"Emily Dickinson is Dead" is one book that I didn't enjoy out of the 4 on my summer reading list...what a slow beginning. The title made it seem like it was a book about Emily Dickinson, but instead it was about a conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her death.... that didn't include women and a fat girl who tried to kill a pretty one (who disappeared anyways) by burning down a building and who ended up being killed...what about Emily Dickinson HERSELF??? THAT'S who I thought the book was going to be about...not a bunch of confused people. I didn't expect it to be a biography or anything, just not what it was.

I chose the book because a friend is an Emily Dickinson fan, I'm a mystery fan, I was charmed by the author's sketches, and delighted by the snippets of Dickinson's poetry. What a fine discovery! The characters are complex, subtle, and interesting. The college town setting is vivid. The plot had unexpected twists and turns that kept me guessing. I learned something about the workings of dams and reservoirs, and I learned something about Emily Dickinson and her poetry, enough so I followed up "Emily Dickinson is Dead" by reading her biography. This was my first Jane Langton book. She has managed to do what a lot of writers only aspire to -- her writing is so transparent I forget the story and setting were coming to me through print on a page.

I have to totally disagree with the previous review. I found this Homer Kelly mystery refreshing and fully of marvelous characters full of human foibles. The descriptions were subtle but often verged on the hilarious. This is the book that hooked me on Jane Langton. It's too bad that the previous reader did not read the dust jacket before purchasing this book. It very clearly identifies itself as a mystery and not an study in Emily Dickinson. It's not surprising that she did not enjoy the book since it mocks stuffy Emily Dickinson scholars. But I found this book to be a skillfully written romp in weakness of human nature.

Although Emily Dickinson is a marvelous poet, this edition is not a good one to buy. The catalogue claims it is printed from "the earliest, most authorative editions" without noting that the earliest editions were heavily edited, eliminating much of what makes Dickinson unusual and brilliant. For example, another reviewer quotes from poem 258, which should read "There's a certain slant of light, / Winter Afternoons-- / That oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes--"; the first editor didn't think many people would know what the word "heft" meant, so he (without Dickinson's posthumous permission) simply replaced it. Get a volume of Dickinson's poems, certainly! But not this one.

I don't doubt that it's possible to enjoy Emily Dickinson's poems in editions like this. But you should be aware that you are not really reading what she wrote. You are reading what earlier editors _wish_ she had written - a sort of 'tidied-up' and regularized version, a badly-tampered-with-text of a genius by those who weren't.

In a way, the situation is a bit like the one that prevails with regard to food. Would you rather eat natural food or genetically modified food? Maybe the modified food doesn't taste any different, but it might be doing harmful things to us that the author of real food never intended. So why take a risk when we can have the real thing ?

There are two major editors who can be relied on for accurate texts of ED's poems. These are Dickinson scholars R. W. Franklin and Thomas H. Johnson. Both produced large Variorum editions for scholars, along with reader's editions of the Complete Poems for the ordinary reader. Details of their respective reader's editions are as follows.

THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON : Reading Edition. Edited by R. W. Franklin. 692 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-674-67624-6 (hbk.)

THE COMPLETE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson. 784 pp. Boston : Little, Brown, 1960 and Reissued. ISBN: 0316184136 (pbk.)

For those who don't feel up to tackling the Complete Poems, there is Johnson's abridgement of his Reader's edition, an excellent selection of what he feels were her best poems:

FINAL HARVEST : Emily Dickinson's Poems. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson. 352 pages. New York : Little Brown & Co, 1997. ISBN: 0316184152 (paperbound).

Friends, do yourself a favor and get Johnson's edition. Why accept a watered-down version when you can have the real thing?

This little gem is a treasure trove of the best of Emily Dickinson. All of her best known works are found nestled within these pages. President John Adams once gave the advice that you would never be lonely with a poet in your pocket. It is so true. I carry this little book with me everywhere, and find myself inspired by the magic within the pages. The poems have been ordered in a logical way either by theme or topic. It includes "Hope" , "The Chariot", "March" and my favorite, "There's a certain slant of Light on winter afternoons that oppresses like the weight of cathedral tunes..." Buy this book if you wear your heart on your sleeve, your passion on your paper and your soul on your solitude.

Tulku, by Peter Dickinson, was not all that great a book. It deals a lot with Buddhism with an unnecessary lead-in. It takes some knowledge, however, to understand the religious parts but is somewhat enjoyable without the knowledge of Buddhism if an adventure without a lot of details is anjoyable to the reader. A Christian boy joins up with an English traveller and her porter and they eventually end up at the rich monastery, Dong Pe, where an oracle says the English woman is carrying the next Tulku, a person of high rank in Buddhism. This book deals with the powers of spirits and the beliefs of different religions, somewhat comparing them.

There is not specifis information as to when exactly this story was set, but certain sections suggest that it was set in the late 1800s. At the beginning of the story, in China, the main character Theodore(or Theo)is all alonebecause his fundamentalist Christian settlement has been burnt to the ground by the Boxers, or the Chinese anti foreign society. Theodore was the only survivor, and among those dead was his father. With his fathers mission destroyed, Theodore has no choice but to flee. As Theodore hide in the nearby woods, he comes across Mrs. Jones, a fiesty good-hearted woman who likes to collect and classify plants. Mrs. Jones invites Theo into her band of travellers and they head off to Tibet while fleeing bandits. Once in Tibet, they meet the Lama Amachi who rules the Buddhist monastery in Dong Pe. He had set out on a journey, as was tradition, to find the Tulku, or the riencarnated spirit of the late Dalai Lama. When Lama Amachi insists that Theo, Mrs. Jones and her Chinese assistant Lung hold the key to his finding of the Tulku, things started changing for Theodore including his beliefs and what he would think to be right or wrong. This story was nicely written and is a very good adventure-historical fiction combonaton. The author compared the Christian and Buddhist faiths with interesting concepts and ideas that wil keep the pages turning. The author is very discriptive, which is nice because it helps you get into the story more and live with the characters. I felt that this was an excellent novel, although the ending was quite weak and fairly unrelated to the story. I also found that the author repeated some words and ideas more often than he should have. For instance, in the beginning of the book, the words "mocking", or "mockingly" were used quite often. Other than that, I found that this was a great book for those interested in religeon, adventure and descriptive stories and I am glad that i came accross this award winning novel. A wonderful love-adventure story that expresses the true power of emotion and the spirit.

This is a good resource, although I prefer Uva's Weeds of the Northeast mainly because of its superior pictures. Some of the pictures in this book aren't very helpful for identifying plants. For example, I couldn't recognize first-year burdock leaves from the pictures. Some common northeastern US weeds are missing too, although that complaint can't also be made from the Uva book. The writeups are good though, and I'm sure it'll be a reference I'll use.

Strangely enough in Canada this book has "CANADA" writ large under weeds with the "& northern united states" in small letters on same cover!! Anyways, I bought this book because it is so clearly indexed by both seedling and adult stage (categorized by leaf type, and then subcategorized by flower color). It has very clear photos, so I am not sure what the other reviewer is talking about. The photos include separate photos of flowers, seeds, whole plant, and sometimes leaves and other distinguishing characteristics (ie leaf attachment in the grasses). There are a few places where a better photo of leaves would help, esp if the plant is in the between seedling and flowering stage.But compared with the three other books I have on weeds, the illustrations are much more precise and easy to reference.

This is definitely a book written for crop farmers, since there is more information on how much it depreciates crop yield ("Reasons for Concern"), than how to get rid of the weed for gardeners.However, I think that once you can identify a weed, it is very simple to find info (chemical, organic etc) on how to deal with it.

One feature that I find excellent is "Similar Species", which includes a photo.I find that this helps remove doubt in identification, or gives a hint where to look if one is mistaken.

Seeing as how I am trying to identify weeds in order to find edible ones rather than eradicate them, I would have appreciated an "edible/poisonous/inedible" designation for each plant. However once I have identified it, I can then refer to a more detailed book such as "Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide: by Elias & Dykeman" to see if the plant is edible and how to prepare it.

The main reason I am giving this book 4 stars vs 5 is that it seems to be lacking some fairly common weeds. I cannot find deadly (climbing) nightshade in it, which grows here in Montreal alleyways. Nor could I find goldenrod (Solidago L.). I really don't understand how such common weeds could be left out.

Basically an easy to use reference guide that is handy to flip through and consult while out in the field.

This reference guide aids in identification of weeds at all stages of growth. The easy to read text is complemented by excellent photographs. A must have if you need to know what the weed is.

The plot of this historical mystery lurches from one improbable point to the next: Confederate women in drag, badly characterized famous people from Lincoln to Rose Greenhow to Oliver Wendell Holmes, and dei ex machinae up the wazoo. Timing and pace here are severely flawed, leaving the reader wondering what just happened and why it matters. The "who did it", when we find it out, is too obvious. Yet characters' behavior and motivations, throughout, are not well founded. The essential theme, that of the Southern Unionist (described by the author as "neutral", inexplicably) who works as a secret agent for the North and whose loyalties are torn, is an interesting one, but it's not enough to keep this rusty ironclad afloat.

Harry Raines is finding life in Washington during the Civil War difficult. A Southerner opposed to slavery, he tries to stay as neutral as possible, even with his new job in the Secret Service. But trouble seems to find him. Someone's shooting at him on the street. Then he's assigned to guard Colonel Edward Baker, one of President Lincoln's best friends. This is a nearly impossible task in the midst of battle, but when the Colonel is killed in cold blood, Harry finds himself accused of the crime. Escaping from jail, he must stay one step ahead of his former co-workers to clear his name.

This novel, like its predecessor, provides a fascinating look at life during the Civil War. Real people are liberally sprinkled throughout, and I greatly enjoyed meeting their fictitious personas. I especially like the way Lincoln is portrayed in his few appearances. The fictitious characters are interesting as well. The plot itself seems to loose its way at times, but all the pieces to come together for a climax that includes some interesting twists.

With the characters being agents and counter-agents, the book takes on the feel of a spy novel at times. Yet, the plot includes enough interesting twists to make it a good mystery as well. Anyone interested in this time period will greatly enjoy this series.

In 1861, the initial encounter of the Civil War is fired at Fort Sumter and the South wins the first real encounter at Manassas. Harrison Raines, son of a Virginia plantation landholder who owns slaves, broke with his family and now resides in the federally controlled Washington DC. Area. In order to prove his loyalty to the northern cause and his anathema towards slavery, Harry allows Pinkerton to induct him as a captain in the newly formed Secret Service.

Few know what Harry does for a living as he acts as if he is a southern sympathizer. When he is almost killed, Harry retreats to his horse farm to wait safely for further instructions, which comes from his friend Templeton Saylor. Harry must go to Ball's Bluff to guard Colonel Baker, who dies anyway in the heat of battle. Harry is accused of treason and jailed, but escapes. He knows he is a man without a country neither the Union nor the Confederacy wanting him unless he can prove his innocence or guilt.

Although this novel is labeled a "Harrison Raines Civil War Mystery," the tale is really more a spy thriller than a who-done-it, though detective elements are in the tale. The plot contains agents, double agents, traitors, and an assortment of support cast abetting the spies. Actions run the gamut with dishonor not uncommon. Michael Kilian's novel contain some of the most fascinating war drama scenes, vividly and authentically described so that the audience can picture Spielberg saving Harry Raines.

Harriet Klausner

While Habegger does provide some original insight into Edward Dickinson, the majority of this book does not present new evidence or new interpretation. The documentation of sources is done terribly (it barely exists), which is not excusable in someone who is a scholar. I realize this book is not written for a scholarly audience, but with the recent problems Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin have had, Habegger should have been much more careful. For the reader new to ED and wanting to know about her, this book will provide all the usual information. What is troubling is that there is a fair amount of speculative commentary provided that isn't well backed up, especially when it comes to ED's relationships with her sister-in-law and her parents. Quite a few assertions are stated as fact but don't have the evidence to back them up. This is the problem with a lot of Dickinson biographies--biographers (most of them scholars) don't seem to feel that it's necessary to explain that a lot of what they say is speculation and not fact; most casual readers won't know this and take everything that's said as not only fact, but fact provided by someone who really knows what they're talking about. Habegger knows more than many, but his material is not presented in a way that is acceptable scholarship because it's mostly his opinion with some quotations taken out of context.

There are also several factual errors, but I'm told these are being corrected for the paperback edition which is due out next month.

I began this book with trepidation, for I find myself slightly suspicious of literary biographies finding them to be either too sensationalized or reductive or too academic to be interesting to the average reader. This is a well-researched volume that does not read like a doctoral thesis. But Alfred Habegger manages to discover a delightful balance between scholarly research and public readability.

I adore Dickinson and was impressed with the manner in which Habegger handled his subject. He presents her with the complexity and intellectual approach toward she deserves. Emily Dickinson appears as neither the bizarre recluse nor a misunderstood sexual being of some of her previous biographies. If, as some readers have found, the poet appears a bit unresolved and incomplete, it is only because Mr. Habegger wisely chose NOT to sensationalize his book with unsubstantiated presumptions as to her personal life. I enjoyed the author's scholarly, non-sensationalist approach to Ms. Dickinson and found that it did not prevent me from "knowing her" as a person or subject.

One of Alfred Hebeggar's greatest strengths is his realization that no artist exists in a vacuum. He presents to his readers the complex outer world that inspired the poets rich inner world allowing us to draw many of our own conclusions. Meticulously researched and gently paced, the book is a journey not merely a chronicle of a single life. Instead, it is an insightful look at the entire Dickinsonian world of family, academics, and petty town politics. Habegger introduces the reader to the poet's entire extended family and the emotional movement within it. He allows the reader to truly see the social and political environment in which the poet lived. And that is fascinating in its own right.

Overall, I enjoyed the book very much and appreciate Alfred Hebeggar's unique ability to strike a balance scholarship and authorship. He is never condescending, yet he explains thoroughly. He treats the reader as an intelligent person with a mind eager for historical details and biographical accuracy and he treats his subject with respect and intellectual dignity. His book is academically valid without sacrificing the art of solid writing.

Beginning with Habegger's inspired choice of the title, from one of Dickinson's poems, this book is a comprehensive, respectful look at an enigmatic woman. Habegger fleshes out well the cast of characters in her self-limited sphere, so that we feel we know well her family members and friends of that Victorian era so different from our own. The poet herself remains somewhat elusive, but I thank Habegger for refusing to reduce her to psychological cliches. His book is refreshingly free of five-cent analyses, however tempting Dickinson's character might be for such dismissive summaries.

There is no doubt that Dickinson ranks as one of the greatest American poets, due to her concise, spare, whimsical, and cerebral approach. Personally, I have never warmed to her poetry as I sense something lacking. She elevates feeling above all, as do all the poets of the romantic period. Unlike her Puritan ancestors, for whom the greatest love was the love of God, her energies and attachments all flow both from, and toward, her own feelings. Like a moonstruck adolescent, she prefers her dreams of love to the actual presence of the loved one. From her decision to withdraw from the necessary order and balance of the outside world, comes this outpouring of intense feeling expressed in the large body of her work.

As a Lay Carmelite whose spiritual life has also been informed by Puritan ancestors, I praise the beauty of Dickinson's poems, but I cannot deny what seems to me their essential, self-referring shallowness. I know many will disagree with me and I do not disallow her position in the American canon.

This book is fiction and yet when I picked it up I thought I was getting the actual diary of Emily Dickinson! The writing is similar to what Emily might have written in her diary but she did not write any of this. The author takes way too many liberties with this title and deceives those of us who are true fans of the immortal Emily Dickinson. Read Emily's poetry instead and you will find a living diary directly from this beautiful woman's life.

Customer reviews prior to this one here, as well as the author and publisher's manner of presention of this book blatantly titled THE DIARY OF EMILY DICKINSON, present a kind of ethical dilemma to this reader and lover of Dickinson's poetry.

Unless literary history has changed mightily while I, like a modern Rip Van Winkle, slept right through it, the fact is that IF Emily Dickinson ever kept a diary or journal, it was either suppressed or destroyed. Probably the latter, by the same friends and family members who heavily edited (and had the audacity to change Emily's words in) the first printings of her poems.

You will note, if you read the reader reviews posted here before this one, that two out of three amazon.com readers believed they were reading a diary actually written by Emily Dickinson herself.

I am frankly distressed by the publication of a book that does not make its fictional nature more obvious and upfront.

I just bought this book to help me do some research on Emily Dickinson and did not realize the "diary" is actually fictional. The "novel" is so well done that you will believe that you are reading actual diary entries written by Emily Dickinson. There are even editorial notes throughout the diary to help clarify the entries. The prologue doesn't even clue you in to this "April Fool's". I was flabbergasted when I was halfway through the book and so happened to glance at the back cover and realized this diary was actually fictional! Very well done! Very well done! No matter, it has helped me understand Emily Dickinson's poetry a lot better . . . Jamie Fuller threads throughout the diary actual events with likely events . . . oh it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant! Bravo! I am laughing hard still from the shock of discovering my error.

The "scientific" information given in the book is grievously outdated and has long since been proven incorrect. It is also fairly incomplete - no cremello, perlino or silver dapple for example, and no composite dilute colors, such as the horse that may carry both a creme gene and a dun gene. The paintings are beautiful, however. There is great temptation to take the paintings out to have framed. ;)
People wishing to learn more about equine coat colors, especially the genetics aspect of things, would be better served by buying Sponenburg or Bowling's book - or even stopping by the UC Davis website, which has a nice section on coat color genetics. (A search on any of the major search engines will bring up the exact address). Jeanette Gower's 'Horse Color Explained' is also a decent book, altough it can be confusing since it was written from an Austrailian perspective.

for the text, no stars. Under the heading 'Palomino' is written..'Pigmentation continues to diminish when dilutes are continuously bred to each other, and the hide of each generation will be less durable and useful until, in a few generations, it finally becomes albino'.
Well, this is news to me.
Palomino breeders will love it, I'm sure, especially as is also written..'Dilutes are undesirable colors in a horse intended for useful purposes'.

I would take the contents of this books with more than 'a pinch of salt', but it makes fun reading.

I have owned this book for many years and refer to it on occasion for information or just read it for fun. I like it for the entertaining way in which it was written and also for the information on horse color. Locally any brown horse is called sorrel around here so it is interesting to see what color a sorrel horse really is. Yes the horse paintings are really beautiful and well worth the price of the book. I find Dr Greens information valuable and admit I have bought most of my horses through the years remembering his advise about color even though I live in the midwest not in the south.

If you are thinking of reading this because you want to read new stories by Peter Dickinson, be my guest. If you want to read this because you've heard that there is a new story about Damar, or you love McKinley's writing don't get your hopes up. This collection is flawed with any number of problems, the two largest being -

Problem number one: Peter Dickinson. I've never read any of his novels but from the short stories I read here, I won't be buying anything by him anytime soon. Boring, plain and simple. Assessment: Taking up valuable space that should feature McKinley.

Problem number two: McKinley is a very gifted writer, her Damarian books are among my all time favorites because she knows how to use language and she creates compelling,action-oriented female protagonists who get to have their fairy-tale wishes come true and have some adventure too. Aerin and Harry are both troubled girls, partly because of who they are. They both go on journeys of self-discovery where they rely on themselves (with a little help from their friends) and conquer their fears as well as their enemies. And that is why her last story, A Pool In the Desert is such a disappointment.

We have a down-trodden daughter Hetta, in a patriarchal household who is being suffocated by her souless existence of cleaning house, taking care of her mother and giving up everything she wants in deference to her father. In a classic McKinley tale, the daughter would discover that she needs to do something, would screw up her courage and take some action to make things better, preferably by getting herself a good horse and a magical sword. Instead she drifts around, passively accepting until she has a dream where she somehow ends up in Damar. Discovering this wonderful escape she longs to return, but isn't able to summon up the resources to do much about it.

So basically she moons after this guardian she meets and mopes around until she manages to fall head first into a pool of water, is magically transported to Damar (back in time, too)and lives happily ever after.

McKinley's newest Damar story basically betrays the wonderful and strong heroines of her past novels and for that there can be no excuse. Hetta is pathetic. She escapes yes, but she doesn't confront her circumstances, actively seek a way out or seem to worry at all about the fate she abandons her younger sister Ruth to. She is the apothesis of everything McKinley's previous heriones have stood for and I can't understand why she chose to write this lackluster, heretical story set in, of all places, her beloved Damar.

The only partially redeeming thing about the story was the twist at the very end, which I won't give away for future readers, as to how her sister discovers that Hetta achieved her escape. The rest of McKinley's stories rate equally low on the disappointment scale in that I didn't care an iota for any one of the characters and was bored.

Assessment: Strictly for hardcore McKinley fans who must read everything she's written.

This book contains six short stories, three by each author. They all have something to do with water and the spirits or powers therein. "Mermaid Song" tells of poor Pitiable, who lives a wretched and abused life with her grandfather, and who discovers a mermaid trapped in a shallow pool by the receding tide. "The Sea-King's Son" tells of a land girl who falls in love with a water man. "Sea Serpent" relates of the woes begotten by a viscious serpent conjured by a woman on her betrayers. "Water Horse" being another oppressed girl who is chosen to apprentice one of the Gaurdian's of their island. "Kraken" relates the tale of a merprincess who rescues a man and his lady love from drowning, only to have to give them and herself up to the Kraken. "A Pool in the Desert" speaks of yet another oppressed girl, who dreams her way into Damar.
I personally had never read any of Peter Dickinson's work, but if these stories are any example, I wont be. His stories are oppressive, and his characters are colorless, his descriptions unenthusiastic. I dutifully read each story in turn, but it was very difficult to keep from skipping his. I absolutely adore Robin McKinley on the other hand. Unfortunatly, her work also seemed to contain a very depressed vein. Her other books make you feel for the characters and the land. They are rich and vibrant, I never wanted "The Hero and The Crown" to end, while I felt like I was slogging through these stories. "Water" should not be used as a judgement of her talent. For the die hard McKinley fans, it ought to be read simply for her contributions which, while not her best, far exceed Dickinson's attempts. If you are looking for Mckinley's short works I highly recommend "The Door in The Hedge" or "A Knot in the Grain". Both of these easily surpass "Water".

I read a lot and most of the books are good, but this one is Awesome! It is cool because it has fantasy and reality combined together to make the most loved tales. It makes you have this feeling inside that you are actually IN the book, not on the couch reading it! I hope you will enjoy it too.

Dickinson is a difficult poet, and one of the main purposes of this book of the life of her and critiques of her poems is to
try to clarify any and all points where the meaning would not be perfectly clear to a reader of reasonable intelligence.
Bill Arnold makes use of poem variants recorded in the Johnson editions which had not come to light. His pages are full, detailed, and extensive, and in addition offer full commentaries on all her love poem. He tells us that his aim was to create a new understanding for the general reader, which would bring these cryptic poems to readers both in America and abroad. He offered, "The untold story of Emily Dickinson's 'Secret Love' can now be told in its entirety. She disclosed their affair and his name via acrostics and anagrams in the tradition of the French court-love poets." It does that and more. As sometimes exasperatingly obscure poems hit you, Bill Arnold details exactly which code unravels the mystery of who was the Master in her life. The poems are preceded by interesting prose passages and the book is rounded out with a biography of the author. It's a compact easy to read book and pleasant to handle. Now, readers can know that her secret love was Sam Bowles, a publisher of the Springfield Daily Republican, and an intimate of her brother Austin. In a book of this nature the problem is always that of trying to strike a balance between giving the reader too much help or too little. Bill Arnold is a Dickinson scholar who has put sufficient details to prove why the scandalous relationship did not surface in Emily Dickinson's lifetime. As the author comments, "Thus, the reason Emily Dickinson remained unpublished in her lifetime becomes self-evident." The secret-love affair is not so shocking as revealing of what her poems mean, and her anagrams do "now make sense." Although Bill Arnold may have given some readers a bit more help than they need, on the whole he seems to have struck a nice balance, and most readers will probably find most of his notes and commentary to be both helpful and illuminating. It is an excellent introduction to those who know little of the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson.

I enjoy Emily Dickinson's poems. This book does justice to her love story. It is a wonderful book which I will share with my poetry friends. It beautifully captures her inspiring life. Now I know why she wrote from her heart.

This is great book for poetlovers. I got mine at amazon. It teels me all i need to know bout the poet. She has got so many good pomes. My but i don understn the nasty rightups some people write. Book makes good cents to me. i wsrite pomes to.