How can it be that this little artillery officer from Corsica changed the face of the world forever, but less than two hundred years after his death, there are no reviews of his memoirs. More books have been written about him than any other human being in existence, including Jesus Christ, but no one thinks to read the man's own words. His shadow once fell from the Atlantic to Moscow, from the North Sea to Egypt, and high school Honors World History classes cover him in the space of a single day. The world has become such now that were he alive today, I doubt he would want to conquer it--it is no longer worth the effort, no longer worth having. Napoleon filled Europe with widows and orphans, but the world of now does not even deserve a genius or a butcher of his caliber.

Thomas Garden Barnes offers an excellent account of gentry governance of Somerset County, in England's West Country. Local gentry served as justices of the peace, and, somewhat more begrudgingly, in the onerous office of sheriff. Barnes offers an interesting account of the duties of local officials, and the conflicts of gentry cliques as they contested for local power.

This should be interesting for students of Southern history. A number of Somerset gentlemen settled in the American South, including Virginia governor Sir William Berkeley, the younger son of a Somerset gentry family.

On the heritage of the Berkeley family in another county, before a younger son established the cadet branch of the family in Somerset, see the discussion of West Country gentry in Virginia in David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. For a discussion of government, economy and society in the nearby city of Bristol, see David Harris Sacks, The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700. For a discussion of Somerset cavaliers in Barbados, see Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, and Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery.

The current polar explorer Ann Bancroft said she was first inspired to visit Antarctica after the breathtaking pictures and reports of Shackleton's attempts to cross that continent. As she attempts to become part of the first women's team to traverse Antarctica she is passing by Shackleton's Glacier and must be remembering his team and their efforts. The actual photographs of Shackleton's ship in the book Spirit of Endurance and the reproduction paintings of each adventure and challenge they faced draw the reader into the tale. Students are fascinated by the hardships the men encountered and endured. The decision regarding the fate of their sled dogs was as heartbreaking to the reader as it must have been to the men of Endurance. The remarkable heroism and perseverence of Shackleton and his crew is an inspiration to the adventurers in all of us.

This is a fascinating and comprehensive book of opera ever written. A lot of beautiful pictures. The biding, printing quality is top notch. Like an art. By just looking at this book, you want to go to opera. Only if this book automatically plays the opera when I open each page... However, there is no limitation in your imagination :-) "Easy to understand" explanations - such as "What is bel canto ?". One disappointment is that it is not as complete or detailed. For example, Mozart's unfinished opera, Zaide, was not mentioned at all. But the aria, "Ruhe sanft mein holdes Leben" in the opera is quite famous (and really beautiful), and people like me who want to know about it will be disappointed. Well, this is nitpick. I would consider this book as the one that should be in every music (opera) lover's bookshelf.

These interesting and complete records of Lexington from 1833-1939 were kept by a local family since 1939 and recently printed before being deposited in the Maine Archives. As there are few surviving vital records 1833-1892, a wealth of info can be found here regarding early families, taxes lists, paupers, schools, and town officials for each year. They include the records of meetings and votes through the formation of the town, the Civil War era, dissolution of the town, creation of Lexington Plantation and final dissolution in 1939 to unincorporated status.

His short stories whetted my appetite for good reading as I was learning the subtle nuances of English language as an adolescent in 1970s. Like healthy food healthy books also need some effort at resisting junk while cultivation of a taste is ongoing in one's reading adolescence. English was only a second language for me after Oriya those days. One of my favorites is "Bookbag", where a British Colonial Civil Servant survives his outpost reading books and late delivery periodicals in chronological order.(Like watching a video tape of a soap opera in right order) I sought out all his books as well as books about him. One of them called "Somerset and all the Maughams" is written by his nephew Robin Maugham. In that he also mentions about a maternal uncle of Somerset Maugham, a black sheep named Charles Snell, who died an untimely death in Cuttack,a town in eastern India where I happened to spend a good part of my youth. I found his tomb stone in a cemetary known to locals as white mans' burial ground. Each epitaph in that cemetary may as well be spun into a Maugham story. Hope his books start to sell at Airports or train station bookstalls again. I think he is one of the most under-rated literary prodigies of last century. Do any English Professors teach his books in a undergraduate class ? Unfortunately the period and locales described by Maugham are rapidly being dismembered by the tramplings of human civilization. Hope reprints of his short stories like this; will keep them alive in the imagination of generations to come, at the least.

Anne Somerset has written a comprehensive non-fiction account of the Overbury scandal that reads as if it were fictional narrative. The sources are exhaustive but not oppressive, so that this murder mystery turns out to be one of the best historical "whodunits" I have read. The plot is of the ages: the Countess of Somerset is young and beautiful; the Earl of Somerset is rich and powerful. In the Fall of 1615 the Countess and the Earl of Somerset were arrested on sucpicion of having murdered Sir Thomas Overbury. Does the passion, lust and greed
that lead up to their arrest turn the plot? This has it all.

'Waiting in the Wings' is a departure from Doreen Tovey's usual style of writing and approach to her subject matter. This book is the culmination of the development of the theme of the life she lived with her husband Charles and their animals in the Mendip Hills of Somerset and consequently is one of the best she has produced so far. Unlike most of her previous works which focus mainly on the idiosyncrasies of the cats and Annabel, the donkey, the focus of this book merges with that of her relationship with Charles. His death and the gradual process of adjusting to a life without him are the main theme of this book. As the author comes to terms with her loss she learns how life continues to go on yet never losing the feeling that Charles is never far away. Her natural and easy humour that is a well known trademark of her earlier works is still very much in evidence as she adjusts to learning new skills and asserts her determination to continue living in her isolated cottage. The cats and Annabel continue to provide plenty of embarrassing and wonderful moments as well as sadness but throughout the book Mrs Tovey never looses hope. Her struggles with learning to drive, holidays with her caravan, whitwashing and redecorating the cottage, her researches into her husband's family tree, encounters with spiritualism and interest in the life of T.E. Lawrence are just some of the many incidents and activities she continued to be involoved with after Charles's death. Her friendship with Derek and Jean Tangye (of the Minack Chronicles) and Joyce Fussey (author of the Westwath books) is mentioned for the first time along with her continuing interest in the happenings of people she encounters in her everyday life, especially her Aunt Louisa and neighbours in the village. This work is not only inspirational and entertaining but also is evident of Mrs Tovey's matured style without losing sight of the humour that is so characteristic of all her earlier works and one looks forward to what else she will produce in the future.

This quasi-journal of Maugham's thoughts, travels, philosophies and bits of literature is facinating on several levels. For an avid Maugham fan, you can see the germination of the ideas and the travels that became his novels. The charming, brilliant and matter-of-fact way in which Maugham says startling things about life will have you underlining passages throughout the work.