The book is well-written, easy-to-read, clear. What's that worth for a technical subject? Just about everything. First, it means you can read it like a novel, effortlessly (nearly). Second, you get a clear picture of what he is saying. So the value is there.

This bookmade Charlotte Smith's fortune and reputation and was followed by about a book a year until theend of the decade. Unfortunately the quality of the books to follow often wasn't as good. This isan awesome book about a woman stalked by a rich, good-looking, well-connected man who is aninsensitive jerk. Emmeline is able to see this and cares more for her female friends until the heroenters the novel. Emmeline's female friends are anything but conventional--one has an adulterousaffair and a baby out of wedlock, and another leaves her husband because he is a financial idiot (hetries to use old wigs as fertilizer!) Big, long, and full of detail of life in 1788, Emmeline isa good read. Unless of course you are a modern novel lover like the famed modern novelist whowrote the introduction to the Pandora edition and feels that maybe--if you accept that the novel istrashy soap opera--the book is worth buying more than a salad. The salad argument struck me asjust another reason why I can't relate to modern authors ...

Ali Smith's short stories, are by far the best ones I've read (and I must say I've read some). Free Love is a book of short stories, each story more charming and lovely than the other. I read it so slow; I just didn't want it to end. Obviously, it's one of those books, that when you finish them, you immidiatly pick it up again and reread it. My second to favorite book, the first being Like by the same talented auther.

I always believe that if you want to know an author's true works - then first discover stories written by the author. And this belief has carried me through the road of discovering some really good authors one of them being Ali Smith.

Cutting the hype of "Hotel World", "Free Love and other stories" - i think which was the first book of Ali Smith is a winner all the way. Abstraction is the highlight of the stories presented in this collection and they are all so thought provoking.

"Text for the Day" is one of my favourites - which tells about a woman named Melissa and her undying love for books and the printed word. Then there is "Free Love" - tracing the sexual awakening of a young girl on a trip to Amsterdam. "To the Cinema" - as the title suggests is all about love for the movies juxtaposing the dreariness of living.

This is not the end of it thankfully....there are more gems to chose from - there's "The Unthinkable happens to people everyday" about a famous tv host trying to rediscover life and its simple pleasures then journeying to "The World with Love" - which is rich in its prose.

What I loved about this collection was that the stories are not the usual run-of-the-mill short stories - they are here to stay and say something fascinating. They are worth a read all the time and a thousand times more!!

Philip Heseltine. taking on many pseudonyms in his short life but better known as Peter Warlock, was editor of "The Sackbut", a publication that took a long time to materialize but was short lived. Generally controversial, the Sackbut was highly regarded by many and especially those who wished to see the "establishment" in the field of British music taken to task. It was Heseltine's pleasure to be one of, if not THE most vociferous critics of his time and history shows that his eloquent and learned use of the English language was used to its fullest degree.

This special paragraph

" . . music is neither old nor modern: it is either good or bad music, and the date at which it was written has no significance whatever. Dates and periods are of interest only to the student of musical history. . . . All old music was modern once, and much more of the music of yesterday already sounds more old-fashioned than works which were written three centuries ago. All good music, whatever its date, is ageless -- as alive and significant today as it was when it was written . . ."

can also be found on page 197 of Barry Smith's highly acclaimed book as titled above. Published in 1994, the centenary of Heseltine's birth, this book is perhaps only the second major and authoritative work on the subject of a controversial figure such as Heseltine. The first one by Warlock's friend and some time companion Cecil Gray, has been out of print for many years.

Published by Oxford University Press, this is an extremely well researched and written work. Warlock scholars are recommended to add this book to their small but unique collection of literature pertaining a figure (in the musical sense) of inimitable quality. Hardback and Paperback now available.

Richard Valentine

You can get the book at much cheaper price from elsewhere including book stores.

Barnes and Nobles.com sells it only for $72.50.

Check it out. do not buy from AMZN. They are cheaters.

Don't get me wrong - the women featured in this book are all awesome, and the photos of them are great, but the I-centric approach Ali Smith chose when interviewing each woman was a huge turn-off. These women are all more than capable of speaking for themselves, so why couldn't Smith have stepped aside and let them do just that? For a book claiming to contain "words to live by" from the women portrayed in it, there were disappointingly few direct quotes from said women, and annoyingly much space alloted to Smith's opinions and impressions - what she thought about the women, what meeting them was like for her, how she first heard of them, and so on and so forth. (I understand from the book description that Smith wanted to create something "intensely personal", but surely intensely personal does not have to be synonymous with heroically self-obsessed?) For an interesting contrast, I recommend the book 'Picture the Girl: Young Women Speak Their Minds', by photojournalist Audrey Shehyn, who does an excellent job of portraying 35 young women WITHOUT stealing their spotlight. I bought Smith's book partly because I thought it would be interesting to learn more about Janeane Garofalo, who is one of my favorite actors and something of a role model to me, but I learned nothing about her I didn't already know, because, as it turned out, most of the text accompanying the photos of Garofalo was in fact about Smith.

I am sitting at a coffee shop and had to reluctantly tear myself away from Ali Smith"s LAws of BAndit Queens. At first I just opened the book and looked at the pictures. I felt a strange sense of reverence in front of the array of fiercely modern and independent women portrayed there. The pictures caught them in action .The photographs seemed to have captured the essence of each and every women . Nothing glamorous there. Just incredibly truthful. All the women seemed colorful to me, caught mid -sentence. Arrested between a defiant laugh and a provocative gesture. Some of them exuded a sense of radiant peace. Confidence. Clearly Ali Smith has no interest whatsoever in making her photography anything but honest. She captures a moment and that's that.
It's not a platform to stardom or celebrity. Just her take in color on what makes a great woman worth looking at.
Yet the photography is incredibly beautiful, something you might almost forget when looking at the book. Because the laws of the bandit queens will make you first and foremost think. About them. About yourself. About what it means to be a woman. Ali is so self effacing in her commentary that you might even forget she took the pictures and interviewd each woman. A nonobstrusive witness, Ali is noneteless the eye behind the lense, and the intelligent artist who is merely offering her unique take on the modern woman. By authoring the book, she too joins the legacy of all the bandit queens. And mostly establishes herself as a great woman photographer.

This book was a gift from a friend who I truly admire and it is one of the most meaningful gifts I have ever recieved. Law of the Bandit Queens is one of those rare creations that not only was able to inspire me to try harder to acheive my goals, it also made me very proud to be a woman. It is a wonderful gift for all the women who have ever inspired you in your life. The book includes women from many walks of life. Ali Smith has chosen an incredible mix of women who each have something very different, yet equally as important to teach us all.

Thunder cave is a very good book to read. the reading level is 4.4 but it is not that bad. the story takes place in Kenya, Africa. the main characters in the books are Jacob,Robert,supeet, and donavan. this book talks about how you can live in Kenya without a grown up.

Thunder Cave is one the best books I have ever read. It's all about elephants, the Masai people, and poachers. When Jake's mom dies, Jake secretly goes to Kenya on a wild adventure to see his father who works in Kenya. On his way, Jake meets Supeet, a Masai boy who's trying to bring back the Masai people and the heavy rains. Jake finally finds his father, and they move to New York.

I think Thunder cave is the best book I have ever read. I like all the adventure. In the book, Jake (the main character) finds out that his mom has been injured in a car accident, later Jake's mom (Beth) die's. So he sets out on a trip to Kenya, Africa to find his father that he hasen't seen in a long time. If you like mystery, adventure, and suspence then you will LOVE this book!!!!

I am reviewing the Modern Library Classics version with an introduction by former labor secretary Robert Reich. To minimize repetition, the differences for this version: This massive book is complete and unabridged (all five books). There is a great added feature in the form of small summary notes in the margin that accompany each paragraph. Adam Smith was a masterful writer of prose and communicates some of the most important economic and philosophical ideas in the history of western civilization. Economic theory never read so beautifully.

An interesting choice for an introduction is Robert Reich. He is one of the few intellectuals from the left, and while I disagree with him more often than not, I respect his thought process. He offers his interpretation of Smith and how the ideas found in TWoN fit neatly with his positions. Selective reasoning or not, Reich does offer a nice summary line: "In these times, as when Adam Smith wrote, it is important to remind ourselves of the revolutionary notion at the heart of Smith's opus-that the wealth of a nation is measured not by its accumulated riches, but by the productivity and living standards of all its people." Nicely said and I agree. I just disagree with Reich and his ilk on how the "wealth" of the modern nation is achieved. Adam Smith offers the roadmap, but it is up to us to keep lawmakers in DC or [insert any central government here] from regulating and taxing us to death --relegating Smith's work to the dust bin.

Adam Smith, a professor of moral philosophy in 18th century Scotland, was, perhaps, the World's first "economist." One must remember that during Smith's era, there simply was no such thing as the formal study of economics, and it is this fact that makes "Wealth of Nations" so interesting as it represents the first attempt, as far as I know, by an individual to explain the intricacies of money, capitalism, profit, etc., in a scientific manner. Truly, "Wealth of Nations" is to economics what Newton's Principia is to physics. It is not perfect, but considering the time in which it was written it was an amazing accomplishment.

The reader will find discussions on a great many topics, but what is especially fascinating is the insight into 1700's Britain that is provided. Remember, this book was published in 1776. Smith even discusses the "recent troubles with the colonies"--America.

It is emminently readable, though it becomes less so in certain sections--the digression on silver, for example. However, if one takes it slowly, then one can easily digest this feast of intellectual achievement in a relatively short time. Afterwards, the works of Ricardo, Marx, Keynes--to name a few--should be tackled.

Again, highly recommended.

Adam Smith obviously thought deeply about economics, and then traveled widely to find support for his ground-breaking theories. The result is a very long book that is incredibly nuanced. Such popular excerpts as "the pin factory" and "like an invisible hand" do little justice to the book -- just like quoting "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." does not substitute for reading "Gone with the Wind" or seeing the movie.

It is difficult to getting a good economic education today. The endless flow of government money in social science departments has twisted the subject. While modern economists use very precise methods to arrive at wildly inaccurate results, Smith dug and dug through economic records to find key patterns but did not seek the unrealistic equations that currently characterize the profession.

One final note on the reading: Work your way through a Jane Austin novel before attempting to read "The Wealth of N! ations." The language has changed in the past 200 years.

The book, divided into two very distinguished and separated halves, is an intriguing, entertaining and inspiring read. i finished it a few days ago and i keep thinking about it, i want to go back and read it again. told from several different perspectives, the meaning of the first half shifts considerably upon completion of the novel. smith writes beautifully. there were so many wonderful sentences that i read again and again, thinking 'yes, exactly! you've captured it!'

highly reccommended!

This book weaves a complex web around the confusing relationship between two women and their feelings for each other. Introspective, moving and with an underlying air of brilliance, it is to be thoroughly recommended.

Way to go Ali Smith! More questions than answers, just like life. Lifelike even.

Read Like. Even if you think you might not like it. You don't have to. That's why it's really something.