Her characters never cease to amaze me with how real they seem and how intune their everyday lives are with ours. Her books give you hope, and when you read them you suddenly begin to realize, "Yeah, I've been in this situation." And "Hey, this is really what happens in life." She doesn't have false, perfect characters whose lives and standards can't be lived up to, no on the contrary, her characters face the same problems we face in everyday life and make the same mistakes we make. But, instead of hard-luck stories without hope of ever finding the way out of situations, Robin writes of the ultimate love and healing that God gives to His children when they seek Him and admit their mistakes. With this in mind, I can honestly tell you that all of her books are winners and none of them have ever had reason for disappointment. Waterfalls is by far on the top five list of books she wrote. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard while reading a book. Robin combines all the elements of humor, romance, and a personal relationship with God, the latter of which is so very important. You have to understand that romance is a wonderful gift from God and that trusting in Him and following His will will always have the best ending results.

This book is very well written. Mr. Jakes conveys many emotions during the 800+ pages. There is humor, sorrow, pity, anger, confusion, and love just to name a few. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the families and all they went through. Reading this book I think I got a great understanding of what the country must have been like during this time. There is a lot of detail put into the story. It makes it very interesting to read.

North and South is a book definitely worth reading. It will put you on the edge of your seat and keep you turning the pages to find out what will happen next. It doesn't matter if you're a history fanatic or not, this book is excellent. Definitely worth the time reading it.

'The Princess and the Goblin' features a heroine ' a princess called Irene ' and a hero ' a simple miner's son called Curdie. While working overtime in the mines to earn money to buy his mother a red petty-coat, Curdie chances upon the goblins who live in the mountain, and discovers that they are hatching an evil plot against the king and his palace. Meanwhile the princess makes a discovery of her own ' high in the castle she finds a wonderful old lady who is her great-great-grandmother. The problem is, nobody else knows of her grandmother, and nobody believes her. But the princess does believe, and it is by her faith in her grandmother and the magic thread that she receives from her, that she is able to rescue Curdie. Together they rescue the entire palace from disaster at the hands of the goblins.

In telling the story, MacDonald has an enchanting conversational style, wonderfully suitable for reading aloud to enraptured children ' an ability perfecting in telling stories to his own eleven children. But 'The Princess and the Goblin' is more than just a story. Before pursuing a literary career, MacDonald was a Congregationalist minister, and so integrates important underlying Christian themes. Believing in the great-great-grandmother despite the fact that many cannot see her, is a symbol of believing in God. MacDonald uses this to show how the Christian faith involves believing without seeing, and that not everyone has to 'see' something for it to be true. The grandmother's lamp and magic thread are the guides on which the princess must depend, much like the Word which is a lamp on our path. It may sound tacky, but it works.

Children are not likely to grasp the deeper underlying themes that MacDonald is working with. Nonetheless the story has a clear message for children. The clear conflict between the royal powers of light against the goblin powers of darkness is unmistakable. Moreover, the princess is presented as a model of virtue, and MacDonald frequently asserts the importance of moral virtues such as always telling the truth, keeping your word, and admitting your faults ' moral virtues that are equally important for princes and princesses of God's kingdom. Courage, honesty, grace, dignity and beauty are timeless ideals for children of all times to strive for. If you love Narnia, you're sure to like this one, and you'll find yourself quickly grabbing the sequel, 'The Princess and Curdie.' 'The Princess and the Goblin' was one of J.R.R. Tolkien's childhood favorites, highly regarded by C.S. Lewis, described by W.H. Auden as 'the only English children's book in the same class as the Alice books', and generally considered as a classic example of nineteenth century children's literary fairy tales. So if you haven't yet read this book, it's about time you did. With admirers such as Tolkien, Lewis and Auden, if you become a MacDonald's admirer you'll find yourself in good company!

Love Comes Softly is an eight book series written by Christian author Jannette Oke. I thought when my mother-in-law tried to get me to read her books, that I was in for another mushy Harlequin Romance novel, filled with people involved with three, four or five men, and definitely no sign of God in their lives. Boy, was I in for a VERY pleasant surprise. Mrs. Oke leads us through the life of a very young Marty Davis, who has just left her family in the east, to travel west with her new husband , Clem. Clem and Marty had been living out of their wagon, eating pancakes and drinking coffee EVERY day, because that1s all that Marty knew how to make. Unexpectedly, though, Clem dies, and Marty is left alone with child and no home, no money, and just what she has in her wagon.

The Love Comes Softly series then begins to take us through the struggles Marty has to overcome and Mrs. Oke guides us so beautifully, that we feel like we are right there with Marty. The eight books lead us through 40 years in Marty and her family1s lives. I enjoyed every minute of the readings. Never has a book so captured me like Mrs. Oke1s did.

I try to count my blessings every day, but after reading this group of books, I found more to be thankful for. I never stopped to realize what the generations before us went through. With Marty, I learned what is was like to bear a child with no husband and no doctor around--just a local lady that had delivered many babies. I learned what it was like to leave family behind, knowing that you will probably never see them again--or even hear from them again.

The funniest part of the series was in the very first book. Marty decides she will try to make her new husband a chicken and dumpling meal. Well........she goes to the chicken pen to try and catch one. After tearing apart then pen, she finally catches one of only two roosters (she didn1t know she was supposed to only kill the female). Once she gets him, she has no idea as to how to kill him, so she decides to tie him up and kill him--that didn1t work, and she wound up cutting off the beak of the prize rooster. When her husband, Clark comes home, he finds the pen in disarray, and sees his rooster with no beak and he comes to find out that Marty was just trying to cook him his first real meal. This part cracked me up, along with the part where she tries to fix biscuits and they turn out as hard as rocks.

You have to read the books in order. They just keep continuing with this saga. The best book in the series was book four. I can1t tell you why, for it would give the ending for the rest of the series, but it was the book that kept me the most fascinated. The hardest part about the series was the way she wrote it. She wrote it with the accents as they would have said things. It was hard at first, but I got used to it by the second book. I highly recommend her books, and am looking forward to the next series I am about to read. The new series is from the Canadian West. It involves new characters, and therefore new lives.

I would really appreciate hearing from others who have read her books--especially the Love Comes Softly series. It would be enjoyable to talk with others about Jannette Oke1s books. You can find her work at any Christian bookstore or even the library. They are expensive, between $9-13.00, but they are worth their price. I found twelve of her books at the library, though. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. It is definitely a series I would read again and again, and I look forward to my two daughters growing up and wanting to read them as well. They are written in the same manner as the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. ENJOY!!!!!!

I urge you tolook at a remarkable book by the English Puritain John Bunyan(1628-1688), "The Pilgrim's Progress", which is one of the great evangelical Christian classics, though clearly that is not why it interests me and should interest you (although I AM interested in the puzzle that is the religious sense, which even the irreligious feel, and this book can give remarkable insight into that as well).

Rather its fascination lies in the pilgrimage it depicts, or in the fact that human traits, vices, virtues, &c are PERSONIFIED as particular individuals who are their living and speaking epitome, and who are encountered along the way in revealing situations.

Bunyan's hero is appropriately named Christian. Someone once wrote that "Christian's journey is timeless as he travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, meeting such characters as Pliable, Talkative, Giant Despair, Evangelist, Worldly-Wiseman, Faithful, Ignorance and Hopeful."

At first this personification is merely amusing, even a bit annoying (as caricatures or truly stereotypical people can be); but after a while I found myself enthralled because I realized that the effect of this odd literary device was to give unmatched insight into the nature of such traits. The force of the whole thing comes from the fact that one journeys about in - literally INSIDE of - what is both a comprehensive and finite moral and psychological landscape (a "psycho-topography"), very much as though one were INSIDE the human mind and your "Society of the Mind" was embodied in the set of actors. This is more or less the opposite or an inversion of the 'real world' of real people, who merely SHARE those attributes or of whom the attributes are merely PIECES; in "Pilgrim's Progress", by contrast, the attributes are confined in their occurrence to the actors who are their entire, unique, pure, and active embodiment, and humanness, to be recognized at all, has to be rederived or mentally reconstructed from the essential types.

The effect, for me, was something like experiencing a multidimensional scaling map that depicts the space of the set of human personality types, by being injected directly - mentally and bodily - into it by means of virtual reality technology.

So Bunyan's book has something of the interest to a psychologist, neuroscientist, or philosopher that Edwin Abbot's "Flatland" has to a mathematician.

I don't mean to overpraise "Pilgrim's Progress", of course; it was written for theological rather than scientific purposes, and has conspicuous limitations for that reason. But its interest to a student of the mind who looks at it at from the right point of view can be profound.

- Patrick Gunkel

My first introduction to Pilgrim's Progress was as a child in parochial school. I had to do a book report on it in 5th grade and ended up reading numerous times for various projects throughout grade school.

The reader follows the main character--aptly named "Christian"--on his journey to the Celestial City.

Along the way, Christian passes through the many trials of life, symbolized by intruiging characters and places along the way. An early temptation is the "City of Destruction", which Christian narrowly escapes with his life. The various characters are perhaps the most fascinating portion of the book--Pliable, Giant Despair, Talkative, Faithful, Evangelist, and numerous others provide the reader with a continual picture of the various forces at work to distract (or perhaps, encourage)Christian on his ultimate mission.

Of course, the theology (for those of the Christian faith) of Pilgrim's Progress is a constant source of debate, the book is nonetheless a classic of great English writing.

It's not a quick read--that's for sure--however, I certainly would recommend that one read it in its original form. Don't distort the beauty of the old English language with a modern translation.

Young Andre-Louis Moreau, an illegitimate orphan raised by a kindly landowner in Brittany, is shocked at the swaggering indifference of the local Marquis, who deliberately provoked and murdered Andre's best friend in an unfair duel. Swearing personal vengance upon this hated representative of Privilege, Andre pleges to espouse the very views he formerly ridiculed. Refusing to have his friend's ideas silenced, he becomes atalented rabble-rowser. Once
discovering his amazing powers of oratory, Andre is forced into hiding from regional authorities by joining a troupe of traveling actors who specialize in Commedia del'Arte--based on the Italian style of improvization.

Quickly becoming embroiled in many passionate intrigues--both amorous and political--Andre is swept up as frenzied Paris rushes headlong into emotional fervor over the wisdom and efficacy of a Constitutional Monarchy. Alternately plying his trade as actor/author/manager or as a fencing master, the godson of Gavrillac ultimately is obliged to return to the seething political arena. Throughout his existence Andre is proudly motivated to become the nemesis of the cruel Marquis, which unfortunately causes great anguish among several hearts of the gentry from Brittany. This fascinating tale transports readers to the prelude of the French bloodbath two centuries earlier. En garde! You are just a swordspoint away from becoming hooked!

Andre-Louis Moreau, (or Scaramouche, as he later becomes known), is a fascinatingly complex protagonist. Courageous, intelligent, quick-witted and intensely moral, Moreau is a character whose personal quest for revenge against the villainous Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr is a masterfully-woven story of swashbuckling action, romance and social conflict during the turbulent years of the French Revolution.

Well-born lawyer. Fugitive. Dramatic actor. Expert swordsman. Impassioned, mob-inciting orator. Revolutionary politician. Sabatini sets Moreau upon an intriguing path of fate, development and discovery, a fictionalized yet compelling account of a single man's ultimate test of human character as the world around him spirals into madness.

Sabatini has often been compared to Alexandre Dumas (author of the Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo) as a master of historical fiction. Though I believe Dumas to be the finest action-adventure writer of all time, and though some of Sabatini's other works (which I have not yet read) have been criticized as overly melodramatic, Sabatini has created in Scaramouche an historical action-adventure novel that transcends Dumas (and all modern action-adventure writers, for that matter) in that Moreau, his protagonist, is a thoroughly multi-dimensional character. Though Moreau is driven by his hatred and his quest for revenge, the spirit of his character is not defined by them, and the conflict of these passions with his ideals brings depth and substance to his exploits on the Theatre Feydau, the fencing halls of Paris, the floor of the National Assembly and his pursuit of the beautiful Aline de Kercadiou.

Duels. Intrigue. Romance. More duels. Moral and political introspection. Its all here. Enjoy!

Addiction and lies are at the centre of this novel. Dair has a drinking problem, something else which she cannot admit to herself. Peyton has his own addiction which he struggles with every day.

In the midst of these problems, there is a murder mystery unraveling. The death of Dair and Peyton's close friend, Craig. Kittle throws some twists and turns into this plot and we are able to see the wonderful character development along the way.

The whole premise of this story is to communicate, with each other and with all creatures, respect for one another is of utmost importance. Dair has to learn to be honest with those around her and herself.

I loved Katrina Kittle's first novel, Traveling Light. It was an amazing story told with heartfelt honesty. This follow up, while different than her first novel, is equally as good. The writing grabs you and doesn't let go. I can't wait for her next creation.

I will admit that I finished the book and found it an ejoyable read, but had the following quandries about it. The opening scene seems hard to follow and offers little character development. It makes the book more confusing, rather than enhancing it. The story was forgetable. I had to keep remininding myself who the characters were. Finally, Emma, the protagonist is simply not a likable individual. I had little intesrest in her, did not feel her motivation was clear and founs her to be rather cold- not a heroine I enjoyed.

If you likes the business aspect try Jeffrey Archer's As the Crow Flies instead. That is a far superior tale of one man's quest to create an ENglish shopping empire.

I laughed and I cried and I was really shocked. When I got near the end of the book, I did not want the story to end.

I could really feel the friendships with Emma and Blackie. They were always there for eachother through everything. They're relationship moved me.

And the book was very inspiring for me as a woman. She didn't wimp out and kept fighting for what she wanted and what she earned.

all the earlier reviews saying this novel was inspiring are true, at least i think so. i read the book in under a week and this was back in the days when i hated reading and dragged a book out for weeks on end until i finally finished it or just gave up.

i felt the book was worth every second i took to read it. it actually inspired me to give it my all for an entire day! that's something. i've read this book a few years ago, but i still remember it. one scene that still sticks in my mind was when emma and edward were in the garden and she told him she was pregnant. when she broke the news to him that she would leave, he didn't ask WHERE she was going, but WHEN she was leaving. i was like WHAT!?

M.C. Beaton is also the author of the much-loved Hamish McBeth mystery series, and shows her sense of humor in this series. Agatha's antics are legendary, and at times, I laughed out loud at some of the silly things that she does. Agatha's low self-esteem (hidden under a rough, blustery exterior) makes you root for her even when she pushes everyone away. I especially like the scenes in which Agatha tries to make herself appear younger (wearing tons of make-up that runs, high-heeled shoes for a walk, etc.) because she becomes much more human and lovable to the reader. If you have not read this series and you like cozy mysteries, ask yourself what you are waiting for, and get all of the books in the series! Then curl up with a cup of tea and enjoy!

Writing with omniscience, we learn that Agatha Raisin has hidden a lifetime of hurt with a tough exterior and a razor-sharp tongue. She has been able to submerge that inner pain under a hard-won career. However, when she decides to sell her business and retire to 'the country', her sense of being an outsider comes back to haunt her. She learns she wants to belong to the community of villagers among whom she lives, and learns she can't retreat to London. Her efforts to assimilate into village life are the most humorous and touching parts of the book.

Of course, there is a murder woven into the book, along with a frustrated romance. The plot is logical and the dialogue believable.

I've loaned this book to several non-mystery-readers over the years, and they've all loved it. The inner vulnerability and self-criticism from which Agatha suffers is a universal theme. I've read the rest of the Raisin books and have enjoyed them all, but none as much as this first effort.

For those who read this and like it, check out Beaton's other mysteries not featuring Ms. Raisin. You'll like them, too!