Wagner Books

The idea of having your own business and being your own boss sounds like a fantasy come true. Unfortunately, although many individuals have the dream, not everyone actually follows through on entrepreneurship. Furthermore, off those people who do start their own businesses, many fail within the first three years simply because the entrepreneur doesn't have the skills, the know-how, or the right personality to do the job at hand.

The Entrepreneur Next Door primarily looks at personality types. The book identifies seven different personality types: Trailblazers, Go-Getters, Managers, Motivators, Authorities, Collaborators, and Diplomats. These groupings are based upon levels of dominance, sociability, relaxation, and compliance. The first four personalities in this list are labelled generalists and tend to be natural entrepreneurs while the final three categories include specialists that tend to be more successful when they find a particular entrepreneur opportunity that matches their area of expertise.

I found these personality categories very interesting and helpful. At first, it didn't seem like the category closest to my personality actually suited me. However, after going through the chapters on how each personality type leads, learns, sells, and what ticks them off, I realized that the information was quite insightful and useful in my business planning and strategies.

The Entrepreneur next door explains just what makes up the entrepreneurial spirit and how it is different from others. This book will help you to understand why entrepreneurs can start a business while others can't seem to get past dreaming, take a test to find out if you have what it takes to start your own business, be succesful and make more money.

Great business books not only tell you how it is - but also call you to action. Read it and act!

Excellent book that gave me helpful insight for my own career and that of managing others.

WOW! I couldn't put it down. I read the entire thing in one sitting and it is full of notes and stars and underlines. It is like having Bill Wagner in a Book! I've known something about the science of psychometrics for years now, and this work makes it more understandable and user friendly, but more importantly, it reflects compassion and a balance for using it in a way to grow people and organizations using Bill's four tier process. This is a complete tour de force on unveiling the secrets of getting the right people on the bus. (And making sure you are prepared to drive) I will be recommending it as required reading to my CEO clients.

I thought that this was a very good book especially for the novice carpenter or do-it-yourselfer. This book is very informative with easy to understand pictures and drawings. It does not go too in depth on certain subjects, but it is still everything you need to at least get started on a project. The only thing that I noticed as I was reading, was that a couple of the roof rafter calculations were incorrect, but they were not hard to figure out.

I have a ton of home improvement type books, since I am a pro handyman - largely self taught. This book is hard to get through. It is cumbersome and poorly organized. Not recommended.

This book provides good and valuable advice for those who, like me, have zero knowledge about the involved techniques for building a framed house. From beginning to the very last page, the book is full of color pictures and didatic explanations that help the reader feel confident enough to get started. As wood frame houses are not common in my country (it's pratically non existent) and as I am thinking of starting a business based on such construction technique, I am sure this material is providing me with the most important information. Strongly recommended!

Lots og information in an easy to read layout. Well written and easy to flow. I plan on using the inforation to build my own cabin in northern Wisonsin.

House Framing, Plan, Design, Build, is a very good overview for a novice that is planning to build or add to a home. It does a good job of covering the basics, but is not enough detail for someone to use to completely frame a house or addition.

I bought this book used and it came like brand spankin new condition!
It's a real cute book for the price and has some really crafty ideas in it.

Design ideas for gift bags; recipes to fill them. Most recipes contain basic ingredients. I have found that coming up with a "last minute" gift is simple with just a quick review of the pages.

Excellent craft book! Extremely helpful with gift bag ideas. A must for crafters!

I haven't been able to put this book down since I received it! The instructions and are very clear and understandable. The pictures make it easy to re-create the many projects that are in this book. And most everything is made from everyday products you probably already have around the house!

I couldn't wait until I received this book. I took it with me everywhere and read it every chance I got. I have made several crafts and recipes from this book and found them to be the best gifts I had given to anyone. Friends of mine at work asked where to purchase the book because they thought all the items in this book were great! I would love to own the whole Memories in the Making Series.

At no point in Miss America does the reader suspect anything in the entire world might be commonplace. In spite of this, Wagner provides many common spaces: magazines, restaurants, commutes, "bitchy thoughts." Unfamiliar blendings throughout this unfaltering book establish skewed, new vistas.

A quite original collection of contemporary lyric exercises that marry O'Hara and Catullus with Spicer and Notley. The poems track the construction of a lyric identity, showing the self as an amalgam of experiences and cultural influences. These cultural influences range from Wittgenstein to Sports Illustrated and the experiences range from waiting tables to waiting for a lover.This unique inclusivity reminds us what poetry and the world might contain.

Miss America is luminous and rewarding. Catherine Wagner has given us a book of poetry that is profoundly unpretentious, honest and goddamn brave. Though the arrangement of language may at times seem demanding, one gets the feeling that the poems are demanding infinitely more from themselves than they demand from us. Poems like "Bleak Apt" and "When I Asked You to Marry Me" have illuminated my stupidities for me more than once, and have kept inviting me back. Miss America is generous company.

CATHERINE WAGNER's work attacks from a primordial angle. Emerson, calling for a true American poet, said that language is a fossil record of poetry: every word was once a poem. If poetry is, therefore, some kind of life-animal, then Catherine Wagner's Miss America is a glorious beast.

Her first book is cocksure and wailing, stinky, rude, and actually happening. Miss America is not self-thrilled by its (her?) own intentions and inventions, but running fast ahead of them. We have here the strangely visceral truths that fall from children's mistranslations, something undeniable slipped from the angry, drunk, or otherwise possessed. Wagner warns us of herself (and her propensity to invent words) right from the start. The opening poem of the book begins: "nigh said I made that up to / get some sweeteye from you all / some glance at me even if my / story is boring and a lie / . . . and who...cares they don't / want me to be likem and borem / everybody dead. / Since I been here SCARED / and my natural EBULLISHNESS / held back by a warning finger. / Mo lady! Poop it out!"

Anyone who thinks this is babytalk should remember how we react when encountering a talking baby: fascinated and mesmerized. The further these nascent communications seem to be from "language," the closer they feel to an emotional core. Wagner's tongues, however, are never an escape from meaning. As she tell us in "Poem for Poets & Writers," "I like understanding so much I want it to happen over and over." Wagner is not just playing with the readymade materials of poetry, she is working from inner fiat: "Not here with joy but under pressure / from my superego" ("A Poem for Art in America," one of her "Magazine Poems").

On the contrary, this book does include joy (much of it, um, very natural). "I Am Darling You" begins "let me king around / you king all over, mighty" and continues, building gut-felt affection with mere words: "slavish all over me, please. // Darned mighty, sleeping, / oyster eyes. // Feel little. Little my head to sleep. // I suffer you, you basic." The final line of this poem, if read alone, would remain the merely prosaic: "He made enough for me to take to lunch." But the pressurized accumulations of off-phrased adoration force something miraculous into this final sentence. By the time the reader reaches the last line, each of its words tremor with the bursting love that speaks it. We suddenly experience the no-difference between correct and incorrect when human feeling overwhelms language.

Wagner's yawps run from the clever/cultural ("If you are Gwyneth / You are never toenails on my rug / Abounding") to the crisis/existential. But, as we see in "Café Rouge," even the cerebrum's old complaints about its fetid meat-vehicle are freshly horrifying to Wagner's mind:

Shoulderblades frayed the cloth I'm made of
Sewn up my neck round speaking hole
and ragged with snot
pale salmon concealer sodden
I pick and pick the seam all day
does I really think anything covers me up
this my swan is it

Wagner dives more into the skin than the conscious mind to find her way. These poems are raw, pre-lapsarian in their instinctual connections (not to mention their naked and naughty refusal of sin); they feel more than our language usually allows us.

[note: a version of this review appears in Provincetown Arts magazine 2002]

I ordered this book because the cover blurbs reeled me in. This book is a fine example of an "original style," and there's nothing keeping me from recommending it, EXCEPT for the fact that I've seen pictures of Catherine Wagner, and she looks, at least to me, like a skinny white girl from a good family. I have a hard time with the voice in this book (which has been described as either "ethnic" or "baby talk") coming from this person. It just reminds me of how contrived poetry is these days. Plus, lets not fool ourselves, kids -- there really IS NOT much to grab onto if you're looking for social commentary in this book. It is another book that is wholly more about the language and innovative turns of phrase, than it is about saying anything (suprise, suprise?) I like this kind of poetry just as much as the next MFA candidate who has abandoned meaning altogether, but something about this book seems like a lie to me. Which would be the exact opposite of what this book claims to do: I guess.

I was disappointed when I got the book because I somehow ordered the hardbound book without a dust jacket and in LARGE PRINT, so it does not match her first book of that series. I don't know how this happened because I would not have ordered large print. It was not clearly marked when I placed the order. I wasn't interested in going through the mess of trying to box it up again and return it as I wanted to take it out of town to start reading it. I am disappointed there isn't better marking of the item before I placed the order. Otherwise, the author is excellent and the story terrific as always with Jane Kirkpatrick.

German Emma Giesy was independent and strong, determined, married to Christian five short years with a love that both thought would last forever, with two small children Andy and Kate. The struggle of everyday life consisted of always doing what the will of the community leader Herr Kiel dictated, but independent Emma was always trying to get Christian to leave the community but Christian felt they needed the community but did agree to stay in Willapa instead of going on to Aurora Mills as Herr Kiel wanted.

Than one day Christian doing what he did best helping others, drowned helping an old man save his belongings as he tried desperately to cross a river during a raging storm. Forced to carry on alone, not wanting the help of Christian's family or the community Emma sets out to raise her family on her own and run the homestead. A few days after Christian's death Emma finds herself pregnant with their third child and names him Christian, giving birth to him alone at the homestead. Emma is still determined to take care of her own children but Christian's family will not let her be. The worst telling her what she should and should not do in raising her sons but ignoring her daughter as though she is not important

Because of Christian's death Emma has even turned her back on God determined she doesn't need Him either. The final straw seemed to be while Emma was ill and Andy was staying with her in-laws they took him to Aurora Mills without even asking or telling her. She felt she had to do something for fear her in-laws would take her sons from her.

During her grieving time only one man proposed marriage to pick up where Christian left off and that was the strange Jack Giesy. She avoided his advances for a time than felt she had no choice thinking Herr Kiel and her in-laws were her enemies. Finally determined to protect her children she proposes a business proposition of marriage to Jack. Jack would have none of that wanting her as a wife in every sense. Fearing she had no choice agreed. From that point on her life turns from struggle to nightmare dealing with Jack's moods and outbursts of violence until she fears Andy will kill Jack. Emma knows she has to take the children and leave but where will she go?

Based on a true story this awesome story shows the ups and downs of the German community way of life during the mid to late 1800's under the rule of Herr Kiel and the life of Emma Giesy. You may find yourself just as I did routing for Emma in this page turner but humbled as she was to learn life's hard lessons and to depend upon the kindness of the very ones she considered her enemies. Multiple lessons for us all are woven within the pages of this novel, the biggest being the lesson of giving and receiving which we all must learn. The second book in the series author Jane Kirkpatrick has done an awesome job of bringing history alive. I truly like the extras included especially the interview with the author that explains so much more of the background. I highly recommend placing this one on your must read list!

A Tendering in the Storm is a must-read for historical fiction lovers. If you want insight into the hardships from the 19th century pioneers who left everything to move west hoping for a better life, then you'll love this story. If you find oppressive religious groups intriguing, you'll want to check this story out. If you'd like to reflect on how few rights women had in the mid-1860s then this is the book for you! To quote a cliche, We've come a long way, baby!

After finding the author's bio and reading that she is a certified social worker, I now see where she got her insight for this book. No dysfunction is easy to understand. All people are complex. But there are certain truths that exist in human nature and the author insightfully captured them all. Her illumination of the human heart and certain domestic issues is superb. I can't say what those issues are or I'll blow part of the storyline, but I will say that the subtly of how people are lured from their good senses--because of sometimes desperate situations--is expertly shown in this novel.

I loved this story. It's real. It's deep. It's edgy...and it's not at all boring.

A fictionalized true story doesn't always hit the mark, but Jane Kirkpatrick has got the gift! In the first book, "The Clearing in the Wild", one felt the harsh northwestern weather, tempered by the breaks of warmth and beauty that made it all worthwhile. And, what is more appealing than a heroine with an indomitable spirit! "A Tendering in a Storm" was eagerly awaited, as the story of Emma lingered long after the first book was back on the shelf. The story doesn't disappoint - as it just points out the reality that not everyone lives up to expectations, and sometimes the most heartfelt conviction must be set aside to do the right thing for those we love. Emma is a remarkable, strong, resiliant woman, and in these books, we learn how difficult it was to possess and hold on to those attributes in pioneer days. Could any of us show that strength if confronted with Emma's obstacles? It makes us ask the question. I love this series - it reminds me a bit of another written by Janice Woods Windle, about the "True Women" of the Texas "Hill Country" - two other fictionalized accounts based on real women fighting against unbelievable odds. Read these two while you're waiting for Kirkpatrick to write the third in this series. I'll be watching for it!

A Tendering in the Storm is the second book in the series, and the one that broke my heart. Emma and Christian are working on oyster farming in their home of Willapa, Washington, while the rest of Father Keil's group is living in the Aurora Colony in Oregon. Tragedy strikes leaving Emma alone and struggling to survive in the remote wilderness with three children. Again, Emma asserts her independence, this time to her entire family's detriment. I spent the entire book rooting for Emma and proud of her striving to take care of herself indepent of the colony so when she needs to turn to someone for help, at first I was disappointed. Then I did some soul searching and came to realize just how much like Emma I am. I don't like asking other people for help and will often resist doing so until I (and others) are suffering because of my stubborn pride. Emma hates owing anything to the colony and others and nearly breaks herself trying to keep the scales even, but comes to discover that we are stronger when we lean on each other. This is true of faith as well. There is absolutely nothing we can do to even the score with God. He loves us, He died for us, and He saved us. End of story. No amount of works can make us worthy, and this is a huge hurdle for me and my faith. I have a hard time accepting God's love, because I know it comes with the acceptance of my weakness. Like Emma, that's not easy for me. I learned so much about myself and faith from this book.

Magee ended up outdoing himself in his later work "The Tristan Chord". And this is worth overall 4.5 stars for the same reasons: balanced, eminently insightful writing and just enough quirkiness to keep the interest at a high level throughout.

I guess it says alot for this book that I knocked off a half star entirely for its brevity. You end up wanting MORE at the end. Maybe I should have just relented and given this one 5 huh?

More than any other figure in the classical Canon, Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) has provoked a dichotomy of passion in regards to his music, character and legacy. Bryan Magee's *Aspects of Wagner*, a series of concise, articulate essays about the composer and theorist, confronts both sides of the polarization, examining the essential components that inspire such adulation, probing with unusual insight the negative connotations ever associated with mere mention of the name.

These aspects, in brief:

THEORY: After the success of Lohengrin, Wagner took a six-year break from composing to recharge the cylinders, theorize and re-examine the operatic form. The result of this sabbatical would shake the foundations of the Canon. For Wagner, no longer would drama be a means to a musical end - window-garnishing syntax to embellish the sonic - instead, music would be the means with which to express the dramatic ~emotion~ of the piece. Music would emphasize, shift and elucidate to the passage of the text, a notion that has proved indescribably influential: the whole of modern film-symphonic owes its debt to this innovation.

JEWS: A virulent anti-Semitist, repelled by the physical aspect of Jews and critical of their compositional abilities - "shallow and artificial" - Wagner espoused these opinions in the public forum and, in reality, reflected the mindset of mainstream German society during his time. Further propagated by Wagner's widow and offspring, these views influenced Hitler as a youth and were taken verbatim for his totalitarian platform. Wagner's demand for Judiasm to be eradicated, via renouncement of faith and conversion to Christian theism, was corrupted by the Nazi propagandists as a call for physical annihilation. More fuel for the critical fire! And yet, one of Wagner's closest companions, Hermann Levi, was a Jew, and conducted the premiere of Parsifal; moreover, Wagner's worldview of pacifism and assimilation doesn't jive at all with the Fascist manifesto - the Nazis took what was useful and abandoned the 'feel good' vibes. Bryan Magee doesn't really address any of this, however: rather, he theorizes as to ~why~ Wagner considered Jews inferior artists, especially in regard to the fact that three of the dominant geniuses of our modern culture were Jewish - Marx, Freud and Einstein. Magee points to the cultural repression of Judaism throughout hundreds of years, an isolationist subjugation that was only beginning to disintegrate by the start of 19th century; the flowering of Jewish intellect - and assimilation of Western culture - would take several generations to unfold. The resultant revolutionary thought of the triumvirate above, undeniable in their influence, stemmed from an outward contemplation and subsequent deconstruction of the adopted conventional standards. Indeed, Wagner's original essays are surprisingly insightful as to the underlying reasons for the artifice of Jewish composers of his day, though the eventual intellectual aptitude they would bring to the table undoubtedly eluded the composer.

IDOLATRY: As much the subject of abject idolatry as venomous refutation, Wagner is a love-or-hate figure, with little ground of compromise between. Magee theorizes that this is because the music, in harmonic construction and theme, gives expression to all that unconscious and repressed in the human mind, including Oedipal sexuality, unleashed eroticism, moral questioning and violence; the tonal qualities stir forth base, animalistic urges to the forefront, taboos further exemplified by the stage-work. The composer's emphasis on the undercurrents of the psyche predated modern psychology by fifty years: thus the subconscious ~rejection~ of many to his music, and its appeal to the more questing intellect.

INFLUENCE: A short list: Gustav Mahler, Anton Schonberg, Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Claude Dubussy, Edward Elgar, Dmitry Shostakovich, Anton Bruckner; James Joyce, Bernard Shaw, Marcel Proust, D.H. Lawerence, Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Virginia Wolff; T.S. Elliot, Baudelaire, Lytton, Ezra Pound; Nietzsche and Freud. When one contemplates the authority these people had over their disciples, the position of Wagner, in terms of all aspects of modern thought, truly staggers the mind, and lends credit to Magee's conclusion that "...Wagner has had greater influence than any other artist on our culture of the age."

PERFORMANCE: The greatest compositions can never reach true interpretation, according to Magee; each conductor brings something different to the performance, and only reaches an approximation of that on paper - even the creator fails to achieve a definitive performance! Magee also goes into depth about what is needed to properly stage a Wagner spectacle, and uses the model of Bayreuth's opera house, constructed by the composer himself, as the epitome surroundings. Wagner set the orchestra out-of-sight, so as not to distract the audience from the on-stage drama; he arranged the acoustics of the opera house to give emphasis to the words, with the music hovering beneath as counterpoint and ambient emphasis. Another issue in this essay is the conflict that arises in non-German speakers listening to Wagner. With the text so critical to the overall appreciation, and the differences of semantic inflection taken into account, there are two choices: learn German, or seek out the better translations that, although conforming to the grammar, sometimes lose the power of meaning.

MUSIC: Magee criticizes the (then) contemporary adaptation of Wagner's sound-cycles to politically-correct allegory. Wagner deliberately utilized myth and archetypes to simplify the narrative and give emphasis on emotional undercurrents; using it as critical commentary on current issues (1960's) was, to Magee, a debasement of Wagner's ideal. Magee also notes how difficult it is to write about the music ~itself~: thus the glut of media talking about every aspect of Wagner *except* that which he is most famous for, that which firmly set his place on the Romantic pantheon!

This book serves as an insightful analysis of Wagner, in all his complexities and contradictions. Recommended for the student of the classical Canon.

Even though this book is years old, the ideas remain fresh and challenging. Questions of pacing in performance (maybe the dreaded longueurs are not necessary), and origins of Wagner's antiSemitism (an interesting twist on the privilege of the cultural outsider).
An easy read, something to discuss at intermission.

This penetrating essay on Wagner's works is deceptively brief. Magee's analysis is brilliant and right on target. He manages to say in a few well chosen words what other books ramble on about for pages. This book is well written, authoritative, and masterful. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This may seem odd, but to those of you interested enough to read reviews of this short book of essays on Wagner written nearly 40 years ago, my first advice is to read (no, run!) to Byran McGee's "Tristan Chord," published only a couple years ago, which in my humble opinion is one of the two greatest analytical works of Wagner's operas published in the last century. (The other is Deryck Cooke's "I Saw the World End"--an analysis of the "Ring" first published in 1979.)

McGee in that longer book and in this shorter collection of brief essays exemplifies the finest qualities of the English in his Wagner criticism: common sense, plain language, brilliant argumentation. He is such a relief from scholars (sorry, particularly German scholars) who think that opaque or convoluted rhetoric suggests depth. That's a [...]. Mr. McGee by comparison is fresh air...and his brilliance is self-evident.

This is a short book, six essays, each well defined on various aspects of Wagner. Two are clearly the most interesting: first, McGee's analysis of why Wagner's music excites such passion (pro or con)--i.e., what makes that music so affecting, so transcendant, so "dangerous" to many of us. He explores our guilty pleasure in Wagner better than any author has ever done. And second, his book offers a very interesting essay on the reasons for the flowering of Jewish intellectuals who so dominated and contributed to late 19th and early 20th century culture after over a thousand years of Jewish irrelevance to wider Western culture.

Those two essays make the book definitely worth acquiring and reading. The other essays are fine, if less sparkling. But I cannot emphasize enough: if you have any interest in Wagner, you must acquire Mr. McGee's "Tristan Chord." It is the best overall key to understanding Wagner's operas in print today.

Probably the ultimate book on the triple 7 - from the conception to the first delivery. Excellent photography too!

I have seen photographer Wagner at work and I'm always amazed how he can take something ordinary or otherwise over-photographed and bring a new perspective to it. How many airplane photos have we all seen? Yet Wags manages to bring a fresh vision to the 777.

You're almost tempted to skim the pages and luxuriate in the photos. That would be a mistake! The Norris text cruises along with his Jet-A-crisp style. There's very little company braggadocio here, yet the reader gets a true appreciation of "Boeing's Magnificent Seventh."

This book, with its perfect blend of informative text and dynamic photos (not to mention its nice square corners) belongs on every enthusiast's bookshelf.

Pretty good book on the Boeing 777 but not as good as I had hoped. I was hoping for a little more detail on the different airlines uses of the aircraft and possibly more interior photos. All around a good book, but not great.

Guy Norris and Marker Wagner come together and present us a very informative pictorial on Boeing 777. The pictures are breath-taking. The prose traced back to the jetliner's planning, testing, certification, and current operation. What I am not pleased with the book is that it lacks info on carriers that operate the aircrafts, workings from the deck, and pictures of the interior. I do giver merit to the marvelous colored pictures of the aircrafts in this book. ***Some quick facts of the aircraft: the Boeing 777 can fly nonstop for 16 hours. The seating capacity is around 325-380. The major operators of Boeing 777 are Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways (based in Hong Kong) and our very own United Airlines which flies daily nonstop from San Francisco to London and Paris on Boeing 777.

A fine book, but as usual with Motorbooks Publications, few if any interior views of the Boeing 777. Excellent exterior photography and descriptive narrative fail to make up for the lack of cockpit and interior fixture shots.

Kane is an anti-hero, plain and simple. Read about him in a different post.

I really enjoyed Wagner's writing style. He moves quickly through scenes, but not without describing in adequate details that that particular character would see it. Wagner really enjoyed using collegiate level speech, but taken in context it makes sense. Being a dungeons and dragons dweeb, I can completely appreciate characters and development.. he doesn't provide *all* of the development at once and instead interjects bits and pieces, weaved throughout the tale. I really enjoyed the first of the battles on the sea, by using Kane's thoughts Wagner was able to narrate why it is that they were using the tactics that they were, really fun stuff.

If you want to see a bad guy that isn't afraid to kick some tail, this is well worth the few bucks you'll spend on the paperback!

KANE

The Mystic Swordsman commands the fleet of an island empress - a ravaged ruler bent on bitter revenge.

Once Efrel was the beautiful consort of a king. Now she is a hideous creature who lives only for revenge.

She has allies to aid her, but only Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, can rally her forces for battle. Only he can deliver the vengeance she has devised in her knowledge of black magic and in her power to unleash the demons of the Deep.

Darkness Weaves is, unfortunately, my introduction to Kane. After reading all the hype, I finally tracked down Darkness Weaves and Dark Crusade in paperback. The Gods In Darkness hardcover (OOP) was too expensive, allegedly riddled with typos (the Warner paperback still has a few too many for my taste), and contained the much-panned Bloodstone. So I figured, why pay $50 for the hardcover when I can get just the two good novels from it for $10 including S&H? Dark Crusade hasn't arrived yet, so I started my introduction to Kane with Darkness Weaves... It starts off slow as hell. It takes 31 fairly boring pages (out of 288) to get going and failed to suck me in until Wagner unveils the historical set-up. Then things start to get interesting. However, Wagner frequently flops when it comes to believable medievalesque dialogue and Kane's dialogue in particular is often excruciatingly bad, boring, or both. See, Kane is a very cool antihero until he opens his mouth, then he sounds anachronistic, like a modern man and a disinterested one at that! So we can't root for Kane because he is boring and we know he's going to live through whatever happens (like Superman, LOL). This elevates the entertaining but doomed supporting characters like Arbas, Cassi, Imel, Tolsyt and Oxfors to center stage, even though they disappear for chapters at a time or are killed off far too quickly (right after we get to know and love them). The opposition to Kane is by and large made up of forgettable stereotypes with silly names.

A few years after this book, Wagner wrote the greatest of all Conan pastiches, The Road Of Kings, and that novel suffers none of the pitfalls of Darkness Weaves. This Kane adventure is still worth a read, dion't get me wrong, but I'm going to reserve my opinion of Kane until after I get a chance to read Dark Crusade. If that paperback pans out, I'll spring for The Midnight Sun (OOP) hardcover which collects all Wagner's short stories of Kane. But so far, I just don't get the hype surrounding this series.

Frankly, some of these reviewers don't know what they are talking about. This is the best of the Kane novels, and as such it is probably the best "dark fantasy" novel ever written.

No, it doesn't come close to having the purely literary merits of Gene Wolfe's "New Sun" books, and it doesn't have the inventive cosmology or cult following of Moorcock, but those books all have deep flaws that Wagner does not, and Wagner possesses merits that Wolfe and Moorcock lack.

It is hackneyed to describe a work of art by saying it is "a cross between such and such and such and such", but in this case it is perfectly apt. Kane is exactly halfway between Conan and H.P. Lovecraft, fusing the strengths of each and eliminating their weaknesses. Wagner combines the action, atmosphere and fast paced storytelling of Howard, adds the purple prose and supernatural subtext of Lovecraft, and delivers what for my money is the most entertaining fantasy sequence of the decade of the seventies.

And while there are no bad or even merely average Kane stories, a few of them are a little too predictable and uninventive, such as his vampire tale and his werewolf tale in "Night Winds". Not so this novel. It combines all the best elements Wagner used throughout his career into one novel that is a simply perfect representative of its genre. Kane carries out a bloody sea invasion at the behest of an evil sorceress, with plot twists galore at the end...

No, it isn't high art; no, it isn't enlightening. No, I didn't want it to be. Just pure testosterone and black magic. I loved it. So will you.

Darkness Weaves is, unfortunately, my introduction to Kane. After reading all the hype, I finally tracked down Darkness Weaves and Dark Crusade in paperback. The Gods In Darkness hardcover (OOP) was too expensive, allegedly riddled with typos (the Warner paperback still has a few too many for my taste), and contained the much-panned Bloodstone. So I figured, why pay $50 for the hardcover when I can get just the two (allegedly) good novels from it for $10 including S&H? Dark Crusade showed up late, so I started my introduction to Kane with Darkness Weaves... It starts off slow as hell. It takes 31 fairly boring pages (out of 288) to get going and failed to suck me in until Wagner unveils the historical set-up. ***SPOILER BEGINS*** Then things start to get interesting, at least until the secret weapon of the evil sorceress is revealed to be bloodsucking alien squid-men in laser-beam shooting submarines! This is so absolutely idiotic and unbelievable as to nearly destroy everything Wagner has built up... Fortunately, the squid-men don't appear that often (just for the major naval battle and the end, but without their laser-subs, having been reduced back to properly Lovecraftian "Deep Ones" by this point, which is all they should have been in the first place). IMO, there is nothing worse than when you read a sword and sorcery novel and get cheated when you find out the sorcery is mostly just alien technology. I mean, if I wanted to read about alien technology, I'd be reading science fiction, right? Anyway, the perilously slow start, stupid squid-men/laser-subs and lack of depth to the central character of Kane make this book a very uneven read at best, though it still has some juicy pay-off here and there for those patient enough to persevere (including the nasty love scene between Kane and the disfigured sorceress). ***END SPOILER*** Another problem is Wagner frequently flops when it comes to writing believable medievalesque dialogue and Kane's dialogue in particular is often excruciatingly bad, boring, or both. Kane is a very cool antihero/villain until he opens his mouth, then he sounds anachronistic, like a modern man and a disinterested one at that! So we can't root for Kane because he is boring and we know he's going to live through whatever happens (like Superman, LOL). This elevates the entertaining but doomed supporting characters like Arbas, Cassi, Imel, Tolsyt and Oxfors to center stage, even though they disappear for chapters at a time or are killed off far too quickly (right after we get to know and love them). The opposition to Kane is by and large made up of forgettable stereotypes with silly names. A few years after this book, Wagner wrote the greatest of all Conan pastiches, The Road Of Kings, and that novel suffers none of the pitfalls of Darkness Weaves. This Kane adventure is still worth a read, don't get me wrong, but now that I've had a chance to read Dark Crusade, I begin to see where some of the hype surrounding this series comes from: Dark Crusade eliminates nearly every problem inherent to this novel, although the problem of making Kane interesting is not resolved until 2/3 of the way in! Darkness Weaves turns out to be the sequel to Dark Crusade, though I don't think it matters much what order you read them in, as they take place two hundred years apart (Kane being immortal and all).

These stories are uplifting and a joy to read. In a world where divorce always seems to be the topic, it is refreshing to read about marriages that last.

I loved this book. We received "Living Happily" as a wedding gift. My Husband and I found the stories inspiring. We read the book on our honeymoon. Since then we have given copies to friends both as aniversary and wedding gifts.

We recieved this book for our 25th Wedding Anniversary from a beloved nephew. It is full of honest stories--some shocking,some humorous,some touching, all interesting--of ordinary couples who in their own way overcame obstacles, big and small, and made a success of their relationships. This enlightening book changed the way we view committed relationships. We have given copies of this book as anniversary, engagement and wedding presents. Also, we have recommended it our committed friends.

I've included this book as part of wedding presents several times, to outstanding reception. The particular stories of how couples create their lives in a way that is satisfying to both is comforting and inspiring in its human-ness. What a treasure!

When I saw the cover of this book in the bookstore, I thought, "Oh no, another syrupy sweet collection of essays on marriage." But when I had to wait a few minutes before the tears clouding my eyes finally cleared (after skimming the first story), I was hooked. These are stories of everyday people who speak quite candidly about what it takes to sustain a relationship through the years, and you can't help but fall in love with them! I was surprised by the candidness of many couples, and thankful that they were willing to share such personal facts. And I liked that the book covered all sorts of couples...this made it even more interesting. This lovely book would make an excellent anniversary, Valentine's Day, birthday, wedding or shower gift.

I just started collecting fairy tale art like Dulac and Rackham. This book is a magnificent addition to my collection. The illustrations jump right out of the pages to tell the story. Both beauty and darkness are exquisite in this assembly of work. I now want to read the book. I also love lighter fairy tale art such as that of Nielson, but this darker approach to visually telling the tale is effective and wonderful.

I'm swiftly becoming enamored of the old-time illustrators - Joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gibson, N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Alphonse Mucha to name but a few. I'm now happy to add Arthur Rackham to that list. As both a fan of illustration (fantasy, comic book, and otherwise), as well as a bit of a mythology buff, I was thrilled to see that Dover (whose name, in my opinion, always spells quality) had produced a volume of Rackham's illustrations of Wagner's Ring Cycle, which is itself based on a famed tale of Norse mythology. The illustrations, as the book notes, were first published in 1910 and 1911, respectively. They are uniformly beautiful, bringing the story to vibrant life. Rackham was clearly a skilled draftsman, and his work has that turn-of-the-century look that is very compelling (Gibson and Wyeth had a similar style).

This book is printed on high-quality glossy paper and features wonderful illustrations of dwarves, heroes, valkyrie, gods, and others that Rackham captures with skill and aplomb. Each drawing is accompanied by a discription, helping to tie the illustrations together and explain the plot to those who might not be familiar with it.While the volume is quite slim (only 64 pages, plus 4 of introductor/background material) it is very much worthwhile. I hope you will pick it up and enjoy it.

Arthur Rackham is among the greatest illustrators of what has come to be called 'fantasy' literature. His renderings of scenes from Dickens, Barrie, Grahame, and even Shakespeare are often flawless and many have ultimately proved definitive.

Here he tackles the daunting scope of Richard Wagner's vast operatic cycle DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, and he is so successful that his images have become the model for most of its traditional stage design ever since they were exhibited in 1912 at the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. Yet Rackham achieves more than merely the giving of face and form to Wagner's characters and scenes. These illustrations capture a sense of space and height, light and darkness, beauty and tragedy, promise and doom which may be described as music to the eyes. C.S. Lewis first beheld them as a boy and later wrote, 'Pure "Northerness" engulfed me: a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer, remoteness, severity ...'

For me, the most evocative image in this collection is from DIE WALKURE, Act II. In the foreground we see Brunnhilde anguishing over her orders from the just-departed Wotan. Helmet cast upon the ground, her face and posture effectively communicate distress and isolation; yet most remarkable is how Rackham echoes the Valkyrie's state of mind in the landscape beyond her. The falling hillside; the stark, scraggly saplings scattered into the distance; the shadowy silhouette of other mountains marking the far horizon; the low-hanging clouds; and the muted shades of grey, gold, and brown all convey an overwhelming sense of loneliness as cold and haunted as it is beautiful.

This book is a delight for anybody who loves Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Nibelung's Ring") operatic tetralogy. While I could have wished for just a little more detail in the captions - which could therefore have allowed the entire story of this cycle to be told (a few things consequently get missed - not really major, but wouldn't have hurt nevertheless!) - they are otherwise excellent; and the paintings themselves are not only outstanding art-pieces in themselves - they also are excellent visualisations of what Wagner was trying to do! They're also a wonderful corrective to the all-too-many "modernisations" that for some people like myself are hurting the visual aspect of a given opera's appreciation. [Often those "modernisations" are in bad taste, travesties of the composers' and librettists' intentions, and are either boring, shocking for mere shock value, or just plain BAD!!!!!]

Most warmly recommended for both confirmed Rackham lovers as well as Wagner lovers AND for those who're just getting started with the process of getting to know Wagner's stupendous cycle!!! GET IT!!!!

All 64 Rackham's images for Wagner's Ring collected in one book is a grate thing to have if a Rackham lover. Reproduction of the images is not the best possible though. All in all, it is still a good book to have. Rackham is magical.