Arthur Books

My first day of vacation was spent sleeping because this book kept me awake most of the night before. What a fantastic read! I could NOT put it down. Stoddard shines a light on the dark side of today's "business is business" mentality with a shockingly funny story that hooked me from page one. The tale came alive through unforgettable characters, both captivating and repulsive. They seem oddly familiar as they reflect the personalities in corporate America today. This is an energetic battle between good and evil. Pick this one up and hang on for a wild ride!

Knights in Dark Satin was a surprisingly great read. The author develops the charaters so well, very reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen's style, I had to find out what they were going to do next. Darkly humorous, the shenanagans of the consulting firm and how they try to take over the third generation family run tractor company ring true in todays corporate mentality with no morals or conscience. The Kansas small town values and many twist and turns, including a tornadic conclusion kept me totally absorbed through the entire book.

In an era of leveraged buy-outs, sleazy take-overs and corporate ethics gone amuck, Christopher Stoddard weaves an authentic, darkly humorous and endlessly entertaining tale of an outside consulting firm's attempts to ruthlessly profit on the misfortunes of a family-owned Kansas tractor company. Beyond this new author's unique and fresh story-telling abilities, Stoddard is surely someone who has lived close to his subject matter. This much is guaranteed. You won't put this book down until you follow each twist and turn to this writer's clever conclusion. I highly recommend Knights in Dark Satin to anyone interested in an outrageously funny and painfully present-day account of American business practices.

Very informative and enlightening read. The writers argue that retirement from paid work does not mean a retirement from meaningful contribution to the world. In fact, the people cited in the book, in some ways, contributed MORE to the world after their retirments. As a person approaching that age, I am glad to see retirement reframed as the start of an important second career.

Having retired this year, I was curious as to what I'd missed in my plans for this momentous life transition. So, I picked up "Life After Work" anticipating another book explaining to me how, at my age, I needed to "balance my portfolio" and cut back on the risk level of my investments. What a pleasant surprise. This book addresses the more difficult challenges of retirement: Who you are and how the person you are will be positively realized during this stage of life.

This book is a smooth read. The style is straight-forward and dynamic. It's like sitting down with a good friend and talking about personal decisions you have to make. The narrative style is easy to follow. There is a lot of theory in the discussion; however, it's presented in a muted fashion without the reader having to cope with the technical language of scholarly writings. Let me be clear, though; this book is based on sound scholarship both by the authors and the sources they incorporate into the analyses, conclusions, and suggestions offered throughout.

Most readers will know something about the six people profiled in Life After Work. If not, the profiles are so compact and engaging that readers will not be disadvantaged if these are new lives to examine. And, readers will be enriched by these life reviews done from a sensitive, loving perspective. It is clear that the authors truly like and respect the people they profile and from whom they extract significant lessons for all of us as we plan, experience, and reflect on our own retirements.

There are plenty of "buzz" words and phrases to take away from the reading. Primary examples are: Three R's of Responsibilities, Relationships, and Recreation; retirement takes many forms; life transition; guide to satisfactory retirement; and my favorite, the myth of found time. More importantly, the book has a real holistic feel to it, that is, there is an interaction that goes on throughout the book so at the end all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. And this puzzle, presented by this excellent book, is truly about the personal side of retirement.

I strongly recommend this lively and engrossing book for readers of any age. They certainly will come away with a different perspective on this wonderful event - retirement - which we all hope to experience.

I was reading Life After Work while in line at the airport, and the man behind me said, "Life After Work, I've got to read that!" He's right: This book is a must-read for anyone contemplating retirement. As the authors rightfully point out, much of what fills bookshelves and magazine articles about retirement addresses the financial aspects: how much money do you need to retire, how to save for retirement, etc. What's often missing from those reports is what Arthur Dauria and Walter vom Saal, the authors of Life After Work, call "the personal side of retirement." They write, "Financial security is not the only important issue in retirement. Beyond a certain level, more money does not lead to more happiness."

The rest of the book is devoted to that question: how to have a happy, fulfilling retirement. To answer that question, the authors take a unique and engaging approach. They profile six famous people, each of them with unique reasons for retiring and experience after retiring. It's a diverse group in terms of gender, race, and life experience: Sarah and Bessie Delany, African-Americans who grew up in the rural south and became bestselling authors after age 100; Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler, multiple academy award-winning actress Katharine Hepburn; Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States; and Arthur Ashe, tennis champion and civil rights advocate.

As a person who doesn't read People magazine or biographies, I was actually surprised and how successfully the authors drew me into the stories of these famous individuals. After giving the background of each person's life and describing the successes (or failures) of their retirements, the authors then draw conclusions about how we can better prepare for (and better enjoy) our own retirement.

The authors' suggestions and advice for successful retirement are drawn from the life stories they tell, and also are supported by research they describe. I was surprised to learn that only 1 in 20 older Americans is in a nursing home, and the book is filled with other similar tidbits that push one's thinking beyond what we hear about retirement or aging in the news. I loved their quote from the Sarah and Bessie Delany, "cut back on your possessions. The more you own the more time you waste taking care of things." I'm going to try to start doing that long before retirement. No matter who you are -- male or female, artist or business leader, rich or poor, you can find role models in this book.

The authors also devote a section to what they call the "three Rs of retirement" -- responsibilities, relationships, and recreation, which is a great added bonus at the end of the book. Overall, Life After Work is a unique and informative book: combining advice with biography. I highly recommend it!

I thought this book was excellent. It was extremely helpful as far as taking a piece of work that I found difficult to read, and not only making it understandable and interesting, but also giving it meaning and purpose. I now comprehend the book's importance as a historical piece of literature much better than I could before. I found the biography of Casmus' life to be well-rounded and captivating, without needing to read an entire book about him! I highly recommend this book for any student of literature who wants to better understand Casmus and/or his writing of The Plague.

I thought this book was excellent. It was extremely helpful as far as taking a piece of work that I found difficult to read, and not only making it understandable and interesting, but also giving it meaning and purpose. I now comprehend the book's importance as a historical piece of literature much better than I could before. I found the biography of Casmus' life to be well-rounded and captivating, without needing to read an entire book about him! I highly recommend this book for any student of literature who wants to better understand Casmus and/or his writing of The Plague.

Jesse Cunningham catalogues a broad, well-researched collection of essays that address readers on a variety of levels. Camus biographers Germaine Bree and Gaetan Picon introduce the work with insightful, easily understood discussions on theme and allegory. The other contributing writers, (John Cruickshank, Derek Parker, David R. Ellison, Brian Masters, Rachel Bespaloff, Jennifer Waelti-Walters, Patrick McCarthy, Allen Thiher, David Sprintzen, Bernard C. Murchland, and Robert R. Brock), tackle a variety of subjects with pertinence and wit. I highly recommend this work as an insightful read and a stepping stone to further research.

Use literature and literary figures to follow in the footsteps of notable writers and their settings with the aid of a title which covers many destinations, from the Prague of Kafka to Steinbeck's California setting for Cannery Row. Add first-person reflections on the literature containing the settings and you have an excellent take-along or travel planner.

Literary Trips: Following In The Footsteps Of Fame is a superbly presented compendium of observations, adventures, and travels of and by some of the best loved writers as they trekked around the world. A magnificent armchair travelogue, Literary Trips is divided as the world is: Africa to Australasia (Paul Bowles, T. E. Lawrence, Rohinton Mistry, Bruce Chatwin); North America: West (Malcolm Lowry, The Beats, D. H. Lawrence, Garrison Keillor and Sinclair Lewis); North America: East (Tennessee Williams, Margaret Mitchell and Tom Wolfe, Ayn Rand, Mark Twain, Elizabeth Smart); Caribbean and Latin America (Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming and Noel Coward, John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood); Great Britain and Ireland (W. B. Yeats, Jane Urquhart and the Bronte Sisters, A. A. Milne, Agatha Christie and Jane Austen); Continental Europe (Knut Hamsun, The Lost Generation, Mary Shelley). Highly recommended for both school and community library collections, Literary Trips is enhanced for the reader with a section on biographies and a "user friendly" index. A novel and original feature of this publication is that any of the chapters are available as separate, individual e-texts and downloadable from the GreatestEscapes.com website.

This is a book to savor in a cigar lounge...in the corner of a jazz club...in front of a softly crackling fire at home. Or in a hammock under a royal palm in the deep, deep south.

I started out by nestling with the book into our oversized, down-filled sofa - and ended up traveling through one of the best reads of my life. Several times, I startled my husband with cries of "No kidding...Wow...I didn't know that...Ohmigod..." as I discovered new places in the hearts of my favorite authors. And delved into the lives of others I knew little about.

Literary Trips probes into the past, yet is formatted for the present. We're all used to reading in chunks now - short, self-contained sections that are complete, independent modules. And this book is totally "today" in that respect. Each chapter, written by a different person, is a complete story - gift-wrapped with its own special signature. Each has its own flavor, its own style, its own finds. Every writer has unearthed amusing tidbits and lively tales that add richness and depth to well researched and beautifully written prose.

The book is also an excellent travel guide for following in those famous footsteps. Each module contains a practical reference section listing hotels and other stomping grounds of famous feet ("Literary Sites"; "Literary Sleeps"). Each section also describes how to get to those grounds and provides useful tips and background information.

My favorite parts are the little surprises throughout. For example, did you know that: § Hemingway dedicated his Nobel Prize for literature to the patron saint of the basilica in Santiago de Cuba? § Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond novels at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica, and named 007 after the local author of a book on birds? § When Ayn Rand was writing Atlas Shrugged, which took 12 years, she didn't leave her apartment for an entire month?

Another of the book's delightful dimensions is a smattering of recipes that could form a menu for a literary memorial party. You could honor D.H. Lawrence with his dandelion wine; Hemingway with double daiquiris; Mistry with Dhansak; and Sinclair Lewis with his "Sinful Christmas Cookies".

I'm always looking for inspiration for my own writing, and Lit Trips provides it on many fronts. Much of it comes from seeing so many authors "under one cover" - an excellent way to compare styles, to link lives, to see how they made their magic. But I was no less inspired by the talent of the book's contributing writers.

Reviewed by Samuel Peralta (age 6) for Reader Views (1/08)

This story is about Red Rhupert. In the story, he wonders why he is the only red rhupert around. He wants to be like the other rhuperts that are yellow, blue, pink, green, and lavender. He feels sad because he is different. One day Red Rhupert visits the Big Bon Red Flugurt and learns that his color is not important. He finds out that what counts is that he is a "rhupert." Even though his color is different, he is still a rhupert.

I liked the pictures in this story. I also like that Red Rhupert learns that it is okay to be different. The story reminded me that it doesn't matter what color you are, that everyone is a person-- and that is all that matters. I think this is a great book for kids. It will help them to remember that our skin color is not important.

Parent's Note: "Little Red Rhupert" is a wonderful book. It teaches a valuable lesson in a fun and imaginative manner. The colorful pictures keep the kids interested and the message is communicated in a light and casual manner. This book can be used as a tool to talk about race, color, and overall differences. Most importantly, it can be used to drive home the message that we are all human beings-- no matter what our skin color. The author gets a parents rating of five stars!

D. Arthur's Little Red Rhupert is a rollicking fun picturebook about a little red ostrich searching for where he belongs in the world. And the world is such a big place to search! Little Red Rhupert feels alone because he isn't the right hue - all the yellow, green, blue, and purple Rhuperts flock together to do their favorite things, like ride jellly bean cars. At last Little Red Rhupert finds wisdom from Big Bon Red Flugurt - what binds him to the other Rhuperts isn't his color, but that he is a Rhupert just like them! A zany story with an underlying moral about not placing too much importance upon surface distinctions.

This book has been wonderful to share with my little one. It is fun to read, beautifully illustrated, and carries a great message. If Rhupert captures your attention at the start of the book, by the end he will have captured your heart.

A humorous story published as part of a collection of stories by Wilde in 1891: Lord Arthur Saville's Crime and Other Stories .
At Lady Windermere's final reception before Easter, at Bentinck House, Lady Windermere's chiromantist, Mr. Podgers is quite a hit, telling people about themselves and their fortunes.

The chiromantist tells one Lord Arthur Saville that before he can marry his beloved, he must murder a distant relative. What follows is a hilarious account of Lord Saville's various failed attempts through poison , explosives etc to do the deed, before in despair , he rather murders Mr. Podgers himself.

A typically charming offbeat Wilde story with a twist in the tale.

This is a CBC dramatized interpretation of Wilde's short story. Taped in front of live audience, this is by far the best story- telling that has ever done to Wilde's work. Both music and sound effect are superb, and best of all, the narration and dialogues closely follow the original story. In this respect, CBC has outperformed BBC by a large degree.

Lord Saville one night listens to a chiromantist who tells him he has to commit a crime, whose victim is supposed to be a relative of some kind, before being able to marry his love. The tale is full of humor and shows how he fails, systematically, in his enterprise, because he believes the soothsayer. But the more humoristic the tale becomes, the more desperate Lord Saville grows. Till one night he kills the chiromantist. He has finally been able to rebel against the prediction and this rebellion proves the prediction is a fake. But a second dimension appears in the tale. The chiromantist had been introduced to Lord Saville by some woman who invites such oddities to her parties to amuse the audience. She behaves as if she believed in those ominous birds that she calls lions. And Lord Saville was naive enough to accept this prediction as true and unescapable because it had been introduced to him by this particular woman, in this particular situation. Men must not fall in the traps of social tricks that some women hire to give some life to their social evenings that would be very dull otherwise. Who is wiser? The woman who "animates" her social gatherings with such attractions? Or the man who falls in the trap of believing such predictions? The other tales of the collection are all just as funny by showing how some people are able to go beyond such appearances and reach another level of being that is some kind of game and it becomes a trap to the gullible ones.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

I believe that this is an interesting account of how the eyewitness testimony was gathered for the Roman Judge. The author does a wonderful job of piecing together all the historical facts as required by the parchment found in Rome. It gives you insight on how the Gospels of the bible could have been compiled and written, especially the gospel of Luke.

I believe that this is an interesting account of how the eyewitness testimony was gathered for the Roman Judge. The author does a wonderful job of piecing together all the historical facts as required by the parchment found in Rome. It gives you insight on how the Gospels of the bible could have been compiled and written, especially the gospel of Luke.

Mr. Walker has some some very interesting insights into the reactions of the Jerusalem community after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The book follows Luke as he searches for testimony regarding Jesus not being in the tomb three days after his death. Then we are thrown in the middle of Roman Court as Luke testifies to what he has learned during his investigation.

This is an interesting idea and account that fits the Easter season perfectly. Take this opportunity to explore facts and ideas that you may not have known before.

William B. Secrest has finally given readers a true insight into the life of the mysterious Harry Love, "The Man from the Rio Grande." Many stories have been written about the notorious bandit, Joaquin Murrieta. This is the first I have read about the man who brought him to justice. It is a very interesting and accurate portrayal of Harry and the events that formed his life. A must for aficionados of the Wild West.

The Man From The Rio Grande is a biography of Harry Love, the leader of the California Rangers who pursed and captured Joaquin Murrieta, leader of a gang of Mexican bandits wreaking havoc in the 1850's. Since the pursuit and capture of Murrieta stands out in history, Murrieta's complete story is included as also. Extensively researched, The Man From The Rio Grande traces Love's humble beginnings as an army courier and express rider to his famous achievement in the name of justice, to his efforts as a pioneer sawmill operator and farmer, and his unfortunately failed marriage. A revealing glimpse into life on the American frontier through the eyes of an ordinary man turned legendary hero.

By necessity a biographer of legendary California Ranger Harry Love must deconstruct numerous myths surrounding the man Walter Noble Burns called the Robin Hood of El Dorado, the undeservedly romanticized Joaquin Murrieta. Such an author must also tell of the brief history of the California Rangers, and of the lawless atmosphere of the early years of California statehood. Distinguished California historian William B. Secrest does all this for Harry Love, a figure long overdue for a proper biography.

Secrest shows the one-time Texas Ranger Love, by virtue of his Rio Grande experiences, to be the ideal choice of the California legislature to lead a group of twenty Rangers in tracking down the elusive "Joaquin." Murrieta by then was, in Secrest's words, a man whose "hands were stained with the blood of dozens of victims." Whether Murrieta was killed by Love's Rangers has always been questioned by some, despite the identification of his severed head (in a bottle) by many who knew him. In his most compelling writing, Secrest methodically presents a mountain of documented evidence that Love did end Murrieta's life of crime, and that Murrieta's preserved head was convincingly and unmistakably identified by those who knew him.

Love has been called a "drunken brute," a lying braggart, and a fraud, but Secrest portrays a complex and multi-dimensional pioneer figure. Love came to California as early as 1839, and returned to stay during the gold rush. This followed his stalwart service as a volunteer and employee of the U. S. Army along the Rio Grande during the tumultuous 1840s. Love was an imposing figure who could organize a hunt with purpose and tenacity. Yet he was capable of appallingly bad choices in many aspects of his personal life, particularly in his glory-less final years. He made poor business decisions in later life while attempting to prosper at his sawmill and farm, and he especially erred in his choice to settle down with the `wife from hell.' This last poor choice cost him his life, when he provoked his own killing by the mysterious Christian "Fred" Eiversen.

Lavishly illustrated, there are other riches to be found between this book's covers. The author refers to "cleaning up the loose ends of the Murrieta story," and does just that. The myth of Murrieta as a Robin Hood or social bandit is thoroughly discredited. The author calls on Hispanic historians to bring to bear on Murrieta's story the special insights of their heritage and culture, in order to create a truly in-depth study of Murrieta. He lays to rest his bogus image as a nationalistic Chicano liberator and folk hero. This characterization Secrest correctly labels as "insulting to the thousands of decent Hispanic pioneers to whom he caused great distress, grief, and shame." The lengthy epilogue includes the interesting if bizarre story Mariana Andrada, a purported wife of Murrieta.

On a final note, the author relates how Harry Love's long-lost grave was marked with a new and detailed headstone in 2003. William Secrest fittingly was chosen to speak at the dedication of Love's new monument. This book makes a persuasive case that such a monument was deserved for this colorful pioneer Californian.

When a collector bought a ragged book of maps in a secondhand Belgian bookstore in 1967, he had no idea he had turned up a lost cartographic treasure: an early atlas created by the sixteenth-century cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The 17 maps, reprinted for the first time - in exquisite, full-size facsimiles tucked with an opulent book into a slipcase - are justifiably pricey. Margaret Foley, "Discover" magazine, June 1998

Born Gerhard Kremer of German parents in the town of Rapelmonde near Antwerp on March 5, 1512, Gerardus Mercator (like many other intellectuals of his time, very early in his life Latinized his German name) was a mapmaker, scholar, and religious thinker whose interests ranged from mathematics to calligraphy to the origin of the universe.

In 1544 he fell victim to the Inquisition, partly due to his Protestant beliefs and partly due to suspicions aroused by his wide travels in search of data for his maps. He was fortunate to be released after seven months with the charges of heresy lifted and his head and limbs still intact.

His 1564 wall map of the British Isles (included in his atlas) was the first detailed and accurate geographical picture of those islands -- and was used by a Scottish traitor to help France and Spain invade Britain and overthrow the Protestant Tudors. Mercator was one of the first mapmakers to cut up maps and bind them inside boards, later coining the term 'atlas' to refer to such collection of maps. One of the most revolutionary inventions in the history of cartography, Mercator's cylindrical world map projections (first used in 1569) enabled navigators to plot a long course in straight lines and has greatly influenced our image of the world to this very day.

In 1967 an anonymous buyer purchased a large, tattered book of maps in a second-hand bookshop in Belgium and unknowingly brought to the present a long-lost atlas by this renowned 16th century cartographer. The Mercator Atlas of Europe: Facsimile of the Maps By Gerardus Mercator Contained In The Atlas Of Europe, Circa 1570-1572 is a beautiful book showcasing seventeen facsimile map prints (suitable for framing) and a large-format 96-page book with 100 illustrations (80 in color). The Mercator Atlas of Europe is an ideal and highly recommended memorial fund acquisition selection for academic and community libraries.

...Those not able to visit the relic in person can examine a facsimile of the one-of-a-kind atlas, compiled by Mercator around 1570, with an inaugural release by Walking Tree Press. The seventeen replica maps are accompanied by a richly illustrated, large-format book - published previously in French and Dutch - featuring essays by an international team of map scholars.

The authors leave no aspect of the fascinating history of the "Atlas of Europe" unexamined...The seventeen frameable facsimile maps are newly color-corrected and expertly printed. The text illustrations are drawn from collections throughout Europe and the United States. The hefty volume, stored in its own green slipcase, provides readers with a tactile adventure --something that tends to be overlooked in modern publishing - as well as a feast for the eyes and mind. Walking Tree's elegant edition combines the high art of maps with first-rate scholarly pursuits - a marvelous union Mercator would endorse. --- "Mercator's World" November/December 1997

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The list of Misia Sert's friends would read like a who's who of the cultural elite of Paris from the end of the Second Empire-World War II. Lautrec, Picasso, Coucteau, Chanel, the whole Ballet Russe crowd, and of course Proust. She was more a muse than creative genius herself, although she was supposed to have played the piano quite well, something we will never know for sure. This book is an enjoyable read and demonstrates just how wonderful life can be if one is good-looking, wealthy and well-connected.

I simply love this book. I was twelve when I first read it and dogeared and yellow as it is, it never leaves my bedside table to this day. It is also my heavy-duty travel companion for it is laden with interesting anecdotes of the crème de la crème artists of the turn of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. Misia was the daughter of a Polish sculptor and grew up in haute bourgeoisie Paris. Through her different marriages to the editor of an influential art magazine, a media mogul and a Spanish painter, she had the chance to hobnob with the likes of Verlaine, Mallarmé, Débussy, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard, Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Satie, Picasso, Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Reverdy or Coco Chanel. Try reading it before you undertake your next trip to Paris or while you listen to Débussy's Faune or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. It'll give you new insights on your next visit to the Musée D'Orsay. A fascinating account of a fascinating period in art history.