I am a big fan of Lee Smith. No author today is capable of bringing the southern family to life the way she does and she does it again in Family Linen. The only problem is that she hangs them out to dry too long. There are all these wonderful characters, each with their own distinct voice and unique story to tell but then nothing really happens. She tries to cover it up by saying small town gossip gets forgotten as soon as there's something new to talk about but it shouldn't work that way in a book. When you've invested a couple of hundred pages in something there should be some kind of payoff. Definitely not her best effort.

Nobody is better than Lee Smith when it comes to creating marvelous characters and Family Linen is filled with them. No cardboard creatures these, but full bodied human beings most of whom are somewhere in our own lives. My only quarrel with Smith is that she sometimes gets so deeply involved with these characters, she forgets to tell us where they are going. Family Linen does have more of a plot and a mystery that will keep the reader turning the pages until it is solved. And even when we know, the characters are still the strongest force in the book.Read it and see which one of your neighbors or relatives are right there to be discovered.

I truely enjoyed this book and I don't know why some of the reviewsers were offended. This is the second review I wrote, I don't know what happened to the first one. There are family secrets that come out because of hypnotism and the family being brought together by illness and a funeral. Really this story is about some very serious matters but Lee Smith wrote from a lighthearted angle which makes th reader laugh at a lot of the situations. I wouldn't call this book "dark" at all even though it could've very easily been written that way. I liked this book a lot and to think I almost didn't read it because of some of descriptions in some of the negative reviews. Read this book, it's very good. It's about real life and sometimes real life isn't very pretty. There are many people that are raised by their parents and then find out in their adult life that these wonderful people that raised them aren't actually their parents. Their "sister" or "Aunt So-and-so" is their real mother. This is really a good book and it's written from the perfect perspective, with a touch of humor.

This is one of the most unintentionally revealing and self-congratulatory movie star biographies ever written. Cybill Shepherd has nothing but lovely things to say about herself in this book, and nothing but dirt to dish on everyone with whom she's ever worked. How dare anyone expect her to behave professionally--she wants what she wants and she wants it right now!! The book sometimes is funny (hence the two stars) when she's dishing her more famous male co-stars, but you might find yourself creeped out when she begins describing her endless fights with her sitcom's producers and writers, and her fury at her co-stars for behaving professionally and keeping at a safe remove rather than behave like grateful minions.

To really enjoy this book, you have to be a fan of Cybill Shepherd. Just to read it for the gossip is not enough. I've always enjoyed watching her in her various projects. This book just tells her side, true, but it it written in an honest and no holds barred way, warts and all. If you are interested in a book about a lady who has done a lot of living, and somehow come thru it, this is it.

I had never even seen Cybil in anything and picked out her book on a whim. The book was quite racy reflecting her "Just Do It" lifestyle. I did not count how many men she said she slept with but I'm guessing it was around 40 and this was in 2000. I felt sorry for her as she had learned very little in her 50 years about love. She blames a lot of people for being difficult especially her coworkers but the reader cannot help but wonder if she was really always the victim. Alas, buy the book- it's a good read. Just don't emulate her life.

I can't see why an abridgement is necessary for Pinnochio under any circumstances. The book is very short and no chapter could fill more than two typed pages. Any child should be able to digest the unabridged translation. When you strip a story down to a mere plot summary, you remove the details which make literature exciting and stimulating for both children and adults. Perhaps this is marketed toward extremely busy parents who don't have the five minutes it takes to read an entire chapter aloud.

Indeed this is a "World's Classic." I would like to see it preserved as the author intended.

Collodi good, abridgement bad.

I indeed agree that this movie is a wonderful movie, it was funny, and sad...but that just makes it even more great....I was wondering if anyone doesn't mind helping me, I need to buy the CD Soundtrack to this movie..Can anyone help me???

Collodi knew how mischievous children can be.He was one himself when he went to school in Flroence.In his later years,he was a school reforms official,and wrote many textbooks.He believed the best way to teach is by entertaining as well.This certainly shows in Pinocchio.The little Blockhead gets into all kinds of scrapes because he rushes into things with little consideration.Pinocchio is tricked by the Fox&Cat, advised by the Talking-Cricket,helped by the Fairy with Blue Hair-and ultimately realizes that if he wants to become a real boy,his inner self must be transformed first.The final chapter is a true indication of how Pinocchio has fully become a son to Gepetto.Collodi's story has many film-television-stage versions,but the original is a true classic.

This book is just chock-full of rumor and gossip, much of which is totally insubstantiated. Some of the 'facts' are just plain wrong. With friends like Lee Hall, who needs enemies? Do yourself a favor and if you do read this, read it with more than a few grains of salt. There are better stories about the New York School - John Myers' memoir comes to mind, for one.

Thank you, Cooper Square, for reissuing Hall's valuable book. Elaine and Bill deserves a wide-based readership. Biography readers interested in Elaine and/or Willem de Kooning in particular, or American artists of this century in general, will learn a great deal. Hall's friendship with Elaine lays the groundwork and is enhanced by her discussions with friends (and wannabee friends) of both painters--although after the fact some refused to acknowledge their participation. The author also brings long-delayed attention to Elaine's neglected painting--art that is very much her own, not the weaker shadow of her husband's work often suggested.

Perhaps this book's principal contribution, however, is its cool and calm exposŽ of the "art world's" best-kept secret: that, at base, it is a fraud that has less to do with expression than financial gain. Readers get a clear, well-written, and easily believable picture of an artist's life during that time of near-mythical when hard drinkin', butch fightin', and tough paintin' were the mainstays of New York's boy-culture art scene of the 50s and into the 60s. The book provides a much-wanted description of why there's so little "there" there in the articles by the likes of Greenberg and Rosenberg. In light of their various affairs--both amorous and financial-one understands how these critics' and their cronies' small-scale star making paved a sort of on-ramp to the market-driven farce the art world is today.

By all means read Elaine and Bill. It is fascinating reading on many levels and, when all is said and done, provides a window--for some too clean and revealing a window--into the machinery driving the manufacture of art today.

This book won the 1953 Spur Award for best western novel of the year, the very first Spur Award ever presented. The story is centered on a sheriff in a small town in the West. He has the responsibility of seeing a convicted murderer hanged the following day but has to contend with farmers who are seeking vengence and ranchers who are trying to free the prisoner. In addition, the sheriff is trying to identify the man who had hired the killer. Unfortunately, the main suspect is the man who is engaged to his daughter. The exact time in which the story is set is unclear; but, it has to be after 1892 since the Johnson County War is mentioned. The State could be Wyoming, Nevada, Nebraska, or a few others. It really wasn't mentioned (or even necessary).

I'm still reading this book, the first one in this series that I've read. It seems to be accurate in its historical details, and the mystery itself is intriguing. But the incredibly annoying thing about it is the narrator's constant and continual references to past occurences in the series. I might have given it higher mark but for that.

This was the first book of Hall's that I have read. I enjoyed most the historic aspect of this story, the details of a time gone by. I found the cast of characters likable enough, and I like the author's choice of using a famous historical figure as a protagonist. In this book, Ben Franklin embarks upon a trip to Bath, England, running into some shady characters along the way. At one point or another along the way, you are led to question the integrity of almost all the people involved leaving you, the reader, to figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Definitely a good read if you want to become absorbed in a good book, but don't want anything too heavy.

Gilbert Bland visited libraries in North America cutting old maps out of books, was finally caught in the act, and spent some time in prison. That's all folks! You will learn precious little else about the crime by reading this book, yet Miles Harvey manages to spin these facts out to 400 pages. If only he could have imbued his narrative with some meaning, direction and purpose. Instead we are treated to aimless ramblings with the most tentative of links to the main story. For example, a relatively interesting historical diversion to tell us about the Pathfinder and his mapping of America is horribly contrived to fit the theme by the musing that indeed Miles IS the Pathfinder and Gilbert Bland IS the subject he is trying to map out. Worse is to follow when not content to merely sketch some mildly interesting contemporary personalities in the world of maps, he insists on performing amateur psychoanalysis on them; apparantly their collecting disorder stems from our past experiences as Hunter-Gatherers! Indeed, much of this book appears to stem from Miles's formative experiences and, unlike the author, I am not hypothesizing - he tells us so at regular intervals throughout this tedious narrative. This is a tiresome, poorly written, badly structured collection of map-related thoughts, desparately contorted to fit around the paltry facts the author has gleaned concerning Gilbert Bland and his crime.

"The Island of Lost Maps" starts with a bang, as author Miles Harvey relates the tale of two Dutch explorers who are arrested and jailed in Lisbon in 1592 after being caught trying to smuggle Portuguese maps back to Holland. A frequent theme in the book is the power and mystery of maps, and this was an excellent story to begin with. There are more exploration-related historical tidbits throughout the book, but not enough since these were by far the most interesting parts in my opinion. Instead, most of "The Island of Lost Maps" concerns the author's obsession with Gilbert Bland, a thief who made a living out of cutting maps out of ancient atlases in libraries and then selling them on the antique map market.

Admittedly, it is interesting to find out about how the market for maps has exploded in the last few decades, and there is a nice profile of an aggressive map trader (Graham Arader). Less interesting is the wealth of detail about Gilbert Bland's life, since (according to the author) by all appearances Bland lives up to his name quite accurately. The author repeatedly compares the exploration in the Age of Discovery with his search for what sent Bland on a multinational map thievery spree, armed with just a razor blade and an inconspicuous face. Frankly, I would have liked to read more about the actual maps and explorers and less about Bland, whose crimes are notable but not worthy of the majority of a book's attention. The author even makes the mistake of letting us know how he tried (and failed) to contact Bland and pump him for information; unless such stories are extremely entertaining, there's no reason for a writer to mar his narrative by injecting himself into it.

I give kudos to this book for getting me excited about cartography and the history of exploration, but slogging through the author's guesswork about the psychology of Gilbert Bland wasn't fun. I'd recommend a real history book instead.

Antique maps, as antique - or rare - books, hold a fascination all its own. Too often serious collectors and dealers are drawn to them in inexplicable ways that only the sense of possession can appease. This is the premise - or at least one of them - on which Miles Harvey bases his book.

Mr. Harvey was assigned back in 1995 to cover the case of one of the biggest map thieves of all time, an unassuming fellow by the name of Gilbert Bland. This character, was later discovered, had stolen around 250 maps from libraries across the USA and Canada in order to sell them 'for a buck'.

I found the stories about great collectors and dealers, such as the famous Graham Arader III, fascinating. We are invited to an auction in Sotheby's and can follow it along just as Mr. Arader bids on items of his interest for a total of $800,000. We are also introduced to the famous discoverers, such as Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus, through a very entertaining and detailed history of cartography in chapter 7. What IS NOT interesting in the least, is the story of Gilbert Bland himself. He is too much of a simplistic character that might have been good for an article in a magazine; but is definitely not worth a whole book. I find perhaps, Bland's adventure (to call it something) might have provided a good starter for a fictionalized piece. However, the way it is used here, the way the author tries to psychoanalize him (even himself), is absolutely boring and pointless.

This is, nevertheless, an interesting book for starting collectors of rare books, antique maps and manuscripts. The way rare books rooms are run and what we can expect to find in them, the way dealers conduct their business; and the staggering sums of money some of these pieces are capable of reaching in today's markets will let most people with their mouths wide open.

This was a terrible book. Multiple authors were not able to successfully make the book flow from chapter to chapter. Character development was disjointed to say the least. Way tooooo much celebrity name dropping...it almost read like People Mag. Buy "The Greatest Player Who Never Lived" instead.

At first I thought this was going to be a serious mystery novel, until I realized that each chapter was written by a different author. It was almost like they were challenging each other, coming up with situations that were more and more ridiculous. I found myself laughing out loud. I should have known something was up when I saw that Dave Barry was one of the writers. It's a great book for those who like golf and for those, like me, that have never swung a club.

It is said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Since a camel is very efficient doing what camels are intended to do, then the remark must mean that a camel is a very funny looking horse. Well, in The Putt at the End of the World, a committee of nine individually popular writers has turned out a very funny golf story.
The Putt at the End of the World is apparently the brainchild of last-listed author Les Standiford, shown as editor and compiler. It also seems to be a salute, at least in part, to recently deceased British writer Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series which includes The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It is certainly reminiscent of Adam's work, with zany characters interacting amidst nefarious schemes, all centered around a golf tournament. But not just any golf tournament. Computer zillionaire Philip Bates has bought a Scottish castle and cleared original growth timber to construct the ultimate golf course-as well as rehabbing the castle into an exotic hideaway retreat. This infuriates both environmental terrorists and the last of the MacLout clan, who claims that the MacGregor sellers usurped his family's claim to the property and he should have gotten the money. Then Bates (no relation to this reviewer) scheduled a conference and golf tournament inviting all of the world's political leaders and top golf players.
One of the invitees is Billy Sprague, club pro from Squat Possum Golf Club in rural Ohio. Billy is a magnificent golfer, unless there is money involved in which case he can't even get the ball of the tee. Billy's mentor is the old retired family doctor whose life is golf, who build the Squat Possum Club and who dies immediately after giving Billy his invitation and telling him that he has to go to Scotland and play in order to lift the curse and "...save the world as we know it..." Then FBI and British Secret Service refugees from the Keystone Kops get involved because of the terrorist threat, and the rest is-not history, but hilarious.
Each of the nine authors wrote one of the chapters. They did a good job matching styles, and/or Standiford did a great job of editing, because the novel is seamless. It is a farce, but at the same time has a "Bagger Vance" note of paean to the wonder of golf. It reads fast, and it reads great.

Tidewater Dynasty is a fictional account of the Lee family. It is based upon historic dates and facts. The glimpses of the Lee family are not true to life. All the Lee husbands are good looking, intelligent, perfect husbands, unselfish, ... All the wives have the same traits. There is one Lee who does not comform to the Lee image. I suppose he embodies all the bad traits of the Lee family so that none of the others had any.

I've always been interested in the Lee family of Virginia, especially Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, the Declaration of Indpedence signers, so I ordered this book, hoping it would give me an insight into the world the two lived in. The book did, in a way. Some of the best points were when the authors described the society of Old Virginia, the relationships between the Virginia families, and how the colonists lived. Thankfully, the authors did a good job of portraying Richard H. and Francis L., but after that, the book sort of went downhill. I definitely did not enjoy how the authors portrayed Henry 'Light Horse Harry' Lee. He came off as some whiny, simpering man, and it really annoyed me. But, other than that, this book is a great insight into the society of Old Virginia and a fair look at the Lee family, and their roll in our history