While The Clergyman's Daughter may not be 1984 it is still an amazing piece of literature. Orwell's satirical look at England through the eyes of a fanatically pious woman is amazing. He points out alot of social, religous and personal issues without being preachy. Trough it all you care about the fate of Dorathy Hare and that makes the end a little unsettling. Although, the story is sometimes to "convinient" and it is not as powerful and gripping as Orwell's other works I think any true Orwell fans will like this book.

Upon mention of George Orwell, "A Clergyman's Daugter" isn't usually the book that jumps into reader's minds, and compared to his polished masterpieces -- Animal Farm and 1984 -- the reason is understandable. Yet for fans of Orwell lies an undiscovered gem, a less understated yet deliciously piercing satire of early 20th Century England, flavored abundatly with the author's trademark social criticism and wicked humor. It's a book that leaves no stone unturned, challenging religion, gender, education, social class, and both the timely and timeless inadequacies and hypocrasies of which Orwell bore witness.

The book's title refers, fittingly enough, to the chief protagonist, Dorothy Hare. A girl in her late twenties, she begins the book as a militant religious devotee, shown best in a pin she always keeps with her, used for pricking herself in penance for committing the slightest misdeed -- sometimes drawing blood for thinking no more than an unholy thought. She is one daughter among "ten thousand others" who lives a grueling life under the stern command of her father, the pastor, a hardened man of stern disposition and resolute aloofness, whose awkening greeting to his daugter as the novel begins is a question of when breakfast will arrive.

With a misadventure that begins here and ends in a place both similar and entirely different, Dorothy meets affrronts to her life, her stature, her class, even the very faith upon which the whole of her existence resides. And as Dorothy is challenged to think of the world differently, so are we; a defining moment comes when she says, "it is not what we do that matters, it is how our thinking changes because of it." As a theme to the novel and a thesis which he brilliantly defends, Orwell succeeds without hesitation. (As a note, the above quote is paraphrased, and I appologize -- I've already returned the book to the library.)

Where he falters -- and indeed he does -- is in the structure of the novel and, occasionally, the consistency of his language. The myriad of poetic prose almost seems to contradict his otherwise honed and scathing wit, and while often pleasing to the ear, his effors seem at best superfluous, essentially inconcequential to his underlying message. Other reviewers speak with further clarity on this topic, and I'm particularly inclined with one's opinion that only "Joyce can write like Joyce," in other words, that Orwell's language in "A Clergyman's Daughter" could at the least be called affected.

But these gripes on language aside, Orwell succeeds in painting a stark, grim, yet gripping picture of a society gone awry, and beckons us to look within.

Knowing what was finally going to come of Dorothy kept me until 2:30 AM this morning...and I wasn't disappointed.

Orwell cheats right out of the chute: In realizing that he may not know enough about women to write about our protagonist, he immediatedly removes her sexuality by telling us she is disgusted by the thought of "that." Nuff said. Our hero(ine) is now pretty much asexual.

What a story though. Plumbing the depths of faith and predestiny, Orwell weaves a fairly heavy tale of the motherless daugther of a grim and dispassionate minister obsessed only with his investments and petty theological particulars.

The minister's daughter loyally fills in the gaps, acting as the heart and soul of a failling church, praying her way against impossible odds while visiting the sick, recruiting new church goers, seeing to the buildings and her father's meals...and eventually completely wigging out.

Now the fun begins.

This is a warm and rewarding book, full of human insight and only a little bit of Orwell's patented socialist soap-boxing.

Finally a book that allows you to search for signs based on their handshape. Many ASL students have difficulty understanding ASL users. This book gives them a better chance to look up signs to comprehend them instead of using looking up an English gloss to learn what THEY want to say! The only drawback? Not enough! This book should be expanded. I hope to see more signs included in the next edition. (There will be a next edition right?)

This book has been my best resource in three years of sign language study. It is beautifully produced and compact, which makes it easy to carry as a ready reference. The vocabulary has been most satisfactory for the first three years of ASL courses and I expect it will continue to be my most valued resource for many reasons, a few of which are as follows: (1) The vast amount of material covered in the introduction reinforces the areas of grammar, fingerspelling and usage covered in class. (2) The system of ordering signs by handshape reinforces the fact that ASL is an independent language. (3) The variety of glosses that can be expressed with a single sign are together, unlike every other dictionary I have seen. This not only creates the desired compact format, but helps the student learn and appreciate the range of expression possible in ASL. (4) It is the only true two-way signing dictionary for this language, which makes it an essential adjunct to learning the language. It is clear, with my continued use, that the authors are teachers and know just what is needed to promote learning.

Thank you for finally writing a book that so clearly illustrates how to go from ASL to spoken English. This book unlike any other, has practically opened up a whole new world to me. Having once learned to sign the alphabet on a train between Salzburg and Vienna,I became interested in learning more about ASL. I saw this book and it provided a system that greatly simplified the learning.

The book is good. It help to explain how to use SAM-e. It is SAM-e that is the miracle worker!
For those who have lived with depression, SAM-e is a real spiritual lift. Never knew life could be like this!
No, the problems do not change or go away. But your ability to deal with them improves. And if you add some good self-help books and therapy, life can really be worth living. And worth fixing what is wrong in your life, too!
If you know some one who is depressed, get this book and read it! It will enable you to be more helpful. But don't be pushy or play therapist.
Just help your friend get the help they deserve and need.
God bless!

I'm an American psychiatrist and psychotherapist working in London. Having heard Dr. Brown talk about SAMe at a lecture to psychiatrists, I ordered Stop Depression Now when it came out, and read it. The authors' view that SAMe is an effective antidepressant without significant toxicity impressed me as having a scientific basis. I recommended to two patients of mine that they try it. One, who was not clinically depressed, but was feeling unfulfilled at work and was having trouble sleeping, took 200 milligrams twice a day. She noted that within a few days she felt happier, had more energy, and fell asleep more easily. The second patient had had the insidious onset a few years earlier of intermittent feelings of pins and needles in his hands and feet. These had been growing more evident, especially in his feet. I suggested that he take a cocktail that this book recommends: SAMe 400 milligrams a day, Vitamin B12 one milligram a day, and folic acid 800 micrograms a day. Over the past few weeks the feelings in his extremities have disappeared. He, too, has said he feels more energy and feels happier. Neither patient has experienced any side effects. I am favorably impressed by these two anecdotes. I hope some of my colleagues will investigate the merits of SAMe, Vitamin B12, folic acid, and the diet that the book recommends, and report their findings.

Morton Schatzman, MD

I took Dr. Brown's advice and used sam-e. I had had some success in treating my chronic depression with wellbutrin, but oppressive feelings of sadness, and self-destructive ideation, remained. One week of 200mg sam-e two times daily and the oppressive feelings began to lessen. In two weeks the bad feelings had remitted completely. Though effective, sam-e was mild in its action -- I did not feel that I had been clubbed by a mega-drug. Feeling well, I am able now to have better insight into life problems linked to my long depression -- and I'm able to work on repairing family relationships that had been damaged. I recommend that anyone suffering from depression try sam-e. Reading Dr. Brown's book is an excellent way to learn about this substance.

Okay- I know that this is a seminal work re: the Middle East, but it is as dry as any other history text that you might find on the shelves of MiddleEast 101. In comparison to Price of Honor or other more reader friendly texts that in my opinion carry as much critical information about the volatile region, it pales in comparison.

This books provides a special insight about the Middle East. Since the author lived in the region, he has a close perspective of its intricacies. In the book, the author explains certain of the big differences that some of the countries of the region have with each other.
Hot topics such as Palestine, Israel and Iraq are also dealt in an excellent way.

This book is a very solid introduction to the modern history of the region. Although it covers a much longer span, the first chapter is subtitled "from Ancient to Modern", the book spends 34 pages on the entire period prior 1800. Rather skimpy. But, it does well given its limited treatment of pre-1800. Another problem is the lack of spirit in the book. One can tell that author is British just by the style.

Having said the above, it does a very good job of summarizing the major history since 1800. And, I would recommend it to any seeking an introduction to the Middle East, esp. the modern world.

Advanced Mathematics: Precalculus with Discrete Mathematics and Data Analysis. This book consists of: a refresher of Algebraic Expressions and Application in the form of the function (linear, quadratic, and other polynomial), Logarithms and exponents, a review of Analytic Geometry and Trigonometry, Discrete mathematics as it applies to Sequences and Series, Matrices, Combinatorics, Probability, Statistics, Modeling, and Limits and an introduction of Calculus in the form of the derivative.

The book states that an emphasis on application is an intrinsic part of it, this, however is not really the case. The book, while showing an appropriate number of application problems in certain sections, lacks that application horribly in others. However, these lacking sections are few enough that it deserves a fair amount of credit in the attempt.

This book is generally good about explaining the topics covered in the recommended homework, but it is weak in examples and visual aids. I would recommend this book to a student for Final Exam practice, or a teacher for tests.

A must for a counting book esp. if your child likes Sesame Street. It is an older book so the new characters like Elmo don't show up. However, you see the Count and Big Bird a lot, also, Grover, Oscar, Kermit, Tully, Cookie Monster. Very little of the books scenes are actually on Sesame Street. You see a merry go round, a farm, a train, cars while you are looking for Big Bird who is semi-hidden in many of the pictures. Its simple and fun and counting books esp. this one had my son counting to 12 at two years old.

Richard Pratt has a wonderful grasp of the bigger picture of Scripture, and he does a fantastic job here of relating some great truths in very clear, interesting, and applicable ways. Questions at the end of each chapter make it ideal for personal devotions or for study/discussion by small groups.

Good down-to-earth advice for beginning runners. Covers shoe selection, assessing your fitness level, setting goals, stretching, motivation, and many sample workout plans.

Beautiful pictures of smatterings of whimsical art in gardens. Tasteful and fun. A winner!

Confusion. This novel is for those of educated minds. Stream-of-conscious runs through this book and only stops as you stop to re-read each page to find out what happened. The book runs free from subject to subject, all seen through the mind of Stephen Dedalus. His imagination runs freely throughout the book and it is sometimes hard to pick up whether what your reading is reality or just a thought process. Symbolism. Every word, sentence, and page is key to understanding this novel. If your focus wanders away for one paragraph, you lose, game over and go back to the beginning to start reading again. The thick symbolism makes it hard to read, but Joyce is able to capture many feelings through the symbolism of birds.
I couldn't get into this book. Every time the book was about to pull me in, a sudden change of pace would leave me scratching my head. This novel seemed to drag me nowhere, granted it is a classic, my classic eyes, nose, and ears say "no" to this book.
This is a well-written novel told about a young boy's life as he grows up. You learn side by side as this young boy, Stephen Dedalus, learns of life. You see things as he sees them, experience things as he experiences them, and feel as he feels. Whether it's fear, loneliness, pride or remorse, the feelings are lived as Stephen's imagination and life intertwine themselves together through each page.
This is a great novel if you have a Joyce-code-reader that helps you understand the Irish slang, Latin and symbolism. Irish slang dots this book, Latin develops it, and symbolism flies through it. This plot-less book is very hard to understand, which conveys Stephen's attitude toward life. He, a young man, is very confused in life. There are five stages in which Stephen goes through in this novel. He goes through school homesick, and looking for an identity other than his father's. Joyce depicts the family through debate at the dinner table, showing the strong political views of Stephen's father. Stephen also finds himself in a growing situation at school. After being wrongly beaten by the prefect of studies, Stephen decides to go and tell the rector on him. Fear mounts as he enters the hall across from the rector's room, but joy comes as he excitedly runs to tell his friends what happened. As he continues to experiment with life as he finds himself wading through sin. He struggles with the lusts of the natural man, as he gets involved with the opposite sex. And then it hits him. A power sermon about death, judgment, heaven and hell chain his soul down as he wishes to escape the eternal torment that surrounds him. He wants his soul to be at peace. And so through a battle with his conscience he repents and frees himself from sin. He then devotes his life to religion and purity. Seeing his devotion to the priesthood, a Father offers him a vocation. However, he discovers another path to paint the picture of his life. He journeys away to find his freedom lies in being an artist.

If you're going to read this book, put your code-decrypter nearby and get ready for a ride through the mind of Joyce.

James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel is probably the most read of all his works, most likely due to the fact that it is less bizarre and easier to read than his other novels. Realizing this, most readers jump into "The Portrait" expecting it to be a simple and straightforward story only to find that nothing could be farther from the truth. It is extremely complex and ahead of its time and damn near prophetic. Many readers criticize it because the plot is so realistic that whereas other books are fantastical and overblown, the plot to "Portrait" is so prevelant that it could have happened to anyone, and indeed, similar series of epiphanies do indeed happen to many. Perhaps ironic is the fact that many of the same people who criticize this lack of action enjoy spending their time watching "real life" shows such as "Survivor" and "Big Brother" that are heavy in realism and light in action. The difference of course between those shows and this book is that while the shows are completely and utterly mindless attempts to quench the public's ever-growing hunger for drivel, "Portrait" is one of the most though-out, complex psychological testaments to the life of a human being ever put to paper. It is the story of a young man, growing up in Dublin in the same manner as all other boys, and how, along the way he became different than the rest. In this age, society is obsessed with peering into others' lives, in "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man," we peer into someone's soul: an artist's soul.

I read this years ago in college and once or twice afterwards though I haven't had the chance to re-read it in recent years. Still it lives on vividly enough in my memory to allow a review, here, I think.

Joyce was a strange one, where writing was concerned, focusing as he did on language as a means to evoke the world rather than merely for telling a "story". Over the years I have come to conclude that fiction requires narrative requires storytelling . . . and yet Joyce successfully broke that rule and he did it first in this book.

PORTRAIT is a book which builds the world of its narrator in the telling, without really following any kind of plot or storyline or giving us a beginning, middle and end. From the opening lines of ludicrous baby talk, where we see the world through the young hero's infantile eyes, to the end where the young lad, after much intellectual wrestling in his school days, steps off into the wider world, this is a book which paints a young man's coming of age, through his very subjective experience of life, with words. Indeed, all good writing "paints" its world to some extent. But Joyce, and several of his contemporaries, set out to re-write the rules of writing by only painting the picture, as though the story (an artificial element in most cases) did not count at all. And they did what they set out to do. Joyce did it most dramatically of all with this book. Like Hemingway, Joyce was a literary impressionist, building the world through bits of language instead of merely describing it or telling us about it.

I think we need to get back to basic story in our day, as theirs was, to some extent, a false trail. But it was a trail worth following and of great value to all readers and writers alike. Aspiring writers, and anyone with a real craving to explore the literary world, ought to have a go at this one. It's an original.

SWM