Having read this tiny little gem, I can tell you that I'm not even sure why I liked it so much. Maybe it was because I loved seeing a warm friendship develop between two total strangers. Maybe it was because I loved the dry wit of Helene and the staunch Britishness of Frank. Maybe it was because I liked hearing about the WWII years, how the people of Britain sacrificed, and how one caring American woman made a difference to this small group of Britishers.

One note: this is the only book I have ever read that is truly enhanced by the video. Read the book, then rent the movie. Anne Bancroft is the perfect Helene and Anthony Hopkins is brilliant as Frank.

The correspondence runs from 1949 until 1969, during which time Helene and the people at 84 Charing Cross Road exchange Christmas gifts and news of their families, but never meet. At least in the early years of the correspondence, almost every year Ms. Hanff states her intention to come over to visit England, but something always comes up to prevent the trip.

In 1969, one of Hanff's letters to Frank Doel is answered by another member of the firm, informing her that Frank Doel has died.

This is a beautiful book, which can be read in 45 minutes. I suppose every reader will take his or her own lessons from the book, but here is mine: If there is something you really want to do in your life, then DO IT when the opportunity arises. Time is finite. If you keep saying, "Maybe next year," there will eventually come a time when there IS no next year. It is a painful tragedy that Helene Hanff never got to England to meet Frank Doer and the other people at Marks & Company, and that poignant sadness is what stayed with me after I had closed the book.

Don't read this collection with the expectation that you will get an in-depth view of the characters' lives. Read it as a way of discovering how simple it is for human beings to drop their defenses and treat one another with respect, civility, humor, and openness. Read it when your hope for humanity is at its lowest.

"84, Charing Cross Road" reminded me of Jan Struther's "Mrs. Miniver." I believe "Mrs. Miniver" was originally published as a series of newspaper articles. When collected into a book, it was rightly or wrongly perceived as a novel. Readers who see it as a novel usually have complaints about it's structure and seeming lack of plot (if this is what you desire, you can always rent the movie). Read as a collection of finely crafted observations of daily life in England during World War II, it's a moving tribute to the strength and durability of the human spirit. "Miniver" and "84, Charing Cross Road" make great back-to-back reads.

This is a must-read for fans of Mr. Evans and it shall receive a place of honor in my library next to the "Christmas Box" series I own. Read and enjoy!

Faye, the love of his life, is from an upper class family that puts the value of a dollar and breeding on a pedestal that Michael falls short of. When Michael finds himself accused of a terrible crime he learns just how alone he really is. Faced with choices that are near impossible to make, he is guided as well as saved by the wisdom of this older woman that has come into his life.

This is an excellent story filled with inspirational quotes and bits of hard won knowledge from Esther's journal. The sequel is titled "The Carousel" and is a continuation of the lives of these extraordinary characters. Evans is the well-known author of "The Christmas Box" series that also includes, "Timepiece" and "The Letter". 3/4/01

I will never be the same after reading this book. My future friends, husband and children are going to have a better Karen because of this deposit of wisdom that has been placed in my Spirit. I suggest you get a journal and write to your heart cries. You will be amazed how much it will show you about yourself. Don't rush. Take your time to see your own sparkles (and rejoice in them) and evaluate where the Master Jeweler needs to buff out the impurities.

Take one vast, timeless rain forest. Season with sacred plants. Add thousands of Indians and one intrepid explorer. Cook at tropical temperature for 12 years. The astonishing and tasty result is Wade Davis' ONE RIVER.

In the late 1930's, Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes was responsible for major scientific breakthroughs regarding plant hallucinogens in Mexico. His next field assignment, to identify botanical sources of the deadly arrow poison, curare, immersed Schultes in the savage beauty of the Colombian rain forest and its indigenous Indian cultures. Totally captivated, Schultes remained there for the next 12 years.

This true story of Schultes' explorations is compelling, and he's a guide we gladly follow. Quietly heroic, Schultes thinks nothing of paddling thousands of miles down uncharted rivers, navigating white-water rapids that bend his boat in half, stepping on poisonous snakes, and contracting near-fatal tropical diseases. All the Indians he encounters accept him with alacrity, and within a few hours he is often half-naked, painted and feathered, ingesting sacred plants, singing and dancing with his new friends until the dawn. Not exactly what one expects from a politically ultra-conservative Harvard academician.

Like lianas in the jungle, ONE RIVER's many stories intertwine: the travels of Schultes' predecessor, Richard Spruce, whose spirit infused his own; the rise and fall of the ancient Inca Empire; Schultes' crucial impact on the development of wild rubber during the rubber crisis of World War II; adventurous field research on coca, the "divine leaf of immortality," by Schultes' students, author Wade Davis and Timothy Plowman; and the historic role Schultes played in launching the psychedelic revolution of the 60's.

As we wade deeper and deeper into the Amazon, magical efflorescences delight us: a legendary Blue Orchid; "river dolphins"; an ancient Inca city shaped like a puma; the Kogi tribe, who believe the sun weaves existence, like a cloth, on the loom of the earth. And in the shadows we confront the atrocities committed against the Indians on the rubber plantations of El Encanto ("the Enchantment").

Rich and vibrant, meticulously researched, ONE RIVER is a brilliant amalgam of natural science, history, anthropology, and one hell of an adventure story.

In the same way the Indians trace their lineage from the original Anaconda, or from the Son of the Sun, Wade Davis traces the ethnobotanical lineage of the teacher he reveres and the irreplaceable friend he has lost -- from Richard Spruce to Richard Evans Schultes to Timothy Plowman. Although, modestly, he fails to acknowledge his own position in the sacred lineage, we know better. Thousands of years ago an Inca ruler created a city embodying a puma. And Wade Davis wrote a book that's an Amazonian rain forest.

Davis does a marvelous job of melding his and Schultes adventures in interlocking chapters. The tale of the mission to secure a supply of rubber during the war and the subsequent loss of the incredible genetic library that Schultes founded and was subsequently destroyed by bureaucratic bumbling is classic and tragic.

A wonderful read, highly recommended.

Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans organize this book in an easy to read fashion. Yet the writing is not dry at all. The exasmple are explained with many real world examples and even in a fun friendly manner. Kaye and Evans encourage bosses to communicate effectively with their workers. They stress the importance of having retention meetings and getting feedback from key employees. Also important is creating a professional but fun work environment. Overtime may be necessary to complete key projects. But reward employees with a festive meal or a sporting actiity. It never hurts to mentor these key employees and to get to know their personal lives a little without infringing on their space.

Also key to this book is an outline illustrating how the loss of one critical employee effected the attitude of a particular department and even the company as a whole. This recessionary economy will soon lift and many employers need to realize that layoffs and rigid policies will only restrict organizational growth. An excellent resource on many levels.

One would have to say that the success of this book is truly a miracle. And it is this very sucess which Evans addresses in his new book titled The Christmas Box Miracle. Part memoir, part philosophy, in this book Evans offers his readers the story behind the writing of The Christmas Box, which was intended only as a gift for his two small daughters.

Evans begins this book by discussing his basic philosophy and the premise that there are forces at work, some known and some unknown, which alter our lives. He then depicts his large Mormon family and the prophecy of hsi grandfathers who said that, "He (Evans) would walk among noble men and royalty." He describes his fathers lucrative job and the material lives his family was afforded and then his fathers loss of his job and their move back to Utah. Moving on to his college years, Evans relates sevevral instances when divine intervention led him to decisions whih altered his life. And in some instances even saved his life. Finally and for me the most intersting part of the book is when Evans explains to readers how a small book which was originally self published and handed out to 20 family members and friends became a number one bestseller and continues to be sold around the world.

As I finished The Christmas Box Miracle, I thought about the role of miracles, angels, faith, dtermination and most of all the greatest gift in our lives, the gift of love. Mr. Evans always supplies these basic themes in his books and offers his readers hope during devestating times and even healing from life's cruelest blows. May he continue to reach out to audiences and spread these messages.

Evans was born into a middle-class Mormon family with several kids, who moved to Utah when he was still quite young. We get both visions of his family: the lighter side, with his rambunctious siblings and childhood antics, and the darker side, how his mother miscarried when he was a toddler, and suffered from severe depression that resulted in a failed suicide attempt.

A great influence on Evans was his grandfather, an immensely faith-filled man who predicted once that Evans would "walk with the royalty of this earth and be known as one who loves God." A prediction which has since come true. The book then follows Evans in his careers as a missionary, a member of a newspaper staff, working for a tux rental agency, and so forth. It also follows him into his marriage with Keri, his wife (an interesting detail is who her crotchety father inspired *wink*). But after two of their children were born, it turned out that he was "trading diamonds for stones," working too hard and missing out on his children.

Then, after the folding of his agency, Evans wrote a short novel that has now become famous, reaching across political, religious, age and financial barriers. "The Christmas Box" strongly affected everyone who read it, to the point where people were sending orders into bookstores for a novel that had, technically, never been published. His trip into publication was more than a success story, when it became a helping point for those who had lost a child.

It may be viewed as a mere coincidence that this book came out around the time of the WTC attack, but I doubt Evans' grandfather would see it so. This book is truly inspiring, especially given the short letters from people whom it has deeply affected, from across the world. (I, personally, have never lost a child but I was deeply traumatized by the loss of a baby brother, and "Christmas Box" helped me through that rough time) We are also given a look inside Evans' head, and the power of God that he's felt in his life.

As in his fiction, Evans is very spare and evocative in his descriptions, and very poetic in his speculations. There's an undercurrent of wry wit to this book, such as the passage where he relates how his brother got him to read classic authors by saying, "Chicks dig Shakespeare." He also displays that success has not swelled his head, as he seems to have no problem relating that So-and-so and Such-and-Such did not like him, his problems and insecurities.

The book also gives background into the many people who were deeply touched by the Christmas Box (including the person who said that he was too young to have written such a book), and to the Angel Statues. I hadn't previously understood the meaning of these statues, and it's very moving when I did learn what they were for.

Maybe this story is even more inspiring than the Christmas Box, because it is REAL. I strongly advise everyone -- especially people who have read his other books -- to read this book.

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

What makes this book unique in it's portayal of the General and the events surrounding the famous last battle is that Evan S.Connell, who is primarily I believe a novellist, approached this topic with absolutely no agenda of his own on the subject.

Whilst this may not satisfy many historians it makes for great reading!! Making this a book ideal for somebody new to the subject wanting to learn more or the learned reader who just wants to be entertained and not swamped with complex time theories or arguments over the size of the village etc. There are plenty of books on the market that do this much better but not all are always as enjoyable.

Connell just reports on various different accounts in an easy going prose without really putting his own slant on the proceedings. He simply just writes about Custer, Benteen, Crazy Horse et all, giving examples of both the good, the bad and the downright ugly in all of them.

It is left to the reader to make up his mind on the events and actions of those who took part in them. Too many historians come to this powerful and contreversial subject with their own ideas on what happened, be it pro or anti-Custer, and this has a tendancy to sometimes, neccessitate a need to distort or bend the facts accordingly.

Refreshingly you come away from this book wanting to know more about the protaganists involved but without having a biased opinion on them. The General himself comes over in a fairly good light considering at the time of publication his character was probably at it's nadir.However Connell also shows up the darker side of the man that made him the paradoxical figure he was and why he remains so fascinating even after all this time.

Indeed what the book clearly shows is that what makes this such an enduring legend in America's history is that arguably it's most famous, or notorious, soldier left his mark not by a glourious victory but rather(as it was thought of at the time)a fairly ignominious defeat.What Connell does do is also give the credit where it's due to the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes at the Little Big Horn who actually won the battle that day, which tends to get forgotten in a lot of literature ammassed on this subject.

This was the first serious book that I bought on George Armstrong Custer and back in 1984(which I think was the year I got it) living in the United Kingdom there wasn't many books around at that time specifically on this subject. I found it an excellent starting point to begin further and more in depth reading on the General and his last battle.It may seem an odd subject for a Yorkshireman to show an interset in(I think it might be Errol Flynn's fault!!)but this book certainly kick-started a long lasting interst in Custer and that particular area of American history.