Elliott Books

I loved this book. I am 8 almost 9 and this book was great! I can't wait until I get ella enchanted. I think you will enjoy it. I liked that it was not too romantic and that it has so much things happening.

I got this book from the library and it is a wonderful book! It's really funny and kinda sweet! I love it. Two thumbs up!
And you should also try ELLA ENCHANTED, another incredable book!

The Fairy's return is a mishmash of Romeo & Juliet (without the henchmen), The Golden Goose, and others set within the Princess Tales mythology. It's a fairly quick read with more depth than "The Princess Test," but not as much main character development as "Cinderellis and the Glass Hill."

Robin is considered an imbecile in his family because he likes to tell jokes instead of making up words (like his two elder brothers Nat and Matt) or create poems (like his father Jake). He wants to be accepted -- a common theme in these stories -- but his relatives won't.

Robin stumbles upon Lark, the also-bird-named princess to the kingdom of Biddle. They hit it off because they treat each other as normal people. Unfortunately, Robin's a commoner, and the two are discouraged from meeting again, though we know they're destined to.

Robin has more of a personality than some of the other princes-to-be of the other Gail Carson Levine stories, and it's interesting to glimpse into his struggle. He likes her, he's not sure she likes him, he gets discouraged, starts to have hope, etc.

The subplots are not as enchanting as the other stories. King Humphrey has a speech impediment that causes him to harrumph every word. There is one scene where this is pretty funny because he's describing what he wants done while his scribe is attempting to translate it to English (Biddlish?). It's a bit much to read aloud, however.

On the other hand, the quests Robin must fulfill are absurdly funny, and listening to him work out how to build a ship that works as well on land as it does the sea is amusing.

The Fairy's Return is a retelling of the golden goose story. Robin and Princess Lark love each other, but King Harrumphrey forbids their marriage. All seems lost until the fairy Ethelinda intervenes. This story is filled with subtle wit and plays on words. If you enjoy humor and fairy tales, read The Fairy's Return!

This book focuses almost entirely on eBay. The truly authoritative Internet auction book would cover at least the top three open auctions (eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon) and the top three store auctions (egghead, onsale and ubid). That said, although this is more of a "how to use eBay" book than anything, it does offer great advice on online auctions, including the ins and outs of "professional" auction selling, and Elliot clearly knows his stuff.

"Getting started in Internet Auctions" is a super-easy read that will give readers enough confidence to jump right into the electronic auction arena. Author Alan Elliott begins the book with an overview of the auction process, then moves into detailed step-by-step descriptions of both the bidding and selling process. Using the popular Ebay.com site for his example, Elliott tells what web addresses to enter into your browser, which software buttons to push and even sometimes when to push them.

The best value in this book comes from the wealth of "tricks of the trade:" How to find real bargains on the auction block that others have overlooked. How to time bids in order to maximize winning the sought-after item. How to find items to sell beyond those crammed in the back of your closet. How to avoid getting ripped-off by the top twenty ploys perpetrated by the occasional less-than honest folks in the digital market place As an extra bonus, Elliott introduces readers to a handful of successful web-auction entrepreneurs who are making their living off their Ebay efforts and explains several strategies for mirroring their success. Content like this makes this book a confidence-builder for even a novice Internet user. Anybody interested in making or spending a buck in Internet auctions should put a bid down on this book.

Well written and informative. Would recomend as a first book on auctions.Covers some hmtl commands.

This book is a good way to quickly learn about eBay and other internet auctions from the inside out. It is more than just a point here, click there type of book. It gives you the thinking behind strategies for both buying and selling. The stories in the chapter about how people make a living on eBay are quite interesting. Worth the read!

I found this book to be informative to Stern's rise to fame and fortune. Nothing really groundbreaking or unbelieveable, just the facts. A very quick, but honest look at Howard's personal life. How he keeps everyone at bay and tries to isolate himself from the world at this house, which is understandable. Private Parts offers more humor, but a lot of the same stuff, of course.

I found Paul Colford's book interesting, well-written, and entertaining. I have all of Howard Stern's books, videos, CDs, and a large collections of magazine articles and such. King of All Media is a nice addition to my collection. But don't take my word for it. Go to the nearest bookstore and check it out for yourself. Then get online and order it for less $$ from amazon.com.

America has been known the bastion where you have a right to be different if you have the confidence to stay with your beliefs in the face of societal ridicule. Pioneers end up two ways, some find prosperity by starting new paths, and some end up with arrows in their backs. After reading this book, Howard Stern is a Pioneer that prospers due to his will to be different and confident at work and in life.

It was a joy reading an unbiased book on Howard Stern. I enjoyed his radio show once in awhile but admit I have had to tune it out and off now and then too. The book gave interesting information on the salaries of his staff and inner workings of Radio and TV Stations and how programs acquire airtime.

I agree with author who never trashes Howard Stern but actually gives a good picture of him and his struggles to being a Top Radio personality. I admire Howard's sheer determination to work hard at job, support his family and talk about anything.

I really enjoyed learning how the Stations Sponsors who advertised on his show were impressed with his professionalism and interest in knowing and learning everything about their products and services they were selling. This is a true mark of an honest man living up to his job as a professional.

I was surprised to learn that Infinity did pay off his FCC fines to avoid problems with a merger later. I feel Howard has been a pioneer with the airwaves and first amendment issues to the public benefit not to anyone's detriment.

Since losing his marriage and wife as well as Jackie the Joke Man it is not the same show. But is still entertaining. I now use it as one of three stations I use walking in the morning. I find National Public Radio more enlightening, Jim Quinn for more thoughtful and Howard and crew interesting and delightful on entertainment issues of our day.

In the end, Howard learn to be confident in his own ideas, own behavior and always paid attention to his sponsors, people who helped him and mutual friends and professionals. I believe having supreme confidence in you like Howard Stern demonstrates every day. Those seeking to banish him just need to tune him out or off, but not remove him in anyway

It pretty much is a factual account of Howard Stern's life from his childhood days to his days in Detroit and WNBC radio. Nothing risque is really discussed. I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a viewpoint of Howard's life other than Howard. The author neither supports or chastises Stern, but presents the facts without any bias one way or the other, and that's nice to see in journalism. It's definitely worth checking out.

The story is harrowing and brutal. By the time I got to chapter three, I afraid the entire book was just going to be a litany of atrocities. I was looking for some insight, introspection, and triumph but the book ended abruptly and left me wondering if the participants in the author's last assault were prosecuted or simply got away with it, which is what the author seemed to imply. This family is seemingly "untouchable" no matter how much harrassment they inflicted--and they seemed to be threatening dozens of different people on a regular basis. Maybe I just don't understand how things criminal justice works in England.

Technically, this book was not all that well written. I was irritated at how many times the editor let the weak construction "There was" stand. Seemingly every paragraph had one. The professional co-writer on the project should have known better. It gave the story the feel of a "just the facts" trial transcipt.

Finally this book contains multiple graphic descriptions of horrific sexual abuse. Children do not be reading it or reviewing it.

i have only read 2 other books that shoked and moved me like this a child called it and the lost boy. Wonderfuly written i couldnt put the book down bought it read it that day and read it again. the strenght that jane has nd had is tremedous
having to endure all that from a man hu was ment to protect her and love her as a daughter and be neglected by her mother and then shuned by her family becase she escaped made me cry so much i loved the book.i recomend it to old and teen but it is not 4 young children . thunbs up i admire jane eliot so much 4 breakin away from it all !!!!!!!!!!

This young child is forced in to a terrible ordeal with a man. Her life is filled with painful twist and turns. hard to imagine that such things could happen to children byt even more amazing that a child can come out of it and fight with courage and dignity to survive it all.
Also read Nightmares Echo and Smashed

Only two books have ever made me feel so emotional, "THE LITTLE PRISONER" and "NIGHTMARES ECHO". Both tell of child abuse-sexual abuse and both are hard to put down until you have read every page. You will feel for the authors, urging them on...wishing you could make the tough decisions for them and realizing...oh my gawd the courage they have.

This book was ok but after reading Bare Fists by Bob Mee this was a bit of a letdown. I highly recommend Mr. Mee's book on the bare knuckle era both for writing style and content. If you liked this book then pick up a copy of "Bare Fists".

This is an excellent, well researched piece that historians will enjoy. Lots of detail, all well placed in the context of the times.

This book not only reports on facts (like
dates, fighters, places, etc.), but also on the
whole milieu of bare-knuckled prize fighting.
It helps to explain what would drive men to
participate in a pastime that was both brutal and outlawed.

A great read for history buffs as well as boxing fans.
I highly recommend it

The most scholarly treatise of the early prize ring in America that has ever been written. Elliott Gorn picks up where Pierce Egan and Nat Fleischer left off as the premier chronicler of boxing's illustrious past. This book covers every facet of bare-knuckle prizefighting during the days when men such as "Yankee" Sullivan, John Morrissey, and John L. Sullivan ruled the ring. From "The First American Champions" and "The Meanings of Prizefighting" to "Triumph and Decline" and "The End of the Bare-Knuckle Era": this great work describes what boxing was really like when men fought to a finish and many fights were winner take all.

Now this is what I call mystery book. It has all the elements of a fantastic read. Thank Otto Penzler well done.

Lon Chaney is supposed to have once said that there is nothing funny about a clown at midnight, and anyone who has watched an extremely lengthy extra-inning night baseball game last relentlessly into the following morning knows that the character of the game takes on a different hue than that shown on a lazy summer afternoon or heady early evening.

This book is somewhat misnamed, as not all of the short baseball stories contained herein have an underlying "murder" theme. But all of them - written a few years ago at about the onset of the millennium - do touch upon the dark side of the human psyche.

As with any collection, some stories are better than others. "Ropa Vieja" was written by a woman, and the protagonist is a female detective who notes a number of individuals of questionable immigration status playing baseball on a Baltimore playground and naturally enough concludes that this means that Baltimore is changing for the better. I don't remember anything about the story, beyond that.

And John Lesocroart's "Sacrifice Hit" could have been an effective dark tale about the excessively serious "life or death" attitudes held by some parents and coaches towards their kids performance in Little League ball. But in the end, it merely delivered the insipid message that excessive zealotry is BAD when demonstrated in the cause of victory on the field but GOOD when demonstrated in the causes of "sportsmanship and inclusion". Well, la-de-da!

Most of these stories are pretty good though. Many take place in the past, which is generally a positive thing. Troy Soos's regularly-recurring part-time ballplayer, full-time detective from the turn of the 20th century, Mickey Rawlings, makes a favorable appearance here in "Pick Off Play".

However, in order to engage yourself in this story, you've got to swallow the idea of a pitcher from that era who charges opposing hitters "protection" to have him refrain from nailing them with a bean ball. In a pre-designated-hitter era, in which the pitcher himself had to take his turn at the plate, swift retaliation would have been suffered by any pitcher who tried to fund his retirement account in that way.

Mike Lupica's "The Shot" might seem just a LITTLE dated in a post-Idiot baseball era in which the World Champion Boston Red Sox have finally shed their perennial hard luck image, but it still had me eagerly turning pages. Yet I must confess that I thought it had somewhat of a stupid "shaggy dog" ending that did not justify the build-up. I wonder what YOUR opinion will be on that score. I am debating within myself as to whether I want to buy any of Lupica's baseball novels.

Lawrence Block's detective attempts to solve the 1961 "murder" of the famous Bill Veeck baseball midget, Eddie Gaedel. Brendan Dubois and Henry Slesar master the art of the perfectly executed surprise ending as flawlessly as a Branch Rickey-conceived hit-and-run. Slesar, in particular, left what (in retrospect) seems to be a fairly obvious clue that I didn't pick up on. I wonder whether that's a reflection of the writer's craft or of my own mental slowness, and again, I wonder how other readers responded.

Some will recognize Slesar as a prolific short-story mystery writer from the 1960's, whose works often appear in old Alfred Hitchcock collections. It's nice to see that in 2001, he was still rounding out to mid-season form.

In the year 2005, this is a very readable collection as a whole, assuming that the San Francisco Giants aren't already providing enough horrors for you on the field.

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in initial release, an author of numerous short stories published over the years, and an educator who regularly teaches the writing of short mystery fiction within the California State University system, I believe Otto Penzler did an excellent job assembling original mystery stories for MURDERERS' ROW. This anthology features big name authors such as Lawrence Block, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, and Thomas Perry. The collection covers the subject of baseball from a variety perspectives ranging from Little League to the Majors and from benchwarming little boys and baseball parents to historic superstars and sports agents. Highlights include "Harlem Nocturne" by Robert Parker, a story featuring some fellows named Rickey and Robinson and "Pick-Off Play" by Troy Soos starring his series character baseball journeyman/everyman Mickey Rawlings. I recommend MURDERERS' ROW for any mystery reader interested in baseball (as all good people are).

I will refrain from using lots of sports cliches to describe this book...but the temptation is there.

This is very good collection of mystery writers and (for reasons I fail to grasp) Mike Lupica. I have read the works of over half the authors and a big fan of some of them.

The book was a pleasant diversion from the normal selection of mysteries and thrillers I read...especially as the major league season winds down.

Most of the stories were quick reads with a couple of surprise endings. Short stories are a different way to enjoy a writer when you are used to the whole novel. It was amazing to see how well some of these novelists could develop characters and plot in such a short format.

I found the stories by Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Elmore Leonard, Henry Slesar, Troy Soos and Robert Parker the best. Other than the Lupica the only other one that I found lacking was the one by K.C. Constantine.

Neil Elliott knew exactly how to get a good story from a man who had first hand knowledge of Al Capone. Presenting the recollections in interview form lends credibility to the information provided by an aging man recalling his "glory days" with Chicago's legendary crime boss. This book shows Capone in a different light, casting a much smaller shadow of the paranoid man who became the gangland leader, and showing a noticeable difference from the glitter of all those Hollywood versions. Elliott's ability with interview skills will make his 2003 interview with Jesus a "must read." The bookstores will need to stock a big supply of the latest--The Autobiography of Jesus Christ As Told To: Neil Elliott. It will be even better and well worth the wait in line.

Of course it's well known that Jack Woodford had nothing to do with this supposed interview of him. Great and hilarious fiction tho!

The author of this book claims to have been a piano player for Al Capone. Al often would request him to play Al's favorite song, Roses of Picardy. The author claims to have been taken along to witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and provides interesting details of what took place. He claims some of the victims were swearing while others cried because they knew what fate awaited them. He also claims to have been in a barbershop with Capone and Machine Gun Jack McGurn when it was reported that Capone torpedos John Scalise, Albert Anselmi, and Joe Guinta were killed. He reports that Capone was upset with this while McGurn told him it had to be done. He exonerated Capone who it is often claimed clubbed the trio to death with a baseball bat following a party in nearby Hammond, Indiana. Interesting details are provided in this book, and we as readers are left to decide whether or not they are true.

Bill Emblom says that the author claims to have seen and been with Capone. Bill Emblom should have read the book more carefully. The author does not claim that, instead, he interviewed someone who experienced those things, which, if I may point out, are factual. This book gets 6 stars from me.

"The Plant Hunters" gives every sign of having been thrown together by Tyler Whittle to boil a pot. Yet he was an enthusiast for his subject, so there are many signs of a good book trying to get out.

Nevertheless, is it more than irritating, in a book about hunting plants, to read a page or two, sometimes more, about a plant hunter without a hint of what plants he found. (No women plant hunters allowed.)

This is definitely a book about the hunters and not the hunted. Hair's breadth escapes or failures to escape dominate the anecdotes. A great many plant hunters died in the field, typically falling off cliffs, but there were other ways. More than a couple were chopped up by Buddhist monks.

Rather more about rather fewer hunters would have made for a better book. When Whittle does give a subject some elbow room, as he does with his nominee for greatest of all collectors, David Douglas, it still is not enough. About the only subject who gets just about the right amount of space (seven pages) is Nathanial Ward, who devised the Wardian case, although he was not a plant hunter himself but a GP in the East End of London.

This is an insubstantial work, suitable for idling away a few hours in the late winter when the seed catalogs have become dog-eared.

It hardly seems to have earned a place in Horticulture magazine's Garden Classics, and the edition I have is anything but a classic. Reprinted, complete with howlers, from the plates of the 1970 edition, it includes two pages of acknowledgments for permission to reprint illustrations but not the illustrations themselves.

If you are going to spend the time it takes to read this book, turn hunter yourself and find the original Chilton edition and give the Lyons & Burford/Horticulture paperback reprint a miss.

In the wake of reading ORCHID FEVER, I looked for other books that dealt with the plant hunters -- particularly of the 19th century. What I found was this wonderful book that is even broader in scope, providing a fast paced review of highlights in mankind's never ending task of collecting, naming and growing plants. The author does not try to present only sensationalized material, and doesn't try to be "complete," but instead gives a wonderful and highly readable overview of the field. Highly recommended.

This exciting and in depth book contains excellent information on the many exploits of plant hunters around the world. It recites tales of both failures and successes. The author has a talent for weaving these incredible tales into stories you won't soon forget.

This book is in a way the "Laertus" of botanical explorers, full of information and gossip, descriptions of the historical periods in which the explorations took place, and the technologies and economics driving the field forward. All of this in a great, slightly sarcastic tone that makes it a real page turner.

One note: for the most part, the book only discusses the actual plants in passing...a bit of botanical background might be useful. On the other hand, I'm sure it would be just as good a read without the background knowledge, as the book is more about people than plants.

If you can get past the truly horrible jacket design for this book which is bright yellow and looks like it took about 10 minutes to put together, you will find a very informative insight into the life of R.N. Elliott and the genesis and evolution of his Wave Principle.

The books starts with a brief but worthwhile biography of Elliott which covers his business career as a consultant (who mainly charged out of additional profits generated - how's that for confidence!) and describes exactly how his Wave Principle came about. Although this section does not really tell you anything useful (or new) about the usage and application of the Wave Principle per se, it does give additional supporting 'evidence' for the meticulous and analytical nature of Elliott himself that builds confidence that his methods are at least worthy of investigation.

The middle section of the book is Elliott's Wave Principle as first outlined by the man himself with useful comments and (rare) corrections (where necessary) by Prechter. Even though Elliott's main work has been later extended and refined by others, it is still informative to see the 'definitive' version direct from the source along with practical application.

The remainder of the book presents articles and essays written by Elliott and gives some background about the underlying fundamental laws of nature and the universe that support the Wave Principle. This section includes many useful perspectives and ideas and is good fuel for further study. I think Elliott himself would have been pleased with the completeness and thoroughness of this book with the only main caveat being the amateurish jacket design.

Elliott wave theory is touted and sold in the investment industry as the way to be the markets. You can't go anywhere without someone wanting to sell you this idea.

That's why, for once it is great to see a book that is solely written by the man that discovered it.

The use of 1930's charts is a positive and a negative. I would have like to seen more modern charts instead of just case studies.

After being an investor, broker and investment author for the past eleven years I am definitely happy with this book.

The charts shown in this book are from Elliot's time, namely the depression [ie. the 1930's]. You might think that they have no bearing to today's markets. However, one of the biggest problems with market timing is forecasting a bear market trend; especially a short one. That was my biggest problem with applications involving market behavior analyzed as Elliot waves. This book helps solve that problem by helping the technician analyze long bear market trends where wave counting is extremely critical.

The book helped my timing immensely, so that I don't get caught in false bottoms anymore and can recognize the top of markets, especially with respect to stock trading volume. The writer is at his best when relating to the market and analyzing trends. There is a long biography included in this volume, which I found tedious and boring. His analysis does have some contradictions, however, the charts he presents should help anyone with a high school education and good visual skills become a better trader.

Elliott's Masterworks is an excellent resource for those interested in Elliott Wave, R.N. Elliott himself, and how his knowledge and understanding of this principle progressed and came into being. But if you are interested in learning the Wave Principle itself and do not care much about history and the larger scheme of things, then just read the blue book entitled "Elliott Wave Principle" - it is much more up to date and refined than Elliott's original masterworks. Why? Because by the time Elliott had figured most of the principle out and was in the process of refining it, he was very old and eventually died before really completing it all. Robert Prechter and his team of guys picked up on it later on and "finished" the principle, if you will.

But the biggest problem is...most people just don't "get it"... Elliott Wave and Elliott's findings are SO MUCH MORE than the financial markets. The fundamental discoveries that govern the Wave Principle and thus the behavior of the financial markets are the very same fundamental forces at work throughout the entire universe! Who cares about making a few bucks in the stupid stock market when, if you have a deep understanding of the Wave Principle, Socionomics, and science in general, you can begin to see how everything around us all ties together to form this awesome grand scheme of life and existance. A deep understanding of Elliott Wave and Fibonacci is the key to opening a whole new world of knowledge, application, and the birth of a new science!

Elliot Horowitz tries to make a new reading of Jewish history as a whole. He wants to argue for the idea that violence on the part of Jews has been in the Diaspora an important and predominant factor. However the number of illustrations he can muster to prove his point is few. And what he does instead is provide a skewed misreading of Diaspora Jewish history as whole.
It may be true that Jewish history for two thousand years consists in more than victimization. But there is no proportion whatsoever between the horrifying violence done to Jews in these years to the trifling in comparison violence done by them.

Horowitz is one of the most original historians of Jewish cultural and intellectual history writing today. This book is in turn surprising, unnerving and enchanting, and disposes of pious presuppositions about the changing image and force of violence in Jewish religious thought. A tour de force.

Usually, all we hear is that Christians thought of Jews as responsible for deicide. Throughout this book, Horowitz makes it clear that Jews had just as much religiously-motivated animosity against Christians as Christians did against Jews. Horowitz paints the former as a defensive reaction of Jews against Christian persecution. Yet it becomes obvious from reading his book that such acts occurred in places and times when Jews were not undergoing persecution, and that these acts were often very overt and provocative in nature.

The portrayal of Christianity as Haman was very common during Purim celebrations. For instance, Horowitz writes: "In the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine, it was common, in the early eighteenth century, to hire a Christian to play the role of Haman in the annual Purimshpiel." (p. 86). Obviously, there was another side to Polish anti-Semitism, and Horowitz has touched upon this seldom-mentioned side.

Horowitz examines the attacks on sacred Christian objects by Jews: "...we are in a better position to take Christian reports of Jewish cross-desecration seriously rather than dismissing them as anti-Semitic inventions." (p. 156). "To both Jews and Christians of their time (unlike some historians of recent generations) it was not difficult to imagine a Jew, whether naturally born or converted, urinating on a cross if given the opportunity to do so. Unlike ritual murder or host-desecration this form of hostile conduct, it may be added, was not reported exclusively by Christian sources." (p. 169). What about attacks on Holy Communion? Horowitz says the following about host-profanation: "Yet in recent decades Jewish historians have been more open to the possibility that such acts of desecration, not necessarily always premeditated, could indeed have taken place from time to time." (p. 173).

Horowitz discusses Jewish violence against Christians. For instance, Jews who converted to Christianity were sometimes attacked by other Jews (pp. 202-203). A large-scale instance of Jewish violence against Christians occurred during the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614. The local Jews killed 90,000 Christians, though some other estimates accept a death toll of 30,000 (p. 241). Horowitz does not mention the fact that the numbers of Jews killed during the later Crusades has also been exaggerated, and is comparable to the number of Christians killed earlier by Jews during the events of 614.

Horowitz believes that the blood libel had originated as a tale told by Jewish converts to Christianity (p. 219, 226). Interestingly, some modern Muslim leaders accept the blood libel as fact (p. 9).

The avoidance of discussion of Jewish violence stems from the tendency to consider Jews as victims and not victimizers. Horowitz comments: "Evenhanded assessments of the reciprocal role of violence in Jewish-Christian relations were to become increasingly rare in post-Holocaust Jewish historiography, both in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora." (p. 235).

During the Carmelite convent controversy at Auschwitz and its aftermath, the media paid attention only to those Jews who found offense in the cross. Horowitz comments: "Yet in the heat of the fierce debates about the Auschwitz crosses, it was somehow forgotten that since the late nineteenth century such prominent Jewish artists in Europe and the United States as Samuel Hirschenberg, Joseph Budko, Marc Chagall, and Barnett Newman had appropriated both the cross and the crucifixion as symbols of Jewish suffering...Not only did Jewish artists develop an attraction to the use of the cross, so did such early twentieth century Jewish writers as Sholem Asch, Lamed Shapiro, and Uri Greenberg..." (pp. 182-183).

This book, subtitled Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence, everything is viewed through the prism of the violence inflicted by the Jews upon their enemies at the end of Esther.

While arguably, the violence at the end is only a minor part of the story for some that aspect has clouded everything about the Book of Esther and Purim. First Horowitz looks at how the Book was viewed by non-Jews. Some had a very negative view due to the Jewish revenge. They considered that motif, un-biblical (read non-Christian). Horowitz goes through each of the characters and how first non-Jews interpreted their actions. For instance, Mordechi was treated rather harshly by many of these commentators as was Esther due to her passivity. What is especially fascinating is how these non-Jewish understandings, at times, crept into Jewish thought as well. Thus, Horowitz documents Jews parroting these rather un-Jewish, at it were, interpretations.

Horowitz then tackles the overarching theme of Amalek and how this has been understood throughout history. Some hold there is no obligation of destroying Amalek today while others are willing to label any perceived enemy of Jews as deserving of the harsh consequences of Amalek. Some of these examples are rather disturbing.

After dealing with the Book of Esther specifically, Horowitz turns his focus to Jewish practice on Purim. Specifically, he deals with Jewish violence or violent acts on Purim directed at non-Jews. He provides a discussion of the stereotype of the "mild" (read the wimp) Jew including its origins and whether it is borne out by history. He then discusses numerous, diverse examples spanning from the 5th century until today of Jewish violence. Some is not physical violence, instead it is host desecration or general enmity of non-Jewish symbols while other, most recently Barukh Goldstein is physical violence in its worst form.

In an effort to play down some of these incidents, we have Jewish historians who decided to avoid discussion of such matters, or at times downplay their significance. However, in light of the many examples here, it is very difficult to ignore such examples. Horowitz is very convincing in the scope of this idea and how prevalent this is. It is especially telling when tracing and seeing how systematically Jews have decided to sweep under the rug these examples, it demonstrates that censorship is not limited to any one group and even amongst supposedly dispassionate scholars, they too can fall prey to their own biases.

The detail and research is amazing , Horowitz leaves no stone unturned. All in all, this book sheds new light of the story of Purim, the Book of Esther and Jewish history. It provides a new way of viewing the story of Esther and Jewish ideas towards violence.