I recommend this book highly. I enjoyed the Dayton Art Institute show on which it is based, but missed having archeological background on the show placards. The photography in the book is excellent, and for the tiniest artifacts, it's actually easier to see them in the book than in the show. Every article in the show is also in the book. Production quality is very high. The text narratives are by serious scholars, mostly Chinese or hyphen-Chinese, and the English translations are fluent and idiomatic.

Having been to several Silk-Road shows and having read several books on the subject, I've reached the point where I'm impressed by how much we don't know about the silk road--authorities disagree, and everyone uses different names for the same place. Perhaps it's time for a definitive study?

After reading his first book, The Chess Garden, I've kept my eyes open for books by Brooks Hansen. I loved Perlmans Ordeal, but I think Monsters of St. Helena is his best book yet.

This story has a magic that pulls you right in to this strange island world of Napoleon in his first weeks on St. Helena. His relationship with a young teen, Betsy, and his relationship to the island itself, make for a rich read.

The island ghosts and natives, slaves, settlers and interlopers - all play a role in this book to give it a deep, textured look into what were the last happy days for this historic figure. The beauty of the words is matched by the complexity of the characters. -- Simple things - Like:"all the leaves, the stalks, and blades are heavy with dew, waiting for the sun to come and warm them dry and open them. The same as every day, yet there is something different, something raw and tender, like the throat of a child who has been weeping and can't remember why." You can't miss the art of this writer --

I can't write as well as Mr. Hansen, few folks can, but if I could, I would write about how much I loved this book and how strongly I recommend it!

I'm looking forward to his next book -- and many more to come.

A fairly complex plot line that blends a "reality plot" with one of fantasy. As the plot lines merge, I finally started to piece together the subtle lesson the book had been trying to teach me all along - the value of life and celebrating it in a variety of ways.

As a reader, I don't typically go for the "feel sorry for myself/the Fates are against me" storylines. I do read books that deal with serious, even sad, subject matter, but I seem to react better to those than aren't more of a pity party to which I've (mistakenly) been invited. I don't say this as a good or bad thing, only as an indication of my taste. From that indication, you might better judge my opinion of this book, which is very high, by the way.

The story begins as a reminiscence by a widow of her deceased physician husband and how they both dealt with the loss of their son. While this sounds depressing and, to use one of my strongest condemning phrases, angst-filled, it actually handles both issues in a way that left me . . . shoot, how do you describe a sad topic that doesn't leave you exactly sad? Hopeful?

So, with that in mind, I loved this book. If I can't describe the plot well, maybe I can do better with the book itself . . . it is impressive and at times, fun. It will slow at points, but hang in there. It'll be worth it in the end.

I've read "The Chess Garden" only once, four years ago. But a week rarely goes by when my heart and mind don't return to it. I don't pretend to grasp all of its themes. But as a parent, I found deep meaning in this book, wherein God's presence is revealed most fully in the love we feel for our children. And our experience of this love then allows us to turn outward to others, more completely and authentically. Mark Helprin's "Memoir from Antproof Case" touches on this theme, but not with the same power. The Doctor's spiritual quest after the death of his young son rang so emotionally true, so heartbreakingly real, that I've been unable to read it again. (Though I'm sure I will eventually) It's a sad and hopeful book. For those of us who struggle with doubt and strain to glimpse a loving, personal God, we should spend a few summer afternoons in The Chess Garden. Of course, it's only fiction. It merely points the way to what we all have access to, every day, in our real lives.

The Chess Garden is simply one of the best books I have ever read. The protagonist deals with many issues confronting every one: spiritual ambiguity and conviction, passionate love, tragic loss, and one's sense of place and community. The novel moves in three timelines: the doctor's growing up in Europe and courtship of his wife, his imaginary tale of Gulliverian wanderings in the mysterious land of Antipodes, and his hometown of Dayton 13 years after the doctor's famous letters from abroad. I wanted to restart it as soon as I finished it!

If you want to live without a fridge, this is the book. Makes living without a fridge easy for anyone. Also cooking with woodstoves covered.

This cookbook is good for anyone serious about implementing a home food storage program, as well as anyone enjoying "old fashioned" or outdoor cooking. When starting home storage, I wondered what I would ever do with all that wheat and powdered milk, which are two of the foundation blocks of most storage programs. This cookbook has some very good, diverse recipes, with the added advantage of being usable in the event of power outages, however this type of cooking is tricky and is best learned before it is a necessity. Furthermore, I like this book because some of the recipes remind me of the types of things my grandmother and mother used to cook (steamed puddings, Boston Brown Bread) and that's also fun for the kids, even though time consuming for me. Some recipes are very simplistic (like PB and What? Sandwich), but the point is to list the nutritional values so that one could figure out a complete diet not lacking in anything just from very basic ingredients.

I read this novel because I loved The Chess Garden by Hansen, and I found it very interesting. Each character in the novel provides a retrospective of the main character, Ethan Boone. Ethan held a deep love for his mother, and spent his adult life attempting to understand his father's betrayal of her and her death. AA raw novel, and at times disturbing, I found it a worthwile read.

Perhaps I favor the works of Brooks Hansen a bit too much to be objective....but, the magic and soul in his writing never ceases to amaze me. Read it.

It was like one of those long, mysterious dreams you have on Sunday mornings, substantial while experiencing it but gossamer upon reflection. The Chess Garden's merits are well known, and Boone (Hansen's first book, with cowriter Nick Davis) was possibly the best book I ever read in my life. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the previous promise in my mind.

The premise was irresistable to me. In London at the turn of the (previous) century, a psychiatrist who uses hypnotism to cure patients of various phobias is presented with a teenage girl who has such a sudden and severe fear of water that she has refused to drink for 11 days and almost dies. When he begins to treat her an alternate personality takes over her body, presenting a story akin to the Atlantean myth. This myth enchants a new friend of his, the sister of a dead composer revered by the doctor, and she begins to hold a salon around the girl, playacting the events retold, and threatening the doctor with her spiritualism.

The atmosphere was perfect, and the tension caused by hindsight (Freud is just on the horizon, as is Russian communism and the Holocaust) was superb. Hansen is a writer obsessed with the ideas behind art forms, and he goes into great detail to present philosophical arguments about music here (melody vs. structure) that totally engaged me. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the substance here that I felt in the two previous books. Conflicts were neatly wrapped up but it seemed too pat, and explanations were wholly devoid. (Considering the theme of the novel the author intended to leave one guessing, but I could have used a few more hints than this.) The book is more accessible than Chess Garden (the narrative is more straightforward and less symbolic) and presents many interesting questions, but in the end the protagonists are left unchanged, which to me is the failure of the novel. This would make a great book club book, though, lots to argue about. If it sounds interesting, go ahead and try it, I definitely enjoyed reading it, just got frustrated when I was done. Boone figuratively sliced the top of my head off to let in a cold breeze, and Chess Garden was an intellectual challenge, but this was, IMO, a failed but valiant attempt.

Hansen's first novel, The Chess Garden, deserves to be ranked with the best books of the 1990's. All of the dozen or so Amazon reviewers gave it five stars and I would happily write a review adding five more. I keep it conspicuously placed on my bookshelf so I am reminded of the fun of reading it. Perlman's Ordeal is another matter. Although the book is every bit the intellectual feast that the Chess Garden was, it lacks a certain spark that would have kept me interested in the story and in its protagonist, Dr. Perlman. Whereas Dr. Uyterhoeven in The Chess Garden was generously open-minded, Dr. Perlman is every bit the man who can't see beyond his rather educated nose. His ordeal is getting past that limitation - something he never completely seems to do. Hansen seems to have let his own main character attentuate his vision. Also, if there was a flaw in The Chess Garden, it was that its characters were not completely rounded - but somewhow it didn't really matter. It does matter in this book since we see everything through (via a third person narrator), Perlman's rather narrow, fretful, selfish eyes. This left me feeling cold. Still, Hansen's a major writer and I look forward to his next book.

Brooke Hansen's second solo novel completely satisfies its own ambition - the most we can fairly ask of any work of art. Though "Perlman's Ordeal" touches on the otherworldly, the rug is promptly pulled from under the reader's feet and we are gently reminded that this is not a novel about Atlantis or reincarnation. It's an astoundingly elegant portrayal of a simple sequence of events: Dr. Perlman meets a patient he can't easily handle, and the confidence he invests in himself and in his strict ideology is broken.

Of course, this shiftiness has the slight potential to let down a bit. The reader is easily sucked in by the intruigue and grandeur of this patient's story - is she harboring the spirit of a girl from Atlantis? Hansen so beautifully depicts Perlman's cautious approach to the question, and we share the doctor's frustration when his calculated effort is run aground. The girl, named Sylvie but insisting on "Nina", enchants Perlman's aquaintences with her elaborate story.

As the child's new friends long to hear more and more of her curious history, so does the reader. The effect is thus quite alarming when, alongside Perlman, we are nearly swayed to her growing camp of devotees. Unwilling to re-think the matter, Hansen forces us to, quietly, insistently. We have shared Perlman's ordeal unwittingly.

In this strange calm the reader might feel a bit robbed. He shouldn't - "Perlman's Ordeal" contains some of the most beautiful prose I've read in a long time. Hansen writes with confidence and style. His characters, Perlman in particular, are deeply layered and very complex.

The end result is more subtle than awe-inspiring, more Kubrick than Cameron. It's certainly a winner though - a quiet, odd little winner.

As an admirer of author's previous two books, I was interested to see what direction he would take in his third effort. As a new mother, I was delighted when I heard it was to be a children's book. But after reading it myself, I'm not sure when if ever I would give it to my child. Author's prose has become increasingly robotic and airless, and the preponderance of Christian metaphors has become tedious. Too much (questionable) philosophizing, and the psychology of the characters is so flat. (Yes, I know they're animals, but even animals have inner lives.) Stick to the stories, Mr. Hanson! And what has happened to the sense of humor so evident in the first book? Very tiresome tale, probably fit only for very religious children who are leading very drab lives. They'll consider it moving and uplifting. To the rest of us, this book, and that reindeer, are a big drag.

Hansen's book "The Chess Garden" concerned, about many other things, the necessity of stories. Now that he's writing for children, he doesn't have to explain: he simply creates a moving, beautiful story about love, loss, courage and finding one's way home. As before, his research is so impeccable yet so carefully used that you feel that he's simply transcribing very real events -- even when relating the inner thoughts of a sparrow. There are two very particular acheivements inthis book. The first is the character of Caesar, the most indomitable, admirable animal hero I've come across -- imagine Horton the elephant crossed with Bigwig, from Watership Down. His brave, faithful nature is exactly what you'd expect a reindeer's to be. And the second achievement is its careful grappling with the things that children really think about: family, love, loss, and even death. Its spiritual lessons are equal in weight (thought different in intent) to those of Wind In the Willows or The Lion, the Witch, in the War