Pitt Books

This isn't exactly a page turner, for that you should check out Hawthorne's short stories. However, the writing here is very good and the story is interesting. What struck me most of all about this book, however, is how funny it is. Not funny in a joke-cracking way, knee-slapping kind of way, but Hawthorne has a very dark sense of humor, and in this book he deals with dark themes like death, curses, witchcraft, and old age in a surprisingly humorous and deadpan manner. He writes the best death scenes! I don't want to give away any details, but you need to look past the image of Hawthorne as a stuffy dead white guy in order to appreciate this book.

Purchased in anticipation of a trip to Salem, MA to visit the actual House of the Seven Gables, I have to admit that I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I was going to. Written in 1851, The House of the Seven Gables is at once both a period romance and history of the Pyncheon family, focusing on a several week period of the lives of the current owner, Hepzibah Pyncheon, her brother Clifford, cousin Phoebe and their lodger, Holgrave. Themes of guilt and retribution run throughout the novel, as the histories of both the house and the Pyncheon and Maule families are all brought to light.

Hawthorne relies heavily on not only his own family's history to help him build some of the plots in his novel, but also on the general history of the area, with aspects of the novel dating back to the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692. The house has stood for centuries as a spectator to these happenings, and seems to be haunted by the ghosts of the suffering that has occurred within its halls.

While suffering from many of what I see as familiar plot devices for its time (family secrets, hidden identities, convenient deaths and sudden marriages that let everyone live "happily ever after"), Hawthorne was still able to craft and wonderful and imaginative novel. While some of the descriptions may seem extraordinarily long by todays standards, I felt as though this added to the books charm. Some may find it hard to read, but if you let yourself be picked up by the story and not try to think your way through the book, you'll soon find yourself completely engrossed in poor Hepzibah's trials and tribulations.

I've had a copy of the House of Seven Gables sitting on my bookshelf for a number of years. The poor little book is slightly out of place between a plethora of fantasy and science fiction novels. Every once in a while I try to venture into a different realm of subject. That's the reason I finally picked up this book to read. I would have read it sooner but I was forced to read "The Scarlet Letter" in high school and never had the heart to read another Nathaniel Hawthorne novel.

Not expecting much, I have to say I was very impressed with this book. The details got to be a bit much at times. I have to admit there were parts of the book that I scanned quit quickly because I just didn't need to know that much description about a certain thing.

That being said, Hawthorne was very good at clearly painting a picture in my head. I could smell the mustiness of the house, feel the joy when Phoebe entered a room, and feel Clifford's sadness and confusion. What took me by surprise was the sharp wit throughout the book and intellectualness of this wit. Quit often I found myself laughing out loud at some of the dry humor in this book. Also of course there was the mystery of the book which kept you hanging on until the end.

I don't know that I will read any additional Hawthorne novels but I would recommend this as a good example of his work. It is much more interesting and engaging than the Scarlet Letter.

Dusty classics of this type when assigned to poor high-school kids typically elicit a wave of one- and two-star reviews consisting mostly of complaints that the work was "boring", usually for the reasons of too much description or most commonly, "no plot". They have trouble simply getting through it, but their school deems the work edifying, or at least did the last time anybody bothered to review the reading lists, so it's off to SparkNotes and the sham continues.

I claim boredom for this work but not in that sense, having read it voluntarily after all. Two novels I have ploughed through in the last year, namely The Idiot and Tale of Two Cities were more "boring" in the sense of being hard to get through, though both were greater novels by far I thought. I had no trouble on the other hand getting through Seven Gables. The boredom for me rather arose from finding nothing particularly compelling about Hawthorne's observations. Only a ponderous "behold my pronouncements" style. Rendered the more dull read so soon after that marvel of deft wit and light touch, Gulliver's Travels. Hawthorne is the anti-Swift--no travels for him! His lumbering, self-important prose reflecting his stolid, adventure-free life.

An indiscriminate deployment of minute analysis unto every topic that wandered into his view--the chickens, the getting of Phoebe out of her bedroom and down the stairs (3 pages), as examples. And to what end? A dubious premise--that the sins of the ancestors are visited upon the descendants. By what mechanism--karma? The kind of God who keeps a ledger of credits and debits? Some mysterion he couldn't be bothered to elucidate, just woooo--ghosts! Then a banal and predictable outcome, in which all live happily. Half-baked trends such as "mesmerism" offered but not defended.

How the novel might have been improved by Hawthorne getting out the damn house and down the street. Wade into the hubbub down at the Salem wharfs five minutes away--plenty of real adventure and drama to be found there, no need to resort to spooks. Dickens walked miles and miles in London. Melville went whaling. But this recessive little piggie stayed home, and the book suffers for it. Humorless gasbag, I say.

"Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns, stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst." And this solid and antique house contains many things - memories of those who lived and died there, and the terrible secrets that haunted those long dead, and haunt the living to this very day. This is the story of Hepzibah Pyncheon, an old maid who carries the weight of the past like a millstone about here neck; Clifford Pyncheon, whose past has left him a broken and haunted old man; Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, a veritable echo of all that is good and bad in the Pyncheons; Phoebe Pyncheon, an unspoiled country cousin who finds herself sucked into the mysteries contain in the dark and sinister house; and finally Holgrave, a daguerreotypist and an outsider, perhaps the only one who truly knows the secrets of the House of the Seven Gables.

This is a classic of American literature, written in 1851, when railway trains were still a novel and exciting invention, when spiritualism was the rage, and when mesmerism had everyone...well, mesmerized. It was also a time when books came out slowly from the presses, and people expected long, flowing books that gave them more for their money and kept them entertained through the long pre-TV days. As such, it must be admitted that the modern criticism that the book is ponderous or slow-moving, does have some justification.

But, in spite of that, if you can keep at this book, you will find yourself rewarded with an extremely interesting story, a mystery set in a strange setting that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed reading the deep and winding plot, watching the mysteries unravel in a seemly inevitable manner, like doom itself. I really enjoyed this book, and don't hesitate to recommend it!

I'm not sure if this is common of the "Unleashed" series or not, but I still use this book for most of my Linux problems. I always seem to be able to find the answer and the index is the most complete of all the books I've bought since -- not sure if that's saying too much since I've been so frustrated with ALL the other Linux books I've bought since. Maybe I just find the bad ones.

If you haven't had some "command-line" experience, then I'm not certain this book may be for you. Most things are described via command-line interfaces with some desciptions of companion gui apps.

For what's worth, I'm (still) runnning RedHat 7.2 and this is still my best reference. The only other reference I usually use is the man pages and an occasional HOWTO. Not sure that's bad or good, so take it as you will. :o)

As a system administrator I was looking for an alternative to Windows OS so Redhat was the first system I trialled. Unleashed was the first textbook I bought as a guide. I must be thick. I can configure tcp/ip, proxy servers, Windows servers and a variety of other things but using this book as a guide, I got nothing working on Redhat. Half of my system config.s in the book would not work and I found no support docmentation in the book to help. The whole book and process was so off-putting that I would rather spend my time plugging holes in Windows servers than spend hours trying to get a simple 3COM 3c509B working. Newbies-keep clear of this one. Me?-I'm sticking to Mac.s and Windows.

This book is not for a beginner. It does not provide examples, and the layout is hard as hell to follow. Worst of all, some of the information in this book is out-right wrong! (such as the commands that doesn't work where the book insist that it would!)

Not worth buying if you are a novice. Get some first hand UNIX/Linux experience before you buy it.

Again, if you are an administrator dont buy it as there will rarely be a time when this book will find way from your shelf to your hands.

Written in a ramshackled way and some typos too.

Buy this book if you want to know about the flexibilities and features of Red Hat.

We have the obligatory five-foot bookshelf of Linux how-to texts, and this one is used more than all the others combined. It is not perfect, but it comes closer than does anything else which we've used.

The book is described as intended for a user level of Intermediate-Advanced. Don't believe it: this book has been the salvation of our most dangerous neophytes on many occasions. Doubtless, the advanced types will also value it, albeit without as many of the "Wow, it worked!" exclamations.

Great book - until the ending. WTF? Did Perry have a deadline to make? It was so abrupt... not his best work. Very disappointing.

This book was a total waste of time. I am still wondering why I didn't just abandon it along the way!!

I have only read first 2 chapters, and am at burn out already as this book seriously needed a proof reader simply because they say first and last names way to many times in a paragraph instead of just using first name only .Example is the name Hugo Poole is used 4 times in 1 paragraph when they are only talking about him , and is same for other characters in first 2 chapters . I am almost certain this cannot be the best of Thomas Perry .

As a fan of Thomas Perry's, I was a bit disappointed in this book. He does his usual wonderful job of creating settings and bringing action to life. Each scene is carefully crafted, and many are full of the kind of suspense at which he so often excels. The premise of the book is compelling and it has one of the best beginnings he's written.

So why three stars? Perry is a master at describing settings, creating unlikely but richly defined characters, and, most of all, fascinating pursuits with a stream of identity changes mixed in. In Nightlife, this combination of skills never really gels into a tight story.

1. The ending is frightfully predictable. Long before the final clash, you can see it coming; and, when it does it's abrupt and uninteresting.

2. The romance is superfluous. It adds nothing substantive to either the plot, or our understanding of Catherine Hobbes, the heroine of the story.

3. The events are episodes that are somewhat loosely connected. The continuity of the pursuit that fuels his best works such as Butcher's Boy and the early Jane Whitfield books is missing.

Read this one at the beach or while on an airplane. It's Perry after all, and still worth the time.

The twists and turns in this book keeps you on the edge of your seat. I found myself enjoying an evil serial killer way too much. I highly recommend this book.

If you like classic British mysteries, this is a good choice. You expect a good read from Anne Perry, this does not disappoint.

"All right, boys and girls, the social issue for today's Superintendent Pitt mystery novel is censorship!" Yeah, Perry has to include a problem of conscience for the characters to address in every book she writes, whether it's economic inequality, loan-sharking, the vote for women, or -- in this case -- whether censorship and freedom of speech is a good thing because it protects people from the ugliness in the world, or whether it's a bad thing because it results in intellectual and social stagnation. She can't quite seem to make up her mind, either. Oh, there's a story in here, too, about a prominent society photographer found grotesquely dead, posed like Ophelia in a dress and chains in a small boat on the Thames. Also prominent in the story, for a change, is Caroline, mother of Charlotte and Emily (both of whom are in Paris for a few weeks and who therefore do not appear in this book at all), who has remarried to a Jewish actor seventeen years her junior, and whose life style has loosened up a good deal as a result. That brings in the theater, and you know how liberal and undependable those theater people can be. I admit it, this 20th entry in a generally enjoyable series irritated me considerably. Thomas and/or Charlotte generally have served as mouthpieces for the author's own opinions, which is okay, but here they fulminate against things that have been proved factually inaccurate -- such as the notion that "pornography" (defined as anything those in power don't like) destroys society. Photos that Pitt considers sickening and obscene would be rated no worse than PG-13 in today's world -- and present-day society certainly is demonstrably superior, socially and politically, to that of 1890. I guess I don't understand how any professional novelist could have anything good to say about elitist governmental censorship.

If you are a fan of Anne Perry's novels, this is not the review to read. This was the first book I have read by her, and I doubt there will be another.

A man is murdered and the crime is solved, but the mystery is not the true focus of this book. If I began telling you that a man was found dead in a boat dressed as a woman, in a pose that the other characters clearly judged to be obscene, and Pitt spent his time figuring out who did it, I would mislead you. This is not what you will spend most of your time reading about.

Pitt does begin investigating, then he goes to the theatre where we are introduced to a subplot: the changing role of women in Victorian society. Ideas clash, and we are supposed to be excited about it. I was still interested at this point.

Then we have "ideas in practice" for three or four chapters, where the book turns into a soap opera about the dark secrets of private life in Victorian England, which, of course, can only mean one thing: sex. The reader's appetite is whetted for unspeakable family secrets on the part of Mariah, the mother-in-law of Pitt's mother-in-law, Caroline. The relationship between Mariah and Caroline is worth some attention, and Caroline's struggle - as the book's moral focus - to find her way in the confusion of old and new ideas is sympathetic. However, I was fast losing interest when chapter after chapter all we had was foreshadowing something really interesting that failed to come. When it did, it wasn't that interesting, but at least the characters were shocked to the core.

Meanwhile, the murder plot blossoms into a treatise on censorship, with an emphasis on the censorship of pornographic material and a foray into the emergence of photography. The characters are used as carriers of ideas, and only that, which makes them one-dimensional and uninteresting. They regularly break into dreadfully long monologues until we reach the climax of the book, where the ideas - dressed as the two central female characters - clash and we find out who the author thought was right. By this time, I was thoroughly bored.

This could have been an interesting book. Ideas are not uninteresting, but it is the experience of people's lives that gives them richness and texture. Even in a mystery, plot and character must come before the moral of the story.

Excellent entry in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, with Pitt trying to solve the mystery of a man found dead and drifting in a punt on the Thames River. Pitt is more on his own in this book, and Charlotte does not figure as prominently as before, but I did not see that as a drawback. Pitt's investigations take him to the bohemian parts of London, to the world of the theater. Pitt's search for the truth, along with help from Charlotte, shows us how the world is changing, from the Victorian to the modern.

As a fan of Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, I was greatly dissapointed by this book.

Firstly, the murder plot was boring and obvious and the mistaken identity "twist" was nonsensical.

Secondly, the absence of Charlotte Pitt was much missed. She was vacationing in Paris with her sister Emily in this installment. Charlotte is usually a central character in the books and without her this novel fell flat.

Thirdly, the focus on Thomas' mother in law and grandmother in law was too much. They are usually perimiter characters and they did not mesh with what we had learned about them in previous books.

Overall, the character format of this novel was not as enjoyable as Ms. Perry's other books from this series.

Come back Charlotte!!!

Firstly I'm surprised at the rave-reviews that this book has got on amazon. The great reviews drove me to actually use this book to learn websphere. Sadly, I'm very disappointed with the book. (I have previously developed J2EE apps on JBoss, and WebLogic so I was not reading it as a novice reader). Also a disclaimer: I have read the book through online subscription at SafariBooksOnline, some of my criticism may not be applicable to the printed version.

The begin my critique, the book attempts too much while accomplishing very litte. This is a book about J2EE programming with WebSphere, it should have been kept that way. Instead the authors try to provide introduction (at times having errors) for the J2EE technologies and make a complete mess of it. It takes great effort on the part of the reader to gather the core information that relates to programming/configuring WSAD. The book could have been much better if it included more hands-on exercises and cut out the crappy introduction to "enterprise concepts".

Secondly, about the examples. The examples are not complete (they often refer to the CD-ROM and I was reading the book on SafariBooksOnline, so this may not be the case when you buy the printed book). Moreover the explanation is in very high-sounding terms at times which makes it difficult to focus on the point that is being made.

This is definitely not a book for novice; and for the experienced it is a waste of time to sift through loads of nonsense before making any sense of whats written.

I have given it 2 stars because some of the hands-on stuff sections actually worked when I tried them, and the GUI snapshots were helpful.

OK, so this isn't a beginner's text. It has literally thousands (yes, thousands) of typos. Why 5 stars? This is simply the best book on explaining and demonstrating J2EE concepts that I've read, and I've read many.

It's virtually impossible to find this much valuable info in one place. And please, don't bash this book until you've read the whole thing (which you may need to do more than once!).

The code on the CD works. As far as showing incomplete printed examples, do you really want every line of code printed in the book? Given the level of developer this book targets, they strike a fine balance of what goes on the existing 900 pages and what can be browsed on the CD. The only topic I had trouble digesting was their discussion on Mapper Objects (Ch. 16), but it's easy enough to understand the code.

I have yet to find a large technical book without lots of errors. I would rate the editing job on this book as 1.5 stars because of the abundance of seemingly careless typos. However, they're minor annoyances that don't detract from this technically correct marvel of a book. As developers, we need useful information. This book more than delivers and is worth every penny.

The WSAD included is out of date and when I installed the application it would not run. But don't take my word for it. Search the internet for, "The license could not be found. websphere studio application developer 5.0 can not start". (The current version is 5.1.1.)

The IBM web site says to change the date on your PC to May 1, 2005 then install. It does install and will run, but when you reset the date on your PC the license has expired!

Instructions to configure a working database are inaccurate and do not work when followed verbatim. Some of the illustrations and step-by-step instructions no not match the actual screens displayed. The design information is good, but if you are looking for a book to learn how to start using WSAD, this is not the answer.

The title is "Enterprise Java Programming with IBM WebSphere" but the book does not teach you how to programm with IBM WebSphere. The book covers very high level and briefly leaving you in the dark.

The quality of the content is awesome. I am looking forward to the Third Edition.

I am a big fan of the movie. So I read the book under the assumption that it would run along the same story line. I was not left disappointed. In my opinion the book is even better than the movie.

I attribute this book to my ongoing love of reading. I had never heard of Clive Cussler before reading this book and I read it years before the movie came out. I've now read all of Mr. Cussler's books and this one is still my favorite. There is action aplenty and the author does a nice job connecting all the sub-plots together. If you are interested in action in a James Bond meets Indiana Jones style, give this book a read. You won't be dissapointed.

Another Dirk Pitt adventure which entertains and astounds the reader. I saw the movie first and was disappointed to see the departure from the story after reading the book. I was looking forward to the literary description of events in the movie to find they were not there. But as they say, the book is better than the movie, and it is true for Sahara. I have read every book in order to this point and have not been let down yet. Thankfully Cussler has not fallen into the Clancy trap of repeating storylines with minor adjustments. Hopefully it continues.

Before I read this book, I watched the movie, I absolutly loved it and watched it until I knew everything that happened. I woundered if the book was the same as the movie; well, it turned out that they were nothing alike. I actually thought the book was better than the movie, it had way more plot elements and it had adventures that the movie did not even mention. The movie was basically just a very brief overveiw of what happens in the book. I thought that this book was worthy of a five star review becuase of the unique way Cussler writes and the realistic action that is put into it. It is a great page turner for almost anyone.

I read the book first, saw the movie second. I loved the book but didn't go much for the movie. Maybe it was because Matthew McConoughy just didn't do it for me as the character of Dirk Pitt. He wasn't my vision of what Dirk Pitt looked like in the books or his persona.

But that said, Sahara is an entertaining read from start to finish. If you love the action/adventure/thriller genre, then this one is certainly worth a read.

How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good

Real Life Dramas - Volume One

Darren G. Burton

As with all of Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels,I am delighted with Bedford Square. I love reading mysteries and especially about either Victorian (or Regency) England. Her books are clean with no vulgar language and I appreciate this. They are some of the best mysteries I have read and I have read quite a few.

Judy Moughon

The sociomoral theme for today, boys and girls, is reputation: How to build a good public one and how to maintain it in the face of blackmail, given people's tendency to believe anything bad they read in the newspapers about public figures. It begins with a body being discovered on the doorstep of General Balantyne, whose family figured in two earlier books in the series. Exactly why it's there is never satisfactorily explained, but Superintendent Pitt gradually uncovers a web of blackmail threats which the victims would find it almost impossible to disprove, set as they are in the professional pasts of a number of gentlemen. It's never quite clear, either, why the gentlemen in question would reveal these particular incidents to anyone else, and in such detail, in casual conversations at the club. The reader is unlikely to figure out whodunit (or why) until the last chapter, but that's largely because the author seems to have picked a bad guy more or less at random and then made assertions about how things happened with little regard for plausibility. This is the 19th book in the Victorian London mystery series and Perry has been getting more and more sloppy in making the story believable, seeming more interested in exploring ethical and moral questions than in writing a good murder mystery.

I was dissapointed with this novel. It seemed to me that the book kept dragging itself. While there were interesting turns at some places, the conclusion was not dramatic. It did not make sense why one of those characters would have done the crime -- it was almost like the novel had to be ended and a culprit had to be picked by the toss of a coin.

While the details into Victorian society are good -- the author repeats the same sentences too many times in the book. It could definitely have been a shorter book with a poor end.

The book failed for me because I found it implausible that blackmail could succeed without the the blackmailer actually having anything dishonorable, illegal, or even embarrassing, to expose about the persons being blackmailed. Should it even be called blackmail if there is no substance or truth to what is threatened to be revealed, and both parties to the so-called blackmail know that?
Having said that, I still think any Anne Perry is worth the read. You always get clear prose, a time-travel feel of things, and likable main characters, as well as in most cases, a creative and interesting story.

This book has the good qualities of the rest of the series -- strong setting, interesting characters and an original plot. In this one, however, the plot doesn't quite hang together in several respects. Why would anybody believe in a suicide note written not in handwriting but pasted from newspaper, like the blackmail letters prominent citizens have been getting? And why was it necessary for the dead man found on a doorstep with a snuffbox in his pocket to look like another man? The conclusion comes rather suddenly and considerably out of left field -- the author hasn't done a good job of foreshadowing the end.

As already suggested, this volume is about blackmail, with both old and new characters receiving notes threatening to spread irrefutable falsehoods about their pasts. This was an interesting theme, which could have been more deeply explored.

Yet again, unrequited love plays a part here. For some reason, people in these books are perpetually falling for people they can't have. I'm not sure it's realistic for it to happen so often, but in the context of one book it's perfectly fine.

Sergeant Tellman, with the chip on his shoulder, gets more development here and becomes a really appealing character.

Despite my quibbles with the plot, I found the book essentially enjoyable.

I've read the other reviews and I'm surprised that no one else mentioned the contradictions in this book to previous books regarding the character, Dominic Corde! When Charlotte mentions to Dominic that Emily is in Italy with Jack, Dominic is confused as to who Jack is and Charlotte explains to him that Emily is remarried. However in Bethlehem Road, Dominic is the one who walks Emily down the aisle at her wedding to Jack. Also, all through this book, it appears that Charlotte and her family had lost track of Dominic since he left the home on Cater Street. Again, this doesn't make sense because in Resurrection Row, Dominic is involved in another of Pitt's cases and it is noted that Dominic has been a widower of five years. I enjoyed reading this one as I do all of the Pitt mysteries, but I got hung up on these details.

The writers of flap copy obviously don't read the books they're trying to promote -- otherwise this 18th installment in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Victorian mystery series would focus on the controversy over evolution (the original 19th century one, not the present-day religious thuggery), instead of merely mentioning it three or four times in the entire volume. Instead the sociological-philosophical theme (Perry always includes one) is the effect of high-speed scientific and social change on entrenched religion in general and also establishment hypocrisy in protection of the status quo. Unity Bellwood, a brilliant young female linguist who had been assisting an academic Anglican minister with a new book on theology, is found dead at the bottom of the latter's staircase. Was it an accident or was she pushed? Present are the theologian himself, his wife, a son who has converted to Roman Catholicism (and is a real pain in the neck), two daughters (one conservative and the other a would-be "new woman" who greatly admired the deceased) -- and a middle-aged curate who turns out to be Dominic Corde, Charlotte's brother-in-law and a major character in _The Cater Street Hangman,_ the very first book in the series. The clues are very confusing to both Superintendent Pitt and his wife -- the conflicts seem to prove that no one committed the murder -- but there's a reason for that, which most readers will deduce by the time they're two-thirds of the way through the book. Unity's character, as revealed in the investigation, is generally admirable and it's easy to take her side in the struggle to keep women in their place. And Tryphena, the younger (but already widowed) daughter, gets all the good lines in attacking the hypocrisy of organized religion. A pretty good book.

One question though: Back several books ago when Pitt was first promoted to Superintendent of the Bow Street Station, he was being assisted by Inspector Tellman -- who in fact was presented as having been Pitt's competition for the job and still somewhat resented the fact. But in the later books, Tellman is suddenly back to being a sergeant. Is this a deliberate offense against internal continuity, just so Tellman could court the Pitts' maid, Gracie?

Thomas Pitt is ordered to discover who is responsible for the death of Unity Bellwood, scholar of ancient languages and a "new woman". While investigating, Pitt is reunited with a relative he hasn't seen since "The Cater Street Hangman", who is now taking up orders for the Anglican Church. We are given a whirlwind tour through the Bohemian lifestyle, and are privy to several characters' struggle to bolster and preserve their relgious convictions in the wake of Charles Darwin's landmark theory on the evolution of the human race.

While I didn't think that this was one of her best works, I did feel that Perry was trying to do something different with regards to involving one of the prime suspects in the actual sleuthing process (in this case, Charlotte's widower brother-in-law, Dominic Corde). As I read the book, I felt that Corde, in some ways, made more progress than Pitt. It does make a sort of sense though, since Corde lived in the same house as Bellwood.

I was disappointed that Perry's more interesting supporting characters, Great-Aunt Vespasia and Charlotte's mother, Caroline, barely get a mention. Charlotte's Grandmama only got one good scene, and she is great for comedic relief. I wish Perry could have somehow involved these ladies more in her exploration of how feminism affected them personally. That could have been really interesting.

Still, kudos to Perry for trying something different. Wish it could have been better.

This is an enjoyable book overall, much more dramatic than I expected to read from Perry, but is flawed by insidious historical errors.

This is a solve-a-murder mystery, but it's kept interesting by a succession of seemingly contradictory clues and by the possibility of multiple culprits. It's also quite a psychodrama; at times it reminds me of Elizabeth George's work, as one ends up trapped in a room with a number of vocally unpleasant people. A difficult young woman has died, and nearly everyone in the house at the time had some reason to dislike her. Meanwhile, because the primary suspect is a clergyman, the local bishop puts pressure on the police to hush the matter up. The conclusion is clever, neither out-of-left-field nor obvious until the very end.

My essential problem with this book was the anachronistic beliefs and thought patterns its characters revealed. The dead woman, Unity Bellwood, is a feminist, and that's not at all anachronistic; the book is set during a period of agitation for female suffrage. But the way she and her friends express themselves is very much in terms of personal development, of being allowed to "be themselves". Those are very late-20th-century concepts. In addition, when the curate Dominic talks to grieving or troubled people, he may as well be quoting from a modern self-help book; his lines don't have a nineteenth-century ring at all.

Most readers probably will not notice the anachronisms, and despite a certain lack of physical action common to many of Perry's books, this is a generally entertaining novel.

Brunswick Garden is a story that is set in the home of a highly placed religious scholar. A death there brings Pitt to investiage. However, before Pitt even gets more than a brief glimpse of what has happened, pressure is brought to bear from the government and Church of England to reach a quick conclusion with as little public fanfare a possible. This sets Pitt onto a path that is even more determined to be thorough and as painstaking as possible; he shows he will not be dictated to as he carries out his investigation.

As he enters deeper into the household, he discovers that he has crossed paths with his brother-in-law Dominic Cord - a man Charlotte, Pitt's wife, was infatuated with as a teenager and young woman. His return to their life rekindles Charlotte's thoughts of him and also restokes Pitt's resentment towards him. The fact that he is a suspect makes it harder for Pitt to remain purely objective because of the inner resentment he feels against Dominic. This situation makes Pitt more human and believeable. If I met a man in the course of my work, who was once the object of my wife's adoration, I'd have a hard time staying neutral and not resenting the hell out of him too. Perry catches this emotional load that Pitt has to bear exactly right.

Throughout the book, emotions are barely under the surface. From Charlotte's renewed attention to Dominic, Pitt's resentment of Dominic and Charlotte, religious beliefs etc., there is an current that is almost palpable and real. Where these emotions lead is surprising as well as sad. In one case, these is the start of an affection that can only be returned obliquely and indirectly, not as it should be. While Tellman and Gracie continue thier somewhat eccentric courtship - neither has recognized thier true feelings for the other or if they have, they are reluctant to admit them, to themselves and to each other.

This is a book that I found on par with Perry's other writings. This gives us a new developement of Pitt's charecter - we see his emotions and his own insecurities quite vividly. I think it goes a long way to giving background and depth to the relationship of Charlotte and Thomas, making them more believeable as people. I highly recommend this book to all Perry fans.

I did not care for this book with Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. My
"however" was due to, it does give alot of interesting information
on the Catholic/Protestant problem that has been going on, it seems
since the beginning of time. On page 80, there is one very simplistic
explanation given by Charlotte to Gracie, her maid. Gracie ca nt
understand the reason behind all of the tragedy and bloodshed over
two religions battling each other. It makes no sense to her (I,m with
Gracie-it doesnt really make any sense). Charlotte: The Scots came from
Ireland and took over Scotland By this time the Scots were protestants
and then many Scots went back to Ireland finding Ireland is now mostly
Catholic. Gracie: then they shouldn't oughta gone back(I,m with Gracie
again!) Charlotte: possibly not, but it's too late now. We cant go forward from anywhere except where we are at the moment. That would
fit every part of our lives.

As the author gets farther and farther into this popular series of police procedural murder mysteries set in late Victorian England, she seems to be struggling for original plots, and for something new to say regarding the sordidness of much of high society and the need for drastic reform. But this 17th book starring Superintendent Pitt, a self-made man, and his wife, Charlotte, who "married down," is one of the best yet. All the previous stories have been set in and around London, but this one is Perry's take on the "country house mystery." It's 1890 and the British government is trying hard to find some solution to the Irish problem, but centuries of mutual hatred between the native Irish Catholics and the Protestants imposed upon Ireland by earlier monarchs have made that nearly impossible. (And still have, for that matter, in the Northern Counties.) Charlotte's sister, Emily, who married up, to a peer, still manages her late husband's fortune (in trust for her small son, his heir), including a sizable country estate. Now that her second husband, Jack Radley, is in Parliament, Emily is asked to make her place available for a summit meeting between representatives of both sides in the Irish mess, with a report of recommendations later to be made to Parliament. Pitt is detailed to handle security, though he's passing himself off at first as merely Emily's guest. And he takes Sergeant Tellman along, disguised as his valet -- which is hilarious, since Tellman loathes the very notion of anyone being a personal servant to anyone else. Hardly has the conference begun when Ainsley Greville, a skilled diplomat and negotiator and moderator for the weekend, is murdered in his bath. A political assassination, obviously, perpetrated by those who despise the idea of compromise over Ireland. Or maybe not. Jack is asked to try to take Greville's place in continuing the negotiations -- until a dynamite bomb destroys his study and one of the Irish attendees is killed in the explosion. Pitt has his hands full, naturally, and so does Charlotte. The cast of characters is better developed than usual, and the background about Ireland is far more skillfully presented than Perry's previous, rather melodramatic, diatribes on slums and women's rights. For many reasons, I'm rather an Anglophile, and I have no use whatever for the authoritarianism of the Roman Catholic (or any other) Church -- but when it comes to Ireland, I'm on the side of my own ancestors from Kerry, who were thrown off their land in the 1830s and fled the Olde Sod for the American midwest. Yet Perry does an excellent job showing how the Irish have themselves to blame for their troubles, at least as much as the English. The sub-plots, about Charlotte's maid, Gracie, and her first romantic experience, and the Montague-Capulet affair between a Protestant conference attendee and the wife of a Catholic, are also well done and fit right into the story. (Perry's parallel plots often stick out like sore-thumb afterthoughts.) My only complaint, in fact, is that we never find out about the true identity of the man with the light-colored eyes.

If you've read many of the books in this series, as I have, part of the pleasure comes from renewing your acquintance with the regulars that inhabit them. It's like meeting old friends that you haven't seen in a while. Getting the latest update on Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and the other recurring characters is as much a part of the enjoyment as is whatever case is on tap. Moreover, Ms. Perry, if a little preachy, generally writes an entertaining story. On that basis, I typically rate these four star reads.

ASHWORTH HALL gives you all the usual. You get the latest in the lives of the Pitt family members and friends and you get a decent whodunit. The problem here, for me, was in the situation and backdrop. The story finds Thomas trying to provide security for secret negotiations involving some leading Irish catholic and protestant leaders. Murder ensues, of course, but by the time it was over I was just glad to get rid of the people on both sides. They all came across to me as self-righteous, bigoted, and selfishly motivated. I didn't like any of them much and I didn't care what happened to any of them. Also, beyond that, the situation seemed overly contrived, as did the "romance" involving Gracie (I know, fiction is all contrived, but it's a matter of degree). It seemed too unlikely in the circumstances and too convenient in the context of the plot. Given my reaction to these elements, I didn't find the story particularly engaging.

If you're a Pitt fan, you'll want to read ASHWORTH HALL, but it isn't, in my opinion, one of the better tales in this series. Further, and from a personal standpoint, though I enjoy the series, I'd like to see Ms. Perry put aside the Victorian social and political issues sometime and just give us a top-notch whodunit that's not doubling as a "morality play".

I love Anne Perry's books. For the most part, her writing keeps getting better and better, particularly the William Monk series. That being said, this novel left me feeling disgruntled and unsatisfied. The various Irish characters were confusing, some clues were not followed up on, and some balls were simply dropped. I suspect looming deadline-itis on this one.

This audio book is respresented here as 'Unabridged.' It is not. It is abridged. I know, I own a copy.

I have found this misrepresentation very often here on Amazon.com

I am a teacher in the South Bronx. I read "Bluish" and loved it! I am currently using it with my students in the classroom.
The book is marvelous! The reading is easy to follow and the students can relate to the various themes in the story.
I feel the story line, is realistic, easy to comprehend and pulls the kids in naturally. They enjoy reading it. Their willingness to read out loud exemplifies the extent of their enjoyment.
As an educator, I am always searching for new ways to expose my students to powerful writers. Virginia Hamilton's book is fabulous!
My students are raising their hands, and doing their work while I am having fun using it as a valuable tool in the classroom.
I would strongly suggest this as a "do read" to parents, educators and students alike.
Virginia Hamilton, a writer to know!

When a person sees or meets another person that is very different from him or her, what does he or she do? Dreenie, the main character in Virginia Hamilton's book, Bluish, toiled with the dilemma of how to become friends with a girl who was strangely different from anyone she had ever met.
Dreenie lived a normal life in one of New York's many apartment buildings. Her life seemed almost like a routine. Unless she was going on a school field trip or doing a project, Dreenie's days were very similar. Then a new girl came to Dreenie's school. Her name was Natalie.
Natalie was shockingly different. She was pale like moonlight, and you could see her "blue" veins clearly through her milky skin. This was one of the effects of the disease Natalie had, and why she was called "Bluish" by the other students who avoided and stared at her. Natalie made Dreenie uncomfortable, especially since she was afraid to catch Natalie's disease.
One day, the teacher assigned a group project and put Dreenie, her friend Tuli, and Natalie together. As Dreenie discovered the real person behind the pale skin and blue veins, she learned not to judge people before getting to know them. Dreenie almost missed an opportunity to make a good friend.
In life, we all face the problem of overcoming the differences in others. Bluish, by Virginia Hamilton, covers this. In our own way, it is up to us to answer the question," How do I respect and be friends with someone who is very different?"

Bluish is an inspiring story of two girls bluish who overcomes her illness with strengh and spirt and Dreenie the older sister of a genius sister who is in turns fasinated and frighted by bluish.She looks beyond bluishs pyhiscal diffrences and becomes friends with her.Bluish is a story of friendship.I recomend Bluish as a quick read.Bluish lacks a climax,It doses not have much action in it. Bluish did not give me trills but it give me a story of a girl who can look pass apearences.I would not recomend Bluish for younger readers.I would recomend Bluish for a reader who seeks to understand lukiema.

Bluish, is unknown to everyone. She sits alone in a corner like a ghost and watches. Everyone is scared of her because the her skin has a bluish tint. But Dreenie the most unlikely of all decides to befriend Bluish. At first when she tries to talk to bluish it doesn't work. But later on Bluish and dreenie form a strong, unlikely friendship. It turns out Bluish is blue because she has cancer and chemo tainted her skin. That's also why she has no hair only hats. And why she isn't at school much. Bluish gets sick a lot. Bluish finds her real name is Natalie. And through a rough series of events Dreenie brings bluish the most wonderful gift ever. Hope.

This story has potential but it is confusing. It jumps around a lot and makes it hard for the reader to understand. However the storyline and the moral are equally beautiful. I recommend this book to anyone 12 and up.

Bluish is the story of a young girl, Dreenie who lives in New York City. She lives with an annoying little sister and an almost more annoying best friend, Tuli. The book tells the story of these three girls befriending a girl at school who no one likes. The kids call her Bluish. She sits alone in a wheelchair when she comes to school and talks to no one. she has no hair. Only hats. And she is so sickly pale her skin has a blue tint. At first the girls fear her but through the story they accept her as one of their own.

This book Virginia Hamilton is written very choppy. It jumps around a lot and doesn't stick to one theme. It is very repetitive and at times I even thought I was rereading a page. i would not reccommend this book.