Okay, the title snared me, but this little book is not about either mangos or princesses, but rather about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its effect on the author and her family. Ms. Crimmins sketches a gritty, brutally candid and knowledgeable tale of what happens when her husband is terribly injured in a boating accident. I would label this book a must read for anyone dealing with TBI, as well as for all of us who will probably come upon it in some form at some time or another. "Imagine a world where the library is intact, but the librarian has gone insane." When something terrible happens in a family, the dynamics that made that family what it was, can and do disappear forever - and what's left is a far shot from what we bargained for. The book is not warm or fuzzy or inspirational or spiritual, the characters are not always very likeable, but the insights are very personal and true, from her own admittedly stupid mistakes to simple miscalculations, and the reactions of folks who can't or won't understand brain injury. Ms. Crimmins not only writes of their personal journey through the maze of TBI, but the entire medical support/non-support systems that are in place and how "Managed Care" is a silly oxymoron that is being sold to us to insure [no] care when we most need it. The transfer of her husband from the Canadian hospital to the US left me gasping - simply incomprehensible and inexcusable. The responses of the HMO were sobering and agonizing and maybe even criminal? Crimmins says "I fantasize about roasting the executives [of HMOs] on a spit, then taking them down and throwing a few Band-Aids and a jar of Vaseline at them: 'Here's the treatment - this is what we've authorized for first-degree burns under your plan.'" Read this book for first hand knowledge and understanding.

In her no holds barred book, Where Is The Mango Princess? Cathy Crimmins takes the reader on a candid journey of courage, determination and humor, as she struggles to rebuild her life following a senseless accident which leaves her husband Alan with severe traumatic brain injury. In the weeks and months after the accident, Cathy shares the challenges she and her family face as Alan survives coma, completes rehab,and re-enters the workforce.

Cathy's take charge and 'take no prisoners' attitude as she battles her HMO with a razor sharp wit, is indicative of the conversations many of us have in our heads, but would never dare verbalize. As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I found her story touching, bold and brilliantly executed.

Having never read a book that talked about a personal experience with Traumatic Brain Injury, I found myself unable to put the book down. My god-daughter recently sustained a head injury from being thrown from an All Terraine Vehicle (ATV) and I found so much of Cathy Crimmins' story right on the mark. This book can be a difficult book to read because of the deeply emotional subject, but is a touching memoir told with a great deal of humor, and most of all... honesty.

Reading this book will touch anyone who has ever known someone who has sustained a TBI. It's also a book that should be shared after reading it. I congratulate the author for sharing her story; one that shares the heartache and explores the mystery of dealing with a loved one who survives a serious head injury. It's a world that I hope my family is spared from ever knowing firsthand.

I guess we never know how we will respond to a life changing event, and Cathy Crimmins shows the human side - the ups and downs with a rare openess. This is not anything like the Harrison Ford movie, Regarding Henry, where he wakes up a sweet guy afer a serious accident. This is what really happens! This is a must read.

As an undergraduate student I found the book "Play the Game" most insightful. The language was easy to read and understand. I was surprised to learn that a student does not have to have a 4.0 to get accepted into graduate school. Dr. Paredes gave many examples of his own graduate experiences and related his knowledge to how a student in graduate school can succeed emotionally, financially, and profesionally. He points out a misconception many graduate students have, that people care and that people are willing to help. Dr. Paredes goes into great depths on writing a thesis/dissertation. He gives a great deal of advice that will also carry over in the business sector once one has entered the workforce. I was truly amazed by the number of games involved in the process of achieving a graduate degree. I strongly urge anyone pursuing a college degree to read this book. I believe this book can give one the edge they will need to succeed in graduate school.

This book is extrememly easy to read and understand, unlike some books about graduate school. The author is also honest and comes across as very sincere (he believes what he says). The title implies that the whole of graduate school is about politics. I disagree. While politics is a large and important concern, it is not the only factor. However, the author doesn't dwell on just this one issue. He covers everything from how to make your application more attractive to selection committees to how to pick your major advisor and committee, to the final defense. This is a great reference book to have in your collection. After reading it, you'll find yourself thumbing through it again and again to get valuable information. The author even has a section about how to write your thesis or dissertation and not to be afraid of writing these large reports. All and all, a great book to have on your shelf.

The time it took me to get my masters and Ph.D. was the most exciting time of my life. I had forgotten about the many obstacles to getting my masters and my doctorate, the hoops, the sleazy professors, the critiques of papers, the critiques of theses and dissertation drafts, flunking the written exams and having to take them over again, flunking the oral exams and having to take them over again, and the final defense. It was the most demanding and exciting time in my life. Dr. Paredes let me relive this part of my life again and I appreciate it. This book included every issue most graduates encounter, and I urge anyone wanting to go to graduate school to read it. The only bad thing about this book was that it ended. Thank you Dr. Paredes for writing such an insightful book.

This fascinating and informative book is crammed with all manner of information on the artistic vision, political struggles and plain hard work that went into the creation of the Sistine Chapel. Right up front you learn that Michelangelo did not paint that enormous ceiling lying flat on his back, but did so standing upright, painting above his head. You also learn that he did not want the job, seeing himself as not much of a painter and aching to get back to sculpting. The difficult technique of fresco painting is gone into in detail, giving the reader a glimpse of the monumental effort behind this masterpiece. The key characters in the book are, of course, the rugged rough Michelangelo and the urbane Warrior Pope, Julius II. This is art history vibrant with biography and background and makes for good story-telling.

Ahhh.....remember Charlton Heston as Michelangelo- all alone, on his back- painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Well, in this very informative and enjoyable book, Ross King quickly clears up those two major misconceptions. Michelangelo was not on his back: the scaffolding was placed 7 feet below the ceiling. Michelangelo painted while standing, reaching overhead, with his back arched. And, he had plenty of help in his glorious enterprise. Michelangelo took on the project with a great deal of reluctance. What he had really been excited to do was the job Pope Julius II had originally had in mind: the sculpting of the Pope's burial tomb. For Michelangelo considered himself to be a sculptor rather than a painter. Though originally trained, in his early teens, as a painter, he had devoted himself almost entirely to sculpting in the nearly 20 year period which had elapsed between his training and receiving the summons from Pope Julius II to begin work on the Sistine Chapel. Additionally, Michelangelo had never before painted a fresco, which is a very tricky process involving painting on wet plaster. (He had once started preparatory work on a fresco project where he was supposed to go "head to head" with Leonardo. Alas, that project never came to pass!) So, Michelangelo did what any sensible person would do...he hired as assistants artists who had prior experience doing frescoes. Thus begins the fascinating tale of the four year project. Along the way we learn of Renaissance rivalries- Michelangelo had once taunted Leonardo da Vinci in public for having failed in his attempt to cast a giant bronze equestrian statue in Milan. Leonardo gave as good as he got: "He claimed that sculptors, covered in marble dust, looked like bakers, and that their homes were both noisy and filthy, in contrast to the more elegant abodes of painters." There was also the rivalry between Raphael and Michelangelo. The two artists couldn't have been more different- Raphael, handsome, charming, well-mannered and sociable (and a notorious connoisseur of beautiful women); Michelangelo- squat nosed and surly, pathologically suspicious, seemingly uninterested in anything unrelated to his art. Raphael was at work on a fresco in the Pope's library, in another section of the Vatican, at the same time Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel. One of the most interesting parts of the book occurs when the ceiling is halfway completed. All the scaffolding was removed so that the Pope could examine the work to date. This was also the first time that Michelangelo could get an idea of how the ceiling would look from the floor of the chapel. He is said to have been shocked at how small his figures looked, and when he started work on the second half of the ceiling he decreased the number of figures portrayed but increased their size by an average of four feet. It is also said that at this time Raphael, realizing how much more public and prestigious the Sistine Chapel project was than his own assignment in the Pope's library, lobbied to be allowed to do the second half of the ceiling. Of course, that never came to pass. Mr. King manages to incorporate an amazing amount of material into such a relatively small book: We learn about the complexities of fresco painting, especially on a concave surface; what materials the pigments were made of and the processes involved in making them; Michelangelo's lack of interest in adding realistic landscapes to the backgrounds of his compositions (he considered landscape painting to be an inferior form of art); his sense of humor- in one of the tableaus he has a character "making the fig" at another character (an Italian equivalent of giving someone the finger). The author also shows us the difficult relationships Michelangelo had with his father and brothers (they were always hitting him up for money or trying to get him to use his influence to get them jobs, etc.). And, as a change-of-pace, punctuating the entire book we have Pope Julius II going out on various military campaigns to punish wayward Italian city-states (and dragging along his reluctant cardinals)! Somehow, Mr. King manages to weave all this together into a seamless, smoothly flowing narrative. This is an excellent book, both educational and entertaining!

Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King tells the story of four years, 1508-1512, in the life of three larger than life personalities: Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and Raphael. Mr. King's latest nonfiction historical "thriller" is, however, more than a story of the four years that Michelangelo spent laboring over the twelve thousand square feet of the vast ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In Mr. King's able hands it becomes an early 16th century soap opera, starring Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and Raphael, and featuring all the intrigue, passion, violence, and pettiness of a Sopranos' episode. What's so astonishing is that all that is told actually happened -- it's history.
Ross King's gift is his ability to bring us, his readers, back through the maze of time and lead us to an understanding of all that coalesced -- politically, socially, and artistically -- to create great art, great history and, for us, great reading.
According to King:
"Pope Julius II was not a man one wished to offend.... A sturdily built sixty-three-year old with snow-white hair and a ruddy face, he was known as il papa terrible , the 'dreadful' or 'terrifying' pope.... His violent rages, in which he punched underlings or thrashed them with his stick were legendary.... In body and soul he had the nature of a giant. Everything about him is on a magnified scale, both his undertakings and passions."
Michelangelo and Raphael as portrayed by King:
"Almost as renowned for his moody temper and aloof, suspicious nature as he was for his amazing skill with the hammer and chisel, Michelangelo could be arrogant, insolent, and impulsive....If Michelangelo was slovenly and, at times, melancholy and antisocial, Raphael was, by contrast, the perfect gentleman. Contemporaries fell over themselves to praise his polite manner, his gentle disposition, his generosity toward others....Raphael's appealing personality were accompanied by his good looks: a long neck, oval face, large eyes, and olive skin -- handsome, delicate features that further made him the antithesis of the flat-nosed, jug-eared Michelangelo."
The stories of these three men during this extraordinary four year period and the art they produced is the story embodied in Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling. The confrontations between Julius II and Michelangelo are legendary. "The major problem seems to have been that Michelangelo and Julius were remarkably alike in temperament. Michelangelo was one of the few people in Rome who refused to cringe before Julius."
For almost the entire four years Michelangelo was shadowed by the brilliant young painter Raphael, who was working in fresco on the neighboring Papal apartments. This rivalry the Pope seemed to enjoy and encourage. To help us better understand the friction between these two great artists King introduces us to Edmund Burke's treatise on the sublime and the beautiful:
"For Burke, those things we call beautiful have the properties of smoothness, delicacy, softness of color, and elegance of movement. The sublime, on the other hand, comprehends the vast, the obscure, the powerful, the rugged, the difficult -- attributes which produce in the spectator a kind of astonished wonder and even terror. For the people of Rome in 1511, Raphael was beautiful but Michelangelo sublime."
For me, reading a book like Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling is the way to read history. Mr. King transported me back to those four years during which Michelangelo and Raphael created art both beautiful and sublime. I was there with and among the players, engrossed in the anecdotes King skillfully wove into his narrative. This is history -- up close and personal -- and yet far, far away from the pain, anguish, anger and turmoil that pervaded so much of the lives of Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and Raphael. As I read, I learned, I felt, and I understood. Isn't that what reading is all about? I certainly could not ask for anything more.

This wonderful children's novel tells the story of eight year old Princess Irene. Cared for by her nurse Lootie, she lives in a mountain farmhouse while her father rules over the region from a mountain top castle. The local folk work as miners but are beset by the Goblins who inhabit the underground. Irene is saved from the Goblins by Curdie, a thirteen year old miner, and she in turn saves him. The whole thing is told in a pleasant conversational style and is filled with humor, word games, magic, derring-do, and pure wonderment.

George MacDonald, a Congregational minister turned novelist, who seems nearly forgotten now, was one of the seminal figures in the development of Fantasy. His influence on other Fantasy authors is obvious, he was a childhood favorite of JRR Tolkein, who especially liked this book, and C.S. Lewis named him one of his favorite authors. His own stories draw on many of the themes and characters of classical European fairy tales. But where they were often merely horrific and meaningless, MacDonald adds a layer of Christian allegory. Thus, Irene and Curdie are eventually saved by a thread so slender that you can't even see it, but which leads them back to safety, teaching Curdie that you sometimes have to believe in things that you can't see.

The book would be interesting simply as a touchstone of modern fiction, but it stands up well on its own and will delight adults and children alike.

GRADE: A

whenever I find a used copy of this or MacDonald's "The Princess and Curdie" I buy it and give it away. Both books are full of religious symbolism if you think about it, and old other-worldness if you don't. "The Princess and the Goblin" can be enjoyed by early elementary school children, while the language of "The Princess and Curdie" is more challenging and suited for 5th grade and up, though anything is possible with a bit of extra effort. Worth trying. George MacDonald (deceased) has a loyal following as do, of course, Tolkien and C.S.Lewis who were his friends. These are lovely books to read aloud.

I cant believe I haven't read this untill now, its such a great book! A princess lives in a castle all her life, never knowing of the great dangers that go on in the mountain. One day(being about 7 years old) she finds a stairway in her house that she has never seen and it leads her to her great, great grandmother. After she meets her grandmother she is shown the dangers of the goblins and meets a boy named Curdie who mines in the mountain with his father. Throughout the book Curdie and the princess have many encounters with the goblins. This is a great book I highly recommend it for readers of all ages.

A must read for anyone starting their career in consulting!

I am starting my consulting firm and found Alan's book "Getting Started in Consulting" to be an excellent guide. Complete, concise, and chock full of sound advice. For anyone considering a career as a consultant this book is a must read. Many of the suggestions and ideas presented are essential to staring off on the right foot.

I especially found his recommendations on value-based fees valuable. I plan to follow his advice and make sure that I differentiate myself form the pack of other consultants who charge by the day. Your clients deserve more from you and Alan really laid out a strong case for developing a real win-win arrangement with clients through value-based fees and consulting.

Finally, the Q&A with practicing consultants about what they would do differently today if starting their firm and what was their biggest surprise has been very useful. I really like books that include real world examples.

As the title suggests, this book is intended to help consultants get off to a successful start.

Weiss does an admirable job, pointing out not only things that you need to do (Marketing, Pro Bono Work, Outsourcing etc.), but also what to avoid. The latter is possibly even more important as it covers things that could "kill" you before you even get under way. This category includes things like: becoming a consultant in the first place (if you haven't got the right set of attributes), taking on much personel without them carrying client-aquisition weight, pricing to low or per day etc.

The book mainly aims at consultants starting out on their own. However, being a member of a larger consultancy group (Detecon if you must know), I found that the book contained a number of helpful hints for me when I first started out too. For more experienced consultants, it might help re-focus their minds, although for them I would recommend "The ultimate consultant" by the same author.

This is a great book to get when you're even thinking about entering the field of consulting.

I just finished "Getting Started in Consulting". This is the first book in my life , that I've ordered and paid for, before printed and I can easily say that , it's worth it. After finishing, I've started to read it again. That is more practical than Alan's "Million-dollar Consulting" ( I also liked that book much, which enabled me to know about him) for a new starter in the consulting practice. It is written sincerely and warns people about very critical and problematic points in the way to success. I came across with those points in my practice many times. I learned a lot from that book. There is only one problem with Alan's books: The more you read, the more you'd addicted.

Beverly Cleary wrote some of the funniest books ever written for children with her Henry Huggins/Ramona series. However, her Newbery honor winner "Ramona and Her Father" marks the beginning of Mrs. Cleary's decision to include more serious situations into the lives of her characters to go along with their comic adventures. This book revolves around the very unfunny and realistic situation of Ramona's father losing his job. (Undoubtedly, Mrs. Cleary drew upon her own childhood memories of her father's unemployment during the Depression to tell this story.)

Ramona's life is turned upside down by her father's unemployment. Her father is cranky and depressed, her mother tired from overwork, and older sister Beezus, the funloving tomboy of the Henry Huggins books, is now a temperamental teenager. The book chronicles Ramona's attempts to deal with this difficult situation, and results are touching and very often hilarious. Despite its serious subject matter, the book still retains Mrs. Cleary's comic touch. This is one very funny book! The chapter about Ramona's hope of becoming a TV commericial actor, which she believes will end her family's problems, is one of the funniest Mrs. Cleary ever wrote. If I had to pick one book from the entire Henry Huggins/Ramona series "Ramona and Her Father" would be the one. Ramona's experiences with a difficult family situation are told with humor and candor.

Here is a review from Danny, one of my third grade students:

In this book you'll meet Ramona, Beezus her big sister, her mother, her father, and Picky-picky the family cat. Ramona is a second grader who is full of joy, until her father loses his job then all of her family is miserable. Beezus starts getting a little grouchy, her mother starts getting worried, Picky-picky won't eat his [food], and her father starts smoking! Will Ramona's father ever get a job? Should Ramona help her father get a job or should she help her family be happy and jolly? You'll just have to read it and I'm telling you it is fabulous!

This is my favorite book by Beverly Cleary, and I've read a lot of her books. Cleary is both realistic and funny as she describes the ups and downs in the life of the poor but happy Quimby family. There are so many parts in this book that I love: how the Quimbys make do after Mr. Quimby loses his job; how Ramona tries to make her father stop smoking so that his lungs won't turn black; how Ramona realizes that she can feel good about herself even when everyone around her is cross; and how Ramona learns what a happy family is really like. Beverly Cleary is one of the very best writers I know. She knows that children are more intelligent and mature than adults give them credit for, and she knows the importance of both the family and the individual. Her books are always funny, touching, and memorable, and this one is her best.

This book changed my life completely especially on time management and setting priorities including annual goals and objectives.

It is easy to read, practical and lists easily and clearly on how to work on improving yourself. You will be amazed at the resuts proven ideas. Till today, I still believe in the adage, "Ask Lakein's Question" whenever you are not sure on what would be the next best course of action and priority.

I have been reading this book for many years. I used to be a business consultant for a large stock broker firm and I alway purchased a copy of this book for any salesperson who needed to tighten up their lost time. You can open this book at any page and learn something even after you have read it for years. I just ordered another copy after giving away my present copy. I suggest you buy more than one because you will want to share the wealth with your friends. It doesn't make any sense to say anything about time management other than what Alan Lakein has already said.

This book was sitting around the house for quite some time until I fortunately picked it up to look through it! This book SPOKE TO ME! There are 2 types of perfectionists: those who do everything, and those who do nothing.. I'm the latter. Through the straight-forward, tell-it-how-it-is approach, I felt like somebody else related to me! I've read time management books before, but it's no wonder this is a national best-seller. Honestly, I haven't read it all the way through, since it motivates me to get going, but I enjoy reading it! Also, it doesn't get old like most things do for me! That's because "I" get to decide what my priorities are. These last few weeks since I've found this book have been so sweet. It's not the kind of book that makes you feel you're not doing what's the most important thing (and what you WANT to do! ). Also, the swiss cheese idea really stuck to me. It says to just spend 5 min. on your A-1. There were goals I had, but never recognized them as such or gave them the attention they deserved. Just last week, I was so thrilled and felt so alive to not just worry about a particualar goal I had, but instead, to take action. Um, the BEST part (or one of the best parts! ) about this book is coming up with your A-1, A-2, A-3... goals! I had my mom do it, as I read off from the book how to, and she was so thankful. It was just amazing! This book has changed my life from the moment I picked it up. I used to feel like doing Homework and Projects and such at the very last minute, since I knew it would get done, and I'd be forced to turn it in as is. Now, I see that I've changed in such simple, but helpful ways! I actually started on a project a week before it was due! Simply amazing. My life was a constant running from one crisis to the next (all-nighters common). I'm almost dumbfounded at how NORMALIZED it is. I never knew this bliss..

This book is quite fascinating even if you have no particular reason to be interested in the subject. If you have been trying to understand what is Fourier Math with out taking several semesters worth of courses this book will help. However, having a background in calculus will make the book much more understandable than without.

The book was written by students of foreign languages and they approached the subject of math as a foreign language. They have distilled Fourier to its essence as simply as possible. I found their treatment of subjects I already knew (such as trigonometry) enlightening as they approached them with a fresh and unbiased approach aiming to truely understand what is going on.

The book is not a text book, but a book to read through slowly, mediate and open new horizons.

The people who wrote this are involved in learning and teaching foreign languages in the way a small child learns its mother tongue and they decided to apply the same method to Fourier mathematics up to and including the Fourier Transform. This organic-evolutionary method works wonderfully and this book is to be very highly recommended to anyone intending to study this subject.
I wish I had something like this when I was labouring through Fourier maths over two decades ago! It really cracks the nut of the concept of the whole thing. It is also useful to people who have been through Fourier maths but want to firm up their fragile knowledge of it or any of the more fundamental maths underlying it.
Lecturers should read this too for pedagogic reasons.

This is the best math book I ever read. Before reading it I had a vague knowledge of Fourier series (that you could decompose a curve into a sum of simple sine and cosine waves) but I had no idea of the power of this method or its applications. After reading it (several times) I'm pretty well versed (or at least I talk like I am) in Fourier series, Fourier coefficients, discrete Fourier expansions, Fourier transforms and FFTs (fast Fourier transforms), certainly enough to read and understand (in a brief search of the web) applications such as finding buried landmines, identifying aircraft as friend or foe, recovering latent fingerprints, or compressing data to a fraction of the original size.

What impressed me more, however, was that I understood why there are only five vowels in the English language, why an infinite vector space is equivalent to a Fourier expansion, and why Heinsenberg's uncertainty principle makes perfect intuitive sense. This book is nothing if not eclectic, and the range of topics discussed is immense.

If I hadn't already studied calculus and linear algebra in college I would also, for the first time, understand differentiation, integration, vector spaces, Euler's formula, Maclaurin series and the number e, all of which are presented with unusual clarity. This book is a tour de force, a summary of almost everything that is interersting (at least to me) in mathematics.

You have to get beyond certain things when you read this book. Understand that it was written by a bunch of kids and is replete with cartoon characters saying things like "Good grief!" and subbplots in which, for example, the "Non-periodic kid" sends taunting messages to the Magistrate and his constables. I found this obnoxious at first, but later I found it inspirational. If those kids could do it, I could do it. Thus inspired, I read the book three times, until I finally understood it. The Transnational College of Lex has its own theories of leaning, and it looks like they're right.

I cannot recommend this book too highly, or to too many readers. Even (or perhaps especially) if you don't like mathematics, you should check it out. You'll learn something.

You will laugh, cry and be confused when you read this book. This book can teach you that what you think is good is not always good.

There is a boy named Peter Pan. He sprinkles fairy dust in Wendy and her two brothers. Then he shows them how to fly. He takes them to Neverland and shows them to the Lost Boys who live there. Wendy becomes their mother. She makes up rules, like any other mother would do. The boys have to follow these rules. Everything was fine until Captain Hook came with his crew to where the boys and Wendy were. While Wendy and the boys were at the lagoon, where they go every day after dinner, they see a girl named Tiger Lily, princess of her tribe. She was captured by Smee, one of Captain Hook's men. Then Peter saved her. A few days later Wendy and the boys were on their way to Wendy's house when they too were all captured by Captain Hook. Then Peter saves them. Then the lost boys, Wendy and her brothers go home. All except for Peter.

It is mostly about what the people in the book think is right with childhood. The kids in the book think that if you grow up it is bad, but in our case it is actually good.

Peter Pan is a violent book not really made for children under the age of 10 but people 10 and up can read it. It is violent because of the language that is spoken and the idea that killing could be fun. Also, the vocabulary is very difficult for children under 10 to understand. Even if you're older it is difficult to understand.

Overall, it is a good book but watch out for the violent ideas if you are reading it to little children.

This is an utterly charming work. It has been retold myriad times, but nobody else has done it as well as the original teller, J. M. Barrie.

It's difficult to know what to say about a book like this... everybody knows the story. But I guess that unless you've read this book (not just seen a movie or read a retelling), you don't really know the character Peter Pan, and without knowing the character, you don't really know the story. So read it.

By the way, if you enjoy this, you probably would also like "Sentimental Tommy" and its sequel "Tommy and Grizel", both by Barrie. There are differences (for one thing they're not fantasy), but there are also compelling similarities. Anybody who found Peter Pan a deep and slightly bittersweet book would be sure to enjoy them.

-Stephen

When talking of literature, people tend to look solely at books they read today but forget what they used to read, namely the ones we read as children. It is a common misunderstanding that children's literature is to be read by children and children only, but when we come to think of it, which one of us are not children, at least in our hearts?

One of the best books any child, young or old, can read is Barrie's Peter Pan. Although written in the past century, it has something for any generation at any time. Its humorous views at the world from a child's mind left me rolling over the floor, laughing; the exciting storyline kept me busy with reading until the end; and the serious undertone made me think of whether the world wouldn't be a better place if we realised that deep down, however deep, we are in fact all children. So if YOU are a child, which you most certainly are, get yourself a copy and enjoy your ongoing childhood.

As someone who frequently checks out reviews of books on this service for a long time before purchasing, it was with great anticipation that I began reading Alan Furst's Dark Star. I had read a few other of this author's titles and wasn't "wowed", but it seemed clear from the opinions here that this novel stood well above most of the others.

However, as a "thriller" it is relatively thrill-free (even when compared, as it often is, to the novels of LeCarre). There were only a few (short)instances when I was quickly moving along in the story, eager to find out what happens next. It was much more likely that I was eagerly turning pages to be done with a drawn-out section which "bogged-down" the progression of, in retrospect, a pretty clever story.

As mentioned in numerous reviews here, characterization and mood/atmosphere are terrific. Does Furst give a genuine feel to his recreation of Pre-war Europe? Absolutely. As a history primer, is it informative? To be sure. But is it a compelling story? Well, that's a more difficult question.

Unfortunately, for every scene of "authentic spy-craft" or short glimpses of "the big picture", there is a much LONGER description of the ruts in a Polish cart trail or the way your back feels after sleeping on a hay matress. I was left at the end of the book thinking, "This was a great story, and in someone else's hands, it could have been a great book, too" Hey, I even liked all the background on the inner workings of the Communist party and NKVD, but I really expected more tension and excitement (not explosions, gore and mayhem - but more intrigue and danger) and could have done without some of the tangential side-trips.

Maybe if I hadn't heard so much build-up, I'd have thought more highly of this book (though certainly NEVER would have thought it worthy of 5!!), but I expected more, a lot more.

Dark Star is the follow up novel the Furst's Night Soldiers. Like Night Soldiers and all of Furst's recent novels, Dark Star takes place in and around WWII Europe. Like all of Furst's later novels, Dark Star wanders its way into Paris at some point. There is at least one common character from Night Soldiers, although seen from a completely different point of view, and another character from this book will appear the Polish Officer.
Dark Star tells the story of Andre Szara, a Polish Jew working as a correspondent for Pravda. Of course, Szara is much more than a journalist but is also pressed into service for the NKVD. Szara eventually runs a Soviet spy network in Paris, and 'controls' a Jewish German industrialist turned agent for Moscow. This is the simple version of the story... Szara's story is in fact a human story set against the horror of the purges. People drop around Szara, be it from Stalin or from Kristalnacht.
Furst also uses Szara as a personal foil against which to paint Stalin's guilt in general. Stalin is shown to be as much a partner or twin of Hitler than an innocent victim. Well, a lot of this is established history... the purges are painted as an anti-semitic pogrom, a way to clear the intelligentsia and Soviet government of Jews. In this, I think Furst is stretching. Sure, a lot of the Bolsheviks were Jews, and most of them died in the purges, but they had a lot of company. I think this is trying to paint order on something that was in fact largely random and arbitrary, except for a very small percentage of individuals.
In any case, Dark Star is not pretending to be a history book but instead a historical novel set against the backdrop of WWII. In this, the book succeeds. Furst does what he does best: he drops the reader head first into a highly detailed version of Europe on the eve of war... of the fear and horror of Hitler and Stalin.

I had read "The Polish Officer" first and wanted more of Alan Furst's evocative pre WWII novels of espionage. "Dark Star" surpasses the later novel, it simply hits on all cylinders. Historically accurate, with a twisting plot, vivid characters, and settings that make the reader feel the darkness and gloom enveloping Europe on the eve of WWII. This novel goes beyond the genre of espionage and paints a differently humane approach to the times. The main character, Andre Szara, while heroic, is "everyman" in that he fears, struggles and fails and succeeds and gets lucky at times. Truly the opposite of the Tom Clancy, James bondish type spy, Alan Furst offers us a hero who we can understand without suspending our disbelief. "Dark Star" is a wonderful piece of work by an author who amazes with his breadth of knowledge on Central Europe in the 30's