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The story is of a mute Morrocan stable boy, Agba, and a foal, Sham, who is born to one of the royal mares Agba cares for. Sham...and Agba...are selected to be part of a gift to the King of France. Their adventures in Europe are filled mostly with despair and cruelty, until Sham sires a foal that becomes the beginnings of the Thoroughbred breed we know today (this part is true; Sham was renamed "The Godolphin Arabian"; all Thoroughbreds must include in their pedigreeone of the three specific founding sires, and the Godolphin Arabian is one of them).
There's a lot here: adventure, triumph over adversity, a respect for other cultures, the care of the creatures that share our lives, and a healthy dose of humor about the absurdities of the powerful or elite.
As a kid, I eagerly devoured any Marguerite Henry book I could find. It's well worth it to get hard-cover editions that include the wonderful full-color illustrations by Wesley Dennis.
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My origional copy of "Faeries" is tattered and dog-eared, most of the pages have fallen out, and are hopelessly out-of-sequence, but I can't bear to throw it away. I count "Faeries" as one of the most influential books I had as kid growing up, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any child (or adult) interested in faeries or mythology. The book is incredibly well-researched, and beautifully illustrated. The hand-written text can be difficult to read at times, but adds to the wonderful illusion of illicitly reading someone's journal
Bravo for reissuing this book, I am ordering my new hardcover copy today
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This is a well written and researched biography of an almost forgotten Hollywood star, the precursor of Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. It is a wonderful look into the world of silent movies and I recommend it highly.
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The guy knows his stuff, is thorough, and can write in English - you know the version of the language that mere mortals can understand.
Even though I am not a developer, I quit my 6 figure job to start my own Internet startup & develop my own web applications - in large part because Ben's book made me realized that even a novice like me can develop powerful CF applications.
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After nearly a hundred years of owning the Panama Canal, on December 31, 1999, the United States gave the Panama Canal back to the nation of Panama. When Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a pathway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the nation of Panama did not exist; it was a part of Columbia.
When prospectors discovered gold in California in 1848, all that changed the author, David McCullough writes in the book. The Panama Railroad, at the time, was the most high-priced stock listed on the New York Exchange. Building a canal through this area that would be approximately fifty-one miles seemed to be an easy situation for investors, but it turned out that it took over four decades and an army of workers to complete the canal. In the book it mentioned that enough soil, rock, and dirt was removed to build a pyramid a mile high.
When the construction began, McCullough notes that the leader of the project was Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt. After President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrated the purchase of the canal, the United States entered the picture. A revolution took place that removed Panama from the rule of Columbia.
David McCullough is a very unique and interesting author and writer, and he kept me captivated while reading this book.
The historical aspecets of the book are accurate as far as my research has gone on the Panama Canal. This book is just fasinating because of the history that is involved. When Theodore Roosevelt bought the canal and a revolution occured between Columbia and the United States, the United States won, and the canal became ours. But remember, on 12/31/99, we returned the canal to its rightful owner, the nation of Panama.
McCullough skillfully weaves personalities and events together to create a powerful narrative replete with political intrigue, financial scandal, and triumph over tremendous adversity. The author first acquaints the reader with the leaders of the French attempt to build the canal - Ferdinand de Lesseps and his son, Charles, and Phillippe Bunau-Varilla, among others - and tells of the ultimate failure of their venture, and their disgrace due to financial scandal. McCullough then chronicles the ultimately successful American attempt to build the canal. Here is seen the political intrigue (the U.S. backed Panamanian revolution against Colombia, with the complicity of President Theodore Roosevelt, Secretary of State John Hay, and Bunau-Varilla); the successful war against yellow fever and malaria, led by American doctor William Gorgas; and the organizational and engineering genius of two American Chief Engineers - John Stevens and Colonel George Goethals - which led to the completion of the canal in 1914.
"The Path Between the Seas" is more than just the story of how the Panama Canal was built; it is a well researched, historically accurate, and at the same time lively and highly entertaining account of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Highly recommended!
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Stellaluna is a baby fruit-bat that gets separated from her mother. She lands in a bird's nest and grows up living with them. Stellaluna follows the routines of the birds, and practically becomes one herself. Later in the story she catches up with a few bats, and finds out that one is her mother. She becomes reunited with her, and starts to pick up her old bat routines.
The book implys that you should accept everyone. A child doesn't have to be the only one to know that 'different people' can be accepted. We should all accept people no matter how 'different' they are. We are all the same at heart.
The artwork is outstanding, the story is entertaining, and children and adults love this book. I have even picked it up and read it a time or two after the children went to bed.
This is an award winning book, and for good reason. There are strong underlying messages in it about place, acceptance, home and family.
Definitely 5+ stars.
Luminous illustrations complement this sweet story that interweaves animal facts with a fable. This award-winning story emphasizes that differences should be celebrated and accepted -- they make us unique. A truly enlivening book.
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Book Review
Who will be next? Weisner uses no words, which allows readers to develop their own opinions about what exactly is happening. The book is a vivid display of color and detail painted in watercolor. Both children and adults can experience fun and amazement by reading this picture book. As dusk becomes night, something strange happens to animals in this particular town. The story opens and frogs begin to float above their pond, perched upon their lily pads, like genies on flying carpets. As the frogs rise out of the water, they fly in a flock, raiding the town while watchful eyes are asleep. The amphibious creatures fly through linen hanging out to dry and an elderly woman's living room while she is asleep. Then something strange happens to them at dawn. They can no longer soar above and around the town and are reduced to hopping back to their pond without the aid of flight. The following night, another animal is able to fly and see the town in their own new light, once darkness falls. by Matthew Ellenberg
Book Review
Who will be next? Weisner uses no words, which allows readers to develop their own opinions about what exactly is happening. The book is a vivid display of color and detail painted in watercolor. Both children and adults can experience fun and amazement by reading this picture book. As dusk becomes night, something strange happens to animals in this particular town. The story opens and frogs begin to float above their pond, perched upon their lily pads, like genies on flying carpets. As the frogs rise out of the water, they fly in a flock, raiding the town while watchful eyes are asleep. The amphibious creatures fly through linen hanging out to dry and an elderly woman's living room while she is asleep. Then something strange happens to them at dawn. They can no longer soar above and around the town and are reduced to hopping back to their pond without the aid of flight. The following night, another animal is able to fly and see the town in their own new light, once darkness falls.
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"Deep Inner Meaning" for "Lucky Jim," but I wouldn't pay them
much attention if I were you. "Lucky Jim" is simply a hilarious
book. For me, it was a revelation -- I had no idea that a book
might leave me with my sides aching, weak from laughter, yet
ready to laugh again, as I recalled the phrase or the incident
which had initially tickled my funny-bone.
One reason the book is so funny is that it gores some very
Sacred Cows. In its time, those sacred bovines very definitely
included provincial academics who were seriously into
Elizabethan madrigals and recorder concerts; Amis had the
genius to see these daffy eccentrics for the incredibly comic
figures they really were. Even more outrageously, the novel's
hero gets the girl of his dreams and escapes the dreary provinces
for a happy career in London, by abandoning the academic life
and going into (are you sitting down?) BUSINESS. Into... TRADE.
It is hard to imagine anything more non-U.
In short, a masterpiece of comic English prose!
Highest possible recommendation!!!
And it isn't really a satire: for those of us who teach, it's hard to find one thing that is out of place in Lucky Jim. Senior professors are still, often, bores and pedants; many women professors still like to dress like peasants; and most of us find that our classes attract the Michie's of this world rather than the three pretty girls.
It's so funny that it's easy to overlook how well constructed, and how well written, this novel is.
The only thing wrong with Lucky Jim is the horrible cover on the most recent Penguin edition. (But horrible covers are themselves a venerable academic tradition.)
I think this is my third reading of Lucky Jim. It remains a very enjoyable book. It's the story of Jim Dixon, a history lecturer at a provincial English university shortly after the second world war. Jim is involved in an unsatisfactory relationship with a drippy fellow lecturer called Margaret Peel, who uses emotional blackmail such as implicit suicide attempts (she took sleeping pills after breaking with her previous boyfriend) to keep him on the string. He hates his job, and he hates his boss (Professor Welch) if anything even more, while worrying that he won't be retained for the next school year. He hates phoniness in general, particularly that represented by Professor Welch, who is into recreations of old English music (recorders and all).
The plot revolves mainly around Dixon's growing attraction to Christine Callaghan, a beautiful girl who is nominally Professor Welch's son Bertrand's girlfriend -- but Bertrand is also fooling around with a married woman, and he's a crummy artist to boot. Also, Dixon is working on a lecture about Merrie Olde Englande, which he hopes will impress Professor Welch enough that he can keep his job, but every sentence of which he hates. The resolution is predictable, if rather convenient for Dixon (involving a rich uncle of Christine's), but it satisfies. The book itself is really very funny: such set-pieces as Dixon's hangover-ridden lecture, and his disastrous drunken night at the Welch's, remain screams after multiple rereadings.
I should say that some things bother me a bit. Some of Dixon's stunts (such as stealing a colleague's insurance policies and burning them) seem, well, felonious. And of course Margaret Peel really is someone he's better off breaking up with, but the way Christine is presented as naturally good because she is beautiful does seem rather sexist. Still, all this can be laid to accurate description of a certain character -- and if we root for Jim (as we more or less naturally do), it should be with some uneasiness.
All this said, Lucky Jim is deservedly a classic of 20th Century fiction, and an enormously entertaining book.
Heal Your Headache provided me with the first believable explanation of my condition and how all of the symptoms related, and most importantly what I could do about it. By following the three step process in the book I've started getting my headaches under control, and minimizing all of the other symptoms: balance problems, confusion, tremors, nausea, light and sound sensitivity...
Dr. Buchholz provides enough examples to make any headache sufferer recognize himself or herself. And he lays out a complete plan of action that should help anyone. It's not particularly easy, especially for me to cut out ALL of the food triggers, but I've reduced my need for painkillers, and am seeing longer and longer periods headache free.
I recommend this book for anyone who suffers from frequent headaches, regardless of whether they consider them to be migraines.