Augustine wrote the City of God to respond to pagan charges that Rome fell to the barbarians because Christianity had made it soft and removed the gods' (small "g") blessings. Augustine uses devastating (and occasionally tedious) historical reasoning and sheer deductive logic to demolish that view. Those who know little Roman history will have trouble understanding the allusions. There are, however, footnotes for the more obscure references.

Thomas Merton, probably the most activist contemplative in the 20th century, surely read the book in the original and felt he could make a more readable translation. This version is almost painfully literal. He adopts Augustine's Latin style, which tends to be very verbose. Forty word sentences, such as we would "ding" a 9th grader for, are the result. And those are the short ones! Nonetheless, blame the Latin original.

Still, shortening the sentences will in many cases lose some of the meaning. Latins thought a lot more rigorously and logically than we. Augustine was their leader. Don't read this non-stop, and have a history of Rome handy, just in case. This is a Christian classic that every educated person should know, but that doesn't mean it's as easy as, say, something by Tim LeHay.

Any thinking Christian is daunted by this three-pound monster, but he owes it to himself to read it, front to back. The Great Doctor of the Latin Church here set forth the tenets for the entire Church to come, based on diligent studies of Scripture. Augustine is surprisingly readable when discussing history and even rises to humor when he discusses ancient Roman religious practices. He anticipates many of the great existentialists by over a millenium and a half in his treatments of the Old Testament. At the end of an exhausting journey, one is left with a reaffirmed faith and renewed strength in the promise of our Savior. No man should be deprived of the nourishment of the mind and spirit contained in this book. Happy reading

Like one of the reviewers above, I, too, set about the daunting task of reading this book from cover to cover, and it took me a good six months to complete it. But what a wonderful and worthwhile investment of time it was! It would do the modern Church well to read this book since Augustine places the City of God (i.e., Christ and His Church) within the context of the pagan world in which we live, and its message is as applicable to today as it was 1,500 years ago when he first wrote it. Most impressive, his grasp of both classical and biblical history and his profound understanding of Scripture is unparalleled by almost any author I have ever read, from Jerome's time until the present. If for no other reason, Christians should buy this book to gain an appropriate understanding of the last days and the rightful interpretation of the book of Revelation. Most of today's books on this subject pale in comparison to Augustine's exposition of this lofty and (sometimes) arcane subject.

Brown's stated purpose with this biography is to tell about the "course and quality" of Augustine' life with a backdrop of the changes in north Africa and in the Roman Empire as a whole. Brown says he wants to show how Augustine himself helped precipitate some of the changes by using the most "up-to-date" treatments of the life Augustine.

Peter Brown, writing from All Soul's College at Oxford, England, thoroughly documents the events, activities and inner workings of Augustine. The Bishop of Hippo's story is interwoven with accounts of the state of the Roman Empire as a whole and North Africa, in particular. Brown's telling is so vivid that an artist could chose a stage of Augustine's life and then accurately paint Augustine surrounded by his local counterparts with elements of the Empire in the background.

The text is well-documented with most pages having five or more footnotes. The bibliography takes up 18 pages. Brown used primary souces in Latin, as well as, scholarly works in English, German and French.

Augustine is presented as a gifted child, and then as a out-going bright young adult who in turn grows into one of the most remarkable religious leaders and writers of all time. Brown writes marvelously interesting chapters and when I thought that he couldn't top the writing and interesting material of one chapter, I would again be fascinated by the next chapter.

A helpful feature of the text are the five Chronological Tables, one at the beginning of each major division of the book. The tables list each year with major events, if any, in Augustine's life or the Empire's history. Later tables also list corresponding texts and letters written by Augustine during the year.

At times during the reading, I smiled at Brown's choice of works. The words were strange, but the context gave their meaning away. A conventible of Manichees was a gathering and a love-philtre is apparently a love letter or gift.

At other times, Brown's writing choices were strange to me and remained strange. Early in the text, Brown made a number of comparisons to the Mandarins of China. Being unfamiliar with Chinese history,the meaning he wanted to convey escaped me. Another cue I missed about Augustine's taking of a concubine.

Augstine's family was relatively prosperous and Augustine was unusually close to his mother, Monica. According to Brown, African's of Augustine's time excelled in play-on-words" and as lawyers. Augustine was an excellent student of the law. The Roman Empire had no need for Southerners and Augustine pursued a career teaching Latin rhetoric.

Brown does not delve into describing the relationship of Monica and Augustine, while I am sure that other author's have. Their relationship seems an interesting pursuit of study to me and I have my own theory as to why they were so close. My explanation is that Augustine loved order and Monica represented that in his childhood, as opposed to his father, who had a temper.

Augustine's story after his conversion is completed dominated by his growth as a Christian, his internal growth and his growth in service and writing. Brown's biography has teachings and quotes of the adult Christian Augustine throughout the text, not just in chronological order. For instance, Brown would tell of an incident in Augustine's younger life and at that time include remarks Augustine made in his Confessions about the same event. For example in Chapter 2, Brown says that to Augustine the evolution of the heart is the real stuff of biography.

Augustine's Confessions is his most studied work. According to Brown, the Confessions is the first time a literary work included quotes from what we now know as the bible. I noted that Augustine regarded his Confessions as a therapy or medical treatment.

According to Brown, no thinker in the Early Church wa so preoccupied the the nature of human relationships. In contrast, Augustine wrote that nature was God's "dumb show."

Besides his literary contributions of general Christian interest, much of Augustine's writings had to do with fighting the heresies. I was much impressed with the intensity of the heretical movements Augustine had to deal with the Manichees and Donatists. The situation in Northern Africa, during his time, was comparable to the violence suffered now in the same region among those of different beliefs.

Much of Augustine's time as a bishop was spent in acting as a judge, as was the custom of the time. The "philosopher" soul of Augustine must have been much troubled to have spent so much dealing with small and large controversies. Despite, or perhaps, because of his adult life being spent dealing with serious controversies, Augustine made significant contributions to the Church and history besides his writings. According to Brown, it was Augustine who established a pattern of Catholic priests being "separate" from the laity. Augustine had loved being a teacher and brought the same "school" ideas to the priest-hood. He had as many as possible of his priest living and studying communally separate from the community.

Augustine's last ten days of life were a surprise to me. A man who had surrounded himself with students, priests, and friends all of his life, chose to spend the end alone in prayer. I would have thought he would have wanted to had last goodbyes with the people he had loved to share with so much during his life.

Brown's biography of Augustine is a gift to scholars, as well as, a collection of information from other sources. He achieves his goal and educates his reader, at least, this one.

Peter Brown has accomplished what a scholarly biography should: make us feel that we have come to enter the life and mind of the subject of the biography. Brown's chapters are relatively short and thus make reading this long book pleasurable because you can make identifiable progress in your reading. Brown also has copious citations to the works of Augustine for those who wish to track down a quote. In addition, he has added an epilogue that actually corrects the flawed judgments he made in the first edition over thirty years ago (this is a humility rare in academic circles). The epilogue also has a chapter on new writings of Augustine that scholars have uncovered since the first edition of his work. My only wish would have been for more theological exploration of the theme of predestination which is presented in a superficial manner. As a Catholic, I would also have preferred more explicit exploration of Augustine's relations with the popes of his time. But, all in all, Brown has written and updated a great biography that deserves its stature as the definitive biography of Augustine. I heartily recommend it.

Peter Brown is like a very caring, scholarly and slightly eccentric tutor, of the type grown and revered in England's ancient universities. As a non-scholar on the subject of Augustine and his time, I approached this book wearily, expecting to be ignobly defeated by the middle of, say, chapter two. But such was not the case. My smattering about Augustine, about his Manichaeism, about his saintly mother, Monica, about his "Confessions" and about his conversion by St. Ambrose, all rusty remnants of a fine (but wasted) education, were revived and even rejuvenated by Mr. Brown. His words coaxed ancient neurons to make dendritic connections with their neighbors, so that towards the middle of this longish book I was dealing confidently with Fourth century institutions and had become familiar with some of the philosophical issues that plaged the early Christians. This is Brown:

"A stranger from the provinces [Augustine] would, of course, go to church to find a girl-friend, much as another stranger, the Genoese, Christopher Columbus, will meet his wife in Seville Cathedral."

And about Augustine's desire to seek his fortune as a rethoritian in Milan:

"He would have been like a Westernized Russian in the nineteenth century, established in Paris."

This ability to move back and forth in time to clarify his points is one of the many joys of reading Brown. He is also a master of the right anecdote and of the enlightening "obscure" fact. For instance, he tells us that in the Fourth century the image of Christ was that of a teacher, a philosopher. There were no crucifixes in the Fourth century, and the concept of the suffering Savior did not exist.

The book is as satisfying as a plentiful and well prepared meal, and like a meal, it is to be consumed slowly and respectfully. Brown makes you trust him about his deep knowledge of the years immediately preceding the sack of Rome and the fall of the empire. He does this, over and over, by his ease with the trivial details and by the depth with which he addresses the important ones. A very fine book for the reference shelf, to read once and to return to frequently.

A very ambitious story in that it tackles a sticky, sort of unknown time in history - 1700's Florida back when it was a ping-pong game between England and Spain over who ruled the territory. That's not the interesting part though. The best part of this book is the character of Maria, or Mary, once the resident of what is now known as St. Augustine's Oldest House. Maria is an intelligent, resourceful, very beautiful woman who is very far ahead of her time. She comes through tragic loss and grief but somehow (you often wonder how) she is back up again, alive and battering life's doors once more. Read the book to know her if nothing else. A few love stories are intertwined as well. Well worth it. The first Price book I ever read and today I've read nearly all.

I couldn't put this book down. After visiting St. Augustine, then reading the book, I was truly walking the streets with Maria. I saw the same building she did and have the same awe for the town as she did. I read this book in two day...I couldn't put it down. Looking for the other two books in the trilogy. Can someone help.

Eugenia Price combined her outstanding writing skills with meticulous research and attention to detail. This was my first introduction to her work -- no one can surpass her mastery of historical fiction. Her work helped me to introduce History as a living thing to my own children.

This is another one of De Wohl's historical novels on the lives of the saints. The focus of this effort, St. Augustine, is in his youth arrogant, self-seeking and ambitious to a fault. And yet, the young Augustine has a thirst for truth; a thirst that would eventually lead him to the wellspring's of Catholic Christianity.

If you have read St. Augustines autobiography, Confessions, you will easily discern that the vast majority of De Wohl's research came from the pen of St. Augustine himself. If you are in the mood to learn about the conversion of one of the greatest doctors of the Church and to be edified by his conversion story, I recommend this book. It certainly leaves out the dry parts of St. Augustine's musings in Confessions, while retaining all the vibrancy of the saint's own conversion.

To that end, I highly recommend this book.

Louis De Wohl does an excellent job telling the story of the life of Saint Augustine. This novel is a wonderful book for any reader and if you are a catholic looking for an introduction to Saint Augustine you should read this book. The novel shows us the errors of Saint Augustine's youth and how he became one of the great doctors of the church. We can relate many of the issues Saint Augustine dealt with to issues we all deal with in the world today. I believe the strength of this novel is how well the author shows us how Augustine felt about his life and why he made the decisions he did. I would recommend this book to any catholic man and to anyone who would like to know more about Saint Augustine.
You will not want to put this novel down or want it to end.

As a home educator, I read this book with the intention of screening it for my teen for a school assignment. In no time at all, I found myself unable to put the book down. I read it in just three nights - quite an accomplishment for a mother of five. Louis de Wohl presents the life of Augustine in novel form and makes it very interesting. The reader participates in Augustine's transformation from pagan to Christian. I can't wait to share it with my teen, I think that he will like it as much I did. (note: Before his conversion, Augustine and his friends speak very poorly of women. If sharing this book with a teen, use the opportunity to discuss Augustine's error in treating women as inferior, having a child out of wedlock, etc.) I am glad that there are books such as this one available that make learning history exciting.

I have only good things to say about the man John Piper, both as a theologian and pastor. I was however, a little disapointed with this book. I love all three of these Christian heros and was very excited to read about their lives and ministries especially agaist the backdrop of their blatent failures. Piper however, spends more time molding their lives into three preset themes he wishes to discuss then their lives themselves. His chosen themes are Sovereign Joy, Sacred Study, and The Divine Majesty of the Word.

This book is certainly not a biography (something that is tipped off by its 150 pages of large type) but is interesting if you wish to read about all of the aformentioned ideas. It certainly is a quick read and worth the edification. I would reccommend though that after this book you read some of the men themselves to get a fuller picture of their lives and more importantly, how they display God's glory.

Most reviewers have hit upon the highlights of this book. I do not feel the need to repeat it.

This book is a set of mini-biographies of the lives of three flawed saints. I emphasize the word "flawed" because one of the things I appreciated most about this book was how it emphasized each man's weaknesses and sin. These were flawed saints. There is no saint who is not flawed. When it comes to heroes, there is an easy downward slip from the desire for imitation to the discouragement of intimidation to the deadness of resignation. Seeing their weaknesses and how God's grace triumphed in them is to see Christ's strength perfected in weakness.

And seeing how they sang of their sovereign joy of God in the midst of incredible opposition both from the world and their sin gives me hope; for I am flawed, I am imperfect, and I struggle with sin. But oh, I sing for my Sovereign Joy! There is hope in these pages that even men of God sin, but God pulls them out of the mirey clay as an example of His grace, not their greatness.

While I wish Piper could have gone a little bit deeper, I found in his book enough to meditate upon, and a spark has ignited a desire to learn more about these men in order to see their God, their Sovereign Joy.

John Piper's series of biographies, The Swans Are Not Silent, of which this is the first book, is so named for multiple reasons that come out in the preface. When Augustine was handing over his administrative duties to an assistant named Eraclius, Eraclius was asked to give a message. As Augustine sat silently on the bishops throne behind, Eraclius said, "The cricket chirps, the swan is silent." This is how I feel looking at the way that God has impacted men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Owen, and even Piper. Being motivated by the grace that God has shown them in their lives and learning from their lessons, as I go out to the world with the motive of Paul that is seen in so many of these great men in history, "Him we declare, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28 ESV)," my words feel like the chirps of crickets next to the songs of these gifted swans. Sometimes, one of the best ways to let their songs be sung is to let them sing them for themselves through the words that they wrote and the testimony that they left. That is what John Piper has done in this book, and it has definitely had its desired effect.

To critique Augustine, is to critique Christion theology. All Christians pay homage to the feet of Augustine, and, ironically, all Christians seem to think that Augustine somehow agrees with them. This is true of both Protestants and Catholics. This is seen in a lot of popular writing, and sometimes even in scholarly writing. Because St. Augustine is neither Protestant nor Catholic (Catholic in the sense that we now understand it today) understanding him on his own terms has radical implications for all Christians. When I was reading this book I would ask myself, what is this guy driving at? What is the point to demonstrate that Augustine invented the inner self? Who cares if Augustine was a Christian Platonist? Well... everybody should! Because Augustine is considered one of the most influential writers since the apostle Paul! Dr. Cary draws some startling criticisms that are often considered 'biblical doctrine.' (E.g. the doctrine of the division of the soul and body, or that heaven is this aerial and surreal place.) No, Dr. Cary says, Christianity is a faith of heart and flesh. Christ came in human flesh to restore creation. My only disappointment with this book is that the conclusion is all too slender. I hope this is not the only book that Dr. Cary writes on this subject. I hope he is working on more.
Dr. Philip Cary is a brilliant scholar, and (I think) an incredible lecturer.
I first heard him in a series of lectures that he did to the Teaching Company, ... This book is accessible to both the scholar and the inquiring student. Dr. Philip Cary masterly uses common words and clearly defines unfamiliar words.
As someone who is always on the lookout for well-written book's and scholarly books to cite in later Ph.D. work this book meets both of those requirements. It is a bit pricey, but it is worth it. I bit Oxford Press now offers a more affordable paperback edition.

I'm a honors philosophy student at Eastern college, and Dr. Cary is my professor. I haven't read all of this book, but have flipped through it enough to know its worth. Dr. Cary's knowledge of Augustine is at once both vast and concentrated, and his writing is highly academic but very clear and easy to follow. I would recommend this work to any one interested in Augustine, the inner self, or historical and modern Christian thought.

This is a very interesting approach that combines recipes with the stories behind them, and, since it is set in the Ancient City of St. Augustine,Florida, there is inevitably some history in the stories (and, since St. Augustine is a bit of a tourist trap, there are a few tall tales as well.) The illustrations are particularly nice. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings pioneered this genre in her 'Cross Creek Cookery" more than half a century ago, and I predict this volume will end up side-by-side with it on many bookshelves.

Educational and entertaining, enticing to attempt recipes, and well worth the purchase. I plan to give copies to my friends as gifts.

That's how Jostein Gaarder titled the book, and I think it fits remarkably! It shows how we should sense our world and not just worry about the afterlife. A beautiful lovestory, and if it is true, an important historical found as well. And with the footnotes in the marrow, we get a much deeper insight to the letter than we would have with only the text.
I think it is genuine. Gaarder is not the kind of man to lie about this. With all his footnotes and even a referance to his Latin teacher at "Katta", I think he is telling the truth about how he found Codex Floriae.
Read this book! It is a beautiful lovestory, and a great introduction to the philosophical questions around St. Augustine.

Norwegian-born, international bestselling novelist Jostein Gaarder splendidly exhibits the timelessness, the universality, and the agony of filial, but repudiated love in his book, That Same Flower. The book, Gaarder maintains, is a genuine reproduction of a personal letter composed for St. Augustine, one of the Latin Fathers of the Christian Church and one of the greatest figures in Western philosophy, by his former lover Floria Aemilia.

Gaarder says he discovered the letter in 1995 while shopping in an antique bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina and agreed to purchase it from the owner for a little more than $12,000 even though it was uncertain at the time as to its authenticity. Following an examination of the letter's style, terminology and grammar, however, Gaarder says he became convinced it could have only originated in medieval days.

The letter, titled the Codex Floriae, if indeed genuine, represents a major historical find. Over the centuries, very little has come to light regarding the lover of St. Augustine and their son Adeodatus. We do know that they lived together for several years in North Africa and Italy before Augustine's conversion into the Christian faith. Previously, all that has been known about Floria Aemilia has been derived from Augustine's own writings, chiefly his famous autobiographical Confessions.

In That Same Flower, however, Floria Aemilia writes candidly of her relationship with Augustine and of her feelings about his conversion. At times she corroborates what Augustine, himself has written and portrays him as a man prone to attacks of anguish and confusion. The major part of the letter, however, is dedicated to a bitter denouncement of Augustine's decision to separate forever from both Aemilia and their son. Aemilia, it is clear does not share Augustine's faith in a God that "desires above all that man should live in abstinence...I have no faith in such a God."

Augustine, himself, suffered deep sorrow over his decision to part from Aemilia. In his Confessions, he laments, "The woman I lived with was not permitted to stay at my side...My heart, which was deeply attached to her, was pierced, and wounded so that it bled...My wound, inflicted when my relationship with the woman I lived with was brought to an end, would not heal either."

Augustine's pain, however, pales in comparison to the anguish that surges forth from Aemilia's writings. Her distress is convincing and compelling and we feel the enormity of her pain. The victim of Augustine's conversion, Aemilia expresses her heartbreak most eloquently in her letter. "My heart," she says, suffered the same hurt...for we were two souls torn from each other...because you loved the salvation of your own soul more than you loved me."

Augustine's mother, Monica was one of the factors that led to the end of Aemilia's relationship with Augustine. Monica, described as a willful and ambitious woman, by Aemilia, and one who opposed her, banished Aemilia from the household and arranged for what she assumed would be a more suitable engagement for Augustine. Rightfully expecting Augustine to come to her defense, Aemilia was crushed and defeated when he refused to do so, even though he later withdrew from the engagement.

Augustine, however, also refused to return to the one woman he truly loved. Convinced that eternal damnation could only be avoided by a total renouncement of the pleasures of the body, he withdrew from all physical pleasure, including the company of Aemilia.

Aemilia, herself, has no sympathy for Augustine's views. Instead, she views them with the utmost contempt, having no faith in a God who places the existential and spiritual worth of a man over that of a woman. "I don't believe in a God," she writes, "who lays waste to a woman's life in order to save a man's soul."

Aemilia also writes much of the medieval "theologians and Platonists" who were the influential players in Augustine's intellectual and spiritual development. Their ideas, she says, transformed Augustine from a man living a carefree existence into a God-fearing mortifier of his own flesh. Aemilia denounces these men as ruling within a "dark labyrinth" and swears that Augustine was misguided by them.

Scored with the basic theme of Augustine's anti-materialism and aversion to bodily appetites, Aemilia accuses him of carrying his denial of physical gratification to extremes, regarding everything from eating nutritious food to listening to an enjoyable piece of music as a sin against God.

And, in his Confessions, Augustine writes that the sense of hearing "offers its perilous enticements" and that "I still find satisfaction in the melodies to which your words give life and should when they are sung artistically by a fine voice...So I sin in this without noticing; but after I feel it is sin."

After reading Aemilia's letter, it is difficult to put complete faith in Augustine's self-righteous insensitivity to natural human desires, especially when one considers his weaknesses and imperfections and the severe background of his religious convictions.

Aemilia shared this disbelief and Augustine's conversion failed to convince her about the necessity of "despising this life, and about how good it is to die." It did, however, remind her of the priceless value she, herself, placed of the here-and-now. She comes to the conclusion that "it must be human arrogance to reject this life--with all its earthly joys--in favor of an existence which is, perhaps, merely an abstraction...We must first live...then we can philosophize."

We must learn to embrace both the fruits and the beauty of our own humanity and to cherish and nurture our existence during our short and precious time here on earth. This is Floria Aemilia's message to the world; the message that she went to great lengths to nurture and preserve in the letter that became That Same Flower.

As suggested from the introduction, the authencity of the story shall be judged by the readers. Despite the historical accuracy, the imagination of Jostein Gaarder from the viewpoint of Floria Aemilia, writing a letter judging the Saint who has given up his family, "sensual lust" and all human desires to achieve eternal life. From the word of St. Augustine, "Thus I soiled the deep springs of friendship with impure sensual lust, and dulled its clear radiance with a hellish allure." It is challenged by the content of the letter that, such philosophy is correct to be applied to true love. Despite the philosophical arguments of the book. It is solely a book of romantic writing about a couple who has cherished their time together romantically, such as the young Aurel smelling the scent of Floria's hair on the bridge of Arno. "Can you remembered how you stroked me all over and seemed to tighten every bud before it opened itself? How you enjoyed plucking me! How you nourished yourself on my juices! And then you went away and sold me for the sake of your soul's salvation. What infidelity, Aurel, what guilt! No, I don't believe in a God who demands human sacrifices. I don't believe in a God who lays waste a woman's life to save a man's soul." It undoubtedly conclude the wrong decision of St. Augustine's inclination to complete isolation to human life.

Fr Seraphim Rose's short text on Blessed Augustine is an insightful charge for Orthodox to embrace the tenets of moderation and understanding in an approach to the often controversial views of Augustine. While not an 'academic work' in the sense that it holds up to a great deal of critical scrutiny in all its points, Fr Rose's text nonetheless provides a much needed alternative to the frequent 'Augustine-bashing' found in certain circles, drawing out both the negative and the positive in the author's thought.

Outstanding, Penetrating Insight, likely the best of all Rose's works, my highest recommendation, great for all Christians!

I have never been particularly impressed by Fr. Seraphim Rose's other books - especially "Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future" and "The Soul After Dead" - but "The Place of Blessed Augustine..." is a beautifully written and convincingly argued defense of the great Bishop of Hippo.

Fr. Seraphim refutes many Orthodox "scholars" (such as Fr. Michael Azkoul) who show a sort of hypocritical "West-o-phobia" in their shameless, merciless bashing of St. Augustine. While not ignoring the fact that some of St. Augustine's personal theological opinions concerning inherited guilt, grace, and free will are rejected by the Orthodox Church, Fr. Seraphim highlights his genius in many other areas. He makes an important distinction between holy Augustine himself and later medieval "Augustinians," who took the flawed points of the saint's theology and transformed them into a vast theological system. Above all, for Fr. Seraphim, St. Augustine is admired as a "Father of Orthodox Piety" - his "Confessions" are one of the greatest works on Christian repentance and reflect a mystical Orthodox experience with the Holy Trinity.

The book includes many added goodies, including icons of St. Augustine and others, excerpts from the "Confessions," letters of Fr. Seraphim, and an Orthodox service to St. Augustine written by the 20th century American saint, John (Maximovitch) of San Francisco.

This is an interesting review of the ghosts around this area, although I think its better to go to Saint Augustine and go on a ghost story tour, if you like live ghost story telling. You get the benefit of the historical atmosphere of Saint Augustine that way and I like this primal, personal kind of entertainment.

A lot of book merely covers just sightings of various ghosts, rather than telling gripping ghost stories. Of course, these are real ghost stories so the author cannot use the benefit of imagination to make them better. However, there are some good, simple, fact-based stories in the book. I particularly liked the one named Bert in which the story is told from the point of view of a ghost who wishes to have deeper relationship with 4 attractive young ladies in his house, but they are too scared to put up with his communications. (Hey, a lot of us living men have that problem!) The Spencers of Vilano Beach is another notable tale, but it's hard to believe. It tells of the mysterious Spencers who arrive in town one day, take up residence, throw parties all the time, then die one by one and no one ever figured out where exactly they came from. There have been reports of ghostly parties going on after their deaths.

The only way to describe this book is - great! It is easy reading with many small unrelated ghost stories. I have found that my son and kids in his grade also enjoy the book. I really recommend this book, especially if you are planning a trip to St. Augustine.

I am completly satisfied with this book! It's so interesting. It goes along perfectly with the ghost tour that I went on in St. Augustine. It has stories of Flagler college which I am putting an application into. Nice job on this book!