Shopaholic & Baby (Shopaholic)

Average customer rating:

BEST SHOPAHOLIC BOOK YET!

library material - weaker than the first books

Shopaholic & Baby

Typical for the series

Nice read

Shopaholic & Baby (Shopaholic)
Sophie Kinsella
Manufacturer: The Dial Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Shopaholic & Sister

Shopaholic Ties the Knot

The Undomestic Goddess

Baby Proof

Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

ASIN: 0385338708
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) is pregnant! She couldn’t be more overjoyed–especially since discovering that shopping cures morning sickness. Everything has got to be perfect for her baby: from the designer nursery . . . to the latest, coolest pram . . . to the celebrity, must-have obstetrician.

But when the celebrity obstetrician turns out to be her husband Luke’s glamorous, intellectual ex-girlfriend, Becky's perfect world starts to crumble. She’s shopping for two . . . but are there three in her marriage?

Customer Reviews:

BEST SHOPAHOLIC BOOK YET!.......2007-09-23

I absolutely LOVED this book...I thought it was her best book yet! it kept me smiling and laughing throughout the whole book!

library material - weaker than the first books.......2007-08-23

In my opinion, this is not the best Kinsella's work, even though it has enough funny moments to keep you entertained. And it's not even because Becky didn't "grow up", as some other reviewers suggested. In the real life, women understand what had happened to them only after the baby is born, and so many of us just love to be not practical when it comes down to "baby stuff". So, I wasn't bothered by the fact that Becky continues to behave as if she is still 14 years old (that's certainly part of the charm, and one of the reasons for me to read these series).
It's simply that in "Shopaholic & baby" the humor of most situations wears down, the plot follows the main line of the previous books, with the variation of Luke's ex-girlfriend coming to the scene... and some of these "funny" situations actually made me cringe because of their absurdity.
In addition, I began to be annoyed by the fact that Luke is so absolutely perfect and understanding. Sophie Kinsella attempted to make him less perfect with all this "affair" story, but somehow it did not work for me - any normal guy that I know would immediately see the difference between friendship and flirt... and probably be more than a little upset about his wife's 16 offshore overdrafts!
I was able to re-read the first books in the series, when I needed to relax and rewind, but not this one. I suggest borrowing the book from the library and waiting for the next installment.

Shopaholic & Baby.......2007-08-23

Just finished reading Kinsella's latest enstallment for Becky Brandon (nee: Bloomwood). Was as funny and entertaining as all of the other books in the series. If you're a fan of Becky Brandon, I'd suggest reading this latest additon.

Typical for the series.......2007-08-16

I enjoyed the first few Shopaholic books. But this one I started to get a little annoyed with the main character. Hasn't she learned her lesson YET? How can anyone be that much of an idiot with money? Well, maybe there are people out there like that, sadly. Anyway, the book was entertaining at times. I am probably just tired of the series.

Nice read.......2007-08-13

I love the Shopaholic series, I like Becky. I like how she is obssed with shopping, celebrity OBGYN and La Mer products.
This book is no different than the former ones, very fun to read.

Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel

Average customer rating:

Not Mosley's Best Work
Disgusting
Brace Yourself
Just OK...
Excellent book, excellent transaction

Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel
Walter Mosley
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 159691226X
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Book Description

This bold new novel from Walter Mosley startles in both its rawness and its honest portrayal of a man on a quest for sexual redemption in midlife. When Cordell Carmel catches his longtime girlfriend with another man, the act that he witnesses seems to dissolve all the boundaries he knows. In that instant, the calm existence of this middle-aged New York City man becomes something unrecognizable: he wants revenge, but also something more. Killing Johnny Fry is the story of Cordell’s dark, funny, soulful, and outrageously explicit sexual odyssey in search of a new way of life. His guide is a mysterious woman named Sisypha, who leads him deep into the erotic heart of the city.

Killing Johnny Fry marks new territory for Walter Mosley, bestselling author of Devil in a Blue Dress and many other books in different genres: sci-fi, politics, literary fiction. It will surprise, provoke, inspire, and make you blush. Above all, it is about a man questioning the rules we take for granted—and the powerful and sometimes disturbing connections that occur between people when these rules are removed.

Customer Reviews:

Not Mosley's Best Work.......2007-07-17

Walter Mosley describes his latest work, Killing Johnny Fry, as a sexistential novel. The protagonist, Cordell Carmel, a middle aged black man, has a sexual awakening after discovering his girl friend of 8 years having a torrid affair. Seeing his lover and only friend in the arms of another man drives Cordell to places and situations that he never imagined.

Mosley invites readers into Cordell's rapidly changing world to witness his emotional odyssey and subsequent sexual metamorphosis. Cordell is transformed from a mild mannered and straight-laced free-lance translator, to a lustfully, wanton artist's agent. Mosley details every aspect of Cordell's transformation including his nearly uncontrollable desire to kill his girl friend's new lover, Johnny Fry.

True to form, Mosley uses words to weave his intriguing tale; however, unlike his other novels, the graphic nature of the sex is atypical of his style. It's quite raw, gritty and somewhat vulgar. I was able to get past the vast sexual content and concentrate on the characters and their development. Mosley did a great job of filling the back story of the interesting cast of characters, many of whom has some form of sexual dysfunction or abuse in their pasts.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Although the sexual content is a significant part of the story, Mosley seems intent upon achieving maximum shock value. The extreme sexual content makes this an adult only read.

Disgusting.......2007-06-07

I read this book because I was told it's different, maybe "Zanest".
I got more than I expected. To me, it is pure porn. The main character lusts after women just for the sake of lusting - if that makes any sense at all. My book club will read it soon and even though I read it a few months ago, I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I won't be able to attend. I absolutely hated this book.

Brace Yourself.......2007-05-22

Be Warned this isn't your typical Walter Mosley book. I found myself drawn into the main characters pain, i really didn't know what to feel at times i was mad, excited and ultimately pleased with the way this book ended. If you are a long time Mosley reader like I am this book may be a little dark for your taste, but if you are going through a relationship that for some reason is causing you delicious pain and just want a way to escape, buy this book i guarantee you'll read it more than once.

Just OK..........2007-05-14

My husband raves about Walter Mosley and this was my first introduction to one of his books. I didn't care for it much but I'm going to read a couple of his other books and see if I like those better. If it hadn't been for the voracious sex scenes it would have been pretty boring.

Excellent book, excellent transaction.......2007-05-14

this book was chosen by my book club to read for the month of April. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mosley's departure from his standard mystery fare. I was quite pleased. I didn't consider this erotica as Mr. Mosley used sex primarily to progress the story and give an outward reference to the character's inward state of mind, not in a blatant effort to arouse the reader (or the sex scenes could have gone on for pages and pages). The main character had an existential meltdown that manifested itself through sex. That's it. Although not for the faint of heart...this book was a quality read. Those believing it is porn or erotica need to check their definitions.

Average customer rating:

Help your child enjoy math
Excellent book
The Greedy Triangle (Brainy Day Books)
Eductational and fun to read
Sensational Shapes Story with Marvelous Message

The Greedy Triangle (Brainy Day Books)
Marilyn Burns
Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0590489917

Book Description

In this introduction to polygons, a triangle convinces a shapeshifter to make him a quadrilateral and later a pentagon, but discovers that where angles and sides are concerned, more isn't always better.

Customer Reviews:

Help your child enjoy math.......2007-09-06

I really liked this book - very whimsical! It would be great for kids who are just learning about shapes as well as those who need to review.

Excellent book.......2007-06-06

I agree with all the other parents - my 6 year old son loved this book. I am very glad it's out there.

The Greedy Triangle (Brainy Day Books).......2007-02-20

A great introduction to geometry and the different shapes. Shows the relationships of different shapes to everyday items.

Eductational and fun to read.......2006-11-10

A really cute tale of Triangle getting bored being a traiangle. He then gets bored being quadralateral, pentagon, etc. As he morphs into the different shapes the reader learns the names of new shape. Very cute!

Sensational Shapes Story with Marvelous Message.......2006-09-12

This book is a delight on many fronts. It is a great, fun story about shapes which provides an entertaining way to expand a child's knowledge of informal geometry. Not only are children introduced to the proper names of polygons, but also this book helps them to see shapes as they exist in their surroundings. Also this fun book has a great message - it's good to be you!

Average customer rating:

A memorable book
Lovers of Classic Literature
Even better when it's not required reading in school
A story of deceit and redemption
Simply a marvel

The Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics)
Nathaniel Hawthorne , and Thomas E. Connolly
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142437263

Book Description

Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Massachusetts, this tale of an adulterous entanglement resulting in an illegitimate birth engendered the first true heroine of American fiction.

Introduction by Nina Baym
Notes by Thomas E. Connolly

Customer Reviews:

A memorable book.......2007-08-21

I read The Scarlet Letter when I was in 10th grade more than 14 years ago. This was one of the three novels, the other two being Beowolf and Great Gatsy, that I remember reading, which tells you how boring high school curriculum was and also how outstanding this book is among its peers.

Lovers of Classic Literature .......2007-07-23

I have made it a point to read as many classic novels as possible. I just recently read this version of the Scarlet Letter and say it is a must read. The book itself was in great condition, it even smelled new!

Even better when it's not required reading in school.......2007-07-16

Wow, I can't even put into words how good this book was, and so much better the second time around. The classic tale of Hester Pryne, forced to wear The Scarlet Letter as a sign to all of her adultery, but she refuses to name her lover who is then forced to bear his guilt in silence.

Enough reviewers have recounted the story better than I could. Suffice it to say I loved Hawthorne's prose, it was very dense and lyrical at the same time, and you have to pay close attention or you might have to backup and reread a paragraph or two. His descriptions of the scenery and people came alive, especially the character of young Pearl. And I very much enjoyed the scenes in the forest -- it was amazing how Hawthorne brought it all to life, even the sounds of the babbling brook.

Highly recommended to anyone looking to discover (or rediscover) an old classic. Side note to some of the young misses who clearly weren't happy at having this book as required reading in school -- you really really should try to work harder on your spelling, punctuation and grammar when criticizing a great masterpiece such as this.

A story of deceit and redemption.......2007-06-12

I highly recommend this book for those who wish to escape from the real world through this alternate reality! Witness strange old fashioned punishments and let your ethics be applied to this imaginative play. The Scarlet letter illustrates the message of being honest and embracing your flaws and your talents or else it will lead to your downfall. When Hester is punished to wear her scarlet letter and to be publicly ridiculed for her sins, Hester chooses to avoid as much human contact as possible. Whenever she had to go into public she described her goings as torture, for every single person in town was looking down at her with shame and disgust. As Hester deals with her punishment and her troublesome child, Pearl, Hester learns to use her skills with crafts to help those in need. Honesty is also shown as an essential lesson in Scarlet letter as seen through the downfall of Pastor Dimmesdale, who refuses to tell anyone that he was Hester's partner in sin, in fear that it would ruin his prestige. His evil secret eventually drove him mad and he soon became cursed with visions and serious health problems. He eventually was unable to take the guilt of lying to his congregation and confesses to his followers who became shocked at such an unbelievable confession of such a "holy" man. Read this book and experience the plot come alive with its dark imagery and masterful writing! I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in historical fiction, and the message of the book will never be forgotten, it encourages the need of forgiveness for the regretful and proves that redemption can be found by anyone.

Simply a marvel.......2007-06-05

Written in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is a work of art and brilliance. Hawthorne's intricate writing and entrancing plot make this novel a classic in American Literature. The characters and the symbols they represent can keep even the most critical readers lost in thought. The book itself seems not to be written as merely a story, but rather as a lesson for the reader, often leaving one lost in thought for days after finishing.

The book opens with a long, somewhat unnecessary introduction. If you are an impatient reader, skip this. It is not necessary to the overall plot. However, once you move into the actual story, the novel is hard to put away. I spent two weeks reading a novel that I usually could read in two days. The language is dense and the ideas masked and I often found myself re-reading the same paragraph, page, or even chapter just to ensure that I had found the real meaning.

The main character, Hester Prynne, is found to have had an adulterous affair with an unknown and unannounced lover and to be with child. Living in a puritan society, her punishment is harsh since the Bible is their law. She is forced to stand on a scaffold with her illegitimate child and bear the discrimination of the town. Furthermore, Hester is required to wear a letter "A" on her breast to show the extent of her sins for the rest of her life. The priest of the town, the Reverend Dimmsdale, takes pity on her and tries to console Hester and her daughter Pearl. To further complicate things, Hester's husband, a man now known as Chillingworth, returns to the town after a two-year absence. Disgraced by his wife's actions, he pretends to be a physician to avoid any relation with Hester's scandalous acts. The novel progresses through the drama and effects of the psyche on the characters.

Overall, the writing style, while sometimes dense and difficult to comprehend, is unique and entrancing to read. A bit forward in his approach, Hawthorne lavishes in detail and thought of the characters, acting as God and narrator. The book, admittedly, is hard to read and often simply confusing as to what Hawthorne is trying to get at. Despite all of these shortcomings, I still find that the novel is one worth reading over and over again. It is one of those books that can be read thirty times, yet still manages to hold another surprise the thirty-first.

Average customer rating:

Amazing Tale of the True Russia
An exploration of morality
Verbose
perhaps his finest work of fiction
A sharp, stylistic focus on the Russian soul

House of Meetings
Martin Amis
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400044553
Release Date: 2007-01-16

Amazon.com

With The House of Meetings, Martin Amis may finally have written the novel his critics thought would never come. By taming his signature (and polarizing) stylistic high-wire act, Amis has crafted a sober tale of love and cynicism against the grim curtain of Stalin's Russia. The book's anonymous narrator--a Red Army veteran and unapologetic war criminal--and his passive, poetic half-brother, Lev, become pinned in a politically dangerous love triangle with the exotic Zoya, though their tactics (and intentions) are as divergent as their personalities. Swept up in the wave of Stalin's paranoid purges, the brothers are sent independently to Norlag, a Siberian internment camp where their respective fates are cast through their contrasting reactions to the depravity of the prison. Zoya and Lev share a night in "The House of Meetings," a room provided for conjugal visits with the prisoners, and the events of that night reverberate through the decades, the details of the liaison remaining concealed until the story's devastating denouement.

Amis's main achievement is his depiction of the cruel realities of the Soviet gulags. Drawing heavily on his research for Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million, his half-history/half-memoir of political imprisonment and mass killing in Soviet Russia, Amis has created his own Animal Farm--without metaphors to mask the blood, filth, and death of the camps. Amis vividly recreates the social structure of gulag life, as the inmates and guards sort themselves into distinct hierarchies and stations in their struggles to survive the rigors of the gulag. Here The House of Meetings may accomplish what Amis had intended for the unfocused Koba: to cast a searing light on an often overlooked episode of 20th century inhumanity, injustice, and murder. --Jon Foro

Book Description

An extraordinary novel that ratifies Martin Amis’s standing as “a force unto himself,” as The Washington Post has attested: “There is, quite simply, no one else like him.”

House of Meetings is a love story, gothic in timbre and triangular in shape. In 1946, two brothers and a Jewish girl fall into alignment in pogrom-poised Moscow. The fraternal conflict then marinates in Norlag, a slave-labor camp above the Arctic Circle, where a tryst in the coveted House of Meetings will haunt all three lovers long after the brothers are released. And for the narrator, the sole survivor, the reverberations continue into the new century.

Harrowing, endlessly surprising, epic in breadth yet intensely intimate, House of Meetings reveals once again that “Amis is a stone-solid genius . . . a dazzling star of wit and insight” (The Wall Street Journal).

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Tale of the True Russia.......2007-09-23

In this beautifully written and mesmerizing book Amis creates the autobiography of a Russian man, a Jew, who has had the enormous misfortune to be born in the late 1920s: old enough to have endured Stalin's purges, old enough to have served as a soldier in WWII (with enough harrowing memories to merit an entire book of its own), old enough to be sentenced to a Siberian camp in the late 1940s as a political prisoner (again, almost a book in itself), and old enough to return to the "new Russia" and amass a fortune. In other words, the history of Russia over the past 75 years, through the eyes of a bitter survivor.

The narrative is in the form of a letter to the writer's niece, who has escaped Russia to live comfortably in Chicago. He is trying to explain what makes Russia so different from the rest of the world, and why its people are so deformed when judged by Western standards. In recent years I've dabbled in reading about contemporary Russia, which requires some knowledge of its history, and I found this tale to be chillingly and compellingly true. I've come to see Russia as a unique entity: large enough to have absorbed both Western and Asian influences to become an amalgam of the two cultures and thus a mystery to the rest of world, earning Churchill's famous sobriquet.

This book is not for the faint of heart; some of the scenes are truly nightmarish. Near the end the narrator tells us that in 1992 the Russian death rate eclipsed the birth rate and it became a dying country, doomed to nonexistence within 50 years. Some 70% of all pregnancies end in abortions and the childbirth and childhood mortality rates rivals the worst of Third-World countries. The will to live, belief in a future, is gone.

In its bleakness, however, one finds through the anonymous -- and perhaps sometimes unreliable -- narrator a love of life, and determination to shape that life whatever the obstacles. His anonymity makes him a Russian everyman, for good and bad. This is an amazing book in its ability to both tell the epochal story of contemporary Russia as well as that of one man trying to survive some of the 20th century's greatest horrors.

An exploration of morality.......2007-08-24

This novel is an exploration of personal morality, and of the impact a horrific experience (the Gulag) and a dysfunctional society (Russia) has on the spirit. Two brothers experience the Gulag together. The older brother, who narrates the story and is the main character, is bitter and even haunted, but is relatively unscathed; the defining moment for him is the final rejection by the woman he has loved all his life. It is his brother Lev who is loved by the woman, adding to the tension between two men who are strongly attached, but have very different moral senses. As in a mystery, the reader only comes to fully understand what the Gulag has done to Lev's spirit at the end, in the letter he writes as he is dying, a letter only read years later as the narrator is dying.

The novel has wit, ideas, and Lev is a fine character. The portrayal of Gulag life is powerful, emphasizing the brutish rather than the physical horrors. I loved the chapter devoted to the narrator's gloating over Russia's national suicide - as expressed in a death rate which increasingly exceeds the birth rate. At the same time it is tough spending a lot of time in the company of the narrator. Also, I find it hard to accept that a person who does have moral sensibilities, as he does, could become a serial rapist even if it is after a horrible war and the women are German, i.e. the enemy. It also bothers me that Zoya always "gets" the narrator, is a wonderful lover, but is unable to detect when Lev starts going through the motions, although Amis explicitly tries to justify it.

For a very different picture of the Gulag, in a fine and "nicer" novel, see Martin Booth's "The Industry of Souls".

Verbose.......2007-07-01

Why use few syllables when you can use many? Why use common words when you can use rare ones? Why write simply when you can write in a convoluted style? The main character is plastic. It's as if Amis created him for the sole purpose of having a vessel from which to pour his pretentions and 10 cent words.

perhaps his finest work of fiction.......2007-06-29

For years I've been ambivalent about Martin Amis. He is even better than his father at depicting physical and moral decrepitude, and just as talented a humorist. For these and other reasons, I love his previous fiction. However: (1) almost invariably around 4/5ths of the way into his novels he fails to resolve the narrative tension in a convincing or readable manner, and (tied to the first one), (2) when the moral concerns of the author intrude (usually when the novels are being resolved) there is no longer sufficient distance between author and narrator, leading the books to become either muddled or unconvincing. [note: If you are a believer in the anxiety of influence, then there is a compelling explanation for this. Martin Amis is one of the few people that reads his father correctly as being one of the truly great moralists in the Western literary tradition,-and here I refer only to his Kingsley Amis' fiction.]

Thus, for years Martin Amis been one of my favorite authors. However, I couldn't point to one of his books and say that it was on my list of favorite books.

"House of Meetings" should be on anybody's list of favorite books. I could go on like all of the reviewers and talk up its historical and moral virtues. This worries me though, because lots of books have great historical virtues (e.g. Colleen McCullough's excellent series on the fall of the Roman Republic) without being truly magnificent novels. And Amis' description of Russia is fantastic. . . However, independent of the history, "House of Meetings" is one of the most psychologically and ethically astute novels I've ever read. That is, if Soviet Communism had never happened, and Amis' book was a work of pure counterfactual history, it would still be in the top tier of novels.

The narrator's old age reflections on his often morally repugnant life, the narrator's advice to his daughter (reflecting the awful wisdom he has gained from said life), the narrator's presentation of his brother and brother's wife (and the narrator's brother's letter), the narrator's description of the different kinds of prisoners, the narrator's thoughts on what is happening in Russia today. . . not one sentence of it rings psychologically false. Moreover, it's all interesting; both the world presented and the writing style make it an impossible book to put down.

Now for the moral aspect of the novel. Yes, communism was horrible, and people need to understand it. However, Martin Amis' non-fiction book on Stalin helped in that task. This novel does that but much more. Bertrand Russell said the main task of philosophy now is to help people to learn to live in a world without certainty without themselves being paralyzed. I think moral literature helps us learn to live in a world of such massive injustice, cruelty, and ignorance without succumbing to it ourselves. Somehow, in creating a fictional world around real monstrous injustices and cruelties, Amis has succeeded in this as well as any novelist.

A sharp, stylistic focus on the Russian soul.......2007-06-12

I really liked this book. The prose is very sharp, well observed, precise. There's none (well, less) of the redundancy and mad ranting which marred some of Amis' previous works. It's tighter, more focused. Granted, it's not for everybody. It is snarky, bitchy (or whatever the British-male equivalent), and rather sexist. I'm put off by its casual attitude toward rape as an issue of cultural relativity, for instance. And Zoya, the beautiful, character-less sex goddess the brothers are both drawn to, seems nothing but typical male fantasy, which I suppose is sort of the idea. Still, as a focused study of the effects of changing times on people's lives this book is masterfully rendered. For me, though, what was most enjoyable is the language itself--the feel of the words, their rhythm and music.

The Quiet American (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Average customer rating:

A Good Read
Excellent Read on Geopolitics/Foreign Policy
This is what I've been missing!
Global Politics Writ Small
Good listen. . .

The Quiet American (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Graham Greene
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0143039024
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Book Description

Starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, The Quiet American is already gaining incredible buzz -- including a Golden Globe nomination for Caine (Best Actor, Drama). This enchanting film is directed by Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence; The Bone Collector; Clear and Present Danger) and is adapted from one of Graham Greene’s best-loved novels. Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious “Third Force.” As his naïve optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the sake of politics, or for love.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read.......2007-09-21

I read this novel on a cross-country (U.S) flight. It is fast paced and evocative of a time now lost. The book is remarkably prescient, not so much in predicting subsequent events, but more in characterizing the forces that would play a decisive role in the later twentieth century evolution of Vietnam.

Fowler, a cynical journalist in French-occupied Vietnam, has his life disrupted when Pyle, and idealistic, impractical American comes on the scene and not only steals his girlfriend, but, fronting for the CIA, backs a Vietnamese general to establish a third force, democracy, to counter the communists and the French colonials, with terrible results. A key subplot involves Fowler's loss and subsequent recovery of his mistress, Phuong. To some degree, the characters and their relationships to one another mirror the stances and actions of their respective countries.

One of the book's interesting dynamics is Fowler's introspective dialogue. He views Pyle with cynical disdain. Pyle, on the other hand, wants Fowler to accept him as a friend (he continually presses Fowler to call him by his first name; Fowler resists) and understand and respect his motives.

With the Vietnam/French conflict as background environment, the novel seeks to explore the conflict between Fowler and Pyle. Greene provides a realistic description of Vietnam in the early fifties: of Saigon, Haiphong, the villages, the Viet Minh and so forth. The book also contains several descriptions of the casualties of war.

The Quiet American is set at a time when revolutionary forces were adopting a Marxist model based on China's successful Communist revolution. The French and British were both trying to maintain a grasp on crumbling empires by resisting revolutionary forces. The Americans opposed the Soviet Union, and the spread of communism throughout the world. The Americans viewed communism as monolithic at the time, and believed in the "Domino Theory," which stated that once Vietnam became communist, the other nations of Southeast Asia would also do so, like a line of falling dominos, each one tipping another. Subsequent events would disprove that theory and prove nationalism to be the more relevant factor.

Robert Stone provides an insightful introduction to the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition.

Excellent Read on Geopolitics/Foreign Policy.......2007-05-24

Normally I prefer to read non-fiction books. Literary "masters" i.e. Virginia Wolf, James Joyce, etc often write pieces so convoluted, often which are supposed to be representative of a greater theme that they become out of touch with even the most educated readers. Not so with The Quiet American. A tale of a jaded expatriate contrasts that of a bright eyed American who tries to "make a difference" in Vietnam. You will easily be able to draw comparisons with the themes of this novel to any modern US foreign policy, i.e. the failures of the CIA, communist intervention, the war of terrorism, Iraq, Colonialism, etc etc. On a more literal, as in real, level, The Quiet American offers good picture of Vietnam before its rapid modernization.

This is what I've been missing!.......2007-05-16

This novel was a breath of nostalgic fresh air to me, and I realized this is what I've been missing. I'm tired of overwrought prose (some literary fiction feels like it tries so hard) and plot twist after contrived plot twist (Dan Brown et al) and laundry lists of trendy shoes and boutiques (chick lit in general). What I want is a good story, believable, well-told, with enough characterization and well-placed description to transport me somewhere and make me believe that something interesting actually happens. This reminds me of when I was a child and a book was so good you stayed up late to read it. I'll be looking for more Graham Greene for my bookshelf.

Global Politics Writ Small.......2007-02-21

The Quiet American is my favorite Graham Greene novel, despite "The Power and the Glory" being widely held as his masterpiece. In typical Greene style, Vietnam of the mid 50's is painted vividly as seen through the eyes of Fowler, a British journalist covering the war when the only western power involved was a crumbling colonial France.

Fowler is a vestige of what our Rumsfield might have called "old Europe". He is old, tired, urbane but practical. His world weariness also makes him corruptible. He shares a flat with a Vietnamese national named Phuong, Vietnamese for Phoenix. He is good to her and she enables him, but to call what they share love would be rather too strong a word.

Enter Pyle, young healthy CIA buck from the States. Pyle is idealistic as he is naive. Like a baby gorilla, he seems to be wholly unaware of his strength. Acting on a wave of badly informed idealism, Pyle wreaks havoc on the tenuous equilibrium of those trapped in a war zone. The helpless Phuong is particularly vulnerable, but like her namesake, she and her country will rise again from the destruction ravaging the land.

At publication, this novel was perceived as anti-American and roundly criticized in this country. Like the Vatican's denouncement of the whisky priest in Greene's "The Power and the Glory", one tends to think that the offences were caused by Greene's rendering of a cowardly priest and naive American being dead-on. The irony is that the American backlash to the perceived slight did cause Greene to dislike Americans: a case of life imitating art imitating life.

This is an outstanding book, and the last 50 years has only made it more powerful. It is the drama of global policy played out by sympathetic and flawed humans.

Good listen. . . .......2007-01-03

The story is excellent and very timely. The reading is very good EXCEPT when the narrator does the voice of the Quiet American, who is a Bostonian. The reader uses an annoying pseudo-Texas accent that is totally wrong and completely detracts from the story.

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Better the second time around
Woolf in Her Prime
An expanding web
Septimus Warren Smith
Flowing prose

Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156628708

Amazon.com

As Clarissa Dalloway walks through London on a fine June morning, a sky-writing plane captures her attention. Crowds stare upwards to decipher the message while the plane turns and loops, leaving off one letter, picking up another. Like the airplane's swooping path, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway follows Clarissa and those whose lives brush hers--from Peter Walsh, whom she spurned years ago, to her daughter Elizabeth, the girl's angry teacher, Doris Kilman, and war-shocked Septimus Warren Smith, who is sinking into madness.

As Mrs. Dalloway prepares for the party she is giving that evening, a series of events intrudes on her composure. Her husband is invited, without her, to lunch with Lady Bruton (who, Clarissa notes anxiously, gives the most amusing luncheons). Meanwhile, Peter Walsh appears, recently from India, to criticize and confide in her. His sudden arrival evokes memories of a distant past, the choices she made then, and her wistful friendship with Sally Seton.

Woolf then explores the relationships between women and men, and between women, as Clarissa muses, "It was something central which permeated; something warm which broke up surfaces and rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or of women together.... Her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?" While Clarissa is transported to past afternoons with Sally, and as she sits mending her green dress, Warren Smith catapults desperately into his delusions. Although his troubles form a tangent to Clarissa's web, they undeniably touch it, and the strands connecting all these characters draw tighter as evening deepens. As she immerses us in each inner life, Virginia Woolf offers exquisite, painful images of the past bleeding into the present, of desire overwhelmed by society's demands. --Joannie Kervran Stangeland

Book Description

This brilliant novel explores the hidden springs of thought and action in one day of a woman’s life. Direct and vivid in her account of the details of Clarissa Dalloway’s preparations for a party she is to give that evening, Woolf ultimately managed to reveal much more. For it is the feeling behind these daily events that gives Mrs. Dalloway its texture and richness and makes it so memorable. Foreword by Maureen Howard.

"Mrs. Dalloway was the first novel to split the atom. If the novel before Mrs. Dalloway aspired to immensities of scope and scale, to heroic journeys across vast landscapes, with Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf insisted that it could also locate the enormous within the everyday; that a life of errands and party-giving was every bit as viable a subject as any life lived anywhere; and that should any human act in any novel seem unimportant, it has merely been inadequately observed. The novel as an art form has not been the same since.
"Mrs. Dalloway also contains some of the most beautiful, complex, incisive and idiosyncratic sentences ever written in English, and that alone would be reason enough to read it. It is one of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century."
--Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

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A masterpiece by one of the greatest writers in English literary history, Mrs. Dalloway is both a moving and innovative novel that breaks new ground in the representation of inner experience. A day in the life of a London woman, Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf's novel is a meditation on time, perception, memory and experience. Informed by the great novelists of the previous century as well as contemporary trends in philosophy, art and literature, Mrs. Dalloway is a towering achievement by an extraordinary artist.

Customer Reviews:

Better the second time around.......2007-08-27

This was the first Woolf novel that I read and i am glad that it was. I was a college freshman who had just seen The Hours. I was immediately drawn to this author. After reading it the first time, it is possible to know what the basic story is about: a woman giving a party and wondering about the choices she has made in the past. But each reading helps bring out so many details that are easy to miss. People may claim this is a hard read, but Mrs. Woolf's books were NEVER meant to be read quickly. The word usage and details are so precise that is should be read slowly to appreciate it more. A great book to start getting into Woolf.

Woolf in Her Prime.......2007-07-15

Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) was a well known writer, critic, feminist, and publisher. This was her fourth novel.

I read her first novel "The Voyage Out" before buying the present book, then skipped her second novel - which is considered to be a flop - then read "Jacob's Room," her third, then "Mrs. Dalloway," her fourth, and then "To The Lighthouse."

"The Voyage Out" is simple and straightforward work and it might remind the reader of a Jane Austen novel, but it set on a ship and then at a remote location. It is over 400 pages long, and has an Austen theme. After her second novel - which did not do very well - Woolf decided to be more risky and creative with the next book. She changed her style and approach to the novel and Woolf uses the stream of consciousness technique to bring a sense of the chaos and shortness of a young man's life around the time of World War I, Jacob's life, i.e.: from the pandemonium of Jacob's life as portrayed by Woolf through the use of the stream of the consciousness technique, we eventually have clarity in the novel. She carries this writing style on into the similarly chaotic story in the novel "Mrs. Dalloway."

She carries this writing style on into the similarly chaotic story "Mrs. Dalloway." Mrs. Dalloway, or simply Clarrisa Dalloway the character, was used in her first novel "The Voyage Out" but only as a minor character who the protagonist, Rachel, meets on a sea voyage. Mr. Dalloway makes a pass at Rachel and kisses her. Woolf brings them back in force here with their own novel.

The present story is set in the summer in post WWI London and it revolves around a few days in the life of Mrs. Dalloway. She has a party and during that period an old suitor, Peter Walsh, makes his return appearance from an overseas job posting in India, and does so after thirty years. Part of the story involves her thoughts about that relationship and her life choices. The second plot element is mental illness and the appearance of Septimus Warren Smith and his Italian wife Lucrezia. He is a war survivor but is suffering from depression. The third element is her present husband and his love for her.

The compressed in time and chaotic story which involves Clarrisa, her husband, Peter Walsh, and Septimus, lends itself to the stream of consciousness technique. Some make comparisons with Joyce and his stream of consciousness novel "Ulysses." In any case, Woolf uses it to advantage here. Finally, Woolf is an author who promoted aesthetic purity in fiction. But here she uses the novel as a chance to attack the care for the mental illnesses.

This is an excellent novel written by Woolf at her prime. Her approach lends itself to the subject and it is quite effective. If you want to read a conventional novel by Woolf, then I recommend her first novel, "The Voyage Out."

An expanding web.......2007-07-04

This is a spellweaver of a book, slipping lucidly from minute to minute over the course of a perfect London summer's day, its gossamer threads forming an expanding web as complex and interconnected as a symphony. I came to it after reading TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, written two years later (1925 and 1927). Both books are set in summer, and both are confined to a single physical setting. But whereas the house and garden in TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, nominally in Scotland, might almost be anywhere, London is a real and precise presence in MRS DALLOWAY, lovingly described over a range of several miles. The later book, though concentrating on two specific days, has a span of almost a decade; MRS DALLOWAY follows the classical unity of time, starting in the early morning and continuing until night in a single unbroken span (a precedent perhaps imitated by Ian McEwan in his SATURDAY). Conversely, while TO THE LIGHTHOUSE confines itself to about a dozen characters, MRS DALLOWAY moves in ever-expanding ripples, adding more and more people as guests arrive for Clarissa Dalloway's party in the book's concluding scene.

The hours of the day are marked by the sound of Big Ben: "First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air." The image of expanding and dissipating circles is central; as in TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, Woolf is preoccupied with the passage of time; both books are a memento mori. But neither one is grim; there is a summer freshness here, a feeling for the charm of society life in a great city, that fits the preliminary musical chimes of the great clock -- but the irrevocable toll of time is not forgotten. We see Clarissa Dalloway, a little over fifty, wife of a respected politician with an assured place in society. Like the sound of the clock, like ripples on the water, her circles have also expanded since her marriage, but have they also dissipated, dissolved in the air? Near the beginning of the book, she is visited by Peter Walsh, a former suitor whom she refused some thirty years before, now back home after many years in India. Both of them have changed, but the memories take her back and force her to weigh and reweigh her concepts of success and happiness.

All the characters in the novel are known personally to Clarissa Dalloway, with the exception of only two: Septimus Warren Smith and his Italian wife Lucrezia, whose story, weaving in and out of the main one, takes up about a fifth of the whole. Septimus, a clerk by profession but something of a poet and aesthete, has returned from the war unable to feel. When his best friend is killed in the last days of the war, he congratulates himself on surviving without cracking up, but soon begins to recognize his lack of emotion for the curse that it is; he married Lucrezia largely in an attempt to overcome this. He must be one of the first victims of shell-shock to appear in literature (but not the last: see Pat Barker's magnificent REGENERATION and all of Jacqueline Winspear's MAISIE DOBBS series). Virtually everything in Woolf's mature novels is connected primarily by thought rather than through action, but this takes the principle even farther, linking Septimus to Clarissa in theme only, as her Doppelgänger; the author admitted as much in a later preface. In some ways they are opposites: Clarissa so full of life, a society hostess married to an establishment figure; and Septimus, potentially suicidal (like Woolf herself), a provincial nobody married to the daughter of a foreign innkeeper. And yet, for all his inability to feel, there is an immediacy to the scenes between Septimus and Lucrezia, whose lives are played out in emotional primary colors, whereas Clarissa's world, for all its brilliance, is in iridescent shimmers and half-tones.

And what of Mr. Richard Dalloway, MP? We see surprisingly little of him, but what we do see only emphasizes the theme of lost feeling that runs through the book. Something makes him realize that it has been years since he has told his wife of his love. So he buys a great bunch of flowers and we see him "walking across London to say to Clarissa in so many words that he loved her." The phrase is repeated again and again. When he does get home, the scene does not go quite like that, but it is a touching one all the same. For Richard is one of those Englishmen who can only show their feelings obliquely. Poor Peter Walsh, on the other hand, who weeps openly and is an emotional wreck, is considered a failure, "not quite the thing." And Clarissa, still precariously aware of both sides of her nature, must steer her way between the two. And we rejoice that she can.

Septimus Warren Smith.......2007-06-27

In this novel, we see into the consciousness of the characters, in particular, Clarrissa Dalloway and the war-beaten Septimus Warren Smith. Woolf writes with empathy which is based on her own inner torment. This causes him to commit suicide due to his aversion to being placed in an institution by Dr. Holmes Bradshaw. Unrequited love for Isabel Pole, resonant in the beginning, shown as his poetry is corrected by her in red ink. This must seem slightly amusing to the author, but I find it sad.

I think I am him.

Flowing prose.......2007-06-27

coherrant, long, rythmic sentences on daily life of upper middle class of 18th century london.I found the book interesting and a delight to read.

Average customer rating:

Lot's of drama and lots of sex
Fabulous
Great read!!!
Its Not Up To Par
I loved the book, BUT...

Chasing Destiny
Eric Jerome Dickey
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 052594950X

Book Description

Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey's new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all.

Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way—but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos.

Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant.

Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married.

Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one?

Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.

Customer Reviews:

Lot's of drama and lots of sex.......2007-10-02

This is not my favorit EJD book. The drama and high antics were superb, but the content and the characters were mean, selfish and sad. Fiction is generally based on facts, but I'd hate to know any of the damn near middle age folks acting the way they act in this story. Too much was unbelieveable for me or I just don't know people that stupid. I love EJD earlier work, but this did not do it for me. Chasing Destiny was not bad, but it was not good.

Fabulous.......2007-09-13

Considering all the baby momma drama I have had, I am so glad someone finally wrote about it. This book was fantastic from start to finish!

Great read!!!.......2007-09-03

This book sat on my bookcase for more than a year before I picked it up to read...I'm so sorry I waited that long. It is one of EJD's best books so far. I was rooting for Ducati all the way through this book. I loved how it ended and would love to read more about her.

Its Not Up To Par.......2007-08-10

Dickey's books have been way better than this, i was kinda disappointed when i read this book. It was to jumpy and the plot of the story wasn't really all that good.

I loved the book, BUT..........2007-08-06

...I HATED the ending. UGH. I felt like I was watching a GOOD movie for 12 hours straight, only to be slapped with those white scrolling letters at the close to SAY what happened to the characters in two sentences. And then it's done. Otherwise though, I was completely captivated, and read the whole thing on my ONE day off!!

Average customer rating:

PONDEROUS
Outstanding
A Good Book to Snuggle With for A Great and Long Reading [88][16][T]
Human nature doesn't change
One of the great American novels.

An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)
Theodore Dreiser
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451527704
Release Date: 2000-08-08

Book Description

The classic depiction of the harsh realities of American life, the dark side of the American Dream, and one man's doomed pursuit of love and success...

"Mr. Dreiser is not imitative and belongs to no school. He is at heart a mysticist and a fatalist, though using the realistic method. He is, on the evidence of this novel alone, a power."-The New York Times Book Review

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"Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what it purports to be -- the harrowing story of a weak-willed young man who destroys himself, a villain who is also victim of the values of a deceptive, materialistic society. Dreiser patterned the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906, a charming young social climber who killed his pregnant young girlfriend in order to romance a rich girl who had begun to notice him. A powerful murder story, An American Tragedy is much more than that. For Dreiser pours his own dark yearnings into the character of Clyde Griffiths, while grimly charting the young man's pitiful rise and fall as he pursues empty ambitions to wealth, power and satisfaction. The Indiana-born novelist Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) has never been a dashing or romantic figure in American literature, and he has no Pulitzer or Nobel Prize to signal his importance. His big, rugged novels were shocking in their day -- unapologetic in their sexual candor, antagonistic to the norms of conventional morality and organized religion, often banned or suppressed -- and challenging still to readers. Yet the brooding force of his writing casts a deep shadow across modern American letters. At his best, in An American Tragedy, Dreiser examines the flip side of The American Dream in a gathering storm of a story that develops with a power echoing Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment. Inspired by the novels of Balzac and the ideas of Spenser and Freud, Dreiser became one of America's greatest naturalist writers, and An American Tragedy retains its rocky intensity and its devastating view of American longing almost a century later. "

Customer Reviews:

PONDEROUS.......2007-09-24

Wow, what a ponderous read! I know this was the era of yellow journalism and sensationalistic literature, but OMIGOD, this could've been reduced to 1/3 its length with the removal of superfluous adjectives!

Outstanding.......2007-01-15

This is the ultimate "be careful what you wish for" novel as Clyde Griffiths, trapped in a detested situation of his own making, concludes that his only path out involves murder; but when he can't go through with it in a final demonstration of his "weakness," his intended victim dies anyway by accident - only to bring down upon Clyde a conviction for "murder" and a reservation with the electric chair. Clyde's dream is the classic American one of rising above one's lowly position to a higher status, but he is frustrated at every turn. He takes a mistress, the poor factory girl Roberta Alden, at about the same time he befriends rich society girl Sondra Finchley; he learns that Roberta is pregnant just as Sondra declares her love for him. He feels trapped with Roberta with no way out, until he schemes to take her to an isolated lake and drown her. In one of the most famous scenes in American literature, Clyde is unable to complete his plans while in the boat with Roberta - only she somehow falls overboard and drowns anyway. Clyde is frozen by the spectacle of her drowning and is unable to act. A long trial ensues in which perhaps the real American tragedy is revealed: Sondra's wealth protects her from ever having to get involved with Clyde's proceedings. This long novel (perhaps too long) is fascinating in so many ways, with the ironies behind Clyde's hopes, dreams, actions, and fate so dramatically and honestly detailed by Dreiser, that, as one critic said, it's "a great work worthy of a permanent place in any list of milestones of modern fiction."

As with all Library of America editions, this edition of Dreiser's masterpiece is definitive and constructed to last a lifetime.

A Good Book to Snuggle With for A Great and Long Reading [88][16][T].......2007-01-12

Before the advent of television or other amenities which distract one from the often requisite silence to snuggle down to a novel, books included extraordinary detail and covered entire lives of protagonists. Dickens, Fielding, Dostoevsky, and others of their respective generations could swaddle the reader with incredibly well versed novels of lengths which today's readers may find either offensive or oppressive.

Dreiser belongs with such a crowd. In this novel, we commence with little boy Clyde Griffiths and read about him until he becomes the gas-chambered Griffiths. We learn all about his love of women, love of money, and how those two loves collide with his Judeo-Christian instincts - leading to the devastation of his and his friends' lives.

Engrossing and beautifully written, this book enraptures the reader who loves to read and reads out of love. Griffiths' life bestows weaknesses similar to modern cinema's Ned Racine (William Hurt in Body Heat) or Frank Chambers (John Garfield in Postman Always Rings Twice). Women: can't live with them, can't live without them.

If your attention span is guided by television's addicting ADHD-like compressed "mini-series" quickness, and only fast paced composition can keep your attention, this book is not for you. If you wish to snuggle beneath a blanket during the winter or bath beneath the sun's rays in the summer "with a good book" that could last the entire vacation, this would be a very good choice.

Human nature doesn't change.......2006-10-23

It's very rare that I will read a book strictly on the strength of the author's name. Theodore Dreiser's works captivate me with the same intensity that Anne Rice and J.K. Rowling elicit in their own legion of admirers. For me, Dreiser has yet to disappoint: "Sister Carrie", "Jennie Gerhardt", "The Genius", and "American Tragedy" never fail to evoke strong identification with the main characters.

I won't go into the plot of "American Tragedy" here: read other reviews if you're looking for spoilers. What I will say is that it's one of Dreiser's finest achievements. He never merely tells the story of one protagonist struggling against the odds to win the money, the girl, salvation, whatever the issue at stake is. He also holds the society that the character lives in up to scrutiny, shining a harsh light on prejudices, unfair mores, and inconsistent applications of justice.

The tragic drama of Clyde Griffiths and Roberta Alden, although set in the 1920s, could have transpired just as easily in modern times. Premarital sex, waning passion, the destruction of one former love to facilitate access to another deemed more desirable: these dark themes are prevalent today as well. Society may change, but human nature doesn't, and in focusing his work on the intricacies and cruelties of human nature, Dreiser has created a timeless book.

In my opinion, Dreiser has never had an equal, nor a successor.

One of the great American novels........2006-10-20

An American Tragedy is a lengthy novel, this addition at just under 900 pages, but it's a rewarding mental and emotional experience. It read quickly for me - I had trouble putting it down once I pushed past the first couple hundred pages. Dreiser's novel follows the life of Clyde Griffiths, an ambitious young man in pursuit of the American dream. It is a life of struggles, first to overcome his birth and gain social and material status, then for his own life, sold in the process of the first. The author deals with deftly with powerful and confusing emotions - lust, love, greed, shame - presenting in Clyde a sympathetic and interesting character, victim or villain. In such, Dreiser purposefully and effectively seeks out some of the dark underbelly of American culture and society's drive for status and success. Perhaps the tragedy is that the story begins and ends in much the same way. The life of Clyde Griffiths is forgotten, swept away in the heavy rush of mass and progress. Dreiser's novel, on the other hand, will not be forgotten. It's certainly one of the great American novels, well worth the read.

Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown: The Official Guide to Americas Historic Triangle

Average customer rating:

Don't leave home without it!
useful and entertaining

Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown: The Official Guide to Americas Historic Triangle
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Manufacturer: John F. Blair Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0879352302

Book Description

Just in time for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation offers its own comprehensive guide to Virginia's "Historic Triangle." It was in 1607 at Jamestown that John Smith and his fellow Englishmen established the first permanent settlement in North America. It was here that Smith met Pocahontas, that the first representative assembly in the New World convened, and that the first African slaves arrived. Just a few miles down the road is Williamsburg, where men like George Washington, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson conceived a new nation. The third point in the Triangle, also just a few miles away, is Yorktown, where French and American troops under Washington's command forced the British surrender and won the nation's independence. If you are among the millions who will visit in 2007 and beyond, this lively and lavishly illustrated guide will tell you everything you need to know about the places where America was born, along with all the practical information you'll need to make the most of your trip.

Customer Reviews:

Don't leave home without it!.......2007-05-09

This is the most wonderful Historic Triangle guide I've ever seen. I just returned from a 5 day stay in that area and this book told me what I needed to know to enjoy 100% of the areas I was interested in. My focus was not on shopping or eating as much as the actual history of the triangle area and I got what I needed to set out an itinerary that satisfied me totally and then some. The only thing that I wasn't able to plan ahead for was seeing the Queen of England twice in Williamsburg! You can feel comfortable in using this guide and gaining the level of historical involvement that you desire.

useful and entertaining.......2007-03-20

This book is a wonderful resource, not only for visitors but also for those of us who live in the area. I've been in Williamsburg and James City for more than 15 years, but even I am discovering all sorts of places to go and things to do here. And the sections on the history of the area are tremendous fun to read.

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