This is a fantastic, practical resource for all types of wedding ceremonies - it provides not only sample wording, but advice on choosing rituals and readings, and things to consider for setting the tone of your wedding. There are full, sample ceremonies and lots of great information. Highly recommended!

I've read a bunch of wedding vow books, and this is the only one that I've found to be really useful. It not only covers writing vows, but also writing statments of appreciation, the celebrant's address, music, opening, closing, etc. It also asks some excellent questions, like how are people going to know the ceremony is starting? How are they going to know it is over? How are you going to put a ring on the grooms finger while you are holding a bouquet? I'm certainly not experienced with writing ceremonies; this book was a great help.

I don't usually come back to write reviews of the stuff I read, but I felt I really should for this book. My fiance and I are writing our own ceremony (not just the vows) and we kept coming back to this book for ideas. It poses questions to you that get you thinking in the right direction, has several good examples and is appropriate for those planning a non-religious ceremony or a religious ceremony. So many of the books I read focused on the vows only, or still had the traditional church overtones we were trying to avoid. It focuses on what's important to you as a couple, and it's been a great process for us to go through together. I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. What a real character, full of flaws. What a pretty 16 year old nun who suddenly finds herself in the real world in the time of Henry VIII might actually do. Not mature enough to make good decisions, selfish and wicked enough to wish people harm and definitely immature enough to not realize that there is a reaction to every action. Well done. I have waited a year of reading two books a month to find a book like this! Thank you Ms. Gregory for the tale of a central character so full and rich I stayed up all night reading to finish it.

This is a brilliant dark story of a young girl and her quest to live like a queen. She wants the prize of 'lady of the house' and will stop at nothing to get it. She uses her power to reach for her dreams, only to realise that the prize wasn't hers. She is a false woman, and slowly becomes entrapped in her own lies.

Despite the bleakness of the story and the wickedness of Alys, I still liked her! She felt she was destined for an important role, and went out to claim it. She sought love and didn't know what to do with it when she had it. As l was approaching the last few pages of the story I was wondering how on earth it could end, I was so looking forward to the birth of her child etc.

I am currently making my way through all of Philippa Gregory's books. Her novels, both historical and comtemporay are always so vivid and the endings never fail to be anything but thought provoking. Keep writing, because l will certainly keep reading!

This book is extremely dark - its subject matter is pretty bleak and the characters are often rather twisted... but it is nonetheless a riveting read. The Wise Woman tells the story of Alys, an orphan who has been shuffled from house to house throughout her childhood. Alys' first home is with Morach, her town's local witch. Morach is cruel to Alys, and Alys soon finds refuge in the local nunnery. As she prepares to take her final vows, the nunnery is burnt to the ground. Alys flees the fire - leaving her sisters in Christ to burn to death - and is forced to start her life anew. Her travels lead her to the castle near her home, working as an apothecary to the lord of the manor. There she meets the lord's attractive son, discovers her own witchy powers... and finds herself sorely tempted to break her vows. This book is a fscainting story, very well told... the only downside is the sexual imagery is very explicit, and often rather perverse. If you can overlook that... this book is great!

Sir Isaiah Berlin was the greatest exponent of Liberal Pluralism
in the 20th Century. "Against The Current" is probably his best collection of essays. The essays on Verdi and George Sorel are worth the price of the book alone. Do yourself a favor and read this book. You will not regret it.

In this, his most accessible work, Berlin deals with a host of subjects. The volume contains one of the truly great critical essays on Machiavelli, a brilliant parallel lives exposition of Marx and Disraeli, the classic essay on the Counter-Enlightenment and an amazing 'Hedgehog and Fox'-like analysis of Verdi. Yet again Berlin shows us his gift of imaginative insight - what Vico called 'entrare' - that allows him apparent access to minds, ideologies and cultures utterly alien to his own. He also shows us his gifts as a musician and rhetoriceur, using all his old tricks of repitition and word association. This is, as is usual in his works, as much a flaw as a blessing,and his 'entrare' often ends on a note achingly reminiscent of his own political pluralism, but for all that it is still a masterly collection.

"Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas" has long been out of print and is hard to find in the used market. I wish some publisher would reprint it--I'm sure it would sell well. It was my introduction to this wonderful, careful, rational thinker and his ideas on pluralism, among many other topics. I'm not smart enough to summarize his thought for public consumption; you must read him for yourself. If you are a warm, loving, human being who is interested in how we got to our present intellectual condition, after reading him you will be a convert. Libraries often have "Against the Current," but you can also find great riches in his other books, some of which Amazon.com will be happy to send to you. Put his name in Keyword Search and check out the numerous titles they carry. (No, I'm not a salesman, just a fan.) I can recommend "Crooked Timber of Humanity" as a good start. For a (still) fresh reading of the life of Karl Marx read Berlin's biography of him. Enrich your life; READ ISAIAH BERLIN!!!

Ambassadors at Sea by Ambassador Henry Catto is an informative look through the back door and into the closets of world leaders. By recounting his experience on a very personal level, you live with the author among those on the international stage whose personas are usually submerged into and behind their official facades. Ambassadors at Sea is thus a footnote to history, and will appeal to those who wish to delve deeper than the news releases and headline portraits of those who shaped the world during a very crucial period of our history.

Jesse H.Oppenheimer San Antonio, Texas

"Ambassadors at Sea" by Henry Catto is an informative, and at the same time,delightful book. Ambassador Catto has recounted his experiences as ambassador first to El Salvador and later to Great Britain, as Chief of Protocol, as head of the United States Information Agency, Ambassador to the European Office of the United Nations,and spokeperson for the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense,Cap Weinberger.There are wonderful anecdotes about all the Presidents he served under:Reagan,Bush, Nixon, and Ford, as well as interesting asides about Nancy Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, and countless foreign dignitaries.Catto expresses his reactions to the famous and the fatuous in an honest and self-deprecating way. For example:he refers to a conversation with Nancy Reagan at a dinner party by commenting,"To say she was hard to talk to would be a gross understatement",or on President Nixon;"I never heard anyone accuse him of having a sense of humor".These bits of information make for fun reading., This book is both educational and enjoyable. What more can you ask!

Ambassadors At Sea, a private memoir of a public life, reads like a novel that you can't put down. In in, Catto---a self-described small-town Texas boy who grew up to be a Washington insider--takes us on a tour of his career in various high-level positions under several Presidents, culminating with his appointment as Ambassador to the Court of St. James, where he hung out with such world-stage stars as Margaret Thatcher. But Catto's book is not a dry laundry-list of a diplomatic career, but rather, a witty, moving, and always fascinating story of the wholly human characters who most of us see only through headlines---as well as the personal sacrifices and conflicts that Catto himself experienced. Throughout it all, Catto is charmingly self-effacing and always very witty. I simply couldn't put the book down--and was sorry when I came to the last page.

Anne Boleyn was accused of essentially the same catalog of crimes used against every powerful woman since (and probably before) Jezebel - sexual infidelity, witchcraft, heresy, capriciousness and foul temper. As Ives explains, she may not have been physically the most beautiful woman at court, but her intellect, sophistication and worldliness (she had served at the Austrian and French courts) made her by far the most attractive. What is incredible about her courtship with Henry is the sheer number of missed chances to get a proper annulment of Hal's earlier marriage to Katharine - which, of course, would have removed the impetus for the English Reformation, and all the carnage that followed. What makes this a great read is Ives' ability to translate renaissance history into modern terms: Anne's rise and fall were inextricably linked to larger political and religious forces in Henry's court: her demise was the direct product of a temporary court alliance between the hard line crypto-Protestants (Thomas Cromwell et. al.) and the equally hard line Catholic sympathizers (Norfolk, plus the former followers of Thomas More). Once Anne was off the scene, they happily returned to their ideological trenches and resumed ploting against each other. Anne's was a vibrant life in a world which punished the vibrant and the intelligent.

I found this an excellent read when I was studying Anne Boleyn. While never becoming too bogged down in details, it tells her story compellingly and with the necessary human touch which makes Anne's story so engrossing.

Focusing on faction as one of the major causes of Anne's downfall, we are taken from her contested date of birth to her final end, through the whims of the king, life at court and her dubious romances. Ives gives the legends a brisk working over and gives the facts clearly with all the available evidence. This is THE book on Anne to read and I strongly recommend it to anyone studying her life.

Scholarly but not stuffy, Eric Ives' book is the best biography by far I have read of Anne Boleyn. It is packed with original research and serious scholarship but at the same time is readable and easy to follow. The average intelligent layperson would enjoy reading this. Ives, Antonia Fraser and Alison Weir are all MUST READS for Tudor scholars and history buffs.

Henry Chappell has hunted and fished all over Texas and the American southwest. An accomplished sports writer, his articles, essays and short stories have appeared in a wealth of hunting, fishing, wildlife, and sports magazines. In At Home On The Range With A Texas Hunter, Chappell offers a series of engaging, highly recommended essays on the bonds that exist between hunter, hunting dog, land, and prey. From hunting Bobwhites in the Texas Panhandle, to prairie grouse in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Gambel's quail in New Mexico arroyos, blue quail on the staked plains, or doves and Mearns' quail in Arizona, Chappell evokes a true sense of hunting, complete with its responsibilities and ethics.

I am a native Texan and an avid hunter of over 25 years. I think Henry Chappells book is sublime and I enjoyed the realism and detail associated with it. It is nice to read a hunting book that I can relate to in not only hunting, but in a common love of the great state of Texas and all of it's beauty.

I got this book and expected to see the typical hunting stories and that would be O.K. because I have been an avid hunter/outdoorsman for over 30 years and enjoy anything related to hunting, camping, etc. This book was a surprise! It does contain some hunting stories, and some experiences encountered while camping, but more insightfully, one can share the thoughts and observations of a person very skilled not only in hunting but in observing nature. While it is difficult to accurately describe this book, I would say it is about hunting from the perspective of a conservationist as opposed to a person who is only out to shoot. Additionally, the author's thoughtful insights into hunting ethics are sure to raise some hackles, especially in Texas, and will hopefully provoke some self examination by anyone who hunts. As an aside, the section on Country is worth the price of the book, by itself. This book accomplishes something that is difficult-it stimulates thought.

In my opinion,the most splendid part of the story is the description of the room. It is so detailed that as if it were at my sight. The ending is unexpectedly and satirically. When it comes to the audiotape, the voice of the housekeeper is furry, her British tone was very suitable for the character. I appreciate the classic very much!

I have one chance to listen to a part of this story,"The Furnished Room",in my class.Telling the truth,I feel that it is not easy to read because of some recondite words. However, on the other side, with the detailed description and the radio reading, it makes me go through the situation personally. Esepecially the surprised ending, it also touched me much and I shut myself in a world of fancy for a long time. I think that it's a good story, a good love story. As a whole, I like the story very much!

This way to practice English for the EFL students benefits them not only the language itself but also the literature merit. This audio drama is the good media for modern people, since they always don't pay much time reading.

Grand Prix motor racing, despite a long parade of contenders to the pinnacle of motor sport, remains the ultimate distillation of technology and driver courage/skill. The 50 years since WWII, thoughtfully framed by a "Before the War" chapter for historical perspective, are recorded superbly in this magnificent book. No significant aspects of the cars and drivers of this eventful half century have been neglected. Sidebars constantly divert and inform. Even the advertising is captivating.
The reader comes away in awe, sated by the integrity of the text under Alan Henry's meticulous editing and the wonderful photographs of Bernard and Paul-Henri Cahier.
Younger enthusiasts who read this book, who have been watching the boring, little-passing parades of advertising-festooned F1 slot cars of recent years, will acquire essential perspective from this great book and will note--perhaps wistfully--the transition from a high-risk driver's sport to a technology-money game in which the driver has become increasingly subordinated to the machinery and lawyers manipulate the rules. They may also note, by studying the evolution of Grand Prix machinery, the transition (not only in GP but in prototype sports cars) from vehicles that could be driven on road courses to caricatures that can only be driven on billiard-table-smooth tracks, whose characteristics (mile-wide slicks, ground effects, minimal ground clearance, bizarre aerodynamics aids, engine lifetimes measures in minutes or hours of running) have virtually nothing to do with any other kind of road vehicle. The great Stirling Moss, one of the finest drivers who ever raced, railed against this loss of relevance to 'real' cars when interviewed by me on the microphone at Sears Point (where he was Grand Marshall of a historics event). Beyond nostalgia, who is to say that he is not right in decrying this disconnect between racing cars and real cars? Don't suggest NASCAR, fake into the bones, as representative of any remotely real road vehicle.
Alan Henry sensibly avoids much of the recent controversy over rules and money, which have effected so many not-so-subtle changes in what used to be a sport and not a business, although he does gum the issues of the tobacco wars and the rise of lovable Bernie Ecclestone to the role of F1 dictator. The book was published in 2000 and thus could not have anticipated the struggle of F1 in the new Millennium, blandly asserting its posture as "firm and secure." Well, maybe.
In the end, nothing that the recent philistines can do diminishes the ultimate greatness of this world motorsports arena or the care with which this book and brilliant historical record has been assembled.

This title is even more precious than the other already outstanding Autocourse Annuals. You can see how it looked when it all started back in 1950. Live through different eras of the past 50 years in F1 racing. I suggect all F1 fans get this book asap or it will disappear from book stores very soon. The team of Henry and Cahier(s) should get more than 5 stars just for this outstanding work.

The Formula One world driving championship was inaugurated in 1950, making 1999 it's 50th season. The people of AUTOCOURSE have chronicled the sport since 1951, and have never had any equals. This AUTOCOURSE history of the first 50 years is absolutely breathtaking. An "art" book of immensely high quality, it marries the journalistic expertise of veteran correspondent Alan Henry (editor of AUTOCOURSE since 1988) with the photographic brilliance of Bernard Cahier (covering primarily the 50's, 60's and into the 70's) and his son, the imcomparable photographic artist, Paul-Henri Cahier (primarily 80's and 90's). Their photos are simply stunning. The decision to restrict the photographic content of a 50-year history to just 2 men was a brave one, but considering that they chose the true artists of their eras, the choice was clearly inspired. It puts the book on another level entirely. A comprehensive championship table (season-by-season) is present at the back, but there is nothing dry or statistical about this book. Rather than comprehensively document the series "race-by-race", this is a book in which the essence of each era and the true character of its participants (and the cars involved) is brought to life. The people at AUTOCOURE have no peers, and with this book, they've truly outdone themselves. A "desert island" F1 book for sure. Congrats!

Compared to books such as "Voluntary Simplicity" by Duane Elgin and similar books, one realises that many of these ideas are nothing new when one reads Walden by Thoreau. In fact, what strikes me is that we as a Western society have not overcome many of the issues pointed out by Thoreau 150 years ago. Thoreau left Concord MA "disdainful of America's growing commercialism and industrialism", the slavish materialism of that society then. One wonders what he'll say if he would see the extend today - in the post Coca-Cola society. But then Thoreau was a man who clearly stepped to his own drum. Becuase of slavery, he refused to support the state on moral grounds. How would his views have been tolerated today?

I am not luddite, but my favourite quote from the book is this: "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing to communicate". Does this say something about the Internet, newsmedia and our contemporary information overload, or what?

I liked the introduction and footnotes of Meyer. Just enough to provide context and explanation, but never intrusive. This book is as relevant today as it was during Thoreau's lifetime. Highly recommended.

H.D. Thoreau is the first and most important figure in U.S. Radicalism. This collection provides the essential background for the latent radicalism inherent in American politics, especially as it was vocalized in the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements of the 1960's.

Disobedience is the shorter of the texts, but probably more important. It is an attempt to justify moral anarchism and a call to act on individual judgements about justice.

Walden can be interpreted as an important treatise against consumerism and the dangers of specialization, as well as an appreciation of the natural environment. Those interested in anti-globalization/anti-free trade movements would do well to read Walden to gain an understanding of where anti-consumerism came from and an examination of its ethical implications. However, it also pays to remember that Walden is a failed experiment and, in the end, Thoreau returns to Cambridge.

Thoreau, as political philosophy, has certain problems. Moral anarchy and denial of the social contract is difficult to replace in civil society--Thoreau makes no more than the most vague references as to what could replace it, seeming to rely on the fact that his personal sense of justice is universal.

Nevertheless, Thoreau's conscience has resonance and is as relevant today as ever. His rejection of consumerism as the basis for society and its stratification also teaches important lessons.

Thoreau represents that first step in understanding the other part of American political thought--extremely different from that of the Constitution and Federalist Papers--but with profound connections to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King.

I can only speak from experience on this one. This is one of the most remarkable books I've ever read. Thoreau influenced my views on liberty, justice, and integrity [following what is right, not merely that which is deemed law]. The inner journey Thoreau got me started on has continued throughout my life. I credit him for instilling within me the concept of "Teach me how to think, not what"--invaluable to the fledgling independent thinker and philosopher. I highly recommend Ralph Waldo Emerson, in conjunction with Thoreau.

This is a really great book. The dogs are so cute, they'll break your heart. My son's favorite is the dog jumping through the hoop. He's really cute -- I only wish my dog were so well trained! We also like the springer spaniel puppy, because she looks just like our dog Allie! A must for dog lovers of all ages.

We have read this book on a near-daily basis for the last 5 months. It always brings a smile, even when Kate is recovering from a bump or scare. The dog photos are very appealing to the baby, especially the ones (Mutt, Good dog!, Jump!) where the dog's expression looks like a smile. A bonus is the wonderful photo collages that adorn the end pages front and back of the book; they are at least as good as the photos in the actual text. My husband and I fell in love with the book in the bookstore, but it has proven even more alluring to the baby. Unlike our real dog, Arf Beg Catch doesn't get up and walk away from being handled. I'm thinking about buying another copy against the day when we wear the first one out!

Adults as well as children will adore this unique alphabet book. Both the upper and lower case letters are displayed for education purposes. But the real fun of the book are the delightful and engaging photographs of the dogs in action shots. (The cover photo has me puzzled though. Has that dog been tossed up in the air?) Delightful browser as well as an educational tool for learning the alphabet.