Decimation: X-Men - The Day After (House of M)

Book Description

It was the worst day in X-Men history. Now it's the day after. The House of M is over, but the effects will be felt for the rest of their lives. How do the X-Men pick up the pieces in a world that has completely changed? Plus: Something's amiss at the House of Xavier! A sneak attack forces the X-Men to re-evaluate just who their friends are, and to align themselves with former enemies! Collects Decimation: House of M - The Day After and X-Men #177-181.

Customer Reviews:

First half good 2nd half is like What???? are they doing?.......2007-09-29

Just like the title says no more no less. Lorna's story in the last 2 issues with the green blob don't fit and it's like who comes up with this crap?!!??!?

Godd Start but open ending.......2007-09-25

This book starts off good with a lot of action and a look of what happens the next day. But in the end if falls short. There are more questions than answers and the big battle between the x-men and sentinels vs. the Sapiens League felt a little rushed and a lot of details are left out. If you want answers this is not a book for you. I was really enjoying the book and then it end. No conclusion at all.

must have.......2007-08-02

This is essential. My friend is a huge comic book fan and he had wholes in his story and could not figure out why, then i gave him this book and everything is complete. This is essential readung for after House of M. If you love the X-Men you must read this to see why they are on the sidelines, and this sets up ENDANGERED SPECIES.

The more things change..........2007-04-30

Taking place after the events of Brian Michael Bendis' surprisingly good House of M mega event, Decimation: X-Men - The Day After follows the X-Men in the aftermath of the global mutant depowerment. What gets focused on the most in the issues collected here include the return of the robotic Sentinels (who are good guys now...) along with the forging of new alliances with some unexpected guests. Later on, Havok and Polaris find themselves on the road back to each other as Havok helps Lorna deal with the loss of her powers. That's pretty much all that goes on in Decimation: X-Men - The Day After, and while there are some nice story quips by the underrated Peter Milligan (X-Statix, Human Target), there's nothing relatively worth seeing here that hasn't been seen before. Salvador Larroca provides his usual solid artwork too, so the overall package isn't so bad. That being said, there are better X-Men stories, and House of M tie-in's, that are more worth your time than the X-Men's decimation day.

Sad ending to an awesome story arc........2007-01-04

This add on to the "House of M" story arc was apparently conceived to squeeze a little more money out of that storyline. The collection only looked at the widespread repurcussions of no more mutants for the first couple of issues in the collection. It then wandered into an idiotic Havok/Polaris story that was left hanging. Not worth the investment for the occasional reader but may be useful to the collector.

Average customer rating:

The Green Mile
WONDERFUL!!!
The Old Cliche is True...
A Tremendously Moving Story
You saw the movie...

The Green Mile
Stephen King
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0671041789

Amazon.com

When Stephen King originally wrote The Green Mile as a series of six novellas, he didn't even know how the story would turn out. And it turned out to be of his finest yarns, tapping into what he does best: character-driven storytelling. The setting is the small "death house" of a Southern prison in 1932. The Green Mile is the hall with a floor "the color of tired old limes" that leads to "Old Sparky" (the electric chair). The charming narrator is an old man, a prison guard, looking back on the events decades later.

Maybe it's a little too cute (there's a smart prison mouse named Mr. Jingles), maybe the pathos is laid on a little thick, but it's hard to resist the colorful personalities and simple wonders of this supernatural tale. And it's not a bad choice for giving to someone who doesn't understand the appeal of Stephen King, because the one scene that is out-and-out gruesome (it involves "Old Sparky") can be easily skipped by the squeamish.

The Green Mile won a 1997 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel; and Tom Hanks stars in a film of the novel by Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption (from King's collection Different Seasons). --Fiona Webster

Book Description

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety.

When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's The Green Mile was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller list -- simultaneously -- and delighted millions of fans the world over.

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs...and yours.

Customer Reviews:

The Green Mile.......2007-09-07

I actually watched the movie first. I fell in love with it and I had to have the book. I enjoyed the book much more than the movie. In the book it actually tells you what crimes the people committed and gives a better view into the life of each character. This is a must read!

WONDERFUL!!!.......2007-07-28

I read this book out of boredom & was pleasantly surprised! It's been a long time since I read a novel & this book sparked my love for reading back up. I think Stephen King is an awesome author & really knows how to catch your imagination to the point that you feel like you're really there in the story!!

The Old Cliche is True..........2007-07-25

...the book is always better than the movie. I was, however, surprised by how close the book and the movie were to each other. There were some additions and subtractions.

I listened to this serial novel on my way to and from work for about two weeks. I think this might be the way Stephen King would have wanted it. He mentions the role of serial novels from the past and how a person would sit and read them aloud to their family. Hearing the words allows you to get lost in the story.

I highly recommend reading this novel for its storytelling genius, but I also recommend listening to it. As you listen, you will develop a deeper appreciation for the spoken word and the storytelling ability of Stephen King.

A Tremendously Moving Story.......2007-06-27

You cannot go wrong with this novel. King fan or not, you will be moved by the characters, the writing, the themes...It's a beautiful, beautiful story that makes you look into your heart. You will not be able to put this one down.

You saw the movie..........2007-06-09

I have seen the movie several times and it never fails to move me. I finally decided to read the book, too. A great story, characters you can really care about, and some things about real life to think about.

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

Average customer rating:

Extraordinary!
Enjoyable and very informative
If you visit Burma read this before
Ulysses springs eternal and from every corner
A Great Read on Burma

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey
Pascal Khoo Thwe
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060505230

Book Description

In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives.

Pascal, a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe, was the first member of his community to study English at a university. Within months of his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal's world lay in ruins. Burma's military dictatorship forces him to sacrifice his studies, and the regime's brutal armed forces murder his lover. Fleeing to the jungle, he becomes a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Englishman he met in Mandalay.

Miraculously reaching its destination, the letter leads to Pascal's rescue and his enrollment in Cambridge University, where he is the first Burmese tribesman ever to attend.

From the Land of Green Ghosts unforgettably evokes the realities of life in modern-day Burma and one man's long journey to freedom despite almost unimaginable odds.

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinary!.......2007-02-19

If you enjoy the pleasure of reading a fascinating autobiography written by someone with consummate skills in composition as well as an incredible story to tell- GET IT! This is one of the best reads of 2006 for me. Or, for that matter, of any other year.

Enjoyable and very informative.......2007-01-11

I read this book while traveling in Burma late 2006. It's a powerful and informative book. I recommend it to anyone. In a remarkably enjoyable story, Mr. Thwe explains what it's like to live and struggle for survival under Burma's military dictatorship.

If you visit Burma read this before.......2006-08-31

This book has quite deservedly collected very favorable reviews and I will not belabor the point. I would like to add that I read this book shortly before a visit to Burma nearly 2 years ago. The insights gained, both political and cultural, were extremely helpful to me during the visit.

One of our guides, herself a Shan, was well educated but unaware of this book and expressed a great interest in reading it but I had not carried it with me. Any of you planning to visit might consider taking this along - less obvious than writings of Sang An Su Qui - and leaving it as a gift. I believe many in Burma would appreciate access to this book.

Ulysses springs eternal and from every corner.......2006-08-24

I liked this book immensely on several levels. As an anthropologist, I found it very interesting to get a Padaung's eye view, written in literate English, of his own background, his childhood in the remote, forested mountains of eastern Burma. The author tells of everything---from the strictures of Roman Catholic missionaries in far parts of Asia, to eating dogs, baby wasps, and snakes (with relish), his grandmother's stories, guardian spirits, a Padaung funeral. The Burmese political climate of the 1960s and `70s merely lurks in the background until the author drops out of a seminary and heads to Mandalay to attend university. While information about various remote peoples is not uncommon, it is usually processed by foreign writers who have visited them. FLGG gives it to you from the horse's mouth.

On a second level I admired Pascal Khoo Thwe because I'm an American, grandson of immigrants who left traditional villages in Russia for a new life, a freer life, in America. Odysseys like Khoo Thwe's form the essence of the American experience, but perhaps few are so dramatic---from university student, to jungle fighter to student at Cambridge University to published author. I can easily see the difficulties of becoming a new man (my family took the last name "Newman", but the real story is long) in a new country. I recalled Sir Albert Maori Kiki, a Papua New Guinean born into a Stone Age village, but who became a pathologist and high ranking Minister in his newly-independent country. I once had read his book, "Kiki: Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime" and had been inspired by it.

This leads me to admire the book on a third level. We who live in modern countries, whether East or West, tend to denigrate those who live in poorer, less fortunate nations often suffering under tyrannical regimes. We feel that they may not have the sensibilities that we pride ourselves on. FLGG is a book that will shatter any such belief. The human spirit flies into the heavens from every corner of the globe, in all epochs. We--as Man---are universally capable of the greatest transformations and adjustments, able to surmount suffering. Pascal Khoo Thwe's thoughts and feelings, as expressed in his book, are eloquent proof of this. From a brutal regime which suppressed all independent thought, from a jungle war with no mercy, emerged a thinking, feeling man. I felt proud to be a human being when I finished. I admit that his book even moved me to tears.

A fourth reason why I liked FLGG is that it provides echoes of the same topic found in "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"---the transformative power of literature and its ability to change human nature. As a student of English Literature, no matter how constricted, Khoo Thwe could respond to different ideas, imagine a different world. The theme is not the dominant one as it is in the above named works, but it is there. But now, Pascal Khoo Thwe, a Padaung, has produced a work to stand in company of the works of mankind. Read it.

A Great Read on Burma.......2006-01-04

This is an engrossing memoir. Detailed. Synchs with other things I have read of Burma. I kind of think some of it is a bit, um, self-serving or fictional. A story on steroids. But, with that caveat, enjoy this book and keep it in your Burma collection.

Average customer rating:

Great book!
Kelly's Review
Decent Scary Story
Jade Green
School Review -C Brady

Jade Green : A Ghost Story
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 068982002X
Release Date: 2001-05-01

Amazon.com

"Then at the end of the street, the house--the large brown house with the two eyes--made me suddenly clutch at the driver's arm as if to say, Turn back! Turn back!" At the first sight of her uncle's house--her future home--an inexplicable cloud of foreboding engulfs orphaned teen Judith Sparrow. Unfortunately, her fears are confirmed when she hears a mysterious scratching at the back of her closet and senses a ghostly presence hovering over her at night. Even more chilling, Judith learns of the death of a girl named Jade Green from the town gossip--a girl who lived in her uncle's house before Judith and died a horrible death on the attic stairs. As it turns out, Jade dearly loved the color that was her name. Suddenly, Judith knows the reason she was forbidden by her uncle to bring anything green into the house. She fears that by smuggling in a small green picture frame, she has roused the sleeping ghost of Jade Green and assured the doom of all who sleep under her uncle's roof!

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, best known for her humorous Alice series and the award-winning Shiloh, has dished up a fine gothic tale with all the trimmings: a brave, orphaned heroine; a dark and dreary manor; a hunky savior; a dastardly villain; and the star of the cast--a ghostly severed hand that holds the secret to Jade Green's untimely demise. This novel is a shivery delight that is ideal for both reading under the covers and sharing aloud with a group of enthralled listeners. Heartily recommended. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

Secrets

Orphaned fifteen-year-old Judith Sparrow brings two secrets to her uncle's house in South Carolina: one, that her grief-stricken mother died in a madhouse, the other that she has disobeyed the only condition to living in her uncle's home -- nothing green is allowed in the house.

Judith can't bear to part with the photograph of her mother in its lovely green silk frame. Surely this one small defiance will not jeopardize the happiness she finds in South Carolina -- with a family at last, and new friends, especially Zeke Carey, the miller's son.

But Uncle Geoffrey's house holds a secret of its own. And Judith's small picture frame, hidden away at the bottom of her trunk, unleashes a powerful force that seems determined to bring that secret into the open. Or is Judith simply following her mother down the path toward madness?

Customer Reviews:

Great book!.......2007-04-28

Judith Sparrow's mother died, and Judith moved in with her Uncle Geoffrey. Judith spent most of her time with the cook, Emma Hastings. Judith felt uncomfortable around her cousin Charles. The one condition she had to living in their house was she was not supposed to bring anything green inside. She did not listen to this request and brought a green silky picture frame into the house. Judith got a job at a hat store in town. Zeke Carey would often bring her home in his horse carriage. Judith heard scratching from her closet. She was scared because she knew that the picture frame was in her closet. She heard a noise late at night and went downstairs to find a single hand playing the piano. She gave the picture frame to Zeke hoping the hand would go back where it belonged. Judith saw the hand lift up the meat cleaver and hit the board several times. The hand locked Emma and Judith in the root cellar. Neighbors saw a fire in the kitchen and put it out. Zeke heard Emma screaming and unlocked the root cellar door. Emma and Judith found that all their money had been taken when they were trapped in the cellar. Charles approached Judith threatening to cut off her hand just like he had cut off Jade Green's. The hand appeared and killed Charles. Judith rode away with Zeke.

The author did a good job. The book was easy to follow. The idea that if someone died they would come back for the thing they most valued. Jade Green came back because of the color green. Using just the hand instead of her whole body made the book more interesting. It wasn't a typical ghost story. It was funny, romantic, and heart warming. The relationship that Judith formed with her uncle was an important aspect of the book. Judith had his trust from the second she walked in the door. The whole family was nice to her except for Charles. The mystery of not knowing whether Charles was playing a trick on Judith left more possibilities open. The author never came out and said why Jade Green was back, but at the end of the story it is easy to figure out. Judith asking for mouse traps to catch the hand was humorous. The events in the book flowed very well together. There weren't any boring parts in the story. All the information and events that happened were needed to fit the story together.

Kelly's Review.......2007-04-26

If you like reading books with suspense, ghosts, and a little bit of romance, then this book is for you. Jade Green: A Ghost Story, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, is just that and more.
When fifteen-year old Judith Sparrow comes to live with her Uncle she follows all the rules, for the most part, except for having a green silk picture frame when green is strictly forbidden. With a ghost awakened she must now fight to stay alive, literally, but not why you think.
I really liked this book. It wasn't too long; it was only 169 pages with big print. This was a book that I couldn't put down. At the end of every chapter there was a little something that pushed it forward. For example, "In the flickering glow of the candle, I watched for the first sign of those thin, white fingers, working themselves through the crack under the door, but they did not appear. Instead, it sounded as though the hand were climbing up the wall and door frame. And then . . . a noise that stopped my breath: the metallic click of the bolt, locking the door from outside.", or " For both of us, at the same time smelled smoke." I didn't really like the fact that it may have been written for someone a little younger, like 6th grade. The author didn't use big words at all and it was pretty easy reading. All in all I think this was a very good mystery, and Scholastic really outdid themselves.
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born on January 4, 1933, in Anderson, Indiana. She was a teacher, a clinical secretary, an editor, and a clinical psychologist at Joliet Junior College. She currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband. Some books that she is famous for would be the Alice Series, Blizzard's Wake, and the Shiloh Trilogy. She won the 1992 Newberry Medal for the Shiloh Trilogy
I think that if you are into suspense, mystery, and ghosts, you should read this book, unless you are under grade 6 because it may scare you a little bit. The highest grade would probably be grade 8 because then it may seem childish. The theme of the story would probably be to follow rules given; there is always a reason for them.

Decent Scary Story.......2007-03-12

Judith is a fifteen-year-old orphan. Her mother has recently died in a mental institution, and her father died years before. Her uncle far away in South Carolina has agreed to take her in, under the condition that she not bring anything green into his house. Judith is torn--her mother gave her a photograph of herself in a green silk frame, and Judith can't bear to part with it. She decides that it would be okay to bring it into the house, as long as it stays hidden in her trunk where her uncle will never see it.

When Judith moves into town, she starts to hear things about her family. A few years before, there was a girl Judith's uncle took in, named Jade Green. She was also an orphan, and she killed herself in the house. Jade Green's favorite color was green, and it is thought that having green in the house may cause her ghost to come back.

Then strange things start happening to Judith. She hears noises coming from her trunk at night. She sees a white glove on the stairs to the attic where Jade Green died. And she sees a disembodied hand in the house. Do these things really exist? Is Judith going mad like her mother? Or is it a clever trick by her creepy forty-year-old cousin Charles, who is worried Judith will be written into his wealthy father's will?

There were really good characters in this story, and Judith was a strong main character. The ending was good; I liked how things worked out. However, the book was a bit predictable; I felt like I had too many hints about what was going on.

Jade Green.......2007-02-17

Have you ever read a book with so much suspense that you just have to keep reading it and you can't stop? Then Jade Green is the book for you. It all starts when a young orphan girl named Judith, moves in with her Uncle Geoffrey and Ms. Hastings. A girl named Jade Green is supposedly haunting the house. Judith is really scared and tries to hurt a mysterious hand. Whose hand is it? You will have to read it to find out.
I really don't like Cousin Charles because he is kind of snooty and unwelcoming. He is very mean to her and just won't stop spying on her. I really like Zeke because he is very nice to Judith and is very romantic. At first I was wondering why Judith couldn't bring green into the house. She can't bring the color into the house because that was Jade Green's favorite color and her last name. This story is very suspenseful and mysterious. It is definitely worth reading!

School Review -C Brady.......2007-01-22

Jade Green killed herself by chopping her hand off with a meat cleaver and bleeding to death. Three years later, Judith Sparrow went to live at her uncle's house, and was forbidden to bring anything green or play certain things on the piano, but Judith managed to sneak a green picture frame in her trunk. Not long after she arrived, Judith started working at the hat store, where she heard a lot of gossip about her uncle, Jade Green, and her cousin Charles, who creeped her out. Soon Judith started to hear things scratching in her trunk and she felt something touch her twice during the night. It freaked her out, so she got Mrs. Hastings, the housekeeper, to install rat traps in her room, but they turned up fruitless. One day when Judith ca back up to her room from having lunch in the garden, she saw a severed hand that still had dried blood on it laying in the middle of her bedroom floor. As she watched it, the fingers scrambled to get up and the hand scurried to darkness under the bed. Judith tried to figure out how and why Jade Green killed herself, but quickly came to the conclusion that nobody knew why Jade, an upbeat and fun-loving young girl, would want to die. Judith started to see Jade Green's hand everywhere, from using the meat cleaver to playing the piano. It even showed up and locked Judith and Mrs. Hastings in the dirt cellar, where they heard Charles set fire to the house. Judith's friend Zeke finally finds them, and lets them out. When a hurricane hit, Judith, Mrs. Hastings, and Zeke decide to leave the house. As Judith and Zeke start to lock things up, though, Charles comes and starts to attack Judith, telling her how he was going to kill her just like he killed Jade Green. Suddenly, the hand appeared out of nowhere and started to choke Charles. Zeke came running after Judith's screams and found Charles dead on the floor, with the hand repeatedly stabbing him with a butcher's knife that Judith had taken out of the kitchen drawer when she had first felt things touching her in the night. This is an excellent suspense story that is suitable reading for all ages.

Jade Green's story is a very interesting part to the story. When Judith first sees Jade Green's hand, she assumed that it was evil and tries to get rid of it in all ways possible. She threw a brick doorstop at it, damaging the piano, and even tried catching it with mouse traps. Judith was still scared of it when it climbed up on her pillow as Charles was threatening her with Jade Green's story, but when it jumped up to choke Charles, she realized that event though it was creepy, it hated Charles as much as she did.

This book is set in 1887, so it has a lot of historical references. For instance, the characters in the book talk differently, and they would say things such as "you'd best...." and ".....subside......" a lot. There are also many times when Judith would have to adjust her bonnet, fetch her parasol, or make a bonnet for a customer. There were no cars, and Zeke continually took Judith on rides in his wagon.

The sense of suspense in this story is amazing. The chapter in which Judith first sees the hand of Jade Green is really relaxed and unstressed, with Judith and her friends at the hat store cracking jokes and talking, and then Mrs. Hastings and Judith's uncle laughing in the backyard. The last couple pages of the chapter, however, are very freaky as she goes up into her room, starts putting clothes away, and turns around to find a severed hand that tuns as if to look at her and scurries under her bed. Another time that the story was very suspenseful was when Judith hears scratching in her trunk and goes to look in it. Forgetting that the mouse trap was still in her closet, Judith absentmindedly slid her foot backwards, and the trap closed around her ankle, which to Judith felt like a person grabbing her ankle.

I read this story for Battle of the Books, and, although it scared me when I first read it, it has become one of the best ghost stories that I have read.

Dr. Strange Vs. Dracula: The Montesi Formula TPB

Average customer rating:

Some of Marvel's best supernatural action
A good old comic

Dr. Strange Vs. Dracula: The Montesi Formula TPB
Marv Wolfman , Steve Englehart , Roger Stern , Gene Colan , Dan Green , and Steve Leialoha
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0785122443

Book Description

It's the Sorcerer Supreme against the Emperor of the Undead! Dracula wants Earth to fall under the spell of the Darkhold, but Doctor Strange has joined Blade and the Nightstalkers in a quest to vanquish all vampires! See the origins of vampirism itself unveiled! Guest-starring the Scarlet Witch and Nextwave's Monica! Collects Tomb of Dracula #44 & Doctor Strange #14, 58-62.

Customer Reviews:

Some of Marvel's best supernatural action.......2006-11-26

Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't think old-school is bad, especially as the bulk of this collection consists of stories from the 80s, Marvel's second Golden Age.

Wolfman, Englehart, and especially Stern do an exceptional job at providing just the right amount of exposition without either leaving the reader confused or reeling from an infodump. Characters are nicely distinct from another.

The art is spectacular as well, especially Leiahola's in the final story. The actual cover art (which is NOT pictured here) is also superb.

A good old comic.......2006-11-10

The drawing is a bit old school. The story is solid a must for Doc Strange fans. How could be a better villian that dracula??

Average customer rating:

compelling story, exquisite literary writing
Intrigued for days after.
Delightful and sinister, it's a fun read!
Heart-pounding and sexy historical fiction
A So So Read

The Vanishing Point
Mary Sharratt
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618462333

Book Description

In the tradition of Philippa Gregory's smart, transporting fiction comes this tale of two independent, spirited sisters. Bright and inquisitive, Hannah Powers was raised by a father who treated her as if she were his son. While her beautiful and reckless sister, May, pushes the limits of propriety in their small English town, Hannah harbors her own secret: their father has trained her in the physician's art, an education forbidden to women. But Hannah's secret serves her well when she journeys to colonial Maryland to reunite with May, who has been married off to a distant cousin after a series of sexual misadventures had ruined her marriage prospects in England. As Hannah searches for May, who has disappeared, she finds herself falling in love with her brother-in-law, even as she struggles to believe his claim that her sister died in childbirth. Alone in a wild, uncultivated land where the old rules no longer apply, Hannah is freed from the constraints of the society that judged both her and May and found them dangeroustoo smart, too fearless, and too hungry for life. But Hannah is also plagued by doubt, as her quest for answers to May's fate grows ever more disturbing and tangled. The Vanishing Point is a marvelously assured period piece. Sharratt's ten years of research on everything from seventeenth-century pharmacology to pioneer cooking are evident on each page. In this gripping, evocative novel, rich in texture and authenticity, Sharratt brings to vivid life a distant world that feels as immediate and relevant as our own.

Customer Reviews:

compelling story, exquisite literary writing.......2007-06-23

I got very little sleep until I finished this compelling story of two sisters in colonial America. One is supposedly dead of childbirth, and the other who comes from England in search of her (and who is a brilliant young doctor who can't practice because of her sex) stumbles into the bleak homestead where her sister's handsome young widower is living alone with his terrible memories, and falls in love with him. Still, the ghost of what really may have happened to her sister haunts her.

The author is a truly literary historical novelist, a rare and wonderful thing.

Stephanie Cowell, author of MARRYING MOZART (Penguin)

Intrigued for days after........2007-06-10

I didn't want to put the book down. I continued thinking about the characters after I was done and even found myself angry with some of them. It was a well written historical fiction. In the beginning it flows nicely and fills you in on the characters, half way through the book I started to be more than connected to the characters I understood their feelings. The ending was stunning, not at all what I expected, there were so many turns and twists. The ending was the BEST part! I suggested it to a co worker she too was stunned by the ending and simply told me she didn't see it coming.
Good book, I would suggest it.

Delightful and sinister, it's a fun read! .......2007-06-05

Toss this one into your beach bag, but remember to bring along some sunscreen! You will not be able to pack up and leave until you finish this intriguing and delicious book. The mystery is good, the characters are interesting and likable, and the love story is tingly!

Heart-pounding and sexy historical fiction.......2007-04-10

From its early images of forbidden female sexuality to the torments of agrarian life in colonial Maryland, I found The Vanishing Point to be a gripping read. Beautifully textured, extraordinarily researched and deeply insightful of the constraints and ingenuity of young rebellious women of the era, both in the Old World and the New. Strongly recommended for young women readers, as well as those intrigued by conditions for women in early American history.

A So So Read.......2007-03-24

Recently having gotten into historical fiction, I picked up The Vanishing Point. While not bad (it was written well), it moved a little slow for me. There were points where I was interested to see what was going to happen and if in fact Hannah's suspicions were correct. For the most part, however, I read the book to finish and to move on to the next one. I didn't quite like the going back and forth between characters and time period. I'm not going to recommend or not. Other reviewers seem to love it. This was just my personal feeling about the book.

Average customer rating:

Convivial spirits
A SUCCESSFUL SATIRE AND THRILLER FROM KINGSLEY AMIS
Nothing special.
A GREEN MAN AND PINK ELEPHANTS
A ghost story

The Green Man
Kingsley Amis
Manufacturer: Academy Chicago Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0897332202

Customer Reviews:

Convivial spirits.......2006-11-13

Maurice Allington -- attractive, alcoholic, and fifty-three -- runs a small inn in the West Country, The Green Man, that is haunted by a most unquiet spirit: Dr Thomas Underhill, a seventeenth-century wizard with a reputation for killing his wife and other enemies by means of the black arts. Host and ghost would seem on the surface to have little in common, except Maurice has a dark side, an interest in sexual mischief and a tendency to use other people to get what he wants. When the heavy-drinking Maurice, who narrates the story, begins to see Dr Underhill and other ghosts about his inn himself, he cannot make his friends or family he is visited by anything other than the DTs; his siutation becomes desperate when he realizes the good dead doctor has a plan in store for him.

Thanks in part to a well-cast television adaptation with Albert Finney, Kingsley Amis's amusing little 1969 Gothic has oddly turned out to be one of the best-remembered of his novels (after LUCKY JIM, of course), even though it was mostly an experiment in genre. The ghost story is well done, and Maurice himself proves a very intelligent and convivial companion; still, the novel is less well executed than its elegant size and style might suggest (the scene with Maurice speaking with God seems a real mistake, and none of the other characters seems very well fleshed out). The thoughtfulness of the ghost story is still appreciated, especially since it came from an era when they were not so greatly in fashion. But you can't help wishing Amis had done a bit more with it--it seems (perhaps fittingly?) too insubstantial.

A SUCCESSFUL SATIRE AND THRILLER FROM KINGSLEY AMIS.......2005-12-12

Kingsley Amis' sole horror novel, "The Green Man," had long been on my list of "must read" books, for the simple reason that it has been highly recommended by three sources that I trust. British critic David Pringle chose it for inclusion in his overview volume "Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels," as did Michael Moorcock in "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books" AND Brian Aldiss in "Horror: 100 Best Books." As it turns out, all of this praise is not misplaced, and Amis' 1969 novel of modern-day satire and the supernatural is as entertaining as can be. The tale concerns a middle-aged man named Maurice Allington, who owns an inn called The Green Man in rural Hertfordshire, not far from Cambridge. Allington, when we meet him, is being kept busy running his inn, struggling through a floundering second marriage, dealing with his sullen 13-year-old daughter, drinking incredible amounts of scotch every day, and attempting to talk his new mistress into a three-way with him and his wife. As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, the ghost of diabolical necromancer Dr. Thomas Underhill --who used to live in the inn some 300 years before--has been contacting him of late, and the legendary Green Man himself (a sort of lumbering tree monster) has begun to make appearances, too. Those closest to poor Maurice suspect that his stories of ghosts and tiny birds that fly through his hand are a result of the DT's (it really is remarkable how much liquor Maurice drinks in a day), but the reader somehow never doubts that what Maurice sees is objective reality... Mixing social satire, amusing incidents and some good eerie scenes, "The Green Man" does keep the reader enthralled. Amis, no stranger to the bottle himself, from what I've read, seems to really identify with Allington, and uses him as his mouthpiece to expound eruditely on topics such as food (a hateful, bothersome nuisance), death (he wonders how one cannot be totally obsessed with the idea), sex (he thinks that women's "emotional secretiveness" is due to the fact that they do not ejaculate) and religion (Maurice's views of the afterlife are radically turned about by what he goes through in this tale). In one startling section of the book, Maurice meets a nice young man in a dark suit who stops Time and who, it is inferred, is none other than God himself, and another fascinating conversation ensues. "The Green Man" is not an especially frightening book, although some parts (the reading of Underhill's diary; the midnight disinterment of Underhill's grave; Maurice's "nighttime" vision in broad daylight) are indeed genuinely creepy. This is an extremely literate, extremely British ghost story that functions as both satire and thriller. In another section of the book, Maurice tells us that he thinks all novelists engage in a "puny and piffling art," and that fiction is pitifully inadequate to the task it sets itself. But perhaps narrator Maurice should read back the book he has just delivered to us; it is neither puny nor piffling, and succeeds on many levels indeed.

Nothing special........2005-04-11

This book isn't scary--only slightly amusing. The "English-ness" of the narrator is often funny & witty, but just as often annoying (I get the feeling that canned laughter at the end of the narrator's countless quips would lend a little force to his attempts at humor). I guess a lot of the point of the book is that very notion of the Englishman as a bottled-up, desperate figure, but that's just not interesting enough to justify this book. The supernatural events of the story mostly struck me as silly and disjointed. I'm sure there are a few interpretational aspects I'm missing (actually, this book doesn't feel worthy of much deep thought), but not enough, I think, to redeem this tale and make it worth the so-positive reviews it has garnered here. Read the _The Haunting of Hill House_ by Shirley Jackson if you want a nuanced, creepy, interesting, psychological haunted house story. After reading the last page of _The Green Man_, I just felt like shrugging, putting the book down, and moving on to something else. Get it from the library, but don't waste your money unless you know you'll like it.

A GREEN MAN AND PINK ELEPHANTS.......2003-12-02

Some of the best and most entertaining fiction by Kingsley Amis is comparatively little known, and I am pleased to see The Green Man available here and there. It has his usual virtues of offbeat humour, a gift for atmosphere, an engaging show of fogeyishness and some really memorable writing; and it has his occasional traits of implausibility, lapses of concentration and discursiveness, which I sometimes find irritating and sometimes entertaining depending on what mood I am in.

This is a distinctly original ghost story. Whether or not Amis found the basic inspiration for his green man in legends, or in The Golden Bough, or in other fiction I have no idea. I can't think of a similar creature in similar literature that I have come across, perhaps simply because there is no similar literature. The thread of the preternatural does not dominate the narrative, which is largely concerned with the interactions between the narrator and his family and acquaintances. The story is told by an alcoholic publican, remarkably lucid and vigorous for the most part, and opinionated and prejudiced in a way that suggests to me that the author had put some of himself into the character. He is the only character in the book who is drawn in the round, but his alcohol-dependency is not investigated in any depth, simply treated as a necessity to the plot. He is bored, grumpy and dissatisfied - familiar enough Amis themes - and predictably in search of sexual, if not precisely emotional, interest outside his rather flat and uninvolving marriage. To me, he is not completely convincing. He is rather grandly detached and above-it-all for someone with such a massive and corrosive problem of his own, but that is not the sort of quibble I would expect to bother Amis.

The real reason for the alcoholic theme is that the author is being a bit of an old tease. Allington, the publican, sees some pretty amazing things, and we are supposed to be left wondering to what extent they are objectively real and to what extent drink-induced delusions. For the most part they were real for me, and I believe real from the author's standpoint too, until the latter stages of the book. Here I detect a touch of wheel-slip - I simply think Amis is losing the plot a little, a suspicion confirmed by the way he winds up the narration in a slightly perfunctory manner. It's a fine story for all that. It will certainly appeal to his aficionados in general if they have not yet got around to it, and if you acquire it for a 5-or-6-hour flight or train journey on a caveat lector basis, I shall be disappointed if you are disappointed.

A ghost story.......2002-10-14

"The Green Man" is a ghost story. Maurice Allington owns and operates the Green Man Inn. It's supposed to be haunted, but ghosts haven't been seen since Victorian times.

Maurice spends most of his time avoiding the people in his life--his father, his emotionally detached wife, Joyce, and his lonely daughter, Amy. He does have time, however, to initiate a sexual relationship with Diana, the bored, talkative wife of the local doctor.

As Maurice begins increasingly detached from his domestic life, he begins to "see" things--including the ghost of Dr. Thomas Underhill--a 17th Century villian who may or may not committed 2 ghastly murders.

Unfortunately, no-one believes Maurice's sightings, and it does seem up for grabs whether or not Maurice is hallucinating or whether this is all just the result of Maurice's alcoholic binges.

Underhill seems to have a message for Maurice, and, unable to resist, Maurice takes the bait and begins to unravel the Underhill mystery in a detective style.

Maurice is a marvellous Amis character--lacking the self-deprecating humour and comic talents of Jim Dixon in "Lucky Jim," Maurice is weaker and not as likeable. Nonetheless, the hand of Amis is clearly visible.

Book Description

This last installment of the beloved series recounts the long-ago beginnings of Green Knowe, a time when Roger, the son of a Norman lord, was the first child to live in the grand old manor. Roger finds some ancient stones on the grounds, which magically transport him back and forth in time so he can meet and befriend Toby, Linnet, Susan, and Tolly--the future inhabitants of Green Knowe and the heroes of the five other magical books in the series.

Customer Reviews:

Loved the fantasy in this book........2007-06-13

I purchased this book because I read the Green Knowe stories to my children when they were small. This book combines history, magic and mystery all in one book.

The 6th Green Knowe Book a Prequel.......2007-03-31

Although I do believe this book to be essential to the entire Green Knowe collection I can't give it a full five stars. The story has great "bones" but not the same creativity as the other five books. There is also a bit too much lamenting about how things of progress, such as cars ("They droned like cockchafers as they approached, screaming as they went past him as a swift passes, and followed by roars and stinking fumes."), ruined the land and the forest. I kept feeling like more "knowing" conversations were going to take place between Roger and his grandmother and I found myself disappointed. So much potential, but a bit of a let down for me.

This wonderful book needs to be re-issued!.......2004-02-17

Years after reading the other Green Knowe books, I found this in a school library. I think it ranks with the best earlier volumes (Children and Treasure, in my opinion) and deserves to be available for the general reader, not just the collector. The images of loss from medieval times to the present are almost too much to bear ...

"It is a Family Heirloom. It Will Come to Me Again.".......2004-01-18

I'm a little concerned that the previous five books in the "Green Knowe" series all seem to be back in print whilst "The Stones of Green Knowe", the sixth and final book (an essential part of the collection) has apparently been neglected. If you are tracking down Lucy Boston's fantastic series of books, then don't stop at "A Stranger at Green Knowe" - there is one more book to be read, though it is obviously not as well-known as the others.

"The Stones of Green Knowe" completes Boston's series, and aptly takes us right back to the beginning of Green Knowe: to its original construction in 1120 A.D. The very first of the Green Knowe children is Roger, the grandson of a Norman Earl, who is excited beyond words at the building of a two-storied stone house, complete with windows. Roger's days are spent watching the flocks and exploring the construction site, with as much attention given to historical accuracy and detail as one would expect from Rosemary Sutcliffe. Like all the previous young protagonists, he is surrounded both by semi-mysterious characters sympathetic to his situation (such as the Viking Olaf Olafson, who gifts him with a magical knife, and another kindly grandmother reminiscent of the not-yet-born Grandmother Oldknow), and characters that make his life a little bit more difficult - such as a snobbish mother, not the first one to appear in Boston's books, leading me to believe that the author knew one personally.

Yet despite being surrounded by all this excitement, Roger becomes captivated by the talk of the workers, who mention among themselves two mysterious stones out on the hills: "Surely you've heard of them? Very old, they were. Two of them standing out alone on a grassy hill at twilight, it gave you the jumps to see them." Roger, along with his horse Viking and his dog Watchet, seek them out, and by clearing away some brush, discovers the King and Queen Stones: the source of the magic of Green Knowe.

From there the real adventures begin, as Roger discovers what later generations have yet to do: time travel back and forth to discover the other children of Green Knowe, and the fate of his beloved home. In true Lucy Boston style, there is added in little notes of Roger's discomfort at the environmental destruction of the forest, but it never overshadows what we are really interested in: his meetings with Toby, Alexander and Linnet, with Susan and Jacob, and with Tolly, all living in the same house at different times. Marvelling at the differences they all face, the reader is eventually rewarded with a beautiful scene of all the children gathered together under the beech tree...joined by yet another unexpected child, who gives Roger a special keepsake.

After six books in the series, I was very sad to see its end, as with all great literature, I had grown quite attacted to Green Knowe and its inhabitants. It was a touch of genius to have the final book take place at 'the beginning' as it were, as we finally can understand where St Christopher came from, how Green Knowe got its name, and how the time travelling was made possible in the first place: through the Stones, whose origins remain an eternal mystery. If there was one fault, it was that Ping, Ida and Oskar were completely absent - in the final book, surely it would have been the right time to bring ALL the children together, but it seems Boston wanted to keep only the children of Roger's bloodline in for simplicity's sake.

"The Stones of Green Knowe" is the perfect ending to a stunning series of somewhat unknown books, leaving us with the major theme of the books: the ongoing battle to protect that which is natural and beautiful. I found it extremely fitting that the book ended with one last enigma concerning the fate of the Stones, and what appears to be the end of the time-travelling, for the last sentence of this last book took my breath away in its sadness and potency.

Sixth and last of the Green Knowe series.......2001-01-17

Odd that some of these are out of print and some aren't, but any public library with a collection dating back to the sixties should have a copy.

Stones is indeed about Roger, son of the Norman lord who built Green Knowe, and the building of Green Knowe. Like all of the series, mysterious and imaginative and full of historical detail.

Like the best books of this type, the series creates a world of which the books merely touch the surface.

Amazon.com

The Green Mile is creatively packaged as a six-part series of small paperbacks--serial fiction for a new age. The story, set during the Great Depression, tells of John Coffey, an African American convicted of rape and murder who awaits his death in a Southern prison. Coffey has strange powers, and the creepy characters in the prison have their own views of his gifts, and of God's. The mystery is enhanced by the succession of installments.

Customer Reviews:

Part 6 in The Green Mile Serialization.......2003-05-07

"Coffey on the Mile" is the longest book in the series (130+ pages), while the other five had averaged approximately 90 pages. In this sixth and final installment in The Green Mile serialization, the true identity of the twins' killer is revealed (though I won't give that away, because it's a shocker). Plus, the killer and Percy Wetmore (the evil prison guard), at last(!), get what they deserve. And as for John Coffey: well, that was just a tear-jerker. I won't give away what happens to him either. You just have to read the series--or just this book, if you want to skip the rest.

In the afterword, King points out some of his anachronisms in the series, like whether or not certain radio programs were broadcast in 1932. These "mistakes" were still left in the serial novel, as far as I can tell, even though King had considered removing them. But what was removed was this afterword, as well as the foreword in book #1 ("The Two Dead Girls"); so there were a few things altered by the end.

Coffey On The Mile.......2002-05-22

This book is the sixth and final book of the Green Mile series. I like this book the best out of all six of the books. In this book, the main character John Coffey is getting ready to go down the Green Mile. The Green Mile is the inmateýs last walk down the main hallway, which is green, to the electric chair before they die. The prison guards discovered that John in actuality didnýt kill the Deterick twins, but was actually trying to save them but wasnýt successful. See, the reason why John is in prison is because he was found with the two small Deterick girls, which are twins, in his arms. They were both dead in his arms all alone in the woods. So just naturally, it looked as if he was the one that had killed the twins. When John was arrested he didnýt say a single word, he didnýt deny it or anything. He was quite most of the time he was in prison. The prison guards found out that a previously executed inmate was the one who had killed the twins, and John was just trying to save them. John has a special power that he has for healing and bringing things back to life. He cured one of the prison guards urinary infection, brought a mouse back to life that an inmate killed, and rid the wardenýs wife of cancer, all just by the touch of his hands. So therefore, Coffey tried to save the little girls lives, but he couldnýt. John was too late to get to them in enough time to save their lives. So he just sat holding them in his arms on the rock crying. The prison guards that knew the truth about John and asked him if he wanted them to try and get another trial for him, but Coffey declined the request. Coffey said that his time has come, and even if he was able to get out of it, he didnýt think he wanted to live anymore anyways. He was sick of the way everyone treated each other and he just couldnýt stand it anymore. So Coffey was executed two days after they found out he was innocent. He went quietly and cooperatively. After the time they spent with this man John Coffey, not another man like him would ever come across their presence.

coffey on the mile.......2001-05-15

This book was definitly a thrill. I didn't read the first five but this book was interesting. It was about an innocent african-amerian who was acused of raping and murdering two girls. He in fact, was innocent and got helped out by a guard at the penetentiary. I will leave the ending up to you. I do recommend this book to anyone who is interested in suspense and thrill. It is fairly easy.

The Green mile.......2000-04-06

So far I'm about 2/3 of the book and I'm loving every single moment of it. How Stephen King grabs your attention. It about an African-American convicted of rape and murder of two young girls. People are convicnce that he murdered them looking by the size of him. He big as a giant and has the mind of a child. He is sent to a Penitentiary where he about to be executed when a prison guard believe he is an innocent man. He believe the convicted man is innocent, so he investigate his files and starting questioning people about the murder. And the only way he could be free is by the prison Guards. I would recommend this book because talk about the struggle between life or death and how mysteries get involves trying to solve the case.

Simply put...Wow.......2000-01-18

With this novel, King concludes the wonderful The Green Mile series, and he does this with mastery and excellence. The anguish of Coffey's fate will bring the reader to tears, and the fact that he is going to die for a crime he did not commit is truly heartbreaking. In addition, the destinies of all the other main characters will engross the reader.

Customer Reviews:

Part 5 in The Green Mile Serialization.......2003-04-28

In "Night Journey," Paul Edgecombe and a couple of his guard buddies take John Coffey from his prison cell for a short time, bringing him to a woman with an inoperable brain tumor, who they hope Coffey can heal. At the beginning of this book, Paul and his buddies also discuss the rape-murder Coffey had been convicted of, but it's not sorted out until the next and final book in this series: "Coffey on the Mile."

A Class Act Narration.......2003-03-21

I've encountered this work in three different media: book, movie and audio tape. All three are excellent, but my favorite is the audio version, due to Frank Muller's excellence as narrator and story teller. He and George Guidall are the best in the business. Unfortunately Muller was involved in an automobile accident some time ago and is now incapacitated to the point he can no longer work.

The audiobook is an abridgement, true, and I normally don't go in for such, yet the editors did a good job here in winnowing down the text and leaving all the important elements of the book. I notice that there is now an unabridged version, recorded by the same narrator.

The Green Mile is one of King's better efforts and deeper textually than his Shawshank Redemption (his other well-known prison tale). He really excells here in terms of characterization, which can be on the thin side (no Thinner pun intended) in some of his novels.

What really makes this audio experience special, though, is Muller. It's doubtful that he will be able to return to recording, which is a real shame. The Green Mile is one of the finest testaments to this great reader. Another recommendation I would urge upon listeners is his rendition of Cormac McCarthy's classic, All the Pretty Horses.

Good.......2000-07-09

I own all, 6 volumes on tape there all, good the movie is, good too read the green mile, it's good enjoy.

If it's King, it's gotta be good.......2000-03-23

Just paint me stupid. When I found this title in a Stephen King search, it was originally just listed as NIGHT JOURNEY #5. *duh* I failed to put 2 and 2 together and thought this was an early release of King's that wasn't yet in my collection. Luckily amazon has updated the listing to indicate that it is #5 in the GREEN MILE series. The description also states that this is of unknown binding. The one I ordered is in hard cover which is actually not that bad considering that I only have the paperback series. Order only if you are a diehard King fan who has to have everything in hard cover. I have to rate it a 5 because, hey, it's King and it's part of the GREEN MILE series which is an incredible body of writing.

Depressing, but better then 'horror.".......1999-08-11

The book is every bit as good as I thought it would be (King does much more now than mere "horror", but I found it terribly depressing and I'm not altogether sure I'm glad I read it. Oh, the bad guys come to most satisfying ends, but I took little comfort from that; the author's message appears to be that some people live much too long but no one, good or evil, gets out of this cruel world alive....

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