Stars and Bars: A Novel

Book Description

Sharply observed and brilliantly plotted, Stars and Bars is an uproarious portrait of culture clash deep in the heart of the American South, by one of contemporary literature’s most imaginative novelists.

A recent transfer to Manhattan has inspired art assessor Henderson Dores to shed his British reserve and aspire to the impulsive and breezy nature of Americans. But when Loomis Gage, an eccentric millionaire, invites him to appraise his small collection of Impressionist paintings, Dores's plans quite literally go south. Stranded at a remote mansion in the Georgia countryside, Dores is received by the bizarre Gage family with Anglophobic slurs, nausea-inducing food, ludicrous death threats, and a menacing face off with competing art dealers. By the time he manages to sneak back to New York City–sporting only a cardboard box–Henderson Dores realizes he is fast on the way to becoming a naturalized citizen.

Customer Reviews:

highs and lows.......2002-08-11

STARS AND BARS provided one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I've ever had. Henderson Dores and the befuddlement he felt at the various situations in which he found himself were a constant source of humor, sometimes hilarity, and of admiration for Boyd's inventiveness and style. However,while I'm no prude I found a couple of scenes offensive; sometimes Boyd comes across as a case of arrested development in his need to describe female genitalia. This trait is especially offensive in one particular scene where the context is not sexual and the details are beyond unnecessary. I've since read ARMADILLO, which is also great fun; it also is more substantial and contains less of the prurience. I look forward to reading more Boyd, as he is a top-notch storyteller. However, if he hasn't yet, he needs to get over his distracting little obsession.

Cartoon Stereotypes.......2002-04-18

This book was written in the 1980s when life in New York City was a bit wilder than what it's become today. New Yorkers figure prominently here, as do American "southerners" and a Britisher, who embodies all of that country's cultural archetypes: restraint, "shyness," proper behavior, etc. Put these characters together and you get the joke: a series of cultural clashes and bloopers, mad people, bizarre behavior, appalled reactions, humiliations, revelations, improbable plot twists, and all other manner of silliness. But is it any good, you ask? I guess it depends on your mood. If you're in the mood to watch cartoons and giggle at stereotypes (rude New Yorkers, dumb southerners, brash Jewish princesses) you'll think this work is good. If you want some substance with your humor, you probably should go elsewhere.
I stuck it out because the plot does move along eventually and some of the characters are sufficiently kooky to be interesting, but I was mildly offended by the constant hammering away at the stereotypes, all of which have been utterly exhausted by standup comics, the movies, TV, etc etc ad nauseam. Reader, beware!

Confederama.......2001-11-20

This transatlantic comedy of errors is a nice bit of whimsy. Somehow it blends high art, fencing, embarassed English, trailer-trash Southerners, strange criminal activity and unexpected romance. Henderson's perigrinations through the South seem serve no higher literary goal than to amuse and bemuse, but even in Alabama that's no crime.

Hysterical! Buy one for you and a friend........2001-07-19

The first time I read this book I had to keep re-reading passages because it was so hilarious! I had tears in my eyes at one point. I recommend this book to everyone who loves the South and has a great imagination. The main character's portrayal of this odd range of Southern characters is priceless, as well as the New York City group. The plot is so full of twists and turns that you are constantly surprised. Out of all of William Boyd's books, this is the only one I have really enjoyed; I could hardly put it down and I reread it every couple of years. This is a true classic.

Amazing, witty plot shaped by Boyd's fine sarcasm.......1999-06-10

I have been so pushed to buy and read this book that my expectation grew up and so did my fear for wasting money on another boring novel.Surprise!A bright plot that has captured my attention from the very first line.Two lifestyles: a proper tea-sipping english lad vs a beer-drinker american buddy.What a clash.The main character floats on a sea of hazards and casualties and beg you to sympathize with his helpless effort to "sort it out".Boyd's irony is the dressing to that weirdo salad.

Product Description

Hardcover with Dust Jacket, 8 5/8" x 5 3/4", 383 pages. Bound in 1/4 black cloth with marbled blue boards.

Amazon.com

Jean Auel's fifth novel about Ayla, the Cro-Magnon cavewoman raised by Neanderthals, is the biggest comeback bestseller in Amazon.com history. In The Shelters of Stone, Ayla meets the Zelandonii tribe of Jondalar, the Cro-Magnon hunk she rescued from Baby, her pet lion. Ayla is pregnant. How will Jondalar's mom react? Or his bitchy jilted fiancée? Ayla wows her future in-laws by striking fire from flint and taming a wild wolf. But most regard her Neanderthal adoptive Clan as subhuman "flatheads." Clan larynxes can't quite manage language, and Ayla must convince the Zelandonii that Clan sign language isn't just arm-flapping. Zelandonii and Clan are skirmishing, and those who interbreed are deemed "abominations." What would Jondalar's tribe think if they knew Ayla had to abandon her half-breed son in Clan country? The plot is slow to unfold, because Auel's first goal is to pack the tale with period Pleistocene detail, provocative speculation, and bits of romance, sex, tribal politics, soap opera, and homicidal wooly rhino-hunting adventure. It's an enveloping fact-based fantasy, a genre-crossing time trip to the Ice Age. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

After their epic journey across Europe, Ayla and Jondalar have reached his home, the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the old stone age settlement in the region known today as southwest France. Jondalar's family greet him warmly, but they are initially wary of the beautiful young woman he has brought back, with her strange accent and her tame wolf and horses.

Ayla has much to learn from the Zelandonii and much to teach them. She is intrigued by their clothes, their crafts, and their home, and wants to learn their customs and the ways that they live, so that she will fit in. She is delighted when she meets Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of her people, a fellow healer with whom she can share medicinal skills and knowledge. The Zelandonii are surprised to learn she was found and raised by the Clan, the ones that they call flatheads and think of as animals, and are skeptical when she tells them they are people.

After the rigors and dangers that have characterized her extraordinary life so far, Ayla yearns for peace and tranquility, to be Jondalar's mate and to have children. But her unique spiritual gifts cannot be ignored, and even as she gives birth to her eagerly-awaited child, she is coming to accept that she has a greater role to play in the destiny of the Zelandonii.

Customer Reviews:

No stars, No story.......2007-10-06

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't let you rate a book with zero stars. How so little could happen in so many pages, I'll never know.

A decent book but a lot of the same old stuff.......2007-09-14

So I have read the Earth Children series a few times and I thought that this was a decent addition, but it has nothing on the first two books. I agree with the review that talk about how great it would be if Ayla and Jondalar had mediocre sex for once and if Ayla could become less of a godess. I kept waiting for the people in the book to proclaim Ayla The doni in person and build her a throne of gold. I did enjoy the Summer Meeting and seeing Ayla and Jondalar finally mate. A lot of people go on and on about how wonderful the historial descriptions are but personally I skip over them. I can't spend 20 pages reading about the color of a lake!!! All and all pretty good but not the best. I am looking foward to the 6th book and I hope we finally get to find out about what happens to Durc and the Clan.

What Lila Thinks.......2007-08-29

This is the best book I've read so far. I can't wait till Jean M Auel writes the next book in the series. I love her books.

Lila Guptill

768 pages where almost nothing happens........2007-08-09

I just finished reading *Shelters of Stone* after it sat on my bookcase for almost four years. I enjoyed all four of the preceding novels. Therefore, I forsook my '39 page rule' (if the author hasn't hooked me by the 39th page, I give the book away.) I thought in almost 800-pages, Ms. Jean would get around to introducing new concepts, new cultures, new `happenings', or new stuff. But *SoS* turned into a repetitious travelogue of *Plains of Passage*. It is long, ponderous, dull, and boring!

I was astounded when I noticed that this is review #756, and the average rating is 21/2 stars. It's as if the author got tired of writing this book, padding it with repetitive recollections from past novels instead of finishing it off in 400 pages. I hate to say this but I think Ms. Auel was paid by the word

I kept plugging away, getting more and more upset at Ms. Auel for explaining almost everything repeatedly--the long-winded name introductions; the stories of finding and domesticating her animals; the customs of the Clan, how much Brukenval looked like her old tormenter Broud when he looked angry. Even the `sharing Pleasures' parts were repetitious. And when the `The Mother's Song' was repeated for the nth time, I almost gagged.

What's also bad about this mammoth effort is that nothing happens. No new inventions and no new places (other than some under-described caves and cave paintings). She introduces new characters, but most are one-dimensional and uninteresting. The ones who do show some promise--like Brukenval, or Larimar the brewer, Echozar of the mixed spirits, or even the ponderous Zenandoni are neglected, under-described, or under-utilized.

In the previous novels Ayla and Jondalar, were responsible for most of the technological and philosophical advancements of humankind to that point: the spear thrower, use of flint and steel to start fires, the sewing needle, domestication of the wolf and horse, the horse halter, the travois, human genetics theory (Ayla's theory of mixed spirits), and where babies really do come from. In *SoS*, Ayla and Jondalar invent nothing, go nowhere, and do little except share Pleasures, get mated and have a baby. There are no major threats from nature, animals, or people; no clash of cultures. Just flares of Cro-Magnon temper and different opinions on the nature of `flatheads'.

For almost 800 pages I kept waiting for something to happen, for Durc to show up at the head of The Clan. For a blizzard, a flood, a plague or earthquake to hit. Another adventure or trip somewhere would have been nice. There wasn't even the trademark Auel anthropological monograph on how to make a flint axe head, basket, or garment.

I'll probably get suckered into the next/last book in the series if she ever completes it. But first I'll read the Amazon reviewers opinions and rigorously apply my 39-page rule.

The Shelters of Stone.......2007-05-14

I was so disappointed in this book that were supposed to be the last in the series. The endless repetition was enough to drive me insane. How could this book ever have been published? Was it only for the sake of money that could be made out of the sale of this book, because everyone who followed the series was waiting in anticipation for it. I still can't believe a person who wrote Clan of the Cave Bears, Valley of the Horses etc, could give her readers something like this......????

The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children)

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The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children)
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Coronet Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0340821965

Shelters of Stone, The (Earth's Children®)

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Shelters of Stone, The (Earth's Children®)
Jean M. Auel , and Sandra Burr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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The Plains Of Passage Part 1 Of 2

ASIN: B000IOF0LW

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Excellence strikes again!

The Shelters of Stone: Earth's Children
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLCS50

Customer Reviews:

Excellence strikes again!.......2007-09-30

Jean Auel should be an anthropologist, she researches her books that thoroughly. But she isn't boring, rather, her works are exciting, enthralling and educational - not to mention plausable. If the human genome project hadn't proven that we have no relationship to the Neanderthals (the Clan), her characters and story could have been real. As it is, her books make me wish that we still worshipped the way our ancestors did, and that we still had the exciting creativity that allowed us to survive to become the dominante species on our world. I can only hope that we haven't so destroyed our planet's ability to support us, that the rats will inherate the earth. I wish we all had Ayla's knowledge of plants and medicine - we would be so much better off with her abilities than with the pharmicutical industry's destruction of our body's natural abilities to resist the diseases that our ancestors managed as a matter of course. This is not only an excellent story (continuing the Earth's Children series), it and her other works are handbooks of nature's bounty and mystery. Anyone who claims to be literate must have this series in their library. I can't wait for the the next one!

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Around the world in stone.

Stone Shelters
Edward Allen
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Reference | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Around the world in stone........2002-12-17

Lots of history on stone shelters from around the world. Could be more photo's, and colour ones would be better yet.

Homes: Shelter and Living Space (A Stepping-stone book)

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Homes: Shelter and Living Space (A Stepping-stone book)
Joanna Foster
Manufacturer: Parents' Magazine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Shelter Poverty: New Ideas on Housing Affordability

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Shelter Poverty: New Ideas on Housing Affordability
Michael E. Stone
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Housing & Urban Development | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1566390508

Book Description

In Shelter Poverty, Michael E. Stone presents the definitive discussion of housing and social justice in the United States. Challenging the conventional definition of housing affordability, Stone offers original and powerful insights about the nature, causes, and consequences of the affordability problem and presents creative and detailed proposals for solving a problem that afflicts one-third of this nation. Setting the housing crisis into broad political, economic, and historical contexts, Stone asks: What is shelter poverty? Why does it exist and persist? and How can it be overcome?

Describing shelter poverty as the denial of a universal human need, Stone offers a quantitative scale by which to measure it and reflects on the social and economic implications of housing affordability in this country. He argues for "the right to housing" and presents a program for transforming a large proportion of the housing in this country from an expensive commodity into an affordable social entitlement. Employing new concepts of housing ownership, tenure, and finance, he favors social ownership in which market concepts have a useful but subordinate role in the identification of housing preferences and allocation. Stone concludes that political action around shelter poverty will further the goal of achieving a truly just and democratic society that is also equitably and responsibly productive and prosperous.

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The Shelters Of Stone
Jean M Auel
Manufacturer: Book Club Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OIQKSE

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Shelters of Stone
Jean Auel
Manufacturer: CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U1RKPW

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The Shelters of Stone
Auel Jean M.
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OV62JI

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Where are the aliens?

Where's Heinlein?

Sci-fi for grownups

The Science Fiction Century, Volume One
David G. Hartwell
Manufacturer: Orb Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Hartwell, David G. | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312864841
Release Date: 2006-04-18

Amazon.com

The Science Fiction Century is editor David G. Hartwell's ambitious attempt to create an anthology spanning 100 years of science fiction, beginning with stories from the 1890s. It is a veritable tome of science fiction that contains 45 tales in all, some from well-known genre authors such as Robert Silverberg and Jack Vance, and others from less science fictionally inclined writers such as Jack London and E. M. Forster. While Hartwell's selections will probably be seen as somewhat controversial (except for five stories, the anthology spans the period from 1950 onward, which is less than half a century at best), they all undeniably make for good--and more often great--reading.

Book Description

First published in hardcover in 1997, The Science Fiction Century was an anthology that defined and explained what we mean when we talk about modern SF. Now it returns to print in an affordable two-volume softcover edition. Here in Volume One, literary names such as Rudyard Kipling and Jack London rub shoulders with genre authors whose pedigrees run back to the 1940s and 50s, including Hal Clement, John Wyndham, Poul Anderson, Harlan Ellison, Bruce Sterling, James Tiptree, Jr., and Connie Willis. Here is modern science fiction in all its breadth, complete with new volume introductions written especially for this edition.

Customer Reviews:

Where are the aliens?.......2000-07-18

This book purports to survey the evolution of science fiction over the course of the twentieth century, and in this regard is a fairly educational tome. It's nice, for example, to know that E.M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling (!) wrote short stories that could fairly be called science fiction, and that there was a controversy among serious writers at the beginning of the century regarding whether inexorable technical progress would bring utopia or dystopia, and I feel richer for knowing that. However, this vast (>800 pages!) anthology baldly ignores stories which explore two favorite subjects of mine (and, I assume, many other readers): the implications of interstellar travel, and speculation on the nature of alien intelligence. There are a few stories here which investigate these topics, but only a few, and I was left with the suspicion that either (a) Hartwell simply doesn't like/"get" aliens and space opera, and likes time travel and noodlings on dystopia a whole lot more, or (b) there were serious copyright or reproduction problems with enough of the major short stories and novellas which classically treat these subjects that the entire subgenre was ignored...there's one particular example in which the introductory abstract for a story glows *about another story by the same author*, and then treats us to one of his lesser works. There are definitely some gems here which I haven't seen elsewhere (e.g. Farmer's "Mother"), and the works chosen are unquestionably among the best-written of the genre, but after plowing through the dozens of stories I found myself missing a treatment of the aspects of science fiction that I personally enjoy the most. It might be a good gift for that special someone whom you've never been able to turn on to SF -- these are good transition stories; some so good that you don't even know you're reading science fiction.

Where's Heinlein?.......2000-01-20

I wrote my original review before I had finished reading this book and liked a couple of the stories.

I was wrong. It is terrible. Just check out who is in there and who isn't. No Heinlein? Arguably the most significant sci-fi writer of the last century was left out, perhaps because he has been "anthologized too much".

I almost always re-read a book I've read. This one, however, is going to become an important resource. It's pretty large so I'm going to hollow out the center and use it as an inconspicuous storage 'safe' for my bookcase. I used to use a 20-year old Guiness Book of World Records for that, but it's gotten too battered. This large, hard-cover monstrosity will be a welcome addition.

Sci-fi for grownups.......1999-02-02

This wonderful collection offers a wide variety of the very best science fiction, not of the "square-jawed-heroes-and-beautiful-princesses" kind, but the kind of fiction that leads you to ponder about deep philosophical matters. I only do not rate it with the full rating of 5 stars because of a few rather uninspired choices, for example H.G.Wells's "A Story of the Days to Come." I like Wells but it is no mystery that some of his stories are not up to scratch, and this is one of them: preachy and curiously unvisionary (sometimes comically so, like, why on Earth did Wells believe that the quaint institution of the chaperone would survive so many years into the future? But then, probably all of Wells' good stuff has already been overanthologized). Others have apparently been included just for the sake of representing a particular author, rather than because of their quality. However, the selection has been mostly made based on excellence, and the few not-so-goods are largely compensated by the sterling quality of the rest of the stories, some of which are true masterpieces, like Poul Anderson's "Goat Song," a beautiful and haunting recreation of the myth of Orpheus, the deeply disturbing "Mother" by Philip José Farmer and "Consider Her Ways" by John Wyndham, the original and fairy-taleish "The King and the Dollmaker" by Wolfgang Jeschke, the poetic "Riding the Tide of Mourning" by Richard Lupoff, and many others, in fact too numerous to mention. Of special merit are the inclusions of modern classics like Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" and others which are excellent but hard to find, like the exquisite but out of print "The Rose" by Charles Harness. A truly indespensable item for the sci-fi serious fan.

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This will help you pray in a better way

a unique little book

The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism
Norman Lamm
Manufacturer: Jewish Publication Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Jewish Life | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Theology | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 082760713X

Book Description

The Shema has been described as the "central watchword" of Jewish faith. For centuries, Jews have pronounced this single sentence affirming God's unity as their final words before dying, as well as beginning and ending each day with this prayer on their lips.

Using the Shema as his focus, Norman Lamm, prominent Orthodox scholar and long-time president of Yeshiva University, explores the relationship between spirituality and law in Judaism.

Customer Reviews:

This will help you pray in a better way .......2004-10-13

Rabbi Lamm is a deep thinker. And he deepens the reader's understanding of 'The Shema' .He helped me understand why we make use of two different names of G-d,why we use the language of singular and plural in the Shema. My belief is that anyone who reads this book will learn from it not only deeper meanings of the 'Shema ' but how to pray this basic prayer of Judaism in a more meaningful way.

a unique little book .......2004-07-26

. . . in which Lamm goes line by line through the Shema, pointing out how various commentators have addressed each line over the centuries.

Lamm devotes the most space to the first sentence of the Shema (Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One), and to the Shema's requirement that we love God. As to the former, Lamm points out the difference between the two names of God referenced in the Shema: one represents the impersonal, universal God as seen in Nature while the other represents God as experienced in History, that is, the God who relates to Israel specifically and who is part of everything. Other interpretations of this phrase include a eschatalogical interpretation (that today God is One to Jews, but at the end of history all humans will see God as One), kabbalistic interpretations (some suggesting that nothing really exists outside God, but that God wills humans to act as if the world was real, others asserting that the Shema is an acknowledgement that awareness of the Creator's unity makes our lives less chaotic).

As to the concept of loving God, Lamm discusses Maimonides' interpretation of this verse (asserting that we learn to love God by contemplating creation and through studying Torah), Samuel David Luzzatto's definition of love as obeying divine commandments, the views of the Maharal (who asserts that we love God by recognizing that we owe our existence to God, and by honoring Torah scholars who study divine precepts), and other commentators' complex analysis of different types of love.

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