Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so tight and friendly, they are sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; everything. The Langs who are wealthy and generous, share their possessions unstintingly with the Morgans. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy together; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first met in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as a Mother's day gift, and you will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Highly recommended!!!

Nutface
April 17th, 2002

'Crossing to Safety' is a novel about the intertwined lives of two couples. More generally, it is about the various ways we express the search for meaning, about gradually lost causes, about vulnerability and kindness, about the complicated dependencies of marriage, about coming of age, slowly, over the course of a lifetime. The plot is simple -- two couples meet because the husbands teach for a time at the same campus, and the four become lifelong friends. Although the story spans decades, there are very few dramatic incidents. This lack of external drama may disappoint those who like plots which move steadily forward, driven by significant events and bold action. However that very lack of action and heroism is part of the novel's essence. Our lives are generally prosaic, not epic. Our stories do not end tidily in fifty minute prime-time segments. The narrator speaks to this: "How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? [...] Where are speed, noise, ugliness, everything that makes us ... recognize ourselves in fiction?" From these quiet lives, Stegner vividly sketches the emotional landscape in which the characters move, making for all its lack of fireworks a surprisingly compelling story. The book has been praised as a wonderful and uplifting portrayal of friendship developed over many years. That might sound a little maudlin or simplistic on the face of it, but it does not come across that way at all. It is difficult to summarize the philosophical tone of the novel. It is at the same time wry, realistic, and sympathetic, generally optimistic about our native toughness and the possibility of grace, and ambivalent about questions of grand purpose. In fact, the story is marked from the beginning with undertones of retrospective melancholy. "[We meant to] leave a mark on the world. Instead the world has left marks on us." In addition to evoking a finely shaded spectrum of emotions, the book is beautifully written. In grade school writing classes we were told to "show, don't tell", but the author both shows and tells with consummate skill. This book strikes me as being the distillation of a lifetime of experience by an acutely sensitive and intelligent writer and a profoundly decent human being. It feels like Wallace Stegner's carefully considered gift to us, and is well worth giving, in turn.

Wallace Stegner is a fine writer. Yet in many of his works, there is an inescapable darkness, a feral sadness-unresolved. Not here. In "Crossing to Safety," Wallace Stegner reveals a writer's soul unleashed. He eclipses the complicated, beautiful constructs of "Angle of Repose" (a fine book) by telling a simple, moving tale of two couples who love each other in the deepest and finest sense of the word. He weaves decades of disappointment, grief, and broken dreams into the astonishing, inescapable conclusion that this love, this caring, this friendship has given meaning to every dark moment and transformed them into a bridge to joy. This book resonates in the deepest recesses of soul because it gives meaning to pain without enshrining it. It speaks to hope and healing, both hallmarks of enduring love, with an honest eye and a gifted voice. It imparts courage and comfort at the same time. Buy it. Buy several copies. Once you read it, you will want to read it again and the friends you lend it to won't want to give it back... and you will understand and want them to keep it

This is a book that was a required text for one of my Lit. Crit. classes. I sold it back at the end of the semester and have had to borrow my prof's copy about 4 times this semester for papers for other classes. It is really helpful for writing any English paper (even for non-critical papers). I am excited to see it again and here it is the same price as a used copy at school.

a great introduction that leads up to present day. using five of the greatest works of literature as examples, the text fully explains and demonstates who each movement and theory operates and can be effectively implimented. highly recommmended.

I used this text to teach introductory literary criticism to my high school seniors for over six years. The examples in the text are excellent, and the characteristics of each approach are clearly established. It is my first choice as a teaching tool, and I think it would be equally effective for a college student working independently. I give it my highest rating.

I kept waiting for this book to get boring. It has all the potential to be boring. But it's not. It's an excellent introduction to the history of the West. I learned little tidbits about all sorts of varied subjects - Native American tribes, government, the history of the USGS. Stegner does get a little too wrapped up in the details at a couple points, especially when he gets into all the wrangling in Congress over Powell's various ventures, but in general it's an excellent book.

This classic work is a penetrating and insightful study of the public career of Maj. John Wesley Powell, from the beginning of the Powell Survey, which most famously had Powell and his men descend for the first time by anyone the Colorado River, to his eventual ouster from the Geological Survey. Stegner does a magnificent job of detailing both the myriad accomplishments by Powell in his remarkable career as public servant, but the philosophy and ideas that undergirded his work. Most readers at the end will conclude that the history of the United States might have proceeded differently had his profound insights into the nature of the American West been heeded.

Stegner writes in a lucid, clear, frequently exciting prose style. Although his history is solid, his writing is somewhat more. For example, at one point Stegner writes of one person who was more than a little deluded about the nature of the West: "The yeasty schemes stirring in Adams' head must have generated gases to cloud his eyesight." Especially in context a brilliant sentence, and not of the quality one anticipates in a historical work, especially one that deals at length with questions of public policy. The volume also contains an Introduction by Stegner's mentor and teacher Bernard DeVoto, an essay that contains in a few pages the heart of DeVoto's own understanding of the West, and which alone would be worth the cost of the volume.

Stegner does an excellent job of relating Powell's own insights and visions to those of others of the day. He contrasts Powell's philosophy with the desires and urges of the people who were rushing to obtain land in the West, and the politicians who were trying to lure them there. He points up similarities and differences in his way of looking at things, from those stoutly opposed to his views, and those in some degree sympathetic to him, like Charles King and the oddly omnipresent Henry Adams. From the earliest pages of the book to the very end, Stegner brings up Adams again and again, which is somewhat unexpected since Adams is not an essential participant in this story.

I have only two complaints with the book, one stylistic and the other substantive. The book contains a few maps but no photographs, and this book would have profited greatly from a number of illustrations. He refers to many, many visual things: vistas, rivers, people, paintings of the West, photographs of the West, maps, Indians, and locales, and at least a few photographs or illustrations would have greatly enhanced the book.

The second complaint is more serious. Stegner is completely unsympathetic to the attacks of Edward D. Cope on Othniel C. Marsh and, primarily by association, Powell. The Cope-Marsh controversy was, as Stegner quite rightly points out, the most destructive scientific controversy in United States history, and one that does absolutely no credit to either major participant. My complaint with Stegner's account is that he makes Cope sound more than a little psychotic, and his complaints more symptoms of mental illness and irrational hatred than anything generated by reasonable causes. Cope's hatred of Marsh was not rational, but neither was it baseless. Cope had indeed suffered grievously at the hands of Marsh, who had used his own considerable political power to prevent Cope from obtaining additional fossil samples. In this Powell was not completely innocent. I believe that anyone studying the Cope-Marsh controversy in greater detail will find Cope and not Marsh to be the more sympathetic figure, and certainly the more likable. The careers of both Cope and Marsh were destroyed by their controversy, but so also was that that of Powell greatly diminished. I can understand why Stegner is so unsympathetic to Cope, while at the same time believing that he overlooks the justness of many of Cope's complaints.

This book written in 1954 not only captures the story of this remarkable man, Major John W. Powell, but also discusses and reflects on the challenges of too many people living in the Western desert. As a resident of a now "drought impacted state" the wisdom of Powell's ideas and the lack of implementation of those ideas are represented in the chaos local and state governments are facing as they attempt to keep lawns green, golf courses open, and drinking water available for all of the "new" residences of the state. I only hope that some of this generations politicians pay attention to Powell's "topographical" analysis and begin shaping more effective land and water policy for the West. A terrific read with many classic Stegner quotes.

On May 24, 1869, Major John W. Powell, a one-armed veteran of the Civil War, along with nine others (geologists, geographers, scouts and adventurers), set out from Green River, Wyoming to explore the last great unmapped and unknown portion of the continental U.S. No man had ever descended the Colorado river as it cut its way through 1,000 miles of incredibly rugged badlands. However, Powell and his band of men completed a remarkable journey of exploration through this country.

A passage from Powell's narrative of the expedition, after they had been on the river nearly two months, conveys very well a perspective of the challenge Powell and his men faced, the courage they demonstrated and Powell's matter of fact, but powerful writing style.

"We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun and reshrunken to their normal bulk. The sugar has all melted and gone on its way down the river. But we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening of the boats has this advantage--they will ride the waves better; and we shall have but little to carry when we make a portage. We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth and the great river shrinks into insignificance as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs that rise to the world above. The waves are but puny ripples. We are but pigmies, running up and down among the sands or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not. What rocks beset the channel, we know not. What walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever. To me, the cheer is somber and the jests ghastly."

This book is a classic tale of exploration and discovery!

John Wesley Powell, for better or worse, made the American West what it is today. He was the primary founder of the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that has vandalized the West, and of the United States Geological Service. He also completed the last great feat of exploration on American soil when he and his cohorts undertook the voyage that is the main subject of this book. That the book combines two voyages into one epic adventure is not widely known, but it does not detract from the narrative to any meaningful extent.

Powell's narrative of the so-called Grand Canyon voyage is simply, yet powerfully, written, even carrying touches of the poetic. It is easy to sense his feelings of awe and wonder, particularly in exploring the canyons themselves. Powell never put his main function, scientific discovery, out of mind until the race through the Grand Canyon became one against the calendar as well as the power of the river. Even then, his writing evidences a sense of charity and concern toward his men.

Powell's narrative evokes many vivid memories of the beauty and timelessness of the country he explored, particularly his writings on the now-vanished Glen Canyon. It seems a pity, somehow, that much of what he saw is buried under stagnant, polluted reservoirs, the worst of which ironically carries his name. Would this brilliant, feeling man approve? I do not think so.

The growing recognition of the role native Americans have played in our country's history and development would find a more sympathetic vein with Powell, and his studies of ethnography and acclimatation to the arid habitat by native Americans may prove a more lasting memoir. These parts of the book should be read with equal care.

As to the canyons themselves, Powell would be the first to tell you that the artificial plug of stone at Page, Arizona, is only temporary, and that, as with the volcanic debris at Lava Falls, the river will soon have its way again.

makes you feel like you are there, check out the song mr. powell by the ozark mountain daredevils.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a scary tall tale told in the quiet town of Sleepy Hollow. It all starts out when Ichabod Crane(an intelligent school teacher) goes to a party at the Van Tassel's house. At the party a mean guy named Brom Bones tells a scary tale, about a headless horseman from the Revolutionary War. It was told that he roamed the night looking for his head, which he lost in battle. That night Ichabod had to ride home, he was very frightened. Lets just say Ichabod was never seen again, the only thing found the next day was his hat.
The legend of Sleepy Hollow is a great thriller. You can tell the tale at night, when you have a sleepover, or around a campfire. The book has a good story line and can be easily followed. I hope you don't get too scared when you read about the Headless Horseman...

Have you ever heard of the Headless Horseman? Have you ever heard the stories about him and how he attacks people in the woods? Have you ever wondered whether or not the story is real?

Find out for yourself by reading Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed reading this book and i think anyone who has a liking for mysterious legends and superstitions should read this book beacause of the interesting legend the town believes in. There are few characters to keep track of and the story is not hard to follow. The book is long but the reading goes quickly.

The story is set in the late 18th century in a town in New York called Sleepy Hollow. The town believes in a legend of a headless horseman who rides through the woods at night anf attacks people. The main character is a man named Ichabod Crane who is a schoolteacher from Connecticut. He moves to Sleepy Hollow in search of work and ends up going from home to home working as a tutor. One of his students is 18 year old Katrina Van Tassel who comes from a wealthy family. Ichabod gets the idea that he will try to marry Katrina in order to obtain the family's wealth. However, Katrina's boyrfriend Abraham "Brom Bones" Brut has other plans for Ichabod. As the tension rises, Ichabod continues trying to win Katrina until a breathtaking surprise appearance by the town's legend creates as mysterious an ending as they come.

The book has many strengths and few weaknesses. The author manages to create a mood in the book that keeps you always on th edge of your seat waiting for the legend of the Headless Horseman to come into play. The story is simple and easy to follow but is still very interesting. The characters are developed well and have personalities that you can understand and relate to. One such character is Brom Bones who is easily seen as an arrogant egotist. The only weakness of the book was one based on my personal opinion. The end of the story leaves too much to be concluded for my liking.

All in all, this book was a great story. The author wrote the characters in such a way that you had definite feelings towards each one of them. Also, the story line was definitely not without surprise. But if you want to discover what surprises I am talking about then I suggest you read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Will Moses' illustrated retelling of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow rivals Arthur Rackham's near century-old version as the best edition of the book ever published. The Rackham version, with its moody, archetypal illustrations, has the slight edge, as it contains Irving's full original text in addition to Rackham's spectacular artwork.

However, Moses's simplification of the narrative is masterfully executed, and the colorful, playful, and numerous paintings which adorn the book have a warm period charm of genuine Americana. Moses portrays the Hudson River Valley as a lush expansive valley not unlike the Garden of Eden on the first day of creation. Happy farmers, their wives and children, cows, geese, ducks and pigs frolic together amid fields of wheat and corn; galleons approach dramatically from the river; and the Catskill Mountains, sun, and sky suggested an infinite panorama and endless horizon full of promise.

The story tells us that the Dutch colonists were a superstitious lot, and that the Sleepy Hollow region itself was or seemed to be under a spell of some kind. The farmers and their wives suspected witchcraft; strange music was heard in the air; visions were seen; and the inhabitants themselves lived their lives in a kind of continuous dreamy revery. These tales and superstitions give rise to the legend of the headless horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a canon ball in the war, and now nightly prowling the region in search of it. Moses' nocturnal landscapes of the swamps, hills and the Old Dutch Cemetery under a bright harvest moon are particularly effective. Significantly, these stark, haunted landscapes do not violate the spirit of the book, but enrich its sense of wonder.

Moses' Ichabod is a cheerful but somewhat hapless fellow, confident and foolish in equal parts. His Katrina is a strong but innocent blond beauty, and a friend to children. Brom Bones is an appropriately square-shouldered, square-jawed hooligan, rowdy and full of mischief, if not absolute spite.

Anyone familiar with the tale knows that it is not a horror story but a folktale, a fireside spook story, and a 'legend' as Irving, writing here as Diedrich Knickerbocker, himself called it. This edition of the book is appropriate for children but is equally suitable for adults. Highly recommended.

Not much can be said about the book that hasn't been said in the other reviews you will find here. The insight into this fascinating man's life is invaluable. His struggles and his triumphs make the everyday things we face seem small. And the boy can flat out write a song, too! But...and there is always a but...I think the publisher of this book must have had a copyeditor's strike. While it did not detract from the effect of the book, the glaring errors and typos did distract this reader. Twice, not once but two times, the author refers to the rock band Tesla as Tessler. Does the publisher not have anyone available to research and proofread a detail like this? There were other mistakes, that with a careful copyeditor, would have been caught. The rambling "And then this happened...and then this happened" style was appropriate to the rambling life of Steve Earle. My high school English teacher, however, would have given this manuscript back to Ms. St. John and her publisher and reminded them that their audience pays a lot of money to read well-edited books.

I know I am nit-picking...otherwise, I buzzed through this book in two nights. Great read, highly recommended.

Steve Earle chose to dive into the fires of hell at a young age. Before the age of 30 he had tried just about every drug under the sun and was a hardcore heroin addict. What's amazing is that Steve managed to do all this, still write amazing albums and perform and tick off everyone who cared for him in the process. Such is the life of a drug addict.

St. John's often unflattering biography (written with Earle's co-operation and input from friends, family members and former friends and business associates)captures this dynamo in action; he knew from the start what type of songs he wanted to write and record. It was always a matter of finding someone that would let him do it. The same thing goes for his drug abuse. He managed to go down for the third time and still save himself. He also managed to alienate just about anyone that cared for him without any insight into his immoral and reckless behavior.

Luckily, the same insight that allows him to inhabit the characters of his often heartbreaking songs, eventually allowed him to see himself for what he was; a junkie wielding his needle like a bulldozer and rolling everyone and everything he cared about. He still disagrees with some of his former associates, lovers, wives (he's been married 4 times and had two children out of wedlock)but he's just as apt to turn that critical eye on himself and attack his own behavior in the past.

He's still an amazing writer and performer. Unlike his mentor Townes Van Zant, Earle managed to recapture his life before his self destructive behavior took too much of a physical toll (the best quote from Earle--"If I thought I'd live this long I would have taken better care of myself" applies to him as much as to Van Zant). He just managed to finally capture the demons driving him, bottle them up and put them on the shelf for display in his songs. They'll always threaten to break out but at least he has a place to put them where they'll do less harm to him and others.

He could be (and sometime still is) an awful person to those he loves. Fortunately, he recognizes the addictive behavior that drove him for so long and drove those around him away. Hardcore Troubador is a harrowing but irrestible read--just like the very drugs that almost destroyed Earle.

He's had a hell of a life and he hasn't always been a hell of a guy...but he remains one of the most prolific, talented, and dogged songwriters around. I haven't stopped listening to Steve Earle since I've finished reading this book and his book of short stories.

He's worked hard to maintain his unique voice and his activism. This biography gets underneath all his songs - placing his music in the context of his life. I highly recommend this book, and his music.

I am 40 years old and just read this book for the first time. I found this story to be a page-turner and very absorbing. Excellent local color and superb character development. You know, I think today's younger generation could take a few lessons from this story - the stocism these people demonstrated throughout their ordeal was fascinating. The simply did what they had to do and only complained periodically (with exception of Rosasharn - who bitched and whined all the time). This is also a great review of a bleak period in American history.

My advice to people who haven't read it is: by all means, read it, learn something about history and the human spirit.

Now for the oddities:

1. Maybe this was symbolic and I just glossed over it, but several times in the book, drivers (including the protagonists) are squashing with their vehicles animals who have the misfortune of using or crossing the road they use. Well, that was kind of strange I thought.

2. Why Connie left Rosasharn is sort of a mystery. She was pregnant for crying out loud. Was her constant carping about her wanting a house and nice things just driving him bug-s---?

3. Noah left and was never heard from again. I suppose you could argue that this was symbolic of a family disintegrating and how they dealt with it.

4. Now the really odd thing. It ended at a weird spot. Not much closure. I had to check to make sure pages weren't torn out of this old paperback. Wonder if other reviewers thought that was kind of dissatisfying....?

Between 1936 and 1938, Steinbeck wrote a series of newspaper articles for the San Francisco News and the Monterey Trader about the horrendous plight of the migrant workers in California, many of whom arrived from Oklahoma, Texas, and beyond, seeking work during the "Dust Bowl migration" of the 1930s. (Earlier, he had written and published a novel "In Dubious Battle," about labor unrest among those same migrant workers.) The fruit of Steinbeck's years mingling with these workers and investigating their conditions, "The Grapes of Wrath" is a powerful and sympathetic fictional portrayal of one family's horrific odyssey across America in search of work after losing ownership of their farm.

There is certainly more than one way to read this novel: as an incendiary historical document that galvanized the country (Eleanor Roosevelt and various politicians took up the cause of the migrant workers, while conservative-leaning groups and towns banned--or burned--the book); as an epic about human perseverance, survival, and dignity (reflected symbolically in the much-maligned "turtle chapter"); as a political manifesto unflinching in its condemnation of the insensitivities of corporate capitalism (for which Steinbeck was accused of Communist sympathies). Readers who find the novel unrelentingly depressing or unrealistic in its portrayal of the Joad family's fate should understand that the Joads were actually quite lucky. (Very few migrant families, for example, were fortunate enough to live in government camps.)

The first hundred pages or so proceed rather slowly, in part because Steinbeck alternates the chapters about the Joad family with prosaic interludes describing the difficulties facing the migrant workers in general. But the pace of the novel accelerates (and the interludes become shorter), as various members of the Joad family experience frustration, sickness, brief periods of success, and death--never letting go of their dream of settling down somewhere and living in a house. The various members of the family are astonishingly realistic, and their motivations, if simple, are always believable. (The two children are, well, just like children). The ending, which must have been scandalously shocking in the 1930s, is still electrifying; it forcefully shows the desperate lengths the poor were willing to go to help each other when most of America didn't care about their plight.

This is my second time reading the novel, and--although I again found it gripping and moving--I was not as impressed as the first time I read it two decades ago. (I was much more idealistic then, I suppose.) One of the novel's greatest weaknesses is that Steinbeck overstates the evil machinations of the "bad guys" and the good-natured intentions of the "good guys." All the police and the bankers and the landowners are thoroughly malevolent; all the displaced migrant workers and the sharecroppers are faultless (or their shortcomings are unsophisticated, understandable, or well-meaning). As a result, the novel reads in a few places like agitprop rather than fiction.

Of course, that was Steinbeck's intent: he wanted to wake up the country. Yet, as a work of art, this style doesn't date well. Nevertheless, only a cynic or a monopolist could be unmoved by the story of the Joad family. It is truly a classic proletarian novel.

Some books are better read, and some are better heard. The poetry of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath takes on even greater depth with the Okie dialect of Dylan Baker. This is probably the greatest American novel of the last century. Despite the condescending attitude of academics, this book lets us all in on our own history. Steinbeck doesn't tell us who we are, he shows us who we are by showing us what we have been. As Samuel Clemens dug up our essence in the disease of slavery, Steinbeck confronts us with the violence of our economic system. Also like Clemens, he shows how religion tends to compound injustices. But what makes this a truly great novel is that all this understanding of the world and how it works is communicated by the lives of characters so real and complex that they have become part of our personal history. We experience the depths of our own emotions and capacity to love. The final scene is perhaps the most powerful depiction of human love in all of literature.

Treasure Island is no doubt a good read and deserves any reader's full attention for it is filled with the most excitement and adventure.

Jim Hawkins, a young boy that helps to run an inn finds himself stumbling into an adventure after another. After the death of an old pirate that lived in the inn, he founds a treasure map in the dead pirate's chest that more than he thought are after... He sails with his adult friends to find this treasure aboard the great Hispaniola. When a dreadful plot of treachery and mutiny is exposed, Jim begins to see how dangerous this sea adventure really is. Once upon the island, Jim and his friends find it harder than ever to keep grasp of life...

A truly great book with the classic theme that never grows old. The old-English and pirate slang that is written in this book is a bit tricky but does not interfer with the plot and the adventure.

So, all hands on deck and grab Treasure Island!

'Treasure Island' is an adventure novel that was written for children, but it will none the less provide much pleasure to the grown-ups. In this book, Steven tells the story of a young Scottish boy named Jim Hawkins, who stumbles upon a dreaded pirate's (Captain Flint) treasure map, and goes in search of it along with the village doctor and the squire. However they are not the only ones who knew about the hidden treasure. They are pursued by the former ruthless crewmembers of Captain Flint, these men will stop at nothing to lay their hands on the map!

'Treasure Island' is absolutely great. From the beginning to the end its filled with non-stop action. Jim Hawkins is telling the story, so as young people are, he is straight to the point. No unnecessary details are given which will certainly appeal to youngsters and best of all it is written in simple and plain English. For children this is a must-read.

If you think 'pirates', 'treasures' are too childish for you then I suggest you read it in your leisure moments. I'm sure you won't be able to put it aside till you've read the last page!

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is by far one of the best adventure stories I have ever read. This book deserves all five stars, it has everything you could ask for such as, suspense, comedy, action, drama and a great plot line. R.L. Stevenson puts a lot of detail into his main characters such as Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins just to name a few. He describes the scenes with such great detail that at times I had to remind myself that it is only a book. I spent more than 2 months reading this book and I enjoyed every part of it. I could RARELY find a paragraph that was dull, the book was very exciting overall. This book is fairly easy to read and I would recommend it to adults and children of all ages. The book moves at a very good pace, not too fast, not too slow. This book is anything but boring, something new happens in every chapter for instance, when Jim witnesses a murder and when he gets into bar fights, those are just some of the many things that happened. I was very surprised myself when I read this book because it seems a little childish but in fact it's quite the contrary. I highly recommend that you go out and read this book!

Jack London's book "The Call of the Wild" was well written and I think that everyone should read it. The book starts out talking about how Buck, the main character, lives in a large house in the Santa Clara Valley. The place he lives at is called Judge Miller's place. Buck's father, Elmo, was a large St Bernard who had been the Judge's very close companion. His mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Buck loved hunting and outdoor delights, which made him stronger. Buck loved living at the Judge's house but one night when he went on what he thought was just a walk with Manuel, one of the gardener's helpers, his life changed. Money was exchanged between Manuel and another man and Buck was sent off in a baggage car. After a couple of days they stopped and he was turned over to a black-faced giant called Francois. Buck traveled with Francois starting at Dyea beach where Buck's life was changed to a not so lazy life through the Yukon. Traveling he learned that it was a wolf manner to fight which he encountered a lot with a dog named Spitz who is the sled leader. One day Buck and Spitz get into it and Buck ends up killing Spitz and takes over the head position, which was my favorite part in the book. A while later in the book, Buck meets a man named John Thornton who Buck loves and will do anything for him and even earns Thornton sixteen hundred dollars. With the money they set off into the East with six other dogs and found lots of gold. I would recommend "The Call of the Wild" to younger readers who like adventurous stories.

The two rivals circle the ring, probing for any point of weakness. The duel has lasted longer than either competitor had anticipated. Weakened by fatigue, the challenger feints high and goes for a crippling blow. No, this is not a boxing title match in Las Vegas. This is a life-and-death struggle of one domestic dog for survival in the cold, icy, barren regions of the Alaskan plains. This is a clash between the civilized and the primordial. This is the conflict between domestication and liberation. This is the Call of the Wild.

Jack London centers his story on a dog by the name of Buck. Buck is a big, strong dog, his father being a St. Bernard and his mother being a Scottish shepherd dog. At one hundred and forty pounds, Buck was no mere house pet. Kept physically strong with a love of rigorous swimming and constant outdoor exercise, Buck was a lean, formidable dog. Undoubtedly, his great condition was part of the reason that the gardener's helper dog-napped and sold him to dog traders, who in turn sold him to Canadian government mail couriers. The gold rush in Alaska had created a huge demand for good dogs, which eventually led to the "disappearances" of many dogs on the West Coast. Buck was no exception. He was sold into a hostile environment, which was unforgiving and harsh. Although civilization domesticated him from birth, Buck soon begins almost involuntarily to rediscover himself, revealing a "primordial urge", a natural instinct, which London refers to as the Call of the Wild.

This book is set in the Klondike, a region in Alaska that was literally stormed by thousands of men looking to get rich quick via the gold rush. Transportation was increasingly important, but horses were near useless in winter, prone to slip and fall on snow and ice. Dogs were by far the best means of transportation in Alaska at the time, somewhere near the end of the 19th century. As the demand for dogs grew, the prices for good dogs skyrocketed. This price hike inevitably created a black-market- style selling of dogs, and the gardener's helper Manuel did what many men did; they sold the dogs for a good price.

A recurring theme in London's novel is the clash between natural instinct and domesticated obedience. Soon after the dog traders captured Buck, a man broke him with a club. Buck is thoroughly humiliated, but learned an all-important truth of the wild: The law of club and fang. Kill or be killed. Survival is above all. Buck resolved to himself to give way to men with clubs. In the beginning, Buck had problems with this new restriction, but learned that when his masters' hands hold whips or clubs, he must concede. However, that did not keep Buck from doing little deeds like stealing a chunk of bacon behind his masters' backs. However, as London says, "He did not steal for joy of it, but because of the clamor of his stomach . In short, the things he did were done because it was easier to do them than not to do them." In this way Buck learns the way of the wild but also acknowledges his inferiority to men with clubs or whips. Eventually in this novel, Buck throws away his old life completely and replaces it with his natural urge, the primordial version of himself, the Call of the Wild.

Another underlying theme is the relationship between dog and master. In the beginning, Buck is acquainted with the Judge with a dignified friendship, his sons with hunting partnership, his grandsons with protective guardianship, the mail couriers Francois and Perrault with a mutual respect. Against the man with a club he despised but gave respect. However, when Buck met John Thornton, he loved his master for the first time ever. There wasn't anything Buck wouldn't do for his master. Twice Buck saved Thornton's life, and pulled a thousand pounds of weight for Thornton's sake. Even after Buck routinely left his master's camp to flirt with nature, Buck always came back to appreciate his kind master. However, even after Thornton was gone and Buck had released all memories of his former life, Buck never forgot the kind hands of his master, even after answering the Call of the Wild.

Jack London truly brings Buck to life. Using a limited 3rd person view, the reader is told of Buck's thoughts and actions. Obviously, London gave several ideal human qualities to Buck, including a sharp wit, rational reasoning, quick thinking, and grounded common sense. However, he does not over-exaggerate the humanity in Buck, which would have given an almost cartoon-like feeling for a reader. Rather, being a good observer, London saw how dogs acted and worked backwards, trying to infer what the dogs think. The result is a masterful blend of human qualities and animal instinct that is entirely believable. It is obvious that Buck's experience was similar to many other dogs' experiences.

I have to admit that I have not really given Jack London his proper due up to now. Perhaps it is because I don't by my nature like outdoor adventure type stories, or perhaps it is because I associate White Fang and "To Build a Fire" with my youth. The fact is that Jack London is a tremendously talented writer. His understanding of the basics of life matches his great knowledge of the snow-enshrouded world of the upper latitudes. The Call of the Wild, despite its relative brevity and the fact that it is (at least on its surface) a dog's story, contains as much truth and reality of man's own struggles as that which can be sifted from the life's work of many another respected author. The story London tells is starkly real; as such, it is not pretty, and it is not elevating. As an animal lover, I found parts of this story heartbreaking: Buck's removal from the civilized Southland in which he reigned supreme among his animal kindred to the brutal cold and even more brutal machinations of hard, weathered men who literally beat him and whipped him full of lashes is supremely sad and bothersome. Even sadder are the stories of the dogs that fill the sled's traces around him. Poor good-spirited Curly never has a chance, while Dave's story is made the more unbearable by his brave, undying spirit. Even the harsh taskmaster Spitz has to be pitied, despite his harsh nature, for the reader knows full well that this harsh nature was forced upon him by man and his thirst for gold. Buck's travails are long and hard, but the nobility of his spirit makes of him a hero--this despite the fact that his primitive animal instincts and urges continually come to dominate him, pushing away the memory and reality of his younger, softer days among civilized man. Buck not only conquers all--the weather, the harshness of the men who harness his powers in turn, the other dogs and wolves he comes into contact with--he thrives. This isn't a story to read when you are depressed. London's writing is beautiful, poignant, and powerful, but it is also somber, sometimes morose, infinitely real, and at times gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.

I wanted to find out why we, as a society, say such things as "knock on wood" or "in one ear and out the other". Where does that come from? Who started it? I was extremely excited to purchase this book, thinking it would not only answer my questions, but be entertaining. It was a major disappointment. I found the reading very dull. The sayings were obviously well researched, giving origins, dates, and analizations of each words meaning; yet it was more like a dictionary than a story of how the sayings came about.

This book has been sitting in my bookcase since the day I bought it waiting for a rummage sale.

While many of the entries were interesting, too many were included for which the author admitted he could only guess, or had no idea at all of the origin. Even the title phrase, "Heavens to Betsy" was a complete mystery to the author. Why pique our interest and then disappoint us? I think the author had a good thing going with his first books and just tried to "ride the gravy train" a little too long.

An excellent source; a good evening's read. Might just learn something while being entertained.