Irish-American Books

My grandson is participating in a rendition of 'Cats' at his elementary school and I wanted the book to show him how productions like 'Cats' are based on literature. In this case he was thrilled to be able to read the original poems and then see how they are staged for an audience. The product was delivered in perfect condition in a very timely manner. I would recommend this to anyone.

This is a must have for anyone who loves the broadway musical "Cats". Totally delightful!

I had read this book before and loved it, but when I met Boris, a real, live version of Rum Tum Tugger, I had to buy a copy to show his owner.
It is amazing how little had to be done to turn these poems into a great musical comedy. I am, of course, talking about Cats. Most of the poems went directly into the show without any change whatever in their wording, and only three songs were added. Let's give full credit to Mr. Webber, It took a musical genius to do that, and one of the added songs, Memories, could stand alone as a masterpiece in any company, but most of the delight of the show comes from the wonderful feline characters created in this book.
Jennyanydots, Old Deuteronomy, Gus the theatre cat, Spindleshanks, Bustipher Brown, McCavity, Mr. Mistofflees, Mungo Jerry, and Rumpleteaser all moved effortlessly from page to stage with no changes. That has to be some sort of record. If you loved Cats (the show) you need to read this book. If you love cats (the critters) you'll want to read this book. If you like poetry, you should read this book. If you like dogs, read the battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles. (You can skip over the part about the intervention of the great rumpus cat.)
It was written for his godchildren, but it's a great read for everyone. It's not expensive, so get it to read to your children, but read it for yourself first.

Great book for any cat lover

author of "Hobo Finds A Home"

Read the book if you want to better understand the acts of the play CATs

Second Edition.

A valuable companion for O'Brian's books that would be even better if included more contextual quotes or explanations of how O'Brian used some of the terms in the books.

Pair this with Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Third Edition on your reference shelf if you are a real fan.

Covering all of the arcane terms and characters from the age of Napoleonic Fighting Sail, this book makes an excellent companion for the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. From an "Able Seaman" to a "Younker", "a Sea Of Words" covers the terms needed to understand this lost age. A vital reference for any arm-chair Admiral.

Unless you are an expert in the subject of square-rigged sailing ships, this book should be purchased along with the first book of the series "Master and Commander" and remain at one's side. It will serve the reader in good stead throughout the entire series.

An excellent book, I found all the words I could not find in other nautical terms compilations, well described too!

Sea of Words, Third Edition is the essential companion to the completed set of Aubrey-Maturin sea tales by Patrick O'Brian. You can't find these words in other dictionaries.

Without a good sea jargon dictionary the reader will loose the essence of rolling along with any sailing author. I keep at hand when roving with Lewrie and Aubrey on the briny.

Wit was recommended as a staff pick at my local library. Thank goodness! I doubt I would have found it otherwise, since I don't generally read play scripts.

Even though I'm an old English major from way back, I never studied John Donne's poetry in depth. The way Edson weaves the poetry with Vivian Bearing's growing realization that Donne spoke to her on an intimate level - what after all could be more intimate than the process of dying? - led me to examine some of my own preconceived notions of mortality and its relationship to the immortal.

That last paragraph of mine makes it sound as if this is heavy reading. Not at all! It is a multi-layered work, both grim and light, both stark and richly peopled. I loved the humor, the most notable of which is the line near the end, when Vivian is receiving a dose of morphine for her excruciating pain. She says that she wonders if the morphine will have a soporific effect. "I don't know about that," says her nurse, "but it sure does make you sleepy."

I took a chance and rented the Emma Thompson DVD. I don't trust movies ever to live up to the books they're based on - but I truly wondered how they'd handle a film version. I recommend the movie thoroughly, for it remains true to Edson's quirky way of blending past and present, ignoring the stuffy fourth wall that so many playwrights insist on.

WIT is witty. WIT is sad. WIT is a must-read.

And just wait till you find out why the I in WIT is (on the cover of the book) a semi-colon.

This book is an extremely quick read, but worthwhile. Margaret Edson does an excellent job of illustrating what it's like to experience cancer from the patient's perspective, diagnosis to death, and how patients can sometimes get lost in our focused agenda of tests, treatments, and paperwork.

Simple, poignant and funny. I saw the movie starring Emma Thompson and was moved to read the original play. Highly recommended!

This play is still appropriate, years after being written, as a keen insight into several challenging facets of the medical world, suffering, and difficult and long illnesses. It asks questions about how science and medicine interact, about how people and the science of medicine interact, and how that is portrayed and presented to the patient.

It's not just a controversial play on the philosophy of science and medicine, but it is also an examination of the relational and social aspects of one very successful academic's life and struggle with her cancer. It attempts to make very poignant remarks on who is important, why, and how, and generally succeeds in making the reader think deeply about how the end might look with friend, family, and others.

The HBO movie is a great visual representation of this play. Read the play first, then watch the movie.

I read this book for a nursing class I am taking. It's a wonderful depiction of hospitalization, giving accurate portrayals of doctors, nurses and patients, which is surprising being written by a lay person. It was an easy read, about 45 minutes. I would recommend this book.

This is an excellent collection of all her work. It is in chronological order as well so it is quite interesting to compare different works from different times in her life. Beautiful and haunting.

One of my favorite poets since being assigned "I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose" in eighth grade, Dickinson has always struck a chord within me. Despite having lived over a century prior, the feelings and ideas expressed within her work are just as relevant today as ever.

The sparse beauty of Dickinson's words can both evoke loneliness and the certainty that the poet shares your pain. Her topics encompass everything from death to literature to the soul; and her mood is often somber, but also very often playful.

This particular collection is a volume I had to purchase for a graduate course on Dickinson I once took -- and it is one of the very few texts I never wanted to sell back! Margins are wide, allowing for ample underlinings and notations as readers peruse and mull the verses. At the rear is an index of first lines, in alphabetical order, to allow for easier location of particular works. This volume also preserves Dickinson's tendency to use dashes, which was often "corrected" in past versions -- also contributing greatly to the readers' ability to fully appreciate Dickinson's legacy.

"Your thoughts don't have words every day..." But, oh, how skilled was Emily Dickinson at finding words to match her thoughts. And what intriguing thoughts they were - clever, insightful, playful, impassioned, meticulous... Whether describing life from the point of view of a bee or pondering the ravages of death, Dickinson was unique in her approach to her work and the world she saw around her. One of her poetic gifts was finding ways to express profound thoughts through brevity.

Most of us are exposed to Dickinson only through the most publicized and commercialized selections of her work. This complete compilation offers us a chance to see Dickinson in her entirety and find the many treasures that have not been exposed to the masses. I first really discovered Dickinson in college, and I clung to a paperback of her complete works for years and was happy to at last be able to replace it with a more durable hardback. Not only are we treated to her life's work here, but in some cases we get different drafts of a single poem - giving us a window into the development of her thoughts. Crack open the cover, and it is as if we have been allowed to wander unsupervised into Emily's room and peruse her papers. And we discover how true the poet's own words can be:

"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day."

Dickinson is probably the one poet who best personifies mood, emotion, fears, hopes, dreams, and time and eternity with such few words and in the most illustrative way. Most of her subjects are ones we readily identify with--love, death, nature, religion, passage of time. Her ability to make so much out of so little is truly a gift, and, while her poetry can be a little hard to grasp at first, it is quite powerful if you pursue it. For this reason this volume of her poems is a treasure for anyone who loves poetry, or the power of its message.

Many of her poems have an ironic twist to them, or a paradoxical message. Consider the few first lines of "The soul unto itself", where the dual nature of the soul--good and bad--is explored:

"The soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend--
Or the most agonizing spy
An enemy could send..."

Another one of her poems, "Each life converges to some center" evokes the idea that we are part of some bigger plan in the universe. She clearly has a knack for taking the reader along on the journey in the poem, and feeling its magnitude along with the speaker.

In "The Future never spoke," Dickinson personifies the future as indifferent and unpredictable, a mysterious entity that has a will of its own:

"The Future never spoke,
Nor will he, like the Dumb,
Reveal by sign or syllable
Or his profound to Come.."

The power of Dickinson's words come to life in this book, and this is one of the best collections out there of her poems. There are also many of her more popular ones, such as "I'm Nobody", where she blasts the notion of having achievements publicized and being popular and "Because I could not stop for Death", where the speaker is taken on a journey through time by Death. Over all this is a powerful collection that no literature teacher should be without. Great for anyone though, and, if you aren't a poetry fan, try this one out and maybe you'll be one.

Definitely recommended!

Under a surface of innocence, Emily Dickinson's witty, acerbic, playful & profound poems are America's wisest contribution to poetry. Sometimes she riddles, sometimes she puns--she puns not only in ambiguous word choice, but also in ideas and topics. Her small gems are the unique response of genius to the world, a dialogue on the most inspiring level--and from a given woman's experience, too. But I think Dickinson surpasses the merely human--she was sent from another planet to rescue us from Whitmanesque excesses.

Even for a woman infertility is a difficult topic to discuss let alone for a stranger about another man's wife. Sir Thomas More's profundity of agony surfaced when he spoke of birth and death in same breath before his impending death. But an unwary reader could have easily missed this passage. There is so much subtle nuiance of description of conducts and gestures packed in this short drama that I'd have to consider re-reading, seeing a play and a movie version.

This excellent play explores the conflict between Thomas More and Henry VIII over the break with Rome and the establsihment of the Church of England. The well known story is told primarily through the perspective of More's resolve to stand on his principles despite pressure from a variety of sources. The play uses the political intrigue and the sycophantic characters surrounding a monarch with absolute power to show More as a tower of strength as he refuses to bow to power and compromise his beliefs.
The Movie version with Paul Scofield in the lead is equally remarkable and follows the play without much embellishment.

I first saw the movie, and was riveted by the dialogue. The clarity of thought, the elevation of principals above self is awe-inspiring. I rushed out to buy the book (the script of the play), and read the wonderful dialogue over and over. Many of the lines simply cry out with logic and integrity, and some have found a place on the wall of my office.

Whether one characterizes Thomas Moore as a saint, a statesman of unbending principals, or both, his strength of character, intellect, humanity and general goodness shine through with brilliant clarity.

i am not a big fan of reading plays (they are meant to be performed after all), but this one is an exception. i found myself relishing line after line, enjoying the fact that i could pause and reflect on all of the tightly packed poignancy scattered throughout this work. sir thomas more is the hero's hero...of the messiah or socratic martyr sort (though he himself says he is not the "stuff" martyrs are made of), the man of true principle. he is one of the characters our generation unfortunately will only ever know through works of fiction. a person who does not (and cannot) separate their actions from their moral convictions, as the two are inextricably bound together, as are oxygen and lifeblood.

i am reminded of a quote by confucius: "at 70 i could follow my hearts desires without transgressing moral principles"...thomas more is THIS brand of sage. and we all have a lot to learn from him, even long after you discard the religious drivel.

it also doesnt hurt that he punks every single member of H the VIII's royal court (hehe).

This is an amazing play about an incredibly holy man, which employs its words in a profound manner. Thomas More, the beheaded lord chancellor of England under Henry VIII is the patron saint of attorneys, civil servants, politicians, and statesmen:
* "When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties...they lead their country by a short route to chaos."
* (In response to objection over his use of the word, "heretic":) "It's not a likeable word. It's not a likeable thing!"
* (Pointing to himself:) "this is not the stuff of which martyrs are made." WRONG!
* "The nobility of England, my lord, would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount."
* (To his betrayer, Richard Rich, attorney general of Wales:) "Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world...But for Wales!"
* "I Die His Majesty's Good Servant, but God's First"

'voyag of the great tittanic' was about a girl who travels to new york on the tittanic. while she is abord she meets new people and she says what she did while on abourd. later in to the book when the ship is sinking it tels how everyone is trying to make it out.
i would recemend this book because i learned something from the book that i did not know befor. it was also intresting to know things from first person.

"so far from home" is about a 13 year old girl who travels to america from irland. while she is their she works in sweat shop to earn money for he rpearrents so they can come to. this book also shows how tough the irish had it back then and how mistreated they were by the yankees
i would recemend this book becuase it is intresting looking at thing from the way those poeople lived back then.

Mary Driscol, or "Quiet One" as her sentimental aunt calls her, lives in a land of tragedy and gloom, starvtion and fear. Ireland, 1847. Not only the potatoe famine afflicts the Irish people: They are persecuted by unreasonable Eglish land lords who ought to be helping them in their time of need. Desperate to start a new life for her family, Mary ventures to America, where she hopes to earn money to pay for her parents' voyage by working in a mill in Massechusetts. She gets a job, stays with her aunt, who is a school teacher, and makes a friend named Annie, who is an American girl. But her struggles are not over. She has an overbearing boss, a prejudiced co-worker, and the hardships of daily life to contend with. But she finds contentment in making the most of her blessings, in prayer, in singing her mother's old lullabye to herself, and in the hopes that, one day, she will be re-united with her family. A touching, poignant story of a brave Irish girl who made her little world a better place. I highly reccomend.

I must say, when I read So Far From Home, I was a little disappointed. It was surely not as good as other Dear America books, and not very good period. I felt the story line was far too rushed, and could have been longer, it also ended too abruptly. The epilogues was weird too, and not as complete as other epilogues in the series. The characters I felt were not relatable as other Dear America characters. Overall, the book was alright, but surely not my favorite in the series.

So Far From Home is about a girl (Mary) who moves from Ireland to America to live with her aunt and to work at a mill. On the ship when she is traveling to America, she meets the O'Donalds and a boy named Sean. The O' Donalds have a daughter already in America (her name is Alice). While on the ship the O' Donald's end up dying from black fever. So Mary decides to go find Alice. When she finds Alice, Sean's uncle decides to take her in. After a while Mr. Quinn (Sean's uncle) sends Alice to a convent. There was a group of people who didn't like the Irish so they started a mob. Sean goes to the convent to keep Alice out of danger and brings her to his uncle. Then he goes back to the convent to stop the mob. He ends up getting arrested and Mary goes on a quest to save him.
I really liked this book because it is emotional and easy to read. I say it's emotional because when she is on the ship the O'Donalds die. Also Later in the book when she is with her aunt, she finds out that her parents are dying and won't be able to come to America. Like I said this book is easy to read I read it in two hours. As you can see I really liked So Far From Home and I think you would, too.

Tom Stoppard's famous play Arcadia takes place in the same English country estate across two eras: the early Nineteenth Century and the present day. The story divides between Thomasina, the owner's young daughter and her tutor Septimus, and the academics Hannah and Bernard, investigating a possible scandal caused by Lord Byron when he stayed there. The present-day researchers discover, among other things, Thomasina's mathematical gifts, the rise of the picturesque in landscaping, and the Romantic temperament, especially concerning love.

This is an extremely funny play, starting with Thomasina's opening line, "Septimus, what is carnal embrace?". At the same time, it also teaches us about science, math, and literature. It moves seamlessly between the two time periods, and gives all the information we need to understand the various topics in entertaining ways. It is a joy to read.

Tom Stoppard is a genius. Math and love and English gardens and waltzing and the river of time.

Very witty, very thought provoking, myriads of possible meanings and themes, the stuff the literary departments of colleges and universities worldwide base their livelihoods on -- and Stoppard gave it all the middle finger. I was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania in '95-'96 when Tom Stoppard graciously attended a small discussion group with 20 or so engineering students, headed by a professor from the literature department. The subject was "Arcadia," his recent 1993 masterpiece about the pursuit of science, math, and ribaled sexual escapades. The presenting faculty member was laying on question after question about the hidden meanings and whether this or that was the true intent behind his wordsmithing wizadry. I'll never forget his appearance. Messy mane of gray hair, tall and skinny, the lackadaisical expression on his face, slumped back in his chair arms and legs crossed -- he just couldn't care less. He'd give very curt replies to the effect of "that's your interpretation, make of it what you will." He was extremely uninterested in being drawn in to the microscopic dissection of his work. This went on for a painful half-hour or so. He just seemed so sick of people trying to analyze every syllable, instead of just enjoying his plays as the fanciful, thought-provoking diversions that they were. I certainly enjoyed it. Thank you, Stoppard, for putting "art" in its rightful place.

Stoppard wrote some nifty play there for a while, and then he joined PBS and the American regional theatre association's call for safe plays that create a seamless flow in mood from gourmet meal to theatre and back. This is the sort of play that is great for fundraisers, American-style. The play itself is seen as a masterpiece, but notice that it is long-forgotten. It's easy to confuse with "Upstairs Downstairs" or was it "Room of One's Own."? Stoppard fell in love with time-bending stories, mixing modern and Victorian, and has made it his signature style. Dramatic impact is destroyed in the process, but who cares? The goal is not to shake people people up but to make them feel good. Compare "Arcadia" with a Dicken's novel and you are half way there.

Though I am very fond of "The Invention of Love," "Jumpers, " "The Real Thing," "The Real Inspector Hound," and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, " this is Stoppard's best play, his most beautiful and most moving. We get the usual Stoppard erudition and the usual Stoppard wit, but these never distract us from the play's structural felicities. Or its emotional force.

Idea-wise, we get order and creation versus chaos and entropy. Something not quite explicable about the arrow of time makes the tea always get colder, never hotter, and the same fate (heat death) awaits the universe and every person in it. Strangely, though, in this seemingly random, ever chillier place we find unexpected beauties, the unexpected "islands of order" that can also be found in Thomasina's equations as surely as they can in Tom S.'s imagination.

The real punch of the play, though, is in the immediate rather than the cosmic. Whether we know about entropy or not, we *have* noticed that things go awry and that eventually we will, too. Even if we are lucky enough to find ourselves in Arcadia, we're still going to die. Even worse, some people are going to die before us, leaving us utterly alone. On the other hand--the pretty hand--"Arcadia" suggests that the fact that neither art nor memory need follow the arrow of time might just offer some sort of escape from futility and grief. Time can overlap with time, as love can overlap with love. Two people can synchronize in time and space in a most uncanny way, and what is this but love or dancing?

Bought for my boyfriend. He hasn't finished reading it, and I'm not sure why. It seems quite thick for such a narrow topic.

I just finished reading The Westies and I thoroughly enjoyed the book from cover to cover. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading true crime drama.

It isn't often that I use the word "absorbing" in my reviews, but this term certainly applies here. Once I began reading this book, I found it almost impossible to put down. "The Westies" is a gripping, dramatic narrative of the rise and fall of a group of insanely violent street-level hoodlums who seized control of all of the racketeering interests throughout the "Hell's Kitchen" (it has since been gentrified to the more fashionable "Clinton") section of Manhattan's West Side during the Seventies and Eighties. Essentially drunks and drug abusers, these fellows killed without hesitation and often over nothing more consequential than a real or imagined slight, and it was not unusual for them to dismember their victims' bodies in an effort to thwart identification by the authorities. It was this innate savagery and utter ruthlessness which subsequently brought them to the attention of Paul Castellano and the Gambino crime family, with whom they forged an uneasy working relationship. Why do I give this book such an enthusiastic thumbs up? Simple. Even though I read this book when it was first published eighteen years ago, I appreciate it even more now. It's a first-rate New York crime story which, I repeat, will keep the reader glued to its pages.

even hardened new yorkers will be shocked by this book---superably written and difficult to put down. Beats peter maas, mario Puzo et al

The brutal murders recounted in this incredibly well-written account of some Hell's Kitchen local hoods (The Term Westies was never used by them), will stay with you for a long time after finishing this book.

This is more than just a typical organized crime story. These guys grew up together on the West side of Manhattan and their ruthlessness led them to become the kings of the streets in a neighborhood with a long history of tough criminals.

The subsequent unraveling of their world, the saga of the cops who pursued them and the details of the investigations, trials and outcomes read like a late 20th century morality tale. Sometimes the truth is harder to believe than fiction. These guys were bad dudes.

Great book- hard to imagine that this could have been done any better than what TL English has accomplished here.

Looking through this book reminded me of the movie "A Beautiful Mind". A brilliant mathematician constructs a fantasy world complete in every detail. The only problem is that it doesn't exist, and that he's as mad as a hatter.

Just two examples of the many "possibilities" suggested by our schizoid author:

(1) The Biblical flood and the Trojan War were the same event because Noah was Aeneas, who fled Troy to found Rome. (Noah and Aeneas had names that sound alike. Thus it is proven.)

(2) Nine kings fled the fall of the Tower of Babel and seven kings founded Rome. Therefore, Rome was founded by the kings who fled the fall of the Tower of Babel. (In the author's words, the Biblical figure of nine is "close enough" to the Roman figure of seven.)

Need I go on?

this book is absolute garbage. the author has no concept of history and completely disregards the archaeological and historical record. If you you want to know more about ancient history, go to the experts. heck, even Livy is better than this guy!

The professional historians faint as prominent mathematician Doctor Fomenko et al research the known historical data and come to fairly controversial conclusions.

For example, the English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. As the sign of recognition of the special role of the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Russian historians brand it as pseudoscience because Dr Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by over two centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called `Tartars and Mongols' were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a trilingual state and aspiring Global Empire with Arabic and Turkic spoken as freely as Russian.

The ancient proto-Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities and the hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called `blood tax'). Their `invasions' were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion.

Fomenko proves for a fact that official Russian history is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scholars brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs. Their ascension to the throne was the result of conspiracy, so they charged these German historians-imports with the noble mission of making Romanov's reign look legitimate.

Dr Fomenko et al prove Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. These rulers represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate Godounovs and the ambitious Romanov upstarts.

The European historians fume not only because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History but for asserting that all medieval European Kings and Princes were but breakaway vice-regents and vassals of the Global Empire who badly needed glorious and very `ancient' past in order to legitimize their new independence from the Empire.

Dr Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one: the Ancient Rome: the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the 14th century A. D., the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, the Ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Giza become dated to the 11th to 14th century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global Empire, no less.

The civilization of the `ancient'' Egypt is irrefutably dated to the 11th to 15th century A. D. following the breakthrough in decoding of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone and painted on the temple walls.

Arabic historians may find some consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire as a part of the Global empire in the 15th - 17th century. The trouble is that this Empire was initially a proto-Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, but built in 1550-1557 A.D. by Sultan Suleiman according to Fomenko and Islam with all its key figures is datable to 15th 16th century A. D.!

The Chinese historians are also an unhappy lot because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such history. Period. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the 17th 18th century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation.

The Divinity excommunicates Dr Fomenko because the history of religions according to Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the 11th century and Jesus Christ ), Bacchic Christianity (11th to 12th century, before and after Jesus Christ), Jesus Christ Christianity (12th to 14th century) and its subsequent mutations (15th to 17th cy) into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on..; and The Old Testament written after the New Testament in xiv-xvi cy A.D., if you please! Everybody served? Saint Augustine was quite prescient when he said: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!

The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.

Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but

there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.

Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.

You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!

The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!

New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.

The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.

The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.

Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.

We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.

Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.

The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.

When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.

There are no answers to simple questions:

When were these primary sources written?

Where and by whom were these sources found?

It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.

As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,

innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.

The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.

Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.

This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.

Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.

`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as

there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.

Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.

They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.

All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:

Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!

The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!

The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.

All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.

Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.

Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun (ie. closer), different tilt on its axis (ie. less than 23.5 degrees), different orbit (ie. more circular), different rotation (ie. in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different relative positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently from how we would today? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history or geography is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

This was the final book in the Born In Trilogy and it lived up to the excellence of the first two books. As with the first two books in this series, this one kept me as involved with the characters. You feel like you know them and became involved with their lives; laughing and crying with them as the story unfolds.
I enjoyed the audio version of all three books and will share them with friends. As with the second book, I loved revisiting the first two sisters and taking a look at what was happening with their lives. A great series, do not miss them!

This is a very good story. It is the last of a trilogy, so you should listen to the first two before this one.

The Story is another good one by Nora Roberts. I bought this book in Audio Form and I did enjoy it. I just wish the Narator, Fiacre Douglas, would have spoken a little slower and taken his time. I loved his Irish Accent, but I felt that he was "raceing" through the book.

Shannon is a commercial artist in New York City. Her mother Amanda had a brief love affair with Tom, 28 years earlier. Tom lived in Ireland and was married at the time. He could not leave his wife and two daughters, Maggie and Brianna. Amanda returned to America, found out she was pregnant and met and married Colin. Shannon thought Colin was her father. Just before Amanda dies, she tells Shannon that Tom was her biological father. Brianna and Maggie also recently learned that Shannon existed when they found some old love letters. Brianna asks Shannon to come visit. Shannon does. While visiting Brianna and Maggie, Shannon meets Murphy, they fall in love.

The plot for Shannon and Murphy follows. Murphy owns the family farm in Ireland. There are some stones in a circle on his land that have a mystical quality. When Murphy was a boy, he had a dream of a knight and a woman meeting at the stones. The woman was Shannon. He continued to have dreams/visions of Shannon throughout his life. When Shannon arrives in Ireland, she begins having the same dreams. Murphy is the knight in the dream. Murphy knows immediately that she is the love of his life. He courts her and pursues her and wants to marry her. Most of the story is about her reluctance to give up her career in New York and be with him in Ireland.

The best part of this story was Murphy's love and total commitment to her. I kept wanting her to choose him. The main conflict in the story was her delay and hesitation. That was ok but not the best kind of plot for me. The group of characters were pleasant to read about.

Maggie's and Brianna's stories are told in books 1 and 2 in the series. I gave 5 stars to "Born in Fire" and 2 stars to "Born in Ice."

Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: six. Setting: current day Columbus, Ohio, the village of Kilmihil, County Clare, west coast of Ireland, and Dublin. Copyright: 1996. Genre: contemporary romance.

For a listing of my reviews of other Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb books, see my 4 star review of "Angels Fall" posted on 6/30/08.

Shannon Bodine lived a charmed life until she found out that her life was based on a lie. Her mother had an affair with a married man, and the man she had always loved as a father, wasn't her natural parent. Since her mothers last wish was for her to seek out the family she never knew, Shannon heads to Ireland.

When she meets Brianna and Maggie's neighbor Murphy Muldoon, they find an unexpected connection and immediate attraction. He had been dreaming of Shannon for as long as he could remember, and knew they were destined to be. Shannon was a painter, and Murphy loved his little piece of country life. He didn't know how they could intertwine their lives, but knew she was a part of him.

I wasn't impressed with the flashbacks and past life twists. Overall the characters lacked the development I expect.