I throughly enjoyed this encouraging and candid book about how a Southern girl from poor circumstances overcame paraplegia's tragedy to become an influential and much sought after speaker and singer, through prayer and faith in the Lord Jesus. The influence of her simple but praying mother on her life. It is funny,a book that many people will be able to relate to. It is encouraging to see how God has used this young woman, given her a Godly husband and blessed them with two children. If you need hope, read this book. It is a simply written book about one young woman's life out of and in a wheelchair. If you liked "Joni" By Joni Eareckson Tada, you will like this book.

The author does a fabulous job of allowing the reader to see into eva's heart. she is so vulnerable to allow the reader to see right into her. i loved the book and i love eva. she is a very influnential person to me personally. she is woman of faith and love. she is genuine in who she is. i strongly recommend this book. it also makes a great gift for seekers.

This book has a lot of good points - writer's tip sheets, suggestions, markets that not everyone has heard of.

However, there are some drawbacks. The most notable comes from the sheer volitility of the publishing market - editors rotate, move around, leave jobs, etc. And writers, using a contact name several months or years old will look foolish to the people they are trying to impress with their proffesionalism. The other drawback I found was in incorrect information. For example, they list president names of RWA chapters. Only the person they listed as my chapter president hadn't been president for more than three years. In another spot, they list a phone number for a publisher. I called to have a tip sheet sent to me. Only, it was an incorrect number.

I felt the drawbacks, though, were merely inherent in the style of book. I would, therefore, still recommend it to a writer trying to break into the market.

Romance Writer's Pink Pages : The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Romance Novel Published (1996/97) is an excellent reference for the fledgling romance writer, a 'must have.' The Pink Pages gives the guidelines and criteria of what the romance publishers are looking for in a manuscript, as well as names and addresses of publishers, for everything from novels to short stories.

My children (4 and 6) loved this book, and all the other books in the series. Simple words, short sentences, short books, and familiar concepts made these books a winner with my family. These are great books for those who still can't read all the way through the Dr. Seuss books yet.

The entire series is perfect: jewel-like stories that have drama--catharsis and resolution in just a few pages. This one is excellent, though Sam's Cookie is his most satisfying adventure overall.

Anita, Sandra and Eva did a wonderful job demonstrating the love between sisters and their concerns for each other when it comes to relationship with men.

This novel was so good to read it's been a long time since i had the privilege to read a romance novel and it felt good to get back into reading them again.This was my first time reading anything by these author's and their storie's were all good I really enjoyed Sandra and Anita's stories. Good work.They were heart felt stories about sisters and their every day life problems.

This book gives you the stories of all the famous Taoist immortals, from Lu Tung Pin to any you can think of pretty much. Eva Wong takes the stories from those she heard from storytellers in Hong Kong when she was young, and as such, they are entertaining as well as informative. There's not a whole lot to this book, but if you're looking for information on a certain Taoist immortal, it will probably be in here.

Eva Wong has taken tales of Taoist immortals of various kinds, and their mystic fellow-travellers, and compiled them into this wonderful, readable book. Most of these tales come from her childhood, and have that feeling of listening to the very storytellers she listened to.

No attempt is made to reconcile the stories, they are merely presented simply and effectively. So you'll meet Immortals who ascended to the Celestial spiritually and others who perfect the pill of immortality, sages and politicians, ner-do-wells and royalty. This provides a wonderful view of different stories surrounding these colorful and interesting characters, presented without attempts to bend them to a mold.

Eva Wong has translated many documents, but this one, from the heart, is as important, stimulating, and interesting as anything that's passed through her capable hands. Indespensible for any student of Taoism, legend, and Chinese culture.

This was an illuminating and evocative book. Anyone interested in this topic should also read "Escape Via Siberia" and "The Uprooted" by Dorit Whiteman. Whiteman's books -- which expertly weave gripping personal accounts with historical context -- explore how survivors of the kindertransport and other Holocaust horrors coped with the legacy of their harrowing ordeals as adults. Whiteman is an expert in the field and some of her material was used in the movie, "Into the Arms of Strangers."

As the generation of World War II survivors is all-too quickly disappearing, today's children are running out of opportunities to connect with those who survived the war. Ten Thousand Children is a series of true anecdotes told by the children who escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport. The stories of the evacuated children come to life with emotion and clarity. Readers will be amazed at the courage of the children involved and the hardships they faced as they were separated from their families and sent to live in a foreign land. Each child tells his or her story in first person narrative, then the story is followed by an update which tells about the child's life after the war. Captioned photographs illustrate every story. The book is divided into seven chapters, each beginning with a news-like article giving background information to support the stories included in the chapter. The stories and articles are short enough to be read easily by children, and relevant vocabulary words are defined in reader-friendly terms in the margins. This book will help children understand the lessons which must not be forgotten from World War II. The cruel realities of war and intolerance leap from the pages of each story. Readers will be touched by those children from long ago. All those who read this book will walk away with a deeper understanding of the Kindertransport children and an appreciation for the freedoms we must cherish today.

"Frankenstein" is a typical novel from the romantic period. The story is based on the conflict of a scientist with the results of his work. But Frankenstein is far more than that: It is the story of two individuals (Frankenstein and his "monster") and their acceptance and behavior in society, and of course, the novel contains a lot of latent psychological information (what would Freud have said about that?). However, it is typical for the age of romanticism that the feelings and thoughts of the individuum are at the center of the plot (see e.g. the works by Byron or by the German authors Eichendorff and Novalis). This holds as well for the music composed during that time (Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, ...). Mary Shelley describes in great detail the innermost feelings of Frankenstein and his "wretch" and how they changed from one minute to the other, and what made them change their moods, and why and how, and who was around etc. This actually - because presented through the entire book - makes the reading of the highly interesting story rather tedious. Story: 5 stars, Fun: 1 star

If you are expecting the novel Frankenstein to be like horror scenes depicted in the movies, you better think again. Instead, Mary Shelly allows the reader to create more images in his or her own mind. Today, we are so brainwashed to violence and gory images on television, that we sometimes forget what "real" horror used to be like. When you read Frankenstein don't forget that Mary Shelly wrote the book in the 1880's in a time of social unrest. The writing style is different, and the pace of the novel is not as up to date as modern books. Her descriptive words allow the reader to create the monster in his or her own mind, without actually seeing it. When Shelly writes, her words give such detailed images of what is going to happen next. For example, when something "bad" is going to happen, Shelly generates a spooky and mysterious setting.
One of the major themes throughout the book is science technology. When Victor creates the monster, he is challenging science, and therefore challenging God. When the creature awakes, Victor realizes that he has just done a "horrible" thing. He is disgusted with the thing he created, which led him to feel extreme guilt and compete rejection of the monster. Is it science that led him to self destruction? Shelly wonders how far will technological advances go before a man becomes too dependent on technology? Science destroys his life because the monster dominates him, and Victor winds up being a slave to his own creation.
What was also interesting about the novel was how Shelly made the reader feel sympathetic for the monster. After all aren't we supposed to hate this thing? She portrayed the creature as a "normal human", showing love and affection. The creature's ugliness deterred anyone from coming close to him, and made him feel like an outsider. This rejection from society made the monster sad and helpless. His only revenge was to engage in destruction. This is when the "real" monster is created. After reading parts of the novel I felt bad for the monster, in a way I never thought I would.
Although slow paced, Mary Shelly's style of writing will allow you to take on different dimensions and force you to develop your own profound ideas about the topics discussed in the novel. I think Frankenstein is a great Romantic classic for anyone who has a imagination.

The Frankenstein monster is truly one of the most tragic characters in classic literature. He is obviously quite brilliant, having learned to speak (rather eloquently, I might add), and to read simply by secretly watching others. He's sensitive, kind, and appreciative of nature's beauty-all of the most admirable characteristics of a wonderful soul. And yet, he is vilified by all who come in contact with him because of his physical repulsiveness.

His longing for love, especially from Victor, was so painful that it became difficult for me to read. I kept hoping he'd find someone to show him the littlest bit of kindness. His turn to violence is entirely understandable, and Victor's irresponsibility toward his creation is despicable. Victor, who is outwardly handsome but cowardly and cruel, is the story's true monster.

In addition to writing a captivating story, Shelley raises many social issues that are still relevant today, nearly 200 years later, and the book provides a superb argument against *ever* cloning a human being.

(Note: I have the edition with the marvelous woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser and the Joyce Carol Oates afterword - superb!)

I read this book in my sophomore year of high school, and wasn't very fond of it. My classmates agreed.
The book had an interesting plot, I can give it that at least. Kumalo, a South African priest, travels to Johanessburg, a huge city, to find that his entire family has basically forgotten him. His brother doesn't recognize him, his sister lives in the slums, and his son... well, I won't go there as I don't want to give away the plot.
My major complaint about the book is the writing style. It's confusing, lengthy, and one of my friends said they could have cut an entire page of what Paton said into about 3 words. Another complaint I have was that when reading it, it was hard for me to understand who was talking, because the dialogue same as Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. There aren't any quotation marks in the entire book.

All in all, the writing style is just plain tedious for those who don't enjoy it. Who knows, maybe my 15 year old mind can't quite fully appreciate the "genius" of Paton's writing. But that's just me. As you can tell from other reviews listed here, other people obviously love the writing style. Although I found it confusing and unnecessary.

To wrap things up, I would give this book a 2.5 if it were possible... I enjoyed the story, but I disliked the way it was written.

When first published in 1948 in apartheid South Africa, Cry, the Beloved Country raised more than eyebrows as a powerful book about the power of unity and an author's unflinching hope of a future where segregation no longer exists. The book summoned feelings of pride, optimism, and anticipation of a long-desired goal. But Paton's lyrical, poetic prose is not your typical run-of-the-mill anger evoking story about discrimination. The story is a humanizing experience that evokes feelings of sympathy and understanding, not hatred for a system so blatantly wrong.

In Cry, the Beloved Country, readers feel an uncanny connection to three things: the land, an old black rural priest searching in a corrupt city for his son, and an old white rural man confronting the loss of his son. All three aspects of the book are connected by a common thread. And a great thing about the book is that Paton doesn't feel the need to build up to the emotional climax by setting the readers against a well defined antagonist, or even an antagonist at all; on a micro-scale, the story is a moving tribute to man's inherent dignity; on a macro-scale, the themes and plethora of symbols are applied to man's all-too mortal nature.

This book is also a can't-miss for any fans of poetry who want to read a good work of prose. As the New Republic puts it, Cry, the Beloved Country is "the greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time." I would be inclined to agree.

I first read the book when I was in high school for our novel section of AP English. As a writer now, it is strangely thrilling to see how Paton's ideas and poetry influenced my own prose. "The Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck was good, but I felt that it lacked the words of the heart that Paton writes with. Never have I read a more simple and profound book, so lovingly crafted, so authentic and natural, that some fifty years later after Paton wrote the novel, it still has not been superceded. Kumalo's plight is everyman's plight; his burden our burden; his son our son. Dear students, don't read this book because your teacher tells you to, you will learn nothing that way. Read it, because you earnestly desire it, because it is well worth it.