Brighton Beach Memoirs is a play about a fourteen-year-old boy growing up in 1937. The boy's name is Eugene Jerome. The play is divided into two acts. The first act is one night in Eugene's house. The second act is a week later in his house. Eugene is growing up in a hectic and eventful household of seven family members. He writes memoirs in his journal about his family and different events occurring in his life. During the play, Eugene share's his own personal thoughts with the audience. This really gives the audience an inside look on Eugene's life. I reall liked having this inside view. It really kept me into the book. Brighton Beach Memoirs was a real page turner. I highly recommend it!

"Brighton Beach Memoirs" by Neil Simon is just superb! I saw the movie before reading this play, and I love it, so I knew I would at least like the play. I *love* the play; it's become one of my favorites. I fell in love with all of the characters and just adore the feeling of family that comes through while reading it. With witty dialogue (that can truly be appreciated my by people of the Jewish faith), I couldn't stop laughing, smiling, and just enjoying myself. I recommend.

There is a reason that Neil Simon is revered by the public, yet basted by critics. His plays contain characters and situations that just about anyone can relate with. BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS is based upon Simon's youth. It is a family play; not only is it about a family, it is a play that the whole family will enjoy. Lots of laughs and tons of fun.

I try to get all of Bill Burk's books. I enjoy his writings about Elvis so much.
I also have all his Elvis World Magazines. He only writes the truth. You will find no lies about Elvis in his books so they will sell.

This is the longest-running, best-selling book in the Graceland shops since its first printing in 1987! The author -- a personal friend of Elvis' and a journalist who wrote almost 400 stories and interviews on Elvis during a 20-year span -- paints an insider's picture of Elvis, the human being behind the glitter. He was the lone journalist allowed on Elvis' private train car coming home from the Army and the first to take Elvis aloft in a small airplane and allow him to handle the controls. Follow the ups and downs of Elvis from 1957 to 1977, including their last private conversation while parked behind a donut shop near Graceland after midnight just 3 months before Elvis died. The author -- well-known to Elvis fans around the world, and widely "researched" by more famous writers -- has always been sensitive to the private Elvis.

This book is one of the most comprehensive looks at a legend ...an inside look by Mr. Burk who was the only journalist allowed inside Graceland to interview Elvis. I was fortunate enough to have a friend to loan me the first edition years ago, and I contacted Mr. Burk to try to obtain a copy which was out of print at the time. I'm so grateful that he had another printing done and I was able to obtain a copy for myself. Just one in a series of works from Mr. Burk about his favorite subject. I will always buy Mr. Burk's books.

When Stephen Vincent Benet finished John Brown's Body in 1928 and the critics awaited its issue, the South was most anxious and skeptical that they would be portrayed honestly. They were and Stephen Benet's masterpiece is America's greatest epic poem and a most unappreciated work of literature. But, I love it and always will love it, because it makes those historic figures of so long ago - come alive. Out of the mist, they ride. Come traveler, pick it up, open its pages and from fish hook Gettysburg to the end, watch them ride and try to understand over all the years what was happening and why they were fighting. It was not all about Slavery!

During the Pax Romana the emperor Augustus commissioned Vergil to write an epic history of the Romans. The result, of course, was The Aeneid, a stunning blend of epic poetry and historical fiction that some would argue has yet to be topped. John Brown's Body is the closest thing we have to an epic poem "about" America. And while it takes place during the civil war and makes no claim to be an authoritative history, the book is no less impressive as a literary feat. No book in the history of this country has so artfully depicted our nation's great schism.

Written in the 20s, John Brown's Body redefines the word ananchronism. Its contemporaries are The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Professors widely praise these modern works for their groundbreaking aesthetics, and not without justification. However, it's hard to imagine a more daring or daunting task than the writing of John Brown's Body. Never mind the fact that he pulled it off marvelously. Stephen Vincent Benet remains the only writer to have even _attempted_ to write an American epic poem. Stephen Vincent Benet deserves high scores both for degree of difficulty and final product. Yet conventional education regarding 20th century American books never seems to give him these high marks.

Why Benet and his book don't get the recognition they merit is a terrific question. Is his book canonically superior to Gatsby and Their Eyes? No. And on some level, it's difficult to see what someone living in Taiwan could glean from this document of American struggle and triumph. To wit, the book can also be criticized for being slightly skewed toward a Yankee perspective. But as a whole, the book is outright better than a lot of works revered as American classics.

What does better mean? What it should mean. Simply a more impressive work of art. More entertaining. More provactive. More fun to read. More intellectual depth, conveyed subtly and beautifully, embedded skillfully but not invisibly in an absorbing tale. On these counts, John Brown's Body is vastly superior to classics like The Sun Also Rises; The USA series of John Dos Passos; Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis; and certainly Hawthorne's later novels. Yet John Brown's Body continues to get short shrift, to the point where it's well nigh unfindable in many a book store. One can only hope that the critics and canon-makers of later generations restore the book to its proper place, high atop our shining history of American letters.

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in the '40's. It covers the Civil War principally from the perspectives of a young, small town Connecticutt boy and the heir to a Geogia plantation. It begins with a gripping view of events on a slave ship and ends with two crippled young men and the women they love, beginning to rebuild ther lives. Part poetry, part prose, it all sings.

The crux of this book is that trance -- the method employed by shamans, mediums, and other mystics -- is the doorway to the fifth dimensional field of cosmic consciousness. He calls trance the "Rosetta stone" that unlocks the mysteries of existence.

Author Harper calls upon a wide variety to authors, including Alice Bailey, Jacob Boehme, Richard Bucke, Carlos Castaneda, Deepak Chopra, Larry Dossey, Albert Einstein, Stan Grof, Graham Hancock, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung, Charles Lindbergh, John Mack, Raymond Moody, Michael Morse, Oliver Lodge, Kenneth Ring, Gary Schwartz, Ian Stevenson, Ken Wilber, and scores of others in piecing together the very complex puzzle of consciousness and the meaning of life. He adds in his own mysical experiences and observations. The picture that emerges will be an abstract one for most people, but there are many smaller images within the full picture that are easily discerned.

Dr. Harper concludes that the universe is a hologram -- one whole message. He sees our DNA molecule as the simplest form of a hologram. "Our DNA molecule serves as the monitor and the system clock of the cosmos tuned to the geomagnetic cycles of Gaia, our Sun, and Milky Way Galaxy," he explains. "This is what the shaman does in trance: taps into DNA transmissions."

Harper draws from quantum physics, anthropology, biology, the Bible, mythology, abnormal psychology, near-death experiences, astronomy, astrology, crop circle studies, alien abductions, Egyptology, Mayan Cosmology, seemingly every conceivable source that that lends itself to the mystery of consciousness and the meaning of life. It's an intriguing and fascinating read.

So many answers, so well documented. Well worth your time to read.

Before reading the book, I asked the question: did you ever wonder how ETs can get from there to here instantaneously with their very physical (in our terms) bodies and craft?

Here is my take on the answer to this question. In the common, current understanding of the universe by our species, time and distance seem important. But, the reality of the universe is that there is no time. It is only an illusion, a convenient mechanism we have invented to justify our perception of reality. All of our universe exists in the now and exist as manifestations of consciousness.

When we look out from Earth into the Universe, we see past events of space-time, events that have happened, which have resulted in apparently what, where, why, and who we are. But, we never see the instantaneous now. The future only exists as multiple probabilities until a consensus of consciousness is reached on the next instant of now.

Perhaps multiverses exist to fulfill all probabilities, but you and I in this consensual manifestation can only experience one flow of now that we call our time. However, we all can have the ability to travel instantaneously, not just mentally, as many of us have from one point in the universe to another, but physically as well. All locations of space-time in the now are really at the same "place." It is only an illusion that we think we must travel to some distant location at some velocity that is less than the speed of light.

As such, UFOs and ETs and their interaction with us are absolutely centered in my view of reality. It will be great when we can, as they, go anywhere we wish just by "wishing." That time appears to be coming upon us, but we must prove ourselves first and overcome our ego-centric universal view that keeps getting us in trouble.

Read this book. John's writing reveals the same answer to my question and so much more.

This is an important book and I was glad that I read it. It isn't one of those books where the author tries to sell you a new theory at great length.
The subject of the book is the reality of the spiritual component of the universe and its relationship to the physical world.
Functionally, this book is a literature review of modern books and theories ranging from physics to freemasons.
I liked the way he provided his references right there in the text and also URLs where there is a website, and I liked the honest way he presents the information and explains his thoughts.
Andy McCracken - Exodus 2006 website.

The title of this book led me to think it was just another listing of plants with notes on height, hardiness etc. It is far more than that, as I realized when I read in the acknowledgements "A stroll around my garden is a bit like telling the rosary, with each bead a friend remembered by a plant they gave me." Now that I can relate to.

The author gives a great deal of information in this 350 page book, but she also shares herself and her love of her garden with the reader. We learn WITH her rather than from her. This is a really good read if you loved gardens and the book is beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs. The material has been organized by season so you can curl up and enjoy a year's worth of garden beauty and wisdom. There are short but useful resource and reference lists.

This book contains a wealth of information, but the pleasure of reading it comes from the warmth of the author. Her voice, her ideas, her thoughts on plants and gardening come through clearly and gently to the reader. This is a sharing of wisdom rather than as sharing of knowledge.

There are very few gardening books for Southern Gardeners that are so readable. This book feels like visiting with your best gardening buddy: walking through her gardens and talking about plants frankly and enthusiastically. Ms. Harper introduced me to many plants of which I had limited or no previous knowledge, and gave lots of great information on the care, propagation, and placement of them. She is not just a cheerleader. She also gives any drawbacks or limitations to each plant, with ideas for how to overcome them. The illustrations are fabulous, detailed, and filled with plant combination ideas. This book will have a valued place on my bookshelf for many years to come.

This is easily my favorite gardening book. Already it is dog-eared and well-worn. A lovely combination of useful information, beautiful photos, and very good writing. The author tells you what she has learned over 30 years of gardening in the hot and humid southeast and does so in a way that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.

This book was another great Two Of a Kind book. When you read the back of the book it says that Mary-kate and Ashley are going to get revenge on the boys (Ross and Grant). Grant dumped Mary-Kate for her best friend Campbell, and Ross dumped Ashley for Dana, the most popular stuck-up girl in first form. Could things get any worse? Yes!

Is someone trying to break you and your boyfriend up? Or is there a miss understanding? Well in this book MK and Ashely are having major boy problems. Will they get back together? Find out by buying this book right now, all you have to do is order.

Mary-kate and Ashley are going to a dance and there dates are dumping them. A boy Mary-Kate likes is going to the dance with her bestfriend Campbell. Ashleys (so called) boyfriend is getting fed up with her and took a date with Dana, Ashleys worst enemy. What will they do? They'll live with it, that is what they will do. They have to. They are on a commity and they have to live with there X boyfriends forever. Ashley is partners with her X boyfriend Ross and is misserable to go set up for the for the dance. Maary-Kate has to actually live with her so called "friend" Campbell since they share a dorm room. If you want to here about the rest of the book, borrow or buy the book!

Ashleigh loves Shadow, a filly she saw being born. An unkind trainer who delivers a stallion to Edgardale, he sees Shadow and wants her. Ashleigh's parents turned down his offer. He sneaks up to Edgardale that night and steals her. Ashleigh finds Shadow at Churchill Downs, where she is helping out, but the trainer moves her again. Ashleigh finds the trainer's farm and is happily back with her filly. I can't believe that somebody will steal a horse! Let alone a foal! That was the best book in the Ashleigh series so far out of the 3 I read. Read it!

This book made me cry. It is the saddest book in the Ashleigh series!! Even though Ashleigh finds Shadow at the track, it still made me cry when she was gone. What i really like about Ashleigh is that she never gives up hope like her parents did!! Ashleigh and Mona found her beloved filly and that is another reason why I cried!!!

this book is great

This book gives an excellent insight into the life and times of Mabel Normand - one of the first women of cinema. Her life was complex and peppered with tragedy. This book fully explores all the hearsay about Mabel's downfall, and looks further into the roots of the controversy surounding the Taylor murder case, amongst other scandals of her time. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone.

All I can say is read this book. It is one of the best Bio's written about a silent Movie star.

Betty Fussell's book is one of the best biographies I've read. I've read it several times since it was published in 1992. Why, you ask? It doesn't begin with the usual chronological story, but jumps back and forth from the present to the past. Fussell interweaves Mabel's family, her nurse, her friends with the tragic outcome of Mabel's life. It reads like a detective story, as Fussell tries to capture the clues to Mabel's life . Get this one, you won't regret it.

Evan's family is captured by slavers and broken apart. A few years later, he's rescued by a religious group called the Children of Irfan when it's discovered he's one of the telepathic Silent. Taking the new name Kendi, he begins training on the planet Bellerophon, where a serial killer is killing women in the Dream, the non-physical place where the Silent congregate. When Kendi witnesses the killer at work, he can't help but be part of the investigation, especially while his teacher is one of the investigators. To make things even more complicated, Kendi finds himself attracted to his teacher's son. What if he's rejected once again? But then, what if he's not? As a prequel to Harper's first novel "Dreamer", "Nightmare" fills in parts of Kendi's past. The mystery plot is unexceptional, and almost easily figured out, and the abrupt jumps through time nearly shatter the plot threads, but Harper's strong characterizations and engrossing sci fi world make this book hard to put down. I can hardly wait for the next novel about the Silent Empire, not only because of Kendi, but also for the intriguing social commentary at which Harper hints via the Dream.

Nightmare is a great scifi read! Steven Harper adeptly weaves the vivid characters into the story, creating an utterly believable world that you won't want to leave. It's amazing how Harper so realistically recreates the see-sawing emotions of a teenager's first stirrings of desire - the elation of falling for someone and abject feelings of rejection when it turns out that person doesn't feel the same way.

It is rare that the second book in the series is an improvement rather than a disappointment. Far too often I have read the second book in a series or trilogy and been let down either by a dragging or faltering storyline or worse the failure of the author to expand on his/her original premise. Not so with Steven Harper's "Nightmare" his second book in his "Silent Empire" series. "Nightmare is not a sequel but rather a prequel. It is the story of the main character of "Dreamer, Kendi Weaver as a slave and then as a student.

Twelve year old Kendi expects to awaken from cryogenic sleep on a colony world where he and his family anticipate recreating Australian aboriginal society. However 900 years have passed while the colonists slept and they awoke to find themselves being sold into slavery. Sold as a laborer Kendi spends several years on a frog farm when a chance meeting reveals him to be one of the Silent. The Silent are telepaths with the ability to communicate with other telepaths across the galaxy. The Silent do this by entering the Dream, a world entirely composed of the collective unconscious and practically anything is possible. Being Silent means Kendhi is now extraordinarily valuable and his owner announces she will see Kendhi immediately. Facing yet another slave auction Kendi is rescued and freed by Mother Ara of the Children of Irfan, a monastic order, dedicated to teaching the Silent to use their abilities. Kendi is transported to the Planet Bellerophon, home of the Children of Irfan.

Kendhi begins his training in the use of his abilities with the Children of Irfan as a free person. However, he is haunted by the memories of his parents and siblings who are still slaves somewhere. His guilt at being free leads him to act out in the worst of teenage ways. Worse, there is a vicious serial killer stalking the Dream using individual's dreamscapes as weapons and Kendi's savior and teacher, Mother Ara, appears to be next on the murder's menu. Mixed in with all this is Kendi's ongoing struggle with his emerging homosexuality.

Mr. Harper creates vivid, fully formed characters that attach themselves to your memory and stay. I remember teenage angst and I believe that few authors can vividly recreate that worst of life phases. Mr. Harper expresses that age life few others I have read. Background exposition is fed into the storyline without interrupting the story. Mr. Harper also pulls off quite a feat in surprising readers with the true identity of the murder.

Mr. Harper has left a gap in time between the end of "Nightmare" and the beginning f his first book in the series, "Dreamer" leaving time for (hopefully)another story of Kendhi's youth.

This is the only study Bible that I have been able to locate in the NRSV translation that contains study notes from a conservative, evangelical perspective. I purchased it mainly because the NRSV is the preferred version of my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA). Another reason for my purchase was that the study notes were edited by the late Dr. Harold Lindsell, an evangelical theologian known for his defense of biblical inerrancy. Also, I was very familiar with Dr. Lindsell's earlier study Bible, "The Peoples Study Bible," published by Tyndale in 1986 and formerly available in the KJV and Living Translations.....I believe that both editions are now out of print. Lindsell's study notes in the Harper Study Bible are very similar to those in the People's Study Bible.

There are a few reasons that I did not give the Harper Study Bible a 5 star rating: (1.) The type is too small!(2). the page quality could be better so that a highlighter will not bleed through; (3.) it apparently only comes in hardback.....I had my copy rebound in leather by Norris Book Company of Greenwood, MS, and have been very pleased, however. (4.) it does not come in red letter, which I prefer. Other than the above, the Harper Study Bible is an excellent choice for Christians who use the NRSV.

This is perhaps one of the best bibles I've purchased. Many study bibles are just overwhelming with the number of notes, and while that is nice for serious study, the volume of notes can render them useless. Where the Harper Bible excells is in the number, clarity, and depth of the notes as well as the introductions. The introductions give you exactly that, an introduction, not an extended essay. If you're looking for in-depth discussion of scripture, a commentary is a better tool than a study bible since its more complete. Also, the notes and introductions are written from a solidly evangelical perspective. Perhaps the best feature of this bible is the concordance, along with character profiles. Rather than just list every place the name Timothy appears in the bible, there is an outlined biography with scripture references in the corcordance for the major bible characters.

The Harper Study Bible also utilizes the NRSV translation, which despite most evangelical's dislike for it, is very similar to the new English Standard Version. The NRSV's essentially literal style makes it ideal for a study bible.

If I had to make one complaint about this bible it would be the paper quality - its rather thin. At the same time, the size of this bible makes it ideal for carrying around, as it fits in the medium size bible cases.

I highly recommend the Harper Study Bible!

I bought this study bible after researching a lot. My first study bible was Oxford New Annotated Bible, which I found it to be very eye-friendly format. But it seemed to me ONAB was too seminary textbook-like and I wanted something more personal, devotional, yet useful study bible for ordinary people. So, here it is. Originally, I thought of getting a NIV Study Bible, but center column cross-reference was distracting on my eyes. Although it seems that everybody chooses NIV nowadays, after careful comparison, I decided I liked NRSV better. I know many people talks about genter inclusive language, but as a Japanese who doesn't have that problem in Japanese, it is simply a problem in English style. But as a return, English translations are much smoother than Japanese ones. So, my rating on this Harper Study Bible is 9 star instead of 5, I wanted to give 10 star, but rather smaller font and not-so-excellent-paper makes the printing part "needs-improvement". For the content, the annotations and comments provide easy-to-understand-yet-thorough-informaiton. It is purely faith oriented, not science or scholatic, which bible is all about. They are objective enough, it's not preachy or self-help book like Life Application Bible. I agree that Life Application Bible is excellent, but it doesn't give me the feel of "God's words". This Harper Study Bible needs much more respect and I guess, more review and advertisement by Zondervan and scholars. If Zondervan makes a larger print format and improve paper quality, I have nothing to ask. I'm just so content with this study bible.