Alice Neel's work is so contempory, so female, so raw. She was brilliant and very ahead of her time. She inspires me everday, and this book is marvelous. Full of quotes from her, her history, the best pictures.I so wish I had known her.

This is a wonderful edition to any art library. Beautiful color images, interesting narration.

I read this book twenty years ago. This is a valuable book for begginers and laymen alike.
I hope it finds its way back into print.

I recently read this book. Anyone interested in Buddhism would enjoy it. It is an introduction to the subject but who can explain all the concepts in it? Actually I read the book twice trying to grasp what is meant by no permanent ego. This book is good for getting to know Ms. David -Neel better. She knows her subject well.

Correctamundo!: Prickly Pete's Guide To Desert Facts & Catifracts separates desert facts from "cactifracts", that is, things lots of kids think are true about the desert but are not factual. Lively, fun, educational, and highly recommended for both school and community library collections, Correctamundo! will provide young readers ages 8 to 12 with a splendid and entertaining introduction to the flora and fauna of the desert.

Both of my children (ages 5 and 7) and I love this book. It is well written, amusing, creative and informative. The format is fun and inventive -- Prickly Pete (a packrat) makes a series of statments about desert creatures and then asks the readers guess whether each one is a fact or a "cactifract"(untrue), before turning the page to find the correct answer. My children love guessing and learning whether they were right. I recommend it for its entertainment value as well as for the information it contains about the natural hsitory of the desert.

COVER: 'The moment I set eyes on a handsome, rich man I shall marry him, not much hope of that happening to you, darling.'
Felicity was the glamorous sister with a successful career as a model. Mary Jane was the stay-at-home with no talents to speak of and a face that never merited a second glance. So it was hardly surprising when Sir Thomas Latimer treated Mary Jane as no more than a future sister-in-law. If only she hadn't been fool enough to fall in love with him.....

Another of Betty Neels' wonderful ashes to happiness stories! This is a real favorite of mine. The heroine, Mary Jane Seymour, spent her young adult life caring for the elderly aunt and uncle who had taken her in when she was orphaned. Though a rather loveless arrangement, her hard work managing their home and nursing them both lovingly until her uncle's final passing had put that same uncle in the frame of mind to leave her a small cottage in the village. This was especially providential as her uncle's heir was a nasty piece of work with an appropriately nasty wife! Enter Dr. Thomas Latimer, who is intrigued by Mary Jane from first sight, though it takes him some time to get around to realizing that she is the treasure he has been waiting all his life to find. Mary Jane sweats a hand to mouth existence out of the tearoom she runs in the large main room of the cottage. She is kind to all old people and animals and the entire town loves her. Her haughty sister, selfish to her toenails, deliciously plays the evil witch! :) You will be entranced throughout the lovely story and will be sorry to see Thomas and Mary Jane finally figure it all out, for even though it is what you have been longing for - their great happiness means the end of your sharing their lives. We can only hope that they appear once again in another of Betty's books. This story will delight first time readers and will greatly satisfy and warm her loyal fans.
What a lovely lady Betty is... and what lovely ladies she paints for us.

Dearest Mary Jane is another wonderful book written by Betty Neels who is my favorite romance book author, I really enjoyed reading this book and liked the characters a guy named Thomas Latimer and a lady named Mary Jane Seymour and I really recommend it!

while giving a slide lecture at the great neck public library on our biography THE SECRET LIVES OF ALEXANDRA DAVID NEEL I was handed you excellent children's book. You distilled just the right information with lovely pictures to show how fabulous her journey was.Our biography deals with her life and includes her journey which was amazing considering the Lhasa was so forbiddena at that time. CONGRATULATIONS1

From early childhood, Alexandra David-Neel dreamed of traveling and exploring faraway places. "I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and set out for the unknown," she later recalled. "I dreamed of wild hills, immense deserted steppes, and impassable landscapes of glaciers!" As a child, she traveled away from her ordinary life through books and museums, discovering a passion for Buddhism and Asian culture. Her talent as a singer, sent her to India, Greece, and North Africa to perform with opera companies, but that didn't satisfy her wanderlust. Finally in 1911 at the age of forty-three, she left her husband and home in Tunis, North Africa to begin the journey of her dreams. She would travel to the sacred and secretive city of Lhasa, the Forbidden City in Tibet. "Many travelers had been stopped on their way to Lhasa, and had accepted failure. I would not... I would reach Lhasa and show what the will of a woman could achieve!" Using his trademark eloquent prose and artwork, along with some of Alexandra David-Neel's own words, Don Brown weaves a clever and fascinating story in his latest picture book biography, Far Beyond The Garden Gate. Mr Brown's engaging text is filled with imagery, magic, history, mystery, and intriguing facts and details, and complemented by evocative illustrations in soft, dreamy hues. Together word and art transports the reader to Tibet for the arduous adventure of a lifetime. With an Author's Note to augment the story and further enlighten, Far Beyond The Garden Gate is a marvelous introduction to both an amazing woman and little known country that will whet the appetite of kids 8-12, and send them out looking for more.

I agree with the other reviewer that this is a wonderful Cinderella type of romance story and no one writes a better Cinderella romance than Betty Neels! The book is about this young English lady named Cressida Preece and she has a nasty step-mother who treats her like dirt but than Cress meets a handsome Prince-Charming in the form of Dutch doctor Aldrik Van der Linus and he falls for Cress and sets out to give her the happy life that she deserves! There are two characters named Tyco and Charity Van der Brons who are friends of Aldrik and they first appeared in an earlier Betty Neels book called the Final Touch and I wish I had known that before I read this book as I would have read it first and than I would have read A Happy Meeting but anyway I did really love this book and I recommend it but just make sure you read A Final Touch first and than A Happy Meeting! I haven't read A Final Touch yet but since every one of Betty Neels books that I have read so far has been great I'm sure it will be great too!

This is one of my very favorite Betty Neels books ! Not only does Cressida Preece have a deliciously wicked stepmother, but there is a wonderfully malevolent woman who has set her cap after Prince Charming, the eminent Dutch doctor Aldrik van der Linus, and carries out her mischief with a real gargoyle of an Aunt ! It is all very engaging and rewarding reading. As if the other characters were not enough, you have a good witch very ably masquerading as the doctor's lovely grandmother :) and you get to fondly visit with old friends Tyco and Charity van der Brons from Ms. Neels previous book, The Final Touch. Cressida and Aldrik are so perfect for each other that you can, with little worry, lean back and savor the story that brings them to their happily ever after.
This book is truly enchanting read !

This is another wonderful book by English romance book author Betty Neels, her books are really a delight to read and I have found them quite addicting, I can't get enough of them and I'm always looking for her older books in used book stores which isn't always easy as the few used book stores in my town have long waiting lists for her books and as soon as they get her books they are gone, and they rarely get her books anyway because most people like her books so much that they keep them and won't part with them for anything! I was lucky to have found a copy of A Kind Of Magic that was in good condition and it is a really great book and I like the characters a guy named Fergus Cameron and a young lady named Rosie MacDonald and I like how the story took place in England and Scotland because as much as I like her books that took place in England and Holland the locale of Scotland was a welcome change. I recommend this book, it's a keeper, well at least for me it is!

COVER: Rosie had a recipe for Mr. Right ....
"The man I marry must dote on me, cherish and love me for always, even when I'm bad tempered or sneezing my head off."
Fergus Cameron certainly wasnt' likely to fit that bill. Arrogant, exasperating, absolutely determined to have his own way - he was exactly the sort of man most women found annoying - and Rosie was no exception.
Of course, she had to admit he could be charming when it suited him. But since he'd already announced that he'd found the girl he planned to marry, Rosie couldn't care less......
This heroine is so busy being good to all her family and elderly relations that she forgets to just please herself. :) She keeps telling herself that she is going to be very picky in a mate, but she has a huge heart with a limitless capacity for loving anyone, warts and all. She is a loving selfless daughter and a wonderful person and the hero is fast to catch on and quick to realize that he needs to hold on with both hands !!

Back Cover description: Alone in the world, without a job. That was Suzannah Lightfoot's unenviable position when Guy Bowers-Bentinck rescued her. She had to accept his help--though she didn't want to be beholden to such an infuriatingly arrogant man. "He's so tiresome and ill-tempered and impatient and he must hate the sight of me," Suzannah reflected as fate kept throwing them together. So it was just as well, she told herself, that she wasn't prepared to join the queue of females wanting to marry him...

Nice, pleasant Betty Neels story. The heroine and hero are typical, and likable. The story moves along, and all is well at the end. You can always count on Ms. Neels for a heart-warming story.

If you like Betty Neels and haven't read The Chain of Destiny yet then I strongly recommend that you get hold of a copy of this terrific book and read all about Suzannah and Guy and hopefully you will find this book as captivating as I did. The book is awesome and it rocks!

Betty Neels is one of my favorite romance book authors and The Chain of Destiny is my favorite of her books and of all of The Betty Neels books that I have read Suzannah is my favorite of her heroines as I felt that I could relate to her, and I also liked the hero Guy, he was a little over bearing at first but not too obnoxious and Betty just made you feel how Suzannah and Guy were absolutely right for each other. Some people put Betty Neels books down because they aren't steamy but being a fan of romance books I generally like them all from the steamy ones that are so popular to the more old fashioned ones like this book that are just as good as the steamy ones.

This is a book which I think of often. Ms. David-Neel had or should I say has quite a strong spirit. I would recommend all of her books to anyone interested in spiritual growth, women's triumphs or walking accross high Himalayan passes in the dead of winter with the Lama Yongden. I cross high Rocky Mountain passes regularly, but always in the comfort of an 18-wheeler.

My Journey to Lhasa is a marvellous, cliff hanging tale of adventure comparable to Lawrence of Arabia's epic account. David-Neel made her trek to forbidden lhasa in the dead of winter succeeding where much younger, better equipped male explorers failed. Her thrilling yarn is the main highlight of a 101 year adventure packed life.This noted Buddhist scholar wrote 25 books on eastern themes after she made her death defying trip in her mid fifties. Although naysayers have claimed that David-Neel never went to Lhasa, our extensive research for our biography the Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel authenticates her travels as well as fleshes out the human aspect of this amazing character who Lawrence Durrell called "the mot astohishing Frenchwoman of our Times."

All I really need to say is not in review of Mrs David Neel's book but to remark that I read somewhere in your bewildering pages that she went to Lhasa disguised as a man, which seems to demonstrate that whoever wrote that hadn't bothered to read her book. According to her version she was disguised as an old Tibetan Woman from western Tibet, the mother of the Lama, Yongden, who she claims to have adopted and who remained with her for the rest of his life according to other bits and pieces I have gleaned over the years. Somebody,probably Sydney Smith, said he never read books he had to review because it would influance his preconceptions so, or something like that. The trouble with putting lies into print is that people are inclined to believe the printed word. "Of course its bloody true." he said "Didn't I read it in the bloody paper."

Formulaic, but still a good read. Something to read out by the pool when you're working on your tan. It keeps your interest, but as I said, it is a "formula" written book.

This book is one of the better Neels reprints. It is set in Scotland/Holland, and is very Heathcliffy and atmospheric. Neels allows the hero and heroine to really spend time together and interact in this one, and the characters are well developed. There are shocking moments of honesty and blunt insight into the characters--almost to the point where one wonders, "Is this Betty Neels?"--but it is most definitely Betty at her tuned-in and emotional best. Wildy romantic.

yes she passed away. i will miss her gentle books of big dutch doctors and loyal and true dutch nurses (who hold the promise of the true happiness). Now we can only read and reread and reread them.