We're not boat fans but really enjoyed the photography. Beautiful boats and lots of color, b/w and historic action and promo pics. Great

At the National Boating History Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 17, 2001, "Gar Wood Boats: Classics of a Golden Era," was selected as The Classic Boating Book-of-the-Year for 2001 by the National Boating Museum, Washington, DC. This prestigious selection is made annually to the book that contributes significant original research and valuable historic information related to boat building, design and performance. As the author of this book, I am pleased to share this information with potential readers.

A Wonderful Portrayal of Classic Wooden Boating A one of a kind historic journey with Gar Wood, one of the pioneers of motorized wooden boating. The author's insight and knowledge of the subject is quite evident in page after page of the book. The pictures and illustrations are exquisite and beautiful to look at. This is a must read for anyone who loves classic boating, boating in general and American history, as you are taken on an epic journey with one of America's leading industrialists of a Golden Era. My kudos to the author for a job well done and express my hope that boaters across the nation will add this tome to their maritime libraries!!!

When I started to read Memoirs of A Geisha, I had no idea that it would be soo good! I couldn't put the book down...it is also fascinating to find out about the life of a geisha; beautifully written!

Beautifully written, facinating and touching; One of the best books I ever read!

What a fascinating book! I couldn't put it down. The characters are well defined and credible; the story must have been written by the Geisha herself - congrats, Arthur Golden!

This early prose work by a North African writer, _The Golden Ass_, is a classic. The man is in the body of an ass. He experiences life as an ass would. He overheard conversations and witnesses deeds that a human stranger would not be allowed to witness. It's a brutal, funny, and memorable ride.

I would recommend this book, if you like bold, big adventures like Gulliver's Travels or Homer's Odyssey.

I like this book because it is special. I am nervous sometimes just like Arthur in the story. It also makes me think about all the places that are in the book. I want to go to Washington, D.C. one day and meet the President. But I hope I don't have to give a speech. D.W. made me laugh at the end. It also made me think and I'm going to help other people. A good book.

This book is an exciting introduction to the Arthurian legends. In the opening essay, Geoffrey Ashe traces the historical development of the King Arthur story from its ancient Celtic origins to recent archeological evidence. Ashe underscores Arthur's potency as an archetype: "Arthur symbolizes a deeply rooted factor of human nature" (p. 32). In the second part of the book, the artistic representations of Arthur and related figures tease out some of the ambiguities in this rich system of legends. In the final section, "Themes", Ashe uses text and images to show the parallels of Arthur in other cultures and the echoes of the myth in the modern age.

I have a little bit of a problem with the words 'Modern Classics' usually, but in this case it is appropriate. All five titles are worthy of the prefix.

Midwives is undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of fiction in modern years. Bohjalian mixes suspense with drama to create a masterpiece. Its starts out with a tragic death during labour, which may or may not have been the midwife's fault. As you follow the story through the midwife's daughter's eyes, you discover the truth in what is an interesting finale.

A wonder of translation, The Reader is a fascinating novel of morality and social injustices in postwar Germany, It focuses on the Holocaust through the eyes of 15 year old Micheal, whose older lover Hanna, as it turns out is guilty of unspeakable crimes. Emotional and stirring, The Reader is a must have.

Snow Falling On Cedars is a brilliant mystery set in San Piedro. A Japanese American man is on trial for the murder of a white man. Still reeling from racial distrust, the town is baying for blood, but one man must recover from his own distrust and jilted feelings rooted in his past to discover the truth. Beautifully written and vividly imagined, Snow Falling On Cedars is one of my favourite novels.

Believe the hype, Memoirs Of A Geisha is here to stay. This novel is incredibly popular and rightly so. It uncovers Japan's hidden Geisha trade and stuns us all with its revelations. Through the eyes of Japan's 'most famous Geisha' as we are led to believe, we see it all from the youth up, the training, the social manuevering, the infighting as our very own Geisha struggles with her own morality in her search for happiness.

Cold Mountain is in truth a beautiful love story. Winner of the US national book Award this book is strong, maybe not so as the rest, but entertaining and beautiful in its own right.

And finally, A Lesson Before Dying. Always controversial, this story focuses on a man set for execution. Jefferson is the black man on death row, and as he faces social and racial tensions, his grandmother wishes that someone might teach him to die like a man, and that is where our narrator steps in. Beautiful and poignant, Not to be missed.

So there we have it. Beautiful writing didn't die with Austen, the Brontes and Dickens. 20th century authors may just have what it takes to be classics hundreds of years from now. Read and Enjoy.

I will admit right off the bat that the Chatham neighborhood that Amy and her human family inhabit is also my neighborhood. But I am sad to say that I never met Amy who sounded like a wonderful dog. All dogs are wonderful, in my book, and certainly in Arthur Vanderbilt's book "Golden Days." This is one of those tales where, although you know how it ends, you still weep at the end. Months later, certain scenes-- such as Amy's unusual love of bananas-- stick in the memory so that you feel you really knew Amy. "Golden Days" is a book about a golden retriever and it's also about those golden days of summer in a certain special place that Arthur Vanderbilt knows very well. I recommend this book for anyone who has ever cared for a dog. For anyone who has ever loved Cape Cod. In fact, I recommend this book, which is profoundly moving without being sappy, to everyone!

You don't have to own a golden retriever to read and really enjoy this beautiful book. As a dog lover that I am, I read anything which has to do with dogs regardless of breed. This book is similar to "the dogs of our lives", a book which touches your heart and brings tears & laughter as you read it. Thank you Mr. Vanderbilt for sharing your memories with us.

This is a beautiful, honest book about a family's love for their Golden Retriever. While the humans in the story are skillfully drawn, the central character is Amy--a loving and loved Golden Retriever. I cried at the end of the book. The lesson of the book is that a much loved dog can have a dramatic impact on a family's life--even if she isn't a search and rescue or therapy dog.

When I read the earlier reviews I thought this was a sequel to the Memoirs of a Geisha, which is a great book. I don't see what I missed, what should have told me, so let me tell you directly: This is NOT a sequel, this is NOT a new book by Golden, it is Memoirs, but in GERMAN!!

Do not buy this book unless you read German; buy the Memoirs you will find elsewhere in Amazon. But if you do read German and are looking for a great novel, have at it.

I had no prior knowledge about Geisha before this book, and now I can't read enough about thier interesting lives and stories. Aurthur Golden is one of the best authors I have ever read.

Fantastic book. It was intriguing to read about the changes women had to go through and still do: beauty, virginity, puberty, womanhood... I finished this book in two days because of the emotion and description poured into this books writing. The metaphors and writing style were excellent. I felt like I knew the characters at the end of the book and found by self cheering for the little girl who grew up to hold her own, not only mentally but physically and emoptionally.

MEMORIAS DE UNA GEISHA ES UN LIBRO EXCELENTE! LA NARRATIVA TE TRANSPORTA AL JAPON DE ESA EPOCA. ESTE ESCRITO TE HACE CONOCER LA VIDA DE MUCHAS MUJERES QUE SU UNICA OPCION FUE EL SER GEISHAS. NOS DEJA CONOCER A TRAVES DE ELLAS, UNA PARTE IMPORTANTE Y TAL VEZ TRISTE DE SUS VIDAS. ME ENCANTO Y ME HUBIERA GUSTADO CONOCER LA PROTAGONISTA Y SU VISION EN ESTOS TIEMPOS DE LA MUJER EN JAPON. LE RECOMIENDO ESTO LIBRO A AQUELLAS PERSONAS QUE GUSTAN DE LA HISTORIA.

Es la historia de una niña en un pueblito de pescadores, cuya madre esta muy enferma, y su padre antes de morir la vende. Su vida dara un cambio drastico desde la libertad en su pueblito a una especie de esclavitud en una casa de Geishas. Al ser bonita tiene la oportunidad de estudiar para geisha, pero su especial temperamento, y los celos de la Geisha principal, quien la hace fracasar y vivir un infierno en vida. Sin embargo, el amor a un personaje inalcanzable le da esperanza y mantiene vivo su espiritu. Luego de unos años, es tomada bajo la proteccion de una Geisha independiente y de mucho prestigio, con lo que su vida cambia, y empieza a disfrutar del glamour de la vida de las geishas, aunque se ve obligada a cumplir las costumbres, pero la esperanza de el amor a este personaje inalcanzable le permite seguir adelante. Sin embargo, no todo son rosas, el amor parece no tener cabida en una vida de quien debe hacer felices a otros. Mientras tanto, Japon entra en la segunda guerra mundial, y luego, al perder tiene que sufrir una occidentalizacion de sus costumbres. El barrio de las Geishas trata de sobrevivir y mantenerse. El amor se acerca y se aleja de ella, tal vez en forma definitiva, pero entonces se revela a su destino y toma una drastica y arriesgada desicion para tener oportunidad a alcanzar el amor; pero la traicion de una querida amiga de la infancia desencadena su verdadero destino.

MEMORIAS DE UNA GEISHA ES UN LIBRO MAGNIFICO! EL AUTOR TIENE TAL NARRATIVA QUE TE SUMERGE EN LA LECTURA Y TE TRANSPORTA A AQUELLAS EPOCAS EN JAPON. ESPECIFICAMENTE EN GION; ESTA OBRA DA A CONOCER ASPECTOS IMPORTANTES QUE MUCHOS IGNORAMOS SOBRE LAS GEISHAS; NOS INVITA A CONVIVIR CON ELLAS UNA PARTE IMPORTANTE DE SUS VIDAS. ME GUSTO MUCHISIMO, ME DIO PENA EL QUE SE TERMINARA. UN LIBRO, A MI PARECER, DE CULTURA GENERAL.

There is something addictive about "Memoirs of a Geisha." I zoomed through this book at a record pace. It's like a meal entirely of popcorn. Tasty, fun, but not really filling.

The speed with which this book gets read says something about it's depth. It's key strength is the factual account of the life a Gion Geisha in the 1920's. I feel like I took a quick course on Geishas. The weakness of the book lies in storytelling. I have no real attachments to any of the characters. Suyari pretty much gets life handed to her on a silver platter. She is a very uncompelling heroine with few admirable qualities other than her features. She is a great Geisha because she is beautiful, and because benefactors choose to present her as a great Geisha. She achieves nothing by her own devices, and lives only by the whims of others. The only character that I had empathy for is Nobu, whose story is never adequately told. I was disappointed by the ending, which was a little too "Hollywood."

All this aside, "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a fun book to read. I enjoyed it. I recommend it. It is just not a book that moved me in any way other than entertainment.

Luminous and sad are the first two words that remain after reading the Memoirs. Unreal, surreal, there is both the endless sorrow of Emile Zola, and the refined delicacy of Jane Austen unfolding in the removed quarters of the geisha houses of Gion in pre-war Kyoto. The book itself is deeptively written; Golden says it is a transcription of a Dutch professor*s tapes made when he interviewed the Geisha--Sayuri--of the title; thus both the woman and her biographer are removed from real life. And this is the way the geisha live, the intricacies of day-to-day living, the tiny vital things the women study almost in secret, cannot be exposed to the harsh glare of the outside world. When her parents are quite ill, Sayuri is gently tricked by Mr.Tanaka the broker into being sent to Kyoto as indentured maidservant to a renowned geisha house. There she suffers the slow torture of being considered and raised up to become one of the most prominent geisha of her day, 1930s Japan. Reading this book in tandem with Runaway Horses, Yukio Mishima*s violent portrait of those days, it is impossible to believe both are describing the same time, the same country. The geisha dance, play, sing, all but removed from their fellow citizens; when Sayuri must flee Kyoto during WW2 her exposure to the outside world is quite shocking. The slow unfolding of her loves, with the injured Nobu, with Nobu*s friend the quiet Chairman of Iwemura Electirc, occurs with an Austen-attention to detail. But it is a sad thing, doomed in its own transedence, its own temprary nature. The geisha are as removed as mermaids, ultimately as unreal.

From the wistful, yearning notes of the "translator" to the final glimpse of an elderly lady in a kimono on a New York street, this book utterly captivates the reader. I was unable to put it down, staying up most of one night to finish it. (I recommend a long weekend, if you're the slow, savoring type, or a regular weekend if you view books as consumables).

Sayuri and her "biographer" look unflinchingly into the past and deliver a story that does not spare the reader the realities of a geisha's life. The emotional, physical and spiritual path of glass walked by Sayuri has been crafted with exquisite grace. Those who shape her life, from Mr. Tanaka, to Mameha, to Pumpkin and Mr. Nobu, are as fully realized and deeply crafted as the central figure. There are no ciphers here. They are, perhaps, more enigmatic, more hidden within the layers of action than one tends to expect from characters in a western novel, but that is part of the fascination of this story.

Few occidentals can truly know whether the book is "true" or "correct", but I felt I had been priveleged a small glimpse and understanding of Japan and its culture. But in any period, in any place, these people, this story would be enchanting.