I read "So Rich A Crown" and was captivated from the first page. In fact I did not want to put it down. The author has used great detail in descriptions of people and places.Obviously, the author spent a great deal of time researching her material. I was especially pleased with how easily the flow from one character to another , one continent to another. The over riding theme "goodness over evil"was well maintained , yet, kept hidden from reader until the end. One of the best books I have read in recent years!!

So Rich A Crown is one of the best books that I have read lately. I found myself wanting to know what else was going to happen with these characters. Priscilla Paul has done an outstanding job of writing a book with all the excitement that you want without all the trash. This is a book filled with all the makings of a best seller. I personally believe if I can feel the heartache and trimupth of the characters then I have truly read a wonderful book. That is what you will get with So Rich A Crown. You will find that lessons of Love, Faith, Trust and Sorrow fill the pages of this book. After you have read this book don't be surprised to find yourself evaluating your most important relationships, the level of trust that you have with your closest friends, and the faith you have in God. You will also find yourself waiting for the future books by Priscilla Paul.

This is a wonderful book. Once I began reading, it was almost impossible to put it down. Definately a page turner !! I can hardly wait for the next book. Priscilla definately has the talent to keep you on the "edge of your seat", and I anticipate that future books will be just as wonderful. Definately a must read !!

Now that Eastern Europe is once again in the news and the USA is bumbling along into that hornets nest, this book, based on real people, is a stunning trip through a violent period of history. It is seen through the naive eyes of a happy-go- lucky, girl-chasing concert pianist who gets sucked into World War One and becomes a terrific soldier in the process. The scenes of battle and the concerts are really -- surpisingly -- exciting. I loved it and have given this book as gifts to several good friends. But it's hard to find, although amazon.com does manage to track it down.

Concise and pleasing to read, this book is a colorful account of the life and guns of Ansley H. Fox. McIntosh obviously spent many hours of research, tracking down important details which illustrate what drove Fox to create "The finest gun in the world". These details are woven together to provide an informative resource for research and an interesting read for the double gun enthusiast. Included are original sketches of patented designs, technical expertise and insight, beautiful color photographs, and an easy to follow paper trail to help identify an antique Fox.

As an owner of a Fox, I have been unable to find any information that would provide a background on the company, as well as the different models produced. This book will give you that and much more, including great info on Ansley Fox and his other contributions to the auto industry, etc. The book is great reading.

I love this book , the instructions for pillows are just what I needed and the photos and inspiration for windows are perfect. More attention is paid to other types of decorating though than window treatments. Still this is among my top 5 favorite home decorating books.

What a great book! I'm not good with sewing... in fact, I've never done it before... but this book made everything so easy to understand, and therefore everything was so easy to make. Nobody wants to believe me that I did it all myself!

What happens when you mix two beautiful daughters, one handsome prince, and a marriage proposal? Well, if one is selfish, self-centered, and spoiled, and the other is kind, loving, and sweet, then you get the heartwarming fairytale by John Steptoe, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. He credits an Afrcan folktale with inspiring htis original version of a Cinderella-esque story. Steptoe's illustrations compliment the tale at every turn, defining setting, expanding characteriaztion, and adding depth to the text; they are indeed worthy of the Caldecott Honor Book Medal which graces the cover. Pages of stunning paintings capture the very essence of the story's Zimbabwean ancestors and the landscape they inhabited. In this typical fast-paced fairytale where evil is punished and good is rewarded, readers meet Manyara and Nyasha, two sisters of unsurpassable beauty, who are summonded to the city in order to appear before the unmarried prince. Little girls everywhere will identify with the kind and patient Nyasha and delight at the fate that the "evil" sister, Manyara, eventually meets. Children of all ages will thoroughly enjoy a read-aloud of this fairytale. The vivid use of language and exquisite illustrations, such as the scene in which Nyasha meets the king, are sure to entertain even the most discriminating audience, from the youngest listener to the transitional reader. Complete with a surprise ending, a touch of magic, and a moral message, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is a wonderful story and makes and excellent comparison to more traditional versions of Cinderella.

This book is usually described as an African variation on Cinderella and it has a similar story - when a king invites the women of his kingdom to come to his palace so that he can choose the most worthy to be his wife, two sisters appear before him and he chooses the kinder of the two. But this version of Cinderella is infinitely superior to the tale most Americans grow up on. The European Cinderella is a beloved story, but it contains a lot of odd messages. Cinderella is both good and beautiful, her stepsisters are ugly inside and out. Is the implication that only attractive people can be good? Cinderella's "goodness" doesn't seem to consist of anything but being a doormat. And when the prince falls in love with her, he doesn't seem to know anything about her except that she is beautiful.

In John Steptoe's version, inspired by an African folktale, the two sisters are both beautiful, but the beauty of one, Manyara, is only external. Her sister, Nyasha, the "Cinderella" character is beautiful inside and out. And her goodness doesn't consist just of doing what she's told to do. She's kind to all creatures, even Manyara. Furthermore, the king chooses her to be his queen not because of her beauty, but because he has secretly seen her her kindness and generosity (and her sister's meaness) in action. He chooses a good soul, not just a beautiful face. This version has all the elements that make Cinderella a classic, but ethically it's far, far better.

And as if that weren't enough, the illustrations in this book are sheer magic. More than any book we've read, this one has inspired in my daughter a fascination with Africa. The details of Steptoe's paintings, drawn from the plants, animals and architecture of Zimbabwe, are glorious. Everytime we read the book, my daughter and I talk about new things we notice about the pictures. I can't think of a single children's book I like better than this one.

This is a beautifully written and illustrated African Cinderella story. As a third grade teacher, it is excellent for teaching about folktales and a vehicle for teaching compare and contrast. It also introduces young children to African-based literature and can be a jumping off point for the similarities between cultures as it can be compared to the standard Cinderella story or the vast number of other Cinderella stories from other cultures.

The Raj Quartet (comprised of four novels) is in my ultimate top ten of great novels and my favourite work of fiction for the twentieth century. Paul Scott is up there up with Tolstoy and Jane Austen. The Raj Quartet is exquisite to read, every word and every sentence appears to have the perfection that Jane Austen bestowed on her works but on the majestic scale of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

The Raj Quartet is multi-layered, complex, beyond the apparent. Is it about a country? Or is it about two countries? Paul Scott deals with the years of the "great divorce" as it were, but now at the beginning of a new century the continuing implications of the historic British occupation are as fresh as ever, both in India and the UK, one example being the the unforseen post war immigration and lifting of racial barriers between two peoples (I myself am a product of a post war marriage between an Indian father and British mother).

The question of identity is explored. What makes an Indian? (still a relevant question in a subcontinent of such diverse cultures, religions, languages, outlooks, etc). What happens to a group (the Raj British) who are no longer needed in either India or Britain? (I recommend Staying On by Paul Scott which deals with a minor character who does stay on in India.)

Beyond the themes of history, colonialism and imperialism, there is the theme of the universal human experience. Who are we all really? Should we let our nationality and culture define who we are? Or as one character, Sarah Layton, finally have the courage to break free and define our own identity. Sarah at first is apart from "the other", then in one revealing scene (the ride with Ahmed) she subconsciously turns to face "the other" though unsuccessfully and finally in the beautifully written and incredibly sensual scene where she decides to dive into the forbidden (the seduction by Clark, who I see myself as Eros or the Hindu God of Love, Kama) she breaks through into her individuality, her "grace".

An outstanding piece of writing and a masterpiece, the Quartet compresses in four novels the essence of individual lives caught in the matrix of history. What is karma and dharma? The novels examine these as best Scott can in trying to articulate his artistic vision of the tragedy of history and of individual lives. History is impersonal and is from a God's-eye view, our own lives are subjective and given differing perspectives and are all that we have to imperfectly cling to. In that personal vantage point is salvation and hell all in one. Check out Scott's "Staying On" as well which is his farewell to the Indian scene and the characters we've come to know. A sliding farewell into oblivion, just as Scott himself fell into his twilight years.

Paul Scott's brilliant saga of the death of English imperialism resonates deeply for any American who has ever worried that Britain's shrunken global influence foreshadows our own destiny as a nation -- despite our current standing as the world's only "superpower." His indictment of racism is complicated and unsparing. In addition to his marvelous villain, Ronald Merrick, his female characters are so richly drawn, so simultaneously appalling, frustrating, and likable, that they dominate all four books of the Quartet and make it difficult to believe they were written by a man. The very appealing character of Guy Perron, whom the reader first meets in Volume IV, is, I believe, Scott himself -- serving as an academic observer who attempts to translate, and make sense of, the complex, emotional, and tightly interwoven events through which the first three volumes have carried us.

I reread the Quartet frequently and get something new out of it every time. It inspires me to write.

All in all, a great tab book to a fantastic album; David Gilmour is really a fascinating player with a very unique style, and this book is a great way of learning about Gilmour's technique, and thus understand Pink Floyd as musicians as well as the guitar as an instrument much better. Some songs here are very easy to play, even for beginners, and others are more complicated, so it's better to start with the easier ones like 'Hey You', then build up to the more sophisticated riffs and solos.

The book is very accurate, and has few errors; but in that accuracy lies its biggest failing. Many times the transcriber made too much of an effort to put down every single sound on the album, and thus take small, almost unnoticable ticks and scratches and write them down as 'unpitched percussive notes'(i.e blocked notes). Those are very confusing and many times completely unnecessary. I played the Wall CD in full volume and still wasn't able to hear many of these notes (I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were gleeches in the recording which were removed during the CD remastering). Of the ones I did hear, I'm sure at least some were not intentional.

Bottom line: excellent book, but more for studying of Gilmour's playing than for actually playing the songs.

Roger really out did himself with this album. Not the best from my point of view, but on the scale of things one of the best lyically in the world to date. Pink Floyd, with Dave Gilmours huge influence, has written the best 'story' album in history. The depth that Waters has gone into is just ....wow. The story of a boy called Pink Floyd along with the film is just a true image of what was waters and barret's life lead to. A wounderfull view into the world that is Pink Floyd. Listen to it, is the only thing I can say, and you will never turn your back from Pink Floyd

Roger Waters has done it again, one of the most amazing CDs in the history of Symphonic Rock, this book is very well designed illustrated and written, for all of you who play the electric guitar this book is a must. Includes all the songs from the double CD The Wall. and if you play the acoustic guitar, hey there are songs like "Hey You". I just got it and I it's amazing!
Comfortably numb matches the original version exactly, and nothing is more satisfying than being able to play pink Floyd solos. You got some things for Piano as well - like 'Nobody's home'. FUn to play, fun to sing, buy it you won't regret it.

It includes some of his most famous work, interspersed with biography and commentary on its origins, read well and entertainingly, by several different English actors. Good for those who prefer poetry read to them, but will inspire them to do further reading themselves.

Wordsworth's poetry, at times, seems to be the most beautiful in English. This collection provides an ample audio companion to the text. There is a nice balance of selections from the "great" poems (1797-1807) that account for Wordworth's esteem, as well as juvenile and late works. Both versions of the Prelude are represented (1805 and 1850), some of the Lucy poems, Tintern Abbey, The Leech-Gatherer, the Immortality Ode, excerpts from ballads, and numerous short pieces as well. The reading of Tintern Abbey alone is worth the price of these cassettes: the unidentified male reader captures the music, the cloistered beauty, and the extraordinary depth of this poem. Bravo! Although the readers are named, one would hope that a future edition would specify who reads what.

This is an excellent recording of Wordsworth's poetry. It made me realize that his poetry is really meant to be heard, rather than read. All the vocal actors are very good, and I particularly enjoyed the narration of Wordsworth's life by Jeremy Northam. A very enjoyable set of audiotapes.