i own this book and i think this is not exactly the best of the boxcar children book series. it is exactly in between. in my opinion this book was a teeny bit boring. if you want your money's worth i don't think you would want to buy this book.

There was a lot of adventure. If you like Boxcar Children books, you would probably like this one too.

This book doesn't present any great revelations and certainly won't surprise those already familiar with the egomaniacal Ms. Stein but for anyone who has suffered the pains of sibling rifts this is any interesting read. Both brother and sister are tortured and pathetic in their own ways, Gertrude for having stubbornly believed she was a literary genius (a delusion I doubt fostered by very many today with the value of her literary contributions negligible) and Leo for having simply been a neurotic posterchild who couldn't go on with his life after their separation. This is a better book still because it does not focus on Gertrude's non-existent literary legacy but instead chooses to reveal two lives both richly interesting and complex and yet with a bitter vulnerability.

Brenda Wineapple's SISTER BROTHER tells the story of thedevelopment of a remarkably close and rich relationship betweenGertrude and Leo Stein. Gertrude -- writer, esthetic innovator, feminist precursor-- and her brother Leo -- art collector extraordinaire, scholar manque--were a remarkable pair. From their childhood in a family bereft of its mother, through years in the heady intellectual atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Harvard and Johns Hopkins, Leo and Gertrude depended on one another and grew along similar paths. When they settled in Paris, their apartment became the center for all who wished to know about modern painting: about Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, all of whose paintings hung in profusion on their walls.

But what hangs together-- whether brother and sister, or a great art collection -- can come undone, and it is the glory of this joint biography that Wineapple so carefully and tenderly traces the forces -- sexual appetites and obsessions, intellectual competitions, the powerful dialectic between dependence and autonomy -- which led to an absolute rupture between Leo and Gertrude, a rupture so complete that they never talked or wrote to one another again, for a period of thirty years. In those thirty years Gertrude became a central force in modern literature, while Leo subsided from the world into fad diets and unfinished projects. And yet, and yet: Wineapple does not sit in judgement, and it is the triumph of this book that Leo's many failures are as human, and as touching, and Gertrude's many successes: the reader ends up seeing ythe weaknesses of both, yet greatly admiring both.

The subject of the book, finally, is not Gertrude and Leo, but the strange, tender, and torrential emotions that run between brothers and sisters, and the many routes through life which lead either to social failure or social success.

This book was about the Aldens and Soo Lee playing on a soccer team. Like a usual Boxcar book, mysterious things start to happen. This was a pretty good book, but it could have had a better ending, that's why I only gave this chapter book 4 stars. By the way, this book has 116 pages, but it has fairly big print.

I read The Soccer Mystery. I thought this book was really great because I really like soccer and mysteries, and I've never read a book from The Box Car Children. I recommend that kids under 7th grade should read this book because this is a really great book! If you read this book you will probably enjoy it!

This is such a gentle, old-fashioned little book that it is a small miracle it's still around. It's about Jamie, a mute boy who lives with his sisters and widowed father in the hollows of Appalachia. The boy feels like he can't do anything and isn't special in any way, until Christmastime, when a teacher offers him a chance to be a shepherd in the school Christmas pageant. This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him. But then the pageant is cancelled because of a blizzard, destroying his dream.

In the end, a poor, traveling couple appear. The woman is about to have a baby, and they are looking for any place, even a barn, to spend the night, but so far no one has had any room for them (Sound familiar?) Jamie's family gives them shelter, the woman has her baby, and finally Jamie gets his chance to be a shepherd -- he shows up in costume to bring the new baby a gift, and to speak his very first words. A Christmas miracle!

One of the things I love most about this book is the fact that Jamie is far from a perfect little boy, but the author obviously loves him and makes us love him and recognize that his anger and tantrums come from frustration over his handicap. No one yells at Jamie and tells him to behave. They find ways to help him behave. There is a Christian spirit of love and generosity coursing through Rebecca Caudill's portrait of this child.

An earlier reviewer was offended by how "unrealistic" the ending seemed. I don't think that's really true. Early in the book, Jamie's father talks to a doctor, who tells him that Jamie is physically capable of speaking, but he needs help learning to do so, help the family can not afford. Jamie's inability to speak seems to be more a matter of trauma (his mother died giving birth to him) than anything physical, and so it does not seem remotely unrealistic for him to be healed when something in his life gives him a sense of importance. He simply has to speak to this miraculous child!

But more than that, this is a Christmas story. And if we can't make room in a Christmas story for miracles, when can we?

This book is a family favorite. We read it aloud nearly every Christmas, along with "A Christmas Carol," "Gift of the Magi" and "Whistlin' Dick's Christmas."
I can never read it without choking up, and my kids end up finishing it for me. A real heart-warmer.

this is a great story .... I read it to the Rotary Club members several years ago and all felt the Spirit of Christmas.

John Stuart Mill, author of On Liberty, defines the nature of civil liberty, and most importantly, the harm principl. He aims to give readers a better understanding of the nature and limits of power that can be exercised by society over individuals. The purpose of this book is to inform interested individuals about the rights of individuals and the limitations of the government. This book of philosophy was written almost 150 years ago. By reading the book, the reader is able to apply Mill's message and examples to our lives in America today. The ahead-of-the-times ideas that are in On Liberty can be related to our world because it discusses controversies that are still seen in our courtrooms today. Mill is able to accomplish his purpose because he uses many examples, thoughts, and theories about individual and social rights. He works through each of his ideas, looking at both sides of the issue to enable the reader to make their own informed decision about each matter. This book has a practical meaning because it allows the reader to develop and reason ideas about government power and when that power should be exercised over the people. Unfortunately, this book does have one draw back. Mill was a very educated man and wrote very well for his time. Yet today, our style and writing techniques are not the same as they were in the nineteenth century. This makes On Liberty a difficult book to read. His book is very decriptive, yet his wording is not easily understadable and some paragraphs have to be read two or three times to fully understand what he is writing about. Aside from his writing style, John Stuart Mill has put together an essay full of educated ideas about society and individuals. John Stuart Mill wrote an informative book geared towards an educated audience. He has achieved his purpose for the essay through the use of situations and examples that can be applied to real life cases still today. He managed to keep the readers interested and I look forward to reading other books he has written.

It was not Socialism itself that is an evil, but the way it was implemented in some countries, in response to white-anglo-whatever's totally value-less review. Mill's book about liberty was of vast importance in freeing the individual from the tyranny of communal opinion. Someone may dislike homosexuals, but has no right to harass them or pass ethical judgements on them for what is their choice, of no harm to anyone else. Those are opinions of an indeterminate validity. Socal intervention may only be used to protect someone from restriction of their liberties. What Mill lacks in rigour, he makes up for in persuasiveness. He has some great lines in defense of liberty, a pre-dominant value of human life. Although, it is to be noted that the book can be somewhat tedious in areas which it is repetitive. This book also illustrates what can be seen as a fault in utilitarianism. Utilitarianism takes no notice of other values, or of a conflict of values, such as liberty of existence over the majorities happiness, in which ethics slides into absurdity.

J.S. Mill has written the best promulgation of classical liberalism in his book "On Liberty" (OL). Although a socialist himself, many of the ideas in OL are actually tenets of modern libertarianism (also called classical liberalism). Mill states that the only reason that force can be used on any man is to prevent harm to others. I consider "focre" to be either social or economic. Mill saw it as only social, which explains his socialism.

Not to detract from Mill or OL, the book is a resounding defense of civil-liberties. OL completes modern democratic theory as promulgated by John Locke in his "Two Treatises of Government." While Locke argues for some kind of democracy reminiscent of Athens, Mill qualifies Locke's point by protecting the minority from the majority. This book should be read by Americans who want to know more about freedom, and by our elected officials.

Sadly, it's our elected oficials who probably won't get it.

Irving Kristol - Gertrude Himmelfarb's husband - once made the point that in the USA an 18 year old girl could dance nude in a bar, so long as she was paid the minimum wage. This book explores the existence of two cultures in the USA. Whilst pollsters and demographers can break down these cultures into many different groups, there is a broad line which can be drawn between the cultures. Cultures are largely defined by attitude in the modern world, as opposed to ethnic or Quaker garb, for instance, and Himmelfarb seeks to chart the salient differences in attitude. In that she is largely successful. It is a thought provoking book. Her use of Adam Smith's insights does her credit - there always was a looser culture based on the security of aristocratic position, which meant loose behaviour would not be economically disastrous for its practitioner. At day's end, the underlying viewpoint that it is unfortunate that there are two cultures, can be rejected or accepted as one chooses. Indeed, if the argument is accepted that there are two delineated cultures, then it clearly shows that government has no business interfering in the educating of children to try to homogenize the culture. The existence of two cultures removes the foundation for the confidence that demonstrating how to use a condom in school classes without parental permission is in any way appropriate or has ever been appropriate. Himmelfarb cannot be faulted for not dealing with subjects beyond her book's compass, but it should be appreciated that this book does not deal with, in any detail, the etiology of the counter-culture or its long march to cultural hegemony, nor does it suggest any concrete proposals for the protection of the traditional Puritan culture from governmental intrusion. For anyone who can remember both 1963 and 1971, it is likely to at least provide a conversation piece. Himmelfarb has done a sound job.

I recently read Mrs. Himmelfarb's book and was thoroughly impressed by its cogent and well supported arguments. The book provides valuable information for both cultural conservatives and cultural liberals. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in an intelligent examination of modern American culture.

This is a must read for anyone interested in the truth about American culture today. Ms. Himmelfarb provides an excellent description of our very distinct class system, which is much different from previous class systems in history. She touches on how Adam Smith and Marx addressed classic class systems and how the whole class notion has become so very convoluted in today's environment. The book is well written. However, it is not written in traditional academia speak, even though she has admirable qualifications in the field. I was pleasantly surprised to see the honest truth, absent the current PC socialist rhetoric, from someone who has spent their career inside of academia. Although she provides an excellent description of the current cultural malaise, she comes up a little short on the root causes and only devotes a few pages to predictions.

All-in-all it should be read by all those who are interested in the truth.

This book is very well written, but not as chilling as "The Indiana Torture Slaying!" Kate Millett seems to voice her own opinion, along with the facts from the first book. As I said in my review about the first book, it's really a sickening crime, especially when you grew up and went to school with them, and living right down the street. This crime happened about a year or so after we moved to Indpls. And to think that it could have been one of us. I have two other sisters and a brother that played down at there house alot, when we all lived in Beech Grove. I "DO NOT" believe that the punishment for these cold blooded killers was hardly long enough! And death for the leader of this killer clan, was none too soon.........

Having lived just a mile south of Miss Likens' parents and 5 minutes away from the home where she was killed, I was stunned at the attempt made to tell Sylvia's story. I lived it, read it in the news and still know members of the family.
While this is a perfect feminist attempt at explaining things that went on in the house on New York Street, I feel most of Sylvia's story was used to propegate a soap box issue and it made some of the book a difficult read.
Tiny bits and pieces of fact (find foot notes and need to look them up elsewhere)are tossed in with commentary so often that the story is not well told beyond the opinions of the author.
Still, since John Dean's book is hard to find, I think anyone who wishes to explore one of Indiana's most horrible crimes against humanity, should read "Meditations..."

The harrowing story of Sylvia Likens, a 16-year-old girl who had been assaulted and finally killed in what became an (in)famous court case in the 1960s, becomes an unexpectedly beautiful book, a prose poem more than anything else. Kate Millett meditates on the ways in which physical abuse has been condoned or otherwise accepted in so-called civilised society. Millett's feminist perspective is rather chillingly relevant, even more so in these times. A great achievement, if nearly unbearable to read for its detailing of the horrors of the case.

Gertrude and Claudius as a novel is sheer entertainment. Given that everyone knows the Shakespeare Hamlet, with so many movie versions cropping up yearly, it is a pleasure to see a contemporary writer of the stature of Updike apply the bard's techniques of story telling to introduce the dysfunctional family Hamlet ultimately destroys. If Updike is tedious at the outset of this novel - who in their sane mind wants to wade through the mire of Danish myth/history replete with irritating name changes, period language, etc - once his tenor is set he takes us on a rather winsome journey of royalty, class, passion, adultery, murder and courtplotting that makes for a page-turner of a novel.

In the end, I think Updike's novel, for all its meanderings, gives us a broader vista of why Hamlet is so troubled when the curtain opens on Shakespeare's play. There are insights here worth pondering. This is a great little book for an evening's diversion.

I felt that Updike had done a wonderful job of breathing new life in these staples of world literature. I loved the concept, I devoured the book, but I found that I was let down in the end. Updike spent a great deal of time weaving the tale for the first few chapters, but seemed to rush the ending. I feel that the character of Hamlet, though not the protagonist here, was very much ignored in this novel. It certainly shed new light on the characters of Gertrude, Claudius, and King Hamlet. I thought it was a very well-written novel. I would recommend it to any lover of Shakespeare. It certainly does justice to his original concept. I'm just waiting on a prequel to another Shakespearean play...

Another great novel by the wonderful writer. The title could have been Hamlet- the early years. The story centers around Hamlet's mom- called Gerutha here- her first marriage, her affair with her brother-in-law(Claudius) and his ascension to the throne. Their affair is brilliantly done- their attraction, the improvisation of a love nest, the multitude of feelings is wonderfully writen. The climax with the death of the King is dramatic and exciting. Updike's purpose seems to be an anti-Oedipal interpretation of the play. When Claudius describes the kill father to be with mother idea to Gertrude she is perplexed by it and it sounds really dim to the reader. Updike steers us to another idea of a guilty man with a conscience creating a situation where he will be punished. And Hamlet is a surly young man who doesnt want to lead and is foolishly brought back to Denmark where he has nothing to do. Trouble ensues. Overall, a wonderful, lively novel

Despite what all of the other reviews say, Stein is not a genius. The previous reviewers were simply regurgitating what their professors insisted upon in college. This book is Stein's most accessible--do read it, just so you can know what kind of sense the book does NOT make. The best part of this novel is the format (autobiography, but written by someone else), which is unique; however, the stolen style, nonsensical delineations, stale dialogues, and immobile plot definitively strip away any claims that this rich, disturbed woman was a genius.

"The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" made Gertrude Stein a household name in America in the 1930s, and for good reason. This is Stein at her most accessible and I must highly suggest it for any first-time readers of this literary genius. The book has a light, breezy tone, interesting subject matter (Picasso & various renowned artists pop up throughout), and Stein's trademark intellectual brilliance. The device of using Toklas as an approach to Stein's life is certainly interesting and is responsible for some of the most entertaining passages. And this book is certainly entertaining, thanks to Stein's supreme wit and her clever descriptions of the people she interacts with and situations she finds herself in. I highly recommend this book, especially for those who haven't read Stein before. Her vivacity, wit, intelligence and skill are on display here in an accessible, classic work.

This is the book that brought Stein into mainstream society, and not without reason. Considerably more accessible than her other work, she relays the story of her life through the personna of Alice B. Toklas, her life-long companion. Primarily consisting of remarks about the various movers of the Paris art and literary scene that took place at the turn of the century, Stein, above all, isn't afraid to say just what she thinks. However, her wry anecdotes and asides are not written without the greatest of attention to style, and the reader finds each sentence to be representative of the orignality in grammatical structure that made her famous.

Davis' title explains her project in clear terms at the outset. She is not engaged in a critique of modern women in popular music (as one reviewer anticipated). Nor is she profiling these women in biography format. Therefore, she does not need the permission of Rainey's relatives for this project. Her goal is to uncover the pre-feminist sentiments expressed in these women's music. In that regard, she needs only the barest biographical information (that women performers were not rooted to hearth and home, traveled, worked, and had marquee positions). Assuming this general information to be true of all these women, Davis then concentrates her primary energy on the legacy that blues lyrics leave for Black Feminism. Part of that legacy is found in the advice on romance, religion, and race that these women's songs shared (or share now) with black female listeners. I hope this gives readers an accurate idea of what to expect from this worthwhile book and encourages disappointed readers to re-encounter the book on its own terms.

I have to agree with the reviewer from Turkey who wrote positively about Davis' "Strange Fruit" chapter in Blues Legacies. I recently wrote a term paper on the song Strange Fruit in which I referred to both David Margolick's recent release about Strange Fruit and Davis' Blues Legacies. I was very impressed with Davis' depiction of Holiday as an individual and an entertainer. It seemed that she brought a more well-rounded and objective perspective on the singer into the world of Billie Holiday biographies. Her take on the song and on Holiday's connection to it are, shall we say, refreshing, in that it takes a novel approach to the singer -- one that attempts to remain impartial to the popular image of Holiday. This book is also an excellent reference for those studying feminism, jazz, Afro-Americana and/or the lives of the three women (Rainey, Holiday and Smith) showcased in Davis' Blues Legacies.

If you expect to read a traditional biography you may be dissappointed. The lives of the blues women and their political messages behind their songs are discussed in one another's light. This works very well as blues is a folk music which tells many things about the black experience and most singers are song writers themselves. The section about Billie Holiday and her song Strange Fruit is one of the rare approaches to Lady Day as an artist who gave a very important political messages about racism. In other biographies Billie Holiday is always portrayed as a victim rather than a person who had an important political message. I believe this very style of her portrayal could be discussed in a feminist context and that's what Angela Davies did in this book with her vast knowledge and experience in black politics and gender issues. Some people criticize the book for being overtly political. However, I see no other way of analyzing the blues without its political context. The transcriptions of the songs also gives a documentary value to this book. It has been a great reference for my research in this field. I wish I can get in touch with Angela Davies one day and discuss her about the research she has done while preparing this book.