Bradford Books

Bradford provides a sketchy overview of ancient warfare from Egypt through the fall of Rome. This might be useful as a handbook, but in these days of the internet, even this is questionable. The writing is not distinguished, just a simple telling of facts, leaving many, many questions in its wake. Barnes & Noble published this paperback version at a low price, but even this is not worth buying in my opinion. I'll sell my copy at the earliest opportunity.

I read Woman of Substance years ago and loved it... it is still one of my favorite books. I was really disappointed in this book even though it does follow the timeless paperback romance formula... main character has glamourous career and flits through life with no financial worries, barely noticing the Aubusson rugs, silk curtains and priceless antiques that grace every room she enters ... stops eating and shrinks to nothing at the first sign of stress, orders filet of sole for every meal. I liked BTB descriptive style in Woman of Substance, but it gets to be so ridiculous in this book that I felt manipulated as a reader. The main character opens the refrigerated pantry at the luxurious chateau that she is staying at for free, and BTB goes through every item in it, just to have the character fix the classic meal that all of her rich and glamourous characters throw together on the fly, the omelet. (Almost every other author of this ilk has their characters making an omelet or a salad in the unfortunate situation that they find themselves having to scrounge through the fresh, organic contents of a well-stocked refrigerator, or maybe after a brisk walk to the farmer's market since they just happen to be in the South of France) But wait! Just as you were beginning to be a little envious of Val, it comes out that she has a problems, just like you and me. Lying men, mean parents, forced inheritance of a vast fortune that she doesn't want, the agony of making a the decision about how much time to take off after recovering from tragedy... she just doesn't know what to do while sitting in the stately New York apartment that she inherited from her kindly grandparents.

The main problem I had with this book is that I couldn't relate to the character of Val. BTB tries to make the case that Val is a person of integrity by stating it ad nauseum, but the novel starts with Val sleeping with a guy that tells her that his wife is a shrew and they are separated, so when that situation unravels it is difficult to feel the sympathy that BTB tries to generate. I don't have any problem with flawed characters, but if the author is going to state this character has integrity than don't have the character sleeping with someone who is still married, that is pretty basic. I finished the book because I don't like to review books unless I have read them to the end, but this bland tale just didn't do it for me.

Wow...I can't believe how many negative reviews this book is getting. I actually listened to it, and that always makes for a book to be at least a bit more interesting. I can see how people would get bored with it, it is long-winded, but how many authors aren't like that?

I think people are just too used to the 21st century non-stop action and/or 3 minute sound bites excitement and drama, and they can't just calm down and listen to a good description of a beautiful house in France or England. I won't be able to go there anytime soon, but the descriptions have definitely transported me right in the heart of those fairy tale homes and landscapes. I think it's time for some of you to go back to the 18-19th century classics and remind yourself of the descriptive pages of those books.

I definitely recommend this book to be listened to by a reckless driver while actually driving. This book has definitely calmed me down and I have become a much responsible driver. Try it!

While on assignment in the Balkans, Valentine, a war photographer and her co-worker and love, Tony from England (considered as good as the famous Robert Capa), they were caught in the crossfire, and he was killed. She stayed on in Paris as a matter of integrity. As she was recuperating from her injuries, she discovered that he had told her lies to coverup the truth of his background and past. With him gone, she struggled to find a place where she felt that she belonged in this life as she'd already decided not to return home to New York.

She was always on the fun to find her purpose in life. Some secrets break your heart if you let them. Others can set you free. It took some time for her to come to terms with herself and her own unhappy childhood. Her mother had kept an important secret from her also. With Jake, their longtime friend and photojournalist, she could verbally grieve Tony's untimely death and, as in 'The Piano.' she realized that she had loved the wrong man. Fate had intervened and she and Jake were like Eddie and Elizabeth in 1958 after the death of the man they both had loved. It was a question of trust.

After being so deceived by one, could she let down her guard to trust another man. She could keep running from her past or love the man she's with. He is offering her the opportunity of starting a new life with someone w ho truly loves her and is able to understand her deep grief of losing the one she had loved with all her heart. Foolishly, he felt that he is man enough to fill the hole left in her heart and soul. Her inspiration to live had hit the dust, so how can she ever feel complete again. I could not stick a Band-Aid on my psychic wounds and hope they would evenetually heal. Who could deal with a woman like that? She was just a younger vresion of hre irrational mother but not willing to make the same mistakes.

She must now make her own decisions and work out a new life for herself in her career by her own rules. Never underestimate the power of a determined woman and her ability to develop a sudden change of heart. You can love many men; the tragedy is when they don't love you back. Ms. Bradford has written several books about strong women. I loved her first 'A Woman of Substance' and its sequel, 'Hold the Dream.'

If this is your first Barbara Taylor Bradford book, you may never pick up another one. I, on the other hand, like to give an author the three strikes rule, so won't hesitate to try something else, but it won't be very soon. If you want to read one of her novels, do NOT start with this one like I did. This is very boring--like snails serving as soap stars--not to mention slow and predictable. I listened to the entire thing on cd, but think it was mostly because I liked Ms. O'Karma's narration--she has an appealingly smokey voice like Carolyn Jones from the Adams Family. It still couldn't save this story with its endless self-serving "what-about-ME!" mantras and Valentine's overly moralistic attitude. I'm the same way, and I bore myself!

You knew from page one where this story was going, and the dialog was as insufferable as the descriptions of everything from food and clothing to moths reproducing on peeling wallpaper. "I was a war photographer and my mommy was mean to me" resounds every other page, yet she wants to get away from all of that. Nothing's worse than a character or real person who brags, then turns around and screams "Look at me, look at me...How DARE you look at me?!"

I saw on the cover it said something about the New York Times bestseller list, so I kept reading (for a while) since I thought it must have something good in it to get on the list. Well, it never did! It's just a bunch of ridiculous long-winded drivel that couldn't get to the point. The author dragged out the most boring unimportant acts for pages upon pages upon pages, and nothing ever happens. The LONG descriptions are of something like Val whining ad nauseum how she doesn't want to go to this memorial service, or Jake acting crabby on the plane, or how Val sat around for hours looking at Tony's picture in her apartment, etc. Anyway, I don't know how it got on the NY Times list, that's for sure!

I've never read a Barbara Taylor Bradford book before, and read this one on a friend's recommendation. For anyone who has read Valley of the Dolls -- does this not remind you of Anne Well's story, plus a murder and minus pill-popping? Maybe it's just me. I liked Valley of the Dolls. I did not like The Triumph of Katie Byrne. I was waiting for something surprising to occur ... or at least an original depiction of story that has become a little too commonplace in today's literature. (Not to diminish the seriousness of the issue) ...

Katie was the only functioning survivor of the trio of Connecticut would-be actresses to carry on with their dream of starring on Broadway. After the disaster, she's not so sure any more that she has the courage to keep on keeping on. So she takes a sabbatical to visit and study acting in England. She's not sure she will ever be "good enough" for her claim to fame.

Her British friends take her on trips. In Harrogate, the old spa town with the mineral springs, they remind her of the Dustin Hoffman film about Agatha Cristie's mysterious disappearance and it was at this spa in 1926 she registered under an assumed name, Teresa, all the time following her prey. When discovered, she claims to have suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1571, the springs were all the rage for policicians, writers, singers, actors, and the royal family; even Byron benefited from the hydrotherapy of the warm waters and soothing spa surroundings. It sounded just the thing Katie needed to get prepared for a starring role in a play which was headed for New York.

To prepare for her Emily Bronte role, she and some friends watched the early film of 'Wuthering Heights' which had been produced by Sam Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler. Lawrence Olivier was Heathcliff in the movie, which also starred Merle Oberon, David Niven, and Donald Crisp. These drama students were all fans of American films and especially liked 'The Third Man' with Michael Rennie (not Orson Welles) and 'The Seventh Veil' starring Ann Todd.

Not only does she have to get over her disturbing past, she is running from an unhappy relationship. She devotes all her energies to the play, and is a big hit on Broadway. Her lover, Chris, turned up outside the theatre after all the fanfare was over and persuaded her he loved her more than the water forests in Argentina. She agreed to marry him and takes him home to meet the happy family. They were aware that she needed space and time away from the sadness which had plagued her after the loss of her thespian friends. Her triumph on stage and in her personal life was well deserved and earned by her perseverence and hard work. That and the fact that she was a beautiful, head-turning young woman. We all need a triump or two to get on with life after an unhappy, unfair end to a love affair.

Thank goodness I didn't pay for this drivel - I picked it up in the bookswap bin at work because it looked as if it would at least be readable - how wrong I was. This book is terrible in every way - the dialogue sounds horrible - particularly the heroine's mother who talks in terribly stilted language, with an occasional 'mauvoreen' thrown in to make her sound authentic! The characters are totally unbelievable - all beautiful, nice, incredibly talented/successful and Katie the heroine seems to have no faults at all. However by the worst thing is the plot - the original murder which is actually the only interesting thing which happens in the book is conveniently forgotten and the author moves on 10 years to bore us rigid with Katie's career as an actress. It is also full of plot holes - it is continally hinted that Katie herself is in some danger from the murderer but in the end in fact it had nothing to do with her. All sorts of plotlines go absolutely nowhere - Rex the supposed 'spy', Lavinia's incredible artistic talent to name but two and the resolution of the murder mystery is the absolute nadir of the book. I'm sure there's an unwritten law that the murderer in a book or film can't turn out to be someone who we've never heard of, it's totally unsatisfactory for the reader/viewer. I vaguely remember reading one of her books when I was much younger and I certainly don't remember it being this bad, but I doubt I will ever pick up one of her books again, and I feel very sorry for anyone who bought this rubbish in hardback - they have been the victims of daylight robbery!

This book would be appropriate if she were a sixth grader and this was her first attempt at writing. But she's not. She's published millions. And so, we have clear proof that selling is in no way relates to quality.

If you want to know how to NOT write a novel this is the book to read. Horrifically bad, terrible, uncompromisingly awful are a few descriptive phrases that pop to mind. Let me explain:

She says this is her first attempt at a murder mystery. Ok let's look at plot then. Part one: the murder. Part two: a long rambling boring section where the character is now grown and drinking tea and chatting and looking into the life of the Bronte's. (add your own umlaut there) Part three: The girl from part one in the coma wakes up and remembers who killed her friend and tried to kill her -- and this person is someone we never met in the book so far and never meet again. So plotwise, it's as unfullfilling as it is unengaging.

The author's language is stilted and complimented only by the cardboard characters and wobbly settings. The story does not move forward but sags, lags, detours and flops.

The author thanks two editors but what where were they? The book requires heavy editing -- an example, at the hospital a boy is going to get the jeep from the parking lot to pick up his family at the door -- it's raining. He says something like, "I'm going to go get the jeep from the parking lot," he said to them, "Because it's raining." We know he has a jeep, we know it's raining, we know it's in the lot, we know who he speaks to. Another sentence says the door was slammed 'behind him.' Uh, if you're leaving you can't really slam the door before you and get out. At other times this word pusher lapses into long passages of passive verb construction and nearly ties herself into knots with the sheer number of "was" and "had been" constructions. Names of places are hyphenated, or not (any bad editor would have at least caught that.)

Another example that is the tip of the iceberg: In the first part the night is at first cold and dark (at 6:00 pm in October in Connecticut -- something that does not happen at that time there). Then there is a heavy fog. Next there is a clear view of the moon, then next there is heavy rain. She cannot even imagine a consistent weather. She has her characters packing into one night the events of a few days, and her sense of pacing and time is just as bad as her weather.

Bradford cannot write. I don't care if she outsold the Bible, she is not a writer in any means or form and this book proves it perfectly.

This has got to be the worst book ever written. Phony characters and an even stupider plot. I am just glad I did not waste my eyesight reading it and listened to it on CD. I did not even finish it. This was disappointing as her books on the Harte family were engrossing.

This autobiography is only `a factual account of external things'.
It is a summing up of the author's travel experiences and symposia reminiscences.
It contains only very superficial sketches of his family life and professional career and nearly nothing about his philosophical work or about discussions with colleagues.
There are no emotions, no comments on political or social events, on war or peace. Nothing.

I cannot recommend this book.

For an introduction to the work of Quine, I recommend an interview with Bryan Magee published in `Talking Philosophy: dialogues with Fifteen Leading Philosophers.'

An interesting book, a bit too long, and a very bad text-formatting job. One would expect much better from MIT press.

More than a book it is a collection of papers, not always easy to understand and written in academic language. It could be used as a reference by one who knows already the subject. Not recommended for beginners

More than a book it is a collection of papers, not always easy to understand and written in academic language. It could be used as a reference by one who knows already the subject. Not recommended for beginners

was not satisfied at all - - i had no idea that the book i was purchasing was from the 1980's - - not helpful at all

This book was a real disappointment. The crafts described were not specifically related to countries of origin and they were very very simple-even did not need any descriptions; it did not include creative projects that would be appealing to kids.

This is a 32 page booklet and a CD with forms you can't print, copy or otherwise use except to look at them. What a rip off. I would rate this with 0 stars if that rating were available. Go instead to your county court website and download the forms and instructions you need for free.

Quick check - do you *love* to use terms like de se, de re, defeasible reasoning, supervenient, attenuated rational functionalism, intentionality, individuating, Tversky's representativeness heuristic, rebutting defeater, doxastic assumption, physicalism and simpliciter? If so, we _might_ have a book for you here

i'm not sure how to describe this book. i realize my rating (1 star) is harsh, so let me justify it by saying that this book appeals to a very small niche, and if you're not in that niche (which i am not), this book will probably bore you to tears

Although Pollock claims to be a philosopher, having read the book i'm going to guess that his specialty is symbolic logic. Pollock, obviously an active academic, talks exclusively about formal logic - "building a person" means only the ability to do formal logic. Like many boring academic works, it is chock full of citations, and the author seems to assume that you've read most of them. Actually, i get the feeling that the author expects that you wrote some of them, as the writing tone reminds me of an email pulled out of the end of a long, detailed flame war.

People who follow arguments in formal logic closely (i.e., other logicians) might find something interesting in this book. However, since i know relatively little about the current state of formal logic, this book went right over my head. As such, i'm really not qualified to say anything about the book other than, if you aren't part of the niche this book is targeting, you probably won't like it

Since this book came out four years ago, it has had very little impact on library technical services. The book is already long outdated and doesn't address current issues in technical services, such as MODS, MIX, etc. Basically, it's obsolete.

The editor, Brad Eden, is known for his disdain for library technical services. He recently wrote "The era of the OPAC (library catalog) is over." Readers of this book will find his anti-library attitude reflected in the articles included in the book.