My favorite book as a child. My father read it to my brother and then to me, in chapters much like Michael's father tells him the story, until we were old enough to read it to him. It's so much a fairy tale but, at the same time, Michael's father loving him so much he creates this wonderful story off the top of his head combined with the father's slight impatience or perhaps the father and son's different priorities make it believable. The under-his-breath sarcasm/innuendo in the father's voice adds a little reality check for parents reading the book to their children. I am constantly on the look-out for this book so I can share it with my grandchildren (since I won't let go of my only copy) and my friends' children. I thought it was out of print and can't believe my good fortune in finding not only a printed copy, but an audiobook as well. I think this is the first thing in my childhood that really showed it was okay to think "outside the box". I could probably stand to re-read it more often to remind me of that early lesson and it's a good lesson for kids, too.

Wolf Story was one of the first read-aloud chapter books that really hooked my five year old son in to listening. William McCleery wrote this short tale with keen insight into the mind of young boys and what excites them. The story is funny, interesting, and ends much too quickly. Children are able to recognize themselves in the typical parent/child exchanges. The book also serves to preserve an innocence and purity in the imagination and experience of childhood. My son Gabriel and I urge you to read Wolf Story together with your children as soon as possible. You won't be sorry!

This is a nearly perfect read-out-loud book. I have shared this book several times with my daughters (now 10 and 12). I am looking forward to the time when I can begin to read it aloud to my three year old son. The story within the story (the struggle between the Wolf, Rainbow and the heroic farmer boy Jimmy) effortlessly keeps the children involved. The external story (the father and son inventing the animal adventure tale over several days) makes me laugh out loud with its sly humor and insight; the boy's missing shoe gets me every time. It's great to see that a reprint edition is available again.

This is a most enjoyable book, covering the highways and byways of the food of Italy. It is not a cook book. It is a book about a culture, or rather the agglomeration of cultures that is Italian food. Highly recommended to the armchair or the actual traveller, and the lover of Italian life and culture.

Root's The Food of France is a highly entertaining classic. The Food of Italy is slightly less so.

As with The Food of France, Root gives us here a survey of the food of an entire country. The country here is, of course, Italy. The book details the varieties and specialities of each region in Italy, which each make up a chapter in the book.

As with The Food of France, Root examines not only the specialities and food of a particular region, he discusses also what it is in terms of taste, ingredients and cooking methods that makes a particular dish distinctly of that region. Beyond that, he also examines the history, geography and native food resources of a region in considering what it is that has gone into making the food of that region distinctly so. He studs each examination with charming details and anecdotes. And he does this all with methodical meticulousness.

In each chapter, Root will start with examining the history, geography and available food resources of the region. Each chapter is divided roughly into the various major cities and districts that comprise the particular region being discussed. The food of each city and district is then discussed, starting with the savoury dishes and ending the sweet. Each chapter finishes off with a discussion of the wine and alcoholic beverages of that region.

Mostly, he tells it with inimitable style. However, unlike The Food of France, there were times with The Food of Italy when I felt it a bit of a slog to read. Quite literally from time to time I just felt like I was wading through a listing of descriptions of different types of food. In the chapter on Liguria, for example, Root discusses x number of dishes in a section headed antipasti and entrées, then x number of dishes in a section headed soups, and so on through sections on fish, meat, poultry, game, vegetables, and finally, desserts.

However, you can't argue though with the immensity of his knowledge, and the book deserves 5 stars alone just for that. Ultimately, if you are interested at all interested in reading about food, your collection would not be complete without this, and his other classic: The Food of France.

My Personal Rating Scale:
5 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative, thought provoking, pushes the envelope in one or more ways, a classic.
4 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative. Book that delivers well in terms of its specific genre or type, but does not do more than that.
3 stars: Competent. Does what it sets out to do competently, either on its own terms on within the genre, but is nothing special. May be clichéd but is still entertaining.
2 stars: Fails to deliver in various respects. Significantly clichéd. Writing is poor or pedestrian. Failed to hold my attention.
1 star: Abysmal. Fails in all respects.

Imagine eating delicious meals in every region of Italy, at someone else's expense, for years on end. That's pretty much what Waverly Root did in his long career as a journalist. And the result is a classic work about Italian food.

There are maps showing the food specialties of every Italian region and the best cities to visit for great eating. Each city is rated on a map, so you can easily create your own travel itinerary.

And there's a long chapter for each region, describing it special food and wine. Just the thing to feed daydreams.

this is great.

Warren Chappell was the designer of the typefaces Lydian,Trajanus and Eichenauer (never released), and a book-designer and illustrator of note. A student of Rudolf Koch at the Offenbacher Werkstatt, this book passes on some measure of what he learned there and in his work.

The "A through Z" aphorisms from around the world provide the text for this lovely little book featuring the lively drawings of Warren Chappel and the exquisite calligraphy of Rick Cusick.

"The Dark Frigate" was the 1923 Newbery Award winner. However, as I read the first few chapters I was thinking to myself, "Boy, the Newbery standards weren't very high back then." My chief problem was that it was written in a very archaic and verbose style. I understand that the author was trying to recreate a feeling of 17th century language for his readers, but any child under the age of 12 is going to get frustrated and I doubt many children over age 12 will enjoy wading through its difficult prose either. Also, this is a strange childrens book in that the main character is not a child, but a 19 yr old man with an eye for comely barmaids.

However, if one can get through the rather awkward writing style and the cursory introductions to key characters, "The Dark Frigate" becomes a real page turner when the pirates enter the story and remains one until the last couple of chapters when the author tries to wrap everything up a little too quickly. The chapters dealing with the pirates, though, make for an extremely entertaining and exciting tale. It's those chapters that made me understand why this book won the Newbery.

Although, written for children, "The Dark Frigate" is a rather grown-up book with murders being described in grisly detail, implied torture, hangings, and female characters who aren't exactly chaste maidens. I guess children in the 20's weren't handled with kid gloves when it came to describing the seedier elements of life.

By: Charles Boardmen Hawes

In seventeenth-century England Philip Marshman was suddenly orphaned when his father died at sea. Growing up around ships Philip runs from London and joins the frigate called "The Rose of Devon." In the middle of the voyage to Newfoundland the ship is seized by evil men, from a floating wreck, saved by the Rose of Devon's crew. Now Philip Marshman is a pirate joining these men on there bloody journey. With only his hanging awaiting him in London. Will he survive? Or suffer the same fate as his father.

This book was winner of the 1924 Newbery Medal for best contribution to American children's literature (Unfortunately, Hawes died before the Medal was awarded). It focuses on an English lad named Philip Marsham in the 1640s who signs up for duty on a frigate. The ship is taken over by others and is converted into a pirate ship. Philip has to find a way off the ship and back to England. And, the adventures begin! Boy, I wish I had found this book when I was a kid. Iwould have loved it. Even now, as an adult, I enjoyed it.

This book tells the traditional story of Sleeping Beauty with magnificent language, accompanied by spectacular illustrations. As in the original, Sleeping Beauty's mother is told that her dream of having a child would finally come true and that she would have a baby girl. The Queen did have the baby girl and her husband was so pleased he threw the biggest and grandest birthday party. He invited all but one person and not inviting her was the result in a terrible spell cast upon his daughter, Briar Rose. The spell was to put her to sleep on her 15th birthday, in which it did, after she touched the spinning wheel. Only a handsome man could wake her from the spell, and many years later that is what one man did. By kissing her, she returned to life and brought the whole castle life back with her. What catches the reader's attention in this particular book is the depth and colors of the illustrations. The position of the text also is very relevant in this story. Each picture is extremely detailed and shows that a great amount of thought was put into completing each page. It is very unique that the placement of the words on each page is located in some form of an opening. The text is placed in open skies, doorways, and blank walls on each page. In the beginning of the book, when the tone is darker, opening words are placed in a smaller and darker area; when Sleeping Beauty is awoken, the tone is much livelier. An example of this transition is relevant on the first two pages of the book, from the time when you are told the Queen could not have children to the time she has given birth to a baby girl. The first picture has dark colors and the trees are scary, close together and representative of a dark tone. With a turn of the page the tone takes a great positive change with open skies, doves, and vibrant colors. The text on both pages is in the middle of the darkness and then in the middle of a window. The position of the text and the illustrations are key factors in determining the over all tone and mood of the story. This book tells such an amazing story with the pictures that words are not even necessary. Children can read this book and better understand because of the colors and detail that each picture possesses. The doves that are used on the page of the birth of Briar Rose and the end of the book symbolize her life and what joy she lived. The colors in general are also used a symbol for joy and sadness, with such powerful colors meaning and representing happy times.

Trina Schart Hyman entranced me with her illustrations of Snow White when I was just a child. This book, with all its wonderful depictions, is equally as rich and magical. I have always loved the way her drawings looked and she was a direct inspiration for me to take up illustration when I got to college. I definitely reccomend it. It is a lovely, well-written tale and anyone, young or old, will love it.

As soon as you see the cover, you will know this is an edition of Sleeping Beauty that you will want. You actually feel the joy of the baby's christening, and the hurt and turmoil of the wicked fairy's curse. The scenes in this book are medeieval looking and it even shows some of the seasons that pass. This might not be the way that you see Sleeping Beauty often depicted. The princess, Briar Rose has long red hair and she wears a knife around her waist, in true medieval princess style. This is definetly a good change for the story. With it's expressive wording and beautiful, unique illustrations, you will want to check out her other books such as Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and some others!!!!

The book is a great source of information. The 4 (not 5) stars is given cause the book is filled with postscript errors (missing letters, ligatures replaced by spaces, accented glyphs...). Disapointing for a book about typography.

Among graphic designers, one of the finest, most popular books in recent years is Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley & Marks, 1992). In this book, Bringhurst revisits a classic history of typography, publication design and printing techniques that was originally produced in 1970 by Chappell (1904-1991), a book designer, illustrator and author who had studied with Rudolf Koch. Of eleven highly readable chapters, all were written by Chappell, with the exception of the last on "The Digital Revolution and the Close of the Twentieth Century." Why reissue Chappell's book? As Bringhurst explains in the preface, "He knew some of the things that historians know, but mostly he knew what historians don't know. I wanted the names and dates set straight, insofar as possible, and yet to hear the story told as Chappell told it, from a workbench rather than a keyboard, with silences in place of self-advertisements, and graver marks and acid stains in place of any footnotes." (Review copyright 2000 by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review 15, No. 4, Summer.)

A thoroughly enjoyable read on the people, places, and things that make up the history of type and publishing. Warren Chappell's book was revised and appended by noted author Robert Bringhurst and this book is the perfect complement to Bringhurst's own "Elements of Typographic Style". The content is alive with names, significant facts, technological contributions, and lots of good illustrations. This is an amazing book that is well-written and historically significant, and the authors fill in all of the gaps on the history of type and printing. The short history they describe is concise and thorough. The only disappointment is Bringhurst's final chapter on "The Digital Evolution and the Close of the Twentieth Century", where he completely overlooks the significant contributions of the people and technologies in the digital age and opts instead to explore the work of a few small private presses. Also, how can one brief summary chapter hope to describe the accomplishments of the last thirty years? Sadly, Bringhurst missed a real opportunity to provide a keen insight on the digital revolution and its impact on the printed word. All the same, this is a "must have" book for typographers, type designers, and typophiles.

But not quite. While I wouldn't say this was a terrible novel, I also wouldn't say that it was in any way memorable. Because of the wonderful dramatization on the audio cassette, I passed an afternoon at work more pleasantly, being entertained by the acting skills of the readers. However, if I'd been merely reading a text version of this story, I wouldn't have finished it because the plot did not interest me enough to deserve my full attention. The characters are too typical of a mystery novel, the prose style unremarkable, and the ending not too exciting.

This is a superlative production. Yulin doesn't merely read, he performs, and his voice matches the role. The other parts are nearly all well played, and the music never intrudes. Atmospheric and involving for 9 hours!

The book is one of MacDonald's last, and it has some of the overwrought quality that mar his later books, but this is only occasionally a distraction.

For those looking for other MacDonalds, the best are The Chill, Far Side of the Dollar, the Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Galton Case (all from 1959-65).

One of the obvious observations about Ross MacDonald's series of Lew Archer detective novels is that they are essentially the same story. Eerily MacDonald's plot lines reflect his own troubled and unsettled childhood. On the surface, this novel is about a very troubled young woman that seems to be in the wrong place at the precisely wrong times. It seems impossible that she could be innocent of anything or everything. Nevertheless, true to MacDonald's plot form, the real villains are the immature adults that compounded their original sins year by year, lie by lie. The true crime always is years in the past in Ross MacDonald's novels. The perpetrator forever spends his or her life covering up the original crime and always enmeshing his or her child into the original felony.

Ross MacDonald's prose is simply pure art. He settles you into the tacky 40's through 60's of California and then contrasts the empty lives of the rich and the destitute. He exposes his characters as being very troubled and not very innocent. Archer, his guide/protagonist is dogged as the revelation of the true perpetrator(s) slowly emerges. Terse first person narration gives this novel a stunning sense of realism.

This is a really wonderful detective novel, a form of noir that is so special. Vintage Crime/Lizard Press has reissued most of the Archer series and they remain as vital, and entertaining as when they were first printed. I recommend working through the whole series of these wonderful reprints.

However, having read them all and having read most of them several times over, this in my opinion is the best by a far measure. The best of this series is perhaps the best of all detective novels. Chandler and Hammett did not have the power of prose that Ross MacDonald so effortlessly spins.

Jonathan Swift's 18th century satire, Gulliver's Travels, is an extraordinary tale of the adventures of an English ship surgeon. The ship surgeon, Gulliver, by a series of unfortunate events on each of his four voyages at sea, receives the chance to explore the cultures of the countries of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and the land of the Houyhnhnms. Each land is considerably different from the others, and creates quite an entertaining read.

While the story itself is particularly unusual, the satirical element which Swift applied to it adds another level of comprehension. If understood, one could have a nice chuckle at the way Swift mockingly portrays ideas and people through the various cultures which Gulliver encounters. Some similes, however, are intended to get a more serious meaning across. For example, in his first journey of the book, Gulliver finds himself in the country of Lilliput where the people are only six inches tall, save the king who is seven. In this land there are two groups which were distinguished by which side a person breaks their eggs on. One king published an edict commanding all his subjects to break their eggs on the small side, but many would've picked death over breaking their eggs on the 'wrong' side, so many did. By this, Swift meant to throw contempt on the exaggerated importance that people place on their differences, as on which side one breaks an egg is a very trivial thing. The two groups mentioned represent the Catholic and Protestant religions, between which were many wars and massacres during the 1500's when the Protestants first appeared.

Gulliver's Travels takes the reader to many lands, all different and unique ' each adding another perspective on traditional beliefs and ways of thinking. Gulliver changes as much as the scenery around him, and after each voyage he has changed dramatically. At the end he has transformed so much that I feel really sorry for his family ' although it's only love that could allow them to put up with his strange behaviors.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an appetite for literature, as Gulliver's Travels is an excellent satire of the ways of the thinking in the early 1700's. Also, the author does a good job in describing the lands which Gulliver visits in great detail. Although Swift may not have written this book with intense action scenes and steamy romance, it is definitely a work worthy of the people of today.

It's amazing how our perspective changes as we age. What we thought was important as children may now seem completely insignificant, replaced by entirely new priorities, priorities children wouldn't even understand. At the same time, things we used to take for granted, like having dinner on the table, being taken care of when we're ill, or getting toys fixed when they are broken, have become items on adult worry lists.

Your perspective on literature can change, too. Reading a story for a second time can give you a completely different view of it. "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, which I enjoyed as a sort of an adventure story when I was a kid, now reads as a harsh criticism of society in general and the institution of slavery in particular.

The same thing is true of "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift. The first thing I realized upon opening the cover of this book as a college student was that I probably had never really read it before.

I knew the basic plot of Lemuel Gulliver's first two voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag, home of the tiny and giant people, respectively, but he had two other voyages of which I was not even aware: to a land of philosophers who are so lost in thought they can't see the simplest practical details, Laputa, and to a land ruled by wise and gentle horses or Houyhnhnms and peopled by wild, beastly human-like creatures called Yahoos.

While this book has become famous and even beloved by children, Jonathan Swift was certainly not trying to write a children's book.

Swift was well known for his sharp, biting wit, and his bitter criticism of 18th century England and all her ills. This is the man who, to point out how ridiculous English prejudices had become, wrote "A Modest Proposal" which suggested that the Irish raise their children as cattle, to be eaten as meat, and thereby solve the problems of poverty and starvation faced in that country. As horrible as that proposal is, it was only an extension of the kinds of solutions being proposed at the time.

So, although "Gulliver's Travels" is entertaining, entertainment was not Swift's primary purpose. Swift used this tale of a guillable traveler exploring strange lands to point out some of the inane and ridiculous elements of his own society.

For example, in describing the government of Lilliput, Swift explains that officials are selected based on how well they can play two games, Rope-Dancing and Leaping and Creeping. These two games required great skill in balance, entertained the watching public, and placed the politicians in rather ridiculous positions, perhaps not so differently from elections of leaders in the 18th century and even in modern times.

Give this book a look again, or for the first time. Even in cases in which the exact object of Swift's satire has been forgotten, his sweeping social commentary still rings true. Sometimes it really does seem that we are all a bunch of Yahoos.

Gulliver's Travels is an excellent book. In it Swift satirizes what he thought were the foibles of his time, in politics, religion, science, and society. In Part One Lemuel Gulliver is shipwrecked on Lilliput where the inhabitants are only 6 inches tall. The rivalry between Britain and France is there satirized. In Part Two he is marooned on the subcontinent of Brobdingnag where the inhabitants are giants. The insignificance of many of mankind's achievements are there satirized. Next in Part Three Gulliver is taken aboard the floating island of Laputa, where Swift takes the opportunity to satirize medicine and science altogether - incredibly Swift did not make up the crazy experiments he describes; all were sponsored at one time or another by the Royal Society. Finally in Part Four Gulliver is marooned by mutineers on the island of the Houyhnhynms, in which Swift takes his parting shot at human society - presenting them in degraded form as the Yahoos. Most people read no further in the book than Brobdingnag - I urge you to read the rest.