Scott Books

Easy reading, funny and makes so much sense. So glad I have finally found a solution to my weight problems. Get a copy for a friend so you can keep your copy for reference.

I really love this book--the concept of Eucalorics really makes sense to me! I have tried several of the recipes and they are delish! I think this is a whole new way to look at calorie coounting and I am extremely excited about meeting my weight and health goals. Finally a reasonable way to gain control over eating!!

There are tons of weight loss books on the market. Many of the authors have never struggled with their weight. Jackie and Diane are a mother and daughter who have lost 300+ pounds between the two of them. They know what it's like to be heavy.

The two tried a number of diets and studied the diet books on the market. They came up with the simple conclusion. If you want to lose weight you have to eat less. You don't have to combine foods in a certain way, cut out carbs or exercise till you are blue in the face. You simply have to burn more calories than you are taking in through diet and exercise.

Throughout the years there have been many diet plans that agree with Jackie and Diane. Cut calories, move a little more - lose weight. Weight Watcher's members count points, Jenny Craig doles out low calorie meals etc. Many of these diet plans enable members to lose weight. The problem is people gain the weight back and usually a few extra lbs with it!

Jackie and Diane advocate a different approach. They advocate a system called EUCALORIES or normal calories. They suggest you select your goal weight, making it a realistic one and then multiply that weight by 12. For example if you wish to weigh 135, you would multiply 135 by 12 and get 1620. Start eating 1620 calories on a daily basis and eventually you will wind up weighing 135. It will take longer than if you cut to say 1200 calories BUT you are more likely to stick with the program...forever! Weight loss can be enhanced by adding in more excercise.

There are drawbacks to the plan. Individuals do differ in their metabolisms, acitivity levels etc. So the actual calorie count per individual may vary. But in general Jackie and Diane say this method will work for most.

One area Jackie and Diane address is dietary guidelines ie how many grains, veggies etc. you should eat. They use government guidelines By following the recommendations you will know how much and what to eat daily. HOWEVER the beauty of the method is, if you don't follow the recommendations..so long as you count the calories (baring medical problems) you should reach your goals. For good health though, it is recommended that you follow the guidelines most of the time. The recommendation for fats and oils is listed on p. 53 as 2 servings per week. This did not look correct to me and I emailed the authors. They said it was a printing error and it should be 2 servings daily.

Eating more calories but still losing weight is much easier than sticking to a low calorie diet, however, there will still be times when one has trouble. Eating protein will help with control. It has been shown that folks that eat a little more protein eat fewer calories and stay in greater control. Though Jackie and Diane touched on nutrients etc. They did not share this information and it is really crucial for many people who lose control when they eat too many carbs. It's not a matter of giving up carbs..its a matter of making sure you eat enough protein to regulate sugar surges.

The mental aspect of weight loss are barely addressed in this book and for two women that were 300+ overweight I think they could have discussed this.

The book is set up so it shares the plan in the first half and the second half is primarily recipes. Recipes include mushroom smothered chicken, ham and egg fried rice, banana muffins and smashed parmesan and roasted garlic potatoes. Each recipe includes calories, fat, carbs and protein. There is also a daily menu plan for 28 days spelling out breakfast, lunch, dinner and allowing you to select your own snacks. The back of the book includes a snack and calorie guide.

Kudos for Jackie and Diane for their tremendous weight loss accomplishment and thanks for sharing this new way of looking at how to do it!

Thoroughly enjoyable, readable, funny and serious at the same time. The concept makes sense and gives confidence that once the weight is lost, you are ready to keep it off. I like the been-there-done-that stories, makes their success all that more remarkable. The recipes are very good - not diet food but meals the whole family can enjoy.

Jackie & Diane asked themselves why diets failed THEM in the past and what it would take for THEM to succeed. It just so happens that I had the same issue.

The recipes are very simple and easy to follow. I am a non-cook so, this is important to me. With this book, you can fix meals that are not "diet" and can still lose weight. If you would like books that are good companion volumes to this book are:
Uncle Sam's Diet & The Step Diet (The Step Diet comes with a pedometer and is based on the data gathered by the National Weight Control Registry).

No book can be everything to everybody. I read this and had my "AHA" moment. Jackie & Diane point out that you need to take care of yourself because no one else will

A wonderful story of lonely girl who moves into a house and makes a new friend--the ghost of a girl who lived there years before. The story itself caught my son's attention, but the cleverly created photographic illustrations caused him to linger over the book after the text on the page had been completed. Each photograph has been carefully composed and edited to make the ghost appear ghostly while still conveying the idea of the scene and the photos illustrating imaginative moments succeed in making it look real and imagined all at once.

Although the product details list the reading for this book as 4- to 8-year-olds, I would suggest slightly older children would be more interested in this book. Although the reading level itself is rather easy, the illustrations take a back seat to the text and may not capture the attention of a younger audience. In addition, the nuances about friendship and loss described in the book are likely to be lost on younger readers; as another reviewer mentioned readers 10-12 might better appreciate the bittersweet aspects of the story. I think girls would generally find it more appealing than boys because of the focus on the girls and the ways the girls play together, but my son enjoyed this book, so don't count boys out of reading this altogether!

The only reason I give this book four stars instead of five is that the ending seemed a bit abrupt and left both my son and I a bit flat. It seems to cry out for a sequel, but Fuqua seems to have decided against that for now. Still, this is well worth a read, especially for a child who might be feeling a bit lonesome and needing a friend.

Catie's family has moved a lot, so when she meets Josephine, a girl who appears in her family's new home, she makes an instant friend. Their very different worlds and realities come together in Catie & Josephine, a blend of ghost story and novel, which receives Steven Parke's photographic blends of photo and drawings, throughout.

It's not every day that your kids look more forward to a book than the television, so I'm writing in just to say this book so mesmerized and captivated my audience, three little girls, that, as far as I'm concerned, it's perfect. So, get it for your kids, mine are between 5 and 10,(I suspect boys'll like it, too) and be glad that there's something out there that grabs their attention and holds it better than the television.

Wowwy. This book is funny and good and sad, sort of only a little bit at times. I loved it and Catie is fun and Josephine is a little different but really nice and I wish she was my friend because I would love to do magical fun things like they do. I also wish she was my friend because she would be fun to be freinds with. Catie is funny about the way she talks and plays and the art is like a movie. It's a super great book!

C&J is not just for readers 4-8 years old: It's sure to entertain the whole family. The story is rich and compelling with bittersweet undercurrents that will perhaps best reveal themselves to readers ages 10-12. The authentic dialog will amuse anyone who is or ever has been a kid or a parent, and the illustrations are stunning. This is an unusual and successful cross between a digitally-generated graphic novel and a children's (ghost) story, and its visuals are so unique that they alone deserve a special look. This book is ahead of its time and will surely herald an entirely new direction in (childrens') book illustrations. C& J is like reading a movie. Don't sleep on this one!

Let me start by saying that I know the game of soccer and am familiar with the rules of the game...BUT when coaching kids under 6 you can throw pretty much all you know out the window! This book is a great reference to coaching the little ones. It gives great insight into the do's and don'ts of coaching young children and offers lots of games as an alternative to "drills" that your Kindergartener or 1st grader will love. They learn the basics of ball handling and they don't even realize it! It walks you through step by step the first 6 practices and your first game day. It also gives you minute by minute sample practices and example letters for parents regarding the season and what your ultimate goal is. This is my first season coaching my 5 year old and this book has been essential to me.
Shelly

this book is a great tool for coaches in youth soccer, qick and easy description with pictures of all the little skills that makes the players and the game grand

I am a first time coach and knew next to nothing about soccer. This book has been a great help with my under 7 team, most of whom haven't played before. It's focus on fun games based on ball control makes a lot of sense. The kids are really enjoying their training and the other parents are very happy with what we're doing. I also think there's a lot in this book for the experienced coach who hasn't worked with kids this young.

As a newly recruited soccer coach for a 6-7 year old group, I needed a book that was well organized and gave me the information I needed in a concise way. This book covers the basics from start of the practice season to the end of the game season. The book is short, easy to read and has great insight into the best way to teach this young group--get everyone involved and have fun while the players learn. There are a lot of good suggestions for drills that keep this age group entertained but still allows you to teach. It packs a lot of information into it's small size.

A brand new soccer coach facing six very wild and unruly 6 year-old boys hoping I could teach them the basics of the game of soccer. No easy task. A key concept here is that we need to give very young kids the chance to try new things out, develop their confidence and have fun so they keep coming back - and that this is far more important than winning. This book was a lifesaver my first year. It was rained on, stepped on and dragged in and out of the equipment bag many times during the season. But under all that muck and abuse are some very creative ideas to get the kids engaged while also teaching them basic skills like dribbling, passing and defending. Great book.

To the practitioner: this book aptly shows how the concepts of good management can be applied in one's professional life and unabashedly explains that much of management is common sense (while admitting that common sense isn't very common).
To the lecturer: whether you're teaching freshman or experienced executives this is the book that will get your students interested in the study of management. It is the perfect introduction.
Students love it because it's affordable, short, and easy to read (particularly those who speak English as a second language). Teachers love it because, by presenting a wide succinct, spectrum of fundamentals, it provides an intelligent springboard from which a more in-depth examination can proceed.
Forget all the other 300+ page, hundred-dollar-or-more verbose introductory management texts. The Concise Handbook of Management is the best way to begin your business or management curriculum and/or brush up on your management skills.

This little gem, which graciously (and refreshingly) operates under the concept that less is more, reads like a Cliff Notes on Management. As far as I can tell, it's also one of the very few management books out there that understands and emphasizes the importance of customers - then backs this imperative up in every chapter. In addition, because the entire book is condensed and to the point (none of the chapters is over four or five pages in length), it is very reader friendly. All in all, Jonathan Scott must be one of the most easily understandable authors writing about management today.

I teach at both the (under) graduate and post-graduate levels and have found that students (whatever their age or experience) cannot fully grasp in-depth or abstract management theory without a solid understanding of basic management principles. This book fills that bill. It injects the saturated subject of management with a directness, clarity and conciseness that is difficult to match. Perhaps the reason for this is that the author is not an academic, but rather a professional writer and successful practitioner who managed a number of businesses in several different countries. What a difference application makes. The book's short, anecdote-laden layout, bristling with substantial and timeless research, makes for a quick and easy read and the importance of customer orientation is carried throughout. If I could award ten stars to this nifty and valuable book, I would gladly do so.

Author Jonathan Scott returns the subject of management to its rightful position as a human endeavour, not a mathematical one. Chapter One is the opening salvo, setting the tone by focusing on what management really entails (forget all the academic nonsense you've heard). Scott insists that accountability, hard work, integrity, training and maturity are the keys to business success and pulls no punches in explaining why they are necessary and how they can be acquired. Bravo!

Straight-forward and realistic without being patronizing or pedantic. This is one of the few management books out there that will open your mind, teach you things you didn't already know, force you to re-examine your own management methods and abilities and show you how all the different aspects of management are tied together. I highly recommend it.

This little-known book is, IMHO, one of the greatest books ever written. Reading it as a boy, I was puzzled by how it made everything seem so real in so few words - everything in it seems to have a life off-camera that we had just glimpsed part of.

I've decided to write reviews of the books that not only caught my attention early on, but lived in my memory all of these years, words and phrases coming unbidden to mind occasionally from a literary experience far removed but not forgotten - a spirit residing within your own as an old friend. This book was one that probably never got the acclaim it deserved, although I never spoke with anyone who didn't like it. If your culture or experiences spring from a youth originating in the West or Southwest, you will be enchanted with it because you will recognize parts of it as your own.

This is the "long hot summer" story of two boys, friends since infancy, South Boy, a white youth, son of an Arizona rancher, and Havek, a Mojave Indian boy - whose intertwined trails to maturity took one last summer to complete for them.

During the course of the summer,it takes you through the complex and oftentimes uneasy coexistence between white and indian culture; and the coexistence between the "cultured white" and the "earthy ranch people" is equally tenuous. In the words of the long haired outlaw foreman that ran the ranch for South Boy's father during one of South Boy's Learning Sessions: "Don't put no stock in those wild ideas of you mother's. She's a Lady. Naturally, she's ignorant!"

The adventure begins with the rising thermometer and a youth sleeping in the shade of the grape arbor - he makes his way to the river under the blazing summer sun, goes to sleep on an overhanging limb with the muddy water flowing beneath him; and there Havek finds him "with a dream on his face". Havek is aspiring to become a "great person", is of an age to take a better name for himself in the Mohave tradition; and reads into South Boy's slumber something South Boy is reluctant to dissuade him from for appearances sake, so he agrees to travel "name taking" with him.

They spend one last glorious summer together as adolescents blundering through the Arizona mesquite and greasewood, in a variety of scenarios, some curiously noble, some ill-conceived and dangerous - before the final departing from the comfortable innocence of childhood, where a friend is a friend regardless of anything else; and moving into the complex world of the adult where nevermore will their friendship be as simple as it was on the banks of the slow-flowing, muddy river that day. It is evident in a very poignant scene as they are returning home after the adventure of death, rituals, ignorance, survival, all stunningly woven by Mr. McNichols into a tale spawned from the living of some of it, you can tell. The mesa is awash in rain water dropped by a violent storm after a long draught; South Boy suddenly applies the teachings of the "Foreman" to his immediate reality and comes up with the idea that he can make a lot of money putting weak, cheap cattle on it. Havek, on the other hand, is on his way home to celebrate his new name with his people, and "financial gain" is of absolutely no interest to him - and there they go their separate ways, each to the world he springs from, the same physical world, but in all other ways as different as the ideals and teaching that shaped them.

One feels a certain sadness that it should be so and most of us probably secretly wish that we could reside in our youth forever, never growing up.

McNichols crisp writing, detailed knowledge of Mojave Indian and Colorado Desert ranching, and realistic plot make this a genuinely timeless work., My tattered copy was given to me 45 years ago by the writer Madge Harrah. Every half decade or so I dig it out and read it again. It taught me to write and, in a way, was a model for my North Of Nowhere. Bravo Charles!

South Boy goes with his friend Havek on a Mojave name-quest. It sounds simple -- but under the surface is a breath-taking wealth of experience, mythology and understanding of the many personalities in one person, or one horse, or one culture. Every sentence of this book is laden with knowledge of its time and place. Even the mention of the "little yellow catfish," about which no more is said than that they "make good eating," reflects the fact that in this period the US Government seeded the Colorado river with the Yellow Catfish, a transplant from Texas. This is the key to the book -- that everything is in flux, as two cultures melt together, and new ways try to live with old ways. The ending seems to be a conclusion -- until you realize that it's only one more step to escape from final decisions. The book begins a long way before the first sentence -- and would finish a long way after the last. Dreams and visions reverberate through the telling, and Great Things are done.

Having recently moved to Mohave County in Arizona (not far from the Colorado River), I was interested in reading "Crazy Weather" to get a little of the "flavor" of the area, and to learn something about the Mojave Indian culture as well. The book lived up to my hopes in both of those respects, but what surprised me was how absorbed I became in the story itself. On one level, it's a simple adventure story involving South Boy (who's actually white but was partially raised by Mojaves and was given that name by them) and his best friend Havec (a Mojave) as they travel up the Colorado River into Piute territory --- and in some places it almost reminded me of Huck Finn travelling along the Mississippi with the runaway slave, Jim, and meeting an assortment of characters along the way. On another level, though, it's really about the challenges of truly understanding another culture and way of thinking --- and in the end the pull of their respective societies is too strong and the two friends inevitably have to part and follow their separate destinies.

The author seems quite knowledgable about Mojave culture and history, as I've confirmed from subsequent readings on the subject. If you're interested in the American Southwest, the Colorado River, native American cultures, or just a good story, I think you'll enjoy this book.

Janssen knows his therapy and knows his history. With masterful ease he weaves the two together in his work with the dying and allows us to peek over his shoulder as he does so. I've not read another book like this. Truly excellent!

What is it that people go through as they are dying? Is one person's experience like another's? How do those who work with them help the person and her family with their journey? These are just a few questions that are answered so vividly in Janssen's book. Not only are we a fly on the wall during some intimate talks, but Janssen also allows us to see how a therapist can assist in helping to find meaning in this life as it is drawing to a close. In addition to being a good therapist, Janssen's expansive breadth and knowledge of history is apparent. The historical events woven around the stories add to the experience and allows the reader to see similarities where you would be sure there weren't. Whether you are a scholar, a curious bystander, medical professional, dying person or a loved one, this is a definite read. You will be glad you did.

This is a touching book... The stories are told with a clear, very real, voice. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some perspective, hope, or insight into the joy and sorrow of life.

This is a "MUST READ" book for hospice workers, doctors, nurses, any one with a loved one who is ill, those who have lost a loved one, or, any one who has a love of history and mankind. What an out standing book. The sensitivity and caring that the author displayed has blown me away.

This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. Its very premise is compelling and the real-life stories of the people in this book are honest, sincere and captivating. The way that this book was written and organized is very clever and original. The way that each family's experience was interwoven with an interesting and poignant story from history was incredibly creative and very purposeful. As I read the stories of courage and dignity in the midst of human tragedy and suffering, I was inspired and uplifted. The author's insight into the "human journey" is amazing. His reflective and profound observations throughout the book often had me nodding as I read thinking to myself, "Hey, I never thought about it that way before". The thoughtful and compassionate way in which the author assisted his hospice patients and their families in their most difficult moments is an inspiration to anyone and everyone who has had to face losing someone they love. In my opinion, Dawn is Never Far Away is a must read for anyone who is struggling with saying goodbye to a loved one, to everyone in the hospice/medical/counseling field, to history buffs who want a pragmatic way to utilize the lessons of those who have come before us and most importantly, to anyone who wants an insightful and uplifting book that will inspire them in profound ways. I highly recommend this book, it will definately change the way you live your life.

This book is for Young Adultsand older. It's a true historical and depicts a more simple and basic way of life. The contents are suitable for any age group. It's more than just bare bones historical facts and dates. It goes to the heart of the people who lived the story. Emotions come to the surface and simple pleasures are relived, fears surface and a wide range of raw apprehensions and a subtle suspense creeps in at times. The key word was survival.

He had been chozen by her mother, and the marriage ceremony had been a simple affair beside her mother's dying bedside. DELPHIA'S new husband was a railroad man---helping lay the tracks for the railroads that would criss-cross the country. He was a good worker, and (as her mother had shrewdly surmised) a good provider, but he had no roots nor a place he called home. Now DELPHIA gathered everything into a covered wagon and prepared for her journey into the unknown with a stranger---

He had been chozen by her mother, and the marriage ceremony had been a simple affair beside her mother's dying bedside. DELPHIA'S new husband was a railroad man---helping lay the tracks for the railroads that would criss-cross the country. He was a good worker, and (as her mother had shrewdly surmised) a good provider, but he had no roots nor a place he called home. Now DELPHIA gathered everything into a covered wagon and prepared for her journey into the unknown with a stranger---

This is a profile of the frontier woman---the biography of Delphia Eliza Odell Reoh and her journey from Kansas to Oklahoma in a covered wagon. Delphia's husband was chosen by her mother, and she struggled with tubuculosis. This book chronicles her wild ride in the Oklahoma Land Rush, and encounter with a mad dog. Frontier women struggled with birth, death and bed bugs while establshing a home. They settled in Spokogee--- present-day Dustin. Delphia bore eight children and lost three before they reached adulthood. Delphia's last journey took her to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, near present-day Raymondville, where she and her husband established a farm. All are buried in the Raymondville cemetery, but the name endures in the Valley.

I was thrilled to be able to read this account of my great-grandmother. I got to meet her once when I was very small; little did I realize the life she had lead.

The book takes you into her life. You feel what she feels and you see her life through her eyes. You understand her fears, her pride, and realize the tact she used in dealing with her quiet, intense husband.

The book recounts a time gone past. It vividly describes south Texas and what is was like to live there. You see this young woman who is reticient about south Texas, age to an elderly woman who loves the valley.

It is a book like no other I have read. I recommed it highly.

this book is amazing!! Mr. Bellow is my teacher in Long Island, NY and he is the greatest teacher ever!! His book is one of the best i have read ever.

This book was incredible. Don't be fooled it is not based on or about that crappy movie. This book was great. I saw it online on some website about up and coming books / authors - oh man was this cool. A short book, but worth it. The writing is superb with a story that really gets under your skin. A great summer read - Derailed!

I am not in the habit of writing reviews for things I like, but this book was different. I work in New York City and saw someone reading this book on the subway riding home from work. Being curious, I asked the guy about it and he talked about the book for the next three stops. I ordered the book from Amazon and when I read it the night it arrived. I can't tell you stongly enough how great this book is. It has action, suspense, and a creepy ending that left me breathless. I hope that this gets turned into a movie or something - it is really an awesome story... check it out!

This book was great. I loved Derailed so much that I actually read it twice to go back and catch all the little hints which lead up to the big ending. The writing is really pretty. That may sound odd for a book that makes more than one reference a dead baby, but the language the author uses is really captivating and vivid. I just finished the Da Vinci code, and I must say that although this is a different style, this book was throughly entertaining and engaging. You all should read it - you won't be disappointed!

This book was really great! It is suspenseful, creepy, entertaining, and really enjoyable. I loved it and totally recommend it!

This is my third or fourth year with the Dilbert daily calendar, and once again I am not disappointed. At least 2 or 3 times a week I find myself laughing out loud when I read the strip of the day.

I'm a living and breathing creature of cubicle land. So I can very much attest to the fact that Scott Adams nails the proverbial nail on the head. Beware! This calendar is funny only because it is the Truth! Buy it, enjoy it and know that others out there feel your pain too.

Being stuck in a cubicle farm, I can (unfortunately) relate to almost all of the strips Dilbert represents. It also doesn't help I'm in IT either... for the government. ::ugh:: From managment's incomprehensible requests, to co-worker quirks and finally the almost endless cycle of meetings this one-a-day calendar manages to keep in tune with what goes on in my office.
I've still got 2003 wallpapered all over my cube... guess it's time to start making room for this year. I give it 4 stars. (Only Farside has made me laugh more)

Have you worked in a corporate setting? Then you'll connect with Dilbert.

Scott Adams has created a world all-too-familiar to us who delve into cubicles for employment. Laughing at his cartoons hurts a little because we work for bosses like the pointy hair guy. We know consultants like Dogbert, and Elbonia reminds of too many clients.

Planting this calendar in your cube is a safe way to say to your boss, "I'm on to you." It might not change the inefficient culture of overwork for not clear goal, but you'll feel better in the process.

I fully recommend the Dilbert daily calendar. It is fun, and unlike a monthly calendar, you get a new panel everyday. It stays fresh this way.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

I enjoyed every single cartoon, though sometimes they made me sad - they mirror real (big) company life, and I was more than once tempted to take the cartoon to my office and slip it onto the table of my boss... And so the cartoons help to endure the harder hours of business life! Maybe I can get a prescription for the 2004 calendar...?

A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.

The Raj Quartet comes to its spectacular conclusion with "A Division of the Spoils." Of the four books, I perhaps enjoyed this one the most. The main character (Guy Perron) is observant, funny, and human, so he's easy to like. He is a complete opposite of the story's antagonist, Ronald Merrick. The scenes in which they must work together (Perron is a sergeant and Merrick his officer) are some of the best. I could hardly put this book down and finished it in just a few days.

Please do not let the length of this series dissuade you from reading it! The books are all very compelling and well-written. If you like historical fiction, they are very much worth your time. I would recommend you watch the mini-series (I rented it from Netflix), read the 4 books, and then watch the mini again. You'll get quite a bit out of it that way.

Enjoy!

Anyone reading the reviews for the previous 3 books, knows I have struggled to read these series. However, Scott absolutely redeemed himself with this final book.

The first book focused on the British occupation of India during WWII and introduced us to the "Manners" case - the only interesting bit in a book that had long waffly passages describing India. Who needs to read a history book? This book would have done it... The 2nd book focused more on the "Layton's" and was much more readable as it was the changing India as seen through the eyes of a few key characters. The 3rd book was a boring repetition of the 2nd book and this last book, about the end of the British occupation and WWII was just brilliant!

Like his much more enjoyable 2nd book, this one is told almost exclusively through the eyes of key characters we met in previous books - and it introduces us to the rakish charm of Guy Perron. I always remember Charles Dance's interpretation of Guy Perron in the BBC series making a strong impression on me, but I found the character in the book even more engaging.

This last book in the series was absolutely stunning and made persevering through the whole series somewhat worth it. I say somewhat, because it has been a real trial getting through the denser parts of Books I and III and I wouldn't push this series on anyone, even though the last book is a literary accomplishment.

I try to think if this book is readable without having read the previous books, and although I suspect it is (Scott continues to go back over vast chunks of history from someone else's point of view), it would be a shallow interpretation without the reader gaining all the knowledge from the first 3 books.

This book is just as impressive as the three others of the Raj Quartet. Once again, the cast of interesting characters is huge; the atmosphere of the time is brilliantly captured and the variety of scenes/plots is well mastered. The book is instructive and yet enormously entertaining. The Raj Quartet is one of the most rewarding pieces of literature I have ever read.

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.