Today the book stores are filled with novels not more than 300 pages. This book left me emotionally fatigued. Now I must wait a week before I even try a new one because I cannot forget Zaroulis' writing.

It is a pity that Sylvia Plath is so underestimated--most people I know have never heard of her, and those who have dismiss her as an angry feminist who committed suicide. It is a sacrilege to sum up her person so: Plath is one of the most important poets of our century, and Ariel her most important work.

In it one can find the famous poems "Daddy", in which Plath shakes loose her restraints on her resentment for her father, who died when she was young: "At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you... But they pulled me out of the sack / And they stuck me together with glue." ; "Lady Lazarus", a commentary of death and disappointment, which reflects her situation with terrible lyricism; and "Fever 103°", which, to me, is almost mocking; and "Ariel", after which the collection is named.

Ariel is fascinating--her skill with words, her wit, her self-control (for she obviously reigns herself in from being too emotional, too confessional, and yet one feels the pain and torment all the same, perhaps even more sharply), her ability to find Just the Right Words, is vivid and brilliant. When I finished Ariel, I was left with a feeling of vulnerability, pain, and enlightenment, as though I had seen what I had been missing all along and felt the absence of self-delusion deeply.

I have always been disturbed by the idea that Plath's creative energy seemed to stream from the destructive void that she felt inside of her soul and shared with the world, with skill and admirable lyricism... and yet I think that this is what made her such a *different*, unique poet. "Dying / Is an art, like everything else." She did it exceptionally well. -- K. Rivera

Plath eventually ends her life by commiting suicide in a dramatic way: sticking her head in an oven and leaving it there. It was her third suicide attempt, and the other two were pretty dramatic as well. Plath addresses these suicide attempts, and how it felt to survive the other two, in one of her most famous poems from Ariel, "Lady Lazarus": "I have done it again./ One year in every ten/ I manage it-/ A sort of walking miracle/ my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade.../ And I a smiling woman/ am only thirty./ And like the cat I have nine times to die./ This is Number Three./ What a trash/ To annihilate each decade.../ Dying Is an art,/ like everything else/I do it exceptionally well./ Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware/ Beware./ Out of the ash/ I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air."

The Nazi theme continues in Plath's poem "Daddy", in which she accuses her father of being similar to Hitler, and compares her husband to her father as well, writing about how they both had negative influences in her life. "I have always been sacred of you,/ With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo./ And your neat mustache/ And your Aryan eye, bright blue./ Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You-/ Not God but a swastika/ So black no sky could squeak through./ Every woman adores a Fascist,/ The boot in the face, the brute/ Brute heart of a brute like you..../ I was ten when they buried you./ At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you./ I thought even the bones would do./ But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue./ And then I knew what to do./ I made a model of you, A man in black with a Meinkampf look/ And a love of the rack and the screw./ And I said I do, I do./ So daddy, I'm finally through./ If I've killed one man, I've killed two-/ The vampire who said he was you/ And drank my blood for a year,/ Seven years, if you want to know./ Daddy, you can lie back now."

These are two of the most well-known examples of the bleakness but truthfulness in Plath's poetry. They reach toward the human emotions everyone knows- pain, sorrow, bitterness, lonliness. However, Plath also wrote some humourous and sweet poems which are included in Ariel, including poems about her children and good memories. These poems add a lightness to the book which is otherwise dark and dreary. Although the reader is tempted to hate a book filled with such depressing poetry, no one can resist loving it. This book is, in my opinion, one of the best poetry volumes of Twentieth Century American Literature, and it will find a place in your heart. If you have not read Ariel, I greatly recommend it. Through the autobiographical poems found within it you will connect with Plath's disillusionment and also come to know a great deal about the poetic genius' troubled life and last days.

The heroine is Amber the Untouched, so named because of her special affinity to amber -- all things amber belong to her -- and because of her special ability to feel the emotions of others by touching them. Lowell thoroughly explores both the advantages and the drawbacks of such an ability. The hero, Duncan of Maxwell, the Scots Hammer (his name is charming and lyrical, like much of the writing in this book) is the perfect combination of strength and sensitivity. The amber prophecy, the revelation that attended Amber's birth, defines the cosmology of the book. As a lover of fantasy, I was totally captivated by it! Amber and Duncan's story is gracefully and beautifully told.

Like everyone else, I can't wait for Erik's story!

There are several reasons that I highly recommend this book. First of all, it does not just explain the different breeds, but it gives advice for choosing the right breeder and puppy. Since the breeds are listed alphabetically, it is easy to quickly find the breed for which you are searching. Each breed's page describes its characteristics such as exercise and grooming needs, sociability with strangers, temperament, history, physical features, health issues, and some things to be aware of before you buy a dog of that breed. The histories of the breeds are interesting to read and help explain why certain dogs do the things they do. Each breed's AKC popularity and photograph are also included. A glossary of color and medical terms is included at the end of the book.

It is difficult to find anything wrong with this book. One improvement to this book could be to include color photographs instead of black and white ones. Also, Welton is biased toward holistic medicine and all-natural pet foods. This is only evident on two pages of the book, so it is a minor issue.

Your Purebred Puppy is a great starting point for a pre-purchase counseling program. Welton's unbiased breed profiles serve as a great reference for helping a client to choose a dog. This book is an excellent source for any veterinary clinic and can be recommended to clients as well.

The Lindsays are well known in the area and Diana Lindsay is active in the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association. She and Lowell are known the be two of the foremost authorities of information of that region.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! Edmond Dantes' adventures kept me fully engrossed from beginning to end. I was disappointed to turn the final page, left longing for more.

If you've seen a movie version of Count of Monte Cristo, expect surprises. I had seen both the Richard Chamberlain and Jim Caviezel versions before reading the book (mmmm . . . Jim Caviezel), but neither were entirely true to the storyline or the mood of the original.

Edmond himself is a thoroughly satisfying and seductive hero. (The reader must take with a grain of salt the numerous references to his drug habit; at the time, opium was unfortunatly de rigeur for a Romantic hero.) The secondary characters are equally engrossing, from the admirable Maximilian Morrel to the villainous Danglars; and the ingenious machinations by which Edmond contrives to reward the deserving and doom the guilty make the chapters fly by.

I would encourage everyone to be sure and get the unabridged version of this masterpiece. It is by no means slow or ponderous, and the thought of what must be left on the cutting room floor to reduce this book to half its size makes me wince.

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

Masquerade is the best true-crime book about Detroit that I've ever read, and I've read most of them.

Cauffiel weaves a riveting account of one of the most bizarre murders in this city's recent history, naming names, pinpointing locations, and painting a vivid portrait of Motown's seamy underbelly and drug culture.

Gripping and gritty, and very well executed.