Andre Maurois has great esteem for George Sand (the "nomme de plume" of Aurore Dupin de Dudevant), which he eloquently manifests in his biography of the great literary heroine of 19th Century France. I have been an avid fanatic of Madame Sand for quite a while, having read many of her novels (she was incredibly prolific, and so it must take many more years than the 25 which I have thus lived to read her entire oeuvre), as well as several biographies written about her. I read her "Histoire de Ma Vie" ("Story of My Life") a couple of years ago, for an Independent Study I was conducting during my years as an undergraduate, and I was absolutely fascinated by her life and her spirit, which she manifested in her novels. She led a life which many of her contemporaries considered "depraved," yet she always lived fearlessly and emotionally, according to her own inclinations and heart ("Never fear when your heart tells you what to do. . . the heart can never be wrong," she once wrote). I picked up Maurois' biography on George Sand recently, and I devoured it in a matter of days. His approach and style is somewhat antiquated (he wrote this book in the 50's, after all), but he nevertheless seems to have an uncanny understanding of Sand's life and ideas. I highly recommend his biography to anyone who is not too acquainted with Sand or her writings, but for the true Sand afficionado, I suggest that he or she read her autobiography before Maurois' biography. After all, who is most entitled and prepared to speak about her own life than Sand herself? Nevertheless, Maurois has written a good and thorough account of Sand's life. It is not one of those most commendable biographies, in which the reader believes that the writer must have known his or her subject personally, but it is a solid account of Sand's life, regardless. Although Maurois holds George Sand in high regard, he is not biased in his opinions regarding the authoress. . . in fact, at times he almost seems to pass judgement regarding her chaotic lifestyle and her tumultous liaisons. For example, he portrays De Musset as more of a victim of Sand's indiscretions (her affair with the doctor who sought to cure De Musset of his infirmities, for example), than his own penchant for a life of debauchery. I would not go so far as to proclaim that Maurois is sexist, but he does seem, at times, to allow more liberties to the men in Sand's life than he does to Sand herself. He sometimes depicts Sand as a sort of vampiress, who devours her male counterparts, while seemingly disregarding their own vices. Sand had a few jilted lovers, yes, but she too was wounded in several romantic liaisons. Nevertheless, and in summary, Maurois renders a pretty accurate portrait of George Sand, which will surely inspire the reader to learn more about this fascinating and mysterious author, truly so far ahead of her time. . . George Sand lived the sort of life, both as a woman and as an artist, which was not generally not embraced during her lifetime. She paved a literary path for future female writers, such as Colette, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen, among countless others, who have carried on her legacy. . . Maurois acknowledges such, if we read between the lines. . . Well, it was not his intent to present his readers with a literary feminist treatise, but he wrote a really good biography about a woman who would influence future female authors to follow her example. . .

This book is for anyone who loves history or a great love story! This novel is based on a love affair between Sand and the pianist Chopin. This story has a great plot. It will hold your attention.

Marianne is a heroine that is not beloved for her typical beauty, and is not a slave to the expected behavior of young wealthy women. This is somewhat of a faery tale romance, without seeming unreal or contrived. Sand presents the two main characters as real, intellegent, and passionate about nature. It is nice to read a book about a strong woman without the author feeling she needed to sway to much in the women's lib direction. George Sand's life is an inspiration, as is this romance where two kindred souls overcome the standard ideas of age, meekness, and the expected behavior of the classes. I read this at the same time as Dumas' Camille, and in only two days. I couldn't wait to see what happened to the characters in these books.

Mauprat is a novel about uncultured Bernard who rescues the beautiful Edmee de Mauprat. Bernard falls in love with Edmee, and Edmee's father thinks of Bernard as his son. He wants Bernard and Edmee to be together, but because Edmee feels superior to Bernard, she cannot allow herself to love him. She tries to educate Bernard and teach him manners. Once that is done, Edmee begins to love Bernard. This book has a very interesting theme of a women's superiority to a man. I highly recommend it! It was one of my favorite George Sand novels, and it is interesting because it is told my the perspective of eldery Bernard looking back on his life. Read this book!

My children (and their teachers, too!) love the THIRD GRADE DETECTIVES series. Readers learn a lot about how police use science to solve crimes. This series turned one of my children around in science class. Until he started reading the Third Grade Detectives (so far, there are five titles in the series), he was doing poorly in his science studies. Now, he can hardly wait to study science!

This is another tightly plotted thriller from Gerald Seymour that is awfully hard to put down once you start reading. The author often places relatively ordinary people into extraordinary situations - and he does so in this book. Seymour doesn't write about superheroes - I can't imagine Harrison Ford playing any role in any film of a Seymour book. Instead Seymour creates highly believable characters, complete with foibles, weaknesses, irrational impulses and some strengths. The main characters in "A Line in the Sand" all have their own weaknesses, strengths and motivations. Seymour weaves these together with great skill to create a taut, tense thriller.

Seymour books often differ from the Clancys and Ludlums of the world in another respect - don't expect too many happy endings. Seymour writes about worlds where there's a certain inevitability of disaster - and he often lets disasters happen. That makes his stories much more credible, and much more frightening than most.

Seymour also poses moral dilemmas for his characters. He's not an author who thinks one side is completely right and the other completely wrong. For Seymour, all combatants are flawed in some respects. In "A Line in the Sand", Seymour creates a moral dilemma for the inhabitants of a small English village - do they support one of their own or deflect a threat to their village by casting that person out ?

I enjoyed "A Line in the Sand". In fact, it's one of Seymour's best novels so far.

I didn't expect to like this book. I had read and tremendously enjoyed what some call Seymour's Northern Ireland trilogy (Harry's Game, Field of Blood, and the Journeyman Tailor), but I hadn't liked another effort, Kingfisher.

But while I eagerly continue to wait for another Seymour thriller centered in Northern Ireland, I decided to read his book Untouchable, which while not perfect, had me in its grip from the first to last page.

So I decided to give Seymour another whirl, and I picked out A Line in the Sand. After reading it in about two days, I have to say the analogy one reviewer made of Seymour's plots coiling around a reader like a boa constrictor as the tension builds to an unbearable level is well put. The book is very hard to put down, and really doesn't have any flaws (apart from a couple of minor facts not worth mentioning here).

Furthermore, like in his other books Seymour doesn't just write a thriller, he presents the reader with an ethical question. "What would you do if you found out your neighbor was marked for death by a state sponsor of terror like Iran? Would you rally to his side, stand aloof, or try to drive him out of your pretty little village?"

As for myself, I'd like to think that I'd continue to be a friend and neighbor, but suggest that my good friend the terrorist target take a long vacation until the threat subsided.

Bottom Line: A superb read, it is reportedly being made into a movie even as I write this. I look forward to seeing that . . .

. . . But I hope with all my heart that with his next book (titled Meaning No Evil) Seymour returns to his familiar stomping grounds of Northern Ireland and with all the wonderful characters that he created there: Inspector Rennie, Cathy Parker, Gary Brennard, and of course, Frankie, the IRA man.

The West's current struggle with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists makes A LINE IN THE SAND all the more topical even though it's fiction. As such, it's an engrossing novel by plot-meister Gerald Seymour.

Brit Gavin Hughes was once a salesman selling illicit industrial mixing equipment to the Iranians for the latter's use in making weapons of mass destruction at a top-secret base. Then MI6 caught on, and put the squeeze on Hughes to become an informant. Gavin's information eventually allowed the Mossad to deal a crippling blow to Iran's WMD program. For his own protection, MI6 gives Gavin a new identity and life. He's now Frank Perry living with his wife Meryl and foster son Stephen in an isolated village on the Suffolk coast. The thing is, you see, a Saudi raid on an isolated terrorist camp yields evidence that the Iranians have discovered Gavin's identity and are sending in their master assassin, the Anvil, to make the hit. The British Security Service (MI5) now has jurisdiction, and pleads with Frank to run once more, but he adamantly refuses. Thus, an odd lot of players are converging on the village, its inhabitants, and the Perrys: the Anvil, the assassin's local accomplice previously converted to Islam, MI5, Scotland Yard, the SAS, an FBI anti-terrorist specialist, a sullen Scottish tracker and his dogs, a former British diplomat and his scarred foreign-born wife (the latter a survivor of Chile's torture chambers), and an injured marsh harrier - a migratory bird of prey.

One of my pet peeves with some "highly acclaimed" writers is that they impart no individuality to the principal characters of their books. The British government minister, the Yank CIA officer, the South American drug king, and the Tokyo police detective all talk and act as if they're cut from the same cloth, which might as well be that of an insurance broker in Des Moines. Seymour, on the other hand, makes each individual unique and real. This talent can make up for other faults. However, A LINE IN THE SAND is not deficient by any standard to which I hold. It's a taut, smart, finely crafted thriller that should encourage the reader to investigate Seymour's other works. More than that, it's a contemporary parable on the consequences of one's actions.

As a person who grew up in Tampa, and is very aware of Ybor City, I think this book is great. Mormino and Pozzetta outdid themselves on this book. There is so much detail in this book, it feels like you are walking the old brick streets in Ybor. Hopefullly more teachers will have their class read this as it pertains to a great piece of America's history.

In the past, I have had the great opportunity to have Gary Mormino as my history teacher at the University of South Florida. He was, to say the least, a grand teacher. His skill exhibited in the class, to say the least, come alive in this book. This is a great book and a great read - find it and read it.

Mike Ashley has assembled a large collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories, mostly new to this collection (three are reprinted, but I only had the previous appearance of one of these).

If you are someone who is a fan of Sherlock Holmes and is always looking for more, than this is a book you will want. The stories are of a consistent quality, written by authors who are practiced in their art, and involve Holmes and Watson considering problems whose solutions are not normally obvious from the outset.

For me, while none of the stories were particularly outstanding in either good or bad terms. I enjoyed Stephen Baxter's 'The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor', Peter Crowther's 'The Adventure of the Touch of God' and Zakaria Erzinçlioglu's 'The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat' marginally more than the others.

I'd recommend this book to Holmes enthusiasts, or to those with little exposure to the Great Detective. It is a good collection of decent quality.

I find myself disagreeing with many of the other reviewers here, but I found only a very few of the stories as good as the Doyle originals. And I think I know why they didn't grab me like the originals do. The originals were written by a man living in Victorian England while these stories were all written almost 100 years later by writers trying to interpret Victorian England. I think that's why the originals ring more true to me. Conan Doyle had all the little details right at his fingertips because he was living in the period. Modern writers try but I don't find the little touches needed to evoke the period. I also found that many writers strained to add those little deductive touches that Conan Doyle always managed to put in. Some of the examples of "deduction" were downright silly.

That said, there are a few stories that do come close with "The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat" being my favorite. If you really like the Conan Doyle originals you may be disappointed in this collection.

This is a wonderful collection! As with any collection of Holmes stories by modern writers, there are bound to be a few clunkers. What impresses me is that, even though a few of the stories are slightly off the mark, the vast majority of the stories are dead on.

Only one of the cases, in which a series of grisly killings are investigated, is not quite in the voice of Doyle (mostly due to the graphic descriptions). However, this case also lets Watson shine. Rather than the standard Watsonish "Amazing!" or "Remarkable, Holmes!" every time Sherlock utters a revelation, Watson gets to do a little detecting of his own, albeit medical. What I particularly liked in the story was that Watson is not left to simply marvel at Holmes, but gets to contribute more than just the use of his service revolver.

The timeline at the end of the book is also helpful in putting Sherlockia in some sense time-wise. When did Holmes first begin detecting, when did he stop, when did such-and-such a case occur? All are nicely laid out.

The book is divided into the early years of Holmes' career, his middle years, and later years. We get to see early cases, and his final case.

The choices of stories by the editor are first rate. This is easily the best collection of new Holmes you're likely to find on the market.

The voice of the Master can be heard throughout the book!

An autobiography is a way of looking inside a person's mind. We have no real right to expect objectivity or "the long view" on any given subject.

Isadora Duncan's autobiography is a terrific example of the above. She was a hugely talented, flamboyant individual who chose to march to her own drummer from an early age. She is passionate in her descriptions of her inner life, her career and her lovers and changed the whole concept of "The Dance", breaking away from ballet (which she considered ugly and contrived) and inventing what we'd call "modern dance".

She was a fantastic dancer, but as a writer she is far too interested in her own inner world. The people around her float by as a succesion of badly defined cardboard cutouts, and one visited city sounds much like any other. After a while this DOES get rather boring. The lack of dates (such as "that was in 1925" or whatever) or a neatly defined chapter structure means that it's pretty hard to keep track of the passage of time. In the end, reading this book becomes a bit of a struggle: it's like being stuck in a someone's rather boring dreamworld.

Her sollipsism is (at times) a bit of a hoot and her inability to perceive the world for what it is provide the reader with occasional bits of unintentional black comedy.

An example: after deciding that ancient Greece was the mother of all art, Isadora sunk a great deal of her money in trying to rebuild a Greek temple. Her family spoke no Greek but lived for months amid the ruins, performing dances and wearing togas while getting cheated by the local villagers. She also formed a chorus of Greek urchins to perform ancient music and was later disappointed when during a tour, the urchins begin growing up and staying out late and coming home drunk.

A more human writer would have managed a bit of irony, a touch of sympathy for these common, simple people caught up in the mad American artist's vision, but Isadora never quite manages it. Sadly, it is precisely this sort of self-centered and humourless viewpoint that makes this book so stodgy.

On the positive side, however, one DOES get a really good idea of what Isadora Duncan was like and how she saw her art and one can't really ask for more from an autobiography.

I first read this book after seeing Ken Russell's film "The World's Biggest Dancer" in the 1960's The film is, unfortunately, lost. I fell in love with the myth of this fabulous woman and was impressed with Vanessa Redgrave's portrayal of her in Karel Reisz's "Isadora" also hopelessly lost I believe. This is not a great work of art: it has episodes of naively underwritten material tailored into whole paragraphs of wonderful philosophy of a futuristic world when art and beaty supercede greed and material gain. The ghost of Isadora haunts this book; a woman broken by personal tragedy writing these words in the last years of a life that, by any standards, was extraordinary. I keep it on my shelf along with Nijinsky's "Life" both books testimony to the inability of words to express the emotions of genius

Easily one of the best conversations I have had without speaking. Isadora speaks directly to her reader with a passionate and intense language. There were points when I was reading that my inner voice was yelling back in agreement, empathy or appreciation. I found this woman intelligent, hilarious and dramatic. I felt as though I had made a friend. Though she was not a trained writer, she has been able to share herself very openly in the written language. I think this is a must read for any woman (or man).

Frank took a break from the world of OZ and wrote this book, It's the same sort of fomula but set in a coastal town. The kids and I liked it, but just not as much as the regular OZ series. It is however mentioned in the later Oz books as Frank liked to keep everyone happy and what better way than to have all his characters live in Oz?

This was a great book! I love the Oz books, and this was just as good, if not better than some. It is about a girl named Trot and her wise old friend Cap'n Bill, a sailor who lost his leg and has lived with Trot's family ever since. They go deep into the ocean to see a beautiful mermaids palace, meet the sweet and lovely mermaids, and explore the ocean. One of Baum's best books, the descriptions are fabulous and humorous. Then the mermaids and their comrades ghet captured by the evil wizard, Zog, and they have to fight to stay alive, outwitting Zog's clever plans. I have always been fascinated with mermaids, and I have never been able to find a great book that really got into the lives of mermaids until now. GET THIS BOOK! END

I too was thrilled to discover that the Magical Land of Noom has been republished. I was searching rare book sites hoping to find a copy, and lo and behold discovered the listing at Amazon.com. I've ordered three copies, two as surprise gifts for siblings. I cannot wait to see the illustrations of the Soft-Voiced Cow and other characters again. I will probably purchase another to donate to our public library, as today's children should have the chance to discover this gem.