Book Description
While playing alone in her backyard one afternoon, seven-year-old Celia suddenly disappears while her father Christopher is inside giving a tour of their historic house and her mother Janet is at an orchestra rehearsal.
Utterly shattered, Christopher, a writer of fantasy and science fiction, withdraws from everyone around him, especially his wife, losing himself in his writing by conjuring up worlds where Celia still exists—as a child, as a teenager, as a young single mother—and revealing in his stories not only his own point of view but also those of Janet, the policeman in charge of the case, and the townspeople affected by the tragedy, ultimately culminating in a portrait of a small town changed forever.
The Truth About Celia is a profound meditation on grief and loss and how we carry on in its aftermath.
Customer Reviews:
Strange book........2006-07-09
This book is very strange. I had to read it for a literature course. It was a good book but really out there!
What IS the truth about Celia?.......2006-06-10
Whenever someone dies or disappears in some way from our lives we human beings have a need to make sense of what has happened. We don't like unanswered questions so we tend to guess at any gaps we have in our knowledge and in that manner arrive at "the truth". But, when we can't be satisfied that we are right, we keep constructing new truths.
This is the task of the narrator, Christopher, in Kevin Brockmeier's novel. The novel takes place during a seven year period at the beginning of which Christopher's seven year old daughter, Celia, disappears while playing in her own yard.
Christopher's attempts to explain this incomprehensible loss bear resemblance to the science fiction and horror books that he has authored. We experience Celia in a number of ways beyond the seven year old in an American small town setting. We meet her as the heroine of a fairy tale and as a victim who is trapped with earlier friends in a world that is separate from but privy to the one her parents occupy. We witness her as an adult in a world whose passage of time is not synchronized with our own.
This is not an easy book. It requires the reader to travel with Christopher as he explores the several routes his child might have taken. And like the narrator, we're in the dark,always wondering if we will learn enough to finish the puzzle of Celia's life.
Beyond the brief descriptions of Christopher and his wife's deteriorating [sexual] relationship, this is a very sensual book. The narrator[s] have a heightened awareness of their milieus' sounds, sights, smells and tactile events as they attempt to break through "the tissue" that separates one reality from the next.
Certainly not a fun or easy read, this is a book that requires heavy reader participation. It's worth it.
The Truth About Celia.......2006-03-22
Although I enjoyed the writing sytle of "The Truth About Celia," the novel did not come together for me. I never understood what the various disasters, i.e. the theater catching on fire, etc. eventually had to do with the story of Celia. I enjoyed the story of the young magician and his mother (was she Celia in another dimension???), but never understood what this had to do with Celia.
I hoped in vain that the story would come together in the end, but it did not. I'm very disappointed with this novel...good possibilities, but, finally, great dissatisfaction on my part. I Would not recommend to my family or friends..they would be disappointed too.
A poem in novel form.......2006-01-21
This novel is difficult to describe, it's almost a set of inter-related short stories. And yet, each unique chapter informs the others in such away that the whole is profoundly moving. This is one of those rare books that should be read in a short period of time if possible, because the details you retain, the connections you make, are simply amazing. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it, it's that rich. On top of that, it's just achingly beautifully written. One of the best books I read last year, I can't recommend it enough.
A light touch for a devastating story........2004-06-23
What do you say about the devastating disappearance of a beloved young daughter? Brockmeier imagines a fictional writer who eventually recovers sufficiently to write this book, a wonderful combination of narrative, stories, and musings. You feel the pain and sadness without being overwhelmed by it. The writer's wife is not as completely devastated, perhaps because she was not as involved with the disappearance. Her life, and their marriage, is sketched with a light touch which yet manages to capture so much. If John Irving had a lighter touch, and had lost a child, I could imagine him writing this book. For those readers who found the book at all confusing, I suggest they reread, carefully, the forward by the fictional novelist (this helped me).
Average customer rating:
|
GLITTER: THE TRUTH ABOUT FAME.
Celia Brayfield
Manufacturer: Chatto & Windus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0701127899 |
Book Description
spin-ster: noun
1:an unmarried woman or a woman for whom marriage seems dubious
2: a woman who spins or weaves for a living
Her mother, sister and friends (?) fear spinsterhood may be the fate of thirty-year-old Whitney Blake. And while she doesn't believe she'll actually end up weaving her own tablecloths, Whitney does wonder whether Mr. Right will ever arrive, despite her mom's adoption of matchmaking as the prime project of her "postmenopausal zest."
Maybe Whitney needs to be more proactive. And so she starts a journal, stating her goals: "This month--Lose two pounds (sensibly), stand up straight with my stomach sucked in so I appear tall and thin, don't let my mother drive me crazy (a particularly difficult project). GET ORGANIZED. Start by cleaning closets. Have friends over for dinner. Pray more, obsess less."
It must be working--suddenly there's more than one man in Whitney's life. But are any of them marriage material, or is "fabulous, single, Christian man" an oxymoron?
Customer Reviews:
2 1/2 stars.......2007-09-11
The Whitney Chronicles is a pretty boring read. The little `plot twists' are predictable and too stretched out without a quick resolution. I was disappointed. Starting out, I thought it would be a cute story- I liked the whole diary entry writing style and Whitney is a likeable, relatable heroine. She has a marketing job that she likes but she feels unappreciated. She is struggling with her weight; she has a male best friend but no real boyfriend prospects. Then out of nowhere, two men start vying for attention. And then there's a third man, who catches Whitney's eye. There were ripe situations that should have been explored- plenty of opportunities for humor, awkwardness, and fun. But the story felt flat; after awhile I found myself skimming through because I wasn't really interested anymore, merely curious to see how it ends. A lot of time is spent focusing on Kim's travails rather than Whitney. Though a good side story, it becomes more of the central story for at least half of the book. A good fluff read if nothing else. Luckily these books come pretty cheap, so it's no big investment lost.
soooo good!!!.......2007-08-10
I loved this book!!! Its funny, witty, endearing, serious, challenging, and encouraging all in one. It definitely kept me well entertained. I didn't want it to end! I'm definitely excited for the sequal! I love the whole chick-lit deal. I also really like Judy Baer's use of scripture and how she made the heroine have some flaws. Its a fun read.
Another one of those religious books..........2006-12-22
When I started reading this book I loved it, the first 100pages or so are really funny, in a Bridget Jones kind of way, I was even willing to look beyond the annoying bible verses and letters to God.
I am not a Christian, and being unfamiliar with this faith I just don't get the message there.
Once the main Character's friend Kim gets diagnosed with cancer and eventually gets depressed it is just plain boring. It feels like having to listen to one of those people who go on and on about their lives but you just don't care.
Also the bible verses and weird letters to God are getting more and more annoying - hey, I did not sign up for a religious education here -ok. And, after Whitney gets a cat called Mr. Tibble, several passages are written from the view of the cat - I am also not 6 years old, please, from the view of the cat?
All in all it's a diary of a Christian woman's failed attempts in finding a boyfriend, and in the end she starts seeing Chase, which is mentioned in the most boring way you can imagine: page 412: " May3: Movie with chase, May4: dinner with chase, May8: walk around Lake Harriet with Chase, May10: walk, dinner and movie with Chase". That's it end of book!
Don't have Christians any feelings, emotions and romantic thoughts?
I wish it would have been mentioned clearer on the cover that this is a religious book about the Christian faith and I would have never bought it in the first place.
Laugh Out Loud.......2006-12-16
This is a sort of Christian girl's alternative to Bridget Jone's Diary and I can honestly say I was enthralled from beginning to end.
Until I started reading chick lit I was never a fan of first person POV but it really works with these sorts of books. Part of me is a bit stunned that I am of the age where I am identifying with these women but another part of me rejoiced and cried with them. I really enjoyed the way each woman's faith played a part in her search for love. And I loved the way Whitney found love in the end.
This book is one that I highy recommend. It's a great summer or beach read.
Average read/rushed ending.......2006-12-09
Overall the book was good, but I have to agree with several reviewers:
there's nothing that turns me off from a book like jumpsuits, the lack of believable situations, and when this book finally reaches it's climax, the writer saps away the finale by summing it up in one page. It took me two days to get to the good part and you're going to end it in a rush like that?! What a waste!
Product Description
Spinster, an unmarried woman or a woman for whom marriage seems dubious; a woman who spins or weaves for a living. A great story of love and fate.
Average customer rating:
- First Contact the Hard Way
- Still pending on the outcome
- Who you gonna call?
- Never a dull moment!
- Best in the Starfist series
|
Blood Contact (Starfist, Book 4)
David Sherman , and
Dan Cragg
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Series
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Series
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Steel Gauntlet (Starfist, Book 3)
-
Technokill (Starfist, Book 5)
-
School of Fire (Starfist, Book 2)
-
Hangfire (Starfist, Book 6)
-
Kingdom's Swords (Starfist, Book 7)
ASIN: 0345425278
Release Date: 1999-12-01 |
Book Description
Through three centuries of interstellar travel, intelligent alien life- forms had never been encountered . . . until now.
When a scientific team exploring an obscure planet fails to make its regular communications check, the Marines of third platoon are sent to investigate. They prepare for a routine rescue operation, but what they find on Society 437 is a horror beyond description. Only a handful of ragtag pirates who were in the wrong place at the very worst time have survived, and there is little trace of the scientists.
What happened to the scientists? Why have the pirates been spared?
Gunnery Sergeant Bass and the men of third platoon are about to find out,
and the answer carries a terrifying implication for the Marines--and the entire human race.
Customer Reviews:
First Contact the Hard Way.......2005-08-23
In this, the fourth of the StarFIST series, the story improves once again in terms of interest. The last book was alright but nothing too memorable. This one is.
The marines are recuperating from their hard fought campaign when they get work of a scientific outpost which has fallen silent. A single platoon is sent to investigate. What they find is what no one expected. Hostile aliens have taken over the place and killed everybody. These are the first intelligent aliens to be encountered in these writer's universe and they are strange. There is no negotiating with them. They are fanatics who fight to the end and immolate themselves rather than let the jarheads take any prisoners, dead or alive. The marines have their work cut out for them and are not helped by the glory hound naval officer who accompanies them.
It is a good read from start to finish. It is not as well polished as some series but it keeps the interest and it portrays the men and their leaders as they should be portrayed. Semper Fi!
Still pending on the outcome.......2002-04-30
The story is pretty good and does brings something new against Charlie Bass and his men. It is different than the tribal on Elneal or the tank of Diamunde and its brings some action for the marines.
I was unable to put down the book as I was reading since I was waiting for a grande finale. However, once the book was fully read I had some questions about missing links.
Anyway, I am still very pleased with the outcome of the book. I will finish reading HangFire and buy the seventh book Kingsdom's Sword once it is out.
Enjoy
Who you gonna call?.......2002-02-23
When the book opens the Confederation is facing a new military invasion, only this time it is aliens. What will happen? Who will win? Dean and the 34st FIST or the bad guys. I could tell you but Amazon wouldn't let me, you have to read it to find out.
Never a dull moment!.......2000-04-30
In the first Starfist novel, the 34th FIST went up against a bunch of nomadic, "low-tech" tribes. Next, they trained a puppet-police force to stand against rebels. Then, they spearheaded an invasion against an entire mechanized army. What's left for the fourth book, you ask? Heck, ALIENS!
A remote research outpost on a planet a bit too far gone to be accurately called "remote" suddenly disappears. True to form, the bureacracy (sp?) diddles around before deciding to send a single FIST platoon and the Navy's most embarrassing rejects to investigate. Of course, L platoon, 34th FIST, draws the short straw...probably the best thing the powers-that-be could've done. *g* So, how do you makes heads and tails of a planet covered by swamps and impassable mountains, littered with corpses, full of gigantic lizards (some of which want to melt you), and all the while encumbered with the only human survivors, a rag-tag band of pirates? Just put Charlie Bass in charge!
This novel was non-stop from the beginning! Old comrades, new friends, mysterious pasts, enigmatic genocides, and a diabolically sentient race that's next to impossible to track, mindless in its persuit of the destruction of all things human, and simply ingenious in its tactics all add together to make a truely original read! Not your typical "slimey alien drooling on floor grunts a few gutteral noises then whips out a super-advanced weapon and blows the sun up" cookie-cutter beastie, these are coldly calculating commanders with hordes of mindless minions to do their bidding.
This is a very highly recommended book! I couldn't find anything to tick on it for, except maybe Dan Cragg and David Sherman's continual downplay of the Navy forces...which, as an ex-Navy man myself, I can totally understand. All in all, I can't wait for book five and six to come out!
Best in the Starfist series.......2000-03-16
The fourth installment exceedes the first three in gripping action and adventure. This is by far the best book in the series. Though the authors do leave some questions unresolved, they create great anticipation for the next book in the line, and in no way do the authors leave us with the artificial "forced & cheesey" plot resoloution.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2608 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Bartonella species in blood of immunocompetent persons with animal and arthropod contact.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Author: Edward B. Breitschwerdt
Publication:
Emerging Infectious Diseases (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 13
Issue: 6
Page: 938(4)
Article Type: Clinical report
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Product Description
Military Science Fiction: Marines in action in the 25th Century -- with a difference:
It's from the point of view of the enlisted men doing the fighting!
Customer Reviews:
Extremely Encouraging.......2000-06-29
The book "Failure: The Back Door to Success" is an excellent resource. This book is very encouraging and informative, and one of the best nonfiction books I've read. Erwin Lutzer is very clear and concise. He doesn't beat around the bush when criticism is needed (it often is), and gives credit where credit is due. A must-read!
Average customer rating:
|
Failure, the back door to success: Leader's guide
Dana R Gould
Manufacturer: Moody Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Success
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Psychology
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0802406939 |
Books:
- The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 6)
- The Well of Loneliness: A 1920s Classic of Lesbian Fiction
- The White Castle: A Novel
- The Whore's Child: Stories
- The William Faulkner Audio Collection
- The Woman in the Dunes
- The Yokota Officers Club: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
- This Blinding Absence of Light
- This Is Not Civilization
- This One and Magic Life: A Novel of a Southern Family
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
- Going Somewhere Soon: Collected Stories & Drawings
- Historical Paradors: A Journey Through Spanish Hotels
- Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don't
- Introduction to Numerical Methods and MATLAB: Implementations and Applications
- Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible
- Jackie After Jack: Portrait of the Lady
- For God, Mammon, and Country: A Nineteenth-Century Persian Merchant, Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zar
- The Latino Journey to Financial Greatness: The 10 Steps to Creating Wealth, Security, and a Prospero
The Brief History of the Dead
Grooves: A Kind of Mystery
City of Names
Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced
The Stolen Child
