Four Mothers: A Novel

Average customer rating:

Best of the best

Captivating Story of a Jerusalem Matriarchy

A rich and sweeping family saga set in Israel

JERUASALEMITE SENSE/STINGS OF HUMOR

For Soap fans...

Four Mothers: A Novel
Shifra Horn
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Seven Blessings: A Novel

The Wholeness of a Broken Heart: A Novel

The Outside World

Women's Minyan

The Ghost of Hannah Mendes

ASIN: 0312263236

Book Description

Shifra Horn's beautifully imagined novel tells the story of five generations of women in one family against the background of 100 years in Jerusalem.The story begins with the birth of the family's first boy to Amal, the last generation. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are overjoyed, because the birth of a healthy boy means that the curse against the family's women has been broken: There is no daughter to inherit it. Come, listen, they say to Amal, listen to the story of the curse that foretold of every father's disappearance. Be comforted by your "foremothers":Mazal, the orphan, whose ill-fated marriage initiates the curse; her daughter Sara, whose beautiful golden hair becomes a symbol for her power to heal; Sara's daughter Pnina-Mazal, the unwanted child whose talent for knowing others' thoughts brings both joy and sorrow; and her daughter Geula, Amal's mother, whose sharp intellect and idealism are her gift and her burden. Epic in scope, mysterious, rich in the magical realism of fable and the folklore of legend, Four Mothers is a masterpiece.AUTHORBIO: Shifra Horn was born in Tel Aviv, was raised and still lives in Jerusalem.She has lived in Japan, worked as a newspaper correspondent, lectures extensively, and currently manages her own public relations firm.Four Mothers, her first novel, was awarded several literary prizes in Israel and has been translated into five languages.Her second, The Fairest Among Women, will be published in the U.S. in 2001.

Customer Reviews:

Best of the best.......2006-09-30

From the emergent genre of women's magical realism, this book delivers rare goods: a four-generational story of happily unhinged women, how they think and what they are capable of doing given life's dole of extenuating circumstances. Men are side dishes throughout -- important from time to time but never necessary. You will have to decide whether you want your favorite woman to read this book or not. Control freaks will be terrified.

The story's women are culturally Jewish and live in Israel before it was Israel. The story line brushes religion as a cat's tail brushes a chair leg. If you know nothing of Judaism, you will probably miss half of the magic of the story. Very little is spelled out beyond a straight story line, but so so so much lies between the lines.

Written "in the tradition of Isabel Allende," it is clear that every woman could and should write her own personal version of Four Mothers. Not one version would be the same.

Fabulous. Fantastic. Riveting. The best of the best of writing. Kudos to the author, a new favorite for me.

Captivating Story of a Jerusalem Matriarchy.......2006-07-12

I am not a big fan of stories with magic, curses, or supernatural events -- I generally like my novels realistic -- but this book held my attention and interest. Shifra Horn, one of the new generation of Jewish women writers, is talented a tells a good story. The mothers are well-drawn characters: Mazal, the orphan who is married off to a shopkeeper; Sarah, "the most beautiful woman in the world," whose husband leaves her to make his fortune; Pnina Mazal, a linguist with a psychic ability to understand humans who cannot utter a word; Geula, whose red hair and sharp teeth are visual representations of her fiery personality; and Amal, who has her own bad luck. The husbands (with one major exception) are mostly unattractive characters but they, too, often seem to be victims of circumstance.

Horn not only describes numerous human calamities, but takes us on a historical tour of Israel from the mid-1800s to the late 1960s. Most gripping is the description of Jerusalem during World War I, where Jews were miserably treated by the Ottoman Turks. The description of the city and its misery-filled streets is unforgettable.

I look forward to reading more books by this very talented author. In the meantime, this effort deserves your time and attention.

A rich and sweeping family saga set in Israel.......2004-12-30

A rich and sweeping family saga set in Israel over a century, about five remarkable Jewish mothers.

Amal, after giving birth to a son, and thereby breaking the curse of the women of her family explores the lives of her mother, the wayward Geula, her grandmother Pnina Mazal who can read minds, her great grandmother, the legendary beauty, Sara, and her great great grandmother, Mazal, who was forced to marry young and was abandoned by her husband after giving birth, thus setting the trend of single motherhood which each of the women in the family would be burdened with.

Full of sites and signs and undercurrents , and many other characters and persons that burst from the pages.

It is an epic rich in humanity, erotic, ironic, and full of twists and turns, that will stay in your mind long after you have read it. It traces the many generations of Jews that have lived in Jerusalem, in a sensitive and thoughtful way.

Sadly some people in the world cannot recognize humanity. When Shifra Horn appeared on Australian radio to discuss this totally non-political book, the talk show host aggressively interrogated her on the supposed sins of Israel's government, ignoring the book she had come to talk about.
Some people in the world refuse to recognize the humanity of Israel's Jews, dehumanizing them in such a way that resembles Europe before the Holocaust.

JERUASALEMITE SENSE/STINGS OF HUMOR.......2002-07-29

I AM NOW READING THIS AUTHOR 4TH BOOK "TAMARA ON THE WATER", NOT YET TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH; AS SOMEONE BORN IN ISRAEL/JERUSALEM THE HEROES AND THREADS CONNECTING BETWEEN THEM REMIND ME OF MANY JERUALEMITES "PURE SEPHARADY" WOMEN INCLUDING MY MOTHER.

For Soap fans..........2001-12-27

This is a story about 5 generations of women in a 'cursed' family - where all men are somehow damaged - retarded, die at a young age, or abandon their wives. This story is told by the last woman in the chain - the one who gives birth to a healthy baby boy and breaks the curse, who investigates (with us in tow) her family history.

Book Description

Abold new novel about the redemptive power of love

Hailed by Jamie James in The Atlantic Monthly as "one of the most original voices on the literary scene," Lois-Ann Yamanaka is back with a novel about family and forgiveness. Set in Hawaii and Las Vegas, Father of the Four Passages tells the story of Sonia Kurisu, a street-wise young mother, who struggles to raise her child, Sonny Boy, as she seeks to come to terms with the three children she aborted. In sequences alternating between the past and the present, we learn of Sonia's childhood-her abandonment by her father and her mother; her contentious relationship with her sister, Celeste; her string of bad lovers; her problems with drugs and alcohol-and of her wish to reconcile with her father and make something of her life by being a good parent to her son, who has begun to show signs of developmental problems. A haunting novel about fathers, forgiveness, spirituality, and solace, Father of the Four Passages is Yamanaka's most ambitious work to date.

Customer Reviews:

Wuz Hud Fo'read but dakine...........2007-06-29

I no caya wot da buggah wit da highmakamaka words said, like anyting else yo'readem yo'ownself & decide. So wot if somebody wen talkstink about dis book.

Eh titamoke, dis was hud fo'read. At first. Anden lilobit by lilobit, I wen gettum' o'maybe not but da point is I wen buy da book & readem'. I tink peoples got all huhu ova dis book cause was all intense wired kine mana'o hah. Faka tree(3) misscarriages I would be nuts too and az witout da drugs. Add drugs, auwe big time pilikia. Frikas trute hurt yeah.

Peoples prolly piss off at TitaLoisAnn; da way peoples stay piss off at me fo'writing all hammajang la dis as not propa English. And... Yeah and my English teachas stay all doing 360's in dey grave but as okay cause dey wen teach me/us and I/we wen learn even do no look like cause us no sked make our own. LOL

Hele on, hana hou write somme moe!

KULIA

Keep da faith, Sista!.......2004-08-26

On a recent afternoon my wife lost her purse in the KTA parking lot. Next day lunch time "Loke" calls to let me know she found the purse in a trash can. I pick it up in a Wainaku walk up parking lot from a young man with no shirt & tatoos who I gave a reward to pass on to the young lady that called. All the purse contents had been removed and neatly put back in the wrong order. Cash gone. Credit card had been used unsuccessfully at a gas station. But, thanks for the return.

Whats the point? I don't know exactly, but I got a glimpse into a very different world from my own. Like Sonia Kurisu who struggles so desperately with challenges most of us don't even want to think about, but author Yamanaka delivers it to us raw to deal with. I was judgemental, disgusted, angry, confused, and eventually bored as Sonia's massive blunders unfolded. And her "father", hoo boy.

Indeed, if the only purpose of "Father of the Four Passages" was to make the reader hate a loser drug addict abusive failure of a human being, I would not waste my or your time writing this. But, the story had, well, an ending...

Only those of us lucky enough to hit a personal rock bottom and survive will probably understand Sonia's redemption. Author Yamanaka has somehow conveyed this feeling of revelation to me with mere words on paper. The light! For this I give her book my highest rating. Thank you.

I Blame the Publisher for this Junk!.......2003-02-17

This was a disappointing book from the word GO, not just from the hackneyed lines delivered by the characters but the plot in general. I believe the publisher pushed this through hoping to make quick money off the writer's popularity.

Yamanaka disappoints in dreadful, chaotic tale of self-pity.......2002-05-26

It is almost impossible to believe that an author with the talents of Lois-Ann Yamanaka could write a novel as awful as "Father of the Four Passages." Ms. Yamanaka's three previous novels treat the traumas impoverished, alienated ethnic Hawaiians encounter as they come of age in what mainlanders would consider paradise. "Four Passages" presumably tackles these themes and tacks on how a dissipated, unconfident woman handles single motherhood in the shadow of suffocating guilt resulting from three previous abortions. Instead, this dreary, choppy story drowns in a disaffecting stew of alcohol, profanity and confusion.

If that weren't bad enough, Ms. Yamanaka has abandoned those qualities which make her previous books luminescent. Instead of using the patois of the island's lumpenproletariat, she forces her characters to mouth lines a television soap-opera writer would be embarrassed to use. Yamanaka's earlier works feature characters whose pain, isolation and dislocation compel both empathy and identification; the people who populate "Four Passages" are, ugly, mean and brutish. Her protagnoist, Sonia Kurisu, is a pathetic loser, completely without redeeming qualities. Her most salinet attribute is her seemingly endless capacity for self-pity. Yamanaka has failed so miserably in humanizing Sonia, that the protagnoist's ruined childhood -- replete with abandonment, religious hypocrisy and sexual insecurities -- engenders boredom rather than compassion. The supporting cast is even worse; stereotypical relatives and other low-life losers are simply unbelievable.

This lack of reality and basic believability crushes whatever art "Four Passages" may pretend to have. Even Yamanaka's style mocks her ability. For reasons beyond my ability to understand, Ms. Yamanaka frequently capitalizes words in the middle of the sentences. (Is this because what we are reading is some kind of experimental prose/poetry?) Her narrative dissipates its energy between unimpressive transitions from present to past. An absent father's poetic, third-person letters to Sonia, serve as constant reminders as to the unreality of the novel's entire premise.

Sadly, "Father of the Four Passages" reminds us that even our most creative and bold young authors miss their mark. This brutally vulgar novel fails. It fails to provide insight into the shattered hopes of a frightened, bewildered single parent. It fails to create characters with any dimension. It fails to enlighten, inform and instruct. However, its single greatest failure is its author's abandonment of those talents which rightfully propelled Lois-Ann Yamanaka to national attention.

Ohhhhhhhh!.......2001-05-29

I've never experienced such a work in my entire life. The use of fervent Christianity, symbolism, paranormal experiences, and emotional instability result resonate through my emotions. The surreal images were heartbreakingly beautiful when combined with the grittiness of seedy strip bars and junkies smacking up in filthy apartments. The experiences are intensified with the parallel surroundings of oceans versus Las Vegas. At first, I sat there reading it, racked by the explicit violence, hatred, and sadness, but soon I became numbed to the beauty of Hawaii and the heartache of Sonia Kurisu. I've never read another work by Yamanaka, but after reading this book, I believe I'll go look around for more. Definately try this book.

Four Complete Mysteries : Death by Sheer Torture + Death of a Perfect Mother + Death in a Cold Climate + Death of a Mystery Writer (COMPLETE / UNABRIDGED, 4 Novels in 1 Volume)

Average customer rating:

Four Complete Mysteries : Death by Sheer Torture + Death of a Perfect Mother + Death in a Cold Climate + Death of a Mystery Writer (COMPLETE / UNABRIDGED, 4 Novels in 1 Volume)
Robert Barnard
Manufacturer: Wings Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000ML01QA

Four Mothers, a Novel of folklore, Mystery & Fantasy mingling with 100 Years of History in Jerusalem

Average customer rating:

Four Mothers, a Novel of folklore, Mystery & Fantasy mingling with 100 Years of History in Jerusalem
Shifra Horn
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Namor the Sub-Mariner #20 : My Mother Myself (Marvel Comics)

Average customer rating:

Namor the Sub-Mariner #20 : My Mother Myself (Marvel Comics)
John Byrne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Antiquarian & Rare Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Batman | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

The Punisher #18 : Mother Russia Part Six (Max - Marvel Comics)

Average customer rating:

The Punisher #18 : Mother Russia Part Six (Max - Marvel Comics)
Garth Ennis
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Marvel | Publishers | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Antiquarian & Rare Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Batman | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

LOCAL GIRLS: More than a collection of short stories, yet not quite a novel, The local girls in question are Gretel Samuelson, her best friend, Jill, her mother, Franny, and Franny's cousin Margot--four characters in 15 related stories.

Average customer rating:

LOCAL GIRLS: More than a collection of short stories, yet not quite a novel, The local girls in question are Gretel Samuelson, her best friend, Jill, her mother, Franny, and Franny's cousin Margot--four characters in 15 related stories.
ALICE HOFFMAN
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JCSUD8

Book Description

With a compelling mix of historical personalities and fictional characters, Eugenia Price paints a vivid portrait of the Old South that has enchanted tens of millions of readers worldwide. To See Your Face Again, the second book in the Savannah Quartet, continues the story of the Browning and Mackay families with the attention to detail, sympathy for humanity, and intimate family history that are Eugenia Prices' hallmarks.Natalie Browning was a spoiled belle of sixteen when she met the man of her dreams aboard the steamship Pulaski. Burke Latimer, only eight years her senior, was a self-made man with no time for a pretty child. Then a night of terror ended the voyage and Burke discovered another Natalie. But the night that brought him love also wreaked disaster on his fortune, and Burke was forced to ask Natalie to wait until he could make a home worthy of her. Life had never denied Natalie before. Her need to be with Burke drove her to follow him to Geogia's back country, hoping to show him she was ready to be his bride. Could she grow up before she lost the love of her life forever?

Customer Reviews:

I really wanted to like this book........2004-10-30

Ms. Price does an excellent job of writing descriptions and presenting historic material in a way that is both interesting and accessible. I was especially impressed by the account of the sinking of the Pulaski. Her real life-based characters are well researched, though the dialogue is so stilted as to give the impression of being translated from Russian by someone whose primary language is Latin. I could get past this except for one thing: Ms. Price has saddled us with Caroline and Natalie Browning. These women have to be the most tedious characters in fiction since Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta and Lucy Farinelli. Caroline is a prig with a bad case of "I'm beautiful and wealthy and don't do a lick of work but my life is so harrrrrrd!" Please. As for Natalie, I grew heartily sick of reading (at least once per page, it seemed) about her "strong will" and "flawless beauty." Apparently all is forgiven--her tantrums, self-absorption and endangerment of others because she's fun to look at and has red hair. Me, I would have pushed her into the drink before the ship cleared the mouth of the Savannah River.

I also believe that Ms. Price did a disservice to the characters of Mary (Merry Willow) and Ben (Bending Willow) McDonald. As she has so often done when she writes about slaves and servants, Ms. Price tries hard to give these characters dignity and to showcase their uncorrupted nature. Alas, the effect is to patronize them and make them appear simple-minded rather than unspoiled. Try as I might, I just never saw what was so bad about Ben and thought that Natalie treated him abominably.

If you can get past the characters and the prissy dialogue, this is a pretty decent book. And if you want the real scoop on the Mackay and Stiles families, I recommend The Light of Other Days by Caroline Couper Stiles Lovell (Robert and Eliza Mackay's great-granddaughter).

This was a good book.......2000-01-17

This book was very fun to read. It kept you interested the whole time. I read this huge book in about two weeks because i couldn't stand not to miss a day reading it. It also made you want to read the next in the series which I am trying to figure out what its called. Eugenia Price did a wonderful job.

Good story with cardboard characters........1999-02-20

Very fast and very entertaining, this is a love story that develops very slowly but keeps the reader wanting to turn the page in hopes of things working out. Based on the factual sinking of the ship "Pulaski" which took the lives of some Savannah residents, Price sets Natalie Browning, daughter of "Savannah"'s Mark, on a crash course with destiny and some lessons in survival that are pretty interesting. However, the characters could be more believable. Natalie's flawless, flame-haired beauty is a little too often commented on and a little too hard to really digest, especially with the fact that she is, of course, a spoiled brat, an idea which is hardly new in literature. Her counterpart, Burke Latimer, is this golden Adonis whose dashing good looks are a little wooden as well, and his teasing of the bitchy Natalie smacks too much of something Margaret Mitchell has already done. Aside from that, though, congratulations again to Eugenia Price for creating engaging fiction from factual events.

I loved all her books. I am sorry to hear that she died........1998-08-24

This book is so wonderful. I have read the entire quartet. Also I have read the st. Simon's group. Do you gave a list of any other books she wrote? If so Email me at gmklipa@webtv.net. Her books read like personal diaries and you feel they are happening to real people and what the people of that period were really thinking. I was hoping to find out that she had written something else after the quartet and was disappointed to find out on your web site that she had died.

I LOVE HER BOOK!!!.......1998-02-03

I picked this book by mistake and fell in love with the story. It was sad however to find out that she passed away in 1996. I wish I could tell her that I loved and enjoyed reading it. I saw quite a long list of her other books and I can not wait to start reading all of them. Eugenia Price is definitely one of my favorite best writers.

Average customer rating:

To See Your Face Again
Eugenia Price
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000P43O8G

Average customer rating:

To See Your Face Again
Eugenia Price
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTSK22

To See Your Face Again, a Novel, the Sequel to Savannah

Average customer rating:

To See Your Face Again, a Novel, the Sequel to Savannah

Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company ,Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000HTRROG

Product Description

This book continues the saga of the Browning, Mackay, and Stiles clans in a moving, dramatic, and romantic tale that vividly evokes all the splendors of the Old South.

Average customer rating:

To See Your Face Again
Eugenia Price
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VDHFLI

When will we see your like again?: The changing face of Scottish football

Average customer rating:

When will we see your like again?: The changing face of Scottish football

Manufacturer: EUSPB
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 090491917X

Book Description

The Dominion War is over. The Federation is at peace. What better time for two legendary starship captains to set aside the demands of duty and simply take some well-deserved time off?

But when James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard arrive on Bajor to dive among the ruins of an ancient sunken city, conditions are far from what they had planned. The small group of scientists the captains have joined suddenly find their equipment sabotaged -- isolating them from Deep Space Nine™ and any hope of rescue -- as one by one, a murderer stalks them.

Cut off from the people and technology on which they have always depended, Kirk and Picard must rely on their own abilities, and their growing friendship, to solve the mysterious deaths and protect one of Bajor's greatest living treasures.

With time running out for a dying child trapped in the scientists' camp, and Picard missing after a diving disaster, Kirk must search his memories of the past to relive one of his earliest adventures, propelling him into a harrowing personal journey that reveals his path from young Starfleet officer to renowned legend, and the existence of a new and completely unsuspected threat to the existence of all life in the universe.

From the breathtaking shores of Bajor's Inland Sea to the welcoming arms of a seductive and deadly alien commander intent on making Kirk her own, Star Trek®: Captain's Peril spans space and time to present Captain Kirks most personal, and most extreme, adventure.

Download Description

"The Dominion War is over. The Federation is at peace. What better time for two legendary starship captains to set aside the demands of duty and simply take some well-deserved time off? But when James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard arrive on Bajor to dive among the ruins of an ancient sunken city, conditions are far from what they had planned. The small group of scientists the captains have joined suddenly find their equipment sabotaged -- isolating them from Deep Space NineT and any hope of rescue -- as one by one, a murderer stalks them. Cut off from the people and technology on which they have always depended, Kirk and Picard must rely more than ever on their own skills and abilities, and their growing friendship, to solve the mysterious deaths and protect one of Bajor's greatest living treasures. At the same time, Kirk finds the events he and Picard struggle with are similar to one of the first challenges he faced as the new captain of the Starship EnterpriseT, less than six months into his first five-year mission. Now, with time running out for a dying child trapped in the scientists' camp, and Picard missing after a diving disaster, Kirk must search his memories of the past to relive one of his earliest adventures, propelling him into a harrowing personal journey that reveals the beginning of his path from young Starfleet officer to renowned legend, and the existence of a new and completely unsuspected threat to the existence of all life in the universe. From the breathtaking shores of Bajor's Inland Sea to the welcoming arms of a seductive and deadly alien commander intent on making Kirk her own, Star Trek®, Captain's Peril is the exciting new novel that spans space and time to present Captain Kirk's most personal, and most extreme, adventure yet. "

Customer Reviews:

Very good reading.......2007-09-08

Anyone who enjoys Startrek books will enjoy this book by THE Captain himself. I recommend all three books by William Shatner.

Part VII of the Kirk Saga. Beginning of the end. .......2006-10-13

This is the first chapter of the Captain's trilogy that leads into what's in my opinion an excellent conclusion to the Kirk Saga. After a couple of year break in between the Mirror Universe trilogy and this trilogy I had lost some interest in Star Trek. Even all of William Shatner's novels have been excellent, I had started college when this book came out (Summer 2001) and just didn't read it. This year (2006) I regreted that decision greatly after reading Captain's Blood and Captain's Glory (which I just finished Captain's Glory last week. Highly highly recommended).

Anyway, for me Captain's Peril acted almost like a prequel because I read parts 2 and 3 first. Let me tell you I really wish I had read Captain's Peril when it came out. It introduces the Totality, tells a great early adventure of James T. Kirk on his first Enterprise NCC-1701, and a great "bonding" adventure between Kirk and Picard that hasn't been in any of the previous novels. This novel is excellent and I would highly recommend you don't do what I did and read all three books in the totality trilogy in order. This book is a little slower than the ones in the past but still a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Highly recommended. 9/10.

May be the best by Shatner yet........2005-05-07

Shatner's previous novels, while interesting and fun, had a bit too much of the tendancy to make "his character", James T. Kirk, into a superhero/demigod. This tendancy is hardly unique to Shatner, but it's even more unbecoming when coming from a mature man who clearly identifies with the character (for the rather obvious reason that he played it on TV and the movies) than it is when coming from an immature hero-worshiping fan. This book largely avoided that problem, and if some fans of "The Next Generation" will feel that Picard came off looking rather pale by comparison to Kirk, that was more because Picard was given somewhat short shrift than because Kirk was made to look too good. And it isn't entirely unfair to make Picard come across as stodgy and dull by comparison to Kirk; he IS.

There are really two stories here; one is set on post-Dominion war Bajor, where Kirk and Picard are "vacationing". The other is a flashback, told mostly by Kirk to Picard (although not in his own voice; we get it in standard third-person narrative while Picard is hearing it directly from Kirk), a story of his first real adventure on the Enterprise, many years ago. The transitions between stories weren't always entirely seamless, and some of the excuses used for returning to the flashback story when Kirk WASN'T telling the story to Picard were somewhat weak, but the story itself was extremely good, showing some of the tensions between Kirk and his crew (particularly Spock) before they became acquainted well enough to trust each other's style and judgement. We also see a cameo of Uhura's first taste of bridge action, which was handled very well.

The other story, the "current" one, wasn't quite as good, in fact started quite slowly, but actually picked up quite well by the end. By itself, I probably wouldn't have given it more than three stars, but it would have been a high three stars, almost good enough for four. I suppose it isn't surprising that Shatner continues to have a much better feel for the original series characters and settings than the later ones.

Woop! Forget Something?.......2005-02-02

This novel is average at best. The ending of the main story is interesting, but the secondary "flashback" story is simply dropped. It is odd when you read something for a couple of hundred pages and then it just disappears. Very strange...like something is missing. I can't say much more without needlessly giving away too much information.

The character of Picard is treated poorly. He comes off as a somewhat scared, play by the rules flunky to Kirk's "damn the torpedo" persona. Both characters are represented poorly. This continues the later Shatner novel characterizations which is unfortunate since the first novels were so good.

On the positive, the main story is vaguely interesting if you are willing to put up with yet another "murder mystery" Trek novel.

In the end, the novel was an ok read but nothing to right a review about...oh wait, too late.

Kirk is only human. (In case you didn't know).......2004-02-11

The Captain's Peril is the third of William Shatner's novels I have read. I first read Dark Victory. I was disapointed that it ended and I had to get The Preservers to finish the story. I enjoyed them and went out looking for the books that Shatner had written. I found The Captain's Peril. I started it and couldn't put it down. It was good to see that Kirk and Picard could get together and not always be saving everyone. I found they were seen as normal, not as superman. This story is written by William Shatner, so it centers around James T. Kirk. Picard is a his side kick. I was surprized that the story took place over just a few days, but kept my attention thru the entire story. Now I'm getting all of the rest of William Shatner's books. If they are as good as this, I will be eagerly waiting for new novel to continue the life of James T. Kirk.

HEN FRIGATES: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea

Average customer rating:

Hen Frigates
Interesting ride along......
Interesting ride along......
Fascinating chronicle of womens' history/Victorian mores

HEN FRIGATES: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea
Joan Druett
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0684854341

Book Description

A "hen frigate," traditionally, was any ship with the captain's wife on board. Hen frigates were miniature worlds -- wildly colorful, romantic, and dangerous. Here are the dramatic, true stories of what the remarkable women on board these vessels encountered on their often amazing voyages: romantic moonlit nights on deck, debilitating seasickness, terrifying skirmishes with pirates, disease-bearing rats, and cockroaches as big as a man's slipper. And all of that while living with the constant fear of gales, hurricanes, typhoons, collisions, and fire at sea. Interweaving first-person accounts from letters and journals in and around the lyrical narrative of a sea journey, maritime historian Joan Druett brings life to these stories. We can almost feel for ourselves the fear, pain, anger, love, and heartbreak of these courageous women. Lavishly illustrated, this breathtaking book transports us to the golden age of sail.

Customer Reviews:

Hen Frigates.......2002-01-09

This is an outstanding non-fiction book so alive with detailed stories about women aboard ships that it reads like a novel. It discloses not only women's stories about long journeys, shipwrecks, and daily experiences on board, but how women served as navigators across seas around the world. A splendid source on 19th century sailing.

Interesting ride along.............2001-02-28

"Hen Frigates" is such a specific book, one can hardly imagine the time and research it must have taken to pull it all together. Ms. Druett has compiled list after list, diary excerpt after diary excerpt etc. to transport us into days past. Even though the time periods vary with the womens accounts, the stories all seem to ring the same. Each wife suffered through the same torments of life on the sea, but also in time relished with her husband. This is an interesting fact as husbands could sometimes be away for three years at a time with ittle or no contact home. By allowing the wives to share in the shipping/whaling experience, their marriage became all the stronger, or all the weaker in some cases. It is so easy for we in the 21st century to take advantage of all the amenities we use in everyday life, but the brave women portrayed lived as the sailors lived...sparsely. Raising children is difficult enough on land, but to do it on a ship sailing the seven seas, must have proved to be near impossible at times. All in all, a very interesting book on a forgotten subject.

Interesting ride along.............2001-02-28

Fascinating chronicle of womens' history/Victorian mores.......1999-06-08

This book is a compendium of the experiences of 19th century women who spent much of their lives on board sailing ships. Largely invisible in naval chronicles, a not inconsiderable number of wives and daughters accompanied merchant captains of that time. These globe-hopping women and girls led highly unconventional lives. They faced everything from abject boredom to dire peril from pirates, mutineers and the loss of loved ones from illness and injury - yet managed to overcome almost every challenge.

The book is organized into broad categories of experience, and uses the womens' own words from letters and diaries to tell their stories. There are lots of thumbnail illustrations of shipboard life, too. All in all this is a fascinating peek at Victorian conventionality and how far women could go in stretching it while remaining firmly trussed within its bounds.

Average customer rating:

Buy this book, you won't regret it!

A Bit Dangerous

"In Peril" Farley Mowat would be proud....

Well worth your time

The review sums up my thoughts better than I can

In Peril: A Daring Decision, a Captain's Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History
Skip Strong , and Twain Braden
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Australia & Oceania | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Sailing into the Abyss: A True Story of Extreme Heroism on the High Seas--winner of the 2006 US Maritime Literature Award

The Grey Seas Under: The Perilous Rescue Mission of a N.A. Salvage Tug

The Serpent's Coil

The Sea's Bitter Harvest: Thirteen Deadly Days on the North Atlantic

The Last American Sailors: A Wild Ride in the Modern Merchant Marine

ASIN: 1592285945

Book Description

There is hidden danger at sea--but more in court.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this book, you won't regret it! .......2006-01-17

This is a fantastic book. If you work on the water or enjoy stories about the sea, you will enjoy this great adventure. Capt. Bill Miller

A Bit Dangerous .......2005-07-12

I love books like this, any adventure against good old mother nature with a significant amount of danger and big machines tossed in for effect. That is why I thought I would love this book. I did enjoy it and I found that I learned a great deal about everything from the NASA Space Shuttle to oil tanker operations. I also got a good dose of what it is like to be in the merchant marine. The issue I had with the book is that I did not think it lived up to the description on the dust jacket. I thought there would be far more "seconds away from death" type adventure.

The book covers the three days period of time when an oil tanker came to the rescue of a tug boat pulling an external fuel tank for the shuttle during a topical storm. Sure it sounds like an odd bunch of vehicles, but that adds to the charm of the story. That sounds like some excitement and to be fair the book did have a good amount, but perfect storm it was not. I just thought that outside of a large monetary loss, the outcome of the rescue had it not worked would have been only property damage to one specialized gas tank. I was just expecting and I guess looking for more excitement. To give the book credit though it was interesting and had exciting parts. It just was not a top tier nail biter type book.

"In Peril" Farley Mowat would be proud...........2005-01-18

As a student of maritime salvage, I read whatever is available on this subject.
I enjoyed this book as much as my two favorite books on the subject; "Grey Seas Under" and "Serpents Coil" by Farley Mowat.
All three of these books are writen with a flair of adventure and keep the reader hooked till the end.
This author "lived" the experence and did a wonderful job of writing his adventure...... A warning however: This book will keep you up late at night in order to see what happens next...

Well worth your time.......2004-05-04

This is one of those "can't put down" books we all look for and so infrequently find. The story will hold your attention and the writing moves along with an economy of words. It's not clipped but the pace is quick. Despite this, the reader gains an insight into the inner workings of the modern maritime industry.

If you like true-to-life stories of danger and adventure, then you'll love this.

The review sums up my thoughts better than I can.......2004-03-14

>Ron Berthel, Books Editor, AP Weekly Features
>50 Rockefeller Plaza
>New York, NY 10020

In their book, "In Peril," Skip Strong and Twain Braden present a dramatic narrative of events that occurred only 10 years ago but are rooted in ancient seafaring traditions and practices.
The book's subtitle _ "A Daring Decision, a Captain's Resolve, and the Salvage That Made History" _ pretty much sums it up.
On Nov. 15, 1994, the tanker Cherry Valley was transporting 10 million gallons of fuel oil from New Orleans, La., to Jacksonville, Fla.
Prentice "Skip" Strong III, then 32, was making his second trip as captain of the 688-foot vessel.
Also sailing from New Orleans was the 114-foot tugboat J.A. Orgeron, en route to NASA at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and towing a barge loaded with a 150-foot aluminum space-shuttle fuel cell. The value of the fairly lightweight but bulky cargo was more than
$50 million.
Both the Cherry Valley and the J.A. Orgeron had left the Gulf of Mexico and were navigating north in the Atlantic Ocean about 10 miles off Florida's east coast when they ran into Hurricane Gordon.
In the midst of torrential, blinding rain and wind gusts of 40-60 knots, one of the tugboat's engines failed. The sea and wind pummeled the helpless tug and its valuable tow and pushed them toward the potentially deadly Bethel Shoal, off Fort Pierce.
The tug's skipper broadcast a distress call, requesting assistance from any nearby ship.
Only the Cherry Valley was close, but it was not a good candidate for offering aid. Being a tanker made the Cherry Valley unsuited for any type of salvage work. Also, it lacked the
cables and winches needed for towing another vessel in a storm, and its crew of 25 had no training in rescue procedures.
What's more, the Cherry Valley was a single-hull tanker built before the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 made double-hull construction mandatory. Therefore, to try a rescue operation with such a large and fairly unwieldy ship during a hurricane and near a lee shore was a risk its captain could easily have avoided.
But Strong was not that sort of captain. Answering the centuries-old unwritten law demanding that sailors help each other in times of danger, he immediately set his course for the distressed tug and barge. The Cherry Valley was eventually able to take them in tow and move them from the shallow waters that endangered all three vessels.
As a result of their action, Strong and his crew were awarded the American Merchant Marine Seamanship Trophy.

In keeping with long-established practices, Keystone Shipping Co., owner of the Cherry Valley, applied for the salvage award. A dispute led to legal action, resutling in a judgment against NASA for almost $5 million_ the most in U.S. maritime history.

"In Peril" offers illuminating details about merchant marine practices in the waters off theSoutheast, life aboard merchant ships and the highly specialized field of maritime law.

Average customer rating:
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
Captain W. E. Johns
Manufacturer: Dean & Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000T7J32U

Average customer rating:
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
Captain W. E. Johns
Manufacturer: Dean & Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RRT83Q

Average customer rating:
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
Captain W. E. Johns
Manufacturer: Dean & Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM3LQY

Average customer rating:
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
Captain W. E. Johns
Manufacturer: Dean & Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SULYR0

Average customer rating:
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
CAPTAIN W. E. JOHNS
Manufacturer: THAMES PUBLISHING CO.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RY6DPA

Average customer rating:
Biggles and The Black Peril
Captain W E Johns
Manufacturer: Dean & Son Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J2MD5Y

Average customer rating:
The Forest Exiles or the Perils of a Peruvian Family Amid the Wilds of the Amazon
Captain Mayne Reid
Manufacturer: Ticknor and Fields
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S9FLRA

Average customer rating:
The Power of Spiritual Alignment
Frank Damazio
Manufacturer: City Christian Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Bible & Other Sacred Texts | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Developing the Prophetic Ministry

The Vanguard Leader: Becoming A Strategic Leader

14 Tests All Leaders Must Face: Understanding the Seasons of Refinement (Life Impact)

The Making of a Leader

The Timothy Training Program - Teacher Edition

ASIN: 1886849870

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books