A Warwick! A Warwick! Mr. Hicks work should be applauded. While the beginning of the book is very academic, in verse and research, it attempts look at Richard Neville, 16th Earl Warwick and Kingmaker, as a whole person. Hicks looks back on both primary and some secondary sources, makes some assumptions, buts overall lets the reader decide on Warwick's character. He notes the mixed temperament of 15th Century English - some hated Warwick, many more loved him. As a self proclaimed scholar of Neville, I have to highly recommend this work - along with four other titles entitled "Warwick" or "Kingmaker", all of which are out of print.

i read this book at a point when i wanted to graduate with honors at my university and had to read like 20 or so "great" books. i had never heard of this book, but it was on the list, so i picked it up and began reading it. i was honestly surprised by the beginning of the book, which started well. but then, honestly, i began to snicker a bit as i kept reading it. a valiant and honorable effort by Ms. depizan to bring women's rights to the discussion in a time when women were treated quite inhumane.

LA CITE DES DAMES was one of the first medieval books I have read (but I am by no means an expert in the area... yet!), and I recommend it to not only those interested in this period, but also for those interested in what we would call "women's studies," historiography, or similar endeavors.

It is filled with many interesting stories from ancient times to Christine's own time, which also makes the book a pretty entertaining (and sometimes even humorous) account of the historic figures it discusses. Christine herself was an amazing person, so if you buy it, be sure not to skip the introduction - especially if you are unfamiliar with medieval writings: Some of the ideas presented (and how they are presented) are much different than how we would think in modern times, so it is important to familiarize yourself with things like massive over-proving (which may end up being tedious to the unsuspecting reader), Christine's view on marriage, and literary conventions that would perhaps seem very silly to us now, but worked well 600 years ago. Basically, when reading this book, if you keep in mind the context in which it was written, you should be able to appreciate it and like it just as I have.

(by the way -- the book I read was not the Penguin edition, but rather the 1998 English translation by Earl Richards, ISBN 0892552301, so unless you're planning on extensive criticism, you should be okay with this version).

Christine falls asleep while contemplating why women in her society get such a bad rap, and has a long dream about exemplary women and their characteristics.

Did you ever wonder why we just accept that women in the Middle Ages were considered demons in disguise? Christine tells us all about what she thinks of that concept and of those who insist on spreading such maliciousness, all in an engaging story full of examples of brave, courageous, intelligent, pious, beautiful, generous women. The book was written to dispel some of the nastier slanders then current about women, but it's still good reading today.

I confess that during the part about martyrs I wandered off a bit (it is some gruesome stuff in places), but as a period source, it's definitely one every history maven ought to have. Christine is intelligent, observant, and witty; her writing fairly sparkles with indignation over the treatment of women and her sardonic amusement at those men spreading those lies. While hyper-Catholic and in places highly allegorical (and in many places its version of "history" is highly questionable, of course), it is an essential look at a time period where women didn't often make their views known in written form.

This book is distinct from "The Book of the Treasure of the City of Ladies".

I'm looking for the movie version of Sepncer's Mountain. Any idea on how to get it?

Please email to myersrule@earthlink.net Thank you!

For years I have loved the Walton Family.The Books on the Spenser family are delightful.Can anyone tell me how I could get the Movies The Homecoming.The original is Starring Patricia Neal,and then if I am not mistaken there is also a Christmas movie with the TV Walton Family.I would love to have these movies.Thanks for your help.

I picked this up at the library one day, being in a Christmas mood and after years of watching The Walton's "Homecoming" Christmas special and loving it. The story is quite different fromt the TV movie, somewhat more bleak in tone...Olivia here is worrying that her husband's delay in coming home is because he is off drinking somewhere instead of hurt in a bus accident. Probably a bit more accurate feel of the Depression here. Still very absorbing and touching, the characters are no less lovable. A nice short read for a rainy day.

Mr. Hinz's The Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring contains a great deal of detailed information that I didn't even know I needed to know. How much more there is to anchoring than dropping the hook and letting out some line! As well as the basic techniques, he covers heavy-weather anchoring, with some fascinating case histories, and also goes into great detail about the different types of anchor, and about bitts, winches, rope and chain rodes, and rode lockers. Mr. Hinz writes well - the book is easy to read, and he manages to convey the technicalities in accessible, layman's terms. This is a very practical, interesting, useful book for anyone who is serious about anchoring well and safely. Charles T. Low

I'm just getting started boating in the Pacific Northwest and I felt a lot more comfortable with anchoring after reading this book. Tremendous detail about the subject.

The explanation of hypoglycemia in this book is the best explanation I have come across since being diagnosed with it in 1979. The book describes my experience better than the explanation of any of the doctors I've been to (which are many) and better than anything else I've read (which isn't a whole lot). The history of the identification of hypoglycemia by Dr. Seale Harris and the evolution of the medical community's attitudes toward the disease are interesting, but a little confusing.

Espionage by the reckless Communists of the Peoples Republic of China is nothing new! Behind in nuclear research, they have been at that spy game for some time. Back in 1962, atomic weapon parity with the Soviets and the West continued to elude Mao Tse Tung's China. Most troubling to him was the lack of compact H-bombs to fit his bombers and missiles. Mao directed his Peoples Liberation Army intelligence staff to devise innovative ploys to steal those nuclear weapon secrets from the United States. A USAF B-52 pilot and his wife are trapped by Dr. Sung of the PLA and the wife is held hostage for him to deliver a weapon from the bomber. They face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The two resist. They stumble. The outcome is in doubt up to the last chapter. If you like the spy game and military aviation, the story will grab you. My experience in three wars as a combat pilot lends me a world of knowledge to judge the worth of the book.

This book provides a fascinating look into what multilateral diplomacy has become in the post Cold War Era. It is very helpful to scholars and students, especially those engaged in Model UN programs.

If you enjoyed watching The Walton's on TV, you will probably enjoy Spencer's Mountain, since apparently the show was based-on this book. The names are different, and you get a greater sense of the financial and social challenges facing the family, and there is no radio for the family to gather around after dinner, but it is very much the same story. If you can get past the differences in the names, you will be rewarded with a pleasant read, especially if read just before you drift off to sleep at night. Good night, John-boy.

I like this book alot and the guys who wrote it are super knowledgable. There is a fluorescent Mineral Museum on the net at Wordcraft.net. It mentions this book.

Muriel Spark's new novel interweaves the story of Lord Lucan, a dissolute English Earl who murdered his children's nanny and tried to kill his wife in 1974, then disappeared, with the story of Hildegard Wolf, a psychiatrist with an unconventional method of treating patients and a secret past of her own.

Rumours of Lord Lucan's whereabouts continue to pop up: noone knows if he is still alive or not. In this book, Spark has two separate "Lord Lucan"'s visit Dr. Wolf for treatment. Before long Wolf is wondering how much they know about her, how much they know about each other, and which if either of them is the real Lord Lucan. Several other people are drawn into the search for Lord Lucan, including an old friend of his, and the daughter of another old friend of his, and Hildegard's long-time lover. The resolution is amusing and unexpected.

Spark considers the complicity of accomplices in crime, and the morality of the "upper classes", and the persistence of guilt. Her writing is as always extremely clever -- dare I say it sparkles? -- and the book is slantingly funny and morally insistent and a thoroughgoing joy to read. At 82, Muriel Spark remains a truly brilliant writer. (Like another reviewer, I can't quite bring myself to rate this 5 stars -- but only because the book is so short. It's better than the average 4 star book, at any rate.)

Muriel Spark hasn't lost her touch. AIDING AND ABETTING isn't one of her very best novels (of her more recent books I prefer REALITY AND DREAMS, although AIDING AND ABETTING is far superior to SYMPOSIUM), but it's still a very good book.

As one reviewer below notes, a curious doubling is one of the tropes of this book--mistaken and overlapping identities mask, I suspect, a concern with lack of identity. Spark handles her various themes with her usual grace, wit, and, most importantly, economy. This book is 166 pages, and Spark uses every one of them well (even when she tells us something twice, we can be sure it is for a good reason).

One final note: AIDING AND ABETTING and DECLARE make for interesting comparison. I have no idea whether Muriel Spark and Tim Powers have much overlap in audience, but perhaps they should. They write very different books, but these two show an interesting coincidence of subject matter. Powers and Spark investigate the possibilities of infamous British aristocrats, in Powers' case Kim Philby, and in Spark's Lord Lucan. The Burgess and Maclean case comes up in both books, and the idea of the decaying English aristocracy as letting them and Lucan escape in a fit of apathy, disbelief, class loyalty, and moral paralysis is important to both writers' aims. Spark conjures up a future for Lucan while Powers' fantasy of history "explains" Philby and indeed the entire Cold War. Doubling, noted above as key to Spark's book, is equally important to Powers, on a more fantastic level. In the end, they take different approaches: Powers' Philby is fascinating, complex, sad and deservedly damned; Spark's Lucan is a study in the banality and triviality of evil. There is mystery, but Lucan is too small to be of great interest to his own story.

Muriel Sparks' latest novel "Aiding & Abetting" doesn't take up much shelf space but sure proves the adage that less may be more ! This psychological thriller, based on the unsolved Lord Lucan murder mystery, is so cleverly constructed and seamlessly meshed with the subject of another true story - that of the fake stigmatic Beate Pappenheim - I found myself unable to stop until I finished it in one sitting. Sparks' ingenious plotting is once again evident in the way the pulsating narrative takes unexpected twists and turns that keeps you in total suspense with the unyielding promise of a surprise ending. I felt my heart thumping and my mind racing just watching the two Lucans and Hildegarde and their aiders connive and plot to outwit each other. The novel may have taken class as its starting point but it is blood that binds their fate. Nobody writes like Sparks these days. Her dry wit and rare economy with words make for an eloquence that is both unique and unparalleled. It is also a hallmark of great writing. "Aiding & Abetting" may be her best work in recent times. This slim novel sure packs a wallop. It comes highly recommended.