England Books

I'm going to be honest: I kind of hate this novel.

Why? Because someone else was reading it, and when I was fourteen I picked it up and literally could not put it down until I finished it.

I'd never read about the Tudors/been into historical fiction before, and this book served to instantly addict me. I've torn through any books I came across on the era, I majored in European History (rather than something PRACTICAL that would actually have made me money), and you know what?

I have never found its equal.

This was simply an amazing, deep, addictive book, which amazing writing. The dialogue was brilliant, the innuendo and doublespeak of courtiers so well-captured. It sets the standard, and unfortunately nothing I've read, and I suspect nothing I'll EVER read, about Elizabeth or the Tudors will live up to this book.

There. Thanks, Susan Kay-- and no thanks for both addicting and ruining me.

I have read over a thousand historical novels,and this definitely is the best. Not just in court history, but it falls into the category of the most well written book ever to grace print. Could not put it down...

I have read many fictionalized biographies of Elizabeth I, but this one is the gold standard. It is quite remarkable that Kay is able to detail Elizabeth's entire life in under 500 pages, yet I did not feel anything important had been overlooked or shortchanged. This would be a terrific first read as well as entirely satisfying to someone already very familiar with the details of the Virgin Queen's life and reign. Kay's depiction of Elizabeth's psychology rings very true and, although she answers the age-old "did she or didn't she" question differently than many historians have, her portrayal of Elizabeth's intimate relationship with Leicester is completely believeable. Kay has managed to synthesize the "feel" of the period without bogging down in unnecessary, dry historical discourse. I felt I understood Elizabeth and her motivations and inner workings more intimately than in any other biography of her I have read. There is no white washing of her shortcomings or exaggeration of her virtues. In my opinion, this author comes as close as possible to capturing the essence of this queen, both as a woman and as a ruler. Remarkable and exceptional writing. Very highly recommended.

Unlike the trash heaps by Philippa Gregory or Laurien Gardner, Susan Kay actually wrote a compelling novel AND kept history intact. A tough balance act but she managed it. Ever the master of human emotion Kay builds up Elizabeth's emotional turmoil from Anne Boleyn's miserable end to the execution of her last favorite, Lord Essex. Chilling and colorful this book brings Elizabeth to life like no other novel I've read before or since. One can hate this Queen Bess at one moment only to love her at the next, like the real life queen Kay's Elizabeth keeps you guessing and when she reaches the emotional breaking point over having Mary Stuart executed one cannot help but feel for this woman. EXQUISITE in every way!

This book absolutely deserves all the glowing reviews it has received on this site. I am so happy my local library had a copy of it. I was hooked from the very first sentence and I didn't put the book down all day.

I have read many books on the life of Elizabeth I, but this book ranks at the top. Susan Kay's prose is stunning and her story-telling capability is masterful. Kay truly transports you back to the time of Elizabeth to such a degree that you can smell the rushes on the floor of the palace, feel the piercing gaze of Elizabeth's eyes on you, and feel the tension and danger of court intrigue.

It is a brilliant book and a must read for anyone interested in Elizabeth I. (Or anyone who appreciates exceptionally good writing) Oh, and this book has no business being out of print! It is far superior than most Elizabeth I books that are on the shelves of bookstores right now.

So you could go borrow the book at the library or buy the paperback, get the content down, and be done with it. But for same reason people buy very expensive European cars, there is something attractive to looks of a exterior that makes the consumer want to own, not rent, but possess. I love both books by Orwell, and this edition is one to show off.

When I saw that Chris Hitchens wrote the intros to this I was optimistic that he would shed a great amount of light on the subjects. Unfortunately, the intros are too short to get into much depth.

This is a handsome republication of Orwell's two most renowned works, Animal Farm and 1984. Even if you're just looking for 1984, this edition is to be commended; it comes with a fine introduction by today's leading Orwell enthusiast, Christopher Hitchens, and the reward of including Animal Farm requires very little in the way of additional effort or expense on your part. At 80-odd pages, you may as well pick it up in the same volume, and you're virtually certain to be glad that you did.

I'm not alone in being of a generation that was first required to read Orwell in my student days (Middle School, in my case.) It seems that there was a lot of literature churned out then, accessible to if not directly aimed at children, with the horrors of totalitarianism as its theme. In addition to reading Orwell, we were also reading Huxley, Bradbury, and Verne -- the youth-oriented John Christopher books being yet another example. The generation that lived through Nazism and Stalinism clearly wanted the younger set to be aware of the horrors that could be, and to remain on guard against them.

It doesn't seem to be quite that way anymore. Orwell's name is invoked today, but often in trivializing contexts: "Big Brother" is now a brain-numbing reality show, and "Orwellian" is a convenient and often hysterically-applied charge to political opponents. Some complaceny does seem to be inevitable: we are now further removed from the days when the likes of Hitler and Stalin killed tens of millions. Still, regimes arise that are nearly as horrific on a local scale, from Pol Pot to Saddam Hussein to the Taliban, and are real enough that Orwell's book is no joke. Orwell deserves attention if for no other reason than to sensitize us to the bad form associated with invoking his name in a trivializing context. There was a political ad on Youtube last year from an Obama supporter that cast Hillary Clinton on a giant Big Brother-like screen. I'm not in the least a fan of Senator Clinton, but associating her image with those of 1984 -- as was also done in an infamous Apple Computer ad -- trivializes Orwell's message in a deplorable way. Orwell wrote his novel to warn against real dangers that his generation lived through, and which others might yet, not as a marketing ploy to be used in selling either computers or nearly indistinguishable democratic political candidacies.

The main reason I am writing this review, however, is that re-reading Orwell in my 40's is a stark reminder that his novels are more than political parables, but are worthy literature. I hope that those reading these reviews will be aware of this, and not shut their minds to a rewarding literary experience.

As a kid, I was able to perceive the pedagogical intent of these books, but less so was I able to appreciate the literary artistry. 1984 in particular passes the Nabokovian test of creating a fully believable, if terrifying, alternate world. Beyond that, on nearly every page, Orwell leaves an image that just might stay with you forever. Small wonder that so many of the terms in 1984 ("Big Brother," "Newspeak") have burrowed their way into our lexicography.

Orwell was a man of the left who understood something that many of his compatriots did not; that what had arisen in the Soviet Union was a regime unprecedented in its horror (arriving before, and ultimately outlasting, its horrific mirror image, Hitler's Third Reich.) At a time when others on the left simply refused to believe in the reality of the USSR, he looked at it unflinchingly and wrote what it was really about.

Also, in childhood, I was not able to fully appreciate that Orwell's books simply weren't negative-utopian nightmare-fantasies, but paralleled actual events in the USSR with chilling accuracy. I knew, at some level, that he was satirizing certain events and characters in the Russian Revolution, but only in adulthood was I able to closely recognize nearly every episode and character in Animal Farm. Those familiar with USSR history will find it all here in the two books: the rewriting of the past to reaffirm the infallibility of the Party, the sudden reorienting of national propaganda to suit the latest twist of foreign policy, and the complete elimination of all references to those unfortunate souls decreed never to have existed.

Truly, the thing that makes 1984 terrifying now, is not what was imagined in the novel's construction, but what was real in its sources. It exaggerates even relative to the Stalinist state -- but not by much. It is this recognition that makes it a chilling read today.

1984 is the more vivid and evocative of the two novels. Excepting one passage (Goldstein's dreary history lesson about 2/3 of the way through) it is riveting almost throughout its 300 pages.

A few notes for younger readers: The moral of Animal Farm is not that Napoleon was simply a bad apple, but rather that the system adopted by the Animals ensured that ultimately such a tyrant would dominate. (I find the end of Animal Farm to be something of a false note; in the end the pigs prove no better than, and resemble, the humans they replaced, but this understates the tragic reality that the USSR was worse still than that which it replaced.)

As I close, I leave you with one random question about 1984: how come it never occurs to Eastasia and Eurasia to combine against Oeania? Given that Oceania keeps flipping its allegiance from one to the other, you'd think they'd ultimately catch on and both decide to attack Oceania at the same time.

Silly questions aside, this book is highly commended. Worth re-reading again, especially if you only have read Orwell when as immature as was I.

Many of us were assigned these books to read in school by thoughtful teachers. All of us should read them. In both, George Orwell gives us the tools to see exactly what liberty means and why we cannot afford to lose it.

In "Animal Farm," the fable is sufficiently removed from human experience that you can read this one to quite young children, just as you can "Alice in Wonderland" or other classics which say more each time you read them as you grow up. Even a first-grader could see the relationship of the politics of the barnyard to the politics of the playground. The jeering refrain of "Surely you don't want Jones back" can easily be recognized as the propaganda fallacy called "Reductio ad Hitlarum." Whenever the ruling pigs ran out of useful things to say, they fell back on slogans which meant nothing, but which could be molded to mean whatever they wanted them to mean in a given circumstance.

The completely classic "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" is one we must keep in mind whenever politicians start using words as if they mean the reverse of what they do mean.

1984, too, has its beautifully classic lines. The main characters are all members of the Ingsoc Party (English Socialism). It is not until well into the book that we learn they are only some 15% of the population; the rest are proles. The proles are easily dismissed as insignificant: "They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect." Use that line the next time someone tells you it's not important to educate our entire population to the best of their capabilities.

When the main character, Winston Smith, attempts to placate his tormenter by saying "You are ruling over us for our own good," he is scorned as "stupid, Winston, stupid." The party big shot responds with one of the most chilling lines I have ever read: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever."

Through the medium of conversations in the lunch room of the "Ministry of Truth," Orwell is able to tell us much about the creation and preservation of a totalitarian state. One key is the control over language which the Party exercises: "Newspeak." One of the people working on the Newspeak dictionary explains it to Winston: "You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words--scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting language down to the bone." He brags that very soon "all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron--they'll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be."

Putting these two in a single hardbound volume and adding a thoughtful introduction by Christopher Hitchens was a stroke of genius on the part of Harcourt Books. It will make it all the easier for professors of political science, literature, history, psychology . . . indeed, if it was not such a contradiction with regard to books so dedicated to liberty, I'd say make them required reading.

Animal Farm and 1984 are classic literature. You've probably already read them.

This edition presents them in a classic manner -- it is a lovely book, lovely dust jacket, and Christopher Hitchens does the intro. I usually find him funny and a little snarky, but in this intro, he is serious, high-minded, informative, and respectful.

I wanted to read 1984 again, since so many people are kicking around the terms "Orwellian" and "Big Brother" regarding current politics. I'm so glad this is the volume I bought. I know I would have gotten the same *words* in a flimsy paperback, but this was a really nice read.


I read both novels again. It has been... 20 years? Maybe longer since my first read-through. I'm a different reader than I was before.

Now it seems to me that the people who shout "Orwellian" the loudest, the people that warn of "Big Brother" most fiercely, are the ones who really want to be Orwellain Big Brothers. Interesting.

I've got that grisly Room 101 scene back in my head -- I had forgotten that one. Thanks, Mr. Orwell.

This is a lovely edition. Treat yourself.

I never wanted to 'get into' dancing or acting as a child, but this book makes the
world of a child theatrical performer (70 years ago) come alive. I read this so many times. It was just so entertaining. Great book!

"Ballet Shoes" is probably the most popular book in the "Shoes" series, but "Dancing Shoes" is also very good. It tells the story of two girls, Hilary and Rachel, who are training to become dancers on the stage. It is similar to "Ballet Shoes," but for anyone who enjoyed any of the other of the "Shoes" books it is worth reading.

I've been wanting these books for years now. I'm glad I finally got 2 of them. They came very fast and I love them. Thanks.

I received this book when I was about 8 years old. I took one look at it and thought, "I am NOT going to read this. It's a BABY book!" I never touched the book again until 3 years later, when I was 11 years old, and decided just to try out the book. OMG! Was I wrong! This was not a baby book! The story of Rachel and Hilary Lennox and their lovable (in a villainy way)conceited cousin, Dulcie Wintle, is a charming book that every one (and I mean EVERYONE) will love.

Rachel and Hilary come to live with their Aunt Cora, who runs a dancing (ballet, acrobatics, musical comedy, etc.) school, when their mother dies. Aunt Cora is set on making them both "little wonders" but Rachel finds that she disdains it, having no talent for those types of things. Hilary, however, finds that she loves it, and has a real talent for it, too! But Rachel doesn't want Hilary to be a "little wonder," let alone love it! Hilary was going to go to the Royal Ballet School of Dancing before their mother died, and Rachel is set on making her go after her mother's last words for her were to make sure Hilary went on with her dancing.
Misunderstandings will get in the way, as Hilary grows more and more with the "bad" type of dancing, becomes competition with Dulcie, and Rachel comes to find that dancing may not be her thing, but that doesn't mean that stage is not...

Dancing Shoes is a similar formula compared to Streatfeild's other books. After Rachel and Hilary's father dies, they are sent to live with their Aunt Cora, who owns a talent school and troupe. While Hilary is a very talented dancer, she wants nothing more than to have fun. Her sister, Rachel wants nothing to do with dancing, but she does want Hilary to go to the Royal Ballet School to study proper ballet, as her family and old dance teacher wished for, even though Hilary doesn't want to. So everyone, including their mean and selfish Aunt Cora, believe that Rachel is jealous of Hilary. Meanwhile, Aunt Cora's talented, and conceited, daughter now has competition with Hilary.

The book is full of the same charm as her others. While not as endearing as Ballet Shoes and Theater Shoes, maybe only due to the nastiness of Aunt Cora and how mean she is to Rachel, it is still a wonderful read. Any fans of Streatfeild's other books will surely love this book as well.

The New England Soup Factory cookbook is fantastic. I tried the Split Pea soup and it was so delicious - restaurant quality. I was so excited to serve it to my husband. He loved it! The recipes are easy to follow. I even resurrected my immersion blender. I highly recommend this book.

This was a great book, not for the waistline, but certainly for the tastebuds.

I love the recipes in this book...The clam chowder is fantistic with a different flavor of tarragon. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Great reading and even better cooking. If you are an afcianado of cold soup's this is your cookbook. Interesting and inventive.

I haven't tried many of the recipes in the book yet, but so far so good! I picked the book based on all the other positive reviews, and from what I have seen so far they are very accurate. Almost all the recipes in the book look very appealing and I suspect the ones that don't appeal to me probably would to someone else (we all have our favorite or less then favorite ingredients!) The ones I have tried are delicious and I have a long list of other ones to try. I just finished making the spinach, feta cheese, and toasted pine nut soup. I was actually making it to have around the house for lunches this week but I tasted a bit when I finished and I'm just going to have to have it for dinner now! Yum! So far I have found everything very easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find with out a hassle at the grocery store. Its also been easy to make small changes to the recipes to make a few of them a little healthier. (I'm trying to do the Mediterranean diet thing, whole grains, lots of veggies, light on the meat, heavy creams, etc.) For example the soup I just made called for cream. I ended up just leaving it out because it was already a great texture and very tasty already. But I think the recipe would have been great with the cream or with half or whatever. Anyhow, if you like soup this one is worth buying!

When I was in school, 10th grade, we had a chapter in English Literature. This chapter, named In the Grip of Prejudice, was from the book 'To Sir With Love'. That was such a gripping chapter, that I decided to buy the 'To Sir With Love' immediately.

Amazing book and fantastic movie (with excellent performance of Sydney Poitier). The book has been with me for more than a decade and re-read multiple times. Very intelligent book that teaches the basics of right human existance.

Excellent!

I just saw "Amazing Grace" about William Wilberforce
and the ending of the British slave trade. There is little doubt that the Ricky Braithwaite who is a relatively young black teacher in England
is the breeding product of such slaves used by sugar planters
in British colonies. In arriving at their destination a large percentage died in the crossing. An even larger number usually died each year as
a result of over work and underfeeding. Genetically this actually tended to make the black slaves superior to their white masters in many ways.
Survival makes very good people.
But the question is not if Braitwaite was as good teacher a teacher as
he is a writer, but have conditions improved since 1959 when he first published this. From hearing about the life of Amy Winehouse who is a very popular British singer, one tends to think they may have actually gotten worse in London's East End, not better?
So for all the popularity of the book and movie of this book,
not a lot of attention was really paid to his lessons in understanding
and care for the poor and hard pressed of all races.
Amy Winehouse was expelled by a Weston type for being independent and different. Progressive education has been replaced with regimentation and discipline. Braitwaite made the point that music, even classical music, got through to these children, but in California we spend money on contact football instead? In California E. R. Braitwaite wouldn't be allowed to teach in an high school. He doesn't have a recognized teaching credential.

During my school days, we had an extract from this book as one of the lessons in our English subject. The lesson was named "In the Grip of Prejudice". After reading the lesson, I just wanted to read the whole book. ER Braithwaite has handled a touchy subject aesthetically.

Highly recommended! :-)

A very enjoyable book. Braithwaite tells an inspirational story about both teaching kids but also overcoming prejudice as a black man in post WWII England. I'm a new teacher and hope to develop the type of relationship he had with his students with mine some day.

I remember having read an extract of "To Sir with Love" during my school days and have been wanting to read it ever since. Unfortunately I never got around to doing so for quite a while. Recently while browsing in a bookshop, my eyes fell on the book and I decided to pick it up.

The book is an extremely inspiring autobiography which chronicles the life of a 'coloured' teacher in a particularly rowdy neighbourhood of London.

Written in an extremely touching, charming (and ocassionally witty) style, the author talks about how he has to deal with racial sterotypes. It is uphill all the way for Braithwaite as he counters the cynicism of his impressionable students and, ocassionally, that of his colleagues also. Slowly, he wins over the minds (and in the case of Pamela Dare, heart) of his students as he tries to wipe clean their minds of prejudices (racial or otherwise).

The book was also filmed starring the ever-charming Sidney Poitier in the lead role. See the movie after reading the book.

Like others reviewers before this, I'm rather surprised how obscure this wonderful, quirky book truly is.

The story revolves around Toseland, a young child who goes to live with Mrs. Oldknow. He goes to live in a big manor in a country estate (think the estate the Pevensies go to live on in Lewis' THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDOBE). He soon realises there's something odd about the house, and is puzzled why Mrs. Oldknow talks about the history and past inhabitents of the place like they were around only yesterday. It turns out the house is inhabited by children of the past, and he learns of an evil gypsey named Green Noah who he ultimately must confront. This final confrontation is rather scary, and Green Noah is one of literature's most memorable villains that I've encountered in a long time.

The book is a rather charming blend of supernatural meets reality, and there is something very delightfully English about the whole affair. The author's Catholocisim is rather apparent n the book, and she fits a lot of different allusions to literature, music, and history.

For those looking for good Children's fiction, this is a powerful story. It's too bad it's not well known.

I found this to be an excellent novel not only for children but also for adults. There is enough intrigue to hold the reader's interest throughout the novel as well as being a lovely, warm family story.

I first read this book when I was a child (in the 60's) and immediately fell in love with it. It has everything I adore in a book; a little magic, a little ghostliness; an English castle; lovely animal companions; characters from times past; people with manners, morals and down to earth values and last but not least--love. I have re-read this book many times and have just finished listening to an audio-version. This is forever a beautiful and enchanting book.

The book I'm going to talk to you about is called; The Children of Green Knowe, by L.M. Boston. I didn't really like this book. It was a little confusing and hard to understand. There just wasn't a clear point. There was not middle, or a climax and resolution. I thought this book was about a mystery or a ghost story, by the cover and the blip from the back. I was very disappointed in the ending, and that it was appoint-less fantasy, that bored me half to death!

The Children of green knowe was about a boy named, Tolly, who was the age of 8-11,whose parents die (they don't say how),so he was sent to live with hisGreat-Grandmother in Penny Soaky. Her house was called Old Knowe.
Three children, Alexander, Toby, and Linnet, died in Tolly's(the boy's name), Great Grandmother's house many centuries ago. They started appearing around the house just days after their death. They played with Tolly, and went on great Adventures. Enjoy one of Granny's stories every 20 pages, and learn about Tolly and Granny's love for the flute andthebirds.

Other reviewers have praised the book. But then, they also liked Harry Potter, and "Series of Unfortunate Events" as well, so that clearly showed me, as a College Prof, now HS dad, that I might not like this book, as the excesses of sardonic humor, death, magic, and evil, are all too prevalent in this day and age, to encourage the reading of fiction to stuff yet MORE garbage into my children's (or my!) head. As it is said, "Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof...".

But Green Knowe is different- perhaps because it was written in a gentler, kinder time. While there is fantasy, and a sense of the blurring of the dimensions (ghosts that are not evil, a world within our world that has connections to the past, and the interpenetration of them all) overall, this work has as much depth as Potter's does for the adult reader, without all the preachiness of 'PC' dogma which has so marred Rowling's later writings, and has influenced all of the film treatments. One really does not need to rehash Shirer's work on WWII in a Children's fantasy novel, which is all Rowling's works have become at the hands of her American editors...

Boston's world is alive- with literature, history, music, and artistry, which Rowling's is not. For adults, the references to the Restoration, Cromwell, Purcell's music, Anglican Church, and British Christmas customs provide a wealth for any HS parent discussing the period 1660-1700. But, as another reviewer noted, she never GOES anywhere- unless just BEING is enough. Her world is one to inhabit, not to holiday through, as if it were an itinerary of sights to check off. The ONE confrontation is scary, and could frighten younger audiences...but a vision of a redeemed world shines through. I was reminded while reading Boston, of Jame's novella, that Britten set to music in the opera, "Turn of the Screw." NOT "cheery" stuff, that!

If I seem ambivalent, it is because, while there is much to recommend in her writing, and the pictures she paints are very vivid, and full of life, the theological issues of the spirit world interacting with the real world, the malevolent curses of a gypsy long dead, and the subtle hints of either a strong genetic lineage, or a nascent reincarnationalism, coupled with clear Christian imagery and pious sentiment (Do ghosts really sing Christmas carols, without malevolent intent?) bothered me.

Is the book magical? oh yes, in many ways. Is it troubling, as say, Wind in the Willows is not? Oh, yes.. in equal measure. Is it a good read? Definitely. But the rest? I'm not sure....

This book cries out for a different rating system - perhaps a 1-10 scale. Even then one would have to reward an "11" for this magnificent tome. I could not find a single flaw in the entire reading - character development and portrayal was realistic yet unforgettable, the setting mesmerizing (one is instantly transported back to the time of the Inquisition and the faith-filled, simple lives of the city dwellers) and the plot was perfect.

I have read criticism that the tale was not realistic or made suppositions and assumptions that are not exactly correct in the historical sense. But what one should remember is that this tale is an allegory, not a documentary. The fictional city is in Spain and the Inquisition is at its high point when a stranger appears. He is intelligent, interesting, and friendly but an unbeliever. He tells of a land in which belief is arbitrary and where one can change their religion - or choose to have no religion at all. This is too much for Church officials for in their eyes murder, torture and lying can be forgiven but also blessed. A trial of sorts is proposed.

Now we have the second story and the joy is how the two are seemlessly weaved into one arc. A child found among the wolves is being raised by nuns. She is not to be given any religious instruction and if she comes to a belief in a Supreme Being the visitor will be found guilty, otherwise he will be judged to be innocent.

The battle is not between atheist and believer. It is a civil war between two schools of thought within Catholicism - the plain folk and their local leaders and a grand inquisitor who employs "unusual" methods for "protecting the faith". The wolf-girl finally is made to make a statement that can be interpreted as belief and Palindo, the visitor, is tortured to confession. When he refuses to follow this up with another confession (which would then validate the previous "confession") he is sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. A lowly follower trades all her material goods for a balm that will bring instant death upon being heated.

The aftermath is a short but appealing denouement. The bishop's assistant announces he cannot believe in a God that seeks obedience through torture. The wolf-girl returns to her solitary mountain home but not before catching a glimpse of a vast naval armada from the foreign land streaming toward the city that burned its citizen. The rewards of sin...

While I can't top Avid's review (see below) for insight and eloquence, I can say that this book will appeal to you even if you're not normally the type interested in vast philosophical questions. Part of Jill Patton Walsh's triumph is that she makes the discussion of ideas so accessible. One truly feels drawn into the world of this tiny Spanish island and the people who live there. And one does not have to be a literary genius to realize that the structuring of this novel is nothing less than symphonic in its brilliance.

I won't reveal the powerful, throbbing revelation that lies at the core of the novel. Know, though, that this book will almost certainly spark your imagination and challenge your assumptions about faith, life and, indeed, the universe.

This story is an especially pertinent discussion of religious intolerance, and how to live a beautiful, joyful, inquisitive life in the face of it. A revealing look at the genuine sources of wonder life grants us.

Knowledge of Angles by Jill Paton Walsh is one of the best books of our time. Its richly illustrated plot was truly unique. We read this book for a high school English class and both agreed that it was one of the best books we've ever read. The story of a wolf-girl slowly interwines with that of a man unjustly persecuted because of his beliefs. A young girl, raised by wolves, is captured by men and brought into the human society. A kindly boy finds help from the Cardinal who in turn decides to perform a religious experiment with her. She is brought to a secluded cloister where she is to be kept without any mention of God in her presence. In this way, the Cardinal tries to find out if there is actually a high spirit, that seems to guide you. This careful experiment soon leads to surprises, that would best have been left unknown. The story of a wrongly persucuted man makes "The Knowledge of Angles" even more amazing. Palinor, a king from an unknown "perfect world" fell off a boat and swam to a nearby island. He is immediatly thought to be an athiest because he neither knows that God exists, or knows that He doesn't. Palinor was put into prison, then released and taken to talk to the Cardinal. His arguments are so convincing that he even has the Cardinal somewhat doubting his faith. The two stories come together to create a very important theme, one of love, hate, God, and sympathy.

Every single chapter ends with an astonishing line that makes you want to stop and think, to contemplate yet at the same time has introduced a quiet shocking revelation that there is nothing to do but read on, and read and read. The book is clever, is wise but not judgemental. It touches the heart, the soul but is neither sloppy nor politically philosophical. A book to fall in love with, i recommend it to all.

This is an absolutely charming story set in England before the war. The Linnet children are sent to live with their staid grandmother after their mother dies and their father is away in the army. Grandmother is too strict to abide, so the children steal a pony cart to make their escape. And so their adventures begin, when the pony "delivers" them to the home of an old, grumpy man who agrees to let them spend the night.

This wonderful story is the very first book I ever owned and I never forgot the feelings of magic and wonder that I experienced reading it for the first time. Even now, as a grandmother sharing the story with grandchildren, I SO want to believe that Ezra talks to bees and that all can be right with the world.

I highly recommend this book to young and old alike!

Beautifully done story that starts off with the Linnet children running away. The story has an air of mystery and magic to it, that might or might not be.

This book begins as a delightful Victorian-style children's adventure. However, about halfway through the book, it turns to witches and witchcraft, evil spells, and an oblivious or helpless clergyman. I am glad that I proofread it before I was going to read it to my children. I will definitely be getting rid of this book.

This enjoyable tale is about 4 children who, separated from their father by war, end up spending the summer with an elder, bachelor, uncle. At the home of their uncle they have frightful adventures that ultimately lead to the redemption of the entire town. The book is well-written and could be appealing to both girls and boys. The book might require approximately a [...] reading level. It is a relaxing, entertaining read for those who enjoy Children's Literature.

I first read this book as a pre-teen. Then reread it again and again until the cover began to shred off. The only other books I have read more often are Jane Austin's novels. It is a charming, magical tale, meant to please young children who truly believe in good witches, and the protective nature of bees.

You can tell that this book is something special just by looking at the quirky artwork on the front cover. I must admit that I've never visited that part of the world before, but was surprised to find out that New England has such a rich history of folklore and creepy tales. I love the informative way in which all the stories are presented. They have depth and the author usually always offers a theory as to why the (mostly) supernatural events have occurred. My most favourite story in the collection was "Beyond the Dark Entry". It discusses the demise of a small hamlet by the name of Dudleytown. This story was genuinely creepy. I also loved "From the Mountains of Madness" which details some of the eerie experiences various people have had on the top of Mount Washington. Another thing I liked about this book was that even though some of the subject matter or folklore may have stretched the truth a little over the years, they never fall into the trap of being so far-fetched that you feel like you're being taken for a ride. This was a thoroughly entertaining book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in this genre. I consider this to be one of my most favourite reads ever!!

Another collection of the incredibly bizarre and truly creepifying true tales of New England from Joe Citro. Not only are these tales so weird, so full of the Yankee spirit, so very scary, but Citro imbues them with the clever, dry-wit of the twinkle-eyed New England storyteller. This book was fantastic. Part of it might be that these places are very familiar to me and it isn't hard to imagine these weird, magical, creepy things occurring in the depths of old New England. Also, these tales are so absolutely bizarre that not even New England's best storytellers (from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Steven King) could have imagined them. I couldn't put this book down, and yet, I couldn't read it at night. Wonderful, scary, and fascinating collection. Grade: A+

the book was interesting,not the type of book to read on a cold
dark rainy night.some of the tales were dated,but still of interest to me since i have lived in new england all my life

What you'll love about this book is that Citro spins a good yarn. His storytelling style reads well, and your eyes effotlessly flow over the words. As for whether these stories are true, he includes some fantastically compelling reasons why they could possible be more than simple legend or folklore. Documentation, methodical investigations by qualified skeptics, law enforcement sightings, journalists, and witness-upon-witnesses, all shared in a non-overbearing fashion. He's not trying to prove anything, he's just tickling our thoughts -- and it works!

The stories themselves are either interesting, quirky, terrifying (or all of the above), and all of them -- I mean all of them -- are utterly unique. Just stuff you couldn't have made up on your own even if you were using hallucinogens!

If you're a skeptic it will challenge you. If you're a person of faith it will make you rethink your pre-assumed theologies. But ultimately this book succeeds because at its heart they're just well-told stories that will chill you to the bone and make you think at the same time.

From the title of this book, I was expecting mostly ghost stories. However, this book is unique in its genre, and I was very pleasantly surprised! Although this book has much legend and lore, of which I am not usually a fan, this author's ability as a raconteur quickly overcomes the boundaries of time. These tales are superbly told by a master at his game. Joseph Citro, in his own words, claims to be an "anthologizer." That is exactly what he does here, and he does it well.

The author's ability to narrate a captivating tale is the epitome of the classic New England story-teller, wry humor included. His prose breathes invigorating life into these stories, most of which are "off the beaten path." He will at times make you shiver, and at other times scratch your head. Gathered for your inspection are some of the most creepy, bizarre, and, in some cases, well-documented strange happenings from across the region. Joseph Citro has set himself apart as a top-notch investigator of odd history and unsolved mysteries, a true "Bard of the Bizarre." I am especially a fan of the stories about the sightings of the "Yankee Bigfoot." There were some pages I couldn't turn fast enough.

This collection peeks into lots of New England's nooks and crannies, and should be included in any ghost story, folklore, or mystery-filled library. These strange tales are engrossing, well varied, and unique. I would love to sit down with the author over a roaring campfire, late at night, with only the forest winds howling . . .

I wasn't particularly impressed with this book. It was good enough to keep reading, but it wasn't until the ending (don't worry I won't say what happens) that I really started to like it in spite of myself, hense the 3 stars. The characters are generally likeable. Ellie is a little too obsessive about her weight and too self-depreciating. It starts to get annoying. The plot also seems a little thin (no pun intended).

I hate to admit this, because it's nothing against the book at all. I absolutely love this book but for the life of me I can never remember the name. I know what it's about and about when I read it so I search my library for the name each time.
The story is so entertaining and fresh. What's funny is I have read other books in this series and for some reason never knew this was one of the first in it's series. Please don't think it's a bad part on the book because it's not it's my brain.

Ellie like many women in her same situation wants to impress her family because they kind of give that attitude of I'm better than you because she's plump and single. Ellie decides her best bet is to have someone attractive and male on her arm when she visits them this time around. So she calls on Eligibility Escorts and enter one Bentley Haskell. He's a bit abrasive, but he fits the bill as far as being nice to look at and perfect to play the single girls long time beau. Bentley is a trained chef, but has taken up writing an ADULT/Graphic novel.
Once cornered with her family though Ellie makes Bentley not just her Beau but her fiancée in a very humorous moment. So as the weekend ends Ellie goes home with confidence she's gotten away with her lie and can go about her business.
Then her uncle dies and he gets one over on the family by stipulating that he is leaving Ellie and Bentley his entire fortune and castle home if they both accomplish two things in the next 6 months. Ellie's supposed to lose weight and make herself over. Bentley is supposed to write a full length book, but it has to be free of blasphemy which is going to be difficult because the book he's been writing will not do at all.
The mystery begins as people disappear and Ellie and Bentley are being targeted by a mysterious person who wants them to fail and will do anything to make sure they do.
This story is funny and fresh. I love it.
The audio version is abridged but very well read by Amanda Donohoe. I'm glad I discovered this book was part of the series I had already come to love because it's a great beginning for it.

I read the Ellie Haskell series out of order so finally getting to read the first book was great! It was nice to see how it all began...how Ellie met Ben and how they all ended up at Merlin's Court. I'm a big fan of Dorothy Cannell. Her books have always kept my interest. I love the twists and turns of the mysteries. I can't wait to read more!

Ellie Simmons really wants to be thinner. But with her love of food, it wasn't going to happen any time soon. Then she gets an invitation to go see her family and is not sure what she should do. All she knows is that if she goes she must have a date. Ellie decides to hire an escort from an escort service but after meeting her date, Bently T. Haskell, she is about to regret it. They show up at Merlin's Court, only to have her cousin making eyes at Ben and her Uncle Merlin show up in odd places. An unexpected death and puzzle to solve is enough to put Ellie over the edge. She almost loses her appetite for food but Ben's cooking while they solve the puzzle helps her out. Can Ellie she trust anyone around her?

My favorite character was Ellie. I could really relate to her struggles to lose weight and how society looked at her. She didn't let it get her down. Ellie had to persevere through everything in order to help solve the puzzle. She really had to work hard and make things work or she would not get an inheritance. Ellie was a true fighter and I loved how things worked out for her in the end. Now, now that she needed it but she really wanted it . My other favorite character was Dorcas. She was there to help solve the puzzle. She may have come towards the end of the book but her part was important. Dorcas filled in bits and pieces to things at the end that made everything seem right.

The storyline and the characters of The Thin Woman were real to me. Ellie had to learn to change her habits towards food and embrace who she was becoming in order to earn her inheritance. The struggle that Ellie had with her family was interesting. I never knew families could be so dysfunctional. I could see that the struggle in this book had a purpose. It showed that life is a struggle but you need to keep going, the answer could be just around the corner.

I really loved this book. Dorothy Cannell is a wonderful writer and she makes things so real to life. I had a difficult time putting it down. The twist and turns in the book were unpredictable and made the plot interesting. The surprise towards the end was worth the entire book. Cannell had me on the edge of my seat in one part and the next laughing my head off. This author is one amazing writer. I really enjoyed what she had written and I look forward to reading more books by her in the future. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery and not knowing who committed all the crimes.

Reviewed by Krista
For BBW Reviews

This book is so witty and well written that you will never want to put it down! The ending is also different from what you would expect! I Loved it very much and recammend it ro all. Now, don't be decieved by the cover because, you should never judge a book by it's cover. Besides the muder it also shows that if you put your mind to it you can do anything and that is what I liked about this book.
The descripitions are so well written too I found myself imaginig the rooms Ellie was designing. Now, I won't tell you everything, you must read it and tell me how you liked it!