Beautiful book! Simply heart-wrenchingly beautiful! What a precious little gem! I keep returning to search for another book by the author, even though I know he's dead... I get angry at him that he died before writing another... I guess it is one of those unique masterpieces where the write has written but one work.. but one. And the passion of a human facing his mortality exudes on every page: loss, love, memory, death, and all the other ghosts that haunt us... I will read it again and again and again!

Tondelli is able to touch us deeply with this awesome book in which the boundary between auto-biography and fiction seems to collapse in the telling of a wonderful love story. The crisis of the lost love and of the lost of youth are the main themes. The words flow constantly, without pausing and reaching the perfection of a masterpiece.

Tondelli descrive, con la forza evocativa delle sue parole, un viaggio al centro del nostro tempo. In Leo ritroviamo l'egoismo e la generosità, la ricerca del divino e il compiacimento nel degrado morale, lo slancio verso la frenesia delle metropoli e l'ansia di ritrovare le proprie radici culturali nelle tradizioni della campagna emiliana. Parlando di se, Tondelli parla di noi, di quanto sia faticoso assecondare ogni giorno la mutevole direzione dei nostri desideri e della nostra missione.

I am 37 years old and this is probably my favorite book. I show Breyer model horses and so I am always looking for good breed assignments outside of the Breed assigned by the Breyer company. It is colorful, full of useful facts (color , origin etc) as well as having common and extremely rare breeds as well.

All & all a wonderful book ~~ Renee

Re: Hardback version. It is really a shame that the hardback version is out of print. This is an outstanding reference guide for anyone whose life has anything to do with horses. It is a handy size (small) accurate photos, very detailed informaton on all breeds from many areas of the world. A terrific resource for all. I own it and wanted to give copies of the hardback edition to others for gifts.

if you need a consise guide to horses, this is the book to buy, great colour pictures, and a though list of all conformation points of well known and rare breeds. use as a guide for easy distinction or research

This is the only book I have ever read that accurately depicted the inner life of the creative person. Is it hyperbolic? Yes - because the inner life is hyperbolic. Is it metaphoric? Yes - because psychological truth is best portrayed metaphorically. Is it uncomfortable? Damn straight. I felt as if I were watching Elaine Alphin, the author (and a personal friend; nothing less but total honesty will do in discussing this book) stand in Times Squre, douse herself in gasoline, and light a match. I have neither the courage nor the stamina to write a book like this.

Ironically, the reasons this extraordinarily honest book has been overlooked for awards and tepidly received by professional critics are clearly delineated in the book. Nobody wants to know. If you don't want it to be true, don't look at it and shoot the messenger. Heaven forfend that anyone take on the Rachel role and edit the world into something better! As the three previous reviews show, however, adolescents recognize their world. But will they do anything about it? Or will they grow up and convince themselve they were overreacting?

On bad days I'm Charles, feeling pressured to be Graeme. On amazingly excellent days I get to be Adrian. Most of the time I'm holding on, putting the inner Rachel in charge and hoping for the best.

Elaine's told us the truth. It's up to the rest of us to act on that truth.

This book is by far an excellent read. Elaine really describes the charectars so that you feel almost as if your part of the story. You can't stop thinking about the book until you've read it cover to cover, and then you still have it on your mind. When my mom got this book for me i was afraid it was just another "recommended" book for teens that was fake and was stripped of content. But from the moment i opened it I knew that this book was deffinetly anything but. I recommend this book to any teen that may be experiencing any feelings of reject or feeling they just don't fit in or belong. Also, of course, i recommend it to anyone that wants a good read. This book is full of surprises and you never totally figure it out until the bitter end.

I couldn't believe this book! It's so TRUE! I opened it Saturday morning and I couldn't stop reading until I finished it that afternoon. It just sucked me into Charles's world. I felt like I was part Charles and part Graeme, and like I wished I could be more like Adrian even though I didn't like him at all at first. But these guys were so REAL to me!

I thought I was the only guy who had these thoughts and these fears and was struggling with these issues. But this book says it all. It's okay to be different. It's okay to tell your parents you can't be the person they expect you to be - they might even accept you as you are. Or maybe they won't. The book doesn't promise any happy endings, but it's honest.

All I can say is that every teen, whether you're into painting or writing or music, or whether you're a jock or a geek or a Goth or WHOEVER you are, you have to read this book!! I feel different after reading it, and you will too.

Inspired by a newspaper article about a British island he had never heard of, author Simon Winchester made a grand tour of the modern British Empire (the book was published in 1985). Like many, he originally thought that the Empire was no more, that most of the colonies and protectorates had long gone independent. His research revealed that the British Empire still included 200 named islands of any size (and thousands of smaller ones), that according to the 1981 census 5,248,728 people were citizens of the Crown colonies (5,120,000 in Hong Kong, 128,000 in the remaining 15 possessions). Winchester resolved to visit each colonial possession that had a permanent population, a trip that took three years, in which he covered some 100,000 miles.

Winchester visited the remote British Indian Ocean Territory (or BIOT), thousands of miles from the mainland. The territory, made up pretty much of the Chagos Islands, was at one time home to over 2,000 islanders (more than the population of the Falkland Islands), earning their livelihood from a French-run copra and coconut oil company and possessing schools, churches, roads, and the inhabitants having lived there for generations. In the saddest part of the book, Winchester described how the islanders were all more or less deported to Mauritius, 1,800 miles from their former home, even though they were under supposedly British protection, all in the interests of establishing an American military base in Diego Garcia (sometimes called either the Footprint of Freedom due to the island's vaguely foot-shaped appearance, or the Rock by those posted there who hate its isolation).

Winchester visited several remote South Atlantic islands. Tristan da Cunha, 1,800 miles southwest of Cape Town, was a fascinating place, very difficult to reach or even get onto owing to rough seas, weather, and no real harbor. The island essentially one massive volcano (which erupted in 1961, forcing the islanders to temporarily retreat to the UK), in its isolation has produced a unique group of people, all comprised of just seven family names, these Tristinians speaking a unique dialect of English. Ascension Island was he writes once officially dubbed HMS Ascension and treated bureaucratically as a ship! Originally annexed as a place for a transatlantic cable station, today it serves as an electronic listening post and military base, largely for the Americans. St. Helena is an island inhabited by a proud but kind people ("Saints" to outsiders, "Yamstocks" to each other), their language a mixture of various dialects and somewhat akin to what one might find in Dickens novel. Famous as the final place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte, it has served as a prison for others, including the Chief of the Zulus and many Boers; now the islanders feel imprisoned by their remoteness from the outside world, a problem exacerbated by the lack of an airport. The Falkland Islands of course get attention in the book, Winchester having visited the islands on the eve of the Falkland Islands War and even served some time in prison in Argentina.

Winchester visited the five colonies of the Caribbean, with a far nicer climate and less remote but perhaps not any better off than the South Atlantic territories. The Turks and Caicos Islands - two distinct archipelagos- are the third largest inhabited colonial possession (after the Falklands and the BIOT), the Turks deriving their name from a local fez-like red cactus, the Turk's head, the Caicos derived from the word cay. The Turks were once major exporters of salt, though have fallen on hard times since losing that industry to a Bahamian factory. The British Virgin Islands (more properly simply the Virgin Islands) he visited as well, a slower paced - and poorer - counterpart to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Anguilla we find was subject to a massive invasion in 1969 - Operation Sheepskin - that involved two Royal Navy frigates and over 300 soldiers, all in an attempt to put down what was feared a rebellion by the 6,000 islanders. Instead it was a miscommunication, there was no rebellion, and not a shot was fired, much to British embarrassment. Britain's newest inhabited colony, choosing to remain with the UK when St. Kitts became independent, Anguilla demonstrates that some colonies are not yet ready to go independent, or maybe never will. Montserrat we find is another volcanic island, one that just missed out on being the only Irish colony in the Caribbean! Finally we visit the Cayman Islands, the most famous of the British possessions in the Caribbean, home to an (in)famous offshore banking industry, and not much else.

Winchester visited also Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, but decided against visiting Pitcairn Island.

So what states does Winchester find the British Empire in his grand tour? Not in a very good one unfortunately. He finds the colonies an "unhappy collection of peoples and places, wanting in imagination,...policy,...a future,...money,...sympathetic administration,... [and]...talented leaders." London he wrote didn't seem to care that drug money was being laundered in the Cayman Islands, or that the Turks and Caicos Islands were a transshipment point for drugs from South America. Several colonies had - at the encouragement of London - developed in the past one-crop economies, and when they failed those colonies - whether it was salt in the Turks and Caicos Islands, flax in St. Helena, or the dockyard in Gibraltar - faced bleak economic futures. None of this was aided by the fact that Whitehall seemed quite begrudging of monetary aid and quite slow to respond to any requests made by the colonial administrations.

Winchester felt though that a more grave injustice was done by the passing of the British Nationality Act in 1981, whereby only those who lived in the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar were full British citizens, able to come and go to the Great Britain as they please and even settle there if they liked. The remainder of the colonists cannot settle in the UK proper with such ease, and for all intents and purposes are aliens in that respect.

This book was both entertaining and somber.

This book simply is an excellent read, a book you cannot put down once you start reading it.

It will make you want to pack your bags and travel to the distant ends of the earth!

... It is a classic that should be required reading for all travel journalists and travelers. It is incredibly informative and sometimes hilarious. Mr. Winchester is to be commended for crafting a superb collection of vignets about the remaining colonial holdings of the once mighty British Empire. This book is a keeper -- and my only regret is that I loaned my copy out and never got it back -- so here I am on the Amazon website ordering a used and slightly tattered replacement.

S. J. Simon's Why You Lose at Bridge remains (since its original 1945 publication) the best text on improving one's partnership available anywhere at any price. Read it. Practice what you learned. Watch your partnerships improve. Read it, again ...

If you have a standing partnership, read it together. Even the most capable professionals may well (re)discover ways to improve their game as they absorb Simon's words of wisdom. Improve your partnership, any your game improves. Simon sez ...

Skid Simon writes about club bridge, and how to deal with various partners.

We kibitz a rubber among Mrs. Guggenheim, The Unlucky Expert, Mr. Smug, and Futile Willy. A loong rubber.

A reasonable player in any of the seats would have won the rubber for his side. Bidding is British style, but what the heck...

The truth of the book is eternal, and the style sparkles with humor.

The essence: play for the best result possible with this partner, not the best possible result.

Skid Simon writes about club bridge, and how to deal with various partners.

We kibitz a rubber among Mrs. Guggenheim, The Unlucky Expert, Mr. Smug, and Futile Willy. A loong rubber.

A reasonable player in any of the seats would have won the rubber for his side. Bidding is British style, but what the heck...

The truth of the book is eternal, and the style sparkles with humor.

The essence: play for the best result possible with this partner, not the best possible result.

An excellent book full of tips, commonsense and reassurance. At times reading it is like talking to a Dutch Uncle. I highly recommend it. Ms Simon touches all the highs and lows a beginning or even experienced writer has undergone. Get it, read it, savour and recommend it.

Finally, a book about the psychological barriers which writers create and attempt to overcome in the holy pursuit of the word. A great instructive and inspirational book for novice writers.

The Writer's Survival Guide fills a much-needed gap in the marketplace. Inspiring and comprehensive, it details every aspect of the writing life - emotional, creative, practical and professional. What's more, it provides effective solutions to many of the difficulties writers encounter. On top of all that, it's an entertaining and absorbing read - humorous, poignant and universal in its treatment of the subject matter. It is a book every writer should have in his or her library. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The best part about this book is Hawke's sharp-edged dialogue. For those who want to read Shakespeare but are daunted by sixteenth century English, Hawke retains all the inimitable bard's wit in a modern format.

Tuck Smythe and his friend Will Shakespeare along with the Queen's Men, their theater company, are heading out of London to avoid the plague, and find a commission to play at a wedding. It should be a wonderful opportunity. Shakespeare has a chance to show his first play, and Tuck can visit with Elizabeth who serves as maid of honor to the bride. What could possibly go wrong? When the bride arrives, apparently murdered what can go wrong is frightfully apparent. Worse, the death of the shrewish older sister frees all the suitors to pursue the lustful Blanche--including the least scrupulous.

Author Simon Hawke writes with a light comic touch, yet with an insight into young love and accurate although not overdone historical insights. Fans of William Shakespeare will get a laugh out of Hawke's ideas of where some of his ideas, and many of his well-known lines emerged. Protagonist Tuck is an interesting and likable hero with an ambition to be an actor almost as strong as his stage fright. The twists and turns of this mystery combine Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew with Romeo and Juliet and a bit of dozens of other plays.

Although it is a short novel, Hawke did spend a fair number of pages repeating what he'd already told the reader--clearly something to be avoided although, in the case of THE SLAYING OF THE SHREW, a fault that can easily be overlooked in the high quality and smooth writing.

Second in the series, this novel picks up right where A MYSTERY OF ERRORS left off. Symington "Tuck" Smythe is unsure of his role in the company of players that he and Will Shakespeare have joined, and he is doubly vexed by the state of his romance that occupies nearly all his waking thoughts. When the players are contracted to provide theatrical entertainment as part of a large wedding pageant, Tuck "volunteers" Will into becoming the writer of their production, a role that may "make or break" him as a major talent. The only problem is that a series of murders turns the event of the year from a marriage celebration into a funeral.

I found this tale far more satisfying that the first in the series, particularly as the language used by characters is, for the most part, far more convincing. The Elizabethan-period politics, familial chicanery and villainy all make for a delightful mix of historical fact and fiction. Light-hearted, humorous and convincing in plot-I can highly recommend this for your shelf of historical mysteries.

If you are familiar with the movie that this book was based on, I will say that this is one of the most faithful novelizations of a movie that I've ever seen; almost every scene from the movie is included, and most of the dialogue is faithfully kept as well. Ms. McIntyre satisfies her creative urge by filling in gaps in the storyline, adding internal dialogue and insight into the characters' thoughts as well as transitional scenes that further explain and clarify the storyline.

If you are not familiar with the movie, there are a few quibbles you might have with the story, but for my money, the quibbles are all things that originated in the movie, and that Ms. McIntyre is not responsible for: the running gag of Kirk attempting to "fit in" to 20th century society by cursing, which he does clumsily, and Spock's even more clumsy attempts to follow Kirk's lead. I'm not certain whether this was supposed to be purely a humorous bit, or whether it was supposed to be a comment on how silly vulgarity makes one look, and how foolish it is to try to fit in in that way. If it was intended for humor value, its humor wore thin very quickly, and if it was intended for the latter purpose, I'm not sure that it was effective. But in any case, that, as I say, is not Ms. McIntyre's fault; it was part of the movie that she was working from. Similarly, any part of the plot that referred back to the previous movie, and Spock's tenuous grip on his memories as a result of being recently "reborn", do not sit well with me (see my review of "The Search For Spock" for my objections to that movie/book) but again, this is not the author's fault. I also do not believe that a bit of ambient radiation causes malfunctions in phasers, as happens in one scene, but the same disclaimer of responsibility applies.

On its own merits, and outside of the consideration of how well it remains faithful either to the movie it was based on, or the Star Trek universe in general, or the previously established characters, this book is still quite good, and better able to stand on its own as a Science Fiction Action-Adventure novel than most Star Trek books, and it also does a better job of faithfully portraying the known characters than many. And as I said, it does a marvellous job of faithfully depicting the story from the movie while building on it plausibly and believably. All in all, by almost any measure I care to use, it is a very good book.

I liked it because it really helped to put the movie into prospective.

I believe that this story was the best that the Series of star trek books has. Great ending and begining. I especially enjoyed the time travel that goes into this. A very good book.

Can you imagine Merlin, Modred and Morgan in Boston or New York in the year 2200? The usual power sources have been depleted and now the world runs on magic as some run on java. Experience the adventure of Wyrdrune, Kira and a couple of other characters in a world once again full of magic and see the first experience with the dark ones after eons. Definitely a book worth reading.

Simon Hawke brings about a unique look at the tales of Merlin as his long slumber had ended. He awakens to see a world gone mad. The world goverments are in chaos as all types of power are gone. They call it the Collapse. Merlin realizes that he and he alone can bring the world from ruin and he does so. Now it is the 22nd century almost fifty years since he cam back to the world. Fifty years of magic users and that with which to bring humanity back from despair. The world has seen a new age and with it things that the old world never saw until that fateful day. An acution house has many things to offer from a dig in the euprahties among them three gems engraved with symbols of untold of power. A young warlock currently thrown out of magic college for a spell that went wild tries to steal them right in front of the people willing to bid on them. this young man thinks they might be his ticket to get back in and study once again at the feet of Merlin himself. This young man is named William Kerpinsjy his magical name is. At the same time a young thief going by the name of Kira also has idea of stealing the gems. Unknown to them both the worlds greatest assasin Moprheus wants these gems as well. Unlike those going to steal them he intends to buy them. All seems to be going to each others plan until the true maddness happens. I won't give to much of this wonderful novel. I read these in high school and loved them. If you can find a copy of this book read it.

I am not much of a book reviewer. I just know what I like and I really liked this book and all the books that follow in the series (I think there were 7) and even the spin-off novel from The Wizard of Santa Fe called Cats Eye Gomez.

If you enjoy a creative twist in your reading then you will find Simon Hawke's books are a joy to read.

I just wish I could find his books somewhere so I could share them with my friends and nephew.

Patricia Zelver tells the story of Simon (Sam) Rodia, an Italian immigrant who 'grew' a dream of monumental proportions in the impoverished Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. It took him over 30 years to build the three amazing towers he named "NUESTRO PUEBLO." In this century it could be called a fantasy dedicated to recycling. When people asked Sam "Why?" he answered "I just felt like it." What creative energy in his imaginative salvaging of mosaic tiles, pieces of pottery, anyone's discards! And there is energy, too, in the colorful paintings of Frane Lessac, all demonstrating the hope symbolized by Rodia's art.

"...Old Sam's real name was Simon Rodia. He was a small man who dressed in ragged overalls, a shirt with the sleeves cut off, and a greasy hat. His arms and face were always covered with dust..." So begins Patricia Zelver's fascinating and engaging true story of an Italian immigrant, with no formal engineering or architectural training, who over a thirty-three year period constructed the Watts Towers in his backyard. Sam lived in a poor neighborhood called Watts, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Over the years he collected all kinds of things other people threw away...broken bottles and tiles, pieces of mirrors and other glass, seashells and bits of pottery. He spent most of his money on cement, sand, and steel. Neighbors could hear him working behind his tall fence, and wondered what Sam was doing with all that junk. "One day, to the neighbors' amazement, something strange and beautiful rose up over the fence in Sam's backyard..." Ms Zelver's simple and straightforward text is captivating, and complemented by Frane Lessac's bold, bright, and magical artwork, done in an almost childlike style. Excitement builds with each page turn as the Towers grow taller, more intricate and beautiful. Perfect for youngsters 5-10, The Wonderful Towers Of Watts is an evocative treasure that is sure to inspire readers, pique their interest, and send them out looking for more. As Ms Zelver tells us at the end of the story..."Watts is still a poor part of Los Angeles. But no other place has the Watts Towers. Every year people come from all over the world to marvel at Old Sam's crazy dream."

thanks to oscar wilde for the above quote & paticia zelver for the book that brings it to life!

i grew up with reading rainbow & still watch it whenever i get the chance ~ i don't believe we ever truly outgrow enjoying being read a wonderful tale, and this book will give you a tale worth telling. it has a powerful & positive message & even better is that it's true! i've used it in classes to spur students into researching different topics, and everyone i've shared it with (regardless of age or ability) has been glad i did.