Cosgrove weaves a masterful tale that is captivating for adults and children alike. There is a magical quality about the story. The illustrations are whispy and soft, perfectly complementing the mystical feeling. It really is a wonderful book (although I caution that it may be disturbing for the youngest readers). In addition I highly recommended any books in the Serendepity Series, also by Cosgrove.

For me personally this was one of the most meaningful books I have ever read. It is a parable of a spiritual journey of a couple facing the last half of their lives. The story leads the characters through a process of discovery of their purpose & meaning in life and how it is inseparably connected to God's unique purpose for each of us. As a reader, one is drawn into one's own process. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but, I benefited far more from the process of discovery - a process that I know will lead me successfully into the best season of my life.

In tradition of 'Salem's Lot, Stephen King writes Needful Things through the view of many characters, not just one main character, and keeps the reader guessing throughout the entire novel what will happen to which character. It works so well in Needful Things that I found myself reading madly and gaping my mouth many times. Truly a gruesome and horrifying experience, in Needful Things, King creates great characters, Alan Pangborn, Norris Ridgewick, Polly Chalmers, Nettie Cobb, Hugh Priest, Ace Merrill, John LaPointe, and maybe the best villian he has ever created in Leland Gaunt. The way he makes Gaunt so low key and friendly, and evil at the same time is wonderful. He also ties in all his other novels which have taken place in Castle Rock such as Cujo, The Dead Zone, and the novella The Body, very well. Sure, you'll be flipping back to see what character did what to whom when the novel takes its turning points, but that's the fun of it. How King can write so many things in 700 pages and keep the reader hooked and interested. And of course, the ending in which evil does not fully lose. God I love that! Needful Things, one of Stephen King's most entertaining books. A must read!

This book is one of the most perfect examples of the pure art of story telling imaginable. Not just content with developing a handful of characters, King presents a weird and wonderful array of actors in this novel. Sheriff Pangborn, Polly, Nettie, Wilma, Keeton, Hugh Priest, Ace Merrill, Brian Rusk, Myra Evans, and of course, the villain - Leland Gaunt. The storyline centres around Gaunt's new store on Main Street, Castle Rock - a shop called 'Needful Things'. By seemingly coincidence, the shop always stocks the one true desire of each and every customer who enters under the green awning. And it is always affordable - in many instances, the price is just the loose change in your hip pocket.

The reason for this is that Gaunt is not interested in monetary assets - it is souls he is after. Each purchase made comes with a small prank to be played on an unsuspecting member of the small town.

As pranks get more serious, and more and more people realise their heart's desire lies within the new store, the town descends into chaos.

King's ability to develop so many characters, and the fact that they are ALL so different, and so interesting, made this book my needful thing. I found it more entertaining than horrific - only one scene disgusted me, when Polly found out what was really inside her arthritic-curing charm.

The final one hundred pages were told beautifully, and in my mind it was easy to imagine the chaos descending, as explosions and murders happen almost every minute.

Overall this was an brilliant, excellent example of story telling. This was my first King novel - and it definitely will not be my last.

To me this is one of Stephen Kin's best novels ever. He develops the characters even better than in his usual stories. I love the way that the town goes from completely normal to reverting into chaos. The plot is this. The town of Castle Rock is like any other town, until a new store, Needful Things opens up. As people go into the store, they begin to realize that the owner, a weird man named Leland Gaunt, has possessions that they have always wanted. In exchange for selling them these items, Mr. Gaunt has them play a prank on another town resident. Eventually these pranks end up turning the town into an insane war zone, and I won't give away the ending. One of the best things about this novel is that even though the plot is a tad unbelievable, King makes it believable with his fantastic writing style. I only wish that I could give this book six stars.

Even if you are not a fan of Stephen King, I strongly urge you to go out and buy this book. Believe me, it is a chioce that you won't regret.

A better editor perhaps would have helped streamline this extremely extensive biography of Caballe's carreer. It is a chronicle of almost every appearance she ever made, though there is little analytical detail of even her most legendary and important performances. The word that comes to mind is "homogenized" - all the stories and information just seem to run together year after year. More anecdotes, deeper analysis of performances, and cutting of much extraneous text would have made this a better read. There are still some interesting stories, though I did have the feeling throughout that the authors didn't want to include any negative remarks regarding collegues, impressarios, or opera companies unless it was absolutely neccessary. That might be a fair and safe way to write, but it is not very interesting in a carrer retrospective like this. However, better that we have at least this less than perfect document (which, incidentally, has been totally approved and authorized by Caballe herself)than to have nothing at all, since this is really the only biography available about her entire carreer.

The authors of this book are worshipful, but that's about all. What a disappointment, especially as it's the only extant full-length biography of one of the colossal singers of the twentieth century. The first third of the book concerns itself with Caballe's beginnings, and for the most part is interesting enough, at least to the hopelessly seduced fan, but it soon becomes a week by week itinerary diary of the most mundane kind. Madame sang such and such at this place, caught a plane to such and where, sang this and that at such and such opera house....on and on. Only occasionally is there even an apparent flash of genuine interest on the part of the authors. A writer of conscience could certainly create a worthy biography of Montserrat Caballe, after all, her body of work is the stuff of legends, but this half-cooked effort really demeans the biographer's art. The elements of abiding interest surrounding Caballe, the voice itself, her miraculously docile character, among a number of other standout elements are treated shabbily in this book. A useful complete discography is appended at the end.

Maria Callas is quoted in this book as advising Caballe that "When you stop arousing controversy, Montserrat, go home. Until then, let the cat fight the dogs". Probably the Spanish soprano didn't need Callas' advice in this regard, but in any event, like all great artists, she has aroused great passion and divided opinion. Few, however, who know anything about the art of great singing, would deny her place as one of the greats of the 20th Century. My admiration for her is based, first and foremost, on the artistry: her's was one of the most beautiful voices, but rarely did she just rely on this fact. Rather, she would time and again find the very centre of a character through imaginative phrasing and peerless use of colour and shading. Vocal acuity was also a notable feature of her art - one that critics more and more are recognising when they return to her recordings and find within them levels of artistry that they took somewhat for granted in the past.

For such an important singer, we have waited a long time for a biography. It might have been expected that she, like most singers, would have received a 'pop' version of a book, one that skated over the surface and which, once read,would be left to languish on the shelf pining for a more detailed and serious treatment to come along by someone with an historical perspective in which to place the artist's contribution to the great lyric tradition. What is impressive, however, is that the Spanish soprano has been fortunate to receive a worthy treatment in this, the very first major book about her.

In my opinion (and in the views of the several friends I have leant it to), Pullen and Taylor's biography manages to be both entertaining and packed with important detail. From all this emerges an engaging portait of Caballe both as as an artist and as a private woman. This achievement should not be under-estimated given the problems of dealing with a living person and one who, in common with all major artists, undoubtedly has a vulnerable ego to protect. I have superficially enjoyed many of the portraits about other living singers - Tebaldi, Domingo, Bartoli, Te Kanawa, to name but a few - but this book serves as an historical document: it provides the detail that is necessary for the book to become a work of reference, and it is also written in a lively and knowledgeable style, so that it can be enjoyed in its own right as an highly entertaining read. Because of the density of detail, it's possible to take the book down from the shelves and dip into it to discover facts and anecdotes that have been forgotten since the last read. And the authors' observations in the extensive critical discography that concludes the book reveal them to be perceptive connoisseurs of the lyric art of singing. They assess Caballe's greatness without blindly singing her praises for everything she does.

I would unhesitatatingly recommend this book, which I have read in the German and English editions.

This is a collection of essays which compare [homosexuals] in the US with those in Latin America. It looks at male homosexuality from a historical, pre-colombian, and tribal perspective as well. Murray is an erudite anthropologist and therefore does not fall into the loopholes in scholarship that many white men who "study" homosexuality in Latin America have. The author is a bit of an essentialist and that may rub constructionists the wrong way. Of his books on international male homosexuality, this is the best one buy far. I think every [homosexual] Latino who wants to know their own [homosexual] Latino history should own a copy.

There are some excellent books on male homosexuality in particular sites (Hector Carrillo and Joseph Carrier on Guadalajara, Mexico; Richard Parker on (Rio) Brazil; Manuel Fernandez on (San Pedro, Honduras)) but this collection ranges much more widely, including material on indigenous cultures as well as the dominant machista one that varies only slightly from Texas to Tierra del Fuego, and incipient "modern gay" homosexuality.

About half the chapters are by Stephen Murray, who has considered reports from many societies and done fieldwork in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. He is very critical of the romantic view of "tolerance" ("anything goes"/ "there's no sin south of the border") but includes chapters by the two main purveyors of that view (Paul Kutsche and Richard Parker). The book contains a multiplicity of scholarly views and data ranging from the usual literary texts to ethnography and survey research on sexual behavior of males who have sex with males in Latin America.

In One More Border--escape from war-torn Europe, William Kaplan tells the story of his father, Igor's, escape from Europe during World War II. Igor Kaplan was a young boy when he and his family decided to leave their country for a safer place. With the help of the wonderful author, Shelley Tanaka, William Kaplan's story will intrigue readers. A few pages in the book even give detailed history of World War II. I would highly recommend this book for 9-12 year olds. Although the book isn't overly scary, children under eight may find the subject of World War II too intense, and people over 12 probably won't find the story exciting enough and may become easily bored.

If you enjoy this book, you'll probably love some of Shelley Tanaka's books!

Because this book was released at the same time as John Laband released "Rope of Sand" there were bound to be comparisons, but Taylor escaped virtually unscathed. While Laband's masterpiece is majestic and quite brilliant, Taylor has assured his readers of an entertaining journey through nineteenth-century Zululand. Although there is no ground-breaking material contained in the book, it is well-researched and cleverly written. Taylor quotes extensively from the James Stuart Archives and other reliable sources. Sometimes, for instance when he writes about the relationship between the young Shaka and his mother Nandi, the tone becomes cluttered with melodrama. But there is no doubt that the age was one of great drama, and so Taylor is excused the verbose frillings. In conclusion, then, this is a fine historical book, worthy of any library and a tempting setwork for future South African history scholars.

The book gives a concise description of places to eat in any size city in the USA. Does not give a lot of detail but can be useful if your not always interested in five star restaurants.

This book makes cross country back road traveling even more fun. Sure there are a few problems, but most fair-sized towns have entires, and many small towns do. We have had wonderful fun and some interesting, to say the least, meals because of it. Well worth its price.

We've used this book four times, and have been pleasantly surprised each time (Carson City NV, Winnemucca NV, someplace or other in UT, and San Francisco).

Very poor effort. Has little practical use , possibly as a text book for college courses. The writers show little knowledge for what they discuss in the book. The style of writing is the usual mundane, boring and vague so beloved by academics. Indeed the book looks nothing more than a collection of writings taken from elsewhere. I get the impression that the writer has little practical knowledge of the use Knowledge Management in organisations.