In San Diego, thirteen-year-old Alexis Castille-Reed attends a pool party where the alcohol flows. An accident occurs, but fortunately no one dies. However, her upset mother "banishes" Alexis for the summer to live with her father in International Falls, Minnesota.

Alexis' dad is the authority on the bald eagles. Currently, he leads a study that is banding eaglets to gain research on their natural habitat. Alexis is put to work, but though she loves the birds, she remains angry with her father for deserting her. On a nearby island, Alexis climbs up a tree to remove a fish lure from an eagle's nest. However, when she lifts an eaglet out of the nest, she drops the bird. That error is compounded when she finds herself stranded on the island protecting the injured eaglet from nasty weather and a bear.

This is a wonderful preadolescent to young teen novel that focuses on Alexis, a person in trouble. She needs closure on her younger brother's death from cancer, but at first is not able to find a way to grieve without guilt for living and without alienating her parents also mourning in their own ways. Through the eaglet rescue, Alexis attains an understanding especially of her father whom she previously loathed as well as personal comfort. Though her parents talking with one another following their estrangement feels strained, WHEN EAGLES FALL is a strong survivalist tale that the young at heart will enjoy soaring with.

Harriet Klausner

I first read this, or, rather, had it read to me when I was just three years old. That night was the first time I visited 'the Yammi of Yawn', but certainly not the last. Even now I sometimes visit his wonderful castle in my dreams. I still have my original copy of Wide-awake Jake, and would recommend it to anyone, but especially people with children who, like Jake, can't sleep

It was William Claxton's great privilege to have known & photographed Chet Baker during the mid-Fifties. Baker was a handsome, photogenic young man, a rising jazz star whose cool vocal interpretations of standards were winning him a large, mostly female audience outside of jazz. These beautiful black & white photographs, both casual & posed, capture a cultural era as surely as do the films of James Dean, the recordings of Elvis Presley & the writings of Jack Kerouac. We often think of the Eisenhower years as a bland era in the United States, but this talented proto-punk musician was working nearer the fringes in an atmosphere of creative ferment. Claxton saw it happening & knew what was going on. Lovely book for Baker's fans & for those who appreciate fine portraits.

Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM

William Thomas Venner is my social studies teacher, and this is his wonderful book. Now, I'm not one to be totally biased because I know the author. This is a book everyone should read, because they just should. If they didn't read this book, then they'd be missing out. Missing out on what you ask? The book of course.

This is a great book. When Indy finds a time bomb on his ship, his father and him get stuck in Hawaii when another vessel fakes the name of their vessel and takes their coal. This just starts Indy's adventures in Hawaii. He meets a young girl named Lizzie who gets him in even more trouble. Then the mysterious appearance and disapearance of Pele, the Volcano Goddess, who the two youngsters give some berries too. The kids then discover a plot to destroy British shiping in the Pacific. When I first got this book I couldn't put it down. It is full of action and adventure. A must-read for all Young Indy fans.

With his usual lucidity, Fulton brings together the surprisingly wide area of mathematics concerned with Young tableaux. These are combinatorial patterns which index basis vectors of group representations (either of the symmetric group or the general linear group). These vectors can be seen as Plucker coordinate functions on non-linear representations, namely homogeneous spaces (Grassmannians and flag varieties). Thus, Young tableaux form an invaluable tool to examine these representations and varieties in concrete detail. Fulton also gives a good exposition of the combinatorial operations on tableaux which reflect the crystal basis structure from quantum GL(n), though Fulton does not explicitly discuss quantum groups. Other good expositions of these topics, from a more algebraic and combinatorial point of view, are Sagan's newly revised "The Symmetric Group", and Stanley's "Enumerative Combinatorics", Vol 2.

The greatness of this book is truly, in the word's of Vizzini "INCONCEIVABLE!" What's this book about? Fencing, fighting, true love, strong hate, harsh revenge, a few giants, lots of bad men, lots of good men, pain, death, brave men, coward men, escapes, lies, truth, passion, miracles. It's hilarious, heart breaking, and terrifying all at the same time. If none of that sounds good to you, or if you've seen the movie and didn't like it, don't read the book. If you liked the movie, the book is twice as good!

Who's the genius behind this incredible book? The answer is simple, William Goldman (which is another whole story in its self). If you look at the book you'll read: "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. The "good parts version" abriged by William Goldman." In Goldman's introduction he explains how when he was a ten years old and was home sick with pneumonia, his father read him the book. (Sound farmiliar? If you're remembering the scene between the grandfather and the boy in the book you're right.) His father was a poor, English struggling immigrant from Florin, the setting of the Princess Bride. His father explains how Morgenstern was a great writer in his country and that there it is a very famous book. Goldman obviously loves the book.

As a man, Goldman decides to give the book to his son, Jason for his tenth birthday. After putting in an enormous amount of time and money to track down the book, to his shock the son hates it. In turn, he decides to re-read the book for himself. What he discovers is that his father didn't actually read him the whole book, he only read him the good parts. The book in fact was not even really focussing on the story he heard, it's actually all about the history of Florin. Goldman decides to abridge the book with only the "good parts."

Everything I have just told you is a lie and it will drive you crazy the whole book! William Goldman did not in fact "abridge" the book he wrote the book. He invents Florin, he invents Jason, he invents everything! Why such a brilliant writer would completely give all the credit to another writer who never existed I will never understand. The book is filled with clever and hilarious "abridgement notes" from Goldman. Not only are they funny to read, they keep you on top of things so you never are confused or find yourself searching back for explanations. If you don't like this sort of thing, don't worry they're written in a way that can be easily skipped.

You can read about all of the plot in any other review, but in a couple of sentences: Buttercup falls in love with the gorgeous Farm Boy. He goes off to America to seek their fortune. Buttercup learns that he dies. She is forced to marry the awful Prince even though she vows never to love again. Buttercup gets kidnapped... this is just the beginning! If I go any farther I'll give it away! If this sounds like a stupid fairy tale to you TRUST ME its not! Sure, it's about love, but in between revenge, poison, a man obsessed with human pain, death, duels, well I think you get the idea.

As if all of this isn't enough! There is something special about this addition you can't find anywhere else.

If you want to read a great story about true love, victory, defeat, pain and if you want a book that will make you laugh out loud, cry, or tremble with fear this is THE book. I truly think I can honestly say there is no other book like it. I would would put it against any of the great fantasty story writer, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis anyday! It goes ten times faster than any of the Lord of the Rings and is in my opinion just as exciting if not more. One tip, if you haven't watched the movie READ THE BOOK FIRST! It's got so many exciting turns and such an incredible ending, don't ruin it for yourself like I did.

I first read this book when I was fifteen. I've gone through four copies (mostly due to unreturned loans), and I've practically memorized it over the past fifteen years. The book has a great premise of being written by Morgenstern and read to the author as a child, and a wonderful message for anyone who wonders what happened to the fairy-tale endings they never found when they grew up.

Goldman's conversational style gives the book an intimacy. The reader really feels like they *know* him. I've read almost all of his other books, and this seems, to me, to be the most polished and sensitive. It's very subtle and charming, and then--wham!--a line like "Life isn't fair; it's just fairer than death, that's all." That's one of my all-time favourite quotes.

The movie did a good job of giving a cartoon-like, fun feeling to the story, but I thought the author's interjections and his cynical observations were quite moving, especially when contrasted with the happily-ever-after flavour of Westley & Buttercup's romance.

The movie caught the basic "good parts" storyline, but the book has more to offer. I recommend it for anyone who's wondering "Hey...is this all there is??" Somehow, Goldman's book, The Princess Bride, makes you feel better about the answer.

(P.S. - I've got the "alternative reunion scene" if anyone wants to read it...)

This is the best book and movie I have ever read or seen. I, like William Goldman, like to imangine that I wrote it, and came up with the funny, sad, and cunning characters. Buttercup - The most beautiful woman in the world, Westly - Buttercup's true love, the poor and perfect farmboy, Prince Humperdinck - The evil Prince of Florin, who plans to make Buttercup his bride, Vizzini - The Sicilian who is hired to kill Buttercup, Inigo - A swordsman determined to find the six fingered man who killed his father, Fezzik - A gentle, rhyming giant, and every one else in between. Of course, the hero does die, and the heroine gets married to the bad guy, but in the end, everything turns out okay, because, as Buttercup says, "The bonds of love cannot be broken, not with a thousand swords." For anyone who loves adventure, comedy, and finding your one true love, this book is for you. I would recommend it to everybody!

"Much Ado About Nothing" is a beautifully made, performed, and directed film by the incomparable Kenneth Branaugh. This film includes an all-star cast that give wonderful performances and draw you into the lives of the characters. The plot is somewhat complicated, so I'll give a general version. The film is basically about love, misunderstanding, scandal, revenge, virtue, and bravery. That's a lot for one film, but believe me, it's all in there!

Kenneth Branaugh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton give excellent performances in this film that you wouldn't want to miss. Although the film is a period piece and the Shakespearean language is used, you will have no difficulty understanding it perfectly.

The scenery and landscape in this film are exquisite as well. I never thought there could be such a beautiful, untouched place like that on earth. I would suggest watching the film just for the beautiful landscape, but it's the performances and the story that you should really pay attention to.

Anyone who loves Shakespeare would absolutely love this film! Anyone who loves Kenneth Branaugh and what he has done for Shakespeare in the past 10 or 15 years will appreciate this film as well! There isn't one bad thing I can say about this film. Definitely watch it, you won't be disappointed!!!

One of the problems with Shakespeare's comedies, an English professor once told me, is that they are not funny. Now, this is not to say that Shakespeare was a bad comedy writer, or that this professor had no sense of humour. In fact, quite the opposite--he had turned his sense of humour and love of humour into an academic career in pursuit of humour.

What he meant by the comment was, humour is most often a culture-specific thing. It is of a time, place, people, and situation--there is very little by way of universal humour in any language construction. Perhaps a pie in the face (or some variant thereof) does have some degree of cross-cultural appeal, but even that has less universality than we would often suppose.

Thus, when I suggested to him that we go see this film when it came out, he was not enthusiastic. He confessed to me afterward that he only did it because he had picked the last film, and intended to require the next two selections when this film turned out to be a bore. He also then confessed that he was wrong.

Brannagh managed in his way to carry much of the humour of this play into the twentieth century in an accessible way -- true, the audience was often silent at word-plays that might have had the Elizabethan audiences roaring, but there was enough in the action, the acting, the nuance and building up of situations to convey the same amount of humour to today's audience that Shakespeare most likely intended for his groups in the balconies and the pit.

The film stars Kenneth Brannagh (who also adapted the play for screen) and Emma Thompson as Benedict and Beatrice, the two central characters. They did their usual good job, with occasional flashes of excellence. Alas, I'll never see Michael Keaton as a Shakespearean actor, but he did a servicable job in the role of the constable (and I shall always remember that 'he is an ass') -- the use of his sidekick as the 'horse' who clomps around has to be a recollection of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where their 'horses' are sidekicks clapping coconut shells together.

I'll also not see Keanu Reeves as a Shakespearean, yet he was perhaps too well known (type-cast, perhaps) in other ways to pull off the brief-appearing villian in this film.

Lavish sets and costumes accentuate the Italianate-yet-very-English feel of this play. This film succeeds in presenting an excellent but lesser-known Shakespeare work to the public in a way that the public can enjoy.

I saw this movie when I was fairly young. I admit that I couldn't understand much of what was going on let along what was being said (I was nine, I wasn't exactly fluent in Olde English). Since then I've watched it many times. Not only do I understand it now, but I fully apreciate how good it is.

The movie is a very good adaptation of the play. The impressive lines that Shakespeare wrote were generally given new life in their delivery. Also, I must compliment Michael Keaton on his role. It isn't a very big one, but if you watch this movie, you'll understand why I mentioned it. Overall, this is simply a fully enjoyable movie, whether you're a fan of Shakespeare or not.

I have always loved the style and social politics of the Regency period (the time of Jane Austen.) But when I read "Sense and Sensibility" in 7th grade I found the first few chapters lifeless, dull and hard to read. Two years later I was encouraged by a friend to give "Pride and Prejudice" a try. I did and have since become a complete Janeite. I am now able to peruse joyfully through "Sense and Sensibility" with a new understanding and appreciation of Jane Austen. The reason? "Pride and Prejudice" is fresh, witty and is a great introduction to Jane Austen's writing style without the formality of some of her other novels (unlike S&S and Persuasion Austen does not give us a 10 page history of each family and their fortune.) If you have never read Jane Austen or have read her other novels and found them boring, read Pride and Prejudice. The characters, and the situations Austen presents to them, are hysterical and reveal a lot about Regency society and morality. This book perfectly compliments a great writer like Jane Austen and is essential to every reader's library. The Penguin Edition of the book is stellar and I personally recommend it not only for the in-depth and indispensable footnotes, but also for the cover that is non-suggestive of any of the characters' appearances. In summary "Pride and Prejudice" is a great book for beginner Austen readers and seasoned fans, and Penguin Classics is a great edition for fully enjoying and understanding the book.

Like all the other jane austen books i loved this one just as much. jane austen is famous for her characterisation and this book proves it to you even more.

elizabeth bennet and mr. darcy intertwined into their own fixed judgements and opinions make this book not just a must read for its witty satire and humour but for its indepth understanding of true love. eliza,prejudiced ....Darcy, too caught up with his high society unfold their true character gradually making you enthralled and wanting more.
mr. collins the cousin, catheran de bourgh his patron bring out the best in subtle humour.
mr. and mrs. bennet, both of them a class apart...their uniquely opposite personalities creating sparks. the four sisters: genuine, bingely:awesome...the story i leave for you to unravel. you'll love it to the best of your ability.

trust me; you're caught. you won't be able to get your hands off it. its the work of a great woman and a great writer, a true genius who to me is just as equivalent to shakespeare. but then thats just me.

a book that shows us how two minds can eventually meet and harbour friendship and love. YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". That's how my favourite book of all time begins, and it just keeps getting better.

This novel deals with the pride and prejudices of the main characters Miss Elizabeth Bennett, and Mr. Darcy, as they try to find true love in pre-Victorian England. Elizabeth is a gentleman's daughter and Mr. Darcy is a gentleman, but Elizabeth, along with the rest of her sisters, are not good catches because, their inheritance is being entailed away to their cousin Mr. Collins, leaving them with very miserable looking dowries. Along with poor family connections, they stand little chance of marrying well or at all; they only have their charms to help them.

That is until Mr. Bingley moves into the neighborhood along with his sisters, and accompanying them his close friend Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley becomes captivated with Jane Bennett, Elizabeth's eldest sister, and Mr. Darcy has an eye for Elizabeth herself, but can he see past her poor conditions, and can she see past his pride in order for them to get together? That's the question that keeps the audience captivated right up to the end.

I try and find time to read this book at least once a year, and I've been doing that for a few years, and yet, it's always fresh when a get around to reading it.

The first paragraph of this book is perhaps one of the finest examples of modern English diction ever written, inescapably drawing the reader into the lives of a young writer from Dixie, a Gentile holocaust survivor with a haunted past, and her mad Jewish lover. Styron's mellifluous Southern voice weaves an unforgettable story of Stingo, the struggling Thomas Wolfe-in-waiting, cast adrift in the postwar boroughs of New York City. There, in the "kingdom of the Jews," he is witness to his neighbor Sophie's tortured recovery from her own and the world's Holocaust nightmare. Never preachy, Styron nonetheless teaches us about the darkness, the fragility and the strength of the human soul. Despite its macabre subject matter, the book is a paen to delirious, doomed hope, a raised Grail upon the Brooklyn Bridge to the unrelenting forgiveness in a spindly blade of grass emerging from a charred patch of Earth. Unwittingly or not, Styron has truly captured the tragedy and triumph of the Jewish experience: It is not about Judgement Day, only morning, beautiful and fair

William Styron has written a profoundly moving and disturbing novel with 'Sophie's choice'. The story of Sophie, a beautiful Polish Catholic who survived Auschwitz and was left with no family, and Nathan, her schizophrenic American Jewish lover, as related by Stingo, a naive but sensitive 22 year-old Southerner wishing to be a writer, is, perhaps, one of the most harrowing stories one can manage to read. Styron evidently conducted a considerable amount of research on the Nazi occupation of Poland and the hideous dynamics of their concentration camps, and his synthesis through Sophie (whose name, etymologically, means knowledge) is convincing and compelling. But what makes 'Sophie's choice' go beyond a mere historical novel is the excellent way in which Styron weaves Sophie's story with those of Nathan and Stingo and the deep ruminations on the nature of evil and madness and their consequences. Although Styron sometimes gets long-winded, especially when he has Stingo ponder about sexual matters, the novel succeds in making us understand a sad historical event in more humane terms. Perhaps a creative university professor teaching World War II history would be wise enough to assign this novel to make students realize that history is not, as somebody once facetiously said, 'one damn fact after another'.

The first paragraph of this book is perhaps one of the finest examples of modern English diction ever written, inescapably drawing the reader into the lives of a young writer from Dixie, a Gentile holocaust survivor with a haunted past, and her mad Jewish lover. Styron's mellifluous Southern voice weaves an unforgettable story of Stingo, the struggling Thomas Wolfe-in-waiting, cast adrift in the postwar boroughs of New York City. There, in the "kingdom of the Jews," he is witness to his neighbor Sophie's tortured recovery from her own and the world's Holocaust nightmare. Never preachy, Styron nonetheless teaches us about the darkness, the fragility and the strength of the human soul. Despite its macabre subject matter, the book is a paen to delirious, doomed hope, a raised Grail upon the Brooklyn Bridge to the unrelenting forgiveness in a spindly blade of grass emerging from a charred patch of Earth. Unwittingly or not, Styron has truly captured the tragedy and triumph of the Jewish experience: It is not about Judgement Day, only morning, beautiful and fair