Burl Barer really captures everything about the Saint in this book. It is a huge source of information, and everytime I read it I find out something new!

Even if you aren't a fan of the Saint, you should still buy this book. It's a remarkable, inside account of how a character is translated into books, comics, radio, tv and film. A must-have for anyone thinking of breaking into publishing, tv or film

Burl Barer's book on the history of The Saint is "the source" for Saint fans yearning for more information about The Saint. It is a must-have for Saint fans, and makes for an excellent read, even for those detectivish fans who don't really know much about Simon Templar or Leslie Charteris to start with...

Leslie Epstein's novel of a childhood/adolescence in mid-century Hollywood as told by the novel's narrator, painter Richard Jacobi, is a mix of memory and fiction that illuminates expansive themes with excellent prose in a brave, sometimes controversial, always entertaining style that can be expected from a great writer who always seems to have a great story to tell.
The first half of the book is four tales that each focus on a life-changing event and are brought alive by the surrounding narration. In this section, the writing is direct and unapologetic, recounting instances both pleasurable and painful with a candor that at times borders on the dispassionate but nonetheless evokes a range of emotion: loneliness, irony, love, lust, betrayal-and at times caused me to laugh until I cried. Though comprised of separate instances going back and forth over different periods of time and involving very different circumstances, this first half strives for a level of wholeness and unity that, for the most part, is achieved.
The second half of the novel is set many years later and features Richard moving back to his old family house on San Remo Drive with his wife and adopted twin sons. From this point the novel flows much more smoothly, and the fact that it is one continuous story without chronology shifts doesn't hurt. For me, the highlight of the entire novel appears here, in the characterization of Richard's wife, Marcia. At the end of the day she is the most honest and true of all of them (and funny as hell, too). Her jealousy of Richard's ever-present muse, Madeline, and the events that unfold as a result are at once hilarious, shocking, and complex, and above all relevant to everyone who, as human nature often demands, gives too much of themselves to too many people.
I enjoyed the book immensely as a lovely tie-together of past, present and future, of homage to family and the effect it has on art (both fictional and real), and of identity, love and life through generations.

Epstein at his very best- a poignant memoir of his boyhood in the Hollywood of the '50's. It is the story of excruciating loss and the painful task of revisiting his past. Against the backdrop of Malibu, lemon groves, sunshine and his beloved home on San Remo Drive, he weaves the story of his own redemption through Richard Jacobi, the narrator.
I couldn't put the book down.

Courageous recreation of 1950's boyhood in LA. At once hopeful and terrifying. Pansies the centers of which look like the teardrops of cockerspaniels. A cocker spaniel attacked by a police dog. Sea foam like animal fat. The McCarthy hearings as only a thinker of great humanity and comic breadth could portray. Full of heart. Readers, take note.

unjustly overlooked, this book (really comprised of three novellas, all together a trilogy) deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with other modernist works, such as "Dubliners" or "Sons and Lovers." at its time, the books were important, both politically and socially, because they present scottish language and scottish history as things separate from - though no less equal to - the larger "English" culture. beyond this, gibbon's lyricism is a wonder to behold; he can manipulate language in ways that may bring a tear to your eye (and the story, mournful as it is, just may add to it)."Scottish Quaire" is a work that many have never heard of, and that is unfortunate. it offers a unique voice to the human condition, and, perhaps more importantly, the scottish condition. i tell you to buy it, or at least check it out of your library (lord knows there'll be copies available).

A marvellous trilogy with each novel depicting that particular era superbly. My personal favourite was Sunset Song because it was saluting the end of an era for the Scottish crofter who will always be part of Scotland's great heritage.

It is rare to find a book written on Scotland at the beginning of the 20th century to be so powerful and moving. The book heroine, Chris Guthrie is one of the most realistic and brilliant characters in modern literature. To have a book that merges elements of the Kailyard and the counter-Kailyard movement so effectively is an brilliant idea, difficult, but brilliant. Quite simply the greatest book ever written.

I've been interested in the Baha'i faith for a long time, and this book takes the cake as one of my favorite Baha'i books. It is essentially Abdul Baha explaining to a student of his certain key questions, from the importance of nature, to connections to Christianity. He even mentions workers rights, and many topics relating to the early 20th century. This book as a religious text seems slightly odd, because most of the concepts aren't to foreign and can directly be applied to a person living an Euro-American lifestyle. All this, and I'm not even an actual Baha'i.

Some Answered Questions by Abdu'l Baha is a master work of questions put to Abdu'l Baha, son of Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith. Abdu'l Baha was the successor of his Father's faith and the authorized exponent of his teachings. These questions were put to him by one of his French followers. They are a lively array of topics: Biblical prophecy, comparative religion and scripture, social issues, Baha'i perspective on traditonal Christian topics, spiritual psychology, man's development, etc. This incredible array of topics is so amazing that few will find it hard to believe that Abdu'l Baha was a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire most of his life, suffering alongside his father, Baha'u'llah. Abdu'l Baha was eventually freed during the Turkish revolution, allowing Abdu'l Baha to speak in Western countries, including the United States and Europe. These questions and answers are bound to stimulate your thinking and enlighten you as many spritual mysteries are made clear to you. I strongly recommend this book to all seekers after deep spiritual reality, students of comparative religion and scripture, Biblical students, and students of the Baha'i Faith. It is wonderful book which will get you thinking and provoke you about spiritual subjects for a long time.

Some Answered Questions is an excellent book. For me it provided many answers to my questions concerning such things as, Life After Death, the Nature of the Soul, and Biblical Prophesies. The reason and logic made a lot of sense.

Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara is one of the little known heroes of the Holocaust. This is rather unfortunate, as Mr. Sugihara was probably responsible for the saving of more Jews than any other individual! While serving as Japanese Vice Consul in Lithuania in 1940, Mr. Sugihara, against the express orders of his government, issued some 6,000 visas to people (individuals and families) desperately seeking to avoid the Nazi death machine. This book is the story of Chiune Sugihara, from youth to honored old age, and also the story of two young Jews, one whose parent took the visa and ran, and one whose parent waited too long.

This is a great and exciting story! I got this book for my twelve-year-old daughter, but found that I liked it just as much as she did. I really enjoyed this story of one man standing up and doing what was right, in spite of the costs. If you are looking for an uplifting story, one that teaches an invaluable lesson, then I highly recommend that you get this book!

Dear Amazon.com You mention a gift cerf for the person who writes the first review. I see mine is the only review up there, so do I get a gift cert? Sheelagh O'Connor Sheelagh@visto.com (a reader from LA)

Alison Gold has documented with elegance the selfless humanity of Sempo Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat of the World War II era. Against the orders of his superiors, Mr. Sugihara wrote 6,000 visas in an effort to spare the lives of Polish and Lithuanian Jews. Through Alison Gold's brilliantly crafted accounts, we learn of the horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust, of the mixed fates of several families who were granted visas, and of the injustices to which the Sugihara family was subjected as a result of Sempo's courageous response to human torment. In several places throughout this magnificent book, Ms. Gold introduces Japanese phrases that do much to enrich our understanding of cultural concepts at the core of the Sugihara's way of thinking and living. We learn of the considerable influence that Mrs. Sugihara had on her husband's decisions. While this book was written for a young adult audience, most adults would find its content engrossing.

This is a jem. The author would likely fail to recognize the world of 2002, and would certainly be horrified to awake in it.
He lived, really lived, in an earlier era when discovery of a new comet by an amateur simply looking through a telescope, without the CCDs and other fancy technology, was celebrated, and civilization grew at a pleasant pace in the midwest where he lived, away from the hustle, rush hours, and UN crisis. His humility in accepting the gifts of slowly increasing aperture telescopes and the way in which alone, he found good ways to use them to their best are balm to the soul.
Get a copy of this little book, turn off the TV and computer and regress to Peltier's world of worthwhile ways of spending your time while seeing the universe. Fortunately, you don't really have to wait weeks to get a copy if you'll dial up Sky and Telescope.

Remember those movies where an old man tells his story in the form of a flashback? The kind that makes you wish you could go back in time to hang out with them, experience their life? Starlight Nights is one of those stories.
Leslie Peltier's book is full of warmth and humor. He takes us back to a 1905 farm and describes what it was like to grow up without electricity, television. The beginning of his story predates the spread of the automobile. We watch as he buys a small telescope, and without the benefit of a college education, becomes the friend and colleague of the eminent astronomers of his day. We experience the thrill of finding comets and novae, and at the same time, the quiet joy of country life a century ago.
The book is wonderfully illustrated by Mr. Peltier himself, and the introduction includes family photographs.
Absolutely recommended for everyone, not just stargazers.

"A hymn to the sky" -Levy. To me, no book more beautifully captures the spirit of amateur astronomy that Peltier's Starlight Nights. I first read this book several years ago and still remember marveling at Peltier's intensely personal autobiography. In writing of his childhood in Delphos, Ohio, he spares few details of life on the early 1900's farm, and we wait spellbound with him as he orders his first telescope after catching the astronomy bug as a young teenager. We breathlessly await the partial eclipse of 1918 (the teenaged Leslie lacked the funds to travel the 500 miles necessary to see totality in the US's first total eclipse of the century), and are swept away again that very night as he was one of the first to note the spectacular Nova Aquila as it rose to a stunning -1.4 mag.

Peltier's descriptions of his experiences are as elegant as they are simple. His deep respect and admiration for nature are woven into every page, not only for things astronomical, but terrestrial as well, for he was a naturalist of varied interests.

This reissue comes with a new foreword by David Levy, as well as several rare photographs (on the cover and back, as well as a few in the foreword) of Peltier, his early telescopes and homes. If you are familiar with this book, take this opportunity to read it again. If you've never read it before, set aside a long evening - you won't put it down after you start.

This is a wonderful, creative book for young children that promotes imagination and lots of giggles. The illustrations are most appealing to a child as they are simple and colorful. As a teacher of young, special needs children,I have read this book to my students. It delighted everyone and held their attention. It is a book that will become a family favorite and will be read many times. Adults will smile while reading it to children.

My high energy children ages 5 and 2 loved this little tale about the adventurous fun loving Tucker. Rarely do I find a book at this age level that so captures their undivided attention. They giggle at Tucker's escapades and delight in the fact that he loves to have fun as much as they do. When you read this book over and over like we do, you will also have a good time picking out the humor in McGuirk's illustrations. In text and illustration, this is a book full of life and fun.

My 3 year old boy and 1 year old girl love this book about a cute little white puppy who is more adventurous than his two brothers! the drawings are amazingly cute and unique and the book is written right at kid-level. my son learned to "read" it in just one sitting, it appealed to him so much! the story is about a real dog, and the writer clearly loves and respects animals and kids. excellent!

Neka znade dusman kleti da ce i nas kucnut' cas. Ako ima boga nece vise nikada cetnicka ruka zuluma ciniti. Dabogda im otpale obadvije. Neka vakih albuma, nek svijet vidi sta su radili jebo ih caca koljacki.

Mozda bi trebalo dat popusta nasem svijetu u tudjini, znas poskupo je to. Eto toliko od mene.
PS. A za slike, jebaji ga, sta ja znam slike ko, slike....nisu za zida

I recently came across this book and a testament to its power is that I am not personally or particularly involved or interested in the Sarajevo conflict but found myself deeply impacted by these photos and accompanying text. I found this to be a wonderfully original idea--to have a compilation of photos from native photographers as opposed to the standard international reporters. It gave a unique perspective.

The killing fields of Bosnia, like so many wars, attracted the world's most renowned journalists. But of all of the war correspondents who covered the war in Bosnia, none have depicted the tragedy, suffering and heroism of war as honestly as Leslie Fratkin - and that's because Fratkin had the foresight to realize that no outsider could tell the story of Sarajevo as well as Sarajevans. Fratkin, an accomplished photographer in her own right, arrived in Bosnia to cover the war and simply set down her camera. She spent the next five years tracking down Bosnian photographers, who now live all over the world, looking at their pictures and listening to their stories. Sarajevo Self-Portrait is the culmination of her efforts. It tells the story of nine Bosnian photographers as they chronicled the destruction of their own country. Through a series of extensive interviews, which accompany their bodies of work, we hear how they struggled to hold their lenses still as their friends and families were struck down by snipers' bullets, how they schemed to smuggle film into the city through and underground tunnel, and how at times they used their won urine instead of developing chemicals to make their prints. At times tear-jerking, and at other times gut-wrenchingly comical, Sarajevo Self-Portrait is one of the best, and certainly the most sensitive book to come out of the war. Anyone who wants to understand the human side of that war should buy this book.

This is worth reading! The characters are lovable - especially the secondary characters (the old aunts). However, i did like relentless much more.

Ms. Harriet Klausner is correct, this is indeed a 5 star book and is well worth your time. I would, however, like to correct some misleading information in her review.

First and foremost. The characters in this book do not share unprotected sex. This issue is a plot point and Ms. Kelly presents it maturely, humorously, and yes, morally. To suggest that she doesn't is simply not true.

The second point is that the review as presented seems to suggest that the primary conflict between the main characters is the issue of a "one night stand". The review fails to clarify that the hotel (which is mentioned in the review) is owned by Ruthie Sinclair's family and the business that "businessman" Robert Kendall is in is acquisition (by hostile takeover) of hotels. That's why he's there. This oversimplification of the plot doesn't do justice to the book and detracts from Ms. Kelly's talent for character development.

"Suite Seduction" is wonderfully entertaining and a worthy successor to Ms. Kelly's last book "Night Whispers" which I also loved. I appreciate the time and effort that Ms. Klausner expended in producing her review and I agree wholeheartedly with her 5 star rating. I felt the need however to correct some misinformation that could lead to moral judgements that would simply be untrue.

Hot, funny, emotional ... this one is headed directly for my keeper shelf. Leslie Kelly is an automatic buy for me. Thanks for a great read!

I was swept away into the tale as Leslie Ann Garrison weaved her magic. She uses a fresh approach to the mystery novel - not only from a former police woman's perspective but also from the eyes of a police psychic. She connects a spiritual and metaphysical element with the workings of the mind of a criminal. There's lots in the trilogy of stories to stimulate and entertain.

Warning, do not start this book if you have things planned for the near future. After the first few pages, I couldn't put the book down. The story moved fast, the characters were great, and the action made me hold my breath. I read this book until the early morning! Stephanie (also call Tall), the main character, is a great mix of confident cop and just a normal woman. She has a hard time accepting her psychic ability but deals with it. She and the detective, Brad, had me rooting for them to get together. The bad guys are scary. I hope Ms. Garrison writes more stories starring the same characters. I made myself slow down because I knew the book would end too soon and I would miss the people in it. I recommend this book to any reader, not just mystery.

Tall Tales kept me riveted as a mystery novel, but it is much more than that. It blends mystery, romance, metaphysical principles and humor in a way that flows nicely as a single plot and also as a collection of 3 short stories, right through to its climactic ending. Ms. Garrison's real life experience as a deputy contributes a sense of realism to this book that makes it an "excellent" rather than just a "good". Its multifaceted nature really puts it in a class of its own. Most highly recommended!