A friend loaned me The Checkered Years, and after reading it, I purchased two copies, one to give away and another to lend and ultimately to keep in my library. From the day-to-day writings of Mary Dodge Woodward, the reader begins to understand the central role of weather in the life of the early Dakota settlers - the awesome cold, wind, and heat; the blizzards, drought, and flood - all matter-of-factly but beautifully described in an unpretentious diary. The diary entries give a hint of the tremendous effort it took on Mary's part and that of her family to build up a large wheat farm, and along with that, the uncertainties she faced as a widow growing old. I wish the book had more background information in its introduction and more diary entries that, even though they probably would have seemed repetitive, may have given more focus to the people mentioned in the selections.

This novel is an odd companion piece to "Immortal Queen," Byrd's brilliant 1956 novel about Mary Queen of Scots. I say "odd" because it is a virtual retelling of "Queen," except while the earlier novel was told from Mary's viewpoint, "Maid" is "told" by Mary Seton, one of the Queen's maids-of honor.

There are obvious disadvantages to this method of telling Mary's story, namely, that everything of interest in the novel is related to the reader by second-hand. We are "shown" only a surface glimpse of Mary's life, and to try and compensate, Byrd throws in a throughly pointless subplot concerning Seton's (completely fictitious) love for a priest. If Byrd found it so impossible to leave the subject of Mary alone, she would have been better advised to have used a more satisfying method of retelling the story.

That said, however, while this is no "Immortal Queen," "Maid of Honour" is still far superior to the usual examples of Marian fiction, which, (with a few exceptions) tend to range from mediocre to godawful.

This concise but interesting book is an excellent biography of a courageous and gifted Black woman in the post-Colonial era. With self-composure she fought for her freedom--not by using violence, but by working within the Law, to ultimately receive her moral due: Justice in a Connecticut courtroom.

Consisting of an introduction and 15 short chpaers, this modest volume depicts her focused struggle to enjoy the same liberty which the Colonists had recently bought so dearly. In her pursuit of jusice Mumbet earns the respect of her lawyer and second master/employer. She performs all household duties with skill and modesty: nurse, housekeeper, even defender of the hearth during the master's absence. Mumbet pursues her lonely dream of freedom some 35 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, achieving her goal legally and with great personal dignity. I had never heard of this courageous woman before, I am ashamed to confess, so this little book is a perfect introduction to students of Black history, as well as Women's Studies in general. Very readable and inspiring re overcoming obstacles with patience, perseverence and peace.

This book seems to be aimed at two distinct age groups. Children towards the top of the stated target range of 4-8 years might find the (small print) text interesting, while younger children would be more likely to enjoy lifting the flaps to see what's underneath.

I bought this to give my son a chance to get accustomed to the idea of flying. At 16 months, he enjoyed looking at the illustrations and lifting the flaps, but he had little patience for the text. Perhaps the book did make the trip a bit easier, but the trip also made the book more popular. After we returned, My First Plane Ride became one of his favorites.

There's a minor typo, though. The text talks about the plane arriving at "it's" gate. So far my son hasn't noticed. :)

This is a fairly simple photo-essay of the classic dream of many seven-to-ten year old girls: first (English) riding lessons and then -- a pony of one's own! The writing is less than inspiring (the dialogue in particular is awkward and somewhat sentimental) but the photos are great, full of the details of tack and barns and boots and breeches and heels-down, elbows-in form -- and of course, pretty ponies. The little girl who is the subject of the story clearly leads a privileged life in an almost too-perfect New England-ish locale, but a fantasy is a fantasy! My seven-year-old loves this book and I would have too, at her age.

Massey's book was a pioneering effort in its time, and we should all be thankful for that. At least it is a welcome point of departure. But the introduction by Jean Berlin is lacking much in the way of insight or understanding. A more experienced scholar might have presented a richer analysis.

I got here after getting to Collins, after going through Dickens. This is an awful book, in my humble opinion. Why has it been resurrected? (Rhetorical) If you love Dickens, maybe you found Collins, and if you love Collins, then you and I are relevantly similar, so let me tell you, don't bother with this insipid tripe, or with "Doctor's Wife" for that matter. Unless you are simply obligated, because you are a gendered wannabe English professor, in some forsaken place, poor you.

I will have to agree that this is NOT Braddon's best work. However, it is not as bad as some of the other reviewers make it out to be. The biggest fault is that the story is quite slow to get going. If the reader can hang on and make it through about a third of the story, they will be rewarded with what we normally expect in sensation fiction. I was also somewhat put off by the little synopsis on the back of the book. It is very misleading. There is a lot more to the plot than what that little blurb suggests.
If you are new to Braddon, I would suggest starting with some of her other titles such as The Trail of The Serpent or Aurora Floyd.

During the 1860s Wilkie Collins, with his terrific The Woman In White, started the period of 'sensation' novels. These novels are rather over-the-type, almost slapstick-like mystery stories. Mary Elizabeth Braddon followed with her own flavor of sensation novels. While I love many of Wilkie Collins novels I was disappointed with Braddon's most famous work, Lady Audley's Secret. But when I ran into a copy of John Marchmont's Legacy I thought I'd give Ms Braddon a try. Was I disappointed? Well...

Firstly, the story is a typical Victorian era melodrama: family members squabbling over an inheritance, with certain members stopping at nothing to become rich. Ms Braddon does do a good job on the characterizations, and the ultimate mystery does build up to a good conclusion. The book is nicely structured (..unlike Lady Audley's Secret, where we find the story basically ending 100 pages from the finish).

However Ms Braddon is simply not a very good writer. Her prose is weak, especially compared to Wilkie Collins. Every third sentence ends with an exclamation point, which must be Ms Braddon's way of indicating high drama (?).

Bottom line: a unremarkable slice of Victorian literary history. Certainly not terrible, but nonetheless a far cry from Wilkie Collins material.

This is a very painful book to read. The concept is excellent, but the author's writing style goes beyond academic. It is pompous, arrogant and, ultimately, laughable. Often I have read a sentence in her book only to think: "Yes, I read it, but WHAT did she SAY?" Although I am not a scholar on Mary Queen of Scots, I have read quite a bit about her. In this book, there is a tone that somehow just doesn't ring true. Although I would not recommend this book to anyone, readers who are very serious about Mary Queen of Scots might want to read it merely because it exists.

While the idea of writing an overview of how Mary Queen of Scots has been portrayed over the centuries is a good one, Jayne Lewis is simply not up to the task. For one thing, she seems to have only a superficial knowledge about Mary herself, which lends a shallowness to Lewis' interpretations. For another, her style is extremely dry and overly analytical. At times, she sounds so laughably like the stereotype of the "Ivory tower" pompous professor, that the book begins to read like parody.

Worst of all are a number of unforgivably egregious historical errors she makes, which, again, just shows her unfamiliarity with her subject. For instance, she includes several unflattering quotes about Mary that Lewis attributes to Sir James Melville's "Memoirs." These quotes actually come from "Master Randolph's Fantasy," a libellous ballad about Mary that was circulated by her Protestant enemies in 1565. In discussing Hugh Campbell's 1825 book, which prints several letters (not to be confused with the famous "Casket Letters,") supposedly written by Mary to Bothwell, Lewis says Campbell himself forged those letters. Since Campbell was merely reprinting letters from a pamphlet that was published in 1725 (one of the letters was originally printed in the 16th century memoirs of Brantome,) Campbell obviously was not the one who wrote them. Such obvious mistakes make it hard to take anything Lewis says very seriously. (Speaking of the "Casket Letters," Lewis gives the impression that these, too, have been proved to be forgeries--which is very far from the truth.)

In short, the idea of the book was a good one, but it was wasted in the hands of a bad writer.

In this book, Lewis sets out to trace the portrayal of Mary Queen of Scots as a romantic figure throughout time. The topic is fascinating, and one I've done minimal research on myself. However, I was disappointed with Lewis's final result. It seems that she bit off more than she could chew with the book, squashing too much information into too little space. For the curious reader, who has not studied Mary Stuart heavily, this book will seem cumbersome and overwhelming; it requires at least a basic knowledge of Mary's life and the events surrounding it. For those who study Mary, either professionally or as a hobby (like myself), will mostly likely get excited when they see the proposed topic of this book, but will not walk away satisfied with what Lewis has stated. What is she trying to prove? What does all of this information mean? These questions aren't answered, and for myself that was very frustrating.

It takes a surreal effort to combine Marx, with his view of religion, some sort of Christion ideas and feminism. Seemed to me the Christian was the "cover" for the other.