This Oz novel, like all oz novels, is really a childs book. Nothing makes a lot of sense sometimes, and things tend to contradict earlier novels. The read is good for any Oz fan though. I love the land of Oz, and over look all contradictions, and things that are absurd and just sit down for a good humorous night of reading. This book will take your mind away for a few hours. Take it away to a far away place, where we never have to grow up, and everything is wonderful and great. It has some of the major charactors star in it, and introduces new and wonderful charactors. The journey they undergo, although it is a little absurd, is funny and amusing. If you liked any of the other Oz novels after the first one, then you should enjoy this one as well. If you are an Oz fan, then no collection can be complete without this whimsical book added to your collection.

I love the Oz books and was not let down with this one

I found this book very enjoyable and it moved well, its not slow on the get go, I also liked the ending, very different from his other books, which usually end with the guy getting the girl in the end, this time they.... enuf said (: And I liked the mention of a New Zealander, Cheers Bova...:

This was a book I just happened to look at because it had a cool cover and decent premise, so I decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining and how fast-paced it was - the kind of book you can read in one sitting. In addition, the book has a good, surprising ending - I don't want to spoil it for you. Peackeepers is the kind of book that should be made into a movie - although maybe they should wait a while because, on the surface, the plot seems similar to the movie The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman (although the Peacekeepers is a much better story, trust me). Either way, even though this isn't Bova' most popular book, it's worth checking out.

A well writen account of how the arms industry in America develops a product. John T. Thompson, the gun's developer spent his life as a professional soldier and developed the concept of the modern submachine gun. A combination of peace, poor timing, and Hollywood left him a frustrated inventor who died just before his weapon became standard issue in WW II. The "Tommy Gun" is one of the most recognized weapons in the world and author Helmer writes an interesting account of how this came to pass. This book is very readable for what was originally, I beleive, a master's thesis. This book would be of interest for those interested in the social aspects of Americian culture in the 20's and 30's as well as for those interested the history of small arms. Helmer relates many amusing anecdotes and reveals a number of ironic developments.

This is the definitive social, political, criminal, police, and military history of the Thompson submachine gun. Plus, the author's lively writing style makes for rat-a-tat reading.

It was funny when he was going rollerskating and he got so dizzy that he went into the girls bathroom by accident. The girls saw him and wrapped him up with toilet paper. This is a good book for kids who like to laugh.

I bought this book for my 7 yr old just before moving from the east coast to the west coast in the middle of the school year. Our first Betsey Duffey book. We absolutely LOVED it! We read every Cody book she put out since as soon as we can get our hands on them. My son insist we owning every one so he can read them again and again. He can really relate to Cody.

This is a worthwhile book for the Northwest wine tourist. I have used it successfully on a recent trip, and found its descriptions to be accurate. As is keeping with this type of book, when the author finds the wines to be outstanding, it is so stated, but when they find the wine average, they focus on some positive aspect of the visit instead. With that in mind, you can either pursue the best wines, or the most enjoyable visits, whichever you seek. The only thing that I would fault the book for is the maps, they are very general only, and sometimes it would be nice to have something specific. But, hey, that's what Mapquest is for, so if you're going to find a winery off the beaten path, print out a detailed map before you go. Or call when you're on the road, this book has all the relevant telephone numbers that you'll need.

While my husband and I were browsing at our favorite bookstore, we discussed where we should travel next. We both love wine, so we thought maybe a wine tasting tour would be next. As San Franciscans, we visit the Sonoma and Napa valleys often, but we wanted to go somewhere different. We have used the Hills' guides to Sonoma and Napa in the past so we asked the book store clerk to suggest something similar, and then we found a copy of "Northwest Wine Country:Wine's New Frontier." Immediately, we were intrigued. We had no idea how many great places there were to visit. We ended up planning a trip which took us on a road trip from San Francisco up through Oregon and into Washington state. Our favorite part of this book were the great descriptions and details regarding each winery. Not only were the directions great, but we learned so much about each winery as we drove closer. My husband and I took turns reading to each other as the other drove. We really enjoyed those in Washington state especially near and around Spokane. We had visited the Seattle area before, but had never ventured into this part of WA. My husband is a collector of wine bottle labels which he meticulously saves in a book. The Hills pointed out a winery near Spoakne, THe Worden Washington Winery, and specifically mention their "distinctive labels." That helped us decide where we should go. Everything they said was right! We loved the winery and the labels. We spent four days visiting the eight or so wineries in the area while also enjoying the local scenery. We had a wonderful time. If we had not read this book, we may have never found such a great place to spend a some time together while visiting and learning about such interesting places.

As a painter and a Russophile who speaks Russian and has traveled to Russia four times (soon to be five), I have only recently become acquainted with modern Russian painting. This book illustrates the collection of a wealthy entrepreneur. The quality of the paintings vary widely...some would not be regarded as very sophisticated and maybe more like student works in the USA...but others are truly wonderful works by artists of great ability and training. The biographical information on the artists is sometimes extensive and sometimes non-existent, but very interesting overall. It is a shame that more well-illustrated books of Russian painting are not available; this one is a good contribution. By the way, the price is reasonable for such a large book with many color plates.

I found the book provided insight into the training and the importance art plays in the Russian life. I was aware of music and dance but did not understand the painting. I was surprised to see the similarities between training and styles of the 19th century French and early 20th century American painters. because of this I felt Tradition Rediscovered was an appropriate title.

All earnest followers of Christ pray for virtue in the midst of a cunning world whispering sweet enticements. What must it be like to have to beg God, hour by hour, for the will to resist a siren song coming from a bottle, vial or pill in the cupboard? And how much more torturous must be such an interior war when it's fought by a sensitive soul capable of composing some of the most sublime and personal poetry ever penned by a fervent Catholic?

Francis Thompson could have told you. Best known for his poem "The Hound of Heaven," an aesthetic meditation on God's unwavering pursuit of the author's soul through life, Thompson was both deeply religious and hopelessly addicted to opium most of his adult years.

Much of Thompson's story is familiar to lovers of literature. Born in Lancashire, England, in 1859, he set out first to be a priest, then a doctor. Neither seminary nor medical school held him, however, and, after his mother died and his father evicted him, he ended up hooked and homeless on the streets of London. He attempted suicide at least once before submitting smeared and tattered samples of his writing to Merry England, a Catholic monthly magazine. The publication's editor, Wilfrid Meynell, ran two of Thompson's poems in 1888; their brilliance was confirmed by the enthusiasm they inspired in the great Victorian poet Robert Browning.

Meynell went on to befriend the bedraggled writer, nurse him through a short-lived recovery and encourage him to continue writing. The support helped: By the time Thompson died a month before his 48th birthday, he had published three books of critically praised poetry plus nearly 300 essays and book reviews.

In the late 1880s, Meynell convinced Thompson to spend some months convalescing in the quiet of an English monastery, and that's where Robert Waldron picks up the story. What if Thompson had kept a diary while living at the monastery, and what if that turned out to be the time he composed "The Hound of Heaven"?

Waldron entertains these tantalizing possibilities by employing a clever, if initially confusing, device. Billed as a novel, the book opens with a prologue explaining that Thompson did indeed keep a diary while at the monastery. He hid it beneath a loose floorboard in his cell. The author of the prologue has recovered the literary treasure and here presents it in its entirety. Both the prologue and the diary are, of course, fiction.
Why has Waldron chosen to write an imaginary diary instead of a straight biography? The answer may lie in what he accomplishes.

Like every artistic genius, but particularly those who died young after suffering unrelenting interior conflicts, Thompson inspires in many of his enthusiasts a hunger to know more of what fueled his passion. It's clear from this penetrating little exercise, easily read in one sitting, that Waldron is a serious devotee of Francis Thompson. Waldron has perceived that no amount of biographical research could uncover what it is of Thompson that he wants to bring into the light: the heart of a magnificent artist with much to teach Christians of today.

He succeeds. While this work might merely intrigue readers looking for insight into a marginally important literary figure, it will feed those who read primarily for spiritual sustenance.

Waldron's Thompson is a man desperate to prove his love despite the most abject discouragement over his own inability to change for the object of his adoration. Like any addicted Christian, he's built a long track record of broken resolutions, deaths to sin and rebirths in Christ. From such failure Waldron fashions a concise case study of the power of perseverance. Best of all, he pulls this off while avoiding didactics; the book's strength lies in its success as a character study and a story.

"I am not afraid of being alone," reads a journal entry Francis Thompson never wrote but may well have muttered to himself. "Loneliness accosted me when I was young -- and won me for life."

Later, Thompson records his humiliation upon first meeting Meynell. He's self-conscious about his filthy clothing and offensive body odor. But Meynell, he comes to realize, doesn't see a vagabond. He sees a poet.

Thanks to Waldron, so do we. "Pain, which came to man as a penalty, remains with him as a consecration; by a divine ingenuity, he is permitted to make his ignominy his exaltation," reads one journal entry. "How many among us, after repeated lessonings of experience, refuse to comprehend that there is no special love without special pain! Dear Jesus, I thank You for my cross; never permit me to forget its special weight, its power, its saving grace."

Evident in the writings Thompson did leave behind is that he was consumed by love for his Lord; his addiction severely compromised his free will, but could not extinguish his faith. Among all those after God's own heart, who doesn't carry a similarly crushing cross, even if it's not so completely crippling?

Robert Waldron has done contemporary Catholicism a fine service. He's seen to it that a world inebriated on its own sick will gets re-introduced to a forgotten, gifted poet and a suffering Christian -- a determined pilgrim who was, despite his bouts with despondence, ever prepared to give account of the hope that was in him.

David Pearson is features editor of the National Catholic Register.

Francis Thompson, as poet and man, was beset by many frailties. Opium addiction almost drove him to despair. The "lost diary" (a very realistic novella) recounts in the first person, Thompson's rescue from homelessness by the eminent critic Wilfrid Meynell, and his rehabilitative retreat in 1889 at the Norbertine abbey of Storrington. In a sparse but handsome landscape, in an atmosphere of pure prayer, supported and encouraged by holy monks, Thompson struggles with painful memories of his immediate past as one of the destitute in the rain-soaked streets of London. Visions of horror plague him, as does the memory of a secret guilt which estranges him from joy. But there are glimpses of the Beatific Vision, glimpses which survive in poems that are sometimes baroque and sometimes childlike. A man who has spent a good deal of his life running from God at the peril of his health, discovers he cannot outrun God, who pursues him with a relentless mercy. Poignancy, reality, and love of the Divine -- these are the hallmarks of Robert Waldron's coruscating narrative in the voice of Francis Thompson.

Jorn Utzon is one of those Danish architects that rarely gets the attention of those familiar with Danish architecture and design. Although he indeed worked with the likes of Arne Jacobsen, Kay Fisker, Sverre Fehn, Gunner Asplund, and Alvar Aalto; his Opera House, still to this day surrounded in the cloud of it's controversiality, remains where Utzons's name most often appears. Of course there isn't an overabundance of material on Utzon either, which makes Fromonto's book something of a rareity and a special treat. The book thoroughly discusses how the Opera House came about, of course from both Utzon and the Sydney sides. It also finnishes with the circumstances to which Utzon and Opera House are on difficult terms, but Fromonot does not sacrifice the years of heart and soul that Utzon put into this masterpiece with typical tabloid stories of his incompetence. No, this book present the Opera House in every detail of it's inception and construction. I would have liked to see some finished images of the interiors, but I would imagine in the chronology of the book that the presentation of the Opera House ends where Utzon no longer worked on the project and instead moves onto some of his later accomplishments. Anyone interested in the Opera House will be amazed at how complex and how fundamentally beautiful the structure really is.

Francoise Fromonot does not only write a book on the Sydney Opera House, she unveils with mastery the works of a great architect who was unknown through the fame of his masterpiece(the Sydney Opera House). The book maps an ingenious trajectory of the complex relationship of one mans' lifetime work through a central piece (the Opera house) and his other projects. Fromonot is an architect-writer who undrestands and heighlights the delicate relationship of Utzon's Oeuvres necessary for understanding this one and only architectural symbol of Australia. She is miles ahead of the recently published Ph.Drew's soap opera account of Utzon's personal life for the comprehension of his architecture. Perhaps Drew mistakes Soap and Sydney, since the only common denominator is the Opera. Fromonot makes a piece of architecture and a film wrapped in a book, it is a gift to Utzon for all his contribution to architecture.

"The Kitchen Garden" is devoted, as author Sylvia Thompson tells us forthrightly in the introduction, to the "unusual and rare" greens that most of us cannot find at the average American market. The book is divided into sections highlighting Asian greens, mustard greens, potherbs, and salad greens, with other entries being more descriptive: "Beans for Frying," "Cooking and Slicing Onions," and so forth.

Each entry gives not only the most typical gardener's name for a plant, but the Latin name and any other monikers as well. What follows each is her description of both the plant and her own experience with it; these miniature essays are the book's greatest pleasure, each being a deft weave of history, fact, and Thompson's own opinionated tips.

If your particular corner of God's green earth is too dry, too shady, or too anything, you will still be able to find some sort of solution for your problem in the graphically beautiful and informative pages of "The Kitchen Garden."

I love this book! This is the second off-season that I've been lugging it around with me in my briefcase, along with the catalogues that are starting to show up in my mail -- it's only December, but they're popping up already! As I see something that looks interesting in a catalogue, I check it against Sylvia Thompson before I make a decision to buy. I've had nothing but success in following her clear, concise & literate directions. If you're a foodie, this book's for you! If you love to garden, this book's for you! If you just started to garden (as I have) this book's not at all intimidating, & doesn't assume any knowledge on your part (without talking down to you). If you're even thinking of buying this book, buy it!

This companion to Sylvia Thompson's "The Kitchen Garden" moves beyond telling you what to plant in practically any garden to showing you how to prepare it for the table.

The recipes employ all manner of fanciful and rare edibles you will be able to grow in your own little Eden, should you consult the wealth of knowledge in "The Kitchen Garden." The two books really are best used in tandem. I will let Thompson speak for herself on the subject of her recipes, as she does it so eloquently:

" . . . you can believe that when I bring a vegetable into the house, it's been hard come by. You can be sure that I want to taste it . . . [Supermarket produce has been] raised and handled with one objective: To get it into those bins without physical damage. Flavor is not the point. Flavor is the point when it comes to your kitchen garden. In most books, vegetable recipes have been designed to disguise lackluster store-bought produce--it's smoke and mirrors with razzle-dazzle seasoning. In other books, vegetables are but one element in a complex of ingredients creating a many-leveled taste. In this book, there are no disguises; there's little that's complex. I've gathered
notions from all over the world to show off the flavor of your harvest simply."

So although Thompson expects your diligence in the garden, she implores you to use a light and restrained hand in the kitchen. Included among the recipes are Perfection of Baby Beets, Mustard Flavored Celeraic and Sweet Red Peppers, and Red Bean Ice Cream, among many others. The recipes are graceful in their simplicity; in fact, most have six or fewer ingredients.

"The Kitchen Garden Cookbook" is an intelligent, useful, and instructive volume. Sylvia Thompson, in having written this superior book and its companion "The Kitchen Garden," has performed an invaluable service for every American gardener who also loves to cook.

Sylvia Thompson's Kitchen Garden Cookbook will be an invaluable tool for avid gardeners who wish to expand the variety of vegetables grown but who are reluctant to do so because they have no idea how they would use the more unusual vegetables that are increasingly finding their way into even the most staid seed catalogs. In addition, Thompson shows ways to use flowers, herbs, and fruit also. A perfect complement to her previous work, the Kitchen Garden, this volume is packed with relatively easily prepared recipes that highlight various international cuisines and while it is not a vegetarian cookbook there are many recipes that will fit the vegetarian's needs. Since I bought this book two years ago hardly a week has gone by when I heve not cooked one or more recipes from this book. If you garden, have a really great vegetable department at your local supermarket, or just want to expand your kitchen repetoire, this book deserves a place on your kitchen bookshelf.