Abbey Books

This is a great book. There is a lot of information for the superfan. There are day-by-day notes of what happened during each recording session.

It's truly rare that a book on The Beatles manages to satisfy such a divergent set of fans as this one does. If you are a fan of the music and had always wanted to know more about how they made those fantastic sounds on equipment that's practically obsolete these days, this is the place to find out.

We get an interview with Macca at the start which covers the period from pre-Beatles to the end focussing on recordings and who played what and when. Lot's of great b/w and colour photos and pictures with a full discography at the end make this an excellent edition to any fan's library. Chronologically, we get every track recorded with information on the various takes and pithy insights from the recording engineers as well.

Recommended.

Not every fan wants to sit everyday in the studio with the beatles, but if you did you would learn alot about recording techniques. This book helps to show that the beatles were'nt just creative but they got a lot of help from GEORGE MARTIN and the others at abby road studios. It is interesting to learn every exact sound and effect on the songs but does become a bit dry at times.

I bought this book a long time ago when it first came out. As a diehard Beatles fan, I think it is great!! It really goes into the little details of the Beatles in the recording studio and gives the reader something of an idea as to what it was like to be there. By the way, Amazon states this is out of print; however, my local Borders store has a lot of copies in their bargain books for a really cheap price . . .between $4.99 to $9.99 (I can't remember exactly) So check out the closeout sections of your local stores.

For at least 4 years, this book has been out of print (it was originally published in 1988). The Beatles Anthology CD releases probably had something to do with this. Nevertheless, if you're interested in the complete recording sessions, this is the book to read. It begins with their 1st EMI session in June 1962 (back when Pete Best was still the Beatles' drummer, before Ringo Starr replaced him) and ends in 1970 with the remixing of the Let It Be sessions with Phil Spector. The only thing that's dated is the often repeated phrase "This remains unreleased to this day" in reference to songs "Leave My Kitten Alone," "Not Guilty" (the Beatles' version), "One After 909" (the 1963 version), "12 Bar Original," "That Means a Lot," "What's the New Mary Jane" and "How Do You Do It." This book features anecdotes about what went on during the studio sessions (some the Anthology listeners and viewers already know about and more), photographs, interviews and insights by producer George Martin, Norman Smith, engineer Geoff Emerick, session drummer Andy White (who took Ringo's place on the single version of "Love Me Do") and an insightful interview with Paul McCartney. Yes, Mark Lewishon has done his homework here with research and hours upon hours of listening to the Beatles' session tapes. In a perfect world, many of these still unreleased sessions would be available for listening, legally (of course, there would be some tracks which would leave the listener thinking "Ok, now I know why they didn't release this"). I'd like to see an updated version of this book (many of Mark's comments concerning the songs and other additional tracks mentioned above will have to be replaced with "Until the release of The Beatles Anthology 1 [or 2 or 3], this take/track remained unreleased"). He'd have to include a section for the Beatles Anthology CD's and DVD collection ("You can hear part of this take on Part 1 [or Part 3 or Part 8] of The Beatles Anthology").

This book is like a crystal ball, a glimpse of the future ... soon, your new Field Marshal Obama will lead you a few goose-steps closer to the reality portrayed in this book ...

Abbey is at his doomsday best with this tale that leaves a glimmer of hope that we can yet save ourselves. Say what what you want about Abbey (narcissistic, sexist, moody), the guy could write! He was also ahead of his time in his warnings about our abuse of the environment!

Edward Abbey's novels displayed his Sagebrush-style conservationist ideals, and his near-Anarchist sentiments took greatest root here. This is a near-future dystopia tale in which a thinly described economic disaster has forced most people to flee Abbey's beloved desert southwest, leaving just a few hardy naturalist survivors trying to create a non-government lifestyle. Meanwhile the wasted city of Phoenix becomes the base for a big-thinking ex-military man who wants to take control of all of humanity and eliminate dissenters who stand in his way. This novel is overflowing with excellent and thought-provoking political philosophy, especially when it comes to the exact meaning of "freedom" and how that term is actually defined by whoever has power. Unfortunately, this book's politics may be a little outdated, because nowadays I suspect that a western power-hungry demagogue would be the exact ideological opposite of Abbey's villain here (this guy's a socialist). The novel has a few other problems, such as longwinded and tiresome monologues from the characters. Most of the action is rather predictable chase scenes, and the story is capped off by an inconclusive ending, which cries out for a sequel that never appeared. This is a very hard-hitting and thought-provoking novel, but Abbey's basic ideas are better defined elsewhere. [~doomsdayer520~]

Abbey's best work will always be his essays, but this novel is one of those "forgotten" dystopian classics that deserves much more attention. Forget Orwell's "1984." It's too European. Forget Levin's "This Perfect Day." It's too fantastic. Abbey has written the best post-apocalypse American novel to date. And his politics, as always, ring true. Up the rebels! An anarcho-classic

This is not only one of Abbey's best novels but a great novel in its own right. As both a city and a country dweller I can not only relate but confirm much of his notion that cities are not nearly as healthy for a man's soul as the country is. In addition this is a great story about social decay and what it takes to over come the challanges that arise from such a situation. We have grown soft and forgetful of what our forefathers went through to create a country like ours and this book gives a realistic and easy to swallow insight into their frames of mind and their state of heart. This is the wild west and the futurama all mixed together with an iron fisted military group to boot. I still can't believe this was never made into a movie.

Henry Adams' MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES (MSMC) is simply a great book. Adams' lucid writing style and his insights are impressive, and this book should be read by every supposedly "educated" individual. Adams deals with complex topics such as Gothic Architecture, Medieval poetry and mysticsim, and Scholastic Philosophy with clarity and ease.

The early sections of MSMC compare the church of Mont Saint Michel with the Catholic view of St. Michel who was militant and was the perfect example of the Medieval hero defending the Catholic Church against all enemies. The comparison with this church with that of Chartres which was the examplar of God's mercy via St. Mary is insighful and facinating reading.

Such embellishment of St. Mary or Notre Dame(Our Lady)is further investigated in Adams book by Adams' careful treatment of Medieval Poetry. Adams's translations of Medieval French and Latin are good and give those who are not familiar with these languages a better understanding of both the poetry and the Medieval devotion to St. Mary.

Much of this peotry was mystical, and Adams demonstrates the attempt of St. Francis and the Franciscans to use such mystical thought in their missionary efforts to help the very poor. St. Francis' mysticism is revealed in Adams' translation of St. Francis' poem titled BROTHER SUN AND SISTER MOON.

Henry Adams then compares and contrasts Medieveal mysticism, which bordered on Pantheism, with Scholastic Philosophy. Adams gives the reader an insight to scholastic debate when he summarizes the debate between William of Champaux and Peter Abelard(1079-1142). Here Adams demonstrates his understanding of how students and masters argued and learned. He also shows the careful balence the Catholic authorities tried to impose between reasoned debate and heresy.

The last section of the book deals with the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Adams careful treatment of Aquinas' thought is worth the price of the book. Adams gives the Angelic Doctor high praise for both his clear thinking and liberality. Adams also effectively deals with the liberality of the Medieval Catholic authorities who canonized so many men whose views were apparently contradcitory.

Henry Adams' MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES is intellectual history at its best. The book deals with complex ideas and views in an attractive literary style which holds the readers' interest. This reviewer has read this book numerous times since he first read it in 1968 and has never found the book to be boring. Readers should also read Thomas Woods HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT WESTERN CIVILIZATION and compare Woods sections on the High Middle Ages with Adams' book.

Privately printed in 1904 (and revised seven years later), "Mont Saint Michel and Chartres" was never meant for the general public. It's the intellectual's ultimate "what I did on my summer vacation" essay, written for friends as a gift to accompany their excursions through France. The first half is a highly personal travel book and an idiosyncratic guide to art and architecture of medieval French cathedrals (particularly of Chartres); the last six chapters offer a succinct excursion through the spiritual mindset of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

If you've never been to Mont Saint Michel or to Chartres, the first ten chapters can be hard going; it's like reading a 250-page description of a painting you've never seen. Even if you have been to both locations, it's unlikely you'll remember the details Adams expected his readers to have in front of them. Fortunately, his prose is not dry (and is at times characteristically witty). Adams is able to render vividly the fleches, the portals, the arches, the statues, and the stained glass panels, and he provides the tourist with a thorough understanding of the achievement represented by medieval religious art. He also supplies as background a wealth of related literary and historical references .

The tenth chapter (and the last of Adams's official "tour") focuses less on the cathedral of Chartres itself and more on the cult of the Virgin that it represents. It serves as a segue to the second half of the book, which will be far more accessible to general readers. He compares contemporary portrayals of three queens--Eleanor of Guienne (Aquitaine), Blanche of Castile, and Mary of Champagne (who wasn't really a queen, but never mind)--to the representations of the Virgin Mary in the art, in poetry, and in hagiography. "The Virgin was a real person, whose tastes, wishes, instincts, passions, were intimately known," Adams argues. "Like other Queens, she had many of the failings and prejudices of her humanity." The final three chapters turn to the intellectual life: the ongoing tensions between universalism and nominalism, Bernard and Abelard, mysticism and rationalism--all culminating in the balancing act of Thomas Aquinas.

Over 75 years ago the "Cambridge History of English and American Literature" judged Adams's book as "probably the best expression of the spirit of the Middle Ages." Well, not quite; such a view could be proffered by a literary critic perhaps, but certainly not by a historian, and I think Adams himself would have been appalled by such a statement. (A more accurate and more thorough account from the early twentieth century is Charles Homer Haskins's "Renaissance of the Twelfth Century," published in 1927.) What Adams offers here is a glimpse of the medieval Catholic intellectual spirit as seen through the prism of his own rather conservative nineteenth-century Protestantism. His book is not so much a scholarly treatise as it is a wistful refashioning of the medieval spirit.

A reading of Richard Brookhiser's recent (and highly recommended) *America's First Dynasty* sent me back to *Mont Saint Michel and Chartres*, a book I hadn't read in thirty years. I'm glad I returned to it, because a few years have, I trust, put me in a better position to appreciate what's going on in the book.

On one level, the most obvious one, Adam's book is a sometimes idiosyncratic history of Medieval art, literature, and religion that takes as its center of gravity the great Gothic cathedrals of the period--structures that Adams thinks sum up what the middle ages are all about. To read the book on this level alone is fine. It provides intriguing insights into, for example, courtly love and the cult of Mary.

But I now believe that, at a deeper level, the book is disguised autobiography on the one hand and a backhanded history of Adams's own time on the other. An at times overwhelming sense of nostalgia permeates the book. In reading Adams on the 11th century mystics, the debates of the schoolmen, the chansons of the troubadours, and the unified worldview of the middle ages, one can almost hear him sigh with longing to return to a world which, he thinks, was whole, unfractured, and pure--a world, as the medievals themselves would've said, which reflects "integritas." This reveals a great deal about the restless, unquiet nature of Henry Adams the man. But it also reveals the restless, unquiet nature of the modern era which spawned and molded him: the gilded age, the fast-paced first wave of capitalism, secularism, and consumerism, which has no center of gravity, no art, no tradition. And even though we claim to be living in a "postmodern" age, it seems to me that a great deal of the qualities Adams deplored in his own times are still with us and account for our own sense of homelessness.

*Mont Saint Michel and Chartres,* then, is more than a quaint turn-of-the-last-century history. Read correctly, it's also a mirror of our present discontent. Highly recommended.

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres should be considered and read alongside The Education of Henry Adams. In Chartres, he described the medieval world view as reflected in its cathedrals, which he believed expressed "an emotion, the deepest man ever felt--the struggle of his own littleness to grasp the infinite." Adams was drawn to the ideological unity expressed in Roman Catholicism and symbolized by the Virgin Mary; he contrasted this coherence with the uncertainties of the 20th century. An intellectual journey of an American's view of France.

A friend suggested I read this book as I love most things French and especially Medieval buildings. I have visited both places before but obviously did not take in the detail Adams did on his visit to them. His tales are delightful, though sometimes hard to follow. The book is intellectual but really anyone can sit down and read this and be entertained.

Before reading this book I had been researching the Cathars of 11th-12th century France and this made a delightful addition to my reading on the Cathars. I recommend this book because it is stimulating, the imagery is wonderful, and it is historical.

As much as I enjoy and look forward to reading aything written by Christna Skye, I did all I could to avoid reading any of the Draycott Abbey books. It was lucky for me "Season of Wishes" snuck by me. An absolute must read, I could'nt put down. In fact I would read a few pages, and go back and re-read them again (this made for interesting reading) Season of Wishes was not only charming, and well written, but quite touching.I was thoroughly entertained, and did not want the story to end. Speaking of which, does anyone who has read "Seasons of Wishes" happen to know if any of the characters from this book, appear in any of the other Draycott Abbey books?

Sorry to all the people who loved this book, but I can't agree with you.

I bought this book mistakenly thinking it was a Christmas romance with a paranormal twist. (The front cover made reference to a related book by this author, "Christmas Knight", and what else would you expect of a book entitled "Season of Wishes"?) First off, there was no Christmas in it, except maybe in the very end. I never finished the book, so I'm not sure. I found it to be much too slow moving. I pushed through, because the premise interested me, and I wanted to not have wasted the $4 I paid for it. But I was dissapointed.

I found that I could not really relate to Ian's character. He seemed flat and uninteresting. And Jamee's night terrors confused me. I could understand how being kidnapped and held hostage in a closet would make you wander around and try to break down invisible walls, but why on earth would it make you rip off your clothes? It struck me as a cheap gimmick to throw sexual tension in the book, and it didn't work with me. I was just shaking my head in disgust, wondering why on earth the author would throw that in there.

And then, when heroine and hero first meet, he kisses her after they've known each other for less than ten minutes. Gag! Again, it felt like another cheap gimmick to create sexual tension when shouldn't have been any yet. I mean, c'mon, these people just met! What is he doing kissing her? And why doesn't she smack him for it? Wouldn't most normal women smack a guy who's presumptuous enough to try and steal a kiss during the first ten minutes of a relationship?

I tried to push on and finish the book, but then the author threw in yet another cheap gimmick: "Can you kiss me?" she asks. "I want to do an experiment, because you're the first man who's kiss doesn't turn me off." Blah, blah, blah. This is when she's known him for less than a day. Someone could've used this plot for a cheap porn film, just changed it to: "I'm frigid. Can you do me so that I'll be fixed?" It felt so contrived by this point that I gave up. While I do like a touch of fantasy (I love paranormal romance) I need at least a resemblence of realism in the romances that I read.

Not the worst thing I tried to read, hence two stars instead of one. After trying to read Christmas Knight, and again finding myself rolling my eyes in disbelief, I've given up on this author.

Great book with new ghosts. interplays nicely with the other draycott abbey books.

This is one of the books in the Draycott Abbey series; I'm not reading them in order, so I don't know where this one fits in. It was a pretty good read, but not as good as 'Bride in the Mist'. It did have the suspense element & the paranormal element in it which I always enjoy, but this time I think CS focused way too much on just the hero & heroine's feelings & thoughts about each other. This story moved rather slow for me & I really found myself wanting to skim paragraphs in this one (the ones that just described more & more feelings & thoughts about each other), where I didn't want to in the other one. I wish CS had spent more time & effort on the action/adventure aspect & had put more into the paranormal memories from the past. I didn't get that good of a picture of the past, nor feel any real feelings for those characters. However, I did really like both our hero & heroine (Ian & Jamee); Neither of them were annoying like so many characters of romance books are. Ian was definitely your strong, sexy Highlander & Jamee was intelligent & independent (without carrying it to stupidity). I enjoy the secondary characters that CS adds to these books & the way they are necessary & add to the story. I do believe it's worth picking up & reading - and I will be trying another in this series.

I just loved this book and Christina Skye for giving such pleasure in this series.
Ian McCall, Laird of Glenlyle, was coerced to serve as a bodyguard to Jamee Night who was being threatened by a potential kidnapper. Ian, a kidnapping expert, does not want to do this as he slowly losing his eyesight but as a favor to his good friend Nicolas Draycott he agrees especially after he is shown a video of Jamee in the throes of a nightmare she frequently has that was caused by her earlier kidnapping as a child.
As in most of Skye's previous Draycott books our hero is falling in love with the client but does not tell her he is going blind due to an age old Curse. She in turn, falls in love with this big strong handsome Scot and through some flashbacks of the how and why of the curse they both end up saving each other for each other.
Season of Wishes is another magical tale from this extremely gifted author that will both keep you on the edge of your set in suspense and give you a warm and fuzzy feeling as you cheer both of these wounded souls on to the happiness they both deserve.

I bought this book for my seven year old son who needed to do a book report. He loved the book so much that he decided to dress up as a soldier for Halloween. I think every child in this country should have this book. It teaches children what SADLY our schools no longer teach; to love God and our country and to respect and appreciate our soldiers who fight to give US our freedom. Great book!

I was so excited to receive this book and 15 minutes after its arrival, I am back on Amazon for a return. My hope was to use this in the classroom because of the great message it has, however it would have been nice if it was mentioned that it discusses God and prayer. I'll have to find another book to read to my students before we write our thank you notes to the troops.

It brought tears to my eyes and made me proud. I love my country and kids need to be taught to love it too. This book belongs in schools, libraries and homes.

Regardless of your opinion of the war in Iraq, if you support our troops you'll love this book. The author has done an amazing job of capturing the themes of patriotism and service to our country in a way children can understand. Children (and adults) are bombarded with negative information about our country and men and women who serve it. This book builds both a love of country and rightfully makes heroes out of the men and women who fight to preserve our freedom.

The story will maintain a child's attention and the illustrations will also hold their interest. As a pastor, a father and a grandfather I can recommend it for your children and grandchildren. Two thumbs very up!!

Very well done and easy for children to grasp. Helps children to be proud of their country and those that protect us. The pictures are perfect too. My grandsons read it at once.

This book is a history of ElfQuests first 10 chiefs, from Timmorn Yellow-Eyes to Bearclaw. This book was a "breaking in" period for the BOTC series. It focuses on the hardships of chiefhood. It offers insight into the difficult struggle many of the earlier chiefs experienced between the wolf-song and their elven sides.It also goes in depth about the beginning of the bond between Wolf-Riders and their wolf-friends If you're a long time fan of ElfQuest it answers questions you may have about th 10 chiefs. If you aren't than this is one of the best places to start

A richly drawn journey through the World of Two Moons, this collection of stories spanning thousands of years is a fine addition to the ever unfolding ElfQuest saga. "The Blood of Ten Chiefs" gives us an all too brief glimpse into the lives of the wolfriders before the familiar days of Cutter and his family. Like the best of the ElfQuest tales, these stories are well written, beautifully drawn and easily capture emotions without the need for excess dialogue and narration. The change in styles from story to story, artist to artist, can be distracting at first, but after the first few pages the reader is fully involved and captivated by each artist's unique vision of these wonderful elves and their magical world. Wendi Pini's creative absence, so terribly and painfully obvious in many of the other recent entries in the series, in no way diminishes this collection which features some of the finest work of the "guest" artists I have yet seen.

The stories are varied in style and scope, ranging from the visually stunning "Colors" which tells the epic tale of Timmorn and his struggle to reconcile his elfin and wolf heritage, to the whimsical and innocent "At the Oak's Root" which tells of a young Tanner and his misfit "wolf"-friend who is not a wolf at all.

Taken together the stories serve as an engaging glimpse at the legendary Ten Chiefs. Newcomers to ElfQuest should probably save this collection for last, as the stories assume that the reader comes to them with a full and comfortable command of World of Two Moons and its inhabitants.

In the twenty-one years since Wendy and Richard Pini introduced the graphic series "Elfquest", many readers have been curious about the background of Cutter and his Wolfrider tribe. The Pinis took a first step toward answering these questions by endorsing a fantasy-novel series, "The Blood of Ten Chiefs", which appeared throughout the 1980s; this collection of short prose stories brought to light major events in the lives of the chieftains who lived in the 10,000 years before we meet the elves for the first time. From 1993 to 1995, the spirit - and some of the substance - of these tales was brought into a new EQ graphic serial, "Blood of Ten Chiefs"; the first nine issues retold stories from the prose-books, the last eleven were original tales created specially for this new series. Book 9b reprints issues 1 to 7, and 10-11 (a two-part story).

In these episodes published here the storytelling is always of quality, and two of the tales - "Colors" (issue 1) and "The Broken Circle" (issues 10-11) are among the most memorable and significant in the series. "Colors" is the visual version of Richard Pini's tale about the struggle of the half-wolf Timmorn, the first Wolfrider chieftain, to reconcile the elfin and lupine sides of his soul. The difficulty of illustrating states of mind is handled beautifully here; profound as the prose is, the drawing is even more eloquent, particularly in the last few pages. Even the coloring-work, though reprinted only in black-and-white, yet adds to the total effect (a pleasant surprise in almost all the issues here is the graceful transfer of these originally colorized drawings). No issue in BoTC was less than solid, but this debut issue remains the best of the series.

Other stories include another carryover from the novels, "The Phantom of the Berry Patch" - a tale about the young Bearclaw (the father of Cutter); the grim, disturbing "Swift-Spear", an account of Two-Spear's madness and his resulting campaign against the humans; and the last story in this volume, "The Broken Circle", about young Skywise's discovery of a great relic of the High Ones, ancestors of the elves - and the havoc it wreaks with him and his tribe. Drawn in a completely different style from that of "Colors", it too is ambitious, far-reaching and thought-provoking - with a more unsettling conclusion.

The series - and this book - are, by design, a literary and artistic grab-bag, with contributions from several different artists, but the level of inspiration is high all around; about the only flaw is a certain blockiness of pencil-work in two of the stories ("Swift-Spear" admittedly being one of those two). As I have said, the art has transferred very well to this lower-price format (not always the case with other volumes in the EQ Reader's Collection).

To summarize: if the "Blood of Ten Chiefs" book had been a mere history of a tribe of elves, it would have been much less interesting. But because it focuses on the major events in the chiefs' lives - and, through them, illuminates their characters and times - these stories will bear repeated reading. Recommended.

The stories in these books are really great and fill in a lot of gaps in the story. Keep it up! I want more!

I really enjoy Elf Quest comics, but they don't tell you much about what life was like before Cutter's tribe. This book provides you with exelent, well written background information, and detailed drawings of the elves and the incredible world of two moons. It tells you different stories about all the ten cheiftens that came before cutter.

It started out really great. It began very mysterious and I wanted to know what was really going on. What was the secret of the abbey? Well, after she tries to escape-about mid way through- it loses it sense of mystery and becomes a simple novel about an innocent young girl attempting to reunite with her lover. The very end seemed pretty thrown together. I think that was because they ran out foreboding architecture and had to quickly clear up what was going on and what happened to the characters.

Mrs. Carver's book is grusome. It is horror in all it's bloody glory. Curt Herr has contributed great footnotes to help with contextual placement. His introduction is enlightening. (Great notes on Female vs. Male Gothic.) You will come away with a profound appreciation for why Zittaw Press chose this book to redisover and why they selected Curt Herr to write the introduction. This book is a great Gothic treasure.

Oakendale Abbey, in what may be deemed as "ancient" in it's literary composure, presents the reader with the genre's very intention: the mysteries of things unseen and the psychological bend these things have on its hero or heroine in their struggle toward balance. I have learned much from submersing myself in such dated manuscripts -- treasures to the Gothic literary gentry -- reappearing now in full form with comments by our most-enlightened interpreters of the gothic read (Herr). Forget about all those vampires and gorey tales for a moment and live the tale of mayhem as seen through the innocent eyes of a young maiden in her life's awakenings. Dig a little deeper and you, too, will recall the tension and turmoil, once known as true horror of the human psyche.

This is a wonderful old gothic novel. Although it pre-dates Poe, it is a lot like Fall of the House of Usher, only more descriptively violent and believe it or not, a little more twisted! The novel features finely detailed gothic atmosphere, a wonderfully descriptive narrative, and a huge Gothic Abbey- lonely, abandoned, and filled with dark, endless cobwebbed halls. The descriptions of the Abbey make it a character as rich as any human- living or dead! Mrs. Carver's prose is highly descriptive. Her heroine's stay in the haunted old abbey is filled with minute imagery- great psychological insight- and some really freaky events! Classic Gothic novels are making a comeback. Buy it and dive into a great old book! ...but keep the lights on, this one sneeks up on you!

I am filled with gratitude for Zittaw Press and Valancourt Books, the two small presses that are bringing back to us the wonderful gothic novels that were all the rage in popular literature 200 years ago. Fantasy and horror connoisseurs now have access to those exotic and tantalizing titles that they never would have had a hope of tracking down just two years ago. To date I have finished reading five of them, and you know what? They're good!

Mrs. Carver's Horrors of Oakendale Abbey has been been one of the more enjoyable reads. This is the story of the lovely Laura, a foundling forced to flee Revolutionary France during the Reign of Terror when her foster father's severed head is found mounted on a stake outside the family home. In the confusion of emigrating to the coast of Wales she becomes separated from her foster mother, and while wandering along the shore in her forlorn state she is discovered by the aristocratic sensualist Lord Oakendale. He wisks her off to his London mansion where she resists his efforts to seduce her. In order to place her in an even more desparate situation, he sends her away to live in the vast, ancient, abandoned, and reputedly haunted Oakendale Abbey in Cumberland. His theory is that after being subjected to the horrors of solitude in this loathsome setting, she will rush into his arms and gladly accept the least odious of her disagreeable choices.

The rural Oakendale Abbey is the site of very real horrors. Laura (an unusually spirited protagonist) encounters skeletons and hanging bodies during her explorations of the Abbey that are real and not just figments as is the case in the more genteel gothic romances. She also discovers the letter case that she made herself for her long lost love Eugene, and is devastated at the thought that one of the skeletons might be the remains of the man that she lost her heart to when he was a visitor of her foster parents in France. Nefarious activities are going on in the background of the Abbey that put her in peril every day, and soon Lord Oakendale receives the news that Laura has disappeared! He simultaneously makes a discovery that throws a whole new light on Laura's identity, and he rushes out to the Abbey to find her, with very different motives now than his original goal of libidinous seduction.

Other characters from Laura's past begin showing up, and things get very complicated as true identities and family relationships become clarified. I do not want to spoil the story for anyone who has not yet read the book. Suffice it to say that this is a page-turner with an interesting and convoluted plot, and is capable of pulling in the modern reader as it did our ancestors many generations ago.

It is clear that this book was heavily influenced by Eliza Parson's The Castle of Wolfenbach, another Goth that is available in a tasteful modern edition. But there are several differences: Mrs. Carver dispenses with Eliza Parson's painstaking analysis and onion-like peeling away of the layers of the overwrought sentiments of her persecuted heroine Madelein. Instead she plunges into graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies and horrifying tableaux, which I venture to say is more likely to be congenial to modern tastes. Mrs. Carver was quite uninhibited in this respect, which is rare among the Gothic authoresses.

The Zittaw edition is characteristically classy, with an interesting cover that well represents the book's contents, and an informative introduction by Curt Herr. The book however seems to have been rushed to press, as it contains numerous typographic errors (not typical of the other Zittaw editions I own). While this is regrettable, it does not interfere over much with the reader's understanding of the text. I hesitated between rating this a "four star" or a "five star" book, but settled upon "five stars" through the shear joy of being given access to these resurrected gems by the courageous (and no doubt financially risky) ventures of Zittaw Press and Valancourt Books. Thank you Franz Potter and James Jenkins!

Paul Kidd seems to have problems starting books; "The Rats of Acomar" is weighed down at first both by the overuse of adjectives and scene-setting description, and the initially annoying characters Tupan and Surolf. He settles down once the initial scene is set, however, and the characters involved begin to grow on you (and grow a little in general).

The world in "Rats of Acomar" is one populated entirely by anthropmorphized animals - dogs, coyotes, horses, cats, and the rats the book's central movement is about. The rats are violent and warlike, trapped in the wasteland region of Acomar by a heavily guarded wall; constant deprivation and intraspecies warfare has left them a culture and existence that would devour the land if they ever breached the wall. Naturally one rat - G'kaa - is trying to do just that.

The book is frequently lighthearted; the scenes with Tupan (a carefree coyote) and the young rats that start to follow Ra'hish (a loner rat) usually so. There's nothing that stands out about these passages, and Tupan's attitude is overplayed at first, but they're amusing enough and the book keeps moving. G'kaa is a ok, if somewhat standard, villain; a secondary villain introduced later does nothing more than nibble on the scenery.

The odd mythology of the Giants and the odd pillars in Acomar are interesting, especially as they become key to the plot; as is the insight that the rats must not only be defeated, but changed, so that the constant violence and pressure to invade are eased and removed. They're dealt with fairly shallowly, however; the book is quite short (just under 200 pages).

Once Kidd gets his writing legs, there's nothing about the book - or the accompanying illustrations - that's especially bad. It just never really gets above adequate.

In the broken wasteland of Acomar, a land teeming with starvation and death, the rat Itheem live. Their bones litter the waste, fallen in the endless battles over territory and food. In terror of the Itheem, the canine Uruth built the great wall to keep them imprisoned in Acomar. But with the rising of an overlord, G'Kaa, everything is changing. The Itheem clans are uniting, planning to take the lands of the other races. But what can a free-spirited coyote, Tupan, her greyhound companion Surolf, the pony Hern, and the rebal rat Ra'sish do to stop them? A very good read, simultainously exciting, sad, and laugh out loud funny. Terrie Smith's illustrations are excellent as well. :-)

Another wonderful offering from the master of Furry fiction, Paul Kidd brings the two contrasting worlds of Acomar and the Mornmist to life. His stories are filled with personable characters, humour, excitement and also sorrow. Although not so much of the latter in this one as his excellent "Whisper of Wings". "Rats..." is a somewhat lighter read, and very entertaining.

In the desolate plains of Acomar we have the Itheem; rats - breeding, fighting, scavenging and living a brutal and cruel, and short, existence. Amongst these is warrior rat Ra'hish, a dedicated lone-rat, who suddenly finds himself having to look after a dozen youngsters. We also have the albino Oosha and her sister Teela, two young female rats determined to find a beauty in their desolate life. And G'Kaa, warlord, who dreams of leaving the wretched plains of Acomar and invading the beautiful valleys.

On the other side of the border wall we have the Uruth, the canines, keeping their land safe from the "goblin hoards" beyond the wall. One such character is Tupan, a lively and impulsive coyote that has left her wanderer roots and sought out civilisation. Her unwilling companions in her undying endeavours to "fix things" are the grim greyhound, Surolf, and his rather friendlier pony, Hern.

Together these two very different groups will be brought together in alliance, and find out that despite outward appearances, they are not really all that different.

All in all, another grand offering from Paul Kidd. Alas, the other "Mornmist" books appear to not exist (despite having titles and ISBN numbers), so it seems Vision books have evaporated. This is a pity, because I rather liked the world. The "Mornmist" was intended to be one of those "Shared worlds" with books by Elaine Cunningham (who wrote "Daughter of the Drow") amongst others. Alas. But at least they got the first one out

This is a brand new book by Paul Kidd, the author of numerous popular novels. The Rats of Acomar is fast reading, with vivid word pictures of the events taking place when the mythical Rats rise up to take what they feel is rightfully theirs. I enjoyed reading this science fiction, fantasy and could readily relate to how the mythical events described, really remind one of events actually taking place in real life. Only the players have been changed. Worth reading.

After reading Paul Kidd's other new book, "A Whisper of Wings", I did a search here on Amazon and came up with The Rats of Acomar. After the delightful experience I had with Whisper, I picked this one up at Barnes & Noble, too. Talk about a slam-bam exciting storyline that grabs you in its teeth and runs! This book is the first in a new series, and if they're all half as good as this one, I suspect it'll be one of the best sellers ever. This series is sort of like, well, a really COOL version of Brian Jacques' Redwall series... but with ten times the excitement and none of the boring food fetish that chokes his books (and their readers) from stem to stern. This story has it all... action, adventure, humor, great villains, quirky heroes and a rich, detailed world. Paul Kidd really seems to have a talent for bringing characters to life, which is only helped by all of the full-page illustrations in the book! You just never see that in most books these days. As a matter of fact, Whisper, Paul Kidd's other novel, was the only other book I've seen with that sort of thing in my last five years of reading. This book, and Whisper, are the two best Paul Kidd books I have read since "Mus of Kerbridge", from TSR. I totally recommend this book. Five gold stars!

Like Sterne's other works, _A Sentimental Journey_ is extraordinarily playful. His works are the eighteenth century's postmodernist works of play. They have lots of textual puzzles and tend toward the absurd. For example, the Mr. Yorick of the _Journey_ is also a character in Sterne's major novel _Tristram Shandy_ and is also the name under which he publishes his own sermons (he was a clergyman). The text is very "fragmentary" and the novel even jokes about that itself, labelling parts of itself "fragment." In these ways, the _Journey_ is fun and modern.

But it is also indicative of an important eighteenth-century trend--sensibility or sentimentalism. All eras have their debates about the relationshp between the individual and society and this is one eighteenth-century answer. This opinion has nothing to do with "rights" but everything to do with "sympathy." Mr. Yorick, the "sentimental traveller," relates to other human beings through sympathetic physical responses, most notably the "pulses" and "beats" of his heart and hands for various women.

Therefore, this book is a good way to get into a very different historical mindset while at the same time seeing the roots of some of the literary forms of today.

This autobiographical acount by Sterne of his amorous progress through France and Northern Italy is surely one of the most delightful books ever written. Composed as he lay dying of tuberculosis, the book nonetheless encaptures the author's renowned zest for life as well as the libertine spirit of the age in which he lived. The journey down through France to Northern Italy is the perfect vehicle for an excursion into the nature of human sensibility, and from the moment that this cultured Anglo-Irish cleric sets foot in Calais, the reader is treated to a seies of exquisite encounters with the fairer sex. Rarely has an author transmitted so well his understanding of the psychological complexity of women, or the pleasure he takes in their company. Engaging, perceptive and witty, this is a book whiich cannot fail to leave an imprint on the imagination.

Even for modern readers, "A Sentimental Journey" (published 1768)is as startlingly innovative as Sterne's celebrated "Tristram Shandy". Sterne's ability to crystallize the minute details of experience - which may be down to a few seconds only - is reminiscent of Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse". Indeed, Woolf admired this book.

This is by no means an easy read. The 18th-century prose is difficult; the book is larded with Frenchisms and Biblical or classical allusions; the complex, slow narrative often requires re-reading. But the rewards are great! It's wise, deeply comical, and incredibly perceptive.

There are several helpful reviews below dealing with the aspect of "sentimentality", and so I will just single out two things which appealed to me:

1. STERNE AND BODY LANGUAGE. Sterne shows an almost 20th-century appreciation of body language. In fact, I believe he might have been the first to identify it as such. His chapter, "The Translation", highlights the importance of being able to interpret subtle physical hints, like a language: "There is not a secret so aiding to the progress of sociality, as to get master of this _shorthand_, and be quick in rendering the several turns of looks and limbs, with all their inflections and delineations, into plain words." How visionary!

2. STERNE AND THE FRENCH. Ever since Shakespeare inserted a scene in "cod French" into _Henry V_, actually ever since the Norman Conquest and up to Monty Python and beyond, the English have revelled in mocking the French and their language. His Continental travelling gives Sterne the perfect excuse to do this. At one point he differentiates between "tant pis" (= "never mind" - where there is nothing to be gained) and "tant mieux" (= so much the better - where there IS an advantage). He also has a hilarious section on the grades of French swearing: first "Diable!", then "Peste!" and finally the words that he won't repeat. In all cases, Sterne carefully shows the social niceties of these expressions.

The protagonist, Yorick, has various adventures of lust and feeling with women and other typically travelish things like losing his passport that we can all relate to. He's tender, obscene, learned, funny, companionable, and above all, readable - if tough.

A Sentimental Journey is a fabulous book for so many reasons. Laurence Sterne was an immensely influential writer in the 18th century--his major works, Sentimental Journey and Tristram Shandy, were responses to the travel narrative and newly born novel, respectively. His writing is essential to scholars of the 18th century--he is referenced in Austen's Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey, Brown's The Power of Sympathy, Foster's The Coquette and Tyler's The Contrast. To understand and appreciate his novel is to have a better appreciation and love of the works that built their structures on his foundation. And yet it is original, as Yorick says himself, "both my travels and observations will be altogether of a different cast from any of my fore-runners."

Yet it is not solely for historical benefit that one should read Sentimental Journey. The adventures and amours of Sterne's semi-autobiographical Yorick are delightful. One of the most romantic passages I've read in a book occurs when Yorick inadvertantly takes the hand of a woman and describes in detail the thrill of merely holding it. Granted, hers is not the only hand he will hold, but he writes so wonderfully, candidly and engagingly that it is extremely difficult to hold his passions against the sentimental Yorick. His scene with the starling locked in a cage is pertinent and a touching commentary on slavery. What a guy! My only complaint is the editor of this edition does not feel it necessary to translate the French-of which there is plenty-making some passages difficult to understand at best. However,this is a sentimental journey that I will gladly take over and over.

Sterne befuddles and delights readers and critics alike in A Sentimental Journey. He takes the fashionable travel log of the time and satarizes it. Contemporary critics had a fit over its supposedly bawdy nature, yet some modern readers may over look its sublte innuendo. The form of the novel is quite unlike anything that had preceeded it, thus is important for any scholars. Most importanly, however, the book is funny and fun to read.

Personally, I liked it a lot, but I don't think this is for everyone so I gave it four instead of five stars. It is a volume filled with beautiful stories from John Moschos' travels from either Constantinople or Mt. Athos, down through the Levant, and finally ending in Egypt. Some of the stories are obviously confusions of other stories which he has already told while others which he claims are visions, are probably not. An examples of the latter is that he will sometimes introduce one of the miracle stories as "One day when Abba so an so was working outside, it was at the greatest heat of the day and suddenly such and such appeared to him..."

Other stories vary from a priest who wouldn't baptize women because he struggled with becomng 'aroused' while annointing them. In response, Saint John the Baptist appeared to him, made the sign of the cross over his groin and never again did he struggle with the problem. Please, though, understand that there is a significant spiritual meaning to all of these stories regardless of how funny some of them appear on the outside. For examples, the saints will always and without fail pray for and help as much as they can, those who call upon them. It is really a book for the mature reader but well worth it.

Historical notes are also a big bonus. There is an entire appendix of them which I found extremely helpful and explanatory.

I enjoyed it and found this to be very edifying in the simplicity, love, and beauty with which it was composed.

I know the old expression "You cannot judge a book by its cover" is perhaps the most overused cliché in the English language, but I assumed that a book titled "The Spiritual Meadow" with flowers on its cover would be a sweet, or at least semi-sweet title with ancient tried and true spiritual quotes, a Desert Father's Lite so to speak. Well, it's not. If anything, the Desert Fathers could be described as "Spiritual Meadow Lite" rather than the other way around.

The book itself is an example of an early Christian travel tale. John Moschos traveled to visit the monasteries in Palestine and the book is a recording of his observations, the stories he heard, and the wisdom he learned along the way. The people we meet in the book are serious about the Christian life, and the importance of austerity. There are no excuses for anything but the best from all followers, and readers could wonder if anyone could truly be a follower of Christ. The stories themselves can be a bit difficult for modern Christians to understand, and could seem so far removed from today that the writings are little more than a curiosity. Readers could decide that the writings are too severe, and in some cases, anti-Semitic, at least by our standards. Some of these thoughts were my immediate observations after reading many of the excerpts, especially of I read these writings too critically. Yet when I think about the time in which these monks lived, the power of their witness, and their dedication to God, and this is where the power of this work can be found, and makes it timeless. From a historical point of view, we get an up close and intimate look at early monasticism.

Potential readers should note that the translation of this work is literal. Some of the pieces are available only in fragmentary form and this is how it is presented. This is a plus for the work in my estimation. Readers can wrestle with the actual text rather than what a translator feels the text is missing.

This book exemplifies the wisdom of the desrert fathers in the late 6th century. The monk John Moschos, compiled their sayings and wrote to his spiritual son , Sophronius, that their wisdom was like that of beautiful flowers in a spiritual meadow. Sophronius then went on to become Patriarch of Jerusalem.

If you (1) enjoy reading the writings of Orthodox believers from centuries ago, (2) love good travel writing, AND (3) seek further spiritual enrichment on your Christian walk, buy Moschus's "The Spiritual Meadow." I strongly recommend that you also buy "From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East" by William Dalrymple (see the link under "Customers who bought this book also bought..."). In the mid 1990s Dalrymple used Moschus's book to retrace the journies Moschus made and makes a strong case for the fragile state of contemporary Middle East Christianity--something Moschus even noticed just starting to manifest itself way back in c. 580 A.D. Each book complements the other. Buy them both. Don't worry about the money outlay, which isn't much anyway. You won't be disappointed.

St John Mochus spent several years travelling throughout the deserts, rather like a 'roving reporter' of today, wanting to gather the stories of the spiritual giants of the desert (who often lived many distances apart in purposely difficult to get to places (so that they could lead their lives of prayer and struggle with more focus and attentiveness)) that lived during his own lifetime, and this is exactly what he did.

These stories are all real, straight from the mouths of 6th century Eastern Christian monks, and each is a word of wisdom - food for thought - sometimes shocking our pre-conceived notions of things - and ends up showing just how the Eastern Orthodox Church is of that same ethos today as it was then. A modern day example would be the monks on Mt Athos - and it should not be surprising that contemporary emulators of St John Mochus, compiling stories from Orthoox monks, will find similar true accounts today.