Book Description
It is a truly exhilarating experience for Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning-helping Charleston's Sea Turtle Protection League shepherd hundreds of tiny green loggerheads safely into the sea. But just as she's about to celebrate all her hard work, she spots a dead body bobbing in the waves. Now it's up to Theo to get to the bottom of the murder before the culprit's greed stirs him to kill again.
Customer Reviews:
Good characters but lacking in mystery.......2007-08-30
This is the first book of this series I have written. I thought the characters were interesting and well developed. I enjoyed the interaction between them and felt they did come to "life". I also enjoyed the tidbits about tea and cooking. However, I felt the mystery story line was an after thought. At times I felt the mystery had been inserted into the book after the book had been completed. There was no real meat to the mystery. I would have liked more detail regarding the investigation. The setting and characters were very detailed but the plot regarding the mystery and clues into the investigation were lacking. I have not decided whether I will read another in this series. I would love to know more about the characters but the mystery aspect left me wanting.
A delightful escape.......2007-06-08
This series of Tea Shop mysteries is refreshing. The characters are eccentric and lovable, the setting is divine and lovely, the mysteries are tricky and enjoyable. Ms. Childs can transport her readers to a gentler time and place with the turn of a page.
Intentional comedy or typographical errors?.......2007-05-24
At first the frequent misspellings or typographical errors are annoying and slightly distracting, but by the time one reads about the "grizzly" (instead of grisly) murder, the hapless reader finds that any properly somber reflections about death are replaced by unfortunately hilarious thoughts and ghastly puns (e.g., perhaps the victim couldn't bear to be in the story for even one more paragraph).
informative and intertaining.......2007-05-13
This mystery is loaded with recipes for tea party snacks and the art of mixing different teas to produce odd tastes. If you are a tea lover, this will be a very enjoyable and entertaining book.
Tea-Dyed and Been Done.......2007-04-11
The fourth installment in the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs is much like its predecessors. It is a quick-paced cozy read, light on dimension, and large on fluff. That being said, these slight novels are still enjoyable reads due to the information they impart about tea.
Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston's Historic District, finds herself once again at the heart of a mystery. While volunteering her time for a charity cause, she encounters the corpse of Harper Fisk, a local antique dealer and sea-treasure hunter. When it turns out that foul play may be the cause of his death, Theodosia sticks her nose into the investigation, concocting all manners of strange theories and conspiracies. And she is never able to hit on the right suspect until the very end of the mystery, an all-too-quickly rushed denouement with little build-up.
Laura Childs has found a certain niche with this stories, but is by no means a seasoned story-teller. Her characters barely pass the two-dimension mark and there is far more telling than showing in her narration. Still, "The English Breakfast Murder" is enjoyable to fans of tea and anyone who likes to solve mysteries, albeit predictable ones.
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Paperbacks
Book Description
In ancient Rome, the career path for ambitious citizens who aspire to become senators is called "The Course of Honor." And this honorable course has an unbreakable rule: A senator is forbidden to marry a slave. When the soldier Vespasian meets an interesting girl frying sausages in the imperial palace, he doesn't know that Caenis is immensely intelligent, or that she holds a position in the household of Antonia, daughter of Mark Anthony and sister-in-law of the Emperor. But soon he's in love, struggling against a world that rejects his lover. And as emperor after emperor plays out deadly, seductive games of lust and conquest, no one envisions that a country-born army man might win the throne-no one except a slave girl who observes the bizarre fortunes of an imperial city and begins a daring course of honor of her own.
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This novel tells the sweeping story of the ascendancy of the Emperor Vespasian, the impecunious son of a provincial senator who finally brought peace to Rome after years of fighting during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and the year of the Four Emperors. It is also the story of the forbidden love between Emperor Vespasian and his mistress, Antonia Caenis, a slave working for Claudius's mother.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding background.......2007-01-23
If you are a Falco fan and have not read this, do so. It provides wonderful background material for Vespasian. He's not just an old man, but a fellow who lived and loved the best. In fact, he's more like Falco than he would like to admit. The details only hinted at in the Falco books are here: Vespasian's survival in a time of 'really strange' and dangerous emperors, his rise to power, and his inherent humanity in the face of a vicious age. The tale has a different style than the Falco books. It's difficult to desribe, but it's "sweeter," a love story between Caenis and Vespasian that survived decades of events. Falco is Falco and he and Helena are fun. It's a great adventure series. But this one? It will put a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes. But that's a good thing. They made it. It worked. A love story in the time of turmoil is a great thing. Thank you to Lindsey Davis with sharing this.
In many ways, her best........2007-01-02
Before she started her witty and successful Falco series, Lindsey Davis wrote this book, but couldn't get it published. How glad I am that Falco's success allowed us to see this gem! As the readers' poll on her website testifies, it is in many ways her best - and best-loved - book.
Romance in Ancient Rome.......2006-10-04
This is one of the best books I've ever read. It has a little bit of everything while being very well written and a very fast read. First there is this remarkable romance. Ceanis is a character I will never forget. We have the joy of watching her grow and mature as she goes from slave to freedwoman. Then there is the setting: ancient Rome, with all its political intrigue and violence. I first read this book when it was published some 10 years ago and I have never forgotten it. When I recently reread it, I was once again reminded why it had always stayed with me.
Such an Eloquent and Inspiring Love Story.......2006-03-08
I read this book about a year ago, and now, a year later, I find myself searching for it on Amazon because I enjoyed it so much. The story is based on historical fact and is about the extraordinary love affair between the emperor Vespasian and a slave, his Caenis. I was surprised at the amount of care the author took in describing events and characters and found myself comparing the story to the emperor's biography by Suetonius...the novel is extremely accurate! Lindsey Davis is a fantastic writer; she somehow translates emotions into words so that when the reader reads them, he/she knows exactly how the character is feeling.
Isn't it romantic............2005-12-29
This is an amazingly sweet book.
Two people, one a bad tempered angry slave and one the unimportant son of a provincial tax collector meet when the man and his brother get lost in the imperial palace in Rome. They come across a young slave girl cooking sausages and an attraction is formed for life between the young man and the slave.
Vespasian is not an important man in Rome when he meets Caenis. In fact, though he is later and senator and she is later a freewoman, there is a long span of time where her connections to the royal family make her important than he is. But they loved each other deeply their whole lives in spite of their long separation of twenty years when he married, and she even helped him raise his children. When Nero died and Vespasian took the purple in a military coup, he has his beloved move into the palace with him-defying all social conventions to be with her.
The absolute only thing I think could have made this book more sweetly romantic would be Vespasian overruling the law that members of the senate couldn't marry freedwoman. But hey, perhaps that was a more drastic step that it seems it would have been. Roman society confuses me, but in this book it is clear, wonderful, corrupt and a place where even social opposites can fall in love.
Five stars.
For more reading on Vespasian's younger son corrupt and disastrous rule of Rome check out The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie.
Customer Reviews:
What a gem!.......2003-04-17
This book proves again that the worth of a book is not by its weight, but by its content. This book is certainly much, much better than "Hononrs Programs and Colleges" published by Thomson and Peterson's.
This book selects the best 55 out of all the honors programs at the public universities nationwide. This guide gives an analysis for each honors program, which you will not find in any other books. Furthermore, it ranks these 55 honors programs. This gives students and parents a very good way to choose among the programs.
Indeed, some of these programs provide education as good as Ivy League's. Overall, I highly recommend this book as one of the must-have's college guides.
Book Description
Honors programs and colleges are a popular choice for students who want a rigorous academic program at an affordable price. And the best place to research honors programs is with the only reference guide available devoted solely to honors programs and colleges.
Features and benefits include * The Official Guide of the National Collegiate Honors Council * Newly updated information on nearly 700 programs and colleges * Actual alumni profiles from Honors Programs and College graduates attesting to the benefits of an "honors" education * Insight from Deans and Program Directors on the honors experience * Quick-Reference Chart detailing size of program, scholarship availability, acceptance of transfer students, and types of academic advisors (academic, graduate and/or fellowship)
Product Description
Data, Models and Preditions, Parts I & II, in 2 Volumes (A Comprehensive Honors Mathematics Sequence, Course II)
Book Description
The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly, and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sword amp; Citadel brings together the final two books of the tetralogy in one volume:The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe's remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.The Citadel of the Autarch brings The Book of the New Sun to its harrowing conclusion, as Severian clashes in a final reckoning with the dread Autarch, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will forever alter the realm known as Urth."Brilliant . . . terrific . . . a fantasy so epic it beggars the mind. An extraordinary work of art!"Philadelphia Inquirer"The Book of the New Sun establishes [Wolfe's] preeminence, pure and simple. . . . The Book of the New Sun contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . once into it, there is no stopping."-The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
A triumphant accomplishment.......2007-06-10
Sword and the Citadel and the last two books of the Book of the New sun Quartet. The story picks up after the Shadow and Claw, with Severian, the torturer continuing his Odysseian journey across the southern continent, on an Earth a millenia in the future as our Sun is dying. Severian intends to return The Claw of the Concilliator, a magic relic which seems to give him, at times, the power over death, the the Religious order from whom he accidentally took the claw from. Severian soon finds himself at the heart of events that can literally change the destiny of humanity.
This second and third book are an even greater accomplishment than the first two of the series were. As I wrote in the first novels' review, the language utilized throughout this series serves as a plot device in and of itself, not only serving to enhance the foreignness of the reading experience, but adding to the mystery which are part and parcel of its charm.
Severian finds himself evolving quite a bit through these last two novels he is coming to term with his own humanity and the nature of the brutality that is part of everyday. Severian finds himself even more deeply embroiled in the intrique that is the conflict between the rebel leader Vodalus, and the leader of the commonwealth The Autarch.
The brilliance in this novel it is so deeply imagined and so stunningly written that it is hard to imagine this was produced by an author of our time. There is a reason that this novel gets so much praised on it. It draws you in, and then it forces you to constantly cope with it's eccentric characterizations, which is akin to decoding a foreign lanquage that you are only semi fluent in. This is actually extremely satisying, but that is not in and of itself the biggest strength of the narrative. In many "fantasy/sci fi" books merely reads about extraordinary worlds, but in this series, the reader resides as an insider in this world. Ultimately the Sword and Citadel resolve a number of plot lines and mysteries, and of course this makes it greater than the first two.
The Sword and Citadel, and specifically the Book of the New Sun are indeed one of the greatest fantasy books written of all time. These books should be a part of any serious fan of fantasy, but really any one who enjoys high literature.
Truly Surreal.......2007-04-25
An excellent entry in the Dying Earth genre. Wolfe elaborates on his already fascinating and baroque Urth. His protoganists journey ends in full circle, but another one begins.
Wolfe's writing style is intense and interesting and the memoir style the book is written in works great. Highly recommended.
Thought-provoking.......2007-02-15
I like to read a well-written story. I like epic tales. This and the sequels fill the bill, quite nicely. You may need a dictionary handy when reading, due to the choice of terminology the author uses. It's worth it, if you like expanding your vocabulary like I do! This book is one of those books where you won't always assimilate everything there is the first time you read it. Unlike some novels, this one may provide new insights once you've allowed it to sit on the bookshelf for a few months then attack it with a (hopefully) new perspective.
The Epic Continues.......2007-02-09
Continuing with Severian, the narrator of Gene Wolfe's magnum opus, is a journey of academic wonder.
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun) wasn't as enjoyable for me as the first collection in the tetralogy. I think it's because the author's grand designs came to fruition. We find that the sun is indeed dying, but this was prophesied and the narrator is the realization of civilization itself, the savior come again. His esoteric exegesis of modern theology is too ambitious for my taste and I found myself working too hard at it and wanting too many breaks. I suppose my craving for knowledge met it's match in the effort required.
While Severian is accidentally fulfilling his preordained destiny, we as the reader are being challenged for our own beliefs and shown that faith, belief and higher powers are really part of our evolution, a dependency of our genetic makeup . . . that's where he lost me. The allegory aside as a New Sun/Son becomes the savior of all, this is a call to faith, or at least that's what I comprehended in the reading.
While all this is going on, we find that the narrator, our Messiah, is an untrustworthy source. He's been withholding information and twisting it in the telling. This is a trait of Wolfe who has claimed that narration is a reflection of humanity and humans are essentially untrustworthy creatures. While a clever devise, it takes away from the power of the story where readers have no other knowledge to depend on other than what the narrator relates.
It's good, but has flaws.
CV Rick
I fell in love..........2006-08-08
The predecessor to this book had me falling in love with Dorcas, one of the female characters. This one left me feeling a grave loss at her absence.
Wolfe has produced an excellently rich world and we accompany a rather unconventional character through it. Severian, a torturers' apprentice, guides us through our own planet- here spelled "Urth"- billions of years in the future as the sun is dying and humanity has advanced, as best I can put it, 'beyond technology.'
In his world, humans on Urth live in a ignorant barbarism while the technologies of today and of the future lie around them running their world. Severian is our guide through this world, and the journey is well worth taking- if you can put up with Severian's character.
The important thing to keep in mind is that these two books, and their predecessors, are written *by* Severian- Wolfe created Severian as a character, and then that character, in Wolfe's mind, wrote his own memoirs. The record is filled with the quirks of Severian's personality; it is disconnected, as so many lives are. Novels often present us with an unlikely series of events in which the hero continually gets lucky, saves the day just right, and then goes on to keep saving the day in a coherent fashion. Wolfe is well aware that things don't work that way in real life, and they don't work that way when people write memoirs, as Severian is doing. The entire Book of the New Sun is written as an account of Severian's life; he tells us the things that were important to him, and we watch as they happen. This story isn't "How Luke Became a Jedi and None of the Adventures that Occurred Along the Way" but rather "The Life of Severian, A Journeyman of the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence."
Severian has adventures. They happen in such an order as to bring him to his final destination. Throughout it, there are side-adventures, needless digressions, unexpected meetings, stories told and stories heard, and unimportant characters encountered. Because that is how life goes.
So if you're looking for a true story, a Hero's Journey in the sense that we are used to seeing in our pop literature and movies, this isn't the place to find it. You might have noticed the rambling story in the first two books and assumed it would get more coherent. Not so. This series lacks narrative momentum entirely- you will find yourself engaged while reading it, but might not have much reason to pick it back up once you've put it down.
However, if you want to read a fictional memoir about a most interesting person who has some amazing adventures with some fairly good philosophical insights, I think you'll be very pleased. In this series, it is not the destination, but rather the journey, which dominates the mind of the reader. It is not important to make the decisions as to understand them- all of this exposition can get very Buddhist about it, but in the end these books do not center on continuity of adventures but rather the adventures themselves and how they shape Severian. They are truly a different kind of literature- new, fresh, and exciting for their experimentation and their creativity. At times, however, the freshness does work against the story. But I still feel it's well worth it.
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Second Book of Lost Swords: Sightblinder's Story (Orbit Books)
Manufacturer: Futura Orbit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Fantasy
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ASIN: 0708842259 |
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The Magic Sword ELT Edition (Cambridge Storybooks)
Rosemary Hayes
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Reading
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Book Description
A series of ELT readers for young learners of English. What happens when Class 8 visit a castle with Mr Mulch?
Download Description
Cambridge Reading is a major new reading scheme which provides stimulating books and support materials for the teaching of reading throughout the primary years. Key features include: a coherent yet flexible structure for teaching and learning; a variety of high quality attractive picture books; a balance of different text types and genres, including stories, poems and information books; an integrated phonics programme; comprehensive support materials. The Magic Sword is from the Towards Independence phase of Cambridge Reading. It forms part of a set of nine books in the Fantasy strand which are written by Rosemary Hayes and illustrated by Ian Newsham. Mr Mulch, a schoolteacher with special powers, is the central character in this and three other books.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book.......2002-08-29
This book is about a dozen swords with unique special powers forged by the god Vulcan. The swords were then scattered across the world. Mark, the main character with a somewhat unknow background is the one who figures out most of the swords and eventually finds more out about his background and patronage. While this is not your typical fanatasy book with in depth character development, it is a book of many individuals and thier stories with each of the twelve swords. An excellent read for a tale of how powerfull artifacts alter peoples lives.
Not That Great.......2002-08-20
This book followed the footsteps of Mark, a young man whose father helped the god Vulcan make 12 magical swords. The swords were intended to be part of a game that the gods set up. However, the gods miscalculated how powerful the swords were and the power that ordinary humans had. Mark could be an interesting character, but lacks real depth and development. The story is really about the swords.
There are three books in this one, but they don't really flow together. They stories are chronological and do make sense, but there is a lot of repetition and not a whole lot of characterization or smooth plot development. The end of the last book leaves many loose ends and doesn't provide anything resembling a sense of satisfaction with a book well written and worth reading. I was very glad that I had borrowed and not bought this book.
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multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Product Description
The second and current series, Artesia Afield, began publication in 2000, and follows Artesia and her captains as they lead an army out of the Highlands to aid the Middle Kingdoms against the returning Thessids. The Empires legions have swept across the land bringing death by sword and fire, and have laid siege to the cities of Collwyn and Berrina, forcing Awain, the High King of Therapoli, to split his army and attempt to relieve the beset cities. As Artesia seeks to join the northern army led by the High Kings marshal, the Grand Duke Owen Lis Red, they are confronted with the myriad dangers and distractions of life on campaign. They encounter the Thessid enemy for the first time, meet and hire mercenaries from distant Palatia, and learn of the Empires terrifying allies, the Isliklids, who heretically claim descent from Islik the Divine King. And through it all, Artesia is plagued by dreams and haunted by ghosts, as she ponders the choices she has made, and those she hasnt...
Book Description
A uniquely compassionate book that provides information, companionship and hope for individuals and families coping with depression.
Customer Reviews:
The company she kept.......2004-11-14
Look at who she was married to! If I'd been married to him I would have been depressed for eight years, too.
Luckily, the American people didn't elect him or we'd ALL might have ended up DEPRESSED FOR EIGHT YEARS!
Great Book for Describing Depression.......2004-08-23
This is a wonderful book if you want to know what it feels like to be depressed. It does feel like you are all alone because one of the main things about depression is that you disengage from everything and everyone. For a book about how to get out of depression, how to re-engage, try the book Depression is a Choice or Undoing Depression.
I Beg To Differ.......2004-02-20
When you have depression, nothing matters. The title of this book is complete B.S Yes, you are alone. Just because there are millions of people suffering with depression, doesn't mean that these people are with you. Depression isn't easy and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. These stories are heartbreaking and make you feel even more alone because there's still no one to talk to. One of the stories explained it perfectly:
"No one wants to be around someone who's down. Who wants to spend time with someone who's full of fear, anger and sadness? Besides, I don't know anyone who's gone through what I'm going through right now. What can I say to people? That I want to check out, that I want to go to sleep and never wake up. Nobody wants to hear that. It's lonely being depressed."
I'm not saying this is a bad book, it's just that the title is completely unsuitable.
Thank God for Explaining Depression So Well!.......2003-03-27
I knew this book was for me in the first few pages. One of my favorite parts was the quote on page 12 from William Styron: "Brainstorm," ...has unfortunately been preempted to describe, somewhat jocularly, intellectual inspiration...Told that someone's mood disorder has evolved into a storm --a veritable howling tempest in the brain, which is indeed what a clinical depression resembles like nothing else-- even the uninformed layman might display sympathy rather than the standard reaction that "depression" evokes, something akin to "So what?" or "You'll pull out of it" or "We all have bad days." It just doesn't get more honest than that. It's a storm all the time, sometimes it hails or upgrades to a tornado, but it's always a storm. Thank you for writing this book. I could finally explain depression to my family and friends.
The title says it all.......2003-03-20
This book is perfect for anyone experiencing mild to moderate depression. While I was depressed, I searched for books endlessly until I found this one. This book was radically different from the others because it wasn't attempting to explain why I was depressed, it just acknowledged that I was and put into words what I was feeling. The problem often times with depression is that there aren't words to describe the emotions. It's so much more than "sad". I just didn't have the energy to read a lengthy book. With "You Are Not Alone" you can just pick it up, open up to any page and start reading to get instant relief. I still take it off my shelf when I feel low. It's like a favorite music CD...it soothes and puts you at ease.
Books:
- The Fifth Elephant: A Novel of Discworld
- The Great Santini
- The Haunting of Hill House
- The Hob's Bargain
- The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
- The Hot Flash Club: A Novel
- The Jasmine Moon Murder (Tea Shop Mystery)
- The Killing Sky
- The Last Heiress (Friarsgate Inheritance, Book 4)
- The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
Books Index
Books Home
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- Designer Drafting for the Entertainment World
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- History: Fiction or Science
- Forest Plants Of The Southeast And Their Wildlife Uses
- Come by Sunday: Diana Dors
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Shades of Earl Grey (A Tea Shop Mystery)
The Jasmine Moon Murder (Tea Shop Mystery #5)
Gunpowder Green
Death by Darjeeling (Tea Shop Mysteries)
Chamomile Mourning (Tea Shop Mystery)
