Windsor Books

Along with Laurie Lee's other prose, among the most lyrical and magical travel memoirs, with characters drawn beautifully and moods captured poetically. He grew up in Slad, a village next to Stroud, a small market town in the Cotswolds. My mother was born just a couple of years later in Stroud, and grew up in the same environment he did. I was born nearby, and spent parts of my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s there, and it is indeed magical. Leaving Stroud was a bold step for him, as my mother could describe to me as she left Stroud when WWII started, having been due to start at a Music Conservatoire in London in September 1939. Since the War had just started, my mother at 19 went to London anyway to work for the RAF in the days, and as an air raid warden and ambulance driver in the Blitz, at night. She told me stories about Laurie Lee who became a favored son of the town, though his writing speaks for itself.
His prose, like so many of the great memoirists and travel writers is indeed poetic. As a man who was an auto-didact, he had an affinity for simplicity, but grace and elegance few others have mastered.

"As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" [1], author Laurie Lee recounted his first sojourn away from home. At age 19, our narrator-biographer, walked out of his village at Stroud, Gloucestershire, and headed toward London. As Lee himself recalled, he was 'still soft at the edges' when he said farewell to his mother (a poignant scene in the opening chapter). All he had with him that Sunday morning in June 1934 was 'a small rolled-up tent, a violin in a blanket, a change of clothes, a tin of treacle biscuits, and some cheese.'

After nearly a year of living and working in London as a cement laborer, Lee decided it was time to move on. He bought a one-way ticket and sailed to Spain. He settled for Spain because he had had an introduction to Spanish. All he could speak then, Lee admitted, was only one Spanish phrase: 'Will you please give me a glass of water?'

In July 1935, Laurie Lee landed in northwestern Spain. For many months he roamed the exotic and history-filled landscape, living off his music and the kindness of the people he came to love. From Vigo, he wandered southward through the New Castile region (Segovia, Madrid, Toledo). By December, he came to the coastal region of Andalusia (Cordova, Seville, Granada). There, Lee holed up at a Castillo hotel until the outbreak of the civil war in July 1936.

This author's second autobiographical sketch could have been subtitled "From Spain With Love." His inimitable poetic description of the Spanish landscape and its inhabitants is sensual as it is lyrical. The warmth and beauty of this passage [no pun], for example, undulates this reviewer's reveries, not of memories but of what has never been: 'When twilight came I slept where I was, on the shore or some rock-strewn headland, and woke to the copper glow of the rising sun coming slowly across the sea. Mornings were pure resurrection, which I could watch sitting up, still wrapped like a corpse in my blanket, seeing the blood-warm light soak back into the Sierras, slowing re-animating their ash-grey cheeks, and feeling the cold of the ground drain away beneath me as the sunrise reached my body.'

Lee's "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" and its third autobiograhy "A Moment In War" have had a farther reach than any of his other celebrated works. These writings have been adapted to music to which Charles Baudelaire could only spoke of metaphorically. In June of 2002, the Allegri String Quartet in The Salisbury Festival (UK) premiered "A Walk Into War." A musical piece which the quartet had commissioned based on the two latter biographies.

The author once wrote that autobiography is 'a celebration of life and an attempt to hoard its sensations...trophies snatched from the dark... to praise the life I'd had and so preserve it, and to live again both the good and the bad'. By all measures he had not done badly. He was and is the one modern author whose memoirs have transcended into the realms of music and visual arts ('Cider With Rosie', a 1998 film by John Mortimer).

1] Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy - Book 1:"Cider with Rosie" (1959); Book 2:"As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" (1969); and Book 3: "A Moment of War" (1991).

It's a shame that this fine book is not in print. Those going after used editions--and you should--are encouraged to look for the 1985 reprint stunningly illustrated with classic paintings of Spanish life. But back to why you want to read this: in 1934, a young, naive Englishman who had never been out of his rural neighborhood packed up his violin and went walking, first to London, a hundred miles east and then via boat to Spain where he walked from Vigo in the north down to the southern coast. I'm having trouble shelving the book: is it a straight memoir? Certainly it is very much about the writer's encounter with the world at a historically significant time and about his own growth process. Or is it a travelogue? It is a very accurate account of the unique Spanish culture and countryside. Although written more than 30 years after the actual experience, Lee's account conveys a fresh sense of wonder and discovery and resists overlaying too much foreshadowing and hindsight. His style is lyrical, vivid as the blue Spanish sky and honest. He is refreshingly free of nationalism and prejudice.

Laurie Lee's writing is beautiful, simple and elegant: down-to-earth but poetic. I first read this book when I was 14. Twelve years later, it's still in my all-time top three. It is incredibly evocative of Spain before the Civil War - it describes a place and a moment in history seen through the excited eyes of a youth. It is nostalgic but not unrealistic. Read it. You won't regret it!

His admirers have commented, variously, that Laurie Lee 'writes like an angel', a 'poet, whose prose is quick and bright as a snake'. For another writer such praise might seem lavish but not for Laurie Lee. He writes beautifully, producing books that electrify and enchant, exhilarate and mesmerise. 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' is the second volume of a marvellous trilogy. Part autobiography, part evocation of all the bewilderment and uncertainty of the 1930's, it is characterized by the lyricism of its poet author. Leaving his home in the Cotswolds, the young Lee walks to London in 'high, sulky Summer' with high hopes of making his fortune. He settles, happily enough, in a London boarding house with an engagingly eccentric Irish Cockney family, and supports himself by labouring on a building site and by playing the violin. In a life of opposites, we are treated to a first-hand account of the ugliness and tension of the disputes between employees and unions. In the dawn of the first, disquieting signs of dissatisfaction - a feeling in the 30's that led inexorably to the policy of Appeasement, and thus to war - we see through the eyes of a naive adolescent. It is this naivete, coupled with the glorious spontaneity that floods this book, which leads him to Spain. Knowing approximately one Spanish phrase, Lee decides to see Spain and so begins the love affair wtih a country that was to obsess him for the rest of his life. Never has Spain been so vividly painted. From the scorching heat and vivid, voluptous women of Vigo, to the false glamour and dilapidation of Madrid, Laurie Lee writes with a passion to match his captivation. An absolutely unforgettable book with a host of sharply drawn characters. From the sexily confident child, Patsy, to beautiful Cleo, Philip with his 'fine hungry face and a shock of thick obsidian curls' Lee sketches the myriad individuals he meets with a lucidity that stamps them in our minds forever. Who can read this novel and not dream wistfully of the days when cars were a rarity in our country. Or of a Spain unscarred by war, where the laundered, lacy dolls modestly avert their eyes from the gaze of the young men 'pocket dandies, carefully buttoned in spite of the heat.' Truly a book to treasure forever.

This was one of the most beautifully written memoirs of the Holocaust I've ever read. It is a very short book but Lucie Adelsberger manages to give the reader the feelings of horror of the times before in Berlin and during her stay in Auchwitz. She writes in beautiful prose giving me a feel for how people felt early on more than from anything I have previously read. It is poignant as she describes her conflict as a loving daughter and her duties as a physician. She does not go on and on and elaborate but says it all suscinctly. Her chapter on fear said it more clearly than anything I've read before; I felt the fear in her very descriptive prose. It is an excellent read on the Holocaust.

Excellant, a well written account of her experiences. She was one of the lucky ones.

Lucie Adelsberger's memoir of surviving Auschwitz, opens with a description of life in Berlin in 1938. "It began with only a few so called 'trifles,' " she says, citing three incidents which leapt out of the maelstrom of edicts and indignities to confront her with the relentless cruelty of the regime. The first of these limited Jews to public benches marked for them, thereby denying the elderly, many already displaced from their homes, the solace of parks. The second occurred when her elderly mother smiled at a functionary who processed her emigration papers. The official screamed at her mother for her effrontery.
"That's when I realized that these people were beyond the reach of human kindness," says Adelsberger. The third was the denial, after months of wrangling, of her mother's exit visa by the host country. Adelsberger realized finally that "the outside world didn't want to get involved."

Adelsberger missed her last chance to flee when her mother fell sick. As round-ups of Jews accelerated she found herself praying her mother would die before the SS came for her. Those prayers were answered but her own ordeal surpassed her worst imaginings.

In unadorned prose Adelsberger recounts life and the varieties of death at Auschwitz. Her voice is gentle, her eye sharp and compassionate, quick to note small ironies as well as gratuitous kindness and cruelty.

As a doctor, Adelsberger was assigned to the gypsy camp where an epidemic of typhus was raging. There were no medicines and hundreds died daily in their own filth. Why the camp commanders bothered with a hospital at all is a mystery which can be inadequately answered only by the Nazi passion for order.

Meticulous records were kept of everyone. One of the camp's most grueling rituals was the daily roll call. With 25 to 35,000 inmates in the women's camp alone, with the camp's policy of moving inmates from one section to another without notice, and with hundreds dying enroute to forced labor or hidden in a corner of their block, an exact roll call was difficult to achieve. Twice a day, before dawn and after work, inmates stood for roll call. This encompassed everyone except the dead and lasted one to two hours � unless the tally did not match. "A roll call that lasted a day and a night without interruption was nothing unusual."

Roll call, the unexplained withholding of food from already starving people, forced labor, these were routine. Then there were the days that stood out. Sunday in the gypsy camp when gymnasts and musicians put on a show (the Gypsies were allowed to keep their possessions) and an audience of 16,000 sang and danced to music which ended abruptly with an order for "block confinement." After hours of waiting � and the Gypsies know what they're waiting for � the SS appear, calling out names and numbers. That night 2,500 Czech Gypsies were sent to the gas chambers.

Adelsberger also tells of strategies for survival, although she says no one expected to leave the camp alive. But certain work details � the kitchen, the bathhouse where prisoners were stripped of their last possessions, the band, were coveted. Barter and communication systems were devised despite the dangers of detection.

But the vast majority worked in the mills or munitions factories or the potato bunker. Or they dug graves. The worst was reserved for young, healthy Jewish men. Totally isolated from the rest of the camp, they worked in the crematorium. After two or three months they too were gassed. "Sometime while at work, one never knew when, the valves of the gas chamber would close, the gas would be turned on, and � a new Sonderkommando would replace the old."

A heart-rending memoir, yes, but it speaks as much for the beauties and strength of the human heart as for the incomprehensible monstrousness of the experience.

The horrors of the holocaust and the strength survivors had to conjure every second to endure, is beautifully captured by Lucie Adelsberger. Her documentation of the events leading up to Jewish deportation is artful in its simplicity, as each action taken by the Nazis builds upon the last with fatal consequences. This amazing book then takes the reader within the walls of Auschwitz and in exquisite detail invokes the memories of those who were lost as well as those who survived with unflinching honesty. This account documents the strength of the human spirit, and is one that should not be missed.

I loved this book, and I couldn't put it down. Great read about the Holocaust. Very chilling to see how the women in the death camps, especially Auschwitz were treated. The font is for 6th Graders, but I feel that it souldn't be read, for the graphic nature, until high school.

A very good read.

Known for the wit of his English mysteries, Barnard takes his time setting up the plot elements of "The Bad Samaritan," which revolves around the back-biting congregation of St. Saviour's church.

Rosemary Sheffield, the vicar's wife, has lost her faith, an event she finds liberating. Her husband's congregation does not share her sanguine view, however. Upon her return from a short holiday, which has made her acutely aware of the Bosnian war through her friendship with a refugee waiter, Rosemary finds plots afoot to oust her from her role in church activities.

While not particularly attached to these activities, Rosemary resents the plotters' methods. And when her refugee friend turns up at the vicarage, she must aid him and thwart the tide of gossip as well. The murder, when it finally occurs, bringing in Barnard's black detective Charlie Peace, serves to force all the undercurrents out in the open. As much a witty novel of manners as a suspenseful mystery, "Samaritan" is distinguished by its crisp writing and wry perception of character.

When a member of the Church of England parish of St. Savior's is found murdered following a picnic, the crime investigation is undertaken by Detective Constable Charlie Peace and his boss Mike Oddie. Charlie is a likeable protagonist who prefers working alone. The dirty tricks and vicious maneuverings of the people of St. Savior's remind him of his own upbringing in a predominantly black parish in Brixton. Charlie plows ahead seeking answers to his questions as he interviews people repeatedly. When Charlie acts friendly, the wise suspect is on guard. Barnard's twenty-ninth novel has enough twists to keep it entertaining and the plot is very tight and believable.

Rosemary Sheffield feels that she needs some time to find herself! The wife of a pastor, she has "lost" her faith; she has become quite disoriented. Off she goes on a seaside holiday to "find herself." And , once again, veteran writer Robert Barnard maintains his true-to-form style in "The Bad Samaritan." While at the resort, Rosemary meets--and befriends--a young Bosnian named Stanko, who's fled to England to escape the horrors of his homeland. Rosemary finally returns home and, anon, soon appears the young man, whom she helps to get a job in her town. Of course, it's not long before rumors begin. The rumors evolve into murder and Barnard's amiable pair Detective Constable Charlie Peace and his boss Mike Oddie are called in to find the murderer. Barnard's writing, full of dry wit, sharp dialogue, a viable plot, all combine to make "The Bad Samaritan" a excellent read. Barnard paces his novels with a brilliance that makes simply turning the pages worthwhile. Well-versed in literature and human nature, Barnard knows that "one good deed deserves another" and "love thy neighbor" are not always to be taken literally! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

An engaging mystery of the British cozy variety, wherein a vicar's wife loses her faith and becomes the object of vicious parish political maneuvering that ends in homicide. I bought this book with the intention of reading it over the coming week. In reality, I stayed up reading it most of the night that I purchased it. Highly recommended!

The main ingredients for a wonderful literary feast: Take one Rosemary Sheffield, a pastor's wife who has lost her faith, add one young man named Stanko who has fled Bosnia and what results is gossip, rumors of scandal and even a murder. All of this is liberally seasoned with wit, detail and irresistable dialogue. The psychological suspense will keep you guessing what will happen next and there is just enough complexity to maintain interest without slowing the pace. Very moving, very satisfying and highly recommended!

What's to say? The greatest cartoon ever is out of print and can't be seen by anyone. Thankfully his animated work is available on DVD through Amazon and it's a humbling experience. Those were the first animated cartoons and in some respects they've seldom been equalled. His first one--THE first one--is a shocker, like some amateur building the Taj Mahal on the first try. In terms of raw, fantastic, dizzying, imagination coupled with stunning craftsmanship McCay may have no equal.

If this material is not made available pressure should be exerted somewhere, maybe with the Smithsonian, to release new editions. The lack of availability is almost criminal: like finding out that Don Quixote's gone out of print or something. Really, I'm not being hyperbolic. For all the interest there is in comic art these days, all the Manga, Fantastic Fours and graphic novels, this has to be accepted as the medium's Shakespeare.

Although originally published as a weekly comic strip at the turn of the century, time has hardly diminished the charm or imaginative experiences of Little Nemo. As an unscripted character in his episodic dreams, a little boy named Nemo endeavors to keep up with the developments in "Slumberland" as they rapidly unfold. Recurrent characters show up to join in on the adventures, usually already in progress, and to clue Nemo in on where he is expected to go. As in dreams, the logic is usually skewed, and the storylines quickly gain momentum till they peak in a cataclysmic event that ultimately awakens Little Nemo. The wonderfully illogical development of the dreams are still as fresh today as they were a century ago. The only reminder of the era they came from is the quaint clothing and manner of the characters. The innovative story developments, though, are still uniquely fresh, having come from the visionary mind of Winsor McCay, who is credited with being the father of modern animation.

Long before a little boy and his tiger explored the imagination with wry social commentary and surrealism, Winsor McCay did the same with this amazing series of full page newspaper comics. This is a veritable treasure trove of comics history.

Admittedly, the jokes are not the same as Calvin and Hobbes so do not expect the same feelings. I find that Nemo evokes more feelings of wonder and delight while C and H brings about the hearty "guffaw". Also, the ending of every episode is exactly the same in that Nemo awakes to find the night's adventures were all within his head.

On the other hand, this book gives wonderful background of McCay and his world as well as beautiful reprints of the original prints.

I would heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy, childhood, comics, or the dreams of past days.

Winsor McCay has been forgotten by the mainstream Nostalgia R' US spoon-fed media circus that we are all tapped into. Winsor McCay was a pioneering creative genius. He may not have been the very first motion picture animator but created some of the first animated shorts which featured CHARACTERS. His first was Gertie the Dinosaur. McCay would actually tour with his short and interact with the dinosaur on the screen, making it roll over and other tricks. McCay's Little Nemo is a feast

for the eyes. His eye for detail gives us a window to the early days of the 20th Century. The characters are completly fantastic. He was decades ahead of his time.

Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" is a rare combination of artistry and imagination that deserves to be considered the first classic comic strip. "The Yellow Kid" came first, but it never demonstrated the superb craftsmanship of McCay's work, which is done in a distinctive "art nouveau" style that presages the coming of surrealism. Within the frames of his story McCay was able to create illusions of vast size and space, showing a word that was remarkably futuristic. Each of Little Nemo's weekly adventures told of a dream of the tousle-haired boy (of about six?) and concluded with him falling out of bed or waking up. McCay's son Robert served as the model for Nemo. Before working on the Slumberland strips McCay had experimented with other comics including "Little Sammy Sneeze," "Hungry Henriette," "Poor Jake," "Tales of Jungle Imps," and "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" (the last one under the pseudonym Silas), but none of them even hinted at the splendor of "Little Nemo." In 1909 McCay would go on to create "Gertie the Dinosaur," the first commercially successful animated cartoon, which is probably how most people know of McCay's work. But that can only be because they have yet to be exposed to this comic strip.

The "Little Nemo in Slumberland" comics in this book originally appeared in the "New York Herald" Sunday color supplement from October 15, 1905 to March 31, 1907 and are faithfully reproduced in their original colors from rare, vintage file-copy pages in the hands of a few choice collectors. There is even a special strip that appeared in the European edition of the "Herald" that was never printed in the U.S. The strip continued until 1911 and those strips are published in the other volumes in this series. In these early adventures Little Nemo first enters Slumberland and learns to cope with his unpredictable flying bed, pursues the beautiful Princess of Slumber, searches for the castle of King Morpheus, and endures the ministrations of Dr. Pill. Nemo also meets up with the devilish Flip, a green-faced clown in a plug hat and ermine collared jacket, who starts off always trying to summon the Dawn and wake Nemo from his dreams but then becomes our little heroes boon companion in his Slumberland adventures which involved an impressive array of strange giants, beautiful mermaids, humongous elephants, mysterious space creatures, exotic parades, fantastic dirigible rides, a jolly green dragon, and anything else McCay could imagine.

By both artistic and historical standards "Little Nemo in Slumberland" is the first truly great comic strip. When you look at the great strips that followed, such as George Herriman's "Krazy Kat," George McManus' "Bringing Up Father," Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff," and Frank King's "Gasoline Alley," they are all decidedly different from what McCay was doing, although the use of "art nouveau" interiors and zany byplay by McManus is clearly an homage to "Little Nemo" as far as I am concerned. There is a sense in which those who see nothing similar appearing on the funny pages until Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" have a point, although I would acknowledge Snoopy's imaginative life in "Peanuts" as well.

This volume includes "Perchance to Dream," an essay by Richard Marschall, who I think was the single biggest contributor of the strips reprinted in this volume. The essay provides a concise summary of McCay's life and career, with examples of some of his earlier work, "Little Nemo" postcards, and an incredibly detailed editorial cartoon. But the most important thing is that Marschall's efforts have preserved the premier American comic strip for the enjoyment of posterity. There has never been a more magical comic strip. Never.

Ever wanted to visit Ireland? Then read this series. Linda Windsor takes you back to old Ireland and her word painting is so amazing that you'll feel like you're there. The action and adventure along with the faith and a bit of romance makes these books fun to read. This 3rd book in The Fires of Gleannmara doesn't let you down. I have never been disappointed with any of Linda Windsor's books and highly recommend them all.

Linda Windsor outdoes herself again in this 3rd book in her series, The Fires of Gleannmara. Keeps you reading until the last page with plot twists, adventure, and romance. Excellent!

If you are looking for ADVENTURE,then this is the book for you. Deirdre is kidnapped by Saxon pirate Alric. They fuss and fight through out the story both wanting their own ways,but in the end realizing that God is in charge of their lives. Linda Windsor has a wonderful balance in writing the spiritual as well as the personal of the characters. Also,don't miss the first two books in this FIRES OF GLEANNMARA series-'Maire & Riona'.

Setting: Seventh Century Ireland and the Northumbrian kingdom of Galstead

Princess Deirdre of Gleannmara is ship bound with a king's ransom on board to rescue her brother Prince Cairell from bondage when a Saxon pirate, Alric of Galstead, captures her. Deirdre dons a priest's robe to conceal her royal identity and hides the legendary sword of her ancestor, King Kieran, under it for safety. The rest of the treasure, she and her companions stow in a wine cask, but things go awry and Deirdre is found out to be a princess.

When Alric discovers her royal cloak with the Glenmora brooch among the ransom meant for Cairell with the same symbols on the cloak that his late mother had made for Alric when she prophesized his earthly kingdom would be won by love, he is shaken. Alric's mother was a Scottish slave whom his father Lambert loved dearly, but his political marriage to the wicked queen Ethlinda made their son Ricbert, a conniving serpent if there ever was one, the rightful heir to Galstead.

Raised in a court of bitterness and deceit, it's no wonder that Alric is so distrustful of everyone but his faithful dog Tor, and his aged nursemaid Abina, and the men who seek their fortune with him at sea. Consumed with a burning ambition, the illegitimate prince feels Deirdre might be the key to the birthright his mother spoke of in the prophecy. With the calculated decision to make her his bride to be, his life is turned in a new direction.

Deirdre is a feisty woman who is used to being in control of those around her and has a very sharp tongue that she isn't afraid of using. She knows she will do whatever she has to do to get her brother safely back and she uses Alric's sudden interest in marriage to achieve this end, enlisting his help in the terms of the wedding contract. Of course Alric has a few terms of his own, but the Lord has a master plan in store for this special pair's destiny and his love is the firm foundation.

This is a beautiful and exciting story of how wonderfully the Lord uses the imperfect to bring about his perfect and everlasting love. DEIRDRE is filled with colorful characters, as well as the emotionally stirring story of Deirdre, a devout woman whose faith in word and deed under the direst of circumstances conquers her conqueror, winning his heart and his trust in her God. Heavenly days, DEIRDRE is not to be missed!

This is one series that I made the mistake of not reading in order. Now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing unless you are like me that should be doing homework and not reading fictional books that are not on your school reading list. The book just refers back to the stories of the Maire and Riona and it made me even more eager to read those two books! :) Seriously though, this story was a really beautiful story and a really cool way of seeing how God can make weird circumstances work to His way. So read this book and check my other reviews!

I enjoyed The divorce Express very much. When Phoebe's parents got divorced, she was forced to ride a bus which was nick-named the Divorce Express because of all of the children riding to and from their seperated parent's homes. On the bus, Phoebe met a girl named Rosie Wison. The two girls became good friends not only on the Divorce Express, but in school also. After living with her mother, Phoebe moved in with her father, Jim. Jim lived in Woodstock and Phoebe didn't like the idea of moving in with him. Yet after a while of getting used to it, she didn't seem to mind it one bit. She participated when her school decided to take action when they could no longer stand the lunches they were being served in the cafeteria, she made a lot of frineds, and really began to fit in. Rosie helped a lot. Phoebe was also very fond of Rosie's mother Mindy. Jim and Mindy had met several times and also got along very well. Then, just when everything was in her life was going just right, Phoebe's mother announced thar she was going to get married to a man that Phoebe didn't like at all. I have to stop here and not give away the ending. The divorce Express was a very good book. It only took me a week to read it and i just couldn't put it down. I hope you will enjoy this book just as much as I did.

I thought this was a really great book. If you're parents are divorced this is a must read for you. It is also very comical and also very sad at times. Enjoy!!!

This title may seem a little weird for you but I'm going to explain why it's called Divorce-Express-Reading Marathon... Well, when I started reading this book I thought it would be kind of boring, but when I read about Phoebe's story I couldn't stop reading! Instead of taking a week to read this book I took 2 to 3 days, and I was traveling! Imagine if I wasn't... Well, there are a few reasons that made me love this book so much. First of all, I loved the story. It is about a girl named Phoebe that has divorced parents and lives with her father in Woodstock while her mother lives in New York. She makes lots of new friends in Woodstock, and together they organize a protest to improve the cafeteria food of their school. She also has to confront lots of problems during the story, including her mother getting married to another guy... Well, I think I already told too much of the story, and to know the rest you'll just have to read this awesome book!! Enjoy!

I read this book during the summer and it was one of my favorite books I read that summer. The sequel: It's an Aardvark Eat Turtle World is a great too

The book I read was called The Divorce Express. It's about a girl name Pheobe whose parents didn't start getting along until they got a divorce when she was thirteen. Now that she's fourteen she spends the weekend with her father in woodstock New York ,and commutes on the bus called the ''Divorce Express'' for weekends with her mother in New York city.

It seems to me that joint custody means alot to Phoebe, because her parents are not together. Phoebe hates the fact that she has to deal with all the crisesin both of her parents lives. Phoebe's life improves when she meet a girl name Rosie who becomes her friend. Phoebe meets Rosie in Woodstock where her dad lives. Also her life changes when a boy named Dave that she had a crush on for years while going to visit her dad ask to date her. Just when phoebe thinks she got everything under control ,her mother announces that she's getting married.

Yes, I would recommand this book to other readers, because it's helping others who want to learn about marriage in the future.

This was Deighton's second book, before he became vaguely hackish and joined the Ludlum/Forsythe "hefty Cold War thriller" gang. Here he has style to burn, definitely influenced by Chandler but not at all a pastiche or pale imitation. His sentences are crisp and always un-cliched; his attitude, as filtered through his nameless British protagonist, is cynical and put-upon and tough as a blackjack. You're more than welcome to picture Michael Caine embodying the anti-hero, as he did in the effective (though a bit uneven) film.

on the second reading I found it quite annoying that Deighton is constantly playing some strange game:

1. Colonel Stok is at least 65 years old (the action takes place in 1963 and he participated in the Russian revolution in 1917 as an adult). It is a big stretch to believe that there are some colonels that are that old but it is impossible to believe that he will wear a corporal uniform to hide his position or that he was a captain in 1945. His name is intentionally mangled and his last name is anything but Russian.

2. Jewish girl is thinking about how special is it to visit her mother on Christmas.

3. French are eager to execute a Communist FTP member for war-time assassination of a collaborator. The whole thing seems quite ridiculous in addition to that in 1963 Commies were one of the biggest political parties in France and would be able to protect some of their own on this matter.

4. The whole 15 years long extremely dangerous affair was going to net just a few millions?????

I will read anything by Len Deighton and did so this past summer.7 books in all.
This was one of the best and I am still thinking about it months later.
His sense of style and turn of phrase includeds all the elements that make a fine writer.

This was the second Len Deighton I read and words escape me as to how I felt about it. The suspense started on the first page and carried through the entire book, with virtually no lapses in the storyline. The characters were extremely interesting and well developed...I could almost picture them as real people in post-war Berlin. I rank this book alongside "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and the Smiley trilogy, both by John LeCarre. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a good read.

An oldie but goldie in the cold war spy double double-crossing genre. This has an original 1964 publication date. It came after Spy Story. Some characters recurr in The Ipcress File where the proragonist (nameless in this) is called Palmer. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold had already been written (and we'd had Graham Greene).
I remembered it for the ingenious plotting. Re-reading it I'm struck by the quality of the prose. Later Len Deightons don't contain such fancy writing. He loves describing the shabby and dingy:
"I looked around at Grenade's office: the brown-stained wainscotting, the plaster walls discolored in patches near the ceiling and the old-fashioned metal radiators under which a rash of cream-colored pimples proclaimed the haste of a clumsy painter."

There are lots of characters to loathe and love in this one. Derek, Holly Elliot's stepfather was a real brute. Being in the army, Derek was able to prevent Holly's father from leaving Vietnam. If Derek had been in the Marine Corps, he would never have pulled this off. A Marine would not have left a dead or wounded man behind to die, no matter how close the enemy was!

Jason Cole was every girl's dream man, one of the few KS heros with no flaws. His quick intelligence allowed him to see the real Holly within moments of meeting her. Both were beautiful, smart, and in love. But, Holly had a lot of gall getting angry at Jason when if not for him, she might never have known her father's fate! She was darn lucky he cared enough to get involved! He went through his own emotional battle over this, too!

Raven was a wonderful girl who deserved much happiness. Nicholas was fine, handsome, and totally in love with her. But towards the end, there was a scene where he was furious with Raven and spoke pretty ugly to her, then upon realizing his mistake, he's back 'in love' with her. His lack of trust in her wasn't even an issue. I wouldn't have dismissed the incident so easily.

Lawrence and Caroline were also a fine couple, but KS turned Lawrence into another one of her overly sensitive, sappy, soft men, like Rafe in STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT. What a mush he was!

This was the first Katherine Stone novel that I read and it is one of the most moving and beautiful romance novels I have ever encountered. The two primary characters, Raven and Lauren/Holly, are among my favorites in fiction. Both are seriously wounded spiritually but are amazing survivors who never give up on the hope or dream of love. Their stories are emotionally gripping, and for readers who love to go though the maelstrom of emotions, this is a terrific choice. I highly recommend it. I have read almost all of Kathernine Stone's other novels, but this is the best and most satisfying.

Raven Winters, high profile attorney to the stars, is beautiful, rich and longing for someone to love her. She engages in many sexual affairs from the time she was 13 to the present. Her sex partners have told her she has ice in her veins. What they do not know is that Raven has been longing for someone to love her, truly love her. While jogging she meets Nicholas Gault--well doesn't really meet him, he almost runs over her. There romance proceeds from here. Raven thinks Nick is a landscape gardener and he doesn't tell her different--that actually he is a multimillionaire. They love, she meets his children (he's divorced)and she hopes he truly loves her. Read on.

Story two is multi Academy Award winner both as an actor and as a director, Jason Cole. He will be directing and starring in the story titled "Gift of Love" written by Lauren Sinclair. Lauren does not want Cole to change the ending to her story. Jason agrees to meet with reclusive writer, Lauren, and Raven. After 17 years away from the states, well renowned writer, Lauren agrees to travel from her home in Klondike, Alaska and meet with Jason. Lauren is carrying a lot of baggage from the past. When they meet something develops between Jason and Lauren. Lauren's real name is Holly Elliott and she has much tragedy in her life. Many wonderful things happen between Holly and Jason and all beautiful.

Lawrence Elliott meets lovely, rich Carolyn Hawthorne while cleaning animals caught in the "Valdez" oil spill. An attachment forms and soon, they fall in love. Read how these stories entwine and enjoy this warm, tragedy filled novel with "Happy Endings".

This is the best Katherine Stone novel yet!! I could read this book over and over again, and still find love, hope and happiness on every page!! Everyone who I've lent this book to, has cried and said that it was FANTASTIC!! You must read it!!! You can not put it down until you finish it!!

I just finished this book yesterday and it was one of those that you can't put down. Raven is a wealthy and succesful entertainment lawyer who has searched for love and never came out ahead. Holly is a romance author who is hiding from reality. Nick is a single dad that is trying to protect his family and heart. Jason is a actor/director/producer who has bought the rights to one of Holly's books. Holly doesn't want him to change it even though he has a right to. They are all connected enough to maintain in the same story but it is like reading 2 or 3 different stories within one book. You would think it would be somewhat confusing trying to keep track of who is connected to who and how but in this book it flows so smoothly that you don't even really think about it. This book is a romance without all the explicit love scenes but it isn't just a romance it's about the characters finding themselves and helping each other.

This book is the winner of the 1998 Spur Award for Best Western Novel (selected by the Western Writers of America).

Cynthia, has captured the events of a very special time in our history and built beautiful characters around the very people who played such an important role in that point in time of the american west.

Cynthia Haseloff has written a great western that very much deserves the 1998 Spur award recieved from the Western Writers of America.
The Kiowa Verdict is based on the trial of two Kiowa Indians, Satanta and Adoltay also called Big Tree, for taking part in the "The Warren Wagon Train Massacre." Satanta led about 100 Kiowas and Comanches and attacked a wagon train with only a dozen white men. This took place west of Fort Richardson, Texas, in the spring of 1871. There was little doubt who was responsible, for Satanta himself bragged to Quaker Indian agent Lawrie Tatum at Fort Sill:

"Remember this. If any other Indian comes in here saying he led the raid he will be lying, because I, Satanta, led it."

Satanta and Big Tree were the first Indians to be tried in a white man's court in Texas for crimes committed against Texans.
Historically both Satanta and Big Tree were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Governor Edmund J. Davis commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. Later Satanta committed suicide by leaping headfirst from a second story window at the Texas State Prison in Huntsville and smashing his head on stone paving.

Adoltay, or Big Tree, a young warrior, converted to Methodism while in prison, was eventually released, was ordained as a Methodist minister, returned to the Kiowa-Comanche lands around Fort Sill and was instrumental in converting many Kiowas and Comanches to Methodism.

One of the characters in this novel, Joseph A. Woolfolk, a Confederate and Frontier Regiment veteran, was appointed by the Thirteenth District Court of the State of Texas to defend the Kiowas. The prosecutor was S. W. T. Lanham, who later became governor of Texas.

Transcripts of the trial don't exist, so what courtroom action there is - and of course the thoughts and fears of Joe Woolfolk - are entirely fictional. What is real is the fact that poor Joe Woolfolk instead of putting up a token defense, actually defended his clients in court.

To paraphrase the sometimes Western writer Mark Twain, "the reports of the death of the Western have been greatly exaggerated." The modern Western has been part of the American literary scene ever since - and arguably long before - Owen Wister introduced readers to "The Virginian" in 1902, and it shows no signs of riding into the sunset.

Cynthia Haseloff has captured the spirit of the American frontier in a way that kept me spellbound from beginning to end. Not only did I come away with a true sense of the era, but I also became a new fan of the Western genre, as well (at least the Haseloff Western genre). I can't wait to read her prequel to this book, "Satanta's Woman." I would highly recommend "The Kiowa Verdict" to anyone looking for a great beside-your-bed read.

Cynthia Haseloff has made a grand effort in this fictionalized history account of a raid by Kiowans on a freighter train, a trial and a verdict. Because records of the events have mostly been destroyed, or were deliberately never made, Haseloff has been forced to assume a lot about what happened and why it happened. It's generally a good job.

The legalities of trying Comanches and Kiowans raiding into North Texas while residing 'out of reach' in Oklahoma weren't vague at the time. The raiders understood enough of the law to know they were immune from prosecution by Texans for depredations in Texas if they escaped to Oklahoma. In this instance, the laws were ignored. Two men responsible for a raid that resulted in the deaths of several freighters and torture of one were arrested, taken back to Texas, tried and hanged.

From a strictly practical perspective, it was probably the right method of dealing with the event, though illegal. Even though Comanche raids continued for several years after this trial, the security of refuge provided by the Oklahoma Territory was never again to be trusted. Comanches who remained at war with whites in Texas were forced to remain on the high plains and face white retribution for their acts. This eventually allowed Colonel Ranald McKenzie to destroy the entire horse-herd of the raiding bands, putting them afoot and ending their ability to conduct raids without exterminating the entire tribe.

The fate of Penateka Comanche, the Karankawa, the Lipan Apache, the Fara'on Apache, and many other tribes caught in the vicegrip of Spanish and Anglo migration into the American West and Southwest is a bloody illustration of the other alternative.

The author has done a good job of reconstructing the events, the setting, the characters and the context. I recommend it for anyone interested in that phase of Texas history.

Love for Lydia is set in the small-town English countryside. It's exactly as where the author, H. E. Bates lived. Bates was a prolific (100+) author and this is one of his best received tales. Others include, "The Darling Buds of May" and "My Uncle Silas". To emphasize the importance of these three books; all were made into television series and are available on DVD yet today.

TRUTH ABOUT LOVE FOR LYDIA:
The book is about a teenage girl coming of age and learning of love.

It is not a SEX, SEX, SEX book.

The book follows the life of fictional Richardson (the "I" in the story) and his own search for what love is or means.

The book is not pornographic, unless you consider the one-time mention of dancing in a brassier, or the noticing a breast in the hospital, or the intimations of having made love without spelling out the act. This story is of looking for love, not acting it out.

Truth is, there is abundant kissing. STEAMY?

Alex, Blackie, Tom, as well as Richardson fall in love with Lydia--who can help it?, she's beautiful, fun, and charming. But she started out shy and withdrawn. Skating and dancing breaks down the shyness and life becomes a whirlwind of joyous activity--to excess--even to a life-threatening binge. Loves die and others grow. Who will win Lydia's love, once she discovers what it is for herself? That's what makes the book worth the read. That's what made it into a television series.

The revealing of love's journey in this story is what makes it a reprint decades after the author's 1974 death. The story is timeless, and the location seems sometimes to be describing an American location, instead of the true English scene.

Don't buy this if you are looking for a cheap, hot, romance novel. This is a classic romance. Bates takes young love and passes it through years of exposure. As Lydia asked herself, "Will you love me, even if I'm bad to you?"

OK, so I'm a guy. Ladies, you'll love this book for some of your own reasons, like fantastic descriptions of clothing and settings. Flirtatious dialogue. Romantic male actions (flowers and such). It's so honest and true-to-life, perhaps that's what makes it a can't-put-it-down book.

Love depicted between Lydia and her male associates is nearly as PG-rated as that found involving Mr. Aartemann, in "Mr. Aartemann's Crayon."

Lydia is a symbol of the Twenties -- a time when young women were learning to be more direct and uninhibited by morality. As a rather shy girl who inherits a great deal of money at a young age, Lydia is surrounded by young men anxious to please. But instead of settling on just one, Lydia soon finds that she can enjoy two or three young men buzzing around her as long as she likes. She plays them against each other and allows each one to think that only he has won her heart. But all the while, her own lifestyle is growing ever more reckless and self destructive.

The sex scenes in this book are very steamy. Deep down Lydia is the type of girl who really just can't get enough. But she's also very good at pretending to be cold and haughty when dealing with her gentleman friends. When dealing with the well to do lads who offer marriage, she can be quite stiff, yet the secret flings she has with local working lads are very sexy and raw.

The narrator of this book is honest and true. He is the only young man in the village who sees Lydia for what she is. The sad thing is, he can't help loving her. But finally he walks away. When that happens, Lydia becomes truly heartbroken. There are more parties, and more wild affairs, and of course there is more drinking. Lydia smokes and drinks and is the very picture of the glamorous young, always having fun and being quite scandalous.

Yet all the time, there is a hollowness in her life she can't understand. The last chapters of the book show Lydia really reaching a decision to reach out honestly to the man she loves. Of course you don't see that right away. At first she just feels blue without knowing why. It's so touching the way she has one jazz record that reminds her of that honest young love, and she plays that record only when alone in her room. You see her lying around after a late night, resting in her room and listening to the music, and thinking. Is this all she wants from life? Gradually she drops off to sleep on the bed, and the faces of all the young men she's kissed come back to her. But when she falls asleep she pictures herself with that special young man, not dancing to hot jazz or making out in a car, but the time he taught her how to ice skate on the frozen river.

Lydia knows what she has to do. But does she succeed? LOVE FOR LYDIA is a sexy book with some really romantic moments.

Donna Lewis' song I love You Always Forever was inspired by this book. It is the best song!!!! The book is very good....I just want to say you should read this!!!!!1

This book has one of the most accurate descriptions of wintertime that I have ever read. It's a beautiful book that should not be read quickly-- one should savor it rather, because every sentence is so elegantly crafted that you practically want to memorize it. It's one of the few books I always have with me.

HE Bates is one of the most under-rated authors of the Century and this book is his masterpiece. It is the story of the love of a young man for the beautiful Lydia, and how their love has painful and tragic consequences for them both and their friends. It is a story of warmth, love lost and love found, of growing up, of rejection and hope. HE Bates had a profound love for the countryside and it shines through in the detail of his narrative. A few books teach you more and more each time you read them: this is one of them.