ANBODY WHO DOES NOT LIKE RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT IS NUTS AND THEY SHOULD HAVE THEIR HEADS CHECKED.I READ THIS BOOK ALONG TIME AGO.AN I TRULY ENJOYED IT.AND I AM GLAD TO FIND A COPY OF IT.

This is my favorite book on early life along the Cumberland Valley (Middle Tennessee and lower Central Kentucky), especially after getting past Chapter One, which is an imaginary narration of an "early adventure" which seemed unnecessary. That is a small complaint though. The book has some really interesting information on all aspects of settlement of the area and I highly recommend it! Many of the details described are applicable to pioneer life in other areas east of the Mississippi as well, I would think.

Lots of pictures, words in margins, mostly astounding facts. You wouldn't believe all the things. Lots of pictures. Kids won't know they're learning -- or else they won't care!

The questions children ask most while in the kitchen with you. Each question and answer are simply formated for the most information with the easiest understanding. I used this book for a library reading session with 2nd graders, asking them the questions first, finding their thoughts then reading them the answers from the book. They absolutely loved it and wanted more. I am now online to order the rest of the series!!! It is perfect for every age, even us older kids!!

This is a great book for curious pre-schoolers. My three year old and especially my four and a half year old love this book. It answers basic questions very well, with good illustrations and simple, but very correct explainations.

Winter Barn has quietly become the backbone of my 2 year old son's little library. With no distracting character names, the young reader (or young one being read to) gets to meet a farmer and his barn full of animals during a gentle winter snowstorm. The text flows in and out of rhymes, creating a sense of comfort which is confirmed by the pleasant illustrations. This book is a wonderful change up from many of the other "louder" books that are out there. Don't let the reading level of 4 -8 years old prevent you from reading Winter Barn to your toddler. My family has found it to be a very rewarding experience.

The authors point out that this is the most overlooked and underwritten about stage in the child's development. There is much research and a great deal of writing on the 0 to 6 year old and the adolescent from 13 to 18, but not on the 7 to 12 year old. The authors show how this is the value acquiring time and the prevention develpment time. This book shows how the parent (or others) and the child can come to consensus as to standards of desired behavior, agreeing on what qualities are desirable to have and to judge others by. The book's content whow how the 7 to 12-year-old age span provides unparalleled opportunities to influence the child's development. Another opportunity the book points out is how to "inoculate" the child against future dangers. Foremost on the author's list is discussing the destruction of drugs. Early sex is another, with emphasis on emotional let down afterward when again the person is alone to face the world without a partner. This book shows that the establishment of healthy habits have their roots in the 7 to 12 year range. The authors clearly show how these six years will determine the core values the child will carry with them the rest of their life and by which they will judge themselves, others and society. Each age is broken down like in the author's other books, physical development, mental development, and emotional growth, social growth, as well as developmental tasks, and environmental influences and forces impinging upon the child at each age level. The author's show how in this Values Acauiring Stage the formal learning process of the school, religious institutions and the media come into play to influence te child. However, that the acquiring of values is still primarily influenced by the parents and their social/cultural heritage. The authors show how the child's mental computer is put to filtering, categorizing and shaping new information. Information is interpreted to the child by the family and local community institutions, i.e. school, as well as media, i.e. MTV and others. The combination of new knowledge and experiences, as well as identification and modeling after family members, friends, and external "heroes and heroines" in the world around them, helps create their values and standards. The child's group membership start to influence them as well. The book also shows how this is the time of skills and talents identification and initial development. Musicians, athletes, artists, mathematicians, budding scientists and electronic whizzes benefit from this process at this stage. Another unique feature of the book is the outlining of the course contents that the child will be learning in school in each of these six years. As in their other books, the earthy, homey "Marie says" advice is scattered throughout and are worth several times the price of the book. The goal of the book clearly is to assist the reader in (1) better understanding what is happening at each age and stage and (2) guiding the child to acquire the values needed to become an effective, successful adult and to build the protective moral wall against the outside negative pressures that will be comeing during the 13 to 18 year ages.

When I look back on my sophomore year of high school, I will remember it as the year I read Gone With the Wind, and became hooked. I have thought about it everyday since I started it. I adore this story. The descriptions in this book will take your breath away. Once when she was back at Tara, in the dead of winter, I looked up and was shocked that the sun was shining, and there was food downstairs in the refrigerator. It will literally sweep you in. I read it in September, in a little less than a week. I didn't read it as a challenge or anything. It was actually a "rebelling" act. My mom hates the story line because she doesn't like how Southerners "won't let the war die." Her saying how much she hated it totally backfired because it only made me want to read it more so I could see what was so bad about it. Then I fell in love with it. When I re-read some of the dialogue, especially that at the end of the book, between Scarlett and Rhett, my heart positively aches. The language is so beautiful. I cried for an hour after I finished it. The ending is absolutely tragic, but there's no other way it could've ended and been as good. I don't understand how anyone can not like it. The Southern backdrop during the Civil War was a necessity to the essence of the story. I know slavery was one of America's greatest atrocities, but that's not what this book is about. It is the story of a woman trying to save herself and her home, and in the process, ruining the love of one of the most dashing, white knights of all fiction because of her only-human downfalls-greed, fear and lust.

I loved Scarlett's character. She was exactly as Rhett described-a brave, frightened, insensitive, bull-headed child. She did try to be good, and then something would happen to scare her, so she'd get mean again. I loved Melanie, too. I want to be a friend like she was. She was good, but not goody-goody. She loved people fiercely, as Scarlett wanted things fiercely. She stood by her beloved friend to the bitter end, even though she knew Scarlett had betrayed her. Rhett was such an absolutely wonderful person. He only couldn't show it to the everyday Scarlett-hardened and greedy-because she would think him weak. He was only tender and loving when she was in fear. I want to meet someone like him-I just hope I don't act like Scarlett! The characters were so human, I loved them all. Everyone should read this book. It is such a beautifully-written masterpiece. It's my favorite.

I'm a literary snob, I'll admit it. I've read all the classics, and I even know some Literary Theory. Gone With the Wind? Pul-lease, racist, sexist, revanchist trash, made popular by all the young woman dreaming of being Scarlett and having both their Rhett and Ashley. Cheerleader fare. Escapist. WRONG!

Gone with the Wind is an American War & Peace. This is serious literature, which won the Pulitzer prize, no less. Most people don't see past the epic plot (which isn't as cut and dried as you may think) or the love story, but this is no less than a successfull attempt to reclaim a discarded culture. It is not about crinoline and lace, it it about the Apocalypse and how losers of the counter-revolution must learn to live in a place where all their politics, personal or civil, are demolished. Scarlett O'Hara is popular because she is an American, driven, materialistic, sentimental and utterly ruthless. Rhett Bulter is the tragic character of this book; the way of life and ideals he disdained are killing him, and he suffers like no one else in this post-apocalyptic landscape. His departure at the end is an act of contrition as much as a romantic failure; he had tried to recreate the materialism of the ante-bellum world, but negeclected the spirituality (such as it is) of men like Ashley Wilkes. Both men, the dreamer and the realist end up alone in a very sterile place. This book is proto-feminist as well. Scarlett survives, even as everything around her dies, but in the end, she too is alone.

Don't dumb this masterpiece down. The movie fails to capture even a tenth of the depth here. And that awful sequel! Caused by the mistake that this book is some kind of romance novel. This is Art, and you can't stick a new ending on it, any more than you can a great painting or musical composition.

I have been reading "Gone With the Wind" every couple of years since I was first "allowed" to read it at the age of 14! (In those days our mothers had higher hurdles for "appropriate" reading). When I was younger, I read this book once every year. I actually learned to read French without a dictionary by reading the French translation. (It's long enough to have that kind of linguistic influence! )

The story of Scarlett O'Hara, a feisty and courageous southern "belle" whose beauty and sharpness was complicated by a lack of insight into human nature that ultimately left her unable to understand the hearts of those she most loved and by whom she was loved, until it was too late. It is also the story of the the South just before, during and after the Civil War.

A more sympathetic portrait of the South than many other Civil war histories, it has aged fairly well, despite a slightly more patronistic view of African-Americans than one might be comfortable with today. Given its authorship dating back to the 1930s, I believe one needs to look at the book in the context of its historical period, and not to demean its historical or entertainment value simply because we are more aware and more sophisticated after the Era of Civil Rights in the United States. I also believe a sympathetic and well-educated person such as the author Margaret Mitchell seems to be, would have been the first to agree had she lived long enough to undergo that period of transformation in our country.

Despite this limitation, few books of historical fiction are so well-plotted, and few characters in literature are so well-developed as that of Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, or Ashley and Melanie Wilkes--people I continue to feel like I "knew" in another time.

The story is also that of Atlanta, a city which was relatively young and "brash" as a Confederate economic and cultural center, relative to Charleston and Richmond, the more sedate Confederate capitals.

The book is valuable both as a historical text for those of us with little insight into the viewpoint of the South beyond that given in grade school textbooks, and as one of the most romantic dramas in American literature.

I enjoyed reading this book as much at the age of 48 as I did almost 35 years ago (and many times in-between). I can't imagine a better summer read for a teenage girl, or a better way to relax at the beach for her mother, or a better way to pass a cold snowy vacation in front of a fire. Definetely a book for the romantically inclined.

One should also note, that "Gone With the Wind" is one of the few books (until perhaps "Cider House Rules") portrayed almost as well on film as the book is written. However the pleasures remain different and self-contained, and no enjoyment of either is lost by viewing or reading the other.

I am having a ball - I'm in love with Patricia Highsmith and her stories. I can't get enough of the corrupt, sociopathic, amoral, sleazy, viscious, mean, devilish, vile, brilliantly believable world she has created. Has anyone read "The Tremor of Forgery", set in Algiers? Wow! All the Ripleys are ripping, in the true sense of the word. Tom is a horror. I saw the movie first, but I do think Matt Damon did him justice, as did the other actors with their parts. But I liked "Purple Noon" better as a movie, especially the ending, which was not like the book but excellent nevertheless.\

I envy those who haven't begun reading PH yet. They are in for a fab adventure. Oh, by the way - "Strangers On A Train" is amazing - incredble - creepy as all get-out. Very different from the excellent Hitchcock.

You'll want to "go all the way" with Highsmith - that is, read it all. I'm thrilled that I have more to go.

I was a bit disappointed that everybody obviously watched the new remake of "The talented Mr.Ripley" with Matt Damon(which I didn`t find that good), but nobody mentioned the original movie from the early sixties with Alain Delon called "Plein soleil" which is available on amazon.com.
I read the first 4 Ripley sequels in the early eighties and liked "Ripley`s Game", "Ripley under Ground" and "The Boy who followed Ripley" the most of all 5 sequels. But the first one is necessary to read to understand the other volumes. But I never liked the first book as much as the others. Her style of writing matured in the seventies a lot and her books gave me lots of inspirations and tips where to go on vacation and what kind of classical music I could hear etcetera.
If you enjoyed the Matt Damon version with Tom Ripley, try "Plein soleil", you`ll like it even better! The actors, location and score/soundtrack are just divine!

Tom Ripley is probably the most unique...and compelling...murderer in literature today. This is no serial killer like Hannibal Lecter; this is a man who defies description. The most relevant fact about Ripley is he's NOT an evil man. He just has some strange views on the importance of human life. When you read the Ripley novels as a body of work, you realize that he doesn't kill anybody that the reader has much sympathy for. His victims tend to be more self-centered and insensitive than Ripley himself. Ripley also never kills for pleasure; he kills when someone backs him into a corner. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley", Tom is a confused young man trying to find an identity, no matter whose he has to steal. By the second book, "Ripley Under Ground", he has his own life, a home, an income, and a beautiful wife. And he is more than willing to kill to keep all this safe. "Ripley's Game" shows what Tom can do when angered, and what he does when he feels he's gone too far. "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" has him taking a protege, and the final novel, "Ripley Under Water", pits Tom against someone even stranger than he is. In all of this, we find ourselves, against our better judgment, actually pulling for Tom. These novels are must-reads for any devotee of suspense, but fair warning: they are not for the weak of heart or the impressionable of mind.

Ms. Highsmith has done one of the most difficult things in fiction. She's given us a first-person narrative of a sociopathic murderer and has actually had us pulling for him to get away with his crimes.

Tom Ripley is sent to Europe to persuade an old school friend, Dickie Greenleaf, to return home and work in the family business. However, for the first time in his life Tom gets a taste of the good life and the freedom that money can buy. He comes up with an audacious plan to assume Dickie Greenleaf's life and trust fund. One murder leads to another as Tom scrambles to keep up the deception. But through all of this the reader actually feels sympathy for Tom and wants him to succeed.

I recommend this book highly. Ms. Highsmith is a good writer and the way she makes this difficult theme work is nothing short of masterful.

One of the great strengths of this book is the Authors ability to develop the theme of hero worship, its drug like highs and its dangerous lows. As Tom Ripley enters Dickie Greanleafs world Tom begins to idolize Dickie and the life Dickie so effortlessly lives. Most everyone growing up has idolized another, whether it be the highschool quarterback, the prom queen, the affluent, or the gifted artist. The adoration one feels towards a hero is a mixture of loyalty, obsession and unrealistic expectation. What happens when a person actually is able to get close to their idol? What happens when an idol becomes bored with a loyal follower? Ms. Highsmith reveals the darker side of desire and the intrigue that follows. The need for friendship and acceptance are the key factors that keep us as readers connected to Tom even though he is a murderer. Ms. Highsmith has chosen to explore the darker side of rejection and the effects on the participants. This book will hit you on many different levels and you will think about this story long after you have read through it. A true masterpiece!

I hesitate to call this novel a masterpiece, not because I have any doubts, but because I fear it may turn people away from a really enjoyable book. Don't let the critical acclaim scare you off--this is a great read.

Tom Ripley is a down and out young American whose prospects are minimal until he is sent to Italy to persuade an old school chum, Dickie Greenleaf, to return home to the United States. Instead of convincing Dickie to return home, however, Ripley finds himself enamored of Dickie's carefree lifestyle and ready access to money. Ripley dreams of becoming a permanent fixture in Dickie's life, but when it becomes clear that Dickie is growing bored with Ripley, Ripley calmly and coolly kills Dickie and assumes his identity.

Mr. Ripley's talents, alluded to in the title, include forgery, impersonation, and murder. What makes this book a masterpiece is the way Highsmith draws the reader into Ripley's world. His actions seem not only logical, but also inevitable. The reader is brought to sympathize with him utterly, as we watch him grow (if it can be called that) from a clever but passive misanthrope to a cunningly amoral hedonist. How can you loathe a man who wants to use his ill-gotten gains to start an art collection?

The story is told from Ripley's point of view, which leaves the reader with a lot to think about. Ripley's perceptions are necessarily tainted by his own world view, and the book may well be worth a second or third read to try to sort out Ripley's perceptions from reality. Does Dickie love his lady friend Marge, or are they just good friends? What are Dickie's true feelings for Ripley? What brings Ripley to act the way he does?

The answers provided in the recent movie based on this novel are rather simple and, ultimately, pedantic (focusing too much on the possibility that Ripley is homosexual). The novel is far more interesting and complex. Don't miss it!