Much like the film this book by Elizabeth Von Arnim inspired, there is something peaceful here on these pages. This is a gentle novel about the gradual internal changes brought about by the beauty of our surroundings. It is a book that reads itself as much as it is read, the author writing with the flow of the characters thoughts and feelings as their hearts are changed by the suprise of beauty.

An ad to rent a castle in San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera will prompt two British women, Rose and Lottie, with only a passing acquaintance, to inexplically leave their husbands behind for a summer that will change their lives and their marriages forever.

Joining Rose and Lottie for this holiday is Mrs. Fisher, an older woman living in the past, and Lady Caroline Dester, a grey-eyed society beauty tired of being gawked at like a majestic statue, not allowed to be human. Diverse in nature and temperment, not to mention background, they interact uneasily together until the flowers and the sea bring about a change in their souls.

Surrounded by fig and olive trees, plum blossoms and Tamarisk daphnes, and the scents of fortune's yellow rose and blooming acacia, the women slowly find their roles at this castle by the sea, and in doing so find themselves as well. New insights will prompt Rose and Lottie to send for their husbands. Lady Caroline, or 'Scrap' as she is known, will find love in spite of her wish to be alone and her great beauty. Mrs. Fisher will form a friendship with Lottie and her husband, and discover a renewed zest for creativity in this heaven by the sea.

This is a novel about life and love, told gently through the emotions of these women, as the the suprise of beauty and the warmth of being suddenly admired and seen as beautiful, when they had not been before, changes their simple lives, which were not so simple at all. You will definitely enjoy this novel if you enjoyed the film. It is about love restored, and love discovered, along the wistaria covered steps leading down to the sea.

"Enchanted April" is one of my favorite books. It is such a warm, witty, wonderful story, full of hope and romance. I hear it is going to be a Broadway show this April! (fittingly) I cannot wait... I know I'm going to be the first one on line for tickets, that's for sure. All you other "Enchanted April" lovers out there, I urge you to come see this show! I'm sure this will be one of the finest shows on Broadway in a long time!

Yay "Enchanted April!"

This is a delightful story...one of my favorite books! Gives you a little faith that even seemingly irreconcileable situations can be restored or transformed, that drastically different people can find common ground and become friends, and that people can change their lives for the better! A sunny read for a dark winter day!

This book was such a joy to read, I was genuinely sorry to see it end. And of course, it doesn't really end; it just goes on into the Guermantes Way. Rarely does one come across a novel that seems so completely pleasing and visionary in its effects upon the reader. Apart from the general relief one feels in seeing the author finally emerge from his prolonged sojourn in the shadow of his mother, there is also the vicarious pleasure derived from experiencing a long-ago summer at the mythical sea-side resort of Balbec, in the shadow of young women in the flower of youth. You feel as if you are truly there with him, walking the promenade, gazing out to sea, hearing the sea-gulls cry, feeling the sand between your toes, and being nineteen again and living carelessly.

Two great characters emerge from this novel who will exercise a profound influence on the young narrator as he matures in future volumes. The first is Robert de Saint-Loup, a dashing young soldier-playboy, whom Marcel clearly adores as a soul mate of sorts. This gives the reader pause; for considering how close the two young men become they manage to still consider themselves straight! Never mind, however, for we eventually learn that Saint-Loup is indeed bisexual, as are so many of the characters in this novel. Secondly we meet the playful, flirty Albertine whom Marcel decides is the one girl in the little band of jeunes filles whom he most wants as his female sexual conquest. Unfortunately, he does not have the capability of relating to her except in the most self-absorbed of ways.

Upon finishing WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE, the reader will have been introduced to virtually all the major characters in IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. Most importantly for later volumes, we meet and get to know Albertine, Robert de Saint-Loup, the painter Elstir, the diplomat Norpois, and Madame de Villeparasis, as well as a deepened acquaintance with such characters as Gilberte Swann, Madame Swann, and the extravagantly bizarre Baron de Charlus.

Proust's extraordinary genius is evident on every page of this amazing book. One could point to any of a few dozen moments to illustrate this. What is amazing to me about Proust is how he can take an amazingly everyday event, and build it to proportions as great as any battle scene in WAR AND PEACE. For instance, at the end of "Madame Swann at Home," the narrator recounts the times he would wait at the Arc de Triomphe to take a walk with Madame Swann and her entourage. The ensuing eight or nine pages, which merely recount the group walking through Paris, become as majestic and epic as any scene in Homer or Virgil or Tolstoy. No scene would seem to contain less potential for greatness, yet Proust is able to make it something truly unique and beautiful. Or, to take another incident, have there been many incidents in literature as filled with passion and emotion and suspense as the Narrator's first attempt to kiss Albertine? In a mere two pages, Proust is about to pack a surreal amount of dramatic (and comic) action.

Although famous for containing at least part of both of the narrator's great love affairs, I find this novel even more fascinating for the extraordinary detailing of the myriad of social and class distinctions to be found in the seemingly infinitely varied French society. The great theme throughout the book, even when not specifically mentioned, is snobbism, and Proust owns the subject of snobbery as Homer owns that of war. Proust reveals snobbery primarily proceeding from those slightly lower on the social ladder. Ironically, he reveals those at the top guilty not of snobbery but of insolence and disdain, while not even his servant Françoise is innocent of being a snob. The tensions in the novel become particularly acute given the changes that were taking place in French society at the time. This theme is not restricted to this novel alone. It featured in SWANN'S WAY, especially in the attitudes of the Verdurin "faithful" and will be a major theme of ensuing volumes, especially THE GUERMANTES WAY.

The section of the novel recounting his getting to know Elstir contains perhaps my favorite passage in all of Proust, where Elstir, upon the narrator's learning something unflattering of Elstir's past, tells him that no one has not done things that they would not love to expunge, but that no one ought to despise this, because this is the only way one can truly become wise. "We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one can else can make for us, which no one can spare, us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." This is not merely the opinion of Proust's character: it could stand as the central meaning of the novel as a whole.

Volume 3 of 12 of proust's Remembrance of things past is another great example of beautiful literature. In this volume Proust's leaves the innocence of boyhood and ventures forth towards young adulthood. His relationship with young Gilberte grows and eventually he falls in love with the pretty thing. Alas however there are problems and the narrator must face the fact that Gilberte will never be the one for him. All the while Proust's writes of Madame Swann the much talked about woman with a shady past. Though the mother of Gilberte the narrator paints her as a vision of beauty and grace. He is captivated by her as well and in one charming passage describes in great detail a spring coat she is wearing on one of her walks where in it he finds treasures and scents like no other. the reader can feel the coat as it is being described such a writer is Proust. this volume ends with Proust arriving at Balbec with his grandmother and observing the Hypocrisy around him. It is quite comical for no one is spared and each class at that time viewed the other with suspicion and disdain. I was quite disappointed when the last CD was through but I have already ordered volume 4. Naxos has done an excellent job in bringing to life Proust's masterpiece and I can't wait to listen to all 12 volumes. I will savor them however ordering one every so often just to excite my anticipation a bit more. this book contains 3 CDs and includes musical breaks between the reading.

Published and updated for the year 2000,this book is nevertheless another stellar contribution by author Terrence Dickinson.Spiral-bound,it is easily transported and accessed while out "looking." Well-presented, and down-to-earth(pardon the reverse pun) for those of us who are newbies to this most wonderful adventure of amateur astronomy.Dark skies!

After perusing a number of books, I found this one to be the best. It is the easiest introduction into astronomy and star gazing that is offered. Many of the confusing explanations of other books are ommitted. Moreover, the essentials of finding the constellations are easily explained and easily followed. Lastly, the book had a great further reading and information section that was very helpful. I recommend this book to anyone with a budding astronomy interest.

This is the first book I've read explaining the universe that keeps it simple enough for a beginner to understand. I checked the book out at the public library and can not wait to get my own copy and a highlighter. Fantastic!

I got this for my niece, a 10-year-old re-reader of the Potter books. I had read it in my early teen years, and followed up with the King Author books. The political undercurrents were invisible to me then, and don't add much now.

She said she liked it. I'll probably get her the Sword in the Stone for Christmas.

It has a happy ending. I had a crush on the protagonist as illustrated by Eichenberg. At 52 it is difficult to be sure of one's competence in reviewing a book for young people, but the memory of it persisted so long that I missed it, long since lost, and paid an exorbitant price for a used copy for my daughter a few years ago. She liked it too.

Odious though comparisons may be, I find more magic in the characters populating Mistress Masham's Repose than I do those in the Potter books. I think, too, that there is something to be said for the progressive maturity of the subsequent White books. Years from now my daughter and niece (and I) will still be enjoying T.H. White.

What if: after the publication of Gulliver's Travels, some unscrupulous men went to Lilliput, captured some of the inhabitants, and brought them back to exhibit in a sideshow? And what if some years later they escaped and took up residence in a moldering summer house on a forgotten island in a pond on the middle of a huge estate, where they lived their lives undiscovered for two centuries, until the orphan girl who lives there in modern times finds them? This is the intriguing premise of Mistress Masham's Repose, an unjustly forgotten work by the great T.H. White. This is the story of the girl's discovery, and how it changes her life and theirs. Complete with evil governess, scheming vicar, and seeming miles of passageways and mysterious rooms in the huge house, this is a great adventure book with a girl as the hero. My sisters and I loved it in the 50's, our children have loved our old copy in the 80's and 90's, and now t's being republished. Highly recommended.

Maria is a ten-year-old orphan girl, growing up in her crumbling ancestral home, under the authority of a cold guardian and a tyrannical governess. But when Maria paddles over to a small island in the center of a lake on the grounds, she makes a marvelous discovery: the island is peopled by Lilliputians. Yes, the sea captain who rescued Gulliver so long ago, returned, and trapped a group of the unfortunate Lilliputians for a sideshow act. But, they had escaped, and built themselves a new home on the island called Mistress Masham's Repose. Unfortunately, human nature has changed very little over the last three hundred years, and the Lilliputian's safety exists only in their being unknown to the humans living around them. Can Maria safeguard the little people from her greedy guardian and governess?

I caught the title of this charming book quite by accident, but am delighted to have it! Author T.H. White (who also wrote The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King) did an excellent job of building a magical world set into our own, peopled with characters that are fascinating, scary, charming, humorous, and so much more! The storyline kept me on the edge of my seat, as I watched Maria and the Lilliputians adventure through the book.

This is an excellent book for young readers, and for adults as well. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

This book has it all.

Make sure you view the Table of Contents with the 'Look inside this book' feature on this website. You will be amazed how much is included in this book.

Pros: Shows how to mix cultures, decorating styles, new with old, and functionality all under one roof. Provides lots of pictures. Anyone can make a comfortable living space inexpensively with this author's ideas. The best part, it doesn't look cheap!

Cons: Big and awkward book (0.85 x 13.71 x 9.99). I can only fit this on my coffee table or lengthwise on my bookshelf.

Honestly, I can make several pages with all the positive features of this book, but I won't drag this on... just buy the book! You won't be disappointed!!!

The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics is a must have for anyone that ever wanted to live in a home and make it all your own. Once again, the reigning champion of good design and master of style, Sir Terence Conran delivers the crème de la crème of home décor books.

Page per page, this book is the most prized in my home design/decorating collection (believe me, I've got a few hundred). Conran offers so many helpful tips and tidbits of information, it's hard not to pull this one off the shelf and reread chapters over again. Chock full of practical solutions and helpful content, amazing photographs (the kind that make you dream for hours) and easy to follow guidance for better living, The Essential House Book lives up to its name. The book is vast with knowledge offering information for all things from flooring to lighting to painting and much more.

The pure simple design and thoughtful information has made this book a staple in this genre of books. With so many books out there to choose from, time and again this will surface as the best available regardless of price.

This is the best design book in existence. Conran's ideas come off as modern/contemporary, but without the usual coldness or starkness. Think of his designs as simply functional, and without airs or pretense. This is the way we live today. And it's fun!

The Nature Company's Guide to sharks and rays is a well written introduction to this group of truly wonderful creatures. It is not the best book, but if you have an interest it should be in your library. It will be especially useful to the teen reader or marine naturalist/hobbyist. The photography and illustrations are beautiful and informative. The write ups on individual species, while not all inclusive to any particular group or geographic area are great. They cover some little known but fascinating animals. My only complaint is that it's a little TO visual, it tends to rely on the graphic to make points over the text and is a little short on newer science. But this may be a plus for the new student of marine biology. If you or an friend has an interest in fishes in general or elasmobranchs in particular you want this book.

What an excellent, well organized reference source for anyone interested in sharks, and especially for scuba divers looking for a good identification book.

Of all the shark books I've reviewed, this one tops my list and is recommended to readers of my web site.

We bought this book as a Christmas gift for our 12 year old daughter who is fascinated with sharks. What a gem!!! We keep it on the coffee table now as a reference book. Every time an undersea show comes on, someone grabs the book to look up whatever they discuss. This book is full of great information and incredible photographs. Anyone interested in the ocean MUST get this book. We are all certified scuba divers and it is especially valuable to us for identifications, habitats and habits of sharks and rays, and general information which we need to know when siting one of these marvelous creatures!!

I have read all 15 of the "Wingman" series books and they are great. They are the type of books, once you start reading, you can't put it down until you finish. There is never a dull moment. Again, I wish the film industry would make a series, such as they did with " Star Wars or Star Trek". I hope Mack will keep writing as I love his books.

I have read and collected every book in the series and like other Wingman fans, I whish that Mack would write them faster. For months, I wait and wait for any news about the context and release date of the next book. If there are any fans that know anything about the next Hawk Hunter adventure, please fax me the news.

As an avid reader of the WINGMAN series, I have to say that they only get better and better. This is no exception. Great plot, characters, and storytelling. Mack Maloney at his best! A definite must read.

For the money you can't go wrong this is an excellent book for people just starting out in astronomy or who need a better understanding of the night sky and where to locate things. This book is packed full of info. and nice color photographs to go along with the many things you can see in a small telescope. I wouldnt really suggest this book though to those who allready know how to locate things and have a good understanding of astronomy. For the new person though theres tons of night time sky charts with details of nebulas and everything else in that part of the sky. Theres an excellent part that shows you how to measure the distances between stars & constellations to locate those harder to find subjects!! An excelent book that deserves a 5 star review. I forgot to mention that it's spiral bound so this makes it easy to lay flat and keep on a certain page. And don't forget take your time with the book to learn things the night sky isnt going anywhere!

Terence Dickinson's "Nightwatch" is a practical all-around guide to amateur astronomy. Spiralbound for outdoor and easier use, and packed with colorful pictures, charts and skymaps, the book gives the reader all the help needed to become a first class amateur astronomer. Wonderfully written with chapters on the Sun, the moon, the planets and the motions of the sky, the constellations and the stars, comets, meteors, eclipses and auroras, stargazing equipment and photographing the nightsky this revised and updated edition is expanded for use through the year 2010, and contains also a chapter on resources covering astronomy magazines, books, software, clubs, conventions and useful websites as well as information on observatories and leading manufacturers of astronomical telescopes and binoculars. An acomplished astronomer himself and the author of 14 books, with "Nightwatch" Dickinson has crafted one of the best astronomy field guides available today. A superb book!

A few months ago someone gave me a telescope for my birthday. I was eager to use it but felt I could get more out of it if I understood what I was pointing at in the night sky. In my quest for knowledge in this area I stumbled upon "NightWatch: a practical guide to the viewing the universe." It gave me a quick and thorough understanding of backyard astronomy field in a simple and easy to understand language free of all the technical jargon you may find in other sources (not that these are bad in themselves). I strongly recommend this book for the amateur astronomer, especially before going out to purchase a telescope or binoculars. The book gives some hefty and misery saving advise on equipment, its use and what to watch out for. To be honest, even wished the person who purchased the telescope had read this before doing so.

The authors have a great hypothesis regarding the relationship between consciousness, neurochemistry, quantum mechanics, and the I Ching, but they get bogged down in a writing style that seems aimed at a very narrow segment. There is no need to write in such a way as to confuse readers. If they had decided to write a book more accessible to the average reader in its style, I believe that their ideas would be more widely known and believed today. As it is, I doubt that more than several hundred people have any idea of the connections that they have made.

Overall, just a shame to lose such a great idea.

_The Invisible Landscape_ by Terence and Dennis Mckenna is a highly modernized, up-to-date version of Jungian psychotherapy with an emphasis on brain-chemistry at the molecular level. Mckenna has fascinating theories on the nuances and inner workings of the subatomic particles within the DNA molecules in the human brain. According to Mckenna, the behavior of the atoms within our DNA actually determines the very nature of our conscious existence. Specifically, the patterns in which the electrons orbit the atomic nuclei in our DNA atoms form an Analog representation of what we are seeing; the electrons themselves move in such a manner as to create a type of morse-code which translates our sense perceptions into conscious being. This "analog theory of the brain" represents the crowning achievement of this book. The vibrations of the subtomic particles in our brain create reality in the same way in which digital and analog code create images on a computer screen.

But all of this has yet to be proved. Nevertheless, _The Invisible Landscape_ is a modern masterpiece of speculative philosophy/psychology. It represents the outermost reaches of far-seeing speculative theory. It is, therefore, a welcome departure from more conservative forms of thinking. Terence Mckenna also tries his hand at claivoyant soothsaying, providing the reader with his own unique doomsday prophecy loosely based on the hexagrams of the I-Ching. This so-called "timewave zero" graph maps the cycles of cultural and social "novelty" mankind has experienced over history. Suffice it to say that this theory is still open to debate.

Overall, the analog theory of mind, along with the "holographic theory of mind", make this book worth reading. _The Invisible Landscape_ is a hidden gem of psychological theory that should not be overlooked. Even though its emphasis is on complex molecular theories, it is quite readable and entertaining. It is geared toward the literary mind as well as the scientific mind, so I would recommend it to any ambitious reader regardless of their experience in neurology or chemistry.

a razzle dazzle trip through math, mysticism and madness that will surely make the poet rejoice while the "rational" scientist churns. Among McKenna's work, I find this one to require the greatest stretch or leap of the imagination - which makes it one of my favorites!

To fully enjoy and understand the brilliance of McKenna, one must open up their intuition and greatest capacity for open-mindedness. We are dealing with visionaries musing at the extremes and blissing out with philosophic rapture or torture at almost every turn. These are experiences way beyond the "realities" most will ever know.

Another remarkable capacity of Terence was his ability to spin the words in a way that adventurously captures the essence of the experience while entertaining his readers literally BEYOND BELIEF!

As for the entheogen-cynics that knocked McKenna: He had more insight and made more contribution than all the cynics put together.

Long live his indomitable spirit!

I found that "Genomes" provides the reader with a thorough yet gentle introduction to the field -- ample illustrations, well-written text, frequent sidebars describing relevant techniques or developments. I've found the book to be a good reference to have on the shelf, and have purchased copies for people when they join my lab group in order to introduce them to or refamiliarize themselves with the technologies underlying the generation of sequence data. I can very easily see this book being used to supplement lectures in an introductory course on genomics and biotechnology.

"This is a superb textbook for modern molecular biology. The set-up of the book is very reader-friendly. Everything is cross-referenced, which is enormously helpful. Another nice aspect of the book is the small, digestible sections separate from the main body of text. Overall Brown's book is an excellent textbook that provides a thorough account of what is known about Genomes today."

Great overview of the field. Very strong usage of diagrams and illustrations. Logical and clear progress from chapter to chapter. I had no prior knowledge in the field and after reading this book I feel I can understand most concepts challenges and research efforts on the field. A great book for anyone who wants to get up to speed on this fascinating field.