I'm a sucker for any anthology that ends with Richard Petty accepting the National Book Award. . . This one also has a lot of heart. The first of what promises to be an annual collection of stories promoting "a rebirth of beauty and life-affirming values," the Silver Rose Anthology offers a strong mix of voices and attitudes. Not every story here will appeal to every reader (the opening story, for instance, does little for me), but the collection overall is outstanding. Personal favorites (in addition to George Singleton's outrageous "Richard Petty Accepts the National Book Award") include Robert Olen Butler's seamless "Rafferty and Josephine," Julie Orringer's touching "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" Patry Francis'"Limbe," and Patricia Hackbarth's provocative "A Brief Geological Guide to Canyon County."
Move over Bill Henderson, Katrina Keneson, and Larry Dark. Watson's in the house!

When Kevin Watson gathered the stories for this anthology, he was doing us a public service. This is a hard world: hearts break, and lives are shattered. Stories that don't deal with those realities aren't true to life. But there's so much more to life--and should be to art. These stories are "life-affirming" in the best kind of way: They don't stay sunk in gloom, but they don't stoop to easy answers. Each one shows us a new facet of getting on with life, making things work, following the path. The individual stories are excellent--I especially like the story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler, although it's one of several strong stories--and in their cumulative effect, the collection becomes (and I mean this in the best kind of way) inspirational.

i only gave this book 5 stars because i could not give it more. i went to a reading of one of the writers and soon went on to read the rest. it has a good mix of voices, but by far the best writer is Heidi Shayla and her story "The Coffin Builder's Romance", it is a beautiful story of quilts, boxes, and of course, coffins. it is my all time favorite anthology, and i would definetly recomend it.

I am a big fan of Thomas Costain. I loved his book (Below the Salt). This was a pretty good book, but I was a bit disappointed. I didn't feel that the character development for the historical figures such as Edward I was that well done. I have read many better books about this great Plantangenet king. I have also read better books about the Mongol occupation in China. (try Gary Jennings'Journeyor). This book seemed simplistic to me and is probably a good introduction to historical fiction for a younger reader.

I first read The Black Rose in the late sixties while still in high school. I have read it at least 4 or 5 times since. I always disliked history in school but this book and others like it make history come alive. Admittedly, as Costain notes in his forward, he meant the book to be more about Edward I and Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, but became more caught up in the legend of Thomas a Becket's parents: an English knight married to an Eastern girl. In spite of this, it is well researched and shows good attention to detail while keeping the reader truly engrossed in the story line. All the locales are marvelously described: Oxford, medieval castles and their mores, Antioch, Cathay, Bombay, Venice, and Marseilles. This is the story of how a young man born to a privileged family comes to believe in the rights of the common man and the journey that forces this change in his beliefs. It is also the story of a great love between the unlikliest of lovers; an illegitimate young man of noble English family and the sister of a powerful merchant of Antioch. It is a good read, as are all of Costain's books. Other books by Costain that are worth exploring are Below the Salt ( a sci-fi take on the Magna Carta era a la "Back to the Future), The Silver Chalice (about Joseph of Arimathea and the Apostles), and The Darkness and the Dawn (about Attila the Hun). All are very good reads, will get you interested in history, and ready to explore more detailed books on the subject.

The adventure and excitment is phenominal! Everything is spelled out with a certain elegance that goes wonderfully with the 1200's picture in your mind. Walter and Tristram have good times and bad. Love and hate. And it is all displayed in a way that is hard to find. Costain is a wonderful writer. I am now reading his book "The Tontine"

I love this book, but found it a little daunting when I first unwrapped it. It is not your standard "lots of beautiful pictures" book. There are a few pictures, but they are not particularly good. It is the writing and the information contained that make this book so valuable. I keep it on my bedside table now and browse through it regularly, to read the fascinating histories and yummy descriptions of roses.

One thing that makes this book so excellent is the beautiful writing and the fact that he includes text and information from older rose resources/material that would be difficult to find without going to an extensive library. It is informative and gives detailed histories of old garden roses with descriptions that truly give you a feel for the roses. There is a rich section on propagation and the cultivation of roses, as well, although I found this less interesting than the historical information. I am particularly interested in Moss roses and this book had excellent material relating to the development of this type of rose, as well as all the other categories such as Portlands, Gallicas, Albas, etc. If you are confused by the categories, you cannot find a better source for explaining how these classes are different and how they may have come into being. I highly recommend it for people who are interested in history and development of roses. I have not seen a better book in this category, and I have quite a number of rose books.

If you are fascinated with the history of the rose, you should get this book--I read this time and time again when considering additions to my garden or when I simply want to know more about the old garden roses I grow and get the characterists of the various classes of rose straight in my mind.

One of the previous reviews said that this book is "not for the gardener." Perhaps it is not for the general, whining newby who can't tell the difference between a hybrid tea and a gallica or the lazy reader who can't get past any book that isn't slopped about with gaudy, glossy photographs and illustrations. But it *is* for the TRUE gardener who appreciates substance over style and really wants to learn about all that roses have to offer. The information contained in this book is priceless, charming and soul-satisfying. If you want a basic rose book with those goofy illustrated directions for planting a rose or identifying black spot, then please drive to Wal-Mart and pick one up there. If, however, you have outgrown the Ortho series (or the equivalent) and want something a bit more...wonderful...then please look no farther than G.S. Thomas and his unsurpassed trilogy of rose books.

If you are a rose-lover who lives from show to show, this book is not likely to please. Nor is it likely to be a good book first book for people new to roses. Firstly, it is not a picture book, though it does have some of the best rose photos to be found in books. Secondly it is not about the "hot" roses of today Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, and Miniatures.

Graham Stuart Thomas started out growing such roses, but in his early twenties he was visited by Constance Spry, an Old Rose lover who changed the way he looked at roses. Thomas has spent the rest of his life preserving, promoting, and documenting Old Roses, Shrub Roses, and Climbing Roses. His studies have honed his aesthetic sensibilities. And it is these keen sensibilities that inform this book. We can rely on Thomas to tell us not just the features and history of a rose, but to relate to us how he feels about it. It is this judgement that makes the book extremely valuable.

As we mentioned, the book has a section of one or two hundred photographs and watercolor paintings. These are classic photos, of whole plants. They teach us how the roses will look as garden plants. And as such they are more valuable than a ten thousand photos of single hybrid tea blossoms.

It is easy to recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn how to choose good, gardenworthy roses that work as landscape plants. Any well-rounded rose grower really should have spent some hours perusing its pages.

I bought this book and CD in the hopes of being able to identify several rose plants that my husband had rescued from the city's bulldozers. It is not designed for an amateur like me who needs pictures and drawings. I am less interested in the parentage of roses than I am in what the terms "semi-double, reverse, exhibition form, cupped" mean. Some roses did not even have the color of the bloom listed. The CD is great if you know the name of the rose you wish to search for, but cumbersome if you do not. Yes, you can search based on characteristics of a rose, but it's not easy. For example, there are no drop-down menus for options on search criteria. A search for a red rose with a "strong" fragrance yielded no results; "intense" fragrance did. When the results are shown, there is no number count on how many roses fit the criteria, and when you select one rose from the results to view, you must re-perform the search to look at another one. It's extremely frustrating. There are pictures of roses on the CD, but the search result listing does not show you which ones have pictures and which do not. Help is limited to FAQ's (with only two questions listed) and an email address. There is no online method for updating the program so there is no hope of this version becoming any better. ...

If you love roses and if you want to know about the full range of rose varieties that you may encounter at your local nursery or in mail order catalogues, this volume is essential. The expense is justified in part by the CD-ROM, which gives you the ability to search the underlying database at will. I enjoyed the pictures (although they don't match other works like Botannica) as well as the articles on famous European rose gardens. In any work of this magnitude there are bound to be errors (e.g., Meilland's Michelangelo is yellow, not pink), but the overall accuracy is very impressive. If you are only dabbling in rose growing, this encyclopedic work is probably more than you need. But if you are crazy about roses, you will be crazy about this book.

This edition of Modern Roses takes a giant step up from the last one! (MR10) By including *all* roses that could be reasonably well-documented, the usefulness of this reference has increased dramatically. In addition, the inclusion of a CD-ROM with great search capabilities is FANTASTIC.

Of course... as with any book of this nature... there are still a few errors in description, etc. However, this is very minor, compared to the volume of information contained.

Indispensable reference work for serious rose lovers.

Over the years I have always thought of Ursula Le Guin as a very brave and non-conforming sort of person. I have kept her photograph on my wall for the last 15 years. The reason for my admiration was that I felt (and feel) that she is a writer of major talent who decided to enter the field of science fiction and get labelled as a "sci-fi writer" when she could have won many honors and perhaps a more lasting place in history in mainstream literature. Her works do not cater to the broad popular tastes in fiction, but such novels as "The Left Hand of Darkness", "The Lathe of Heaven", "The Dispossessed" and "Always Coming Home" plus her works of juvenile fiction and collections of short stories add up to a body of spectacularly well-written material that is denied its place in the annals of American literature by the peculiar prejudice that segregates certain kinds of fiction into closed cells. I read most of Le Guin's books as soon as they hit the shelves, long ago, before science fiction became reality with the Internet and Amazon.com. For some reason, though I bought THE COMPASS ROSE fifteen years ago, I never got around to reading it till now. I must say that it was largely disappointing. There are some good stories in this collection, stories such as "The New Atlantis" and "The Diary of the Rose", also "The Pathways of Desire" which links exploration of space with dreams, but other stories seem hasty, 'cute' or aimed at the readers of airport fiction. In general, Le Guin is at her best when she creates new worlds or postulates possible futures. Her blend of anthropology and fiction has always thrilled me. As she moves away from that, into more general fiction on the contemporary world, unless she crafts the story carefully, as with "Two Delays on the Northern Line"--a real gem--she loses her edge. Her stories become filled with sunshine, conversing rocks, and whispering leaves, but without much punch. There are twenty stories in THE COMPASS ROSE. Half a dozen are up to her fine standard, others-perhaps the humorous pieces-may please many readers, but a few probably should have been kept in the drawer. (Though if I had written them, I would have been quite proud, no doubt. We are talking quality control here.) If you are wondering where to begin Le Guin, this is not the place. Put it last on your list. But begin, of course.

A good mix of 20 Ursula K. Le Guin short stories, composed of some great sci-fi, good modern fiction, humor, and quite a few UKL-style sureals (Buffalo Gals-style). The stories are all reprints from magazines and anthologies.

Some of the best are "Two Delays on the Northern Line" and "Malheur County", two haunting timeless pieces that talk of life and loneliness. "The Eye Altering" and "The Pathways of Desire" are excellent sci-fi shorts that question the nature of reality and perception. This compilation includes no stories from the Ekumen Cycle.

Although primarily a sci-fi reader, I believe that UKL's fiction including the shorts in The Compass Rose are some of the best pieces of contemporary fiction I know. The sci-fi in this book is a bit limited, but still excellent. All in all, a great way to get introduced to UKL's mainstream fiction, and satisfy your craving for quality sci-fi.

This is my favorite book. The stories are surprising and very enjoyable. Fresh thoughts accompany interesting stories.

The author should study her history and get the facts!
This book was a joke. I was rather furious and more than disappointed. Marie Antoinette's name was drug through the mud over 200 years ago based on hearsay and false accusations.

Isn't it time she is given the credit due her by now?
Read your facts author!

This book was a disappointment. I ...was very interested. I am a 'fan' of Marie Antoinette and have been fascinated with her life since reading Castelot's biography of her.

This book however, though it has some interesting pamphlets of historical interest, is more like a scrapbook. The writing is poor and has no direction. The pamphlets reproduced in the book are mostly pornographic lyrics and droll poetry of the Queen. The worst of which is Marie Antoinette riding an erected penis as if it were an ostrich.

If you want to learn about the Queen, her children, or the French Revolution, this is not the book to find it in. If you are very familiar with the Queen's life, this may offer you a little insight as to the people's attitude at the time, but that's it. I read it once, and it has been on the shelf since.

For a truly amazing book about Marie Antoinette, I suggest 'The Fatal Friendship'.

Unfortunately publishers feel that a book on Marie Antoinette will sell every couple years, so like clockwork we see an avalanche of pro royalist, sympathetic, out of context garbage. Most of them repeat the same legends...They base their accounts of the flight to Varennes on Carlyle and talk about her martydom...With the exception of Le Notre not one of her biographers has also done a biography of one of the leaders of the Revolution. Most demonstrate an alarming lack of understanding of basic events such as the the Bread March on Verseilles, September Massacres, the Necklace Affair or even how official Court appointment were made.

This is the first book in sometime that has put Marie Antoinette back into the context of her time...unfortunately for Royalist Mythology she was commonly referred to as the Austrian .... By her actions she precipitated the Revolution...she was provocative and weak...a flammable combination.

As for the reader who's sensibilities are offended by the "riding the penis" cartoon...you obviously haven't seen the several thousand cartoons of time that are available...the one you refer to IS tame...you should see the ones where she is dressed like a nun....You should also read the pamphlets sold at the Palais Royale...

While Hebert did indeed make things up in her indictment, it is hard to get around the fact that she has to shoulder a lot of responsibility for the revolution...

I recommend this book as one of the best books on Marie Antoinette in last 20 years...it has also prompted me to seek out the author.

I think the book is well researched, devoid of sentimentality and attempts to place Marie Antoinette back into the context of the tapestry of her times.

Michael La Vean
Fellow, International Napoleonic Society

The information provided in this book was written before R5 was available. Anyone currently using R5 would find this book not helpful since the information does not apply to R5. The examples provided requires extensive modification if one wants to run them in R5. However, if you are using R4.6, then you will find this book helpful.

If you want a book to learn the ins and outs of R5, do not buy this book.

I listened to those reviews and delayed buying this book--causing me to lose a LOT of programming time. Yes, the book seems like it was written from a 4.6 point of view, but the fundamental concepts and examples still work for R5. Plus, let's face it, some of the R5 features don't work exactly as they should, so it's good to know how to resort to 4.6 techniques. This book has some really good EXAMPLES--not to be confused with the many Domino books that were clearly lifted from the Help documentation and that do NOT help programmers--at least that's what I've found from other books.

I've been working with Domino/Notes for over 9 years and teaching Domino/Notes systems, development and programming for over 7 years. Of all the Domino books that have hit the market in those years, this is the only book I've found myself returning to, and using! I highly recommend this book to Domino developers who want to get a leg-up on advanced development techiques. Rose writes very clearly, provides excellent examples and really understands the challenges faced by Domino developers. I like how Rose presents techniques based on the various releases of Domino. At the begining of each topic Rose lists the platforms and versions of Domino the technique is supported by. Very handy. Rose also spends time to outline each technique in the various releases of R4.x and R5, which is often confusing. Her historical approach to techniques and code put many features of Domino into perspecvite and guide developers through the rapid changes of the Domino environment over the last few years. While some criticism has been made that this isn't a pure R5 book, I feel that Roses evaluation of R4.x and R5 is MUCH more valuable to Domino developers. There's still a lot of advaced R5 stuff in the book, I've already lifted several R5 techniques from her examples for my own work. Finally, I think it's amazing that Rose can ship her book on schedule with the "announced" R5 release for end of '98. Pretty good stuff for Beta 1! Can't wait for the next edition! I tell all my students to buy this book.

Keneally is, no doubt, a skilled and knowlegabel writer, and this novel based on the story of Joan of Arc is very well researched, but as the story of a brave and mystical hero, it's a dry and inhumane read which lacks passion, courage and inspiration. It's all too rational, too predictable, too over-explained.

The well-documented outline of Joan of Arc's story allows a skilled novelist plenty of creative space. Keneally's Joan, although resolute, is a human, vulnerable figure, unlike Mark Twain's saintly heroine.
This retelling emphasizes the very real sacrificial aspect of
her life. I thought the dialogue wonderful - plausible, informed, witty. To this former soldier, the ways Joan's fellow
military commanders skillfully translate her special charisma into battlefield advantage is imaginative. Joan's career after
Rheims is not covered. I greatly enjoyed this book, and its very different perspective.

One would think that the last thing the world needs is another book about Michel Foucault. With much relief, I discovered that this collection of essays is not simply another exegesis of the late philosopher's work but instead focuses rather specifically on his implied political theory. This volume seeks to introduce the reader to several political themes running through Foucault's writings and to offer "an analysis of political reason itself, of the mentalities of politics that have shaped our present, the devices invented to give effect to rule, and the ways that these have impacted upon those who have been the subjects of these practices of government" (p.2). This is ambitious agenda, and, on balance, the book succeeds well, despite some of its jargon and abstractions. The focus of the twelve chapters is the "ethical" and "technical" character of liberalism and neo-liberalism as a form of governing. The chapters are a mix of more or less accessible and relevant theoretical papers and ones addressing particular topics such as schooling, urban government, the insurance industry, and forms of communication technologies

this was a great book with some wonderful facts and in fo i say u should read it