Hughes Books

There are two adjectives commonly applied to this book by people who haven't read it: it is often said to be a "feminist" book, and a "depressing" one. I think these two not-quite-accurate labels arise so frequently because Sylvia Plath is, unfortunately, better-known to the general public for being female and psychologically troubled than for being an accomplished poet.

This is not an agenda-driven book, it is not a book aimed at only a select audience, and it is, above all, not a depressing book. "Ariel" contains poems of awe ("Morning Song"), poems of biting irony ("The Applicant"), and poems of exhilaration so intense that it blurs the line between wanting to live and wanting to die ("Ariel"), but in all of these poems Plath's fighting spirit is evident. The anger, the rage, the *bite* of the poems about her reaction to her husband's adultery seem to me to be the mark of someone who is fighting so hard to reclaim her life because she so desperately wants to live. These are *not* the poems of someone who has turned her face to the wall and resigned herself to defeat. "I am too pure for you or anyone," she asserts (with a defiant head-toss, perhaps) in one poem. In another poem, one that tells of a swarm of bees that kamikaze-attacked a man (to punish him for his "lies," it would seem), she says, "They thought death was worth it, but I/Have a self to recover, a queen." This "queen" of the bees is transparently a symbol for Plath's inner self, which had hitherto been lain dormant beneath the weighty tarps of depression, and it is described in language that is harrowingly alive, evoking metaphors of healing and resurrection: "Now she is flying/More terrible than she ever was, red/Scar in the sky, red comet/Over the engine that killed her--/The mausoleum, the wax house." In short, these are forcefully galloping, life-affirming poems. Just as some people lose their battles against cancer or other diseases, Plath ultimately lost her battle against depression, but these poems suggest that it wasn't for lack of trying. The final poem in this restored edition speaks of how the battle was a close one, whose outcome was still in question up until the very end: "This is the time of hanging on.... Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas/Succeed in banking their fires/To enter another year?/What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?/The bees are flying. They taste the spring."

I'm not going to review Ariel.
If you've come this far, you've already read the poems, either on-line, or in a paperback edition. There is nothing I could say about one of the greatest poetic works of the 20th century.
I will review this edition, however. It's just right. Not to fancy (Ariel somehow wouldn't work in a gilded leather bound edition), certainly not cheap. It's well bound, well put together, and the original manuscript works are here, in an easy to read format.
It's over twenty bucks, and that's a lot of money for such a small book--but you'll keep it forever.

So dark yet beautiful, a must have for every women. I was left speechless with it's intensity and shocked by the passion.
I ordered Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters, at the same time and read it after reading Ariel. Then I started reading them together one of his and then one of hers. I was moved to tears and spent an evening in near exhaustation, I'm left speechless.
Call me silly, but I can't help but see a very tragic modern day Romeo and Juliet with these two books. The expression of pain, hurt and love in these two poets is beyond comparsion and seldom seen. They touched the soul and will be remembered.
Thank you Sylvia and Thank you Ted.

This is the much heralded Plath collection that everyone should read if you're into poetry, Plath, or heck, even good work. At a time of internal angst and turmoil, Mrs. Hughes cranked this out in a distinct voice and the greatest poems of her work are here: Lady Lazarus, Daddy, etc etc...It's a genuine treasure of poetry. If you can, get the voice recordings of Sylvia reading her own work. She has a soulful, determined, almost English (huh, wonder WHERE she got that from) intonation that makes you want to kiss her red mouth (that she was known for) and bless her for this beautiful, painful, stubbornly gorgeous poetry. Bravo, Plath!

It seems every morbid well read teenage girl would carry a Sylvia Plath book around school, and I was one of them (I can't speak for the current Extreme Makeover, American Idol, online porn generation) Although I struck the Plath pose in high school, in all honesty I didn't really understand and appreciate her until my late thirties after I was married and had children. As a stay at home mother I know all too well the feeling of inadaquacy I must endure from those that deem me unworthy of anything too serious or intellectual. When I read Ariel and The Bell Jar years later it was more poignant. As a 39 year old mother of a small child I now understand what chauvanism and gender condecension really is, and it has allowed to read Plath with more empathy.

Very interesting, depressing book. Can't help think about all the women that guy used. To say he got what he deserved is an understatement! Such a sick, manipulative man...Everyone he used, to get ahead, also deserved what they got! Such devotion to this man...and just for money!
His eccentricities were amazing & made me want to wash my hands every time I put the book down. BUT....Do I have the only copy of this book where pages 325 to 348 were repeated? Then starting again, on page 373?
Pretty dissapointing, with the Author the Publisher or BOTH! Would like to fine pages 349 to page 372!!!!!!!!!! Can anyone help?

I've read several books on Howard Hughes, but this one by far is the best.

Richard Hack really looks beneath the surface and into the very soul of Hughes, painting a disturbing yet realistic human portrait of him along the way.

Highly recommended!

"Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters", by Richard Hack, New Millennium Press, CA 2001. ISBN 1-893224-35-X, HC 444/391 pages includes Prologue 18 pgs., Source Notes etc., 35 pgs., Index 19 pgs., 35 B & W photos, 9 1/4" x 6 1/4".

Hack, an established biographical writer is also a columnist. His profligate "Hughes" is an obvious work of love, having woven an intricately enmeshed & alive chronicled narrative composed of myriads of infinitesimal minutiae which unfold to reveal profound intimate particulars of a legendary uncommunicative man known for privacy, secrecy and excesses.

The book's organization is superb, in some respects resembling that of "Citizen Kane" and beginning with a Prologue entitled "Death by Neglect" and followed by 20 chapters narrating Hughes' life, with a final chapter "And the Winner Is..." detailing his Will, the myriads of ludicrous & bizarre circumstances which ensued thereof, some obviously fraudulent. All in all, many rumors about Hughes are herein shown to have been on target, i.e. his need for absolute control, obsession with Hollywood's stars/starlets underaged or otherwise, secrecies & phobias; -- but the book's inestimable value is its exposition on his early childhood development, erratic education, circumstances behind his wealth & revealing unpropitious events shaping his bizarre lifestyle, including a misguided smothering maternal overprotectionism.

We learn of his STD (Lues), OCD, microphobia, codeine & Valium addiction, recluse behavior and eventual demise. Surprising to everyone, the bulk of his estate per Will, as early as 1925 and again in 1938, provided for the charitable, Howard R. Hughes Medical Research Laboratories. While attending Harvard Medical School, I witnessed on two occasions Hughes' late night limo arrivals to PBBH for medical evaluation, learning only of a kidney ailment (medicinal) and appointment with Dr. G. Thorn then studying "electrocortin" (later renamed cortisone) and who also treated some Hollywood's stars with newly discovered 'cortisone'. This book is a treasure trove of intimacies once privy only to the FBI, CIA and sealed court testimony files. A very good, intimate and stimulating read, but lacking much detailed information on aerodynamics. Even an encounter with Amelia Earhart is noted for one of his speed trial events.

What a life Hughes Led! The author did a wonderful job of writng so that I couldn't put the book down. Hughes was the ultimate wheeler dealer. I felt sorry for him as a child with his parnoid mother who raised him to fear all illness. But when he grew up he had no excuse for his behavior in treatment of women. He was fortunate in business, always thinking in larger terms. This book was overall as interesting as Tutankhamun by Hoving; it was as thrilling as riding on a roller coaster driven by Hughes.

This book gives good insite on the life of Howard Hughes. If you are interested in specific information on business or aviation this may not be the book for you. But Howard Hughes was much more than business and aviation. He was a psychoanalyst dream. A very interesting case study in Obsessive Compulsive disorder also another overlooked aspect of his psyche was the relationship he had with women. He would sometimes keep women all over town on payroll to be on call at all times; these women would be on payroll for years sometimes perhaps outliving their best years (hollywood being youth orientated). Women he pursued who never showed interest were seen as conquest. Such as Ava Gardner who by her own definition could never love him because he smelled. However they remained lifelong friends. Yet interestingly when the women he was interested in were married he made it his personal problem to see that they got divorced to the extent of hiring private investigators and such. Howard could have also been considered a voyuer. He would hire investigators for the women he was interested in (some may not have been mutually interested) and spy on them to the point that bugs were planted in their bedrooms. Those who turned him down like Elizabeth Taylor (who was still a teenager were offered money. What is the saddest is his last years. You work your whole life so that you can enjoy your wealth in your golden years but for Howard his golden years consisted of self imposed imprisonment. This was a detriment because the people who were his true friends such as Dietrich (who was loyal and saved him from economic ruin many times)and his aunt Annette (who was there for him in his early years after his parents death)he kept away. So he was neglected at the end. Surrounded by people who never really cared about him just his money.

Somehow, I expected introspection, character, and depth. I truly do not know why I did. Sylvia Plath was brilliant, but this is not about her genius. Her former husband, Ted, came along for the ride, representing a millstone about her neck, and found publication simply by association. Were it not for her, we would know nothing of this man and his jaunty verse.

Nothing about his poetry flows as Sylvia's did, and one would think he would have gleaned something from her, yet he failed. Is strange how one can live and love a person, yet not be influenced or inspired. In his case, it is as if she never existed.

While this is not a pity-missive about Sylvia, I would find it impossible not to be shaped by the opportunity to have known someone so utterly in touch with themselves and their art form. How he can remain unaffected in his work is beyond me.

In having read the memoir of Jillian Becker, "Giving Up, The Last Days of Sylvia Plath," there is noticeable resent and hatred on the part of Ted Hughes when he arrives at Sylvia's funeral. It seems obvious he felt more "polished" in his art than his wife, yet her pain spilled like liquid on paper and reached thousands of people. One can study language theory eternally, as Ted did, but if native talent is not present, nothing worthy can come about.

Ted Hughes is a jumble of meaningless words strung together. Sylvia Plath exposes her very soul and resonates, still, with the darkest days we have all experienced in our lives.

Sylvia Plath IS poetry, and, no, it need not rhyme.

Ted Hughes is not worth the paper he is printed upon.

British poet laureate Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was married to American poet, author, and feminist icon Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide in 1963.

On one hand suicide is shabby and unfair because the people left behind are made to suffer unjustly. On the other hand, who can judge when someone has reached their limit, when enough is enough and life has lost all its meaning and flavor? These birthday letters are by someone left behind.

Much to his credit, Ted Hughes does not judge his wife's act. He never asks her why she did it, he simply accepts without remonstration that she chose to end her days. He stands accused by many of Plath's fans has having driven her to this, and his poems show he does accept a share of the blame for the suffering he caused her. The collection shows his suffering, and Hughes' perception of hers.

For her suicide to have caused such pain in him, the bond between Plath and Hughes must have been strong and true. We find many intimate stories in these letters as well, as when Hughes describes his American trips in Yellowstone Park or on some beach picking up a horseshoe crab.

The poems are written in the first and second person, with all save two addressed to Plath. They are all in Hughes' own voice, resonating like an internal monologue, but with no one to answer his words. Hughes is talking to a ghost.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin

I have grown up reading Sylvia Plath, recently read the biography of Assia Wevill (the mistress), and have vilified Ted Hughes mentally for years... But now I have read these poems, and I can see now that there are realms of the heart that the eye never sees, and we will never be able to judge the past of two other souls. These poems are wonderful, and it is pleasing to see that I enjoy Hughe's poetry as much or more than Plath's. Read these and Hughe's other works before you rush to judgement, they are truly works to be recognized.

Ted Hughes' tribute to his first wife, Sylvia Plath, is encased in poetic richness, exposing their marriage and affection in a way that an interview never could. In Mr. Hughes' native tongue, poetry, he details their relationship and it's demise, with references to his infamous mistress Assia Weevil and shows a man deeply affected by the suicides of two women he loved. Yet, more so, it reveals the haunting effect Sylvia left behind, the same intrigue that continues to etch her mark on the literary world. In a moving and shockingly personal manner, he reveals a rare look into the other half of the pendulum swing that was the marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

I have to admit that morbid curiosity drove me to buy this book. I was fascinated with learning more about a man who lost two wives to suicide. And, being an English major in the US, I read A LOT of Plath but was never exposed to Hughes' work. I think there is a prejudice against him, especially by female poets/scholars.

But, this quickly became my favorite collection of poetry. Hughes uses Plath's own mythology to eulogize her--her father obsession, her suicide attempts. But he also weaves the familiar into it--her attempt at making rag rugs and at domesticity in general. Any married person can understand his imagery and his heartbreak. Of course, my favorite is Dreamers, when Ted realizes he loves another woman. She seems as exotic to him as his marriage seems dull.

This is a great book for anyone who is adopting or recently adopted a RAD kid. Great information and real life scenarios. You follow a child's journey and learn what makes them do the things that they do. It is a day-to-day parenting guide, with some of the best techniques, logic and insight you will find any where! Easy to read, and not a lot of technical jargon.

This book was very helpful and gave much insight from the childs point of view as well as the CYFD worker, therapist and therapeutic foster mothers point of view. Very helpful for anyone working with RAD diagnoses children. Highly recommended!!!!!

As a social work student, I found this book valuable in both its discussion of attachment disorders, including descriptions of how they manifest in children's perceptions and behaviors, and its demonstration of effective interventions. A better understanding of attachment trauma and its effects is essential for preparing case workers, therapists, educators and willing foster parents. It seems we are losing too many children to often ineffective behavioral interventions for conduct disorders because we don't first develop the prerequisite conditions of trust and safety these children need. Hughes makes the point that children can't give what they haven't received, and that includes empathy, affection and authentic kindness.

Excellent book! A must-read for anyone who works with children. It includes information that I believe anyone around children can utilize. Great information on how to deal with children who have been traumatized but it also has important information about parenting in general and helps us understand how children see the world.

We adopted a son with RAD and worked with an attachment therapist. Adopting the methods in this book made an enormous difference in our lives! Don't hesitate if you are considering this book!

Book arrived in very good condition and on time. Who could ask for anything more??

This is one of the books that JRR Tolkien used to read to his children. It was published around 1872 and it has a very Victorian vibe to it. The good guys are too good to be true. I kept waiting for the great great grandmother to turn out to be some sort of evil witch who first gained Irene's trust, and then kidnapped her. Nope, the great great grandmother was good and pure to the very end. Also, having 12 year old children (like Curdie) working in the mines at all hours with no adult supervision seemed to be A-OK with the Victorians.

It is a nice story, but it's very 19th century. If you'd like to buy this, please consider this version:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881084140

This is a hardcover reproduction of a 19th century version of the book, and has color plates and black and white drawings, both.

To be honest, the other book that JRR Tolkien read to his children is "The Wonderful Land of Snergs." This is the one where he got his idea for the hobbits. It's a much better story, but maybe that's because it was published in 1928, and so has a more modern writing technique.

See it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486452557

When I was 8, the same age as the girl in the story (a princess-of course!)I read this book time and time again. I couldn't get enough of it. My mom had died when I was a baby, so I never knew her, and longed for a silver haired granny in a tower who would wash my face with water from a silver basin and have stars on the ceiling of my bedroom. Anyhow, I just read it again after many long years....almost 50! and it's just as good a story now as then...very sweet and nicely written. Excellent!

So it's written for children but I could hardly tell the difference. The simplicity of the storytelling made it all the more appealing and the veins of courage, humilty, and human frailty running through it were impressive and awe inspiring. Like I said it's simple but don't let that word fool you. It's brilliantly written and encourages the reader to look at his or her own character. "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." Proverbs 27:19 It's a lesson we could all learn if not relearn...

The Princess and the Goblin is a truly delightful tale that is beautifully told by George MacDonald and deserves five stars. But, I will not attempt to review the story itself, for there are such wonderful descriptions and testimonies from other reviewers on this page concerning the content of MacDonald's work. However, I would like to describe the Puffin Classics edition in a little more detail. Please be aware that the Puffin's paperback cover is very soft and not as durable as other paperback covers. As well, the paper quality is rather grainy, which may not hold up well in the years to come. Thus, I have allotted this product four stars. On a positive note, I am pleased that the publishers kept the nostalgic illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Also, this copy has been edited well for typos and simple mistakes. With these particular points in mind, I would like to encourage the potential buyer to consider other editions of the text as well. Everyman's Childrens Library (The Princess and the Goblin (Everyman's Library Children's Classics Series)) has produced a hardback copy, which may be a better choice if the copy is to be given to a child. Also, for the MacDonald researcher or literary student, I would highly recommend the Johannesen edition(The Princess and the Goblin (George Macdonald Original Works)) since it is an authoritative edition. However, when it comes to the price, the Puffin Classics edition can not help but to be rather tempting. I hope these few notes have been helpful - Happy shopping.

This is a bible for computer graphics. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn computer graphics knowledge base.

If you're a beginner looking for a book which has example code you can test out and try, either forget it or be prepared for some headache.

I can speak on my experience, I have a GNU/Linux system, the SRGP library which is used by this book only supports a display depth of 8bpp, which means you'll most likely need to reconfigure your X server to some extent - the examples/library will crash at higher display depths.

But there is no doubt that the techniques and principles explained throughout can be applied using other toolkits, as the book explicitly says that the facilities contained in the example libraries are common to many other graphics libraries.

A quick note on the quality of the library code, it appears to be pre-ANSI C and contains a few modern no-nos, which can lead to crashes.

If you're looking for a book to merely use as a reference or for theory then this is what this book is, and as one other reviewer said, you could probably just borrow a copy of the book and xerox the bibliography to refer to the papers it sources information from.

It's an all-time classic in computer graphics world. I bought this in 1997 and i could learn a lot from it. Though it hasn't been updated, one can gain all the fundamentals about CG.

This book is a great book for general knowledge but all of the chapters that deal with talking about hardware is badly outdated. I got this book mostly for algorithms. I got much more then what I expected but most of everything I needed was there. Its a very good book for learning about line drawing, and polygon rasteration algorithms. Don't expect anything up to date like shaders though.

Except for the chapters on raster algorithms, this book is just an extended bibliography. It has no material on texturing, for example, just a reference to the original paper on it. The math isn't that mature either, and the chapter on Perspective Projections is a pedagogical atrocity. Instead of buying this book, just go to your local univ. library and xerox the bibliography; then, lookup the articles on topics you're interested in.

Richard Hughes's 1929 odyssey, A High Wind In Jamaica -- which has been included in the Modern Library's List of "The 100 best English-language novels of the century"--forces the reader to revisit that moment when children lose their innocence to the world; that diaphanous transference from childhood to adulthood that can be so heartbreakingly revelatory. In this tale, it rides in on a torrent of bad weather seemingly induced by an earthquake.

Emily Bas-Thornton has just turned ten in Jamaica and has had a wonderful birthday exploring the island, meeting a group of indigenous people and receiving their good faith gifts. But just a few days later, Margaret Fernandez, a neighbor, a bit older then Emily, announces that she can smell an earthquake. Thus the trouble is ushered in as the children cartwheel across the rumbling ground, and their pet, a feral cat, is pursued by predators through the Bas-Thornton house and into the jungle where its otherworldly yowls punctuate the night.

Soon afterward the Bas-Thornton's decide to ship their five children back to England. From this point in the novel, things go terribly wrong as the young troupe is mistakenly kidnapped by a hapless band of Caribbean pirates. Hughes's quirky writing style enhances the dream-like quality of the narrative: seemingly important characters die without the bat of an eyelash, good seems bad, and right seems wrong from the vertiginous heights of the reader's crow's nest.

From the primitive wilderness of the Caribbean Islands to the hyper-civilized atmosphere of an English Central Criminal Courtroom, the novel follows a logical if allegorical arc; but does Hughes mean to describe this arc as progressive or regressive?

A High Wind in Jamaica is one of those books that lulls the reader into a long and languorous torpor. Then it shakes you, slaps you and says "snap out of it".

I almost didn't read this book when it was compared to Lord of the Flies, but I found it to be more like Animal Farm myself. Maybe I read too much into it, but I thought the opening sentence, "One of the fruits of Emancipation in the West Indian islands is the number of ruins..." set an interesting tone of the obstacles of emancipation whether in children, slaves, or through revolutions. There are scenes where the church's good intentions lead to death, scenes where assumed loyalties mean next to nothing, scenes of people (or causes) overly impressed with their own importance, scenes where pigs (governments?) are referred to such as, "You would never have thought that the immobile mask of a pig could wear a look of such astonishment..." and (also refering to a pig) "When Destiny knocks the first nail in the coffin of a tyrant, it is seldom long before she knocks the last", and scenes towards the end where history is conveniently rewritten. It interesting to me that this book was written in the 1920s -- maybe it was a stretch of my imagination, but I could see a lot of Russian revolution in the book. That is not the amazing part though, the amzing part is that so many take-overs, wars, conflicts, and liberations since seem to have followed (and continue to follow) similar patterns as those of the children in the book. Anyway, enjoy! It kept me interested while making me think!

The characters, the plot, and everything else in this book are extremely boring. The only thing keeping this from a 1 star book is the character Emily. She alone has creative and unique thoughts floating around in her head. I'm glad I read it because she amused me so much. But as for the rest of the book, it was not worth writing, and the ending was infuriating.

I found this book sort of a cross between Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn, the former because the plot concerns children in the hands of pirates; but the style is more humorous and sophisticated, reminding me a bit of Twain, though more cynical, almost like Lord of the Flies. The first quarter of the novel covers the lives of the Thornton children in Jamaica in the mid-nineteenth cetury; it's this part that reminds me of Twain's writing and is about as interesting. Then the children set sail for England and are kidnapped by pirates, and suspense builds through the rest of the novel, along with a good deal of humor, some cynical, and some mildly shocking. The children, unsupervised, appear to be turning more evil than their pirate hosts. Unusual and amusing events described are just surprising enough to ring true. The author proposes that children are a different animal than people, an idea that was explored further in Mimsy Were the Borogoves, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (filmed as The Last Mimzy).

I recently saw the film version of A High Wind in Jamaica starring Anthony Quinn and James Coburn; in a literal sense it follows the novel reasonably well, but as is always the case in adaptations the viewer can't experience the depth of the narrative, and some of the characters are not even established, let alone developed. However, there is a line at the end of the film that helps drive the point home, when a cab driver ironically tells Mr. Thornton that he must be proud of his children.

Sometimes you pick up a book you knew little about, pour through its pages, and think that somewhere, somehow, you had read this book before or one which was so similar. This is one such book.

Ensconced with the unique perspective of children -- ages 3 to 12 -- required to fend for themselves, the plot of this novel seeks to prove to the reader that children can be perceived as midgets or miniature adults. They can take much better care of themselves than we would ever imagine. They are equally capable of great adventure.

This book involves children who are intertwined with pirates. This 1929 novel and "Peter Pan" (1902) have something in common. But, this is not comical. This is a serious novel on a very parallel set of facts. The oldest -- a girl (Wendy?) -- down to the youngest must find a way to overcome the pirates or at least survive capture by pirates. They do.

This book deals with children on the open sea with wild tigers. This 1929 novel and "The Life of Pi" (2001) have something in common. This book involves horrid acts committed before the eyes of the children. Something this 1929 novel and "The Painter Bird" (1965) have in common. And, the children make it through their adventure, in spite of being part of and being witness to man's inhumanity to man. Something this 1929 novel and "Pi", "Painted Bird" and "Peter Pan" also allow.

And there are the trifles and quarrels between the youth. Something this 1929 novel and allegorical "Lord of the Flies" (1954) have in common.

This book has either directly or indirectly influenced so many other great novels which delve into the complexities of youthful interaction with adults. And, to make the novel more complex, it defies all stereotypes. The pirates are humane, not Peter Pan goofballs or Treasure Island's irreproachable characters of improper breeding and education. The children are perceptive and observant, not lumps on logs whose wide-eyed impressions fail to reduce to logic who they are with and how to make the best of the extremely bad situation they are placed in.

In the end, adults of the community can only perceive the pirates as bad, and the children as innocent. But, little Rachel has some evil in her that rivals Hollywood's "Little Chucky." And, those who are around the impish tyrannical child, know not to defy her mandate nor tread near her, for something may happen to them which the pirates themselves would (did) abhor and decry as beyond the pirate's oath.

Hughes' 1929 writing style is different than most anything I have read of this period. It is sharp, it is confined, and it is without excess. Hughes's topic as well as his style are what make this book so wonderfully different and enjoyable. After reading this, I think I will soon reread Golding, or others who I believe were influenced by this classic.

If you rely on word-of-mouth marketing for your business, you need this book to help you think of creative ways to capture attention. I picked up some valuable tips to market my business.

Allow me to give you a concise overview, so you can make a great decision on whether to pay for this book:

(See more things at http://satisfyingsolutions.com)

Chapter 1: Checking out business blogs

This chapter show you how a blog gets a conversations going between businesses and consumers.


Chapter2: Discovering the Buzz about buzz marketing

This chapter show you how to market a blog by recruiting people to try the blog and get them to tell others about it.


Chapter 3: Building a Business Blog

This chapter shows you the different tools such as HTML that you would make a blog with.


Chapter 4: Picking a Blog Solution

This chapter tells you about two blogging scenarios which are hosted blog solution and independent blog solution.


Chapter 5: Setting up a Hosted Blog

This chapter focuses on blog features which are budget, flexibility and future plans.


Chapter 6: Taking Control with Independent Blog Software

This chapter focuses on installing and using independent blog software.


Chapter 7: Understanding your audience

This chapter helps individuals to define their target audience and it helps find a tracking solution.


Chapter 8: Joining the Blogsphere

This chapter talks about getting familiar with the blogsphere and joining online communities.


Chapter9: Avoiding business blog No- No's

This chapter teaches you how to follow your own blog policies.

Chapter 10: Finding A Voice

In this chapter it shows you how to use attracting comments and choosing a blogger.


Chapter 11: Promoting Your Blog

This chapter shows you how to use technology to increase your traffic.


Chapter 12: Staying On The Right Side Of The Road

This chapter elaborates on Handling Legal Problems


Chapter 13: Adding Value To A Blog

This chapter shows you how to spice up your blog with fun tools.


Chapter 14: Making Money with A Blog

This chapter shows you how to place advertisement on your blog.


Chapter 15: Going Beyond Blogs

This chapter elaborates on managing people and projects with blogs.


Chapter 16: Ten Dry Spell Breaking Ideas

This chapter focuses on ideas that will keep your blog from being dry.


Chapter 17: Ten Traits of A good Blogger

This chapter shows the traits that makes a blog good.


Chapter 18: Ten Blogs you should know

This chapter shows the blogs from worlds of news and politics.



This book basically shows you how to create a blog the right way. It gives you every bit of information that you will need to have a great successful blog.


My impression of the book is that it is very helpful if you do not know how to make a blog. I definitely think that it would be of value to the average person because it takes you step by step on how to make a blog.

A. J. Baltes

Amazing! A business book that's simple to read and goes direct to the point! It's a guide to the art of buzzmarketing which is the hottest trend in marketing. Every marketing manager should read this!

This was a very good book and his experiences with Half.com is particularly interesting in terms of wild marketing ideas. I would say the best book I've read on buzzmarketing that really develops how to get people to talk about your stuff in terms of real conversations and building meaning instead of buzz, is Lois Kelly's "Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-Of-Mouth Marketing". Superb, published this year and Kelly is a leader in this arena.Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Interesting read. Easy to follow with anecdotes as examples. It breaks down the 6 steps in to manageable chunks but could be a little more concise.

I'm just finished reading the Railway Children to my 10-year-old, and it is such a great read!

I loved it as a child, and this is my second time reading it aloud. I can't recommend it enough.

It's just a nice story. Set at the turn of the century, three children are forced to leave their comfortable life in London and go live in a smaller house near a railway when their father is mysteriously taken away from them. They don't know why; we don't find out until the end of the book. In the meantime, their mother is very brave, earning money by writing, and they try not to bother her by getting to know the railway and getting involved in everybody's lives all around them.

The children are very sweet, and there's a thread of definite morality throughout the book.

Don't miss it with your kids!

If you liked Railway Children, you may also want to try Little Women (Unabridged Classics) or Island of the Blue Dolphins. My children loved those ones as well!

This is not simply a children's book. It is an extremely touching story of three children whose father is suddenly taken away from them and how they cope with the changed circumstances, how they adjust to "play at being poor" as their mother says. It is a book that is bound to enthrall you.

Utterly delightful. Loved it, ate it up. Need more Nesbit, soon as poss.

Three kids are taken to live in the English countryside when their father, well, disappears. While their mother suffers silently, and sells short fiction to help pay the bills (those were the days!), the children make a fantasy land out of their little village, especially the local railroad depot with all its fascinations. Imagine being fascinated with the steam train when it was cutting edge technology, not nostalgia! Communicating with the passengers via signs, befriending engineers, porters and station masters, even preventing a nasty rail accident, the kids end up both having fun and relieving the hardships of poor, careworn mother.

Beautiful book both remembers what its like to be a child and peeks into a childhood none of us ever knew. If you love the world of late Victorian/Edwardian Britain, read it. If you love the early parts of the Narnia books, before the kids enter the wardrobe, read it. It's precious.

I think it is kind of cool how the kids think of how to stop someone from wrecking a train. Also how they got someone un-fainted from when they were fainted. It was also pretty funny how their mother made a mistake when one of the kids said they revived a hound with a red shirt, but it was really a person.

I didn't give it 5 stars because there isn't very much action. But I still liked it a lot.

The Railway Children was originally published in 1906. It's different from many of Edith Nesbit's books, in that it doesn't feature any magic. The Railway Children is the story of three children, Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. At the start of the story, the children live with their loving parents in a nice, modern house in London. Their lives change drastically, however, when their Father is called away unexpectedly and mysteriously. Their Mother takes them to live in an older house in the country, with only a single part-time servant, where they quickly realize that they are now poor. Mother spends all her time writing stories and poems, to submit them for publication, instead of playing games with them and teaching them, as she had done previously. The children are left largely to their own devices, with no lessons to distract them.

The house that they live in, Three Chimney's, is located near to a railway line and a small railway station. The railway quickly becomes a source of friends. The Stationmaster and the Porter (most especially the Porter, Perks) become major figures in the children's lives, as does a friendly "Old Gentleman" who waves to them every morning from the 9:15 train.

And the adventures begin. Through bravery and ingenuity (and through the coincidence of always being in the right place at the right time), the children avert not one, not two, but three separate disasters. They also get into trouble through their innocent attempts to help their Mother, and through their own sibling rivalries, and eventually help a Russian stranger newly escaped to England. Through it all, they miss their Father, and wonder what's happened to him, and why their Mother is so sad.

The constant adventures in this book make it a lot of fun. It does feel a little bit dated in places. There's a scene in which the local doctor tells Peter to be kinder to his sisters, for example, because they are "so much softer and weaker" than he is. But overall, I think that Edith Nesbit did a wonderful job of making the girls strong characters, too.

This book has lots of messages about bravery and right and wrong, and what makes up charity vs. friendship. And how to be good without being priggish. Some modern-day children might find it a little bit preachy in this area, though it is generally lightened with humor. But hopefully the adventures, and the realistic imperfections of the children, will win new readers over anyway. I know that I love this book (despite having a slight problem with the number of coincidences) and that the end brings tears to my eyes. If you haven't read it, The Railway Children is well worth checking out.

This review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on April 30, 2006.

Titus is the play for our day of crumbling and self-destructing empire; this fable has much to teach us now. As the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us: Either we learn to live together as brothers or we die apart as fools.

Here we find fool brother killing brother, citizen killing citizen, the extreme abuse of the most vulnerable and pure, the excessive cruelty of wealth and power, a fable for our age.

Here in the Third revision series from Arden (the first presentation nearly one hundred years old and thus this represents one of the most ancient, traditional and continual series of Shakespearean texts, unlike certain far more recent and much less reliable usurpers of the "traditional" crown) we may discover a nearly impeccable edition of this four hundred year old much maligned and frequently orphaned text, a fable for our present times.

The editor Jonathan Bate presents strong and nearly undeniable reasons for his selection of readings from Quarto, Folio and emended editions, including of course Theobald and Capell but also the most recent scholarship and productions. His use, for example of "Muly lives" rather than "Mulietus" is admirable, as is his conflation of false starts, later additions, and other lines always clearly indicated in other typeface and explained fully in the footnotes and introduction.

Nevertheless, I found some of his interpretation unfortunate. I believe this play not a comedy but an exposure of the absolute corruption to which power and wealth lead us. It is not comedy but an exposure of our depravity. It is not to laugh but to weep, and to repent, and to resolve to live in peace and communal cooperation and compassionate concern, to learn to live together as brothers, although not as these. It is thus a morality play, not a comedy; yet we now have no concept of such a thing, and thus laugh where we must repent, and revolt.

His continual praising and uncritical reference in the footnotes to the televised BBC and to the Warner productions also calls into question his judgment. I cannot imagine, for example, admiring bringing in the cannibal banquet table singing as did the Warner = "Heigh ho it's off to work we go!" as anything other than an inappropriate, anachronistic indulgence.

In short about half of the footnotes might easily and gratefully find blue pencil from a compassionate and wise editor of this edition who can distinguish personal interpretation and opinion from scholarly fact. As well, a basic rule for those who wish to define or explain words is never to make the definition more complex nor obscure than the word being defined, nor make the definition so general as to be useless. Thus we find the terms suffrages and tyrannies in Act Four defined completely as "key terms in the political lexicon" rather than explaining their significance in terms of Act One. This is neither helpful nor necessary.

In short, about half of the footnotes may be eliminated to the benefit of this great book, as they cast doubt upon the reliability of the edition itself, and this edition seems nearly impeccable.

this is a very violent play, but there are actually a lot of crude humor (think of it as a Quintin taratino film, except it's a book). it takes on ancient dicotomy between civilization and wilderness. the movie is good as well

I'm a shakespeare fan and I love the story that this one tells.
Sure, gore, blood, and a great deal of depression around the middle, but what story now-a-days isn't?
Great story, love it!

This is perhaps The Bard's least well known work, but a classic nonetheless. If H. G. Lewis had been a playwrite living in Old England, this is no doubt the kind of drama he might have produced. It has more blood & violence than the most exploitive exploitation film. Heads severed off, murdered children baked into a stew & served to their father, rape, vengeance, mayhem, insanity... all served up in the guise of classic literature. PERFECT!

OH MY GOSH!!! "Titus Andronicus" is one of the best plays ever written, especially when played for the comedy. DEFFINATELY READ THIS BOOK!!!

The whole play basically revolves around the action of the evil Tamora marrying another evil guy. Tamora gets really angry, and lets her two sons, Chiron and Demitrius, rape Titus's daughter, Lavinia. Ever hear that old Greek legend about how two guys raped a girl, and cut off her tounge so she could never tell the tale? In that version, the girl is, fortunately, able to miraculously weave her story into a coat and send it off for help. But Lavinia in "Titus Andronicus" is not quite so lucky. Chiron and Demitrius cut off her tounge AND her hands (I can tell THEY read there nighttime fairytales).

After this everyone runs around like madmen and there are a few casualties. Finally Lavinia is able to communicate to her father and remaining brothers using a book, etc. Eventually Tamora pretends to be a spirt-type-thing called 'Revenge' and her sons pretend to be 'Murder' and 'Rape'. But Titus Andronicus is even smarter. He pretends that he beleives there stupid bluff, and eventually captures Chrion and Demitrius after their mother leaves. Then, to make a long story short, Titus 'plays the cook' and cuts off the guys' heads and has his daughter use her stubs to gather their blood. Then he goes and cooks their guts into a pie.

That night at dinner, he serves the pastry to Tamora, who thinks she has won. After the people have eaten about half of the meal, Titus gets up and basically says, 'Look, Lady, you just ate your own sons, you idiot.' Then there is a huge blood bath and few are spared. The guy who IS spared becomes king, etc. Hehehe. Great, huh?

Seriously, though, I would deffinately recommend this edition of the book because it has REALLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY good footnotes. No joke. Hope you will take some time to read this cool book!!! :-D