Book Description
Louise Canova should be happy and in love. But her actor husband seems to be growing distant and she doesn't know why. Is it her fault? Riddled with uncertainty, the insecurity she thought she'd left behind in adolescence comes back to haunt her.
But when she discovers a faded volume titled Elegance in a secondhand bookshop, she believes she's found the answers. Written by French fashion expert Madame Dariaux, Elegance is an encyclopedia of style that promises to transform plain women into creatures of grace and poise. From Accessories to Zippers, there's nothing Madame can't advise upon -- including inattentive husbands, false friends, and the absolute importance of seductive lingerie.
The lessons Louise learns have a surprising effect and an outcome she never expected. Within the book's pages lie clues to her past, and she discovers that everything, even elegance, has its price.
Customer Reviews:
Good but not that funny........2007-07-05
I have found the book interesting but do not agree that this is a hilarious or even funny book. I think, perhaps, the first two chapters are the most humorous in the book. It's sort of like when you rent a movie that's labeled a comedy (like Barton Fink)& can't quite appreciate it, like you should, the first time around, because you were expecting it to make you laugh, & it's not. So, if you buy this book, don't buy it expecting lots of laughs like in Bridget Jones. It's about Louise shaking up all aspects of her life up by not only dressing better but realizing the deep seated issues that brought her to her current unhappy frumpy state. But on a lighter note -- I just LOVE the cover.
Good Read for Chick Lit.......2007-03-30
This book is not literature, but it is a fun chick lit book.
MUST READ for All Modern Women.......2007-03-05
I fell in love w/this book only a few pgs in, and immediately bought a copy for my friend... we both raved about it to the last pg. The story rings true for so many women; I certainly recognized my own mentality/fears/triumphs in Louise. And as a critical reader/writer, I was initially skeptical about such a book (often trite)...but Tessaro's writing is brilliant!! One of the few books I'll read again, and will continue to recommend...
Yet another for the Wodehouse inheritor list.......2006-09-03
There seems to be a small club of us who own and/or have read "Elegance" by Genevieve A. Dariaux. Although I came across Tessaro's version as a freebie, wrapped in a magazine along with a Galaxy bar, the title immediately piqued my interest, and I had a great time flapping through it while resting, sick as a dog, in a less than luxurious bed at the London Ritz (yes, really ... the rooms are gorgeous, but the beds slurch). A year later, I've just reread it, and it's just as tasty a bonbon as it was the first time. Far more fun than the original (which I still own, and is still, in its own precious way, hysterically campy!)
Amy in New York City
Better than I expected.......2006-06-10
I enjoy chick lit but was a little daunted when I found this book shelved in the Romance section at my local used book store (sorry Amazon -- I live in Portland and we all love Powell's). I was pleasantly pleased, and frankly found it much more worthy of the Literature section than many of the C-L genre.
The characters are nicely drawn, the story moved along at a pleasant pace. I read it over the course of a week and was sorry to put it down. I would recommend it to women friends.
Book Description
Even as a young girl, Jill was a favorite of the magical, mysterious Wildfolk, who appeared to her from their invisible realm. Little did she know her extraordinary friends represented but a glimpse of a forgotten past and a fateful future. Four hundred years-and many lifetimes-ago, one selfish young lord caused the death of two innocent lovers. Then and there he vowed never to rest until he'd rightened that wrong-and laid the foundation for the lives of Jill and all those whom she would hold dear: her father, the mercenary soldier Cullyn; the exiled berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd; and the ancient and powerful herbman Nevyn, all bound in a struggle against darkness. . . and a quest to fulfill the destinies determined centuries ago. Here in this newly revised edition comes the incredible novel that began one of the best-loved fantasy seers in recent years--a tale of bold adventure and timeless love, perilous battle and pure magic. For long-standing fans of Deverry and those who have yet to experience this exciting series, Daggerspell is a rare and special treat.
Customer Reviews:
epic of epics.......2007-10-04
The epic story of love lost and wrongs righted.Nevyn ,as a young man loses his true love by an act of jealosy and pledges to the gods never to rest until he rights the wrong he has done. The gods hear his vow and hold to it. He spends centuries of life waiting for all the players to reborn in the same time for him to accomplish this.Over the centuries he becomes a great dweomer master and uses his powers to save the kingdom again and again.
Before I read this series I felt the genre was becoming stale. This author has renewed my love of fantasy adventure.
way too many cliches.......2007-10-01
I got this book out of the library after hearing the series highly recommended by a friend of mine. I was severly disappointed! While the plot is sort of interesting (if you take away the excessively cheesy romance parts), this book is so full of fantasy cliches and poor writing that it was difficult to make myself finish it. Even with a good plot, it's hard to focus on it when characters are saying "Ye Gods!" every five sentences. The glossary and language references are completely unnecessary and make it look like the author was trying too hard. Why bother making up words (like "Wyrd") when perfectly reasonable ones exist for the concept? Why use a word like "dweomer" which is completely unpronounceable, in addition to looking ridiculous?
Honestly the writing reminded me of fantasy stories I wrote myself when I was 14 or so. I can imagine if you are around that age, this would probably be a pretty enjoyable and interesting book. But if your literary tastes are more refined, it's hard to get past the writing style.
If you don't read this series in this life, it will haunt you in the next!.......2007-09-11
Once upon a time there was a selfish prince. He thought he was in love with a beautiful lady, but then he discovered the dweomer - that's magic, kiddies - and he decided to run away from home and become a penniless, scruffy magician instead. But when he abandons the pretty lady, her brother swoops in and gets all Flowers in the Attic with her. Her brother's best friend, who's also in love with her, gets mad at him. Brother kills friend, friend's little brother kills brother, and pretty lady kills herself. Then the selfish prince finds out that what he was supposed to do was marry the pretty lady so they could both learn dweomer together. By leaving her, he failed all three of them - the lady Brangwen, her brother Gerraent, and his friend Blaen. The prince, now named Nevyn, or "no one," vows to right his wrong. And so he lives, not very happily, ever after. And ever, and ever....
Four hundred years later, poor Nevyn is still kicking around. And now, all the players in the old drama have been reborn into the land of Deverry. Reincarnation is pretty much the backbone of this entire series. Kerr has created an incredibly complex web of past lives, with dozens of characters meeting in varying combinations over the course of centuries to work out their fate, or Wyrd. Moreover, her tale is not sequential. Timelines weave in and around each other - Kerr has used the metaphor of a Celtic knot to describe the pattern - so that the reader can immediately see the causes and effects of various actions taken over the years. While this could get complicated, Kerr provides two aids to the reader. One is the table of incarnations found in (almost) every book, which grows with new columns and rows each time a new character or event is added. Second, Kerr is masterful at making (most) of her characters completely recognizable from one incarnation to the next. This is especially true of secondary characters, who could, admittedly, clog the gears a bit. But Kerr makes it clear that they always serve a purpose - they are, indeed, part of the larger pattern.
In Daggerspell, the first book in a series that looks like it's going to stretch to 15, things remain relatively simple, with only three timelines and a handful of characters to worry about. These include Nevyn, of course, who's a delightful mainstay of pretty much the entire series. Yes, he's a powerful, seemingly immortal wizard. He's also avuncular without being condescending, smart, has a sense of humor, and is refreshingly practical. He's still trying to bring Brangwen to the dweomer, so of course he's thrilled to meet the tomboyish Jill and her father Cullyn, a notorious mercenary. Then the dashing young lord Rhodry Maelwaedd gets involved, and Nevyn realizes that once again, these three will have to work out their Major Issues before Jill can fulfill her Wyrd.
Along the way, Jill, Rhodry, and Cullyn get involved in a battle that seems straightforward but soon reveals itself as a part of a larger dweomer war. They also meet the Westfolk, as refreshing a take on elves as Nevyn is on wizards. The Westfolk will play a huge role in the story to follow, so pay attention.
Then again, in the long run, nearly everything that happens will have significance later - or earlier, given the twisted timeline. That's one of the great things about this series, that no matter how many times you reread it (and for me, that's a lot) there will always be a new connection to draw. Something in Book 2 will suddenly make sense given what we learn in book 10, and vice versa. I realize for many people, the vast and nonlinear storyline will simply be too byzantine to be enjoyable, or even understandable. (Kerr admits she gets a lot of complaints from confused readers.) Still, if you love well-written, well-researched, intelligent, and complex fantasy, you can't do much better, in my opinion, than the Deverry series.
Great.......2007-01-14
Having taken a look at the mediocre reviews for this book, I feel glad that I did not listen to them.
A wonderful story, about fate and destiny, the intertwining forces of life that can pull you into any direction. As a stream of water that may go which ever way it pleases, this is a tale about characters journeying in it's twist and turns. A tale consisting of great battles fought both in war and personal trials. A story that pulls the boundaries of good and evil, involved the presence of both love and loneliness, but most of all a story of providence and the will in exerts upon us.
Do not expect clear-cut, triumphant victories over the "bad guys", or focusing on just one particular character or hero. Do expect a nice mixture of both magic and swords, different threads of story expertly pulled together, dips into both the past and present of the characters lives, the battling of our own inner-demons, political intrigue, much suspense, wars battled in the field and out, a use of terms such as "lass, wench, ye gods, pig-faced bastard (and other assorted name calling involving pigs and swine), and an intricate love story weaving itself in and out of the spine of this fantastic tale.
Only four stars not five because of Robin Hobb and George Martin, those two authors spoiled me. Very recommended.
First of the Ten (currently) available.......2006-08-01
Even as a young girl, Jill was a favorite of the magical, mysterious Wildfolk, who appeared to her from their invisible realm. Little did she know her extraordinary friends represented but a glimpse of a forgotten past and a fateful future. Four hundred years--and many lifetimes--ago, one selfish young lord caused the death of two innocent lovers. Then and there he vowed never to rest until he'd righted that wrong--and laid the foundation for the lives of Jill and all those whom she would hold dear: her father, the mercenary soldier Cullyn; the exiled berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd; and the ancient and powerful herbman Nevyn, all bound in a struggle against darkness...and a quest to fulfill the destinies determined centuries ago.
Katherine Kerr's writing takes a bit of getting used to, but it's worth the effort. She approaches her stories with a Celtic storytelling mindset, which means she conveys events according to their significance to the story, as opposed to chronologically. Consequently, while the stories begin in the "present" (which is an elastic concept, anyway, in a fantasy setting), the events unfold, chapter wise, both in the "present" and in the distant past. This can be frustrating, at first, but Kerr's writing is heavily steeped in Pagan and Western Mystery tradition, and the Celtic setting (and mindset) of her characters means that time, or chronological time, is not essentially relevant. To be honest, I found the first half of this book infuriating, as I spent a lot of time trying to adjust to the writing style. However, I found the story engrossing enough that I persevered, and by the second half was so hooked I've read all ten in her three series.
Kerr's story evolves around the concept of reincarnation, and unfinished business, and "karma", and fate. The same souls recur again and again, just in new bodies, over the course of the centuries over which the story unfolds.
Kerr's world is one of High Fantasy, populated by Elves, Men, and Dwarves, as well as faeries/elementals, which she terms the "Wildfolk". However, hers is a slightly more dark, dangerous and less clear cut world than the works of other High Fantasy authors, not the least due to the fact that someone who was your friend in a former life can re-emerge in the story centuries later as a foe, and vice versa. There is a tremendous amount of magic, but it's the magic of the Western Mystery tradition (quite a bit of Golden Dawn and even Enochiana), and that of R.J. Stewarts Faery tradition. There are dragons, and giant beast men.
The Elves are a fallen race, driven out of their magnificent and palatial cities centuries before by invaders, and who now roam the plains as primitives. They possess the potential to be superlative magicians, but the knowledge was lost in the fall of their civilization. Humans, though warlike and shorter lived, have preserved this knowledge, but guard it jealously. The Wildfolk, basically magic incarnate, are unhinged from the effects of "karma", but lack permanence of personality, and cannot grow or develop, cursed to stagnation. The Dwarves are a secretive mystery, entrenched within the earth. Each has something to offer the other, and the story that unfolds is the story of this "technology" exchange, of sorts, between them.
Fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley, who clearly influenced Kerr, will be enraptured by this series, as will fans of Kate Eliott, who Kerr, herself, clearly influenced. It's phenomenal! Devotees of the New Age, Esoteric or Occult will find themselves nodding and smiling as they read, and sincerely hoping Kerr's writing will do for the Western Mystery and Faery traditions what Bradley's has done for Wicca.
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Daggerspell
Katharine Kerr
Manufacturer: Grafton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Kerr, Katharine | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Adventure | Alternate History | Anthologies | General | Graphic Novels | High Tech | History & Criticism | Series | Short Stories | Space Opera
ASIN: 0246131683 |
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Daggerspell (Deverry S.)
Katharine Kerr
Manufacturer: Grafton Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Adventure | Alternate History | Anthologies | General | Graphic Novels | High Tech | History & Criticism | Series | Short Stories | Space Opera
ASIN: 0586073159 |
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Daggerspell (Deverry)
Katharine Kerr
Manufacturer: Voyager
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Kerr, Katharine | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Adventure | Alternate History | Anthologies | General | Graphic Novels | High Tech | History & Criticism | Series | Short Stories | Space Opera
ASIN: 0006482244 |
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
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DAGGERSPELL
Katherine Kerr
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M80HCG |
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Daggerspell
Katharine KERR
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OPIV98 |
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Daggerspell
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 060627555X |
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Daggerspell
Manufacturer: HARPER COLLINS 1 PAP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSCDD8 |
Book Description
The first ever annual 'Year's Best'anthology of science fiction and fantasy for teens,featuring extraordinary tales by S.M.Stirling,David Gerrold,Garth Nix,Delia Sherman,Kelly Link,and many others! A ward-winning anthologists Jane Yolen and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have combed through a year's worth of books and magazines and websites to find the most outstanding fantasy and science fiction stories of 2004-and collected them into a single volume aimed specificallyat teens and young adults.
Customer Reviews:
Best Sci-Fi for Teens .......2007-05-13
I bought this book for my 13 yr. old granddaughter. She was delighted. She told me it was absolutely the best science fiction book she had ever read.
So what do I buy her next??(a rhetorical question)
Teens? Well, maybe........2007-05-12
The stories in this compilation are very juvenile. I would not suggest this book for anyone over the age of 15, and yet some of the subject material and swearing would not be suitable for children, either. This book suffers (in most cases) from the incongruity of decent stories and poor writing, lacking literary merit. While some of the language is passable, overall, I would not recomend this book to serious readers, unless you are just looking for some light pleasure reading. (Some very very light, not too terribly pleasurable pleasure reading.)
I really wanted to like this.......2007-02-23
I think that introducing young people to science fiction and fantasy is something the genres are neglecting. Unfortunately the selection of stories is poor. It is also heavily slanted, very heavily, toward fantasy. There is not one nuts and bolts hard science fiction in the lot. It is also more slanted toward feminine than masculine.
I enjoy fantasy, I also see a need for more stories appealing to young females, but not to such an extent as represented here in the first anthology series aimed at teen readers both male and female.
Of the stories Bradley Denton's "Sergeant Chip," seems best and is the most typically science fiction. "Sleeping Dragons" is the best fantasy. There is a good alternate history thrown into the mix. Several of the other fantasy stories make a good effort but the ratio of dreck to good stories is unfavorable.
For a better anthology of just science fiction try The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction. For better fantasy try The Year's Best Fantasy series by Hartwell and Cramer. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame series is also suitable for young adults and includes some fantasy.
Jane Yolen's Briar Rose is one of my all time favorite books and Patrick Nielsen Hayden is normally a great editor or co-editor of other collections. I don't know how they messed up so badly in this one.
Gary Denton
terrific collection .......2005-07-12
Ten of these eleven enjoyable stories targeting young adults (but older readers will appreciate them too) were initially published in varying publications in 2004; one story "They" by Rudyard Kipling is a century old (interesting to historiographic compare to the modern writers). The stories are mostly fantasy and even the few science fiction contributions like "Sergeant Chip" have a fantasy like feel to them. The authors are a who's who of the genres with each providing a strong effort. Settings vary from Grandma's handbag (think Men in Black II) to the New York Forty-Second Street Public Library to a K-9 point of view on war. Some, as is typical of fantasy, use horror elements to enhance the plot. Each tale is well written and the editors provide the titles of other similar stories that teens would most likely enjoy. An honorable mention list adds to the experience of fostering reading amongst young adults. This is a terrific collection for young and old readers.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
Widely regarded as the one essential book for every science fiction fan, The Year's Best Science Fiction (Winner of the 2003 Locus Award for Best Anthology) continues to uphold its standard of excellence with more than two dozen stories representing the previous year's best science fiction writing. This year's volume includes Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Swanwick, Charles Stross, Gregory Benford, Vernor Vinge, Robert Reed, Octavia E. Butler, Stephen Baxler, Alex Irvine, and many other talented authors of science fiction, as well as thorough summations of the year and a recommended reading list.
Customer Reviews:
Sci-Fi short stories at their best.......2005-08-19
This series sets a high standard for science fiction short story writing and this collection is no exception. You will find a variety of styles and approaches in these stories and I find them a great way to discover writers I have never heard of.
Not up to standard.......2005-06-28
This volume is not up to the standards set by previous collections in the series. It contains far too many stories that are mediocre or worse. If 2003 just wasn't a very good year for S-F, Dozois made a mistake in including "more than 300,000 words of fantastic fiction."
An excellent collection, as always........2005-03-31
I'm not sure I would classify every story in this collection as "the best" of the year, but that's in no way intended as a slight against what is contained in this collection. The book contains a large and varied collection of science fiction stories, each unique and varied in both scope and style. There were no stories in this perennially excellent book, but there were some particular standouts for me.
Ironically, the very first story was my favorite of all of them. "Off On A Starship" by William Barton, despite the undertones of an adolescent boy coming of age sexually during his wild and fascinating adventures in space, Barton's tone and style reminded me very much of the classic juvenile adventures of Robert Heinlein. This story is far more mature than Heinlein's YA books, but it's definitely got the same sense of wonder, the captures the youthful imagination that all of us have, regardless of our age. For me, this was by far the most enjoyable story in the book.
Other highlights for me include the absurdly funny "Rogue Farm" by Charles Stross, where he takes the future notion of "evolution" to a wildly funny extreme; "The Ice" by Stephen Popkes, which is an intriguing, moving, and hauntingly realistic take on one possible way that the issue of cloning might manifest itself in the not too distant future; and the gut-wrenchingly sad tale, "The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi, in which a child is enslaved by a cruel woman who has turned her into a sick and twisted for of "art."
As a lifetime science fiction reader and having recently become a writer, I love reading stories that touch upon something within me, and/or open my eyes up to an issue that we either face today or will likely face in the coming years. This collection has stories that do all of those things. It's a book with a little something for everybody.
- Gregory Bernard Banks, author of "Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life"
Adequate.......2004-12-31
All of these stories are well-written, in the English-major sense. Rather fewer of them are of much interest as science fiction. I found myself reading dutifully but without excessive enjoyment; the "wow!" factor is largely absent.
Further, most of the stories are remorselessly downbeat. I don't claim that we need to return to 100% naive technological "Ralph 124C41"-style optimism, but this much gloom and doom smacks of Conventional Wisdom at work.
Most of the stories made little or no impression on me, for better or worse. A few of the exceptions:
William Barton's "Off on a Starship," the first story, has an interesting setup but a truly pointless ending. It's perhaps unfortunate as a tone-setter in that it mentions quite a lot of classic SF works, most of which very noticably outshine both this story and the rest of the collection.
Not one but two of these stories deal with time travelers cutting deals with 20th-century media figures: Orson Wells in _It's All True_, William Randolph Hearst in "Welcome to Olympus, Mr. Hearst." The first has some point but is not very original. The second is witty and amusing; however, it's weakened by the sense that (reading between the lines) the events of the story are predestined to happen.
Nancy Kress's "Ej-Es" is well-written, needlessly depressing, and a bit too predictable. A little more work could have made it into a stunner, but you'll probably guess what's going to happen as soon as the situation is made clear. Good idea, indifferent execution.
"June Sixteenth at Anna's," by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Boring, boring, boring. Mainstream fiction dressed up with SF sauce.
"The Green Leopard Plague," by Walter Jon Williams, was a Hugo nominee last year. Why? I don't know. There's no there there.
"King Dragon," is what I think of as typical Michael Swanwick fantasy: very well written, a fascinating setup, and so remarkably unpleasant that I'd rather stick my head in a toilet bowl than re-read it. Your mileage will vary, depending on how much style and originality count for you.
Last year Vernor Vinge's "The Cookie Monster" won a Hugo award. It's good enough computer-oriented SF, but it's far from his best work. It is, however, one of the few pieces in the book that could be described as "classical SF."
John C. Wright follows his "Golden Oecumene" novels with "Awake in the Night," one of the few real standouts of this collection. Harks back to Poe, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Jack Vance, and maybe a few others, with original touches as well. A creepy and absorbing far-future fantasy that raises interesting questions about free will.
A welcome light-hearted exception to the general tone of the collection is Geoffrey Landis's "The Eyes of America." It's early-twentieth-century alt-hist techno-futurism with some clever extrapolation and nice comic characters. Not a heavyweight story, perhaps, but genuinely fun to read.
The remaining stories mostly roused me to a fever pitch of apathy. Possibly my reading tastes are fossiliferous, but I can't help feeling that most of these stories are going to be forgotten awfully quickly. Someone needs to phone Ted Chiang--see his fabulous collection _Stories of Your Life and Others_--and tell him to write more.
Agh.......2004-11-07
Its hard to believe these are the best science fiction stories of the year. Where's the sense of wonder? I don't know, call me old-fashioned, but many of these stories are chosen, I think, for political reasons by editors who were chosen for political reasons.
Customer Reviews:
First and Possibly the Best.......2003-03-31
This edition,very hard to find,is seriously in need of reprinting!!
"Cicada Queen" by Bruce Sterling. Court intrigues abound in this highly stylized, far future techno-medieval world at the crossroads. The author's eye for imaginative detail is remarkable. A
"Beyond the Dead Reef"¨ by James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon). Spine-tingling science-horror with a diver stranded out beyond a ghostly and ghastly reef. Features one of the most terrifying and palpable images I can recall in science-fiction. A+
"Slow Birds" by Ian Watson. Speaking of powerful images, the slow birds inhabiting this far future, pastoral Earth are utterly fascinating, along with the strange doom they portend. Wonderful plot, well crafted characters. A+
"Vulcan's Forge" by Poul Anderson. Curmudgeonly scientist on Mercury has an unusual relationship with his female colleague¡and his space probe. Excellent hard science, but alas the plot is predictable. C
"Man-Mountain Gentian" by Howard Waldrop. Sumo wrestlers in 2014 find new applications for Zen. Clever, entertaining story with a couple marvelous characters and an appropriately enigmatic, Zen-like finish. A
"Hardfought" by Greg Bear. Dozios' preface says it well: "...a brilliant tour-de-force about the interplay between science and history that takes us simultaneously to the far reaches of the universe and deep inside the hearts of our distant descendants--people so changed by the consequence of a millennia-long war that they have become nearly as alien as the enigmatic enemy they fight..." Bear pushes scientific speculation to the imaginative limits. A+
"Manifest Destiny" by Joe Haldeman. After exercising my brain on "Hardfought", I enjoyed taking a breather with this amusing, cleverly written memoir about fortunes--material and ethereal--in the Old West. A
"Full Chicken Richness" by Avram Davidson. Quirky, choppy and above all silly time-travel story about an underachieving entrepreneur. C
"Multiples", by Richard Silverberg. If you think dating is tough with only one personality each... As always Silverberg writes with great clarity, but here, his premise seems completely implausible. C
"Cryptic" by Jack McDevitt. Skillful combination of mystery, suspense, and science as a bored SETI physicist/administrator gets out of his rut grappling with a cryptic message from space and an equally cryptic warning from a predecessor. A
"The Sidon in the Mirror" by Connie Willis. Youthful anti-hero takes on cunning villain to aid damsel in distress in a frontier mining town...on a distant dying sun. The offworld dialect is highly distracting, making the whole thing hard to follow. C-
"Golden Gate" by R. A. Lafferty. Reality blurs for a man watching a melodrama in a bizarre bar. Although Laffety's idiosyncratic style isn't for me, I did like his description of the villain as having "arms like a python." C
"Blind Shemmy" by Jack Dann. Grisly tale about some very literal mind games in a future Paris casino, as two thrill seeking, adversarial gamblers play their hearts out. Literally. A-
"In the Islands" by Pat Murphy. Young marine biologist in the Caribbean agonizes over the imminent loss of his mutant friend to the sea. C
"Nunc Dimittis" by Tanith Lee. (Title from Luke, 2:29: "Now Master, you may let your servant go in peace.") Tanith Lee's brooding, gothic voice speaks hauntingly in this melancholy story of a loyal but aging servant, his streetwise replacement-to-be, and the seductive vampire princess to whom they are drawn. Lee serves up dark reflections on love, mortality, and immortality as seen from each of their three very different perspectives. A+
"Blood Music" by Greg Bear. A brilliant but appallingly rash researcher allows some of his intelligent, genetically engineered microbes to set up shop in his body. Dire consequences ensue for both him and the universe. More fascinating science from Bear, and a page-turning narrative to boot. A
"Her Furry Face" by Leigh Kennedy. Thoroughly disgusting "character" study about a teacher who rapes his orangutan student. How this monkey business got in here qualifies for Best Mystery of 1983. Opposable thumbs down. F-
"Knight of Shallows" by Rand B. Lee. A troubled man's exciting journey through alternate realities ends up taking a wrong turn on Plot Street. C
"The Cat" by Gene Wolf. Not a big fantasy fan--can't venture a guess on the merits of this one.
"The Monkey Treatment" by George R. R. Martin. Impossible to put down--simultaneously funny and frightening, this story is about a lovelorn 367-pound gourmand who signs up for a rather unique weight loss program. Results, to say the least, are mixed. Ingenious concept (with apologies to Oscar Wilde), witty, fast-paced narrative, perfectly constructed plot, unforgettably ghoulish images. Opposable thumbs up! A+
"Nearly Departed" by Pat Cadigan. Unremarkable fare about a mind prober probing a dead poet's memories. C
"Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine" by John Kessel. Troubled turn-of-the twenty-first married couple attempts to rekindle their romance by torching their memories of each other. B
"Carrion Comfort" by Dan Simmons. Like a Quentin Tarantino film: well crafted disgustingly graphic violence. Creepy cold-hearted senior citizens with psychic powers induce hapless nobodies to commit horrendous crimes--then turn on each other. I could find no redeemable qualities beneath the carnage. C
"Gemstone" by Vernor Vinge. The life story of an alien rock moves along at the speed of...well, a rock. Zzzz
"Black Air" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Disaster closes in on the crippled remnants of the Spanish Armada in the frozen North Atlantic, as seen from the eyes of a spiritually sensitive youth dragooned into service. Similar in structure to Robinson's story from the fourth edition, "Down and Out in the Year 2000", where bit by bit, sentence by sentence, the inevitable doom tightens its grip. A
The Start of a Classic Collection Series.......2000-04-18
The title says it all actually. I don't have enough space (or time) to tell you about all the wonderful stories and authors collected in this first year bonanza, but I can tell you that it's just as good and illuminating as all the other future years that I've read. Gardner has a flare for picking the writers to watch for that year and beyond.
Book Description
This ninth collectors' edition includes every recipe—more than 900 total!—representing a year's worth of Cooking Light, the world's most widely read food magazine. Jammed with tips, nutrient analysis, photographs, food facts, and menu suggestions, you'll be eating smart without sacrificing taste in no time. But Cooking Light goes way beyond basic menus by offering the latest scoop on food trends, international ingredients, tabletop style, and more. This handsome collection is triple-indexed so readers can find favorite recipes fast.
Customer Reviews:
Cooking Frustrated.......2006-08-26
Contrary to the high praise this cookbook gets from most of the reviewers, I find it one of the most frustrating cookbooks I own (and I own a lot). My three stars really reflect the excellent recipes, not the book. They are superb as one would expect if at all familiar with the magazine. The problem is its organization with the added difficulty of a poor and incomplete index. The organization by months of the year is useless if one is looking to plan a meal. When I have halibut, I am not interested in searching for the appropriate month before fiinding the recipe. To top it off, the extremely poor editiing and layout completes the annoyance. I use it, but only occasionally.
Cooking Light 2005 (pretty much pictureless cookbook).......2006-02-17
Although I really like the Cooking Light magazine, I found that I wasn't as thrilled with the cookbook as I thought I'd be, since there were hardly any photographs. Being a visual person, I like and pretty much need to see the picture of the finished dish before I make it. Now although this magazine has an abundance of recipes, which are probably very good, I'm not sure it will be very useful to me due to the lack of pictures.
another great compliation from a great magazine.......2005-10-14
Cooking Light is fantastic as always- this includes all the year's recipes as well as a few of the articles that appeared in the magazines.
The only potential complaint is that the index isn't very user friendly. There is a by-month index as well as a general recipe index, but if you don't know the name of the recipie I've found it to be a challenge to find what you are looking for!
Incredible Cookbook!.......2005-09-30
This cookbook is wonderful! My friend recommended it to me and she was right! It's so great. Lots of pictures with recipes that use everyday ingredients (for the most part) and are so different, tasteful, and refreshing. Everything I've tried in it has been a hit. Honestly, I don't buy too many cookbooks because I tend not to use them.....but this one....I will!
Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2005.......2005-08-23
This book is filled with mouth watering, can't wait to try recipes. The ingredients are easily found in a neighborhood grocery store. This is definitely a favorite of mine. I, however, do not enjoy 2004 Annual recipes. There is not a comparison between the two in my opinion.
Books:
- Even the Stars Look Lonesome
- Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual
- Freedom's Ransom
- Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature
- Heaven Sword & Dragon, Sabre Vol. 4
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- House of the Solitary Maggot
- How I Come by This Cryin' Song
- I Am Madame X: Library Edition
- I'm Telling : A Novel
Books Index
Books Home
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