Shaw Books

This book is great. It really gave me a Christian perspective on some of the things I'm going through right now in middle school. I strongly recommend it.

Or perhaps it should say two English authors. I found it to be very entertaining, and very enjoyable.

From the back cover...

Lucian Southwood arrived from Jamaica bringing his young sister for a Season. Sighting an obituary for the third Earl of Radwinter, a family relation, he attended the funeral. He didn't expect that sight of him would cause the very young Dowager Countess to faint dead away!
He hadn't known that he was the exact image of the late Earl - nor had he realised that due to lack of any other family, he was now the fourth Earl. In amongst the upheaval this caused, Lucian knew that Marissa Southwood was someone who deeply attracted him - but it seemed she had buried her heart with her husband...

This was a very well-written book by a very good author (Eva Shaw). She writes a lot of non-fiction books, and this is just another one of her books that shows how great her writing is. I highly recommend this book!

Points to ponder through out the day, applicable to the needs in one's spiritual life are Scripturally based and are clearly and insightfully represented by Dr. Packer. I have read this book again and again for inspiration.

I had the pleasure of listening to the Rob Inglis audiobook version of The Hobbit on a recent long car trip. While I was already familiar with the story, I hadn't read it in a long time. Mr. Inglis' reading was very engaging and entertaining. His voices for the characters and singing of the included songs/poems were delightful.

I highly recommend this audiobook version of The Hobbit.

If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you will definitely enjoy this story of Bilbo Baggin's adventures and the discovery of the ring. Amazing story for anyone to listen to, and the narrator does an excellent job.

Our 10 year old and 7 year old sons and their mum are really enjoying this recording every time we get in the car. Mum thinks the reading by Rob Inglis is superb (he uses different voices for the various characters and the narration and also sings). The boys are gripped by the story. This is 10 CDs long so you need stamina. Our four year old son finds it boring because it is so long. Highly reccommended for 7 to 12 year old boys.

Bilbo is hysterical. Gandalf charms. The writing shines. If there were 6 stars I'd give it 7. That said, my 11 year-old daughter couldn't get into it. I'm not so sure the 4-8 year-old crowd (stated as the suggested audience on Amazon) is quite ready for this masterpiece; I'd say 10-14, or 10-110 rather. I loved the narrator and Tolkiens's vivid imagination. Things like Bilbo saying, "...and I missed second breakfast." Oh that delicious world of hobbits! Incredible. I adored every page.

I have found the Lord of the Ring trilogy (books and films) fantastic. However for those that have not read the Hobbit, it is a must. It sets the history and background for many of the critical elements of the trilogy. For those who have only seen the films, reading the book(s) will reveal soo much more that did not make the films. This is something you will enjoy now and reread for years ahead.

a bit hard to read, but the background of its creation was told; they are unfinished tales. however, it's a wider view to the history of LoR and others.

It's always been a wonder that Tolkien's banner works have succeeded to the extent that they have. The odd, inconsistent mixes of dialogue and sometimes-endless descriptive passages go against the grain of what is acceptable in entertaining literature. But the Hobbit and the trilogy do work, and work well.

The Silmarillion, on the other hand, goes over the edge, and the resulting work is swallowed up completely by dry lessons on culture and history that completely obliterate any effort at establishing character. The efforts to completely cover vast periods of time and geography is admirable, but not very enjoyable.

After reading the first four books, I was disappointed. I understand that there are two more movies in the works, the first one based on the Hobbit and the second one bridging the Hobbit with the first Ring movie. That bridge movie is likely to draw heavily from the Silmarillion, and I think that will be the most entertaining approach possible to this material, what with the epic battles, etc.

It's rare that I recommend someone watch the movie over reading the book, but this is one of those cases.

I've always loved the Silmarillion ever since that first read a long age ago. I've since reread the book over a dozen times and have gone through five paperback copies. With time in an ever decreasing spiral when it comes to career and life, I thought an audio version would help me in my desire to keep the story fresh and alive in my head. It was wonderful to have on my drives to work and other places.

The Silmarillian is a work completed and published posthumously by Tolkien's son, Christopher. It is the bible of Middle Earth and contains a much abbreviated taste of several other tales and books of Middle Earth, including: The Children of Hurin and The Lord of The Rings. This is where you'll find the legend of Beren Erchamion and Lúthien Tinúviel, family trees, and the relationships of the free peoples of Middle Earth. It begins at the beginning of the birth of Middle Earth, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, of good and of evil. Must reading for the Tolkien scholar, informative reading for the Tolkien fan, and entertaining reading for the passive listener.

i absolutely love the book, so i figured why not try the audiobook for my holidays. Martin Shaw reads the book brilliantly. And it really helps you focus on the imagination of the book because he does the hardwork for you.
I would strongly recommend knowing the book before listening to this collection though, as if you don't know the names and maps etc, you just wont keep up with martin (not that he's too fast, but rather Tolkien constantly creates new characters and locations chapter after chapter).
The only downside to the CD collection is that it is in a great box, but has 13 normal-sized CD cases in there, each with no sleeve.
It would be better if either the cases had sleeves or they came in slimmer cases or sleeves, thus reducing the size of the box.

all in all. a great buy

This movie is the best Alice in Wonderland ever made it is for children as well as adults.

my kids watched this over and over on vhs, I just had to get the dvd, lots of famous movie stars acting silly.

I remembered waiting to see this on T.v. when it came out. I always wanted to see it again, so was so excited when I found it on DVD. It was as great as I remember. So many outstanding actors and some surprises. The songs are captivating and the costumes outstanding. It is a for T.V. program, in the 80's, and it looks that way. Still it doesn't take away from the quality and enjoyment of the program. It's dramatic and asks one to buyin to that type of show. All the kids I've shown this to, love it. Classic!

This is a wonderful version of Alice in Wonderland! I watched it when it was on tv, and am so happy to finally have it on DVD!! It has so many stars, and you don't even notice how long it is!! It is so great to finally be able to share this movie with my kids, which they enjoyed! I love this movie, and recommend it to all!!

I watched this movie so many times when I was a kid that we had to re-tape it because the tape got worn out. The DVD version seems to have been redone, so the picture quality is great!

These comments are for the Freddie Jones reading of Hound for Penguin Audiobooks. It's abridged -- the packaging doesn't make this clear; it's in fine print on the back. However -- it's a very good abridgement; unless you know the story practically line by line, the cuts are very unobtrusive. My advice is have a copy of the print version, and listen to this one in the car or at bedtime, knowing it isn't complete. Freddie Jones gives it a very good reading, absolutely drenched in Victorian gothic atmosphere. I would recommend it.

The baskervilles has an interesting history and when Sir Charles Baskerville the 1 of the last living or was 1 of the last living decendents of the Baskervilles is found dead on the grounds of Baskerville Hall The legend of the hellhound hounts the moor is the hellhound real well that is what the greates detective in the world Mr. Sherlock Holmes wants to find out but he Mr.Holmes has to find the legend hellhound before the legend or hellhound finds him.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson discuss what can be deduced from a walking stick left behind by a visitor. When the visitor returns he tells of the old legend about the hound of the Baskerville family, and how Sir Charles Baskerville died recently. Dr. James Mortimer found the footprints of a gigantic hound twenty yards from the body! There have been sightings of a huge hound on the moors at night. A new heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, arrives from Canada to take over the Baskerville property; he is the last of the line. Will he meet the same evil fate? Holmes makes an appointment to meet Sir Henry the next day. Holmes peers over the Ordnance map of that area. Has any crime been committed (Chapter 3)? Sir Henry tells of a warning letter sent to his hotel; who knew he was there? Why would anyone steal just one of his new boots? Would anyone follow Sir Henry? Dr. Watson will accompany Sir Henry back to Baskerville Hall; there is less danger in a small village than in London. Dr. Watson must keep his revolver near and never relax his precautions (Chapter 6).

The moor country is described as wild and sparsely settled. Dr. Watson reports his observations of the people who meet with Sir Henry. Watson sees the dangers of the great Grimpen Mire when a pony is caught in a bog and killed. There are stone huts from prehistoric man. Watson meets Stapleton the naturalist and then his beautiful sister (who tells him to go back to London). Stapleton had once been a schoolmaster (Chapter 7). Watson sends letters to Holmes in London (Chapter 8). Mr. Frankland has a passion for litigation. He also observes the country with a telescope on his roof. Why was Stapleton so angry (Chapter 9)? What was the secret of the Barrymores? Watson meets Laura Lyons and hears her secret story (Chapter 11). What did she hold back? Mr. Frankland observed the stone huts. Then Watson hears a terrible scream from the moor (Chapter 12). Holmes has the solution to a cold-blooded murder, but lacked definitive proof. Holmes studied the portrait of the wicked Sir Hugo. Then plans are made for the night's activities. Will an unexpected fog create a complication? Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade rescue Sir Henry from a murderous fate. The villain escaped to a hiding place on the moor, but justice wasn't cheated. Chapter 15 ties up the loose ends.

This may be the most popular of Doyle's four Holmes novels. It does not involve a religion, a company town, or imperial looting. Did Doyle implicitly criticize a hereditary aristocracy that passed down evils to each generation? The character traits of the villain seem like those in true crime stories. Inheritance through murder has inspired other stories ("The List of Adrian Messenger"). There is one flaw in this story. How could the purchase of food for a giant hound be kept secret? Sherlock Holmes could question the grocers and butchers in the area to find the owner of that giant hound.

"The Hound of the Baskervilles," originally published in 1902, is an engrossing "who-dun-it" murder mystery, featuring observant detective Sherlock Holmes and his comparatively humble partner Dr. Watson at their best. Labelled "a classic among classics" by mystery aficionados, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterfully written tale poses the problem--who killed Sir Charles Baskerville?--and offers well-placed clues en route to uncovering the resolution. Set a few hours by train from London on the eerie Devonshire moor, where commoners affirm occasional sightings of a huge black hound-shaped beast, the story offers a suspenseful blend of science and the supernatural, with infallible Holmesian logic predictably winning out by story's end.

My only reservation about the book is that it is perhaps a little too formulaic in composition. Among the murder suspects are many: the butler Barrymore and his wife, the neighboring Dr. Mortimer, the argumentative lawyer Frankland with his telescope, the energetic butterfly catcher Stapleton and his sister, the typist Laura Lyons in the adjacent village, the escaped convict Selden, a mysterious black-bearded man seen in London, and, of course, the elusive hound who murmurs and roars on the moor. Watson's thorough narration and detailed letters to Holmes carefully lead us step-by-step through many of the possibilities; however, in my opinion, the overall plotline is more methodical and prematurely revealing than it needs to be. Already by two-thirds of the way through the story, when Holmes, who is supposed to be in London, surprisingly appears on the moor as "the man on the tor," we learn who the murderer must be, and the remaining one-third of the book is devoted to detective-style collection of evidence and explanation and recap of the mystery. That's fine as a study for detectives-in-training, but might the book have had a chance of rising higher as a great work of literature if the author had put more effort into concealing Holmes' conclusion until later in the story, thereby creating a more sustained degree of suspense and intrigue?

For the benefit of anyone who has not yet read the book, I do not want to give too much away, but as a hint in solving the murder mystery I will say that it helps to "follow the money" as you read. After childless Sir Charles, who had made his fortune in overseas speculation, mysteriously dies, next-of-kin nephew Sir Henry returns to England to take control of the estate. Assuming there is some financial motivation for the crime, as there usually is, who among the suspects, especially in light of their past circumstances and misfortune, could profit most from seeing both Charles and Henry dead? Clue: no, the butler didn't do it!

The setting is the star of Arthur Conan Doyle's atmospheric "The Hound of the Baskervilles," his most popular Sherlock Holmes story. With its barren fog-shrouded wastes, Neolithic ruins, and the treacherous Grimpen Mire, the bleak moor Doyle describes in such delicious detail is the ideal background for a creepy Gothic mystery. Does a cursed hellhound stalk the last heir to the Baskerville fortune? Only Sherlock Holmes can answer that, but for a good portion of the novel Watson is left to investigate on his own. The absence of the hyper-rational detective allows the supernatural mystique of this puzzle develop without distraction before the master detective steps in to dispel the mystery. This is an uncommonly fun read.

The Cd begins with the powerful witches scene-great music-definitely causing my students to sit-up and listen.

The Dover Thrift Edition is a good choice for a reading text because it presents the entire, unabridged play, and has enough notes to be helpful to inexperienced readers without overwhelming or distracting them. The omition of a scholarly apparatus makes the Dover Edition more flexible and keeps it from becoming outdated.

This product was great. It helped my students and I read and comprehend Macbeth so much better than us trying to read it and comprehend it. The actors voices are great! I think they do a great job being the characters on tape!

Virtually all editions of Macbeth will have at least some annotations. Rummaging through five different editions, I preferred the Yale University Press version, edited by Burton Raffel, as having the most comprehensive and comprehensible notes, as well as an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's play. Raffel not only explains the meanings of obscure words, but also gives brief notes pertaining to relevant history, geography, stage directions, etc, that are rarely addressed as fully by other editors. In addition, Raffel frequently gives the proper way to stress the syllables in a line when reading it aloud, which can be extremely helpful. (However, in most places these stresses need to be very subtle, so that you don't sound like "taDUM taDUM taDUM".) And Yale's page layout is among the clearest that I've seen.

(To find this edition: at Avanced Search, enter ISBN 0300106548; or, enter Macbeth as title, and either Raffel as author or Yale as publisher.)

As a bonus, this edition includes at the back a long essay on the play by Harold Bloom. This is not an uninteresting commentary, but Bloom desperately needs a good editor. His essay is not only at least three times longer than it should be, but is startlingly repetitious. Yale would have been wise to have asked Bloom for a rewrite.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a dramatist whose genius is universally acknowledged, with a reputation as an actor, playwright and poet. He lived in an age of vast and significant changes characterised by the rise of the middle class and of a centralised government and the disappearance of medieval religious beliefs. England was transforming into a modern state. This was a time when self-realisation, self-respect and boldness of thought and action was idealised. Shakespeare's drama merely reflected the dramatic times of the age.

Shakespeare's genius can be reflected by the variety of his productions, where out of the 36 plays he has left, no two are alike and he managed to articulate the diverse subjects with exceptional expertise, handling both tragedies and comedies with ease.

Macbeth is a tragedy, intended to teach us a lesson about the human condition. The play is a tragedy about a wealthy Scottish noble called Macbeth who kills his king to gain the throne. During Shakespeare's time, this was a terrible thing to do, and from then on, Macbeth was doomed to die a tragic death.

The play starts with three witches confronting the great Scottish general Macbeth on his victorious return from a war between Scotland and Norway. The witches predict that he will one day become king. They also predict that another General called Banquo will be the father of kings, although he will not ascend the throne himself. The Scottish king, Duncan, decides that he will confer the title of the traitorous Cawdor on the heroic Macbeth. Macbeth, with the urging of his evil and ambitious wife murder King Duncan and ascends to the throne of Scotland.

Macbeth and his evil wife begin to do strange things, partly because of what they have done and also because they never get a whole night's sleep. Macbeth thinks he has to kill two of his former friends because he believes that they threaten his new throne. His efforts fail and he is eventually killed.

What a treat for me. I had never before read a "swashbuckling" adventure story. Despite not understanding anything about ships and sailing(lots of the language was foreign to me) I was totally engrossed and caught up in the universal themes of strong family and friendship bonds, loyalty, revenge, good vs. evil, etc. To its credit, this book just takes you away. It reads very quickly(once you skip over nautical stuff).

An exciting read that is a kind of cross between Treasure IslandTreasure Island: The Graphic Novel (Puffin Graphics) and Anthony Adverse in Africa
Anthony Adverse in Africa. It has a little too much sexual content for even an high school level
but not very exceptional for popular novels today.
Details of sea life and the hardships of prisoners is vivid
and realistic, but the compounding of gun powder in the African wilderness is very unlikely.
Some suspension of credibility is to be expected with such fiction.
That there were wars between the colonial powers:
Belgium
France
Holland ( Netherlands)
England
Germany
Portugal
Spain
in Africa is not to be doubted. That the wars were this
extensive, this early is somewhat doubtful.
The matchlocks used match the ones in the film The Seven SamuraiSeven Samurai - Criterion Collection - 3-Disc Remastered Edition
as a Dutch weapon. The English of this period actually used Flintlocks
which needed no slow match from what I have read.

I was disappointed in this one because I was expecting something as well-researched and based in history as the old Hornblower novels. Suffice to say this one ain't.
It is riddled with historical inaccuracies. There was no war between the Moghuls and the kingdom of "Prester John" at that time. And there are so many little details which a modicum of research would have revealed, such as the (Urdu speaking) Moghul Maharaja speaking Arabic, or a description of what is obviously a hummingbird (which lives only in the Americas) -- small points but when I say this sort of thing was repeated ad nauseum you get the message.
Smith even borrows an incident from "Hornblower and the Atropos" in which someone is shot in the chest but the bullet travels around the rib to the back, where it lodges and causes fever and inflammation. Forster uses the incident for character development (the wound is the result of a duel between two cantankerous individuals; the wounded man is absolutely vital to Hornblower's mission and the other duelist is the doctor who has to save him while Hornblower is all but tearing his hair out). In Smith's hands, however, the wound is simply part of a battle and the extraction of the bullet the excuse for as much gore, pus, agony, etc., as he can lay on.
Also, I HAVE to ask: is anyone out there familiar with fencing or swordfighting? I've done a little fencing, and the climactic fight in which Hal kills the evil Colonel Schreuder turns on a trick of swordfighting which simply doesn't make sense to me. It sounded odd when I read it, then I tried to visualize it, then it seemed like nonsense. I even got a couple sticks and tried it out with aanother friend of mine who's a better fencer than I. It just doesn't work.
I gave it two stars because if you like gore, sex, and fantasy in a historical cloak, this is OK.

This was my first Wilbur Smith book. I thought it was all right for an adventure genre. There is enough historical research to add color. And it certainly moves along well. Many of the events are not believable, but you can say the same for James Bond. The book jumps between history and legend easily and superficially. Boys grow into manhood overnight. Women fall deeply in love by seeing someone from afar. Crocodiles are much more aggressive than in real life. But it is easy reading for passing a few hours.

Birds of Prey was my first Wilbur Smith Novel. Being a person that makes a living on the ocean I am attracted to novels about the great sailing ships of the past. Everything I had read about Wilbur Smith led me to believe that this would be a novel that I couldn't put down. In the beginning that was true. The main characters were interesting. I didn't expect the explicit sex scenes that are scattered throughout the novel. Mr. Smith's main hero throughout the book is young Hal Courteney. His sexual exploits are described in vivid detail in the first half of the book, but then as the book progresses become more like what I would expect from an adventure novel. I am not sure that the earlier sex scenes really added to the book. The St. Martin's Paperback version that I have is over 660 pages. It was a long read and you could actually divide the book into two halves. The first is while Sir Frances Courteney (Hal's Father) is driving the action in the story. The second is when Hal is the lead. The first half of the book is filled with intrigue and vivid battles scenes (and sex scenes). The second half of the book seems to have been an after thought. All the vivid drawn out scenes from the first half become a few paragraphs of quick victories for young Hal. You wait and entire 600 pages for Hal to face his Dutch antagonist. When it finally happens I can call it at best anti-climactic. He defeat's another ship easily and his other foil dies pretty unceremoniously. Forgive me, but when I put 600 + pages of time into a novel waiting for these two show downs (which you know at page 300 are coming) I expected more! Much more. Cut out the pages of Hal's sexual exploits and make the final scenes of the book worth the time I invested in this novel.
Having said all this the book was okay. The book's strength was the early vivid descriptions of Europeans seeing Africa for the first time. You could imagine what they must have been seeing. What a crocodile must be like for someone who has never seen nor heard of one. The fear they felt when the crocodile's got a hold of someone in the water. The book's weakness was the quick tidy ending. I am not upset that the good guys win; I expect that in an adventure novel. I was just disappointed that this was an after thought and wrapped up cleanly with a lot of luck.
I am not sure that I for one will invest another 600+ pages in a Wilbur Smith Novel in the future.