Average customer rating:
- What you don't know gives you courage!!!
- Courageous around the world sailing voyage.
- A small sail boat, a troublesome engine, self-discovery , and a search for love
- "Shiver me timbers!"
- Full of Courage
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Maiden Voyage
Tania Aebi , and
Bernadette Brennan
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Narratives | Sailing | Water Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
Solo Travel | Specialty Travel | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Adventure | Specialty Travel | Travel | Subjects | Books
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General | Geography | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0345410122
Release Date: 1996-09-29 |
Book Description
Tania Aebe was an eighteen-year-old dropout and barfly. She was going nowhere until her father offered her a challenge. He would offer her either a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop in which she had to sail around the world alone. She chose the boat and for two years it was her home, as she negotiated weather, illness, fear, and ultimately, a spiritual quest that brought her home to herself....
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
What you don't know gives you courage!!!.......2007-09-09
This book is an incredible journey!!! I can only say that Tania really had courage...even though at the time she probably would have said..."what do you mean?" It just proves what one can do by "just doing" and "thinking less"... Maiden Voyage is very well written, a good read, and really makes you wonder and understand the epitamy of how a parent's dreams and desires for their children can be criticized, yet have dramatic results. I loved the book and tell anyone involved in boating to read it. It's just an AMAZING story!!!
Courageous around the world sailing voyage........2007-04-01
Tania Aebi's bravery and toughness cannot be questioned in this, her account of her 2 year voyage around the world. She really knew little to nothing about sailing other than what her father had shown her. Her father was a bit of an adrenelin junkie and a thrill seeker. He talked his daughter into doing something he wanted to do. She had many trials and tribulations with her tiny sail boat and her couple of passenger cats. Hearing about all of her latest lovers and thier enevitable breakups was a bit tiresome,but overall a good book.
A small sail boat, a troublesome engine, self-discovery , and a search for love.......2007-03-01
Tania managed to sail around the world in a little over two years. The youngest person to sail around the world by herself. Tania story is suspenseful: finding the Varuna, repairs on the Varuna, island near miss, near collisons and death along coast line, surviving storm galls, periods of boredom, a birthday on the ocean, dinner with Luc, meeting Luc's wife, memories of her insane mother, saying good bye to her dying mother, the love of her father, learning reading a sexton, a handy RF radio, losing weight, starving, boredom, a trusted cat companion, waiting out the winter in Thaiti, traversing the Altantic and its massive waves, and sailing into the NY. Tania vulnerablity was concerning: communication with strangers on the ocean, her infatuation with Luc and his exploitive intentions could have threaten personal security; Tania learning by trial an error how to navigate; Tania losing 400 dollars and shortages of cash; tania engine problems and lack of tools, parts and mechanically training.
"Shiver me timbers!".......2006-08-01
Maybe I'm being unfair, but MAIDEN VOYAGE rankled me from the starboard dust jacket to the port, with its repetitive, "The first American woman---and the youngest person ever---to circumnavigate the globe alone." That, and the saccharine title just set my teeth on edge before I ever turned to page one.
But turn I did, hoping this book would be more than it seemed to promise. As an approximate contemporary of Tania Aebi's who bought his first boat just as she set sail in "Varuna" (and a native New Yorker) I expected to be able to relate to Tania, much as I did to Robin Lee Graham who circumnavigated in "Dove" when I was much younger. But I found I really didn't like the Tania Aebi I met in these pages, either when I first read MAIDEN VOYAGE in 1985 or revisiting it in 2006.
Perhaps it was the publisher's pitch. Tania was repetitively described as a "troubled" adolescent, but it soon became clear that her biggest "trouble" was surviving an affluent, eccentric family. With an artist father and a dying, mentally ill mother in a sanitarium in Europe, Tania could be expected to have a slew of "issues" and she does throughout the book. I just found her emotional self-absorption boring in the extreme.
I also found that I was truly infuriated at her father who should have been arrested for intent to commit manslaughter. Apparently Ernst Aebi believed that a solo circumnavigation was just the ticket toward giving his daughter a focus in life, and so he practically shanghaied her into making the trip even though Tania could barely motor "Varuna" out into the Narrows the day she left. Not that Ernst was any better. "Varuna" set sail with all manner of design flaws (weak chainplates, a bad engine, and a water-scooping hawsepipe, any one of which might have sunk her in sight of the Brooklyn Bridge). The man was so driven to send his daughter out to fulfill HIS dreams that he (and they) seemed to have spent no time at all on evaluating the boat for its intended purpose. Given Tania's lack of sailing skills and her lack of familarity with "Varuna," the thing was a deathtrap for her. Miraculously, she lived to tell about it.
I learned more about sailing just taking my 24-footer out onto Long Island Sound three days a week than Tania seemed to learn in months of continuous blue water cruising. Her navigation skills were suicidally poor and her understanding of weather, current and wind seemed stalled at a beginner's level all along.
Her remembrances of people she met and places she visited were the high points of MAIDEN VOYAGE, though we certainly could have used less information about her various (yawn!) lovers along the way, all of whom seemed stamped out of a Gallic cookie-cutter. The writing style is choppy, though it's altogether clear that Bernadette Brennan (of CRUISING WORLD magazine) did most of the actual writing after culling Tania's memory. The "Oh yeah, now this," and "Oh yeah, now that" tone of MAIDEN VOYAGE is a product of a tale told in fits and starts with no unifying thread.
That seems to be the biggest failing of MAIDEN VOYAGE. Although Tania gives us a colorful travelogue, she barely shows us any insight or reflection. The experience of single-handing around the world seems to pass over her like a wave, leaving barely a ripple behind. Returning to New York at age twenty she seems barely more mature than she did at age eighteen when she sailed away. She is not Bernard Moitessier, and "Varuna" is not "Joshua". At the end, she's just a girl and it's just a boat. More's the pity.
Full of Courage.......2006-06-19
Being a parent of two daughters I don't know if I could do what Tania's father did -- sending his daughter sailing across the world -- ALONE -- at the age of eighteen. But I do understand his vision of what an adventure can do to change a persons life, and that is definitely seen in Tania's story. She left a troubled teen and came back a woman.
This is a wonderful coming of age story that I think women of all ages will enjoy. It's got it all, love, adventure, death, and yes...even cats.
Average customer rating:
- I almost envy those of you who've not read this...for the treat you've got to come
- A really good book
- One of the best
- Excellent thriller!
- No page turner but pretty good.
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A Maiden's Grave
Jeffrey Deaver
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0451204298
Release Date: 2001-09-05 |
Book Description
The New York Times bestselling master of ticking-bomb suspense.
Eight vulnerable girls and their helpless teachers are forced off a school bus and held hostage. The madman who has them at gunpoint has a simple plan: one hostage an hour will die unless the demands are met. Called to the scene is Arthur Potter, the FBI's best hostage negotiator. He has a plan. But so does one of the hostages-a beautiful teacher who's willing to do anything to save the lives of her students. Now, the clock is ticking as a chilling game of cat and mouse begins.
Download Description
"On a lonely highway in Kansas, eight young deaf girls and their teachers are taken hostage by three escaped killers. Pitted against them is the FBI's chief negotiator, a veteran of hundreds of such encounters. But somehow, he feels, this one may be different...
Customer Reviews:
I almost envy those of you who've not read this...for the treat you've got to come.......2007-06-02
A hostage situation, set in an old slaughterhouse that is dark and sinister and smells of death. Bad enough already! But to have the hostages deaf children and their teachers was genius as the whole communication aspect is turned on it's head.
I found the characters compelling, even the bad guys!
Having finished it, I feel I have far more understanding of the complexities of a hostage situation and far more insight into the experiences of the deaf.
A thriller that stands out!
A really good book.......2007-05-03
This Book is one of my favorite books I have ever read. I raed this book in two days and I am not a person who reads a lot but this book is so good in my opinion, I gave it to some of my friends and they all read it just as fast as I did if not faster. This book is filled with suspence, action, turns and twist and the plot is really well written. I also really enjoyed the story line it was very intriguing.
One of the best.......2007-03-11
Jeffrey Deaver never ceases to satisfy. As usual I couldn't put it down.
Excellent thriller!.......2007-02-07
This has to be one of the best thrillers i have read; I finished reading it within 24 hours and then couldn't stop thinking about the characters. Even though I didn't find the 'love story' between Arthur Potter and Melanie to be at all credible this didn't spoil the story for me. Highly recommended if you're looking for a good page-turner that makes you think.
No page turner but pretty good........2006-04-03
This was the first Jeffrey Deaver book I read so far and it is only the third book he wrote. I was sceptical if it is worth reading because the plot of a hostage taking did not seem do be really thrilling. It was a pleasant surprise that the book is well written, fast paced with good characters and is not boring at all.
It also had some good twists in between and a surprising ending.
On the other hand it did not really keep me glued to my chair reading for hours.
Also what I did not like was the "love affair" between FBI agent Arthur Potter and the deaf teacher Melanie Charrol since it was not believable, it did not make sense nor contribute anything vital to the story in my opinion.
I wonder how more recent Deaver books are which feature his "normal" main character Lincoln Rhyme. They are said to be very good so I might try one of them in the near future...
Book Description
In the tradition of Annie Dillard and Natalie Goldberg, this resource for writers and non-writers alike shows the act of writing to be a dynamic means of knowing, healing, and creating the body, mind, and spirit.
Customer Reviews:
A must read, with reservations..........2007-07-28
I purchased this book because the Handless Maiden myth resonates for me, my having first been introduced to it through a dream and then through Clarissa Pinkola Estes book 'Women Who Run With Wolves'. I felt I had more to learn from this myth, and Johnson's book put the Handless Maiden myth in a matrix that helped me to understand it more personally, as a metaphor for the feminine in contemporary society. Placing it in a context I could understand so well brought this myth to life, and was the greatest value of this book for me.
The only off-putting thing, which changed it from 5 to 4 stars, is a small thing but which strikes to the heart of the issue. The author apologised in the beginning for perhaps not being able to do justice to the feminine wounding myth as much as the male myth. It was honest and ethical of him to state such concerns, which makes me respect his integrity, but he is alas, correct. As wonderful as his assessment of the Handless Maiden is, he still put a great deal of emphasis on the male value and aspects of it, which he did very little in reverse for the male Fisher King myth. The section in The Handless Maiden where he abandons such careful integrating of the masculine is the section which resonated most for me. I'm not sure why he did this, but if one goes through both chapters and counts instances of other-gender applicability you'll see what I mean. In one paragraph I almost felt like this myth was being ripped from my "hands" and given to the male, a dynamic of the actual myth.
Nevertheless, the author put the myth into a powerful and broad matrix of understanding for contemporary women, something which 'Women Who Run With Wolves', as much as I love it, didn't allow me to see as clearly. What I would suggest is first reading Johnson's book, and saving Clarissa Pinkola Estes interpretation for last, when you can appreciate it more, in all its profound and subtle complexity.
Wonderful.......2003-04-20
I love all Robert Johnson's work. I find him easy to read and understand.
Healing the wounded feeling function.......2000-09-24
"This book is about our wounded feeling function, probably the most common and painful wound which occurs in our Western world. It is very dangerous when a wound is so common in culture that hardly anyone knows there is a problem." Johnson opens his book with these provocative sentences. The first thing he does is convince the reader that the problem exists, and is of considerable scope. For example, our modern English language is not really adequate for a full description of the problem, having the vague and much abused word "feeling" and only one word, equally vague, for "love". Johnson, a Jungian analyst, explores the problem using myths -- the Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, to demonstrate the wounded feeling function in, respectively, masculinity and femininity. Through the myths, Johnson not only diagnoses the problem, but makes practical suggestions for healing. This wonderful little book, scarcely 100 pages long, can be read in an afternoon, although its insights could change the directions of a life.
Book Description
A state-of-the-art review of human services programs in the workplace
From their roots in the occupational alcohol programs in the 1940s, human services programs within organizations have grown exponentially. However, the seamless integration of each facet of those expanding programs into a cohesive whole has proven to be a major challenge. The Integration of Employee Assistance, Work/Life, and Wellness Services presents a comprehensive cross-section of experienced professionals who discuss their efforts to fully integrate employee assistance, work/life, and wellness services. This in-depth examination of concepts and practical application of integrated programs in sponsoring organizations provides practical strategies to make your own organization's human services more useful, and therefore help employees be more productive. The latest research is clearly presented, with a wide-ranging review of current program models in notable organizations that illustrates exactly what is most effective in the field of work-based human services.
The Integration of Employee Assistance, Work/Life, and Wellness Services provides a beneficial perspective on the present state of employee assistance, work/life and wellness services in the workplace, and then takes a detailed look at the economics of integration with a value-benefit analysis. Other chapters include program models at various organizations presented by the professionals fully involved in their implementation. Integration strategies are carefully described for academic settings; external service providers; internal programs; hybrid models; and the public sector. An in-depth critical analysis of integration, its effectiveness, and its real value is presented, along with a chapter on the future of the integration of work-based human services programs. The text is extensively referenced with helpful tables and diagrams to enhance clarity of ideas.
The Integration of Employee Assistance, Work/Life, and Wellness Services examines the unique aspects of integrated programs at:
University of Arizona
Johns Hopkins University
University of California-Berkeley
Motorola
Wells Fargo
Ceridian
Ernst and Young
Fairview Hospital
US House of Representatives, State of Minnesota EAP
Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe The Integration of Employee Assistance, Work/Life, and Wellness Services is essential reading for all Human Relations Professionals particularly those connected with their EAP, work/life, and wellness services, as well as students in related fields.
Book Description
Our songbook matching the 2006 release from these metal legends features notes and tab for all 10 intense tracks: Brighter Than a Thousand Suns * Different World * For the Greater Good of God * The Legacy * The Longest Day * Lord of Light * Out of the Shadows * The Pilgrim * The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg * These Colours Don't Run.
Book Description
For over a decade, New York Times bestselling author
Diana Palmer
has won fans' hearts worldwide with her tantalizing Long, Tall Texans tales! Now as a special holiday treat, this treasured storyteller brings you the story of how it all began.
The Founding Father by Diana Palmer
Discover how legends were made when Jacobsville founding father Big John Jacobs weds the daughter of a prosperous railroad tycoon! Will passion blaze when this fortune-seeking Long, Tall Texan brands his sweetly unassuming wife with his soul-searing kisses?
And from beloved Harlequin Historical authors Judith Stacy and Mary Burton
Wild West Wager by Judith Stacy
Rebecca Merriweather comes west to rural Colorado, only to alienate all eligible men in town! Now the "prim and proper" spinster must sweet-talk a devilishly handsome saloon owner into a most disreputable dalliance . . . .
Snow Maiden by Mary Burton
Dashing real estate magnate Adam Richmond is bah Humbugging his way through the holidays when he is driven to distraction by Russian beauty Sophia Petrovnova. Are Yuletide wedding bells about to ring?
Join them for
A Hero's Kiss a brand-new collection from Harlequin Books!
Customer Reviews:
what a stinker.......2004-03-04
This book was awful, simply awful. I like Diana Palmer, as a rule; in fact that's why I bought the book, to read about The Founding Father of Jacobsville. I wish I hadn't bothered. The wording was clunky and uninspiring, and even the other two stories by different authers weren't that great. My recomendation--don't waste your time. Choose something else.
A Hero's Kiss.......2004-01-08
Pleasant stories and a fun read, but not dynamic. I will donate this book to the library.
Yawn!!!.......2003-12-09
In Diana Palmers story The Founding Father I made myself finish it. There was no passion (very dull and ugly people).Diana's stories are usually about 2 people who can't keep there hands off one another. These barely kissed, he thought she was plain and did'nt change his mind through out the story. Big John never once came close to losing control, even after they married it was weeks before he touched her, then end of story. If this is going to be Diana's new style of writing I'll pass on buying anymore of her books. So if your expecting hot steamy romance I would pass on this book.
three intriguing western romances.......2003-11-27
"The Founding Father" by Diana Palmer. Former Georgian farmer turned Texas rancher Big John Jacobs hopes to persuade New York tycoon Terrance Colby to swing a rail past his spread to expedite the moving of cattle. John offers a business marriage to Terrance's unmarriageable daughter Camilla Ellen. He would receive access to her father while she would gain her freedom, but neither expected love to emerge. This is a solid Tall Texan tale starring an honest hero showcased in an intelligent story line though one must question the change in Camilla from rug rat to heroine.
"Wild West Wager" by Judith Stacy. In 1888 Colorado, saloon owner Jack Delaney does the unthinkable when he becomes the first male to enter the Marlow Tea Room. Jack hires the tearoom co-owner Rebecca Merriweather to decorate his new house so that his eastern company will feel at home. Though she thinks he is bringing his fiancé west, they fall in love. This is a fine lighthearted western romance.
"Snow Maiden" by Mary Burton. In Colorado, business mogul Adam Richmond wants the construction of the new organ to fail because that will badly reflect on the new minister, who he wants to keep away from his sister. He offers the builder Russian emigrant Sophia Petrovnova money to leave town, but she refuses though the cash would enable her to go home. Sophia loves Adam, but knows his heart is colder than her homeland's winters though she had hoped to melt it. Fans will enjoy this warm yet simplistic tale of redemption.
All three intriguing western romances bring to life the late nineteenth century through strong lead couples and fine support cast.
Harriet Klausner
Amazon.com
Miami crime reporter Britt Montero, the Cuban American with Latin passion and Yankee perseverance, gets involved with members of the Cold Case task force that's reopened an old case involving the murder of a high school senior and the rape and near-death of his girlfriend, who's now a sculptor with an unusual specialty--ice carving. Unmasking the killers requires Sunny Hartley's cooperation, but even Britt's blandishments can't convince her to help the task force bring her attackers and her boyfriend's murderers to justice. And it doesn't help any that the head of the force, who has her own reasons for pulling her men off the investigation, seems to have something romantic going with homicide cop Kendall MacDonald, Britt's old (but hardly forgotten) lover. As usual, Edna Buchanan delivers a denouement that's full of bittersweet tricks and turns in this latest outing for her popular series heroine. --Jane Adams
Book Description
Fourteen years ago, two teenagers on a Christmas Eve first date were abducted, and only one lived through the ordeal. The lone surviving victim, Sunny Hartley, became a wealthy sculptor, but the reclusive “ice maiden” will not talk about what happened that terrible night. Now a chance encounter in the Miami morgue between reporter Britt Montero and a petty thief, bizarrely electrocuted during the commission of a crime, has placed the still unsolved kidnapping/murder on the front burner of Sgt. Craig Burch's Cold Case Squad. But Britt and Burch are about to discover that the price of justice can be too dear to pay; that when you start turning over rocks, sometimes something truly ugly slithers out.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyed the book, hated the ending.......2007-05-18
SPOILER...DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW THE END. I can't believe she killed off this character...the one chance for Britt to really be happy has finally happened. This was a disappointing part of the book for me. Why do writers have to do this? Nevertheless it was an enjoyable read. Dang...I hated the ending.
Probably a 5 if I weren't so upset!.......2007-04-11
I kind of knew where this latest Britt Montero novel was going, but I had to read it to see if I was right. And because I knew what would happen and was so disappointed that for once my vision of Britt's future was not what I wanted it to be, I give this book a 4-4.5 instead of a 5.
This novel is filled with forboding about something deadful to come that will impact everyone in lives of Britt Montero . The overlying story itself revolves the death of a guy who may have been responsible or involved in an old rape/murder. Fourteen years ago, two young kids were abducted and left for dead. Of the two victims, one did not survive (Ricky), but Sonny, the girl did. She was raped and left for dead. As Britt begins her latest news article about the newly formed Cold Case Squad, she is plagued with issues concerning the reopening of the old murder case (reluctance of witnesses, intimidation, and several shady suspects). Sonny, the survivor, is now a reclusive artist who seems to not only be deaf in one ear, but has emotional scars, and does not seem to remember who raped her and left her for dead. As the story plays out, you see Britt's desire to find justice, while maintaining her relationships with co-workers, friends, and old/new lovers. Sometimes Buchanan's efforts to parallel the devastation occuring in New York with the lives of her characters, was hard to enjoy/. However, in the end, although there were things that I would change, I still enjoyed reading the book.
What can I say- WOW!.......2006-08-14
There is no denying that this is a dark book. But isn't reality dark for too many of us? If you are looking for a happy ending, with all plot lines tied up with a big cheery bow, this is not the book for you. If you want a bang-up shocking story with an ending that will not leave you for days, this is definantly the book you need to keep you interested.
Post Nine Eleven Crime Stories, Dateline Miami.......2005-09-05
A burglar was booby-trapped too effectively and electrocution resulted. Mr. Gomez, a jewelry store owner, had had a terrible time with burglars. Gomez is charged with second degree murder.
The reporter narrator of the book says she deals in shades of gray. The reporter, Britt Montero, runs into a detective on the cold case squad, Craig Burch, who believes the homicide victim burglar has a connection with one of his cases. She proposes a magazine piece on the cold case squad to her editor and he thinks it's a good idea.
The victim-burglar was scarred in a previous incident. The burns may have been caused by potash, the alkaline material used in making soap. Having a can of lye under a bed or near a door is a form of protection. The following evening the Gomez store is torched. The head of the cold case squad tells Craig and the other officers not to reopen the case. It is claimed other matters will yield a greater chance of successful prosecution. The members of the squad decide to do some investigation off the record and they seek Britt's help.
North Beach is still real but Britt fears the developers will change things. The cold case had two victims, one victim survived and lives in North Beach. She is an artist. When studying in Italy she became known as the ice maiden. In a cold case time works in favor of law enforcement officials, children grow up and spouses lose their fear. Nazarino, one of the police officers in the unit, is very interested in getting to know the ice maiden.
Britt and others identify some of the likely suspects, including a preacher. Someone showing remorse is tagged for the police by Britt as a possible informant. The author is careful to place Britt's near romances in a post nine eleven context. Too, the feelings of the residents of Little Havana are described as very patriotic. A number of over age men sought to volunteer for service in the wars of retaliation. It turns out the ice maiden is uncomfortable with ordinary people who don't know brutal and ugly things can happen.
The unraveling of the plot twists is very compelling. The alert reader is in for a number of surprises. It would be a shame not to read this book. The author is at the top of her form.
In a World of Sadness and Dispair.......2005-03-19
Up to this point, I loved reading and following Edna Buchanan's Strong Women Reporter Britt Montero. All I can say is that the horrible disheartening ending made me decide that I will never buy or pick up at the library another Edna Buchanan novel.
Is it so hard to have happy endings especially in the same novel were 9/11 had an important part. I am thoroughly disappointed in Ms. Buchanan...
Customer Reviews:
Save your money.......2006-02-20
I was so disappointed with this final book in the series. It's nothing more than a complete rehash of what happened in the first 5 books. Granted it comes from the point of view of Hope's sister, Spirit, the vast majority of content was just cut-and-pasted from the original books. I kept reading through the book in the hopes that there'd be a continuation of the story after Hope's death, but very little was added.
While Piers Anthony's books are almost always guaranteed to be a good read, the lack of original content in this one was a complete let-down.
I guess some work is for art, and some is to pay the rent. This was definitely the latter.
A nice wrap-up to a fantastic series.......2002-05-22
Iron Maiden is a very pleasant read. It manages to cover the time span of the entire series to this point, but with a fresh perspective. While the writing is not as strong as the other Space Tyrant books, it did a nice job of filling in the holes where Spirit's life was concerned. Finally, we get inside her head... though to a limited degree. Hope was the author of his own biography, whereas Spirit provided Hopie with materials and let her expand upon them as appropriate. Once you accept that the approach fits with Spirit as we know her from the other books, the different tone works. Overall, a pleasant finish to a series that is one of Piers Anthony's best.
Book Description
A feisty orphan is taken in by a band of phony spiritualists in this intriguing, engaging novel.
Maud Flynn is known at the orphanage for her impertinence, so when the charming Miss Hyacinth and her sister choose Maud to take home with them, the girl is as baffled as anyone. It seems the sisters need Maud to help stage elaborate séances for bereaved, wealthy patrons. As Maud is drawn deeper into the deception, playing her role as a "secret child," she is torn between her need to please and her growing conscience — until a shocking betrayal makes clear just how heartless her so-called guardians are. Filled with tantalizing details of turn-of-the-century spiritualism and
page-turning suspense, this lively historical novel features a winning heroine whom readers will not soon forget.
Customer Reviews:
A Drowned Maiden's Hair.......2007-10-10
I was surprised when I read A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz. I read the blurb about it and it didn't sound at all what like something I'd normally enjoy reading. Really the only thing that made me start reading it in the first place was its title, which managed to make me wonder just what it could imply. After I read a few pages in the bookshop I wouldn't take my eyes away from it. It amazed me how well written it was for I have only seen a few well written books that appealed to my age group. The story may seem at first like the average orphan-adopted-by-strange-family plot that you hear everyday but it soon twists into a finely woven tale of ghosts and deceit. Maud Flynn, The main character, is very relatable. She is selfish, stubborn, and very human, which is sometimes hard to find in a story character. You can't help but like her because of this humanity. I would recommend this book to all the people who are sick of cookie-cutter fiction and who like a nice suspenseful plot.
Fantastically Original.......2007-08-24
Another fantastic read to mark down for this year! I really think this book should win some type of award for originality...though I'm not very sure if it will. Never do the books I think should win ever actually win anything! At any rate, I really enjoyed this book, from an author I had never read before, and I look forward to seeing more from her.
A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama was written by Laura Amy Schlitz, a first book for this author, follows 11 year old Maud Mary Flynn, an orphan residing at an academy for girls. Maud is a troublemaker, never stepping down to authority, often finding herself being punished and always being passed over for adoption. When Hyacinth, a rich old woman, arrives at the orphanage in search of a young girl to adopt, Maud has no hope that she'll be chosen, however, she is exactly the girl Hyacinth picks.
Maud is stunned, having been chosen as the girl Hyacinth and her two sisters want to adopt and remains in that state when she arrives at their stately home. At first, life now seems luxurious to Maud and she is determined to be a very good girl, doing whatever the sisters ask of her. When she learns that she was adopted in order to help them perfect the family business, she is still very willing to do whatever she has to, to make the sisters happy. When secrets about what the family business actually is begin to come out, Maud is all to happy to participate...at first. As she gets more and more involved, the readers see Maud's inner conscience begin to work against her and she isn't entirely sure that life at Hyacinth's house is as good as she first thought.
This novel was lovely. Fast paced, original, and exciting. The first sentence: "On the morning of the best day of her life, Maud Flynn was locked in the outhouse, singing, The Battle Hymn of the Republic" reeled me in and I was hooked until the last page. I immediately brought the book to my boss in the children's room (and fellow children's book lover) and told her she absolutely had to read it. Children and adults will be entranced with Maud's story and I definitely recommend you read it...soon!
Is it Wrong to Lie, Even in a Good Cause?.......2007-07-04
A Drowned Maiden's Hair is a delightful find, an original story with an irresistible set of characters: a love-starved orphan, a trio of sisters who operate a seance business (much like the Fox Sisters), a deaf-mute servant, and a rich woman grieving for her lost child. Maud is astonished to be adopted from the orphanage over other, more "good" children and is anxious to please the Hawthorne Sisters, her new guardians, even if that means participating in their seance deceptions and impersonating the spirit of a dead child. She views the adult cast of the book through young and naive eyes: Hyacinth is loving and charming; Judith is proper; Victoria is fussy; Muffet the servant is stupid and ugly; and Mrs. Lambert is rich, silly, and spoiled. As the plot progresses, however, Maud gradually comes to realize that these people are not what they seem at first to be, and each adult's character is more fully revealed over the course of the story.
Is it right to lie, even in a good cause? Can you actually console a grieving person by deceiving them? Do you have to be a perfectly good person in order to be worthy of love? While the reader ponders these questions, she/he will also be entertained by the seance tricks revealed in the book and eager to learn the true details behind the death of Caroline Lambert.
This is an engaging read. I plan to use it as a read aloud with my fifth grade class in the fall. They will love it.
Dianne K. Salerni
Author of High Spirits: A Tale of Ghostly Rapping and Romance
A wonderful, engrossing read!.......2007-06-27
The premise of this book is pure fun, and the protagonist a wonderful mixture of spunk, sadness, intelligence, and yearning. The story churns along, makes you bite your nails, laugh, get knots in your stomach, want to slap certain characters, and even cry. The writing is wonderful, too. All in all, one of my favorite young reader titles in a long time!
Fantastic start to our summer reading frenzy.......2007-06-13
This is a marvelously written, incredibly captivating, impossible-to-put-down book. An absolute gem in our search for original and thought-provoking stories.
Amazon.com
Although he's a National Book Award-winning poet, revered not only for his poetry but for his masterful translations of and critical essays about such internationally celebrated poets as Goethe and Antonio Machado, Robert Bly is perhaps more widely recognized for spearheading the men's movement with his bestselling book Iron John. Marion Woodman is a Jungian analyst whose scholarly work on feminine consciousness has distinguished her as one of Canada's leading feminists. These two renowned intellectuals have joined forces to explore the struggle for power between the masculine and feminine, using the ancient Russian myth of the Maiden Tsar as their framework.
The story of the Maiden Tsar is richly complex, detailing a young man's encounters with a series of strong female characters--some mythical, some mortal--including a tutor who betrays him, the harsh but wise Baba Yaga, and the omnipotent and beautiful Maiden Tsar. In his commentary, Bly explores the representation of the masculine, drawing on psychological, spiritual, and mythological sources to inform his analysis; Woodman uses a Jungian lens through which she can probe the psyche of the feminine. Together they hope to find a place in which the two sexes can coexist, without undermining or compromising the powerful energy of the feminine.
A thoughtful, enlightening, and impassioned work, The Maiden King may very well turn out to be the highbrow Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. --Kera Bolonik
Book Description
From Robert Bly, author of the groundbreaking bestseller Iron John, and famed Jungian analyst Marion Woodman comes an interpretation of a primordial folktale that takes the message behind Iron John to its next phase: the reunion of masculine and feminine. Bly and Woodman interpret the archetypal symbols embedded in an ancient Russian story, The Maiden King, a tale woven of an absent father, a possessive stepmother, a false tutor, and a young man over-whelmed by a beautiful maiden. When the young man's weak response to the maiden ss her retreating in anger, he must go on a quest for self-discovery that leads to Baba Yaga, the fierce yet empowering old woman of Russian folk tradition. The male tency toward impotence in the face of feminine magnificence, the female fear of power and abandonment that leads to rage, the need to get beyond oppositional thinking en route to the Divine, these are issues the book addresses with wisdom and lyricism. The true heir to Iron John, The Maiden King may be the intellectual answer to Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.
Customer Reviews:
Garbage.......2001-06-28
On page 104 of this book, Robert Bly laments that "many forms of personal sacrifice -- the scholarship in cold rooms, the learning of Latin and Greek, the voluntary renunciation of multiple delights -- have since the sixties virtually disappeared. We have a pop culture now, not a culture of swans."
Fair enough. So let's take a little peek at Bly's understanding of Ancient Greek. On page 102, Bly informs the reader that the name Telemachus means "the true aim of our actions". This is false. The name Telemachus comes from two words: tele, meaning 'from afar' and makh/os, 'fighter'. Thus, Telemachus actually means 'He who fights from afar'. This is elementary Greek.
On the same page, Bly informs the reader that "most people don't realize that the standard Greek word for duck is penelope." What Mr. Bly obviously doesn't realize is that the standard Greek word for duck is actually netta. The word he is referring to, which is penelops, not penelope, is the Greek word for a specific kind of duck, namely one that has purple stripes and that was known for its loyalty to its mate. Also, it's highly uncertain that Penelope's name has any connection to ducks whatsoever, since ancient Greeks as well as numerous modern scholars believe that it actually means "the unraveller of the web".
Additionally, on page 101, Mr. Bly offers the following piece of ridiculous misinformation: "[E]ach work of ancient literature conceals, as we are more and more aware, an occult or hidden meaning as well." I won't even bother arguing this point, since it is so patently absurd.
Jungians are psychologists. They understand mass psychology. They know that it is only necessary to create an aura of authority and an appearance of truth in order to make a fortune and to gain a prestigious reputation among uncritical people. Thus, they are at liberty to invent non-existent episodes of well-known myths, to magically transform modern cultural historians into 19th century Lamarckian geneticists, to offer ludicrous definitions of ancient words, and will be praised to the skies for it. These people are not wise elders. They are con artists, plain and simple. They have absolutely no respect for their readership.
Good not Great.......2000-03-19
I had high hopes and in many ways was not disappointed. I loved the format and co-authorship was wonderfully refreshing. The biggest disappointment is that the fairy tale wasn't that fascinating. The tale required all of Bly and Woodman's abilities in amplifying and expanding on symbols, and their abilities are impressive. However, I don't think it's either author's most inspired writing. I also have to vent about Robert "half-empty" Bly's occassional remarks about the current state of decline of today's culture. I think Jungian's call it "negative intuition." It by no means ruins his commentary, so much of which is truly inspired, but I feel his empty comments about "falling SAT scores" and fewer college Shakespeare courses deserve a response. Senex as kurmudgen. The book reflects its origins from a lecture series. It seems to limit the book from being truly great. The spontaneity still registers in the pages, which is nice.
An entertaining, yet powerful message........1998-12-12
Marion Woodman and Robert Bly are both masterful story tellers and in their new book, "The Maiden King", they combine their talents to translate an important story. Some critics have not truly read this story for what it is. This book uses a mythological tale because that is how people were explained things long ago. The resurection of this technique of understanding only enhances the meaning and the importance of its message. It is evident that critics such as Ms. Lohrman may be afraid of facing the ideas expressed by the two authors. We will face these ideas at one time or another in our lifetime. The authors explain how men and women have evolved and how they may live together now. There are many mythological references as well as highlights from other poets, authors and anything else that has shaped our society. In a day and age where our culture is defined by "Must See TV" and the 'goings on' in the White House, "The Maiden King" weaves a mythological soul-seeking jouney to understand who we really are how we came to be that way.
The Search for Equality of the Sexes Continues.......1998-10-31
This story narrated by the authors Robert Bly (who wrote the bestseller Iron John) and Marion Woodman (reknowned psychoanalyst) takes a deeper look into the differences and similarities of the sexes. They artfully present this book in a conversational manner, by analyzing an ancient russian folk story of a man who is intimidated by the presence of strong women. The authors take the listener step-by-step into the story, and discuss the differences between masculine and feminine. I found the audio insightful, intelligent and very informative. I recommend it highly to any man or woman interested in understanding the similarities and differences of the sexes.
Keys to the Reunion of Masculine and Feminine.......1998-10-23
In our gender-polarized society, conflict is easy to come by, and the important question is, "who triumphed?" Robert and Marion have taken on a much more difficult task, of reunion of the masculine and feminine.
Our society seeks "juice," not harmony. So it's not surprising that the reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, Karen Lehrman, panned the book. Ms. Lehrman is a feminist deeply embroiled in the polarizing gender conflict. Her criticism that Robert and Marion "often seem intent on confusing" the central ideas is ironic in light of the New York Times book review of her own book: "what The Lipstick Proviso contains, despite flashes of good sense, is a muddle of sometimes self-contradictory assertions that undermine her own authority."
The criticism is that the comments in the book are not literally true. But this reunion of the masculine and the feminine, if it is to occur, must happen at the interior level-the spiritual level, if you will. Robert says as much on the very first page: "If you, as a reader, adore literalism, you may as well close the book now-you'll argue with our sallies so often that it will be bad for your health."
Iron John encourages men to move beyond ready-made versions of masculinity to a responsive form of masculinity, just as Marion's Leaving My Father's House encourages women to move from "the ready-made femininity the patriarchal culture has imposed on them" into a responsive form of femininity. This book begins where those two books leave off. The story ends in a reunion and a marriage between the conscious masculine and the conscious feminine.
In the journey through the story Robert and Marion point out the many ways our culture has made us unconscious and fed on this unconsciousness-things like addictions, materialism, and a drive for instant gratification. A delightful section "How Kali Belongs in the Malls" illustrates this. Robert's poetic style provides for a beautiful weaving together the metaphoric themes of the story. Marion brings imagination and passion to her interpretation, complementing Robert beautifully with interpretations as poetic as they are insightful.
This book has an important message, for anyone concerned about gender polarization or about materialism, self-orientation, instant gratification, addictions or other signs that our lives are empty, that something is missing. If you have the feeling that the answer is not owning more things, not in power politics, but in the realm of spirit and soul, read this book to search for keys to reunion of masculine and feminine in the world around you.
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