Williams Books

Having enjoyed this author's recipes from an old Gourmet magazine, I was delighted to find she had a book with more options. Many are quick to prepare, and all are full of good healthy eating.

I didn't buy this book...rather, I "inherited" it when a flatmate moved out and left it behind. Being someone who doesn't eat much meat and loves to cook, I kept it, reading it at times to see if any of the recipes intrigued me.

Well, I finally decided to go shopping and try this book out. I was floored and am delighted with it! Jeanne Lemlin's recipes are easy to follow, taste wonderful, and call for ingredients that require only minimal searching. Between the regular supermarket, natural foods store and Asian market I was able to get everything I needed.

So far, I've tried the Soba Soup with Tofu (delicious!), the Curried Red Lentil Soup with Vegetables (I happily ate this for about three days), the Sourdough Pancakes (heavenly with or without syrup), and just tonight I made Baked Tofu, Schezuan Style, which came out beautifully even though I had to substitute regular peanut butter instead of natural style or tahini. I must also add that the pizza dough recipe on page 132 has changed my life in the kitchen forever. Wonderful recipe that works perfectly for thin crust *and* deep-dish style pizzas. *yum*

This cookbook has gotten me to spend a little more time and thought on my meals, and has expanded my tastes a bit more in the process. Nothing too earth-shattering in the way of ingredients, but for someone who loves to cook and doesn't really know how...it is indispensable.

I can't wait to buy the rest of her books!

I've had this book for some years, and it is one of my favorite cookbooks. The recipes are widely varied (both in ingredients and complexity) and are generally very tasty. My only complaint (and it's a small one) is that the "Quick" recipes sometimes aren't. My husband and I made the "Corn and Scallion Spoonbread" not too long ago and it took right at 1 1/2 hours between preparation and cooking. Not really in the "quick meal" category.

Overall, though, it's an excellent resource for a wide range of vegetarian recipies.

I normally cook on weekends and prepare "fancier" things than this cookbook provides, but sometimes I just need to make a satisfying dinner and I don't want to spend time on it. That's when I pick this cookbook up. Most of the recipes I've tried are easy, and while the results won't wow your gourmet friends (canned beans, frozen vegetables), they're tasty, and make good use of the ingredients. One note of caution: if you don't care for olives, you'll be restricted in what you can cook from this book. She includes olives in many recipes.

I didn't buy this book...rather, I "inherited" it when a flatmate moved out and left it behind. Being someone who doesn't eat much meat and loves to cook, I kept it, reading it at times to see if any of the recipes intrigued me.

Well, I finally decided to go shopping and try this book out. I was floored and am delighted with it! Jeanne Lemlin's recipes are easy to follow, taste wonderful, and call for ingredients that require only minimal searching. Between the regular supermarket, natural foods store and Asian market I was able to get everything I needed.

So far, I've tried the Soba Soup with Tofu (delicious!), the Curried Red Lentil Soup with Vegetables (I happily ate this for about three days), the Sourdough Pancakes (heavenly with or without syrup), and just tonight I made Baked Tofu, Schezuan Style, which came out beautifully even though I had to substitute regular peanut butter instead of natural style or tahini. I must also add that the pizza dough recipe on page 132 has changed my life in the kitchen forever. Wonderful recipe that works perfectly for thin crust *and* deep-dish style pizzas. *yum*

This cookbook has gotten me to spend a little more time and thought on my meals, and has expanded my tastes a bit more in the process. Nothing too earth-shattering in the way of ingredients, but for someone who loves to cook and doesn't really know how...it is indispensable.

I can't wait to buy the rest of her books!

My Lucky Dog is truly a compassionate work of art. It is not "just another dog book", but rises above sentimentality. The message is genuine, and the photography is exquisite. Although it seems like a small book, it comes with a giant heart..... a gift for any age.

This is already a well-reviewed book--so let me just add that this book is beautiful. The photos are poetic, the prose is terse, and it is clear that the bond between dog and owner is eternal. As the owner of a city mutt who loves the country, too, I adored it. As the owner of a dog who is getting on in years, I didn't want it to end....but I knew it would. In an overstuffed market filled with cutesy-poo dog books, this elegant, elegiac book really stands out.

We bought this book because the lucky dog bears an uncanny resemblance to our own aged hound. I've now purchased three more copies as gifts for the dog lovers in my life, and will no doubt continue to give it as a gift in the future! The photographs are beautiful and funny and moving by turn. Most important, they capture the spirit of the love that we feel for our dogs, and the joy they bring to our lives. This book is a MUST for any dog lover. As it happens, our dog who so resembles Hunter, is terminally ill. This book has been a comfort for our family. I've especially appreciated being able to read it with my children.

Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (6/08)

With "My Lucky Dog," photographer turned author Mellon Tytell, uses stunning imagery and brief captions as a poignant goodbye to her beloved dog. Hunter, a mixed-breed stray that Tytell found through an ad at a pet store in Vermont, became her constant companion and the "love of her life" for the thirteen years he was hers. Tytell's background as a photographer in breathtaking locations like Paris, the Andes, Haiti, and the Himalayas served her well as she took roll after roll of film capturing Hunter's adventures at her homes in New York and Vermont.

While the words enhance Hunter's story, it is really the pictures that tell the tale. Tytell has captured her dog's every mood, from sadness to playfulness to pure joy, with absolute clarity. She finds the perfect words to augment the array of snapshots she has chosen to share. In one portion of the book, a variety of photos of the Vermont landscape are laid out next to close-ups of Hunter's fur from different angles, and it is amazing to see how closely these two very different things seem to synch up in color and texture.

Tytell also incorporates images that are not of her dog but serve well in telling his story, like the haunting photo of a bird flying through the trees over a foggy dirt road, accompanied by the caption "He could no longer sit. His spinal cord wasn't sending messages to his paws." The combination of these words with the photo lends visual perspective to the fact that Hunter is preparing to "fly away" from his beloved owner.

Mellon Tytell has accomplished her goal of giving a more than fitting tribute to the animal that was more than just a pet; he was a part of the family. While the book is not marketed for children, I do think it is suited to those that are a little older and dealing with the impending or recent loss of a family pet. All animal lovers, especially those with a canine companion that they could not imagine their lives without, will be moved by Hunter's story in "My Lucky Dog," by Mellon Tytell.

My Lucky Dog is a great book. The photography is fenamenal and the story almost made me cry. It is written really well and I think dog lovers like myself will really enjoy this book.

Alix Pamphilon
9 yr. old
Brooklyn resident

Martha Pearl is a spunky wonderful character. More than that, she is a wonderful Southern cook. Her son,James, shares her sense of humor and love of cooking. I adore the way she puts him in his place when he wants to "fuss" with her recipes. I am almost through with the entire cookbook. I have laughed and underlined and referenced. It is a great, wonderful read. Knowing recipes as I do, I can tell you that you can trust this book to give you great food. Don't wait. Don't even put this on your wish list. It's a keeper. Yum

Jim Villas is one of our better cookbook and culinary memoir writers, while remaining a throwback to the likes of James Beard and Craig Claiborne. His affinity to Claiborne is especially strong, as both are unreconstituted Bourbon drinking Southerners who live(d) on Eastern Long Island and wrote for the `Eastern Establishment' publishing powers. Villas' special talent seems to be in recapturing what is most familiar and most comfortable about food for Americans. This is certainly true of his most recent cookbooks `Crazy for Casseroles' and `Biscuit Bliss'. His most recent collection of culinary essays and opinions `Stalking the Green Fairy' brings out this orientation in well written essays, but no book represents his culinary roots and inclinations quite as well as this book, cowritten with his mother.

On the face of it, this book would seem to be a transcription of mother Martha Pearl's little black recipe book into a form which William Morrow can publish and we can read and effectively translate into reproductions of Mrs. Villas favorite dishes. The back story of the book seems to be much more complicated than this, as Mrs. Villas' written recipes were sketchy, poorly handwritten, and done only as an aide d'memoire for someone who cooked almost entirely by experience, and look and feel, just like every other traditional southern cook whose praxis has been memorialized in writing. Thus, Villas had to do anthropology by observing his mother at work and doing his best to estimate amounts from quantities doled out by hand and eye. This too was made difficult by an entirely familiar friendly antagonism between mother and son in the kitchen. A running theme is that Mother Villas and son agree that Jimmy simply could never quite reproduce the quality of his mother's own recipes, in spite of years spent at studying and writing about the world's cuisines. Some of the repartee which documents this antagonism is a little difficult to believe, as when Miss Martha cannot find any `White Lily' or other soft southern flour in Jimmy's East Hampton kitchen with which to make biscuits. I've been cooking regularly for less than three years and I have a regular supply of `White Lily' shipped to the Lehigh Valley from Tennessee like clockwork.

I am glad I am skeptical of Jimmy's inability to reproduce Miss Martha's recipes, as if this were gospel, it would bode ill for your or my ability to make the recipes in this book into something remotely like the jewels which appear on Martha Pearl's North Carolina dinner table. In fact, I think a fairly well practiced cook with average equipment will do quite well with these recipes thank you.

The best things about the collection of recipes in this book are that practically all of the classic southern recipes are represented here and, in spite of the crack about doing anthropology, true practitioners of this cuisine are interpreting the recipes for us. With all due respect to Villas' friend Paula Wolfert, there is no observation and interpretation going on here. This is the real deal, where cook and scribe are part of the culture on which they report.

Just as Italy has it's `oil line' separating the butter from the olive oil cuisines of North and South, I think the Mason-Dixon line could double as the mayonnaise line, as I suspect that beginning in Maryland, sales of Hellmans doubles per capita as you cross each state border from Maryland to the Carolinas. Both Villas are on very safe culinary grounds here, as they typically specify either Hellmans or homemade, AND, the Hellmans brands of mayonnaise are consistent winners in `Cooks Illustrated' taste tests.

Most recipes in this book are fairly easy, although they are typically more picky about some details of method and ingredients than fellow Southerner Paula Deen of Savannah. They are also a lot pickier about the details of method than my own mother whose ideal recipe is Deen's spiral bound church fundraiser cookbook style. Of course, Miss Martha and my mother share a passion for the very freshest corn and tomatoes in season. There are also significant differences between Deen and the Villas in even a basic recipe such as pimento cheese spread. I suspect the Villas' interpretation is more traditional and it is certainly in line with Mother Villas' cardinal rule of not messing around with the taste of the main ingredients by adding a lot of extras. Their recipe for my favorite creamed chipped beef is a good example, as it is almost exactly the same as the recipe from Mississippian Craig Claiborne, but without the addition of Worcestershire sauce.

The recipe chapters fill all the niches you expect in a traditional southern cuisine, including Breakfast and Brunch; Canapes, Appetizers, and Snacks; Soups and Stews; Salads; Meats; Poultry and Game; Seafood; Casseroles; Vegetables; Breads; Desserts; Cookies and Confections; Pickles, Relishes and Preserves; Sauces and Dressings; and Beverages. With the chapter on preserving, the book covers more than most compendia of Southern cooking.

At every turn of the page in this book, I find myself nodding in agreement over choices of methods and ingredients. The use of torn bread pieces in place of breadcrumbs in meat loaf agrees with all my best sources for this delicacy. Patties for frying and doughs for rising are all chilled in the fridge for the righteous length of times to either firm up or relax. Miss Martha does share with Miss Paula the tendency to use canned soup and store-bought croutons in casseroles and such, but the application is judicious. Note that the coverage of the North Carolina speciality, pork barbecue, is a bit light. Do not depend on this book for much smoke work.

I really liked this book. It was a perfect mix of authentic, doable recipes and stories to make them and the authors come to life. Real home cooking with a good read thrown into the bargain.

Like me, many of you have probably come across stacks of so-called southern cookbooks that are full of non-southern recipes! I was beginning to think that no one had published an accurate accounting of deep south cooking.

Then, I found this book! It is by far the best and most authentic southern cookbook I've ever seen, and I regularly use many of the recipes.

My family and I are from Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas, and like so many other southerners, we're very particular about getting food just right. After moving out west , I longed to have a greater selection of the southern recipes I enjoyed as a child, but unfortunately, the family cookbook that was passed down to me only contained a limited number of recipes. (Like Villa says, it is typical for southerners to not have recipes written down.)

Anyway, this is a highly recommended book. It won't disappoint!!

I have spent hours since this book arrived last week just trying to decide which dishes to make first. I ended up making a "Southern" dinner for my Wisconsin mate using the Calabash Cole Slaw and "Brown Paper Bag" BBQ Chicken (I used a Reynolds Hot Bag, thank you!) from this book and Cheddar Cheese Grits from Martha Phelps Stamps' "New Southern Basics" (ISBN # 1581822413 -- another excellent Southern cookbook). It was a big hit and nothing was wasted (next day: grits with breakfast, cole slaw and chicken for lunch!).

As a bonus you get the story behind many of the recipes and running commentary from Villas' mother on many of the recipes. It is clearly a give-and-take mother and son relationship when he says his mother drives him crazy over this or that ingredient and she implies that his version of the family recipe is a little "uppity". She says Jimmy makes his hush puppies with yellow corn meal, but she prefers white. It is both bitchy and sweet at the same time!

I already have my next meal planned from this wonderful book and can recommend it for the cole slaw and BBQ chicken recipes alone - not to mention the lively stories and commentary. Enjoy.

This is the cookbook I can pull out and count on to produce a wonderful dish every single time. I haven't come across a dud yet. Martha Pearl is delightful (and yes I AM hinting for a dinner invitation) and so are her recipes. The macaroni and cheese is a family favorite that already has stains on the page because I make it so often. The pecan coffee cake is another recipe I have made many times and always get compliments on. I live near Charlotte and keep hoping to run into Jimmy and Martha Pearl picking over the Silver Queen corn at the farmer's market. I would unabashedly tell her what a devoted fan she has made of this transplanted Yankee.

This is an all-round excellent edition of the Greek New Testament.

The text font is large and highly readable; similar to what you would find in a Biblical Greek textbook. Overall, the external quality of the book is very high, especially taking into consideration the retail price.

Variant Byzantine readings are included in the margin where they have a significant amount of textual support (although no detail is provided in regards to specific manuscript support of each variant). ALL variations between this text and the NA27/UBS4 base text are also included in the footnotes, even when these are only very minor such as word order (I did a quick comparison of one chapter between this text and the NA27 and all variants were definitely noted).

Accents, Breathings, capitalization and punctuation have been added to the text to improve readability (although these were not included in the original manuscripts they are certainly helpful for those of us who are not experts in Koine Greek). Paragraph divisions and chapter/verse numbers have also been added. Subject headings are not included in the text.

This edition also contains a good introduction and appendix outlining some general introductory information about the various text types and presenting the editors reasons for their choice of texts. Even if you are a NA27 proponent these articles still contain valuable information, and alert the reader to the methodology utilized by the editors when choosing between competing manuscripts.

Conclusion: If you are after a well-priced and highly readable edition of the Greek New Testament, this is a highly viable option.

Setting aside for the moment the issue of the underlying text, this is a GREAT Greek NT to own. The other reviewers are absolutley correct; The font on this text is by far the best available, large and clear and dark, printed on nice white paper. It is almost as large as the large print Nestle Aland and larger than the UBS 4. Both of those books for some reason have yellow paper, the white paper is much nicer. The binding on this book is MUCH better than the NA or UBS stuff which is known to fall apart with any use at all. The cover on this book is a nice red/gold/black. Because there is more Greek text per page than anything else available, this book is thinner and more light weight than others which does make a difference. All this at an excellent price!

Now as far as the idea that the Byzantine text is closer to the original than the primarily Alexandrian text underlying NA27 and UBS 4, I would say that even if you don't beleive this to be true you should still buy this text because at the bottom of the page you have every reading from NA27 which differs from this text. Thus if you are an enthusiast for NA27 you can see all the places where it disagrees from what is more or less a modified version of the Textus Receptus. When you do this I think you will be struck with a few things. Number one, both texts agree most of the time, say 95%. Where they disagree a lot of the differences are very minor, DE for KAI, a different word order, maybe an article missing or added. More importantly, you will note that MANY of the readings in this text appear shorter and more difficult according to the traditonal criteria and therefore on the surface would appear more likely to be original. Robinson points out in an appendix that NA27 excludes these readings because they come from a "late" texts, but you can't have it both ways. If more difficult readings are likely to be original, how come Robinson's text has so many more difficult readings. What all this does I think is lower your confidence in textual criticism. You are left with the impression that this text for the most part is likley to be as close to the original as NA 27. Maybe it does make sense to read instead of a text which is a hodgepodge of speculations from modern scholars to read a text which at least represents readings that are found in a textual family that is earlier enough. Particularly when again you have all the readings of NA 27 in footnotes.

But even if you think this text is late and secondary, it still is nice to have as a resource. You can use it more closely with a KJV or a New KJV translation if that is your preference, and it is kind of nice to have a text which for example includes the doxology in the Lord's prayer right in the text. But above all, for pure joy of reading the external features of this text as so superior to UBS or NA that I would at least get it to supplement one of those, again considering the price is so cheap.

Excellent in it's simplicity. Robinson and Pierpont give you exactly what you want and nothing you don't. This book is just what it's title claims it to be, "The New Testament in the Original Greek". There are no Strong's numbers or any other kind of "helps" in the text; it's all Greek baby! So understand that you'll need to at least learn the Greek alphabet and a few basic words going in, but it is what it is. I give this book the highest rating.

I have long believed the Majority Text (MT) to be superior to the Critical Text (CT, i.e., the NA/ UBS text) and even to the Textus Receptus (TR). My first introduction to the MT was via the textual footnotes in the NKJV. These reference Hodges and Farstad's Majority Text.

Later I became aware of Robison & Pierpont's MT, and having studied their differing methodologies, I came to believe that R&P's was even more accurate. However, it should be noted that the differences between these two texts are minimal. This is even truer for the Second Edition of R&P's text as some of the changes between editions brought R&P's text into alignment with the H&F text. I discuss in detail my reasons for preferring the R&P's MT to the CT and TR and even to H&F's MT in my book Differences Between Bible Versions.

So when I felt God was leading me to produce my own translation of the NT back in 1999, I naturally used R&P's text. The First Edition of the text was available on my BibleWorks program, which I used extensively in my translation work. But I was also able to contact Maurice Robinson, and he graciously emailed me a digital copy of his text, with changes that had been made to it at that point in preparation for his Second Edition. So the First Edition of my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament: Third Editionwas as up-to-date as possible.

In 2005 I began work on the Second Edition of my ALT, and Dr. Robinson once again helped me out by sending me a list of changes between his First and Second Editions, so ALT2 could be based on the new edition. He also sent me a list of all of the Byzantine alternative readings that would appear as footnotes in his new edition. These indicate places where the Byzantine Greek manuscripts are closely divided. But I wasn't able to include those in ALT2.

In 2007, I published a Third Edition of the ALT, along with an accompanying Companion Volume to the Analytical-Literal Translation: Third Edition. In this volume, I was able to include translations of the Byzantine alternative readings. In many cases, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is so minor that it does not show up in translation. But my "Companion Volume" lists all of the alternate readings where the difference is translatable. But even then, most of the time, the difference between the main text and the alternate reading is very minor. So the reader can have full confidence in the integrity of R&P's Greek text.

So I have been working extensively with this Greek text for some time, even before it was published. But it good to see that Dr. Robinson was finally able to get his text published in a very readable and usable format.

This is an absolute joy to read!! Anyone interested in the Greek New Testament should definetly add this to their library. If your new to learning the Greek language, or are in the dark on the majorty text issue, this is a great resource. This book is also very easy to read. Also, the New Testament in this book is completely in Greek, no Engish in an interlinear format, or on oppsing pages!! The introduction, preface, ect. are in English though. I give this product an A+!!!

This is a romance novel, an "elder lit" romance novel, if such a category existed. Perhaps it should. I applaud older authors (Williams was 92 when he wrote this book), or any authors, for that matter, who treat elders as real people rather than stereotypes and consider them worthy subjects for fiction.

Main characters Morgan and Dixie meet contentiously in an accidental physical collision outside the Whispering Pines senior residence. Morgan, 89, is considering moving to the independent living section, and Dixie, 79, works there part time.

All the usual problems of old age are present: bad previous family relationships, clouded pasts, suspicions, heath and financial issues, loneliness, hopes, plans, disappointments. At 89 and 79, Morgan and Dixie carry much more emotional baggage than most romance novel characters--but fortunately, more spirit and knowledge, much of it experienced-based, as well.

As they tentatively and gradually fall in love, Morgan and Dixie face their challenges together with the eventual help of Morgan's long-lost grandson. Youth and age combine for a positive outlook toward uncertain futures.

My pessimistic side tells me that this book's ending is unrealistic, yet we all can, and should, hope that our dreams will come true if we keep trying. The positive message overshadows doubts.

This skillfully-written book by a former journalist should be required reading for everyone involved in elder caregiving and everyone contemplating the issue of aging. It is honest, informative, and entertaining, a pleasure to read.

The book includes a Reading Group Guide which would seem to make it an excellent choice for Senior--and Boomer--book clubs.

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (1/08)

Mardo Williams, a career journalist, and award-winning author of "One Last Dance," is a highly effective communicator. His writing demonstrates a clear understanding of the reality of growing older. Williams connects with an audience of intergenerational readers as he gives them an insight into the aging process through a backward glance into the past, a glimpse into the future, and the challenge of the present. Williams delivers a clear message of the importance of family stability. This adds an important additional dimension, beyond the delightful entertainment value, to the book.

Eighty-nine-year-old Morgan was considering moving into Whispering Pines Retirement Center and Nursing Home when he literally bumped into seventy-nine-year-old Dixie, a member of the recreation staff at the center. The elements of romance, mystery, and suspense, all add to the message of hope threaded throughout the story of Morgan and Dixie as they enter a relationship based on economic needs in their later years.

Dixie kept secrets from Morgan regarding her medical background and indebtedness, while checking into rumors of scandal in business and family skeletons from Morgan's past life in Chicago. These two strong-willed people are set in their ways; Dixie and Morgan begin to experience change and growth as they discover a new appreciation for each other as their relationship deepens.

Unresolved emotional issues, financial insecurity, and the fear of the unknown plague Dixie as she struggles to find balance in her work, her faith, and loyalty to her friends. The complications of romance at this stage in life, medical expenses, house maintenance, and the loss of independence, all play a part in the dilemmas faced by Morgan and Dixie.

There is an unexpected plot twist when Tony, Morgan's grandson, is introduced into the story. He comes in with a flurry of vengeance, destruction, mistrust, restitution and rehabilitation.

I enjoyed Williams' use of humor and his descriptive language in developing his characters. These characters take on a life of their own as they convey the emotions of criticism, anger, frustration, love, and empathy for each other.

I highly recommend this book for every senior citizen, and for their children. Williams' writing is strong and reveals a deep understanding of the challenge of growing old in America. Inspirational and entertaining, "One Last Dance" offers the promise and hope of finding companionship, love, and meaning and any age and the challenge of living out your dreams.

Anyone--of any age--contemplating a relationship--of any kind--would benefit greatly from reading this charming, positive, poignant book. It's very close to being a text-book for managing a successful partnership or marriage, or even parenthood. There are a wide variety of life lessons to be garnered from its pages. You don't even have to be of `a certain age' to appreciate the wit and wisdom of the author who was 92 when he began this book!

At 79, Dixie was a very active, involved part-time worker at a retirement home, while Morgan was 89, and had come to that same home to visit a friend in rehab. They literally bumped into each other, leaving remnants of the birthday cake that Dixie was bringing to a friend all over both of them and the sidewalk. Sparks of all kinds flew through the air, some of them verbal.

He was taken by the slender, curvacious blonde with the big blue eyes; she was intrigued by the well-spoken, tall, white-haired gentleman. Before very long, there was another encounter, and another.

These two hardy souls were survivors, and in hardly no time at all, they had decided to survive together. The original plan was for Morgan to rent a room in Dixie's large house, to help pay the expenses, and provide companionship. They became better friends, thinking of maybe more than that, yet they each remained hesitant to share some of the important details in their past--as well as current--lives.

A third person enters their world, causing no little disruption, before bringing even greater happiness to the older couple.

Along the way, they learn important truths about each other and themselves. They learn to appreciate life's little blessings, as well as the bigger ones. They learn to compromise and not anticipate the other's opinions or thoughts. There is a wonderfully happy ending, but not without a bit more trauma along the rocky path to bliss.

The most important truth here is--keep going. Don't just sit and molder. Be active, be involved, you'll be ever so much more alive for the doing.

"One Last Dance" is delightful reading. It has humor, suspense, romance, complexity of character, regrets, yearning and hope. I repeatedly loaned my copy, gave others as gifts to friends and recommended it to everyone. We are all looking ahead or have already achieved the age of the lead characters, Morgan, age 89, and Dixie, age 79. The author's age of 92 when he writes "One Last Dance" is itself an inspiration and more importantly it lends authenticity to the story. The fictional account makes it clear there's more to look forward to but the golden years have as many complexities as those years that preceeded them.

I belong to a book discussion group and have been urging our group to make this one of our monthly selections. Being budget-conscious, though, we have been waiting for a paperback version or good buys on used books. I wasn't able to find the book in our local library, but a friend checked it out for me from the Columbus library.
What a delightful read this book was! I am a slow reader, wanting to picture everything in my mind before moving on. The book has lots of conversation, making it easy to read quickly. The storyline keeps one interested so I found myself not wanting to stop reading to eat or to do anything else. I finished it in a little over one day even though it is 419 pages long.
The book gives us characters who have their faults but are good at the core of their being. We share in their worries and in their triumphs over those worries. We learn the innermost thoughts of the characters, making them feel like our dear friends. We get a glimpse of what it will feel like to be 79 or 89 years old.
What a talented family the Williamses must be! The great writing and editing skills of the father and the two daughters are apparent in the product they have given us readers. How I would love to talk with those two daughters!

I first met Betty McDonald when I read The Egg and I, back in high school in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1960s, and I was completely enthralled. First of all: she writes extremely well. Her sentences are terse and well-formed, and she has a knack for shaping quips of all kinds: the quick laugh, the sudden surprise laugh line, and the careful set-up gag. Most of all, though, I find myself laughing aloud (she's one of the few authors who makes me laugh aloud while reading) at the perfection of a sentence which is at the same time witty, perfectly balanced, completely appropriate, and completely unexpected.

You will find all this - in spades - in Onions in the Stew. It is a mellower book than the others, for many reasons; she was older when she wrote it - and, I think, happier in her second marriage; also, her already considerable skill at writing had grown. Her descriptions of Vashon Island in the 1940s are utterly perfect: beautiful, clever, and bittersweet all at once. Her descriptions of her husband and daughters - and others in her family - are full of warmth, and are at the same time completely clear-eyed and unsentimental.

Frankly, comparing Betty to Erma Bombeck is like comparing Julia Child to Rachael Ray. They can both cook - but, oh boy, I know whose house I'd like to visit for lunch . . .

I first read Onions in the Stew almost thirty years ago, in a Reader's Digest Condensed Books version, and I never forgot it. What a JOY to receive the complete version as a gift years later, along with The Plague and I, and Anybody Can Do Anything, when they were reissued by The Common Reader. I absolutely devoured them, passed them around among my friends & loved ones (keeping track of who had them, very uncharacteristic but they're the kind of books you never want to lose!!!!) and agree with every five-star reviewer here, especially "pony-express," that Betty is the best friend you never met. Also enjoyed the comment about how much fun heaven will be, to drink strong coffee & yak with Betty MacDonald. She is still as witty today as when she wrote her books, utterly classic and fresh, laugh-out-loud and tremendously endearing without EVER being cloying. Such a cut above. Her other books are equally wonderful, and I just wish more people were exposed to her; she's a tonic for stress, an antidote to depression. So glad there are others out there who love her as I do!

I've just finished the fourth Betty MacDonald memoir. Thank you Amazon for the access to all these out of print books!
I now know what's going to be fun in Heaven - chatting with Betty over strong cups of coffee.
These books were like discovering a new best friend. I've never been so entertained by reading. What a gal!

Having finished my previous book and waiting for Amazon's free shipping promo to buy more, I picked up this book collecting dust in my book closet. I was pleasantly surprised.

It is smart and funny and so down-to-earth that you have to instantly like Betty as your best friend. Althouhg I am not a big fan of women titles (those seems to dominate the New York Times bestsellers list these days), I laughed out loud on a plane from Washington DC to Houston on a business trip. Who knew that everyday domestic issues can be so light and funny?

Anyway, just try it. You will find it more enjoyable than you want to admit.

"The Egg and I." As I said in my review of the earlier book, although I found parts of "Egg" charming, the chapter on Indians made my part-Cherokee blood boil, and that other parts seemed rather mean-spirited as well.

There is none of the mean-spiritedness in "Onions", probably because, in spite of the various toils and tribulations of life on the island, Betty was basically happy there, as opposed to "Egg" where she was mostly miserable.

I loved the part about the small woman who loved to curl up on soft, comfy places like sofas, armchairs, and other women's husbands' laps. I wondered, though, why Betty didn't just ask her to step out into the garden and then drop-kick her across the straight to Seattle? I'm sure she could have gotten some of the other women in their circle of friends to help.

Many of the events she tells of show us that teenage girls have always been a handful, whatever they say. However, in spite of all the complaining and whining, the girls were willing to pich in; how many girls their age nowadays would have something like stuffed pork chops waiting when their parents came home from work?

While "Egg" left me wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to run a chicken farm in the middle of a howling wilderness, "Onions" made me wonder if living on an island might not be fun.

My two girls have both adored this book. It helped both of them while they were struggling with the concept of time (which holidays bookmark the different points of the year). The holidays are Christian (Christmas and Easter) so it's not the most multicultural but is still a very sweet book.

I got this book for my 3 year old daughter at a used book sale, and had just started looking for one for my niece. I'm so glad to see it's back in print. This gently told story satisfies both the need to know what is coming and the need for repetition for toddlers and preschoolers. My daughter is now four, and we read it at least once a week.

"Over and Over," by Charlotte Zolotow, is an exquisite picture book, first published in 1957, that can be read to a child of two or three or four or five, until the child can read it to herself. But the prose of the text is so well-written, almost poetic, that if Mommies- or Daddies-to-be have especially mellifluous voices, it can even be read to the child in utero.

The holidays and seasons, as seen through the eyes of a very little girl, are half-remembered, but experienced anew well before she can tell time or even anticipate "What comes next?" as she asks her ever-attentive Mommy at the end of every special day and on the beginning of each new page.

Although Ms. Zolotow and the late Margaret Wise Brown might have to duke it out as to which woman is the Queen of Children's Books (I think I'll have to declare it a draw), the undisputed Champion Illustrator has to be Garth Williams, who was best known for his drawings in Ms. Brown's iconic Golden Book "Mister Dog." In fact, the little boy whom Mr. Dog {Spoiler!} "adopts" is almost a twin to the little girl on the cover of "Over and Over," although inside the book, the girl has a slightly younger, softer look.

For a book that was written more than 50 years ago, this classic of mid-20th Century children's literature is as fresh and relevant as ever. Conceived in a quieter, gentler world, where the main source of children's amusement and entertainment media consisted of gold-foil-spined-Little Golden Books by Simon & Schuster and a choice, on primitive black and white televison sets, between one of two puppet shows; where Halloween visitors demanding "Trick or Treat" were treated to warm doughnuts and fresh apples; and little girls still wore party dresses to parties; this is a perfect book for your children and grandchildren.

One quibble I have, unfortunately, is that the book incorporates Easter and Christmas holidays, making the decision to give the book to a Jewish child rather tricky. But each family will have to decide that on their own.

Even so, this is a lovely book, and besides having my own copy, I have given it away as gifts to some of my favorite little girls. I hope that they will cherish this book, listening to their parents or grandparents reading it aloud, although a parent or grandparent will have a hard time reading it aloud without tearing up as they come to the last page, as I do, every time I read this book, over and over.

This is a book that my children and I return to "over and over." The illustrations are warm and beautiful, and the evocation of a small child's world and sense of time is magical.

I had the same experience as one of the other reviewers. I found this book in the library after not seeing it for 25 years. I had just loved the pictures and the descriptions of warm doughnuts, jack-o-lanterns, chocolate eggs and other seasonal delights. You won't be able to choose which holiday is your favorite!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.

Ismail Kadare's "The Palace of Dreams" is a book that reads like Kafka as influenced by the painter M.C. Escher with a bit of "1001 Arabian Nights" thrown in for good measure.

Ismail Kadare is an Albanian poet and writer. He is also the winner of the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005 and was selected from a list of nominees that included Saul Bellow, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Naguib Mahfouz, Milan Kundera, and Gunter Grass. The Palace of Dreams is one of his best known, many say best, work.

"Palace of Dreams" is set some time in the 19th-century in an Islamic-ruled Ottoman Empire that includes the Balkans (including Kadare's native Albania). The Palace of the title is a mammoth office building where the dreams of everyone in the kingdom are submitted for analysis. It is a Byzantine bureaucracy whose complexity is matched only by the dark, complex hallways and byways of the building itself. The Sultanate considers the dreams of his subjects to contain clues to the future. Like an oracle of Delphi, dreams are interpreted to predict plots against the Sultan or threat to the Empire generally. The interpretation of dreams is a powerful tool used to run the Empire and control its citizens and as a result the Palace of Dreams is the most feared agency in existence.

Into the Palace of Dreams steps a young new employee, Mark-Alem. Mark-Alem is a member of the Quprili family. The Quprilis are a powerful family of Albanian origin. For generations the family has produced high-ranking Viziers, the approximate equivalent of Cabinet Ministers, to the Sultan. Although a powerful family the Quprili's relationship over the years with various Sultans has been rocky and has been marked by purges and bitter in-fighting. The tenuous relationship between the Quprilis and the Sultan forms the backdrop of the story.

After Mark-Alem makes his way through a maze of corridors he is taken on as an apprentice. He quickly moves from a clerical position, sorting dreams, to interpreting them. Kadare's writing is very powerful as he traces Mark-Alem's path as an employee on the fast-track. One can feel the job beginning to overwhelm Mark-Alem's thoughts and actions. What seemed as unreal to Mark-Alem as an apprentice now seems commonplace. In a certain sense Kadare portrays vividly one person's descent into a claustrophobic, mystical hell where dreams are more real than reality.

At the same time renewed tensions between the Sultan and the Quprilis emerge. One specific dream involving a bridge in Albania built by the Quprilis hundreds of years ago quickly becomes the centerpiece of the plot. This same bridge played a critical role in an earlier Kadare novel, "The Three-Arched Bridge". Mark-Alem finds himself faced with analyzing this dream and the consequences of that interpretation drives the last third of the novel.

Palace of Dreams has been doubly-translated, first from Albanian to French and then from French to English. Despite that it felt as if I were reading the book in its original language. Entering Palace of Dreams was like entering a dream itself, one that quickly turns into a nightmare. As I read the description of Mark-Alem wandering, lost, through the hallways of a dimly lit Palace of Dreams I could feel the increasing despair welling up in Mark-Alem. The credit for that must be attributed to Kadare but with a significant nod to the translators who kept the writing both fresh and as disturbing as it appears to have been intended.

Kadare's The Palace of Dreams is well worth reading.

L. Fleisig

In Kadare's hallucinatory novel, the most important ministry in the country is the one where the dreams of all its citizens are interpreted. A monstrous bureaucratic organization collects those dreams and a monstrous herd of employees classifies and analyzes them. The interpretation of the apparently most important dream is presented every week to the sultan, because it could contain crucial information about the destiny of the country and the ruling families.
The whole country has really turned into a ghost state, where people perform ghost work: Absurdistan.

Of course, this macabre ministry is only a veil for the bitter power struggle between the powerful. A bad dream interpretation could create an opportunity to lash out at the other throne contenders with deadly consequences for the innocent common citizens. The for the common man seemingly blind fatality is in fact the result of a deadly fight for control and power between the mighty.

Kadare's novel, inspired by Enver Hoxha's Albania, is a masterful portrait of the totalitarian state, where real life is replaced by hallucinations. The government's most important role is to try to control even the dreams of its citizens. A dark nightmarish regime.

This highly political work is composed and reads like a thriller. A real masterpiece.

The Palace of Dreams is more than a "read." Kadare is Virgil accompanying Dante into Purgatory, and we are there. Be prepared to walk peacefully into a chilly bewilderment of silent corridors, past closed doors, suddenly seeing a group of grave whisperers disappear around a shadowy corner. On your desk find truth and untruth sifted together in a fine mix of papers that may have lethal consequences and may not. It is a puzzle to the very end. It is a puzzle at the end and beyond. This is the most compelling and morally instructive writing I have read in four years.

As he did in his Man Booker International Prize-winning novel THE SUCCESSOR, Ismail Kadare portrays in THE PALACE OF DREAMS an autocratic, vaguely Islamic, East European state controlled by rumor, innuendo, superstition, and irrationality. The instrument of power this time, however, is not the whim of an all-powerful dictator who induces a constant state of fear and uncertainty in his subordinates, rivals, and subjects. Rather, it is a post-Freudian dream factory, a monolithic and opaque institution that serves the state by interpreting the nightly brain-ramblings of its citizenry. The purpose of the Tabir Sarrail, the Palace of Dreams, is simple: to sift through the thousands of sparsely remembered dream descriptions in search each week of a Master Dream, the one and only dream that will be presented as meaningful to the Sovereign. Presumably, that dream and its accompanying interpretation convey important information for running the state - for making key decisions, warning of impending crises or revolts, or just predicting the future. Of course, no one can say for sure how that Master Dream gets selected by the Palace's director, how its particular interpretation is chosen, or whether the presented dream in fact ever took place or was simply fabricated for political purposes.

Kadare centers his tale around a most unlikely hero, Mark-Alem Quprili, the ineffectual scion of a long-powerful clan of ministers, viziers, and businessmen. As his given name suggests, Mark-Alem lives in a world half-Western and half-Islamic, with a last name of Albanian origin that translates as bridge. Not just any bridge, it seems, but an Albanian bridge of three arches (another of Kadare's books is titled THE THREE-ARCHED BRIDGE) in which a murdered man was walled up inside its foundations. A family meeting decides Mark-Alem's future - he will take a position at the Palace of Dreams. The young man enters his job naively, completely unaware that he is being positioned in the Tabir Sarrail to protect his family from the inscrutable machinations of government. He begins with a job in the Selection department, one of dozens if not hundreds who sift through the week's collected dreams to choose those worth further consideration. In surprisingly short order, he is promoted to the Interpretation section, which analyzes those sent from Selection for meaning, including culling out the relatively small group that might become the week's Master Dream.

The Palace of Dreams is an immense and forbidding structure, filled with endless corridors and locked doors. Each new experience there is for Mark-Alem a waking nightmare - wandering lost through empty and unmarked hallways, hearing faraway footsteps, seeing the dead bodies of citizen-dreamers who were brought in for interrogation being spirited away. Over time, however, the dreams whose readings fill Mark-Alem's days become more real than life outside the Palace. How, after all, can real life possible compete with the wild imaginings, the sheer magic and impossibility, of dreams? Mark-Alem finds that he has even stopped having dreams of his own. As his responsibilities increase and his hours lengthen, his life becomes a dream state within a dream world in a dream-processing factory. It is not until he attends a dinner at his Vizier uncle's home that reality, and the machine of State, impinge murderously on Mark-Alem and shock him awake. He discovers the truth of his situation in the Tabir Sarrail and how he failed to protect his family. Yet almost simultaneously, the attack on the Quprili's is answered with a political counterattack that will forever change Mark-Alem's life. This benign butterfly of a man becomes a powerful instrument of the State and its evil affairs, and he even dares to dream his own dreams again.

Ismail Kadare's prose is powerful in its very sparseness. His setting is Balkan, but the time period is deliberately unspecific, vaguely 19th Century in feeling. THE PALACE OF DREAMS progresses easily and quietly, but the story feels like a dream itself, a nightmare world of uncertainty, unnamable fears, and evil portents. We experience through Mark-Alem a ceaseless sense of confusion, of being constantly lost and unable to find our way out. Various newspaper reviewers likened this novel to Kafka's THE TRIAL and THE CASTLE (the obvious choices), Borges's labyrinth, Canetti's AUTO DA FE, or Auster's THE MUSIC OF CHANCE. For me, the analogues were Plato's cave, Saramago's THE CAVE, and Solzhenitsyn's THE FIRST CIRCLE. Regardless, THE PALACE OF DREAMS is a chilling, almost nightmarish story of a world where reality is governed by irrational belief in the quasi-religious predictive power of dreams. It is a forbidding world in which government is run by superstitious faith, where decisions of life and death are divorced from the reality-based world. If this sounds disturbingly familiar to a certain modern Republican Presidency (replace "dreams" with "anti-intellectual, anti-Science, Christian fundamentalism"), so be it. And to think that Kadare first penned this novel in Albanian in 1981. Perhaps he had a dream himself?

THE PALACE OF DREAMS is a first-rate tale, an unsettling horror story that mirrors modern life too closely for comfort. Ismail Kadare deserves a wider audience in the United States. His work in eminently readable, and he has much to tell us.

Mark-Alem works in the world's most bizarre and apalling institution ....the palace of dreams

it was found to harvest all men dreams in an ultimate place , then set them aside , sift them ,scrutinize them , so that the empire's (fortune)- along with its tyrant's- can be told.

Mark-Alem begins to rise in the ominous positions of this ghoulish society , to become its head ...alas he becomes haunted with that terrible obsession of being ( crushed ) by the vile bureaucracy that he is running , like ( it ) devastated many people before ...

The palace of dreams - the stygian kingdom - is a metaphor for ( thought police ) ... a police that supported - and supports - political dictatorships in the entire world ...

Do not this horrific detailed allegory reminds us of the status of each and every human individual at the end of this barbaric era ?

Paul Scott's following is small, but Loyal. He is a fantastic writer. The Raj Quartet by far, is my favourite favourite series of books by him because of its complexity and such extraordinary characters. His charactres are so indepth, so well played out that the reader feels that he or she knows them thouroughly. Its a historical epic, very well written, and its absolutely a must read.

About 25 years ago I got a list of the best 100 books of all time, and found "The Raj Quartet" by Paul Scott listed. I started at the beginning with "The Jewel in the Crown" and got bogged down. Coincidentally, PBS started its Masterpiece Theatre version. I watched a few of the episodes (actually all of them, eventually) and got back to reading. What I discovered was the best set of novels I've ever read, and each one an individual "jewel" as well. A pebble thrown, the towers of silence, and many other images stay with me, as well as the memory of Scott's beautiful writing and well-developed, complex characters, and the scope and importance of the story. If there wasn't so much else to read, I'd reread the whole set--sounds like a good retirement project some day.

This book (or series of books) is so sprawling and intricate, like India itself, one might say, that it is impossible to "pin down", as it were, in a review like this. The thing to do, I think, is to cover the most salient aspects of the work separately. Otherwise, one will become lost, as many of the characters herein do. So, salient aspect numbers:

1.) History - This is the novelistic equivalent of Gibbon concerning the British Empire. It might even be called "The Decline and Fall of The British Empire." As a reviewer for the Sunday Times puts it, "A history student years from now should be able to say to his professor, `Yes, but what was it REALLY like in India in the last days of the Raj?' and be told, `Read these four books and you'll not only know, you'll understand...' " The "understand" part is especially significant in that these books will have you totally spellbound by Scott's deft character portrayal and psychological insight. It is no exaggeration to say that one feels one has lived in India from 1939-1947 after having emerged from the nearly two-thousand pages that comprise this work. But the deft character portrayal leads me to a more troublesome, salient point:

2.) Ronald Merrick-A host of characters populate this work, portrayed with deep sympathy herein. And yet, one can't help but feel, upon closing the pages, that the work might also be called, "Ronald Merrick: An in-depth Portrait of a Psychotic in India". It is a tribute to Paul Scott that we do not discover the depths of the....evil (Sorry, I can't think of another word that fully encompasses the character.) of Merrick until the tag end of the work. Yes, Hari Kumar is the other major character who, to a certain extent, offsets Merrick. But he fades into the background after his interrogation by Nigel Rowan with Lady Manners looking on in the second book, The Day of the Scorpion. Merrick, so to speak, stays on until the very bitter end. Not only does he stay on, but he lingers in the mind. What is he? What does he represent? The British Raj itself, as some would have it? Partly, I would say, but there is something about Scott's obsession with this fellow that refuses to be pigeonholed. It's all very eerie. By the end of the book, you won't be able to hear the word "Merrick" without a troubling frisson running through you. - He is not mad like, say, Susan Layton, who rather resembles a character from one of the Bronte novels. - His nature and the nature of his evil are complex. They defy reduction. So, I shan't venture on a futile quest to do so but rather come to salient point:

3.) The brooding fatalism that overhangs everything here. Of course, one knows before one picks the book up that the Brits in India are doomed. But, well, I'll just let Daphne Manners' quote from the first book, The Jewel in the Crown, give the reader notice of the feeling that permeates this work:

"We were sitting on the verandah. Oh, everything was there - the wicker chairs, the table with the tea tray on it, the scent of the flowers, the scent of India, the air of certainty, of perpetuity; but, as well, the odd sense of none of it happening at all because it had begun wrong and continued wrong, and so was already ended, and was wrong even in its ending, because its ending, for me, was unreal and remote, and yet total in its envelopment, as if it had already turned itself into a beginning. Such constant hope we suffer from!"

Salient points covered...except that the reader might do worse than to do as Perron does at the end and look up Philoctetes, not a futile quest by any means.

My yardstick for excellent writing about a foreign culture is probably Paul Scott's "The Raj Quartet", which was the basis for the BBC TV series "The Jewel in the Crown". I think these four books are a real tour de force - he writes in several different voices throughout, but remains - I think - completely sensitive to the political and social complexities and subtleties of the situation in India towards the end of the British occupation. Very nuanced, extraordinarily sensitive writing.

It's not just the writing: the stories that unfold in this masterpiece will draw you in, grip you, and break your heart.

It has been too long since I read this book [probably 15 years ago] for me to offer an erudite and detailed analysis. But I do remember vividly that when I read it that the word "masterpiece" came repeatedly to my mind. In a league with Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and Naipaul's "A House for Mr. Biswas". Find the time to read it; you won't regret it.

A must have for Mac Addicts!! I learned so much and the format is quick and easy to read. Just Macaliscous!

After half a dozen years as a Mac traitor who got dragged kicking and screaming into the Windows-only world at work, I'm retiring from the work world and switching back to Mac-only at home. I waited for about six months for Robin's update for Leopard to be published and it was well worth the wait. While I'm just getting into the book, I can already see that it's going to be a member of my on-desk library of essential Mac reference books. Way to go Robin and John!

I switched to MAC about one month ago, bought the book the next day and found it very helpful. I went through it page by page and it was easy to read and understand and it was more than helpful. I recommend it highly for the first time MAC users.

Can these people write, or can they write? Thier books are always easy to follow, and presented in an entertaining fashion as well. If Robin Williams had written books about all the subjects I so disliked in school, I would undoubtedly have been very well read in all topics.
In a matter of minutes, I was able to unlock a few mysteries about my Mac...in days, I was using the applications without fear or hesitation. And while I am quite aware of how user friendly Macs are anyway, Ms Williams takes away the fears I still tend to harbor. I'm no computer wiz kid, I am FAR on the opposite end of the spectrum. But this book in particular, opened my eyes....from a place of feeling overwhelmed by all the things I KNEW this little box could do(that I didn't think I could) to a world of fun, and confidence. Cool Mac Apps is quickly becoming my favorite book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn anything about the iLife applications.

As we have all come to expect from Robin Williams, this book is written in a clear, precise manor. The illustrations are all very helpful. I particularly like the way the windows of each application are illustrated with details about each item within the window.

I have been using OSX for over two years now and thought I knew my way around each of these applications, but I was able to learn a lot of easier ways to do things . I have also learned that there were a lot of the features that I was not even coming close to using to their full potential. I have been using iCal, iTunes, and iPhoto on an almost daily basis, so these new tips and techniques are a real timesaver for me.

I was really surprised at how much new knowledge I gained on using Safari. I am on the internet on a daily basis and just took the browser for granted. The quick Tips section was very helpful. The section on RSS feeds opened up a whole new world of information for me.

Cool Mac Apps is a must have reference book that every MAC user needs in their personal library. I would give this book an excellent rating!