Edith Wharton is likely the best chronicler of life in the upper startum of early New York, and the CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY joins her other classics in this realm, such as the HOUSE OF MIRTH and the AGE OF INNOCENCE. From the beginning, you can see where the book is headed, but the skill with which it's written keeps it from being a predictable read. The herione (?) is Undine Spragg, a social climber on the order of Lily Bart. Undine is a rather unlikeable protagonist, which leaves one's sympathies with the supporting characters, such as her first husband, Ralph Marvell. Fortunately, the book is filled with wonderful supporting characters, and the book's point-of-view often shifts between these characters. The ending is bittersweet, but gives one a great deal of insight into the emptiness of attaining everthying you want. Another terrific novel from Edith Wharton!

What a marvelous author Edith Wharton is! I like to copy passages from her books just to feel how beautifully she constructs her sentences and paragraphs. I've also read Ethan Frome, Summer, House of Mirth, and Age of Innocence; they are all terrific novels. But The Custom of the Country is her best. Could there be a worse mother, wife, or daughter than Undine? And yet, she is too pathetic to hate; she is so needy and dependent upon material things. She's perhaps the most unliberated woman in literature! Do read this novel; you will love it and learn from it.

A stunning, ruthless indictment of crass materialism and American disregard for the traditions and values of other countries. It's hard to believe this was written before WW1.

A very disappointing and ordinary book - I cannot believe that it was nominated for a booker prize. You just cannot try to write about music in these terms - certainly most musicians would never do so. The main character was such a whinge, mean, selfish - the relationship with her father never properly explained, Northern Ireland dragged in without any real depth or discussion of it. In particular, he never really explored her use of Lambegs (ostensibly a protestant instrument, but actually used by both sides once) by her (a catholic). The end of the book could have been from a Hollywood Meryl Streep movie. The long, free-form structure of the book didn't work particularly well either - moving from the death of her father back to a birth, and building up to the gestation and performance of a piece which seemed totally unrelated to the opening section of the book. Some good writing, but frustrating and annoying.

Each year, I await the Booker Prize shortlist with baited breath. My personal taste tends to run pretty close to that of the panel, and some of my favorite books have been winners of the award. So, I approached Grace Notes, a "frontrunner" for this year's prize, anticipating a great read. By and large, MacLaverty delivered. His protagonist is a profoundly depressed young woman who makes her way to the light through the power of music, and specifically through the act of composition. Along the way, she overcomes the death of her father, the constriction of her Irish Catholic upbringing, and the disappointment of a failed relationship that leaves her a single mother. MacLaverty's description of her depression is truly masterful, and the best literary evocation of mental illness that I have encountered in some time. Similarly, the climactic passage where she emerges from her darkness has the emotional impact of the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth. And yet...I found the two major sections of the book to be of uncertain relationship one to the other. I couldn't even place them in the correct chronological order. This discontinuity detracted from my otherwise great pleasure. A good book, worth a read, but not a great one and, I think, not a Booker Prize winner.

This multileveled novel tells of a young woman who escapes her Irish family, studies music with world class artists and composers, carves out a personal and professional life in a world dominated by men, and then returns briefly for the funeral of her estranged father and reconciliation with her mother. But it is also a search for grace in its various definitions. As a composer, Catherine looks for the "notes between the notes...graces, grace notes." A Catholic who no longer believes, she sees "music as the grace of God...a way of praying." Appalled by the cruelty and intolerance which "religious" men have shown each other throughout history, she believes that "her act of creation [not religious dogma]...define[s] her as an individual...and define[s] all individuals as important." She embarks on a series of religious compositions at the same time that she rejects the church and its teachings about marriage and family. Choosing not to marry the father of her child, she nevertheless recognizes her daughter as a miracle, a profound mystery which "there was no form of music to celebrate or mark..." Filled with symbols of Fatherhood, baptism, ascension, rebirth, and ultimate triumph, MacLaverty's Grace Notes is a compelling and sensitive exploration of a young woman's attempt to reconcile her humanity with the universal mysteries of creation.

This book brings out what many christians can't put their fingers on. It screams out and says how are you walking?? chained up or FREE? We are all to seek God and obey his commandments and this book does not take away from that. It just tells it like it is. It's all God and not US. That is where the focus should be. We as humans tend to take things to the extrem thus distorting and re-adusting what(we think). This book offers an insight to balaced christian living and points straight to God and his word. That in itself brings contentment to a christian being filled with guilt and burden. We can love God and be so happy and confident about who we are in Him. Sadly those who are convinced that they want to choose a rigid christian life will continue to have tunnel vision. They will not want to be set free, for them I will say, Only Christ died and only He and He alone can make you righteouse. I also pray for your awakening and if in humility to Christ you can read your bible without any preconcevied thoughts about what you've been taught or any of your own understanding, but that which lines up with Gods word (which is infoulable). Even when you think your OBEYING and LEADING a righteous life...guess what?? you still have SIN and God's GRACE is ever so graciously covering you...Why not enjoy it like he intended. This book is that simple. God does not have favorites as the bible says. So lets all grow up and accept our imperfection and live triumphant,righteous,happy christian lives that only comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. Only Satan would bring rigidness to a believers life. Let start living like Jesus died for us and rose up to give us LIFE in the true sence of the word(LIFE).

Charles Swindoll has hit the nail on the head about what's wrong with religion today: Legalism. His refreashing look at God's grace is simple and yet so profound. I have read the book 3 times already and plan to read it many more. The language is simple, the parables enlightening, and the message so very important. I feel that Swindoll accurately brings to life Bible text and makes God's message of grace easy for us to understand. Beware: legalists wont like this book.

Yes. It's true! A good friend of my family gave us this book and by the time I went thru the first chapter, I was in tears and saw a light I had missed and nearly forgot in my yrs as a Christian and pastor (besides having gone thru a long wilderness). My current pastor's birthday came up and even tho I had not finished the second chapter, I decided to either buy one for him or give this one away! I gave it away as the bookstores had sold out! I do not know whether he has read it yet as his messages did not show it. Still, I am hoping... Wonderfully, our friend lent her copy to us and now I can continue reading. I have preached and taught grace and works and all that for so long I forgot what it really meant to ME! (It can happen!) So, altho I knew what Swindoll would basically be writing, his experience and authority as a seasoned man of God in our generation sealed the truth of grace into my heart like few others could. From that day, I have been having a wonderful time just LIVING for Him!!!! Praise the Lord!! Thank u Mr. Swindoll for teaching this truth with boldness and with all grace! May the Lord continue to see u thru till the end of time!!

I just got the book, Grand Funk to Grace, the authorized bio of Mark Farner....for those young folks who may not realize, this man was the voice, songwriter, guitar player for Grand Funk Railroad. The front man that powered Grand Funk during the 70's. I cannot place into words the effect this book had on me. I read it from cover to cover TWICE! I have been a Grand Funk RR fan for as long as I can remember and the book made me feel like I really knew Mr. Farner and got up close and personal with this famous rock star. Thanks to Randall for buying me this book! It is very well written and a joy to read with alots of fascinating stories about Mr. Farner's life. if you dont have it, buy it, you will not be at all disappointed.

I very much enjoyed "From Grand Funk to Grace". Having read one of the longer reviews here it would seem that some folks (one in Particular) can't say enough bad things about The Author or the subject. I read the book and thought it was very well done. I especially liked how the book was done as a collection of stories
and that I could pick it up without having to think about where I left off. No wonder Mark Farner chose long ago to move to the outer reaches of Michigan. I hope he saved a few of those airport flares to protect himself from the "overbearing, long winded, negative reviewer who posted a review a few prior to this one". This book is long overdue, Grand Funk was a great concert act and loved by many and Mark Farner was the focal point of the band. If you liked Grand Funk or Mark Farner there is a lot more here than a collection of material from old fan rags such as CIRCUS. The information obtained for this book is priceless and the opinions of those who gave the interviews well expressed. I guess some fans are disappointed that the Grand Funk Drummer Don Brewer was not mentioned in always a favorable light. Hey,,Thats also part of the story!! It's all here. Conflict,emotion,adversity and redemption and even a few villains.
I would not be surprised to see a VH1 movie special or better from this book. To Mark Farner, thanks for the memories and to Kris Englehardt, thanks for writing it all down so well!!

A wonderful timeline account of the rags to riches story of the engine that drove Grand Funk to top of the music world in the early 70's.Mark Farner is not your typical rock-star.He is a man's man who even though he made millions,had fame,and many tests and trials through shady managers and agents and IRS troubles,has today kept his feet on the ground and lives a righteous existence through his born-again faith.Today Mark is a rock-patriot,spouting values from our forefathers and living a life through Christ.He does early Grand Funk songs,Christian,and positive-message music at his shows.The book tells how he came from humble beginnings,many humorous tales of growing-up experiences,and his musical influences as well as many never before told stories of life with Grand Funk Railroad.Included are many never-published photos of Mark's life.A must have for any serious fan.

I received this book as a gift from a friend a couple of years ago which inspired our circle of friends to start our own little haiku challenge. The poetry in this book is a collection of snippets from the lives of ordinary but creative people. It proves that everyone can find a little bit of revelation in their lives, in things as simple as a map or mist rising in the cold. And by sending those little snippets to friends they stayed as much a part of each others lives as if they were right next door. I really recommend dipping into this collection and maybe even starting your own haiku challenge...it isn't meant to be classic haiku, but simply enlightenment in daily life, given with love from one friend to another.

One of the hardest things to do - as a writer - is to keep things succinct. It is so amazing that the group of writers who had 'a haiku year' all manage to beautifully express moments of their lives in a few lines.

Though the poems vary in perspective and subject, they convey equally strong emotions. This book is enough to make you want to gather your own circle. And it's small size makes it easy to bring with you wherever you may travel - whenever you are in need of 18 words of affirmation, frustration or love. It's one of the few books I make sure is near my desk at all times.

sometimes i think of my father as an aging hippie- a rusty van plastered with bumper stickers, a very liberal viewpoint, and long hair.

the haiku year doesn't conform to haiku norms, but it isn't about aging hippies. it's a simple approach to the lives they lead.

i have much respect for my dad, and this book is everything about him and and his friends that i love.

The arrival of a new Charlotte Vale Allen book is always a treat! One following so close on the heels of Parting Gifts makes it a double treat. One cannot get too many of her books and this is another one that is a joy to read. Grace Notes takes us into the 21st Century with computers,the internet and emails playing the major role in this book.I will not reiterate the story line as doing so would only replicate what has preceded this.I will only add that she deals with both rheumatoid arthritis and spousal abuse with great knowledge. Ms. Allen's talent with character development is unsurpassed and she more than excells in this book. Grace Loring,her protagonist,is so real she almost leaves the book and joins you. Her brother,Gus;her daughter,Nicky;her dear friend,Vinnie; even Dolly and Lucia,her salaried help,are so totally dimensional it is difficult to see them as fictional characters. The only shadowy character is Stephanie Baine,but since she is manifested on email - a cyber person - she remains one dimensional. Only close to the end is she developed fully. Ms. Allen has written another fast-paced book that is highly readable. It builds in suspense to an exciting and unexpected conclusion. It is a great book,a great read, and she has done it again! After reading this book you may never fully trust your emails.

Charlotte Vale Allen has written another powerful book titled Grace Notes. The characters are believable. Grace is a writer, but it's not a book about writing. The book shows how things can go wrong, awfully wrong, and the ending will shock you. I love suspense and this book has lots of tension. I found myself reading until the wee hours of the morning. It's a modern day story and there's something for everyone, even a gay character shown in proper light.

I don't review the plot as that's really cheating. I guarantee you that you'll want to curl up and enjoy Grace Notes from cover to cover. I did. Once, a chill crawled up my spine. I won't tell you what page. That doesn't matter. There's as much love in the book as everything else as well. I found Grace Notes both rewarding and gripping.

Once again, Ms. Allen's characters are true to life. If you want the fantasy world, rent a Walt Disney movie. Ms. Allen tells it how it is in real life with all the elements of day-to-day living.

It's interesting to note that in the book Grace is a well known writer that welcomes readers to contact her. On her website (www.charlottevaleallen.com), Ms. Allen declares the same thing.

Grace Notes involves the internet and emails and love and pain and much more. The emails become another character and it's interesting to see something not really concrete become a major character. It shows how the internet plays a major role in a lot of people's day to day lives.

There's as much seriousness to this book as there is tension (gripping tension!). But there's parts that made me laugh and some parts were very, very sad. Charlotte Vale Allen understands life and in Grace Notes has written a book about real people and a dark situation that could easily happen.

My only advice is NOT to take this book to bed with you if you have to get up early. You'll find yourself reading "just more chapter" and then another and then another.

Grace Notes is a major treat for Charlotte Vale Allen fans. New readers will enjoy how she spins a web and gets the reader caught up from the opening page. Each book she writes is different. I've read many of her books and enjoy them greatly.

I highly recommend Grace Notes in all regards.

I didn't expect the book to be so serious and thought provoking. From the back cover it sounded like a mystery but in reality it was about the life of an abused woman who escaped and ended up taking care of her beloved crippled brother. I actually enjoyed the book very much and it taught me a lot and made me think. The ending was odd and a little abrupt but I'm glad it had a conclusion. I recommend this book to anyone who has had it rough.

I bought this book thinking that it would be better than Tom Clancy's attempt at Internet terrorism. Alas it was just as bad, with simplistic technology twists, and the reliance of a Navy Seal character for the tense action. The story is simple, with nothing in it other than a sense of purpose to keep you turning the page. If you want a decent techno-thriller I recommend the Cryptonomicon. This is squarely for the younger audience who are still wanting to read simple tales with simple characters.

This book was one of best books I ever read. I like espionage stories but since I'm a programmer, I want technology to be a big part of the story. This had both and it's hard to find these two things combined sometimes. Great action, more or less non-stop the whole way. This was a lot of fun and intelligent to boot. Has Grace written anything else? I want more.

Rarely do I take the time to read, let alone enjoy suspense filled thrillers. In the case of Spyder Web, I'm delighted I did.

I was entrapped by Tom Grace as he drew me deeper and deeper into the intrigue. This normally early-to-bedder found myself burning the midnight oil to finish.

Super story! Super characters! Super writer! Super book! Surely the movie will follow (but can it be as good?)

This is a very good book, but I did not like the ending, nor do I agree with critics who say it is her best (which is Family Linen or Fancy Strut, perhaps). It's another fine character study thought. I just hoped that Florida Grace Shepherd would grow to find herself in ways different from how she did. I expected more of her I guess, because I liked her so much. But, that is what makes Lee Smith's books so readable for me: I come to care about her characters and what happens to them, especially the ones I like, but I become invested in caring about the fate of even those I cannot stand, like Grace's father, a huckstering, snake-handling, back-woods preacher. I guess I care because Smith creates such plausible personalities on the page. Also, Smith had done her homework well and could show these people, warts and all, without condescending, sentimentalizing, or oversimplifying. The exception, as I see it, is the ending, which I see as more sentimental than psychologically probable.

Rich in character and prose, this is a book to recommend. I felt deeply for the main character, Florida "Grace," as she moved through a troubled childhood of religious fanatacism, to marriage and children, to walking out on the marriage to take up with a stoned painter. It's a book of self-discovery and forgiveness.

Grace grows up in a home of mixed-up worship. Her mother, Fannie, worships her father as her savior. And her father, a serpent-handling evangelist, worships himself. Jesus gets all mixed up in it, leaving Grace to doubt her fundementalist upbringing and subsequent marriage. She turns to a total opposite--a godless self-indulgent handyman. She learns of drugs and alcohol, and of course, that life fails her too.

The ending left some questions. It was very easy to read suicide into the scenerio. Grace was called to join her dead mother. But I believe it was actually a re-birth. She joined her mother in the body of Christ. It was His call she heard and obeyed--a relationship that wouldn't fail her.

This book locks your interest from the beginning. You can feel every bit of what Florida Grace feels in this book. Each character is someone you've met in East TN. This is the first book I've read by Lee Smith and I will read her other books.

The title comes from a discussion of "grace," the blessing of a meal, at the Thanksgiving table of Rue and Henry Shaw. The dinner guests decide that grace is said before a meal because it is ritual, "somehting that is repeated in particular ways at particular times."

Rue appreciates ritual and order in her ever-changing, disorderly world as headmaster of a private day school. But the year profiled in this book provides her with little order. Rue moves from death to staff changes to disruptive children to personal and professional dilema.

Each chapter of the profile is told in seasoned detail (though the constant point of view shifts are distracting and annoying) but they each seem to be their own story. Like a series of short stories, there doesn't seem to be a climax building. By the end of the book, the feeling is simply, "Rue made it throught the year."

I think every person who is contemplating parenthood should read this book, or teach 5th grade for a day.

Saying Grace tells the story of an amazing woman while she faces the challenges that life throws her way: her job as the headmaster at a private school, her marriage, her daughter.

I loved the authors style. She broke it up into small digestible parts - like a soap opera. And isn't that what life is - a series of wild events? She drew you in - gave you mystery and a sense of righteousness for this crazy world we live in and made you empathize with her characters. I think we can all recognize a little of ourselves in each of the characters.

This is the first piece of fiction I have read in quite awhile, and it has whetted my appetite for more... at least more in the style of Beth Gutcheon. Having sent my children to a private school through eighth grade and volunteered during most of those years as a teacher's aide, I was mesmerized by Gutcheon's complete encompassment of the trials, tribulations, life and humor of it all.

The side stories, which continued to introduce many different characters, took some concentration to keep up with at the beginning, but added immensely to the overall balance of the book. As in real life, the totality of the book, with the varied personalities involved, paralleled reality so closely it became uncomfortable at times. But isn't that the sign of a good book... a good story?

I thought the decision to include or not include the endings and answers of the many side stories in the end was very true to life. I was immensely pleased with it all.

Mishima's "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" is a beautifully written, picturesque short novel about idealism and the conflict between compassion and dispassion. The main character is Noboru, a bright, fatherless 13-year-old boy who hangs out with a few of his schoolmates in a sort of gang. The "chief" of the gang, who thinks far beyond the level of a typical 13-year-old, is the gang's philosophical guide and leader. The chief believes that life is merely a result of the chaos of existence; that society is useless; that fathers, as procreators of society, are condescending and deceitful; and that school is a simulation of the society of adults and therefore is useless as well. He instructs Noboru to perform a morbid rite of passage, the purpose of which seems to be to demonstrate that there is nothing mystical about life; living beings are made up of nothing more than earthly materials and mechanical components, so destroying a living being is no different than breaking a machine.

A sailor at sea lives far away from the foolishness of land-based society, so it's no wonder that Noboru develops an admiration for Ryuji, the sailor who becomes romantically involved with Noboru's mother, Fusako. Noboru is so interested in the sea and ships -- symbols of rugged individualism and the rejection of society -- that his knowledge of the subject rivals Ryuji's. However, when Ryuji decides to give up the sailor's life to marry Fusako and become her business partner, Noboru is disillusioned and wonders if Ryuji is just like all the fathers that the chief berates. As Ryuji starts to metamorphose from Noboru's image of the tough sailor into a sentimental, lenient society dweller, Noboru angrily compiles a list of Ryuji's "infractions". When the chief of Noboru's gang reviews this list, he decides that Ryuji must suffer the consequences. The last chapter of the book is somewhat reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in the way the gang leads Ryuji unsuspectingly to his doom.

When the chief tells Noboru that there are no heroes in the world, Noboru listens but wants to believe that there truly are; he wants to find a heroic ideal in the sailor his mother has just met. The novel illustrates this problem with idealism: We create imaginary heroes because when we try to identify real-life ones, we are inevitably disappointed by their human fallibility.

Written by Yukio Mishima and translated by John Nathan, this fictional story captures the tranquility of love and the harshness of reality. Split into two sections, summer and winter, this book combines the genres of love and horror to produce what is in the end a frightening and tragic tale of human brutality. Through the characters of Noboru, Fusako and Ryuji we are able to experience three very different perspectives on life. Noboru is a thirteen-year-old highly intelligent boy who in collaboration with his friends has chosen to reject the adult world. Fusako is Noboru's mother who is widowed and manages an elite family business. She is an idealist who dreams of perfection in a crystalline world. Ryuji, the sailor who literally falls from grace, falls in love with Fusako and gives up his life as a sailor in order to become the perfect husband and father. Together these three create a perfectly imperfect family. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for it's unique perspective and would definitely recommend it to others.

This perfectly crafted novel seems more relevent today than ever. Mishima's prose, in a gorgeous translation by John Nathan, is rich, multi-layered, and next to flawless; those who consider it "overwritten" forget what its subject is. This is the only novel I've read that captures so well a certain, dangerous passage of adolescence, and its myopic visions of purity and strength. Mishima's children have sublimated their teenage disgust for the adult world into an ideal: a cold, terrifying one. The stark, flame-like prose, with its deep colors, is the perfect expression of their world and its extremes (and the yin-yang is a pretty good symbol for those black-and-white years). At the same time, Mishima toys with the youths' ideals, shows how a cold ideology can mask a furious pettiness, even sexual perversion. The book is a true tragedy, a complex but absolute collision between two minds, two worlds; and Mishima brings all his usual shadings and ambivalence to the characters, so the bizarre events follow with logic and chilling conviction. And the book is also much more than this; it bears many revisits. I envy those who will be reading it for the first time.