This book is a neat book to read.I liked this book because it changes a lot, like when you expect something to happen the opposite happens. I disliked this book because it was to discriptive. I would recommend this book to someone who likes very discriptive book.

Amelia Fairwick is a rich, eleven-year-old girl from London. She only has her father and he goes away on a business trip and she stays at Mrs. Draper's Select Academy for Girls as a boarding student. A letter comes and apparently Mr. Fairwick has been killed in a hotel fire. Amelia is to go live in New York with Cousin Basil, her closest living relative. He is a distant cousin of her mother. She wants to stay and live with Aunt Felicia, who is not really her aunt; she is going to marry her father, but she cannot.She sets sail on the SS Sylvania with Cousin Charlotte, who is Cousin Basil's sister. Cousin Charlotte is a cruel, dark dressing, icy person. She barely speaks to Amelia, let alone anyone else. On the dock, Amelia sees a young girl who she suspects is a princess. When the ship docks in New York, Cousin Charlotte deserts Amelia. A kind old lady named Mrs. Dobbins and her son Elmo help Amelia and take her to their home. But in the morning, this are not as they seemed. Amelia realizes she is being held a prisoner, but why? This book is filled with adventure and suspense. It was difficult to put down and is filled with twists and turns. The setting and character description makes the book even more exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all those who enjoy mysteries and suspense.

This book is GREAT! its sooo full of twists and turns that if you were to (try) and tell about it to someone you would be talking for hours!! The ending is soo cool!! VERY unexpected! Anyone who loves a good book would like this one! When eleven yr old Amelia finds out her dad died in a fire she thinks nothing could be worse, but when she finds out that she can't live with her soon to be stepmom (who is really nice) she is Very disapointed, but things get worse, she has to live with her cousin basil (in New york soo faraway from london)(her real moms cousin) whom she has never met! but its not cousin basil himself who comes to acompany her on the ship from london its his sister, who barely ever talks and is about as MEAN as you can get, but things get worse when they finally get to NY, the lady abandons her (cousin basils sister) and her new friend that she made on the ship has already left, primrose. so a kindly old lady takes her in so she can be fead and finally get some sleep, but nothing is as it seems she is now a prisoner again! Tricked Again! But this time by an old lady! This book has a suprising ending! I love it!

I HAVE READ THIS BOOK, AND THERE IS NOTHING I WOULD SAY TO DISCREDIT IT, AS IT WILL ULTIMATELY BE HELPFUL TO SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST. I CAN SAY THIS AS A PERSON WHO HAS HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO READ THE ORIGINAL VERSION IN ENGLISH TWICE, ONE OF THE TWO WHICH THE BOY lord napier STOLE FROM ETHIOPIA.THIS MODERN VERSION IS THE SKELETOL REMAINS OF THE ORIGINAL, AND IS PORTRAYED IN A MORE ACADEMIC FORM WITH ALL THE ALLEGE MYTHS AND LEGENDS REMOVED, NO DOUBT THIS IS WAY THE AUTHOR WANTED TO WRITE IT. I AM OF THE OPINION THAT THE ORIGINAL WITH ALL IT'S MYTHS AND LEGENDS IS SWEETER THAN HONEY, ALSO TO ME IT IS THE SWEETEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ AND MY LIFE HAS BEEN ENRICHED HAVING READ IT .

Three cheers for Miguel Brooks for making available for English readers this text of classic Ethiopian History/mythology. This is an interesting account of the great love affair of Solomon and Sheba and the rise of their son King Menelik I.

Overall, it makes for a good read. Biblical lore is mixed with Ethiopian history and legends.

This is an important work, since Ancient African Mythology (aside from that of Egypt) are so litttle-known in the west. This holds up quite well even without comparisons to Greek Mythology and other European Epics.

This, the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, and the Sundiata Epic are the best Ancient African Epics I've read (so far). When John Hunwick's translation of the Tarikh Es Sudan is available at a lower price, I'll be on the hunt for that too!

As a lover of biblical legends and a peripatetic scholar in the subject area, I encountered a copy of the "Kebra Nagast" while following some thoughts on the travels of the Ark of the Covenant. I have suspected that the Ark had made its way to Ethiopia some time in Israel's history. This was the thesis of Graham Hancock in "The Sign and the Seal," and I expected "The Glory of Kings" to reaffirm that belief. As is often the case with this sort of literature: it does and it doesn't.

Set down some time in the 11th Century, the "Kebra Nagast" is the history of the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon, the birth of her son and the eventual removal of the Ark to Ethiopia. It is a remarkable document that shifts from testament style writing to Gnostic Christianity repeatedly. Its aim is to prove that the line of Ethiopian Kings is heir to the throne of David. This is certainly a possibility since there has been a significant Jewish presence (currently referred to as the Falashas) in Ethiopia for several thousand years.

There are several things to keep under consideration while reading the "Kebra Nagast" story of the travels of the Ark. The chiefest of these is that the "Kebra Nagast" was set down during a period of extreme turmoil in Ethiopian history. This was a time when Jewish and Christian and Moslem forces were vying for power, and the "Kebra Nagast" was of vital importance in establishing the legitimacy of the line of Kings that was eventually to include Haile Selassie. As such its real focus was on who was the rightful King of Ethiopia, and the story of the Ark is really an evidentiary tale.

Secondly, the "Kebra Nagast" is an effort to explain why the Falashas, who brought the Ark into Ethiopia, had lost control of it. Unfortunately, 'The Glory of Kings' explains this as the result of the horrific sinfulness of the Jews. Written at a time when there was little sympathy for Jewry, the story has strongly anti-Jewish sentiments. I don't believe that this is true in modern Ethiopia, but it may make many readers quite uncomfortable with the text.

I mean no disrespect. The "Kebra Nagast" is an important text for members of the Rastafarians and should be treated with the same honor one would give to the sacred writings of any other group. The books mix of mysticism and explanation is a fascinating insight into the Medieval world in places other than Europe, and should help to convince many that culture was alive and well in many places that we often label otherwise.

Whether you decide to believe the "Kebra Nagast" instead of one of the other legends of the Ark is a personal decision. But I think this document contains much that would interest all those who seek more information on the Ark and its related legends, as well as the stories of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The quality of the translation is excellent. Also provided are two informative sections on the history of Ethiopia and to the Falasha themselves.

A good read for a dark and stormy night (with a nod to Bulwer-Lytton there), or any time you might want a book evocative of one.

Skip Brooks's "Monteith's Mountains: Death Stalks the Southern Appalachians" covers a lot of ground; its range deals with a crucial time in Appalachian history, the development of the logging industry, and multiple individual stories -- stories of self-exploration and self-discovery.

Against the sublime backdrop of the rolling Great Smoky Mountains, themselves a powerful presence throughout the novel, Brooks artfully crafts his tale, seamlessly interweaving history with narrative and bringing to life an era long gone. Long before the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian mountains were a place where beauty and terror coexisted. The laws of humankind did not apply. It is into this surreal world that Brooks introduces the character of Walker Tom Monteith, a serial killer who hears the voice of Jesus.

Born to Black John Walker, a fiery preacher who had multiple wives and founded his own colony with his extensive family, Walker Tom Monteith was one of his many children. At a young age, Walker Tom experiences a "communion" with Jesus; blessed with what he interprets as a divine connection, Walker Tom proceeds to carry out his bloody path in life. He is a being without conscience, lurking in the darkness and luring his guileless victims towards their demise by preying on their weak human natures.

The other characters in the novel also play integral roles. Two primary characters are Taylor Henry and David Brant. Taylor, a small woman with tremendous business sense and a quest to fulfill her destiny in the Great Smokies, is a major player in the narrative structure. Her love for Brant, a half-Indian on his own spiritual quest -- and fleeing the wrath of Walker Tom after witnessing the latter commit murder -- gives a fairy tale quality to the story. And, as with many fairy tales, the narrative comes full circle in the end. Brant, representing the emerging world that created the Great Smoky Mountains we know and treasure today, is pitted against Walker Tom, a violent symbol of the era when no rules could exist within the mountain world and an individual lived by their own morals and convictions. The novel's ending juxtaposes the two sides to the personality of the Appalachians and leaves the reader with an appreciation of their solemn magnificence as well as the dangers hidden beneath the foliage.

Guaranteed to intrigue, Monteith's Mountains is an interesting sojourn through the Appalachians of a century ago and into the lives of the people who braved to make a life amidst their savage beauty.

Brooks makes his villian/victim as scary as Hannibal Lector and, and if anything, more believable. Walker Tom Monteith is like a wild animal -- beautiful, but dangerous. The background of the southern Appalachians at the beginning of industrialization is almost as scary as the fictional serial killer plot -- and it's real. You understand why the characters act the way they do, but at the end you feel that we've all been lucky to survive.

This book was heartwarming and the main character, if sometimes annoying with her "heartless" behavior, is likable. Besides Noreen though, the author has interesting, 3D suporting characters: Wesley Cuthand, Noreen's boyfriend, and the many inhabitants of the town Noreen stumbles upon at the beginning of the book.
Very much like Where The Heart Is, this book is about a stranger who walks into town one day, and changes the lives of the people who live there.

Noreen is a seventeen year old girl who has had a rough beginning in life. Her mother, whom she calls "Amazing," is quite the opposite, and her step-father, whom she calls "Stupid-head," is exactly that. Noreen moves out to live with her step-sister Gladys and her husband to get away from her home-life. In True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, Martha Brooks tells of one girl's struggle for acceptance and a place in the world.
One evening while Noreen is walking along the highway after leaving her most recent boyfriend, Wesley, a truck driver, picks her up. He falls in love with her immediately. After spending a few nights in a hotel room together, Wesley and Noreen go tell Gladys, who has been worried about Noreen's whereabouts for days, that they are moving in together.
Noreen carries on a boring life with Wesley. He goes to work and comes home while she basically stays in bed all day. One day she finds a coffee can full of money and decides to clean up the house. Noreen begins to spend Wesley's money and when he finds out, he is furious. The next day Noreen takes the rest of the money, her belongings, and Wesley's truck and leaves.
She drives through a storm and ends up in a small Canadian town. She walks into a café and all of her problems come out. The owner of the café takes Noreen under her wing and tries to help her. Noreen ends up nearly killing their dog, setting fire to her temporary living quarters, and tearing down a wall in the café. Through all of this she finds out that she is pregnant with Wesley's child. Once again Noreen picks up her belongings and disappears. Only this time she comes back.
The book takes the reader through the mind of a troubled teen who is struggling to grow up. It also reveals the troubles from the past that many older adults deal with. Together Noreen and the people she meets at the café help each other out. It also shows the true power of love and friendship.
Brooks writes the novel freely which makes it an easy read. It holds the reader's attention, and tells a powerful story at the same time. She reveals many of life's hard-learned lessons through the encounter of total strangers. This is an entertaining and influential book for early teens through adults.

But I shouldn't have been. Martha Brooks is a wonderful author, and this book lives up to the high standard set by BONE DANCE.

I often have trouble sympathizing with characters like Noreen, who I sometimes find annoying. But this story drew me in completely and made me care about what happened to everyone. The characters of the elderly women were excellent additions to - it's not every day you find perspective like that in a YA novel.

I like bittersweet endings.

Porter writes as if the North was never wrong, its commanders never fooled or mistaken, its armies never disspirited, and that the Union campaigns always succeeded. We all should know better. According to Porter, every time the Confederates didn't hold a field they were "repulsed handsomely." Every time the Union didn't hold the field, they were merely "compelled to retire." You will see these gross aberrations throughout this stale and shoddy work. His characterizations add nothing fresh about the famous personages surrounding him, and certainly his military perspective offers less in quality of insight than the diary of any Union private. There are many great books on the Civil War by the figures who fought it: this one can wait until you've exhausted everything else.

I read Grant's "Memoirs" on the recommendation of a cigar-chomping friend. It was a revelation. I began reading with ambivalence about Grant. By the time I was finished, he became a hero for me, for entirely unexpected reasons -- the clarity of his writing, for one; his modesty and straight-forward manner, for two others. I followed it with other volumes about Grant (including Bruce Catton's set) but it wasn't until another friend whom I discovered shared my feelings for Grant's genius recommended Horace Porter's "Campaigning with Grant" that I discovered an equally satisfying successor. Horace Porter's "Campaigning With Grant" is the next best thing to Grant's "Memoirs." Again, the clarity of writing, the descriptions of Grant's decision-making process, the anecdotes from the Wilderness Campaign on through the sieges of Richmond and Petersburg, and on to Appomatox come as a revelation -- at least, in part, when you realize this is one of those "source documents" all the great historians of the era have relied upon.

Apparently Porter assisted Grant in writing his "Memoirs" although there is not much (if any) dispute that Grant wrote them himself. While this may explain some of the similarity in style and substance, it probably says more about "like minds" than anything else. No matter. This is well worth the read and very rewarding.

If you had to read one book about U.S. Grant as a man this is it. Horace Porter knew Grant quite well and thought he book was written in 1896, it still retains a vibrancy and modernity to it. Porter wrote the book in an almost conversational style which is entertaining and interesting. Do you want to know how much Grant weighed or how tall he was? What kinds of foods he liked? How about a description of him necking with his wife in full view of Lincoln and his staff officers? Look no further than between the covers of this remarkable book. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down!

I realize that I am going against the grain in not praising Wild's _Fox_ as most reviewers in right and proper journals have done. Indeed, _Fox_ was named the Best Picture Book of the year in Wild's native Austraila. It is not popular to pan a book lauded by the experts in the field, however, I feel that _Fox_ deserves another, more realistic evaluation.
This deeply depressing picture book relies on gimmicky fonts and cliche to tell a story which most closely allegorizes an extra-marital affair rather than a betrayal of friendship as reviews have suggested. Not that there is anything wrong in doing so, but the book ends much too quickly, almost like a sitcom, seeking to solve the problems of the world in 1/2 hour. In the last page the book that attempts to be a commentary on betrayal, friendship, etc., quickly deteriorates into nearly a "happily ever after" complete with a "jiggly-hop!" My review will not be popular, but I urge readers to take a look at the book once more and decide for yourselves; don't just praise a book because the "experts" have done so.

This book is similar to a Shakespeare tale, leaving you with questions and urging you to imagine what will happen after the book is closed. I recommend this book for all middle school and high school age teens. It opens up discussions on friendship, betrayal and trust: concepts that are of great importance at that time.

Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks's Fox is a children's picturebook originally published in Australia. Written in shaky, printed script as if penned by a young child, and illustrated with powerful color drawings with just a hint of abstractionism to their art, Fox is an immersive tale of a one-eyed dog, a magpie with a burned wing, and a jealous fox who tries to end their friendship. A moving story, told in an unforgettable artistic medium, makes this unique book a children's classic.

There's no shortage of originality in Peter Brooks' recent foray into the confessional act. Indeed, "Troubling Confessions" is a kind of sui generis text on the place of confession in Western Culture, and as such it bears absolutely no resemblance to other and earlier critical treatments of confessional literature. What's remarkable, looking back on the rich tradition of literary and cultural scholarship that came out of Yale during the 70s and 80s, is that nobody even *thought* to broach exactly these questions. That a work so plainly underivative should appear now, after the long and arid years during which the Yale school had grown into a pale and emaciated shadow of its former self -- well, it gives one pause. And one could justifiably argue that this is the effect of Brooks' oeuvre as a whole, which, if read cover to cover, induces the kind of silence from which even the keenest intellect can scarcely be roused.

For those with a general background in literature and in law, this book is straightforward and easy to follow. The book explores the complicated act of confessing in a myriad of contexts, greatly enriching the reader's understanding of this most troubling speech act. When so much "scholarship" in the nascent field of law and literature is banal, a profound work such as this one gives the entire field much needed legitimacy.

Those with an interest in law and literature have awaited this book, and for them there should be no disappointment. From a variety of perspectives, Brooks reflects on the extraordinary value that Western culture places on the act of confession, and the equally extraordinary problems that Western culture has assessing individual confessions. We want confessions, yet we are equally suspicious of them. Brooks' method for examining this cultural ambiguity is to juxtapose literary and legal traditions of confession (the religious tradition also receives significant attention). By juxtaposing these traditions, Brooks argues that we can better see the demands that are made of confession in Western culture, as well as the demands that confession, in turn, makes of us as members of social communities and as individuals. His interdisciplinary moves are skillful, his historical and legal glossings are accessible, and his readings of literary texts (and films) are smart. The chapters can be read individually, allowing the reader to jump around at will. Chapter 1 looks at how the Supreme Court has tried to address the problem of confession, primarily through Miranda. Chapter 2 looks at the relationship between the confessor to the confessant in various contexts -- law, literature, religion, psychoanalysis. Chapter 3 looks at the problem of the voluntary vs. the coerced confession with a close reading of Culombe v. Connecticut. Chapter 4 discusses how the religious tradition of confession affects modern understanding of identity and selfhood. Chapter 5 addresses the law's difficulty addressing psychoanalytic concepts of truth, identity, guilt, and victimhood. Finally, Chapter 6 sums things up by looking at what motivates or compels an confession at all. Among other literary works, Rousseau's Confessions, The Brothers Karamazov, Alfred Hitchcock's film I Confess, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Camus' The Fall make extended appearances. These texts are hardly obscure, and neither are the general outline or the finer points of Brooks' argument. Very helpful to anyone interested in confession, narrative and rhetoric, or the general relationship between law and literature.

If you like playing mini gods then this book is alright. If you like this book then let me suggest Secrets of the black hand for vampire. Do you think your enemys really stand a chance if your mage can creat your own univers...

Hey peeps, this is actually a good book, basically it's telling you all about those who dont achieve ascension, and nolonger can, by making any of the characters in the book or following any of the paths in it, you can no-longer achive ascension even the oracles, failed in achieving the thing the game is mainly about.

Although I would never let a player have so much power as to have spheres above 5, it was intresting to read about the Arch-spheres. Plus it clarified the whole Oracle,God,Archmage thing. All of which are cool concepts and could make for intresting plotlines. such as if a player manages to get his Arete up above 7 as a gift from his storyteller (geez it's hard to do) it could be intresting to have to go on a search for one of these GREATER beings and garner some knowledge from them before they can complete a seeking. Accually thinking about it I would possibly allow players to get up to lvl 6 spheres just because it takes 5 years worth of study and practice to gain it and every dot above. I guess if a player had spent that much time and effort into getting the darn dot I'd let him have it, but it may take a year real-time for 5 years to go by in my games anyways.

Sorry rant. Great book though.

After reading this book I have concluded that the two authors, Mongo and Bongo, are the real numbskulls. Who are they kidding? I work as a Y2K analyst at a municipal utility. Our remediation has already been complete. Nearly all government agencies have updated there systems for compliancy. And the year isn't even half over yet. Don't jump on the bandwagon and line the pockets of these shysters.

WHY NOT FIVE STARS (*****)? Because I found several grammatically mis-spelled words, especially relating to the use of "effect" vs. "affect".

Understand that I am one of those guys who looks for anamolies in movies.. like the lightbulbs in "Titanic" or the polythelyne-wrapped loaf of bread on the refrigerator in "October Sky".

---------------

These guys have done their homework and then some.

The first half of the book gives the novice an opportunity to apply their God-given 10% of available brainpower to reach their own conclusions about the enormity of the effects of the Y2K bug on our society. It is factual, technical and as in-depth as anyone would care to go. Sooner or later though, the reader will "get it".

Much of it can and will be safely skipped by non-technical minds. At the same time it does NOT hide or mask the high probability of what is VERY likely to happen. This is ideal information that filters through for the person in denial or the person who up to now, simply has no grasp of societal collapse due to technical incovenience multiplied to the tenth power. It doesn't FRIGHTEN, it informs and prepares one to take action.

The SECOND half of the book makes very practical suggestions as to what that action should be.

MONGO - is the "gorilla" down the street. He is the third person that the author uses as the truck driver, warehouseman or biker type that we all can identify with but who more importantly, NEEDS the diaper he is dressed in. Mongo has probably just read the first half of the book.

MONGO represents the division of labor in our society. He is the guy you and I are probably going to have to take care of because he hasn't seen or heard a newscast since the whole Monica Lewinskyi thing started.

This part of the book is full of VERY well thought-out measures to prepare for Y2K.

Buy it. Buy the book. Buy several copies and share them.

I am about to mail my copy to my parents, who are approaching their 80's. I have been informing them of Y2K since last August. They remain in denial and don't want to hear anything about Y2K, much less the idea of moving to the country with us. I know that if they read this book and STILL remain in denial, that I will have to abandon them to thier fate in the city. May God bless them.

God Bless Mongo, too. God Bless you, and may God protect us all. =========================END

I have read this book cover to cover. It is a very good book for anyone asking "What is Y2K and how should I prepare?" I think everyone should educate themselves about Y2K and then make up your own minds. This book is a good place to start.