Book Description
Howard Frank Mosher has earned both critical acclaim and a wide readership for his vivid historical portraits of northern New England residents in his fictional Kingdom County, Vermont. A Stranger in the Kingdom tells the unforgettable story of a brutal murder in a small town and the devastating events that follow. The town's new preacher, a black man, finds himself on trial more for who he is than for what he might have done in this powerful drama of passion, prejudice, and innocence suddenly lost . . . and perhaps found again.
Customer Reviews:
Heller.......2004-06-26
I thought this book was a bit like getting on a roller coaster and taking the long slow clime and then suenlly you are set flying. For anyone who likes thrills such as a roller coaster I recomend this New England novel.
Mockingbird in New England.......2004-06-24
A very To Kill a Mockingbird-esque story about a small town in 1950s Vermont that is suddenly shaken by murder. The suspect is the town's new black preacher, Rev. Andrews. While traditionally pre-Civil War New England was a haven for escaped slaves, abolitionists, and of course advocates of freedom and equal rights (going all the way back to colonial America, which was New England), modern small New England towns, even today, tend to have a very minimal black population. Kingdom is no exception. So while most New Englanders pride themselves on their racial-tolerance and acceptance, it is very rarely tested.
Though be fore-warned it can be a slow-read.
Stranger in the Kingdom.......2004-06-23
Howard Frank Mosher did a great job of setting his book in New England. The characters were well rounded, the reader was given a lot of details on the area and the town was a small New England town. However with such great work on the back ground the book needed a little more umph. The book didnt actually start till about chapter 14. There was a lot of detail that the reader could have done without. Once it became a murder mystery in a small town it became quite good. It had a lot of twist and turns. People were betrayed and others learned the meaning of life. If you have a long weekend stuck in doors this is a great book. If you plan on a fast read think again.
New England Novel.......2004-06-23
I gave this book three stars because I found it was a dramatic tail taking place in a small upstate Vermont town. However the first half of the book seemed to drag and was spent on unnecessary character development. This is definetly a good book, just do your self a favor and start reading it from the middle.
Boring.......2004-06-22
This book was extremely boring to be honest with everyone who reads this review. It took FOREVER to pick up. It picked up after Chapter 14 which was basically TORTURE!! The trial though was great. The author did a well done job when he wrote the trial and all that. After that the book ended up drawing you in and you wanted to know more. The only thing is that it picked up in chapter 14 as I already said and there were only 21 chapters. But the little I enjoyed I loved. I believe most people would like this book due to the trial but they will suffer until they reach there. I think the author just wrote about a bunch of stuff that was irrelevant to us the readers. Prejudice though is one of the main topics of the book and it was greatly portrait and described by the author which I do give him 5 STARS on it. Just how he wrote about the racism I picture most of the New England states being racist back in the day and a little bit still today even though not to the point of killing. I name this novel a New England Novel because of the setting and the characters and the happenings. A+ on that Mosher, but sorry I will have to Give you a D+ for making me fall asleep!
Average customer rating:
- Manning, Huxley, Godden and others
|
Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire
Phyllis Lassner
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 081353416X |
Book Description
Colonial Strangers revolutionizes modern British literary studies by showing how our interpretations of the postcolonial must confront World War II and the Holocaust. Phyllis Lassner's analysis reveals how writers such as Muriel Spark, Olivia Manning, Rumer Godden, Phyllis Bottome, Elspeth Huxley, and Zadie Smith insist that World War II is critical to understanding how and why the British Empire had to end.
Drawing on memoirs, fiction, reportage, and film adaptations, Colonial Strangers explores the critical perspectives of writers who correct prevailing stereotypes of British women as agents of imperialism. They also question their own participation in British claims of moral righteousness and British politics of cultural exploitation. These authors take center stage in debates about connections between the racist ideologies of the Third Reich and the British Empire.
Colonial Strangers reveals how the literary responses of key artists represent not only compelling reading, but also a necessary intervention in colonial and postcolonial debates and the canons of modern British fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Manning, Huxley, Godden and others .......2007-09-10
The author looks at the writing of Olivia Manning, Muriel Spark, Ethel Mannin, Rumer Godden, Elspeth Huxley, Phyllis Shand Alfrey, Phyllis Bottome, and Zadie Smith. Each of these women wrote of the British empire and its decline and fall.
The minute examination of authors by professors of literature often reveals as much about the professors as it does of the authors. Lassner seems focused on race, World War II, and the holocaust and she fits the women authors into those boxes. Thus, I found her examination of the Balkan and Levant trilogies by Olivia Manning made them almost unrecognizable. The Manning trilogies are, in my opinion, a meticulous study of a marriage and a small society of British expatriates on the run from the advancing Germans in World War II. They are great novels for memorable characters and an atmosphere of doom and tension, but race and colonialism are minor threads of the story. Similarly, Elspeth Huxley's "Flame Trees of Thika" seem to me to be little more than a lovely, literary -- and semi-fictional -- recollection of a childhood in colonial Kenya.
Lassner finds prescience among her writers that the British Empire is coming to its just and deserved end. However, in the case of Manning, she wrote her trilogies between 1960 and 1980, after the British empire had come to an end, so I see no especial insight in Manning's writings about colonialism and World War II except 20/20 hindsight. Similarly, Huxley writing "Flame Trees" in 1959 may have portrayed her early 20th century life in Kenya to reflect the values of the 50s.
I don't know the other women writers Lassner examines so I can't comment as to whether or not she is on the mark. With both Manning and Huxley, however, her analysis strains to find deeper meanings in what are -- and were probably intended to be -- informative high-quality entertainments. This book gave me a viewpoint on Manning and Huxley that is much more complex from my own.
Smallchief
Download Description
Leonie rejected Vidal's first proposal because of his arrogance, his womanizing -- and his powerful sexuality, which left her trembling.
Now the Portuguese billionaire is back in her life -- and this time he has a hold over her. He will settle her father's debt, and make her his legal mistress.
But Vidal doesn't want a mistress. He wants marriage. And he's determined to possess Leonie -- in every way....
Customer Reviews:
not perfect but very good : ).......2006-07-25
this book is Harlequin`s Bedded by Blackmail-serie...Forced to bed...then to wed?
Very good!!!.......2006-06-24
FROM BACK COVER:
Leonie rejected Vidal's first proposal because of his arrogance, his womanizing--and his powerful sexuality, which left her trembling.
Now the Portuguese billionaire is back in her life--and this time he has a hold over her. He will settle her father's debt, and make her his legal mistress.
But Vidal doesn't want a mistress. He wants marriage. And he's determined to possess Leonie--in every way....
Vidal first met Leonie in her father's office two years previously. They were instantly attracted to each other. They dated for a while and since she was the only woman that he could see himself married to, he proposes to Leonie.
Because of a misunderstanding, Leonie turned down Vidal's proposal...
They met up again two years later to discuss her father's future, they discover they are still strongly attracted to each other, Vidal does his best to get Leonie back.
This book was very passionately written and the attration between Vidal and Leonie was fantastic. Add the dynamics of other family members from both sides and you have yourself a very good book.
Book Description
WIFE TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
To save the family fortune, billionaire Jack Osland had to marry a woman he barely knew. Getting struggling clothing designer Kristy Mahoney to a Las Vegas chapel a minute after meeting her was no problem. Even though she supposedly loved someone else. Prenup in hand, Jack planned to enjoy his wedding-night privileges, then walk away with the untouchable Osland billions. He'd teach his gorgeous temporary bride a little lesson and have a very merry Christmas. But he had married the wrong woman.…
Customer Reviews:
Classy.......2005-02-04
Ethan Bennington is a billionaire whose advertising business has gone under thanks to his father's indiscretions. Maggie Todd is a high school custodian (how cool is that for a romance heroine?) who volunteers her time for a charity auction. A potential client makes Ethan a deal: if Ethan can "make over" the decidedly unglamorous Maggie so that she will be fit for high society, this client will help rescue Ethan's business. Ethan buys Maggie's time, and takes on the challenge. But he soon discovers that not even business success can make him very eager to really change sweet, tough Maggie, who can repair anything--maybe even Ethan's wounded heart. When a surprise revelation suddenly catapults Maggie into "high society" for real, Ethan must find a way to convince her that he loves her for who she is, not for what position she holds.
Four-and-a-half stars; a sweet and memorable story marred only slighty by getting a bit lurid in places, as Maggie contemplates Ethan's, ahem, romantic expertise. A must-read for any woman with a thing for pretty shoes.
Book Description
Two of his heirs having been ruled out, the king turns to the black sheep of the family.… Luca Fierezza is a royal rebel. He's made Niroli a magnet for the rich and famous—and himself a billionaire.
Megan Donovan's stunned when she's jailed after working at Luca's casino. And her unlikely rescuer is her new boss, Luca! She's entirely at his mercy…and his passion!
A scandal will end Luca's chance to be king. But he wants little thief Megan at his beck and call, day and night!
Book Description
Every five thousand years, so the people of the planet Thanet believe, the world ends in fire and a new cycle of creation begins. Now the Last Days are once again upon them, and a fiery star draws near. This is the Death-Bringer, the Eater of the World, whose coming heralds the end of all things....
But to Captain Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise™; the Death-Bringer appears to be nothing but a rogue comet, easily destroyed. Picard faces a difficult dilemma: how can he save the Thanetians' rich and intricate civilization without destroying the very beliefs upon which their culture is based?
This quandary is challenge enough, yet the captain's position becomes even more complicated when Deanna Troi discovers that, incredibly, the comet is alive!
Customer Reviews:
Oh Boy, A Stinker For Sure.......2005-09-30
I really do hate writing bad reviews of Trek novels because I love Trek novels so much, but this has to be the worst novel based on Trek that I have ever read. Talk about forced reading, it was a complete struggle just to get through all that I did. Don't expect this to be an astounding story, it definitely isn't.
Boring and uninspired, there are plenty of other Trek novels out there that are A Lot better
By no means an average ST Book.......2005-07-31
I certainly agree with those who think that this diverges from and doesn't fit in to the ST universe properly ... perhaps largely because a lot of it appears to view ST's preoccupations ironically, and ST fanatics don't seem to share the book's gentle satirical fun at some of ST's stuffier side. But I have to say it has been one of the most enjoyable ST books at all, probably thanks to its distinctive flavor ... somewhat diluted from Somtow's classic sci fi trilogy of the 1980s.
Not THAT bad.......2004-06-08
This book was a slight disappointment to me because, based on the title and the back-of-the-book synopsis I expected a far more philosophical view at the problem of the day. It turned out however to be quite clear as to what was going to happen as well as what needed to happen. There were no dire consequences to the success of the story. What I mean by this is I was expecting this book to be a "if we don't find a solution there'll be HUGE trouble, if we find a solution there'll still be some trouble." There was also a part near the end where they went trough the holosuite history of a planet that I think lasted entirely too long. I still gave this 3 stars however, because once I was over the fact that it wasn't a philosophical story, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.
Split down the middle........2003-12-18
I've noticed that most of the reviews for this album are either 5 stars or 1...it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing for most. As for me, I may have a rather unique perspective because I was very much of two minds about it. Since ultimately I chose to purchase and keep it for future re-reading, I rounded my 2.5 rating up to 3 stars (2 and 1 are for items I do not keep). In order to prepare for this review, I found myself keeping a pros-and-cons list so that I could try to accurately report both. I found, though, that on some of the very same points, I would feel one way about it one second and the opposite a moment later!
Perhaps the best thing that Do Comets Dream? had going for it was the rich descriptive prose. I do not always get vivid sensory impressions as I read, but in this case I could certainly envision myself in this colorful world. Similarly, the richness of the culture he devised was quite enticing, and I vastly preferred the scenes that delved into the history of Thanet to those involving the Enterprise crew. The reason for the existence of the thanopstru was certainly an engaging tale, as well as a look into the political machinations of Thanet.
However, I had mixed feelings about the heavy allusions to Earth culture and languages. On one hand, it was rather fascinating to try to pick them all out, but on the other, I also started to see it as a cheap substitute for inventiveness on the author's part. I would have been even more impressed by his inventing his own mythology rather than a retelling (even such a vivid one) of our own histories. Certain parallels were simply TOO close to be believable. For instance, what are the odds of another world developing root words such as "mnemo-" for memory and "thanop-" for death, which are close to words in ancient Greek holding the *same* meaning? This is where it becomes hard to suspend disbelief.
As I alluded to before, the scenes with the Enterprise crew were nowhere near as convincing as the ones involving characters of Somtow's own creation (with the exception of Simon Tarses, whom Somtow was pretty much on his own to describe, anyway). Another problem that I had with this book was the extremely shoddy editing job. I find myself wondering if Somtow was uncertain of what he wanted to name the young Icelandic student who won a tour on the Enterprise for winning an essay contest (Speaking of unrealistic--after the failure of the Enterprise-D, did Starfleet not decide that it was too dangerous to have children on board ship?). This is because I found the following three spellings: "Engvig", "Envig", and even "Envgvig". The fact that neither Somtow nor the editors rectified this glaring inconsistency is truly pathetic.
Overall, this book merits only a 2.5, but because it can offer an engaging read at times, I kept it and gave it the 3-star rating.
Is this really a Star Trek story?.......2003-12-03
My opinion of this book is that the author tried to work in some kind of connection with Star Trek just to get it published. If I wasn't told, and there weren't some Star Trek characters (poorly portrayed) then I wouldn't have known it was ST. It would have been better to develop the story better and publish it on it's own.
Book Description
Acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto strips away the legends from the life of Francis of Assisi to reveal the true story of a man who has too often been obscured by pious iconography. Drawing on unprecedented access to unexplored archives, plus Francis's own letters, Spoto places Francis within the context of the multifaceted ecclesiastical, political, and social forces of medieval Italy, casting new light on Francis and showing how his emphasis on charity as the heart of the Gospel's message helped him pioneer a new social movement. This nuanced portrait reveals the multifaceted character of a man who can genuinely be said to have changed the course of history.
Customer Reviews:
St Francis as human, not as fantasy.......2007-08-02
I have been enjoying reading this book because not only do we learn about francis, but we also have the opportunity to learn about the society in which he lived in and its values, etc. And what I also love is that francis is portrayed as the human he was and not as some fantasy land, high in the clouds character. You will enjoy this book!!!
A great book.......2007-07-03
St Francis is a model saint. Donald Spoto wrote a thorough and moving account of his life. It is hard to get in the mind of another person but this book certainly provided a framework of St Francis's life and thought process. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to further understand the life of this very spiritual saint.
Another Life.......2007-06-08
Donald Spoto's Reluctant Saint is good introduction of the life of Francis of Assisi. It pulls together many of the "lives" of this saint written by original sources and the modern reflection on his life.
One of best features of the book is clearly breaking the chapters into dates so you can sequentially go through Francis's life and compare with the events occurring at the time in the rest of Europe.
The book does not have the emotion and passion of some the "lives" of this saint but this somes times makes his subject closer to us.
Clearly shows Francis as both a man of his times but also one for ours.
Disappointed.......2006-11-05
The book never arrived. I know about the book so can rate it, but I never received it.
a good read.......2006-08-12
Donald Spoto, a PhD theologian, has written a meticulously researched and inspiring biography of Saint Francis of Assisi.
To some degree he has "updated" our understanding of Saint Francis by explaining how some of the traditions pertaining to Saint Francis were based on conventions of his time. For example, he explains how sores that which one generally didn't mention in public became stigmata, which one did mention, and how the children's crusade came to be described as a children's crusade even though it was a crusade of the poor because the church authorities were loath to acknowledge the existence of the poor.
While I enjoyed reading this book, I did find that it is so short that it is more a sketch than a painting of Saint Francis.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1866 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: A Francis for our times.(Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi)(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Russell Hittinger
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Page: 55(5)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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