Bonds Books

James Bond is a cultural icon of the second half of the Twentieth Century, half the population of the world has seen a 007 film and a good majority have read the books. This book doesn't tread on any new ground.

The early 60's were filled with strife between Britain and many Eastern European countries. Significant international events such as the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis were shaping global tensions. The primacy of Western Europe, particularly Britain, was diminishing in the global theater and the Soviet Union and the United States had emerged as superpowers during this pivotal time in Cold War history. In an attempt to regain "Britshness," a new film series was introduced to the masses in 1962. License to Thrill chronicles the history of 007 movies and carefully illustrates the evolution of the Bond character.
The author, British film historian James Chapman, argues that the Bond films reflected the cultural nuances of the Cold War from the mid-60's until the early 90's. Utilizing a broad array of sources such as film reviews, trade press, newspaper and magazine reviews, Chapman thematically groups the Bond movies to "illustrate the generic and stylistic development of the series." To this claim, Chapman succeeds marvelously at advancing a coherent understanding of the stylistic and generic progression of the series. Chapman loosely categorizes the films into four generic contexts: British imperialist spy thriller, cliff-hanger adventure serial, modern Hollywood action movie, and `Bondian.'
The series collectively portrays a swashbuckling British hero (James Bond) who fights international terrorism for the benefit of his majesty's secret service. Hedonistic adventures coupled with state of the art technology and hair raising action scenes mark the stylistic environment of most Bond films. The aforementioned Bond "formula," according to Chapman, is present throughout the series. However, several transformations of 007 occur throughout the series. Bond, notes reviewer Tom Tapp, develops "from snob to swinger to safari-suited wisecracker to Thatcherite to Batman-like brooder to consumerist action hero." Not only did the Bond character evolve, but the films themselves adjusted their themes to reflect society at large. As the years progressed, strands of societal issues merged into the film series and included such topics as communism, sexism, racism, imperialism, and Thatcherism.
The author claims that the Bond series reflects the cultural nuances of the Cold War from the mid-sixties until the early nineties. In fact, it is difficult to glean a comprehensive parallel between the cultural Cold War and the Bond series. The connections that Chapman illustrates between the Bond films and cultural nuances seem circumstantial. The first sixty pages of Chapman's work, for instance, provide tedious background on Ian Fleming novels and their eventual transformation into Bond movies. Since these novels were written in the 50's, it seems counterproductive to form cultural arguments on the movies that were produced decades later.
After a lengthy opening chapter, Chapman adopts a logical film history template for studying the Bond films. In essence; he summarizes the film, discusses the characters, the budget, the Fleming novel the film mirrors, and the overall success of the movie. And then Chapman assigns one of his societal monikers (sexism, racism, communism, etc.) to the film and advances a simplistic cultural connection between the two. Finally, he provides an in depth comparison of various Bond movies (mainly from the perspective of the film maker) and their particular novelties in the film series. This template is more than sufficient for a film history study, but lacks the necessary mechanics for a cultural Cold War examination.
This template, for example, is evident in Chapman's survey of the first Bond film, Dr. No. We discover, for instance, that Bond is investigating the disappearance of his colleague Commander Strangways. Dr. No, the first Bond villain, is described in the Fleming novel as a Chinese-German "scientific mastermind backed by the Russians," but in the film he is depicted as an agent for SPECTRE (Special Executive Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion). This fleeting comment about the ideological transition from novel to film seemed like a relevant segue into a discussion about Cold War culture. According to Bennett and Woolacott, "the primary impetus for this ideological readjustment came from the requirements of the film industry." Chapman dismisses this rather logical assertion by calling it "spurious." Unfortunately, he offers little reasoning for this comment - other than it followed the narrative formula of Fleming. Of course, this information is relevant to aficionados of the Bond series and those interested in film history. However, for those historians who are interested in bridging a cultural connection between Bond and the Cold War - very little significant insight will be garnered by Chapman's sparse analysis. In short, the reader will be bogged down with an over emphasis on the creation of the Bond series and its place in British film history. One reviewer echoed this sentiment, and noted that Chapman's "comprehensiveness weighs the book down."
Chapman also spends considerable time rationalizing his research efforts to the reader, and notes that the Bond films have been disregarded by most academics (maybe Cold War historians?). The author quite straightforwardly notes that his work seeks to place Bond films into the context of British cinema history. In this regard, Chapman flourishes with a keen step-by-step depiction of the transformation of the Bond films over four decades. Furthermore, Chapman contends that his "contextual analysis focuses on the critical and popular reception of the films, and discusses how they have responded to changes both in the film industry and in society at large." To this claim, Chapman is somewhat successful at explaining the changes in the film industry and society as they relate to the Bond series. Again, marketing demands seemed to be the impetus for the changes in the film industry.
For instance, with the opening of Moonraker in 1979, we are introduced to the first Bond sci-fi thriller - which was similar in style to other movies of the same period such as Star Wars and Jaws. In regards to Chapman's assertion to discuss the "popular reception" of "society at large," there is little, if any, contextual analysis of why viewers were attracted to this new genre of film. Chapman only provides fleeting remarks about the importance of the American space program and film marketing demands from other big Hollywood hits as justification for how society responded to Moonraker. The reader is left with the following question: how does movie marketing and the U.S space program in the Bond films relate to the cultural Cold War? Granted, there was an America space program in the late seventies - but was the film industry more interested in profiting on Bond films or reflecting cultural nuances of the space program? Since the majority of Chapman's evidence leans towards the latter, it makes sense to conclude that film makers were most interested in marketing concerns. Viewers could have flocked to the Bond movies for any number of reasons: they could have just been fans of the series, or attracted to the actors, or simply curious about the elaborate special effects. If, for instance, Chapman had personally interviewed a large pool of viewers who had watched the Bond movies - and recorded their responses - then his "society at large" argument may have carried more legitimacy.
The films collectively, argues Chapman, over inflate Britain's role as a primary actor in the Cold War. According to Chapman, the Bond novels also "represent a nationalist fantasy in which Britain's decline as a world power did not really take place." Chapman succeeds at providing many good examples of this point throughout the series. For instance, in six of the novels Bond liaises with American CIA Officer Felix Leiter. This relationship between Bond and Leiter, according to the author, represented a "special friendship" between America and Britain - but with a "quaint reversal of the real balance of power," as Leiter is "the subordinate partner to the British Bond." During the Cold War America was considered dominant to Britain in the global theater; however, the reader has to make this deduction based on scant details provided by Chapman.
To a lesser extent, Chapman touches on the Bond films association with sexism and racism. The series reflected the 60's sexual revolution with Bond casually and frequently rendezvousing with young, attractive ladies. In the first Bond films women occupied innocuous roles, but this later changed as women gradually gained more significance in the Bond series and portrayed more dominant characters in later movies. Chapman again draws simplistic parallels between the evolving equality movements of women in society with the Bond series. The author also notes that film makers tailored movies for "black audiences" in the 60's and 70's. The Bond series was no exception to this rule, and this resulted in the release of the 1973 Bond thriller, Live and Let Die. One of the main characters in this film, Mr. Big, was portrayed as an African American gangster. Unfortunately, we again learn that marketing (the emergence of the African American audience), vice cultural, demands were the main impetus for the production of the film.
In conclusion, this work is intended for those individuals who are aficionados of Bond and his five decades of big screen debuts. Film historians may also discover a fresh approach to studying British films and a new appreciation for the `Bondian' genre. Chapman is successful at chronicling the Bond series, and illustrating the transformation of the films over time. However, Chapman makes the grandiose mis-calculation that his readers already have a sophisticated understanding of the Cold War, and are able to make keen analysis based on meager references to film culture nuances.

James Chapman's "Licence to Thrill" examines the James Bond cinematic series from the perspective of its time and place as it fit into the real world. The series had its effect on society and in turn society affected the series. Initially the James Bond series was an innovative trend setting piece of filmmaking that had a great influence on society in the 60s. In a reversal the series soon became a reflection of society going into the 70s copying trends rather than setting them. Withstanding four decades the James Bond cinematic franchise is still a survivor and has remained an ever changing constant for an ever changing world. James Chapman's insights are objective and intelligent and always endearing.

If youýre like I am, you probably cannot get enough of the world of James Bond, Agent 007. The male (and female) fascination with Ian Flemingýs fictional creation is now clearly ubiquitous since 007 conventions, fan clubs, web sites, and ýofficialý and ýunofficialý James Bond movie guides can be found all over the world. The recent re-release of special edition James Bond films on VHS and DVD provides a clearer indication of the success that the Bondian industry enjoys. While there exists an abundance of literature about Ian Flemingýs fictional spy, few works actually consider the 007 phenomenon in a serious manner. In fact, the only title that comes to mind is Kingsley Amisý 1965 work, The James Bond Dossier, an extended essay analyzing Ian Flemingýs secret agent as he appears in print. There has yet to be a thorough discussion of the Bond novels and their adaptation into film ý until now.
Released this past spring by Columbia University Press, Licence to Thrill by James Chapman breaks new ground as an in-depth study of James Bond and lends credibility to addressing the 007 phenomenon in a scholarly manner. Chapmanýs introduction, ýTaking James Bond Seriously,ý sets the tone for the work: this is not another fan guide to the behind-the-scene insights from the movies. As Chapman writes, the ýnumerous books on the Bond filmsýall emanated from what might be termed the Bond fan culture rather than academia.ý Arguing that one must look beyond 007ýs hedonistic male fantasy life in order to observe how his imaginary world nostalgically represents Great Britainýs global strength as Empire and Cold Warrior during an actual period of decline, Chapmanýs meticulously researched and comprehensive critical study of James Bond is presented in an objective and refreshing manner.
Chapmanýs early discussion of various genres of film (British imperialist spy thriller, cliffhanger adventure serial, Hollywood action movie, etc.) and the nature of British cinema adequately provides the reader with the requisite knowledge necessary to understand the role of cinematography. Chapman allows proper transition so as to introduce his concept of the ýBondianý genre ý that is, that the Bond films themselves, despite borrowing upon other formulas, have actually developed their own ideology. The most impressive aspect of Licence to Thrill is its comprehensive narrative. Despite an overabundance of facts (citing, for example, that Kingsley Amis himself argues that Bond is not a spy but is rather presented as a secret agent), quotes, and analyses, the book flows smoothly. That Chapman does not limit his analysis merely to Bond films but rather incorporates British and American films preceding them ý Bulldog Drummond (1929), Dick Barton ý Special Agent (1948), North by Northwest (1959) ý allows the reader to place Bond films within a larger framework. In doing so, Chapmanýs argument that the James Bond film series exemplifies the progression of spy thrillers films from B-movie to big-budget motion picture stature is soundly supported. Chapman also explores other film movementsý impact upon the Bond series, particularly the ýblaxploitationý movement of the early 1970ýs (Live and Let Die, 1972) and the rise in popularity of kung-fu movies (The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974). Chapman illustrates that Stephen Spielbergýs 1975 blockbuster, Jaws, inspired the creation of Bondýs infamous seven feet two inch steel-toothed nemesis bearing the same name.
Having provided background in the broader subject of cinema, Chapman devotes the rest of his work to the actual Bond films themselves and groups them according to theme, the development and implementation of what he terms the ýBond formula,ý and, in some cases, the actor who portrays Agent 007. Although he clearly illustrates that the generic formula of the Bond films is quite malleable depending upon numerous political and cultural developments of the period, Chapman nonetheless maintains that the James Bond films serve as representative works of nostalgia for empire and British nationalism. In his discussion of Octopussy (1983) in which much of the action is set in India, for example, Chapman notes the numerous television series in Britain during the 1980ýs devoted to the former British colony and the abundance of works analyzing Anglo-Indian relations while other films, such as For Your Eyes Only (1981), reference Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherýs ýIron Ladyý reputation.
Surveying all the Bond films from Dr. No (1962) to Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) ý including the comical Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball (1965) ý Chapmanýs Licence to Thrill is a definite must-read for any James Bond enthusiast. Enlightening and thought provoking, the book maintains the readerýs interest throughout and documents the chronological progression of the longest and most successful film series to date. And while it will certainly not leave you ýshaken,ý Licence to Thrill definitely ýstirsý interest.

Over the past five decades, James Bond films have established themselves as the most popular film series in history. Some estimates have it that a quarter of the world's population has seen a 007 film, and this worldwide fascination with the Bond character has manifested itself in the thousands of fan clubs, fan conventions, web sites, and movie guides in existence today. But while there exists an abundance of literature about Ian Fleming's fictional spy, no book has actually considered the 007 phenomenon in the context of cultural and film history until now. James Chapman's Licence to Thrill attempts to examine the Bond series in a scholarly manner, and succeeds marvelously at doing so.

From the start, Chapman's meticulous, comprehensive study of these films is presented in an objective and refreshing manner. Chapman immediately sets the tone for the book, arguing that the viewer needs to look beyond the fantastic scenarios and hedonistic nature of Bond's life in order to grasp the real meanings of these films -- that is, that they nostalgically represent Great Britain's global strength during an actual period of decline. Chapman goes on to discuss the various film genres (spy thrillers, cliffhangers, action movies) that have been hybridized into the "Bondian" formula, and goes on to show that the Bond films themselves, despite borrowing upon other formulas, have actually developed their own ideology.

The most impressive aspect of Licence to Thrill is its comprehensiveness. Chapman places the Bond films in the context of film history, and by doing so, provides a larger framework by which to assess their cultural impact. He also examines the influence of other film genres on the Bond series; for example, the influence of the "blaxploitation" movement of the early 70's on 1972's Live and Let Die, which features an unusually high proportion of black characters for a Bond film. The rest of the book concentrates on the Bond films themselves, grouping them according to theme and charting the development and evolution of the franchise.

Although Chapman clearly illustrates that the generic formula of these films is virtually designed to change with the British political climate, he also maintains that Bond's adventures are representative works of nostalgia for British imperialism and nationalism. For example, in discussing 1983's Octopussy, which is set largely in India, Chapman notes the numerous television series in Britain during the 1980's devoted to the former British colony and the abundance of works at the time analyzing Anglo-Indian relations. Other films are set against the contemporary British political mindset, such as 1981's For Your Eyes Only, which strongly references Thatcherism, and the end result is that we see the films in an entirely new light.

Enlightening, entertaining and thought provoking, this book is highly recommended for anyone who is serious about film. For the rabid Bond fan, it is simply indispensable.

James Bond is a cultural icon of the second half of the Twentieth Century, half the population of the world has seen a 007 film and a good majority have read the books. This book doesn't tread on any new ground.

The early 60's were filled with strife between Britain and many Eastern European countries. Significant international events such as the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile Crisis were shaping global tensions. The primacy of Western Europe, particularly Britain, was diminishing in the global theater and the Soviet Union and the United States had emerged as superpowers during this pivotal time in Cold War history. In an attempt to regain "Britshness," a new film series was introduced to the masses in 1962. License to Thrill chronicles the history of 007 movies and carefully illustrates the evolution of the Bond character.
The author, British film historian James Chapman, argues that the Bond films reflected the cultural nuances of the Cold War from the mid-60's until the early 90's. Utilizing a broad array of sources such as film reviews, trade press, newspaper and magazine reviews, Chapman thematically groups the Bond movies to "illustrate the generic and stylistic development of the series." To this claim, Chapman succeeds marvelously at advancing a coherent understanding of the stylistic and generic progression of the series. Chapman loosely categorizes the films into four generic contexts: British imperialist spy thriller, cliff-hanger adventure serial, modern Hollywood action movie, and `Bondian.'
The series collectively portrays a swashbuckling British hero (James Bond) who fights international terrorism for the benefit of his majesty's secret service. Hedonistic adventures coupled with state of the art technology and hair raising action scenes mark the stylistic environment of most Bond films. The aforementioned Bond "formula," according to Chapman, is present throughout the series. However, several transformations of 007 occur throughout the series. Bond, notes reviewer Tom Tapp, develops "from snob to swinger to safari-suited wisecracker to Thatcherite to Batman-like brooder to consumerist action hero." Not only did the Bond character evolve, but the films themselves adjusted their themes to reflect society at large. As the years progressed, strands of societal issues merged into the film series and included such topics as communism, sexism, racism, imperialism, and Thatcherism.
The author claims that the Bond series reflects the cultural nuances of the Cold War from the mid-sixties until the early nineties. In fact, it is difficult to glean a comprehensive parallel between the cultural Cold War and the Bond series. The connections that Chapman illustrates between the Bond films and cultural nuances seem circumstantial. The first sixty pages of Chapman's work, for instance, provide tedious background on Ian Fleming novels and their eventual transformation into Bond movies. Since these novels were written in the 50's, it seems counterproductive to form cultural arguments on the movies that were produced decades later.
After a lengthy opening chapter, Chapman adopts a logical film history template for studying the Bond films. In essence; he summarizes the film, discusses the characters, the budget, the Fleming novel the film mirrors, and the overall success of the movie. And then Chapman assigns one of his societal monikers (sexism, racism, communism, etc.) to the film and advances a simplistic cultural connection between the two. Finally, he provides an in depth comparison of various Bond movies (mainly from the perspective of the film maker) and their particular novelties in the film series. This template is more than sufficient for a film history study, but lacks the necessary mechanics for a cultural Cold War examination.
This template, for example, is evident in Chapman's survey of the first Bond film, Dr. No. We discover, for instance, that Bond is investigating the disappearance of his colleague Commander Strangways. Dr. No, the first Bond villain, is described in the Fleming novel as a Chinese-German "scientific mastermind backed by the Russians," but in the film he is depicted as an agent for SPECTRE (Special Executive Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion). This fleeting comment about the ideological transition from novel to film seemed like a relevant segue into a discussion about Cold War culture. According to Bennett and Woolacott, "the primary impetus for this ideological readjustment came from the requirements of the film industry." Chapman dismisses this rather logical assertion by calling it "spurious." Unfortunately, he offers little reasoning for this comment - other than it followed the narrative formula of Fleming. Of course, this information is relevant to aficionados of the Bond series and those interested in film history. However, for those historians who are interested in bridging a cultural connection between Bond and the Cold War - very little significant insight will be garnered by Chapman's sparse analysis. In short, the reader will be bogged down with an over emphasis on the creation of the Bond series and its place in British film history. One reviewer echoed this sentiment, and noted that Chapman's "comprehensiveness weighs the book down."
Chapman also spends considerable time rationalizing his research efforts to the reader, and notes that the Bond films have been disregarded by most academics (maybe Cold War historians?). The author quite straightforwardly notes that his work seeks to place Bond films into the context of British cinema history. In this regard, Chapman flourishes with a keen step-by-step depiction of the transformation of the Bond films over four decades. Furthermore, Chapman contends that his "contextual analysis focuses on the critical and popular reception of the films, and discusses how they have responded to changes both in the film industry and in society at large." To this claim, Chapman is somewhat successful at explaining the changes in the film industry and society as they relate to the Bond series. Again, marketing demands seemed to be the impetus for the changes in the film industry.
For instance, with the opening of Moonraker in 1979, we are introduced to the first Bond sci-fi thriller - which was similar in style to other movies of the same period such as Star Wars and Jaws. In regards to Chapman's assertion to discuss the "popular reception" of "society at large," there is little, if any, contextual analysis of why viewers were attracted to this new genre of film. Chapman only provides fleeting remarks about the importance of the American space program and film marketing demands from other big Hollywood hits as justification for how society responded to Moonraker. The reader is left with the following question: how does movie marketing and the U.S space program in the Bond films relate to the cultural Cold War? Granted, there was an America space program in the late seventies - but was the film industry more interested in profiting on Bond films or reflecting cultural nuances of the space program? Since the majority of Chapman's evidence leans towards the latter, it makes sense to conclude that film makers were most interested in marketing concerns. Viewers could have flocked to the Bond movies for any number of reasons: they could have just been fans of the series, or attracted to the actors, or simply curious about the elaborate special effects. If, for instance, Chapman had personally interviewed a large pool of viewers who had watched the Bond movies - and recorded their responses - then his "society at large" argument may have carried more legitimacy.
The films collectively, argues Chapman, over inflate Britain's role as a primary actor in the Cold War. According to Chapman, the Bond novels also "represent a nationalist fantasy in which Britain's decline as a world power did not really take place." Chapman succeeds at providing many good examples of this point throughout the series. For instance, in six of the novels Bond liaises with American CIA Officer Felix Leiter. This relationship between Bond and Leiter, according to the author, represented a "special friendship" between America and Britain - but with a "quaint reversal of the real balance of power," as Leiter is "the subordinate partner to the British Bond." During the Cold War America was considered dominant to Britain in the global theater; however, the reader has to make this deduction based on scant details provided by Chapman.
To a lesser extent, Chapman touches on the Bond films association with sexism and racism. The series reflected the 60's sexual revolution with Bond casually and frequently rendezvousing with young, attractive ladies. In the first Bond films women occupied innocuous roles, but this later changed as women gradually gained more significance in the Bond series and portrayed more dominant characters in later movies. Chapman again draws simplistic parallels between the evolving equality movements of women in society with the Bond series. The author also notes that film makers tailored movies for "black audiences" in the 60's and 70's. The Bond series was no exception to this rule, and this resulted in the release of the 1973 Bond thriller, Live and Let Die. One of the main characters in this film, Mr. Big, was portrayed as an African American gangster. Unfortunately, we again learn that marketing (the emergence of the African American audience), vice cultural, demands were the main impetus for the production of the film.
In conclusion, this work is intended for those individuals who are aficionados of Bond and his five decades of big screen debuts. Film historians may also discover a fresh approach to studying British films and a new appreciation for the `Bondian' genre. Chapman is successful at chronicling the Bond series, and illustrating the transformation of the films over time. However, Chapman makes the grandiose mis-calculation that his readers already have a sophisticated understanding of the Cold War, and are able to make keen analysis based on meager references to film culture nuances.

James Chapman's "Licence to Thrill" examines the James Bond cinematic series from the perspective of its time and place as it fit into the real world. The series had its effect on society and in turn society affected the series. Initially the James Bond series was an innovative trend setting piece of filmmaking that had a great influence on society in the 60s. In a reversal the series soon became a reflection of society going into the 70s copying trends rather than setting them. Withstanding four decades the James Bond cinematic franchise is still a survivor and has remained an ever changing constant for an ever changing world. James Chapman's insights are objective and intelligent and always endearing.

If youýre like I am, you probably cannot get enough of the world of James Bond, Agent 007. The male (and female) fascination with Ian Flemingýs fictional creation is now clearly ubiquitous since 007 conventions, fan clubs, web sites, and ýofficialý and ýunofficialý James Bond movie guides can be found all over the world. The recent re-release of special edition James Bond films on VHS and DVD provides a clearer indication of the success that the Bondian industry enjoys. While there exists an abundance of literature about Ian Flemingýs fictional spy, few works actually consider the 007 phenomenon in a serious manner. In fact, the only title that comes to mind is Kingsley Amisý 1965 work, The James Bond Dossier, an extended essay analyzing Ian Flemingýs secret agent as he appears in print. There has yet to be a thorough discussion of the Bond novels and their adaptation into film ý until now.
Released this past spring by Columbia University Press, Licence to Thrill by James Chapman breaks new ground as an in-depth study of James Bond and lends credibility to addressing the 007 phenomenon in a scholarly manner. Chapmanýs introduction, ýTaking James Bond Seriously,ý sets the tone for the work: this is not another fan guide to the behind-the-scene insights from the movies. As Chapman writes, the ýnumerous books on the Bond filmsýall emanated from what might be termed the Bond fan culture rather than academia.ý Arguing that one must look beyond 007ýs hedonistic male fantasy life in order to observe how his imaginary world nostalgically represents Great Britainýs global strength as Empire and Cold Warrior during an actual period of decline, Chapmanýs meticulously researched and comprehensive critical study of James Bond is presented in an objective and refreshing manner.
Chapmanýs early discussion of various genres of film (British imperialist spy thriller, cliffhanger adventure serial, Hollywood action movie, etc.) and the nature of British cinema adequately provides the reader with the requisite knowledge necessary to understand the role of cinematography. Chapman allows proper transition so as to introduce his concept of the ýBondianý genre ý that is, that the Bond films themselves, despite borrowing upon other formulas, have actually developed their own ideology. The most impressive aspect of Licence to Thrill is its comprehensive narrative. Despite an overabundance of facts (citing, for example, that Kingsley Amis himself argues that Bond is not a spy but is rather presented as a secret agent), quotes, and analyses, the book flows smoothly. That Chapman does not limit his analysis merely to Bond films but rather incorporates British and American films preceding them ý Bulldog Drummond (1929), Dick Barton ý Special Agent (1948), North by Northwest (1959) ý allows the reader to place Bond films within a larger framework. In doing so, Chapmanýs argument that the James Bond film series exemplifies the progression of spy thrillers films from B-movie to big-budget motion picture stature is soundly supported. Chapman also explores other film movementsý impact upon the Bond series, particularly the ýblaxploitationý movement of the early 1970ýs (Live and Let Die, 1972) and the rise in popularity of kung-fu movies (The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974). Chapman illustrates that Stephen Spielbergýs 1975 blockbuster, Jaws, inspired the creation of Bondýs infamous seven feet two inch steel-toothed nemesis bearing the same name.
Having provided background in the broader subject of cinema, Chapman devotes the rest of his work to the actual Bond films themselves and groups them according to theme, the development and implementation of what he terms the ýBond formula,ý and, in some cases, the actor who portrays Agent 007. Although he clearly illustrates that the generic formula of the Bond films is quite malleable depending upon numerous political and cultural developments of the period, Chapman nonetheless maintains that the James Bond films serve as representative works of nostalgia for empire and British nationalism. In his discussion of Octopussy (1983) in which much of the action is set in India, for example, Chapman notes the numerous television series in Britain during the 1980ýs devoted to the former British colony and the abundance of works analyzing Anglo-Indian relations while other films, such as For Your Eyes Only (1981), reference Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherýs ýIron Ladyý reputation.
Surveying all the Bond films from Dr. No (1962) to Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) ý including the comical Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball (1965) ý Chapmanýs Licence to Thrill is a definite must-read for any James Bond enthusiast. Enlightening and thought provoking, the book maintains the readerýs interest throughout and documents the chronological progression of the longest and most successful film series to date. And while it will certainly not leave you ýshaken,ý Licence to Thrill definitely ýstirsý interest.

Over the past five decades, James Bond films have established themselves as the most popular film series in history. Some estimates have it that a quarter of the world's population has seen a 007 film, and this worldwide fascination with the Bond character has manifested itself in the thousands of fan clubs, fan conventions, web sites, and movie guides in existence today. But while there exists an abundance of literature about Ian Fleming's fictional spy, no book has actually considered the 007 phenomenon in the context of cultural and film history until now. James Chapman's Licence to Thrill attempts to examine the Bond series in a scholarly manner, and succeeds marvelously at doing so.

From the start, Chapman's meticulous, comprehensive study of these films is presented in an objective and refreshing manner. Chapman immediately sets the tone for the book, arguing that the viewer needs to look beyond the fantastic scenarios and hedonistic nature of Bond's life in order to grasp the real meanings of these films -- that is, that they nostalgically represent Great Britain's global strength during an actual period of decline. Chapman goes on to discuss the various film genres (spy thrillers, cliffhangers, action movies) that have been hybridized into the "Bondian" formula, and goes on to show that the Bond films themselves, despite borrowing upon other formulas, have actually developed their own ideology.

The most impressive aspect of Licence to Thrill is its comprehensiveness. Chapman places the Bond films in the context of film history, and by doing so, provides a larger framework by which to assess their cultural impact. He also examines the influence of other film genres on the Bond series; for example, the influence of the "blaxploitation" movement of the early 70's on 1972's Live and Let Die, which features an unusually high proportion of black characters for a Bond film. The rest of the book concentrates on the Bond films themselves, grouping them according to theme and charting the development and evolution of the franchise.

Although Chapman clearly illustrates that the generic formula of these films is virtually designed to change with the British political climate, he also maintains that Bond's adventures are representative works of nostalgia for British imperialism and nationalism. For example, in discussing 1983's Octopussy, which is set largely in India, Chapman notes the numerous television series in Britain during the 1980's devoted to the former British colony and the abundance of works at the time analyzing Anglo-Indian relations. Other films are set against the contemporary British political mindset, such as 1981's For Your Eyes Only, which strongly references Thatcherism, and the end result is that we see the films in an entirely new light.

Enlightening, entertaining and thought provoking, this book is highly recommended for anyone who is serious about film. For the rabid Bond fan, it is simply indispensable.

I own several hymnals and several other books about hymn writers. One hymn that is mentioned in this book is "Amazing Grace," and what Mr. Pipes tells the children doesn't line up with any of the other stories I've read, or with how the words to this hymn are credited in **any** of the hymnals I have seen or own. I've seen no indication anywhere that John Newton wrote the verse that begins "When we've been there 10,000 years . . .", and yet Douglas Bond credits Newton with this verse as if it were written to be part of the original poem. It makes me doubt the accuracy of the other, perhaps lesser-known hymns that are discussed in this book.

I read the Mr. Pipes books aloud to my kids when they were little, and though they liked the books at the beginning, they lost interest in the kids before the end of the book. My oldest was required to read one of the Mr. Pipes books again for high school, and she was completely uninterested in the back story of the kids and Mr. Pipes. The back story seems to be written for younger kids while the stories of the hymn writers themselves seem to be geared for an older audience.

We are thoroughly enjoying this book series. We are now reading book #3, 'Mr. Pipes Comes to America'. My children want to be read to every day with this series. It would be nice if a cd was made with each hymn discussed in the books. This way, for the people like ourselves who do not play an instrument, could sing along with them. These books should be read in order. Again, these are excellent!

I had to do a book report on this book. I liked it VERY much. It is so clever, it is never "Children, I will tell you the story of Isaac Watts today"... Read the other two books and Bond's other trilogy the Crown & Covenant series. A must read!!

I received this book as a reading assignment my freshman year of high school. I remember thinking, "What is this? This is a kid's book! I don't want to read this!" Not reading it was not an option however, so I reluctantly read the book. My reluctance soon wore off as I became bewitched by the stories.

Mr. Pipes, a saintly old British organist, meets two American children who are "stuck" in a small, rural British town for the summer. He teaches the children about the love of Christ through stories of hymn writers, including the great Isaac Watts. Throughout the book you learn about hymns, their writers, and music. The characters are intelligent, dynamic, and funny.

This book is good for all ages and is great for family reading. It is especially geared towards ages 11-16, but any age can learn from it and enjoy it.

This book is the first of a trilogy, and I recommend that you also purchase "Mr. Pipes and the Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation" as well as "Mr. Pipes comes to America." Enjoy!

Annie and Drew are "stuck" in Olney, England for the summer. Their mother brought them over, and leaves them pretty much to their selves except on the weekends. Everything in Olney is old, even most of the people, and the children are sure they are in for a boring summer. One of Drew's consolations is his CD player, which is constantly playing. One day they meet Mr. Pipes, so called because he is the church organist, and whom they find to be a great storyteller.

In each chapter, he tells a short and appealing biography of many of the hymn writers from Britain. As he teaches the children to fish or row his boat, the "Toplady", he tells of the childhoods and interesting facts of the hymn writers. Mr. Pipes goes on to recite or sing some of their hymns, and tells why he appreciates them. In Olney, he shows them places in the lives of John Newton and William Cowper, and in the last chapter, they take a trip down the river Ouse to Bedford, and hear of John Bunyan.

The children become interested in Mr. Pipes stories, and an affection grows between them. On one of the excursions with Mr. Pipes, Drew leaves his CD player somewhere, while he was listening to Mr. Pipes deploring modern music and praising these hymns of old. As Annie and Drew hear of God and learn the hymns (which their mother terms "dirges"), they see their sins and their need for God. They begin to desire a relationship with the Lord, and to serve Him in their lives. When they fly back to America, they will miss Olney, Mr. Pipes, and their other new friends, but they take with them their new knowledge and understanding of God.

I enjoyed this book, in which I learned new things about many of the hymn writers. It was very interesting, with just enough story and plot blended into the biographies to keep the reader's interest, even for young children who might be anxious to know what happened next to the children and Mr. Pipes. I think the book (the first in a series of four) would be excellent read aloud to a family, with young children along with more mature ones enjoying the whole journey. At the end of each chapter, the lyrics and music for several of the hymns mentioned are included. This was helpful to me, because I had memorized all the verses included in the hymnbook to several of the hymns, and I was delighted to find more wonderful verses to them.

This is a fascinating story about an Albanian Dictator (the Guide) and his Successor's controversial death. The story has been summarized already in numerous reviews so I'll refrain from that.

What is interesting is to see how well the author has captured the omnipresence of a totalitarian regime's oppression and the lingering threat of "relegation" for those who fail to follow "the Doctrine" of the Party. It is mind control, the rationalization of illogical ideas and/or motives and the destruction of the human being. It is analogous to the fanatical or misguided wing of a religion or corporation or group of people. An illuminating book worth consideration.

While I liked the book, I found it did not thoroughly engage me. Perhaps that is the result of it having been translated into English, through French from Albanian. Did the words capture the intention of the author or were they the technical language of the translator?

Although information on the book jacket of The Successor claims that Albanian author Ismail Kadare is acclaimed worldwide, few English-speaking readers knew of him until he won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. Accessibility to his works is also hampered by the fact that for various reasons, the English translations are second hand, passing first through French.

From Kadare's introductory caveat in The Successor (" . . . any resemblance between the characters and circumstances of this tale and real people and events is inevitable") and the first sentence ("The Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom on December 14"), the reader can quickly deduce that the novel is both historical and political. The simple plot presents the death as a mystery. Was the Successor's death suicide (the party line) or was it murder? It seems as though the Successor chose "to have himself hauled away by two black oxen . . .". Details are sparse, varied, and presented in flashback by potential murders and others. The country is Albania, but the year is not given. Most characters have titles but no names. The exceptions are a truly fictional daughter (the actual Successor had only sons) and another would-be successor Adrian Hasobeu. At this point, the reader who cannot tolerate ambiguity can consult the book jacket or more elaborate resources. Since this is a fictional account, facts might not be that important. The text explains, moreover, that Albania is governed by a Communist dictarorship; parnoid suspicion rather than truth reigns. Truth is not to be found, but the book presents an engaging read by holding out the bait. While the mysterious death of a leader is more prevalent in Communist countries, such deaths also occur in democracies--John F. Kennedy. Documented facts do not reveal the facts about such deaths. The style of this novel suits the subject well. It is a cross between The Trial and Rashomon (other reviewers have made the comparison). Kadare combines Kafka's nightmarish landscapes with subjectivity and folktale elements.

Like the Successor, Ismail Kadare is also hauled around by two oxen, but one is black and one is white. Because he had close but reputedly necessary Communist party connections, Kadare has received some controversial press from Albanians and other informed individuals. Interesting information about Kadare can be found on blogs. In the final analysis, however, he does write well.

This is a book that although fascinating as a mystery, fascinating as a book on Albanian by one of the worlds newest and greatest writers (most of his books have been recently translated also from the French) but the deepest value of the book written by a man who is a brilliant novelist and poet has to do with a global world where all that is solid melts away and truth is defined by dominance and brutality and thus dividing a nation and also confusing individuals and as now after the cold war so much of the world is placed under these conditions..whether in the Balkans, the Middle East or in parts of North and South America this book takes on massive significance....a must read.

Kadare may be the most intriguing and maddening writer to emerge from the other side of the Wall - or, more accurately, from one of the wall's more peculiar chinks. He can write clumsily, as he proved in Three Elegies for Kosovo, and The Successor lacks the lyric grace of the literary heavyweights Kadare upset in winning the International Man Booker Prize (unless the problem is with the two rounds of translation from Albanian to French to English), but Kadare concisely captures the mood of glasnost - a short hand term for the disappearnce of central authority, replaced by deep ideological uncertainty.
The chestnut of a murder mystery is really a parlor game played by the aging, increasingly paranoid Enver Hoxha (renamed Number 1 in The Successor), while the human tragedies caused by Communism's labyrinthine party politics (the successor's daughter is unable to marry, the architect of the successor's house is guilt-ridden over the secret passageway he constructed between the houses of #1 and the successor) only presage the book's disquieting ending. In the Successor's fragmentary recollections through a medium we glimpse a reversion to a primitive future that may be just as bad as totalitarianism, likewise dominated by the basic human - and inhumane - drive to power.

This novel is based on actual events: the Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha ("the Guide" in this book) denounced his long-standing premier and presumed heir, Mehmet Shehu ("the Successor"), who then was said to have shot himself. Whether he was murdered or committed suicide is the question at the centre of this book, and Kadare offers an ingenious answer in the last chapter. The whole book is suffused with the fear and paranoia prevailing in a country ruled by suspicious and devious tyrant: the terror felt by those near to him and by their families; the sycophantic rivalry for his favour; the dread felt by people like doctors or architects asked to work for someone in the government in case their work is dangerously caught up in some unpredictable political manoeuvre; the cautious and nervous gossip of the population; the attempt of foreign governments to make sense of what was happening in that hermetically sealed country.

Kadare has been fortunate in his translators. Most of his books have been translated from the Albanian into French and then from the French into English - in this case by David Bellos. This is the eighth novel of Kadare's that I have read and between them there have been at least seven translators - but they all capture Kadare's unmistakeable clean and simple style.

This is a really good book. It was pretty funny because they do some weird stuff. Plus there are some awkward characters. This book can get pretty boring, but there is a huge twist in the book. I can relate to the characters and the stuff they do.
I do recommend this book. I'm not a big book reader, but I actually read this book. So if I liked it anyone else who reads it I bet will like it, too. It's cool that the two kids, Edgar and Ellen, know how to play lots of funny pranks and know how to take care of themselves. It's exciting to see what they're going to next. I highly recommend you read this book!

Has anything weird ever happened to you? Well, in Nod's Limbs weird things happen all the time because of the twins named Edgar and Ellen. The title of this book is Edgar and Ellen Tourist Trap, the genre is fiction and the author is Charles Ogden.
This book is about twins that live in a mansion alone because their parents left them there. The twins are pranksters and have a graveyard/dump next to their house that they call Gadget Graveyard because they get most of their things they use for pranks there. The mayor wants to destroy Gadget Graveyard to create a hotel. To do so he must invite celebrates and famous news reporters to Nod's Limbs to give them a tour of the town so that they will give their town a good review and tourist will come. When Edgar and Ellen find out Gadget Graveyard is in trouble they become the tour guides and then very terrible and gross things happen.
The twins are some very interesting characters. The twins always are causing trouble and confusion. I like the twins because of all the things they do like when they let Berenice their Venus fly trap bite there feet and when Edgar throws crab apples at the celebrates.
I like this book because it is very funny. I like when the celebrates ate the sandwiches that were filled with bugs and Edgar said "Compliments of Berenice's lunch pail." I think it was also funny when the twins said "Oh they rather like the escapees." I thought that was hilarious. At times this book is boring but then a surprise comes right around the corner. I am very pleased with this book.

I first became interested in Edgar and Ellen after clicking a link to their site- I had first heard of them only by the minicartoons that I saw on TV. Anyway, this was the first E&E book I read because I couldn't find Rare Beasts at the store. Well, let me say first of all, if you are a down to earth, no-nonsense, everything must be real type preson, you might find these stories to be a bit childish. But, if you can hack through the disgusting mental shell that people force so carelessly over the minds of people, you can truly enjoy this story. I found myself cheering for the anti-heros even as they pranked their own town, and despising anyone who got in their way.
The storyline is like this:
-The twins find a plot that the mayor wants to take their junk yard and make it into a hotel, but they love the junkyard and the carnivorous plant in it.
-They decide to find all the high-class tourists and take them on a town tour that makes Nod's Limbs look horrible.
-I won't tell you if they succeed.
It only took a few hours to read the whole book, but I really enjoyed it, especially the twin's pet furball- Pet- and their creepy, mysterious caretaker. Four stars because I found some of the events just a bit too... they were farther out than the rest of the story. Still, it was a great book.

It is a great book, funny, hilarious, and great for kids. Very imaginative. I loved reading it.

In this second addition of the edgar & ellen series the book starts out with how the delightful little town of Nod's Limbs had been erected. Then it talks about edgar and ellen, two mischievious twelve-year-old twins, who live in a tall mansion next to the gadget graveyard, a graveyard and junkyard combined.
But the pompous mayor has plans to change the twins' gadget graveyard into a hotel! He also arranged VIPs to visit and make Nod's Limbs a tourist atraction.
So Edgar and Ellen act as tour guides but instead bring the VIPs on a tour of insanity that will make tourists stay away forever!

I liked the story of this book better than the first. Also, in this book it gave me a very good discription of the picturesque town of Nod's Limbs and all of the goody-goody residents. Charles Ogden writes very interesting Lemony Snicket-oriented stories, except with the children being the predators. Rick Carton also makes great drawings that are dark and somwhat like the addams family.
Another thing a liked better about this book aside from the first was that edgar and ellen succeeded in their evil plot.

This book is chock full of wonderful suggestions for time away for bonding with your best girlfriends. When I bought the book, I found that I had already covered about fifteen of the trips with one friend or another, so I can attest to the suggestions' being right on the mark. It's given me some great ideas for future getaways. Marybeth Bond knows what things are important to a group of women who want to eat, drink, tour, shop, and enjoy new and exciting (but safe) places -- and know that these things are often best experienced in the company of your good friends. She also recognizes that sometimes you want to embrace nature, sometimes you want retail therapy, and other times you want to just relax and be pampered. She has suggestions, well researched (she must have had a lot of fun researching this book!), for every preference. Highly recommended!

The book is well written, and organized to help make travel planning easy. Haven't traveled yet to rate the experience, but loaded with great ideas!

I bought this for my mom and she's found some really great things to do with her gal pals in it...I think I'll borrow it eventually.

This is an interesting and informative book. If you need a girlfriend's getaway, you are sure to find the perfect place. I especially like the breakdown of places to go, see, visit, eat, etc. You won't be disappointed in this purchase.

As a former resident of San Diego, I can name the two most touristy, and therefore useless, shopping venues in the city. And yet, these are the exact two places the author lists in the "shopping" category of the San Diego section. These are places that the tourist buses unload, food prices are jacked up, and the stores hold the same useless "made in China" knicknacks that you can get anywhere in America. Had the author done some research, she would have steered you to Cedros Design District in Solana Beach, home of SOLO and Zinc Cafe, or at least, for those looking for more traditional shopping, to Fashion Valley. When I go to another city to go shopping, I'm looking for something a little different, something I can't find just anywhere. This particular listing in the book makes me doubt the usefulness of the rest of it!

BEHIND THE RED DOORS links three extraordinary shops that market scent, jewels and lingerie. Through these doors wishes come true. These searing tales should not be reserved just for Valentine's Day. Indeed, readers who enjoy anthologies with a united theme and story line will absolutely treasure BEHIND THE RED DOORS.

Door #1 - "Heaven Scent" by Vicki Lewis Thompson
In an innovative marketing ploy, customers uncomfortable browsing have the option to use computer kiosks to order their favored items and pick them up on their way out the door. To ascertain men's preferences and offer suggestions to shoppers, Jamie Ruskin asks long time friend and secret crush Dev Sherman to fill out a questionnaire. Certain his sister is somehow involved, Dev gives opposite answers, never suspecting that Jamie will use his own answers against him. The result is a sizzling, yet playful romp that combines erotic fantasy and aromatherapy in a sent-sational combination.

Door #2 - "Diamond Mine" by Stephanie Bond
Valentine's Day went desperately wrong between Faith Sherman and Carter Grayson when she expected more than just a friendly dinner. When a diamond on loan requires increased security, Carter reenters her life. Only this time he claims a fiancé and soon Faith finds herself recommending diamonds for someone else. Bond's characteristic flair for combining romance and humor truly sparkles.

Door #3 - "Sheer Delights" by Leslie Kelly
Conned into a photography session by her cousin, schoolteacher Meg O'Roarke becomes an inadvertent sexy model for lingerie. Her gasp of shock when she sees her body plastered on the store's kiosk screen brings an unexpected rescuer. But Joe Santori will be hard pressed to explain that the lingerie hanging in his closet was for her-a fantasy woman he had not even met. Kelly's dynamic storytelling ability truly results in an unexpectedly sheer delight.

So the three stories here are all linked- 3 gals- one store as the central thing that ties the stories together.
1- Vicki Lewis Thompson's tale is pure sex, wit, comedy and fun!
2- Stephanie Bond- some danger, crossed wires, a hero who needs to grow up and quit being a guy and more of a man to get the woman. This one is not your typical guy meets girl again story- much meatier than I expected from a short novella.
3- Leslie Kelly- bashfully buxom nice girl is the star of men's fantasies at a naughty lingerie shop! And the guy she meets is one of her biggest fans.... sensitive handling of how being built like Dolly Parton when you are not a country western singer is handled well.

There should be a follow up to this book! Plenty of characters introduced here could be expanded on for more.

For more reads - I recommend the Vicki Lewis Thompson Blaze titles and Nerd in Shining Armor.
I love the Stephanie Bond Harlequin Temptation and Harlequin Love & Laughter titles- esp WIFE is a 4 Letter Word.
Leslie Kelly is improving- her more recent offerings are better than her earlier ones.

BERFORE i start the first story really really did it for me...
If you enjoy a fun, sassy read with three great heroines and three even hotter heroes, than this is the book for you. The stories all tie together nicely, yet easily stand alone.

...Ms. Blake but I've got to disagree. While I enjoyed the first two stories (especially Ms. Thompson's) Leslie Kelly's was by far the best. I recently discovered her and have since snapped up her backlist which I found to be wonderful. These three writers wrote an online continuation of the Red Doors story on eharlequin and Ms. Kelly's was again my favorite. I love her humor and her skill with character and dialogue. She is definitely a writer to watch.

Behind The Red Doors, has something for every romance lover. I enjoyed all the stories. The characters, dialogue, and plots in all of them are both steamy and entertaining, and will satisfy even the most die-hard romantic!

John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Picture Inc.
Beverly Hills, California

I would not say that it's great, but that it's not horrible which makes it good. In terms of other short stories that I've read, MOST of these stories are better than average. The others, I would like to say that the author is trying to test his skill and see if he can accurately depict a situation that is out of his (life) experience. 5/5 overall for the range of stories, characters, and for a book that I did not regret reading.

THE BOAT is an engaging and free-wheeling collection of seven short stories by first-timer Nam Le, organized in a cleverly self-referential package. In the pivotal first story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" (a title drawn from William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1950), a young Vietnamese American lawyer-turned-aspiring author named Nam is visited by his father, just arrived from Australia. Nam has settled in Iowa to attend the renowned Iowa Writer's Workshop.

As he struggles to meet its creative demands and beat his own writer's block, a friend encourages Nam simply to write about Vietnam, since "ethnic literature's hot." Another friend differs: "It's a license to bore. The characters are always flat, generic." It's that last friend who tosses out as an aside, "You could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins, and Hiroshima orphans - and New York painters with hemorrhoids." And thus is THE BOAT.

The second story follows the perilous life of Juan Pablo Merendez, an adolescent assassin in Medillin, Colombia as he is called to task by his boss for failing to carry out an execution. Next comes "Meeting Elise," the story of an aging, hemorrhoid-afflicted painter seeking desperately to make amends with his estranged (and engaged) daughter as she makes her Carnegie Hall debut as a concert cellist. Another story, titled simpy "Hiroshima," traces the life of a young Japanese girl moved to the safety of the nearby countryside in the days immediately preceding the dropping of the atomic bomb. "Hiroshima" is sandwiched between two other stories, one a "coming of age" story in a coastal Australian town, the other a "coming to life's purpose" story in Tehran, Iran. After this whirlwind tour, Nam Le returns for the finale to Vietnam for his title story, "The Boat." Not surprisingly, this one is a flight and survival story, focusing on Mai, a young girl cast adrift for days in the Pacific with two hundred other refugees on a smugglers' trawler that has lost its engines.

So what to make of the metastructure? In Nam Le's opening story, the writer Nam succumbs to the pressure of his writing assignment and opts to "exploit the Vietnamese thing." He interviews his father, a survivor of the My Lai massacre, and converts this horrific story relatively quickly and easily into typewritten copy. He awakens the next morning to discover that his father has read and then destroyed the one and only copy. Has Nam Le the author discarded ethnic literature of his own (the figurative tearing up of the My Lai story by his fictional father in the first story) for that of Colombians, Japanese, Iranians, and Australians? And has he, upon attempting to step outside his own ethnicity and into the skins of others, returned unsatisfied to his own Vietnamese experience for his closing story? Is the reader intended to compare the relative merits of Nam's own ethnic (Vietnam-based) stories with those drawn from the world at large? Or are we to see the opening and closing stories as literary "brackets" of the immigrant/ethnic literature genre, one a tale of departure or escape, the other of adaptation and assimilation?

There seems little doubt that the opening and closing stories are Nam Le's most affecting. The opener is touching in its treatment of intergenerational relationships and differences in perception, while the closer is a harrowing tale of sun, salt, thirst, and death for the sake of freedom. In between, the other stories show notable flashes of literary command, but only the "Cartegena" story in Colombia engages the reader with anything approaching the story-telling power of the opening and closing Vietnamese stories.

Perhaps Nam's fictional friend in his opening story is correct, that one writes best about what one knows best, that it really is best to "totally exploit" ethnic literature. In Nam Le's case, THE BOAT shows an emerging authorial talent that promises the possibility of compelling ethnic literature as well as a future range well beyond "the Vietnamese thing." It is quite easy to recommend this book on its merits and also advise readers to keep a watchful eye out for Nam Le's next effort.

An excellent debut collection of short stories. I particularly liked the author's ability to inhabit different peoples and places and points of view. I never expected to jump around, geographically and otherwise, quite so much as the stories moved, which took me, quite pleasantly, by surprise. Le's prose style is pensive and smooth and it can soar. Very good stuff here; I look forward to other works by Nam Le.

It's a challenge to come up with something that feels wholly original as a fiction writer. Mr. Le definitely makes strides toward this in THE BOAT. 100% recommended.

although i think "halflead bay" was suppose to be the climactic piece in the collection, my favorite was "hiroshima." i don't know, it might have been the constant repetitions of the japanese slogan ("one hundred million deaths with honor!") that haunted me, especially coming from the narrator a young child but after i finished that story i got chills.

i was afraid he was going to be lahiri-esque but was pleasantly surprised to find that his prose was lyrical, choppy and abstract; very real, in other words. and he's young, only 29 i think.

the biggest triumph of the book is how seamlessly he writes about other people (besides asians) and i think this is really shocking for readers, for critics especially -- that a non-white writer can do that. le's "the boat" succeeds in all the ways that chang rae lee's "aloft" failed. lahiri, lee they are still trapped in the ethnic dialogue, and i don't blame them...it's of their generation. but i'm relieved, freakin celebrating the fact that the immigrant experience, while valuable and eye-opening is being treated with a critical eye now, one that appraises it more honestly especially in comparison to other, more probing questions that we all, immigrant or not, share.

structurally speaking, i liked the fact that his writing was very disparate, wave-like almost. he's a very visual writer, that said, in the last two stories (tehran calling and the boat), i didn't know what was going on sometimes...which might have been the point.

I enjoyed this book very much. I love Mrs. Whiteside's writing style and the imagery she creates! A good read.

Anyone know of any hot romance books where vampires turn into bats? I've always been a werewolf-type person with paranormal books. I just love the part where man(or woman) becomes beast. So, any paranormal romance books that have a vampire character(s) that transforms into a large bat?

I liked this book, but, I liked the first one better. However, I will be reading the next in the series. I am hooked.

After reading all of this author's books, I thought I had a better handle on her style of prose. This one caught me by surprise. Typical in this series is the mish-mash of languages--French. Spanish, Imaginary--and the heaviness of the writing. I believe there is aspiration towards literary fiction because the prose is intense, thickly written and nothing you can causally read through. That said, doggone it, I liked her characters and the detail she builds into them. Although sometimes I wanted to smack the book against the wall for ponderous writing--check out the first seduction scene and the e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y it takes for the knickers to scoot. That's not sexy--that's tedious. But I kept with it because I liked the characters, each very well defined and with a story of their own waiting to be told. This author remains an auto-buy for me, but I do it with heavy sighs knowing it's going to be a loooong read.

During the French Revolution, Jean-Marie St. Just met Helene d'Agelet in Paris. They fell in love, but were fated to separate as he was turning into a vampire and she was a mortal. However, he remained unaware that after he left her she was changed over too. Over the next two centuries fate seemed to intervene keeping them apart.

In the present, Helene is stunned to see a photo of her beloved Jean-Marie that indicates he is alive. She searches for him so that they can finally share eternity together. However, they still have issues between them as Jean-Marie has been assigned the task of killing the wicked vampire Queen of New Orleans Hélène's sister, Madame Celeste.

Although much of the story occurs before the first tale (see BOND OF BLOOD) the second of Diane Whiteside modern vampire trilogy is an exciting horror thriller. Readers obtain a bit of the history that led to the vampire kingdoms that carve up much of modern day America. Interestingly the lead couple spends much of the two hundred plus years (and most of the book) separated to the chagrin of romantic fantasy purists; yet the look through time strengthens the final showdown making BOND OF FIRE an entertaining read.

Harriet Klausner

There are much better choices for learning about investing in bonds. Reasonable explanations of the concepts that are covered, but some important concepts aren't included, and, ultimately, there is not enough advice contained to act upon. Disappointing.
Data is old (e.g., federal tax rates from 2003).
No information on bond ladders (how they work, how to build one).
Sections on treasuries and inflation risk contain no information on, nor references to inflation protected bonds (TIPS).

This book is written in clear, understandable English and no technical jargon. Where terms need definition or explanation, they're kept simple and concise. Where appropriate, simple examples are given.

If you want to have a better understanding of bonds, the bond market and how the bond market works, this is the book!

A good overview of bonds. I have been dabbling in stocks for several years but avoided bonds because I really didn't understand them. This book provides a concise and easy-to-understand description of bond investments. Even better, it is one of the least expensive books available.

I found this book an easy read and quite informative for someone who is not well versed in bonds. I had often considered bonds to be a part of my portfolio but I didn't know enough about them to make an intelligent decision. This book helped me decide how best to purchase bonds (mutual funds, closed-end investment companies, individual bonds) and what things to consider. I highly recommend the book for someone thinking about adding bonds to their investment portfolio

I have read a few books in the David Scott's Guides series and find them to be very well written, with understandable terminology and examples. He's a very good teacher and doesn't assume you know all the jargon of investing. In this book he builds a solid foundation for what the various kinds of bonds are, why they are issued, how to value them, etc. All your questions are answered clearly and he includes several Web sites to visit to get more information. Buy it, keep it handy, and enjoy the overlooked (by me, anyway) world of investing in bonds.