I am a Kindergarten teacher and this is a great book to read to them. It has excellent pictures. The words can be difficult for Kindergarteners to understand, however, with a little preparation, they will grasp the concept of the book. This book shows the daily lives of a Pilgrim girl. Samuel Eaton's Day compliments this book.

We originally bought this book at Plimoth Village. My children love it. Having photos of people in actual period dress makes it so much easier to understand that they were real people and they lived differently from us. I share our copy of the book with my children's teachers every fall and they all love it and beg for our copy. Tonight, I'm buying them their own!

This book is a photo-journal portrayal of the life of a girl in early America. Based on a real-life child, the recreation (interpretation) in historic setting makes the reader feel as if he or she is right there, living the life.

It provides a great day-in-the-life picture. I borrowed this book from the library because it is part of the "core curriculum" recommended by E.D. Hirsch.

My 6 year old daughter now has a very concrete basis for comparing her own life to what it might have been at another time. It's inspiring and fun. And a great teaching tool (as mentioned in the previous review.)

This is a great book for people who are seriously interested in ancient Chinese philosophy. The book mainly deals with Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, and a little bit of Xunzi. Its basic arguement is that all philosophical thought around that period can be connected through the metaphors which they use to explain their ideas. Mainly, this counts for the metaphor "water," which is frequently used by virtually all ancient Chinese philosophers as a way of explaining their point. The author shows that in ancient China the properties of water were considered equal to the properties of human nature. Another popular metaphor among ancient Chinese philosophers is that of the plant and in particular its sprouts, which is once more connected to human nature. In her conclusion the author shows that through their metaphors a lot of the points made by the various philosophers are quite similar. This helps you understand why later on Chinese philosophy grew together and become a more collective principle.

Sarah Allan's The Way of Water and the Sprouts of Virtue is an absorbing book that yields productive insight into the thematic watersheds of Chinese philosophical discourse. Enjoyable for the general reader, it is also a substantial work of scholarship that holds appeal for specialists in sinology and Chinese philosophy. Drawing on the theoretical work of linguist/philosophers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By; Philosophy in the Flesh, etc.), Allan endeavors to unearth what she calls the "root metaphors" of early Chinese thought. She argues persuasively that the unique conceptual metaphors of Chinese thinking are to be found in the concrete natural imagery of water and plant life. Allan's project is based upon solid and meticulous scholarship into important early texts from the Confucian and Daoist traditions, as well as more obscure and difficult sources such as inscriptions on bronze and jade. The book includes Allan's own lucid and well-informed translations of key passages from such texts as the Analects, the Mengzi, the Zhuangzi, and the Daodejing. The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue is a wonderful contribution.

Live photos. Great story. The notes in the back on history of the Plimoth Plantation and who Sarah Norton really are cool. Sarah Morton was really a girl who lived in a house with dirt floor in 1627. There's even a glossary in the back.

This third book of hers clinches it. Sarah Waters is god. There is nothing she can't do. Tipping the Velvet was great; Affinity was beyond great; Fingersmith is sublime. Reading it took over my life. Okay, that's happened once in a while before with a really fine book. But I don't recall this ever happening before: being so engulfed by a book that it made me dizzy, feverish, downright sickened--and hey, if you don't get that these are good things then you're not a serious reader--in sum, it rendered me virtually incapable of going about my daily life, my head and heart were spinning so over Sue and Maud and their story.

Waters has singlehandedly reinvented--no, no, she transcends--lesbian fiction, a genre that up to now has consisted almost exclusively of embarrassing, dim, dismal, dumbed-down dreck. Her writing is literary, her plots are engrossing, her feel for time and place is flawless, and sheesh, she even pulls off incredibly sexy sex scenes that are beautiful, believable, move the story forward and leave the reader's heart pounding.

Fingersmith is breathtaking. Waters is an awesome talent. Goddamn. She does us lesbians proud.

Sarah Waters' third novel "Fingersmith" is both a critical and popular favourite. It has been shortlisted for several book awards including the Booker Prize. Waters herself has attracted much attention from literary circles since the publication of her first two novels "Tipping The Velvet" and "Affinity", both of which have won her many accolades. The former has even been made into a TV movie by the BBC. So what's the fuss about ? I'd say it's down to the fact that Waters has created a niche for herself writing fiction the way the old masters used to. Her style cannot be further away from the rabid excesses of many contemporary writers who try to pass off bad for inventive writing. Waters' eloquent and long flowing sentences recall the style of classical writers like Charles Dickens. Her craft lies in pure storytelling - about petty criminals, thiefs, pickpockets, damsels in distress, etc all in a Victorian setting - but with a strong dash of the new feminist sensibility that brings her story bang up-to-date.....and it works !

"Fingersmith" at more than 500 pages long may be overwritten but it is superbly crafted and a truly compelling read. Sure, there's drama, mystery, suspense and great characterisation but it isn't the fearsome mindbender the blurbs make it out to be. After you have recovered from the jaw dropping shock that Waters has laid in store for you at the close of the first segment, the other twists and turns that ensue aren't that difficult to follow. In fact, they're fairly predictable but that's a compliment, not a criticism, because it shows Waters cares more about her story's integrity than delivering cheap shocks. By the time you get to the end of it, our heroines, Sue and Maud, must seem like two peas in a pod or spiritual twins from opposite sides of the track. While Waters has been labelled a lesbian fiction writer, she's careful to keep her touch light in order not to alienate the general reading public.

"Fingersmith" is one of the best novels this season. It deserves and is destined for the widest readership possible. Highly recommended.

Fingersmith is quite simply the best & most enjoyable book I have ever read. It is the story of Susan & Maud, two orphaned girls who live very different lives in Victorian England. However although they don't it, their fates are entwined beyond separation.

The story takes you from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness & includes great tragedy, sadness & also love. But it doesn't stop there as Sarah Waters takes you through virtually every emotion possible & boy do you feel them. Too say anymore about the plot would be to destroy the immense enjoyment I experienced reading this book, for other people who are yet to read it. However I simply couldn't write this review & not say that this book also has the greatest plot twists I believe ever written. You just don't see them coming & they leave you astounded.

Sarah Waters is undoubtedly the best new author around & this book should definitely have won the 2002 Booker Prize in Britain, for which it was nominated. She has the incredible talent of describing things, places or circumstances just enough, that your mind fills in the blanks & makes you believe you are there eperiencing the story, not reading it. You can almost see the smog hanging overhead, hear the chiming of the clock or feel the chracters emotions in moments of sadness or fear.

I read this entire book (548 pages) in 5 days staying up till I almost fell asleep because you just can't put it down. I just had to know if a character was going to avoid a desperately horrible fate or was caught by one of the twists. I also agree with an earlier reviewer who said finishing this book isn't the end, it does affect you long after you've read it. Sarah Waters description is so good, that it gives you an idea of just how far families were willing to go in Victorian times to deal with their female relatives who they considered were ruined or had shamed them or had a mysteriously illness that they didn't understand, so it must be madness.

If you haven't read this book yet, get out there & read it now, for I would have given it a 10 out of 5 if possible.

I almost decided not to review this first novel by Sarah Waters, as I was quite speechless after finishing it. But having enjoyed AFFINITY, her second novel, I know that Waters is a uniquely talented writer. TIPPING THE VELVET leaves nothing to the imagination, so it's quite a crash course for the uniniated, but certainly worth the effort.

In the early 1960's, Harold Robbin's potboiler, THE CARPETBAGGERS, was a source of sexual information, and then some. In much the same way, Waters is fearless as she wades through the lesbian adventures of Victorian England. Nan King propels the reader through an emotional rollercoaster as she embarks upon a career as a music hall entertainer in drag, as well as behind the closed doors of the mansions of wealth and privilege (read: privacy), all with the intensity of new romance and broken hearts. What can I say? I was blushing through most of the book...and I did pass it on to other friends of whatever sexual orientation.

This book was fascinating. I read the other reviews prior to buying the book. It wasn't what I was expecting, it was so much more.

I am a big "Oliver" fan, so life in Victorian Era England holds a special interest to me. To read about the lesbian lifestyle of that era was amazing. The author brought the era and the lifestyle to life for me.

I was surprised when I found myself feeling rather unsympathetic towards the main character (Nancy) mid-way through the book. I don't remember ever finishing a book in which I felt unsympathetic towards the main character. While I felt unsympathetic towards Nancy, I still cared for her. I found that very surprising. Yes, I cared very much for Nancy.

This was a wonderful novel. I had to finish it in only two sittings. Then promptly went on-line to purchase Sarah Walters two other books.

I was surprised by some reviews that felt disappointed with the book. However, based on their reviews, I believe they were looking for something that was not there. I didn't find the hot explicit sex scenes that were indicated. That's not to say there wasn't sex, but it was primarily a book about a character and her personal growth. It is not a hot/steamy novel. Just a very good, complex and complete novel.

This is a wonderful book. I couldn't put it down, and when I did have to, I couldn't wait to get back to it. It is an excellent view into Victorian England with great attention to detail. I felt such sympathy for Nan. Your heart will soar and break with hers. As another reader has written, I felt as if I was in the book myself; right alongside Nan. In the four days it took me to read this novel, nothing else in the world seemed to matter. It is so touching and compelling. Oh, and lest I forget, it's quite erotic as well. I hope for a sequel (are you reading this Ms. Waters?). Do yourself a favor and buy this book. Enjoy.

Waters successfully brings the Victorian era to life in this story of an emotionally vulnerable "spinster",Margaret Prior, who attempts to overcome the losses of loved ones by taking up charitable social work with the women of Millbank prison in London. Her relationship with Selina Dawes, a spiritualist imprisoned for fraud and assault, progresses from mere fascination to blind passion, and the reader is pulled along with her in her quest for love and purpose in a world which has deprived her of the opportunity to achieve either. The cold, damp and dreary setting of London and Millbank Prison is a fitting backdrop to this story of Margaret, who much like the women to whom she ministers, is herself imprisoned and nearly destroyed by the repressive social structures of her day. The book is written mostly as excerpts from Margaret's diary. Interspersed among these are brief excerpts from the diary of Selina Dawes, the spiritualist. This technique works brilliantly, because it creates more of a challenge for the reader to distinguish between the inner reality of the characters and the objective reality of the story. It also makes the ending much more dramatic. Read it, by all means. It's a bit of a slow go at first, but the build up is necessary to the progression of the story.

Sarah Waters is proving herself a force to be reckoned with in the field of lesbian literature with this rather ambitious second novel. Set in Victorian era England, Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior, a lonely spinster who has chosen to visit the women's ward at Millbank prison where she becomes fascinated with Selena Dawes, a medium convicted of murdering her client.

The strength of this novel rests on Waters' gorgeous use of prose and her ability to take the reader deep within the psyche of her characters. We are given a glimpse into the life and mindset of a woman who will never fully realize her potential because of the constraints placed upon her by the society in which she lives. Her one attempt at breaking free of societal constraints results in a catastrophic breakdown from which she has yet to completely recover. As a result, she forms a very deep attachment to Selena Dawes with disastrous consequences.

Unfortunately, the very strengths of this novel also tend to be it's worst flaws. The over-reliance on flowery prose gives this work the appearance of being a 352 page poem that lacks the structure of a well organized novel. As well, the author's habit of going back and forth in time leaves the reader feeling more than a little confused and frustrated. Despite these flaws, Affinity is a beautifully written novel that revels in the art of language and atmosphere.

AFFINITY by Sarah Waters

After reading Sarah Waters' wonderfully written book FINGERSMITH, I had to get a hold of her other two novels TIPPING THE VELVET and AFFINITY. As with FINGERSMITH, I came away from AFFINITY with a very satisfied feeling of having read yet another great book. AFFINITY is a complex story set in Victorian England about a young woman, Margaret Prior, who has been suffering from bouts of depression and loneliness. She has just suffered from a breakdown shortly after her father's death, and because of a suicide attempt, her mother, with the hopes of making a full recovery keeps her secluded in the house and administered with medications.

When it is suggested that Margaret visit the local woman's gaol (prison) as a form of therapy, she agrees and begins her frequent visits. She is known as a "lady visitor", one of many that come to the prisons to read and talk to the prisoners as a form of goodwill and charity. Soon she finds herself meeting and conversing with the various women that are being held in this gaol. She meets women from all walks of life and sees the horrible conditions in which they now live. And then she meets Selina Dawes. Margaret takes extra notice of this quiet sad woman. The reader immediately knows that she finds Selina special, and soon she becomes obsessed with the prisoner, and her story. It is all she can think of day and night. It becomes her life.

Selina Dawes is a medium, who is able to talk to the dead and perform acts of the paranormal. She is in prison due to the death of a friend of hers, Mrs. Brink, who allowed Selina to live with her as she helped Mrs. Brink contact the netherworld. Mrs. Brink died during one of Selina's paranormal sessions, and is being charged for assault and fraud. Learning about Selina's "crime", Margaret is in total sympathy with Selina and knows that Selina is in prison for a crime she did not commit, and soon the two become close.

The viewpoints of both women are seen through the journals of each of them respectively. Selina's journal-entries lead to the day of the supposed crime, while Margaret's journal takes us through the present story. And, as the book becomes more and more complicated, the journals begin to reveal more and more secret thoughts of these two women. The ending, as with FINGERSMITH, will totally shock the reader. Sarah Waters is the master of the double-twisted plot device, and although the story started on a slow note, the pace of the book picked up and did not let up until the very last page. Beautifully written with subtle undertones of lesbianism, this reviewer highly recommends AFFINITY.

Grad student/teaching fellow Sarah Deane and her boyfriend, Alex McKenzie, M.D., go for a cruise on a luxury yacht owned by fatherly millionaire evangelist David Mallory, who distributes Bibles to churches along the Maine coast and, as a sideline, keeps a lookout for suspicious-looking boats that might harbor drug dealers. Before long, the oddest and most unpleasant crew member is found dead in the water. This book might be just your cup of tea if you enjoy a leisurely-paced cozy with idiosyncratic characters and plenty of literary references: John Buchan's Richard Hannay, hero of the classic thriller "The 39 Steps," holds the key to solving the mystery. (And, if only Sarah had read it, the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" might have shed further light on the case.)

This was a cute mystery. At times, the answers to some of the mysteries seem obvious and one doubts the intelligence of the protagonist (herself a college professor.) The imagery of sailing on the Maine coast is often vivid. All in all, this is a very cozy mystery that makes you want to continue solving crimes with the hero.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's first novel is a lurid melodrama in which you see plenty of crimes -- murder, blackmail, revenge, etc. Every element found in melodramaric story is thrown into the book, and not surprisingly, it even has some rudimentary detective novel quality.

The story is rather simple; it is about a man called "Daredevil Dick" who is wrongly arrested for killing his rich uncle. Despite the strong belief of Mr. Peters (who is to play the detective role) that Richard is innocent, his plea is ignored.

But that is only the beginning of the gripping story, which goes between a muddy town of Slopperton and fashoionable society of Paris. The story is too improbable but thankfully always moving on, providing many dramatic and often humorous moments about the fate of Richard and those who try to rescue him, and it culminates in the their hunt for the villain who vanished his trail from the crime scene.

The book is weak as a detective novel, so do not expect something like "The Moonstone." As I said, it is more like a melodrama, and there are countless occasions of incredible coincidences. But that is one of the conventions you can find in this kind of popular novels intended for commercial purpose. It is interesting for us to see that Braddon does not still find her own voice; her style in this book is a strange concoction of Dickens and melodrama. Read the opening chapter and you instantly recognize the influence of Dickensian sentences about the rainy London in "Bleak House."

The novel itself (which was first published as "Three Times Dead" and later revised and retitled as the present one) is not as good as her works like "Lady Audley's Secret" and others, its flaws being too palpable. Still, if you like her novels or these Victorian or 19th century thriller -- like Eugene Sue's novels -- you might be interested in the book as I was.

This modern library edition has Sarah Waters' introduction (which I found not so impressive), but more remarkable thing about it is that it has also the afterword and notes by acclaimed Victorian scholar Chris Willis. The notes (32 pages) are extensive and helpful, but more helpful is her afterword, which puts Braddon in context of the history of detective fiction. Much more informative than obligatory "further reading" list.

And the book also has the reprint of Braddon's own memoir titled "My First Novel" published in 1893. This short account by her own pen does not reveal much about the book or herself, but it has several clear-cut illustrations of her house in Richmond.

Pure pleasure, or nearly so, from beginning to end. Written in surprisingly accessible prose (for a nineteenth-century novel, that is), Trail of the Serpent zips from reversal to counter-reversal, including one that knocked me completely for a loop, and I pride myself on figuring these sorts of things out. There are the odd longueurs, particularly in the last third, but this is a great rediscovery, and if you're at all fond of Woman in White, Moonstone, Drood, etc., you'll have a blast.

I read this this book to my 4-year old daughter, Sarah. She loves it, and has learned some important sailing concepts from it. We are building a live-aboard sailboat, and have been very concerned about child safety. After reading _Sarah's Boat_, we find her playing sailboat in the back yard, coming about and ducking the imaginary boom! She has been able to stand on a beach and judge the direction of the wind, and predict whether we could take a straight course to the opposite shore, or whether we would need to tack. She gleans this knowledge from what she considers a bed time story. I wish there were more books like this!

The Vanished Child was beautiful, engrossing, and extremely well written. It is definitely one of my favorite books. The Knowledge of Water however, is neither interesting nor well-written. It is a mess of words with very little plot to hold it all together. I don't understand why Ms. Smith didn't simply leave The Vanished Child alone instead of trying to write a nearly incoherent sequel. Ms. Smith not only completely disappointed me with this book but also managed to lower my opinion of The Vanished Child in the process. If Susan Smith writes anything else I will read it. But I don't recommend this book to anyone. DO read The Vanished Child however--it was magnificent.

I found The Knowledge of Water to be an absorbing blend of mystery, period history and romance; but before you write it off as a bodice-ripper, let me add that the characters are well developed and believable, and the thorny women's issues are thought-provoking and timely. The result is good, entertaining brain food.
My only regret is that I read this volume before the first one in the series, The Vanished Child. Although I plan to go back and read it now, I fear Knowledge of Water gives away too many of the surprises from the first novel.

This book was excellent. I loved the images of turn-of-the-century Paris and its suburbs. I also loved the usage of the French language. The mystery was involving and kept the reader guessing until the resolution. I am now reading it for the second time and it is just as good. I intend to read the prequel to this (The Vanished Child) sometime very soon. Sarah Smith has a very unique way of words and describes scenes while leaving some to the imagination.