While I would've loved to LOVE this book...I just couldn't. Marina Warner has barely scraped the surface of all there is to be said about myth and legend in connection with societal thinking in this little book (originally six essays for BBC radio). Each chapter undertakes a different aspect of society from women, to cannibalism, to our idealization of childhood. In all honesty, each one could've been a book in itself if expanded and pondered over. Due to the fact that each essay was relatively short it felt as if Warner's points were rushed and ill-researched. While I would put this book above some others that connect modern examples with myth, I still think that Warner could've done a more in-depth job and added more focus to individual chapters. They each seem to skip around a bit and lack effective organization.

Don't get me wrong, there are a number of gems in the pages of this work. Warner draws interesting parallels between myth and folklore and how it continues to resurface in modern times whether it be film, writing, television, etc. She also cites numerous outside sources that sound fascinating and that inspired her work. In a way, this work is a jumping-off point into a throng of directions into cultural criticism.

I loved Marina Warner's _Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form_, so when I saw this book, I had to have it. I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed after _Monuments and Maidens_. I expected a more in-depth study. Instead, these six essays barely seem to scratch the surface of the topics. These essays are basically transcripts of six lectures Warner gave for BBC radio, which explains their brevity, but it's a shame she didn't expand upon them when she decided to publish them in print.

Still, there are some very interesting things here. I would definitely recommend it if you're interested in folklore and are just starting your studies. For the advanced student, the book just leaves you wanting more.

I really love reading Warner's work. Her analyses are sometimes surprising and often brilliant, the writing beautiful. I use this book in teaching Gender Psychology and when I wrote The Secret Lives of Girls (Free Press, 2002).

I found this book to be very easy to use. I had tried to follow other diets such as The Zone but they were too complicated. The emphasis in this book is on fresh food--especially leafy green vegetables with recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. I don't cook so the easy part is very important to me. The writing style is conversational and fun. The carbohydrate counter is useful as are the suggested menus. Weight loss is relatively painless using this plan.

How refreshing to have some new recipes for healthy eating. Short and to the point anyone can follow this simplified plan. This book reads like a conversation with a friend...easy. It gives you all the facts you need and some great new ways to think about your choices for a healthy life. Short, Simple and to the point... just the Facts. Great Read and it works!

Let's face it in the real world people are fat! We eat such unhealthy food, and have such undisciplined eating habits -- we need help! I found this book reafeshing, new ideas, innovative concepts, very practical and easy to use. A must for anyone who wants to loose weight the right and healthy way. The author's introduction was sincere and helpful. I have had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Barnes -- she truely lives what she writes.

This small book is part of a vague series called Icons by Taschen. They are a dim reflection on some of their larger works.

This book is definitely not for beginners, not meant to be an introduction to Man Ray. However, it has some value for people familiar with Man Ray, Andre Breton and/or Dada. Think of it as material for art history or food for thought about the time.

Do yourself a favor and don't try to learn about Man Ray from this book or any of the enthusiastic or overblown "reviews" of it. Start with something more comprehensive.

If and when you already know about Man Ray and where he fits, get this book and carry it around when you want to feed your head a little. It is nicely done and fills that need very well.

For those unfamiliar with Man Ray, he is not primarily known as a photographer and never intended to be. It is probably the ease of publishing his photographs that has distracted people to thinking of him this way. Don't miss the rest of his work, especially his writing. Read his autobiography and use his photographs as a "program" to identify the players, perhaps.

I bought this book expecting it to be a basic guide on Man Ray's work. The problem is it happens to be a little too basic. You can't find Man Ray's most expressive work, except for "Tears" (only on the cover), "Le Violin d'Ingres", "Mask of Woman", "Le Priere" and a few Rayographs. It seems to be a biographic record instead of an art book, although it doesn't blur the genius of Man Ray's photographs.

Man Ray used photography as painterly art, not photojournalism. Time spent with each plate provides a vista to questions, epiphanies, riddles, personality or beauty. His nudes are utterly refreshing in a time when women are photographed as blank "hey baby, what's your number" objects. (Ruth Bernhard also recommended.)

Add this book to your collection for the plates alone, but the accompanying essays are terrific. Better yet, visit the mind-expanding collection at the Getty in Los Angeles.

I first read this story during Christmas week of my 5th Christmas. My mother found it in its entirety in a Christmas magazine and I read it.

An unnamed girl is sent out into the cold by her abusive father to sell matches. He beats her whenever she fails to bring in a satisfactory income for her work.

One night, after a day of no sales, the child, frozen to the bone, lights a match. A glorious vision of a Christmas tree appears. The vision fades away when the match burns out. The second match the girl lights shows a Christmas feast. This feast of illusions dies too, with the match.

The third time she lights a match, her beloved, deceased grandmother appears. The girl runs to her, never to return to the cold again. The next morning she is found frozen to death in the snow.

This story gets to me 100% of the time. To this day it makes me get misty eyed. It is truly the saddest Christmas story I have ever come across.

Oh the fond memories of this classic tale. This story tells of a little girl who obeys her abusive fathers' orders to stand in the freezing temperatures selling fireplace matches on the corner. She must sell all of the matches before she can return home. It was Christmas and she admired a puppy in the window at the pet store. Through the final three lit matches, she wishes of warm Christmas memories of her beloved deceased grandmother.
A must read story with the children. This is a heartwrenching tale that gets me choked up even as an adult. This story is an eye opener for everyone to count their blessings ever how big or small.
I want desperately to find this classic story on video (as I remember it when my brothers and I watched it as children many years ago).

What would you do if you saw a little girl with bare feet and tattered clothing? Would you help her out and buy the matches she was selling? Would you just pass by her and never thing twice about it? Most people would just pass her by. That is what happed to this little Match Girl. No one helped her out and unimaginable things happened to her. Read the story and find out what happens.
I think the message that this story is trying to give is that you shouldn't just pass up the chance to help out people that are in need. For example, in this story the little girl was very poor. If she didn't bring home some money, her fater would beet her. You should try to help out people when you can. What if that person was you? You would want to get helped, right?

...This was badly constructed and a total waste of money. I read it in a few hours and promptly thru it in the trashcan.

Hello!!!

This book probably appeals most to two kinds of people: those who don't cook and therefore are stuck when the recipe in BH&G doesn't pan out they way they expected, and the typical Alton Brown kitchen science person who not only has I'm Just Here for the Food but Cookwise, Kitchen Science, the complete Best Recipe series, and a sufficiently warped sense of humor to be rolling on the floor on each and every page of Kitchen Confidential. Pity that, because it's good for far more than just those two groups.

This book is really about crunch-time creativity (especially when the crunchy stuff is stuff that shouldn't be crunching). The sense of humor in the book is a bit dotty and (Julia) Childish, but it really goes out of its way to portray cooking disasters as something not to cry over, and even tells the rather sad story of the chef François Vatel and his suicide over a misunderstood fish order to make its point. It's not a book for culinary purists -- creative uses abound of convenience foods that most wannabe master chefs wouldn't normally touch -- but keep in mind the best section of your average church/school/community cookbook is probably the section on hints, tips, and substitutions, and remember that this is a whole book of that kind of thing. It's the culinary equivalent of a hospital crash cart.

Someone else said that this is something you will need mainly in emergencies. Well, that's pretty much true, but it's still a good book to pull off the shelf and just read, both for the information and the jokes. It also has the bonus of including a complete (rather sophisticated) meal made entirely with "spare parts" ingredients and instructions on dealing with balky equipment. Good stuff, and should be on every cook's bookshelf, not just the ones who need it most.

This is one book that every household should have, especially if you just moved out and Mom's no longer doing the cooking for you. I found this book in a single friend's stack of books and started browsing through it and can't put it down. As the title suggests, there is a remedy for most of your cooking mistake. And if there's none, then the book itself is still a funny read.

This is a padded-out excuse to present a few anecdotes about Gurdjieff, plus some old photos and such and make a few bucks off the Gurdjieff cultists who must have every book pertaining to him, but so what. It does give another perspective, however insignificant, to the events of three-quarters of a century ago, something that is sorely needed in the environment of true believers of various stripes with the entrenched positions about the man they worship as a living god or dismiss as a charlatan. The truth is somewhere in between, and this work is one of the few that seems to reflect that. And it is quite well presented.

Luba Gurdjieff's memoir is a delightful reflection on her life with a most unique family that included her Uncle G.I. Gurdjieff. For those of us keenly interested in the philosophy of Mr. Gurdjieff, you may find yourself wanting more reflections on her remarkable Uncle and less on her joys and tribulations of operating a bistro in London for many years. Yet for those who love the Gurdjieff Work, any stories and memories of that remarkable social experiment known as the Priory, relish any memories of those heady days. And for this alone Luba's memoirs are enough. Only Thomas & Olga deHartmann's "Our Life With Mr. Gurdjieff" comes as close to providing that feeling of domesticity & intimacy with the great man as this book does. Moreover, she conveys an earthy appreciation & savor of life itself (very much her Uncle's neice)in her approach to feeding the bodies and souls of those who came her way. The cuisine is standard European bistro fare, with the odd exception of corn on the cob! Her borsht recipe is one of the best I've had, as well as her remembrance of her Uncle's famous salad recipe is a joy to read. This book is a delight for both gourmet & gourmand, but it's real quality is the warm, open hospitality of the old world that shines in every page.

Luba's book is enjoyable in many ways. The recipes, like the memoirs, are down to earth and represent good honest cooking, most of it Luba's and not her uncle's.

Luba tells of the ups and downs in her life and demonstrates how in spite of difficulties with the help of her fighting spirit she made it. Her life-span takes us through both of the World Wars. The first caused the family to emigrate, the second required a great deal of hard work to survive.

Full of life and laughter, and reminiscent of her uncle, she tells of her visit to Coombe Springs, run by J. G. Bennett, two years after she left the place. She came there at tea time and was looking for her friend:

"...they were all sitting around on their bottoms, the legs all cross. I said, "Hey, everybody - anybody know where is Nottie?" It was as if nobody was there. Nobody even looked at me. They were all concentrating, or constipated - I don't know what they were. Just sitting there. I started clapping my hands, shouting, "Wakey, Wakey!"

Ms. Miller has pleased her mystery readers again in Mayhem At The Marina. Entertwining plot lines pick up from her first novel--The Killing At The Cat and send us off to a wonderfully full community of warm characters at a Florida marina.

Descriptive and vivid, we cannot wait to thumb the pages and see what Lexy gets into next. A dysfunctional family murder, holiday fireworks, lust, love, compassion and Lexy's realization of her craving for Wren & settling down in a lesbian relationship which any hetrosexual would yearn for.

A flowing read with just enough twists & turns to make us trowel our fingers through our hair & still smile.

Carlene Miller integrated character development, intrigue, sex, and mayhem all into a tidy little ball. The author gives each character many roles. Damaris was an alluring yet spooky international icon...fighting against the evils of her country. Charlie was the tough kid, needing some place to call home and some one to love her. And Lexy finds herself in many daring situations from being killed to being committed to Wren. I enjoyed the way community (straight & lesbian plus the spanning from the very young to the elderly) was integrated even though there were a few snags. It take a lot for people to step out and say they'll help when there are so many unknowns, yet Robbie, Marilyn (the Admiral), Meg, Cap, and Lexy all took a chance to make Charlie a new life. I found Lexy Hyatt's second book before her first and I can't wait to read it too.

In Mayhem at the Marina, Carlene Miller capitalizes on her ability to weave an intricate plot and to create believable characters. The plot is easier to follow than in Killing at the Cat, but is also more believably complex. Instead of setting up characters as suspects like tenpins and then knocking them down, she has the several strands of the plot quite logically produce people who have urgent motives for killing. The plot also deals with contemporary issues that matter to the people of her setting, a small marina in small-town Florida. As in Cat, Miller creates a sizable group of disparate characters, all of whom connect to each other in some way. Most are vividly drawn and individual, especially the perversely charming Charlie and the exotic Damaris. Some of the older women do not stand out as sharply -- Fran and Donna, for example -- but the "Iron Maiden" from Cat reappears, strong and unique. Even the men in this female genre are well-drawn, particularly Cap and the vile Steve. With this second book, Miller has honed her style, making it cleaner and sparer. Occasionally it becomes too spare, too many sentences beginning with the subject-verb beginning, for example. Gone are many of the heavy references to Lexy's past as an English teacher with a penchant for correcting grammar. Instead, that past is used to develop character, helping her to understand the teenage Charlie. Still somewhat annoying is the speech habit of starting sentences with the verb (Looked out and saw... Wanted to know...), a habit which could conceivably belong to one character but not to so many. One major drawback of the novel is the vagueness of Lexy's character and/or personality. It is difficult to understand sometimes what the other characters see in her when so many of them are more interesting than she is. Perhaps it is the choice of writing in the first person that makes Lexy not as fully limned. A future book written in third person might showcase Miller's considerable talent for creating believable characters in arresting plots.

An interesting book, I found myself reading and rereading entire passages. Not only because I enjoyed the text, but also because the translation was sometimes so awkward that I had trouble making sense of some sections. Perhaps the next edition will be better produced.

Ms. Minghelli is a writer dedicated to authenticity and tries to pluck out the truth which hides below the shiny veneer of the illusory self. She attempts to depict a truthful image of the feminine, instead of the mythic image touted by many feminists.

Thomas Seay

This book had open my mind about my interiority. It's wellwritten and the languige is pecise and poetic. I read it with greatpleasure, cause it has a deep sensibility

Finestein's translations are so awful, it is no wonder that few English speakers want to know who Tsvetaeva is. She loses the rhythm, rhyme, literary devices, and everything for which Tsvetaeva's poetry is so loved. The duality of meanings and word play is also completely lost. Try Angela Livingstone's translations - they are excellent.

Read this book! and read about her life. She witnessed so much darkness and her words open up these experiences, lay them bare. I really wonder what her writing would have been if she had lived a different life, one without so much tragedy. She also recognized, as did Virginia Woolfe, that it is difficult for women to write amidst the responsibilities of everyday life -- "I have no time to think . . . I have only ever been myself in notebooks . . . for all my life I have been leading a child by the hand." Her work stays with you long after the book closes.

Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow in 1892, published her first poems at 18, and was married with two children when the Russian Revolution began. She endured numerous hardships -- one of her children died of malnutrition -- and a period of exile. She returned to Russia in 1939, but was so beset by her circumstances that she committed suicide in 1941. These passionate and autobiographical poems are deep and important. I don't know Russian, so cannot comment on the translation. From them one learns about Tsvetaeva the artist: her subjects are love and transformation, nature, poetry, love, and her complicated, exasperating country -- and, later, the bleakness which enveloped her. Poetry was serious business in Russia, and this poet was one of the greats.

i liked this book and the spells in it.
the only problem is,
are oils ,,,?
and where do i get certain flowers?
also, where in the world can i find a stone with a hole in it!!
and aren't crystals ...?

besides that, the book was good and the spells weren't hard or too complicated.

I am an idle buyer of spell books. I am like Mellee, who is obsessed with Witchy books. This one would be a useful one for the Wiccan or Witch or Pagan who knows about the ethics and has studied the Craft for a bit. I guess it will come in handy. One thing I laughed about is the Spell "Invisi-spell". Where you look at the teacher, and say a chant asking the God and Goddess to hide you if you fear you will be called to speak to the class. Or if you haven't done the work, you ask the God and Goddess to hide yourself so the teacher doesn't ask you. I think its silly. You should have done the work. I mean, come on. Would the Goddess and God even do that for ya? I will try it! hehe. Over all, its great. I agree with Mellee on the Sabbat thing. Yes, thats enough.

I am 17 years old, and an established Pagan Witch with an obsession for collecting witchy books aimed at teens. 'Spells for Teenage Witches' by Marina Baker is one of the nicer books. Lovely layout and ethical, usefull spells means this book makes my recommended list. While not for the total beginner (although it does make some mention of ethics etc, it seems targeted at Wiccan-influenced young Witches who have already studied a bit), it is handy for someone like myself. Even if you write your own spells and rituals, I think you will enjoy this book. Simplistic but beautiful, it is about a hundred pages of goodness. The only quibble I have is with a statement on 'The witches sabbats' (as the chapter is called) where Baker states that Yule is one of the greater sabbats and Samhain one of the lesser, when it is in fact the other way around. Other than that, the info was practical and mostly accurate.

Blessings.