Ball Books

I have saved this book to read just before the start of the new baseball season, not that I need to get fired up! Especially fun read as I live in Phoenix and root for the D-Backs and Mr. G!

My husband and I are a big fan of this man who has done a lot for the Arizona Diamondbacks, our favorite team. He is a gem to us and look forward to hearing him commentate more games this year.

Joe G. is a great storyteller, except in this book. I was very dissappointed in the fact it was like reading a "How to Play Baseball" for a 12 yr old. The stories were one liners and wrapped around the history of shinguards or who and how they make bats. Only finished 80% of book and will go bnack at later time.

I bought this for my husband. Who is a big NY Yankee fan (not too easy when you live in Red Sox territory). He enjoyed this so much, it was funny and informative. Go Yankees!!!!

Reading this book is like having a private lunch with Mr. Garagiola.

It's as if he's just lettin' the memories flow out, randomly. It's almost a stream-of-consciousness deluge of little anecdotes, stories and ideas.

Consequently, it's not the most elegant book; the writing isn't anything to get excited about. Given the innumerable literary baseball classics out there, it's safe to say this is not one of them. He's not in the Kahn/Halberstam/Angell/etc. territory here. Nor does he intend to be.

On the other hand, its' leisurely pace makes it more personal, more folksy, and therefore more real. Having heard his voice, oh, a bazillion times over the last several decades, it was easy to simply hear that voice in my head while reading this slim volume.

It works like a charm. Some of the incidents aren't as funny as he thinks they are; most of them are hilarious. Just like a favorite uncle who indulges you with stories from his past...which usually includes your own family members...Mr. Garagiola clearly enjoys the telling of the tale, with famous baseball personalities that for fans are exactly like old family members.

This is an easy recommendation, and a most pleasurable summer read for any baseball fan.

I saw this book on the coffee table of a friend and immediately went home and bought it as a gift for my brother. He is an avid golfer and was overwhelmed with this gift! He has it on his coffee table and said his visitors never put it down and it's his favorite gift of the year! I'm not a golfer and I still LOVED this book!

This book is perfectly delightful. I purchased this for my husband, and he has spent hours pouring over it. The pictures are wonderful and very high quality. He swears I bought it because so many pictures are of him in trouble at the golf course (not true!), but loads of laughs.

I ordered this book as a gift. I loved it so much ( I am NOT a golfer at all) that I ordered another as a gift plus one for me!

I gave my husband Lost Balls for Father's Day and he absolutely loved it. My 16 year old son and I both enjoyed it as well. This book has beautiful pictures - the photography is excellent - that capture some incredible and impossible lies. The scenes are lovely and make one appreciate golf as a form of relaxation. The many precarious positions that are captured make one appreciate golf as an obsession. For those who love and hate this game, this book will be enjoyed.

This book's photographs are absolutely brilliant! I first saw the book walking through a store and picked it up only to open up to a page where a golf ball was stuck in a pile of poo. I was flipping pages before you knew it and every shot had me smiling, laughing, reminiscing and just really enjoying the photos. If you are a golfer or going to be buying this book for a golfer I am sure they will get as much enjoyment out of it as I have. Everyone comes into our home and I catch them flipping pages on the book and enjoying it. So don't pass this book up, buy it now!

Yet another wonderful Norton anthology, but I have only one disappointment: this "shorter seventh edition" excludes "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which was in the "shorter sixth edition." This is a classic short story and I can't quite get my head around as to why they chose to omit this of all stories from this edition. :-( This was one (of many) reasons I ordered this book-- I didn't imagine they'd pull that story...

There are a few nice additions however, such as more than one story now by O'Connor and Faulkner (I don't believe "A Rose for Emily" was in the sixth edition).

All my whinging aside, you can't go wrong with Norton's. It's still one of the better anthologies.

This volume is a comprehensive collection of short fiction that gives the reader a clear view of the canon of short fiction. Richard Bausch has also collected a wide range of short pieces on writing fiction that offer insights into the art and process of fiction. A great collection!

i needed this book for a short fiction class. it cost over $60 in the school book store. this was just what i was looking for on my very small student budget.

Product delivered on time and in good condition. Great seller, would buy again!

Book came very very quickly and in amazing condition. Although i returned the book because i no longer was taking the course that required this book they were very helpful with the whole returning process.

I had bought the regular Miracle balls before and I am very fond of them. The Portable ball adds the convenience of traveling with a smaller size ball. I bought it just before flying to Europe and was very happy to carry it on board the plane and use it during the long hours of sitting in my cramped seat. The mesh bag is a great idea - you grab and position the ball without fear of it rolling out of your hand, or under the seat. I used it to help me relax/stretch shoulder blades, leg muscles, neck, etc.

I recently bought a set for a friend too, and I will recommend it to anyone who needs to relax tight muscles.

I have owned the original Miracle Ball set for several years, and I just returned from a very long trip where I was in the car for several hours a day. When I reached my destination, I headed over to the local book store and purchased the portable kit. My lower back and hips were in severe pain from sitting in the car for so long, and my right leg was numb from the hip pain. By the time I went to bed that first evening, my pain was gone and I slept great. This is all because of this kit. It is different from the original kit. It contains a book written with exercises one can do on the road or in the office, even sitting in a chair. Perfect. I can see keeping this in my bag all the time. It is discreet and you could even use some of the exercises during a business meeting, as many of them are done in a chair.

I saw these at Costco and thought they might just be another cheesy (as seen on tv) type scam. I broke down and purchased them and I am totally amazed what they can do. I suffer from adult scoliosis and work at a desk all day which causes me to use poor posture which equals immense pain and knots in my shoulders and neck. I have tried chiropractors in combination with massage theray and while it worked, it was too expensive. I truly believe that yoga (Bikram specifically) is a miracle cure for one's body. However, for those that have difficulty finding the time and/or motivation to go - this is the ideal pain reliever!

I look forward to the moment I sit down every night to use the miracle balls. I have found that when I place one ball directly on the curved area of my spine - it immediately releases the pressure and cracks my back. I could lay there forever. The other stretch that I love is holding 3 neck angles for 10 minutes each - the knots are immediately smaller. I do have to say that these stretches are so intense (but feel amazing) that sometimes when I get up I am a bit nauseous. But that diminishes very quickly.

I rarely write reviews for products but felt these miracle balls deserve some praise. I haven't even used the book yet! If you are considering them - just buy them! They are so affordable that there is no reason to second guess purchasing them.

Enjoy!

Have used this product for the past year and it is very effective in relieving stress throughout the body by letting gravity do its job. By simply lying on the ball or balls your body's weight helps to release tight muscles in a particular area. Especially effective in the evening to relax before bed.

This product continues to support my back and has helped prevent me from injury during the many wintery days of shovelling snow. Excellent product. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

A friend of mine turned me unto this book - I thought I knew all the Bronx nostalgiac books, but this one was under my radar... Heres my review...

It's a pretty awesome book -- its about an 8th grade kid in the early 60's JFK had just gotten shot at the beginning of the book) who lived over behind the Jerome Reservoir and his daily life in school and hanging with his friends on the block and places like the bleachers in Van Courtlandt...

The book was a pretty enjoyable read - It almost has an amateurish feel to it with no chapters, and no real event until the last 40 or so pages... And it could really have used a better proofreader than Spell Check (lots of mistakes that wouldn't get picked up ("Their/They're/There" misuse-like things)

But even with those shortcomings, I really enjoyed it. He kinda nailed growing up in the Bronx for me... I know he was about 20 years earlier than me, and I lived near the Grand Concourse... But lots of things popped up that I hadn't thought about in years...

Like:
--The first time sneaking down to the St Pats parade without parents
--Drinking while in 8th grade and not being a big deal.
--Just hanging on a stoop while people in the building used to yell at you - and the old crusty neighbor who poured boiling water out the window -- only to be retaliated against a few days later by breaking his windows...

It's not going to win Book of the Year anytime soon, but it did bring back some great memories... And I'd say it was one of the more enjoyable books I've read lately... Definitely going to get Mr Schindler's other book...

A tale that takes you to the core of your adolesence, no matter where you happened to live. Reading their journey was like traveling in an emotional timeline of my own youth. Every adventure reminding me of the good and the naughty. Whitey and Vinny remind us how much we have in common with one another when we're vulnerable and freshly exposed to the onset of puberty. A tale of youth when youths didn't act like adults. An adventure of sweetness and innocence that will remind you how good it was before you grew up, wherever you grew up.

Do you know there really is a place called 238 St. & Bailey Ave. -- and I still live here. There is a Visitation School...The stumps and Pidgeon Park are still there... Steven has immortalized these people, places and events in a loving way. I can't wait to read it again

Vinnie and Whitey take us through the daily challenges and excitement of coming of age in The Bronx. We get to experience the feel of a real neighborhood where people are respected for who they are and not measured by what they have. These fourteen year olds take us on a journey of "first's" that will send your memory reeling. If it has been a while since you thought about your first love, the first beer in the park, the first visit to Yankee Stadium or your first time to the St. Patrick's Day parade be prepared to laugh out loud as you read this book.

With great literary style this book will answer questions like,"what were the last latin speaking altar boys of the milenium really thinking about?...Why do kids lie prone in the street coat hangers in hand fishing spauldeens out of sewers?...and finally, why does every apartment building in the Bronx seem to have a maniac patrolling the halls with a baseball bat?

"Sewer Balls" captures the joys and sorrows of life in the real neighborhoods of New York. If you are curious about growing up in The Bronx or the Parochial school experience in the 60's this is a must read!

I grew up in the Bronx, New York, at the same time that this coming of age story is set. I find that as I now get older, my heart and mind hearken back to the days of eggcreams and pretzels, and of hanging out on your stoop with a transistor radio tuned into the WMCA Good Guys. The streets, parks, subway and elevated trains were our domain, and we felt like we ruled them. The book Sewer Balls takes you back to a time when life was sweet. I am having my teenagers read it so that they can better understand me and where I came from. Anyone who was ever a teenager will enjoy this book!!

The Count of Monte Cristo in modern Europe. Our protagonist is now the son of an English aristocrat, the Chateau d'If has become an insane asylum in Scandinavia, but the basic premise is the same. It's the extra twists, though, which make this book worth buying.

To be honest, I am anything but a fan of Steven Fry the comedian. I find his humour to be well, schoolboyishly undemanding. How is it that when sitting at his typewriter he is able to pen works of such quality and originality? This is an excellent read. The storytelling is gripping, the wordplay and constructions used conjur up images and provoke feelings on several levels. For those of us of a certain age, this book is at times gratifyingly embarrassing as it takes us back to those moments which, when recalled are ear-stingingly painful but at the time made so much sense.
Read this book. If you enjoyed "Perfume," you will probably enjoy this one too.

One of my favorite authors, Fry is wonderful! This book definitely lingered with me- made me rethink those thoughts on revenge and trust...

The title 'The Stars' Tennis Balls' looked promising, and the author was well known to me from television. Stephen Fry is the soul of imperturbable urbanity and enlightened sophisticated wit. I have heard him compared, with just a little hyperbole, to Oscar Wilde, a likeness helped by his large corporeal dimensions. When I actually read the book I found wit indeed, and sophistication, and enlightened liberal attitudes. I found a great deal else too. In particular I found myself baffled as to what Fry thought he was doing in writing let alone publishing a story like this.

The title turns out to be taken from Webster's Duchess of Malfi, where it is meant in dead earnest - `We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and banded/Which way please them.' This is much the same sentiment as in Housman's `mortalem uexantia sidera sortem' - the stars that blight our human lot - suggesting that we are helpless pawns at the mercy of blind uncaring fate and chance. I am completely unable to relate this smart and eye-catching title to the story, which is one of the most improbable I ever read. There is nothing wrong with that in an appropriate case - Gulliver's Travels is not very probable on the face of it. The personae of this drama, far from being buffeted by remote eternal forces, are themselves the agents and victims of brilliant and outlandish human ingenuity, although one early catalyst of what happens is admittedly a wildly flukish coincidence, the kind of thing on which bookmakers' odds would be hard to compute. The various transformations that the main character then goes through are the stuff of legend not reality as most of us would understand the term, more like a modern Arabian Nights. Above all what puzzles me is the complete disproportion between the ostensible and humdrum reasons for ill-feeling towards the `hero' and the inferno of horrors that he first endures and then inflicts. Apart from anything else, it all takes place in a world apparently devoid of any law-enforcement.

Two ways occurred to me to make sense of it all. One was to try to view it as fantasy, an outlandish backdrop to a display of Fry's pet dislikes, mainly petit-bourgeois snobbery and conservative and traditionalist outlooks. These outlooks certainly get short shrift from the author, in a manner familiar from a certain type of enlightened and bien-pensant English intellectual. However what it really suggested to me was the bloodthirsty imaginings of an 8-year-old boy who has taken offence at some of his schoolmates or playmates and who in his mind calls down on them supra-biblical and ultra-Dante horrors. On seeing the name Cade among the cast of characters it crossed my mind that Fry might have got some of his inspiration from Cape Fear, but what the final sequence reminded me of more than anything was some of the Vincent Price movies of happy memory, such as The Abominable Dr Phibes.

I shall own up to mildly enjoying it, but at nearer 400 pages than 300 I recommend reading it quickly. Put it down for too long and you're not likely to pick it up again.

Stephen Fry in the past has written some brilliantly original books that are so overflowing with humor and wit that they are can seem almost too clever. This however, is not 100% original, in that it updates the classic The Count Of Monte Cristo to the modern day. (I should point out that TCOMC is my favorite book of all time, and one that I have read many times in many versions).

The way Fry has transplanted the characters and applied the dot com touch to it, must have been like untangling a huge stubborn knot of string--but he succeeds.

The story touches most of the main points of the classic, each central character from Dumas' book has a Fry counterpart, and while there are changes, they are changes that are in keeping with a contemporise adaptation of the story.

Even though this is a very clever re-telling of such a classic story, and while I enjoyed it, I must say that this lacks the original's grace.

Perhaps the era in which the original story was set had in fact more grace to it, but the conclusion to this version seemed very abrupt and stark.

Dumas brilliantly showed us some of the inner torment that the Dante's character was suffering, while Fry showed nothing like that from Ned Maddstone, leaving a rather one-dimensional feeling in relation to the character. In fact, it was in some of Maddstone's "victims" that you were given greater insights to, especially leading up to their final scenes.

All in all, a fun read very cleverly composed, but nothing more...but I'm sure Fry being the frighteningly clever man he is, realized that his version would suffer in comparison.

Armchair Interviews says: Well worth the read.

Have you ever been too small for something and had someone not pick you, let you go on a ride, etc. This is what Danny Walker deals with all the time with basketball. This book is called Summer Ball by Mike Lupica.

After being cut from his 8th grade basketball team because he was to small Danny makes his own team, which ends up winning the National Championship. He now is going to a basketball camp called Right Way. This camp is run by Josh Cameron and made up of the best ballers in the U.S.A. There is only one problem Danny is really short for his age. Don't get me wrong he is the best passer and dribbler you have ever seen, but he will be playing guys who are 6 foot 4 inches. When he gets to camp he is accidentally put in the 11 and 12-year-old dorm. But he also meets a kid named Zach who is also very much like Danny in many was. His coach is extra hard on Danny and very strict. This book has a great ending and, is the sequel of Travel Team. This book fits under the fiction genre. I would recommend this book to any middle school student. This book has a great ending, and it is extremely influential.

Another great book from Mike Lupica ! I recommend reading all of them !

Hey! I'm a 15 year old guy that loves sports and plays them with passion. This book, Summer Ball, brings back loads of memories from sports camps that I've attended, especially those competitive ones.

In this book, the main character is again Danny Walker just like it was in Mike Lupica's other basketball book, Travel Team. This book highlights many things that a teenage boy would definitely want to do. That includes sneaking out to meet girls, playing sports, and hanging with friends.

This book almost comes to life as the characters seem like real people -- kids that you would want to hang out with. That is how good of a job Mike Lupica did on this book.

In this story, Danny Walker is a 5'3 mini-baller, but Coach Ed Powers from the competitive "Right Way" basketball camp doesn't think he has what it takes to be a top-notch baller. Coach Powers thinks Danny is one of those small, scrawny fast kids that should play soccer. This book incorporates lots of emotions that teens have to deal with when they are put down or put into a position of making a team. Danny's attitude is great in this story, and it helps him to become a key player of his camp Celtics team. It is a great lesson learned and it shows that a teenage boy that is very determined can definitely get the job done.

Therefore, if you like sports and you liked the book Travel Team, and then this Mike Lupica book is for you! When you pick it up, be sure to follow each and every drive to the dish with Danny and friends for a SLAM DUNK of good reading!!!

The beginning made me unsure but once he got to camp (or met Tarik) I knew it would be good. I was worried that Danny would walk over everyone, but between Rasheed (at first) Lamar ( He doesn't deserve to be Named after Lamar Odom) and Coach "My Way" Powers I had plenty of people to hate (Teddy was absent because Richie told the mafia to get him). Powers was tied with Lamar and Teddy for biggest jerk in history, his quotes, (after Danny wins the game by using his own play) "You used your own play didn't you? No more secrets Mr. walker. Are you ever going to learn?" (after Danny asks to be traded to another team) " Mr. Walker let me give you to think about. Soccer. It's full of fast little guys like you." He destroys anyone with creativity and run an run mindedness (If he coached the Phoenix Suns Nash, Barbosa, Marion and Amare would be chewed out nightly and get 5 minutes of play each)

My 13 year old son does not like to immerse himself in books of any kind. The school he attends had an time a couple of times a week set aside where everybody in the school had to read. He hated it, but after reading this book, said he wished he had more reading time! I haven't read the book, but can't wait to do so.

I received the book in a great condition and in good timing. I'm very please! Thank you!

This book has everything you need to know about Technical Writing and Communication. Even things you probably don't need to know. It goes above and beyond the call of duty.

I think the book is good , specially for the beginners , but certainly the price is more.

won't know till it's used in class, is a hard and expensive text to find

Being very nervous about my first semester as a technical writing instructor, I pored over about half-a-dozen different books to get ideas and to see which textbook would be best to teach in the future. In spite of its shocking price, this book won hands-down.

This book (even more than the 7th edition) does an excellent job of taking students through the process of creating documents, helping students to understand the parts of the document and what each part does, and also gives some helpful sample documents. Unlike many technical writing texts which I have seen, both ethical and rhetorical issues are treated effectively and simply, while a good balance is struck between nuts-and-bolts grammar and formatting advice and discussions of audience awareness, credibility, and tone.

This book also has a number of helpful "Guidelines" boxes, wherein specific, concrete advice for particular writing tasks is given in a straightforward bulleted list. There is also some useful material on the companion website.

Overall, aside from the high price and the sometimes too-intense use of color and formatting features to draw attention to every little thing, this book is extremely useful for aspiring technical communicators.

Supposedly, lifting weights on a balance ball (aka Swiss ball, physio ball) can improve results as you employ more small muscles to keep your balance as you work out. This book requires weights (dumbells), a physio ball, and some other equipment like ankle weights and a bench (to do dips.)

There are quite a few workouts, listed by goal (strength, fat loss, flexibility) but the book was advertised to come with a plastic comb binding to stay open and the one I received was bound as a regular book. So it won't stay open as I work out. I was rather disappointed by this.

Add variety to your strength training routines with the skills in this guide. Basic, intermediate, and advanced directions are included for each exercise.

I like this book very much; the exercises are all great and cover a wide range. My book was not spiral-bound as one reviewer mentioned. That would have been a great bonus!

This is one of the best books I've seen of it's type. It is well organized and the approach is realistic. There are three general types of workouts which are mentioned in other reviews i.e. firm foundation, slim and trim and muscle bound. Under each one there are three levels of difficulty. These workouts are well thought out and the general lifting guidelines are valid.

The book also does a nice job of presenting the workouts in an easy to understand format with useful pictures and variations for many of the movements. What I see as a drawback, however, is information on how to get on and off the ball safely with weights and sufficient warnings and/or tips about potentially hazardous movements. Even so, the information that is presented is better than other books of its type that I have seen.

I have been doing a lot of the exercises on the ball and I think the concept is useful and it adds another dimension to each exercise. It also forces one to stabilize their core, which is important to have functional strength and to protect the back. On the other hand, this also increases exercise risk and the possiblity of a fall.

Many of these exercises are what you might see in any book on using dumbbells with some imaginative additions. The main difference on conventional exercises is the use of a ball instead of a bench. I would say roughly a third of the exercises are what you would see in a standard dumbbell book where a ball isn't necessary or a bench is the replacement for the ball.

One thing the book doesn't talk about is different kinds of balls with respect to punctures or leaks. My understanding is that you can get slow deflate balls in case of a puncture or leak. I understand Thera-Band makes these.

For people who want to use light weight on a ball or even resistance straps, I think it's possible to get a great workout. This approach to exercise also lends itself to circuit training, especially if adjustable dumbbells are used so the rest between sets is not too long. Using resistance straps for the exercises is also a safer option to consider.

I didn't give this book 5 full stars because of the safety stuff about getting on and off the ball. I think this is a big deal because a back, knee or other injury can be forever.

This book, though small, provides a very concise and necessary guide for anyone who wants to add variety to their strength training routines. Acquisition of these skills will eliminate the word 'routine!' There are so many options as each page includes a basic, intermediate, and advanced instruction for each exercise! Directions are simple and straight-forward and there are very few superfluous instructions. It is truly a "just the facts" guide.

After he loses his wife in childbirth, Eitenne de Brabant abandons his home, leaving his newborn daughter behind. But before he leaves his home to serve the king, he brings home a child, a boy, who is raised along with his daughter. The boy is named Raoul and the girl is named Constanze, after her mother, but is nicknamed after the cinders, La Cendrillon. Years later, three women arrive -- her stepmother and two stepsisters. Cendrillon's father hasn't mentioned Cendrillon to the three women, so they are under the mistaken impression that she is a servant. So she endures the treatment of someone beneath them, especially from Anastasia, who appears to have feelings for Raoul. Everyone tells Cendrillon that she should let the women know that she is the real mistress in the home, but will such a revelation endear her to them or make things worse?

Before Midnight has a unique take on the classic fairytale in that it paints a more sympathetic portrait of Chantal, Anastasia and Amelie. What if these women aren't evil? And if they were, what if they had reasons for the way they'd treated Cinderella? More important, who is Cinderella's father and what role did he play in this women's lives? I like that the stepmother and stepsisters are more three-dimensional in this retelling. The romance between Anastasia and Raoul is more interesting than Cinderella's. This retelling is actually well written and quite interesting. Why am I giving it three stars? Because, in spite of the brief 193 pages, the novel has a slow beginning and is kind of boring throughout. I don't know if the reason to this is due to Cinderella's first-person narrative style or simply that I'm too familiar with the fairytale, but reading this felt like a chore at times. However, as said earlier, this version is interesting and some people might enjoy it. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be reading Cameron Dockey's fairytale retellings in the future.

When his beloved wife dies in childbirth, Etienne de Brabant never again wants to see the baby he blames for killing his wife. He abandons the girl, Constanze (nicknamed Cendrillon) in his remote mansion to be raised by her godmother Old Mathilde. He also drops off a baby boy, Raoul, who is to never leave the de Brabant estate. As Cendrillon and Raoul grow up together, they both make the same wishes on their birthdays year after year: Cendrillon wishes something would grow on her mother's grave and Raoul wishes that he will learn who he really is. One year, however, Cendrillon makes a new, impulsive birthday wish: she wishes for a mother to love her and two sisters, so at least one of them will like her. Since wishes have power in the world of this story, Cendrillon's wish is granted in an unexpected way, when Cendrillon's father marries a beautiful noble lady, Chantal de Saint-Andre. Since Etienne de Brabant seems to care as little for his new wife as he does his own child, he sends her and her two daughters to his isolated estate while he remains at court. Etienne has not even told his wife that he has a daughter of his own and when Chantal and her daughters, Anastasia and Amelie, arrive they, in their ignorance, take Cendrillon to be a servant girl. Cendrillon doesn't know how to correct this assumption and so plays along in the role.

Cameron Dokey is my favourite author in the Once Upon a Time series and although BEFORE MIDNIGHT doesn't quite rank up there with what I consider her best (Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" (Once Upon a Time) and Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" (Once Upon a Time)), it is still quite good. In this book Dokey, as per usual, does a fine job of writing a sweet, charming fairy tale with some interesting twists on the original. In this story, the stepmother and stepsisters are given more depth than usual and aren't like their evil counterparts in most versions of the Cinderella tale: only selfish, bratty Anastasia really fits the "evil stepsister" role, but even she is lashing out more from hurt than from being a genuinely bad person. Furthermore, Dokey gives the reader a Cinderella that is not a doormat, some fun twists on the usual Cinderella motifs of pumpkins and fairy godmothers, and a dash of political intrigue. I would have liked a bit more interaction between Cendrillon and her prince, as their time together was much too short, as well as a better display of Anastasia when she is not being a brat, as proof that she is worthy of the guy who falls in love with her. However, overall this is a great addition to the pretty well-covered Cinderella tale (Ella Enchanted, Ever After - A Cinderella Story, etc) and another fantastic Once Upon a Time book by Cameron Dokey.

When the author first started this project she checked out some of the oldest version and found that in them Cinderella's father is alive. She puzzled over how to reconcile that fact with the story and came up with this book.

When Cinderella was born (here called the original French Cendrillon) her mother died. Her father held her responsible for the death and refused to accept her. Years later a new marriage caused the arrival of a step-mother and two step-sisters. Since they dis not know of her existence, the automatically assume her to be a servant.

How this issue is resolved is a major part of the story. Politics, family, loyalty, and oodles of love all play a part in this entertaining tale. Many know Cinderella as a love story but this version has even more than the popular versions (Rogers & Hammerstein, Disney, Etc.). For a very original take on a classic tale you would be hard pressed to find one that beats BEFORE MIDNIGHT. Check it out.

I am a huge Cinderella fan, and so this book seemed a perfect fit. But the first part of the book was slow reading, and it could have lost slower less dedicated readers. In the end it was worthwhile as a retelling of the classic fairytale, I just doubt that this will become a classic on its own.

Before Midnight

Before Midnight is a wonderful retelling of Cinderella. Constanze or Cendrillon was born at midnight and her mother, Constanze died. Her father was away and when he found that his wife was dead. He was very sad.When he got to the big stone house he had a baby boy with him the same age as Cendrillon. He was so sad he didn't come back for a long time.
I found this a very good book! The ending you would never expect but if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise. READ THE BOOK!!!!!!!!