Carson takes the reader on a journey deep into the very heart of Irish Music - the musician at his most timelessness. Don't pick this up expecting a scholarly approach to Irish music. This is an amazing insight into the music and the soul of the music as performed by an Irish musician. Carson even shows the little quirks of daily living that help to give birth to such a personable music. I love Irish music, but am a jazz pianist by musical trade. I highly recommend this to any and all musicians who are searching for their soul in music, especially those in jazz. It is a very moving and thought provoking work.

Belfast writer, fluter, raconteur and unreliable witness takes us into the subterranean world of craic agus chaos as he attempts to surf the web of the perfect session experience. Part nostalgic interrogtation of his own relationship with traditional music, part exploration of the Ulster breakfast: this book is a close as it gets to the cameraderie and catharsis of an all night music bash. A work of astute fiction that might never be true but is always believable.

At the end we are left wondering was this one large joke or simply a witty Northern oxymoron? A book to be revisited when the frost keeps us away from session, pub or our inner fiddler.

Excellent is too narrow a word to describe the sweep of the narrative.

Sean Laffey Irish Music Magazine Dublin

I've been a Celtic music fan for many years, long before it began to turn up on the New Age charts. While I don't mean to knock that genre (which has given some splendid traditional musicians -- e.g., the O'Domhnaills of Nightnoise and Alasdair Fraser of Skyedance -- the wider listenership they deserve), traditional Celtic music is an altogether grittier, funkier breed.
Ciaran Carson brings a poet's sensibility to the performer's-eye perspective of Irish music, from last night's fun to the next morning's rude awakening. Irish music isn't simply the tunes themselves; it's the old-timers who performed them, the instruments they played, the pints of Guinness, the choking smoke in the bar and the pouring rain outside, and Carson conveys the whole experience admirably. It's almost as good as being there.

Although I'm extremely busy at work I found time to read this delightful story. Not only is it educational, but it is interesting and a joy for any child to read. My ten year old daughter has read it a dozen times and even my six year old likes it! The author, Mr. Carson should be getting the publicity he deserves. I plan on telling all my co-workers and friends about The Living Mountain. Mr. Carson is also the author a nonfictional work on Mt. St. Helens I enjoyed immensely. Rob Carson is the next great author of the Millenium. Tell everyone you know to buy his books and watch for new ones coming out.

Although I'm extremely busy at work I found time to read this delightful story. Not only is it educational, but it is interesting and a joy for any child to read. My ten year old daughter has read it a dozen times and even my six year old likes it! The author, Mr. Carson should be getting the publicity he deserves. I plan on telling all my co-workers and friends about The Living Mountain. Mr. Carson is also the author a nonfictional work on Mt. St. Helens I enjoyed immensely. Rob Carson is the next great author of the Millenium. Tell everyone you know to buy his books and watch for new ones coming out.

the author is my dad so naturally i love it but it was informative as well as fun to read and the climax, plot and characters were so well described! good job dad!

I am completely delighted with "The Little Guides" series. The format is extremely user friendly, and each guide is packed with useful and interesting information. I enjoy reading them, but my 6 year old daughter gives them the most use. While the guides are written at an adult level, there is plenty that she can read and understand. I currently own "Sharks," "Birds," "Mammals," "Space," "Whales," and "Flowers."

"Mammals" contains two parts; the first part gives an overview of the world of mammals, comparing the different characteristics (eyes, ears, feet, etc.) of mammals. Part two is packed with illustrations (over 500) and information about the rich variety of mammals that live on the earth. Each entry contains information about the animal characteristics, food, young, habitat, as well as close relatives.

This guide is packed with useful information, and is a great resource of adults as well as children!

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If your kids enjoy the nature programs on cable TV, they'll love this book.

Beautifully and accurately illustrated, the accompanying text is authoritative and educational. Just as importantly (if books are to compete with TV) it is also very entertaining.

The layout of "Mammals" follows the zoological classifications of the various "Orders" such as carnivores and marsupials. It even includes a section on the monotremes, those egg laying exotic mammals from Australia, namely, the platypus and echidna.

This book is a refreshing change from the typical TV nature show where animals and their behaviour are often anthropomorphised. You know the thing ...... " Bwana the baboon beats his chest boastfully after his latest conquest".

The highlight of the book is a four page panoramic fold out depicting the scene of the annual mass migration of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles across the African plains.

This book provides an ideal launching pad for those children who are keen to learn about the animal kingdom.

This is indeed an appealing and easy to read book. The illustrations are beautiful and the text interesting and very educational. The layout is good. I would have loved having this book to use when I was a teacher. Particularly informative for adults and students alike are the "Fast Facts" which give a description in a nutshell, including conservation status; "Would You Believe?" with interesting trivia; and "Where in the World?", giving maps to show habitat. Along with correct information, the book dispels misinformation. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about the warm blooded creatures who share our planet.

An excellent book, completely readable and very informative. I visited the devastated area by chopper within a year after the big one, and Carson's book told me that a lot of the interpretations I heard in 1981 are no longer considered valid. I particularly enjoyed the appraisal of Weyerhauser's tree farms vs natural reforestation. There are favorable points for both, and it's essentially a matter of choosing the scientific or the industrial benefits. I bought the book at the Monument (Forest Service, not Park Service) and reading it while I was there made it all the more exciting. My only complaint: the page layouts. Too many tall, narrow pictures are printed across the binding. Photos of these dimensions would easily fit on a single page, and their impact and beauty are diminished when so much of them is buried in the binding. Possibly this flaw would be less objectionable in a sewn hardcover edition. Also, pictures are often printed as insets in larger photos -- which suggests to me that the book design was considered more important than the photographs. The illustrations are great complements to a splendid text, and they deserve kinder treatment.

The eruption of Mt. St. Helens is captured in photographic glory for any who would learn about the explosion of the volcano and the subsequent recovery of its surrounding environment. Black and white and some color photos accompany extensive descriptions of the eruption, its short- and long-term effects, and environmental changes.

i love this book and the doofus who thought this book wasnt that great(the one below me) needs to read it again he says it moved quickly to the recovery of the mountain: look at the title! thats what it is about retard.you should recognize a great writer when you see one. humph

A true marvel. Not many writers come close. Nelson Algren is at the very top of the heap: original, compassionate, funny, insightful. You know, we read many books, and once we have finished with the book we toss it aside and forget about it. With Algren it's different. You read his stuff and can't help feeling cheated at not having known the man, not having ever had a chance to meet the guy. Wish there was a way to sit down and have a beer with the man, light up a stogie and have a good chat with the genius who created this masterful story collection. The writing is gritty and true, heartfelt. Brings to mind several other writers who had this knack of writing in this kind of honest, unflinching style: John O'Brien (Leaving Las Vegas), B. Traven (take your pick: Treasure of Sierra Madre, Cottonpickers, etc.) Knut Hamsun (Hunger), Eugene O'Neill (Long Day's Journey Into Night), Celine (Journey to the End of the Night), Kirk Alex (Working the Hard Side of the Street), Chester Himes (If He Hollers Let Him Go).
All of the above had their own style, of course, but the thing they had in common was in the balls they showed by not flinching away from the gritty, life lived by so many who weren't born with deep pockets, who didn't have it easy.

Writing from the gut. Algren lives. Read THE NEON WILDERNESS, and give some of the others a try as well.
This is writing for people who love books and love to read. Shut your TV sets off and pick up a good book--and you can start right here, with Algren's story collectiion.

Algren's writing in this collection of short stories has very lyrical and often nightmarish quality. It is both beautiful and brutally frank. Algren paints a unapologetic picture of Chicago and it's people with his wonderful sense of humor and irony. Read this book if you want an unblinking look at people at their best and worst.

One of the most beautiful collection of short stories I've ever read. I am a devoted Nelson Algren fan, and if you read this, you'll understand why. This was a man who understood Chicago, who had the balls to plunge the murky depths of her society and find astonishing beauty. The blue imagery of his work is evocative, breathtaking, and genuine; it makes me mourn and long for a Chicago that no longer exists. The masculinity, the authority, the depth of Algren's identification with the rejects, the drug addicts, the gamblers, the hookers make WILDERNESS a superb work of art. This man tells it like it was; no glamorizing, no condescension, only the most profound understanding and a multi-layered sense of humor that, to paraphrase Hemingway (a huge Algren fan), makes you feel as if you took a punch. I haven't read the NEON WILDERNESS in a long time, but the mere mention of it makes we want to re-read it, especially the first story, "The Captain Has Bad Dreams." I also recommend BOSS by Mike Royko and just about anything by Studs Terkel.

Carson Napier has been my favorite Burroughs hero from about page 25 of my very old paperback copy of this book. He has all the heroic charms of John Carter while not quite being as over the top as the Warlord of Mars.

For plotting this book is stock Burroughs and his many imitators. If you loved John Carter try his not quite so wonderful brother. If you love the Green Star novels read the originals (much as the Calisto books are Carter's version of Barsoom so is Green Star Carter's version of Amtor). If you love Norman's Gor, Aker's Antares, or Carter's Calisto then do yourself a favor and read the lesser know inspiration for them.

i loved this book the first chpter was really slow but it picked up on the second, after the scond chapter i was hooked i couldn't put it down i had to know what happed so i ended up reading the whole thing in like a week and this is a big book
i loved every chapter every page ,every thing my favorite part is when the man found his love but he could not see because she was a princes, and how he found his beutiful princes and told how much he loved her, but she could not love him back,but i can't tell you the whole story but there is lot's of battling and alien thing, and if i had any money i would buy my own copy it's so good i just keep reading it over and over.BUY IT

Me parece uno de los mejores libros que he leido, y creo que he leido demasiados. Es un libro que no se puede dejar de leer, me parece fabuloso. Es una combinacion entre accion y amor, creo es una amalgama perfecta.

...SHAMROCK TEA, the novel, is almost as hallucinogenic as the concoction itself. The book is a wonderful swirl of fiction, art/political/social history, philosophy, religion and Irish culture.

Carson takes the reader on quite a trip, with 1959 as a jumping-off place, centering around three children. As the story unfolds, connections are made between systems of thought as well as points in space and time -- and the idea of parallel universes is not left out, either. In the book, points in the space-time continuum is described as being similar to pages of a book -- separate, but lying very close to each other, distant and adjoined at the same time.

The cast of characters is immense -- besides the children mentioned above, and their guardians and teachers, appearances are made by Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the artist Jan Van Eyck (whose amazing painting THE ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT plays a huge role of its own in the story), and innumerable saints from throughout the history of the Catholic Church. Everything -- and everyone -- is inter-connected, which is one of the messages of the story itself.

The novel is constructed in 100 chapters, each of only about 3 pages in length, and each named for a color. The boy who narrates the story begins by describing the wallpaper in his room, along with his general sensitivity to colors in his surroundings -- and from this seemingly ordinary starting point, the reader is off on a journey that is by turns frightening and wonderful, but always fascinating.

I'm looking forward to reading Carson's FISHING FOR AMBER -- and, being a fan of Irish traditional music, his LAST NIGHT'S FUN as well.

I am a reader who demands a good story, so novels that play with structure often bore me. "Shamrock Tea," however, is just fascinating to read. I have to give credit to the author here, because I can't think of any good reason to be gripped by discussions of pigment and what seems like an infinitude of hagiography. The reason is: just plain superlative writing. This is not a book without a plot; it has an extremely well-structured plot that is not immediately evident to the reader. The sense that something, and something major, is happening even though one can't perceive it creates an almost addictive tension. Moreover, even after the primary "missing piece" of the plot is supplied near the end of the book, the author has the plot taking another dizzying turn. It's really exciting to read writing of this caliber!

If you read this book, you will understand why I'm hoping that Carson has plans, not for a sequel, but a companion novel (think of the structure of the "Norman Conquest" trilogy of plays, here -- characters offstage in one play are onstage in another, co-occurring play about the same characters). I'd trust him to make it work brilliantly.

I see that I have not mentioned what is actually the major theme of the novel, and find that I'm reluctant to do so because it's so much fun when the pieces come together and enlighten (rather than surprise) you. I will say that although this book is not written like a fantasy, people who read complex, cerebral fantasies are likely to enjoy it very much even thought it's not quite in that genre.

I was not sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I was attracted by the cover, the title and inside blurbs which seemed to promise a story of history and magic but I was more than surprised. I was amazed.

This book is a journey. You start down the path thinking that it is a treatise on colors, and then that it is a treatise on saints and colors and you just keep going. Written in 3-4 page chapters, it is the type of book that lures you in and that while it seems like it should be an easy read....it most definitely is not. It is, however, a wonderful read.

The prose is mesmerizing and the wealth of information can be overwhelming. Slowly, you are introduced to the story of the narrator and it is near the end of the book that it all begins to come together. Only then do magic, art, history and religion meld together and the circle begins again.

I recommend that you keep a copy of Van Eyck's "Arnolfini Wedding Painting" and an excellent dictionary at your side. Be prepared to read every word, this book is not a "skimmer".

Also recommended in this vein "The Angle Quickest for Flight" by Steven Kotler.

I had to read a lot of Carson's books for school. I enjoyed reading this history in particular. Everything is clearly spelled out, understandable, and makes perfect sense. Carson's tells the history that you won't find in most history books, which is very welcome.

By the late 1970s, conservative historian Clarence B. Carson was known as the author of several volumes on American intellectual, political and economic history, including *The Fateful Turn*, which chronicled America's abandonment of individualism in favour of collectivism in the years 1880-1960 and *The War on the Poor*, an examination of the disastrous effects of government programs to "help the poor".

But Carson felt that a much longer work was needed to fulfil his intellectual mission: a complete history of the United States that would correct the errors and distorsions of those available on the market. For Carson was very dissatisfied with the existing histories of the U.S.. As he wrote in The Review of the News in December 1982: "For years I have cursed the darkness, so to speak, as I have examined and reviewed history book after history book. On rare occasions, I would examine one with rising expectations as I made my way through the early part of the text... But, from the Civil War onward, even the best of them tend to go downhill into the miasma of leaden accounts of industrialization, mass production, the class struggle, the magnification of the alleged injustices of the American system, until by the time they reach the New Deal, they read as if they were written by press agents of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, some have been".

What he wanted was to avoid the biases of "Marxists, socialists, anti-Americans, skeptics, humanists, and many, many others with axes to grind", by committing himself to telling "as faithful an account as I could make it of what had actually taken place."

This effort was to have been published by a private foundation, Western Goals, whose purpose was "to build and strengthen the political, economic and social structure of the United States and Western Civilization so as to make any merger with totalitarians impossible". But Carson's supporter in the foundation, U.S. Congressman Larry Mc Donald, was killed before the first volume had even been published: in an ironic twist of history, he died on board the Korean airliner that was shot down by the Soviets in 1983, along with 268 other innocent civilians.

Undaunted, Carson the academic turned into a businessman, creating the American Textbook Committee, and went on to publish the rest of his work independently, relying mostly on word of mouth and the eventual promotion of his writings by conservative or libertarian bookclubs.

The resulting history of the United States is definitely my favorite. While most modern historians assume that what the Founders created was a "democracy" which protected "civil rights", and that their efforts were finally crowned by the establishment of the welfare state in the last century, Carson does understand that the United States are a constitutional federated republic based on the classical doctrine of individual rights.

For this reason, among many others, as Carson hoped it would, *Basic American History* succeeds in "arousing anew that sense of mission and purpose which brought these United States into being".

Really enjoyed this book. It was easy read and not weighted down with a lot of stradegy. I thought it captured the meaning of brotherly love, when at the end of the war, the Union troops even shared their food with the enemy.The fact that the Confederates were allowed to keep their horses was very moving to me, as these animals is some cases were all they owned. And in the end,it makes no difference which side they fought on, they were finally all together on a common ground, even if it is in eternal rest.

Ray Carson's the Civil War Soldier: A Photographic Journey brings a fresh perspective and new treatment to a photographic subject that was defined 135 years ago by renown Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady, whose battlefield photos brought the grisly horrors of the war home to the American public. Ray Carson's photos, although more than a century removed from the subject, have a dynamic, impromptu quality and spontaneous intimacy that Brady, with his long exposure times that required subjects to be perfectly still (or dead), was never able to capture. Carson's photos capture the action and vitality of scenes that Brady couldn't, with a technique that is brilliant in the way it preserves the old daguerreotype quality of the photography of Brady's times with the movement and close-up action of modern photography. Carson's photos put the viewer right into the middle of the action. He did this by photographing re-enactors at the sites of the Civil War's great battles who annually recreate, with painstaking attention to detail and authenticity, those great conflicts which tested the mettle and honored the valor of both sides, North and South alike, and, in the process, forged a stronger, undivided nation. Civil War Soldier is absorbing reading, too, with many first-hand accounts, and the foreword by James Robertson, Jr. of Virginia Tech is a compelling introduction to one of the most dramatic and moving periods in the nation's history. Once I picked up Ray Carson's book, I couldn't put it down. Civil War Soldier belongs on the bookshelf of every Civil War buff, along with Matthew Brady.

Carson McCullers, one of America's greatest Southern writers, was often misunderstood, as many people were put off and/or unwilling to deal with her (at the time) controversial subject matter. MCCullers used the grotesque as exaggerated symbols of everyday experience. The loneliness and isolation of her gothic-like characters were merely extreme examples of feelings we all have, though magnified and intensified to the nth degree.

Tennessee Williams, in his introduction to MCCullers' "Reflections in a Golden Eye", posed the question (in a mock dialogue) most people asked about writers of the 'gothic' school such as Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter and Eudora Welty: "Why do they write about such dreadful things?" Williams replies, " In my opinion it is most simply definable as a sense, an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern society.. Why have they got to use..symbols of the grotesque and the violent? Because a book is short and a man's life is long... The awfulness has to be compressed."

McCullers, unlike any writer I have ever read, pierces the heart of themes such as love, isolation, and loneliness with her lucid, poetic prose. Tennessee Williams, in Virginia Spencer Carr's biography of McCullers summed up McCullers' writing as follows: "I have used the word 'heart', but it is not an adequate word to describe the core of Carson McCullers' genius....I believe, in fact I know, that there are many, many with heart who lack the need or gift to express it. And therefore Carson McCullers is what I would call a necessary writer: She owned the heart and the deep understanding of it, but in addition she had that 'tongue of angels' that gave her power to sing of it, to make of it an anthem."

Until very recently, it was quite difficult to find a nice hardback copy of Mc Culler's novels. Each one of them is absolutely priceless and unforgettable; believe me when I tell you that "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is one of those stories that long remain on your mind. Mc Culler's novels, clearly influenced by Faulkner, surpass the master himself in magnetism, , power of storytelling and above all, characterization. If you add to all this a dose of gothic dark strangely ambivalent sense of humour, the result is certainly a writer utterly impossible to classify, novels that you really enjoy reading and characters that you are very unlikely to forget. Besides I am fully in love with the Library of America hardback editions and Mc Cullers certainly deserves to be included in this collection.
Later, if you want to give yourself a treat, go and buy her autobiography, although unfinished, a memorable book.