Walsh Books

It wasn't what I expected. I was looking or a more general book explaining that wonderful game

Text is thick, dry, and highly academic. Syntax is grammatically correct, but awkwardly phrased. The book is a forest of words that the reader must chop through to read.

"My brain hurts!"

Steer clear of this book unless you are a scholar or forced to read this for a class.

I found this a disappointing read. Ms. Walsh has done better. The heroine was strongly reminiscent of Heyer's Grand Sophy, but less charming. The darkly brooding hero seemed more sullen than anything. Perhaps the most jarring note was a father inviting his unmarried daughter to co-occupy a residence with him and his mistress during the Congress of Vienna. The likelhood of such an open affair being countenanced by the leaders of the "ton" was slight. Not only would he have been censured, his daughter's reputation would have been tarred with the same brush. It was one thing to have a discreet affair, but quite another to openly set up household together and involve "innocent females of marriageable age" in such a menage. Miss Devine's role is confusing also. The hero is depicted as pursuing her prior to the advent of our heroine. The characters appeared to accept that she moved from one protector to another, yet she was invited to all the ton parties--not very likely for a beautiful, unwed female of dubious family background and no fortune. I should think a good Regency editor would have caught this. I do applaud Ms. Walsh's tackling the woman-beating issue and the lack of legal protection for females in lieu of family protection. However, situations were resolved and the happy ever after reached in rather a hurry. I finished it wondering, where did that come from?

This is the abridged version, which may be useful for some who want to get a quick overview of Julian's theology. I prefer the "whole story" contained in the full version for its elaboration of Julian's reasoning and elaborate and untraditional imagery of God/Christ as a mother who nurses us at his breast...

James Laughlin must be turning in his grave. New Directions, one of the greatest presses in 20th Century literary history, has sunk to the wrong directions now in the 21st: they are letting marketing triumph over literary ethics and literature itself: This "Love Poems" is just a slick deceptive cover of Neruda's single book, "The Captain's Verses," which in itself is a great book, an important book in Neruda's oeuvre, with a good translation by Donald Walsh-- but to be so deceptive and re-title it as a marketing gimmick?

I returned this book to Amazon after I found out what was underneath the false cover.

They say "in later editions, these verses became the most celebrated of the Noble Prize winner's oeuvre" In later editions? This is one edition, and it's not true that it "collects Neruda's most passionate verses." It collects some of them, but with The Captain's Verses there's a bunch of mediocre poems. Neruda had a high batting average, but not every poem he wrote was outstanding. Frankly, I'm peeved at ND for this gimmickry. The great press under Laughlin that took risks and brought us William Carlos Williams, Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, Lawrence Ferlinghetti-- you want a vanguard press that would never succumb to commercialism over the inherent principles of literature-- Ferlinghetti's City Lights-- If you want Neruda's love poetry, check out his The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems-- it truly is the essence of Pablo, with some of his best love poems. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)is of course one of poetry's great classics, but it only represents the voice of Neruda in his twenties, without the broad scope and some of his best love lyrcis throughout one of the most prolific careers in the history of modern poetry. 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) has some great Neruda love poems, but the majority, trully, aren't so great. And personally, along with others I know, feel that much of the inherent power of Neruda's poems in this book are lost in Tapscott's flat translations. If you do want The Captain's Verses, show New Directions that you can't judge--or change, for marketing reasons--a book by its cover, and get the original, The Captain's Verses

When I got this product, I purchased it alongside the "Mother of All Encounter Tables". The Encounter book was just what I expected, a book of tables of various monsters, with brief mechanic descriptions, and some tables of other encounters, to be fleshed out by the GM.
However, for the "Mother of All Treasure Tables" I was quite disappointed. Rather than a set of tables of mundane and magical items as well as variations of gems and art, it is a complete set of treasure encounters, so to speak. The chapters are divided into treasure value, and each item on the list is a set of treasures described in broad detail, such as a gargantuan dragon skull inlaid with gold and beset with rubies and diamonds. To me, the detail provided was way overboard and should have been left to the GM. It seemed like every item in the table was so descriptive, that it could only be used once, which was totally counter-intuitive to the production of a treasure table. How many times can you roll gragantuan dragon skull before your adventurers start saying "Another dragon skull?!? I guess I will just put it in the pile with the two we got last week."
At just over 150 pages, it is far from worth the $27.99 retail value. It also does not contain any magical items at all, giving a brief explanation in the front of the book that that should be left to the GM. All in all, I was expecting something that could be used very extensively with little to change in the original table.

Very British in the traditions discussed. Really did not work for a traditional American wedding's child attendant, as there were pageboys, a Register Office, Chief Bridesmaid, and other British traditions. Even the order of service was quite different. An American child attendant would be very confused.

Any attempt to define the "basics" of Roman Catholicism, or any religion or denomination for that matter, is a daunting task, as M. Walsh admits in his introduction. Where do you begin? How much do you include? Of course, a great deal depends upon the intended audience and the author's opinion of what constitutes "basics." Walsh seems a capable author and Routledge a first-rate publisher. Unfortunately, I have serious misgivings about this book. Inquirers especially should be warned that the text may contain some "basic" errors. I say "may" because I did not take the time to seriously engage and evaluate the entire text.

I did, however, concentrate on one area about which I am qualified to speak. As a Roman Catholic permanent deacon with an advanced degree in theology, I was drawn immediately to Walsh's various comments (there are several)about deacons. In some cases the information is seriously incomplete. In other cases it is factually incorrect. The first objection may be countered by space limitations. The second, however, can have no excuse except that in Walsh's case he may be writing from a strictly British experience where history and practices may differ from those in other countries. That excuse, in this case, bears no weight because the book's intent is to address the entire Church, not as it exists in one country or another.

On this basis alone potential readers should be very cautious. One problematic topic certainly casts doubt about similar problems elsewhere. There are a multitude of books available on the same subject with the same intent. This effort is not one to be considered.

This book, written for the young person, purports to present these strange circumstances in an even-handed manner, but fails. The "supernatural" situations described are:

*) The legend of Atlantis
*) The legend of Bigfoot
*) Flying saucers over New Hampshire
*) The continuing legend of Harry Houdini
*) The ghost ship "Mary Celeste"
*) The Loch Ness monster
*) Abraham Lincoln dreaming of his own death
*) The Bermuda triangle
*) The famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast of a Martian invasion on Halloween, 1938.
*) Astronauts performing ESP experiments from space

The evidence in support of the "supernatural" events presented in this book is lame, laden with innuendo and does not pass even the minimum of serious scrutiny. It is disingenuous, occasionally sensationalist and never truly addresses the real issues

This text is NOT for someone who wishes to gain detailed information on producing maple sugar.
This text is written on a 6th grade level with basic information.
There are more pictures than descriptive information.
I do not recommend this book for someone who wants to learn details about maple sugar production.