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Book reviews for "Murton,_Mary" sorted by average review score:

McCall's Cooking School: Step-By-Step Directions for Mistake-Proof Recipes
Published in Hardcover by Random House (1976)
Authors: New York :, Mary Eckley, and Mary J. Norton
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The greatest for clear and simple!
This recipe book is the easiest for people who want good food without a lot of work. It is clear and simple. I don't like to stand over the stove and cook this book allows me to serve good food without the hassle.


On Wings of Magic (Witch World: The Turning, Book 3)
Published in Hardcover by Tor Books (1994)
Authors: Andre Norton, Patricia Mathews, and Sasha Miller
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A gread ending to a trilogy!
The turning books are all interesting. Each giving a different insight into the WW series. Bringing new thoughts and ideas...a very satisfying read...as all the books in this trilogy were. They are all good additions to your library.


State Vs Elinor Norton
Published in Hardcover by Amereon Ltd (1995)
Author: Mary Rinehart
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Superior psychological crime novel
Mary Roberts Rinehart has been called "The American Agatha Christie," and her books, especially the earlier ones, are appealing in the same way Christie's are: very clever, interesting mysteries.

But this 1934 title is a break-out novel, a dark and amazingly believable depiction of a woman from a loveless upper class home, and the choices that take her life to the precipice. Elinor's husband, Lloyd, has his own psychological damage, drawn by the author with superb insight. The interplay between the couple, as they each try to do the right thing, hampered by their demons, is the stuff great suspense is made of. Elinor's tragic infatuation with another man keeps the tension high. Once her husband dies in a hunting accident -- or was it? -- the tension keeps up as she tries to forge a life with the other man, blind at first to his flaws, and, later, as realization grows and she realizes that she's trapped. The amazing thing about this novel is the way Rinehart can make the reader understand Elinor's feelings, as a function both of her self-loathing, and of the morals of the era -- even though today most of us would just dump the jerk! But is she truly guilty of his murder?

Rinehart keeps you turning the pages, in a novel worthy of discussion groups about The Modern Crime Novel!


A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: An Authoritative Text; Backgrounds; The Wollstonecraft Debate; Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
Published in Paperback by W W Norton & Co. (1988)
Authors: Mary Wollstonecraft and Carol H. Poston
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An Anthology With Every Angle
This book has Wollstonecraft's A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN and a through Background, Debate and Criticism section. This book gives one everything needed to understand Wollstonecraft's personality strenghths and weaknesses according to authors from her time; a complete debate on the subject of women's rights from multiple authors (from different time periods); and an intense review by serveral other authors (within the last 25 years) on Wollstonecraft's success/failure. Every article in the book has been published independently of this book. This work also contains several journal articles.


Blake's Poetry and Designs: Authoritative Texts, Illuminations in Color and Monochrome, Related Prose, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition)
Published in Paperback by W.W. Norton & Company (1980)
Authors: William Blake, John E. Grant, and Mary Lynn Johnson
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Very good text for introducing Blake to students
This is a book is quite good as most Norton Critical Editions are. It has a lot of what is needed by students for a course on Blake or, more likely, a course that spends part of a term on Blake.

It has some biographical material and some maps of England and London at the time Blake lived. There are also a good helping of black and white as well as color plates of Blake's illuminated works. The color plates are only good - the color is not produced beautifully. The student will only get an impression of the true power of Blake's artistry. However, a good teacher will point the student to the Blake Archive at:... so the students can see the works more completely with variants and in better color (if you have good video cards and monitors).

One of the best parts of this book begins on page 176 where working drafts are shown and compared to the final versions. There is also a nice selection of critical writing on Blake - criticism from Blake's time through the present. There is also a useful bibliography.

In some ways this is "Erdman Lite", but it is much more portable than Erdman and for an introductory course on Blake it is probably sufficient. I am glad that I have it in my library.

But please don't stop here!

Blake's Poetry and Designs
Nice book, but too bad its front picture cover is defaced by Norton's double-layer of big gold stickers with high-tack adhesive that makes them impossible to remove without adhesive remaining on the cover.

Come and see a world in a grain of sand . . .
This is absolutely the best compendium of Blake's work which articualtes an outstanding range of his vision. This edition acknowledges the poetry and color paintings of a consumate craftsman of the imagination on high quality, acid free paper and is nylon stitched and bound in signatures to last a lifetime. Books are rarely made this way but the Norton edition is a beautiful rendering of the first, and perhaps, primary British Romantic poet.


The Borrowers Afield
Published in Paperback by Odyssey Classics (01 April, 2003)
Authors: Mary Norton, Beth Krush, and Joe Krush
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The Borrowers Afield
This book is about a very tiny family who is smoked out of their house under the floorboards of an old England home. They are forced to move to the fields and go on a journey to their relatives house. along the way they find a boot to live in and a tree stump for shelter. They meet a boy named Spiller who helps them out a little. In the end................

More wonderful Borrowers
In this sequel to The Borrowers, the Clocks, having lost their home, must now set up a new life in a lost boot. Arrietty finds the outdoors exhilarating, while Homily finds it dangerous and extremely dirty. The Clocks know that there must be other Borrowers somewhere, but where are they, and how will they find them in such a big, wide world?

As with the last book, this one contains a charming story that is well accompanied by illustrations that add a lot to the simple words. These books are considered children's classics, and it's easy to see why. My children loved this book, and yours will, too.

The adventures of the Clock Family continue...
For all those who loved the original Borrowers, this is thestory of what happened to the Clock family after being driven fromtheir home. In many ways, it is an "equal, not a sequel."


The Borrowers
Published in Paperback by Harcourt (1993)
Authors: Mary Norton, Beth Krush, and Joe Krush
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A Family Tradition
Every family has certain traditions which are passed down lovingly from generation to generation. For our family, THE BORROWERS is one such tradition. My mother first enjoyed this book as a young girl in the 1950's, reading away rainy winter afternoons in the hayloft. In the 1970's she shared this book, as well as it's sequels, THE BORROWERS AFIELD, THE BORROWERS AFLOAT,and THE BORROWERS ALOFT, with me. I loved it so much I spent hours building miniature villages out of odds and ends just in case any Borrowers should decide to move in with me. Every time someone in our house lost some small item like a pin or a key we'd say, "The Borrowers took it!" Now, with the premier of the movie version, a third generation of our family has had the opportunity to meet the tiny Clock family. My son and I enjoyed the movie so much we rushed right out and bought a copy of the book to read together. It was wonderful to see him transported to that same exciting miniature world I had enjoyed as a child. He was enthralled as Arietty and the human boy encountered one mishap after another in their quest to keep the Borrowers home a secret from unfriendly adults. Traditions are the glue which bonds the generations together in a family. Pick up a copy of this timeless classic and start a family tradition with your child today!

The Borrowers - a many layered classic
The Borrowers is a book for losers. Not the modern kind of loser, but people like me who are always losing stamps and pins and pens. The book tells the story of Arrietty Clock and her parents, tiny people who live beneath the floor of an old house and `borrow' the things they need from the humans who live in the house above. A postage stamp becomes a painting for their wall, pins become knitting needles. Even Arrietty's parents' names - Pod and Homily - are borrowed.

Life has never been easy for the borrowers, but now times are changing for the worse. The Sink family in the scullery, the Broom Cupboards, the Rain-Pipes and even Uncle Hendreary and his family have emigrated. Only the Clock family remain, living in fear of Mrs Driver, the housekeeper upstairs. When Pod comes home and says that a boy is living upstairs and that the boy has `seen' him, Pod's wife, Homily, is thrown into panic.

Arrietty, however, is intrigued. While her parents cling to the dubious safety of the life they know, Arrietty wonders about the world outside and dreams of adventure. She persuades her reluctant parents to let her accompany her father on his borrowing expeditions. On her first venture out, she meets the boy upstairs. A dangerous friendship develops. Meanwhile, Mrs Driver stalks the borrowers, full of the sort of cruelty Roald Dahl would have been proud to create. It is only with the boy's help that Arrietty and her parents narrowly escape Mrs Driver's attempts to destroy them. At the end of the book, Arrietty faces the dangerous adventure of emigration.

Like all great books for the young, The Borrowers can be read as an enthralling story of adventure, but also contains many layers of meaning. Mary Norton's creation of the tiny race of borrowers is an imaginative achievement in itself, but she does not stop there. She gives poignance to her tale by telling it through the voice of the boy's sister, now an old lady, who tells us at the start that her brother has long since grown up and died a `hero's de!ath' on the North-West frontier. The old lady seems to believe her brother's tale of the borrowers, and yet at the end of the book she provides evidence to suggest that the borrowers may have been nothing but a product of her brother's imagination. The reader is left wondering about reality and truth. On another level, in the relationship between the borrowers and the human world, parallels with the misunderstandings and confusions which occur between different cultures can be discerned. The uncertainties the borrowers face and their final exile mirror the plight of our world's increasing number of displaced people. Long after the book is finished, the characters and the questions their story raises reverberate around the mind. The Borrowers is a book which will fascinate, intrigue and entertain.

Enchanting
Unknown to the humans who seem to rule the Earth, they actually share the world with a race of little people, the Borrowers. Living beneath the floorboards, and anywhere else they can remain unseen, the Borrowers live by "borrowing" what they need from the "human beans." This is the story of one family (Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock), their life in a spacious home, their borrowing, and their efforts to stay unseen. But Arrietty wants to see what else there is to life, and she is going to see it!

This is such a wonderful book. The story is charming, with the illustrations showing a realistic (if tiny) family. My children loved this story, and even have developed some games based on the story. If you have children, then please consider buying this book for them.


A People and a Nation/Book and Historical Atlas
Published in Hardcover by Houghton Mifflin College (1995)
Author: Mary B. Norton
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A good history text
We use this as the main text in my US History AP course. It's a good, fairly comprehensive, yet easy to read text.

Excellent reference source!
I used this textbook as a junior in high school and recently purchased a later edition. Although the wonderful charts plotting the states and electoral numbers of the Presidential elections are long gone it is still a great reference book on our nations history.

Students will like it
My students really enjoyed this textbook because it was so inclusive of all American heritages. It is up-to-date with current trends in American history and has a little bit of everything your students might be interested in.


Star Man's Son
Published in Paperback by Ballantine Books (1985)
Authors: Andre Norton and Aice Mary Norton
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Still a fun and exciting read!
I can't believe that I never read more of this lady's books! I remember reading at least 3 of her novels back when I was a young'un, and I wasn't all that enthralled to read more. I read the time traders and iron cage and none of them was as good as this one in my opinion.
I'm currently reading The Beastmaster and it's already good.
Starman's Son was a good, fun, fast read full of action and adventure, full of cool and rich characters of both human and animal. A must read!

After the Blow-up, What Next?
Star Man's Son is a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place about two centuries after the Great-Blowup. This story is also entitled Daybreak - 2250 AD in reprint editions.

The cause of the catastrophe is unknown, but the effect are quite obvious. Much of the population was killed by the immediate effects of nuclear bombs, many others died later from the direct radiation and fallout from those bombs, and many more died from induced radioactivity, plague and starvation. Many plants and animals had been mutated into unrecognizable and deadly forms. Only a few humans survived and many of these were also mutated into Beast Things and other horrible creatures in the "blue cities" where radioactivity lingered. A very few survivors, however, received beneficial mutations that improved their chances of survival, but the seemingly normal survivors generally feared and hated any and every mutant.

Fors is the son of Langdon, a Star Man, a far ranging explorer and leader of the Eyrie, and a woman that Langdon had meet down on the plains. Although Langdon was seemingly normal, Fors has inherited white hair from his mother, a mutation viewed with suspicion by the other residents of the Eyrie. While Langdon was alive, he protected Fors from most of the fear and hatred, but then Langdon was killed by Beast Things on an exploration into a far city and the men who find him bring back only a few of his belongings.

After that, Fors was mostly ignored in his efforts to become a Star Man like his father. He has been adopted by Lura, a great hunting cat, and has made his own sword, knive, bow, and arrows as required. His father, a master teacher among the Star Men, had already ensured before his death that Fors knows all that is required. Nevertheless, the Council has passed over him for five years and tomorrow he will have to give up his weapons and become a tiller of the soil. As he ponders his options, Fors conceives a bold plan and immediately starts gathering supplies and equipment, including his father's pouch, for a great journey to search for the lost city in the north that was never bombed and thus is safe for scavengers.

Although Fors has tried to hide them, he has some unusual talents that will help him on his trek: he is able to communicate empathically with Lura and he has much better night vision that most humans. Moreover, he has other, more subtle talents that manifest as he travels.

This story is based on the premise that mankind will come close to destroying himself and this premise is found in many other works by the author. In many respects, it is a reflection of the worldview of the Cold War era, but it persists even in recent SF stories. In most of Norton's tales, this apocalyptic vision was like Pandora's box, in that there was an element of hope among all the horrors of war.

Recommended for Norton fans and anyone who enjoys a mostly optimistic story of the possible future.

Favorite Book
I read this book as a pre-teen, and it has remained at the top of my list since. Fors was my hero of many an imagined adventure of my youth. It is admitadly dated now, but I still recomend it to someone who enjoys a good sci-fi book, especially a young reader.


Black Trillium
Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (1990)
Authors: Marion Zimmer Bradley and Julian May
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Good reading, in spite of shortcomings
Review from Roz: I'll admit I wasn't too thrilled with the book at first. The whole first chapter, in which the royal family is beseiged in the Ruwenda Citadel, seemed almost melodramatic to me. I remember reading the first part of the book with a lot of skepticism. I was thinking, "Well, this is okay, but it's just not the best book I've ever read." However, once I got past the first few chapters, I COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN. It's just simply a wonderful story. I think most of the appeal lies in the characters--the three princesses who are so different from each other, the dangerously charming bad guy. The history and the setting are very well-thought out. There is an entire side-culture of the "Oddlings", the other sentient species on the World of Three Moons. The history of the place is textured--besides the surface story of the princesses' quests, there is a deeper, interesting layer underneath: the mystery of the Vanished Ones who have left their strange technology behind. When you really start to think about it, the plot of this book is a little tired. Some things are a little too cliche or contrived. But the bottom line is: Who Cares? It's an effective, interesting, enjoyable book, and I loved it. The characters are the best part. Well done.

Great read !
This book is truly what introduced me to these superb authors .It's definately one of the best books ever written .Magical ,interesting ,fast moving,it has all the qualities to a good book .I adored the creatures they invented ,the Oddlings ,the tree varts ,the Glismak ,the Skritek ,and everything else .They develope a wondreful feeling that I've barely felt before . Here is the plot :Three princesses are born in Ruwenda :Haramis ,smart and leader -like and heir to the throne ,Kadiya ,firey tempered but an amazing huntress,and Anigel,sweet ,timid ,and loving .Each of them is bestowed with the amulet of the black trillium by the Archmage Binah .When the princesses are young women ,the neighboring country of Labornok invades.Haramis ,Kadiya ,and Anigel are split up and sent to look for the magical talismans that will save their country :The Three Winged Circle ,the Three Lobed Burning Eye ,and the Three Headed Monster .But if the sorcerer you uses the king of Labornok as a puppet finds them first ,they will surely be destroyed.

Well Worth It.
The trio authors Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton have created a world so enchanting that I had to read non-stop from beginning to end. Action began from the first page as the triplet sisters are forced to split up and embark on their own journeys, and conquer themselves.

The story is fun, beleivable, and full of mystery surrounding the ancient citizens of the planet, the vanished ones. It is fairly easy to read because the authors did not add too much description, or confusing topics, which often take away the pleasure of reading.

The charcters came to life for me because their personalities were so human. Also, although I am not a feminist, I enjoyed the fact that the main characters Kadiyah, Haramis, and Anigel are women, which is a good change from many other fantasy stories that have either men as the lead characters or super-strong and unrealistic women running around and beating everyone up, (*cough*Xena-wannabees*cough), excuse me.

Black Trillium has all the elements that make an excellent story. The only problem that I had with it is that the ending seemed to be a little slapped together because it was so short.
This is when all three sisters confront The bad guy, Orogastus, together for the first time. About two short chapters later, the story ends. This dosen't create any loose ends, but it does take some of the momentum that the story had built up.


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