I was very dissapointed when this book arrived. I expected a "Treasury of a Victorian Murder" Instead I found a black and white comic book. I suspect a guy would like this book, but as a woman I found the title misleading. It's just not how I want to have interesting information about the murder conveyed to me. I was hoping for interesting facts and historical photographs. Guess I should have read the other reviews first!

Read the story of the Borden murders like you've never read it before - in comic book form. It's like seeing a movie, or if you really get carried away, almost like being there. The telling of the tale is historically accurate, and each frame enhances what is already a good, condensed version of the crimes. Of special importance are the two drawings Mr. Geary does of the inside of the house. He draws it so simply that it's easy to see which room leads into which with that multitude of doors. A definite read for the Borden enthusiast and a plus for your Lizzie collection.

Mr. Geary... my hat is off to you, sir!

"The Borden Tragedy" is near perfect in all it's pictoral details and facts. I can attest to this as I have actually stayed the night in the infamous guest room where dear ol' step-mommy's bludgeoned body was found, had a lengthy conversation with the Borden historian in Fall River, read the interrogation notes and the police blotter from the time of Lizzie's arrest, as well as having dug up as much information as I possibly could before my actual visit so I would be ready to ask a plethora of questions. I can tell you with absolute certainty: Geary has his act together here.

For those of you that might not be familar with the term "graphic novel", it basically means "a really fancy comic book with lots of words". Be that as it may, Geary managed to cram pack the pages with more information about the Borden case than you can shake a bloody axe handle at. (Granted, there is still quite a bit more to the case... but this is just a comic book designed for light reading!)

The illustrations are beautifully intricate and detailed. All the maps of town and of the rooms within the residence itself are accurate... down to the placement of furniture. Geary introduces briefly throughout the novel many of the alternate theories and possible other suspects to the grisly murders. He has done a wonderful job of recreating the entire series of events that took place that stifling summer of 1892.

Included at the rear of the book are several pages of press clippings of the time as well as Lizzie's Indictment. The back cover has an eerie comparison of the Borden case to that of the Simpson case a hundred years later.

There are about 3 discrepencies I have found within the pages of "The Borden Tragedy", but they are so minute that they really don't bear mentioning. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has a love of comics, Borden affectionados/collectors, or simply anyone wanting a very brief yet still accurate introduction to one of the most famous unsolved crimes in all of american history.

Ok first the good news. I loved Geary's writing style, her characters were very real and her descriptions very poignant.

Now the bad news. I kept turning pages expecting some kind of answers or a conclusion but got absolutely nothing other than some very Budda like statements "If you believe it happened then why does it make a difference if it did or not?". You never find out what happened to Deane, you never find out anything about Sammy. I'm assuming that Alonso and Barnett are angels (can't remember what she called them) but that just makes part 2 and part 3 almost exact copies of each other.

So I would say it was an enjoyable experience up until the end when you realize none of your questions are going to be answered. Some people love endings left open for speculation, others hate them. If you don't hate them, read this book it's good, especially if magical realism is your 'thing'.

This may sound ridiculous,but I wanted to write a review of this book eventhough I can't remember a thing about it!(Time for a reread I guess).Anyway I do have it on a place of honor on my shelf because I never forget the feeling I get when I've read something and my feeling for this book was unadulterated joy!I can't wait for your next work Ms. Geary,it's been too long.

One of my all-time favorites! It's truly a shame this is out of print - so glad to see she's writing a new book.

In his short but complex book Patrick Geary explains why the nomadic migrations of barbaric peoples, combined with the collapse of Roman authority,created a series of weak and temporal political units. To appeal to the diverse citizens of these units (it is hard to call them kingdoms), many of whom were recently absorbed through conquest, leaders attempted to define their cultural identity and unity by appealing to mythic stories of ethnic purity. If the citizens of the unit accpeted the commonality of origin, a sense of superiority over others was created. This served the leaders purpose by providing soldiers for future conquest and taxes.
By contrast, Roman citizens attained their status by agreeing to accept Roman law. Citizenship in the 300s and 400s was expanded to the point where a barbaric Frank or Goth could claim citizenship irrespective of his ethnic origin. When Rome was strong the barbaric tribes were absorbed by it and they took pride in their Roman affiliation. As Rome weakened the opposite occurred; Romans sought protection from their immediated neighbors and the distinction between the Imperial and the Barbaric faded. This movement of people from barbarian to Roman authority and then back to barbarian ultimately changed peoples identity so that they had no real ethnic roots. Attempts by modern populist leaders to claim an ancient historical connection to some mythical forebearers are precisely that-mythical connections that leaders have conjured up since the fall of Rome to separate, and finally legitimize, themselves from others.
Can anyone in France claim that they are truly descended from the Franks, when that terrotory was crossed, invaded, conquered and lost by Goths, Visigoths, Huns, Vandals and other lesser groups all before 500 AD? History creates nations, and people adapt to nationhood for survival. A people's willingnes to recognize themselves as a nation is largely out of political necessity and economic expediency. Geary argues that nations are being formed today,and new arguements to identify and purify a people will be made. They are likley to be no less fragile than the Visigoth nation of the 400's.

A very interesting book, this is really an extended essay. Although three-quarters of his book is a general history of the peoples of late antiquity and the tumultuous early Middle ages, it will provide the laymen an introduction to this period as well as Geary's thesis. I do not paricularly like his writing style, especially the vulgarly emotive conclusion, yet it is an important work. Well-worth the read, I found much to ponder. I hope the Europeans and other peoples who idealize their so-called nationalism will take the time to read it. I am not optimistic.

For her second novel, another mystery/drama, Nancy Geary has returned to the arena of family problems, this time set in a bastion of New England affluence, beautiful Manchester-by-the-Sea, where the family has a home filled with comfort and luxuries. Frances Pratt has spent many happy summers with her aunt's family, enjoying the good life, where the beautiful people are never too rich too thin, or, in this case, too dead. At this level of society, self-protection is second nature, silently closing ranks against any threat to the projection of the successful American Dream. When Frances is invited to her cousin's wedding, she has no idea what drama awaits them all. A former prosecutor now working as an advocate for abused women, Frances is more than ready for a short vacation, as well as the opportunity to reunite with relatives she hasn't seen for years.

Cousin Hope is marrying her longtime sweetheart, Jack Cabot. They are beautiful together, Ken and Barbie come to life. Each detail of the wedding and reception has been planned to perfection, sparing no expense. So Frances is shocked when her cousin, Hope, confides her terrible anxiety before the wedding, agonizing over her imagined unworthiness as Jack's bride. To further complicate the issue, Jack's parents are pressuring the couple to sign a prenuptial agreement, as he is the sole heir to the family fortune. For their part, Hope's parents have sunk the last of their money into the wedding, all to preserve the image that they belong in this rarefied society.

Finally the wedding party has gathered in the church, excitedly watching for the bride to step down the aisle. But such concerns seem trivial when the announcement is made that a relative has died suddenly. The wedding will not take place after all. The guests struggle to make the transition from celebrant to mourner, stunned and grieving.

Frances is asked to help her family through the immediate crisis, but after the police infer that it might have been a homicide, Frances offers her expertise in criminal justice, also at her aunt's request. Acting as an unofficial party, Frances supplies important background information to the detectives assigned to the case. In the course of her involvement, Frances uncovers some unsettling truths that shatter her image of this perfect family, ugly secrets that have undermined and poisoned family relationships. They have all been living in denial, unwilling to discuss or acknowledge the events.

Unfortunately, as Frances learns on this holiday-become-nightmare, family dysfunction runs throughout the family, a strange brew of passion and betrayal. In an engaging style, Geary exposes the secrets of the privileged class, the fatal flaws that have led to the family's disintegration, swept behind the priceless antiques and faded chintz furniture. In spite of the ocean shimmering like a jewel on the horizon and the magic of a Cinderella wedding, Frances' relatives are tormented by their own personal demons, anesthetizing their feelings to protect a false image. Luan Gaines/2003.

Respectfully, I wish to disagree with Harriet Klausner. This is not a cozy mystery. It is a thoughtful mystery by a thoughtful writer who is the Anne Perry of the contemporary eastern old money establishment, a chronicler of the mores and social rules that bind this elite community of the privileged. It is well written and well plotted. It is sedate, which is a perfect match for the environment in which the murder and its resolution occur.

I read Nancy Geary's first novel (*Misfortune*) after friends from the Hamptons (Long Island, where it's set) told me about it. It was great and I've been waiting for this one. *Redemption* is even better, with a clever story, a whodunnit, evocative descriptions of another romantic location, and more of the complex characters Geary creates so well -- children of privilege who are damaged and attractive at the same time.

I REALLY loved it, stayed up late to get the answer, and recommend it as a fun-to-read page turner with characters you'll remember for a long time. Five stars!!!!!

This book is good. It comes with a lot good example code demostrate how to use the swing components. But the author does not talk about more in depth in theory aspect. The book listed constants and methods in a class or a interface. But it does not tell you how to use some of those method. In the book, some of the code just use those method and it doesn't tell why, and those things under. Such as the AbstractAction class.When a user extends a class from this class, the constructor calls super("exit"), but why?

The book is really good if you want to find some swing examples or to have a feel of swing. I would like to give it five stars if it could talk more in theory.

This is, no doubt about it, the top swing book around. Almost all questions you might have about a swing component are answered and if you fell like the java docs don't do a good job at explaining them, this book is for you. All components (i belive) are explained to the extreme (the author even explain the design of it) and there is a usefull table per component explaining which methods in Swing correspond to the ones in AWT, and that is particulary usefull if you need to convert AWT to Swing. There is also a good explanation of the model-view design of the components, which does a good job at explaining the JTree and JTable, the newest and most complex (as an other reviewer mentioned) components of Swing.

One thing this book doesn't cover is the Graphic 2D library, but a new book is suppose to come about it.

Oh yeah, one of the downsides is that this book is VERY heavy and big, but i guess that's the price...

If you use Swing to develop your Java UI's, and who doesn't, unless maybe you're developing an applet, you must get this book. I have several books dedicated to using JFC and none compare to this one. When you need detailed answers as to how or why Swing controls behave as they do you can rely on getting the correct answer from this book. You may read the first couple of chapters then I recommend using the book as a reference. Read what you need as you need it. This is a huge book, 1600+ pages, dense with information and code samples. I refer to this book often. I give this one a strongly recommended. I hope this helps :)

I've been catching up on Wells' work lately, and up to this point, I've been fairly impressed. His best work, written at the turn of the century, holds up fairly well: it's entertaining and thought-provoking (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds).

I wasn't very impressed with this book, however. It doesn't read like his other works. The story probably could have been told in 20 or so pages, definitely a short-story candidate. I was amazed that Wells stretched this out to its present length, as the middle 40-odd pages were quite dull and really didn't go anywhere.

The science behind the story (while iffy, of course), is fascinating. Griffin is a great character, but more could have been done with him, besides his spending so much time having to convince people that he IS, in fact, invisible ("I am invisible. I really am an invisible man", etc, etc). It gets mind-numbing after a while. I guess the biggest let-down of the book is the fact that the title gives everything away. Once you've seen the cover, you pretty much have it; no real surprises. Yep, he's invisible, and there ya go.

What a great idea to assemble scifi icons from Star Trek to perform various H.G. Wells's classics! Of the works they've performed are: The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The First Men in the Moon, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

This audio recording of The Invisible Man was easy listening, and fun too. It's definitely worth a listen. I'm going to have to check out the others!

One side note, obviously the original work was abridged and adapted for audio drama. You'll still want to read the classic.

Okay, so Wells didn't load the book with the violence seen in the recent movie Hollow Man. Consider when the book was written, and what was comparable at the time. I, for one, was engrossed in the book and read it in about three sittings.

Wells excellently portrayed Griffin (Invisible Man) as a man crossing back and forth from sanity to madness. You may catch yourself considering how you would overcome his difficulties, or how you might abuse his power.

What really stood out for me was the tongue-in-cheek undertones Wells incorporated into the story, such as the cockney dialect and rustic behavior of the people of Iping. Also, consider Wells' narration during intense moments, such as the fight between Griffin and the people of Iping...
"...[Huxter's] shin was caught in some mysterious fashion, and he was no longer running, but flying with inconceivable rapidity through the air. He saw the ground suddenly close to his face. The world seemed to splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent proceedings interested him no more."
Later elaboration of the events included the terrifying realization that Griffin was "smiting and overthrowing, for the mere satisfaction of hurting."

If you find the book difficult to follow, try the version adapted by Malvina Vogel, complete with illustrations by Pablo Marcos. It's not as powerful, but easier to understand.

Having read the reviews, I expected a lot of deep information. I was mistaken. It is not a bad book, but if it stands out, it is mostly because the majority of Java authors figure that publishing a poorly documented API is adequate. I'd call this an intermediate level book.

It lacks a permuted index, which is a must for a book like this. A lot of the nitty-gritty information is presented as an aside to demonstrating the examples instead of a well thoughout discussion. Some of these are in the index and some are not.

If you're looking for thorough discussions of the AWT architecture, keep looking. If you're looking for a good discussion of how to use layouts, this might be the book for you.

It helped quite a bit, but the book will get deep quick with not a lot of explanation of how it got there. Yes I have it, read it and like it.

Graphic Java 1.1: Mastering the AWT is the best book that I've come accross, so far, for AWT programming. The book is a little advanced, new Java programmers may find this to be a little difficult. However, at the same time, the book also clearly teaches the new 1.1 event handling model. This is an excellent book for anyone who needs to do Windows programming with Java.

Things have never gone well for Frances and Blair with their stepmother Clio. Their father seems happy, but they feel shut out. Many people had reasons to dislike Clio in the exclusive upscale Long Island town where the Fair Lawn Country Club is the mecca for the rich. When Clio dies during a tennis tournament there are many suspects. Frances puts her job as a lawyer on the line when she investigates Clio's murder over the wishes of her boss. The case develops into a voyage of personal discovery as she uncovers the true lives beneath the facades of the rich neighbors. Frances comes to a new understanding of the patterns of love in her family and in her own relationships. Uncovering the killer brings Frances even more revalations about her own character. The author shows how many faceted our motives and characters are. As Nancy Geary shows us, we rarely understand what drives other people fully, even our own families.

I enjoyed Misfortune and thought it was so wonderfully written with a host of exciting characters.
Cleo Pratt was an obnoxious woman who was not liked by many in South Hampton, Long Island. She did not hide her racial prejudice or the pride she seemed to exhibit to those not as wealthy as she was. She was selfish and thought only about her comforts and her husband's.
It is no wonder when she is found dead in the powder room at the Fair Lawn Country Club, it becomes an extremely difficult task trying to seek out her murderer, for Cleo Pratt has made so many enemies for herself.
You will meet Beverly Winters whom she gossiped about after her husband's suicide; Henry Lewis a surgeon whom she was instrumental in blocking from becoming a member of the Country Club because of his race ; her stepdaughters Blair and Frances whom she treated like second class citizens when they were in her habitation; a partner in their firm Pratt Capital who she wants to squeeze out, and many many more of the high society you will encounter.
Be prepared to have at least a day to two for this page turner. When all is revealed you will see how well written and how cleverly concealed is the murderer ... Happy reading! I loved it!

Nutface
May30th, 2002

I have almost two separate reviews of this book. The first is of interest to all the mystery readers...this is a good mystery, reads fast and almost any of the suspects could have been the murderer.The author did a good job of making the suspects the sympathetic characters.Although at the end, maybe some readers would have felt a little sympathy for the victim which leads me to my second review. I had a stepmother like Clio. Over the years, I have tried to explain this person to others, and no one could or would believe that this woman existed.They always assummed I was just the jealous stepdaughter. Well, Ms. Geary,(the author), must have been a fly on the wall during my life. My stepmother was like Clio except my story did not have such a satisfying ending. So Ms. Geary, wherever you are, I hope Clio is a figment of your imagination because I hate to think you experienced first hand what my sisters and I did, and of course are still dealing with everyday. People don't realize how damaging emotional abuse can be, and how alone children can feel when they can't reach out for help. Even though this is a mystery, I can see myself rereading this book, just for the emotional expressions of the grown stepchildren. So now you understand why I have given this two separate reviews, one that interests the regular readers, and another for those who have had a Clio in their lives.

Wuthering Heights is a disturbingly dark book about love, obsession and revenge. It is a romantic novel full of twists and turns that nearly requires the reader to keep a running dictionary of characters, especially since names have a tendency to pop up in different places and on different people throughout the novel. I read this novel for a class assignment in Victorian Literature but it is helpful to know that the book employs many themes of the Romantic literary genre as well. Victorian ideas of social class are brought up as well as the fantasies of adolescence. Some of the Romantic ideas found in the novels include the idea of the tragic landscape. The landscape of the novel is foreboding and isolated, borrowed most likely from the gothic novel. The characters are extreme in their varying passions and the concept of the dream is used in a type of ghostly communication. One of the story's narrators has a dream of being visited by the ghost of Catherine, which causes a startling and dramatic reaction in Heathcliff. The belief that the reader cannot fully hate Heathcliff because of how he was mistreated as a child is also a Romantic ideal.
The story contains a great deal of darkness and some cruelty, which may turn readers away. Love is often extreme to the point of violence in the novel while the romances themselves are nearly incestuous in tone. Cousins marry and adopted siblings hold lifelong affections and obsessions for each other. The novel also illustrates an element of cruelty that can be slightly disturbing at times. Heathcliff, the novel's antagonist, goes as far as to string up the beloved dog of the young woman he courts after Catherine rejects him.
The main focus of the story is the rather twisted love story element that develops between Catherine and Heathcliff. Heathcliff is adopted into Catherine's family at a young age and the pair become close, though Catherine rejects him because he is poor and instead marries a rich neighbor. Though throughout the novel, other romances develop between the two highly inbred families, they are side stories in comparison to the main romance.
The love of Catherine and Heathcliff eventually develops into an obsession that lasts, and in fact becomes even stronger with the eventual death of Catherine. Her spirit seems to haunt Heathcliff and further fire his obsession. Even before Catherine's death this obsessive love broadens to include an equally obsessive drive to ruin the lives of all the people who mistreated him and stood between him and Catherine, including her husband and older brother.
These obsessions eventually lead to the last of the major themes of the novel, revenge. A good part of the book is spent upon Heathcliff's attempts to destroy the lives of anyone and everyone who mistreated him or got in the way of his relationship with Catherine. His need for revenge does not lessen as the book moves on and Heathcliff continues to take his revenge even upon the next generation, including Catherine's daughter and his own son. Whether or not Heathcliff succeeds in his attempts I leave to the reader.
Personally, I enjoyed this book a great deal, if for no other reason than the simple fact that it was quite different from the usual school assigned reading. I was pleasantly surprised by how well woven and engaging the book was. The calculating lengths that Heathcliff goes to in order fulfill his quest for revenge are nearly reason enough to read the book. The old style language of the book, which I expected to be a hindrance, was hardly noticeable. In short, if you can handle (or enjoy) the book's darker aspects, then I highly recommend this classic to you. (And I'm not just saying that because I have to! ;))Enjoy!

Perhaps it's the winsome imagery, perhaps the profoundly real characters one switches between loving and hating, or maybe even the dry humor that is the style of the British, but Wuthering Heights is my all time favorite book. How can words possibly do it justice...the only way to surely judge it is by reading it. Never before have I been so moved by a story; it might be Heathcliff's overflowing love for Catherine that drives him mad yet, ingenious in his revenge, or Cathy's shallow duty to society that denies her the power to be true to herself (I believe the main point of this novel is to not deny your feelings; go with what you feel rather than what should be), but I always find myself reading it on days I need to be cheered up or am really lusting after a good book. If one's not paying attention, you know, one of those days where you just read to take your mind off of something, it can get rather dull and confusing (the diction isn't as simple as say...Ethan Frome), but if you're concentrating, Bronte's words are so amazingly beautiful, it's hard to put it down. When read aloud it sounds like Shakespeare, and I like Emily's work a lot more than Charlotte's, for some reason. Gothic literature is so peculiar and wonderful: a class of it's own, and she really masters it. At the same time she avoids stereotypes and entertaining happenings (the spectre that appears to the somewhat insecure Lockwood early on foretells the chilling story, while at the same time hinting there is something deeply wrong about Wuthering Heights that needs to be corrected), actually writing the book with a purpose behind it. All the characters have very cool qualities about them; all have the potential to be irritating, but hey, we're all human. By imperfecting her people she has perfected the novel, and I'm so thankful I've had the privilege to read such a piece of art. This book forever remains with me; it's a part of me.

I read what the self-proclaimed "immature" reader wrote, and I beg to differ. I love this book not because I'm supposed to, but because I just do. The austerity of the language, which you term "dull", is what sets the whole tone for such a troubling work. I doubt that Bronte set out to write a classic romance; I believe she was denouncing the sins of her characters. This novel is multi-faceted with its never-ending parallels: two houses (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange), two love stories, two heroes, two heroines, two narrators, etc. The inexplicable love that two heartless people like Heathcliff and Catherine share is fascinating to say the least. When Catherine cries out, "Nelly, I AM Heathcliff," I'm sure many a girl's heart has thudded in her chest. This book sweeps you away to a place and time far removed from us and gives us a view into a harsh and distant world. You don't have to like the book. But don't be so dumb or immature as to assume that no else does either. The longer you study literature, the more you'll see that some books have passed the test of time, because, well, they're just that damn good.

I am currently being forced to read this book for my Honors English class in high school. I've already read it once before for a different class, so I know what I am talking about when I say this book is the ultimate cure for insomnia.

I honestly try to appreciate what is *supposed* to be fine literature, but "Great Expectations" is about as entertaining as watching kale grow. First off, the fact that this book has two endings inspires a bit of skepticism in me. I've never heard of an author so indecisive that he would put two endings in a novel. It creates a generally unsatisfying conclusion, as you're at a loss for which ending to "accept".

Aside from which, this book has enough useless passages to fill a hundred pages or so. It seems that, basically, Dickens didn't quite know exactly what to write about, but felt the urge to *write* *something*. So he wrote "Great Expectations", following the traditional poor-boy formula of his previous 15 or so books.

I find it especially hilarious that none of my teachers have ever even read the bloody novel, but it's "good" according to the curriculum. In the words of someone from a certain other Charles Dickens book, "Bah! Humbug!".

Don't judge Dickens by this book, however. "David Copperfield", for example, even though it follows the same "poor-boy" formula, is worlds better than this.

As much as I'd love to say, "Oh, it's a classic, everyone should read it!", I personally don't think so.

Like many other high schoolers who wrote reviews on this page, I was forced to read this in my freshman english class. I thought it was an extremely good story. The characters (my favorites being Orlick and Trabb's Boy) are brilliant and subtley funny. The story is creative and unpredictible, and overall, it was absolutely supberb. The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars is because it tends to drag a lot of the time, and Dickens overlong descriptions are a bit grating on the nerves, but I DO understand why people would have liked it like that in the 1800's. They liked their books long and juicy. It's a bit dated but Great Expectations is well worth a read if you have the patience. Even if you are impatient, you can not miss this great story and its wonderful characters, so at least see one of the many great movie adaptions. My personal favorite movie version of Great Expectations is the 1999 Masterpiece theatre version.

I spent a whole term going over this book in freshmen English class. It is an overall good book, full of interpritations. There are many symbolisms and allusions. However, it is important to remember that this book was originally a serialization, as it came out every week in the paper. There are some parts when Dickens drawls on with his plans, events, ect. However, there are scenes that are very fast paced and action filled. The overall plot is a young, naive boy of about ten lives with his sister and her simple husband named Joe. However, Pip is given a secret benefactor and is thrust in the life of nobility. Pip is tangled in his probelems of leaving Joe behind and his encouters with the shallow (and I mean SHALLOW) Estella and the wicked Miss Havisham. Dickens is a master with characters and the languege, but he doesn't describe any everyday events. For example, Pip goes to study law, but thats all we know. In my opinion, it gives the characters this higher than life importance, and less real. But, if you take this book slowely, maybe a chapter a night (instead of the five I had to do), you will definately enjoy this book.