Booker Books

One of the biggest challenges of any novelist is to provide a perspective that's accessible to us and helpful in understanding what's being portrayed. Alan Hollinghurst has achieved remarkable results by stationing his narrator, Nick Guest, outside of all the worlds he inhabits. Guest is like a spirit rising amused over the action that can draw us a picture while recording every sound that's created or uttered.

Here are the worlds that Guest helps us explore:

-Tory MP life during the Thatcher years
-Young Oxford graduates looking for a place
-A young man exploring his homosexuality
-Wealthy British on the make for more
-Middle-aged married life
-Inner life of a young manic-depressive

The book's overall theme is about everyday hypocrisy and the large price that has to be paid by those who pretend to be other than what they are and believe.

The story evolves in three time periods: 1983, 1986, and 1987. In all three years, Nick Guest resides with the family of an Oxford friend where the father is a rising conservative MP. Nick has an unofficial role as low-cost lodger to keep on eye on the friend's troubled sister. The family knows that Nick is looking for a boy friend and is open about accepting his sexuality. The three years give us a chance to learn more about the characters and to see how their relationships change. The 1987 period brings all that had been known in private into public with large consequences for all.

The book is filled with great scenes where nuances of knowledge, awareness, perception, accent, and perspective separate and unite the characters. Often, contrasting scenes occur back-to-back so that the contrasts are even more obvious. You'll gain a deeper insight into British society than you could on your own.

Ultimately, I feel that a work of fiction must be judged by how successfully it takes you into a world you have never been in before and allows you to understand that world much better. Any novel that can help me understand what it's like to be gay during the AIDS epidemic while giving me a strong sense of Thatcher's leadership has to be pretty terrific because those dimensions are outside my experience and normal reading.

As a person who enjoys art, I was most impressed by the way that the ogee was worked into the story to provide a connecting metaphor for our common humanity.

Bravo!

On one level, this exquisitely wrought novel is a social satire -- a wickedly frank view of the monetarily and politically privileged in Thatcher-era England as seen through the eyes of an insider Outsider. On a more personal level, it might be called a tragedy of manners, the first-person account of an all-too-flawed (some might say parasitic) hero whose hubris is his desire to belong. The rather too obviously named narrator, Nick Guest, seeks his place in the world among the sexually active homosexual set, the wealthy movers and shakers crowd, the aestheticist/intellectual exclusivists and the secret coterie of drug culture initiates. Nick's fall from grace stems from his careless disregard of the boundaries that separate them. AIDS, Margaret Thatcher, Henry James (Nick's thesis subject and literary godfather) and Cocaine are the spirits that reign over the proceedings, but they are not spirits who reside comfortably together.

Nick's sexual initiation with a lower-class black man takes place in the within the exclusive gated community where his hosts, the wealthy, politically ambitious Feddens, reside. Prophetically, this relationship is consummated in a chilly garden, the participants warmed by the compost heap they use for leverage. Sexual prowess and, later, drug use lead Nick to carelessness, blurring his sense of propriety. And although drugs and sex are the great equalizers that allow Nick entree into the world of his social betters, they ultimately bring about his expulsion from Society. Everything he desires, either betrays him or is betrayed by him. His college mate's family, of which he so desperately wants to be a member, actually regards him as a servant, the sister's keeper (a position at which he finally, catastrophically fails). His first lover casts him aside without explanation and his long-term partner, the stunningly handsome, wealthier-than-is good-for-him Wani, is too drug-addled and promiscuous to be capable of real love and regards their relationship as one of sexual convenience. It is this relationship that will, in the end, prove to be the undoing of Nick and those he most admires.

Hollinghurst's themes are appropriately Jamesian: the dilemma of the artist in an artless society (Wani's money-worshipping, boorish father incessantly refers to Nick as "the aesthete"), and the clash between an independent innocent and a corrupt though attractive feudal establishment. Symbolic details are handled delicately and effectively as in the case of photographic references. Nick is disappointed when a photo of his crowning moment in Society, his dance with the Prime Minister, does not appear in the tabloids. When a photo of him is, in fact, published, it is the scandalous catalyst of his expulsion from that society. And, as he leaves his long-time residence, he comes across a snapshot of his sexually unavailable schoolmate, Toby, for love of whom he came to stay in the Fedden household in the first place. The photo shows a beautiful, sexually alluring Toby as he once appeared in a school play, but whose real-life, indolent subject has subsequently gone to fat.

Nothing is what one hopes it will be and all desire is betrayal. The line of beauty is only skin deep, leaving "The Line of Beauty" a lovely portrait of unlovely, ultimately unlovable people.

In my estimation this will go down as one of the best pieces written in the English language this or any other century. I found the charaters believable and highly entertaining. I would imagine that many, many people, particularly gay men, would find Nick to be alot like themselves. I wanted to keep going back to the book, night after night as I was entranced with the story and the characters. Well written and thought provoking, what a beauty indeed.

In 1980s England, a gay college student becomes a semi-permanent guest in the home of a conservative Member of Parliament during the Margaret Thatcher years. Lots of social climbing, and a sex scene or two. Interesting!

I have to respond to the 1-star review because it's so angry and wrongheaded. As an author, I read very widely, but it's the rare book that makes me wish I had writtten it; that is, lived the experience and had the insight that brought this book to fruition. To have emerged from inside rather than approach it as a reader, if that makes sense.

Recently I've felt that with Ian McEwan's Atonement, Francine Prose's Blue Star, and Alan Hollinghurst's Line of Beauty. Every line of this book is indeed a line of beauty--the sinuous prose matches the compelling story and I had to force myself to read it slowly, rather than gobble it down. I read many passages aloud to my spouse, who also was blown away.

I'm afraid it's been over a year since I read it, so I can't supply more details, but this novel that nods so much at James is actually the kind of book Balzac wrote, blending sex, politics, and money in a knowing commentary on his times, and I can't think of higher praise than that.

This book tells the story of infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (sort of the Australian Jesse James, for comparison's sake).

The writing style could be considered a tad challenging due to the regional slang that's incorporated, but the subject matter really makes up for it. Ned's life story, as imagined by Peter Carey, is very compelling. He comes across as a mostly decent, good-hearted human being who ends up as an outlaw due to the extreme anti-Irish sentiment in Australia at the time and lack of other opportunity afforded to him as a result.

I actually found the political undercurrent of the novel the most intriguing part of the story and wished that it had been expanded upon a bit more. This is a very interesting and educational story that I really enjoyed.

This one's a heartbreaker about poor Irish and their futile efforts to avoid being stepped on an ruined by the wealthy and powerful, leading to inevitable crimes of revenge and justice. Written in dialect that's not difficult as though it were actually Kelly writing. Highly recommended.

I don't know enough about the history of Ned Kelly to comment on the historical accuracy of the events, though I gather that the novel is quite well researched. What makes the book such an enjoyable read though is the remarkable portrayal of life in colonial Australia. You get a visceral sense of how it might have felt to be poor in the dog-eat-dog world of Ned Kelly's time, of the desperate struggle to conquer the Australian bush, of the constant oppression by authorities for whom laws rarely provide an effective check on power, of the solidarity of human beings brought together by their shared trials and tribulations. Carey has managed to convey a sense of this era in a way that few writers are able to. It is a portrait of social conditions that can be compared to the novels of Charles Dickens.

Americans and Australians share many personality traits: both countries are vast expanses of wilderness, explored and settled by stubborn, independent people who often defied the British leaders. Their people also have a weakness for turning villains into heroes. In America, citizens cheered the exploits of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Bonnie and Clyde. In Australia, the lower class hero was a man named Ned Kelly, the son of dirt-poor Irish immigrants who led a gang of outlaws who made fools of the authorities for almost two years. This unusual historical novel purports to be the autobiography of Ned Kelly, written in painstaking script on stolen paper, envelopes and foolscap by an almost illiterate hero. By turns, touching and profane, the story details Ned's inevitable journey into thievery and lawlessness because of his fierce love for his mother. Ellen Kelly was a fiery beauty whose marriage to a weak-willed Irishman forced to flee Ireland after betraying his friends set the stage for tragedy. Unable to support his growing clan, Ned's father deserts them. When Ellen spurns the attention of the local policeman, she inspires a vendetta that curses her family for a lifetime. Desperate to provide for Ned, she apprentices him to a powerful highwayman. Soon Ned is learning the ways of thieves and robbers. The book chronicles his adventures with Harry, his eventual rebellion against the cruel criminal and his futile attempts to return to a normal law-abiding life working the farm for his mother. Carey has written a brilliant novel that captures the spirit and heart of a man who inspired the devotion of his neighbors and friends. Ned is clever, courageous, stubborn, profane, but at the heart of his character is his fierce loyalty to his mother, to his wife and to the daughter that he will never see. Carey captures the pride and honor that makes Ned so sympathetic and inspiring to his countrymen.

I tried this book for no other reason than I liked the title and premise. For a story where every reader knows the inevitable outcome, it manages to be both absorbing and fresh, with a unique voice in the form of Ned Kelly's narration. There's just enough taken from history, and enough extrapolated from bits and pieces of known correspondence and journalism, to make it feel like you are reading a historically-accurate (though clearly subjective) document - which, while not quite true, comes a lot closer than most "fictionalized history" novels. It isn't thrilling, because nothing recounted in the form of letters is ever thrilling, but it exerts its own kind of hold that keeps you constantly wondering what choice Ned will make next, and either cheering for him or wanting him to hold back. That's the sign of great characterization, and will keep me on the lookout for more novels by this author.

I have read several books by John Banville, and this one I think could have benefited heavily from some editing. The author seems to enjoy creating prose more than conveying any particular ideas or creating characters. This book seems like a scetch that leaves you with the impression that you almost see a picture, but when you stop to think about it it's just a few rough lines on a page torn out of a notebook.

the melody of this book is pure beauty; though the story of incestual love is deeply troubling. the effects of that love can be felt as they pierce through time, silently creating misery for all. though i can't shake the image when i read this book, it is still an excellent read for the images it does evoke and the aesthetic questions it does pose about adult teenage angst.

I read the book at a particularly dark time in life, and thus found the author's own sense of self-loathing darkness almost of comfort. I also, suffering from a chronic disease (but no death in sight) am familiar with his expertly described sensation of being alien to the person you love and care for the most: years of togetherness until "news" of death do us apart... But the flashbacks to his earlier love and the sense of both reverence and revilement of his dying cancerous wife left me wanting at times. I was sympathetic then at some point began to feel she needs more development in the book: how she feels, the actions she's taking against this inevitably entirely self-absorbed man. While he says as some point it was her who died, he clearly plunges into the experience as if it's his own leaving her very little breathing room and then finally, none.

John Banville is a crying out loud genius. I am a writer, and this book will carry me through several of my own books on inspiration alone. I have read it four times friom front to back.
Only a consummate genius of spirit, language, and craft could possibly have written this. Reading it requires, I think, an inveterate reader, for its structure is complex. His description of place will take you there and leave you to inhabit the place.
I found it common to read and re-read passages, pages, and, as I said, the entire book it is so beautifully rendered.
The story is touching and real to my inner self, and he is able to paint me, my innermost thoughts, my love for exquisite detail, scene, memories, and people with such solid and true foundation that humanity within me was discovered, illuminated, and honored.
Blue? Lost? Afraid? Grieving? Satisfied with your lot? Think humanity has gone sadly astray? Read this book. I swear you will never forget it.

This is a very rewarding book that requires patience and close attention because of the narrative shifts in time and place.

The story revolves around middle aged Max. In the present, Max is grappling with the recent death of his wife. Clearly the pair had long been a "unit" and Max is quite at loss as to what to do next in her absence. Although he loves his adult daughter Claire, she is no substitute in his affection. So Max is drawn back to a place by the shore that he hadn't been for 50 years, a place where he has a typical early adolesent experience with the opposite sex and an untypical experience with tragedy. The past and present are expertly interwoven by Mr. Banville, who deservedly won his Booker for this effort.

Banville does an incredibly good job showing us the power and limits of memory and how things are remembered (or disremembered) lucidly or poorly.

I think only Ian McEwan today writes with quite the same degree of elegance. And actually, as I think about it, I could make an argument that there are interesting similarities between McEwan's "Atonement" and "The Sea". In each case, the narrator sees or thinks they see something that turns out not to be the case and, in each instance, with terrible consequences; although more obviously so in "Atonement".

Read it "The Sea" and see for yourself.

And like the title, it will take you on a long and strange (for Western eyes) journey. I liked the humanity and the constant failings of the characters and how Okri is able to project the same kind of social problems and issues found in any community into his fictional village. That the place is small doesn't mean that the stakes are. How he brings politics, status-seeking, public bombast, family issues and the recurring unlearned lessons of society into his story is reminiscent of Naipaul (as has been repeatedly pointed out). But unlike Naipaul who reveals the story with dialogue and detail, Okri's intermingling of the physical world with the world of local folklore and spirituality, as if it were an entire second half of a person's constant existence, gives the novel an added dimension. It also allows the author to give you perspectives into the people and the region that would normally get relegated to subtext. Often, that spiritual realm becomes more real than the African village they all call home.

I really enjoyed the novel, but it was long and it was winding. I did feel at the end that I knew the people and I knew the place, and I didn't mind at all that Okri asked me to check my beliefs of what is reality and what is spirituality at the front cover to get me to that destination.

Now, if someone could recommend a place where I could get a good pepper-soup and cup of palm wine...

I read this book 5 years ago, yet it stays with me. I think of many of the characters regularly. Of the family relationships. Of the magic of childhood and Africa and parenthood. It's mystical and my very favoirite of the magical realism genre.

in my humble opinion.

I was truly surprised to see that others had a rough time reading this book. Although my grasp of West African mythology is only as strong as my relationship with Vodou, I found this book entrancing.

Despite the fact that my degree is in literature, I do not often meet books that pull me in and through the way this one did. I found myself completely wrapped in the story & followed with my full attention.

It would sound trite to say that this book changed my life for the better, yet it would also be true.

I came across Okri's 'The Famished Road' in a used bookstore, in Sydney. I decided to do what I used to when I was a kid, and had no knowledge of literary genres or authors- I picked books at random until I found one that looked interesting.
I know a book is good when it completely removes me from reality, pulls me in as if I'm watching inside the book, and alters my perspective when I set it down. When the father becomes a boxer in this novel, I found myself hunched over, practically yelling as if I was in the crowd.
This is a wonderful book, that leaves questions suspended in the air above you long after you set it down. Do yourself a favor, and buy it.

A beautiful story. An African version of Magical Realism but still quite different.

This book was simply amazing. Adiga put together a fascinating portrait of a city, some beautiful dark comedy, but what absolutely made me unable to put down this book was the voice of the main character.

This is a "told" story. In a letter to a Chinese official coming to visit Bangalore, Balram unfolds the story of his life, and it is just utterly perfect. I generally don't prefer this kind of story-telling, but Aravind Adiga did it without a single misstep, and the book reads so smoothly. This book was dark, it was funny, it addressed both great truths and small lies, and it offered the reader a peek at a different world. I can't recommend this book enough.

This is a good and easy reading. It truely depicts the lives of poor Indian people whose lives are not touched by the last decade's economic boom. Do not expect any literary height of English in this novel. It's rather low-register english used by the writer.

This is the story of the real India--not the romanticized India of the Taj or rah-rah economic successes or Monsoon Weddings. Having worked in Delhi two months this year, I recognize Adiga's India with all its complexity, corruption and class/caste cruelty. It's vibrant and ever-changing and impossible to describe, or maybe to understand.

I have seen a lot of reviews of this book here claiming how harsh it is and that it is not a realistic protrayal of modern India. I thought Adiga's depiction was very realistic and he portrayed modern India with a lot of honesty. Hailing from a middle class or upper middle class family in India I can see how the underclass there is completely ignored and that their stories never make it to the surface. Having lived outside of India has definitely opened my mind how all people can be equal or almost equal in a society. I am really glad that finally there is a truthful novel that doesn't necessarily talk about elitist, English bred intellectual characters.

It provided a look at a portion of the world that was very "foreign" to me
and seems a part of the world I did not know existed.

This review is just to cover several points that Olly Buxton's and Allen Smalling's excellent review did not stress. While I could shrug off the author's dismissal of books that didn't fit into the archetypes (a criticism of Buxton and Smalling), there are some other serious problems with this book.

1. As Allen Smalling suggests, a la Orwell's observation that inside every fat man is a thin man trying to get out, there is a provocative, insightful much smaller book hidden away in this bloated beast. But it is buried under endless plot summaries. The top of every page in the first half could have a "***spoiler warning***" on it. If you've already read the book/play/movie, the plot summary is likely to be boring. If you think you might want to read the book some day, it could ruin it. That means that the only summaries that are worth reading are for books that you know you have no desire or time to read. And quite frankly, anyone reading a 700+ page book on plot probably has already read most of these books and seen the same movies and plays. And the redundancy! The author shows how a story fits into one plot pattern and then summarizes again to show how it fits into another. He does this over and over again. In terms of the author's language, his Ego has become out of balance.

There are some great moments in this book, like showing how Big Bang theory fits into the archetypes and the comparison of the Book of Job and _Nineteen Eighty-four_. I'm also sure that I'll use some of Booker's terminology like `going below the line'. And no matter how irascible his style of criticism is, it does get at why certain works feel ultimately unsatisfying and why others are so enduring and innovative. But Smalling hit it on the head when he called this book `inefficient'. This is a book to be skimmed.

2. This book is a dinosaur. As I was finishing it up, I thought, `Books like this started dying out -- or rather got ridden out on a rail -- in the 1970s.' Then sure enough, the author's note at the end said it took 34 years to write. The reason people don't write books like this anymore is that you get slaughtered by the charge of ethnocentrism. Except for a few moments when it says it is about Western story-telling over the last 200 years, the book purports to be about all story-telling. All. It, however, commits a huge fallacy: it looks almost solely at Western stories and then tries to root them in biology -- as if the West exhausts the range of human experience. Similarly, the author's notions of gender do not appear to have changed since the 1950s and he talks blithely about `light' versus `dark' without any recognition whatsoever of the pervasiveness of racism to world history for the last five hundred years. (Towards the end he does briefly talk about feminism and that only reinforces the sense that he still refuses to accept that the Sixties happened.)

Before I read this book, I naively believed that there were a small and set number of plots. Contra its intentions, the book convinced me that that is not true. It gives so much evidence of constant human ingenuity to create more plots. So the would-be writers who give this four or five stars, as a reader, I hope instead of trying to use the plots described in this book as templates, you use it as a catalog of cliches and try to push beyond them.

I am no literary expert but this changed the way I thought about the role stories play in our lives. I watch films and movies with a new found excitement. There may be better books but this did it for me

Many reviews here both positive and negative describe this facinating work in great detail ... consider whichever of them you will, then factor this into your decision: Everything you are ever told is an opinion. That's true of Mr. Booker's book and the reviews expressed here. I read not to agree with the author of a work on all points but in order to see what a book makes me THINK ... to this end a book can make many points that I do not agree with and still be highly useful, entertaining, even life transforming.


I did not find that the Christopher Booker's seeming critism of certain works being "flawed" or refered to in other seemingly negative ways really damaged his basic theory ... I chose to take it that they were flawed as to how they applied to his model and pressed on. Yes, he has what may be seen as a "traditional" point of view regarding literature and other subjects but in a work about the evolution of storytelling tradition counts for quite a bit.

It's a hefty tome. I described it to some of my friends as "a career." MANY subjects (certain psychological theories and much else) must be accepted as a given or the thing would be much longer and would take forever to make any point at all. Much of the controversy stems from Booker's seeming condemnation of certain types of entertainment produced in the last 200 years.

He makes some good points, some feel like moralizing ... some are possibly legitimately moralising. Much of his discussion of "Waiting For Godot" MAY have been criticism as it emerged from his word processor (or typewriter!) however I could EASILY read it as commending the play for brilliantly identifying issues at large in the culture at the time ... his point is clear but his opinion is not ... and MY opinion (high praise for Godot) was built entirely on his observations.

There are places where the examination falls short, again there must be or this work that took 30 years to complete would remain perpetually unfinished. He, and others, fail to take into consideration the fact that much of the work he discusses prior to the Romantic Period was not "commercial writing," the author wasn't working for a paycheck, a fact that motivates many writers to put out work that isn't as completely "cooked" as material that they have revisited several times over a decade or so. Movies are examined but an aspect never discussed (by this author or most members of the entertainment press) is the influence of several levels of creative executives all submitting both intelligent and idiotic ideas to the writers (sometimes dozens and many incredited) and director ... ideas that cannot be ignored (because these executives are "the boss," the final authority at the studio). Also not considered is the fact that many of the more traditional stories were told for many years before being written down, then were told more times and written down again and again. Each time they dipped into the well of the unconsious, becoming more and more distilled ... this is very different than a modern novel which is often written over a limited time frame, rewritten over a more limited time frame and then rushed into print. The modern work runs the risk of being less purely refined than a work in existance hundreds or thousands of years before it's modern incarnation. It is slightly possible that someday in the far future the recent film version of Beowolf will be considered 'the original,' it ceratinly has many of the features of 'classical' literature. However, it is a distinct, wonderful, and innaccurate reworking of what we know to be the story ... the true original might have been very different.

All that said, I return to what I hope is a meaningful point. This is not a highly controversial work but it is right and proper for anyone reading this or any other book to point out its imperfections. In many cases, especially in a work of complex opinion such as this one, that is the evidence that the author is doing his job. People are thinking, thinking hard about what he has said. Their opinions indicate that they have learned from or refined their thoughts because of what he has written.

The Seven Basic Plots is a great work. No one needs to take it as some kind of gospel. No one needs to agree with every point for it to be the learning experience of a lifetime. It's successes and failures are simply food for more creative thought. It's a big book with small type but if you have the time and an open mind you too can read it, learn from it, agree and disagree with it.

I've just ordered this book and have read others with similar approaches in condensing the possibilities of literature (Joseph Campbell essentially narrowed it down to one story - the hero's journey). There are a variety of books with 33, 48, 7 or whatever number they've concluded. They all have value to me as a researcher on writing fiction (I run a place called Writers' Village University and develop courses and writing programs for our members -- we want to know the rules, but more importantly, how to break them with accessible style). All of these books have worthy insights, but writing should have no boundaries outside of having one foot in entertainment and or an educational value, and the other foot in unexplored territory (writing is exploration for both reader and writer). That's how literature and progress itself move forward. All our abstract concept metaphors are teamed with concrete metaphors to help us understand them (life or love = the journey metaphor (crossroads, rocky road, we've come a long way, dying, one-way street); argument, business and even love = the war metaphor (tactics, strategies, win, defeat, concede,); business = the plant or tree metaphor (cultivating, branches, growing, fruits). The Internet is using the Super Highway metaphor. The problem I'm beginning to see is the metaphors we use to understand concepts also limits where we can take them. Booker's book is helpful in showing the limits imposed on the art of telling a good story. If you understand the conventional boundaries, you begin to understand where you can tear down the walls. This is an unusual endorsement for a book, but as critical reader, I thrive on opposing points of view and look between the lines for practical values, especially ones that offer alternate avenues for refreshing literature.

RJ Hembree

I liked this book very much. It was kind of longwinded. But since it is a resource book and not a mere how-to on writing, I could overlook how long it was. The more content the better because it gave me more examples and things to think about regarding the subject matter.

The book is broken into four basic parts:

1. The 7 basic plots
2. Stories told well
3. Stories not told well
4. Why people tell stories

And the 7 basic plots are as follows:

1. Overcoming themonster
2. Rags to riches
3. A journey - the quest
4. A journey - the voyage and return
5. Comedies
6. Tragedies
7. Rebirth

This book took 34 years to write (so says the author). But I think it took so long because the author was not motivated to finish it a lot sooner. This is true even though the book is kind of heavy at 728 pages. There are many stories cited throughout the book as examples of what the author discusses. And all the stories cited are referenced in an index at the end of the book.

What I liked the most about the book was how logical and informative it was. I particularly liked the fact that I could look at the Table of Contents and pretty much tell what the book was about. As a result, reading the book was a pleasure. However, I did have to dig a little when it came to Chapter 12. At first glance I thought the author had added another plot and forgotten to tell me about it or to redo the title of the book. I probably would have liked the book better if Chapter 12 had been put someplace else.

When I read this book I also read The Writer's Journey (ISBN: 193290736X) and Story (ISBN: 0060391685). All three books compliment each other and relate to the art/process of writing a bestselling novel, drama, or movie script. I recommend if you read one, then go ahead and read all three.

At the end of this book there is a glossary of terms. I found it to be a little helpful. In fact, I found it to be very helpful when reading The Writer's Journey because that book failed to have a glossary. 5 stars!

I have read Jesus in the Feasts of Israel and I praise God for this book. It has been so ENLIGHTENING and has led me to worship Jesus in a new light, in a deeper way and with a heart full of thanksgiving. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has not studied the Feasts of the Lord. I bought 10 books and have distributed them to friends and family and they have been so blessed! Highly recommended!!!

I have read a number of books by Richard Bookers and shared them with several friends- most of whom recieved them as enthusiasticaly as I did.

By his own admission,his style is direct and simple and because of the shorter length of his books he is somewhat limited by the quantity of support documentation that is include, none the less he does provide ample meat to chew on and I have found that his books in general are enlightening even to some of the most studied students of scripture.

I strongly endorse Torah:Law or Grace and The Scarlett Thread. If you have been studying scripture through western eyes or through a Protestant or Catholic prisim then take a moment to consider viewing the scripture from a 1st Century Jewish perspective and discover the richness of the Hebraic roots of your/our faith.

For an indepth study of Paul I suggest The Letter Writer by Tim Hegg

I found Richard Booker's writing style very easy to read. The Feasts of Israel came to life and I finally understand how the Old Testament feasts relate to me as a Christian today.

I was hoping for a book to share with Christian friends wanting to know about the feasts of the Old Testament. I found the book to be poorly crafted as the font size and boldness varied from page to page and sometimes changed font type altogether.
Also, I found that the way in which the author wrote seemed too simple for the intelligent and educated people with whom I wanted to share this information. The proofs were not proven well enough nor backed with other resources.
Simply, I was very disappointed.

In this first of two volumes of biography by Harlan, Washington is characterized by the author as a dissembling, cynical, manipulator of racial issues for his own self-aggrandizement. Granted that Washington was at times very protective of his position of economic and political power, and that he was not as outspoken on issues of race as we might like from the distance of a century away, I find no evidence in the writing or the notes that Washington was anything other than a great educator and smart leader who was sincere in his positions and practices.

While at the National Historic site that marks Washington's birthplace in western Virginia (a worthwhile trip a bit off the beaten path), I purchased and read Washington's story Up from Slavery (Dover Thrift Editions) in his own words. That's a better starting point than this volume from Harlan.

Harlan does a better job taking the mature Washington through his growing political career, and examining his historical and cultural impact in Booker T. Washington: Volume 2: The Wizard Of Tuskegee, 1901-1915 (Oxford Paperbacks).

Kudos to Mr. Louis Harlan!

In his interesting work, "The Making of a Black Leader", Mr. Harlan does a wonderful job of capturing the true meaning of Booker T. Washington in all of his dimensions in American history. Prior to reading Mr. Harlan's work, I had many preconceived notions of Booker T., the most infamous being that he was a "traitor" or an "Uncle Tom" of the black race. After reading Mr. Harlan's book, I not only continue to think that Booker T. Washington was one of the premier black conservatives of his time but, one who continues to influence black conservative political thought in contemporary American politics. In all, Mr. Harlan does a great job of presenting a balanced and fair observation of Booker's continuing legacy in the African American community and the larger American family. Using empirical data and substantive research, Mr. Harlan clearly presents many compelling arguments, in which all are supported with great evidence and interesting testimonials from speeches and interviews from years past. I urge all (especially African Americans) to read this wonderful masterpiece of African American literature.

In this delightfully charming depiction of children during the American Civil War, Marten explores the war's meaning for both northern and southern, and white and black children. Although the experiences for children varied by location and skin color, Marten argues the information provided for children and their everyday experiences during the war served to politicize the children at an early age.
The brilliance behind Marten's work is the variety of incredible sources that he examined. Marten utilized not only a remarkable number of family collections, diaries, scrapbooks, letters, but also an impressive variety of publications by and for children during the Civil War, including textbooks, dime novels, journals and other periodicals. His research is truly extraordinary and provides an amazing number of examples and anecdotes for his text.
While Marten's book is an impressive examination of sources with a distinct, well-supported thesis, the organization of the book is somewhat disappointing. While it would be admittedly difficult to organize the vast amount of information he had collected, it would have made his book easier to follow had it been organized differently.
Marten's book is an important addition to the collection of Civil War literature. The Civil War was the ultimate test of the relatively new American-government, and the children who lived through it became the adults who made political decisions well into the twentieth century. Their politics determined our role in both internal and external conflicts for many decades to come. Additionally, examination of Civil War children is useful for studying the children of any major conflict, including the Second World War, whose children are still alive today.

This is a great book -- full of wonderful examples and descriptions of what life was like for kids of both sides during the Civil War. Lots of great quotes and examples. HOWEVER, the writing style is a bit too difficult for younger kids. I'd suggest this book for high school kids and adults. Overall, though, this is well researched and fascinating reading.

My children loved reading this story about twin 4-year olds over and over again. Beverly Cleary is always great and the illustrations are cute.

Brief Synopsis: Jimmy and Janet are anxious to grow up. They tell their mother that they think that their feet are growing, so she takes them for new shoes. At the shoe store, Mr. Markle says that they haven't outgrown their shoes. This makes Mr. Markle very sad, because he's afraid that he won't be able to sell Jimmy and Janet's mother any shoes for the children. He ends up talking her into buying boots to go over their old shoes. They get bright red boots that will stretch. These boots are just right for their growing feet.

Note to Teachers: This book would be good to read when studying a unit that involves measuring growth in inches or pounds. It is also good to read when talking about going shopping. The book contains beautiful pictures. Grades K-3 would enjoy this book by Beverly Cleary.