Nicholson Books

Buenos Aires! The Latin Paris! Or so its residents like to think. To the annoyance of their South American neighbors, Argentines seem to believe that their country is a large chunk of land that split off from Europe and just happened to float down south of the equator.

The history of Argentine does not wholly undermine such a mindset. At the turn of the 20th Century, it was the 6th wealthiest country on the planet, with a potential as rich as the soil of the Pampas. Now, it is an economic basket case. What happened? And what is life in Buenos Aires like, living in the shadow of failed potential? Miranda France, an Englishwomen who spent several years in Buenos Aires in the mid-1990s, lets us know in BAD TIMES IN BUENOS AIRES, a fun and entertaining book. Though, to be honest, the title is a bit misleading. Despite the daily inconveniences and foibles of the city, there were good times to be had, as well.

Much of the book is composed of France's personal anecdotes of her own life in the Buenos Aires. She tells of the endless frustrations with poor telephone service and long lines for everything. She also provides us with a glimpse into the soul of the Argentine people. After the failed economic policies of Peronism, followed by the military dictatorships and the `Dirty War,' the city and its citizens seem enveloped in an all encompassing melancholy. The zeitgeist reminds me a great deal of that described in Orhan Pamuk's excellent book ISTANBUL, in which the residents of that metropolis live continually in the shadow of a once great, but now gone, empire.

Perhaps as a result, Buenos Aires now has about three times the psychoanalysts as New York City, the profession probably being more common than that of a shoe shine boy. Even the tango, the only dance specifically condemned by a Pope, reflects the sadness of the two dancers and the environment in which the dance came to fruition.

France captures the mood of the city and its people excellently and relays it to us entertainingly. That she is English probably makes her experiences that much more interesting, as the Argentines seem at once intrigued by the British, especially its royals, while at the same time acutely pained by the sting of having lost the Falkland War to those same Brits. If the residents of Buenos Aires are ambiguous about Europeans to begin with, France no doubt felt the ambiguity even more.

BAD TIMES IN BUENOS AIRES is not a difficult book. Its quirky title should be a clue that the book seeks to entertain as well as inform, and, for the most part, it succeeds. If you are intrigued with the more distant corners of our globe, those places where things do not necessarily always go so smoothly, then you should definitely check it out.

The title of this book is a bit deceiving. It is a chronicle of the experiences (both good and bad) of an Englishwoman journalist in Buenos Aires in the mid 1990's. Not really knowing what to expect from this book, I figured that reading anything I could get my hands before moving to BsAs myself. It turned out that I was pleasantly surprised and found myself laughing out loud at points, always a sure fire sign of a good read. Using the experiences of her everyday life in BA as a framework to build off of, France interweaves hilarious anecdotes of daily life in BA, provides glimpses into the BA residents (they are known as Porteños) psyche, and gives an account of the all too often bloody history of Argentina. Although the France complains about the various short comings of BA, the chronic lack of coins, the crossed wires of the telephone system, the endless queues for anything and everything (all of which are still very much true), you can definitely tell that she has developed a soft spot in her heart for unique quirks that make BA what it is.
Argentina at the turn of the 20th century was the sixth richest country in the world behind the USA and the leading European powers. With so much promise for a grand future and such failure to achieve anything close to the possibilities it is no wonder the events of the subsequent hundred years are filled with political and economic instability. The rise and fall of Juan and Evita Peron, the various military dictatorships and the infamous `Dirty War' of the 1970's that accounted for the disappearance of tens of thousands of Argentines all invoke strong emotions that still reside just under the surface of Argentine life, often times coming directly to the forefront. France explores this common history and the effect it has had on the Argentine people. One possible result is the number of psychoanalysts in BsAs; per capita there is more than three times as many in BsAs than there are in New York City. Apparently it is a Porteño pastime to be psycho analyzed, indeed many find it hard to accept life without it, often working two or three jobs in order to pay for analysis.
For me this book gave me an idea of what to expect when I arrived here in the Paris of the South as it is often called. Although it speaks of a BsAs about 10 years past, it excited my imagination and curiosity in this giant Latin American city, the home of the Tango. The Tango is a sad genre speaking of lost loves, suicides, murder, and betrayal; a fitting theme for the constantly melancholy Porteños, something that really catches the essence of the people. France describes the dance, if done correctly, as passionate and loveless as a one-night stand.
Although I have found through my own experience some of France's tales have been embellished a bit for dramatic affect, the book provided me with a decent idea of what to expect once I arrived. Since France wrote Argentina suffered a terrible economic crisis in 2001 that sent the country reeling for years and it has had noticeable effects on all levels of society. Today Argentina is moving forward again and prosperity is returning, but it must be realized that much more than a decade has passed between 1997 and 2007.

Like many English travel writers, Ms. France blends very well in the society she describes, and captures masterfully all kinds of moods, nuances and details. Her choice of subject for the ten chapters is a happy one, perhaps with the exception of the chapter on the pampas, a bit out of pace with the rest. Unfortunately, despite all her (I am sure, genuinely) best effort, English travelers abroad can never leave home a sort of superiority complex so that foreign ways of doing things inevitably end up looking just a bit silly! This book reminds me of Tim Parks' books on Italy: both France and Parks clearly love their subject countries, but can not help looking down upon it... albeit perhaps unconsciously! A great collection of pictures well worth reading!

Three-and-a-half stars rating, really.

I think that it is unreasonable to expect a travel book to be anything except the author's perpective on the places visited. French clearly brings her own (British) agenda to Argentina, but she also just as clearly makes an effort to move beyond that to present a balanced look at the city she was living in. I found it a good read (almost too quick) and a well-formulated one. It was worth the time that I took to read it.

Good points:

France owns her own prejudices. She is very careful to note when she was being cranky and British about something so that the reader is clear that it is her persective and not the voice of authority.

I also like that she did not try to take a sweeping 20,000 foot view of the culture, but limited her commentary to those aspects to which she had access.

Less Good Points:

She treated some subjects (the Faulkland Islands, for example) more quickly than they seemed to deserve and at times that left me with the frustrating feeling that there was more to say about a subject but she had already moved on to the next point. I do not think that it needed to be much longer, but a little more filling in areas that got short shrift would have been good.

At times her writing was a little too precious and tried a little too hard to make all her moments meaningful. One of the things that makes a writer like Chatwin so great is that he does not try to connect the dots for the reader and is very sparse in the way that he handles detail.

The final very best point is that I enjoyed reading it and it inspired a desire to know more about the subject-- which is, I suppose, the ultimate point. Recommended if you like travel books.

I just could not finish this book. It is so mean. Why should a writer bother to stay in a country just to critize everything, exagerate and write all her negative points of view.

I was born in Buenos Aires, I live in Canada, I have live in Norway and I travelled a lot around the world (London included, city that I loved). I am not a fanatic nationalist and I think this book is so unfair.

Some British hate Argentina and some Argentinians hate Great Britain, because of the Malvinas (Falklands) war, because of the Soccer World Cup, because of Maradona or Beckman... who knows... and who cares.

I gave this book to a canadian friend who was curious about my comments about it, and he agrees that this book is awful to read.

I am sorry for the writer, she lost lots of time in a beautiful city and she did not enjoy it at all. It is a waste of time...

The book is about Nory, a nine year old who is a bad speller and tries to get along with her parents, friends and brother while standing up for herself and others. That's really it. I disagree with other reviewers, in that I think Nicholson Baker did an amazing job of making it seem like most, if not all of the story was coming from Nory herself. It doesn't sound like a middle aged man pretending but more like a middle age man who does a great job of creating a book for adults that seems like it could be for kids. Where the book is flawed, and I think this is where others who reviewed this book will agree, is that you just don't really care about Nory or her friends. There's no real interest, and as such it takes forever to read this 200 page book. Nothing is really resolved at the end because there is no progression. It's Nory telling stories, most of which, although clever, are generally uninteresting and not that fun to read. Nicholson Baker tries to put his amazing writing style into a 9 year old and although it works in his prose, it doesn't work in its ability to create a good story. Sure, it's still Nicholson Baker, who I think is the greatest user of the English language, and you should still read this book if you have nothing else to read and are a fan of his work, but it's not important if you don't. You don't miss too much.

A fan of Nicholson Baker, I was thoroughly disappointed by a book that I had looked forward to reading. Nine-year-old Nory relates to the reader her observations of her life to date. Although the dusk-jacket blurbs would lead the reader to believe that Nory's observations about her parents, her teachers and fellow children will leave the reader laughing out loud, I found that Nory's voice sounded very much like that belonging to a late-middle-age man working hard to imagine life as a nine-year-old girl. For Baker fans, skip this one.

Nicholson Baker is a very original writer, and he excels here at writing about a young girl's observations and fantasies in the third person. The main problem is that the myriad observations-- divided into 54 short excerpts-- fail to advance a plot, although we do get deeper into Nory's head. It just gets very tedious after awhile.

I would recommend this as a book from which to read snippets, but Baker would have done better to write a shorter book, or to have some semblance of a plot. Although the style and characters are quite different, try "Zazie Dans Le Metro" for another, more interesting look at young female adolescense. It's offbeat and ultimately more satisfying.

Baker manages to perfectly encapsulate the mind of a nine year old in all its semi-logical, semi-nonsensical glory. Nory feels like a living, breathing child, as do her classmates and younger brother. A beautiful book.

The everlasting story of Nory starts well. I was hooked to the first pages who offer something unique and different - a good look into the mind of a nine year old girl. It seems that all parents spend time in one stage or another discussing the issue of how their children think... here is a serious effort to answer this question. Although Nory seems at times like a too mature person (with too-good-to be true parents) who spends a lot of time dwelling about "heavy" issues (she is very concerned with the way Achilles mother held him while dipping his body into the river and not - as Nory thinks would have been better, by cradling him in her arms and stepping into the water with him), but also about subjects I am more familiar with from my kids such as problems with other children, nightmares and trying to be "a good girl". All in all Nicholson Baker does give us pretty good directions. However, once the thrill is over, and the appreciation to Nicholson Baker's genius (no sarcasam here) wears out, you are left with a somewhat tedious feeling. This happened to me around middle book where I realized this book is taking me forever to finish and I had to struggle through the rest of the book wishing that something would finally happen or that the book would end already. The story could have been interesting had it centered around Nory's social life at school and the many problems it presents - especially Nory's relations with Pamela, a very unpopular girl which Nory seems to like. These parts and the real life conflict they present are indeed interesting but the story is filled with the many stories Nory invents - which are, to say the truth, not so interesting for an adult. It is like the feeling you have after spending too much time with your kids... you do love them, but sometimes you crave for an adult conversation.

Having read several of Catherine Coulter's books before I was looking forward to another great story. Boy, was I wrong! This story was so hard to wade through that I literally had to force myself to read it! I couldn't have cared less about the characters, the writing was stilted (to put it mildly), and references to new characters with no background information were regularly added. Ms. Coulter has written a number of books that were excellent; Mad Jack, The Wild Baron, etc. but this is not one of them. Don't waste your time or your money with The Hellion Bride.

I loved Sherbrooke Bride. I felt Ryder deserved an equally fascinating heroine and storyline. Instead the characters are flat, one dimensional drones. Sophie, the heroine is useless. The plot was thin and Coulter, obviously struggling for ideas, just fluffed most of the chapters with nonsense. I get the feeling she was in a rush to complete the trilogy and her heart and usual talent did not surface with this piece of writing. YUK. I'm generously giving her two stars because overall I enjoy this author. I couldn't wait for Hellion to end and had to struggle to finish it. Usually her pace is great and her novels are page turners. Disappointing.

I have enjoyed reading the Bride series. My only major complaint is that romance novels do not have to be filled with sex to make them good. There is too much in this book and I believe it would have been just as good without it. The characters are so well written that it takes away from the story line. FYI: Lynn Kurland is an author that can write an excellent romance novel without writing the sexual incounters.

This is the second disturbing book I have read by Coulter. Her novels seem to be riddled with abuse; both mental and physical.

If you're looking for a fairytale romance or any romance at all skip this book. This book was about an Englishman who goes to the Carribean to investigate ghosts/spirits haunting his brother's property. That storyline flatlines and instead Coulter focuses on this odd, completely disturbed, man-hating young lady that is forced to wed the Englishman for her own protection. That sounds heroic, but trust me it's not.

There is absolutely nothing in this novel that makes you want to keep reading further.

I wanted to like Ryder. I kind of liked him in The Sherbrooke Bride. As I've mentioned in my reviews of the other 2, I bought these all together and for some insane reason felt a compulsion to finish them. I will forever regret that choice. I have a surprisingly good memory and surprisingly good reading comprehension, so unfortunately I remember waaaay too much of Ms. Coulter's books now.

I don't know how much I'd classify the sex here as "rape" (coercion definitely, but there is a difference). There was obvious rape in The Heiress Bride, but the only actual rape I thought occurred in this book was actually perpetrated against Ryder by the prostitute and Sophia and her uncle.

I have more a problem with the fact that Ryder was more upset that Douglas saw Sophia naked than by the fact that his wife had just run scared from the room because of her husband's "love making". Douglas, who claims to have felt the same type of compassion for Sophia as he does for his own wife (which was pretty darn low, so maybe that explains it), just hands her back to Ryder despite the fact that she was in a panic and bloody.

Ryder was not considerate of Sophie on any level. A person who has suffered from physical abuse, manipulation, coercion, etc. is going to be a bit frightened and traumatized. What's the best way to keep her in line? Threaten to beat her, of course! He does that numerous times. He is not compassionate to her in any of their interactions (as people or sexually).

Seems to me that the whole book was about Ryder trying to control her and Sophia trying to fight off her fears of that control after having been abused for so long. I cannot think of one redeeming quality in their "relationship", let alone any indication of why they would "love" each other.

I can honestly and truly say that having read the first 3 books of the "Bride" series, I will never, ever, ever read a Catherine Coulter book again, and I will seriously recommend that none of my friends or even mere acquaintances do, either. We must put a stop to the belief that abusive and manipulative "heroes" are acceptable, and that rape scenes are somehow erotic. THIS is the type of "romance" novel that is a danger for young girls to read. It will give the impression that these interactions are somehow "normal" in any way shape or form.

I read Saint Therese of Lisieux (A Penguin Lives book) this week. The style and subject are appropriate for the series, and I appreciate the author's presenting a story to a public that may not generally be interested in haggiography and knows little about St. Therese. However, the saint's brief life troubles me, as it calls into question the process of cannonization itself. Ms Harrison repeatedly turns to Therese's abandonment by mother figures as an explanation of decisions that readers of Penguin LIVES books may not understand. In the saint's illness, though, it becomes increasingly evident that the church and religious community fed the young woman's mortifications to the point of cruelty -- from which they soon profited both financially and by reputation as the convent of a saint.

Therese's younger sister Celine's role especially interests me. Her photos documented not only a life, but also a way of living that was of interest, but largely unknown, to those outside. In the nineteenth century, particularly, storytelling through photos must have been a radical form of art. In truth, the photo of St. Therese on the cover of the book is what caught my attention when I was browsing the general section in a bookstore. As I understand it from Harrison's account, Celine's calling to the religious life was not a clear one from God. To be charitable, Therese "mediated" the message; "coercion" is another word that might be used.

Towards the end of the book, Harrison describes the historical context of Therese's writing .. the vocation of "invalid" against a backdrop of changing roles for women. I find this "vocation" sad, today, in light of what I have seen and read. I'd either like to see additional annecdotal and statistical evidence, or I'd like to see a comparison between the process of canonization for St Therese vs. the same process in a Post-Vatican II age.

It surprises me that there was such a huge showing of the faithful during the 1999 showings of St Therese's reliquary. (1.1 million people saw it in 106 cities.) I can understand a contemporary interest in the photographs, but a new justification of the process of canonization is called for, not adoration of the victim. I pity her and have sympathy for her blood sisters and the nuns of her convent who were trapped in the process.

Her life is a sobering lesson.

Shirley McKee +

"Saint Therese of Lisieux" is a short story of a short life. Drawn largely from Therese's own writings and the recollections and testimony of acquaintances, it provides an up close view of a holy life.

Therese is a saint who pursued sanctity by seeking "nothingness" within the Carmel of Lisieux and yet became the patroness of missionaries and one of the most popular saints of the past century.

This book provides an introduction to the spiritual life of late 19th Century France, in which religious life was at its greatest popularity, and the particular environment of her convent. It also gives an insight into the attraction of Therese to the world since her death. I find the popularity of Therese and St. Francis of Assisi to be puzzling. Our world generally esteems those who give their lives in service to others, not in those who seek self mortification as their road to salvation, but in their cases, this is the model which the world embraces. The book alludes to Therese's writings, but really does not, in my estimation, make the case for her immense popularity. This book is a good introduction to her life, but I am left searching for her charism.

Harrison shows us a Therese who often wept but who also had a gift for restraining her emotions; who's self-understanding was influenced by her dreams, even while she discounted the value of dreams; who had an unusual preadolescent disorder involving involuntary muscular movements which sometimes even threw her out of her bed; and who longed for purgation by spiritual fire. And Harrison did it with literary flair. I loved it. Now I'm reading The Kiss.

Kathryn Harrison writes triumphantly about Therese Martin the Saint of Lisieux. Her biography captures the historical character from childhood to her death at age 24 years. Harrison portrays the life of Therese amidst the context of the late 19th Century. The focus of the book is on the family life and the convent life of Therese and her seemingly constant struggle to rest in perfect devotion to God to whom she had sacrificed her life.

Harrison writes exquisitely of Therese, but she writes at times from a freudian, humanistic point of view, somehow missing or misunderstanding the mysticism of Therese's life that is the one characteristic that makes her life remarkable. I think this comes from the writer discounting the reality of Therese's constant communion with God.

I recommend this book because it illustrates the power of a quiet life lived in the love and service of God. Harrison successfully shows the effect of one life lived fully for God unselfishly and sacrificially. The final pages offer a brief glimpse of the enormous impact Therese has had on people since the time immediately following her death.

Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays

Unfortunately this was the only biography of Therese in my local public library. All biographies are to some extent seeing the subject thru a lens, but this lens filters out much of what is of the most value in Therese's writings in my opinion. This biographer seems unable to dive into or convey much of Therese's spirituality, due to a lack of understanding or excessive skepticism of spiritual experience. Biographer doesn't seem to be convinced that spiritual experiences are real. She continuously suggests that Therese's spirituality may be just neuroses and offers up superficial pop-psychological comments for every spiritual experience. Its like a biography of a mountaineer but the biographer is not at all sure that mountains really even exist at all, and they may be a figment of the fevered imagination. Biographer thinks this point of view is attuned to what "contemporary readers" expect but it just ends up missing most of whats there spiritually.

I bought this book b/c the title exactly matched my intention to develop dynamic websites with DW MX 2004 and MS Access. The first 88 pages are okay. Most of what is described in teh book works on my computer. Some screenshots look different, and I wonder if I have a different version of DW? The author often refers to tabs that I can't find on my screen. But as I have done some simple work in DW before, I have been able to figure things out that are not described very clearly in the book.

On page 89 it breaks down and I can't move on when I'm trying to create a db connection using ColdFusion. Although I'm exactly following the book I am not able to do it. There is no trouble shooting available, and I can't figure out why it doesn't work. I've spent hours searching for help on different websites as well as re-installing DW. I even e-mailed the author for support, but my mail bounced back. (The author is "always glad to help with problems, hear success stories, and see the sites that you have built with assistance of this book".

As I only read 92 pages of this book, I rate it a 2 star instead of 1. It might get better and clearer later on, I don't know. I've stopped reading it though, and that's why I'm looking for another book here on Amazon.com. The Missing Manual looks promising given the reviews it gets. I would not recommend anyone to buy DW MX 2004 and Databases.

If you've chosen Dreamweaver MX 2004 for developing your web sites but need to get across the "great divide" from static to dynamic sites, Sean Nicholson's book will guide you skillfully across in the shortest possible time and distance.

To keep things in perspective, learning how to develop dynamic web sites involves application server (ColdFusion, ASP, etc.) and database technologies (Access, SQL Server, etc.) in addition to your present use of web server technologies (XHTML, CSS, etc.). Learning how to do so quickly while addressing real world issues like database security, application and server choices, and related concerns is no small undertaking. The journey, without the assistance of a skillful guide, can take months or years, mostly because most books on this topic are either too light or heavy on the topic.

As an entrepreneur seeking the fastest and most skillful route across these technologies, I estimate this book will save me several months on the learning curve. Essentially, Sean guides you through increasingly complex exercises that demonstrate and point the way to how you can build your own dynamic sites using the same skills and knowledge.

I give the book high praise for both its business savvy in providing an overview in Part I and the comprehensive, industrial strength exercises in Parts II/III. However, in order to spare you months on the learning curve and to keep you moving forward, the author has had to assume a certain level of skill on your part, including the ability to troubleshoot problems with your code. In the world of dynamic sites, even the smallest piece of wrong code can stop you in your tracks until you resolve the error. And while I have found the exercises to be comprehensive and virtually error free, keep in mind that to show every dialogue box or key stroke would require a volume 3x its present size.

Ready for the adventure of crossing over to dynamic sites? Buy the book, roll up your sleeves, and start the journey!

There are not enough words to express how dissapointed I am about this book. It doesn't show even basic database features like how to show a one to many relationship in the same web page using list boxes or drop down lists! Many chapters simply repeat the same material: how to run the wizard to create a page that manages a single (underscore single) table record. The author has been ironic enough to show a multiple table database layout (ERD), and then not creating a single page that is able to manage more than one table! The only list boxes used are filled by hand, not dynamically from a database! Was the name of the book Dreamweaver and Databases?

Save your money, go for the online help files in the macromedia web site. I got misled by the high ratings this book got here. Don't make the same mistake. Can I get my money back?

I am a bit undecided about the book.... It does teach you some things, but at the same time you spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether your results are correct or not.

Its like the author wrote some of the book with the idea of a certain exercise resulting in 2 web pages(search page, and then result page), and then later he just shortcuts and has you make 1 web page(search and result on same page). Then he never cleans up the chapter that was talking about there being 2 pages. So you end up completing the exercise and your results do not match up with the out of exercise explanations. So very confusing. Also, references are made that you can contact a internet website to gather snippets/examples, and this information on the website is VERY incomplete... I kinda understand that stuff is offered as a service, but if you are going to offer it, then follow up on the offer... Worst case of this was for a snippets page to cut and paste text into your web pages(some of these are a paragraph in size, not that huge a deal, but still could be considered needless typing). You go to the snippets page and are greeted with a "this is where the snippets will go" greeting.. It reminded me of when I was a kid and had to type in word for word a program from a magazine to see pretty lights and music....

This book does give some decent information, it just takes a good deal of time to figure out if you are doing things correctly... Once you figure out you are doing things correctly you can go back and figure out what is being taught and how it affects the page(s) you created....

Absolutely deplorable... this book will waste your time, money and brainpower. I am currently only about half way through the book and I have decided to abandon it entirely out of frustration.

Not only will you find extremely poor writing, you will be lead through examples that are inconsistent, difficult to understand and ultimately disfunctional. In other words, the examples will fail, and leave you blinking at your screen wondering why. If you have Dreamweaver experience, you will more than likely be able to go back through some of the failed exercises and do some troubleshooting of your own to make the applications work. If you are coming at this topic with little experience (which is what the book advertises to be targeted for) then expect a very bumpy ride.

This author offers no examples of troubleshooting your code, and uses verbage in his writting that seemingly is intended to confuse you and through you off.

I haven't yet found a good reference for this topic because I am just now looking for another after throwing this book in the trash.

It's a good book. McDougall not only produces
a tight, fast-paced narrative, when the story needs
it, she also provides a sharp insight into the
perspective of each of the main characters. We feel what they feel - we understand what they understand. There's also a strong feeling for the place they're at, from the black-flag-draped streets of Rome at the funeral of the parents of Marcus Novius Faustus, heir to the Roman throne, to the Holzarta refuge, reached by escaped slaves. But there's a lot more to come. You just know that everything is going to be thrown up into the air again in the next book. I'm looing forward to it.

What is Romanitas? The dictionary says it's the underlying ideal of the Roman Empire - what it means to be Roman.
Could it have survived into our own time? Maybe it has. It certainly has in Sophia McDougall's first novel. But it's not overwhelming - these characters are presented on their own terms - we are not constantly reminded about their existence in a parallel timeframe.
You feel there's a lot here that's held in reserve. By the end of this book, we're just beginning to glimpse a world which may be dominated by dark forces - but could escape from them.
Want a bet?
A great first novel.

A synopsis of the plot has been given in several other reviews, so I won't bother repeating the thirteen-in-a-dozen nonsense the author apparently thinks can pass for a plot, except to say I have seen lots of day soaps with more realistic characters and dialogue. I found the (ex) slave side characters especially badly done, the way they thought about their state and their owners was, to me, very unrealistic.

However, what really annoys me is the authors/publishers claims of originality, while the subject of an alternate reality in which the Roman Empire never fell, has been treated earlier and much better by Robert Silverberg in "Roma Eterna" even though I must admit that that book defitinely can't compare to the real genre classics like "Fatherland". If Dan Brown can be sued for plagiarizing, she defititely should be too!

Worst of all, the author hasn't even done her research properly. She only implanted a slave owning Roman imperial family on top of modern life. Her extrapolations do not have any internal logic (to start somewhere; how did the 20th century Romans get any of the technology they apparently use when their slave-driven economy has no incentives whatsoever for non-military invention, and large-scale implementation of inventions? Example: fast troop transport would be desirable to the type of government she describes so the train is logical if not a very plausible kind of invention, but how on earth did they get television?) and are unlikely in the extreme (How did Japan become a dominant world power in the fifteenth century? Without later agricultural inventions, they could barely feed their own population, they didn't have enough food for a standing army until the improvements of the 19th century! And why did Africa below the Sahara become independent but not Middle and Southern America, with their well developed native empires and larger distance to the capital?). If I, without any higher education in history can pick it apart so easily I think it is safe to conclude the author didn't do any proper research at all. Last but not least the silly words she used for many inventions are downright irritating.

Romanitas is a definite third rater, one can only hope this author won't get published anymore until she learns to write.

I purchased this book without reading the first two pages. Big mistake. Later, I had to force myself to get to page five. Agony. How did this book get past the editors: "...the clear light lit up a kind of translucent yellowness..." I mean, really! There is another "kind of" on page two. Then we drift off God knows where and wake up with our reading glasses in our laps. I don't normally give scathing reviews, but I feel ripped off by the marketing blurb. I notice that other reviewers suggest there is no story here anyway. Five pages were more than enough for me, thanks.

I picked this up mainly because the subject matter of a Roman Empire that never fell but survived into the modern time sounded very appealing. I still think that a good novel can be based on that premise.

"Romanitas", however, definitely ISN'T that novel. Instead, it's very long-winded, very cliched, and ultimately highly disappointed airport reading material.

The first of many problems is that the alternate setting simply isn't worked out very well. It's basically way too similar to the world as we know it, except for the fact that slavery and crucifixion are still common practice. Gruesome as that may be, it's just not enough for a convincing alternate reality.

Not that it really matters, since the alternate setting only serves as a very flimsy backdrop for a dime-a-dozen chase plot that could take place basically anywhere and any time. It's an extremely weak plot, with lots of cliches, a very predictable flow, and a lot of contrivances like two of the three protagoningts having (unexplained) supernatural powers.

To make things even worse, all of this is told in an incredibly heavy-handed way. It's not strictly badly written, but it takes itself way too seriously, and it's atrociously paced. Page after page are filled with the (predictable) thoughts of the main characters, while very little actually happens. Also, none of the characters came across as very believable, interesting, or even likeable. The girl protagonist was simply obnoxious.

Ultimately, you can safely save yourself the trouble of reading this book. It's long-winded, predictable, and doesn't do anything of interest with its admittedly intriguing premise.

* out of *****

I found this book to be ponderous and, in the end, unreadable. I gave up on it with only 100 pages left to read - I cared that little about what was going to happen to the characters. The book is now in the donation bin of my local public library.

I can see how some readers might be put off by all of the science and detail in this book, though I was personally not bothered by it. There were several things that did trouble me however:
1.) The abrupt switch in the third section from first person to third person. I felt separated from the characters, especially Claire, and more or less ceased to care about her. Her behavior on the expedition didn't feel like the person that was established in the first two-thirds of the book, either.
2.) The many parallels between Magda and Claire felt a little contrived. Her quest to trace her family's history was compelling in and of itself, and didn't need to have those "clairvoyant" elements.
3.) The Ripper subplot was pointless and uninteresting. For a truly fascinating real theory about the Ripper murders, read Alan Moore's From Hell.
4.) Absolutely no resolution on what happened to Nick and Christian.
5.) The Jack-Claire affair was just creepy.

Fish, blood and bones originally appealed to me because of the forensics mentioned on the book jacket. The forensics involved was minimal at best. There was no mention of any of the major themes on the book jacket ( Did the author of the jacket blurb read the book?) I continued reading because of the "history" of the botany giants, gardening lore (a little),unrecognized native artists and the role of botanical illustrators, the lure of the Victorian interactions with native peoples in Asia, some of the scientific ideas expressed in the book, and the artwork on the front cover (paperback)

A nice summertime read, unfortunately there were too many fortuitous coincidences and inconsistencies( a Himalayan trek with no preparatory fitness regimes, etc.?) for this to be great literature.

However, I would not discourage any readers from reading this book. Lots of bits of info on many subjects- much of which I found to be substantiated (i.e., Britain's role in the spread of heroin addiction throughout the world, the rape of the world for exotic and medicinal plants, etc.).

Forbes tries a little too hard to tie too many things into one novel.

This is a somewhat interesting book that I feel lost its way somewhere along the way to the conclusion. The plot was murky, although the writing is generally excellent, and the characters finely drawn. The reader tends to lose the sense of the book, and there's many times when you have no idea where the plot is heading. I had the feeling that the author was as confused at times herself, which is what made the book so unusually odd. There are too many strands of plot lying around, and they really don't tie up neatly, or even close to neatly, at the end, which is not so much a termination as a petering-out of the storyline. You get to the point where you don't really care about the characters and what happens to them, and that's deadly in any work.

There have been a number of negative reviews of this book. This probably stems from the book being marketed as a "breathlessly paced thriller." Do not be mislead - this is not light summer reading.

The author has deliberately selected a specific genre to highlight the theme of the cycle of birth, life, death, decay and rebirth. The various plots and subplots form a dense, layered narrative hinting at the complexity of this cycle. Everything from the description of garden compost overlying a hidden bonepile, the protagonist's multiple exposure photographs, decaying Indian botanical studies, misleading diary excerpts, even descriptions of the growth cycle of various trees are fragmented clues leading to further complexity and layering. Hidden within the fictional layers are insightful references to how 19th century colonial attitudes still resonate and affect the present day.

Like Eco's Name of the Rose or Shield's The Fig Eater, or Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost, the genre is merely the framework for a much more multi-dimensional excursion than the average.

Mr. Gill is a Scot, not an Englishman, and he insists on maintaining that distinction even though he has spent most of his life among the English. His observations depend on a sharp eye and a sound historical perspective. His portrayal of the English is full of surprises and his revelations are exhilarating and profoundly funny.

Someone bring a butterfly net or mind-altering chemicals, in that order, and apply them to A.A. Gill. The man is in extremis and needs help. This book is the literary equivalent of projectile vomiting but it comes apparently from having consumed a meal comprised entirely of rich cynicism, relentless prejudice and very bad company. Those ingredients, metaphorically similar to historical assessments of lousy English cooking, may produce severe nausea--as they apparently did in the author's case. Or was there method to his madness? We'll explore that later.

Gill writes well and wittily, as one might expect of a man with an English (not Scottish) education. His language, vocabulary, syntax and grammar are reasonable but occasionally flawed (his sentence on page 3, "Us natives don't come here without expectations," clearly needs help, but maybe he didn't have an editor). The overwriting for effect is embarrassing, too clever by half, typically an outpouring of rancid bile. Why is he so angry? So critical? So venomous? It is relatively easy to see that, as an experienced newspaper writer, he engages in `jugular journalism' in which hyperbole rules. Cheap shots for ever, eh! That's so darned easy. We learned that in kindergarten.

Gill has apparently led a narrow life since being dragged down to England against his will as a child and seemingly has not had the chance to meet some of the nice people or explore some of the better parts of England. This is a pity because, writing as a 50/50 mixture of Scottish (Isle of Arran) and English (Surrey), I find much to admire and enjoy in both countries. Much to loathe and despise, certainly. Gill concentrates on the latter. Plenty of grist for his mill.

Method to his madness? Could be. Consider modern publishing, in which celebrity and notoriety are the staple ingredients of best-sellerdom (Amber Frye, `Divine' Brown, Cato Kaelin and all the other great `writers' we know and love). Before the reader of this review condemns me as unhelpful, pause and go behind the scenes at Simon & Shuster, who published "The Angry Island" in the U.S., or Weidenfeld & Nicholson, who published it first, in England, in 2005. Be a fly on the wall in London or New York and listen to the pitch or the publisher: "Gill's going to rant and rave. He's got a name-writes for the Sunday TIMES. Give it an outrageous title that'll annoy a lot of people. Wall-to-wall invective. It'll sell a bundle." That's publishing's bottom line, and the contents takes care of itself. Never forget, too, that the author has made an excellent living writing in . . . in the England he pretends so much to despise.

It's sad to have to give the book few stars because Gill, who picks a lot of easy targets and confirms many ingrained prejudices, could have done so much better if he hadn't lunged for the cruel, obvious and negative. Each one of us, and each of our countries, might be found worthy of being hanged if examined too closely or viewed through the wrong colored glasses. Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd (see my reviews) have ploughed much of the same ground and have come up with gold and not Gill's dross. So has Bill Bryson, in his own inimitable way.

PS For a `top reviewer' who can't differentiate between British (related to the British Isles), English (from England), Welsh (re Wales) and Scottish (of Scots origin), my commiserations. Let's not even get into the Irish Question.

A book of disjointed observations on the modern condition of our country's parent isle. It would have been better left as a series of magazine essays---with some of its chapters omitted from the series.

A.A. Gill writes in a style used by many of today's edgy (read: quick, terse, ironic, condescending, black-edged humorous) columnists: it is designed to immediately grab one's attention and provoke a quick laugh. But sustained over the length of a book, this style--based on the author's acrobatic use of language-- wears on a reader.

If you have only time this year for one funny, well-written, and off-beat book tied to England, buy and read Alexander Waugh's Fathers and Sons.

AA Gill is one of the foremost essayists in the English language today and this book proves it - because this is not a collection of essays.

Reading The Angry English, you think of a painter trying sculpture or a boxer moving up two weights in one go. The basic skills are there, the man has a well-earned reputation but.............

The Angry English is a rant and little else. If Gill had condensed this rant into essay length it might have been the funniest and most infuriating piece he'd ever written. Unfortunately, he was persuaded (I cannot believe it was his idea) to go book-length and he simply doesn't have the stamina, variety or content to make it work.

Oh, there are some very quotable Gill-isms in here but you'll have to shovel a lot of dross to get to them. Overall, the author makes much of his Scottish birth as a reason to loathe the English (as if anyone needed to dig so deep for a reason) but it simply doesn't have the legs to carry Gill's rant to the finishing post of a full-length book.

If you're interested in a book about the English, try Paxman's effort - not as acid as Gill but every bit as enlightening and amusing.

The English have always been the targets of humorous criticism and Mr. Gill's book rightly rakes them over the coals. His extremely witty take makes for enjoyable reading even for Anglofiles. That being said,Gill doesn't know when to stop. The first half is funny , and I assume, true, but he keeps on going telling the same joke over and over again. Enough already!

Not so bad for a first book, at least it is readable even when a little confusing. The author isn't really interested in his characters, picks them up and drops them without much explanation. The books doesn't come to a conclusion, it just ends. It is hard to understand the characters, they are stick figures and need more flesh. Of course, when I read the senior Theroux's books, I never really understand why he does anything, either. They seem to want to share their views of the world, but nothing of themselves. This is true of all of Paul Theroux's book, including my favorite, his trip through China in the Iron Rooster. Seems to be true of the son, also. If the main character reflects the author, I get the feeling he feels out of step with the world, but doesn't much give a damn about it, preferring to wait until the rest of the world gets in line with him.

Marcel Theroux's debut novel, A Stranger In The Earth, attempts a humorous portrayal of contemporary London and its society, and on some pages it succeeds. Unfortunately, the novel also contains stick-figured characters, wooden dialogue, and stilted sentence structure.

Theroux's main character, Horace Littlefair, and his support cast: the landlord, Mr. Narayan, the uncle, Derwent Boothby, all come across as hollow puppets, but the narrator pulling the strings has not the power to pull off a good story. There is no lyrical prose here, no memorable passages, just page after page of Britpop slang without substance.

One of Theroux's contemporaries, Will Self, uses artfully mannered prose and dialogue to touch on similar subject manner, such as animal rights. But Theroux's Littlefair is no Simon Dykes (the simian fine artist of Self's Great Apes). Indeed, Littlefair is a less-talented but well-connected member of a successful family; his uncle provides him with a career, in this case, newspaper journalism. Based on this book's frequent allusion to family connections, one has to ask if the elder Paul influenced the arrival of his son's novel on the bookstore shelves. In some ways, A Stranger In The Earth reads as a confession, one that says: "Yes."

Unlike the reader from Philly I found Marcel Theroux to be a gifted young writer with a flair for comic setups, perfect descriptions and an ear for dialogue. This book, be warned, has quite a lot going on in it and to Theroux's credit (not his uncle) he manages to wrap things up--or attempt to wrap things up--while keeping the other balls in the air. Therein was my problem with the book: It was too short, abbreviated. A better book could be had if a few of the plot threads were dismissed. Of course, half the fun was watching the author spin the threads out. And like one of the other reviewers said, you never know what's going to come next. It's a close stab at "Lucky Jim" in my opinion, but ultimately not The Greatest Book of All Time because of the inability of the author to successfully finish the book. Would I buy another of his books? Maybe. Would I give a new book of his consideration? Definitely.

I just finished this book and I have no idea what it was about. I didn't care about any of the characters, and it seems, neither did the author. Also, a bit more than I cared to know about foxes.

One night, bored, I went to see Marcel Theroux read from his debut novel at a local bookstore. I enjoyed the old-fashioned wit of his excerpts so much I ended up buying a copy--something I am not prone to do. It took half a year, but when I finally got around to reading it, it was exactly what I expected: a gentle, witty tale of a country bumpkin's move to London to work for his great-uncle's newspaper. There are a boatload of supporting characters who are all utterly believable, with their own quirks and entertaining agendas. One small criticism is the silliness of character names, which slightly detracts from the overall assuredness of the writing. There is a lot going on, but it all resolves more or less satisfactorily, as is the norm in fish-out-of-water stories of this ilk. The one area that could have used a bit more attention was the history of the hero's grandfather. A promising debut.

I was excited to read a book that was a historical-modern-Italian-art book, but it took me a while to get through the book. There seemed to be many unnecessary characters and a lot of vamped up importance of things that you never really find out much about. I thought that it could have been much better, but I gave it 3 stars because it is a story that had a lot of potential.

in fact, it was pretty boring. Sure, there were metaphors, but the characters were boring, and it was hard to care about what happened to them. And what was up with the wolf??? And why did Fabio and Paolo create the "miracles"? What happened to the mute woman after she left the courthouse?? If you really want to read this, get it at the library....don't waste your money.

I'm a lifeguard so all I do is read for nine hours. The nine other books I've read so far have taken me less then a day and a half to read. This one took me 3 days to finish. It was boring. I never really cared about any of the characters or what happened to them. The only reason I kept reading it was the fact that I had nothing else to do or read.

This book got such high reviews from everyone else, that I was really excited to read it. Was I ever disappointed. The book moves so slowly, I was forced to go to the end to find out what was happening before I was bored to death. If you don't want a quickly moving story with interesting characters, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, I would pass it up. Dull! Dull! Dull!

An interesting plot combining bits of WWII outrages with what is happening in nineties' Urbino. The tale twists and weaves a lot due to a mulitude of characters introduced. Many of the characters are implausible and the book has to contrive various unconvincing vignettes around them to knit them into the story. My general reaction was that the reader was introduced to too many points of view which weren't prioritised and as the book draws to a conclusion I began asking myself who cares? Also there is an annoying habit throughout of introducing the criminals in short conversatiosn without their identifying names. They usually hint at violence to come, but at the end of the book I wondered why they were there at all, since their roles are both thin and thinly described. I agree entirely with the reviewers who wrote that the book took too long to read. It is not a page turner.