Burton Books

This is a page turner from the moment you open the book. A good suspense with a little romance between lindsey and zack. She kept my interest that I had to force myself to put the book down so I could get some work done. This is the first Mary Burton book I've read and I plan to go check out and see what other books she has out. I put this author with my other favorites like Lisa Gardner, Mary Clark Higgins, Laura Griffin, Tami Hoag, Sandra Brown, just to name a few. Highly recommend this book.

Lindsay O'Neil survived her father's abuse. He killed her mother and then himself, but she managed to survive and begin a sheltered for battered women. But now someone calling himself `The Guardian' is threatening that. He's killing abusers in her name and sending her their severed hands. To complicate matters, her estranged husband Zach Kier is one of the lead detectives investigating the case.

She and Zach separated due to his alcoholism, fueled partly by his work as an undercover vice cop. Zach managed to get clean, but Lindsay is still wary of renewing their relationship. His partner Jacob Warwick believes he'll return to drinking as well and treats him rather brusquely.

Lindsay works with the cops to catch the killer, but she also tries to continue protecting battered women - including her secret roommate Nicole Piper. Unfortunately, some of those women are suspects. Even more unfortunately, Nicole's husband is looking for her. I liked that Lindsay both had a reasonable motive for not cooperating completely with the police and didn't go looking for the killer on her own. She trusts them to do their job.

I likewise enjoyed Mary Burton's portrayal of Zach. An alcoholic is easy to make unlikeable. But I know many undercover narcotics cops do have substance abuse problems, and he made the effort to change his lifestyle and get clean. Lindsay's decision to kick him out wasn't the best possible, but it makes sense given her background of abuse.

Some scenes in I'M WATCHING YOU are rather violent, but I don't think Burton revels in the gore as much as some suspense writers. Children (teenagers) are hurt during the course of the novel, which I know bothers some readers. There are many references to and scenes of abuse that might not be palatable to those close to the subject. Nothing in the story bothered me, but it does tread close to issues that bother some people (often with good reason).

Burton develops an interesting serial killer who is all the more disturbing because his motives are altruistic. I'M WATCHING YOU plays well within the conventions of the genre and possesses the favorable characteristics of a non-jerk hero and a thinking heroine.

From In Bed With Books

Nothing too exciting and it was pretty predictible. I figured out the mystery pretty early on. I will say the characters were definitely interesting and I will read her next book in this series just for that alone. I just hope the next one relays more chemistry between the two lead characters. I didn't feel there was any chemistry between Zach and Lindsey. If you like a good suspense novel, this will be good, but do not buy it if you want a good romance story as well - there really isn't one.

Lindsay just wants to help abused women at the shelter she manages. Then, a dead body is dumped behind the shelter. The killer sends her a message, and her soon-to-be ex-husband is investigating the case. Can things get worse?
Well, the answer is "yes". I cannot describe the story more without spoiling it.
This is a great mystery with a twist of a love story. The characters are well-developed. It is impossible to guess who the killer is until the end. Put this on your reading list. Look for Mary Burton's next book, Dead Ringer!

This book is set in Richmond, VA, and I always get a little extra thrill when I read something that's set in a place I am familiar with. It's like I'm in on a secret. Beyond that, I thought this was a decent book, with the twist of an extra bad guy. I could have stood a little more...something...between Lindsay and Zack. Some stronger push and pull, some more spark, just something. I just didn't feel the chemistry that was supposed to be between them, even when they were arguing. The relationship just seemed kinda flat. But, I would read more from Mary Burton, especially since I now know she's a local author. She has a sequel to this book (of sorts -- it features secondary characters) out in November.

This is a fresh and wonderful translation of this Christian classic. Sr Boulding is herself a fine poet capable of touching turns of phrase such as, [Book I,5]

"Who will grant me to find peace in you? Who will grant me this grace, that you would come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me and embrace me my only good?"

Albert Outler (no mean wroughter of words himself) translates this passage in this way,

"Who shall bring me to rest in thee? Who will send thee into my heart so to overwhelm it that my sins shall be blotted out and I may embrace thee, my only good?"

The loss of the "thees" are of course helpful to the modern reader, but the use of "that you would come into my heart and inebriate it," is just, well, stunning.

One final comparison with Outler in the well-known passage in book ten:

Outler: "Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee."

Boulding: "Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new. Late have I loved you! Lo, you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made, I rushed headlong. I, mishappen."

Both use Augustine's marvelous play on the words "formosa" and "deformis" But Sr. Boulding's choice of shapely and misshapen retains Augustine's intentions and poetic voice, it seems to me.

This is a lovely work.

This is a profound book in so many ways; here are just a few. Augustine writes with a combination of confidence and humility that is not seen today. His confidence stems from faith in the God he clearly knows so well and his humility from a deep understanding of the sinfulness that dwells at the very core of his being. Worship is the purpose and attitude of the book; one can't help but be moved to do so after reading it. This book has also stimulated me to much thought in the areas of entertainment, evangelism, conversion, and scripture. Although this book is a great classic that has influenced Christianity and beyond for many centuries and people feel like they "should" read it, I recommend reading it for the pure delight of listening to a man who lays himself bankrupt before the Almighty and sincerely asks, "Give what you command, and command what you will."

This book has opened up a whole new avenue on interest for me.I have read this book several times and it has a potent affect on me. There is a dvd series (by The Teaching Co) 24 lectures on this series that I also recommend. After reading this book a whole world of other books opens before you,but you come to the understanding that you will not live long enough to read them all....unless

This is easily the most overrated religious book ever. I believe it is Chapter 6 where Augustine talks about how he used to steal pears just to steal them even though he wasn't hungry is the best thought in the book about how natural evil is to us and how bad we really are.

There I just told you the best part of the book. Chapters 10 and 11 are absolutely horrific. Can anyone really say they understood those chapters?

Augustine has a major problem with sex in general and is a really bad advice giver on that subject.

This Christian classic has touched me deeply. I read it the first time right after college, but recently picked it up again (thirty years later). I didn't remember a thing from the first reading.... I've been a Christian for many years, but find that this book is so fresh, with insights that are truly amazing. For this new read, I bought two different translations so that I could read both and compare when the meaning seemed obscure. I highly recommend the translation by Maria Boulding. It does a great job of staying true to his meaning, while expressing things in a way that speaks to the modern mind.

"On Being Certain: Believing You are Right Even When You're Not" provides a compelling examination of the feeling of certainty each of us have. Robert Burton, a neurologist and gifted writer, argues that this "feeling of knowing" is a sensation, much like touch or sight. Burton proposes a well-crafted thesis, suggesting that this feeling of knowing is identical whether or not the associated knowledge is true. Through a variety of means, he draws in the reader to formulate a convincing case. Burton explains that his motivation is for the reader to question how we really "know what we know," and much of the book serves this purpose quite well. However, a few chapters distract the reader by straying away from the central thesis. At other moments, Burton seems to do the very thing he cautions the reader against: presenting a "stance of absolute certainty" about topics that could allow for alternative opinions or understandings.

In the first four chapters of the book, Burton forms a strong introduction to his argument. He introduces the concept of the "feeling of knowing" through personal anecdotes and allows the reader to experience this feeling through a simple thought experiment. With this foundation, Burton uses case studies to explain that we often are certain of knowledge that is, in fact, untrue. Burton also suggests that pathologies often provide a basis for study of complex concepts in healthy individuals is supported by the story of a patient suffering from viral encephalitis and Cotard's Syndrome. Through this example, Burton illustrates the power of the brain to "know" something as true, even when logic and reason all indicate that it is false.

After forming the outline of his thesis, Burton spends the next several chapters crafting the most compelling points of his argument. The reader is introduced to pertinent aspects of neuroscience when they are relevant, and a layperson can easily follow the diagrams and explanations that Burton offers. By combining the prevailing theories in neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) research, Burton proposes a straightforward description of the decision-making process in the brain. His suggestion of a "hidden layer" that acts as a "committee" of influences (made of past memories, genetic predispositions, and even a "feeling of knowing") is easy to understand and seems to be a logical theory. With this model, his "perverse possibility" that an "unwarranted `feeling of knowing' might serve a positive evolutionary role" (95) is easily accepted as a reasonable theory.

In addition to arguing for the importance of this "feeling of knowing," Burton attempts to explain the manner in which this feeling acts. At this point, his argument begins to weaken. Burton describes the ability of the brain to "reorganize" the timing of actual events in order to present a more logical picture through the use of a baseball analogy. Additionally, he describes the scientific distinctions between emotions and sensations. These are interesting stories, but Burton does not provide any data to connect these concepts with his newly defined "feeling of knowing." His postulations are well thought out; however, he presents them so that an unwary reader might read his conclusions as fact, rather than theory.

The final few chapters of the book diverge from Burton's central thesis. Chapter twelve, focused on "reason" and "objectivity," includes a review of three recently published books about cognitive science in popular culture; however, none of them directly relate to his hypothesis. Burton remains a clear, coherent writer as he describes the problems with recent publications about "the rational mind," but he distracts the reader from the argument that he has previously built. An analysis of perspectives on alternative medicine has the potential to provide a strong argument for the central thesis of the book, and Burton approaches this argument. At one point, he says "imagine how different each of these claims would have been if intuition and gut feeling were acknowledged to be unconscious thoughts associated with a strong `feeling of knowing' rather than bona fide forms of trustworthy knowledge" (166). However, instead of advancing with this point, he changes the subject to the readers' perceptions and never solidifies a potentially compelling argument.

The chapter titled "Faith" is equally frustrating. It holds the potential to be the most compelling in the book: faith and the unfounded certainty Burton describes seem to be, in many ways, synonymous. Rather than focusing on why or how individuals have faith, Burton focuses more on the personalities and comments of those who claim to a concrete set of beliefs. The most frustrating aspect of this chapter is Burton's presentation of quotes that could be interpreted in many ways in a biased fashion, with his own concrete dissection of the quote. This certainty leads him to take isolated quotes from larger of bodies of work by Francis Collins and Charles Darwin and present them as parallel situations with opposing outcomes. This presentation allows Burton to make a return to his central thesis; however, isolated presentation of the quotes prevents the reader from having the opportunity to interpret the quotations any way other that which Burton presents with complete certainty.

Throughout the book, Burton's strong abilities are visible. He creates a well-crafted argument that will certainly receive further examination and will be the subject of many studies in years to come. Burton crafts a book that peers in his field and laypeople with no experience in neuroscience will be interested to read. Although he occasionally strays from the central thesis, his diversions are still well written and intriguing. The greatest weakness of the book is that Burton commits the same offense that he cautions against. His arguments are compelling, but not yet conclusive; however, he seems to allow his own "feeling of knowing" to dominate, and he presents his theories with complete certainty. Throughout the book, readers should constantly ask Burton his own question: "how do you know what you know?" (224) With this caution in mind, "On Being Certain" provides a fascinating examination of the brain's creation and utilization of certainty.

This is the challenge to 'certainty' (>>the kind of 'certainty', that is very familiar to religious and fanatic people<<) from the direction of SCIENCE (and not just philosophy) that has long been overdue.

And also it's like a shout out from the conscience of science to us scientists and the normal person from the street who has (maybe) never thought about what science does, and that message is:
"1.) Keep in mind, what 'certainty' means in science!
2.) Don't over -estimate/-interpret what you found.
3.) True knowledge is always testable for accuracy while belief is not!"

Thanks you Robert M. Burton.

On Being Certain started out moderately interesting but at page 52 I hit a severe snag. When an author gets something I know about so totally wrong (or is being gratuitously nasty) I find I cannot trust what he says about things I don't know so much about. The comment that B.F. Skinner wanted to raise people like veal is so totally absurd I couldn't finish the book and will be returning it to Amazon for a refund.

As an avid reader of books in this category, I was pleased to find something new in Robert Burton's book: a head-on engagement with the infrastructure of belief. The question Burton asks is on the face of it a simple one, but in its implications extremely complex: how do we know what we know? As a matter of practical observation, Burton asks why are some people so utterly convinced that their positions are correct while others consistently entertain doubt? From this starting point, Burton takes us through an entertaining and challenging tour -- part neuroscience, part psychology, and part philosophy. The interconnections between these disciplines are elegant and form the tapestry of a convincing argument. In my library I have a selection of books that have influenced my thinking, and among those are a select few that I revisit for insights over and over again. "On Being Certain" is among that select few, and I give it my highest recommendation.

I am always slightly annoyed when a book is not about what is is supposed to be about. A few chapters of this book - those towards the end - are on why the feeling of certainty is just that: a feeling. This leads the author to some interesting discussions about how the 'feeling of certianty (a feeling though it is) is something that tends not to be subject to reason, but owes more to emotion. The author also goes into some really interesting thoughts about evolutionary reasons why the feeling of certainty as a tool to help us survive in an uncertain world (where we have to act, so we might as well act with conviction).

Unfortunately, this only happens well into the second half of the book (maybe 2/3rds of the way through). The first many chapters are stage setters. There are chapters about distinguishing what is meant by "mental states," "feeling" and "sensation," chapters describing how we know that emotions like fear, deja vu, and religious experience are chemical in nature, and how the "mind" is an emergent property tying together several components of the brain into a unity.

The author also spends quite a bit of time talking about what neuroscientists term the "hidden layer." That is, when we make decisions, the brain "surveys" a whole host of things - past experiences, attitudes one has acquired, things one has learned, etc. - to come to a conclusion, but this is all "hidden" form our consciousness. Thus, the author concludes that while we may feel like our deliberations are conscious, often the bulk of our deliberation is unconscious.

All of this, the author tells us, supports the thesis (that he eventually gets to) suggesting that certainty is a feeling,, and not always one subject to rationality as we generally assume. Since we have seen that attitudes like fear, deja vu, and sense of purpose are feelings like any other, and we have seen that feelings like these are often not subject to rationality (try convincing a clinically depressed person that the feeling of purposelessness is only a chemical "illusion"), and we know that much of our thought is unconcious, we can also infer that the feeling of certianty is subject to all of these. (Try convincing a young-earth creationist that the earth is more than 6,000 years old and that their certainty is not due to the strength of the idea.)

Really, I don't have any huge qualms with this. We've all seen people be so certain of something that is (to us) obviously wrong, and know all to well that people's attachment to ideas often has not a thing to do with rationality. (And we all, if we are honest, realize that we have been the 'dummy' in this scenario as well.)

My biggest problem, from a literary standpoit, is that the author takes a very long time to get to his point, beginning many chapters with something like: "I want to talk about the feeling of certainty. But first, let's..." Once that happens too many times, I begin to lose patience, particularly when some chapters (like that reviewing the difference between "feelings" and "sensations") simply go on longer than they should.

My philosophical beefs with the book is: the author, who suggests may times that we cannot step beyond our feelings of certainty if they are strong enough, would be well served to have included a chapter on examples where people DO change their minds about things they were once deeply certain about. The fact that this happens - albeit happens only with difficulty and pain - gives empirical lie to this thesis.

Really, this is a quite interesting book with an interesting case that simply takes the author too many pages to make. I resisted the urge to skip ahead numerous times (and did skip half a chapter that seemed to veer frequently off topic). I wish the author would have discussed the issue of 'certainty' more than the tertiarilly related matter of brain states like fear and deja vu.

In the end, I would reccomend this book to people as a follow-up read to books like "Mistakes Were Made," which give a much more direct discussion of our brain's tendency to fall into illusions of certainty. This book does that, but simply tries to do so much more that it may better have been written as a collection of loosely related essays.

The author presents a very thoroughly researched and well written biographical book on a fascinating life of an early British explorer of East Africa (Burton was the first European explorer to report his "findings" of what is today called Lake Tangenyika). At times the presentation can become tedious but on the whole this is a book well worth reading and a life well worth knowing more about. Beyond his explorations Burton lived, wrote, fought, loved and experienced life to the fullest extent. As many of the other comments from other readers have suggested, his life and how he lived it can be a positive inspiration.

Richard Burton was an enigmatic, sour, oftentimes neurotic voyeur with the intention of beating his contemporaries and traveling the globe learning and exposing the cultures he came across. Ms. Brodie also has a tie with writing other biographies of sensational men (Joseph Smith, Jr of Mormon fame) and this book is an educated insight into Richard Burton's travels, motives, and surroundings. The maps included along with photographs, illustrations, and excerpts of Burton's own words help move the narrative along. It can be 'old English' tedious, but is well worth the delve into a man that went against the grain in every way.

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton would be a worthy study for anyone interested in the potentials of the human being. A man of multiple talents and achievements, to count and adequately summarize them all would be an improbable task. This man accomplished more in a lifetime than most of us mere mortals could in several. As a 19th century British explorer, he stands with the legendary - Livingston, Stanley, Baker and Speke. What set him apart from these luminaries, towers above in fact, was is scholarship. His writing talents, publishing countless volumes, his uncanny lingual gift, (twenty-five languages, including several dialects that amount to over forty) and his inroads into anthropology, ethnology, religion and archaeology, make him one of the truly great individuals of the Victorian age. Brodie's treatment of Burton is a worthy tribute to the man, and after reading over four other life histories of Sir Richard; I can say with all honesty, that it is one of the best.

I have to admit that I have a severe aversion to that sixties literary trend of applying Freudian psychoanalysis in a biographical study. It is difficult enough analysing the living, let alone the dead and gone. Brodie is guilty of this method in this biography; however, she does it without taking anything away from the subject. Most all the typical psychoanalytical symptoms are present: the Oedipus complex, latent homosexuality, and preoccupations with sex in general. Brodie's analyses, though, is not a closed shop - she remains open to her subject. In other words, her psychoanalytic musings do not cloud the uniqueness and larger than life qualities of this man. It's a side issue, and therefore can be ignored.

What is so startling about Burton was his enormous passion to know, his tireless travels and recordings of the unknown and exotic. He not only was everything mentioned above, but a poet of talent, geologist, amateur physician, expert swordsman and skilful spy. A precursor to Freud, he studied the sexual customs of many cultures and was a fierce critic of Victorian values on the subject. This man's curiosity knew no bounds and he ensured he did not waste a minute of his sixty-nine years - a relatively short life considering what the man accomplished.

There are many biographies about Burton, but this one seems to encapsulate the man's spirit and zest for life. Brodie writes an enthralling biography and anyone interested in this towering figure of the 19th century, this text is highly recommended.

This is a captivating account of a unique and restless individual driven to observe and graphically document the often very cruel life of the Middle East and Africa in the nineteenth-century. This will not bore.

I read this one years ago, when it was first published. This was my first expierence and admittedly my first encounter with this remarkable man. This has lead me, over the years, to read much more of Sir Richard Burton. Each work I read, each bit of information I gather, I am even for fascinated with this individual, his accomplishments and his writings. This has been a nice reading hobby for me over the past number of year and it all started with Ms. Brodie's work. I am grateful. The book is well written, well researched and is very, very readable. Highly recommend this one.

4.5 STARS

Shana Burton's debut novel leaves me looking forward to her upcoming release. I truly enjoyed Vashti Hunter's story. Even though I found myself frustrated at her for the decisions she made, I couldn't stop reading to see how it would all turn out, LOL.

Some times we do go astray and try to find our own way. We make poor choices, but if we're lucky, we find our way back home to God's awaiting arms. Shana's story shows how even Christians can fall down, but it's not about the fall; it's how you rise above it all.

I truly enjoyed reading Suddenly Single and I highly recommend it!

This book was a quick read and slightly entertaining. I just could not get past how dumb Vashti was. Her choices in men were so poor that it was unrealistic. Also, I thought the characters were not deep at all. I just didn't understand the choices they made because I did not know them. Finally, I don't think I would consider this book Christian fiction. Just because someone in the book goes to church doesn't make a book Christian fiction.

Shana Burton had me on the edge of my chair as I turned page after page in SUDDENLY SINGLE. Talking when she should have been listening, Vashti Hunter missed what her fiancé was telling her the night prior to what should have been the perfect wedding day. But she did have the perfect last name for what was to follow.

After being left at the altar, she goes on the hunt in all the wrong places, hunting for all the wrong things, while trying to outwit the enemy. Low self-esteem and her desperation led her to the pastor, a down-low brother, a brother in jail, a younger brother, an older brother, and drama. Throughout SUDDENLY SINGLE, I talked and laughed out loud.

Several lessons were taught in this story, some of which were to listen when others are speaking, not to allow your sisterfriends to convince you to do something you are not comfortable with and to stand still and wait on the Lord. Looking for drama, tears, laughter and a few "oh hell no's"? Then, settle down with your favorite beverage, in your favorite chair and read the debut novel by Shana Burton, SUDDENLY SINGLE.

Reviewed by Toni Bonita
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I have not been one to read fiction, but I read this book since I know the author personally. I must say that I was impressed. The subject matter is not one that "Church Folk" like to read (or claim) because it "doesn't look good on us." Well, this is real life. The story itself is fiction, but for many women it is non-fiction. Grant it, the speed of Vashti's relationships is not an everyday occuring event, though it does happen, but if you slow it down to maybe a two to three year time frame, it happens everyday. I appreaciate the discussion that it triggers, for me at least, are we looking the man to satisfy our lives or are we going to allow God to bring us our husbands? Better yet, will we be content with God's Will for our lives if it is for us not to be married?
Love the story and can't wait for the next book.

All Vashti Hunter needed to do was listen, instead she was standing alone at the altar. Now distraught and very heartbroken, Vashti has to get back in the swing of things. On a serious mission to find a man she can love who is also ready to settle down, Vashti seems to find the most undesirable men out there.

Learn to wait on God! The moment Vashti does, could it be that the man she's needed was always by her side?

While reading SUDDENLY SINGLE I was able to laugh at some of the issues, but it also saddened me that Vashti was dripping in desperation. SUDDENLY SINGLE is a good book with some comical twists that I can easily recommend to others!

Reviewed by: Carmen

I've never read any of Dylan Thomas's poetry, but when I found a copy of Under Milk Wood for a quarter, I figured it'd be a perfect opportunity to get better versed in both drama and Thomas. I've always heard that he is one of the most depressing poets ever, so I said, "Hey, I love Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda. I love Morrissey. I will love this."

But I didn't love it. In fact, I was fairly unimpressed. I waited 95 pages for it to start, and then it ended. There wasn't even an abundance of sadness! I can handle a complete lack of movement within a story as long as it is depressing (I'm a Jim Jarmusch fan, too). This wasn't, though. It was even sort of funny. Not that I have a problem with that, but it was only sort of funny. A few chuckles here and there, but not enough to consider this a comedy.

In fact, I don't know what the hell it is. A Play For Voices? Sure, I guess. Maybe that's the problem: I didn't hear it. I know I can't judge a screenplay (or a play for voices. Whatever) by the way it appears on the page. Maybe this holds up upon performance.

But maybe it doesn't. I only read it, and therefore I have to focus on the piece as a work on the page. It succeeds in being a very detailed character study and it even sets up enough loose ends and possible connections for a novel. However, the play takes place over the course of one day, and it comes off as being just a day. Just another day. When it ended - the day and the play - I was anticipating what would happen next.

Maybe that's where the sadness comes in. These characters are dealing with ghosts in their dreams and their own limitations (the unrefinement of Nogood Boyo, the heartbreak of Polly Garter, the stationary reverie of Captain Cat) on a daily basis. That said, I still need something to happen. I've always championed the idea that life doesn't happen in the grand sweep, it usually happens in the long lulls. I'd have to try pretty hard to defend this play, though. Sure, the language is fantastic and Dylan uses his poetic creativity to paint a pretty picture, but at the end, I said "Hmm. Cool. Who gives a f***?"

I recently read this while on vacation. The entire cast of characters is wonderful, wonderfully quirky, yet somehow very "normal". It is hard to describe genre-wise as it reads differently than how it was apparently intended - as a play for radio. But it works. A town of 500, with three quaint streets, a postman who reads the mail to all the (illiterate) inhabitants, my favorite couple in literature (Mr. and Mrs. Cherry Owen - she has two husbands, one drunk and one sober)and one of the most touching characters, Bessie Bighead, who was kissed once while not looking and never again despite looking... Fun!

While I'm a long time fan of Dylan Thomas's prose and poetry, I've never understood the fascination with this sloppy, non-sensical play.

It is, to me, a moment when Thomas stopped being Thomas and made a clumsy attempt to emulate James Joyce. The result is a confusing and pointless play.

That said, the man was a marvel. Read his poetry, read "Adventures In The Skin Trade" and "Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog."

I was first attracted to Dylan Thomas after studying James Joyce's The Dubliners at high school. I must say that in my opinion Thomas's play/poem makes a surprisingly good film, which is sadly not available thrugh Amazon.com, but to say this play for voices is delightful would be misleading, as this deep study of the underbelly of a small fishing village is about a peculiar kind of nationalism that is both celebratory and critical.

What makes it such a great experience is how the language grabs you, and you have to listen to every word, so it is intense. The narrator begins his description of the sleeping town of Llareggub from Milk Wood, above the town, then enters the cobbled streets to observe and eavesdrop, over a twenty-four hour period, dipping into the thoughts, reminiscences and dreams of the townsfolk.

Since Dylan Thomas died in 1953, and this was one of his last works, the world he describes is fifty years old and seems somewhat quaint today. But his rich language on occasions soars with the romance of feeling for the beauty of his nativeland (the vicar's morning address to the town, with nobody listening, is just wonderful), and love of its people.

Nevertheless, in relating the sexual dreams and fantasies and activities of the town and the world of men and women a touch of gothic intrudes. There are oppositions at play between the open-hearted, sexually generous women and the close-minded wives, the ecstatic Organ Morgan the church organist and his petty shopkeeper wife ("a martyr to music"), the mischievious butcher's subversions, numerous attractions and solicitations between adults and the budding sexuality of the young, the stultified love of Sinbad the barman, and an unscrupulous postman and his nosey-parker wife.And many other endearing characters.

The portrait Thomas paints of the town under Milk Wood is tainted by his own world-view, resentful of the Church, the lack of ambition and other provincialities. There's an amazing amount of activity in the town, apart from its economy, lots of drinking, sexuality and folksong, but despite the evidence of bad-blood the community seems to thrive on love and an underlying generosity of heart that allows for the bounty that all life brings.

These days I'm not a great lover of poetry, and that's what this play for voices is, but Under Milk Wood still works for me.

Written as a "play for voices" for the BBC, this work was originally performed in 1954, with Richard Burton as the First Voice, connecting all thirty-three characters--men, women, and small children. Depicting one full day in the life of a small town in Wales, Thomas shows its motley residents as they awaken, perform their daily tasks, socialize and gossip, and daydream about the past that might have been and the future that may yet offer hope. As is always the case with Thomas, the "play" is full of alliteration and various kinds of rhyme, with nouns and adjectives used as verbs to convey action and sense impressions simultaneously. A wry humor and honesty of feeling make the work engaging for the listener/reader and charmingly illustrative of a time and place now gone.

Individual characters come alive through their own voices and through the gossip of others, spread by the postman and by neighbors. When night falls and the residents retire, their additional losses and disappointments, along with their escapes into dreams, are given voice and poignancy. Polly Garter, with her numerous children by numerous fathers, dreams of Willie Weasel, a very small man who was the love of her life. Captain Cat, the blind bell-ringer, thinks of all the sailors he knew who died at sea and Mr. Pugh dreams of poisoning his wife.

Simple songs add to the realism and the sense of character and place. An elegiac song by Polly Garter, as she remembers Willie and compares him to her other lovers, conveys an almost palpable sadness and makes Polly one of the most memorable characters. A humorous singing game by children adds to the realism, and young Gwenny's song to three very young boys is full of cheeky humor. Filled with the hurly-burly of everyday life in a small town in 1950s Wales, this and A Child's Christmas in Wales are among Thomas's most beloved works. Mary Whipple

This book will take its place among my favorite books about Afghanistan. The author has an amazing story of three summers spent helping his father in Afghanistan after September 11th and the fall of the Taliban. Said Hyder Akbar's father brought his family to Pakistan and then America after the Soviet invasion but worked with the Mujahudeen during the Soviet occupation. His father knew Hamid Karzai and worked as his press secretary (2002) and then governor of Kunar (2003-2004). Said Hyder Akbar started coming over to work with his father starting the summer of his junior year in High School.

Being raised in America allows him to communicate the unique culture of Afghanistan to a US audience in a very accessible way. Having spent a year working with the Afghan Army I was fascinated to hear the perspective of someone would could articulate the perspective of ordinary Afghans interacting with US Soldiers and trying to rebuild their country.

Said Hyder Akbar's writing has great humor and candidness about it. His descriptions of the complex issues his father faced in governing a remote province on the Pakistan border are fascinating and illuminating of the problems that face rebuilding all of Afghanistan. He brings out the struggle and weariness of the people who have fought for over two decades and just want to have life without war. As noted above his description of the difficulties faced by US soldiers in interacting with an unfamiliar culture are spot on and very perceptive.

This book was written with Susan Burton of This American Life and anyone who likes this radio (and now TV) program will recognize the wit and power of that show in this book. It is a must read for any westerner who wishes to have a better understanding of the Afghan culture.

Said Hyder Akbar is a surprisingly strong writer for his age. The way that he leads the reader into this exotic world is amazing. One genuinely gets to feel some of the things that are in the news as far as the conflict near Pakistan's border. Although the book was written in 2006 many of his observations ring true to this day. If you are interested in Afghanistan/Pakistan make sure to read this book becuase it will not dissapoint you.

After reading this book, I felt I had a better understanding of the situation in Afghanistan. I really have no experience with the situation there, and this book helped me to understand on a more basic level. I was very upset to hear that the author burned the American flag recently. Until I hear his defense, as an American I no longer feel that I can support this book.

The beginning of the book where he had talked about the plane parts in the airport, really got me to read it. I had to read a non fiction book for LA, and I chose this book. It looked like an interesting story so I picked it up and read it. I really enjoyed the book but I had some questions for the author. For instance: If you knew what was happening in Afghanistan why did you still choose to go there. I would not have because I wou;d've been afraid to go there and something happen to me. I really liked your writing style and how you described the bombing and crossing into Pakistand. Very good book but it's kind of confusing for me

Yesterday a friend asked what I was reading.

I just finished 'Come Back to Afghanistan: My Journey from California to Kabul' written by Said Hyder Akbar, a 20-year old college student in California. Like many others, Akbar's story is a migrating one - from Afghanistan to Pakistan, India, and then the USA.

When the Taliban were ousted in 2001, Akbar's father, a long time friend of President Hamid Karzai decided to go back to Afghanistan. Akbar started coming with him on his school and college breaks, and got back in touch with his country that he had left a long time ago. It's a homecoming of sorts.

The book is brilliant. Written with the assistance of journalist Susan Brunton, Akbar takes us into corners and niches that few books on Afghanistan do. It is deeply personal and highly political without the usual history, geography or other details. Born in Afghanistan and raised in the US, Akbar is able to straddle both countries and regions. He neither despairs nor scoffs at anyone or anytime. His writing is passionate, gentle and unassuming.

Akbar's goal in Afghanistan is to be with his father and get to know his country. He travels with, among other things, a tape recorder, and makes programmes for National Pubic Radio in California. He interviews the person in the highest office - President Karzai - as well as his driver, Sartor. He listens to everyone and judges none. During the two years he goes back and forth, Akbar's brother and mother visit Afghanistan. His father is appointed as the Governor of the province of Kunar, a remote and troubled area, where the family collects and lives together.

Through sickness and health Akbar goes through the journeys he charts for himself. His writing is sensitive and engaging. It never strays or lags. It is clear that he loves Afghanistan, is sensing what his relationship with his old land is, and how it will develop. He is conscious of the contradictions within himself.

When I think about why I liked the book so much, and the experience of reading the book, I feel it its so akin to my time in Afghanistan. Without being able to speak the language (Dari an Pashto), I communicated with those I could, in Urdu, Hindi and English. I reached out to the humanity in them, and they in turn, reached out to mine.

In the final analysis the book is about being reconciled to where we come from. No matter where we are, our multiple identities always call us to the land we were born, and we yearn to return. That has been my experience too.

The book also describes the Afghan situation - the challenges to the Afghan people, the leaders, the donor community and Americans stationed in Afghanistan and back home. It presents everyone's reality. Akbar's strength is his ability to see what is happening, from many perspectives, and present it in a dispassionate way.

In a growing body of literature on Afghanistan, Akbar's will enjoy a place of pride. It's young, passionate, and terribly easy to read.

I purchased this to get the first installment of Lora Leigh's wolf breeds and was very unimpressed by 3 of the 4 short stories in the book. The second story was the only one that remotely kept my attention focused and sadly it wasn't the Lora Leigh story. Thankfully the future installments of the Wolf Breed series was a significant improvement!

I do not recommend this book.

The stories were good and provided hours of pleasure. I'm glad that I made the purchase.

Jen

I am not going to go into detail, I see this has been done already. I enjoyed this compilation immensely. I wish the stories were longer. I thought this series came together well. All the stories were hot, full of passion with a dash of love. This is a definate keeper. I recommend this book.
This was my first glipse of Lora Leigh's writing and I have been hooked ever since.

I love the Lora Leigh Wolf series. Often when I purchase a book from this series I will reread it at least three times!

Lora Leigh's Wolf book in this series was a waste of my money because it was too short to have any depth in the story line. I threw my money as well as the book.

Great part of Lora Leigh's series!! Other books are also well worth the read!!

This is a pretty decent political tragedy. The book has a great inroduction that helped lay out the themes of the play. While this was a good work, it wasn't my favorite by Shakespeare.

This inexpensive volume is a fine edition with very readable text, good notes, and a nice introduction. Coriolanus is not one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, though it has its partisans. As with several of Shakespeare's best plays, it is an attempt to combine an investigation of the nature of power with a psychological portrait. The nature of power or kingship was one of Shakespeare's great themes, featured in some of the great tragedies like MacBeth or Lear, and this theme runs through many of his history plays. In Coriolanus, however, this theme is handled less well. It is interesting to speculate why Shakespeare, who dealt with this theme so well in many plays, doesn't do such a good job in Coriolanus. The action in Coriolanus is set in a republic, not a monarchy. The structure of republican politics is not one Shakespeare would have known well and the problems of politics and authority in a republican are different than those of a monarchy. Particularly for modern audiences, whose intrinsic understanding of republican politics is much greater than Shakespeare's, the clumsy handling of the tension between the aristocratic Coriolanus and the plebes rings false. In addition, the psychological portrait of Coriolanus is not nearly as rich as Shakespeare's analysis of quite a few of his other protagonists. Much of the language in Coriolanus is powerful but it lacks the dramatic movement and insight of his best work.

+++++

This play, written circa 1608, is the last of William Shakespeare's (1564 to 1616) eleven (some say ten) known tragedies. Even though it is known as a "Roman" or "political" play, serious readers will discover that it so much more. I found that it stayed with me long after I read it.

This play is set in ancient Rome. It is essentially the story of warrior Caius Marcius (later known as "Coriolanus") whose honor, pride, and sense of social rank dominates his life and interferes with his ability to function effectively when he's not on the battlefield.

One of the great attributes of this play is that it does not have many characters and thus is easy to follow. The major characters are as follows:

(1) Coriolanus (originally Caius Marcius): a valiant warrior and patrician (nobleman) with a non-overbearing wife. "A soldier to Cato's wish" and a modest hero who "hath deserved worthily of his country" but who lacks tact and refuses to placate "the mutable, rank-scented many."
(2) Volumnia: his overbearing mother. "In anger, Juno-like."
(3) Menenius Agrippa: "a humorous patrician" and an old and true friend of Coriolanus who is trusted by the plebeians (lower class)
(4) Titus Lartius and Cominius: fellow generals with Coriolanus.
(5) Sicinius and Brutus: tribunes (representatives of the plebeians) of the common people and Coriolanus' political enemies. "A pair of strange ones."
(6) Tullus Aufidius: general of Rome's enemies and rival in glory to Coriolanus.

This "Shakespeare PELican" book (published by Penguin in 1999) has some interesting material before the play proper. I found the introduction to the play especially informative.

I would recommend, in order to get the full impact of this play, to either see it on film (the BBC production is excellent) or to see it on the stage.

Finally, I cannot understand why this play has been overlooked as one of Shakespeare's great works. (It was, in fact, written during Shakespeare's greatest period, 1599 to 1608.) The story itself is interesting with many subtle themes. The only thing I can think of is that there are some terms that you must know to properly understand the play (such as patrician, plebeian, tribune, etc.). These terms can be easily looked up in a good dictionary.

In conclusion, this play, in my opinion, is an overlooked gem. This book published by Penguin is an excellent resource for students, teachers, theatre professionals, and anyone interested in discovering this great play!!

+++++

I had an overpriced Arden Shakespeare copy of the play. The spine broke. I have known Oxford was as good for lower price and prefer the notes. The Arden text is more authoritative but the physical (Oxford) book is better.

Coriolanus seems to have the critical imprimatur as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. Yet, this must be a misprint. Latest? Certainly. Greatest? Hardly.

For one thing, anyone with any familiarity with Shakespeare's plays must immediately note the protagonist's lack of humanity. Coriolanus' heartlessness is his chief characteristic. All the things that make him so compelling on the battlefield only serve to dull his appeal as a civilian. Since Coriolanus spends the majority of the play as a civilian, this is bad news for the audience.

There may well be tragic events in Coriolanus. However, Coriolanus falls short of great Shakespearean tragedy. The lead is not exceptional (as are the rest of Shakespeare's tragic heroes). At best, Coriolanus is a dolt who becomes a savant on the battlefield. Shakespeare telegraphs, rather than foreshadows, the tragic events of Coriolanus. This, compounded with Coriolanus' inability to carry the play, makes for a rather frenzied mush of a drama.

I recommend Coriolanus only to the Shakespearean completist. It is not one of his better works.

I must say that i am not overly excited about this book. It would have been beneficial to the reader if all exmaples were given in full, even if the book is aimed at the professional. The most frustrating part of the book for me was the Windows Services. I had to resort to the Internet to obtain example source to get a working Window Service. This Basically goes for the rest of the book. Authors... please don't take this personal, see it as constructive.

I must say that i don't believe there should be more than one author to a book. The writing styles are different and confuses the reader. Secondly some chapters may be more effecient than others getting the message across. There is a tendancy to have many authors just to produce a book. From a Marketing point of view this may sound great and may sell books, but take it from me this is getting more irritating than worth reading. I went and ordered another C# book with more than one author contributing to it's content and i hope that i have been proven wrong.

I would like to see more WROX books with authors like Ivor Horton. The examples are complete and work 100%. The book is Beginning VC++ 6.0. See how this book is written then one will know what i talking about.

Lastly, one author, one style = Good start to the creation of a book.

I'm an experienced VB programmer and used this book in order to get up to speed in C#. In just 2 weeks I was comfortably programmin in C#. It covers almost every key topic used in day to day work. For specific questions I use the web. This book can't cover and I think is not intendeed to go full deepth in all the topics. It starts from scratch so you may want to skip many pages, but you will definetly find most of the topics you search for.

Extremely good book. I am a java programmer and this book was very helpful in understanding the C# language. Each topic is treated very thoroughly. Using the class library reference from msdn is my recommendation while using this book. If you want to learn the C# language, i would definitely recommend this book.

I have found this book to be a very disappointing C# reference. The scope of the book is very large, but it doesn't seem to give adequate coverage of much of anything. Time and again I have gone to this book looking for a specific piece of information only to be disappointed. Other sections of the book are very poorly written. For example, in the section on exception handling, they state correctly that exceptions shouldn't be used to break out of for or while loops, and then proceed with an example that does just that. I think the author's could have invested a little more time and effort in coming up with a better example of using exceptions. Instead of buying this book, you're much better off saving your money and just using the MSDN documentation pages.

I don't agree that the authors used too many words. Each topic is covered clearly and succinctly. The reason the book is large is that it covers a huge amount of information (look at the table of contents). It is easy to read because the style is that of a person explaining the important points rather than a rehash of a manual. It gives insight and perspective not just facts. Lastly, there is no need to read the book cover to cover. I started with appendix A and B, then read the first 3 chapters and then skipped to the ADO.NET and ASP.NET sections.