Rainbow's End
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • One Star for the Cripse Kiddies.
  • Really poor, and symptomatic of the whole series.
  • not her best
  • 13th Grimes mystery read with panache by Curry
  • Travelogue or Mystery?
Rainbow's End
Martha Grimes
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679762280
Release Date: 1995-08-08

Book Description

"Once again, Grimes hooks her readers with the engaging Jury and friends and with skillful tucking of hints into unexpected corners."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
When three women die of "natural causes" in London and the West Country, there appears to be no connection--or reason to suspect foul play. But Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury has other ideas, and before long he's following his keen police instincts all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
There, in the company of a brooding thirteen-year-old girl and her pet coyote, he mingles with an odd assortment of characters and tangles with a twisted plot that stretches from England to the American Southwest. And while his good friend Melrose Plant pursues inquiries in London, Jury delves deeper into the more baffling elements of the case, discovering firsthand what the guide books don't tell you: that the Land of Enchantment is also a landscape ripe with tragedy, treachery, and murder.
"RAINBOW'S END is itself a literary rainbow. It's the skillful blend of mystery and comedy and pathos, a Martha Grimes trademark, that makes this visit with Richard Jury and company so memorable and satisfying."
--Mostly Murder


From the Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars One Star for the Cripse Kiddies........2006-01-12

They were the only interesting characters in this entire mess, and the only reasons I even bothered with this book were because I liked the audio narrator, Donada Peters, and to find out what happened to Mary Dark Hope's sister Angela after reading Biting the Moon--a much better and surprisingly loathed book than this one--first. This boring, outdated British storyline only goes to show that you can't judge an author solely on one project. I loved its aforementioned successor and totally despised this boring slop. Oh, well, at least the Cripse kiddies made me laugh.

1 out of 5 stars Really poor, and symptomatic of the whole series........2005-09-10

Having read several of the Richard Jury novels years ago, I remembered why I stopped reading them when I started this one - chosen solely because I'm an English reader travelling to Santa Fe for the first time soon.

The chronological background of the book is ridiculous. It was written in the 1990's and is meant to be a contemporary setting, yet doesn't even remotely resemble the England I've lived in for the past 50 years. For example, there haven't been sweet shops such as the one she describes since the 1930's.

Richard Jury was supposedly a schoolboy during World War II, a fact made much of during the story. Even in the mid-1990's he'd be knocking on towards 60. The English part of the story is people with aristos and the gentility who mock the `ways' of the common folk, views which the reader seems to be expected to share. If it's meant as parody, it singularly fails to convince. If the book had been set in the 1920's the attitudes towards class of its characters might be more believable. Indeed, many of the 'characters' are merely ludicrous caricatures - e.g. the 'loveable'(read *very* sub-Dickensian, & wouldn't be out of place in a poor Dicken's knock-off 150 years ago) cockney-rogue family with a baby named Robespierre are deeply irritating, and their antics farcical. Perhaps the book - and this is true of the other Grimes crime I have read - is aiming for the surreal, but all it arouses in this reader is perplexity and irritation. Frankly, to portray England as like this in the 1990's is insulting. I don't read mysteries for the realism or the social analysis, I read to escape, but if the writer wants me to suspend disbelief she had better make a *bit* more of an effort not to get her setting so wildly incorrect.

The book also features two child-characters, one carried over from a previous book, both annoying rather than endearing or intriguing, which was apparently the intention.

I couldn't wait to finish it, and I mean that in the worst possible way.

Oh - the plot. The solution to the crime was obvious well before the end - and well before Richard Jury eventually tumbled to it - and it wasn't very original or clever, either, despite all the attempts at befuzzlement and mystification.

This book and series, though purportedly set in the UK, is certainly not meant for anyone who knows anything about us!


2 out of 5 stars not her best.......2004-10-13

I discovered Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury series about three years ago and have been slowly working my way through. Generally speaking, they are terrific, interesting reads, with a lovable, eccentric cast of recurring characters that makes you look forward to picking up the next one in the series. But this one is a disappointment, the first time in the series I've felt that. Jury heads off to New Mexico, of all places, to solve a trio of tenuously related murders. Usually when you finish a well-written mystery, you can look back and see how all the disparate elements fit together to solve the murder, but in this one, you get done, and you think back to this scene or that scene and you think, "Huh?? What was that doing in there?" And worst of all, I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through without even really trying-- which makes you think that Grimes wasn't really trying. :-)

If you're new to Martha Grimes definitely don't start with this one. In fact, I might even recommend that you skip it. She seems bored with her formula in this one. She should have taken a break and written a novel about New Mexico that had nothing to do with Jury instead of this lame effort. I still have half a dozen or so to read to catch up with the ones that she's publishing now, I sincerely hope this isn't a trend.

5 out of 5 stars 13th Grimes mystery read with panache by Curry.......2004-07-27

This is the 13th Jury and Plant mystery penned by the brilliant Grimes. Once again read by the amazing Tim Curry, Rainbow's End takes up just a "few weeks" after The Horse You Came In On ended. The newest case for Scotland Yard Chief superintendent Richard Jury, sees Jury again on the wrong side of the Pond. He is there to dismiss or confirm similarities among three mysterious deaths, two are British women - one dies in Exeter Catherdral and the second in the Tate Gallery. The Third was an American, one Angela Hope, a Santa Fe silversmith, while visiting the ancient hill fortress Old Sarum. He is not able to dismiss the threads that tie the three deaths together, but becomes convinced, since all three had recently been in New Mexico, USA, they are be connected. While Jury does the foot work in the US, he has set Melrose Plant to tracking down Lady Jenny Kennington. She vanished -literally - while at Straford-on-Avon.

Once again Grimes gives you a bang-on murder mystery with sleuth Jury hot on the trail of clues, and Melrose showing, as an amateur, his is a nifty investigator, too. Grimes humor shines, and is brought to life by Curry's wonderful reading. Sheer perfection from start to finish.

3 out of 5 stars Travelogue or Mystery?.......2001-10-23

This is the second Grimes book I've read (both Richard Jury mysteries). I found the plots, with various twists and turns, to be believable and entertaining. The characters are well defined and easy to relate to, and there is good humor interspersed.

However, what I didn't like at all were the interminable descriptions of landscapes, scenes, even a cat! I also find Ms. Grimes' use of obscure/big words mildly irritating.

If all the excess verbage could be eliminated, I'd say these would be page turners. As they are, it's almost a chore to pick them up.
The Forest (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • "Silence Buys Silence, I Hope..."
  • interesting, educational, and fun
  • Vintage Rutherfurd
  • Typical Rutherfurd fare
  • Visiting the scene of "The Forest"
The Forest (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))
Edward Rutherfurd
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375410376
Release Date: 2000-05-02

Amazon.com

With such novels as Sarum and Russka, Edward Rutherfurd has laid claim to James Michener's longtime turf: the immensely researched, meticulously detailed epic of place, in which the characters tend to play second fiddle to the setting. The Forest is the most ambitious example yet of Rutherfurd's art. This time the location is that bosky patch of English real estate known as the New Forest. Other writers have tackled the area before. But The Forest is surely the definitive chronicle, with all the local stories, legends, and apocrypha woven into an irresistible narrative--think of Thomas Hardy's power and drama filtered through a very modern sensibility.

Opening with the assassination of King William II in 1099, the book covers nearly a millennium's worth of history. Rutherfurd creates generation after generation of adroitly realized characters, the best of whom defy our generic expectations: the canny Brother Adam, for example, is that rarest of literary creatures, a virtuous man who doesn't end up being simply bland and anodyne. Rutherfurd may be at his best when dealing with big-canvas events like the bloody Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. But he's no slouch at detailing more microcosmic conflicts, like this head-butting contest between two buck deer:

Her buck had hit firmer ground and his feet suddenly got a purchase on the grass. His hindquarters shivering, he dug in. She saw the shoulders rise and his neck bear down. And now the interloper was slipping on the wet leaves. Slowly, cautiously, their antlers locked, the two straining bucks began to turn. Now they were both on grass. Suddenly the interloper disengaged. He gave his head a twist. The jagged spike was aiming at the buck's eye.
Bestial behavior? Perhaps. Yet the level of human folly and brutality scattered throughout The Forest makes the foregoing passage resemble an outtake from Bambi--and gives this sylvan saga a very memorable edge. --Barry Forshaw

Book Description

Following the triumphant publication of London, Edward Rutherfurd's new novel focuses on four turbulent centuries- Norman, Medieval, Elizabethan, and Tudor- in England's New Forest and the city of Bath.

Edward Rutherfurd's new novel covers four centuries of British history, with the New Forest as background, culminating in a five-family saga set in the days of Jane Austen. Few places in England are more resonant, more mysterious, yet more friendly than the huge forest that lies by England's southern coast, that provided hunting for England's Saxon and Norman kings, whose ancient oaks were used to build Nelson's navy. Jane Austen and her family lived just twenty-five miles northeast of the forest. The river Avon runs down the forest's western edge. On its eastern side is the ancient Saxon capital of Winchester, the great port of Southampton from which the Titanic set out and the QE2 sails to, and beyond that Portsmouth, home of the British Navy.

It is against this rich backdrop that Rutherfurd tells a tale of woodsmen, monks, sailors, craftswomen and families. The largest family in the novel is modeled loosely upon the extended family of Jane Austen, together with certain other known families from the New Forest area. And so, we have the magical formula of previous Rutherford novels with the same sense of the passing of centuries but a shorter time period allowing for more character development and drama, culminating in the Austen period, a favorite in British history, just at the time when the New Forest was at its most bustling.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars "Silence Buys Silence, I Hope...".......2007-07-09

There are several ways to write an historical novel; you could pick a famous figure and provide a narrative for their life, or you could create a fictional character and involve them in a famous historical event. Or you could do what Edward Rutherford does, and make up a series of stories based around an historical city, landscape or country. It is what he has done in previous novels, such as London and Sarum: The Novel of England (his most famous works), continuing the trend in "The Forest". Stretching from 1099 to 2000, the novel incorporates elements such as the assassination of King William Rufus, the threat of the Spanish Armada, the trial of Alice Lisle, the Protestant Reformation and the saving of the New Forest from development.

The novel is incredibly dense, following the ancestry of several families throughout the time periods (the noble Albions, the cheerful Prides, the cunning Furzeys, the charismatic Martells and the mysterious woodland Puckles) and several components are placed in the earlier stories which are discovered by descendants as time goes on (such as an engraved letter on a monastery wall, a tree planted by a fugitive and a family heirloom passed down throughout the ages). As is to be expected, some of the stories are more interesting than others, and there is plenty of historical detail throughout which (given Rutherford's background) is presumably both accurate and fascinating. Maps of the area and a genealogy of the families involved, as well as a preface that mentions some of the sources are included.

"The Hunt" concerns the mysterious death of King Rufus, as told predominantly through the point of view of Lady Adela, a young noble woman on the hunt for a husband. Unfortunately, because the details on the death of the King are sketchy, Rutherford leaves much of the story ambiguous and several subplots uncompleted. However, the story fares better in "Beaulieu" in which a monastery monk finds love with a married woman when investigating an attack on one of the brothers.

Unfortunately, there's another slip in quality with "Lymington", a story that involves the estranged relationship between a man and his young son, and the boat race that brings them together, yet Rutherford makes up for this with "The Armada Tree" and "Alice", two stories set in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Oliver Cromwell, and with plenty of political intrigue connected to these eras to keep things tense. The trend continues into "Albion Park", in which young Fanny Albion discovers her heritage, searches for a husband and is accused of a crime (apparently based on a real accusation made against Jane Austen's aunt) in the upper-class society of late 18th century Bath.

Finally, "Pride of the Forest" deals with the philandering, but surprisingly likeable Minimus Furzey and his attempts to save the Forest from development; furthermore, the novel is framed by the contemporary journey of Dottie Pride and her research into the history of the Forest. These however are just brief outlines of the main storylines, there are subplots that concern love affairs, stolen ponies, smuggling, practical jokes and other aspects of day to day life of past time periods.

The major issue I had with the novel was Rutherford's technique of conveying historical information. Rather than integrating it within the narrative, Rutherford uses long paragraphs of exposition to explain to the reader what's going on, a technique that is glaringly at odds with the storytelling. This is particularly obvious considering the author usually uses past tense for the narrative, and present tense for the explanations, which effectively pulls the reader out of the story as they digest the info-dump. It doesn't help matters that Rutherford uses contemporary language to explain much of the historical detail, for example, when describing the life-cycle of trees the words "chlorophyll" and "mycelium" are used, words that stick out like a sore thumb in the time period in which they appear.

Because there are so many of these expository segments (which are often not particularly interesting or relevant, such as the aforementioned tree, and the mating habits of deer) the story can often drag. Several times I skim-read, or even page-skipped these sections, which in all honesty, don't really add much to the flow of the story. Rutherford is obviously passionate about the subject material, but I can't help but feel (judging by this book alone) that he could use some work at incorporating his research within the context of an actual story.

5 out of 5 stars interesting, educational, and fun.......2006-06-16

This was my favorite Rutherfurd novel. I enjoyed the characters even more than in the previous books, and there seemed to be more depth to the stories. I often find myself reading additional books to learn more about a person or event that intrigues me when I am done reading one of Rutherford's books, and after reading "The Forest" I re-read Jane Austin because of the memories stirred up by one section of the book. Of special interest in "The Forest" also are wonderful stories about how the royal forests were developed and managed, village smugglers and revenue agents, and the effects of machines and steam engines on the development of rural England. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and learned a lot too.

5 out of 5 stars Vintage Rutherfurd.......2006-06-03

In one of his stronger efforts, Edward Rutherfurd sets his historical fiction in the New Forest of southern England. The New Forest in Hampshire, England was originally commandeered in 1079 as a deer hunting area by the king, William the Conqueror.

Rutherfurd tells the history of the area from William's establishment of the royal forest to modern times through the fortunes of half a dozen families. Special laws, courts, offices and traditions developed over the centuries whereby commoners gained certain limited rights to use of the forest.

Vintage Rutherfurd. Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars Typical Rutherfurd fare.......2006-05-31

This tome is advertised as a companion piece to the earlier Rutherfurd novel, Sarum, and it is just that. Whereas Sarum dealt primarily with the more urbanized area in and around Salisbury, The Forest deals with the adjacent rural area encompassed by the King's Forest.

Very similar in style and scope to other Rutherfurd works, it is still my opinion that his best work remains Russka. Perhaps due to having read roughly half a dozen of Rutherfurd's novels, I'm beginning to appreciate them less and less. "Familiarity breeds contempt." I've run into some of the same thing in Clancy and Michener (and more keenly with Cirque du Soliel) where I found that their later works were less satisfying than earlier efforts. Perhaps this is more an issue pertaining to the reader than the author.

If The Forest were the first Rutherfurd work I ever read, perhaps it would be my favorite, who knows. In any event, The Forest is an entertaining and reliable read. It is pure Rutherfurd, and if you enjoyed other works by that author, you will not be disappointed, but will not likely be bowled over.

5 out of 5 stars Visiting the scene of "The Forest".......2005-07-22

Something about this book, as opposed to "Sarum" "London" "Russka" and "Princes of Ireland" was so compelling in its tale and it characters, I made a 5 day trip to the U.K. and visited Bath-Sarum-Amesbury-Lyndhurst. The village of Lyndhurst is still just that, a village. And the Forest, the ponies and the ancient Abbey of Beulieu were stunning. You can walk for miles through the New Forest and not see anyone. As one of the characters in the book said "it just feels ancient". And it does. There are tiny and lovely B&B's all up and down the road right across from the Forest and compared to London are quite inexpensive. Nicer too. At times you sit under the huge tree at the entrance (also the road to the Abbey) which sits on top of a hill and just gaze out on the tree tops. You think about the book and you realize that what is missing are all the characters. As if you mourn for those long gone. It feels as if the Forest misses them as well.
An Image of Monhegan, Platinum Prints
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Stunning!
An Image of Monhegan, Platinum Prints
John Kleinhans
Manufacturer: Precipice Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0966009126

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Monhegan Island, Maine, is one of the treasures of America's Atlantic coast. A scant square mile in area and lying twelve miles off the mainland, Monhegan has been home to a fishing and lobstering community since the 1700's. Since the 19th century, the rugged beauty and isolation of the island has attracted large numbers of artists. Rockwell Kent, George Bellows, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper and three generations of Wyeths are among the painters who have worked there. Photographer John Kleinhans has explored this island since 1984. Working with large format cameras, he creates quiet, contemplative platinum prints. This enlarged edition of the award-winning "An Image of Monhegan" presents a unique interpretation of this magical place.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Stunning!.......2000-01-12

The images in this book go right to the soul. It's not just the platinum technique that uniquely makes the highlights seem so real, nor is it only the natural beauty of this magical place, but, also, the artist's keen eye for proportion, composition and, what?, the quiet voice within that such places inspire. This book is truly a work of art and, personally, has become one of my "treasures."
Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)
    David D. Hall
    Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
    ProductGroup: Book
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    News from Thrush Green (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Kudos for Miss Read
    • An enchanting peek into the lives of Thrush Green villagers.
    News from Thrush Green (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
    Miss Read
    Manufacturer: G K Hall & Co
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 0816155038

    Book Description

    The Thrush Green cottage known as Tullivers has remained curiously unoccupied for many years. When Phil, an attractive young woman, and her young son move in after being deserted by husband and father, the village takes them under its collective wing. Harold Shoosmith arrives unannounced at their door with advice and help when Phil starts working in her wild garden. This help includes hooking her up with his best friend, a successful London publisher who prints her stories. When Phil's estranged husband dies in a car accident in France, her new freedom brings more changes to her life as well as a new love to the village.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Kudos for Miss Read.......2007-10-05

    News from Thrush Green is, as are all of Miss Read's books, perfect. It provides relaxed, clean reading, humor and wonderful people. One can't ask for more.

    5 out of 5 stars An enchanting peek into the lives of Thrush Green villagers........1998-12-07

    All of Miss Read's books are enchanting and this one is no exception. I only wish that her Thrush Green books and Fairacre books would be republished as sets so I could read them all again and this time in chronological order.
    Secrecy
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • A disappointment
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    Secrecy
    Belva Plain
    Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    General FictionLarge Print Edition* A New York Times BestsellerThey were the pillars of their community until a brutal crime ripped the Dawes family apart. For the Dawes family, once factory owners and prime employers in a New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte Dawes at the tender age of fourteen was the beginning of a cover-up the beginning of the end. Unable to cope, the family is plunged into debt and disgraced trying to bury secrets that refuse to die in a searing novel of a family on the edge of destruction.

    Customer Reviews:

    2 out of 5 stars A disappointment.......2004-09-29

    Belva Plain novels are no great literary shakes but usually entertaining enough to take to the beach. With this one, the plot angst laid on with the usual trowel doesn't make up for the consistently lousy writing. It's bad. Really Bad. Hard to believe an editor ever got near the manuscript. That it made the best seller list, is one answer to the question: What's in a name?
    Washington reader

    4 out of 5 stars The Danger of Secrets.......2002-07-23

    This book revolved around the secrets of a family. Each person's secret affected everyone. It was an enjoyable book to read and was pleased with the ending.

    4 out of 5 stars Superb!.......2001-07-27

    I truly enjoyed "Secrecy" and plan, now, to get my hands on every Belva Plain novel that I can. Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher lovers should find "Secrecy" immensely satisfying. Plain's writing style is flowing and enjoyable, and I found Charlotte to be a very brave but humanly likable character, and loved the sensitive Roger. The story took a very interesting twist near the end, when Charlotte and Roger's plans for Dawes Square were mysteriously vehemently opposed by Charlotte's father, himself hiding a shocking secret. The "mob" aspect of the story was a very minimal, peripheral part of the book.

    2 out of 5 stars Very disappointing for Belva Plain.......2000-04-10

    I have recently rediscovered Belva Plain and have been avidly reading her books. I have read about six in the past three months and found each of them, while not "can't put it down, stay up all night", thoroughly enjoyable and readable. Then I started on "Secrecy" and was totally disappointed. The plot, the characters, the ending...just didn't seem like the same author I had enjoyed so much. Won't stop me from continuing to read this author, but hope I don't run into any more like this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Another Great One from Belva Plain.......1999-12-27

    This book was the second one I have read from Belva Plain. Again she creates wonderfuil characters. The eding was surprising and absolutely magnificent. Anyone who reads this will feel the pain of a fate worse than death, the haunting feeling of a guilty secret, a mother's sorrow and a woman's triumph. A great read.
    The Algonquin Legends of New England (Large Print Edition)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Algonquin Legends of New England (Large Print Edition)
      Charles G. Leland
      Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      Release Date: 2006-11-27

      Book Description

      When I began, in the summer of 1882, to collect among the Passamaquoddy Indians at Campobello, New Brunswick, their traditions and folk-lore, I expected to find very little indeed. These Indians, few in number, surrounded by white people, and thoroughly converted to Roman Catholicism, promised but scanty remains of heathenism.

      Download Description

      When Glooskap came to the camp, which was at Ogumkegeak (M.), now called Liverpool, he found no one. But there lay the witch-kwed-lakun-cheech (M.), or birch-bark dish of Martin, and from it, or, as another legend states, from an old man and woman who dwelt hard by, he learned that Win-pe and the families had been gone for seven years, along a road guarded by wicked and horrible beings, placed by Win-pe to prevent the Great Master from finding him. For it was a great triumph for him to keep Glooskap's friends as slaves, and all the land spoke thereof.
      American antiques of New England origin: Wall and shelf clocks, Windsor chairs and other early American furniture, sandwich glass, Currier & Ives prints, hooked rugs and oriental examples
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        American antiques of New England origin: Wall and shelf clocks, Windsor chairs and other early American furniture, sandwich glass, Currier & Ives prints, hooked rugs and oriental examples
        Frederick Wellington Ayer
        Manufacturer: American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Inc
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Unknown Binding
        ASIN: B000883M7C
        At Risk (G. K. Hall (Large Print))
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • The first book that made me cry as an adult
        • Review of At Risk
        • Powerfully brilliant, emotionally engaging novel!
        • Haunting, Beautifully Written
        • review
        At Risk (G. K. Hall (Large Print))
        Alice Hoffman
        Manufacturer: Macmillan Publishing Company
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 0816147485

        Book Description

        In a novel the Village Voice calls "memorable" and "striking," Alice Hoffman vividly portrays a family shattered by tragedy when eleven-year-old Amanda is diagnosed with AIDS...

        "Brilliant...explosive...heart-rending."

        --Chicago Tribune

        "Graceful...emotionally potent...A cathartic tale that begs us, with heartbreaking eloquence, to stop looking the other way."

        --Glamour

        "Within pages, the reader falls in love with this very real little girl... Moving, dramatic and painfully human."

        --Miami Herald

        "Compelling power...tenderness and perceptiveness."

        --New York Times

        "I have rarely encountered a work that has moved me as strongly... extraordinary."

        --Mademoiselle

        "Deeply impressive...powerful."

        --Newsweek

        "Deeply moving...Sensitivity and empathy...radiate from this beautiful novel."

        --Chicago Sun-Times

        "Compassionate...This is a serious, honest novel."

        --Village Voice

        "Tender, strikingly simple and deeply memorable."

        --Kirkus Reviews

        "An affecting novel of exquisite delicacy, with humor, warmth, and sensitivity. Miss Hoffman heals wounds with the gentle touch of an angel."

        --Joseph Heller

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars The first book that made me cry as an adult.......2007-09-04

        I was assigned this book in college and found myself weeping in the library. At Risk isn't heavy-handed, and that's what makes it so powerful. The family is believable, and therein lies its poignancy.

        5 out of 5 stars Review of At Risk.......2007-03-20

        I think that At Risk is a must read for young adults. It shows a family with courage and how they deal with such a great hardship. It helped to understand how some people react to a disease that they know almost nothing about and how some of there assumptions made matters worse. This book is the amazing story of an 11 year old girl who is diagnosed with AIDS and how her family, friends, and community deals with it. It is a heartbreaking book that teaches great morals and life lessons. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in AIDS or who just wants a good read. It's an easy read and is great for all ages.

        5 out of 5 stars Powerfully brilliant, emotionally engaging novel!.......2006-01-03


        What can I add to the other reviews? With excellent characterizations and natural dialogue, Alice Hoffman is a master at drawing typical suburban lifestyles and family dynamics! The family in this story endeared themselves to the reader before tragedy fell upon them, making their ordeal much more heartwrenching. It was very interesting to read how they were torn apart and I wondered if the parents relationship would be strengthened or would be unrepairably damaged in the end. My heart particularly went out to Charlie, who at 8 years old, didn't know exactly how to react and got kind of lost in the activity. I was especially pained at how the community, through their ignorance about AIDS, shunned Amanda. It was equally amazing how the pediatrician, coach and school principal remained undeterred and supportive throughout the controversy. Although tears flowed, it was a beautiful compassion-inspiring story, not depressing perhaps because such strides have been make since the 1980's in the treatment and public awareness of AIDS. I will not easily forget these characters nor their plight.

        5 out of 5 stars Haunting, Beautifully Written.......2005-07-16

        A simply beautiful, amazing and, of course, heart-breaking novel. I started reading it last night, and couldn't stop. Words can't adequately describe how strongly I was affected. Hoffman has written a deeply-moving novel I can most highly recommend.

        3 out of 5 stars review.......2005-06-13

        Hoffman doesn't play cheap with the reader's emotions but this story is a heartbreaker anyway; it reaches us on a visceral level as we watch a vibrant pre-teen on the cusp of life dying slowly of a terrible illness, all too aware of what lies ahead of her, frightened and trying not to be, and knowing that, for all the love and support she gets from her family, ultimately she is in this alone. Hoffman has achieved great liturature, this book was amazing and i would reccomend it to anyone who wants to read a book that captures all your thoughts, and emotions.
        The Atlantic Monthly 1857-1909: Yankee Humanism at High Tide and Ebb
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          The Atlantic Monthly 1857-1909: Yankee Humanism at High Tide and Ebb
          Ellery Sedgwick
          Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Library Binding

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          ASIN: 0870239198

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