Newly widowed, the over-indulged and aging socialite Mrs. Stone travels to Rome where, amongst her circle of charmed and wealthy peers, she discovers truths about her own inner life as well as the seedy underbelly of the society in which she'd til now played a prominent and sneering role.

A developing, doomed relationship with a young Italian call-boy (controlled by an equally memorable female pimp) uncovers Mrs. Stone's latent passion and lonliness, leading ultimately to a melodramatic submission to the nihilism of anonymous sex.

The depth of Mrs. Stone's passion combined with her reserved dignity represent (to me) the singular beauty and subtle power increasingly inherent in women as we grow older. A beauty and power that are still tragically devalued and discouraged by our society today, more than 30 years after this timeless prose was written.

Read this book for yourself, and for all of the women in your life.

Little cable cars going up to the stars will take you in the heart of Chinatown. I am really grateful to Fong-Torres for writing a book that helped me enjoy my neighbors and become more of a San Franciscan. And the food is great!!!! Buy this book.

(The leader of the twists is a megalomaniacal psychology professor bent on domination :-))

The book is mu(l)ticoloured joy to the imagination and the central ideas are hilarious and deeply illuminating for the whacky light they cast on the nature of human life, our minds and our role in the cosmic scheme

I could see similarities to my childhood in southern Wisconsin: the sense of community and extended family, the frugality of Depression generation parents, a mother who was more critical than nurturing, the need to grow up fast and take on adult responsibilities with younger siblings, the joy of spending time with story-telling elders. And the strong emphasis on education--I must have been at least 10 before I realized that not everyone went to the University of Wisconsin and that some didn't go to college at all!

I didn't deal with the pervasive racism which Portwood faced and our community was a particularly prosperous farming community, with little poverty. Still, much of her story resonates with me. This is a wonderful story of a resiliant and strong family. I loved it.

A scientist builds a time machine. Why? Because of mere scientific curiosity. I know that's not enough for the modern fans, but putting the book in its historical contet, we go back to a time where the advancements of science were increasing every day, each scientific field being researched. Of course, Time wasn't the exception.

The time machine leads the scientist and the reader to a dark, bleak future, where the enthusiasm for knowledge has been exchanged by the pleasures of a dull, easy life withou work or preocupations, an utopia for a small group called the Eloi.

But underneath their feet live the Morlocks, a group of cave men who toil for the Eloi and are paid with their meat, for they are cannibals.

Wells surely wasn' an optimist regarding the future of our earth, for the time traveller ends his dark journey at the end of earth's existence, no longer inhabitted by men but by gigantic creatures such as crabs and butterflies.

Most readers might complain about the lack of characterization, thence my four stars, the weakness of the plot, nowadays very common,and even the lack of scientifical explanations, that makes today's science fiction novels so wonderfully complex. but this was a classic among the classics, that gave birth to so many books... A lot of people owing a lot to H. G. Wells, who never got anything for his unique book.

I especially recommend this book for those of us with short attention spans - it's only 140 pages (and that's the large print version). But don't get the wrong idea, this book still has more depth and creativity than most 500 page books i've read and is a great read, even compared with today's science fiction standards.

This book has to be considered a classic considering it spawned a whole genre of time traveling books, movies, and tv shows whcih imitated it. Get a hold of a copy and read it today!

With a set of characters like this, Jackson's compact novel cannot fail to intrigue and satisfy. Readers who have seen the 1962 movie will find inevitable differences in plot and emphasis in the book. Jackson's carefully crafted prose will hook you from the first page to the last. Highly recommended.

Even if you do not hold Shirley MacLaine's New Age beliefs and philosophy of life, her newest book, THE CAMINO, is a fascinating read. The fact that a celebrity in her 6th decade would set out on a 500 mile walk, by herself, in a foreign country is intriguing enough.

On two separate occasions, while performing in Brazil, MacLaine received unsigned notes strongly urging her to take a pilgrimage called the Santiago de Compostela Camino across northern Spain. She knew of the Camino, as it is called, but had difficulty in visualizing herself hiking her way through it.

Upon further study and the help of a Brazilian friend named Anna Strong who had made the Camino journey herself, MacLaine decided she had nothing to lose and just might gain some further insight into her life and the state of the world.

MacLaine's story is very compelling and makes for a very fast read. Of course, there are tales of MacLaine's past lives with Charlemange and Giant Moors and as a wild young gypsy woman, but there is also, at the heart of the book, a wonderful story of a woman's determination to finish a journey and to be open to what the universe had planned for her. I was particularly struck by the clever way she dealt with the ever-present hoards of press that seemed to dog her every step.

This is a book worth reading. Take from it what you will, Shirley MacLaine is one tough cookie. I'd hike the mountains with her any day!

Enjoy!

I found this book to be wonderfully enlightening, illuminating, and I applaud Shirley for the courage to complete this journey of the Spirit. Shirley says, "The Camino itself helps facilitate the resolution of emotional issues."

The reader is treated to flashbacks of Shirley's past lives as she once lived along the Camino, including an amazing past life in Lemuria and Atlantis. I found Shirley's honesty and candor refreshing, and many of her insights hit directly home with me. I do believe that the reader will also gain as many insights as I did and stop and let it all sink in. We are treated to her lessons and fears that she has to conquer as well.

I really resonated with her thoughts on fear: "Never ask yourself what it is you fear - instead ask yourself what it is that concerns you. A fear thought, put out, will return, because all energy returns to the sender. Any energy always makes a loop until it regains the source. A concern thought will return also. A that moment discern why you're concerned."

I began my spiritual questing with Shirley's first book and have devoured everything she has written. She is not afraid to speak her truth and she is not afraid to seek to deepen her spirituality and then share the rest of that with humanity. I am sure that I am not the only one who she has deeply and positively affected. We are spiritual beings having a human experience and once again we are reminded of our mission - to reconnect to the Divine source - to love - to God.

Another wonderful quote, "I had walked the Camino in order to understand what we were capable of as human beings - such spiritual magnificence and such destructive fragmentation of our own souls. Were we all repeating such dramas even today because we hadn't remembered what we came from?"

I urge everyone to read this fascinating book. You too, will want to trek the Camino after finishing the book.