Kmt: In The House Of Life

Product Description

The Narrative: Mourning a lost firend, Lindela, the narrator of KMT, Ayi Kwei Armah's 7th novel, plunges into history, seeking meaning in life's flow. Loving companions - an Egyptolosit and two traditionalists-show her secret hieroglyphics texts left by migrant Egyptian scribes millennia ago. Lindela translates them, old questions animating her search for knowledge of self and society acquire a sharpened urgency: How best can Africa's multimillennial history be envisioned as one continuous stream? Why did the society that invented literacy sink into the misery of illiteracy, ignorance and religion? What creative African values lie buried under the lethal debris of slavery, colonialism, sructrual adjustment and globalization? And why did the ancient scribes call the concept of Ma'at our best promise of regeneration? KMT is the narrative of an African woman's life-quest, and of the answers she uncovers.

Book Description

The Body of a Goddess....with the Heart of Hell itself.The devil is a dead-beat dad and his consort Lilith couldn't care less. A stolen embryo stirs in Lilith's womb and a plan pulses through her veins: To unleash her child from the gates of hell-as soon as she destroys the only two vampire hunters who can possibly stop her....THE FORBIDDENDamali Richards is a woman-child in a world running with blood, depravity and demons. Turned by her lover, Carlos Rivera, and brought back again, Damali clings to the one measure of purity that was handed down to her through generations of the wise, gifted and strong. Now, through the power of magic, through the ache of desire and the touch of her lover, Damali is on a journey from the streets of Philadelphia to the ancient earth of Africa. With a small army, with Carlos and with her own mad skills, she might just save the world from the demon seductress who wants her and her faith obliterated-before Armageddon begins....

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read.......2007-09-04

This is not the first book I've read from this author and she definitely has not disappointed me yet. If this is the first book you're reading you may not catch on to what's going on, you definitely have to start with the first book in the series The Minion. This entire series is definitely a great read...I wasn't really into the Vampire thing, but after I read the first book I must say that I was hooked. I can't wait until L.A. Banks starts her new Werewolf series next year and I'm sure it won't be disappointing.

Who is Ian Banks?.......2007-06-22

I searched for, and found, "The Shadow Shaia (Mass Market Paperback)
by Alexis A. Gilliland ". When I clicked on the icon, I was brought to some vampire book by Banks. It might be a fantastic book, but I have only read Shadow Shaia, which is a great book, so I don't know.

Amazon, fix your links, please.

the forbidden.......2006-08-01

this book is as good as the rest. i am in awe of ms. banks knowledge of ancient peoples and their history. i love how she weaves this knowledge into the story line. i only wish i could write like this. CUDOS to ms. banks.

Sexy and Sensational.......2006-07-13

L A Banks understands better than just about anyone how to write stories that embrace both the real and the unreal. She has a master's hand for guiding the reader through emotional and psychologocal changes. This book is a real find!

Has Damali Met Her Match? .......2006-07-06

"The Forbidden" has our herion face off with an evil almost as powerful as the Un-named one. Will all Damali's skill and power be enough to stop the continuing assult from below. Read this one if you want to know.
STAY IN THE LIGHT!!!!

3 Books of a Vampire Huntress Legend: The Forbidden, The Damned and The Bitten

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3 Books of a Vampire Huntress Legend: The Forbidden, The Damned and The Bitten
L. A. Banks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NF7MAS

Vampire Huntress Legend Series; Minion, The Awakening, The Hunted, The Bitten, The Forbidden, The Damned, The Forsaken (Set of 7 Paranormal Romance Novels)

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Vampire Huntress Legend Series; Minion, The Awakening, The Hunted, The Bitten, The Forbidden, The Damned, The Forsaken (Set of 7 Paranormal Romance Novels)
Vampire Huntress Legend
Manufacturer: St. Martins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000VCL4IY

Book Description

From the award-winning author of the Samaria trilogy-a classic story of a woman with the will to rise above the darkest secrets...

A baby harvested from the gen-tanks on the planet Baldus.

A girl scorned by the only family she has ever known.

A woman brave enough to follow her heart-wherever in the universe it may lead her.

Customer Reviews:

Good story, but stilted dialogue.......2006-03-20

This was billed as an SF retelling of "Jane Eyre," and I was intrigued by that idea. I have not read the original book, but I really enjoyed the 1944 Orson Welles "Jane Eyre" so I gave this a try.

I think this is a more entertaining idea than an actual novel. The story is good (but then, look at the source material), and the writing is solid, but some things just don't make the transition very well into an SF world. The dialogue is often stilted, and I kept thinking those were places where the author was being a little too literal with the original novel.

I enjoyed the society and the worlds the author created. It seemed like a plausible universe in which this tale could be told, but I had trouble believing this universe was anything we would actually see in the future. The social stratification and classes were entertaining, but they needed more background to be truly believable.

As a writing exercise, this novel is a fun idea. As an entertaining book, this novel stretches a little too thin.

a 3.5 star, enjoyable read, even if the plot is familiar.......2006-02-14

I love Sharon Shinn's books. She creates believable worlds and universes, an I am always dragged into the books immediately.

This book was nice, I have read better books than this one. I would have given this book four stars, if it had less exclamation points. The male mc speaks only in them, it seems, and I therefor started to dislike him.

The cover of the book says it is a remake of Jane Eyre, scifi style, and I found many aspects in the storyline that were familiar. It still was an enjoyable read on its own, as it was so radically different from the setting of Jane Eyre.

Read the original!.......2006-01-02

Drippy dialogue and no depth to the main male character make this book a real disappointment to Sharon Shinn fans. I love the Archangel trilogy but found this to be very silly. If you like a real romance with characters you can care about, read the original Jane Eyre. This book reads like an early writing attempt that should have stayed in the workroom.

Eyre Erred.......2005-08-26

Charlotte Bronte doesn't deserve this.

I have no doubt that Sharon Shinn meant well; I've read interviews where she's talked about how she adores period authors, and has read "Jane Eyre" so many times she knows certain passages by heart. But her attempt to 'futurize' that amazing novel is a well-meant failure: awkward, confusing, and overall, uninteresting.

Jenna Starborn is, of course, Shinn's heroine. Jenna has no real family: she was created from raw genetic material for a woman known as Rently (the infamous Aunt Reed), who later rejected Jenna in favor of her own son and never formally adopted the girl. This meant that Jenna was only a half-citizen, or "half-cit," in a society where citizenship status (in levels that go from Five (lowest) to One (highest), with half-cits the lowest of low) determines one's ability to own property, hold down a job, etc.

So Jenna is unlucky enough to enter into a hierarchal society with strict separations between the classes, where she herself is barely considered a person. She escapes her aunt's and makes a place for herself at Lora Tech (Lowood, anyone?), a prestigious trade school, and becomes a nuclear technician. After graduating she is eager for work, and accepts a position at Thorrastone (Thornfeild) Park, employed by a Mr. Everett Ravenbeck (Edward Rochester). The trouble begins when sparks begin to fly between Jenna and Ravenbeck, who is a Level One Citizen and therefore part of the universal elite.

The truth is, I would have enjoyed this book much, much better if it hadn't tried so desperately to recreate the events, characters, and language of the original book SO CLOSELY -- every event and interaction, even whole passages, are preserved as much as possible. But "Jane Eyre" is the kind of book where every piece fits snugly together to create a wonderful whole; Shinn's machinations with adapting the book to a different setting were jarring, especially when her altering of themes and characterizations was just enough to create total confusion. It would have been better if Shinn had simply stuck to the central idea -- smart girl vies for love in a hostile world -- and taken it from there.

Instead, we have an adaptation that tries to be clever and inventive, but fails miserably. For instance, Shinn's world is not fleshed-out enough to convince us that Jenna is being truly radical. The idea of upper-level citizens marrying a half-cit seems, perhaps, but not unheard of. (Shinn expressly mentions early on that one can ascend levels of citizenship though several means -- one of them being marriage.) It's nowhere near the romantic impossibility presented in "Jane Eyre": of Rochester, a man of wealth and breeding, aligning himself with a plain, penniless governess with absolutely no family to speak of. And if you take away those extremes, you abandon much of the conflict and tension that made the original so absorbing.

And Jenna is nowhere near the interesting heroine that Jane was, with the spiritual, emotional, and moral struggles which pervaded "Jane Eyre." Jenna comes into her own faith effortlessly: she reads a PanEquist pamphlet while still at Rently's (how did that woman get it?), and is immediately converted to this pseudo-pagan equality-for-everyone-even-flowers Goddess religion. So when Everett asks her to live with him, unmarried, her only reason for saying no is reputation and honor. Which doesn't make much sense, either: why would Jenna care so deeply about the values of a society that she knows to be deeply flawed? And there's nothing in her religion that speaks against the idea.

Again, very different, and very boring, compared to the original, where the man Jane loved -- the man who loved HER, when she thought she would be incapable of inspiring love -- is so desperate to keep her he tempts her with the deepest moral and spiritual sin. Doesn't look good for Ravenbeck, either. Rochester was willing to take himself and Jane to hell to stay by her side; Ravenbeck won't even "shut down" his cyborg of a wife.

Again, it's not that the characters of the book are awful and boring by themselves; it's just that, in comparison to the original, they SEEM that way. And Shinn has so closely followed the original text that comparisons are inevitable.

I suppose the final conclusion is: don't mess with the classics. (There's a reason they're classic.) And Ms. Shinn is too talented to be copying others' works.

Worse than derivative!.......2005-08-16

I am a great fan of Sharon Shinn's work, and I have been reading Jane Eyre all my life, so I fully expected to enjoy this book. Unfortunately Ms. Shinn doesn't pull off her retelling. Instead of the fresh and innovative look into an old classic, Jenna Starborn is a derivative facsimile of the original - almost plagiarised in fact. It was rather like watching Shakespeare as performed on the set of Star Trek, a mildly intriguing backdrop, with tired characters and the same old dialogue. The two simply didn't mesh together at all.

It isn't that I don't like retold stories, some can be brilliant, or at least engaging. Katie Fenton's adaption of Pride and Prejudice, Lions and Liquorice, is a great romp through the original, and Robin McKinley has managed to rewrite the story of Beauty and Beast excellently at least three times, in as many different ways. Sharon Shinn obviously simply cannot work from another's starting point. She should confine herself to what she does best: envisioning, creating and bringing to brilliant life worlds, characters and plots of her own imagination.

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Man's blunders on the way to knowledge.

History Buffs welcome!

The Illustrated Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
James George Frazer
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Comparative Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Mythology | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion: A New Abridgement from the Second and Third Editions (Oxford World's Classics)

The Golden Bough

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Mythos Books)

Power Of Myth : Programs 1-6 (Power of Myth)

The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth

ASIN: 0684818507

Customer Reviews:

Man's blunders on the way to knowledge........2002-02-01

Given the limited time I had to read the book, I skipped passages that looked to me as rubbing in the major team. I am not sure that the author's aim was to rub anything in; in fact, I am sure it was not. It only looked so from my personal perspective. As far as I can judge, the purpose of the author was to unearth as many instances of pre-religion rituals as he could find out about. He achieved his goal most brilliantly and honestly. Evidence to his honesty is the fact that originally these were 12 tomes, mostly due to references to sources. Removal of the references allowed for compression to one tome.

So, what did I learn from the book?

From the very start, people desired to control nature in order to gain better control over their lives - for prosperity and happiness.

However, knowledge about nature was too skimpy for that goal to be achieved. People observed the sequences of natural events, and assumed that in every sequential pair of events the former is the cause of the latter. We know now that that does not have to be true, and the sequence itself heavily depends on what the observer sees as sequential events.

Based on this more often than not erroneous causal relationship, people established a wide variety of rituals to influence natural events. When after the ritual the desired event did happen people repeated the ritual every time they desired the event. When after the ritual the desired event failed to happen people dropped the ritual or blamed the failure on less than perfect performance of the ritual.

These futile attempts to control nature lasted for many centuries. In order to dramatize the ritual people included in it sacrifices of other people, often the most beloved members of their families or the most valuable people of the community. Those rituals look to us as senseless murder. Even when there was no murder, people assumed that Nature, in order to comply, demands sacrifices in shape of self-denial of pleasure and infliction of pain and injury. People ended up being more than enslaved in a web of rituals. I say "more", because the slave master was the Man himself.

One could see as logical, if people were gradually gaining more factual knowledge about nature, by developing scientific methods and logic, and would replace the futile rituals with activities more similar to the ones we use now to utilize natural phenomena in our favour. Were that the course of Man's mental development, the whole phenomenon of religion could have been skipped.

However, that was not the course.

Frustrated by the inconsistency of the rituals' outcomes, people gave up and started delegating decisions to different gods. Instead of trying to control Nature by rituals, they started to worship gods to get favors from them. Eventually people united those many gods into one God. Then God's sons came along, each worshipped by different populations.

For many centuries religion diverted Man from collecting and systematizing factual knowledge about Nature, and by doing so mightily slowed down human progress toward a more rewarding life.

I can only guess what initiated Man's return to study of Nature. My guess is - the written word. The written word allowed for wider exchange of observations and thought between people removed from each other in space and time, and thereby allowed for the creation of a critical mass of thought that is strong enough to move the knowledge of Nature forward.

This book describes the beginnings of the torturous path of Man in quest to control Nature.

History Buffs welcome!.......2001-02-26

The Illustrated Golden Bough; A study in magic and religon, was a well written book that I would reccomend to those with a bit of time on their hands. It was thorough in it's information, but lacked a spicy sense of humor that would keep the reader glued to the pages. For those of you that are interested in history, this is a must read. It includes stuff from before Christianity and way into the witch doctors. I loved how it wrote about magic, without judging it. Over all, it was a little dry, but very informative.

Illustrated Golden Bough: A Study In Magic and Religion

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An influential work on four 20th century seminal works

Illustrated Golden Bough: A Study In Magic and Religion
Sir James Frazer; Abridgement Robert K.G. Temple
Manufacturer: SOFTBACK PREVIEW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLJ6RS

Customer Reviews:

An influential work on four 20th century seminal works.......2007-10-04

This book is a seminal work because it had a crucial influence on four important works of the twentieth century: T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius.

Sir James George Frazer's book written in 1922 was a groundbreaking work on ancient religion, paganism, and roots of early Christianity. Frazer does an in-depth examination of the sacrificial killing of god-kings to ensure bountiful harvests, which Frazer traces through several cultures, including in his elaborations the myths of Adonis, Osiris, and Balder.

Frazer spent his life writing fifteen volumes of history of myth and religion. This book sums up his theory of magic and its connections to paganism, as well as fusing ideas from Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual To Romance and Gnostic texts that serve as a link to early Christianity's influence from ancient nature cults. His chapter titles say much about where his work goes and why it is so influential on iconic twentieth century works. The King of the Wood explains the original nature of the task imposed upon the hero, it undoubtedly influenced both Campbell's and Coppola's works. The Myths of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris looks to establish a chain of descent connecting early Aryan and Babylonian ritual with classic, Medieval and modern forms of nature worship. Our Debt to the Savage explains the role of the Medicine Man or doctor in fertility ritual. The Killing of the Devine King analyzes how this title is prevalent in so many of humankind's legends, and was a definite influence on Coppola's Colonel Kurtz character. Sacrifice of the King's Son regarded as an object of awe certainly influenced The Da Vinci Code.

Frazer's book is interesting and fun to read. I especially became interested in it from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. Weston's book is one of three on the nightstand. The other two are Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which the film is based on. The other book is Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual To Romance. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla were trying to tell their audience need to read these three books!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

Book Description

Absolutely A la Carte: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Bistro and Gift Shop in the Midst of the Mississippi Delta packages the stories, wit, passion, and humor found in running one of downtown Cleveland's best-loved lunch spots and gift shops, A la Carte Alley.

The recipes are simple yet elegant, embellished with tip-filled, chatty sidebars.

Cooks of every skill level will relish make-ahead casseroles from the early take-out business. The book also appropriately showcases catfish, a Delta culinary icon. Specialties pair with appetizers, pasta, sandwiches, quiche, salads and soups to offer a stylish, updated glimpse of today's Delta food and cooking.

Customer Reviews:

Tasty, proven recipes!.......2004-03-15

A la Carte has become something of a sensation in the small college town of Cleveland, Miss. This book shares many of the shop's best recipes.

It's the book I like to turn to when I'm planning a party - the hors d'oeuvres recipes are wonderful! The Southwestern Torta in particular is a favorite - I've never had anyone who didn't love it.

The soup and salad recipes are also yummy, too. I highly recommend the book!

Customer Reviews:

Excellent resource for tennis collectors.......1999-10-27

Jeanne Cherry stepped up and filled the void that tennis collectors have had for many years. There just wasn't a resource to go to for information on this hobby.

The book she put together is first-class. Excellent color photos of collectible rackets and chapters with information on major American and British racket makers.

Additional information is provided on other facets of tennis collecting such as ball cans, prints, clothing etc.

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Tennis: With a Historical Bibliography
Malcolm D. Whitman , and Robert W. Henderson
Manufacturer: Martino Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Sports Memorabilia (besides cards) | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1578983711

Book Description

This edition of "Trash to Treasure" continues the tradition of "festive" recycling as presenasted in the previous books in the series. This volume is packed with resourceful ideas for holiday home decor, tree trimmings, gifts and gift-wrappings. From fun and simple, to fancy and elegant, the more than 100 economical, easy-to-make projects pave the road to thrifty, yet exciting, holiday crafts.

Customer Reviews:

Trash to Treasure Christmas.......2000-04-23

A very good craft book. Gives you lots of things to do with those thing you didn't no what to do with but didn't want to throw out.

Book Description

Photographs by Guy Bouchet. Design by Paul Hardy. This elegant volume features 550 full-color photographs that highlight an evocative celebration of the decorating style of Provence. 550 full-color photographs.

Book Description

This is a schizophrenic book. Between its covers are: a book about typography and graphic design, arranged around recent work from a single source and incubator, the Werkplaats Typografie (Typography Workshop/WT) in Arnheim, the Netherlands; a book about a specific approach and pedagogy, the methods that the WT uses to study and practice graphic design, in which students integrate all aspects of the discipline and its forms in their own expressive vocabulary; a book that presents a broad selection of work from a "school-in-progress," the WT, along with texts that articulate their common foundations and ideas. Actually, perhaps it suffers not so much from schizophrenia as from multiple-personality disorder. In any case, the WT was founded five years ago as a postgraduate course in graphic design; it functions both as a training site and a studio where professional commissions are executed for a varied clientele. Published in conjunction with Werkplaats Typografie.

Customer Reviews:

Very Accurtate.......2000-03-30

If you saw the special, then you know how moving the experience was. Dylan is one of the icons of rock and roll and he captured some of his career during this show. I found this book to be very accurate in the playing accuracy. Of course there is always room for improvement in the strumming guides, but the layout is wonderful. If you enjoy Dylan's work, I would definitely recommend this book.

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