A Review by Caleb
Asphalt Angels is about a 13 year-old boy named Alex. After his loving mother dies, he is thrown out onto the streets by his cruel stepfather. He makes his humble home there and meets a street gang called the Asphalt Angels. He is always trying to keep his hopes and dreams up but he is constantly pressured to sniff glue, steal and kill.

Asphalt Angels is a interesting story. Based on a true story, it follows the life of Alex in a bad way. I feel that the way they portrayed the streets wasn't strong enough or it did not convince me enough. On almost every other page there was something about how either Alex or one of his friends was making money by hold-ups or stealing. The book had a lot of controversial topics such as sniffing glue and prostitution.

This book gives an insight into a world few of us know. Without being sentimental, Holtwijk describes the hopes and fears of kids living on the streets of Rio. Their lives are hard to imagine, but Holtwijk, who lives there and sees it everyday, comes close. Asphalt Angels recently won the Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Award. Ms. Batchelder is a former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children, and believer in the importance of good books for children in translation from all parts of the world. Asphalt Angels contributes in a significant way to Batchelder's work of eliminating "barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages." Your children will find this an eye-opener. Or, if you are heading there, read it yourself, besides the tourist guide of Rio!

Wanda Coleman is quickly becoming my favorite American poet. This collection, which I'm reading at the same time with her latest book MERCUROCRHOME, only reinforces my stance. As a young white male I shied away from Coleman's writing for quite some time, thinking, however ignorant this may seem, that I'd find nothing in common with her, nothing to relate to. When you're wrong you're wrong, and when I finally did dive into her work (her first book MAD DOG, BLACK LADY) I felt like I did when I first read Bukowski: I had found something special. Some have deemed Coleman as the "Black, female Bukowski," but of course this is too simple a comparison. They both hailed from the underbelly of LA, and both can't seem to get the city out of their blood. Coleman's poetry does share something with Bukowski's early lyricism, but beyond that there is no real comparison (the only other thing I can think of is that Black Sparrow has published nearly all of their books). Coleman's work is more studied and stylized, more diverse in technique and scope. I have had the great pleasure and honor now of actually publishing some of Coleman's work, and her power continues to blow me away. I look forward to every new piece she puts out there.

Bathwater Wine by Wanda Coleman is a book of poetry that everyone can relate to on one level or another. The poetry in this book is easy to read, realistic, and down to earth. Coleman writes about life events that many people can relate to. She has poured her heart and soul on the pages and the reader can easily see stages of her life in the poems. The book showcases all forms of poetry including sonnets and songs. Among the poems are "Jazz Whine," which is a dedication to Jazz music, but also a look at life lessons, "Levels of Meaning," which looks at what it means to be a woman and the many images it partakes, and "Firesong 1964," which is a dedication to the monk in Viet Nam who showed the world what he believed in. This book is a must for anyone who is discovering modern poetry for the first time. It is deep, but easy. It is Coleman, but it is also you and me. It is an All American book as portrayed by both the poems inside and the patriotic red, white, and blue cover. It is an excellent collection of poems from one of today's most profound poets.

For some people Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch is a great artist, for other an inspiration, but if anyone takes his fiction to heart, you need to read this book first. Here you'll read about how the man she thought was her savior turned into a nightmarish character who used money and her children to get her to publically and privately transgress her own morals and her own desires. I'm not convinced that the translation is the best and frankly the translators need more time giving us their creditials. I also found the images that are included to be distracting from the main message: she was abused, she was never a dominant or a sadist. Wanda's life is a sad reminder that women have not been legally equals to men for most of human history and that any "incidents" of SM we see in the past is probably not BDSM but instead a reflection of the abuse that such unequal societies promote and sanctify.

high quality paperback. this book offers insight into the legend of Von Sacher-Masoch, his life and times thru the eyes of his wife who made it all possible. billed as a feminist classic- this story is a prime example of what a woman will do for love and survival. A good read. Not what you would expect. Read this book.

Although this book is meant to be learning book it is set up as a phrase book. The twist is that the phrases are more natural and conversational that usual and the German translation it not high German but normal everyday and even low german. So, you would need allot of discipline to go through it. But it is a riot to just flip through and read the more interesting phrases. There is even a chapter on how to cuss someone out and it includes all the 4 letter words -I couldn't stop laughing.

...that is, German as it is actually spoken. The preface says that it's for intermediate learners, who already have about a 5000 word vocabulary. There's no grammar per se in the book, although a section on verb-preposition combinations and a second on conjunctions, adverbs, and prepositions is an excellent way to get some of those easy-to-foul-up parts of the language under control. It concentrates on idiomatic and colloquial usage (as opposed to slang usage), with a semi-programmed approach which allows you to build up vocabulary and usage models in usable-sized chunks. It most certainly is *not* a compendium of "potty-mouth" phrases - there's a limited amount of that stuff in the last "be careful of these phrases" chapter. If that's what you're looking for, just get a good unabridged bilingual dictionary, like the Oxford-Duden, and you'll find four-letter words to your endless amusement.

The only weakness I would draw to your attention is the age of the book: it's almost 30 years old. Colloquial usage changes more rapidly than more formal speech. In particular, the past quarter century has seen the adoption of a huge number of Anglicisms to colloquial German use, but they're not in the book. I'd love to see a new edition; the book is worth it.

I read this book to my oldest daughter before she entered school. She loved it and we cannt find our original copy. She wants to read it to her children.

This was my favorite book when I was a child (1960's) I can only remember the bright vidid colors on each page and Peters first day of school. I would have loved to read this book to my little ones, but now they are 10 and 11 years old. I hope to find it before I am a Grandparent. I thought it was a Little Golden book but just not sure.

Since he wrote these stories during the several years he spent in Brattleboro, VT, we of the North Country have a particular affinity for Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books. The most familiar are the Mowgli tales, basis for the very good Disney movie. Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but all the while Shere Khan is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. Eventually, he leads a rebellion against Akela, the pack's aging leader and attacks Mowgli, who beats him away with a burning firebrand. In these and the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority.

Also appearing in this collection is a story I've loved since I first saw the Classic Cartoon version--Rikki Tikki Tavi. It tells the story of an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Rikki Tikki Tavi has always seemed to me to be one of the great heroes in all of literature.

These are great stories for young and old. For folks who worry about Kipling's potentially imperialist, racist or racialist overtones (see review), rest assured, these tales are free of such themes. They offer an excellent opportunity to introduce kids to the work of a true master storyteller.

GRADE: A

This was probably one of my most favorite books as a young child if not my favorite. The way Kipling shows the struggle of this young boy in the jungle is amazing. He fails to leave out any detail and throughout the whole story your totally caught up in it without one point of boredom. I recommend this to any parent looking for a good book to read to their children or to have their kids read. Kipling is a great author and after doing a report on him and reading some of his other works I recommend those as well, especially A White Man's Burden. If your looking for books by a author who mixes fiction with truth, action and adventure with tales that bring in more serious aspects Kipling is the author for you.

The story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the jungles of 19th century India, charmed me when I was young no less than it does today. Kipling wrote this to celebrate his love of India and it's wild animals as well as to show again some of his frequent themes of honor, loyalty, and perserverance. While his writing may seem 'dated' to some, to others the truths he includes rise above politics and 'current correctness'. Baloo the Bear, Shere Khan the Tiger, Bagheera the Panther, Kaa the Python were all childhood friends of mine, and reading these Jungle Book stories to your own children today will result in their exposure to such old fashioned concepts as sticking by your friends in adversity, helping your family, relying on yourself. Good lessons then, good lessons now. Mowgli learns the value of 'good manners' early on, learns that 'all play and no work' leads to unexpected troubles, learns that thoughtless actions can have devasting consequences. By showing Mowgli in an often dangerous 'all animal' world, we see reflections of modern human problems presented in a more subtle light. Kipling leads children down the jungle path into adventures beyond their day to day imagining and along the way, he weaves subtle points in and out of the stories, he shows the value of 'doing for yourself', of 'learning who to trust'. All of this in a tale of childhood adventure that's never been equaled. The book is over 100 years old now, and there are terms & concepts from the age of Empire that aren't 'correct' today. Parents can edit as needed as they read bedtime stories, but I've found that children learn early on that the world changes, and that some ideas that were popular long ago did not prove to be correct. Explaining this, too, is a part of parenting. Some of our current popular ideas may not stand the test of time, but I suspect that 100 years from now parents will still read the Jungle Book to their children. And the children will still be charmed, thrilled and instructed in valuable life-lessons.

I guess I came to this book through the back door -- first I read Michael Cunningham's pulitzer prize winning book The Hours (based on Mrs. Dalloway) which I LOVED, and then I decided to read the original. First off, I must say that Cunningham impressed me even more when I fully understood the references and parallels that he uses. As for Mrs. Dalloway, it is the language itself that dazzles. The plot is nothing to speak of -- it's similar to a Jane Austen book when lots of interesting and not-so-interesting people interact in their mundane lives. It's what Woolf does with the subtle interactions and her stream of conscious writing that makes this book so good. Having read maybe 6 of Woolf's works, my favorite is still To the Lighthouse. Maybe that's because Mrs. Ramsey is so much more human -- Mrs. Dalloway is always described as distant and cold. This book is a love story of sorts about how Clarissa turns down the true love of her life and instead marries a wealthy politician. Like Ulysses, the narrative jumps around the minds of various characters in their journey from morning in London when Clarissa goes to buy flours to the evening of her party. It is a bit difficult, but the language itself makes it worth the effort.

Any young aspiring writer should compare Woolf's early work, such as Night and Day to something like Mrs. Dalloway. The transformation in narrative strength is incredible. I think Woolf found her voice when she gave up on traditional technique and focused on vivid imagery, poetic language, and really getting into the souuls of her characters.

Her views on love in this boook are heartbreaking. Love serves as mere convenience, romance is just an illusion. 9 times out of 10 people choose safety. Pretty cynical viewpoint, but she lived during the days of a crumbling Empire and wrote about it beautifully. She really achieved her greatest literary power later on in life.

Also, this book studies insanity and the doctors who are impotent to help. I'm sure woolf would have the same view in today's heavily medicated society.

This book is not for the faint of heart. She does not hide characters emotions, but tends to dwelon their weaknesses. The final party scene is brilliant. If you like this book, read To The Lighthouse, which is equally brilliant.

MRS. DALLOWAY isn't a very easy book to read, but it's ultimately well worth the time and effort you'll spend wading through its almost primordial verbiage.

Virginia Woolf was attempting something that hadn't really been done before when she wrote this vastly internal day-in-the-life study of a sickly, changeable woman whose preeminent skills are throwing parties and being 'Mrs. Dalloway.' Woolf wasn't overly fond of how James Joyce had executed his day-in-the-life tour de force, ULYSSES, so she decided to write her own, carving out in MRS. DALLOWAY a new paradigm for writing about the inner workings of mind and heart. For the most part, Woolf succeeds admirably in her journey through this literary terra nova.

MRS. DALLOWAY can be confounding and at times overtiring (it'll definitely make you want to read something "light" next) but it does cause you to have a genuine and unique human experience, which is really the reason we bother reading in the first place.

And if this one leaves you hungry for more, make sure to read Michael Cunningham's beautifully written but considerably-easier-to-read sequel/remake, THE HOURS (after spending some well earned-time poolside with your favorite summer page-turner).

"Fffftt!" Cupid's arrow, once again, pierces the hearts of two unsuspecting people. Causing two people to fall in love, Cupid is known for his matchmaking. Similarly, Cupid is portrayed through Jane Austen's Emma. The protagonist, Emma, tries to find her best friend, Harriet, a husband. Emma is a well thought out, insightful novel. Despite the time gap between the time that Austen composed this novel and present day, the reader can still relate with characters. By developing a setting for Emma, Austen uses a realistic setting. For example, in the village of Highbury, class rank, reputation, and family background are major factors in marriage arrangements, which was a harsh reality during those times. Austen also develops Emma really well through her actions and decisions. Because Emma is a life-like character, she too makes mistakes. In addition, Emma also chooses to make decisions that make readers love and despise her. Creating unique love triangles, they contribute to the interesting and complex plot. For instance, Harriet has affections for Mr. Elton, however Mr. Elton has feelings for Emma, and Emma is trying to set up Harriet and Mr. Elton together. Using symbols, Austen is able to help readers recognize affections between characters. Showing his love for Emma, Mr. Elton keeps Emma's portrait of Harriet and makes a riddle for Emma and Harriet. However, Emma interprets Mr. Elton keeping the portrait and the riddle as his love for Harriet, but in fact symbolizes feelings for Emma. Also, Austen's themes are well carried out in arrogance and self-deception, and marriage. Thinking she's a perfect matchmaker, Emma is constantly proud of herself and her setups. However, she is unable to realize that marriage can't be playing around with. Ultimately, Emma was a very good book because of its great setting, characters, plot, symbols, and themes.

The divison of opinion on this page is interesting but probably not surprising. Emma is a book for serious readers and if you go in expecting an easy-to-read page turner, then stick to Danielle Steele. (It is beyond depressing that two people who wrote reviews were somehow of the amazingly ignorant opinion that Jane Austen ripped off Alicia Silverstone's Clueless.....Rather difficult seeing as she was alive in the early 1800's .....hmmm.) Emma takes patience but it's a rewarding read, with all the complications, misunderstandings andbanality of your average soap opera yet shining with Austen's trademark subtle wit and mordant intelligence which has made this novel a classic.Books do require a little more time, effort and thinking than sitting mindlessly in front of Alicia Silverstone, but what you take away from the experience is a much wider understanding.

Jane Austen said of Emma Woodhouse (in a letter) that she had written a novel with a heroine "whom no one would like but myself". Indeed the first sentence (another sterling first sentence by Austen. How does she do it?) paints a picture that is easily understood as a spoilt little rich girl:

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable house and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her."

At the same time we have to disagree with Miss Austen. Readers have fallen in love with Emma (both novel and heroine) since the novel was published, and with good reason

Ronald Blythe states in his introduction to the 1966 Penguin Classics edition of "Emma" that it is "the climax of Jane Austen's genius and the Parthenon of fiction." I do not dispute it for a second. This novel is my favourite work from my favourite author.

The book has a plot so timeless than even translating it to modern day Hollywood and casting Alicia Silverstone in the lead still gets you a hit movie, Clueless. OK, it's obvious from the first chapter who is destined to marry Emma but our dashing hero, Mr Knightley, is still the only person who ever criticises Emma, indeed he spends a large part of his time in the novel telling either Emma or her friends about her flaws.

Austen wrote to her niece Anna (writing a novel at the time) that "Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on" and stayed close to this for most of her own works. Yet at the same time, in a letter to her brother Edward (another incipient novelist) she played down her concerns as "the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as to produce little effect, after much labour." 'Emma' is certainly the novel on the smallest piece of ivory with the finest brush, yet it pokes as much fun and wields as savage a knife on the social conventions of Austen's England as any other novelist of the time.

Austen was capable of writing novels with genuine popular appeal at the same time as she flouted the conventions of fiction. 'Emma' is a marvellous example, an easily read, enjoyable novel with a heroine who is in charge of her own destiny and who marries for no other reason than she loves a good, strong man.

Everyone deserves to read a novel this good. Just because teenage girls will adore this novel and swoon over Mr Knightley doesn't mean the rest of us should be stopped from this marvellous read. I enjoy Austen immensely and this is my favourite. I probably read it once or twice a year.

When you come to choosing the edition I once again find myself recommending the Penguin Classics edition for its Introduction. This time it is Fiona Stafford who does such a good job (though I think the '66 edition Introduction by Ronald Blythe was a fraction better.)

Jane Austen is definitely one of the greatest novelists of the world. I've read Pride and Prejudice &Emma and loved them both. However, I was disappointed with Sense and Sensibility. The story of two sisters altogether different from each other could be an interesting plot ... if it had Austen's usual style. Austen is famous for her keeping her balance between too romantic and too realistic. This time her style is much too romantic and by no means both feet on the ground. The sensible sister Elinor is really a charachter to fall in love with ,but the incredibly romantic sister Marienne has driven me nuts by talking foolishly throughout the book. Still , a good experience and worth reading.

Anyone who gives this book a bad review has no class. Jane Austen is one of the most celebrated writers in history. You just have to get past the fancy words. Beneath that is a classic and romantic story. Sense and Sensibility is the best romance novel I have ever read. I would recommend watching the movie first, though, if your Old English vocabulary isn't very strong.

I have read all of Jane Austen's novels at least once, and"Sense and Sensibility" is, at the moment, my favorite,because it was the last one I read. Jane Austen is - and always willbe - my absolute favorite writer. I love the way she can take just an average person and reveal the hero or heroine inside.

This is just what she does with Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The central theme of this novel is not the love between a boy and a girl; it is about the love between two sisters and how they come to a better understanding of each other when they are forced to endure similar situations and handle them in completely different manners.

When each sister, through dissimilar circumstances, discovers that the happiness she had believed she would find in marriage is not to be, it at first appears that Elinor is rather cold and heartless - more worried about propriety than feelings - and that Marianne is more in touch with her emotions and would rather express her grief than take into account how her display will affect those who love her...

As for the relationship between the sisters, at the beginning, Marianne seems to pity Elinor for her lack of esteem for art and poetry, and she believes that Edward is not worthy of her. Elinor, while seeing the youthful faults of her sister, always keeps a sense of humour and does everything out of love for her and the rest of the family. In the middle, Marianne believes that no one has ever suffered as she, and continues to pity Elinor for her inadequacies...

This is a wonderful and deeply moving novel that should be read more than once to be thoroughly understood and appreciated.

Let's start with Steven -- we've all known someone in our lifetime that is conniving, deceitful, and so down right self-centered that you feel sorry for them. Angela -- a great, caring, sensitive woman who was truly blessed by God. Pam -- a wonderful friend to have, one who's caring, honest, and forthright. Kenneth -- a true Godsend who came just at the right time. Ben -- gives us all hope that there still are gentlemen in this world.

I thoroughly enjoyed "In His Ex-Wife's Shadow". The author delivers a story that you can relate to. I read a LOT of books and it's always great to find one that has an interesting plot, landmarks you're familiar with, great characters, and NO profanity. It goes to show that you don't have to use "four-letter" words to get your point across. Great job, Ms. Moorman! I look forward to the next one!

Everyone has opinions about everything, and this is mine about "In His Ex-Wife's Shadow..." I think it was an excellent book. It had characters that you liked, characters that you hated, and characters that you were so, so about. The book was easy to read, easy to follow and was a replica of life. Angela, even though she was weak for Steven, was a kind, caring, gentle, generous, sweet woman. There are many women like Angela. There is no other way to describe Steven but DOG. But Ben and Kenneth were true gentlemen. The book had a little bit of everything.

I really appreciated the author's description of Washington, D.C. and giving readers more about Washington's neighborhoods rather than the normal places we always see about Washington.

It was a great first novel, and I'm looking forward to the author's next one.

I thoroughly enjoyed In His Ex-Wife's Shadow. It was a very easy read and held my attention throughout the story. The characters were realistic and were easy to relate to. I enjoyed going through Washington in places other than the tourist spots. It gave readers a look at the "real" Washington, and made me feel good as a Washingtonian.

I liked the manner in which Angela, the main female character, kept her self-respect in spite of Steven's lying, cheating, conniving ways. Even after she found out about Steven, she went on with her life and refused to deal with him again.

I also liked the way in which the author developed the supporting characters because they were all true family and friends to Angela--her mother, her brother, her sister-in law, Pam and Ben. They were all people with class and dignity.

I also like the spirituality aspects that the author skilfully entwined into the story and the fact that there was no profanity in the book.

All these things made for a very good read, and I think this author has written a great first novel.