Lewis Grassic Gibbon (or James Leslie Mitchell) has written a novel of Spartacus that is as refreshing as it is clearly one of the forerunners of historical fiction. Opening through the eyes of the eunuch Kleon and his mission to find the heroic leader of the Slaves the novel centers more around Spartacus 'inner circle' and his relationship with Elpinice. Book I is told through Kleon and deals with the period up to the defeat after the Battle of the Lake. Books II and III with Spatracus' victories until we move towards the well-known and inexorable end on the Appian way at the hands of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the end of Book VI. The novel ends as it begins, with Kleon, and his crucifixion
The novel is well written, well-paced and pauses sufficiently to voice greater philospohical views than historical novels of the current generation. It is easy to see why this has been heralded as one of the great novels of its genre.

Buying this book is like having Oshkosh and Sun 'n Fun in your own home. It's HUGE!! Reminds me of a New York City telephone book. Anyone with any interest at all in building their own airplane, purchasing a used kitplane or experimental airplane, or looking for information about suppliers, etc. of kitplanes and ultralights MUST get a copy of this book. Written in Captain ZOOM's (Jim Campbell) uniquely personalized style, each product is reviewed, rated, and critiqued. Includes summaries of the author's personal flight test reports, etc. Reviewed by Al Pike SPORT FLYER'S Internet Resources http://SportFlyer.com

I started reading this book with little prior knowledge of the beat movement and authors. I also didn't expect much from the book, thinking that it would probably be a rather academic piece of writing. And what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! The book was so gripping that I finished it in a few days, reading long passages at a time. It covers the rise to prominence of the dramatis personae of the beat movement (focusing on Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs), giving enough information on their backgrounds to facilitate an understanding of how this influenced them and their writing, but does not dwell on unnecessary minutiae in the process. All the information is presented in a concise and remarkably readable manner. The author points out the foibles of the beats, but is not too judgemental, leaving it to the reader to come to his own conclusions.

But the best thing about this book is the way the author links events and people in a witty, intelligent way without falling into the very beat trap of being pretentious. It can serve as an example to all authors wishing to write an intelligent, accessible work of non-fiction.

This book is great for someone familiar with the contextual approach to scripture who wants a deeper understanding of the two creation stories.

Thom has fictionalized a true story with such powerful description that one forgets the fact that most of the details are imagined. They are, however, totally believable, and even though the reader knows the ending (she finally makes it home), the book is difficult to put down. Every footstep of the journey is vivid. The author also manages to portray the Indians as human beings in spite of the gory details of the massacre. Mary Ingles was a fourth great-grandmother of a friend of mine, and this makes the book more immediate for me. My own great-great grandfather was survivor of a Shawnee massacre in the same area 20 years later. I am astounded at the courage and endurance of these brave people who were our forebears. As a writer, I was amazed at how many different ways Thom describes weather, terrain, pain, and terror. Mary's decision to give up her baby to the Indian girl was a selfless, practical act, and her mental and emotional strength kept her from descending into a morass of romantic, sentimental, blubbering guilt. This book should be required in American history courses as adjunct reading material. It tells us what a history book cannot--the human side of the early development of this country.

I've read this book three times and teach it to my twelfth grade English classes. Mary Ingles is an inspiration of the possibilities of endurance of the human spirit. Victim of a brutal Shawnee attack in the summer of 1755 she is force marched from Virginia to Shawnee, Ohio while nine months pregnant giving birth on the trail. She is sold into slavery and taked to the area near Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. Together with an old Dutch woman she escapes and begins a 1,000 mile trek home through unknown and hostile wilderness. In 43 harrowing days she goes from 125 pounds to under 80 pounds as she faces the elements, starvation, wild animals, hostile Indians, implacable nature, and a companion that turns cannibal. The reader shares the agony of the journey with Mary as she must go the final miles on her hands and knees. The most amazing thing about the story is it is true. Like his other historical novels Thom has done his research and he makes the history come alive for his reader.

As a West Virginia resident and one that lives near the Ohio river, I find myself thinking about Mary and her journey home. I find myself wondering what the river looked like to her. This is a fantastic book. I have passed this book on to several people and they all tell me that they can not put it down.
If you read this book you will find yourself asking, "what is going to happen next".
What is so remarkable is that this is a true story. I found myself crying when Mary left her newborn baby behind. The perils she and Gretel endure are unbelievable. I would hope that I would be able to persevere as she did in such trying times. I don't think a man could have done any better.
West Virginia history classes need to teach about this wonderful women and not focus so much on learning the counties. I could not believe that this story takes place in our beautiful state and had never even heard of this woman.
The Hallmark channel showed a TV movie based on the book but played lightly on the hardships and was not a true adaptation of the book.

Here's what I like:
pages 20-21 list of factors in dealing with
feelings
pages 25-26 list of mental blockage indicators
pages 30-31 kinds of resistance to change
pages 40-48 emotional strategies ==> how
to improve emotional intelligence!!!
pages 136-138 list of inappropriate communication
techniques.
The general strategies developed in pages 1-96 are
applied later to anxiety, anger, loneliness, depression.
An appendix expands this list to confusion, disappointment,
envy, facial tics, frustration, guilt, and helplessness.

i have a copy of this book i have referred to many times since the 80's. i do not know the authors, nor do i have any vested interest in a submitting a complimentary review. i have never submitted such a review before. i attest that this book is the single most helpful self-help book that i have ever had the good fortune to read. in one's darkest hour, it can help you INSTANTLY...i am happy it is still available, and i am buying a copy for a friend in need (not wanting to part with my own!)

Among the hundreds of serious and not-so pop psych books I've read, "Rapid Relief" actually works. Particularly useful is the "emotional scale" which can help you understand what you or others are going through as you go through your ups and downs.

However "Rapid" is NOT a substitute for deep work with an qualified, experienced and insightful therapist. Instead it's an execellent source of day to day coping stratgies. For eight bucks, that's quite a deal.

Hogg's book was one of many 'Gothic' doppelganger novels produced at the time, as editor Cuddon makes clear in his introduction. What sets 'Sinner' apart is the fierce, unforgiving, saturnine, phlegmatic, terse, Biblical, paganistic, ugly beauty of the vocabulary and phraseology (Hogg was a shepherd and a poet), suited to a narrative lashed with hate, murder, bigotry and terror, whose sheer violence connects it with another shocking Gothic one-off, Lautreamont's 'Maldoror'; the way the 'double' theme of the novel is embedded not just in the plot, but in the rich formal patterning, from character groupings to the religiously and politically divided Scotland of its setting; and the wide literary adventurousness as a whole which, in its proliferation of stories, framing devices, and self-reflexivity create a labyrinthine, elusive, very modern text.

James Hogg's "Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" is a claustrophobic, terrifying spectacle of a novel. First published anonymously in 1824, the novel centers around the manuscript of an obscure Scottish Laird who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Robert Wringhim is a well-educated, but illegitimate child of the Laird of Dalcastle. He leaves the estate to live with his mother, also estranged from the estate. Raised by his adopted father, a zealous Calvinist preacher, Robert grows to despise his biological family. When, on his 18th birthday, God reveals through the preacher, that Robert is one of the elect, the true action of the novel begins.

The novel has an unusual and provocative structure: an editorial recounting of the story envelops the text of Robert Wringhim's actual 'memoirs and confessions'. The novel's temporal structure hinges on the 1707 Act of Union which annexed Scotland to England, forming Great Britain. With the editorial apparatus (and its debt to an oral tradition), and Robert's first person manuscript, Hogg seems to question the methods by which history is written and passed down. Several versions of Robert's story, from himself, his contemporaries, and the 'editor' who lives over 100 years after the events gives a startling, disturbingly incoherent vision of history.

This novel is great for its wranglings with the problems of reconciling money with morality, and religion with the law. Hogg's primary concern is with the religious issue of antinomianism - the notion that God's elect are free from the dictates of human law. Robert's election and subsequent relationship with the wildly mysterious, fantastically rendered Gil-Martin put antinomianism to the harshest test.

"The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" is a rather short novel which I recommend highly. It is an entertaining historical, religious, psychological rollercoaster. Its blend of sublimely dark humor and social comment is a high achievement in any century.

Hogg's novel is about 150 years ahead of its time. Published in 1824, the work has everything readers of post-modern novels could ask for, including clustered narratives, self-reflexive point-of-view, unreliable narrators, unsympathetic-protagonist, etc. Hogg is engaging in a highly playful exercise, yet at the same time the novel can be read as an entirely chilling depiction of what may happen to the human psyche when it is given absolutely free-reign. The story takes place in Scotland in the early 18th century, a time of political and religious foment. It chiefly concerns the religious "progress" of Robert Wingham. Robert's mother is a religious enthusiast who has left the household of her husband, George Colwan, laird of Dalcastle, because he does not meet her stringent standards of pious behavior. Before she leaves, she delivers a son, whom Colwan names after him and names him his sole heir. A year after she has left she delivers another son, Robert, whom the editor-narrator who first tells the story is too polite to say is illegitimate, but it's evident by all appearances and intimations that Robert is the son of Lady Colwan and the Reverend Wringhim, a dour, intolerant, "self-conceited pedagogue," who is the polar opposite of the easy-going laird. Reverend Wingham undertakes the instruction of young Robert and eventually adopts him. Robert, like his father, is a cold fish, who abhors the presence of women and anything else that he thinks will lead him to sin. Young George, on the other hand is naturally open and fun-loving, engaging in the "normal" activities young men of the time preferred. This attitude piques the ire of Robert, who sees any activity that is not directly related to religion as frivolous. He starts showing up uninvited whenever and wherever George and his friends get together. When they try to play tennis, Robert stands in George's way and interferes with the game. The same thing happens when they play a rugby-like game on a field outside Edinburgh. Even after George loses patience and punches Robert , the younger brother keeps on insinuating himself, uninvited, every time George and his friends meet. When the Reverend Wingham learns that his precious boy has been roughed up, he incites his conservative faction to retaliate against the liberals with which George and his friends are in league. A full scale riot ensues, reminiscent of the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet. Neither the editor nor Wingham ever give full assent to the fantastic elements in the story. Events are depicted in as realistic a light as possible, which lends weight to the storyline and keeps things from drifting off into never-never land.

Everything about this novel "works." The editor's framing narrative subverts Wingham's "confession" narrative at just the right points, so the subversion actually adds to the solidity and texture of the work as a whole and adds to its plausibility. The comic characters are wonderfully depicted (including Hogg himself, who puts in an appearance as an unhelpful clod who's too busy observing sheep at a local fair to assist the editor and his party when they want to dig up Wingham's grave). Wingham's descent into fanaticism and his subsequent psychological disintegration is handled as well as it possibly could be. It is also a perfectly drawn cautionary tale about the pitfalls of antinomian religious beliefs. Hogg describes for the reader a splendid representation of just where the path of predestination can lead a susceptible mind. That's where the comparison's to Crime and Punishment evolve. Wringhim, like Roskolnikov, considers himself above the common rung of humanity. Unlike Rodyan, however, Robert never does discover the full import of his megalomaniacal doctrine until it is entirely too late. Readers might be interested to note that Hogg's novel had a direct influence on Stephenson' s Jekyll and Hyde and on Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. Hogg was considered by his contemporaries to be something of a rustic genius, and the poetic successor to Robert Burns. He was known as the Ettrick Shepherd, because he did earn his livelihood from raising sheep and was entirely self taught. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott. He's still highly revered in his home country. If more readers become familiar with this one-of-a-kind book, he will be revered more universally. It really is that brilliant a novel.

You cannot go wrong reading any of the works of Alan Moore, and From Hell is definitely worth a read. I'm a huge fan of V for Vendetta (if you are taking the time to read this review, you will want to also check out that graphic novel - it is brilliant) and this book is nearly as good.

The book is substantially different than the movie, and puts you inside the head of Jack The Ripper more than what happened in the film. Everyone is familiar with the history of Jack The Ripper, and Moore has included extensive notes on the factual basis for his tale. That said, I don't think that Moore is really offering a solution to the mystery of who Jack The Ripper was, he just shows how Jack The Ripper set the stage for the beginning of a large number of atrocities which happened in the 20th Century. It is a very good read. It is kind of expensive, but worth it nonetheless. Buy it, you will like it!

This story is a masterpiece, and this collected edition is the only way to read it. Even if you're like me and have never had much of an interest in the Whitechapel murders, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Moore thoroughly researches all of his stories, as evidenced by his strong body of work over the past 20 years, and his inventiveness and attention to detail extend to this one. The thorough endnotes outline everything for you, giving more depth and understanding to the plot. Also, "From Hell" is not intended to be gospel, and Moore makes it clear that he has used fact, assumption, & outright fabrication in order to craft this story - and the endnotes let you know which is which.

Eddie Campbell's dark sketchy art is perfect for this story. It provides just the right mood, although sometimes it's hard to interpret what is going on, and many of the characters look a bit too similar. Picking up all the details in a few of the panels may take some time.

The last chapter, in particular, is a brilliant way to wrap up the story, bringing it into the present day, and the epilogue, "Dance of the Gull Catchers", offers a hilarious study of the Ripper phenonmenon.

FROM HELL is writer Alan Moore's and artist Eddie Campbell's stab (pun intended) at Jack The Ripper. But this isn't your usual story about the Whitechapel murders. Alan Moore doesn't conceal the killer's identity until the very last page, he reveals it in chapter two; FROM HELL is not about who the killer was. FROM HELL is a treaties (worthy of a ph.d) about why the killer did what he did, how he did it, and about all the people who knew about it; Mostly, it's about the latter. Alan Moore is a serious conspiracy theorist (respect...); His conclusion is of Royal connection, police corruption, and Freemason involvement. Everybody has got their hands dirty; London is presented as a decrepid and rotten society. I have not yet seen the filmadaptation of FROM HELL, but I've read that there is a shot in the film which "begins with the London skyline, pans down between towers and steam trains, and plunges into a subterranean crypt where a Masonic lodge is passing judgement on one of their members" (from Roger Ebert's filmreview). This is what the story is about; A society that is ruled by the few; By the men who hides in the shadows; By the true architects of history (as said in FROM HELL).

Alan Moore tells a story that sends you spiraling into madness, into the mind of the killer and the society of the killer; Into Hell. The sketchy black and white drawings of Eddie Campbell conjurs up a world of filth, and not the romantesized version of Victorian England that we have all grown accustomed to; "London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained," (from Sir Arthur C. Doyle's A STUDY IN SCARLET). Both Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell have based their work on an impressive amount of research; FROM HELL is about as accurate as any other non-fiction book about Jack The Ripper. But this implies that FROM HELL demands that you're intrigued by the circumstances surrounding the case, and that you don't mind reading through hundreds of pages with long dialogues that are weighed down with facts; If you're only after a quick scare and a murder mystery, then you'll probably be disappointed with FROM HELL. Its audience are the numerous 'ripperologists'. If you fit into this latter category, then you'll relish FROM HELL.

I found the book to be an entertaining introduction to the bible. You start by taking your Bible IQ, which introduces you to the overall structure of the bible as well as providing some tantalizing hints of what lies within the Bible's covers. The bible is then covered in its entirety, which of necessity makes it less than thorough, but also not nearly as daunting as picking up the real thing. The book is well organized. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the content, and then breaks up the book(s) of the bible covered within the chapter into easily digestible sections. Side bars offer interpretive comments, as well as citing notable verses. Chapters conclude with a summary of what you need to understand in order to continue with the next chapter. The authors cite Book, chapter and verse, so if you're curious, you can go to the real thing. They try very hard to explore a variety of topics, and to lead you into some "primary source" material. It is a very good, low-brow introduction. Don't expect to be overwhelmed by its scholarly value. It is closer to entertainment.

I quite liked The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Bible. It gave me a nice overview of where to find things, and had a nice amount of humor without overdoing it or being sacreligious. I didn't agree with everything they said, but I'd still give it four stars.

I found this book to be very educational and easy to read. Definitely must reading for anyone who wants an overview of the Bible.

People interested in this book will also enjoy: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Biblical Mysteries and also Don't Know Much about the Bible.

I've heard people saying that this is a spinoff about Wonder's Legacy. If that were true, then why does it say 37 in the corner? This has Christina, and Melanie, and Ashleigh, and Star is Wonder's last foal. Star has a special bond with Christina, and Chris is trying to save him. The back says: Is history repeating itself? Christina Reese has heard the story many times- Wonder was a tiny, sickly foal no one thought was worth saving. No one but Christina's mother, Ashleigh. With Ashleigh's love and hard work, Wonder went on to win the Kentucky Derby. No, when Wonder's last foal is born under tragic surcumstances, there's little hope for her baby colt. Only Christina can see that the colt is special, just like his mother was. But will she get a chance to prove it?

Without Wonder was soooo sad. I couldn't believe it when Wonder died. It seemed like she was supposed to live forever!! I cried the first 5 times I read it(I love to read books over and over). I understand why Ashleigh acted like she did towards Wonder's Star, I would have felt horrible, thinking it was my fault my favorite horse died!! It's the latest book I have read, and I'm looking for the ones after #36. The first I learn Wonder died, was when I was in the book store and I was looking through Star In Danger, and read a couple pages, including the part when Christina tells her dad that "Wonder's been dead for a year, and Mom should stop greiving" or something like that. Then I just HAD to go on a rampage for "Without Wonder". I think it was the best book in the Thoroughbred series. It's definitly a Must-Read.

This book was good. At least they had Wonder die, which added some juice. But for "history to be repeating itself".. that's a little outlandish. I don't know much about Christina, besides this one the farthest I've gone is #19, but eventing is a little off-topic, and I think Christina is slightly selfish. But don't quote me, bcause that's just an eerie feeling I get. But anyway, at least they don't have Wonder get miraculously better , but she passes away. I wish they had her get sick? in an earlier book though, and then make it, so in this book, it would make even more sense that she dies, bcause she was setback before. But anyway, it's good. One question though.. why is this "trilogy" called Wonder's Legacy"? It's about Star, Wonder's Star!!weird. Also, it's nice change to have a sad ending. Oh, Ashleigh is so different. I mean, I know she's sad; it's not that. But the old Ash would be EXTRA nice to Wonder's last foal. Sorry to sound so critical.

Oh, about past reviews for past books...Cindy is somewhat snobbish. I mean, all the best horses are hers. But It's not completely her falt. Look at her past, guys...she's had to be a fighter. Give her some slack. and she doesn't have to be sooo devastated when her horse looses a race. *Me(Hol)