I am Ms.Rice's student from Bogazici University in Turkey. I have read a couple of chapters of this book yet, however only that much was enough to take my attention and keep me going on. The things that normally we know nothing and do not really wonder much about is presented in a way that would attract intention from both proffesional and amateur readers. Its language is a little bit difficult but the content is very interesting. It is very obvious that a real amount of effort has been put in creation of this book.

Rice produced a fascinating study of Parisian photography in the age of Haussmannization, when artists predicted and hundreds of thousands literally watched their familiar Old Paris uprooted and its sites of historic memory obliterated one by one. The book makes a nice contrast to T.J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life in its sensitivity to the worldview of the historical agents themselves. Whereas Clark sees in modernist paintings a failure of Parisians to recognize the ongoing class struggle and the embourgeoisement of the proletariat, Rice pays more attention to the actual discourse of mobility, loss of unity, fragmentation of meaning, and a sense of loss of self in this constantly changing "soulless" city. Its inhabitants are alienated in time as much as in space, and the one most sensitive to this change (Baudelaire) acknowledges the degree to which urban space has come to inject social meaning in his most private and intimate affairs: love. The book equally deserves high praise for its beautiful and moving prose. Plus, it has plenty of fun pictures! Rice, without a doubt, lives and breathes the world of the people she depicts. It is the most enjoyable and powerful book I read in this entire school year, and for a grad student in history at Berkeley, that says a lot!

This book begins with the first photograph ever taken, in 1838, in Paris, which co-incides with the beginning of Paris' physical modernisation (under Hausmann in the 1850's). Two parallel tracks: of the development of photography and how that influenced our *viewing* of the physical world; of the development of urban-planned and -modernised Paris and how that influenced our viewing of a city. Both developments began with a difinitive demarcation from the past. I can't remember if I've ever read a *scholarly* anlysis that has been so *lively* and immediate.

Carson Napier has been my favorite Burroughs hero from about page 25 of my very old paperback copy of this book. He has all the heroic charms of John Carter while not quite being as over the top as the Warlord of Mars.

For plotting this book is stock Burroughs and his many imitators. If you loved John Carter try his not quite so wonderful brother. If you love the Green Star novels read the originals (much as the Calisto books are Carter's version of Barsoom so is Green Star Carter's version of Amtor). If you love Norman's Gor, Aker's Antares, or Carter's Calisto then do yourself a favor and read the lesser know inspiration for them.

i loved this book the first chpter was really slow but it picked up on the second, after the scond chapter i was hooked i couldn't put it down i had to know what happed so i ended up reading the whole thing in like a week and this is a big book
i loved every chapter every page ,every thing my favorite part is when the man found his love but he could not see because she was a princes, and how he found his beutiful princes and told how much he loved her, but she could not love him back,but i can't tell you the whole story but there is lot's of battling and alien thing, and if i had any money i would buy my own copy it's so good i just keep reading it over and over.BUY IT

Me parece uno de los mejores libros que he leido, y creo que he leido demasiados. Es un libro que no se puede dejar de leer, me parece fabuloso. Es una combinacion entre accion y amor, creo es una amalgama perfecta.

Dr. John R Rice is a true man of God. Anyone who knew him or read his material knew that he was a man yeilded to God. He knew how to get a hold of God in a real way. He exposes the sin of hypocricy while in prayer and exhorts believers to ask great things from God. This is just an excellent book on the topic of prayer. Just about any John Rice literature is a blessing and a good read.

This book is a welcome antidote to the empty, formalistic prayers we often pray and hear prayed in church today. Rice's faith in God is overwhelming. The introduction alone is enough to drive you to your knees in faith-filled prayer! I gave it 5 stars, but it deserves 6.

This book was like a breath of fresh air to me. At a time when I was hurting emotionally and wondered at God's hand in my circumstances, this book opened my eyes to God's gracious, loving, care for His own. Since that time I have reread it many times and always find fresh insigts on God's character, that He desires (and commands)us to pray, and that it is His very nature to hear AND ANSWER prayer. So often we hear "God always answers prayer, either yes, no or maybe", yet Dr. Rice challenges this thinking, by using scripture to show that all true asking, if it's done according to the biblical guidelines, will receive the answer - exactly what was petitioned. He does make it clear that it is not always God's will to heal, and there is a chapter devoted to praying according to His will, and what that means, as well as two chapters devoted to hindered prayer. But he used many scriptures that challenged me to see that when I am not receiving answers to my prayers, that I need to examine and find out why. Dr. Rice is well-known and respected in Christian circles and is very sound theologically, basing everything on scripture. He also gives many examples of answered prayer from his own life and from other Christians. On a personal note - this book helped my prayer life to go from merely "talking" to God, to knowing how to "petition" Him with my requests, and I can personally testify to many answered prayers, that if I had not had the boldness to ask, I am sure I would not have been blessed by seeing God work out the answers in such ways that I knew it was Him alone that could answer so wonderfully. I have also seen Him answer specific requests for opportunities to share Christ with loved ones, and I can say without a doubt that my God is a "Prayer-Hearing" God. I am confident that Dr. Rice's teaching on the Bible verses about prayer will offer new insight and challenges to all who read it.

I meet the author of this very moving story, in a small horse pasture, in southern Alabama, where we landed our Huey helicopter there in October 2002. We were there to interview John for the documentary film about the Vietnam experience called "In The Shadow of The Blade". It was there that I found a true real life hero. A man of great courage and great faith. I have found his life story to be both a spiritual, as well as historic look at who he was and who he has become. This is a must read for anyone wishing to go deeper into the understanding of the war and how it changed lives forever. John is a mountain of a soul and reading his book will inspire you. I do not think anyone can come away from the reading of his book without gaining much more respect for those men who "danced with the devil" in so many hot LZs in Vietnam. He fought the good fight and and paid the price with the loss of his leg - but he gained so much more heart and soul! This is a must read! I highly recommend it.

This book is full of emotion! A true Southern Gentleman from the heart. Many men faced the same tragedies, some are better for it and some not. Thanks to Mr. Givhan's southern heritage, he was and is able to cope with the emotions that I am sure he deals with on a day to day basis. The friendship that was concived and the ones that still exist are basied on the family values he has! This comes from a southern heritage, hard work and LOVE from family! This war took from us many special people, and left some here to deal with the TRUTHS that have finally been uncovered all these years! Our Government asked these young men to put their lives on the line for a cause, that I am not sure, was a CAUSE! The cover ups and lies that have been uncovered only make me wonder more about our Government! This book is well worth your time in reading. It made me more aware of this "war". It has stirred up a inquisiviness that I find has me thirsting for more knowledge about this "war", and it also let me know that there is still a "TRUE SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN" living in the south.

This story of one man's journey through life focusing especially on relationships and bonding during war time and the lasting effects this period had on his life moved me emotionally more than once. I learned more about men and war from this book than from my husband who also served in VietNam. I imagine many men and women can relate to this story though not many could tell the story the way John Givhan has. It has humor. It has warmth. It has love. This man searched deep to relate his experiences and it tells the story from an angle only those who have been there could know. But he made me see it all so vividly in my mind and heart. The story does not end when he left VietNam. It continues on to the years and discoveries he made about what really happened to him the day he was hit in a helicopter on a mission in VietNam. Intermixed with his experiences of the war are his experiences of his youth. They could be the memories of anyone's youth but these are his stories of how he grew up and it just happens to be in the south. This is a book on war but also a book on what war has done to this man and to families all over the world.

The Old Master who collected Chinese wisdom in Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years ago wrote pithily:
"The sage never has a mind of his own;
He considers the minds of the common people to be his mind."

Today, he would not change a word for the sage: the sheng-jen in Beijing. True, modern China, a colossus of 1.2 billion people, is fronted by Shanghai and other booming, skyscrapered, fiber-opticked, globally connected metropolises. But beyond the urban fronts, reality is 900 million peasants--75% of the total population--living a rural, feudal life with Marxist trappings. What gives the Beijing mandarin insomnia is not rhetorical exchanges with America like we saw earlier in 2001. No, it's much more the primal fear bad weather and bad crops might visit hunger upon the 900 million--if the peasants go hungry, the government goes down and chaos surely follows. Chaos, for the Chinese mind, being anathema (off the Tao, hindering wu-wei).

The Rice-Sprout Song by Eileen Chang (1920-95), first published in 1955, deftly evokes rural Chinese life in the early days of the Maoist Revolution. Though well known to Chinese readers everywhere, Chang's work has only recently been in print again for English readers. In 1998, three years after her death, the University of California reissued this novel and a companion work, The Rouge of the North.

Chang, a giant in Chinese literature, wrote and lived a self-proclaimed aesthetic of desolation, especially after immigrating to the United States in the mid-Fifties. A Garbo-esque recluse, Chang was found dead in a barren Hollywood, California, studio apartment. Her will asked that her body be "cremated instantly, the ashes scattered in any desolate spot, over a fairly wide area, if on land." If Chang, as she said, was haunted by thoughts of desolation, then The Rice-Sprout Song shows a corollary to her artistic hunger: Her writing transcends any simple, obvious political interpretation of her material. Neither pro-Mao nor anti-Mao, but a literary meditation on peasant lives caught up in the ironies of political will and human need when hunger stalks the countryside.

The Rice-Sprout Song gets underway with a common family event: a wedding. Gold Flower of T'an Village will marry Plenty Own Chou of neighboring Chou Village. This might not be a joyous occasion for Chang begins to summon the isolation and loneliness of village life: "Sunlight lay across the street like an old yellow dog, barring the way. The sun had grown old here." Yes, even that universal restorer of the spirit--the sun--can be menacing. That all is not right when the festive wedding occasion arrives is shown by note of the "inferior food" that of necessity is served. Big Uncle complains that he cannot see the rice in his bowl of watery gruel. This jho mush--anything but solid rice--becomes one thematic particular for hunger that haunts this novel.

If Chang were less an artist, the reader's easy-to-hate nemesis would be Comrade Wong, the kan pu of T'an Village, the local representative of the Party. For it is Comrade Wong's unenviable task to carry out a political action showing support for the People's Liberation Army in their fight on the Korean front: a gift the peasants cannot afford: half a pig and forty catties of rice cakes from each family. But before this leads to the tragic end to The Rice-Sprout Song, we follow, in flashback, Wong as he finds the love of his life, Shah Ming. He loses her in the vagaries of fighting for the PLA. When at last he sees her again, she waves from a window in the facade of a collapsed building on the battlefield. Inside the building, Wong sees only rubble and overhead, at the window, nothing. He knows his hallucination proved Shah Ming was saying good-bye from beyond. For Comrade Wong, fate gave him nothing but the Party.

We also see dramatic irony when Comrade Ku, the city intellectual, comes to live in T'an Village, to learn the ways of the peasants. His goal of a movie script about village life suffers from writer's block; he habitually sneaks off to another town to buy food to eat on the sly. And when Big Aunt, who spouts Communist rhetoric that is appallingly upbeat, breaks down in a fit of anger. She says they are all empty-bellied and she doesn't care if she is reported. And when Moon Scent, the wife of Gold Root, returns from working three years as a maid in Shanghai. A force to be reckoned with, Moon Scent, in an act of righteous anger, gives this tragedy its capstone.

Essential reading that shares the texture, the heritage, and the yearnings of nearly a billion of our fellow earthlings, search out this reissue of The Rice-Sprout Song. As one t'ai chi ch'uan teacher said, "Perfect doesn't exist. Near-perfect does." The Rice-Sprout Song is a "near-perfect" evocation of the common people in the timeless Middle Kingdom.

I am like The Rice Sprout Song.Eileen chang is the greatest writer of China.

Rice Sprout Song is possibly the best work of literature I have ever read. It was first recommended to me as descriptive of the collectivization era shortly after the 1949 Revolution in China, a classic tale between the state and the individual. It is a spellbinding, troubling work, and is almost impossible to believe that it was Eileen Chang's first work in English. The language she uses is sparse, beautiful and conveys greatest impact after the last page is read, and the cover closed. It is more than an interesting story about conflict between the state and the individual. It is an unsettling story of physical starvation and the death of hope and love.

I read a lot of history and historical fiction. This book is as good as it gets. I do not know why it is not more widely circulated.

I did not even know Hereward Wake and I only knew Harold II as the last AngloSaxon King, the vanquished leader at the famous Battle of Hastings. This book opened a window for me into the last throes of Anglosaxon Britain and the onslaught of the Normans. OK, brush up your vocabulary because the lady writes in a very rich language and prepare for the most vivid imagery ever. A delicious book to read.

This is one of the best novels I have read: beautifully told, it is a gorgeous recreation of the last years of Anglo-Saxon England, and the Norma invasion.It is focussed on two main characters: the charismatic Earl Harold, who was to become the last Saxon king; and Hereward the Wake, one of the last rebels against the Normans.Highly recommended for its extraordinary images, language, and gripping story!

I had no idea that there was a book about Seabiscuit before Hillenbrand's, until someone told me about this reissue. The book is alive with voices and scenes from the past -- I was especially interested to read how Tom Smith actually talked, and what he had to say about the Biscuit. The description of Seabiscuit's birth is really interesting; I found out that he wasn't even named for awhile, because his original owners were too busy with their more promising-looking colts! Little did they know...

The race descriptions have a feeling of exhilaration about them, as if Beckwith can scarcely believe that he was privileged enough to see this great horse in action. And it's very touching to read what people of the time thought about Seabiscuit, and how the man in the street talked about him as if he were a well-loved personality, whose every win is celebrated, and every loss commiserated. You can really see just how important this fiesty little racehorse was to the country.

Highly recommended!

Anyone interested in the actual story of Seabiscuit and racing in general should own this book. Not only is it beautifully produced, it is an authentic account of a bygone era, the "proof" for the claim that Seabiscuit was indeed immensely popular in pre-WWII America. In fact, it is only because of that World War that Seabiscuit was forgotten for so long.
This is the original story of Seabiscuit written by a track writer who knew the main characters personally, Charles Howard, Red Pollard, and especially Tom Smith. Beckwith's book is the source for many of the quotes made famous in Hillenbrand's best seller and in the movie, such as Tom Smith saying to Seabiscuit, "I'll see you again." It is great to read these quotes in context. I also enjoyed the terrific line drawings by Howard Brodie--the one of Seabiscuit sleeping on his side is priceless!
Beckwith's book was an important source of information for the story of Seabiscuit and it is so great to be able to go back in time and enjoy this moving story with all the excitement and energy of the moment it happened. Five Stars. I highly recommend it without reservation.

With all the popular hoopla surrounding the story of Seabiscuit, this new book provides an interesting "contemporary" perspective from writers who were alive and covering this amazing story at the time of all the action. This new high quality re-print of the original book provides an insight and a "voice" to the story which is simply unavailable to any writer today. The preface by Grantland Rice is worth the entire price of the book. I highly recommend it.

Beyond a doubt, this is one of the best ideas ever conceived. A University hosts a contest where the contestants try and come up with the most intentionally stupid opening lines for a novel. Needless to say, some of the results are downright hilarious. I spent a good part of a day pouring over the pages of this book. There are categories for science ficton novels, romance novels, plain-jane fiction, detective stories, "It was a dark and stormy night" stories, you name it, it's probably in here in some shape or form. Because the entrys are short, this is one book that can very easily be finished in one sitting, whether you're riding in the car, or flying your hang-glider. The artwork that goes along with the book is nice, too. If I were you, I'd hunt down these books with the same enthusiasm that a headhunter would go after Mr. Potatohead.

"Son of 'It was A Dark And Stormy Night' " is the second of, to the best of my knowledge, five collections of entries in the annual "Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest". (The others being "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night", "Dark And Stormy Rides Again", "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night: The Final Conflict", and, I think, "Bride Of Dark And Stormy", if I'm not mistaken.) The Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest is a contest , named for Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose "Paul Clifford" (1830) opens with the immortal line "It was a dark and stormy night...", which is run by Scott Rice and sponsored by San Jose State University, in which contestants vie to write the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. Generally, the trick is to make the sentences as complex syntactically as it is possible to imagine, while violating as many rules of creative consistency as possible, and to be certain that no noun is without more than its share of purple-prose adjectives.

This is not for everyone, but if this sounds like fun to you, it probably is. This is the third of the collections that I've read; I thought that "The Final Conflict" was better than the original; this is even better than that one.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction competitions are simply great for light reading. Highly suggested. Great Gifts, too.

Great book for those who want or need to replace Wheat in their diets. These recipes offer alternatives to our usual wheat recipes, and taste great.

i've been a spelt nut for years..

Spelt is one of the most versatile grains around, but most people have never heard of it. This cookbook offers diverse recipes for using whole kernel spelt as well as spelt flour to enhance a wheat-free diet. We highly recommend it.

Where was I when The Splendid Grain won the James Beard Foundation Award for Excellence and the International Association of Culinary Professionals Julia Child Cookbook Award? Usually I am waiting with bated breath to see who wins these awards and I have read and digested all the cookbooks in the running. It is like the Academy Awards for the cookbook world. "The Splendid Grain" by Rebecca Wood did win the award and deserved it. It is filled with text that engages and recipes that have kept us cooking since I first discovered it about three years after it came out.

My only excuse for not having found it earlier is that I had one year old twins who never slept and all I did was nurse, look about with bleary eyes and try to make noodles for the fifth night running. I guess The Splendid Grain would have been of no use to me then. I would have cried when I read it. All these recipes for bagels made with barley flour and Strawberry Blue Corn Waffles that I could not cook because I was on the floor baby-proofing the outlets or cleaning up oatmeal from the baseboards.

I read an article on bread by Laurie Colwin back before I had children. Wisdom wasted on the uninitiated. In it Laurie Colwin said that she found a bread cookbook when her daughter was young and she read it as fiction because that is what bread baking is to people with babies. This is not just to let me off the hook for missing a great cookbook when it came out but to say buy it even if you have no kitchen because it makes such a good read.

The recipes in "The Splendid Grain" are easier than they appear. I made bagels with my three kids and a few assorted extras over on play dates. We made the dough in a few minutes and then let it rise while we kept the dog from scaring one child and we forgot about the dough all together by the time the dog was on a leash and the child pacified. When we came back to the dough it had a strange gray color from the barley flour but this was a plus for the under seven set.

Making the bagel shapes was easy enough for three year olds. Boiling was fun and baking easy and we were done. The dozen were gone immediately. I had one that I split with my husband. They were an eerie Halloween gray but had a complex taste from the barley. I forgot about them in my rush to try the next recipe from The Splendid Grain. I was informed at school a few days later that my son's friend, the one who is scared of the dog, was never coming over again if I did not stop upstaging her mom by doing things like making these great homemade bagels. I guess they did not forget about the bagels for a while.

We made waffles, and breakfast cakes; winter squash potage was the hit of a Hanukkah party for which we promised to make Matzoh Ball soup but I just couldn't leave old Rebecca Wood to do it. No one missed the Matzoh Balls, and I make excellent Matzoh Balls. We had cornmeal mush instead of oatmeal. Real Vietnamese Spring Rolls are the plan for dinner tonight. She makes it look so easy. On the still-to-try list is a Rye and Cauliflower Casserole and Quinoa Soup Saigon Style.

The Apricot Millet Breakfast Cake is what brought the book to my attention. I would like to thank my friend Jeanie for the cake I finished before I could share it with the kids as intended. Jeanie was a chef and cake baker extraordinaire before kids. I trust her food judgment and envy her huge Hobart mixer and professional range. She gave us a piece of this cake as I was picking my son up from a play date. Jeanie showed me "The Splendid Grain." "You've seen this, right?" I hadn't. I wanted to borrow it but she wouldn't let it go--a sentiment I appreciated.

So I went out and bought the book. That was about six weeks ago. I slept with it next to my bed. Read all the fascinating information about each kind of grain and read the recipes, as Laurie Colwin taught me, as a good novel and not a cookbook. Then I started making grocery lists for all Rebecca Wood weeks. This has continued for at least a month and no one has stopped eating long enough to thank me. But I want to thank Jeanie publicly. This gift of "The Splendid Grain" does not raise her in my esteem, it simply reminds me of how highly she is held (even though she would not lend me her copy).

You do need to add a salad or some steamed vegetable to the all Splendid Grain menu. But no protein need be added as she has every combination of chicken, prawns, tofu, you name it in the recipes. It is just a little light on salads or some kind of green stuff.

I have a mind to call Rebecca Wood and thank her for this book. She researched so thoroughly and cooked so plentifully for us, her readers. Rebecca wood covered it all. Ancient food from the Americas to a Norwegian friend's mother's recipes. From macrobiotics to blinis with caviar and Christmas Hen. Normally I am wary of someone trying to cover the whole world and every grain. Things tend to get diluted and hodge-podgy. Not so in "The Splendid Grain." Each recipe is crisp and novel.

I am grateful. It is the week after Christmas as I am writing and Hanukkah has passed into the winter. I have been made aware this year of how the traditions I find around me all stress this time of year as a time to bring light and warmth into your heart in this darkest time of the year. Rebecca Wood's book feels like a warm hearth to me, and a good friend cooking for you. I am grateful that I am out of the dark woods of parenting early childhood. I am grateful to Jeanie for bringing this book and a lot more into my life. The Splendid Grain came to me through a warm friend and I have shared it with my friends over the winter. I am grateful for the feeling of warmth and the book that has helped inspire me to share it.

I'm inspired by The Splendid Grain. I've been getting back to healthy eating and a healthful lifestyle after several years of being off track, and this book gives lots of great idea, recipes, information about getting those whole grains back into my diet.

Thank you for reminding me what is important.

I have had so much fun (and great meals) trying recipes from this book. There are so many grains available to us, besides the everyday rice and corn, but if you are like me, you don't always know what to do with them. The Splendid Grain is full of terrific ways to use locally available grains such as Quinoa, Millet, Amaranth and Wild Rice. The book also contains excellent meat recipes such as the oatmeal and spice coated "Better than fried chicken." I took "Onions stuffed with Millet and sun-dried tomatoes" on our last camping trip and cooked them in the campfire. They were superb alongside smoked pork chops. Try the popped Amaranth cold breakfast cereal, or just sprinkle it on your next tossed salad for a boost of crunch and nutty flavor. It couldn't be easier to do. You will never make waffles with plain wheat flour again, once you try "Tef waffles" Tef tastes almost like hazelnuts, and combined with cinnamon it is truly a treat. I must say I was most amazed with the "Couscous Marmalade Torte," it is very tasty and very light (even with the whipped cream on top). It is the easiest and quickest dessert I have made in a long time, and all my guests wanted seconds! I highly recommend The Splendid Grain, it is a terrific resource, taking you from selection, storage and the cooking methods for specific grains to delectable recipes with a new twist. Put it in your shopping basket, you won't be sorry.