I read this at ten years old, took it everywhere I went until I finished reading it, renewed it a few times and returned it way overdue.

Then I spent another four years looking for it, because paperback editions don't show up with the name.

Man, it was good. The book -possibly the best Arthurian book, set in any time. Arthur, in the midst of a bloody battle, finds himself in another bloody battle known as World War 2 (that's uncertain, but the presence of Churchill and mentions of Roosevelt are clues).

This time, he's here to save England in her biggest crisis, and naturally, he's not without opposition. His illegitimate son Mordred, a dispicable self-server and intelligent only when doing destruction, is back to get him. Then there are the Naziz lurking in the background, thwarting his romance with a beautiful nurse.

It's so well-written you don't even notice you're turning the pages, and it's not until the ending that you realise you've just read it.

I just loved it, and I'm so glad I found it again.

The legends of the Once and Future King tell us that Arthur will return to save Britain when its need for him is great. There are no clues, however, as to when that time will be.

This novel provides a possible answer. In it, Arthur does return to war-torn England during World War II. It's not a rebirth or reincarnation, nor has he lain sleeping all these years on some misty isle. Rather, Arthur has been sent through time by Merlin's magic to pursue Mordred and the stolen Excalibur.

Arthur, as always, is a warrior through and through. But instead of swords and axes, the battles are fought with Spitfires and Hurricanes, Stukas and Messerschmitts. And while some myths tell us that Merlin once turned Arthur into a hawk, in this novel Arthur is turned into a pilot.

The author has even provided Arthur with Bill Cooper, a Connecticut Yankee to round out his court. And, while he does stretch a bit sometimes to make amusing Arthur-related puns and anachronistic misunderstandings, it's still an enjoyable read. At the same time, Anderson drives home the deadly seriousness of the Battle of Britain with death and sacrifice everywhere and the grim hope and stubborn resolve which truly made it England's finest hour. The repeated attacks on London, the devastating blitz on Coventry, it's all there in shocking detail.

This is a good book for Arthur enthusiasts because it takes the heroic figure out of his element and introduces him into a new one. World War II buffs will also like it for the gritty realism of the outnumbered RAF and the ceaseless air war over Britain. I recommend it highly.

This is a wonderful book that brings the ideals of the Arthurian Legends to the heartstopping action of the Second World War. This book will without a doubt keep you on the edge your seats through a mindboggling story that will leave with many good memories.

The other group of children that Arthur Ransome created, the Death or Glories and Tom Dudgeon, Port and Starboard, collectively known as the Coot Club are here embroiled in another adventure. Accompanied by the Ds, whom avid readers will know from earlier AR books, they turn detective and track down the villians who are casting off boats on the Norfolk Broads. As usual Arthur Ransome was writing in a class of his own. A note of caution: don't imagine that Norfolk and the surrounding countryside, especially Lowestoft, bears any resemblance to the places described in these books. The last two thirds of the 20th century were not kind to our poor old country and nowhere is this more starkly illustrated than in our seaside towns. Read the book instead and dream of life before the car was king.

"Big Six" is Arthur Ransome's ninth book in the Swallows and Amazons series. It features neither Swallows nor Amazons but rather follows once more the adventures of the two D's and their friends of the Coot Club on the Norfolk Broads. In this story, some members of the Coot Club happen to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly find themselves accused of certain misdeeds. Unfortunately, the allegations hanging over them are serious enough to threaten the very future of the club unless the true miscreants can be discovered and exposed. So, rather than spending their time sailing or engaged in acts of bird preservation, the Coot Club has no choice but to turn into a detective agency instead, determined to clear the name and restore the reputations of their friends.

The central plot aside, Ransome still finds ways within this story to involve the children in many typical pre-war Norfolk Broads' activities and introduce us to some wonderful Norfolk characters. Indeed, throughout this book, he manages to paint a vivid picture of life on the Broads in a by-gone era; all using language and a writing style that should appeal to both children and grown-ups alike. As usual, the story is presented with intelligence, charm and wit, as well as with an overriding humility and an obvious love for the places and people of whom he writes.

Some episodes in this book (especially the smoking of the eels) will have most adults crying with laughter, while for the majority of younger readers the excitement of the detective story will undoubtedly be the overridingly memorable element. Ultimately, though, it is the author's heart-warming respect for children and the way they see the world around them that shines through and makes this book so enjoyable for readers of all ages.

Ransome has done it again, doing a fabulous job of describing the escapades of the ship Swallow and the ship Amazon. I recommend this book to all those in love with the sea, or in love with a good story!

How has a tiny island had such a great impact on world culture? With it's evocative and poetic photo essays and personal almost intimate written essays about Cuba, Cuba On the Verge goes a long way to making you feel in your bones the potent Cuban 'ajiaco' the mixture of cultures and the vibrancy of the life and art it produces. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Chucho Valdes and Cuban popstar 'el Tosco' which helps us move beyond the limiting view of Buena Vista Social Club as the only Cuban music that most people in the world are aware of. Cuba is not caught in a fifties timewarp as most articles and books you read these days would have you believe, and Cuba On the Verge shows that.

A huge & quietly engrossing collection of essays & pictures by leading Cuban & American writers & photographers, offering unique insights into life in this fabled island nation.

Each essay & photo series delights--thinking men & observant women--about rituals & revolution; of struggling for love & beauty; the music of Cuba, focusing on Chucho Valdés; sugar mills & tobacco farms; the faces of change; life among the ruins; the emerging middle class; of being born too late for the revolution; of landscapes & mythology; how a Cuban comes home; letters from exile.

From the pens of Jon Lee Anderson; Russell Banks; Avilio Estévez; Abelarde Estorino; Cristina Garcia; Pablo Medina; Ana Menéndez; Mayra Montero; Nancy Morejón; Achy Obejas; Susan Orlean; Hugo Perez; Antonio José Ponte; Eduardo Luis Rodriguez & Reina Maria Rodriguez.

From the cameras of Niurka Barroso; Ernesto Bazan; Virginia Beahan; Carlos Garaicoa; Kastia Garcia Fayat; Abigail Gonzáles; Andrew Moore; Inge Morath; Abelardo Morell; René Peña; Manuel Piña; Silvia Plachy; Adalberto Roque; Fazal Sheikh & Carrie Mae Weems.

William Kennedy's Introduction is written in the style of a Miami newsman, who has written about Cuba for decades & now at last he's going to the "incipient phoenix, an exotic ambiguity...one of the major social experiments of the twentieth century..." & his excitement is palpable.

Playwright Arthur Miller's Epilogue is rich in impressions & American points of view of an encounter with The Leader, President Fidel Castro.

We were drawn to the title of this book simply because of our interest in Cuba and its history and hardships. Hoping to someday visit, we were intrigued by the visual and literary representation of the story. The photography is provocative with components of sadness and pride evident in the faces that are looking back at the camera. What is remarkable is the tragedy of a once beautiful country. The destruction of Cuba and the hopelessness of its people are vividly depicted. Yet the pride and strength that is intrinsic to Cuba's culture fosters growth and change.

I really thought it was a sweet book. I wonder though, if there was nothing wrong with Arthur's nose, why did the author change it for his other books? It sends the wrong message.

This new edition of Arthur's Nose is as wonderful as the original, but now it's even more useful to teachers! In the front of the book, Marc Brown has included pages from his original manuscript and shown how he had to edit and revise things. What a great motivator for young writers learning that revision and editing are a part of writing. There is also a gallery of photographs from Marc's own family and Arthur's life over the years. An additional page of fun facts and all of the incarnations of Arthur's nose over the years, as well as a letter to readers, complete the additional pages of this anniversary edition.

Just like Peanuts characters, and others with whom we, or our children, grew up, Arthur's looks have changed over the years. What a great classroom discussion these changes could prompt! I could envision this discussion taking place, with more mature reasoning, from first to sixth grade, and I wouldn't hesitate to use the book as a writing springboard in those same grade levels.

Of all the characters that have a book for every first, every problem, every holiday, Arthur is my favorite. Unlike some other series, the Arthur books don't bang you over the head with the moral of the story. It's there, but woven so subtly into the story that you discover it on your own.

When I first saw Arthur in his present incarnation, I thought he was some sort of a mouse. He's actually an aardvark. He looks more like an aardvark in the earliest book. That's the problem: Arthur doesn't like his long aardvark snout.

His family loves Arthur and his nose. But the kids at school, who are all different types of animals, sometimes make fun of his nose, so Arthur decides to change it. He visits a rhinologist (who is a rhino, of course), and tries out different pictures of noses. Would he be happier with a rabbit's nose? A chicken's? An armadillo's?

Finally, he decides to stick with the nose he's got.

It's a great message for any kid who feels a little different. But, look at Arthur today. What happened to that long snout? No matter, he's still my favorite. As author Marc Brown put it in the first book, "There's more to Arthur than his nose."

One gets the impression, as one reads the brilliant character sketches Russell draws of the scholars and lords and ladies who made up his circle of aquaintances, that the English upper class was mostly mad, scoundrels, or geniuses, with a fair amount of overlap. (The author as an outstanding case in point.) The keenness of Russell's insight into character, vivid descriptions, and eye for the absurd, make many passages of this book a delight. "My advice to anyone who wishes to write is to know the very best literature by heart, and ignore the rest as completely as possible." "The past is an aweful God, though he gives life almost the whole of its haunting beauty." "(Plato's) austerity in matters of art pleases me, for it does not seem to be the easy condemnation that comes from the Phillistine." Reading Why I am Not a Christian ..., I got the impression that he had a gloomy outlook on life. But here, I often found great joy in poetry, nature, and the wonder of life. "I had never, till that moment, heard of Blake, and the poem affected me so much that I became dizzy and had to lean against the wall." Tempered, however, by morbid thoughts, and fear of insanity.

One of the odder aspects of the book to me was Russell's "idealism." On one page, he speaks of a mystical experience in which gave him a universal compassion for all mankind: on the very next page, he relates how he "fell out of love" with his wife, and then, how he ditched her. Passing from the same Bodhissattva-like musings elsewhere, he relates, on the next page or so, how he tried to strangle a friend in a rage. He can be sympathetic and even kind, but for a would-be Boddhisattva and fighter for the rights of women, he seems to have hurt a lot of ladies, in particular, rather badly. Yet his friendships in general, with both sexes, seem warm and affectionate.

I docked the book a star because the version I bought (Bantom) seemed dishonest in its packaging. The front and back covers show an old man, though this version only covers the period to 1914. On the back cover, it promises "more exciting episodes than most novels, details more intimate than most exposes, and more intensity of emotion than most fiction writers would dare ascribe to a single hero." Largely hype. This is not Dumas, or Augustine. It's a different kind of story.

Someone else on the back cover calls Russell "a Genius-Saint." Genius, maybe, but the second accolade implies very low standards for sainthood. The book did make me think Russell a more balanced figure than I thought. But part of that balance appears to have been something like madness, and something like cruelty. Intellectually, Russell was a brilliant man. Emotionally, he often strikes me as a lonely and bewildered child, angry at being abandoned, not sure where to look for love, and not sure how to give it.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

One may hypothesize that all works of philosophy are in essence works of self-reflection. From blatant examples such as Augustine's "Confessions" to more subtle parts of Descartes' "Meditations," philosophers have often used their own experiences to help us understand the world we live in. In this sense, we can contrast to the former works the works of philosophers such as Aristotle or Heidegger who shy away from using the first person and deal with subject matters not only strictly of interest to the writer, but which seek to gain popular understanding. Bertrand Russell is a curious mixture of the two approaches. His committment to objectivity and to rigorous thought that is arguably impossible without a certain degree of "common ground" frequently seems to overshadow his own subjectivist foundations in which he approaches the questions of philosophy. In what is perhaps the most powerful two pages of the book, at the introduction, Russell outlines three primary principles that have motivitated him to do what he did in life. In a sense, then, the autobiography provides the reader with comforting answers as to why anybody would wish to live such an amazing life. In this sense, it is perhaps Russell's most self-reflective work of philosophy. The book is entertaining, the stories enjoyable, and the message deeply profound: how Russell came to appreciate the fields that he was interested in, and how he found the principles that guided his life. He had also been kind enough, in the edition I read, to include copies of letters of correspondence and pages from his diary as a youth. While this may have been motivated by a less-than-humble desire to provide future scholars with primary source material to study himself, they are themselves works of philosophy, and many of the doubts about life Russell struggled with as a youth strike a chord in all of us. Indeed, Russell's Autobiography is an entertaining and personally illuminating approach to one of the most fundamental philosophical questions of how one's life is to be lead.

Not only was Bertrand Russell a gentleman, he was a peer. In some cases this can be seen as stepping out of the frying pan into the fire. In Lord Russell's case, it just may have helped.

Apart from stating the obvious, that Bertrand Russell needs or should need little introduction, it is as well to say that his long life was spent, as far as it was public, in defending or promoting causes. Having gone to prison at a young age because he could not stomach the Kaiser's war (at least not quietly), he later returned, if only briefly, way off in the 1960s, defending the cause of CND in Trafalgar Square. That's quite a bit of history to cover, all from the same angle. It seems he never regretted the stand he took, nor altered his views substantially over the decades. He either had to condemn war openly and publicly, or condemn man privately, which meant taking his own life, something he says he thought about very seriously and decided against. For all his faults, whatever they were, it's quite hard to fault him!

The autobiography allows us to accompany him through the bulk of the twentieth century and see the development of various movements worldwide, in which he was always involved, at least at the level of the heart, but often actively. He uses letters a good deal in this text, and these throw light on that outer world which was so often pulling in an almost opposite direction. Yet he had his friends and in the bad years when he was a political outcast, a pariah of sorts in his own college (Trinity College, Cambridge) there were always those who could see his point of view and respect it. He was a stubborn man and his stubbornness allowed him to hang on for much longer than most people would have bothered. In fact, it seems that he remained true to himself right to the end, and in the end, that is what gave him life. An interesting book about a lively intelligence, sometimes brilliantly displayed.

Courtesy of Love Romances

Kirby Brown has only had one person she could ever count on, her best friend. When her friend was brutally murdered by a psychotic, and otherworldly, killer, Kirby was left all alone and scared, for the same killer was after her. She has no idea who is after her or why, but she does know her life is in serious danger. She goes on the run, with only a few meager possessions, and her magical powers as her defense. That is not enough and just as she fears her life is about to be snuffed out, her rescuer arrives.

Doyle Fitzgerald is in Melbourne, Australia, per the orders of the Damask Circle, a special and elite ring of magical beings who are sent to handle special cases all over the world where magic is concerned. His latest mission is to hunt down and destroy the very murderer who is after Kirby. He comes to her rescue, just as she is about to be killed, killing the monster that was after her, but having no idea how to track down the being that is using the creatures.

Kirby has no idea why someone is after her, but Doyle is, and she is shocked to hear the story. She has no memory of her childhood, or of the incident that seemed to spark this string of serial murders. What she doesn't know, is Kirby is one of a circle of women... witches... who have the power to control the elements. Kirby is the last remaining witch of this circle, the only person standing in the way of her ultimate enemy having all the powers at her disposal, and causing awesome destruction in her wake.

Doyle finds himself completely attracted to Kirby, as she is to him, and he will do anything to protect her. However, she isn't the only one with secrets and gifts, for Doyle has some special powers of his own. Powers he is hesitant to share with her just now. Her nerves are at the breaking point already and he fears she couldn't handle his secret on top of everything else. As much as she is drawn to him, she fears getting too close, for she knows the awesome strength of her abilities and she doesn't want him to be threatened by what she has little control over. Will they overcome their secrets? Will they defeat the person stalking Kirby? Or will the world end in the ultimate battle of good versus evil?

What a fabulous read! This story has all the elements of good paranormal romantic fiction. There is plenty of driving action and suspense to keep one's attention right up to the very end. There is love and romance, magic, good and evil. There is also any number of paranormal beings found between the covers. It is populated with vampires, witches, demons, and shapeshifters galore; it will make the readers wonder what secrets their friends and loved ones are carrying.

Ms. Arthur shows in this book why she is rising through the ranks of this sub-genre quite rapidly. She shows impressive talent in her writing, with snappy dialogue between the characters, and enough surprises in the plot to pack a wallop. One will be moved by the plight of Kirby and Doyle, as well as their friends. This book will keep a reader on the edge of the seat, eagerly awaiting the next book by an up and coming author.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, February 2003. All rights reserved.

Kirby Brown is heartbroken and stunned when she returns home to find that her roommate and best friend, Helen, has been viciously slaughtered. Kirby is shocked and petrified, but is immediately taken into police protection because they believe she might be in danger as well.

They're right.

Doyle Fitzgerald had been a thief, but is now a coveted member of the Damask Circle. He has been sent to investigate the murders in Melbourne, Australia, because it appears that dark magic is involved. He barely arrives in time to save Kirby from the killer, and from that point on, they are on the run for their lives.

Kirby has never learned to trust anyone outside of Helen, and now she has to trust Doyle with her life. She's learning things about herself she never before knew and remembering a past she's tried desperately to forget. And through it all Doyle stands by her, protects her, and teaches her how to use the powers that are rightly hers.

But can they survive the evil that is now after them both?

I have been a fan of Keri Arthur since her very first book. And, with each successive book she only gets better and better, which just blows me away because I love each book so much! CIRCLE OF DEATH is an action packed, paranormal love story that should be on every readers "must read now" list. If you love paranormal romance, than there is no doubt in my mind that you'll love Keri Arthur's books. Read and enjoy!

Kirby and Helen are orphans raised together by the foster care system. They are also witches. Helen developed her gift as a storm witch, and Kirby supressed hers. When Helen is killed by a monster, she is devastated. Then she is attacked herself and escapes, she is aided by the Damask Circle, particularly Shapeshifter Doyle Fitzgerald. The Circle is in the area because of the deaths of witches, someone is killing them and absorbing their powers. Kirby is on the monster's hit list.

This novel is just as good as Circle of Fire. Doyle, Russell and Camille are believable (if that's possible) as paranormal detectives. There is alot of action of all kinds in this one, I finished it in one sitting.

I'm not a big fan of paranormal romance books, but I do like Keri Arthur. She is mostly known for her excellent Nikki James and Michael Kelly series. A series I love. With Circle Of Fire she starts a new series--more fabulous paranormal stories. This time involving the members of the Damask Circle, an organization that sees its members, all of them extraordinary in one way or another, fight super-natural evil.

Madeline Smith and Jon Barnett are two characters with extraordinary talents. The one a shapeshifter and a loner out of necessity, the other a clairvoyant and a recluse out of choice. Brought together to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of teenagers in the small town of Taurin Bay, they not only have to face their own insecurities but also have to deal with their sizzling attraction and the search for the victims and their perpetrators.

Circle Of Fire is light entertainment. Perfect to while away a few spare hours. It's not demanding but fun. It's a lot like going on one of those big fun-fair rides. It has its slow build up but then it goes fast, fast, fast. You are sure to be screaming and laughing. Can't wait to read Circle Of Death.

This is a great read. The unearthliness of Feehan and fast moving and romantic as Lindsey and My newest favorite "Anything, My Love" by Cynthia Simmons. A sizzling page turner. That's what I like, book I simply can't put down.

Maddie Smith is a clairvoyant and a pyrokinetic. She is living in isolation after the death of her abusive husband in a fire that she started. Jon Barnet is a member of the Damask Circle. He is trying to catch the murderer of a number of teenagers, left drained of all blood in a rural area. Maddie's nephew Evan is the next victim and Jon needs her help to find him.

I really enjoyed this shapeshifter romance. The characters were very well developed and the plot moved quickly. Good series.

This book provided me with lots of information and left me loaded with questions for my Reproductive Endocrinologist! It was an excellent resource and I highly recommend it for anyone who is considering or about to undergo any ART procedure.

This is the book that became my bible as I went into advanced infertility treatments. I finally found the information that I was looking for on what it was truly like to go through a cycle of IVF. I copied the diary that is in the book and mailed it to my family so they also knew what to expect. This was the book where I found all the information that I was searching for to help me know what to expect and to help me make the decision to undergo IVF.

If you buy one book on IVF, buy this one. After studying the web for months and undergoing treatment for a year at a fertility treatment center, we bought this book. We thought we had seen everything. This was the first publication I had seen that suggested that assisted hatching + ICSI could give older couples the same chance of conceiving as younger couples with no assistance. Also, the daily calendar for the first IVF cycle is invaluable. We knew just what to expect. This is a very optimistic book, and you will probably need that to survive IVF. The one criticism is that the success tables in this book are drastically out of date.

Henri Bergson's seminal ``Creative Evolution'' starts off with the flowing movement so prevalent in his philosophy of the organism, one idea flows into the next in a smooth undivided motion. Not only does Bergson explain his work with analogies and examples supported by the biology of the time, thereby distancing himself from the purely intellectual pursuit of most philosohpy, trapped in the world of the mind, but he demonstrates his thought in the very way of exposition he uses throughout the book. One feels his thought is produced like a Mozart symphony, all at once with no corrections needed. This aptly demonstrates the idea of duration and time he proposes in this book. His influence is profound in thinkers such as David Bohm and Alfred North Whitehead which so to speak ``run with it'' in the parlance of baseball. This is a book worth reading twice for its rich display of creativity and also to reread sections not followed the first time. One does feel however that at times the flow is interrupted by disturbances in his mode of thinking leading to disjointed reading. Nonetheless, not only does he open a whole new way of thought free of dualism and the old patterns of mechanism, but he also expalins the reason for mechanistic thought itself.

I first came across Ibsen's monumental work when reading 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller. Despite my complete lack of evolutionary and biological knowledge, I found Ibsen's eschatology mind blowing. Several times I was forced to leave the book for days in order to fully contemplate the philosophical ramifications of his insights. From this great stride forward into the fringes of human understanding Ibsen states: 'A conduct that is truly our own, on the contrary, is that of a will which does not try to counterfeit intellect, and which, remaining itself - that is to say, evolving - ripens gradually into acts which the intellect will be able to resolve indefinitely into intelligible elements without ever reaching its goal. The free act is incommensurable with the idea, and its "rationality" must be defined by this very incommensurability, which admits the discovery of much intelligibility within it as we will. Such is the character of our own evolution; and such also, without doubt, that of the evolution of life." No one, despite their educational backgrounds or lack thereof, should feel intimidated by the possibility of transcending one's very own intellect.

Despite Lord Russell's criticism that "intuition works best in bats, bees, and Bergson," in this work Bergson not only finishes the uprooting of the Western and Platonic disembodied intellect (a deconstruction taken only so far by Kant), he presents us with the spectacle of unbridled life creatively shaping, not only its world, but itself in accord with its own telos: the need for eyesight creating the eye, so to speak. Difficult in places but a treasure, although one could wish he gave more credit to Nietzsche's obviously great impact on him. Jungians would do well to peruse Bergson too.

Guenon became a pariah in his own homeland for opposing what he perceived as the downward existential trend of his time. Guenon's critique of modernity, despite its occasional dogmatic over-tone, is worth reading for anyone concerned with the very future of human existence.

Man, under the pretext of conquering the earth, has lost touch with metaphysical reality [ Julius Evola ].

This book should be part of the national curriculum.

This book is very special, in that it forms a perfect introduction to Tradional thought and critique. People used to the spirt-negating attitudes of our times may be both shocked and annoyed at the writer's conclusions. Others may find their beliefs and basic feelings clearly articulated for the very first time.

Guenon never uses the apologetics about religion and spiritual matters so common in almost every book on these subjects. he assumes the reader shares his beliefs and views and wastes no time trying to convince us that God exists, spirit is superior to matter, or that there is value in religion. Once reading this refreshing prespective, is hard not to be changed.