This is the pentultament source for the history and intrigue of scotch...who is "doing" who and how does scotch go from hops, water, and copper pot to the necture of the gods - this is the ultimate source book...And it is written with a sense of irony and humor. Buy this book...if you love scotch you will adore this book.

Being a fan of single malt whiskies myself, I really appreciate his knowledge, at the same time that I am taken by his whimsical humour.(I am Canajian,eh?) His illustrations are outstanding, and he is a truly inspired watercolourist.

Ralph has obviously had lots of experience with horses. His love and admiration for them come through in his writing. A good read for children and adults alike. Keep up the good work, Ralph!!

This book was really awesome,it has sooooooo much action!I love Stormy,&Buster,&Ann,&Casey.Casey is so funny!Ralph describes very good in his book so it makes it really interesting!I recomend it to anyone who loves barrel racing, & horses!I got it for my friends for their b-days,& they love "Stormy The Barrel Horse" It will always be my favorite book!! KEEP WRITING RALPH!

When The Story of an African Farm was published in 1883, the title gave no indication to readers what the complex scope of the novel was really about.

Written by South African governess, Olive Schreiner, the book's crux ran along the controversal: the oppression of women, feminism, the existance of God, anti-imperialism, the bizarre transformation of one the novel's characters (not Lyndall) into a transvestite. It goes on and on. The novel was written when the belief of agnosticism was in the early stages of being in 'vogue.' Also interesting, Darwin's Origin of the Species had been published for some time, and the theory had rooted itself in many areas of society.

This was not the traditional Victorian novel that was written in the old English 'bonne bouche' manner on par with Jane Eyre or Emma. The prose of the novel has a broken up fluidity to it; it is not grandiloquent; it is in fact, quite brutal, edgy. As Elaine Showalter writes in the excellent introduction to the Bantam Classic edition, "Readers expecting the structured plot of a typical three-volume Victorian novel were startled by the oddity of African Farm, with its poetic, allegorical, and distinct passages, and its defiance of narrative and sexual conventions." With that clearly explained, it is not a surprise that it shocked old, priggish Englanders with their stiff upper lips and staunch, conservative manners, nor is it shocking that the Church of England called the novel "blasphemous."

African Farm details the lives of three key characters: Waldo, Em and Lyndall. The latter character is the one who seems to bring up the key issues that made the novel controversal. Lyndall is always described as 'little,' 'delicate,' 'like a doll,' 'a flower.' However, she is the one who refuses to marry (with one minor exception to the rule) until a social equilibrium is established between men and women. She desires equality between the sexes, and is willing to suffer for it. And she does, more than what is expected. Odd as it may seem, but considering the period in which the novel was written, the character of Lyndall really had to be physically 'feminized' in order to make up for her strongly held convictions of being a 'total' woman and not 'half' a woman.

If any person reads the novel, the character of Lyndall needs (from my view) special attention, for she questions the values of men, women who accepted the standard, religion and the social hierarchy in which she was born. Her questions seem like cartels, challenges. Why can't she have a job? Why can't she be educated or independent without the stigma 'weirdo' unflinchingly attached to her? Why must she be dubbed 'strange?' The reader must always ask why when reading this book. The three characters, Lyndall especially, endure a lot of hardship, a hardship that mirrored the very author's life, i.e. her cold and distant upbringing, the religious retraints placed on her life as well as the life-clenching grasp that old norms had on women of that period. African Farm was Olive Schreiner's liberty, her freedom from the societal choke hold.

In conclusion, the novel is not one of grace and patrician dogma. It is not a book of nice ladies and gentlemen sitting under the African sun near exotic, wild flowers sipping tea and participating in intellectual banter. No, it is an underscored work of literature where ideas of human aspiration and ecumenical desires are explored under a blazing sun and burnt, sandy plain.

...it would be awfully short-sighted to say it was. I came across Olive Schriner by accident which goes to show that quality is not always given the profile it deserves. But now I'm going to rectify that. Olive Schriner is a genius. This book should be right up there with Woolf's 'Mrs.Dalloway' and Hesse's 'Glass Bead Game'. Read it - that's all. You can't get to the end of your life without doing so, and since that can come at any moment read it NOW.

From the turn of the last century comes this surrealistic novel that will make you laugh at the Patriarchy and its obsessions with Technology and Phallocracy. The great Poet and Pataphysician Alfred Jarry could see, using hallucinogenic insight, the foibles and evils of his own enculturated hyper-masculinity. What a vision. Not to be missed !!

One often takes French proto-surrealist literature with a grain (or spoonful) of salt, perhaps due to the hollow stigma which Breton and others rendered the word 'surrealism.' This novel by the maniac Jarry was a helpful reminder that he and Apollinaire and a few others were really getting at something compelling. Jarry's Supermale is an hyperbolic monster of masculinity, riding 10000 miles on a bicycle at the speed of a locomotive to proclaim his desire for a certain woman, with which woman he proceeds, in order to prove a point, to copulate a total of 82 times in 24 hours. However, Andre Marceuil is clearly a self-portrait; descriptions of him read uncannily closely to Jarry's own physiognomy. Marceuil is a man intent on living his art, without pretentions or assistance. The sex that occupies the latter 40 pages of this rather short novel (80 pages total) is surprisingly sensitive and crazy, especially during a launch into a poetic hymn to Helen of Troy. Altogether a touching and inspirational nugget of strange virtuosity. Read it and regain your faith in the true surrealism. (if you have lost it.)

I read this book this past week and I was drawn to finish it. It was not a high polish, perfectly worded book, but that it what I loved about it. It was written by a regular person about genuine and regular people. The book made me cry and feel shame about the way I have lived my life. When you read about grown men marching who have no shoes, I guess it really does not matter if I have Nikes or a regular store brand.I believe it has changed my life in some ways. He spoke of men being beaten until they begged for death, which was the only mercy they saw in their whole existence inside the prison camp- I cried again. It was a beautifully written book and I believe all people should read this.It talks of fear and love and mercy and bravery and laughter too. I highly recommend this book. If we do not remind ourselves of what we have and why we have it and remember the sacrifices that braver people than I have made- perhaps history will be doomed to repeat itself. I was told not long ago that the Doctor Hibbs passed away a few weeks ago, he was an honorable man. In my deepest heart, I salute him and am proud to have read this book.-

This book is a great way to learn about the horrors that American men went through in the Philippines during World War II. It is truely remarkable that a person could live through what the author lived through, and after the war was over, come back to the states and lead a very productive life. The book would be great for anyone interested in WW2 or anyone who wants to appreciate more what our servicemen and women did for our country.

This is not a book for just WWII buffs. I guarantee that anyone who appreciates fascinating and well-written non-fiction with an original angle will love They Can't Take That Away From Me. What sold me was the unique and artistic style employed in this POW memoir; it brought a fresh perspective to Ralph Rentz's struggle, triumph and the invincibility of his nightmare.

They Can't Take That Away From Me truly is an odyssey of one, rather atypical, American POW. However, it is more than just a "Sentimental Journey". This memoir is unlike any other WWII story, in that it reaches beyond the prosaic collage of nostalgic gore and glory and invites the reader to hear the song inside the bruised head of a musician who finds himself without his band, his saxophone and clarinet, without his freedom and even his own sanity, but never without his music. It is a tough tale, but it is softened with a lyrical literary style that makes it flow like the Pacific. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about music, adventure and inimitable tragedy.

I could not put this down. It is a funny, warm, and insightful jam session on the subjects of literature, jazz, and American culture. This is a must have for any student of those subjects. It's also gives fascinating background into the lives and intellectual development of these literary giants.

This is an excellent book. Fans of Ellison and Murray will appreciate the intimate look at the lives of these writers that can be gained from reading the letters published in this work. Moreover, the call and response nature of the letters beautifully mimic that which can be heard in some of the classic jazz and gospel songs of America. You'll have a hard time putting this one down...

In Ralph Black's Turning Over the Earth, a reader has to be struck by the reflective human sensibility regularly intensified by the poet's recognition of the limits of both metaphysics and human perception. Unlike the formalized relentless neutrality of
Frost and the contemporary transcendent eruptions of Kinnell-or even the bemused appreciations of Stevens-these poems demonstrate human feeling deepened by a world that is circumscribed by politics, crass suburbanization, and the unpredictable horrors nature itself can afford in the form of predation and disaster. It's as if Ralph Black is revising our notion of the pastoral poet. This is an excellent book because it gives reading pleasure in the recitation of its melodies and in the smart accounting of the poet's concerns...especially as those concerns traverse the ecology of land and psyche.

Turning Over The Earth is a superbly presented anthology showcasing the witty, engaging, and wonderfully recommendable poetry of Ralph Black. The subject matter draws from a wide range of inspirations based on city life and the countryside, on music, nature, history, and personal experiences both common and uncommon. A Moment With Apples: It is rain agin./Is rain becoming/a mirror along/black stretches of road/winding through a country/that explodes/with the red of apples/at every turn./It is rain glazing/the apples before they fall,/glazing the red glaze/of apples, which hang there,/silent, almost breathing,/feeling the change of/season move around/the shapes they make/in the unpronounceable air,/as if a pair of hands/moving that way,/almost touching, could/tell us something/we have no other way/of knowing.

This book showcases 14-27 and has spideys battle with Doc Ock(my favorite villan,kraven the hunter(if your a fan of his beware). It shows a sneak peek of ultimate sandman.Then there is the return of the green goblin and a great fight that includes nick fury and a history of Osborn. when gobby throughs M.J over the bridge you think its Gwen stacy all over again. Buy this book.

Picking up where the first Ultimate Spiderman hardcover collection left off (the first book collected issues 1-13), this book collects the next thirteen issues of the mind blowing excitement that is Ultimate Spiderman.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil) with art by longtime Spiderman artist Mark Bagley, this collection is phenomenal. Ultimate Spiderman is the retelling of the Spiderman in a modern world. Brian Michael Bendis's writing is spectacular and captures the innocence and excitement as Peter Parker/Spiderman learns to use his abilities and deal with high school at the same time. Mark Bagley's art is, as always, gorgeous, smooth, and brings Spiderman to life in a way that makes you wish you could live in the streamlined world of a comic.
This excellent hardcover features two great Ultimate Spiderman stories: his first battle with Dr. Octopus and his second face off with the Green Goblin. Not to be missed by anyone who has ever enjoyed Spiderman!!