Birmingham, Alabama's Southern Sisters are tired after just returning home from spending two weeks in Warsaw, Poland celebrating the wedding of Patricia Anne's daughter. However, their idyllic breather ends even before it begins when cousin Luke "Puke" Nelson asks for their help. Apparently, Virginia, Luke's wife of forty years, left him for a house painter, Holden "Monk" Crawford. Reluctantly Patricia Anne agrees to accompany her more enthusiast sibling Mary Alice in finding the runaway.

Mouse and Sister as Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are more commonly known trace Virginia and Monk to a remote church on Mount Chandler. However, instead of finding the runaways, the Southern Sisters find the corpses of two murdered people, neither being Monk or Virginia. As they continue their inquiries, Sister and the local Sheriff seem stuck on one another. Ultimately, they locate a dead Monk, but they still have not found the missing Virginia.

Fans of the series will fully enjoy the seventh cozy in the Southern Sisters series. MURDER CARRIES A TORCH centers more on Mouse's humorous asides with the reader about the excessive behavior of Sister than on detective work. Still, that should not surprise fans of the series, as that is the essence of all the novels.

Harriet Klausner

Anne George has blessed her readers with another splendid Southern Sisters mystery! It's a humorous storyline with two very funny, very down to earth amateur sleuths. The author tells the story from Patricia Anne's point of view, with the occasional third person as well.

For those you who have yet to meet this hilarious southern sister duo, I will introduce you. Patricia Anne is also known as Mouse. She could be a Jeopardy contender, loves Wheel of Fortune and has been married 40 years to Fred, who greatly appreciates solid ground when he is back on it, almost to the point of embarrassment for Mary Alice. Then there's Mary Alice, who has her sister carry home something on the plane that shocks and embarrasses Patricia Anne. She is also a member of the Angel Sighting Society, widowed many times, and worried that her "sell by date" is near expiring and needs to get married this year.

In their latest whodunit, Patricia Anne, her husband, and Mary Alice are back in Alabama after a trip to Warsaw on a visit. As soon as they return, a relative, who they call Pukey Lukey, calls asking for help. His wife has disappeared and he thinks she ran off with a preacher. The cousins agree to help and this takes them to Chandler Mountain where they meet a variety of characters who are so diverse in personalities that it isn't possible to confuse them. One is a sheriff who seems to cause a personality change in Mary Alice whenever he is near. Once at the church on the mountain, they find a victim. She isn't the one they are looking for, but they are still involved because Luke is seriously attacked during the visit and they have to find out why. Later another victim is found, and now things are looking frightening for Luke's wife. The sisters aren't sure who or what is causing the deaths and near tragic happenings. Did the strange things they use during the unusual church services cause it or is it the Chandler Mountain Booger? That's something I think readers will enjoy finding out as they read Murder Carries a Torch.

While the mystery carries on, there is interaction with other members of the family, one being emails between Patricia Anne and her daughter-the grown and married Haley. The interaction blended well with the mystery since it was a relative they were helping, and watching the interaction with other relatives varied from sweet to an absolute hoot.

I enjoyed this mystery from page one. The personality and humor of the characters, all of them, are outstanding. The relationship between the sisters is priceless. The main mystery plot may or may not be one of a kind, but how it's written and handle is. Whether or not you're a fan or familiar with the southern sisters, any reader would get their money's worth with this mystery.

You want some kind of southern fun and a coincidental dead body or two? Anne George dishes both up in each of her Southern Sister "Murder" books. She can make you laugh out loud when you read of Mary Alice and Patricia Anne and their escapades. I have purchased and given sets of George's books as gifts to folks ranging in age from 30-80. All have agreed that these are fun mysteries. Murder Carries a Torch does not disappoint. George rehashes enough in each book of the series to keep the reader from feeling lost. The books do follow a publication date sequence, but reading them out of sequence does not hurt at all. Having emailed Anne George and receiving her reply, I am anxiously awaiting Murder Does the Dirty Boogie With Elvis. Treat yourself!

I lost my dearest mom on August 30 so I am among those, George ranks as facing one of life's greatest challenges, grief. This is perhaps what initiated my readings in the area of spirit, to console myself. Nature as science defines it is a vast machine of indifference, having brought forth human consciousness for no reason, and ending same in biological death for no reason. At best a depression philosophy of life.
This book will help those in need or assurance that our loved ones survive death, actually do so. It also is a book written in what I sense is the sincerest of styles. Mr. Anderson does not claim God like status, only that he has a special gift to communicate with conscious beings beyond our material dimension.
I recommend this book to all those who wish to be comforted, but I do not think this book would convince the Amazing Randi type disbelievers.
Georege Anderson is in the star class of psychic mediums and indeed, if George were a fraud would not the skeptics have caught him in his more than 25 years of readings.
Read the book, I think you'll enjoy it. If you've lost a loved one, its a elevator for your own spirit to read.

I read this book over the weekend. I have always liked George Anderson. I have a good feel for people and I can say without a doubt he is very genuine. You can feel the love of the souls from the hereafter reflected right through him. This book is excellent advice for all people. Bereaved or not bereaved. Quite honestly, it's probably some advice we don't want to hear or like to hear but it's what we NEED to hear. I applaud him for helping the people he as helped and for his honesty. I couldn't help thinking as I was reading the book that one day I am going to have to face a more difficult challenge then I ever had before in my life and I hope I remember to pick up this book. I'll need it.

Once or twice in a life time a book comes along that touches the soul and heart so deeply, that one can not help but to change from the "healing." Walking in the Garden of Souls" by George Anderson and Andrew Barone, is one such book. Their first book, "Lessons from the Light" was a phenomenal work and a blessing for readers. While focused on the gift of mediumship and its purpose, this new work continues where "Lessons" left off. This book provides a deep and spiritual insight into the purpose of our lives, the journey of our souls both on earth and in the hereafter. The miracle of the book is the way that it also touches the spirit to the core and provides an intense healing for those who grieve. The writing is superb and flows as a spiritual lesson in death and bereavement. Even our grieving, as the book details, is but a lesson of learning in which we will be rewarded for in the eternal and beautiful hereafter. The authors also touch on several universal and deep principles, such as "everything that ever happens to us" has Divine purpose and order behind it; and all suffering and hardships are but steps toward a great reward in the hereafter; and, that life is really a journey of the soul, which continues in the hereafter.
I have had the blessing of a private reading with Mr. Anderson a little over a year ago. To say that it changed by life forever, would be an understatement. The hour that I spent in the reading with him was the most life-changing, phenomenal experience of my life. Truly I came away a different person experiencing a deep spiritual and psychological healing of grief. To have the blessing of a reading with him is truly a life-changing event. For those who have not had the benefit of a reading with him, "Walking in the Garden of Souls" serves as a "second" best healing source from the gift of this remarkable man. This book is a real testament to the learning that he has undergone through his gift, and now, encourged by the souls in the hereafter, shares it with the world. This book far surpasses any that I have ever read related to mediumship, death, dying and bereavement. Truly, this new book by Mr. Anderson and Mr. Barone is Divinely inspired and guided. A true gift of healing from the Eternal Light.

"What's the toughest job to have in the Yankees' front office? General manager? Piece of cake. Assistant to the traveling secretary? Seinfeld's George Costanza filled that post admirably for years. Try being the public relations director under George Steinbrenner's reign of terror. Marty Appel worked for the Yankees in that capacity from 1974 to 1977, and lived to write about it in "Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy and George" ...

About his first spring training with the Yankees, Appel writes, "A remarkable moment came one evening when a few of us, Mantle included, decided to walk a few hundred yards from Schrafft's Hotel to the local theater. They were showing The Last Picture Show, a study of life in a small Texas town in the 1950's. Whatever the reason, when the film ended and the lights went on, there he (Mantle) was, wiping tears from his eyes."

This is not a tell-all, behind-the-scenes look at the Yankees. Rather, it's a poignant account of a fan turned public relations executive working for baseball's most glamorized team.

Marty Appel wasn't like the other kids he knew growing up; He was a Yankee fan, born in Brooklyn, he was the one kid who mother didn't throw away his baseball cards, and he was a newspaper reporter at the age of 16. Appel's recent book, Now Pitching for the Yankees, follows his unique childhood all the way through his becoming the third public relations director in Yankee history. ... During a stint with WPIX, Appel did PR and produced Yankee telecasts, working with Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop and announcer who was known to make an oocasional early exit from a gamehe was calling. As Appel writes: "Our inside joke was that the home plate camera would not really be there to catch balls and strikes, but would be a surveillance camera to catch Rizzuto snkeaing over the George Washington Bridge in the seventh inning." Now Pitching for the Yankees - which includes a forward by Yogi Berra - is entertaining, insightful and humorous.

Oddly enough, the year's best "New York baseball book" is one that you might not have seen: Now Pitching for the Yankees, by Marty Appel. Appel, who spent most of the 1970s working for the Yankees, is a fine writer, a wonderful storyteller, and doesn't shy away from revealing something about himself. The sections of the book concerning his brief periods of non-baseball employment didn't particularly interest me, but the great majority of the book is about Appel's positions in the Yankees PR department and with WPIX-TV, which broadcast Yankees games. Appel clearly adored Phil Rizzuto, then one of the Yankee broadcasters, but that doesn't mean he can't be honest about the Scooter ...

"Phil always did play-by-play, never color. If he was the color commentator, you might as well not have him there at all. His concentration would be gone, he would be saying hello to everyone walking by the broadcast booth, he would be running out for cannolis, and he couldn't add much about the players because he didn't really know them ..."

The problem with most baseball books is that they're written by people who don't write particularly well. But this is Appel's 16th book, and he knows what he's doing. If you want to know what the Yankees were like before (and during) Billy Martin's various turns at the helm, Now Pitching for the Yankees just might be the best place to start. By ROB NEYER

In clear, concise writing, best-selling author Bob George captures the heart of the Gospel. With humor, wit and incredible insight, Bob shares his struggles and conclusions about what it means to be a Christian. The reader quickly grasps how simple living the Christian life is and how man has made it complex. The information in this book has the capability to change a person and his or her thoughts about God. If you are interested in finally being able to comprehend what true Christianity is all about, I highly recommend you read this book

... Bob George doesn't have exclusive access to the truths he illustrates in his book. A Christian doesn't have to read this book to realize the abundant life he or she has in Christ Jesus.

So why do I recommend this book so highly? Mainly because I believe that God has blessed Bob with an incredible ability to communicate spiritual messages to others. He certainly communicated those messages to me. Classic Christianity had a major impact on my life. Before reading this book, I was steeped in religion. I was brought up to believe that "God helps those who help themselves." Only later in life did I learn that the Bible never actually said that, Benjamin Franklin did. So everything I did as a Christian I did out of my own effort, trying to repay God a little for what He did for me by sending His Son to die on the cross. Oh sure, I sometimes asked God to help me when things were going a little rough, but I never considered asking anything of Him when situations were going well or my problems seemed manageable.

I certainly didn't ask for God's help when I read the Bible, and this is why I never came to the conclusions Bob did until after reading Classic Christianity. Bob consistently returns to the scriptures while making his points. He helped me to realize the importance, rather the necessity of relying upon the Holy Spirit for guidance through ALL parts of my life. Once I started to let the Holy Spirit take control of my life, I began to see the Bible from an entirely new vantage point. Everything started to make sense.

Bob's book does exactly what every Christian book should. It leads us back to our relationship with Jesus. Once there, we can receive truth right from the source of truth. Having reread most of the New Testament after reading Classic Christianity, I truly believe that the points made in Classic Christianity are valid. But don't take Bob George's word for it and certainly don't take mine. Read this book and then compare it to the Bible yourself. See if it doesn't have as big of an impact on your relationship with Jesus as it had on mine.

Bob George has explained the true essence of the Gospel in such a way that you'll wonder how you ever missed it in the first place. The words of the Bible have not changed, but after reading Classic Christianity, the way you see those words will. Through wonderfully relevent analogies and the author's own true-to-life stories, you will come to an understanding of how much the Christian life is identity, not behavior -- being, not doing.

Though having grown up in the church, I turned away from God as I entered college. Before I graduated, however, I came back to Him because of the Gospel message as taught to me by Bob George. That was five years ago and I'm still plugging along with the full realization that His grace means everything. I've read Classic Christianity countless times in the 5 years since first picking it up and it never gets old, it only gets better. This book is rarely on my bookshelf, though. I seem to keep giving it away.

The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern caught my attention first, over many others in this series, because of the title. I couldn't figure out what it could possibly mean, and that intrigued me.
I finished this book in one sitting, in only a couple hours, and immediately began to search for the next in line.
This was a very good book; moving along at a pace that kept you interested in the story. The characters had a certain, less-than-deeply-developed charm, and Koko was a wonderful example of the kings of the animal kingdom, the cat.
I loved getting a look into the newspaper world, and into the world of interior design, all set many years before I was even born. And, although I did find myself chuckling a few times at the world created in the Cat Who mysteries, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
There were only a few things I had trouble with. One, some characters that were introduced briefly in the beginning, ones that turned out to be important later, well, by the time we got back to them I couldn't remember anything about them. Basically, I found the characters that did not repeat from book to book to be very forgetable, and often times dull.
Two, the plot was rather predictable. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't have any trouble piecing together this mystery.
And three, this book was too short! I was so disappointed when I finished it in under two hours. But, there are many more in the series, and I'm sure that I will enjoy them all as much as I enjoyed this one.
So, I would definitly recommend this one as a quick, fun read.

After reading Braun's first book in the Cat Who...Series (The Cat Who Could Read Backwards) I found myself longing for more Koko and Qwill. I recently obtained this book and I loved every minute it took to complete. I never miss the David Letterman show on weeknights but I skipped Fridays show to read the book. It is wonderful and ties with the first in my book. I have also purchased the next two, The Cat Who Turned On and Off, and The Cat Who Saw Red. I also found two hardbacks for a dollar less than the paperbacks. The Cat Who Tailed a Theif and The Cat Who Sang for the Birds. Those are numbers 19 and 20 but I picked them up because of the great deal. Tommorrow I will be getting numbers 5,6,7,and 8. This is truly a great series and I wish it enjoyed more publicity, like all of those Harry Potter books. They are good book in their own right but this is my favorite series hands down. Trust me and read the series in order. Hope this review persuades some of you skeptics to give the series a chance. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern is a great book, although I don't really look at them as individual books, more like volumes.

When I first read this mystery, it was the second of a 3-volume series, the last of which had appeared in 1968. Only with the 4th book, _The Cat Who Saw Red_ (1986), did the series take off into its at-least-1-book-a-year mode, and only with the 5th, _TCW Played Brahms_, did Braun introduce Qwill to Moose County.

_TCW Ate Danish Modern_ was the first Qwilleran book I ever read, and although it's best to begin with book 1, _TCW Could Read Backwards_, I can testify that you won't be lost if you pick this up first instead, nor will you spoil the solution of the previous book.

Qwill is the type who'd probably think of himself as a dog person if he weren't a city dweller, but after the death of his landlord, he acquired custody of his landlord's closest companion: Kao K'o Kung, a Siamese familiarly known as Koko. (The original hardcover dustjacket was graced with a photograph of his namesake: the author's feline companion.) The other consequences of his landlord's death led to one of Qwill's 4 problems at the opening of the story: 1) he has to find a new place to live, 2) he wants to be in the Daily Fluxion's city room rather than on the art beat, 3) no current girlfriend, and 4) moths are eating up all his ties - so he runs the risk of being homeless, jobless, womanless, and tieless all at once. (Hey, I didn't say this was Shakespearean tragedy.)

Before Qwill can request a transfer from the managing editor, he's informed that a change of assignment is already lined up: the Fluxion is trying to divert advertising revenue from magazines to their own coffers, and so a new Sunday supplement is coming online, and Qwill will be in charge of its features. The catch? The home furnishing industry is making the advertising experiment - so the Sunday magazine, Gracious Abodes, covers the interior decorating beat. Qwill's horrified reaction is softened since the transfer includes a promotion and raise. Odd Bunsen, the Flux's daredevil photographer, is slower to overcome his resentment at his own transfer.

Up through book 4, this was the standard opening move in a Qwill story: transfer the poor devil from his current assignment to some weird beat as far from the City Room as a veteran crime reporter could imagine, and throw him in at the deep end. As with his previous assignment to the art beat, he finds the professional rivalries unexpectedly interesting.

Consider Lyke and Starkweather, for instance - Starkweather (a rather bland middle-aged executive) handles the business end while Lyke handles clients and the actual decoration jobs. Lyke's charismatic, but the depths beneath his surface charm are somewhat murky. He butters people up left and right, then sneers at them for taking him seriously. His childhood friendship - back before he moved uptown and changed his name - with Jack Baker ended acrimoniously after Jack saved his pennies, went to the Sorbonne, then returned to town as "Jacques Boulonger", the Duxburys' decorator "from Paris". (Jack's background isn't really secret, but his society clients wouldn't like to admit that far from being an exotic novelty, he's a self-made African-American from their own city.) Jack even rubbed in his success at having taken away Lyke's old money clients by moving into the Villa Verandah, where Lyke lives, but in a nicer apartment on a higher floor. :) Lyke does well enough, though, with the new money clients out in Lost Lake Hills.

By chance, Qwill starts with Lyke when seeking a big society name for the cover of Gracious Abodes' first issue, and thus draws the Taits. At first Mrs. Tait's sharp tongue seems the worst feature of the household, and Tait's obsession with his jade collection the oddest. Then the morning after the first issue of Gracious Abodes hits the street, Tait's jade collection is stolen, his wife is dead of a heart attack, and the police - and the Fluxion's competitor, the Morning Rampage - are asking why the Flux seems to be printing blueprints for burglary. (One of the elements dating the story is the Fluxion's policy of always printing names and addresses, but as you can see, its logical consequences come home to roost.)

Each of the first few editions of _Gracious Abodes_ is plagued by a different catastrophe, and Qwill faces reassignment to the church editor's beat if he can't break the jinx. Are some or all of the incidents related - and if so, who's behind them?

I recommend the unabridged audio read by George Guidall over the book on its own, although I enjoy that too. Scenes like Odd Bunsen's drunken pursuit of Koko across the balconies of the Villa Verandah must be heard to be appreciated fully. :)

At the very end of his life, Ouspensky seemed to repudiate "the System", as he understood it, although glassy-eyed disciples in that time and this try to rationalize that fact away. Perhaps he realized that any systematic approach to developing our consciousness is impossible, since if we are on a road with a known destination that destination can only be our own projection of what we imagine it to be. No matter. The ability of this man Ouspensky to think systematically was indeed his great strength, and it lent all his writing a clarity and throughness simply unmatched in all of twentieth century "occultism". Nowhere did he need it more than in this reporting of the early teachings of Gurdjieff, when that particular unique idiot was at the zenith of his own development. This book is more important than any of the junk they peddle in the various humanities departments of any of our indoctrinal institutions; it is even a contender for book of the century, at least among those who are familiar with the hidden literature of our species, for it exists at the boundary line between the place where words are at their limit and the place Ouspensky may have finally reached, where words can never go. And rest assured that it nevertheless communicates almost through osmosis some of these things much better than this abstruse little review can.

Gurdjieff represents one of the most important metaphysicians of the 20th Century. His philosophy and system of development is hard to pin down. It contains austerities, rituals, magic and astrology as well as a melange of theoretical and rational teachings designed to awaken the individual from a mechanistic state that we are all unwittingly embroiled in. Ouspensky was one of Gurdjieff's foremost pupils and this book is a succinct presentation of all of Gudjieff's major teachings.

The book should be a revelation to the receptive beginner by which is meant someone not satisfied with conventional modes of knowing and understanding and above all conventional solutions to what are ultimately unconventional problems. His teachings apparently have their roots in Sufism and other magical systems but have a very close parallel to Buddhism, notably mindfulness or "Self remembrance" as a method of waking up. People familiar with esoteric methods will find much to celebrate in this book.

The book is also biographic and traces Gurdjieff and his students' departure from the old Russian Empire at the time of the revolution during the First World War. A time of crisis that adds to his teachings. The book finally marks a point of departure between G and Ouspensky.

Gurdjieff was not a great writer and his teachings are best represented by his pupils except for the specialists who could actually wade through G's own writings like Beelzebub's Tails which is rather complex and abstruse. He approved Ouspensky's primary rendition which this book represents. Whereas Ouspensky does not possibly convey the great warmth that G possessed, this book is the best starting point for a beginner compared to more modern biographic commentaries. Further interest can be added to by an excellent series of books summarising G's teachings in the form of collected talks (by his students) published by Arkarna Penguin (e.g. Meetings with remarkable men on G's formative years).

Truely profound.

G. I. Gurdjieff - a difficult subject. He was a Russian/Turkistani/Armenian/Ousbeck (they didn't really have countries there when he lived) mystic - but a rather hard nosed one, lived 1880 - 1947, I believe. Started a movement called "The Work". best intro - "In Search of the Miraculous" by his student PD Ouspensky, Uspenski, Ouspenskj, Ospenski (depending on how they translate the Russian), who had a photographic memory. If you get and read this book it WILL change your life. Truely profound. Mr G's ideas, presented by Ouspensky, are nothing less than the central idea behind all religions. The essence, when you throw away the bull...waste, superstition and the outer trappings, the unifying spiritual essence behind the mystical traditions of all religions. Christainity, Kaballa (Judaism), Vedanta, Sufiism, Taoism, Buddhism etc.

Unfortunately, Mr G got fed up with his bonehead students and didn't tell all he knew...(pay particular attention to the subtitle)

Having said that, those who have EYES will SEE, those who don't, will scoff.

This is a recursive book. It cannot be understood with one reading. It's ideas will only reveal themselves gradually with many readings , preferably with the help of a local "Work" group, who, it is rumoured, can give you exercises. Reading the book will change your essence, changing your essence will allow you to understand more, next time you read!

This has nothing whatsoever to do with drugs, LSD, (as stated below) it is the opposite of drugs. One of the central idea is that we are all asleep. When you are asleep and you dream that you are awake, you cannot understand this. This book points the way to becoming awake.

A few people have rejected Lilith because they have assumed that George MacDonald does not believe there is such a place as hell. A few have refered to C.S. Lewis book "The Great Divorce" in which Lewis says MacDonald was a universalist.

I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that he believed that God loves all people and his love is eternal. I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that though God's patience may end with a person it does not mean that God has stopped loving that person (a loving parent warns a child because they don't want the child to suffer, but when their patience does run out and they do finally punish the child, Do they punish because of love or hate? When they didn't punish, they didn't punish because of love, and when they do punish, they also punish because of love. This is the kind of character, the God of MacDonald possesses).

MacDonald is perhaps one of the most misunderstood characters in modern Christian history.

From what I've read of MacDonald's discriptions of hell they are far more frightening than any other picture painted by any author that I have ever read. According to MacDonald God's wrath burns because of his love and there is no escaping his love. He hates the sin because he loves the sinner. He will destroy that which destroys those he loves. And he loves everyone. Sin will not reign for ever even in Hell. God's punishment is purposeful for the person being punished according to MacDonald ("love always hopes, love always perserveres...").

Lewis' book "The Great Divorce" is excellent. However, it is a shame that Lewis has a fatal flaw in his imaginary discussion with MacDonald (in "The Great Divorce") about heaven and hell (his argument sounds good but it is misleading). In Lewis' "A grief observed" he comes closer to a true picture of the true God.

Lewis, while disagreing with MacDonald about God loving all men for all eternity, cannot escape the conviction that MacDonald was a very godly man who knew God better than he did.

One of the rules of good hermenutics (interpretation) is that the majority of verses interpret the minority of verses when there seems to be a contradiction. How many verses are there in the Bible which say God loves all people? How many verses are there which say that his love is eternal? How many verses are there which say he shows no favouritism? And how many verses are there which say that God's love ends for anyone? (None. Some people just twist a few verses to try and obtain that meaning).

Here are a few mysteries which Biblical scholars need to try and understand if they are to grasp the nature of God's love and what this means regarding heaven and hell.

I was eternally dead yet I live (while I remained as I was I was eternally dead).

All men have to die twice (a death to selfishness and a physical death, there is no escaping either death. The death to selfishness must be eternal).

A certain kind of person can not enter heaven and no one can help him in because of who s/he is (thank God he can change hearts, he can change a person so they can enter into his presence).

Unless we forgive we will not be forgiven (there are hundreds of verses which talk about our behaviour and where it will lead to).

God's love cannot be earnt, even by believing the right things.

Thank God for MacDonald, he opened my eyes up to the fact that I should not place my confidence in my imagined position with God or where I think I'm going. I put my confidence in God's eternal and unchanging love, which does not depend on what I do or believe. (How I respond to his love will determine what form his love takes, maybe I will have to be punished. But the punishment will be at the hands of one who loves me and knows that it is necessary because I wouldn't listen any other way. So the sooner I listen the better.)

Without trust and obedience to perfect righteouness, who is Jesus, there is no salvation. No where will you find MacDonald disagreeing with that statement.

There is no escaping God's love.

Don't be too quick to judge MacDonald. It is not wise to be quick to judge godly men. That is why the crucified Jesus and killed the prophets.

A few people have rejected Lilith because they have assumed that George MacDonald does not believe there is such a place as hell. A few have refered to C.S. Lewis book "The Great Divorce" in which Lewis says MacDonald was a universalist.

I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that he believed that God loves all people and his love is eternal. I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that though God's patience may end with a person it does not mean that God has stopped loving that person (a loving parent warns a child because they don't want the child to suffer, but when their patience does run out and they do finally punish the child, Do they punish because of love or hate? When they didn't punish, they didn't punish because of love, and when they do punish, they also punish because of love. This is the kind of character, the God of MacDonald possesses).

MacDonald is perhaps one of the most misunderstood characters in modern Christian history.

From what I've read of MacDonald's discriptions of hell they are far more frightening than any other picture painted by any author that I have ever read. According to MacDonald God's wrath burns because of his love and there is no escaping his love. He hates the sin because he loves the sinner. He will destroy that which destroys those he loves. And he loves everyone. Sin will not reign for ever even in Hell. God's punishment is purposeful for the person being punished according to MacDonald ("love always hopes, love always perserveres...").

Lewis' book "The Great Divorce" is excellent. However, it is a shame that Lewis has a fatal flaw in his imaginary discussion with MacDonald (in "The Great Divorce") about heaven and hell (his argument sounds good but it is misleading). In Lewis' "A grief observed" he comes closer to a true picture of the true God.

Lewis, while disagreing with MacDonald about God loving all men for all eternity, cannot escape the conviction that MacDonald was a very godly man who knew God better than he did.

One of the rules of good hermenutics (interpretation) is that the majority of verses interpret the minority of verses when there seems to be a contradiction. How many verses are there in the Bible which say God loves all people? How many verses are there which say that his love is eternal? How many verses are there which say he shows no favouritism? And how many verses are there which say that God's love ends for anyone? (None. Some people just twist a few verses to try and obtain that meaning).

Here are a few mysteries which Biblical scholars need to try and understand if they are to grasp the nature of God's love and what this means regarding heaven and hell.

I was eternally dead yet I live (while I remained as I was I was eternally dead).

All men have to die twice (a death to selfishness and a physical death, there is no escaping either death. The death to selfishness must be eternal).

A certain kind of person can not enter heaven and no one can help him in because of who s/he is (thank God he can change hearts, he can change a person so they can enter into his presence).

Unless we forgive we will not be forgiven (there are hundreds of verses which talk about our behaviour and where it will lead to).

God's love cannot be earnt, even by believing the right things.

Thank God for MacDonald, he opened my eyes up to the fact that I should not place my confidence in my imagined position with God or where I think I'm going. I put my confidence in God's eternal and unchanging love, which does not depend on what I do or believe. (How I respond to his love will determine what form his love takes, maybe I will have to be punished. But the punishment will be at the hands of one who loves me and knows that it is necessary because I wouldn't listen any other way. So the sooner I listen the better.)

Without trust and obedience to perfect righteouness, who is Jesus, there is no salvation. No where will you find MacDonald disagreeing with that statement.

There is no escaping God's love.

Don't be too quick to judge MacDonald. It is not wise to be quick to judge godly men. That is why the crucified Jesus and killed the prophets.

The real _masterpieces_ of fantasy, as opposed to the "entertaining reads," are not numerous. This is one of the masterpieces. It is not a perfect book, but it belongs in the company of the greatest, such as

The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion (Tolkien); Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, and Till We Have Faces (Lewis); The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton); A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin); The Owl Service (Garner); Titus Groan and Gormenghast (Peake)... books of that caliber.

Don't miss MacDonald's magnificent tales such as "The Day Boy and the Night Girl" and "The Golden Key."

Read MacDonald's Lilith. If you are so moved, read it in conjunction with the detailed, free study guide available at the MacDonald "Golden Key" website:

"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!

This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.

After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.

Georges Perec loved language, and it shows. _Life_ is clearly a labor of love. There are times when maybe the descriptions ramble, and you may well find yourself into the fifth page of a description of some piece of furniture, but if you don't keep track, you'll never notice. This is a difficult book to describe simply because it is so dense. At one level, it's a logic game; at another, it's an exercise in linguistics; at another, it's simply poetry. The translator, too, deserves kudos. Although I haven't read the original, the translation, I suspect, has remained faithful to the spirit of the book. Please read this book.

If you read the first few pages of this book after seeing all the glowing reviews on Amazon, you may wonder what we are so excited about. However, you will be rewarded if you persevere. In an ice-cold literary voice, Perec systematically describes the inhabitants and contents of a Paris apartment building. His style is at first totally uninvolving, yet somehow, amazingly, his monotonous descriptions come together like the tiles of a mosaic (or, to use Perec's image, the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) to create a living, exciting picture. Even if you know nothing about the philosophical and aesthetic theories that gave this book its structure, you will find it enthralling.

Georges Perec constructed Life : A User's Manual in accord with a simple set of principles. Perec allowed these principles to trump the normal "laws" of how a novel should be constructed, and, in true Oulipan fashion, following the rules resulted in a novel which is utterly unique.

The subject of the novel is a block of flats in Paris. Perec organizes the book around the floorplan of the building: he moves from room to room, describing the furnishings and the decor. With an eye for ever-smaller details, Perec shows us how the ordinary space of an apartment teems with an almost overwhelming complexity.

As we tour the building, we begin to encounter the inhabitants, from the eccentric millionaire Bartlebooth to the master puzzlemaker Gaspard Winkler, and as Perec folds them into the narrative, he also regales us with stories from their past. He shares dozens of tales of every conceivable stripe: murder mysteries, fabulist yarns, stories of love and courtship. In this regard, Life: A User's Manual evokes Invisible Cities, another Oulipan novel, by Perec's friend and colleague Italo Calvino. In Invisible Cities, Calvino creates a series of cities that seem to contain everything in the whole world: here Perec goes one further, managing to pack the entire world down to the size of a single apartment building.