Used price: $8.40
Used price: $1.00
Buy one from zShops for: $5.22
The tragicomic play is of paramount importance in modern teather. Rarely has a playwriter written such a realistic piece analyzing the life of an artist and his/her role in the society. In 'The Seagull' Treplieff is a writer wanna be, who is trying to grow over the shadow of her mother --an aging actress--, and to get an actress wanna be to love him. But above all, he has to deal with feeling jelous of Trigorin a youger and successful writer. There aren't many characters, but there is so much going on, personal dilemas, that the story grows to a placeless dimension.
Chekov can write with such a confidence that for not a second you doubt the existence of these people. His words are vivid. More than 100 years later, his play is up to date dealing with issues that are universal and timeless-- that can make you either cry or laugh.
Used price: $115.00
I locked myself in my bedroom after I found this book in my local library and didn't come out again until I was finished. This book is just an incredible read. Nicholas Guild, if you're out there would you PLEASE, PLEASE write some more of this stuff.
I don't care how you do it but find this book and "The Assyrian". I promise you you will love them.
Tiglath Ashur, a prince who should have been king, detours through life at the whim and design of the god Ashur. Tiglath is noble, brave, wise, a disciplined commander of armies who can mete destruction or mercy as justice requires. His journey through life takes him to the heights of victory, and to the depths of banishment. He always looks to the god and his signs to guide him as he escapes assassins and takes deadly treks through scorching desert, labyrinthine swamps, and squares off with enemies who set traps for him in unexpected places. Tiglath has fascinating companions, too: Kephalos, his loyal and cunning servant; Enkidu, his mute giant of a bodyguard, and Selana, his feisty Greek wife. Not only does the plot of this book take you on a great ride of adventure and human emotion, but it is told eloquently, in language with rich metaphors and detail.
Of course I had to find out more information about this historical period of Assyria, around the time of Tiglath's father, King Sennacherib. What I found online was sketchy compared to the novel, but with that skeleton of historical records, the author has built an incredibly imaginative and satisfying story, about 1400 pages between the two books. I greatly enjoyed the first: The Assyrian, but Blood Star was even better, and to cap it off, it ended perfectly.
Alasdair is the seventh swan-brother from the famous fairy tale, left with a swan's wing instead of one of his arms because his sister was unable to finish that last shirt in time. He is a young Scottish lord in this novel, incredibly handsome but shrouded in self-pity and the immaturity that comes from having such a strange "childhood". Since he lacks his sword-arm, he has a bodyguard, Ewen, a gruff mercenary who is both more kind and more haunted than he seems.
Alasdair also has a sweetheart, Fenella, who finds out about what ails him--and being an intrepid young lady, sets out immediately to find the magic to give him back his arm! But dangers await, and many dumb decisions are made by various characters, and misadventures ensue. We come to care for all of the characters. Although I would have preferred a different ending to the story, _The Seventh Swan_ was worth reading.
I loved _The_Seventh_Swan_. Even though I've read it over and over, I always react to it with wonder and hope and love and sorrow. I think you will too. Every time I glance into it I get drawn into rereading the whole tale, and I am very glad to have found it. [I try to collect the tales in this publisher's series, because I've enjoyed several of them.]
You may be surprised by this fairy tale. I highly recommend it, from the characters to the clever insights to the witty comments. Unlike most traditional tales, the characters have names and personalities; by the time the pipe plays you will know them. I suspect you will cherish them.
I invite you into the world of fairy tales - come, step inside, be breathless with wonder. =smile=
Also, to pique your interest in Gaelic, the author includes a glossary of the phrases he used at the book's end. It's made me realize that I too could learn Gaelic; some of the endearments are my favorite phrases.
book for approximatly 6 months and i have already made more
money in this time than i have made in the last 16 years working
for other people,and those are the facts.
List price: $15.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $7.75
Buy one from zShops for: $10.52
I like the sense of adventure, the clever plots, Ramage's audacity and modesty, the nautical lore and clearly described maneuvering, and the sense of place. I don't like Pope's insertion of interesting lore as a device to delay the action once it's underway, his predictably good or evilly incompetent characters (irrespective if friend or foe), and his telegraphed plot solutions (despite coy circumspection). However, in Freebooters there IS one key character about whom Pope did maintain my suspicions through many chapters and another person turns out to have had conflicting loyalties. Two minor plot elements jumped out as inconsistent.
These McBook pb edition books have a nice look, heft, and feel. (Why DID they pick that silly name?) Again there's wrap-around cover art by Peter Wright, evocative in its ghostly silence and spidery tracery. Wright repeatedly over-emphasizes an integrated design for the catheads, one that reminds me of horned beetles or owls.
Is it odd how many maritime authors write series rather than one-off novels? Pope, Woodman, Kent, Forester, O'Brian; D.C. Poyer doing it for the modern navy. Maybe it is the ready handle of a rigidly structured career ladder to follow and explore, each rung offering a different view of command behavior and individual psychology. Do others find the early books in a series offer the greatest compass for ingenuity, excitement, and water-level story telling? For example, some of the later O'Brian titles in the Pacific drag interminably to small effect, and Lambdin's Lewrie loses some of his bold, ah, flirtation.
Like the first two novels, the action in Ramage and the Freebooters starts early although shots aren't fired until well into the book. Still the novel builds to a thrilling climax with lots of action along the way. It's a good read.
Pope typically includes mysteries and subterfuge as part of the action in his novels. In Ramage and the Freebooters there are covert operations, spying, and mysterious goings on. My only complaint in that regard is that it seemed obvious who was doing the spying.
I also had a couple of other concerns about the story. Ramage finds romance in the Caribbean while Gianna waits at home. He seems to feel no guilt about establishing another relationship while he is involved with Gianna. Oh well, this was published in 1969, "love the one your with" etc. Also, unless one has a map of the Caribbean, the sailing is confusing, as is the setting in the climax. Maps would have been a real plus.
Pope was a sailor and his knowledge of the sea shows. He does include some realistic details (his description of the fashioning of the cat for example) but doesn't overburden the story with them. The Caribbean is a winter vacation spot now but Pope conveys it as the disease infested hellhole that it must have been 200 years ago. Also, it is clear that Ramage is a born, charismatic leader. Some people are like that and Ramage conveys natural authority better in this novel than the first two.
Ramage and the Freebooters isn't as good as the first two but it is a worthy entry in the series.
**********************************************
Review of the Ramage series of novels:
Don't read this until you have read the first book: Ramage and Ramage and the Drumbeat by Dudley Pope. Also included below a partial review of The Black Ship, also by Pope about a factual mutiny.
Book 1: Ramage
Book 2: Ramage and the Drumbeat
Book 3: Ramage and the Freebooters
Book 4: Governor Ramage RN
Book 5: Ramage's Prize
Book 6: Ramage and the Guillotine
Order them all, because you won't want to stop. The action is fast and furious.
This is third in a series of historical fiction by Dudley Pope. All of these are fictional novels based on British Admiralty records of the Napoleonic era. Written in the best tradition of Forester and O'Brien, these books will capture your imagination. And if you haven't read the Hornblower series by Forester, or the Aubrey/Maturin series by O'Brien, try them also. All of these are excellent books that you will treasure and reread. I particularly like these books by Pope. I recommend that you buy them all at once and read them in order. You will be glad you did.
If you enjoy reading accurate descriptions of naval maneuvers in the age of sail, or simply a good adventure yarn, Dudley Pope delivers. Pope conveys how the best of the best, handle emergency situations. He portrays these situations with realism and authenticity.
Review of this book:
Ramage, is given command of the Triton with orders to deliver a warning to three offshore fleets that the fleet in homeport has mutinied. His first job is to get the Triton under way and he comes up with a surprise to get the mutinous Triton's out of port. Even then he still has to hold the crew together and build their loyalty. Then upon arriving in the West Indies, he is given a mission and set up by his admiral to take a fall and must gamble against the odds to be successful.
Buy the series in the hard cover--worth keeping and handing down.
For more historical information about mutiny in history, read the factual story of the most notorious mutiny of all time in the, The Black Ship by Dudley Pope. It gives keen insight into the conditions of the time, an analysis of the mind of a heartless Captain whose floggings often resulted in the deaths of his men, the terrrible casualty rates due to Yellow Fever, and the gruesome deaths of the officers. One horrific tale, but if you have the stomach for it, well worth reading.
A good yarn. Buy them all. I'm starting on the next one tonight.
*************************************************
Conrad B. Senior
List price: $13.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $3.00
Collectible price: $10.59
Buy one from zShops for: $8.23
In the chapter entitled 'Mood Music', one learns a bit about pre-Christian Roman music, including the forerunner to our do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, that being hexachordal ut-re-mi-fa-so-la (the unsingable ut being happily replaced now with the modern do). Other chapters bring in specific topics to deepen the vocabulary and quality of texts as well as explicate grammar points.
All the basics of a Latin grammar are included in this brief book, but there is always more to be had. Humez and Humez in the final chapter proceed to give suggestions, which include many of the classics (the Aenied, the Biblia Sacra, Caesar's De Bello Gallico) as well as texts such as Harrington's Medieval Latin.
This book certainly contains all the Latin a non-scholar would need, and goes a long way in making one appear much more educated than the average bear (especially if one supplements this with memorised quotations from Winnie Ille Pu!). It also is a good refresher for those of us who did the Latin course with such drier tomes like Wheelock.
Used price: $24.00
Buy one from zShops for: $34.00
I gave up on this book. What I had to do is find a online tutorial to get me started. I did find one good tutorial from University of Dundee, you can search its website in google. I am going to keep Matlab Guide in case I need it some time. But for starters, look elsewhere.
Starting with a basic tutorial and continuing with useful short cuts and introductions to script files, functions and graphics this book gives the reader an immediate working knowledge of the basic functions and data structures of MATLAB.
Later chapters address linear algebra (with treatment of eigenvalue problems, linear systems and matrix decompositions) and numerical methods (for differential equations and other problems); both with enough mathematical background and each topic can be accessed independently.
The book finishes with important topics such as optimizing functions, input and output, use of the Symbolic Toolbox and a final chapter with more tricks and tips.
You are left convinced that the authors are extensive users and admirers of this software, and through this book the reader can become the same.
Used price: $4.90
Collectible price: $7.93
Buy one from zShops for: $15.98
In this trip he is accompanied by his priest, father Godscalc and he is forced to take Diniz and Gelis, Katelina's sister and a lady from Scotland, (friend of Diniz's mother, Lucia, also Simon's sister), who is there to chaperone Gelis and help Diniz out. The deat of his father and Simon's sale of his half property in Madeira has also left them almost destitute.
This is the most daring of books yet in the series. There are so many adventures they face and so many inknown places and such different people! The author describes in detail all the trails they have to go through to reach the source of the gold and its traffic. The kingdoms they pass with their different clans and beliefs, as well as the danger they face for there is a need to keep this source of gold a permanent secret
Once again, the marriage of fiction and real history is masterfully done and this is a great real and very, very enjoyable book.
I can't wait to read the next one....
List price: $10.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $0.80
Collectible price: $0.79
Buy one from zShops for: $3.00
This story appeared first in Play Boy, and the book is a longer revision of that one.
The story is about Murders that haunted the west end. Of course Sherlock Holmes cannot hold back when there are murders nearby.
The good thing about the book is that Mr. Meyer does not claim that any of the manuscripts provided by Doyle were forgeries. The bad thing is that he still uses real characters, like Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker, which I still say is dumb.
One other thing I hate about these pastiches is that they insist on saying that Watson was a real person, and that he used to publish his work under the pseudonym Conan Doyle, or else that Conan Doyle was the agent under whose name Watson used to publish works. I realize that this is one way to make things continue, but come on, we all know that we are only fooling ourselves.
Anyhow, I think the book might deserve 4 stars if not for the little drawbacks I mentioned above, and I am sure you are going to enjoy it, but try first to get it from the library, just in case you detested it.
I applaud Mr. Norsic's courage in the telling of his past life experience as he has helped to further enlighten and educate us all about reincarnation in an interesting and compelling way.