Book Description
2005 WINNER OF THE RIO AWARD OF EXCELLENCE. AN EROTIC MUST READ!! Caught in a power struggle between two vampires, Rowan must use her wit and her witchcraft to keep the older more powerful vampire Klaus, from making a snack out of the far younger Rick while fending off the younger vampire's amorous intent. And then there's the Bad-Guys.
Customer Reviews:
Not too bad........2007-02-17
Surprisingly entertaining. Not the best book I've read, but hardly the worst either.
too many loose ends.......2006-08-07
Rowan is a so-called witch with a bad itch that needs scratching preferably by Rick. But hey, why stop there? The plot is incomplete. The bad guys aren't really bad guys. The transitions between the scenes are jerky. Characters run from Point A to Point B and back to Point A again. This book is completely pointless and a waste of time. For a good witch story, try Nora Robert's Three Sisters Island Trilogy.
A different type of vampire story!.......2005-12-31
I just finished this book, all in one sitting! I couldn't put it down (it's now 3a.m.!). I love the sexual tension between Rowan, the witch, and "vampire Rick". Rick's attitude was definitely not like the usual vampire male's, and I found it hilarious to read about a vampire "horndog"! I've read, and enjoyed, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and Mary Janice Davidson. I will be adding Morgan Hawke to this collection, and I can't wait for Book 2!
Really not all that great.............2005-11-11
Ms. Hawke creates an interesting 'live' vampire here, but he is the only good thing about this book. The author's use of descriptors [spec. colors] with EVERYTHING do not seem that of a professional writer.
As for being erotic, well the few love scenes were slightly steamy but nothing to write home about.
This is obviously a planned series as there are so many loose strings left at the end its a wonder my book didn't unravel. Read it in one sitting and donated it to the library the next day. Maybe I can save someone from wasting their money on it....
"...Morgan Hawke has added a further ingredient to her already bubbling pot -- or plot -- a lingering sexual tension..........2005-08-09
which is about to explode!
Rowan is a witch with incredible powers, telekinesis and mind reading being only two of them. When her boyfriend walks into the bar and accuses her of using him for sex, he is far from wrong. He doesn't know it, but she's got to recharge her powers somehow. After they fight, he admits to cheating on Rowan and walks out, leaving her angry and confused. In some ways she is pleased he is out of her life for good, but annoyed at having to go through the whole dating process again. Still, not being one to mope around, she continues working in the booth telling fortunes by tarot card. When her best friend walks in proclaiming she has just met Mr Right, the cute gothic hunk at the bar, named Rick, things turn awkward. How can Rowan warn her that the successful architect is really a hungry vampire not to be trusted, when he looks so damn sexy and is actually making eyes at her?
To add to Rowan's problems, a sorcerer with two shadows and an evil aura swans into the bar and starts up a conversation with the vampire, Rick. Slightly amused she watches the hunter become the hunted, as the sorcerer feeds off the vampire's powers. However, when she consults the tarot for guidance, she is forewarned of the impenitent destruction of the whole club - unless she does something to stop the sorcerer, they will all die. And if that doesn't kill her, Rick's unwelcome, undead houseguest, Klaus, just might!
Once again, Morgan Hawke has cast her magic, producing a fabulous tale of witches, sorcerers, zombies and vampires that will keep you spellbound to the very end. Bind this with the author's impeccable subject knowledge and natural flair for capturing the mood, and you have an all-star cast just bursting to reveal their supernatural secrets. There are even times you may sympathise with Klaus, the baddie, which just goes to show how mesmerising the characters in House of Shadows are. I wish I could explain why the ancient vampire Klaus has such a hold on Rick, but that would be telling! You'll just have to read this to find out! In addition, Morgan Hawke has added a further ingredient to her already bubbling pot -- or plot -- a lingering sexual tension, which is about to explode! When it does, you'd better not miss it!
Book Description
The six works in this volume--"A Lost Lady," "The Professor's House," "Death Comes for the Archbishop," "Shadows on the Rock," "Lucy Gayheart," and "Sapphira and the Slave Girl"--are at once intensely lyrical and highly controlled. Their fascination with the American Southwest, early Canada and Catholicism reflects the older Cather's search for alternatives to the grasping civilization she felt was increasingly replacing the spirit of the early pioneers. validation-form-field.keypoints: The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).
Customer Reviews:
Her talent is breath-taking.......2006-06-21
Somehow, though I love to read,I had missed Willa Cather. I had already read and loved Jane Austen but it was not until I read "My Antonia" that I realized what I had missed all of these years. Willa Cather is truly a genius of the written word. To call her writing 'good' or her stories 'enjoyable' is to understate her talent. Her writing is beautiful though the stories are simple. Each place she writes about makes one believe that she lived there all her life. Her book "Saphira and the Slave Girl" would make you think she had lived there and in that time. Many of her stories are out on the prairie and seem to glow with the golden light from the sun on the fields of grain. Her characterizations are simple but profound and she often throws in a dramatic tale told by a character. And yes, this physical book is also beautiful and a joy to read. It makes one wonder about ever reading a cheap paperback again.
My Antonia.......2001-09-02
This book was very interesting had a good theme and plot.
It kept the reader on edge throughout the entire book. I would recommend it to everyone.
My Antonia.......2001-09-02
This book was very interesting had a good theme and plot.
It kept the reader on edge throughout the entire book. I would
recommend it to everyone.
Some of Cather's finest work.......2000-10-03
Like all the volumes in the Library of America series, this book is beautiful and made to last. Some readers may be bothered by the thin paper, but it allows so much to be packed into a handy book. As the title states, this is a collection from Cather's early work (her first "first novel," _Alexander's Bridge_, is missing). _The Troll Garden_ is a collection of Cather's early short stories, most in the manner of H. James and have a fin-de-siecle tone. "The Sculptor's Funeral," which depicts a town's inability to recognize achievement in any form but monetary, is perhaps the best. That and two other stories were revised by Cather for _Youth and the Bright Medusa_ (1920 an available in LoA 57 _Stories, Poems, and Other Writings_). Reading the versions side-by-side, one can achieve insight into Cather's growing abilities as a writer. However, the most rewarding read in this volume is _My Antonia_. Cather's first masterpiece depicts the lives of Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda from their arrival in Black Hawk, Nebraska to twenty years after Jim leaves Black Hawk for a life in the East. Antonia remains in Nebraska, becomes a maid in town, and marries (twice). The theme of the book, from Jim's perspective, is aptly captured in the epigraph: "optima dies . . . prima fugit" (from Virgil's _Aeneid_). Again like all volumes in the LoA, a chronology of the authors life, a "Note on the Texts" and a few notes, containing information on allusions and translations of foreign words and phrases appear at the end of the volume.
Absolutely perfect fiction.......1999-05-21
One of my all-time favorite books. Attractively packaged on acid-free paper. Very classic looking. And the fiction is excellent! Her stories about the Plains, the Southwest, Chicago, and Quebec are perfect works of art. I especially liked "Tom Outland's Story" contained within "The Professor's House."
Book Description
In the spring of 1914, a restless young man leaves England for a tour of the exotic east. A bit of Egypt, a glimpse of Syria, a nod to Constantinople -- that's all that was supposed to happen. Instead, Julian Beaufort becomes mesmerized. Wandering in idle admiration through the labyrinthine streets of Damascus, he stumbles upon Bait Katib, a house that takes possession of his heart. It is elegant; it is ancient; and it is, after a bit of negotiation with the owner, his. He has every intention of staying there for the rest of his life. But the world doesn't relinquish its hold so easily. Two bloody wars -- one in Europe and one in Syria -- leave Julian wounded and the city of Damascus in ruins. He returns from battle to find his precious house still standing, but no longer entirely his. It seems someone else may be occupying the shadows of Bait Katib. A mystery, a love story, and a journey to a sepia-toned past, Barbara Hodgson's new illustrated novel will haunt and delight her many devoted readers and tempt legions more to take a guided journey into another world.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully Inventive.......2006-07-11
I have read several of Ms. Hodgson's books in the past and each one is a gem in its own right. The Lives of Shadows catches your interest on page one and keeps you entertained all the way through.
Weaving mysterious hints with photos and drawings, the story tells of a house in Syria which holds a special place in two people's hearts. Julian, the young man fell in love with the house on a journey he made as a college student. The owner actually offers the house to him and Julian readily accepts. However, life intervenes and he must return home to England to fight in the war. The memory of the house is kept alive for many years, but one thing leads to another before he can return to claim the house promised to him.
Asilah is the daughter of the former owner. Unfortunately, the war has taken her life, but not her love for her home. She still wanders the rooms, waiting for something.
When Julian returns to the house, their two lives touch lightly in unusual ways. Asilah will put items in different places or her movements will create a slight breeze, giving Julain pause for thought. When Julian is around, the house takes on different aspects for Asilah that are not apparent otherwise. Each tells their own story of the house where they find comfort.
Best of all, the ending is superb!
Inspired but not accomplished.......2006-02-26
Very interesting work indeed, and certainly inspired by the Author's personal ghosts, but not entirely accomplished. It could have been a literary achievement, but it would have probably needed more time to grow, as the House, with more care given, more pages and tortuos dreams. The graphics are an original contribution but should have been used with spare. Just a small part of the pictures published would have been enough and should have been chosen with superior delicate attention and put at the proper place, which is not always the case.
ALL THIS DOES NOT MEAN I DID NOT LIKE THE BOOK: it is a very entertaining and compelling story, very close to ancient occult ideas about space and time. And the Author is someone I would like to meet to convince her to write a new, definitive version which I would be very glad to print.
Beautiful & Ethereal Novel.......2004-12-16
I was immediately impressed by the quality of this book--the thick paper, beautiful illustrations, and wonderful articles & pictures from the era in which the story is set. This is a beautifully told tale about a young man who finds his spiritual home in the Middle East and about his life there until the relatives of the family that sold it to him decide to fight to get it back. There is an element of mystery, romance and in the background is the fear that he will be ejected from the home that has become an extension of his own mind. I couldn't put it down!
A beautiful story on beautiful pages........2004-11-18
Tonight I finished reading this gem and was immensely saddened that it had to end, albeit predictably as another reviewer noted. Still, what a lush, nuanced story, complemented with rich visual elements, providing a backdrop of artifact that actually serves the story rather than detracts from it. Though she can't really be compared to Nick Bantock, though they are both artists who can write well, Ms. Hodgson's latest seems to firmly ally itself with the genre most notably cultivated by the "Griffin and Sabine" series: visually pleasing epistolary with a twist of the fantastic. A most welcome diversion indeed.
A subtle ghost story .......2004-08-09
This was my first attempt at reading one of Hodgson's books. I've seen her other books and picked them up several times but have never taken the plunge. I did this time and was extremely pleased. I suppose it was the combination of subject matter -- a house that inspires loyalty and love -- along with the intriguing illustrations that prompted me to read this book. The story is interesting and well done. Julian is well-drawn. He doesn't want to admit his shell shock and unwillingness to confront the world after his war experience but does so indirectly through his focus on the house. All of the characters are interesting and the slow revelation of "ghosthood" is interesting and subtle. Hodgson's emphasis is not on the ghastly but on the bittersweet aspects of ghost stories. I recommend this book to all who like a different kind of ghost story and enjoy a solid writing style.
Book Description
The Gold Coast mansions always fascinated photographer Monica Randall, particularly F. W. Woolworth's legendary Winfield. With exhaustive re-search and countless interviews, Monica uncovers a trove of stories from the Woolworths' sad past: the suicide of Wool-worth's daughter Edna, Woolworth's obsession with Napoleon and the Egyptian occult, and the rumors surrounding the mys-terious fire which burnt the first Winfield to the ground. This enchanting memoir explores the culture and history of a bygone era, filled with enthralling stories of infamous scan-dals and breathtaking Gilded Age tales of New York society.
Customer Reviews:
So very interesting .......2007-09-23
I read until 4;00 AM finishing this fascinating book. It kept my interest and exceeded the high recommendation from another reader. The experience of actually living in that house must have been heaven for a person who has such a strong interest in the houses of that era.
Written with a Passion.......2006-08-25
Ms. Randall is very passionate in her interests of the former Gold Coast of Long Island. Her passion carries through clearly in this book of Woolworth's old estate in Glen Cove. Having visited the estate several times in the past I can say she's right on target in her descriptions. She ties the present to the past of Winfield together very well. As you read this you can almost picture yourself standing in the midst of the characters; its that descriptive. If you have never seen the old estate there are photographs as well to bring you there. While non-fiction, one can't help but feel some creative license has been taken in the writing. No matter, since the book is entertaining in the oddity of Winfield's present, as well as in it's less than stellar heyday due largely to it's eccentric owner, Frank W. Woolworth. Well worth your time
Couldn't put it down . . ........2006-08-09
I just loved this book. Having read and loved Monica Randall's book [first edition] Mansions of the Long Island Gold Coast I was especially interested in reading more about her adventures on the North Shore of Long Island. I wasn't disappointed. This book is well written and offers a wonderful view into Monica Randall's life as she worked, sometimes undercover of night, to document and save the mansions and their contents. Her story is a haunting tale that focuses on Winfield, her connections to it, and the brief time she spent living in it, while sharing her connection with other of the famous mansions, both lost and saved.
Winfield will frighten you at night.......2006-02-04
I bought this book as a gift for a friend, then after scanning its jacket, was unable to gift it until I read it!
It was gripping, interesting, and because I read it three nights running before falling asleep, altering. Unlike deliberate horror stories, its potential reality was just enough to scare the beejeebers out of me, yet I could not put it down.
Monica says little about her odd relationship with the owner of Winfield, and I can't help but wonder what happened there, but she is respectful of the relationship and instead tells a fascinating tale of old money, old houses and old memories.
It's a wonderful tale.
What a Wonderful Life (And Afterlife).......2005-07-23
I envy Monica Randall her ability to throw herself passionately into everything she does. She reminds me of the character Diane Lane plays in UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN. It's almost as though she had been reincarnated and a piece of her (perhaps her old soul) still wanted to cling to the heyday of the Gold Coast mansions of Long Island, which, when she was coming of age in the 1950s and 1960s, were all coming down, torn to pieces, their vast acreages sold to developers to put up ticky tacky development housing. As Randall explains, the Second World War was a two edges sword. Not only did it become impossible to find good help, because any servant could make better wages doing war work in defense plants and factories, but after the war many young men received the GI Bill which in turn created an overwhelming demand for family housing on a mass scale, and this is what led to the abandonment of most of these estates.
She and her sister set out to save the elegant furnishings and electrical work, and thus she snagged many Tiffany lamps and other window-like decorations when she was still a teenager. They were just in the rubbish, or in the way of an uncaring bulldozer, so she would just put them in her car. I'd love to see her Tiffany collection, for example. Perhaps she will make that the subject of her next book.
In the meantime she has given us a tale of shivers and evil. I grew tense reading about the one Gold Coast mansion with its parquet floors, each stone was actually, if you looked closely, a tombstone from a child's grave! How depraved was the owner of such an evil house! No wonder the sad voices of children and other victims of a predatory capitalism continue to speak as we visit what remains of the place of their shame and their abuse.
It's not a consoling book, but it will keep you up all night, so try to read this one during the daytime, with the curtains wide open, to let in the sun, let it dapple the pages of this enchanting tour de force.
Amazon.com
Tales of family dysfunction have become so commonplace that a postcard witticism suggests that a conference for children of functional families would be sparsely attended. Certainly Clea Simon, whose two older siblings were gripped by schizophrenia in their teens, wouldn't be there. She lays out a bleak, affecting story of growing up in a family where the spotlight necessarily shone on the insistent dissociations of a brother she remembers as once gentle and brilliant and a sister whose screeching, violent terrors sent young Simon scrambling for safety. Cogent explanations of mental illness and slices of therapy interweave with Simon's stories and those of similarly besieged families and siblings who must dismantle huge emotional barricades in order to live fully as adults. Sometimes this mix is uneasy, such as when a professionally cool distance too swiftly replaces the white heat of painful memories.
Book Description
In classic books such as Girl, Interrupted and When Rabbit Howls, the mentally ill depict their own harrowing worlds. In Mad House we have an account of the devastating effects of mental illness on the lives of those who share their world--the healthy siblings of those afflicted. Clea Simon was shattered when her older brother, Daniel, a freshman at Harvard, began hearing voices, making it impossible for him to function. He later committed suicide. Schizophrenia next claimed her sister, Katherine, who has moved from one institution to another after refusing any help from her family. Simon, who spoke with hundreds of other siblings of the mentally ill and with experts in the field, confronts the issues healthy siblings face, from guilt (Why do I deserve to be okay?) to fear (Will illness claim me or my children next?) to anger at being neglected by parents overwhelmed by the needs of the mad child. Part memoir, part practical guide, Mad House is a compelling and compassionate book destined to help many people come to terms, as Simon has, with the unique pain of living with a sibling's mental illness.
Customer Reviews:
Astounding!.......2007-09-07
My older brother carries a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. I could easily relate to the author's family dynamics and the effect that her siblings' mental health conditions had on her family. This book combines the author's personal experiences juxtaposed with research and reports from others who have siblings diagnosed with a mental health condition.
This book also helped me better understand my own family's dysfunction, why I relate to people and situations in particular ways, and it allowed me to forgive myself for some of the ways in which I treated my brother. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who has a member of their family diagnosed with a mental illness or provides family therapy. Reading this book helped me to gain insights into myself and into my family. It's a must read!
madhouse.......2005-11-09
When Clea Simon was growing up, her otherwise pleasant childhood was marred by odd outbursts and eccentric frightening behavior of her older brother and sister, both of whom would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Simon, an intelligent and resourceful young girl turned to friends, books and fantasy games to distance herself from the chaos in her home. When she became an adolescent, her brother was hospitalized for mental illness, and she put pressure on herself to be the good, high-achieving child in the family. She was accepted into Harvard and on the outside looked like a wholly successful, confident person. However, years of suppressing her fears about her siblings began to take its toll, and she decided to enter therapy in order to find out who, apart from a high-achiever, she really was. Mad House is not just her story, however, but the many others' who she interviewed and whose accounts are smoothly woven into the book. It will almost certainly reassure readers with mentally ill siblings that they aren't alone.
I cried when I read it...........2004-09-03
My brothers aren't schizophrenic, like Ms. Simon's siblings. They are autistic, however, and the impact of their condition on our family dynamic was much the same. I am the only normal one of three children, and during my life I've felt rage, grief, loneliness, and the dreaded "I-wish-they-would-die-and-free-us-from-this-illness". Because of my brothers I have problems with intimacy and my single greatest fear is that I will bear a child with autism.
The guilt that accompanies my feelings is overwhelming. Ms. Simon's book showed me that I'm not alone, that my feelings aren't illegimate, and that a sort of emotional peace can be had when there's no cure (or even effective treatment) in sight. Thank you for writing this book--I needed it more than any other book I've ever read (and that includes my cherished Bible).
From the author.......2001-09-25
Hi Folks,
I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who've read Mad House and either posted here or contacted me. So many of you are also siblings, and I am gratified that many of you have found your experiences reflected in my book. I've tried to show, through my experiences and the dozens of you interviewed, that while our story may be one of the quieter ones in our family, it is still valid and deserving of space. Strength and health to you all!
I've used the same combination of memoir and interviews (more than 70) in my new book, "Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads" (Wiley). If any of you read that, please let me know what you think.
peace,
Clea
Maelstrom of Mental Illness .......2000-08-28
Clea is the luckiest of her siblings. Her older brother Daniel, a brilliant boy, showed signs of psychosis in early adulthood. He somehow managed to attend Harvard and upon leaving the renowned university, succumbs to his illness. He marries a woman from his halfway house and they have a daughter. The brother commits suicide and the baby remains unheard from. Clea was in college at the time of her brother's death and her parents curiously give her a false account of how her brother killed himself. That is never explained.
Clea's sister Katherine/Althea appears to be the most unstable. She, too, started showing signs of the illness in late adolescence and was barely able to fight her psychosis and finish high school. She lived from hospital to halfway house, never really finding her niche. Her erratic behavior precluded her from staying at halfway houses and in one memorable account in the book, a landlady requested that her parents come and collect her after she defecated on a mattress. She remained a "living" casualty of mental illness; at the close of the book, Clea did not even know where she was.
Clea is a strong voice, a strong advocate for the families of the mentally ill. Her poignant book is yet another reminder that mental illness is often a family illness because of the tragic impact it has on non-mentally ill members.
Average customer rating:
- didn't even finish it..
- Shadow Dance - One Of Garwood's Best
- Julie...You REALLY Missed this Boat!
- Julie Garwood could do better
- Shadow Dance
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Shadow Dance: A Novel (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))
Julie Garwood
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
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ASIN: 0375435263
Release Date: 2007-01-16 |
Customer Reviews:
didn't even finish it.........2007-10-09
i am saddened to say that i couldn't finish the book. like many other avid jg readers i too waited with abated breath for noah's story and was quite disappointed that i couldn't even get past the first couple of chapters. it was pretty slow.. soo slow i felt no connection to the characters what so ever..
i couldn't give it just one star as it is jg, who has written my absolute most favorite book in the world.. the ransom.. so i gave it two stars just because i have faith that jg will come back with something better
Shadow Dance - One Of Garwood's Best.......2007-09-29
Again Julie Garwood has enchanted me with one of her books about the Buchanan family. She has written another superb book that readers who appreciate romantic suspense will enjoy. Keep up your wonderful story telling.
Julie...You REALLY Missed this Boat!.......2007-09-10
I have been eagerly awaiting Noah's story since Mercy, when it became obvious that he would be a recurring character. He is clearly a contemporary version of Cole Clayborne with his quick one-liners, witty charm, and undeniable way with the ladies. I was incredibly disappointed--actually a little heartbroken--to finally get my hands on Noah's story and find that he played second fiddle to a very dull Jordan Buchanan. In her previous contemporary novels, JG has done a thorough job of developing Noah as a likeable, believable, and all-around HOT character (although he is pretty slutty). After crafting such a solid foundation upon which to build Noah's potentially incredible story, Julie wasted him and all that his romance could have been with Shadow Dance. Noah was completely closed to the reader for most of the book. He was bland, unexciting, ordinary, and forgettable. I'm sad that Julie's readers will never get to witness the exciting romance that Noah could have had--with all of the charm, wit, temper, thunder and fight that I expected when he finally fell (in love). He didn't have to fight for a thing in this book. Pity. I was really hoping for some red-hot spark. What I found was much less. Poor Noah.
Julie Garwood could do better.......2007-09-04
I have read and own everyone of Julie Garwood's books I love her she's one of my favorite authors her female heroins are always funny and have some odd characteristic that I love, but not this one she just seem like the runt of the family a family that always seem spirited and strong not week.I like the Buchanans triology and I always new Noah the Buchananas trusted best freind would get his own story but how sad for Noah it was a stale one......
Shadow Dance.......2007-08-09
I loved reading any book by Julie Garwood. But getting to be updated about decendants of Cole from For the Roses was so great. I thought that this was an awesome read and could not put it down. I hope Julie continues to write about this amazing family in her future books.
Average customer rating:
- The House of Many Incomplete Writing Styles
- An excellent book
- amazing!
- Her best ever!
- Chilling---wonderful for a cold winter's night
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House of Many Shadows
Barbara Michaels
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
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ASIN: 0060878126
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Book Description
Meg Rittenhouse fears she is losing her mind. The doctors tell her the strange and disturbing hallucinations she's been experiencing ever since her accident are all in her head, and that, with a little rest, the haunting visions will vanish. But accepting an invitation to stay with her cousin in the country may be the worst decision Meg has ever made. Here, in a remote old house miles from anywhere, the terrible sights and sounds have gotten even worse. Suddenly eerie black shapes dance in the shadows—mocking Meg, haunting her . . . threatening her. And the presence of kind, considerate Andy Brenner, the caretaker, both reassures her and terrifies her—because Andy also sees these dark specters . . .
Customer Reviews:
The House of Many Incomplete Writing Styles .......2006-06-21
When I first picked this book up, I was very excited about the premise. I loved how Barbara Michaels set up the story and characters. However, I keep waiting for "all the loose ends" to come together. It was almost like Michaels had gotten annoyed writing the book and just wanted to finish. Therefore, leaving all sorts of loop holes. Issues were brought up in the beginning of the book and were never really explained by the end, or what their merit held in the dynamics of the story. I felt like Andy and Meg both did things that were totally out of character towards the end of the book. Especially based on how Michaels developed their traits and personalities. Perhaps that is just poor development of character.
I must give Michaels credit on her historical and supernatural references throughout the book, these were the only enjoyable parts of this novel. When I bought this book, I also bought another one of her books, "Here I Stay". In contrast, after reading "The House of Many Shadows", I returned "Here I Stay" to the store. It might be a wonderful book, but I don't want to invest the time in another lame duck. I am patient when reading a book and don't mind if the story takes a while to acquire it's conclusion. However, the book finally needs to demonstrate a conduit. Look if you want abstract story lines, watch a few episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
An excellent book.......2006-04-08
I read this book about seven years ago, when I was in grade 9. It remains to this day one of my favourites, and is one of only two books I even remember reading that year.
This is a must read for anyone who loves a good suspense.
amazing!.......2004-07-16
I have read several Michaels books, but this is one of my favorite. This one I could not put down and finished it in 2 days. These are some of her better characters and the story starts off rather quickly. It sure kept me quessing and is scary enough to satisfy any reader. And leave it to Michaels to throw in a good love story.
Her best ever!.......2004-02-28
I first came across this book when I was a kid, at the school library & have read it a dozen times since & it's still my very favorite. I still finish with an awestruck shake of my head & think about it for hours afterward. Best book I've ever read & I've read thousands.
Chilling---wonderful for a cold winter's night.......2003-04-10
I have read and re-read this book countless times---and I still find myself needing to check under the bed after reading it!
At the urging of her bossy cousin, Sylvia, Meg moves in to an old Pennsylvania farm house which Sylvia owns. On the surface, Meg is there to recuperate from an accident but Sylvia has also persuaded her to help restore the house so it can be donated to the local historical society. Andy, Sylvia's adult stepson, has also been enlisted to help in the restoration.
Since her accident, Meg has suffered from auditory hallucinations...but while at the farmhouse, Meg suddenly begins to experience visual hallucinations. At first, she dismisses them as the result of her accident but when it becomes clear that Andy is seeing the same "hallucinations" both Andy and Meg are forced to acknowledge the unthinkable---the house is haunted.
Barbara Michaels is an incredibly gifted writer of suspense/ghost stories. She combines the ordinary with the extraordinary---most of her heroines are skeptics which make their experiences with the supernatural even more chilling. You know that these are not the fanciful people who would see ghosts wherever they are. In fact, these are the people who will deny the ghost's existence until the last possible moment.
As an historian, I love the research Michaels puts into her books (and she makes it seem effortless!). She does an incredible job recreating the past and providing you with wonderful tidbits of historical information---all without hectoring or lecturing you!
Buy this book---but make sure that there aren't any impending power outages when you sit down to read it because you'll want to keep the lights burning for at least a week after you've read this!
Book Description
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s
Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s
The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.
For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.
Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.
Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of
Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.
Download Description
CHAPTER ONE
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Brielle, New Jersey, September 1991
Bill Nagle's life changed the day a fisherman sat beside him in a ramshackle bar and told him about a mystery he had found lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Against his better judgment, that fisherman promised to tell Nagle how to find it. The men agreed to meet the next day on the rickety wooden pier that led to Nagle's boat, the Seeker, a vessel Nagle had built to chase possibility. But when the appointed time came, the fisherman was not there. Nagle paced back and forth, careful not to plunge through the pier where its wooden planks had rotted away. He had lived much of his life on the Atlantic, and he knew when worlds were about to shift. Usually, that happened before a storm or when a man's boat broke. Today, however, he knew it was going to happen when the fisherman handed him a scrap of paper, a hand-scrawled set of numbers that would lead to the sunken mystery. Nagle looked into the distance for the fisherman. He saw no one. The salt air blew against the small seashore town of Brielle, tilting the dockside boats and spraying the Atlantic into Nagle's eyes. When the mist died down he looked again. This time, he saw the fisherman approaching, a small square of paper crumpled in his hands. The fisherman looked worried. Like Nagle, he had lived on the ocean, and he also knew when a man's life was about to change.
In the whispers of approaching autumn, Brielle's rouge is blown away and what remains is the real Brielle, the locals' Brielle. This small seashore town on the central New Jersey coast is the place where the boat captains and fishermen live, where convenience store owners stay open to serve neighbors, where fifth graders can repair scallop dredges. This is where the hangers-on and wannabes and also-rans and once-greats keep believing in the sea. In Brielle, when the customers leave, the town's lines show, and they are the kind grooved by the thin dif
Customer Reviews:
You Feel Like You Are There.......2007-10-05
Others have gone into detail about this book, and it is true. This book combines a mystery worthy of a Sherlock Holmes novel with the details of technical diving and written in such a gripping manner that it could be a work of pop fiction (not in a negative way, just that it flows so well and put together so well that it could have been made up, if that makes sense.)
And the author does a great job of not leaving you "hanging" with an abrupt ending.
Highly recommended and has set the bar for other books in this genre.
J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer .......2007-09-21
Tantallizing and heart pounding tale based on incredibly researched information about u boats and diving with an accurate, simple description of practical diving, diving medicine and physiology.
Compulsion to know the answer........2007-09-13
A fascinating saga about 2 deep sea divers and their 6 year odyssey to uncover the identity of a sunken German U boat. A captivating story, and you'll learn a lot about deep sea diving.
Deep Thrills.......2007-09-05
An absorbing account of the discovery and identification by veteran divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of a sunken Nazi U-boat 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Kurson skillfully weaves together several threads into a very readable narrative, including the evolution of Chatterton and Kohler's rivalry-turned-friendship, the technical hazards of exploring a mangled wreck in 230 feet of water, and the duo's maddening, seven-year long ordeal to obtain positive evidence -- both on the wreck and in official but flawed US and German naval records -- of the boat's identity. As the tale draws to a close, Kurson also draws a moving portrait of the U-boat's crew, who went to sea in the final days of the war and knew that they likely would not return alive.
I started diving when the final pieces of this mystery were falling into place, and can remember following the story of New Jersey's mystery U-boat in the papers. However, none of those articles was anywhere as involving as Kurson's account, which I devoured in four days. Sure, there's some overheated prose here and there ("in a shipwreck, where every danger is first cousin to every other, a diver's desparation makes an open house of his bad situation."), but that's a minor strike against this otherwise excellent and comprehensive work.
Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows.......2007-08-28
Sometimes the flaws make a thing so much more than perfection could ever achieve. The imperfections in this literary account of the exploration of a WWII submarine discovered in 1991 off the Coast of New Jersey are well documented. Those imperfections didn't bother me.
I was facinated by the detailed account of the personalities of the divers in "Shadow." Its easy to identify a future SCUBA diver - someone who is comfortable putting their face under water. Even better, because it will sometimes trump the 'face' test, is whether a person's curiosity is so intense that they are able to project their consciousness entirely onto something outside of themselves to the virtual exclusion of other thoughts. Divers want to investigate, explore, see something extraordinary, find out whats under that rock, go someplace very few people have been, find something unique, etc. The experience is so strong, you may forget to be worried about all the risks.
My enjoyment of "Shadow" was absolutely enhanced by my experience as a diver who is both Nitrox and advanced open water certified. I have never gone deeper than 110 ft - The U-boat 85, off of Nags Head, North Carolina, which is 20ft shallower than the recreational diving limit of 130 ft. So far, I've never wanted to see anything deeper, but I suspect I'll pass. Surface light begins to diminish rapidly. It usually gets alot colder.
At the depths routinely visitied by the divers in this book, 230 ft., nitrogen narcosis is an inevitability, and helium mixes carry their own risks. Water pressure increases to seven times what it is at the surface. Just when you need all your mental faculties and judgement, you can be assured they will be impared to an extent that cannot be anticipated from dive to dive. Even more frightening is that getting to the surface to resolve any problems that may arise (my mask came off once at 80 ft), must now include a life-saving decompression stop. When you head for the surface with less than 30 minutes of air for your stop, you're in trouble.
Diving can put you face to face with three realities that I don't sense as readily on land: 1.) the incredible spiritual beauty of the natural world, 2.) how alone we really are (I've never felt more alone than those very few times I've dived without a buddy), 3.) Death is always hiding within convenient reach.
The insatiable curiosity of the two lead characters, Chatterton and Kohler, also drives them above the water, as they travel to Europe to learn as much as they can about the submarine and its crew. There was no 'gold' involved, just an incredible mystery to solve.
"Shadow" was one of those books I read in one sitting (I missed dinner). I would compare it to Krakauer's works in power and drama, if not as well written. But again, in a way the rough nature of the text enhanced the story, as if I was sitting across the table from the author.
NOTE TO FELLOW DIVERS: After reading this book I have found my goal for my diving trips next summer - get my "Rescue Diver" certification.
NOTE TO THOSE PEOPLE trying to get young men (ages 9-15) into reading - I know of two young men who hated to read until they picked up this book. Not that they love reading now, but the 'no trespassing' sign is now down in front of the library.
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- Let's Ask Michael : 100 Practical Solutions for Interior Design Challenges
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