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- Atherton does her usual stellar job - a pleasure to read.
- Aunt Dimity
- Dislike Lori
- Everything a cozy reader could ask for
- Light but enjoyable mystery
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Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea
Nancy Atherton
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin
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Aunt Dimity Goes West (Aunt Dimity)
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Aunt Dimity: Snowbound
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Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday
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Aunt Dimity: Detective
ASIN: 0143038303 |
Book Description
The eleventh cozy mystery featuring everyone's favorite phantom-detective
Nancy Atherton 's Aunt Dimity novels have enchanted thousands of readers, and this new addition to the series is likely to broaden the spell. A series of death threats sends Lori Shepard to a remote island off the Scottish coast and to a fabulous castle restored by an eccentric friend of her husband's. But she finds herself drawn into an elaborate whodunit that may involve smuggling—or worse. Why has a human skull washed up on the beach? Is a desolate island really the best place to hide from a murderer? As Lori draws once more on Aunt Dimity's supernatural aid, Atherton whips equal measures of whimsy and suspense into an irresistible confection.
Customer Reviews:
Atherton does her usual stellar job - a pleasure to read........2007-09-29
Lori Shepherd is uprooted and her life turned upside down when her husband Bill Willis receives death threats. Whoever the disgruntled client is, he has taken pictures of the family at close range, which makes the threats far more convincing than an anonymous letter or the like.
Using his family and business connections, Bill has Lori and the boys spirited off to a remote island in the Scottish isles, where the tourists never come and all outsiders are closely scrutinized by the locals. While there, Lori runs into an old family friend, who is traveling incognito. This is surprising, and a trifle alarming. Damien, the bodyguard, is not amused by this coincidental happenstance, and he is also skeptical of the general affluence and xenophobia exhibited by the locals. Lori, as always, is convinced that there are logical and legal explanations for everything. Nobody else is as optimistic as she.
In the meantime, Bill and the police are working their way through his client list, searching for someone disgruntled and crazy enough to want Bill and his family dead. Since Bill's clients are staid upper-class types, and his usual practice involves writing wills and setting up trusts, the search seems futile. Of course it is not.
This is the eleventh in the Aunt Dimity series. Constant readers will not be disappointed; Atherton does her usual stellar job of placing Lori in jeopardy and then getting her out of it. Aunt Dimity (a ghost, for those who are not familiar with the series, who communicates with Lori via an old journal) plays a fairly small part in DEEP BLUE SEA; she is more of a sounding board and less of a sidekick than in some of the earlier books. While I would not suggest starting the series with DEEP BLUE SEA, I've skipped a few and had no trouble catching up on what little back story I didn't already know. As has happened in previous books, some of the plot devices are a little far-fetched, but not totally out of the realm of possibility, especially if the reader can accept the givens of ghostwriting and a telekinetic rabbit.
Aunt Dimity.......2007-08-24
I love the Aunt Dimity stories. They are so well written, as well as exiting. Thanks for a good read.
Mireille McKell
Dislike Lori.......2007-04-04
Enjoy Atherton's writing, but dislike Lori Shepard. I was hoping she'd get killed (isn't that awful). She is obnoxious. Bill deserves better.
Everything a cozy reader could ask for.......2007-01-27
An unknown person calling him- or herself Abaddon is threatening the lives of Lori Shepherd and five-year-old twins Will and Rob, ostensibly to get back at her attorney-husband Bill for some perceived injustice. It seems ominous to Lori that the alias Abaddon has chosen is the name of the king of the bottomless pit in Revelations.
While Bill works with Scotland Yard to go through his case files to determine which of his clients might be Abaddon, Lori and the boys are whisked away to the castle Dundrillin on a remote island off the coast of Scotland - the personal fiefdom of a fantastically wealthy oilman and family friend, Sir Percy Pelham. Guarding Lori is Damian Hunter, a dashing defender who takes his job very seriously. Villains may have found Damian a formidable foe, but he hasn't come up against anyone like the very strong-willed Lori. While on the island of Erinskil, Lori and Damian notice some very strange goings on - not to mention a legendary ghost (?) of a religious brother who died on the island centuries ago.
The Aunt Dimity stories - typically take a familiar route: Lori Shepherd and/or her idyllic life in rural England are imperiled (an actual crime may or may not be involved). Lori takes action, usually in the company of a handsome man and often with her twins in tow. Lori consults with the ghost of Aunt Dimity to resolve whatever problem she faces. All the good people live happily ever after - or at least until the next story - and any bad guys get their comeuppance. Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea is no exception - it will delight Nancy Atherton's many fans.
I have enjoyed all ten of the previous Aunt Dimity stories and Nancy Atherton's latest book did not disappoint. Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea has everything a cozy reader could hope for. Readers who are put off by the idea of a ghost among the cast of characters should know that Aunt Dimity has recently begun to play much less of a role in the stories; Lori is very much center stage. She's a strong heroine who is only getting better with age. [...]
Light but enjoyable mystery.......2006-07-15
When her husband receives death threats from an apparently angry client, Lori Shepherd and her twin sons are packed into a helicopter and whisked from England to an island off the Scotland coast. There, with family friend Sir Percy Pelham, and with a couple of bodyguards Pelhan provides, Lori hopes to remain safe--and to protect her children. Surely there is no way the mysterious "Abaddon" could follow them here. Even if he learned where they were hiding, he would have a hard time reaching the island, and a harder time doing it secretly. It seems that the islanders, wishing to prevent developers from ruining their island paradise, have cut off most contact with the outside world. Any strangers are closely observed.
The first night on the island, Lori observes mysterious lights on a nearby rock formation--a formation claimed by the locals to be both cursed and haunted. Could it be that the ghost of a long-dead monk still haunts the rock? Or is it more likely that Abaddon has somehow managed to cross the distance? With the assistance of her notebook, which contains the ghost of a spirit named Aunt Dimity, Lori hopes to address at least the question of lingering spirits. Gradually, though, and with the help of an old family friend, she begins seeing cracks in the too-perfect life of the islanders. Everyone lives comfortably, with the latest conveniences. Yet they distain tourism and the handcrafted tweed industry, said to be the basis of their wealth, simply couldn't generate the level of wealth enjoyed by the locals.
With the help of Aunt Dimity, and a sexy bodyguard, Lori attempts to unravel the mystery of the too-rich island, while simultaneously attempting to ensure that her children remain safe.
Author Nancy Atherton spins an enjoyable mystery. Lori makes a sympathetic sleuth, with the threat from Abaddon combining with the mysterious nature of the island's wealth combining to create interest. The notebook that is Aunt Dimity serves more as a sounding board for Lori's musings than as a major character, but then, most mystery readers would want Lori to solve the mysteries rather than being given the answer by a book.
Mystery traditionalists may object that Lori doesn't actually solve either mystery herself. One she has explained to her and the other leads to a bit of deus ex machina, but Atherton's engaging writing makes the reading worthwhile. I did think that Lori's crime rankings (drugs are bad, despoiling archeological remains and avoiding income taxes are okay) were a bit convenient. Surely a person as inately good as Lori would have more concerns about any type of illegal activity--especially as even morally justified illegal activities tend to create the need for other, more violent, crimes.
If you're looking for a quick light mystery, AUNT DIMITY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA might just be the story for you.
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Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea
Manufacturer: Not Avail
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1405637609 |
Average customer rating:
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Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea
Manufacturer: Not Avail
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Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
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ASIN: 1405637595 |
Book Description
How would you cope with being pulled into a land where magic exists and you're the people's only hope? Peter Burns doesn't believe in magic. But when horses talk to you and a witch hound swoops out of the sky, how long can you disbelieve? Jeanne Tucker believes in magic, but she's teamed with someone who'd rather examine the special effects. The two must learn to work together in order to defeat witches and unravel a curse that has enslaved an entire land.
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The Crystal Throne
Bert McKenzie
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1401010261 |
Amazon.com
It's sad but true--Jerry Springer's roots go deep in American culture. Even scientists of the Victorian era could jump on stage and start slugging, as we learn in The Bonehunters' Revenge. This smart, adventurous book by nature writer David Rains Wallace examines the long-standing feud between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, and especially their month-long 1890 death match in the pages of the New York Herald. The bizarre--by modern newspaper standards--series of interviews, letters, and editorials, promoted and escalated by publisher James Gordon Bennett (a kind of proto-Hearst), threw accusations of theft, forgery, vandalism, plagiarism, and worse back and forth until both men fell back, exhausted and nearly broken.
Wallace gives his readers far more than a simple freak show, though; he shows us that behind the controversy lay a crucial political struggle for control not just of fossils but the fate of the western territories. The methods Cope and Marsh used to control and divert fossils inevitably guided the expansion and settling of these lands, and Wallace argues forcefully that this competition started the boom of unsustainable growth that we are only now beginning to recognize. So by all means enjoy watching the fists fly in The Bonehunters' Revenge, but remember what happens to those who don't learn from the past. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
When dinosaur fossils were first discovered in the Wild West, they sparked one of the greatest scientific battles in American history. Over the past century it has been known by many names -- the Bone War, the Fossil Feud -- but the tragic story of the competition for fame and natural treasure between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two leading paleontologists of the Gilded Age, remains prophetic of the conquest of the West as well as a watershed event in science. With a historian's eye and a novelist's skill, David Rains Wallace charts in fascinating detail the unrestrained rivalry between Cope and Marsh and their obsession to become the first to make available to the world the abundant, unknown fossils of the western badlands. This story will surely fascinate anyone who has had to confront the myriad facets of professional jealousy, its sterile brooding, and how it leads to an emotional abyss.
Customer Reviews:
Piracy on the Prairies.......2005-04-22
Dinosaurs might have remained an obscure academic issue but for the antics of two competing men. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh stooped to nearly every form of chicanery, bombast, and personal vituperation in their quest to become the United States' foremost palaeontologist. Instead of burying their dispute in academic journals, it was widely broadcast in the media of the day - newspapers. In this excellent study, Wallace traces the histories of the two, their colleagues and defenders. Although the stack of books on "the bone wars" has reached staggering proportions, Wallace has found an overlooked pivotal figure around which to march the protagonists of this stirring account.
James Gordon Bennett becomes a distant member of this triage while he rebuilds the New York Herald into a major newspaper. Bennett, at least as unorthodox as the scientists, kept the dispute between the two rivals well fanned throughout the latter part of the 19th Century. It proved a fine technique for boosting circulation, at least for a time. Any student of the period will recognise that "selling" dominated nearly all aspects of life, from newspapers to new species. Bennett had a pair of newsworthy characters to portray during their dispute, in Wallace's account. Marsh's and Cope's lives made good stories in themselves. Marsh, a New England patrician had "come into money" through an uncle. Cope, a Philadelphia Quaker, poured increasing amounts of the family fortune into fossil collecting expeditions.
Wallace is unable to find any specific event leading to the great rivalry. Once started, however, it burgeoned quickly and with great intensity. There were accusations of pilfering of fossils and plagiarising of journal papers. Professional journals were less restrained in those times, but ultimately both men had submissions scotched as being too harsh. The issue was almost always primacy - which one had found and named new species. The journals were the mechanism, but newspapers were sometimes utilised to established a find or novel dinosaur. Bone collections grew as the pace of the hunt overrode the time needed to prepare descriptions. The pair were always close with neither gaining significant ground over the other, while the newspaper-reading public avidly followed the race.
It was government priorities and money that finally gave Marsh the edge, Wallace tells us. The new Geological Survey, established to find mineral and timber resources, also had the money and power to assign when and where expeditions might go and fund the chosen ones. Marsh had an ally in John Wesley Powell who was a force in the Survey. Bypassed by the Survey, Cope bled away his inheritance mounting fossil-hunting expeditions in the American West - some of them solo. His health suffered due to long excursions in the field. Ultimately, his wife, unable to bear financial instability and dealing with a man whose vast enterprises exceeded her ability to cope, departed. Cope, alone, continued.
Wallace's treatment of this famous dispute is sharply honed and finely balanced. With accusations between the two men and their adherents, this is no small accomplishment. There was much to learn in a relatively new field. The abundance of fossils from the West demanded careful study and analysis, but Cope and Marsh knew that expedition funding followed the first discoverers. Wallace accepts this with some reservations, but condemns neither man. With the addition of some photos and diagrams [a map would have been useful], this is an informative book and an excellent read. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Comprehensive history of America's greatest scientific feud.......2002-11-10
This marvelous volume by David Rains Wallace is a balanced, thorough, and insightful recounting of the greatest, most needless, and most tragic scientific conflict in American history: the Cope-Marsh feud. I say "balanced" because most writers, especially those with an environmentalist/naturalist bent like Wallace, have tended to side with Othniel C. Marsh over Edward D. Cope. The reason isn't hard to find. Cope's feud with Marsh eventually [pulled] into the controversy John Wesley Powell, a major benefactor to Marsh and impediment to Cope, and occasioned Powell's fall from power. Environmentalists rightly consider this a tragedy, because perhaps no one in American history possessed the depth of understanding about the geological and geographical logic of the entire area west of the hundredth meridian than Powell. Had Powell remained in power longer, perhaps many of the great tragedies associated with the development of the American West could have been avoided. Most other evaluators of the feud tend to be biographers of either Cope or Marsh, and those side with their subject. But Wallace is able to look beyond the effect the Cope-Marsh feud's effect on Powell and beyond partisan loyalty to any single participant to achieve a fair evaluation of each.
Wallace begins with a biographical narrative of both Cope and Marsh, from their family origins and early interest in science, to their maturation as paleontologists and their initial encounters with one another, and on to their growing competition with one another and eventual implacable conflicts and feud. Wallace shows how this really was not primarily a scientific controversy, but a conflict between two very different personalities. Both men were exceedingly gifted, both immensely competitive, and both were extremely neurotic. Of the two, Cope emerges as the more sympathetic, if only because he strikes the reader as the more likable of the two. Marsh is less sympathetic because of the ruthless way he attempts to cut Cope off from all governmental support for his research, and the manner in which he attempts to keep Cope, who was probably the more gifted paleontologist, on the scientific periphery. In fact, Marsh comes across as a completely unlikable person; not even his closest acquaintances seem to have liked him. If Cope emerges as more congenial, he also comes across as more manic, more paranoid, and obsessed.
In the end, one is left with a feeling of disgust at both Marsh (especially Marsh) and Cope's massive stupidity in the entire conflict. Although they had some scientific disagreements, most of their antagonism was generated by who was able to get the most fossils, and the efforts of Marsh to cut Cope completely out of government funding. One is left with a sense of regret that the two great founders of American paleontology were unable to coordinate their efforts and be collaborators instead of competitors.
Anyone enjoying this book might also enjoy Deborah Cadbury's TERRIBLE LIZARD, which tells the story of the birth of paleontology in England at the beginning of the 19th century, a few decades before Cope and Marsh. Sadly, that book also tells the story of a needless feud, with Gideon Mantell taking the Cope role and Richard Owen the Marsh one. The two books make great companion volumes, and jointly make a magnificent introduction to 19th century paleontology.
Science and Scandal.......2001-05-31
Rather than presenting just another account of the infamous Cope-Marsh "fossil war," Wallace has placed the conflict in a journalistic context, exploring the role New York Herald editor/huckster James Gordon Bennett played in the animosity between the two great paleontologists. A wonderfully detailed and readable book, with only a very small number of minor scientific errors to detract from its value. This probably won't be remembered as the definitive work on the subject, but it's a good place to start.
Book Description
A comprehensive, fully illustrated cookbook of popular Japanese recipes Japanese Homestyle Cooking makes use of each season's most plentiful ingredients for preparing delicious meals. Including over 135 recipes, this comprehensive cookbook brings the most popular meals in Japanese homes to
your home.
The menu variety is stunning, with foods that are simmered, broiled, pan-fried, deep-fried, steamed, and dressed with vinegar. Recipes include Sashimi, one-pot meals, rice, noodles, soups and more. Since Japanese cuisine is world renowned for using healthful ingredients it is no surprise that the
dishes featured here are ideal for health-conscious and weight-conscious consumers.
All dishes are beautifully photographed in color and include fully illustrated, easy-to-follow directions. A special feature provides an illustrated listing of common Japanese utensils with directions for their proper use. Japanese Homestyle Cooking is the best reference you'll find for making
delicious, healthy Japanese meals everyday.
Customer Reviews:
Perfect for me.......2006-12-01
This is the best layout with lots of color pictures to illustrate step by step the recipes. I have a handful of well rated Japanese cookbooks but this one has the best layout so it is my favorite and the one I want to recommend. It makes me WANT to get cooking.
This book's style is of the kind found in books that are sold in Asian bookstores.
As with all the Japanese cookbooks I own, the writers mention Chinese cooking to compare and declare that something is similar but uniquely Japanese. However, that is not true but the authors are not authorities on Chinese cooking and culture so they can't be expected to know everything or anything true about Chinese authenticity. I bear this in mind and forgive the errors because I buy the book out of interest in Japanese not Chinese cooking. This book contains much fewer references and assumptions to Chinese than the other cookbooks such as the false claim that the cheap bamboo steamer baskets are the archetypal Chinese steamer equipment and that the square steamers or metal steamers are not Chinese. One can say that this is more procedure and less editorializing than other cookbooks.
This book could be sold in a Chinese bookstore without being offensive and would delight the Chinese with its recipes. I recommend this book and wish the author had written more than two books.
Lovely book........2006-04-04
Very nice - I love the illustrations and photos!
I find I needed to pair it with a dictionary for shopping, though.
"Homestyle".......2005-10-07
Don't buy this book if you expect to make anything that you would see on a standard Japanese table. I was given it after I expressed a desire to make some of the foods I'd learned to love living in Japan and was sorely disapointed. The pictures are lovely, however, and if you are just going for intresting dishes its not that bad. Its a lovely thing to page through to work up an appatite.
Very good, but too tool specific.......2004-09-14
What some people fail to realize, including apparently the author, is that you can substitute tools that you have for those required for preparation, even is that process is specialized like making square eggs. You only really need a small all-purpose knife, a serrated knife, a square baking tray (for the omelettes), a wok, two pots of different size for cooking soup and/or noodles, a pan, a cutting/rolling board, and a strainer. For steaming, simply put the foods into the strainer, and let the steam pass through.
Buying exotic tools doesn't work, as you can do the same with those you have once you know how to use them for this purpose, whereas odd tools you will only use once if you do not feel comfortable with them.
Great Book for Beginning Chefs.......2004-04-23
This is a great book for those of us who don't cook very often. The recipes are not quick but they're easy, and there are enough choices to make up for the occasional lack of utensils. This book is also available in English in Japan, which is helpful for those of us who are mada nihongo ga jouzu ni narimasen.
Average customer rating:
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Homestyle Japanese Cooking in Pictures
Manufacturer: Japan Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Cooking, Food & Wine
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| Culinary Arts & Techniques
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| Meals
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| Organic Cooking
| Outdoor Cooking
| Professional Cooking
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ASIN: 9991825541 |
Book Description
Maltese are elegant, yet fearless little dogs. With their long silky coats, these dogs require a lot of grooming. Bobbie Linden, a Maltese breeder and columnist for the AKC Gazette, turns her love for, and knowledge of the breed to the care of this feisty dog.
Customer Reviews:
Not too bad.......2002-01-28
I've read a bunch of Maltese books, I don't know what exactly I am hoping to get out of them but I'm fairly dissapointed in all of them. This one however sits at the top of my heap. It wasn't too bad..theres lots of information about bread history, health problems and grooming. The major problem I find in all bread specific books is that there is only so much you can write about a breed, the rest of the book is made up of stuff that can be applied to all puppies and grown dogs (training, eating, vaccinations ect). This book has the same sort of section. I get the impression that the authors just replace the phrase "your dog" with "your maltese." But all in all this book did its best with the little information you can write about the matlese breed and I was pleased. My favorite section of the book was the one that outlined "leisure cuts" for this dogs, as most books go into great detail about coat length and top knots, it was refreshing to read about a grooming style that I am more interested in. Actually this is the only book I've read that has ever discussed the leisure cut. So in short I recommend this book to anyone interested in having a Maltese as a pet, it gives good advice on how to get you off to a good start
One of the best Maltese books.......1999-02-22
This is the best Maltese book I have seen and I've read them all. The author's love for the breed clearly comes through. I espeically loved the helpful grooming information and the insite on what this breed is all about. Definitely a 5 star book!!!
A great book for all who are interested in Maltese.......1998-12-09
This book is one of the best I have seen on the Maltese breed, excellent grooming information, highly recommended. The author's love of the breed clearly shows through. I know Bobbie personally and she breeds marvelous Maltese; has breed a number of champions that are very nice.
Book Description
This is the most comprehensive book written on Lefton China to date. What makes this book stand apart is the extensive price guide section containing company identification numbers, descriptions, and current prices for more than 7,600 different items made by the prolific Geo. Zoltan Lefton Company of Chicago, Illinois. Lefton collectors will also welcome the examples shown of over one hundred Lefton patterns, enabling quick identification of related pieces. A unique feature is the section describing and illustrating the popular Lefton Collections, including Colonial Village, Historic American Lighthouses, Lil Country Folk, Roadside U.S.A., and Tasha Tudor to name just a few. A company history, display of manufacturing marks, and over 360 color photographs of Leftons figurines, boxes, plates, planters, teapots, vases, and more--including items never before published--round out this colorful and useful presentation.
Amazon.com
The author of several gardening classics, including The Dry Garden and The Damp Garden, British horticulturist Beth Chatto has once again documented her gardening adventures in Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden. A woman with a true love of soil (no matter how temperamental) and plant life, Chatto set out to create a lovely, viable garden in her gravelly, sandy soil. The challenge to find flowers and shrubs that would survive and thrive in this dry environment became an eight-year experiment that resulted in a beautiful, original gravel garden ranging over three-quarters of an acre.
Chatto takes us through the process step by step, beginning with conceptualization. How can she turn a former parking lot into a prospering garden? She notes that
We all find a haze of bluebells beneath beeches, primroses on clay soil beneath oaks, or a damp meadow golden with buttercups more magical than anything we can create. However, in our gardens we look for more. We learn to make plant associations that extend the season, to create pictures worth living with throughout the year.
Season by season, year by year, Chatto records the planting and maintenance of her gravel garden, reveling in the fecundity and tenacity of nature. Her prose is clear, concise, and at times dryly academic. Readers who have a wide knowledge of botany and an understanding of the Latin names of plants will have a leg up on more casual gardeners. Filled with pictures by Steven Wooster, who has photographed many of Chatto's gardens, the book is a visual delight. The vibrant ruby petals of clematis leap off the page and you can almost feel the spiny green stalks of the Onopordum acanthium. --Dana Van Nest
Book Description
One of the great gardeners of our time shares the story of a horticultural victory.
"How on earth did you do it?" visitors ask Beth Chatto--for in creating her gravel garden, she surpassed even her own renowned mastery of unpromising sites. It was the ultimate challenge: to create a decorative garden on three-quarters of an acre of poor, heavily compacted, gravely soil with no watering, even in times of drought. That her plants survived such cruel conditions and blossomed into a garden of such beauty offers fascinating hands-on lessons. Here are thousands of tips on applying her principles, on the poorest of soil in areas with the sparsest rainfall. Chatto's always witty and engaging voice chronicles her voyage of discovery in this delightfully inspiring must-have for any and every gardener.
Customer Reviews:
Beth Chatto is a star!.......2000-08-22
Finally, a book that lives up to, and exceeds, all expectations. Beth Chatto is one of a highly respected group of plantsmen and women in Britain who knows what she is doing, isn't afraid of making mistakes and doesn't mind sharing it all with us. This book is easy to follow, logically set out, and even the use of taxonomy in naming plants makes you eager to look them up to see what Ms Chatto is describing. The descriptions of plantings through the seasons are like the development of a symphony, from the debut of a plant in its season, through its performance and twilight, to the entrance of its successor in the drama, with punctuations and particular mention of any encore performances of which a plant is capable. Ms Chatto knows her stuff. Anyone living in similar conditions to Ms Chatto's in Britain, Australia or America should find this book a must.
A Fertile Book of Discovery.......2000-08-03
After so many years of having, through necessity, to read only technical and quick reference gardening books. It was such a great pleasure to find a quite place in my garden and be totally engrossed in Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden. Billed by the publisher, Blooming Books as ' a book for Australian conditions ' which is true but this book pertaining to gardening with drought resistant plants will be of interest to anyone who gardens in an arid or low rainfall area, or to those who want to have 'a good read' about one gardeners' vision. Who, as she describes, gardens in the 'driest and most windswept piece of soil in England'
Beth's book has all the requirements of any good reference book but it is more than that. I can only describe it as a cross between a novel, diary and reference book. It is an autobiography of her garden, the trials and tribulations, if you will, of creating a specialised area. This is a great benefit to the reader as she has made all the mistakes and now passes on the right way and what to do, to avoid disappointment. We travel through descriptions of the garden as the four seasons come and go. Descriptions that could hold their own in any non fiction novel. Beth paints with words the obvious love of her garden and gardening.
Any great diva needs an equally great accompanist. Beth certainly is blessed, for the photography of Stephen Wooster compliments her book so well and any adjective I use to describe his images would not do him justice. They have to be seen to take in their beauty and his artistry. When I review books I have one main criteria in mind. What is on the front cover is delivered within. Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden past this one in the first 5 pages.
Book Description
With so many choices in lighting, how can you make knowledgeable decisions? Get the best how-to-design lighting book!
This book is unique. It is the only book that covers residential/commercial and indoor/outdoor lighting for owners or renters. It is the only book with an illustrated glossary and is the only book on choices for daylight and electric light. This is the only book covering quick, hand- and computer-generated calculations. Originally published in 1984, it is now completely updated with 77 new pages and 90 new illustrations. It has a long bibliography, which can be a basis for self-study and an index with 376 topics. It distills the highly technical field of lighting into easily understandable, how-to information for knowledgeable decisions about all kinds of spaces - conference rooms, churches, computerized offices, kitchens, and baths.
Book Description
Few public venues exist for the contemplation of curatorial research and development in Canada, and there are even fewer forums for reflection by Canadian curators within an international context. The Edge of Everything is the result of a book project designed by Catherine Thomas to provide such a space for curators. It is a surprising collection of political, personal, quirky, and humorous commentary by Canadian and international curators on their individual practices. The collection is (as Canadian curator Ihor Holubizky writes) a "chain of incidents, heliocentric worlds at the edge of everything."
From the pathos of Anthony Kiendl's approach to curatorial work, to the Punk origins of Matthew Higgs's work, and the contemplation of aboriginal curatorial practice in Canadian institutions, independent curator and art historian, Catherine Thomas has collected a fantastic sampling of thoughts on curatorial work. The curator surfaces from this book as a figure who dwells both in the institutions of the art world, and also in its fissures, its edges and gaps - as Matthew Higgs writes, "between the audience and the stage, between the spectacle and its reception."
Book Description
In late 1995, the little-known Ogoni region in Nigeria became a fable for our times. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a renowned poet and environmentalist, was campaigning to protect his Ogoni people against the encroachments of Shell Oil and a brutal dictatorship. He was imprisoned, tortured, brought to trial on trumped-up charges, and executed.
At the heart of the public campaign to save Ken Saro-Wiwa was another Ken Wiwa—the author's son—who travelled the world lobbying world leaders and mobilizing public opinion, so that his father was recognized as a hero and a symbol of the struggle for environmental justice. The Saro-Wiwa name became global currency for righteousness.
Ken Wiwa has embarked on a book that tells the story—from a human, anecdotal perspective—of what it means to grow up as a child in the shadow of such extraordinary men and women. In the end, it's about Ken's attempts to make peace with himself and his father—following his journey as he reaches toward a final rendezvous with the father who was snatched by the hangman.
Customer Reviews:
A Befitting tribute to a great man!.......2007-03-17
A befitting gift to the memory of a great man from his son. Ken Wiwa has arrived as a major voice of his generation with this sincere and serious work of literature that looks at Nigerain politics and history from the eyes of a Niger Delta son. This is a personal document with a straight forward message.
Fathers and sons.......2003-11-30
A moving and evocative memoir of Ken Wiwa's difficult coming of age, caught between two cultures and the collision with history of his domineering father, Nigerian playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. In effect the story is told in two parts - the author's life up to his father's hanging on trumped up charges in 1995, and his subsequent attempt to come to terms with his fathers ambiguous personal legacy, in part from seeking out the children of other political martyrs such as Nkosinathi Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi. One gets the sense that by the end of the book Wiwa has achieved some sort of closure and establishment of stable, constructive self-identity. Recommended to anyone interested in Nigeria, international diplomacy, or the relationship between fathers and sons.
amazing.......2002-10-23
I remember where I was the day I found out Ken Saro-Wiwa had been murdered. It's a day that will forever be with me.
Ken Wiwa does a beautiful job of honoring his father's human rights work and expressing the complexity of their relationship. It is a shame that Mr. Saro-Wiwa will never be able to see his son's heartfelt tribute.
A great book, for anyone to enjoy.......2002-09-18
This is a beautiful, inspiring book. It is not just a biography of internationally acclaimed activist and novelist Ken Saro-Wiwa, but also an account of a son who manages to find himself despite the notoriety of his famous father. Ken Wiwa traces the history he has shared with his father, and examines his changes in perspective through his childhood, adolescent and adult years. He recounts his father's successful life, from government worker to TV writer, novelist, and finally, to political activist. He tells of his father's efforts to improve the lives of the impoverished Ogoni people, which included a heroic struggle against a multinational oil company. With brevity, and brutal honesty, Ken Wiwa leaves no stone unturned in examining his own thoughts and emotions in relation to these events.
It would have been easy for Ken Wiwa to wax poetically about his father's heroism in the face of such a powerful opponent, and to fill all the pages of a book on this subject alone. He could have possibly sold many more books this way. But he purposely chose not to, and instead invites his readers on a rich, multi-faceted exploration of his father's life, his family and of his own growing self-awareness.
In the end, we, the readers, are just as proud of Ken Saro-Wiwa as his son is. But it is the journey that we took to get there that makes it all the more moving.
A Humble and Honest Description of Ken Saro-Wiwa.......2002-01-11
I was in bed on the morning of the 10th of November 1995 when the death of ken Saro Wiwa was announced over the radio. As it is in Nigeria there is always the official and unofficial news so speculations the previous night dismissed as rumours...even though i was almost twenty at this time, it dawned on me that i knew next to nothing about Mr Saro-Wiwa..and folks made up to many stories that usually left you confused but Ken Wiwa has done an excellent job. He initial presents hiself has a spoilt kid who saw more meaning to life in the west than in Africa his home (Or so i understood it) but as he grows, he matures to the point where he does not only understand his father and what he stands for but learns to forgive and even sympathise with his many dilemas in his struglle to liberate the lifes and minds of his people. The most refreshing thing about the story is that Wiwa Snr and Jnr reach a compromise in what seemed like a stumbling relationship (as it is with many first sons who are similar to thier fathers) and reconcile before Saro-Wiwa dies. I gues like Wiwa snr said "it's a shame we cant choose our parents" but having ready a story like this one I'm quite glad it so too.
Bro Ken i agree with your Dad you do have a good style keep the books coming.
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