Deltora Quest (Special Edition) Books 1-4 (Deltora Quest, books 1 through 4 (The Forest of Silence, The Lake of Tears, City of Rats, The Shifting Sands))

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Deltora Quest (Special Edition) Books 1-4 (Deltora Quest, books 1 through 4 (The Forest of Silence, The Lake of Tears, City of Rats, The Shifting Sands))

Manufacturer: Scholastic for Barnes & Noble books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Deltora | Fantasy & Adventure | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Deltora Quest, Special Edition, Books 5-8 (Deltora Quest Series, 5-8)

Deltora Shadowlands/ Special Edition Books 1-3 (special editon books 1-3)

Deltora Book Of Monsters (Deltora Quest)

Box Set: Dragons of Deltora #1 Dragon's Nest, #2 Shadowgate, #3 Isle of the Dead, and #4 Sister of the South and Free Dragon Pendant (Dragons of Deltora, Volumes 1,2,3,4)

Tales Of Deltora

ASIN: 0760795797

Product Description

This is a Special Edition created exclusively for Barnes & Noble Inc. First printing May 2005. Contains the first four books into one book: The Forest of Silence, The Lake of Tears, City of Rats, and The Shifting Sands.

The Roar and the Silence: A History of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode (Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities)

Average customer rating:

An excellent history of Virginia City
THE must read book on the history of the Comstock
Of very good historical value

The Roar and the Silence: A History of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode (Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities)
Ronald M. James
Manufacturer: University of Nevada Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0874173205

Book Description

The first comprehensive treatment of Comstock society to incorporate mining history with the stories of the people who lived it.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent history of Virginia City.......2006-01-15

I am a resident of Nevada and read a lot of history. Recently I have read a lot of books on Nevada history, and I must say this is one of the best. Thoroughly researched and footnoted, it covers almost every aspect of Virginia City history, yet is eminently readable. Some history books are too dry and dusty, and you have to plow through them (or give up), but Mr. James' book holds your interest from beginning to end. If you are interested in the history of VC, this is the one to buy!

THE must read book on the history of the Comstock.......2000-10-18

Mr. James cuts through all of the legends that have grown up around Virginia City and its fabled Comstock Lode to give us a truly outstanding and eminently readable history. He draws together primary and secondary sources, demographic analysis and archaeology to give the reader a broad, yet surprisingly detailed understanding of the Comstock from its humble beginnings, through bonanza and borrasca, and right up to the present day. Highly recommended!!

Of very good historical value.......1999-05-17

Thoroughly enjoyed reading each chapter of Mr.James' book. I would suggest it for anyone having an interest in the old West, the mining periods, and personnae of the same, and perhaps just as importantly to gain some insightful information behind the storefornt facades and adits of Virginia City. The author has provided much background behind the legends, pulled down to earth other "legends" and truly given this "tourist site" it's legitmate and historical due. I am anxious to visit the Lake Tahoe area once again and take that little jaunt over the hill to visit a now-less-mysterious Virginia City.

Confederacy of Silence : A True Tale of the New Old South

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Liked the first half more than second
Coming of age in Mississippi
Rubin nailed it
In the interests of accuracy...
A Chance Missed

Confederacy of Silence : A True Tale of the New Old South
Richard Rubin
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

ASIN: 067103667X

Book Description

When Richard Rubin, fresh out of the Ivy League, accepts a job at a daily newspaper in the old Delta town of Greenwood, Mississippi, he is thrust into a place as different from his hometown of New York as any in the country. Yet to his surprise, he is warmly welcomed by the townspeople and soon finds his first great scoop in Handy Campbell, a poor, black teen and gifted high school quarterback who goes on to win a spot on Mississippi State's team -- a training ground for the NFL. Six years later, Rubin, back in New York, learns that Handy is locked up in Greenwood, accused of capital murder. Returning south to cover the trial, Rubin follows the trail that took Handy from the football field to county jail. As the best and worst elements of Mississippi rise up to do battle over one man's fate, Rubin must confront his own unresolved feelings about the confederacy of silence that initially enabled him to thrive in Greenwood but ultimately forced him to leave it.

Customer Reviews:

Liked the first half more than second.......2007-09-30

And the sad story of Handy Campbell was well done even with Rubin getting a little melodramatic with his personal feelings at times.

Rubin claims Handy was discriminated against by the coaches because he was black but the more you read about Handy the more you come to see just how dumb (across the board) he was.

No Epilogue. No Pictures. I can't even find any pics on the internet. Except for possibly Lanardo Myrick at www.klmenter.com/page2.html

It's about the south, race, football, murder, and two lost souls. Recommended.

Coming of age in Mississippi.......2007-05-13

This was a quick and interesting read. Rubin has a very comfortable writing style, entertaining and smooth.

The first half of the book specifically is a great "coming of age" story with the collision of two worlds -- the traditional conservative Southern lifestyle as seen by a Liberal New Yorker. It is clear that the author learned and grew from his experiences, and had a great deal of his innocence lost, on so many levels during his year in Mississippi. Many of us experienced similar changes in the first few years out of college; for me, the story evoked memories of choices made and opportunities lost. I'm sure that we can all empathize with his hope that the first boss did not regret hiring him every day he came into work.

The second half is a well-written, if a bit dense, who-done-it. Some of the conclusions were a bit obvious, but again, it was interesting watching the loss of innocence yet again in Rubin's life.

All in all, the book is worth the time.

Rubin nailed it.......2007-04-10

For one who is not from the South, but lived here only a short time, Rubin's characterization of Mississippi culture is spot-on. He nailed it. Anyone who can do that is very talented as a writer and researcher.

I've lived in Mississippi for 16 years, and since I'm a newspaper reporter, I know many of the people in Rubin's Confederacy of Silence. Take for example David Bradberry, Handy Campbell's football coach at Greenwood. Bradberry is a stand-up individual and perhaps one of the best football coaches I've ever met. He's a good coach because he cares about his players -- not just about winning on the field.

If Bradberry talked to Rubin for this book, then whatever he says in it must be true.

As for Jack Henderson, I can see why he's miffed, but then again Jack, you brought it on yourself. Maybe if you weren't such a rabid racist, you would then have a legitimate gripe. But since you are the way you are, you can't fault Rubin for his accurate depiction.

Having covered athletics in Mississippi for over 10 years, football does rule all in the state and it fosters racial harmony while limiting it at the same time. Rubin did a good job of portraying this in his book, discussing the Private School vs. Public School dichotomy, and the reasons why Handy Campbell went to State, but then transferred to Ole Miss and why Ole Miss never played him.

Oh, if you believe football recruiting is all rose petals and singing Kumbaya, then I've got some ocean-front property in Kansas for you.

Other reviewers mention Chris Osgood as Ole Miss' first black quarterback. That is true. He started four or five games during the 1985 season as a redshirt freshman. He was injured during the LSU game in Jackson that year and never played another down.

Rubin did get that wrong. Campbell would not have been the first black QB at Ole Miss had he ever had the opportunity to play. I think he never got the opportunity to play because of the Osgood brouhaha in 1985. Ole Miss fans were so distraught over Brewer's choice at QB that it made Brewer ever more apprehensive of starting another black quarterback. It would be four, five years after Brewer's firing that Ole Miss's Romaro Miller would take snaps. And Miller took a lot of heat for his failures, and even then, in 1999, Ole Miss fans were distraught that a black man was taking snaps and directing the offense.

This book is dead-on in Rubin's characterization of the Emmerichs -- the family of newspaper moguls in the state. They are cheap and have little commitment to real journalism, which Rubin accurately portrays.

I also enjoyed his portrayal of the murder trail. It is indeed true that in Mississippi if a black person murders another black person, well it's no big deal. The prosecution will just go through the motions, with very little fanfare.

Face it Misssissippi, we're still racists and I think it's only gotten worse since the Fordice Administration. I think the 1980s was the last gasp of progress in Mississippi. We're headed directly for 1850 all over again.

In the interests of accuracy..........2005-11-07

"Chris Osgood started two seasons at OM and shortly after he left two more black quarterbacks (Romaro Miller and Michael Spurlock) started with much sucess at OM."

Michael Spurlock's start and career could not be called a success. Not this Michael Spurlock, anyway. Mississippi has a white player by that name who is currently doing very well, though.

Good read, though.

A Chance Missed.......2005-08-25

I am from a town very close to Greenwood, MS, and I related to almost all of the towns and people mentioned in "Confereracy". I told my wife, while reading the first half, that this book was one of the very best descriptions of "The New South" that I have ever read or heard.

In the year 1968, I was stationed in Massachusetts and got to know a local family very well. They befriended me as did Greenwood to Rubin. Several times I was asked to defend or explain my feelings about race in Mississippi. I explained as best I could as a 22 year old.

I have since moved back home to Miss., married a Miss. girl, and become successful in my business. But I have thought may times about my answers to my Yankee family's questions. I never felt I could or did properly explain my true feelings about race relations in my home state.

I recently experienced a reunion with my Mass. girlfriend from 37+ years ago and I told her that one thing I still remembered was my inability to answer her family's questions clearly. The first half of this book did that for me. I plan to send my old girlfriend a copy.

But the second half of the book is filled with inaccuracies about football and race relations in our Universities in the South. I am a graduate of Mississippi State and I attended Ole Miss. I have three daughters and a wife that graduated from Ole Miss and a son that graduated from MSU. I have asked several avid football fans from both schools if they remembered Handy Campbell. None do!

I think all of the sports fans in Mississippi will agree that football in the South and the SEC is as tough as it gets. There is no room in the system to parent the Handy Campbells. Each and every scholarship athlete is given the same rules and regulations. They either make it or they don't. And only the strong and dedicated make it.

Handy Campbell was neither strong nor dedicated. He reminds me of a loser. And he will lose in the end.

Average customer rating:

The early work of a good author
Quirky, classic Ellis in the 'Neuromancer' style of sci-fi
A Warren Ellis fan weighs in...

City Of Silence
Warren Ellis , and Gary Erskine
Manufacturer: Image Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1582403678

Book Description

The future is bad for you. In a place where everyone has the technology to create brand-new, weird sciences ten times a day, there are policemen who will hunt you down for having a bad idea. They are the Silencers. And the investigation of a dead kid with a silicon pentagram on his neck opens up a whole box of bad ideas upon a city that only survives through silence... Plus: Special pin-up gallery featuring artwork by Chris Weston, Dougie Braithwaite, John McCrea, Andi Watson, Steve Pugh, Simon Fraser, Dom Regan, Kev Hopgood, Jon Haward, and Matt Greg.

Customer Reviews:

The early work of a good author.......2006-06-09

City of Silence is a three-issue mini series, collected here in one volume, which was originally written for Epic comics in the mid-nineties, though it wasn't actually published until 2000 by Image comics. So this work predates a lot of Warren Ellis' big successes and lets you see some of his development as a writer.

In the city called Stealth technology has grown and continues to grow at an exponential rate. People are addicted to technology. Junkies sit in alleys staring at palm-tops which strobe trance-inducing images and subsonic pulses that stimulate pleasure centers. Technology is getting dangerous and the Silencers, the secret police, are comissioned to stop bad ideas. Which they do in very painful ways. So when a corpse turns up with a silicon pentagram implanted in his neck, the Silencers investigate its origins and its purpose.

The narration and the dialogue are good, but they get a bit excessive. There are plenty of good lines like "You are under arrest for bleeding without a license," or "I've got a uranium-soaked anal interloper I've been dying to try." But the subtlety of saying much with very few words that Ellis demonstrates in Planetary and Global Frequency is something he hadn't developed yet when he wrote this story.

The artwork by Gary Erskine also has positives and negatives. His line is clean, his scenery detailed. But his women look like men. I honestly thought the two female leads were going to turn out to have be transsexuals. They have wide cheecks, strong chins, broad shoulders, weak hips. A modern version of Michaelangelo's men with breasts.

This is an okay piece but if you're familiar with Ellis' more recent more popular work, it just doesn't hold up quite as well.

Quirky, classic Ellis in the 'Neuromancer' style of sci-fi.......2005-08-07

I felt the need to post this review specifically to offer a dissenting opinion about the worth of the artwork in "City Of Silence". I'm not saying that the 'two star' reviewer is a bad person or a commie sympathizer, or anything bad like that. I understand that reaction to an illustrator's style is highly personal and idiosyncratic. People know what they like, and can endlessly justify it.

For instance, at the time of this posting, Micheal Turner is considered a hot talent and star-on-the-rise by the comics industry. But I H-A-T-E his line, character designs and depictions of the human face and figure. Same for Ian Churchill, whose stuff seems stiff and lifeless to me. But other people loooove them.

So I would like to say, in Erskine's defense, that his line and design sense seem appealing quirky and energetic to me, and that some portions of "City Of Silence" are incredibly inventive and very appropriate to the jagged, nervey, caffeine-and-meth driven attitude of the characters. I am looking forward to his next collaboration with Ellis ("Jack Cross").

A Warren Ellis fan weighs in..........2005-07-26

Simply put, I love Warren Ellis, but this comic had some of the most atrocious artwork I've ever seen. If you care IN THE LEAST about the art quality, I'd say skip this one. The story is good, but the terrible illustration destroys it.

Average customer rating:

Excellent character development. even if the plot developed a little slowly...
What tells the geese it's time to fly?
AWARD WINNING NARRATOR SPINS A CHILLING TALE
Engaging, but not her best
Silence would have been a whole lot better

The Price Of Silence (Mira Hardbacks)
Kate Wilhelm
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0778322165

Book Description

In a small town, everyone knows everyone else's business. But in Brindle, Oregon, there's a secret nobody wants to see.

Brindle is a dying town, each generation smaller than the last. But Ruth Ann Colonna, who has run the local paper for almost sixty years, is determined to keep the past alive with a special edition of The Brindle Times, to celebrate the town's centennial. Photos, letters and newspaper articles trace the town's inhabitants back to its founding members. But the relics of the past hold more than a record of marriages and deaths; they also hide a secret too dark to acknowledge.

Todd Fielding needs a job, and the offer to provide her computer expertise to The Brindle Times seems like the perfect opportunity. The only downside to small-town life is the potential for boredom, she suspects. But soon after her arrival in Brindle, Todd realizes she was very wrong. A young girl disappears . . . and no one in the town appears particularly concerned.

Looking deeper into the story, Todd uncovers a shocking fact: five other girls have "run away" from Brindle under strange circumstances over the past twenty years -- and no one seems interested in finding them. With Ruth Ann's help, she begins to understand the history of a town steeped in evil, manipulation and cold-blooded murder. This town has cloaked itself in secrecy far too long. And innocents are paying the deadly price of silence.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent character development. even if the plot developed a little slowly..........2007-08-24

I am a big fan of Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway books, but have not always been as impressed with her others. I had a difficult time getting started with this book, but eventually became snared by the remarkable character development: Ms. Wilhelm, who appears to be in the middle stage of her life, has written very convincingly about two women who are at opposite spectrums. Todd, the main character, is young, multidimensional, ambitious, capable and confident. Ruth Ann is nearing the end of her life, and is also portrayed as energetic, intelligent and attractive. I was charmed by the relationship between Ruth Ann and Maria, her longtime companion/housekeeper. The book resolves a little too conveniently, but I have to say I enjoyed reading it. Her descriptions of the central Oregon desert are lyrical, and I especially appreciated Todd's comment about a sunset being difficult to capture in art or photography "because it is a process, not an event." So true. As a former Oregonian, I loved reading about Oregon's beauty. Good read. Karen Knapp

What tells the geese it's time to fly?.......2007-02-02

This is a subtle, walking pace novel that's really about conscience and what tension does to a small town.
If you are looking for a rip-roaring thriller with twists and turns, this is not it.
The setting is beautifully described, as are the characters in this book. It is nicely drawn, and explores the parts of the mind that work when we aren't paying attention.
It's an old fashioned novel; a good book for contemplating.
Certainly not for everyone, but a good read none the less.

AWARD WINNING NARRATOR SPINS A CHILLING TALE.......2006-09-01

Oregon, home of and a favored setting for author Wilhelm, is the background for this dark tale of murder, hypocrisy, and lies. Brindle is a small town that appears on the surface to be a haven of peace and quiet. It is quite the opposite as Todd Fielding soon discovers.

Todd has come to Brindle to work for the local newspaper while her husband, Barney, pursues his doctoral degree in a nearby university town. Newspaper owner Ruth Ann Colonna is planning a special edition of the paper featuring Brindle then and now. So, Todd busies herself becoming acquainted with her new community.

The superficial serenity of Brindle isn't interrupted by the sudden disappearance of a young girl. This sets Todd to wondering - she does more than wonder when she discovers that five other girls have mysteriously vanished during the past two decades. What is even stranger and rather frightening is that no one seems to care about the whereabouts of the girls.

Newcomers to any place who start probing are seldom welcome, and Todd fuels a fire that threatens to get away when she decides to write about the girls' disappearance. Ruth Ann seems to be her only ally, and Barney is often miles away.

Voice performer and Audie Award winner Anna Fields successfully captures the outrage, fear, and determination of Todd as she seeks to uncover the truth. A more than satisfying listening experience!

- Gail Cooke

Engaging, but not her best.......2006-06-18

Wilhelm is an excellent writer, and a master of psychological suspense. This book is no exception. However, I found it a little less satisfying than her best; a couple of the characters didn't quite ring true.

The plot is one Wilhelm has used a couple of times before: an attractive and intelligent young person who is at loose ends as to what to do with herself, and not quite sure of her life's direction, winds up through chance circumstances in a small town where something is deeply wrong, and no one wants to talk about it.

That's part of the problem I had with this book, though; while in past books such as "Skeletons," the secret has had to do with the past and is hidden by an older generation, in this book, the problem is ongoing and yet people are still ignoring it. Teenage girls keep disappearing - and no one pursues them or suspects them of anything other than running away. While that might have been the case half a century ago, in these days of entire organizations built around missing children, and pictures of missing children on every milk carton, and TV shows about searching for missing people, it just didn't seem likely to me that in a single village, 5 or more teenage girls would disappear and no one would be raising a stink, not even their parents, until our protagonist appears. And that in a relatively small town, no one prior to her would have noticed the similarities between the girls, nor figured out what other things were going on right when the disappearances started.

It also seems unlikely to me that the kidnapper could be doing the kinds of things they are doing, and not have other abnormalities show up in their behavior or personalities, that no one else would ever think that there was anything odd or unusual in the way this person behaves or things they say. (I'm not giving away who it was; that's why I'm avoiding saying she or he.) I think that people who are this sick show signs of the sickness in more than one way and generally aren't able to completely compartmentalize their lives. It's one thing if the person is a loner and doesn't associate with their neighbors at all, so that no one ever talks to them much; it's different if the person has a regular job and talks to many people every day and goes to social events: some other sign that something is WRONG with this person would show up. So I found the characterization of this person a little unrealistic, and the behavior of the neighbors a bit unbelievable.

Nonetheless, it's a well-written story and lots of action for our heroine and her husband. And I know that many people like this kind of suspense and think that there ARE completely hidden monsters among us, and those people won't have the reservations I had about the realisticness of the villain.

Silence would have been a whole lot better.......2006-02-13

This book is about the same subject as the book I read immediately before it (The Bright Forever by Lee Martin)--the abduction of young girls. While Martin's book was so realistic it might have been a true story, The Price of Silence has a plot that is totally far-fetched and convoluted. The idea might have been good, but the author sure didnt deliver. The dialogue was just terrible, alternating between every cliche I've ever heard and things no one would ever say, like "She's walking in a cloud of pheromenes." The book is not as dumb as The Stepford Wives, which the characters allude to fairly often, but it comes close. Finally, I am sick and tired of girls being given boys' names (it is no longer a novelty). I can handle Alex and Drew and Morgan, but TODD?? I mention this because every few pages I had to remind myself that Todd was a woman, and this was an irritating distraction. My two most common thoughts were "Oh, come on!" and "What exactly is the point here?" Fortunately I received this book free.

Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile's Historic Cemeteries

Average customer rating:

The Wakeful Dead

Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile's Historic Cemeteries
John Sledge
Manufacturer: University Alabama Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0817311408

Customer Reviews:

The Wakeful Dead.......2003-03-25

Before the United States was a country, colonial burial grounds were called graveyards. They were unattractive, unhealthy and unsafe places of alcoholic gravediggers, grave robbers, partly dug up corpses, and poisonous gases.

Then, in 1778, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau was buried in a white marble tomb on the Isle des Peupliers. This grave set the standard of beauty in nature for the 52-acre Pere-Lachaise cemetery outside Paris, in 1804. From France, the first rural garden cemetery of winding lanes, white sculptures and tombs, family care, and cultivated grounds in the United States was Mt Auburn, outside Boston.

In contrast, historic Magnolia, Old Catholic and Sha-arai Shomayim cemeteries were within the city limits of Mobile, Alabama. They were laid out in city-managed and -owned grids, with streets meeting at right angles. Like the rural cemeteries, though, they had artistic entrance gates, fences, plantings and sculptures.

Then, during the 1850s horticulturist Adolph Strauch took markers, trees and walls away from Spring Grove cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. He favored mausolea large enough for entire families, kept up by hired staff under a director or superintendent, in open lawns. With the War between the States such lawn-park cemeteries made room for soldiers' rests, such as in Mobile's Magnolia cemetery. The design for these special burial plots and for national cemeteries, such as at Gettysburg, grew out of Frederick Law Olmstead's New York Central Park.

In 1913 entrepreneur Hubert Eaton laid out the first memorial park in the United States, at Forest Lawn cemetery, in Glendale, California. Hired groundskeepers worked easily around slender vases of artificial flowers, limited sculpture, large group vaults, and ground-level bronze plates. Forty years later, the port city's first memorial park opened, as Mobile Memorial Gardens, on the city's west side.

According to author John S Sledge, Mobile's CITIES OF SILENCE have become unattractive, unhealthy, and unsafe. This time around it's from inner city blight, grave robbing, vandalism and weeds. This time around, the answer may be, not in another remodeled style of burial grounds, but in successful historic preservation. In fact, Mobile already has clean-up campaigns, save our cemeteries societies, and walking tours. All this could, once again, make cemetery, from the Greek word for sleeping chamber, the perfect word for Mobile's historic Ahavas Chesed, Church Street, Magnolia, Old Catholic, and Sha-arai Shomyaim cemeteries.

Average customer rating:

In Silence There Are Ghosts--A Small Town Reverie

Incredible Honesty!

amazing detail!

A review by Aaron

In the Silence There Are Ghosts: A Novel
James C. Schaap
Manufacturer: Baker Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0801083818

Customer Reviews:

In Silence There Are Ghosts--A Small Town Reverie.......2001-08-05

In Silence There are Ghosts is an example of Small Town USA's inhibititions gone exhibitionist. The book deals with a divorcee returning home after many years and discovering the underlying secrets of a town she realizes that she never really knew. This includes her parents and the secrets surrounding her older sister's death. The book's undercurrent deals with the psuedochristain attitudes displayed by the town members and how the overlaying Christain layer, once scraped away, reveals a decaying sense of immorality amoung its members. The book gives a good sketch of the protagonist and her unwitting discovery of the true nature of the town and her family.

Incredible Honesty!.......2001-06-27

This book is amazing because unlike other Christian authors Shaap doesn't beat you over the head with sermons. Instead he speaks from deep places, places wrought with pain and love, and in speaking he shows you yourself. Read it and you will find yourself thinking of your life like you have never thought before. The story is enchanting and the characters are so honest, they hurt.

amazing detail!.......2000-05-20

while reading through this book i got the feeling that i was there. schaap has an amazing talent for capturing the emotion of the moment and the little details that we so often miss even in our own lives. the strong characterizations and indepth look into the thoughts and actions of the characters was amazing. i found this to be one of those books that you rush through, but hate to finish becaue then its done!

A review by Aaron.......2000-03-29

"She talked and talked as if the silence was full of ghosts"(67). For Emily Doorn in the novel, In the Silence There Are Ghosts, by James Schaap, the silence, especially that which inhibits her mother, is full of ghosts. There are so many unanswered questions about her sister's death that Emily makes a promise to herself that she will find out who her sibling really was, not just what others made her out to be.

Emily Doorn starts her journey into the past by visiting with Norm Visser, the man who was driving the car the night that Meg, Emily's sister had died in a car crash. Norm gave her much insight into the ghosts that loomed over the Doorn family after Meg's death. He informed Emily of the drugs that he and Meg had done, about the trouble they used to involve themselves in, all of this leading up to the night of the fatal car accident. Norm confides in her, "When we hit that other car, Emily, we were smoking"(65). Emily, devastated by this sudden influx of information previously unknown to her, had to know if her parents had know the truth that she was just now uncovering, these ghosts that have been hidden for years.

With the knowledge she gained from her talks with Norm, Emily dug deeper into the life and death of her sister. She visited regularly with her mother at the hospital since her return to her hometown of Neukirk, making sure her presence was felt by her silent mother. Ever since the stroke, Emily's mother had lost her ability to respond to any person, or so the doctors said. This silence that engulfed her mother made it difficult for Emily to find out if her mother truly had been masking Meg's identity after her death, and if she had been doing so, for what reason was this information kept secret, like a ghost, from herself? While visiting her mother, Emily met the nurse that had been caring for her ill parent for years. Nancy was her name, and she was very knowledgeable about Mrs. Doorn's feelings at any particular moment. She said to Emily, "You wait Em, you can see it in the eyes"(78). And she was right. As soon as Emily began to speak of Meg's death with her mother, she could sense that she was becoming upset, aggravated by the very nature of the subject at hand.

Emily had gathered enough information thus far to know that there was something that her family had been hiding from her, some ghosts they had kept locked away in a secret unknown place, a place that Emily no longer had access to since her father's death and her mother's stroke. Certain things just didn't seem right, like the bible that her mother kept with secret notes tucked away in tiny places; and lists of hymns, favorite hymns, with a chosen piece of music for everyone in her family, excluding herself. The date 1962, which meant something, but she was not sure what that something was yet. All these things lead to the answers she longed for; the answers that would rid her of the ghosts that were left looming over her family.

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3 Deltora Quest PBs by Emily Rodda: Forests of Silence, Lake of Tears, City of the Rats (Deltora Quest)
Emily Rodda
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Deltora | Fantasy & Adventure | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RO29VC

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3 Med Sz PBs

5 Titles By Emily Rodda Deltora Quest Series : The Forests of Silence - City of the Rats - The Maze of the Beast - The Valley of the Lost - Return to Del

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5 Titles By Emily Rodda Deltora Quest Series : The Forests of Silence - City of the Rats - The Maze of the Beast - The Valley of the Lost - Return to Del
Emily Rodda
Manufacturer: Scholastic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WNHUWQ

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multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.

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City of Silence: Listening to Hiroshima
Rachelle Linner
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Inspirational | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1570750149

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