled it off. I think the excellent work on the story line did it for me. There were no cheap, convenient moves here. You believe each twist and turn would "of course" be there. The cast of characters is a good one with some memorable lines and personality traits. A fun book that moves fast.

Permite adquirir el idioma y los elementos suficientes como para hacernos entender y entender lo que nos dicen.
Me gustó !

PARA APRENDER INGLÉS !
A mi me ayudó a convertirme en Secretaria Bilngue y ahora gano el doble !

PARA APRENDER INGLÉS !
A mi me ayudó a convertirme en Secretaria Bilngue y ahora gano el doble !

nos permite adquirir el idioma y los elementos suficientes como para hacernos entender y entender lo que nos dicen.
Me gustó !

my first elements of English when I didn't understand or speak one word of it...

If you like to read gardening books this one is a keeper. I wanted to pack my bags and move to Vermont so that I could have an adventure like the lady in the book and create gardens in different areas on my property with a stream and a pond and a forrest, and and and...

What delightful moments "The Invisible Garden" by Dorothy Sucher presents to the reader. It's a memoir of a garden, no less, presented through the perceptions of the gardener.

This is a book for both gardeners and non-gardeners. Ms. Sucher shares the joys and frustrations of tending people as well as plants. As she fights brambles and weeds in the land, she negotiates the intricacies of memory and a variety of human relationships. This is a series of essays, actually, so this is a book to be enjoyed a piece at a time or, if time permits, indulged in with abandon -- like gorging on a box of chocolates.

The treat here, though, is how she illuminates her own growth through sketches of individuals who come into her (and her garden's) life. Her explorations of herself and the world of her garden continuously touch tender buds of awareness in the reader. Her style is direct and honest as she explores her expectations, frustrations, and failures crowned by the occasional triumph. This book should become a classic -- it's bound to be loved by everyone who stops to smell the flowers on the way through life.

Dorothy Sucher is a therapist by trade, and a gardener by avocation. As I read her book, "The Invisible Garden" I had a sense that she would make a good friend. She seems to have an appreciation of human limitations and frailties, and probably lives up to the old axiom "A friend is someone who forgets your shortcomings." Well, maybe not where her husband is concerned, but what can a gardener do with a guy whose allergic to the great out-of-doors and can't tell a Dandelion from a lily.

Ms. Sucher's book is not so much about gardening as it's about coming to terms with a yourself. Sure, she cultivates the garden, But she also understands it's existence is as ephemeral as the life of it's author.

Each of us carries our own memories of past gardens. I will always be reminded of my parents garden in North Carolina when I see daffodils blooming in the spring. My folks grew thousands of daffodils. I don't think my father ever met a daffodil he didn't try to grow. And everytime I see a Brunnera I think of my mother, standing over the little blue flowers and saying, "What are these things? I can never remember their name!" We all laughed because it's colloquial name is "forget-me-not."

The invisible garden consists of the cumulative memories of gardens past that you carry in your heart.

My bookclub has just finished reading this wonderful book. We all loved it; one member compared it to "Gifts from the Sea" with its evocation of quietude and solace. This is a book for gardeners, who will delight in the delicious insights Dorothy has as she hacks her way through the brambles beside her stream, as well as nongardeners, who will finally gain some insight into why gardeners delight in working the earth and transforming the landscapes outside ourselves into things of beauty. I found reading the essays enjoyable, humorous, and deeply satisfying. Each essay is easily read on its own, but together the book becomes a gardener's journal, a transcription of what goes on in a gardener's mind as she designs and transforms the land around her.

This is an enchanting book, subtle in working on many levels to capture and to hold your attention. The theme, intertwining the impact on her life of some family and friends with various aspects of gardening life, works surprisingly well. The workmanship is fine, in many senses of that word; as in grading gems, or in the weave of a great tapestry. It is something that her grandfather, or her neighbor Tom--both craftsmen in their own right, and important in her life--would recognize and admire. The style is somewhere between early John McPhee in The New Yorker, and Bill Bryson's latest book of essays, "I'm A Stranger..", between straight autobiographical and first-person commentary. It comes off very well, and you put down the book with some insight into a complex person still exploring herself and the world around her. The insight reflects into our own life, giving pause for reflection and reevaluation of important things we might have slighted in passing. Her sketches of the individuals she chooses to illuminate aspects of her own growth are simultaneously detached and loving. The chapter on her physicist husband's encounter with flowers shows the tender exasperation that any non-scientist wife of a scientist would instantly recognize. The vividness of a flashback to her grandfather's youth, spanning more than a century, pays a debt to his memory while showing us the unbroken chain of generations. So, too, the balance in "The Pond" chapter on her mother; and the nostalgia in the chapter on "Little Houses" grips each of us and thrusts us back to our childhood, where "-all the polyurethane of life-" can not intrude. A wonderful book, well worth reading.

November 29, 1999