Book Description
Jonah Caine, a lone survivor in a zombie-infested world, struggles to understand the apocalypse in which he lives. Unable to find a moral or sane reason for the horror that surrounds him, he is overwhelmed by violence and insignificance. After wandering for months, Jonah's lonely existence dramatically changes when he discovers a group of survivors. Living in a museum-turned-compound, they are led jointly by Jack, an ever-practical and efficient military man, and Milton, a mysterious, quizzical prophet who holds a strange power over the dead. Both leaders share Jonah's anguish over the brutality of their world, as well as his hope for its beauty. Together with others, they build a community that reestablishes an island of order and humanity surrounded by relentless ghouls. But this newfound peace is short-lived, as Jonah and his band of refugees clash with another group of survivors who remind them that the undead are not the only-nor the most grotesque-horrors they must face.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best zombie novels I've ever read.......2007-10-06
Title mostly sums this review up. I've read a lot of zombie novels and this by far one of the best I've ever read. It's ranked up there with World War Z in my opinion. I find it really explores human nature in times of crisis. You got your good and your evil, with some being truly kind and others doing some of the most despicable things ever. But lets not forget the zombies, they're ever present and the author truly paints some gore filled scenes with his shambling masses of undead.
Good Zombie novel!!.......2007-09-18
I have read alot of zombie books and this one uses the more common ideas for them. BUT it has a neat twist with one of the people involved. I really enjoyed this book and think all zombie book lovers will like it too!!
Zombie Fiction at its Best!! A Must Read!!.......2007-09-16
I have read most of the zombie fiction available out there and Dying to Live manages to deliver where most others fail. Here are the reasons:
1. Finally a zombie novel with horror in it. True horror.
2. Tons of action.
3. A storyline that doesn't involve survivors sitting around in a safehouse the entire time waiting for help.
4. A character with a mysterious ability over the undead that doesn't turn the book into the mummy returns.
5. Great bad guys. Characters that we pretend don't really exist just to be able to sleep at night.
SOLID ZOMBIE NOVEL.......2007-09-14
Permuted Press has been making quite a name for themselves in the genre of zombie fiction and their latest release is Kim Paffenroth's "Dying to Live." The problem I have had with some zombie novels in the past is that the authors tend to set their sights a bit too high. While trying to tell a world-spanning tale of a zombie outbreak they often try to do too much and forget the smaller, personal stories. The best zombie stories/films were those that concentrated on the smaller picture, such as "Night of the Living Dead." Thankfully Paffenroth does not fall into this trap. He gives us one small, yet very appetizing piece of the zombie pie.
Paffenroth doesn't waste a lot of time explaining the zombie outbreak, preferring to jump right into the introduction of the main character, Jonah Caine, who has been surviving on his own since the catastrophe took place. Jonah is a plain, everyman...a former English professor at a community college, who has been resourceful enough to stay alive but grown weary by the stress of being on the run. A risky foray into a city to find food leads to Jonah meeting a small settlement of survivors who have turned a museum into their own fortress. The settlement's leader is Jack Lawson, your typical former military man but the most interesting character is the settlement's spiritual leader, Milton. In Paffenroth's zombie world, animals can also become zombies. When one of these undead animals bites Milton, he becomes essentially a human/zombie hybrid, carrying the stink and rot of death, yet not actually dying. Further, other zombies seem to fear Milton and are repelled when he walks among them, a useful ability indeed.
These survivors live in relative safety in their stronghold, leaving only for quick raids for food and supplies in the city. Jonah has to prove himself with a dangerous initiation rite by going on one of these raids. It is during one of these raids that they encounter another survivor, living alone with his newborn son in what turns into a harrowing rescue. With no real threat to them, they decide to go to the threat, by investigating smoke seen at the far end of the city. It's here where the survivors face the real horrors...a state correctional facility whose inmates have secured their own fortress.
"Dying to Live" is a solid, and often terrifying novel. The confrontations with the zombies keep are slam-bang thrill rides with something lurking behind each dark corner. The only real problem with the story is the last quarter of the book when Jonah and a few others encounter the prison inmates. Paffenroth ultimately made his characters too safe and secure in their museum home. The zombies were completely unable to mount any kind of a threat to them in their makeshift museum fortress. Paffenroth had to concoct a more serious threat than the legions of zombies themselves. A bit contrived, but not enough to spoil an otherwise brisk moving story with sufficient scares for any zombie fan. While I would have liked to have seen the characters developed a bit more, this is still an entertaining zombie fiction read.
REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
Zombies, with a side order of religion........2007-08-30
There are parts of this book that are great - some flat out fantastic zombie fiction. Original, and yet mostly true to the Romero template (though that's not something I live and die by, as it were). I can see why this has earned his book the compliment of being 'the thinking man's zombie novel' - but I think that description is somewhat misleading.
The plot and geography of his world are very nicely done - and the nods and respect for what is horrific about the genre are intact. That aspect is intelligent and fun writing.
There is a lot lacking, however. The dialog is pretty bad, with exposition coming about in unnatural ways. There are some awkward treatments of gender, and race, that read like they are coming from someone a few generations older than the pop culture norm. The narrator and male characters have a kind of 'tin masculinity' - cliches abound. The women are treated nearly as a different species, rather than gender.
Especially odd is the way the narrator lingers on many emotionally difficult things, yet - he doesn't think about his wife and kids at all after trying, unsuccessfully, to find them (not really a spoiler - its covered in exposition). He writes of sexuality as if he is Mr. Rogers. In a prison environment, he refers several times to 'the black man'(previously met)- it would be more apt to point out 'the white man', who is more likely a minority in this setting. Better yet - I'd rather have characters described as something other than their race. In a zombie infested convenience store he comments about how the races are all finally getting along now that they are undead... last time I was in a convenience store many races were represented and they were getting along fine. There is some ugly judgement and generalization of inmates in prison - all lazy stupid sodomites.
All of this can be forgiven for a fast paced romp through a zombie apocalypse.
Harder to avoid, however, is the ever present discussion of God, the Bible, spirits, and souls. Luck and 'all these little miracles' are written of in a way that tauntingly suggests that anyone who doesn't think God is pulling the strings is crazy. The word or name God is on nearly every page - especially in dialog - many characters like to chat about God. An unlikely character points out the difference between the Tribulation and the Apocalypse (having overheard it from elderly relatives!?). The Bible is quoted several times, sometimes in casual conversation. People don't talk like that, in my experience, except perhaps in church lobbies or study groups. For the most part - people avoid discussion of religion and politics in polite company of casual acquaintances.
This would all seem more plausible, and less hard to accept and digest, if the narrating character was a professor of religious studies (like the author of the book) rather than an english professor. That would have been a good solution, I think.
Aside from dialog - there are several biblical references in the action of the story. A man first looses his ear in a scuffle - then has both hands pierced with knives and is finally killed with a spear in his side while his friends talk about how forsaken he was, and how 'like a lamb to the slaughter' (this read as crass and tasteless, not merely out of place and unlikely). There is an outright messiah character who didn't bother me half as much as the frequent references to God and impromptu religious discussions (and untimely internal reflection of the narrator) throughout the rest of book.
How reviewers fail to mention this religious undertone is beyond me. I found it very distracting at times - and feel it detracted from an otherwise fantastic read.
The highs were strongly tempered by the lows - I would have gone to 5 if it hadn't had a subversive religious tone.
Book Description
When should futile medical treatment be stopped? When and how can deathbe hastened? How can each of us keep control of these decisions?
The knowledge provided in this book is both comforting and powerful. Patients who know their right to refuse treatment and the legal ways to bring about death if pain or distress cannot be alleviated will be spared the frightening helplessness that can rob their last days of meaning and connection. Drs. Wanzer and Glenmullen do not shy from controversy. They make clear what patients should expect of their doctors, including the right to enough pain control even it shortens life. They also explain the legal ways hasten death that are possible for anyone, and clarify the controversies now surrounding those that require a doctor's help.
Compassion and reassurance blend with direct, honest fact in this book that every one of us should have before it is needed for ourselves or our families.
Customer Reviews:
It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries.......2007-05-12
TO DIE WELL: YOUR RIGHT TO COMFORT, CALM, AND CHOICE IN THE LAST DAYS OF LIFE comes from a leader in the right-to-die movement, and a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who offer insights on turning points in a dying patient's life: one when no reasonable expectation of a cure is possible, the second involving hastening death - the subject of this book. TO DIE WELL focuses on patient rights, physician involvement, and how to stay in control of advance directives. It promises to be an essential addition not just for medical libraries, but for general-interest collections.
Medical commonsense at last !.......2007-04-11
At last! Two doctors have written a right-to-die book with the patients' interests first. Very readable by the lay person, bundles of good advice on how a patient's best interests should be protected, and straightforward reporting on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Recommend for instant reading, and filing away for future problems. -- Derek Humphry ('Final Exit')
Average customer rating:
- And, finally, here we are at the beginning
- Better then the TV movie!
- House of Mars
- Derivative
- A good book for any Whoovian
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The Dying Days (Doctor Who : the New Adventures)
Lance Parkin
Manufacturer: London Bridge (Mm)
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Binding: Paperback
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Damaged Goods (Doctor Who: The New Adventures) (Doctor Who)
ASIN: 0426205049 |
Customer Reviews:
And, finally, here we are at the beginning.......2007-01-20
After the massive story that was Lungbarrow, the Virgin line still had one more book to go before it folded and the BBC took everything back. On TV the seventh Doctor had already regenerated into Paul McGann and so what we got here was not just the only Virgin book featuring the eighth Doctor, but the only meeting of the eighth Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, who would go on to star in the Doctor-less New Adventures for some time before that line eventually collapsed. As such the book isn't that easy to find and if I hadn't bought a copy when it came out ten years ago and forgotten to read it, I wouldn't have one either. After spending so much time with the McCoy Doctor, it was weird to read a book featuring a totally new incarnation, especially since I've never seen the Fox movie, or read any of the BBC novels (yet), so I really didn't know what to expect. But it was kind of fun, the eighth Doctor is much lighter than his predecessor, not as manipulative, not flamboyant but still exuberant and still remarkably clever. The Doctor meets Bernice, who is unaware that he regenerated, on Earth, just as a group of British astronauts reach Mars and see something that they aren't supposed to see. Cue the incoming Martians, as well as a coup to take over the British government. In the meantime old friends appear, like UNIT and all that entails (the Brigadier, not surprised at the Doctor's appearance, since they met in his future in some unspecified adventure) and much chaos ensues, as the team tries to figure out just what the Ice Warriors' plans are and then how to stop them. As the last New Adventure it's a little disappointing because those books were so engaged in pushing the boundaries of the show's mythology and what kinds of stories you could tell, and yet this is a basic Doctor Who romp, featuring old friends and enemies and a situation we'd seen many times on the show before. Still, it's great fun if you don't look at the context of the line ending, or expect anything super-deep. Parkin has a great handle on every character and manages to shade them with a lot of nuances . . . the Ice Warriors are ruthless but aren't really evil, a scene where the leader imagines taking some Earth art back to Mars to display in a museum was a nice touch. Being that the Doctor had not appeared in print in this incarnation yet (the Virgin book beats the BBC line debut by a few months, although this novel takes place later in the chronology, by all reports) he does a good job at giving us an idea of this new Doctor, sketching out some of his quirks and foibles but overall convincing us that it's the same man, yet different. The novel, although simple, moves quickly and doesn't suffer too much from the Doctor being taken out of action for a good chunk of it. Bernice is fun as always, her interaction with the new Doctor is poignant, as she realizes that the small funny man is gone and isn't coming back (probably the most wrenching scene in the novel is early on, when Bernice enters the TARDIS and sees the seventh Doctor's old umbrella, sitting on top of a cabinet, discarded and covered in dust). But overall it's not a real deep book, it doesn't stretch the boundaries any and maybe it didn't need to. But for a line that did so much to expand what could be done, it would have been nice to see them try one last time to blow our collective minds. Still, it doesn't take away from what they already did and this book makes for quick, light reading, bidding goodbye to the New Adventures that served us so well and a hello to a new Doctor who only existed for maybe two hours on TV but lingered for years in the BBC line of novels. Rare and expensive, but not groundbreaking, so consider that before you shell out a lot of money, unless you're a completist.
Better then the TV movie!.......2004-07-22
Well I have to give Lance Parkin credit, the man knows his Who. I read this book 2 days after it was released here in the states. I was working a 3rd shift job at the time so every minute I had I was either sleeping or with my Girlfriend. I would take this book to work, read it on the way to work, in the bathroom... even inbetween breaks at work. It was that good.
Parkin had the character of the McGann Doctor down to a science. And it was nice to have something that expanded from the Fox movie so well. And a UNIT story to boot!
A wonderful teaming with Bernice and a beautiful, tearfull ending as the two parted ways, knowing full well even though the Doctor claimed he'd see her again, we knew due to legalities the two of them would never be teamed together again in offical continuity.
It was nice that the Virgin Series ended on such a high note.
I recommend The Dying Days very much and due to its very limited print run and availability buy it at any price under $100.00 if you can afford it. It's a classic in Doctor Who stories right up there next to Lungbarrow which I also highly reccomend.
House of Mars.......2004-06-01
THE DYING DAYS: eagerly anticipated before its release; desperately searched for as a rarity since then. How does it stand up today? This is the third time that I've read this novel, and to be honest it's lost a little something for me on each reread. Which isn't as bad as it seems, since I thought it was absolutely brilliant the first time.
I've seen this novel hailed as a penetratingly thoughtful meta-textual discussion on Doctor Who, both as it existed on TV, as it continued in the Virgin novels, and then as the book license was snatched away back to the BBC. I'm wondering if I missed something somewhere. Yes, I saw the jokes, but I didn't think of them as anything more than a handful of throwaway jokes. Though as jokes go, these are quite good. Hilarious, in fact. I don't think Parkin gets enough credit for his humor, to be honest. I've laughed much more at some of his witty sentences than from whole pages of some "comedy" Doctor Who writers.
However, one of the jokey things I felt backfired somewhat was Parkin's clever trick of only having three invading Ice Warriors ever seen in any one given scene. Apparently this was a response to a statement made by Philip Segal (producer of the Paul McGann Doctor Who TV-movie) saying that they couldn't have had the plot of the film include an alien invasion because creating hundreds of prosthetic costumes would have been too expensive. Parkin wanted to prove that assertion false by writing an action-packed adventure where, in long-standing Doctor Who tradition, we only see three or four costumed actors at a time. (Apologies to either of the two gentlemen if I'm paraphrasing them inaccurately.) He sort of gets away with it, yet I felt he was placing too much of a limitation on himself, with no clear benefit other than successfully winning an argument. The supposedly huge invasion of Earth just doesn't feel in any way epic. He proved that this sort of thing can be done, but, in a novel, should it?
The characters are a lot of fun, if not terribly deep (partially a reflection of the novel as a whole). The most interesting thing about the story is not the alien invasion (done a thousand times before), but the takeover of the British government by rogue forces working from within. Parkin's well-known shtick of having Ian Richardson "playing" a character in his novels leads to inevitable (and very welcome) comparisons to HOUSE OF CARDS, the mini-series in which Ian Richardson's character backstabs, lies and cheats his way into 10 Downing Street. Here in THE DYING DAYS, a character not totally dissimilar in description to Ian Richardson, backstabs, lies and cheats his way into 10 Downing Street with the help of some invading Ice Warriors. A fun spin to put on both the otherwise tired invasion plot and the political intrigue plot.
The other characters seem a bit shallow in comparison (I wonder how much of Greyhaven's superb characterization was due to me having seen HOUSE OF CARDS, and simply overlaying some of that character onto this one), and there's an unfortunate instance of the clichéd "underling who stays loyal to his higher masters" bit. That said, the Doctor Who regulars themselves are great. Benny has never been better, and Parkin sets a high standard for writing the Eighth Doctor that has rarely been matched. And while Paul Cornell is the novel author who seems the fondest of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Parkin's ability to give the old soldier dignity, great lines and serious gravitas blows many of Cornell's attempts out of the water.
All right, perhaps I've been a bit hard on the book in this review up until now. So at this point I'm going to really turn on the praise. What a fun, rollicking, entertaining romp this is! It's exciting, and filled with thrills and spills. And coming from the pen of Lance Parkin (or keyboard or quill, or whatever it is he uses to write), it maintains his high quality of prose. The actually writing itself is very good. Little thoughts and tidbits are scattered throughout, making the book never dull. The NAs had a reputation of attempting to go a bit deeper than the series went, and since this was the first bona fide "alien invasion of contemporary Earth" story that the series did, Parkin goes in a little more for describing how exactly the population and the world would reaction to a literal invasion of Britain. The results are entertaining, exhilarating and often amusing. Oh, and the pacing is so gripping that I couldn't imagine even someone who disliked the book finding it boring.
Lance Parkin is, of course, also writing the (forthcoming) final EDA, which is oddly appropriate given that he wrote the final Doctor-led New Adventure, which was also the first original Eighth Doctor novel. I'm expecting very different things. While he presumably will be subtly tying up some of the continuing EDA plot-strands, here the only thing he had to do was move Benny from point A to point B, so that she continue as leading lady of the New Adventures. Whether having fewer or greater numbers of restrictions/demands will affect the quality remains to be seen. THE DYING DAYS perhaps lacks the drive of Parkin's previous NA, JUST WAR, but I can forgive, given that it's not trying to be an intensely emotional drama but rather a rompy action-adventure. Like the New Adventures themselves, it may have had a few rough spots, but overall it's a good ride. It's books like THE DYING DAYS that serve to remind me of how much I miss this novel series.
Derivative.......2000-03-04
This book was an enjoyable enough read, but it was too much a rehash of 'The War of the Worlds' by HG Wells. Paying tribute is one thing, but not at the expense of originality.
A good book for any Whoovian.......1999-02-04
"The Dying Days" by Lance Parkin was rather a neat segue into the New New Adventures. A Martian invasion of Earth, arranged by a British politician who got in cahoots with the Martians some twenty years ago through a suspected axe murdering astronaut. I know, I know, it all sounds so ridiculously improbable, even for fiction, but that's what Doctor Who is about, overcoming insurmountable odds and finding yourself in the most bizarre situations! That's what makes it Doctor Who in the classic sense. It is a kind of an annoying blur in the vision of your mind's eye, when the Doctor disappears in the middle of the book, but of course he re-appears towards the end, to save the day. I think this was to give Benny a leg up on her own New Adventures, which I have not yet tried, but am looking forward to as Benny is a really neat, interesting, likeable character. This is one of the better New Adventures, and I look forward to New New Adventures in the future!
Book Description
This is the story of four seasons in the life of Charles Wenmoth, a twenty-seven-year-old apprentice blacksmith and Methodist lay preacher in Cornwall in 1870. Life is at its hardest; poverty is everywhere. Charles crosses and recrosses the raw, beautiful landscape, attending to the sick and helping the poor, preaching in chapels with ever-dwindling congregations. He questions his faith along the way but never quite loses it, balancing it with the pleasure he takes in nature, the light in the skies, the colors of the earth, and in his attachment to a girl to whom he is drawn by the piety and patience she maintains despite her long illness.
Inspired by the language of his great-great-grandfather's diaries and the Bible, influenced by authors as diverse as Hardy, Blake, and Faulkner, Peter Hobbs has created a first novel of breathtaking ambition and stylistic innovation, and of enormous emotional power.
Book Description
Each October, as the Day of the Dead draws near, Mexican markets overflow with decorated breads, fanciful paper cutouts, and whimsical toy skulls and skeletons. To honor deceased relatives, Mexicans decorate graves and erect home altars. Drawing on a rich array of historical and ethnographic evidence, this volume reveals the origin and changing character of this celebrated holiday. It explores the emergence of the Day of the Dead as a symbol of Mexican and Mexican-American national identity.Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead poses a serious challenge to the widespread stereotype of the morbid Mexican, unafraid of death, and obsessed with dying. In fact, the Day of the Dead, as shown here, is a powerful affirmation of life and creativity. Beautifully illustrated, this book is essential for anyone interested in Mexican culture, art, and folklore, as well as contemporary globalization and identity formation.
Book Description
A blazing narrative history that boldly captures the end of England's most despotic ruler and his court -- a time of murderous conspiracies, terrifying betrayals, and sordid intrigue
Henry VIII's crimes against his wives are well documented and have become historical lore. But much less attention has been paid to his monarchy, especially the closing years of his reign.
Rich with information including details from new archival material and written with the nail-biting suspense of a modern thriller, The Last Days of Henry VIII offers a superb fresh look at this fascinating figure and new insight into an intriguing chapter in history.
Robert Hutchinson paints a brilliant portrait of this egotistical tyrant who governed with a ruthlessness that rivals that of modern dictators; a monarch who had "no respect or fear of anyone in this world," according to the Spanish ambassador to his court. Henry VIII pioneered the modern "show trial": cynical propaganda exercises in which the victims were condemned before the proceedings even opened, proving the most powerful men in the land could be brought down overnight.
After thirty-five years in power, Henry was a bloated, hideously obese, black-humored old recluse. And despite his having had six wives, the Tudor dynasty rested on the slight shoulders of his only male heir, the nine-year-old Prince Edward -- a situation that spurred rival factions into a deadly conflict to control the throne.
The Last Days of Henry VIII is a gripping and compelling history as fascinating and remarkable as its subject.
Customer Reviews:
Misleading Title - Worst book ever on Henry VIII.......2007-02-08
This book was extremely disappointing, especially for a person well read in Tudor History. The title is very misleading. I thought this book would examine in depth the final years of Henry's reign. Theses final years were full of scandal, intrigue and death but the book read like a summary of his whole reign. There are plenty of other books that do this and do it better (Alison Weir for example). It's pages and pages of he said, she said quotes followed by summaries of crucial events that surely deserve more description. If you are looking for a thorough historical analysis of the final years of Henry, save your money.
Henry's illness has a name ,but is it necessary?.......2006-11-17
at last someone has ventured to give Henry's insanity a medical label,Cushings Syndrome,which encompasses alot of pathologies,from alcoholism to an uncontrollable desire to kill your advisors,even one's wife,not to mention obesity and including that overstuffed gassy feeling.This is not to mention the numerous diseases and frequent out break of plaque that Henry would be susceptible to,although he had a place to flee to get some fresh air.Hutchinson proclaims Henry,the English Nero,(maybe even Caligula),that's why British actors play degenerated Romans and Greeks so well in the movies.The history of the British Monarchy is so loaded with these sociopaths,that you can be a lunatic on the stage,and seeing as you're wearing a toga or centurian outfit,noone suspects that you're actually playing an English Monarch.The scholarship for this book is so thorough i well deserve a lashing for even attempting to review it.With the wars of the roses over and nothing left to war over but a few acres of land in Europe here and there,it's was time for henry to tackle the final frontier that being correct religious and political thought as seen through the eyes of Cushings Syndrome,(and alot of other mysterious symptoms).shakespeare sums it up well in Richard the third."our arms and battlements hung up" replaced by the lovers couch and the lute.Better hope that the you didn't design the couch when Henry's bulk and constipated flatulence renders it in pieces.You won't be able to put this book down.If henry had caught you reading this book in 1540,"no comment"!!!What a shame that Henry's unrivalled military skills and courage are sometimes overshadowed by the bad treatment he gave his wives.
Henry the Horrible.......2006-09-25
If you're a Tudor buff, you'll love this book even though it portrays Henry VIII as a monster. Hutchinson believes that Henry was responsible for some 150,000 deaths. Towards the end of his life he was so viciously unpredictable his courtiers must have been in constant fear that they would go next to the block. His severe illness pushed him over the brink of any sense of fair play or decency. He was always a tyrant, however.
What was Henry's illness? There's been 400 years of speculation.
Hutchinson believes along with others including the surgeon Clifford Brewer's "The Death of Kings" (available at Amazon)that Henry did not have syphilis, but varicose ulcers on his legs. Both legs. Syphilis was treated in those days with mercury, and since hundreds of potions Henry was given by his doctors are recorded, mercury would most certainly have been administered. Also, none of Henry's wives or children showed any sign of congenital syphilis. Anyway, when the ulcers healed over,infections resulted underneath the skin, and very likely spread into the bones. The king's physical sufferings played a large role in shaping his behavior towards the end of his life.
Here is one Hutchinson's descriptions of Henry's awful disease: "He is the personification of geriatric decay. One can almost smell the the putrid stench of the rank pus oozing from his ulcers, staining the bandages on his swollen legs. Chapuys [the Spanish ambassador] labelled them 'the worst legs in the world.'"
Henry weighed, according to Hutchinson, 28 stone or 392 pounds. His waist was 54 inches around. Many suits of Henry's armor survive, so his physical proportions are easy to calculate. His gluttony contributed to his health problems, so his obesity and his ulcers did him in at age 55, and just before his death he lost the power of speech, finally sinking into a uremic coma.
"The Last Days of Henry VIII" goes into great detail about the state of England towards the end of Henry's life, but my interests lie in character portrayal. Edward VI, Henry's only son, is described as a boy of unattractive "prissiness". The stupidity of Kathryn Howard, Henry's fifth wife, in cuckolding the king right under his nose, is discussed. Anne of Cleves emerges as "no fool, behind her pock-marked face". Interestingly, Anne and Henry's daughter, Mary, became fast friends. They died at the same age, 42, one year apart. The Duke of Norfolk emerges as a coward and hypocrite. The power behind the throne towards the end of Henry's life was Sir Anthony Denny, a man I had never heard of. Sir Anthony was Chief Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and controlled all access to the monarch and managed all of Henry's finances.The power behind the throne.All of these character studies, along with many more, are what interest me the most in the book.
There's an especiially interesting plate in the book, in black and white, of Mary, painted in 1536 by Holbein when Mary was twenty years old. Mary looks like a woman of forty, her face shadowed with fatigue, her thin lips rigid and uncompromising. Facing the page of Mary is the superb portait of Elizabeth when she was 13. It's very odd, but Mary and ELizabeth facing eachother, look astoundingly alike even though Elizabeth is fresh-faced and young.In real life, the sisters did not resemble eachother and yet these two portraits, side by side, are food for thought. It's a bit eerie!
The tangled web of conspiracies and heresies and treason are brought forth in the book to great effect, including character studies and influence of the clergymen Cranmer and Gardiner. Henry VIII was responsible for many burnings at the stake of people from all walks of life. As his illness became more incapacitating, the more ruthless Henry became so that in the end, he died a lonely old man with no friends. And horribly, it was rumored that Henry's immense coffin burst a seam and issued forth a stream of corrupted matter. A dog was caught trying to lap up the blood, like the dogs who lapped up the blood of Ahab. The story may be apocryphal, of course, but maybe not.
To get a real gut feeling for the times of Henry VIII "The Last Days" is recommended.
Not your average 16th century monarch. .......2006-02-03
I commenced this book with the view that perhaps Henry VIII was no worse than your average black-hearted monarch of the Middle Ages; that view went up in smoke in the first 50 pages of this fascinating book. Hutchinson has researched well for this book and the bibliography is full of reference to primary documents and quotes at length from them.
In some ways Henry was no worse than some of his scheming, ruthless and murderous Councilors and Government officials, but he bested them all with his acutely developed sense of low cunning, deviousness and intelligence. The book offers a brilliant cross section of the personalities and the dynamics of the rulers and some of the would-be rulers during the last years of Henry's reign.
Henry was a very sick man for the last few years of his life and in great pain and this made him a very dangerous person to be around with his power of life and death over his subjects. His natural qualities of selfishness, ruthlessness and cruelty became even more pronounced as he sunk deeper into pain and ill health and edged towards death.
Hutchinson gives a very good analysis of the effects in England of Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the consequences, some fatal, for his subjects as they tried to deal with the aftermath. The author gives a sad and heart breaking account of some of his executed victims, some are in their teens, some are poor and they all have no hope of a fair trial or hearing under Henry's despotic rule. This book is well worth reading, if only to see how far human rights have advanced; in some countries anyway!
Tyranny and terror.......2006-01-31
Henry VIII ruled his kingdom, at least towrd the end of his reign, with low political cunning, and a mixture of tyranny and terror. Even those closest to him at court could never be sure about the long-term stability of their positions. His mind was mercurial, and often changed by the last person with whom he spoke, but the final decision, good or bad, was always his. This is an extremely readable work that takes us through the last years of his life, when life around him became extremely bad, not only because of his natural inclination to incite terror, but the very real physical pain he sufered from various problems with his often abused body. This is a cautionary tale of how absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a fine addition to the lengthy volumes on the Tudors.
Book Description
Those of us who share our lives with animals whose time on earth is shorter than ours must at sometime cope with the pain of losing these friends to death.
From her own experience and from the accounts of other animal owners, Alexandra Day has come to feel that animals who have departed this world want to send a message of reassurance and comfort to their beloved human friends.
Alexandra Day, the author and artist of the Good Dog, Carl series has paired her message of love and remembrance with an array of images featuring animals and their human companions.
Customer Reviews:
consolation.......2007-03-13
This book written by Alexandra Day touches your heart and soul. I believe, as she believes, that our animals are always with us in spirit. Great love like that lives on forever. And yes, we will all be together someday again. When it is our time to pass over, our animals will be with us. I have given "Not Forgotten" to many friends who have lost their precious companions. Every person who received it loved this book. All I can say is, thank you Alexandra, for your heart full of love.
Beautifully Written and Illustrated Comfort, in a Time of Deep Loss.......2006-03-30
Somewhat overwhelmed by the intensity of the pain I was experiencing, I happened across "Not Forgotten" in a local book store the day after I had to have my 14 year old "puppy" put to sleep, and with it's wonderful, comforting sentiment the book was the perfect random find I desperately needed on that very dark day.
Much like a children's book and only 24 pages long, the warmly done water color illustrations we're perfectly matched to the elegant, simple text, the combination of which gave me hope when I felt hopeless, and release when I couldn't fathom the depth of my sadness, much less that it might ever be eased. The book should be a great comfort for pet owners of all kinds who are suffering, confused and possibly alone with the feelings of loss only we as pet owners can fully understand.
"Not Forgotten" was so beautifully done that I bought this copy as a gift for a close friend who had just suffered a similar loss, and they, too, were deeply touched by it, deriving as much comfort as is possible from a book at such a broken hearted time. In the future I won't hesitate to give it to others similarly wounded and in need of hope.
I had known for almost a year that the eventual and inevitable death of my long time best friend and "girly girl" would be difficult, but even I was surprised at just how difficult it was. Thanks to it's message of hope at just the right time "Not Forgotten" now sits on our shelf as part of the family memorial to our "dog of a lifetime", next to her picture, her collar and her ashes.
Thank you, Alexandra Day.
Product Description
The main theme of this new book is that the Khartoum regime is committing genocide in Darfur while the international community watches in silence or with mere hand-wringing. Publication of such an important book, at this critical moment in the Darfur genocide, offers to government officials, academics, humanitarian aid groups, human rights organizations, as well as to the broader public an in-depth critical assessment of the current situation in Darfur. It also provides an unsparing assessment of the international community s diplomatic efforts, past and present, to respond to Darfur. Such an assessment comes at a defining moment. The world is watching clearly and yet responding weakly. Action is essential now if we are not to see a further extension of the international failures so conspicuous in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Customer Reviews:
Dispatches from the Foremost Sudan Human Rights Activist.......2007-07-17
Eric Reeves is well-known in Darfur activism circles for his courageous, tenacious website ([...]), where he publishes frequent dispatches on the Darfur genocide. Pulitzer-prize-winning author and anti-genocide activist Samantha Power says that "not a single person in the world has done as much for Darfur as Eric Reeves." For this reason, A Long Day's Dying was a much-anticipated contribution to the literature on the Darfur genocide. In serving as a one-volume compendium of the most important of Reeves' writings during the 2003-2006 period, the book lives up to expectations - it systematically documents the Khartoum regime's depredations and the international community's slow and indecisive response, while also providing a record of Eric Reeves' relentless advocacy over that period. In this sense, it is a must-read for any student of genocide in general and the Darfur conflict in particular.
Reeves is justly prominent as the most dogged advocate of oppressed Sudanese people and as a tenacious adversary of the genocidal Khartoum regime and foot draggers in the international community. The "critical moments" presented in the book reflect Reeves' passion, commitment, and unflagging appeals to the world's conscience for the slow, ineffective response to Khartoum's crimes against humanity and diplomatic intransigence and subterfuge. Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, come in for particularly harsh criticism, as Reeves accuses them of engaging in eloquent diplo-speak and compromising away important gains rather than pushing for quick, meaningful results in terms of disarmament, civilian protection, and humanitarian access.
Some strengths of the book include the following: The introduction (dated January 21, 2007) is succinct and highly informative; it provides a great 18-page overview of key issues with respect to the ongoing Darfur tragedy. The eight colorful, detailed United Nations maps that Reeves provides are quite useful, though one needs a magnifying glass to take full advantage of them. Another strength is that a number of important resource documents, such as United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1706, are included in the appendices, thus adding to the book's usefulness as a reference work on the Darfur genocide.
While the book is important and useful, it does have notable weaknesses. First, it is more useful as a reference work than as a book to be read cover to cover. While I did the latter, it is a tough, long slog, as the "critical moments" tend to be very repetitive in some key details, and the editing is sometimes shaky. Reeves tries to justify this away in the introduction, but the book could easily have been edited in such a manner as to make it more readable and concise. A second readability challenge is that each of the three content chapters after the introduction ("Sudan's killing fields move westward", "Rwanda redux", and Genocide by attrition") are organized chronologically, starting over in each chapter. Given the book's usefulness as a historical archive, it would have been more useful to organize the whole book chronologically and have the chapters organized in consecutive order by time period. A third readability challenge is that virtually all of the analysis in the book is at the macro level, commenting on the broad contours of the genocide and the international response. There is relatively little rich detail of particular cases on the ground or case studies of the responses of particular international actors. This reflects the macro approach of Reeves' website - individual analyses are well-written, convincing, and hard-hitting, but read in a series they become a bit monotonous. This would be a more readable book if the author varied the level of analysis.
Given the fact that A Long Day's Dying is most useful as a historical archive, it is truly unfortunate that the book's short index is quite poor. It is only an index of proper names, so important topics such as "oil" and "peacekeeping" are not covered. And even names that are mentioned multiple times in the book's text (e.g., CARE, Central African Republic, European Union, etc.) are omitted.
In sum, this is an indispensable archival reference for any serious student of the Darfur conflict, whether an activist, humanitarian, or academic. Some of the weaknesses mentioned above are forgivable, given Eric Reeves' apparent desire to get the book into print while it was still not too late to influence debates, and, more important, outcomes. I hope that once the dust clears and there is peace and justice in Sudan, Reeves and his publisher will release a revised edition that completes the story and rectifies some of the weaknesses of the current volume. In any case, this is still an important volume that any serious student of the Darfur tragedy should have close at hand.
Book Description
"A handsome addition to the recent literature on this Mexican phenomenon.... The photographs are magnificent.... This volume makes a valuable contribution to the study of both Mexican popular culture and the folk art it has produced. It may also be timely, as one of the interviewees laments the way U.S. Halloween customs are supplanting some of the traditional celebrations in urban centers such as Monterrey and the Federal District."
—Hispanic American Historical Review
All over Mexico, early in November, families gather to welcome the souls of the dead on their annual visit home. The smells of burning
copal incense and pungent
cempasúchil (marigolds) mingle with the aromas of fresh bread, new clothing, sweets, and candles. One of Mexico's most important festivals since prehispanic times, the Day of the Dead is an occasion for celebrating and feasting, cleaning and decorating graves, dancing and making music.
In this unique work, the authors explore both the historic origins of this holiday and its colorful present-day celebrations in Mexico and the United States. Interviews with Mexican artists and crafters who provide goods for the festival—from personalized sugar skulls to gigantic papier-mâché skeletons—offer a fascinating glimpse into traditional and contemporary attitudes toward death and the dead.
Lavishly illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs,
The Skeleton at the Feast will be required reading for all who are interested in Mexican culture, art, and folklore.
Customer Reviews:
Very informative........2002-06-26
The best book I've seen on the subject!
The Skeleton at the Feast.......2001-11-01
I bought this book several years ago at the Museum of Mankind, in London. It was the book for the exhibition, which featured incredible paper sculptures of skeletons and demons.
I read every word of the book, and enjoyed the culture, history, and personal stories of these Mexican artists.
Buy it!
a comprehensive look at a bizarre custom.......2000-04-05
As an anthropologist who teaches classes on Mexico, I use this book often. The "day of the dead" in Mexico exemplifies, for me, the difference between the U.S. culture and that of Mexico. Just as other cultures might find our U.S. Halloween celebrations strangely at odds with normally conservative Judeo-Christian religious observance, this book illustrates clearly the almost unfathomable blending of pre-Columbian cults of death and sacrifice with Spanish-Catholic traditions. Starting with its origins in Mexico's ancient civilizations, the book discusses and illustrates this observance through modern times, and takes the reader vicariously to the areas of Mexico in which it is most enthusiastically observed. Sit down with a cup of chocolate' and some "pan de los muertos" (bread of the dead), and enjoy a book whose topic you might have thought too morbid for your taste, but which you will probably end up finding much more compelling than repulsive. Unfortunately for me (but better for the publishing company!), I am about to order my 3rd copy of "Skeleton at the Feast"--apparently the students to whom I loan it find it too interesting to return!
a comprehensive look at a bizarre custom.......2000-04-05
As an anthropologist who teaches classes on Mexico, I use this book often. The "day of the dead" in Mexico exemplifies, for me, the difference between the U.S. culture and that of Mexico. Just as other cultures might find our U.S. Halloween celebrations strangely at odds with normally conservative Judeo-Christian religious observance, this book illustrates clearly the almost unfathomable blending of pre-Columbian cults of death and sacrifice with Spanish-Catholic traditions. Starting with its origins in Mexico's ancient civilizations, the book discusses and illustrates this observance through modern times, and takes the reader vicariously to the areas of Mexico in which it is most enthusiastically observed. Sit down with a cup of chocolate' and some "pan de los muertos" (bread of the dead), and enjoy a book whose topic you might have thought too morbid for your taste, but which you will probably end up finding much more compelling than repulsive. Unfortunately for me (but better for the publishing company!), I am about to order my 3rd copy of "Skeleton at the Feast"--apparently the students to whom I loan it find it too interesting to return!
Books:
- Earthsong
- Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
- Eragon / Eldest (Inheritance, Books 1 & 2)
- Excalibur (The Arthur Books #3)
- Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
- Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
- Girl in a Box
- Goodnight Moon
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
- Hell's Gate (Multiverse, Book 1)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain)
Dead City
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Down the Road: On the Last Day
Rise and Walk
