Bats Books

My cousin (also a globe-trotting single female) recommended this book to me when I undertook a solo 13-day driving trip around France. I viewed it as a bit of fluff to downshift with every night before sleeping. I intended to zip through it and hand it off to another traveler, perhaps on the return flight. I had not foreseen the grip it would have on me.

I revere Peter Mayle and think he is one of our most brilliant wordsmiths. At first, by contrast, At Home seemed pedestrian, but charming enough. I realized the difference between them is that Mayle was a ad-man (flash-boom-bang!) who could make the mundane hilarious and Barry was an editor (who-what-when-where-why-how?) who was a stealth raconteuse who wrapped me in her delicate web. I found myself up reading 'til 1 and 2 every morning, and genuinely felt grief when I read that she had died. Indeed, the book seemed to have ended unfinished. Like another reviewer or two, I yearn to know more about the circumstances of her death, and the disposition of her beloved cottage.

What was unprecedented for me was that as soon as I finished it, I began to re-read it, and am I ever glad I did! I'm getting nuances out of it I'd glanced over previously. Ann was a dear companion on my own travels, and my trip was the richer for it. I don't intend to part with this book. I will lend it to friends and reread it again when I, too, get to realize my dream of owning a gite in France. (Unlike Ann, I'm not financially able to just keep it in mothballs between visits - mine will be rented out.)

A darling book, though I only gave it 4 stars because it's not a Great Book, but eminently readable - even on the second pass.

Ann Barry, Editor And Writer, 53
(NYT) 245 words
Published: February 19, 1996

Ann Barry, who pursued a freelance writing career while working as an editor at The New York Times and at The New Yorker, died of cancer on Saturday at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. She was 53 and lived in Brooklyn.
Miss Barry, who was born in St. Louis and graduated from St. Louis University, started as an editorial assistant at the The New Yorker in 1967 before moving down the street to The Times in 1975.

While designing and editing the Sunday Arts and Leisure Guide, editing art and dance reviews and designing the daily cultural pages, she began contributing articles to The Times, a career she continued and expanded after she returned to The New Yorker in 1990 as managing editor of the Goings On About Town section.

Although she wrote on a variety of subjects, Miss Barry, who left The New Yorker in 1994, particularly enjoyed writing about the Dordogne region of southwestern France, where, not coincidentally, she owned a vacation home.

Although she could spend only two or three weeks there a year, Miss Barry kept such meticulous track of her intense short-term experiences that she turned them into a book, "At Home in France: Tales of an American and Her House Abroad." It is being published by Ballantine next month.

She is survived by a brother, Gene, of Palm Harbor, Fla.

I find France captiviating but I find the people who say they like France to be excruciating; chicks who gush about Impressionism and the D'Orsay who know zero about anything else, wine snobs, culture snobs, food snobs. These are all ways to encounter France in an embalmed way; an approach devised to apply the conspicuous class of all things French to oneself; the narrowest & silliest means of engaging travel. The negative example of this type of Francophile prevents others who might bond with France and the French from doing so. I prefer France in a living way. And I don't talk about it to pester people with my 'class.'

Ann seems to prefer France because her errands are cuter there. She isn't a snob (not exactly), and the prospect of living in France is very exciting but... the book is undermined by some excruciating tics:

1) She acknowledges her own limited French and recounts stories about language-related confusion while dropping self-consciously italicized French phrases into sentences (without translations, of course). I know plenty of French and at least 50 percent of her phrases remain unclear. (A chef is referred to as a 'septieme.' etc.)

2) She names each person who wanders into her narrative by their full (first and last) name; like she's some sort of compulsive name-completist. It's very weird. These are people the reader will never encounter and has no chance of meeting (relatives, visitors, handymen). Finally on page 85 I was just embarassed for her, as she took that irritant to the depths of bad taste.

She fully names the kind proprietress of a chateau, and proceeds to trash the meal she was served there, with a short bit of character assasination. Nice Ann! Real class. My patience was wearing thin over the name-dropping, even before she hit this low. Noone cares about your bad meal, Ann. She probably wouldn't even recall it if she weren't stretched for material.

The book wanders wherever she pleases and resists any unifying theme. It felt like I was reading an account of every errand she ran in France, and the 'zany' results of every outing she researched badly. It ain't deep. I repeat, just read Gopnik's Paris to the Moon for a similar situation done well.

Mr. Ruiz wrote a wonderful review that echos my sentiments exactly.

When I read that Ms Barry had died the text took on a new meaning for me. All I was doing was planning a trip to France. Ann's naration added a profoundly human feeling to it all. I laughed out loud over the water incident because it has happened to me. The last chapter is precious as I have worked in film and have seen first hand what a film crew can do to a town. The residents handled it like champions. I was also on a run when an absolutely crazy dog ran up from behind and bit me(on the buttocks). Oh, to have been bitten in the calf instead! Ann- I wish you could have written more...

As I continue to plan my trip to France and do what I can to avoid the Peter Mayle shrines, it saddens me that I won't be able to think, "Oh, that lovely Ann Barry is here." Well, perhaps she will be in spirit.

The Sleeping Stranger

My cousin (also a globe-trotting single female) recommended this book to me when I undertook a solo 13-day driving trip around France. I viewed it as a bit of fluff to downshift with every night before sleeping. I intended to zip through it and hand it off to another traveler, perhaps on the return flight. I had not foreseen the grip it would have on me.

I revere Peter Mayle and think he is one of our most brilliant wordsmiths. At first, by contrast, At Home seemed pedestrian, but charming enough. I realized the difference between them is that Mayle was a ad-man (flash-boom-bang!) who could make the mundane hilarious and Barry was an editor (who-what-when-where-why-how?) who was a stealth raconteuse who wrapped me in her delicate web. I found myself up reading 'til 1 and 2 every morning, and genuinely felt grief when I read that she had died. Indeed, the book seemed to have ended unfinished. Like another reviewer or two, I yearn to know more about the circumstances of her death, and the disposition of her beloved cottage.

What was unprecedented for me was that as soon as I finished it, I began to re-read it, and am I ever glad I did! I'm getting nuances out of it I'd glanced over previously. Ann was a dear companion on my own travels, and my trip was the richer for it. I don't intend to part with this book. I will lend it to friends and reread it again when I, too, get to realize my dream of owning a gite in France. (Unlike Ann, I'm not financially able to just keep it in mothballs between visits - mine will be rented out.)

A darling book, though I only gave it 4 stars because it's not a Great Book, but eminently readable - even on the second pass.

Hollywood Wives is about a screenwriter, director, producer, aging movie star, and struggling actor struggling to make a movie. The lives of the actors' wives are tediously depicted. There is also a random, out of place subplot about a crazed murderer. The haphazard plot is the least of this book's problems. Many of the characters are so sketchily and superfically depicted that it is difficult to discern one character from another. Collins must have been ensconced in her Beverly Hills mansion for the past fifty years, for she has no ear for dialogue. The hardened teenage prostitute speaks like a migrant farmer from The Grapes of Wrath: "Hey, you lookin' for some fun, buster?"; "These two black cats riped me off, but I got away from 'em." Then there's the French born Bibi,who talks not with a French accent, but like a four year old: "How you together? Last night he together with Gina. I sorry darling, you make a mistake." The sex scenes are revolting, and the sentences are written without 10th grade proficiency. Worst of all is the depiction of nearly every gay character as a pervert or murderer. Combine this with a preposterous ending and you have one big loser of a book. If you're looking for a fun beach book, you can do better than this.

This book was fantastically trashy reading in the eighties but the story isn't as fun or timely now that the year is 2008. Some books hold up over time, trashy or otherwise, but this one doesn't. I devoured it in 1986 but could barely force myself to finish reading it when I picked the book up again recently.

Historically, this was Jackie Collin's fourth novel (the bestselling "The World is Full of Married Men", "The Stud" and "The Bitch" having preceded it) and is, to date, her most successful, selling 15 million copies.

Having invented the "Hollywood" novel, Collins is at the top of her raunchy game with this thrilling tale of sex, drugs, money, revenge, ambition, sex, marriage, crime, hate, sex, family, entertainment, desperation and, of course, sex.

Featuring:

Elaine Conti-A Brooklyn babe turned Hollywood hostess, desperate to stay at the top with a marriage crumbling beneath her.

Ross Conti-A Hollywood star burning out, hitting 50 without a viable career in a town that has little pity.

Niel Gray-An alcoholic, top director caught in a seductive web.

Buddy Hudson-A Los Angeles hustler with ambitions of hitting it big and having it all, regardless of his past life and his wife.

Montana Gray-A woman determined to break the glass ceiling of Hollywood studios.

And a litany of other showstopping characters, all contributing another facet to the brilliant diamond that is "Hollywood Wives"

i just want to say that i used to live in beverly hills and its just like this. lol! well maybe not exactly but you know.... :) but its a good one from the master of style maybe a little out of date but still so true.....i said taht didnt i.

i like the elaine conti chracter because shes human but most of all i like all the poeple in it jackie does them all so well

well this is my frist review here i hope it helps

thankxxxxxxxxxx guys !!!!!!!!

Jackie Collins novels are the sugar cereal of the book set. Sure, the whole grain, all natural cereals are better for you and are in themselves pretty tasty but once in a while you need a box of sugary, artifically flavored cereal and should feel no guilt about it.

Hollywood Wives is an absorbing novel about the intersecting lives of a number of people. Is it realistic? Maybe not, but it certainly isn't boring. The book was originally released in 1983 (and even despite that, it has a very late 70's vibe of free loves and drugs without much thought of the consequences), and while the fashion choices seem funny by today's standards, most of the book could take place in the present.

If this book had been in less capable hands, it probably wouldn't have been as much fun; Collins has a way of throwing out a ridiculous situation in a very believable manner as well as delivering a series of minor detonations throughout the text before the main reveal, and I eagerly awaited to see when all hell would break loose. And while Collins' writing style is not up to that of say Stephen King or Richard Russo, she is heads above Dan Brown and James Patterson.

Great fun.

Dick Francis always write well constructed mysteries with good character representations and believeab le motivations. The only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars is that it is less suspenseful when you know before the end of the book who did it.

Dick Francis, puts Sid Haley back in the saddle for an Edgar Award with COME TO GRIEF.
A sick child fighting a losing battle begs Sid's help to discover who mutilated her pony so viciously it had to be destroyed. Sid's heart goes out to the bewildered little girl as other prime colts are attacked in the night.
Sid risks a life-time of friends and his professional reputation to being a killer to justice. He knows the identity of the attacker, but he lacks the proof necessary for a conviction. Jam packed with tension, chills and horror as Mr. Francis gives readers the ride of their lives.
Mystery fiction that stands among the best. Take a long day for this one you won't put it down.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

The third novel featuring Sid Halley, the unfortunate jockey who lost his left hand in a steeplechasing fall at a fence. He's still full of his complexes, including the one of guilt towards his former spoiled and bitchy wife. The inevitable villain in this one is a very popular TV presentator, and reminds too much of the one in "Nerve", a book of 31 years before. All in all, the Sid Halley epic is getting tired and stale. "Odds against" (first episode) was very good, and original; the second one, "Whip hand" a bit re-hashed but still palatable. This one is showing worn-off edges.

This is the third novel by the author about ex-jockey turned PI Sid Halley. I did not think it was as good as the first two, but that is often a problem with sequels. Mainly, I did not like the structure of the novel which starts out near the end of the story, then flashes back to the start of the case and works its way back forward. In some ways the story seemed to be left unfinished.

The novel is about a person with a sick mind who gets thrills by mutilating horses. The novel is also about misplaced loyalties, where people cannot believe bad things about a person, or where people have reasons for not wanting to prosecute even if they know a person is guilty. Many pedophiles and such remain active for similar reasons.

In this novel, Sid Halley becomes villified because his investigation results in charges against a friend who people admire. There are some underlying motives revealed as the book develops. There is also Sid's affection for a young girl suffering from leukemia, and his attraction to a young woman working as an investigative reporter.

The three novels, "Odds Against," "Whip Hand," and "Come to Grief," are also available in a combined omnibus edition, "Win, Place, or Show." "Come to Grief," is included in a Reader Digest collection of condensed novels by various authors..

I enjoyed this book--it was IMHO a fun read. As usual, DF has an indestructible hero who seems to court trouble but with impeccable morality. It's easy to root for him. Less than the other 8 books of his I've read, DF has only a bit of technical detail on textiles, leukemia, & horse foods--usually he goes into great detail on some profession such as photography. Of course, there are some difficult-to-believe successes such as a no-armed hero defeating two professional security guards...but it IS light fiction--not Hemingway etc. The crimes are a bit ugly though DF's descriptions are always after-the-fact not during the dastardly deeds. In addition, there are very poignant vignettes with a child suffering from leukemia--& we are left hanging over this. Still, DF IMHO manages to keep the reader interested throughout the novel.

In addition, as in many of his works, DF has some delightful turns-of-phrase (herein mostly concerned with his love-hate "relationship" with a reporter (India Cathcart) with a nasty reputation: "They said she kept a penknife handy for sharpening her ball-points...She trailed me [Sid Halley] behind her like a comet's tail (Halley's Comet?) while introducing me to no one...The serial reputation-slasher...one doesn't cuddle up to a potential cobra.

As for the absurdity of the culprit's actions: "Half of human actions don't make sense in the eye of the beholder."

p.s. Francis has written 4 Sid Halley novels at this writing. (Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, & Under Orders--in that order). The 1st 3 have been anthologized: "Win, Place, or Show" 042519972X, "The Sid Halley Omnibus" 033049242X, & "3 Titles by Dick Francis" B000MN3WV4.

I seem to be enjoying Keillor less with each book of his I read. Perhaps it's got more to do with me than him - it's not like I've gone through in publication order so it can't be related to a trend in his writing over time. Is it coincidence that the books I enjoyed most, `Wobegon Boy' and `We Are Still Married' were the first two I read?

Keillor can be an inspired improviser, taking a single idea and running to incredible and occasionally surreal lengths with it: `Earl Grey' is inspired riffing on a tea-bag. The danger in his stream of consciousness style - that's definitely the style here - is that while there is plenty of imagination, you may not be lucky enough to stumble into anything particularly wise, funny or touching. There's a level of honesty, sure, but that doesn't always reflect well on Keillor here. What we are restricted to are reflex actions, rather than controlled movement. OK, right, he thinks about sex a fair bit. He wishes he could be like a pagan god, eternally young and constantly moving from seduction to seduction of a train of delectable young babes. Sure. He wants to invest this lust for youth and sexual licence with some profound legitimacy. Uh ... He strives to open his readers up to the insight that responsibility is a tragedy. Sorry Gary, was your point that men should never have to grow up, and women destroy them if they dare try to form a relationship? I mean it's a day-dream, sure, but hardly a particularly new, insightful or powerful one. But there's confusion here: young people living such amoral lifestyles are presented quite negatively - he has nothing but derision for new age psychobabble about denying all accountability in finding yourself. Moreover there's not a hint of awareness that women might have day-dreams that growing up destroys too.

I suspect he wasn't consciously trying to make some grand point, and the day-dreaming thing is at times the charming thing about his musing. He wasn't trying to be fair minded - that's part of the point. But make no mistake, the repeated themes here, however heartfelt and artfully expressed, are selfish and childish. And lame: the Ecclesiast came as close as anyone is going to get to this day dream, and realised it wasn't going to satisfy anyway. I'm sure in his own life he's found some viable alternatives to teenage cravings: there are plusses, but a fair share of minuses too. None of that maturity is refected here.

Sure it's sad that we get older, and we lose some good things when Mum and Dad aren't paying for us to play any more, and every pretty girl isn't a potential fling. But this book seems to be trying to blame someone (generally women) for this. There are alternatives to emasculation and self-pity: an irony is that the masculine types Keillor is lamenting the loss of would never whine like this (cf. Eldredge's appalling `Wild at Heart'). Try Nick Hornby's `High Fidelity' for something touching on these issues but with far more wit, craft and insight.

Again I see the sex obsessed version of Keillor. I believe there is only one of these stories that doesn't include some type of sexual moment. He is probably the best storyteller that I have ever heard, yet I am repelled by his books that cover topics outside the wholesomeness of his radio show. I can see how books can give him a creative freedom that can't be had on public radio. After reading them, it makes me wonder why he even tries going away from his comfort zone. A short story must grasp you from the beginning to the end. There is no room for slow, uninteresting periods. Yet, I only found a few of the stories in this book that captivated me throughout.

prefer lake wobegon but always enjoy mr. keillor's stories and his readings of them. he has issues, but that is not always bad, sometimes he is just differant.i always like to see a geek make good. if you are lucky in married life, the odds are pretty good, you married a geek. carry on mr. keillor

Yep. As Tony Soprano would say, whatever happened to the strong, silent type? You know, Gary Cooper.

You don't talk endlessly about how unfair today's world is to men. You don't complain about midlife problems, especially if you're Dionysus and have had memories like his.

Nope.

If you can get past this fundamental disconnect, the book's OK. Some conceits are stretched too far and too long, but by and large it's fun and funny stuff.

Other reviewers are more than informative about the book's contents, so I'll be brief.

This book is for middle-aged men. As a guy leaving my own youth behind and headed into the middle years, the book is more relevant and funnier than it would have been even three years ago.

If you are a fan of Prairie Home Companion, be warned! This is NOT his usual sappy fare. A couple of pieces have that Garrison Keillor sheen we know and love, but for the most part, these pieces expose another side of Mr. Keillor's talent. Though his style has not changed, his subject matter does.

The book is at turns, funny, sappy, sad, disturbing. The honesty of his phrases, whether in a comedic or tragic moment, is very refreshing. His words get right to the truth of the matter and don't dress it up much. Not a bit of it is bad writing; it's all good, but you must be prepared for a wider definition of "good" than you might expect from works like Lake Wobegon Days and such.

And, finally, delivery is key. I found I "got it" when I imagined Mr. Keillor reading it to me, which is perhaps a weakness of his writing -- it must be delivered in his voice. So consider buying the audiotape of it -- you won't miss anything and you'll have the added benefit of experiencing these tales exactly as Mr. Keillor intended.

By Nicki

This book is called There's a Bat in Bunk Five and the author is Paula Danziger. Marcy, a fourteen year old girl has a chance to go to a summer camp and be a junior counselor with her former teacher, Ms. Finney. She has never been away from her parents for a whole summer. The main conflict is that Marcy, just like most kids, is just trying to grow up as fast as she can. Marcy has a lot of fears, like meeting new people who are not in her comfortable space. When she meets Jimmy it makes her feel more secure. Then she meets Ted and she realizes that he is the one she really likes. They go to Woodstock for a day together. The girls in the bunk are always complaining, but Marcy always tries to make it better and stands up for Barbara (Ms. Finney). Marcy doesn't always think of Ted's feelings and when she sees him with someone else she is really upset. But they get back together. One of the meanest campers, Ginger, back for her second summer, is hated by everyone. She runs away. Marcy wants to understand her. They find Ginger at Woodstock and hear about how mean her parents are.

I liked how Marcy changed from a mousy, insecure girl to a more mature teenager who learned about her feelings. I wanted to keep reading to see if she would change because she seems like she has the potential if she tries hard enough. I didn't feel like I was in the book but I did want to keep reading.

I thought Marcy was very realistic because in a teenage life this is most likely to happen.

I loved the ending because now we know why Ginger was so mean and can accept her.

The author tells the story in first person, so we get to know everything from Marcy's point of view. The vocabulary didn't seem very challenging, and it wasn't very descriptive about the kids or the setting. It was mostly about feelings and how kids have mood swings when they are teenagers.

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 for this reason. Lots of kids like me have trouble with friendships and want to have good friends more than anything. It helps to read a book like this to see what everyone else goes through. I would recommend this book to everyone because it's an easy book to show how you are just like everyone else.

Finally I think if you read this book you'll find yourself in it. It's not deep but it touches all the things kids go through.

I really liked The Cat Ate My Gym Suit, the prequel to There's a Bat in Bunk Five. I read it for the first time when I was in fourth grade and staying at my grandmother's house. It was actually the first printing of the book, from the 1970's. It used to be my aunt's when she was in fourth grade. I loved the picture on the cover. It was a very realistic depiction of what Marcy should look like. Anyway, a few years later, I got the book There's a Bat in Bunk Five. It was an OK book, but it was really lacking a lot of the intensity the first book had. Marcy wasn't fat anymore, her dad wasn't mean...nothing was really wrong in her life. She just seemed whiney. It was still a good, interesting book, but I don't think it had to be a sequel to The Cat Ate My Gym Suit. The author could have made up a totally different character, put her in a summer camp, and it wouldn't have made a difference. The Marcy in this book didn't seem like the Marcy I loved. And the Ms. Finney wasn't the same either.

This book is about a girl who becomes a counsler at a camp. She learns many lessons about how no one is perfect. While sh eis at camp she meets a guy and they become close but when somthing goes wrong she always blames it on someone els.

This was much better than the first book. I enjoyed reading it a lot. This book follows Marcy to a summer camp called Camp Seriendipity. It tells about her romance troubles and a little bit of her insecurity. This book had some humor, some drama, and romance too. I recomend it to anyone 11 years and older. It was fun to read.

This is another good book by Paula Dangizer. Her character, Marcy, from The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, comes back and goes to summer camp. Although this was a quick read, the characters aare believable, the plot funny and interesting, and was an all-around good book. I dropped one star beacause there is some material that is not suitable for the age level that the book is aimed at.

By Nicki

This book is called There's a Bat in Bunk Five and the author is Paula Danziger. Marcy, a fourteen year old girl has a chance to go to a summer camp and be a junior counselor with her former teacher, Ms. Finney. She has never been away from her parents for a whole summer. The main conflict is that Marcy, just like most kids, is just trying to grow up as fast as she can. Marcy has a lot of fears, like meeting new people who are not in her comfortable space. When she meets Jimmy it makes her feel more secure. Then she meets Ted and she realizes that he is the one she really likes. They go to Woodstock for a day together. The girls in the bunk are always complaining, but Marcy always tries to make it better and stands up for Barbara (Ms. Finney). Marcy doesn't always think of Ted's feelings and when she sees him with someone else she is really upset. But they get back together. One of the meanest campers, Ginger, back for her second summer, is hated by everyone. She runs away. Marcy wants to understand her. They find Ginger at Woodstock and hear about how mean her parents are.

I liked how Marcy changed from a mousy, insecure girl to a more mature teenager who learned about her feelings. I wanted to keep reading to see if she would change because she seems like she has the potential if she tries hard enough. I didn't feel like I was in the book but I did want to keep reading.

I thought Marcy was very realistic because in a teenage life this is most likely to happen.

I loved the ending because now we know why Ginger was so mean and can accept her.

The author tells the story in first person, so we get to know everything from Marcy's point of view. The vocabulary didn't seem very challenging, and it wasn't very descriptive about the kids or the setting. It was mostly about feelings and how kids have mood swings when they are teenagers.

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 for this reason. Lots of kids like me have trouble with friendships and want to have good friends more than anything. It helps to read a book like this to see what everyone else goes through. I would recommend this book to everyone because it's an easy book to show how you are just like everyone else.

Finally I think if you read this book you'll find yourself in it. It's not deep but it touches all the things kids go through.

I really liked The Cat Ate My Gym Suit, the prequel to There's a Bat in Bunk Five. I read it for the first time when I was in fourth grade and staying at my grandmother's house. It was actually the first printing of the book, from the 1970's. It used to be my aunt's when she was in fourth grade. I loved the picture on the cover. It was a very realistic depiction of what Marcy should look like. Anyway, a few years later, I got the book There's a Bat in Bunk Five. It was an OK book, but it was really lacking a lot of the intensity the first book had. Marcy wasn't fat anymore, her dad wasn't mean...nothing was really wrong in her life. She just seemed whiney. It was still a good, interesting book, but I don't think it had to be a sequel to The Cat Ate My Gym Suit. The author could have made up a totally different character, put her in a summer camp, and it wouldn't have made a difference. The Marcy in this book didn't seem like the Marcy I loved. And the Ms. Finney wasn't the same either.

This book is about a girl who becomes a counsler at a camp. She learns many lessons about how no one is perfect. While sh eis at camp she meets a guy and they become close but when somthing goes wrong she always blames it on someone els.

This was much better than the first book. I enjoyed reading it a lot. This book follows Marcy to a summer camp called Camp Seriendipity. It tells about her romance troubles and a little bit of her insecurity. This book had some humor, some drama, and romance too. I recomend it to anyone 11 years and older. It was fun to read.

This is another good book by Paula Dangizer. Her character, Marcy, from The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, comes back and goes to summer camp. Although this was a quick read, the characters aare believable, the plot funny and interesting, and was an all-around good book. I dropped one star beacause there is some material that is not suitable for the age level that the book is aimed at.

20,001 Names for Baby / 0-380-76227-7

This is my first baby book, but I really like the organization and approach. Each name gives the country or language of origin, the meaning of the name (and the meanings seem well-researched, from the ones I've checked with other sources), and notable actors/politicians/literary characters who have shared the name.

This last is very important to me - for instance, the entry for "Templeton" cautions that children might be teased for any reference to Templeton the Rat from 'Charlotte's Web'. This sort of gentle caution is important to a parent who doesn't want to accidentally be dazzled by a name that might cause their child a load of grief. The book also notes how heavily used the name is, and in which regions. This is anecdotal, not numerical ("Usage has tailed off in recent years") but is still very useful.

I wonder if there is a more recent version of this book? I received mine second-hand and it is fairly old - it notes that (at the time of publishing) the name "Hermione" is almost completely unused!

For the standard long list of names in alphabetical order, this book does it well. Girls and boys names are separated into two separate lists, one making up the first half of the book, the other the last half.

Just about every name has its meaning and origin listed. Along with it are variations of the name. This was particularly helpful and gave some extra naming ideas.

But if you looking for something more inventive or creative, this book is not it. It's just a list of 20,001 names. Don't get me wrong, it does what it does well. But reading a list that long may start to bore you.

I'd recommend getting "Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana" by Linda Rosenkrantz in addition to this book. This book probably has more names, but the "Beyond Jennifer & Jason" book will probably keep you awake, and give you some good ideas. I have both books, and I'm glad I do.

This book contains everything you want to know about names. You will find definitions, related names, examples of people with the name and much more. A great resource to have as you make a very important decision!

Not only does this book have a lot of names, a good percentage of them are beautiful, unusual additions that wouldn't necessarily spring to mind when trying to think of that "perfect name". Even more appreciated is the carefully researched information given with each name, including the history of the name, geographical origin, meaning, and famous people who have possessed the name in question. As a writer, I consult baby name books regularly for character names, and this is easily the best I've found.

This book was not helpful or interesting to me at all. Getting through it was a chore - I did get through it - but when I was done I hadn't found a single new or exciting name to consider. It doesn't include pronunciations, which I found disappointing as well.

Even though the book was written in 1984, many of the dilemmas faced in the American high school haven't changed. Students still need more stimulation from teachers and curriculum. This book highlights some of the main themes that can be seen in most high schools even today.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into the teaching profession. A student in an introductory education class would be a good audience. This would give them a picture of high school from a non-student glance, which they often won't encounter until several semesters into their undergraduate career. This way they have a better idea of what to expect when they complete a practicum or student teaching experience.

Veteran teachers would also benefit from reading this book. It is easy to get caught up in curriculum and forget that there are teenagers in the room. Their needs are often forgotten. This book is a good reminder of "the other side of the story". This book was a good reminder of what is really going on in high school classrooms.

Anyone who works in a school, but may not have been in a classroom for a while should also read this book. Again, it is a good reminder of what teachers and students are experiencing on a daily basis.

This is a book that I will keep and p

Since the other reviewers won't tell you what Horace's compromise is, I will. Every high school teacher sooner or later comes to the place where the most important career decision has to be made. Put in the positive sense, the question is: how far are you willing to live for your ideals, i.e., truly educate your students, and keep your standards at the highest levels, in other words, standards you are comfortable with? Put in the negative: how far can you continue to hold respectable standards for student achievement and still survive on the job? Today's high school presents an enormously challenging environment. Very simply, adminstrators and students wield entirely too much power in the classroom, power which has been taken from the teacher. It's not for no reason at all that every pedagogic training institution shows its prospective teachers "The Crucible" (By the way, the term is "classroom hell" - and regardless of what they say, teaching pundit advice aside, it comes to most every teacher - the only difference being in degree).
Walter Annenberg, a media mogul whose controversial dealings made him one of the richest men in the world (he purchased the last Van Gogh ever auctioned), in the late 1980's, funded the education department at Brown University with the largest grant ever awarded to an academic institution in America. Say what you will about Ted Sizer. He succeeded where most academics fail miserably. He procured enough money to research education for many, many lifetimes. The first fruits of this research are embodied in the trilogy which begins with Horace's Compromise.
I think Annenberg was probably somewhat disappointed. Like many aged, reactionary richies, he attributed most of our nation's woes to our troubled educational system - and this putative disaster - the source of all evil - on bad, incompetent teaching, particularly in our public high schools. In fact, this very sentiment was echoed by controversial retired fed chief, Alan Greenspan, in his recent memoir, THE AGE OF TURBULANCE.
I do not agree with these assessments. In some instances, the teacher may be at fault - and certainly the ills of the schools of Victorian England as graphically depicted in the tormented pages of the most influential educational reformer in history - Charles Dickens - may be laid at the feet of bad teachers. And they were. But the day when the teacher had the last word in either discipline or curriculum, or almost anything else, are long gone - as far gone, in fact, as the brutal alma maters of David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. The bulk of the onus for the solution to today's problems resides with administrators and, frankly, overworked and underpaid parents, who are often treated with a measure of the disrespect experienced by many teachers in the classroom.
But, as a explanation of the dilemmas of teaching, I believe Horace's Compromise does better than it's critics claim. As to the solutions, how much better is the standard of success is a bit fuzzier. Sizer is a synthetic thinker - and his solutions come from many sources. Most importantly, he harks back to Rousseau's idea, as expressed in Emile, that student buy-in should be the central dynamic in teaching - and every teacher should advantage it. Well . . . unfortunately the diversity of classroom participation is much like Forrest Gump's mother's proverbial box of chocolates - especially in lower income communities. Catering to diversity, as has been the battle cry of virtually every attempt at educational reform over the past three decades, may not provide the classroom solution. Should we cast the Classical Canon and The Art of Memory to the winds in favor of student designed curricula? I think not. For better or worse, we learn in school the value of the cultural inheritance, what value there is in it. I guess that's why they call me Old School. But then, I'm only one reader. The fact is that we never can and never will be able get around the fact that learning entails pain. I don't feel that Sizer ever adequately comes to terms with this reality. But what does emerge, perhaps unwittingly, from his work, is the understanding that the burden of proof for the success or failure of the learning process, resides not with the teacher, but with the student. For that truth, we ought to recognize that Sizer has more than earned his money. See also: Edward B. Fiske, SMART KIDS, SMART SCHOOLS.

This first of Sizer's Horace trilogy is a must read for those interented in high school reform. Based on years fo field research Sizer, through his composite teacher, describes how even the best intentiioned teachers are handcuffed in trying to meet all their studetns needs in our current educatinal system, even in the best of our comprehensive high schools. He analyzes the shortcomings and closes with a blueprint for restructuring. His later books take that blueprint into more detail. The writing is engaging and persuasive.

I am a college student majoring in education. I chose to read the book Horace's Compromise for my education class. I thought the book was very knowledgeable, but it was hard to read. Sometimes the sentences went on forever, and I had to read them more than once. I didn't get much out of the book as a whole, but I found certian parts to be intresting. Overall it was a good book, and i would recommend it to anyone who is planning to teach high school.

I thought this book was very intresting. I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about teaching high school. I did not get a lot out of the book as a whole, but there were many independent points that stuck out. I liked the way the book challenged the system.

Yes, I enjoyed this book. It provides another view of Doc, and the author is highly skilled.

Yes. I do recommend it.

Yet "Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend", by Gary L. Roberts is the definitive biography about Doc Holliday, a truly unique, remarkable man that had a way of finding trouble--or of trouble finding him--in an era that had a moral standard that just about didn't exist for many of the people of Tombstone.

Buy "Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone," and buy the book mentioned above. You'll not regret either purchase, imho.

This book was fairly interesting, but I wonder how much of the book is actually based on fact. It begins very slowly talking about Doc's life in his youth and his trip to medical school. When Doc moves West, the plot picks up. The facts in this book on the OK Corral shootout are somewhat different than I book I read on Wyatt Earp, which was fully documented, so I wonder where the facts in this book came from. However, much of the dialogue during the OK Corral shootout are what I've read and appear to be accurate. There are some problems with the author's writing as he seems to have a loose grip on the rules of grammar occasionally, causing confusion when reading it at times. It also portrays Doc as a benevolent spirit who hates bigotry in all forms. He even chastises Wyatt Earp for calling Mexicans wetbacks in the novel. I just find that hard to believe. If you are looking for a nonfiction book, this is not for you. It is filled with dialogue and I question the relationship with his cousin for two reasons. First, this is supposed to be based on an interview with Mattie, yet none of the letters Doc sent to her are in the book, yet the letters she sent to him are. That just doesn't make sense since the letters TO Doc would have been lost. Second,if Mattie was so in love with Doc that she went to a monastery, it seems like she would have kept every single letter from her true love and would have shared them at the time of the interview to support her story. I enjoyed it for entertainment purposes after the first half, but I wouldn't call it factual by any means. I would even go so far to say it's not worth the price they are charging in all honesty. I was rather disappointed.

I have read a number of western histories, mostly biographies. When I bought this book I didn't notice that it was called a novel but I like novels so I started reading. What a disappointment!

In the first 17 pages there must be a dozen typographical, grammatical, and other errors. I am not counting factual errors since it is supposed to be a fiction piece. I even convinced myself I could overlook errors if it was a 'great read' but it wasn't. The writing style and overall quality of writing is poorer than 8th grade level. This may be the worst book I have ever attempted to read. The other reviewers must be related to the author.

Although I am a former graduate student in history, the history of Wild West isn't my specialty. So I had a vague knowledge of Doc Holliday except that he was connected with Wyatt Earp and his gang in Tombstone. But when I read Tom Barnes' book, it helped me to understand the important role Doc Holliday had actually played in that town. I have some reservations about his alleged romance with his cousin, Mattie as I need to read a history book that would confirm it. But it was an enjoyable reading that took you out to the time of the Wild West.

"Tom Barnes is a champion in his field with his use of words and descriptions that guide his readers from the very first page. His first hand stories bring topics to light as well as the many experiences that make up Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone.

Readers will discover legends, history and page turning excitement. His mastery of dialogue puts you right there in the setting and moment. Tom Barnes delivers a reader friendly book that will be re-read countless times and shared with others to gain insight and delight.

Doc Holliday would be proud of the road this author has created and brought to his readers!"

Ms. Gail Small
Fulbright Memorial Scholar
Author of Joyful Learning: No One Ever Wants To Go To Recess!
Joyful Parenting: Before You Blink They'll Be Grown
International Motivational Speaker
People to People Ambassador
Certificated with the William Glasser Institute
Who's Who In American Colleges and Universities
Who's Who Among America's Teachers 2005 and 2006
Teacher Conejo Unified School District 35 years

This novel recreates the life of William "Bat" Barclay Masterson, a crony of Wyatt Earp. Masterson spent years as a sheriff and marshal in the West's most dangerous boom towns and was proud he never killed a man. He later became a journalist, sportswriter, and boxing authority. Dime novels made him a legend in his own lifetime. Richard Wheeler has written many novels, and lives in Montana. The 'Author's Note' says this novel is drawn from reality as much as possible. Bat evolved from an unschooled farm boy into a shrewd, well-read, and sophisticated New York newspaper executive and columnist. His friend Damon Runyon created the character "Sky Masters", a gambler from the West, from the real "Bat" Masterson. This book used the biography of Robert De Arment as the guide. Wheeler used the family biography of Doc Holliday as a source that is different from the dime novel legends.

This novel is set in 1919 where Bat and his wife Emma travel back to the cities in the West where they lived over three decades earlier. Buffalo hides were used to make belts to run machinery. Kansas was one of the first states to prohibit alcohol. In 1919 Dodge City was a wholesome town that censored its past, Masterson was 23 when he was the sheriff. Chapter 25-26 tell of Hollywood filming "On the Outlaw Trail". [In Chapter 34 a telephone rings in a hotel room. Is this an anachronism?] The comments on women suffrage and Prohibition provide humor (Chapter 37). Another anachronism is mentioning "Errol Flynn" who was still in Australia in 1919 (Chapter 43).

One unstated irony is that about 40 years after the end of Prohibition states started to run lotteries. Later they began to license gambling casinos, slot machines, and all that had been banned earlier with that "noble experiment". Most states have passed a "right to carry" law so citizens can travel "heeled". Massage parlors advertise openly in the classified section of local newspapers. Drugs are available if you know where to look. The rich and famous have no problem is obtaining drugs like Oxycontin, etc. Have we returned to the 19th century? The one thing least likely to return is the small and medium sized businesses that were so common over 50 years ago.

As usual another Wheeler downer, reflecting the superficial research available from incomprehension of the secondary sources. I. E. Literary theft, without much cerebration about what it signifies, put politely.

Why not read Bob De Arment's Masterson instead and avoid all of the saccharine baloney.

A book for the mentally uncomplciated. To them I highly recommend it. It beats reading labels on cans of beans. But that's about the size of it in this reader's opinion. I confess that I didn't read the entire book, having been endowed with a sense of self preservation.

"Masterson" is a sweet valentine of a book, not at all a conventional Western, though it starts out with that tone. "Well, hell, I guess it all started this way," says Masterson who is the speaker right to the end.

The old man, plagued by diabetes and a love of alcohol, is about to be greatly inconvenienced by Prohibition. He is getting close to the end, but he hasn't finished what the psychologist Erik Erikson called the seventh stage of life, coming to terms with the past. It's 1919 and he's working as a sports columnist (especially boxing, on which he was an expert) for the New York Morning Telegraph, where the Hollywood columnist is Hedda Hopper. Partly because of her interest, Bat decides to tour his past, literally, taking along Emma, who has become his life-companion through persistence and a sense of humor. No need for a stagecoach -- the railroad will do.

Dodge is shocked by his appearance, a demon from the past they are trying to deny. Another place is in love with the shootist they believe him to be. In Hollywood William Hart initiates Bat and Emma into the world of the silent Western, quickly casting them in an improvised movie that is little more than a child's game of "Let's play guns -- you be the bad guy and I'll..." In a dozen towns Bat goes to the scene of traumatic confrontations and finds them removed, boarded up, sunk into decrepitude. What kind of sense can he make of all this? Last century's news. Comforted by alcohol, Emma, and fairly dependable good meals, he is able to persist but not to sum it all up.

The couple zigzags thorugh the West visiting the personalities left from long ago -- though it wasn't that long, was it? You remember Hedda Hopper, don't you? At that time she was a bigger and more powerful force than Masterson, with only her typewriter to render the ratatatat. Baby Doe is an ascetic broke old woman. Wyatt Earp is a resentful paranoid old man, he and his wife fighting hard to keep up a front. Some are only headstones, and probably not the original ones at that. One newspaper man comes only to attack Masterson as a two-bit crook and killer; another comes with research to reveal that there are no known deaths except the first one, which was clearly self-defense, and though Bat made his living in the shadowy demi-monde of gambling and stage shows, he was never a keeper of whorehouses or a seller of drugs.

What's more important is Masterson's slow realization that A) he actually cares about being seen honestly and B) his best defender and ally has always been the woman he took for granted, Emma. And so, in Denver, a town he never liked, he does the right thing, and comes home ready for Erikson's eighth and final stage: Wisdom.

I really enjoyed this novel.I have read a lot of stuff on the Old West ;both fact[?] and fiction. As for fiction I like Longarm and Trailsman.However part of the fascination is trying to sort out which is which.The author takes a novel approach in trying to do this and produces a very readible and convincing book.The list of books at the end is appreciated;thanks.

Wheeler assumes Masterson's identity and writes a first-person account of a 1919 trip the old lawman, gambler and businessman might have taken out west to make sense of his life and legend.
The author seems to care very much about getting historical details right, which is important to me as I like to learn something about history when I read historical novels.
Masterson was, by 1919, a newspaper columnist living in New York City with his wife Emma. Wheeler has Masterson uneasy about the dichotomy between his legend and his real life and sends him back into the American West to reach some conclusion about how he would like to be remembered.
It's a fact-filled odyssey that takes Masterson to Dodge City, Trinidad, Los Angeles, Leadville and Denver (among other places). Along the way he reminisces about his life in the West, talks to Wyatt Earp, gets a bit part in a William S. Hart movie, discovers the result of a forgotten act of kindness in Denver and formally marries Emma (a rite they had somehow neglected oh those many years).
There's a touching scene when he visites the grave of Doc Holliday and hears that the long-dead dentist's widow has been paying to have flowers put on the grave every week for years. "God bless you, Big Nose Kate," he says to no one.
It's a masterful book, no pun intended, and I'm glad I read it. But it suffers from lack of a plot, which is why I'm giving it just three stars. I won't fault the author for that, however, as the whole premise mitigates against the use of a plot in the meaning that the term is generally accepted to have.
"Masterson" does exactly what historical fiction is supposed to do. It entertains and instructs simultaneously. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in the reality of the American West but has trouble digesting non-fiction history books.