Bartholomew Books

This is one of Joy Berry's "Survival Series for Kids" books and I have to confess that my son Devon and I like them all. I've had them in storage for years, way before Devon was a twinkle in my eye, or my gal Sara's, and I'm glad I saved them.

In this book Ms. Berry and illustrator Bartholomew, with your help will tell your child why it's important to be good. Ms. Berry will show your toddler, or slightly older child, why it is important to follow certain rules, both spoken and unspoken ones. Your child will learn why rules exist and some important reasons for having them.

I have to admit, because I'm the kind of person who doesn't like rules, that Ms. Berry has a point, rules are important for a child. Especially rules like don't go out in the street without holding Mom or Dad's hand. I teach my child rules, it's important he obey them, because they are important for his safety. When he gets older and can make his own mind up, then he can decide which ones to break and why, but for now rules are not made to be broken.

Though this book was written over twenty years ago, it still stands up. The excellent comic book type illustrations will keep your child interested as you read along with him or her. And for the life of me I don't know why these books are not easier to get. Joy Berry is good for children, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. If you can get a hold of her books and share them with your child, you'll both be better for it.

Jack Priest, Dad in Training

My family has been hooked on this series since we purchased book #1 at a school book fair. It is great for for bedtime since it is broken up into short chapters. My 2nd and 3rd grader love it. We all take turns reading.

This book is a veritable treasure! Every phrase shows forth the complete tenderness and mercy of our God and Saviour. Very enlightening, consoling to the utmost, and to be recommended to all! It will help anyone to learn to love and put their complete confidence in God, Who can do anything and wants to- God is Love.

In the US version (St Martin's Paperbacks) , I found some wordings are different from the UK one (Pan Macmillan).

Like the third paragraph of chapter 1 , the US version reads 'The young hunter ...' while the UK one has this as 'The young boy ...'

Is it normal to have an editing from the UK version?

I love this book. My last copy was so worn and ripped I had to get a new one. This is one book and can read more then once.

Well written like all of his novels. I was very interested and involved with the characters. The characters are well developed, the story lines grew as we followed their lives. Then they became very un-likeable. These successful and driven men began to act out of character in my opinion.
The ending was very disappointing and as a result I cannot recommend the book. Great story telling, and then a real let down.

This book was absolutely awesome. It had romance, suspense, a bit of horror (concentration camp images), and revenge. I really liked the way that Jeffery Archer put this one together, It is going down as one of my all time favorites.

This was a book my mother recommended to me. She read it several years ago and remembered how good it was. And oh how good it was. This is a great story that is told over about 60 years from Europe to America. Archer tells 2 parallel stories. One about Abel Rosnovki and one about William Kane. The story is so well told and so interesting that I felt torn between the two main characters and their stories. You feel pulled away from one story line when Archer takes you to the next. I enjoyed Archer's historical weave throughout each chapter. Especially the history of Poland and the part it played in both World Wars. Fascinating! Each character is developed from birth by the author and he does an outstanding job of taking you thru their childhood, teenage-school years and then adulthood. So, as a reader, you really get a feel for what they are made of and why they made the decisions they made throughout their life. The stories cross paths through-out the book and the ending is a masterful surprise. I have already mooched the sequel The Prodigal Daughter which I can't wait to read.

This book has opened my eyes to a new way of gardening. I am inspired and excited about the first box I just planted! Since I live where it's warmer, my fellow gardeners tell me we can have crops just about all year round. They are also watching my 'experiment' closely and have told my husband they may be asking him to build square foot garden boxes for them too!

What a terrific idea! I spent 20 minutes watering my traditional garden in central Texas one day (no rain here for months). I noticed that the water just pooled into the aisles where I walk and thought about what a waste that was. Later, as I was walking with my friend she told me about her square foot garden and I went to look at it! I was amazed - I love things well-organized and there was no wasted space. She loaned me her book until I could get my own copy. I got my garden prepared right before the homeschool book club met at my house. As one of our "City of Ember" activities the girls planted my square-foot garden. They all showed their moms and told them they wanted their own square-foot garden. It is thriving! All of the seeds came up even though they were planted by 11 - 13 year olds. The next week I planted my traditional garden. Plants from the same batch that went into my regular garden are light years behind the square-foot one! My daughter's piano teacher has since ordered the book and put one in, too. This is the only way to go!

In this time of layoffs, economic uncertainty, rising prices. This is a good book to read and follow. Start building your containers now and be ready to plant come the spring.
Excellent, frugal, and i can understand it and wont be a slave to the garden!

This is a great book that is very simple to understand and easy to read. The ideas presented are very compelling and I can't wait to see the results of my square foot garden. Everything you need to know about starting your own garden is contained in this easy to use book. I would definitely recommend it, and plan on buying it for many of my relatives as a Christmas gift. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that parts of it get a little repetitive. I guess that's the author trying to reinforce key points. It's probably not as noticeable if you skip around to various chapters or read it over a longer period of time. I read it all the same night.

While I have not yet tried the methods of gardening in this book, I have to say that it makes sense. It is an easy way to set up a garden so that it is less work. I do wonder about larger plants like cabbages and zucchini plants that like to spread out, but I have to delve into the book more, to see how he handles this. I think his methods are ingenious and I cannot wait to try them. One of the best gardening books I own on methods of setting up a garden. This is an especially good method if you have limited space.

Tambu, as the storyteller in this book was able to tell the story in a way that made the reader realize what is good and bad about colonization of third world countries and the lasting effect it can have on the country and the people that are colonized. I know because I am from a country that was a British colony.

I find myself frustrated with some of the more negative reviews here. I understand the argument that the novel is more into telling instead of showing, but I tend to disagree a bit. The novel hinges on the pretext that the central characters are cerebral, and that their intellectual complexity is misunderstood by colonial doctors. For me, the action that was taking place in the mind, whether we saw it or were told about it from an outsider perspective (that of the narrator, who is often an outsider and an observer), was very powerful.

Generally, it has taken me a little while to adjust to African novels, which I read intermittently throughout high school and college, but this one is a wonderful place to start for people who do take time to adjust to the more traditional style. Since the narrator has a Western education, the novel reads more like a Western novel...in a way, this makes the story much more heartbreakingly real, but it also makes it accessible to Western audiences. I highly, highly recommend it.

The voice of the narrator, plantive and engaging, retrospective and sensitive, is the jewel of the story. Although her lovely spirit and shrewd perspective on people/relationships propelled me through the book at a rapid pace, I found the plot quite empty. The story line, mostly founded on mundane details of her challenging daily life, feels dull and predictable. However, in spite of the lack of plot, the most important aspect of the book-- its main value to many readers-- is its thematically rich stew of commentary on gender roles/relations, sexuality, race, class, poverty, family dynamics, love, education, etc.

I gave book 3 stars because, although i fell in love with the narrator, the plot was too meandering and vacant to really make a good story. I also felt the ending, like the plot, was sort of half an ending and very lacking. In the end though, the story, themes, and the characters were so rich that they will stick with me for quite a while.

Read this book if you fulfill at least one of the following:

1) You want to read a tale that tackles intimate yet universal themes
2) You want to hear the too rarely heard voice of an african woman
3) You want a book that is poetic and academic at the same time
4) You are looking for an emotionally intricate read of personal dynamics
5) You need a speedy read for an airplane ride, book report, etc
6) You love books with insightful, shrewd observations of very real characters and family dynamics

Frank T. Scruggs, M.A.
Book Review
October 11, 2007



Nervous Conditions

I really enjoyed reading this book and of the details she wrote about this family reminds me of my own. As an African-American growing up roughly in the same time period I could see how both
Nyasha and Tambu just becoming into a political awareness would begin to see the world take on a new shape.

The strength of the African family is that the extended family is viewed as a unit within the larger society with legitimate head. As in the book as in my own family, problems were mediated by the
Elders of the family and each person functions as a part of the unit demonstrates a commitment to the group as opposed to the individual.

The plan to educate the children in order to help provide for the future benefit of the family shows the adherence to perpetuating the family group (first through Nhamo then Tambu after Nhamo's death. As I
said before as an African American, I don't think we're as far removed from African culture. I think that the author also wanted to demonstrate that the characters Maiguru and Babamukuru benefited a great deal living in England and learning about British culture. The author also show that Babamukuru and Maiguru were already rooted and grounded in the African culture and education, the experience and contact with the distant British culture therefore one could say to be a growth experience and an expansion of their knowledge.

Upon return to Africa, Babamukuru wanted and expected Nyasha to act as an African girl which she was incapable of doing because she was socialized into a British girl. The character Nyasha was in her early formative years and lost her African culture after assimilating into the British culture. The fight between Nyasha (when it became physical) is also representative of the clash between distant cultures where one culture tries to subject the other culture. The fight broke out when Babamukuru began to beat Nyasha but she decided to fight back (she rebelled against his authority). It also shows that in Nyasha it is a defense of which she is and on the part of Babamukuru, it is to subject her to his will. In culture clashes, the dominant culture uses power and authority to maintain its hegemonic relationship with different cultures (e.g., Britain and her colonies, America and her protectorates) quite often through economics and or violence and military force. From my perspective, I' think that the clash between Nyasha and Babamukuru serves as a metaphor of the clash between the British and African cultures.

The character Tambu grew up as an African girl and remains grounded in African culture therefore when she makes contact with the European culture she grows and remained African unlike her cousin Nyasha. Nyasha is not really part of the British culture and not quite African either. What she does have however is an awareness of the social ills brought about by colonialism. This awareness, I think, brings about sadness caused by the isolation from both worlds while living among those steeped in the African culture. It is this very isolation and sadness that causes her to rebel against her assimilation and mourn the loss of her African culture, which was her birthright.

Overall, I think this is an excellent novel. I found the book quite riveting and dynamic. I also think that anyone interested in cross-cultural communication, anthropology, sociology and family would enjoy this book and benefit from the ideas that the author seeks to convey.

This novel is loosely autobiographical and takes place in the 60's and 70's in colonial Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia. Tambu is a young girl from a very poor rural family. She is forced to live in the shadow of her favored older brother. Tambu begs her lazy sexist father to be able to attend school like her older brother but he feels she should stay home and learn to cook. Tambu is determined and goes to great lengths to earn the money to pay her school fees. She hits pay dirt when her jerk brother, who has taunted her and rubbed his privilege position in her face, suddenly dies. Tambu gets to attend the mission school in his place. There she teems up with her cousin Nyasha. Nyasha's father is head of the mission school, is the most well educated villager, and real tyrant. Nyasha's family has recently returned from England where her father completed his master's degree. Nyasha is seen as a snob by the locals because she has forgotten the Shona language and dresses like a Brit.

Tambu is very aware of just how "privileged" she is to be her uncle's charity case. As she witnesses her cousin Nyasha's rebelliousness Tambu's feistiness dissipates. Unlike Nyasha Tambu's position is precarious and she decides to survive by keeping quiet and trying her best not to cause any discord. Tambu has a rude awakening as she learns that her elite education sets her apart from her compatriots, but she really doesn't fit into colonial set either. She also must confront the realization that education is not a cure for sexism and racism.

The issues of colonialism, sexism, racism, hypocrisy, and the pros and cons of education are subtly and skillfully examined through the eyes of two teenage Zimbabwean girls. I did a graduate class project on this book. There are a lot of critical commentaries regarding this novel on the Internet. Dangarembga has also written several plays and films. There is another novel by a Zimbabwean author about girls and education called Zenzele by Moraire. Zimbabwe is also having a lot of problems right now, mostly thanks to a lunatic dictator. There are many organizations trying to help. If you want to help do an Internet search for "Zimbabwe, women, and education."

I heard about DK guides through several friends of mine.

I visisted Munich and Bamburg. I found the pictures and recommended walks to be very helpful.

I have two major issues with the guide. The first is that it is light on hotels and restaurants. Their idea of moderately expensive is also outside of the range of most younger travelers. Their hotel and restaurant recommendations are, however, very well suited to couples and well-off travelers. Unlike Lonely Planet Guides, DK focuses on the sites and culture of the locations in it. It does not go into internet sites, hostels, laundry sites or rail/bus information. This makes is slightly incomplete for less structured travelers, like myself.

This focus on the cultural aspects of locations at the expense of more extensive travel data, however, makes this book nice and compact and much easier to carry around than the Lonely Planet guide. The cover is tough and durable and has very well designed flaps for marking your location.

My second issue came when I visited the city of Bamburg. I decided to do this at the last minute and so this book was my only guide. I took the railroad and was disappointed when I looked at the map and found that it focused only on the town center and did not show such useful information as to where I was when I stepped out of the railroad station. I had to purchase another map for what was a fairly simple city. I also found my own hotel as the cheapest one in the book for Bamburg was 110 Euros for a single person room. The guide also only gave passing mention to the breweries that made Bamburg famous and did not recommend any or give locations. While I admire architecture and churches, Bamburg is famous for its rauch beer and breweries and these are significant cultural aspects too.

This is a wonderful book! I gave it to my father for an upcoming family trip to Germany. It provided us with lots of extra information about specific sites and general history of each town. The graphics and photographs are great and add to the usefulness of the book. A must buy for those traveling throughout Germany!

I have traveled to Germany many times for business, and I can say that this book has all the information that you need. Look no further for your personal travel guide!

Is this is the first time you 're looking for a tourist guide...don't look anymore, this is the one you want. I was looking for a good guide to go around Germany, while I'm here, and this one just work perfectly me, it gives you a little map of the mayor cities with all the hot spots and an introduction to German history in general and useful travel tips, they also cover all the german states... beautifully illustrated, with a lot of pictures and very useful information. It's an awesome guide!!

I purchased this book as a guide, but found it was probably better than any "personal" guide as it is heavily stocked with beautiful pictures, maps, diagrams, and descriptions of castles and other sites.

I like the way the country is sectioned off...by region, etc. At the back of the book are great traveler tips and a list of lodging and dining recommendations.

The size of the book is traveler friendly too with a water-proof cover. This would fit nicely in a woman's purse.

This is a beautiful and handy book to look at even if you don't plan to go anywhere.

Great book and I love it and love Kitty. Received book is a very timely manner and was totally satisfied.

I love this book. Photos of most of Kitty's special rooms featured on her old TV show. My only complaint is some of the photos are too small. I'd rather see all full page photos.

This is a fab book full of great tips, beautiful rooms and commonsense! Absolutely LOVED it !!!Worth every penny!

Love Kitty ..... but!
The book was very disappointing to me. Kitty's sense of style is wonderful, but I felt that this was a textbook, not the normal lovely pictures of decorated rooms that I so enjoy in a decorating book or magazine. Perhaps I have my own sense of style and love looking at pictures with minimal description, finding those little things that really do make something special, rather than literally a how-to-copy-style way of decorating, which is in my mind COPY COPY COPY! Hopefully this book will help that person who needs help putting an idea to work.

I have followed Kitty for a number of years and am continuously amazed by her talents and ideas. Though I have not had a chance to read the book cover to cover, am thrilled to have one of her books for reference, as she covers all aspects in need to know decorating.

This is my first Peter McGarr Mystery. I found it in a desperate search for old-fashioned mysteries where the focus is on the story not the dysfunctional lives of the detectives. Now there are plenty of dysfunctional people in this book, but that's not the focus. The focus is on a great story of betrayal and redemption that kept me turning pages right to the last one.

This 1996 Peter McGarr mystery takes place primarily on the remote island of Clare where a man named Clement Ford washed up on the beach 50 years before and has lived ever since.

As the book opens, Ford is alerted to the arrival of a strange boat in the harbor. After so many years, his pursuers have caught up with him, in search of revenge and the treasure Ford absconded with at the end of World War II. By morning, several people are dead, Ford is missing and Chief Superintendent McGarr's fishing holiday is over.

With the help of his familiar Murder Squad team, his feisty, scholarly wife, Noreen, and the efficient mainland computers, McGarr begins to put together the pieces. Of less help are the closed-mouth islanders, many of whom despise "foreigners," whether they be mainland police or longtime benefactors like Ford, known to be behind the anonymous Clare Trust.

McGarr soon realizes that the killers did not achieve their objective - the treasure - and will return, losing themselves in the annual reunion of several thousand of the world's O'Malleys.

Gill is at his best here; his literary wit in top form, his characters gregarious and sharp, and the suspense heightened by harsh, windswept terrain and sudden, violent spring storms.

I plan to use this book with my high school juniors. To find a modern and interest-grabbing book which will whet their appetites for British Lit is a difficult task. I believe this book will do it with its fast-moving, physical plot encompassed in solid prose, idiomatic phrasing and cultural enticement. Though I am not usually a fan of the mystery genre, this one grabbed me.

This intelligently written mystery takes place off the coast of Ireland on Clare Island. The story centers on Clement Ford, a well-liked 80 year old Sea Man. Clem and his wife Breege live a modest lifestyle in their cottage on the island. They are personable and well respected by the remote communities citizens, however, they hold a deep dark secret.

One night after a violent storm, three people on the island turn up murdered and Clem and Breege mysteriously disappear. Detective Peter McGarr and his colleagues are assigned to the case. Police are baffled as to why anyone would commit these murders and how they could be tied to the quiet elderly Ford's.

Bartholomew Gill's story is unique in that you know who the killers are right from the beginning. However, the mystery lies in why did they kill? What do they want? Will they strike again?

The prose in this book is wonderfully descriptive. You will smell the salty air, see the rolling green hills, and watch the colorful Irish sunsets. The characters are refreshing and believable, and Gill provides the reader with accurate historical facts about the land and its people. This was my first Bartholomew Gill book, but it certainly won't be my last. What a terrific discovery!

Though some of his settings feel a bit reminiscent of Agatha Christie, Gill writes for a totally different audience--readers who do not shy away from realistically depicted (and sometimes gratuitous) violence, who do not expect the police to be models of probity, and who want their mysteries to be more than simple whodunits. In this 1996 combination of modern mystery and World War II thriller, set off the coast of County Mayo, Gill tells the tale of Clement Ford, a mystery man with a hoard of hidden treasure. Ford has just been tracked down by his old enemy, Angus Rehm, and the result is three deaths, three disappearances, two missing boats, and the arrival of Chief Inspector Peter McGarr from the Garda Siochana and his detectives, each of whom is also dealing with personal problems--alcohol, illicit affairs, and the demands of family--while trying to solve the mystery.

Local beliefs and superstitions, ancient history and pagan monuments, the geological record, and family history are interwoven with the more modern attitudes toward religion, the British, and authority in general, as Gill creates a lively "personality" for Clare Island. The mystery develops a global scope as Clement Ford's true identity and his World War II connections to Angus Rehm emerge in the final pages.

One of a long series of engaging Peter McGarr mysteries with a cast of well-developed repeating characters, Gill focuses on some intriguing aspect of Irish history and culture in each (e.g. eel-fishing, secret religious societies, literary history). The novels written prior to the recent Death of an Irish Sinner can be read in any order, but events in the latter are so explosive that it is difficult to go back if you read Irish Sinner too soon. The series is a fascinating look at Ireland and its characters--great fun and great escape reading. Mary Whipple

This was my second Matthew Bartholomew mystery. I found it rather formulaic to the first... the details coming at you with nothing going anywhere until they all physically spy on a meeting in a church. There is very little interesting in his teaching, the details of his profession are quite interesting to read about. But overall the plot was a little shallow to me personally in depth and character development. And where was his betrothed? The main protagonist doesn't have much feeling IMHO.

I have read all eleven of Ms Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew books and am pre-ordering numbers twelve and thirteen. Her discriptions of life and environment of fourteenth century Cambridge is incredible; she puts you right there in its rutted, muddy, smelly streets. Matthew is the most lovable character you would ever want to meet. All he wants to do is care for his patients and teach his students at Michaelhouse, a fourteenth century college at Cambridge, but Brother Michael is continually getting him involved in one murder mystery after another. He's such an innocent when it comes to the ways of the world, and for a guy who doesn't want to get involved, he winds up in some dangerous and sometimes funny predicaments. The plots are complicated; Ms Gregory has many threads going at one time. It's fun to try to pick your way through the red herrings to see if you can find the soultion, or solutions, before Matt and Brother Michael. I bet you can't, but the books are so great you'll love trying.

Ms. Gregory's has created an interesting 14th Century physician protagonist would rather be teaching and attending to his patients rather than conducting investigations. With strong supporting characters and rich historical detail, this is another very good book in a well done series. The stories are just a bit overlong and the plot overcomplicated, but it all works together well. I recommend reading the series in order, and I do recommend reading the series.

Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. Her series of mediaeval mysteries have gained a formidable following. This book is the second in the series and introduces the physician Matthew Bartholomew to the reader. There are now a number of books in the series and they are always eagerly awaited by the author's fans.

Besides practising medicine Matthew is also a teacher at a Cambridge University and his sometimes unorthodox treatment of his patients draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional, but less skilled colleagues.

The year is 1350 and we have moved on two years (A Plague on Both Your Houses). The people of Cambridge are struggling to overcome the effect of the Black Death. The countryside is overrun with bands of outlaws and the high death rate of the plague has taken many of the priests and monks and left their parishioners vulnerable to the many cults that are circulating in the wake of the plague.

At Michaelhouse Matthew Bartholomew has got the urgent job of training new physicians to replace those lost to the Black Death, but when the body of a friar is found in massive chest that houses the university's store of precious documents Matthew is called away from his teaching duties to investigate the strange death . . .

This is the second in the Matthew Bartholomew series, set in 14th century England, in the university city of Cambridge. Matthew would much rather be working at his profession of teaching medicine to his students but, once again, he is called upon by the heads of college to assist them in solving a spate of murders, which have occurred in the recent weeks. Three of the town's prostitutes have been found with their throats slashed, which doesn't seem to overly worry the Sheriff, but when the body of a friar is found, poisoned and stuffed into a chest in the belfry of a church, and again the Sherriff does nothing, The Master of the university asks the help of Matthew and his friend, Brother Michael in investigating further. The plot does tend to get a bit muddled as they uncover evidence of satanic covens and unholy practices, terrified locals and fanatical monks crying "heresy" at every turn when Matthew teaches the art of surgical operations, but it's an interesting read with interesting examples of the horrors of 14th century life with its lack of hygiene and stinking streets and rivers. Perhaps it was a case of the survival of the fittest of the species after the plague which decimated half of Europe!