Alice Fulton here offers beautifully crafted essays on poets and poetry, emphasizing the power of estrangement that gives lyric much of its interest. Emily Dickinson plays an important role in this book, but above all the reader will find elegant and telling formulations about poetry's exploration of possibilities of feeling.

Let's keep it simple: this is a challenging but accessible and rewarding book. It's not surprising that some professional reviewers have carped; the book takes them (often deservedly) to task for preaching "karaoke poetics," parroting with increasing volume and decreasing originality things that were said -- and tired -- a decade ago. Fulton's chapters on her own poetry and on Dickinson are outstanding, but the whole rewards even a casual reading. Though it's prose in format, the book is still a poem -- a fractal poem -- in the way it plays with its subject matter, diverges on flights of fancy and whimsy, reveals the poet as a person rather than a cold auctorial voice, etc.

Not since I read Wallace Steven's 'The Necessary Angel' 25 years ago have I felt such a wide-ranging intelligence in a book of essays on poetry. Fulton uses theories of science in absolutely startling ways. Readers with any interest in rich metaphors will find much here that is positively exciting and new. Her two essays on what she's calling "fractal verse" are solid, thoughtful, and full of possibilities for where poetry can take us. So far as I know, no poet has ever before described the "poem plane" and how poets are at the threshold of "breaking" through it. To me, this is as significant as Pound's idea of "breaking" the pentameter was when it was first proposed. This book is the work of a true visionary.

This book by William Benham is known as the Bible of Palmistry! For any serious student and practitioner of Palmistry, this book is a must in your library.

I have been reading palms for years and find this book to be the finest and most complete I have ever seen. Although the pictures and diagrams are dated,the knowledge is exceptional. The only draw back is that I would not recommend this book for beginners. You must have a solid knowledge of palmistry before studying this book. The vast majority of books out there are the exact same one repeated with flashy diagrams and pictures. This book is an actual scientific look at Palm reading

Once you get over the different style of font and familiarize yourself with the vocabulary this book privides for some exciting reading. This man must have been a genius. He provides detail description of how to loosen up your young horse in the shoulders and further work and excercises in a precise way which still pertains to the basics how we ride today. Its sometimes good to go back to the original scourses.

Together with books by Guérinière, Müseler, and Podhasky (see these) this too is a very important book concerning classical dressage. The text gives the impression of being written with considerable thought...this contrasts somewhat with some modern dressage texts. This text together with Guérnière's is highly recomendable.

When was the last time you read a book about a character who made you want to stand up and cheer? LOUDLY. Annie is that sort of book. The well-documented hilarity in this book is one thing, but the warmth and humanity beneath the wise-cracking surface is what make Annie so special. Read this book.

Harriet Klausner

By 1881, Annie Pinkerton Boone Newcastle has buried two husbands. Her first spouse accidentally died just after they married when a mule kicked him in the head. On their wedding night, her second spouse, the elderly Jonas, passed away in bed. Her sum of married life is less than twenty-four hours. However, the twenty-two years old widow inherits an oddity. Jonas now "lives" inside Annie's head. He provides her with sermons that he orders she pass on to the world even as he demands his husbandry rights in bed.

Annie becomes a renowned psychic, traveling with the unparalell likes of PT Barnum. Her reputation grows as PROPHET ANNIE's predictions start to occur. However, Jonas' ability to forecast the future fails to keep Annie safe from an outlaw gang that abducts her.

For over the first 80 percent of PROPHET ANNIE treats the audience to one of the most engaging, brilliant, and unique western novels to come along in years. However, the last forty to fifty pages make an abrupt U-turn from a stupendous satire into a western romance. Honestly, the ending is well written and even interesting in its own right. However, in the context of what occurred before, the final pages leave readers dissatisfied. No one will relish the defanging of the previously precocious outspoken Annie while turning the soul of the book, the perverted Jonas, into a ghostly eunuch. Still, in her third novel, Spur award winner Ellen Recknor proves that she is a talent to be reckoned with, hopefully by returning Jonas inside the body of another individual.

Harriet Klausner

Recipes are elegant and simple: Bananas in Cream, Grand Marnier French Toast, and Chris' wonderful creations are showcased in this wonderful book. Too, the Newcastle Inn is a treasure if you ever get the chance to visit!

This novel is very typical of Haggard's adventure stories. This one in particular somewhat reminded me of "Montezuma's Daughter"... It was a story of an extraordinarily beautiful Indian princess and a white Englishman who fall in love and who must suffer through much because of their deep feelings for one another. The story is told by Ignation (an Indian) who was the friend of both the white man and his beloved Maya. Most of the later part of the novel takes place in the great City of the Heart which is beautiful and yet venomous and deadly... Of course there are "bad men" and "bad women" who do not fully understand the great love of Maya and James (the princess and her white men) and without whom the story would have no conflict or much of a plot... :) So do read the book. It is neither essential to life nor does it provoke any great thoughts or ideas, but nonetheless it is very enjoyable and relaxing.

This is a must have book for anyone getting started in crystal healing. It covers so much information on the physical and spritual aspects of gemstones. Teaches making gem essences, gem energy, choosing gemstones and caring for them to just name a few. The illustrations are easy to read and many in the book. This is a very easy book to read and understand

Excellent book for beginners looking to develop their psychic powers, or advanced psychics that would like to hone in on their goals. This book is a must read. After reading this book, I was soon able to work my psychic powers for my uses. Check it out!

This book comprise 41 chapters, covering topics like Telepathy, Personal Magnetism, Trance, Spirtualism and Mediumship, Hypnotism and Mesmerism, Psychometry, Clairvoyance, Automatic Writing, Apparitions, Reincarnation, What Happens After Death, Crystal Gazing, etc. There are also exercises to try out.

Some books on developing psychic skills also cover chakras. This topic is not covered in this book, though. However, it is a very complex topic and deserve a treatment on its own in a separate book.

A index (which it doesn't have) at the end of the book would be useful.

The author makes an extremely compelling case for reform in the juvenile justice system in relating Mary Bell's tale. My impression is that the book's being hyped as an explanation of "why children kill" is more of a sales hook than a reflection of what Sereny was actually trying to accomplish.

One of her primary theses is that our current system of justice insists upon treating children who commit crimes as miniature adults (with an adult level of understanding and cognitiion) and, as such, imposes upon them the same type of cookie-cutter responses that have so dismally failed adult offenders. Consequently, I think she would adovocate that we, as readers, try to understand not why children (as an undifferentiated group)murder, but why this particular child did. To the extent that we can draw lessons from mary Bell's experience that will allow us to look at each child's experience individually and try to fashion an appropriate rehabilitative response, I think she will have succeeded.

A stunning narrative about how severely damaged children can become when they are neglected and abused (in case there was any doubt). Why is it hard for society to understand that every individual child will respond to such trauma in her/his own way? Mary Bell was an extremely angry child, angry enough to kill. Do I think it's right that she is a free woman today? Not really, after all, the 2 little boys she killed are still dead, and their families were destroyed forever. But if her story helps just one adult save a child who may be crying out for help (as Mary did to no avail), she will have done at least that bit of good for society.

Cries Unheard, subtitled Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell, is one of the best books I have ever read. Don't expect that you will understand why children kill after reading this book. This is a compelling account of an eleven year old English girl in 1968 who murdered two boys. This is not in any way your usual "true crime" trash novel.I'm a true crime reader and find most of this genre to be a waste of time. This book is one to keep in your library with In Cold Blood and The Sea Will Tell.

This novel seemed more like a sketch of a novel than a fully realized work. Barker, the author of the outstanding Regeneration trilogy, employs several devices of 19th century fiction, including a haunted house, to develop a story of sibling love/hate and the imprisoning effects of traumatic memories. In comparison with her prior work, I found the characterizations thin and the plotting somewhat contrived. Nor does this novel contain any of the virtuoso passages that particularly characterized the last novel in the Regeneration trilogy, The Ghost Road. Fans of Barker should skip this work and wait for her next novel.

I went through phases while reading this novel. The first 50 pages or so seemed awfully slow in moving along, but by page 100 I thought it would be brilliant (when they discover the drawing below the wallpaper). But then, Parker seems to be more involved in Geordie's passing (and fascinated by Geordie's shriveled genitals) and abandons the Fanshawe family story, and abandons Gareth's revolt story, and abandons Miranda's lonely musings. These never became resolved to satisfaction in my mind.

Barker has gifted narration skills and she has some excellent ideas started in this novel, but that's all that I can say that is good about it. I haven't read any of her other novels so I can't compare her other work to this one.

Oh, well, I'm not complaining. I'm just moving on. For you: read it if you want, or move on, too.

Years ago I came across Vera Brittain's memoir of growing up in England from 1900 -1925 (Testament of Youth), and had my eyes forever opened as to the horrors of WWI and its impact on the everyday citizen at home. Pat Barker's fiction echoed the horrors of the battlefield in her trilogy (and Sebastian Faulk does the same in Birdsong) Barker's latest novel skillfully runs two parallel courses --a dying old man's all-too-vivid memories of the Somme, frozen in time, and his middle-aged grandson's battles with the viciousness and complexity of modern life. As the old man nears death, the younger man slowly comes to understand the silence which has surrounded his grandfather's war experiences. True, Barker tells several stories here - not all with resolutions--but I don't think this lessens the impact of her work. Life is often filled with dangling ends, and some readers prefer to imagine what hasn't been written. Not as powerful as her Regeneration trilogy, but a worthy addition to her list of novels.