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My favourite poem is ""To a Sad Daughter" which has a universal appeal. Once, I read this poem to my wife just replacing the poet's daughter's infatuation: ice hockey players with our daughter's hobby. My wife remarked: "Great poem. So you write good poetry too!"
I also like other poems including "The Cinnamon Peeler", "A House Divided", "Women Like You", "Billboards" and "Postcard From Piccadilly Street".
Michael Ondaatje shares his great intimate moments with us including love, his recollection of places and relationships with us. If you want to understand Ondaatje's prose, one must begging with his poetry. For anyone 'The Cinnamon Peeler' is an entry into a dark and deep labyrinth painted with human experience. When you come out of it, you'll be a different person.
This book is a one I read over and over again when I'm both sad and happy!
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Fraser not only gives us the expected portion of ribaldry, but puts our hero in an accurately described historic situation in which some of the players are so spineless that they make Flashy look rather virtuous, by comparison.The result is a well-documented narrative, describing the first series of big battles of the British in the Punjab in which the local powers did not have any scruples about plotting a defeat resulting in thousands of deaths of their own people, just to hold on to power a little longer.
In style, Flashman, who looks rather upstanding through it all, gets none of the credit that he for once deserved. Don't worry, even our weak-boweled toady bastard himself took it rather philosophically.
This book was a great read and I can't wait to devour the next volume in the series.
The book itself focuses on a largely forgotten episode in British India, between the Afghan withdrawal in 1842 and the Great Mutiny in the 1850s. This time, Flashman is called into service just as the 80,000-strong Sikh army, the Khalsa, appears ready to sweep down on the English and drive them out once and for all. Flashman is drawn into behind-the-scenes subterfuge that take him from the Sikh royal court to the middle of bloody battlefields. To say much more would spoil the living history that Fraser's created.
However, I find it interesting to note a change in Flashman's character. The first novel, "Flashman", remains my favorite because the young character flees from every battle, and it is only through luck and chicanery that he rises to his fame. Never fear; Flashman still lies to save his hide and jumps on every woman he can get, but I finished "The Mountain of Light" feeling that Flashy had done a pretty good service--which he will tell you in the book. Maybe this is due to Fraser. While the book is the 4th chronologically, it's Fraser's 10th book about his alter ego. Having known the character for so long, maybe Flashman's done a little growing up.
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Let's make this a "best-friend-journal". Buy it for the person, who you consider as your best friend!
P.S. Never forget to smile!
-Hermione granger #1 Harry potter fan!
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When I visted the U.S.S. Bowfin museum and the submariner's memorial in Pearl Harbor, I immediately returned to this book and the others in the series in my mind. People tend to remember the sailors on the carriers and the battleships but forget the tense and dangerous work done beneath the ocean's surface.
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Having met and spoken with Mr. Murray on several occasions at his fly shop and at various seminars, I can almost hear his voice while reading the descriptions and examples in the book. He hides nothing.
I have owned the book for three or four years and review it regulary when preparing for a trip to the stream or when tying up some smallmouth flies. No smallmouth fishing library should be without it.
The book concentrates on stream fishing. I live on a large small mouth fishery - a northern river that is almost a lake. This sort of water was not treated completely and for that I would suggest looking for another book in addition to this one. However, this is the place to start.
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No other book I've read on the arts has left me similarly breathless. While many of them have been quite competent at explaining things like "Impressionism," "The Renaissance," or "The Harlem Renaissance," none have so beautifully balanced an explanation of the artist and of the artist's work. By bringing the people to life, Bearden and Henderson have brought the art to life. They have made a priceless contribution to our understanding of African-American artists, their work and the challenges they had to overcome to pursue their passion.
This book is a must-have. It will deepen your appreciation of art and of the contributions that African-Americans have made to it.
Katrina M. Walker
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In my view, the preternatual is an obvious reality, especially as the evidence is showing. I have read close to a dozen books on poltergeists, all which cement the grounds for belief in them. Thankfully my 'gut feeling' of them being real was a reliable one.
Skepticism of the paranormal tends to dogmatism, as with religion. You see, modern science has decided, already, that ghost and poltergeists cannot be. But an intelligent student can see that poltergeists are common and well documented. In parapsychology circles the Poltergeist is the most convincing phenomena, which the possible exception of telepathy. There are too many witnesses, from all social groups, and coming from every country and every age. It would take a real fool, like Frank Podmore or Bertrand Russell, to deny the Poltergeist.
I recommend this book among the classics in preternatural literature. It has more weight than the available crap of today.
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The "alternate" factor thrown in to the mix is a new religion, called "The Way", which is a more civilized version of Norse mythology. As in standard Norse mythology, there is a set of gods, with each representing different aspects of life and with internal strife between the gods. What "The Way" adds is the idea that Man's role in life is to find his greatest talents and to dedicate himself to his patron god by mastering the talent that god represents, adding something to it, and teaching others. This new religion also does not see itself as being necessarily in conflict with any other religion, and follows a belief in freedom of choice. Shef follows a little-known god, who is the patron of knowledge and invention.
All of this might sound somewhat dry and esoteric to some. However, the religious factors is woven into a rousing, well-written adventure tale featuring lots of battles, alliances, treachery, a little romance, and very interesting settings. I have read this book several times, and expect to read it again.
Not being a poet myself, I enjoy reading Ondaatje's gorgeous poetry to my novelist wife.
More than love poems, these works contain wonderful twists and turns that are both painful and funny. Ondaatje has obviously turned to both Rousseau and Wallace Stevens for inspiration, but he also contributes his own sense of the novel and his awareness of social strata.
This is a charming book, with a muted sense of humor. With The Cinnamon Peeler, Ondaatje takes us deep inside his own mind and heart. It is trip worth making.