Excellent book. Easy to read. Helped my husband and me to have a starting point to discuss our intimacy issues. Also, it gave us hope that we can work through the physical and emotional problems surrounding impotence. I highly recommend this book.

Everyone has his or her own what-if scenarios and Mr. Robert A. M. Stern would play a central role in mine. For some people it's cars, or planes, houses, or paintings by the Old Masters. In my case the list is all of the above. So were I ever to make the Fortune 500, a home by one of the Greatest Architects would top the list.

This book covers a relatively short period of this Artist's career, specifically 1987-1992. It also happens to include many projects that were built in New England where I live. I had seen some of his work in person, and other examples in magazines, but it wasn't until I did some research that I found he was responsible for nearly all the projects I had so enjoyed. Many know one project in Massachusetts as Mr. Stern designed the Norman Rockwell Museum in the Berkshire Hills of Stockbridge. He also designed several buildings for Disney in Orlando, as well as numerous Colleges, and residences both urban and rural.

There is a fairly good chance his work is known to many readers because of some of the project's locales and the frequency that so many Americans visit them. While walking in a city with towers looming above it is often impossible to get far enough away to see what is blocking out the sun, this book solves that problem. And chances are Mr. Stern's work is not preventing the sun from reaching you, as his designs seem to belong where they are. His work and the surrounding areas accommodate each other as opposed to many Architects whose goal is to leave their mark. Once you become familiar with his work you will see the statements made by his buildings leave as strong an impression as any. Mr. Stern is a master designer, and his elegant, classically influenced work stands out because of what it is as opposed to how tall, how ostentatious, or how intrusive.

Even if you have never thought of picking up a book featuring the work of an Architect, I suggest if you do, this is a great place to start, and will not disappoint. His work is accessible; it is not the 15 minutes of fame trendy nonsense that is as silly and pretentious as it is transient.

I bought this book after reading Joseph's French Wines. This one is very different - more of an encyclopedia - but it has the same forthright opinions and the same down-to-earth approach. I'd compare it to the Hugh Johnson Pocket Encyclopedia, but it's easier to use and offers more in its introductory sections. I plan to buy several copies as gifts for friends who want to learn more about wine.

The recent publication of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography by Joseph Blotner may very well announce the definitive biography of one of the most famous American men of letters, a work which is both eminently readable and thoroughly enjoyable, imitating to a great degree the work of Mr. Blotner's subject.

The work is readable because the biographer uses the strictly chronological method, introducing the book with a calendar of important events in Warren's personal and professional life and repeating relevant dates at the top of every page. The reader is guided from RPW's birth in Kentucky to a poetry-loving father and a school teaching mother through a lonely childhood when the frail undersized youngster lived in a self-contained world of books. We learn how the 17 year old lost his chance for a naval career at Annapolis, his fondest dream, when his younger brother flung a piece of coal over a hedge and hit RPW in the eye, the left eye which he would later lose to surgery, and how he entered Vanderbilt University and met John Crowe Ransom, his teacher, the first poet he had ever seen, his idol with whom he shared his own poems in private.

Aided by the vehicle of Blotner's lucid prose style, we travel with Warren as he wins assistantships, fellowships, and scholarships from Vanderbilt to the University of California to Yale and finally to Oxford. We watch him settle into married life, become editor of the Southern Review, and earn fame with his novel All the King's Men.

Like the best biographers, Blotner does not avoid the dark side of his subject. He shows Warren's poetic preoccupation with the loving but aloof father figure, a reflection of his own. He tries to explain Warren's attempted suicide in college as the result of an emotional breakdown because he had fallen so far behind in his studies. He describes the often heart-rending details of Warren's relationship with his first wife whose neurasthenic personality forced her to spend most of her time bedridden and the rest of it fighting with her husband. He devotes the latter part of the book to a detailed description of RPW's last years when, his body riddled by cancer, he wished for death, which arrived mercifully in 1989.

Besides being readable, Mr. Blotner's work is highly entertaining, made more so by his vast research and his way of scattering quotations from letters and works of RPW into the biography's running commentary. We see the human being, not the literary giant, in his letters to friends, such as the following written to Katherine Anne Porter when he was struggling with All the King's Men: "At times I feel that I see my way through the tangle; then at moments, I feel like throwing the whole damned thing into the Tiber." We learn where his passion always was when, being awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, thereby gaining long desired financial independence, he writes: "I've stopped writing anything I don't want to write. Poetry is where my heart is."

If there is any fault to Mr. Blotner's presentation, it is that, like many other biographers, he has become enamored of his subject. He sometimes interrupts his story with subjective praises, such as, "America's preeminent man of letters, master of genres, prodigiously creative, heavy with awards and prizes honoring his genius, Robert Penn Warren was also that rare being, a genuinely good man." In this case, Mr. Blotner perhaps should not be blamed. RPW was, after all, the only writer ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for two genres, fiction and poetry, and twice for the latter. How many other writers excelled in so many genres, including essays, poems, novels, historical fiction, biographies? Perhaps Mr. Blotner's passion for RPW can be forgiven when we consider his subject's view of art and life, "What is man but his passion?" (Audubon: A Vision).

Someone should do a movie version of this book. With all the excellent Native American actors and actresses we have today, I'm sure that America would enjoy the Native American version of this saga. Greasy Grass better known as The Battle of Little Big Horn in this version excels in bitter truth and, in triumphant victory for the Native Americans. Everyone would walk away with much food for thought.

This book is truly aimed at Latter-Day Saints in order to assist them with understanding their faith and religion. It is a text that enables the reader to comprehend where, someone who questions their beliefs, stands. Many Latter-Day Saints seem afraid to answer "gospel questions" due to the fact that they do not understand just where the question is coming from... critical or curious. This book enpowers the reader to rise to the occasssion and to surmount the situation. This is not done to discourage any who are seeking infromation but to truly answer their questions so that they feel that they the information they requested.

What I appreciate about these men who wrote the book is the understanding they have of Sukuma culture. The proverbs, parables, and illustrations are priceless. What I like about this book is they share HOW they contextualized the Gospel to the Sukuma. Very practical book with much insights. It was GOLD when I found it. Praise God for these men sharing this helpful info who have served for over 25 years. I plan on using many of the insights as I work in the Mwanza area in the slums and squatter areas.

This is a wonderful book; beautiful, realistic, magical, and unbelievably sad. In,for example, the book's gradual transition from the idyllic beauty of the island at first, to the bleakness and the hardship that follows, we can see the real effect of war on people's lives; how some things change and some last, and how neither occurrence is guaranteed. Along the way, we also get insights into not only the central characters' lives, but also of the other characters or even figures of power, as well as the historical background told in a striking, interesting manner.

This book had me crying throughout the entire last day that I read it; however, while this to me shows that it must have been great to be so moving, I also do fall into the group of people who did not like the ending. Partly, I admit, it was because I found it too sad; too cruel, like a Hardyish twist of fate, that the child that gave meaning to Pelagia's life after Corelli's departure should have been the reason he stayed away. But partly, I also felt that de Bernieres' condensing of nearly half a century's story into the last quarter of the book was unnecessary, and the events somewhat implausible. Having created such a wonderful world of characters (sometimes when reading it, it seemed more real than ordinary life), it seemed a waste to leave it behind.

However, the book itself is an incredible piece of writing, and one of the best books I have ever read. The rating I have given "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" could be counted as full marks for the main bulk of the book, and considerably less for the last quarter/fifth of the book.

As an A Level English student, I have to read many books for my course, however, I have never been so moved by a novel as I have when reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It forces a large variety of emotion from it's reader. Moments of delightful comedy can be followed by deep tragedy; in the space of two chapters you will find yourself laughing out loud to crying with sympathy.

The narrative of the novel is extremely interesting. There is not one overall use of narative. Instead each chapter moves from the view points of characters from all perspectives of the story. Louis De Bernieres puts particular emphasis on the 'little people' of history and we realise that it is in fact those 'little people' who are the true historical heroes. This form of narrative provides a completely unbiased record of the war. Situations in the novel are actually based on true life situations which makes the novel that bit more personal.

De Bernieres also cleverly combines many different themes in the novel, the most important of which (in my opinion) is that of mythology. This creates the message that history contines throughout our own lives and also the moral message that we never learn from our past.

It is difficult to define this novel into a certain genre as it combines so many. It is not only a war novel, it provides romance, comdy, tragedy and many more. If I could give one piece of advice to a reader, it would be to give this book a chance. Many people in my English class found that though the book had a very slow start, it was in fact the most beautiful book they had ever read and by the end of the novel, they understood why the beginning of the book had been quite difficult to grasp.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is an extremely refreshing, original novel that also provides some intensely tragic and sensitive moments. It's a must on everybody's book shelf!

I was put off buying a copy of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", due to its popularity (it even appears at the end of "Notting Hill", in Hugh Grant's hand!), but I regret not having read it soooner. There is a very good reason for its popularity. Quite simply, it is a literary work of genius. Despite my young years, I have read many novels, and I have never been so moved. It is sad, without being depressing; historical and political, without being dull; romantic, without being conventional and, for want of a better word, "soppy". It is a novel which embraces the very epitome of the word "perfection"- I have even written to Mr. de Bernieres to commend him, something I have never done before; no author has even made me contemplate doing so until now. Some readers disliked the ending: I can understand their point of view, due to the sheer frustration and tears provoked, but there was a good twist of the plot, albeit somewhat cruel for the reader! Several times, I had to put the book down, to compose myself, that I may continue. I shouted! I roared with laughter! I sobbed! Once, I was crying for 10 minutes solid, laughing through my tears, in spite of myself. I have SO much to say about "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", but frankly, a) I have no words that can be compared to Mr. de Bernieres' and b) I would hate for someone to read my review, and to get their hopes up too much. Please, just read this book. It is a fabulous yarn!

Zamyatin wrote this book in the early 1920s, allegorically depicting what the newly-born Soviet state was becoming at the time. Stalin did not allow the publication of the novel, but allowed Zamyatin to leave the country. This dystopian book paints a grim picture of society governed by One State (Stalin's "socialism in one country"), which having consolidated intself, intends to carry its principles and ways of life into other places in the universe (the part of the world outside the Soviet Union) in a spaceship called "Integral" (all-encompassing doctrine of Marxism-Leninism).

This book is the precursor of well-known dystopian novels "1984" and "The Animal Farm." Zamyatin's book is not polished: the narrative is repetitious and excessively brooding. But the theme is powerful and poignant: human aspirations to create heaven on earth (and beyond) lead to de-spiritualization and total oppression. The rebelious and creative are destroyed. Human beings are turned into organic automata that serve the State for the benefit of perpetuating its existence and its power. This grim, potent, and pseudo-mathematical narrative is a warning and a sad prophecy of totalitarian miseries of the twentieth century.

Imagine a world where everything is subservient to the United State. Where people do not have names, but are referred to only as numbers. Where your job, your home and your mate are determined for you by the "Well-Doer" and thoughts and actions are closely monitored by the "Guardians." This is not 1984 - this is Zamiatin's WE - predating Orwell by almost 25 years, and eerily describing the USSR under Stalin 10 years before its worst excesses.

The similarities between Zamiatin's world and Orwells are many and obvilious. Both are a biting satire of totalitarianism: its centralization of authority, its blatant disregard for human life and the crushing oppressiveness of the State. However I believe Zamiatin's to be the better story.

Orwell does not have Zamiatin's sarcastic use of the double entendre. And Zamiatin's writing style (especially his use of mathematical metaphors) reinforces the impersonal nature of his "utopian" society. Finally, Zamiatin's story is much more psychological than Orwells - much of the story takes place in the thoughts of the main character.

WE is rightly considered a masterpiece of modern Russian literature. If you have read 1984, I highly recommend reading WE.

This novel (the edition I read was a translation from the Russian by Mirra Ginsberg in 1972) is an excellent satire by Yevgeny Zamiatin (or, Zamyatin). Reading it, I find it remarkable that Zamiatin was not sent to Siberia or executed in one of the many purges occurring in the Soviet Union at that time. Apparently, the book was never published in the Soviet Union. It appeared first in English in 1924 (and obviously had a major influence in the development of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four") and then in Czech in 1927. The Soviet authorities began to put pressure on the author through the Writers' Union and, probably due to the help of Maxim Gorky, Zamiatin was allowed to leave for Paris in 1931 (he died in Paris in 1937). The story is an extrapolation of a totalitarian world. The population of Earth that have survived a 200-years war find themselves members of a single state (the One State) where imagination is considered a disease. In this society the individual does not count, only the multitude. The central character is D-503 (all the inhabitants are numbers in this State), a mathematician who is building a space ship to bring their "perfect" world and culture to others. The whole novel consists of D-503's journal. However, D-503 soon meets I-330, a woman who shows him that there are numbers in the One State that feel that the State is in error and are striving for a new revolution. He begins to have strong feelings for her. He thinks he is ill but he can't help himself. And, he must keep his feelings hidden from the Guardians, the One State's "protectors." What a terrific "read." I highly recommend it (as well as "1984" and "Brave New World"). As can be seen in the comments by the other reviewers, "We" is a great book to discuss: with respect to politics, history, science fiction, or literature.

My choice for Greatest American Novel of the 20th Century is this Robert Penn Warren classic. Unfortunately for Warren (and us), this novel got off to a rotten start. The New York Times hailed it as 'The definitive novel about American politics,' and doomed it to be shelved with other drab tomes in that otherwise unimpressive genre. The Times, sad to say, widely missed the point on All the King's Men.

Jack Burden is the point. Jack Burden, the politician's hack, makes this book. His is an evolution from disaffection to purpose, from carelessness to thoughtfulness. Willie Stark-the politician-is merely the means to Warren's greater goals. Warren originally set out to show, through Stark, the Dionysian allure of power and the grand effect it has on those who attain it. And he did; Stark himself is a great literary character.

But Warren fooled himself: he created a character much greater than Stark, even though he planned Burden only to be a sort of an omniscient narrator of little value to the novel except as the storyteller of Stark's rise.

In the end, Burden says (paraphrase), "This has been the story of Willie Stark. But it has been my story too." And thankfully, it was. The novel is brilliant, Warren is brilliant, and political books are still boring-but this is not one of them!

Within the confines of a bookstore one is often overwhelmed with the numerous topics and choices available to them. A solution to this problem, if a reader is interested in an engaging, magnificently written piece of literature, then take a few steps and find All The Kings Men by Robert Warren Penn.
The theme is one of uncanny importance and relevancy to this stage in American lives despite the fact it was written in 1946. The story is told in the first person, the narrator is Jack Burden; a right hand man to the leading political figure in the story, the "Boss." Interestingly, the "Boss" is based on the real life story of Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana.
The story encompasses Jack Burdens revival from a involuntary life, as well as the metamorphosis of Willie Stark's, the "Boss", idealistic political views to the lust for power and fame. Robert Warren Penn won a Pulitzer Prize for this book, and within the last few months I can not recall a book that would equal it in quality and purpose. Penn utilizes his characters to develop and provide insight on the issues of forgiveness, power, and corruption, and the consequences of leadership.
Within a bookstore there are many choices, and many possibilities to choose from, but in the busy lives of the average person today why waste the time just pick up a copy of All the Kings Men by Robert Warren Penn today.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren proves he knows more about writing than just the simple mechanics. Strongly defined characters and a setting so real you can taste the air provide the foundation for this literary masterpiece, yet the real genius of the book is in Warren's understanding of the reader and his use of style to convey a personal tone in the reading.

The main characters in All the King's Men are Jack Burden and Willie Stark. Jack, the narrator, was a reporter before joining Stark's bid for political power. Stark began as a small country lawyer who saw something wrong and tried to change it, but he eventually becomes a politician in the truest sense, so much so that the narrator can only think of Stark as "the Boss," an ominous title indeed. Accompanying these two men is an array of equally fascinating minor characters such as Sadie, a saucy married woman influential in developing Stark's position as a politician, and Sugar Boy, an Irishman so named for his affinity for sugar. Every character has depth and realism and can stand alone as a fully-developed individual.

While the characters are clearly an enjoyable part of the story, the setting is even more compelling. Warren's word choice is superb; he chooses to include and omit just the right combination of words to paint a realistic picture in the reader's mind without becoming too cumbersome. It is a balance few authors are able to achieve with such proficiency and yet another way in which Warren demonstrates his almost supernatural understanding of the reader. The best part is, it only gets better.

If characters and setting can be described as masterfully crafted, then Warren's grasp of tone is inexplicable. Simply put, the story truly speaks to the reader and could never have been as effective were it written any other way. Sentence structure, word selection, and dialect coalesce into a tangible atmosphere that projects a strong sense of familiarity onto the reader. The book is hard to put down because of this sense of familiarity.

Overall, All the King's Men is a book enjoyable in many more ways than one, with intriguing characters, realistic setting, and a true understanding of the needs of the reader. Even after fifty years, this book remains a classic appealing to all generations.