Clark Ashton Smith wrote prolifically for the old pulp magazines, mostly during the 1920s and 1930s, but his main interest was in poetry. That preoccupation with language is clearly evident in every entry in this volume, which represents a collection of all the stories (including a few incomplete fragments) that pertained to his imaginary land of "Hyperborea," lost in the mists of antiquity. These stories also fit in with the so-called "Cthulhu mythos" of H.P. Lovecraft and numerous other writers, which present an alternative history of humanity as only the latest (and weakest) of earth's sentient denizens, subject to the awful inhuman powers of greater beings that originally came from other planets. What distinguishes Smith's work from that of other Cthulhu writers, or from other writers of fantasy, is his style of writing (borrowed from the 19th century decadent poets he loved and emulated), his morbid and ironic sense of humor, and his penchant for avoiding happy endings.

From a modern perspective this doesn't always work. One gets the distinct impression in many of these stories of a writer more in love with his own wordcraft than in tune with his narrative. Some of the stories are plainly ridiculous; "The Door to Saturn," for example, rates as unbearably poor science fiction in an Ed Wood, 50's B-movie vein. Others contain the germ of a wonderful idea, but squander it on what amount to small-minded jokes, despite the florid prose that attempts to disguise them as something else ("The Seven Geases" in particular). Nevertheless, some of these ideas are worth experiencing, and some of Smith's humor still bites.

A collection of short stories that originally appeared in pulp magazines such as "Weird Tales", C. A. Smith's "Book of Hyperborea" transcends the pulp genre and attains the level of true literary artistry. Smith's measured prose sings where his friend and contemporary Lovecraft stutters or shrieks. (Not to cast aspersions: Lovecraft's vaulting imagination more than makes up for his faults as a stylist.) These tales combine elements of Baudelaire, De Quincy, "A Thousand Nights and a Night", and "Vathek" to produce a vibrant, sensuous, and luxuriant world in which every story has a satisfyingly unhappy ending. Needless to say, this is a quite different approach than that of most current writers of fantastic fiction. So if you have a taste for the plodding prose and hopelessly worthy and boring heroes of Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, et al., then by all means pass Mr. Smith by. He was out of step during his prime, so it's unlikely his shade will be troubled by your continued neglect. In any case, Smith wrote for the ages: like the work of Dunsany and Cabell--certainly the greatest literary artists in fantastic fiction--these stories are intended for a well-read, cultivated audience. Consequently, I recommend this book more to readers of belles lettres than to fans of paperback fantasy trilogies. If you like Poe, you should give Clark Ashton Smith a try. Edward Gorey enthusiasts who are looking for something a little juicier than, though equally gruesome as, Regera Dowdy's stark narratives, will also enjoy C. A. Smith's mordant gloominess of tone.

Smith's work is vibrant, lyrical, mordant, bitter, elegiac, and altogether wonderful. With attention spans growing shorter and shorter all the time it isn't likely that Smith will experience a sudden upsurge in popularity, for his is a style that makes some demands on the reader --- and unfortunately, fewer readers seem anxious to meet a writer even halfwasy, judging from the amazing quantities of dreck clogging the bookshops. Few of Smith's books are in print (more's the pity) but it's worth searching out-of-print venues for them, especially his mammoth COLLECTED POEMS edition from Arkham House. Few writers could move between the extremes of Gothic horror and sardonic comedy with such assurance as Smith managed the trick.

This is a book that could be a 13 yr old's fantasy. but it is a true and wondeful account of a family's sailing adventure.It should be read by the entire family, as an after dinner treat or a Saturday morning diversion. Good for discussion

beautifully written, this book tells a tale of exotic ports and strange people through the eyes of a teenager. compelling for adult and teen alike. highly recommended!

This is a compelling and true account of an amazing adventure. In the middle of the great depression these parents took their kids out of school and exposed them to running a hurricane at sea, exploring the Galapagos Islands before they were settled, visiting a prison island at huge risk where the prisoners were known to shoot at visitors and throw them down wells. No-Holds-Barred home schooling on the open seas! I found it inspirational as a parent and just plain fun to read aloud around the fireplace. My 5 year old always begged for another chapter, I was sad to see it end.

The Cookie Never Crumbles is the manual on how to live an extraordinary, abundant, loving life. What flows from Wally's heart is nothing less than the secret ingredients of living. I keep this book nearby when I need to find my center in courage, joy, compassion and gratitude. I am so blessed to call Wally Amos my friend.

This is a terrific book Wally! I'm moved by your passion and determination to see life at its best and not its worst.

This book will inspire people to look past their challenges and forge forth toward their future. Keep making those cookies for life no matter how many may crumble!

Philippe Matthews
CEO, EmpowerMag.com & HowYouMakeMillions.com

I so enjoyed this book. I read spiritually and emotionally uplifting materials all the time. Some are sooooo heavy. And I must admit that sometimes I need the weight of the information, in the same way that I need and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. But Wally's book is pure dessert, just like his cookies. When I need a quick energy lift I return to his book. I not only found myself vicariously enjoying the honest and fun loving individual, Wally (Famous) Amos, but I felt that I met a soul mate...a lover of life and a believer in the positive powers of the universe.

I have to admit, he should have written the book sooner. He might have saved my marriage. When he speaks of the process and power of his determination and commitment to keeping his marriage in tact inspite of some "infractions" I realized the impact positive, powerful, decisive action can make.

I share excerpts of the book with my graduate students(educators who are stressed). I give them bite size pieces of positive energy at the beginning or ending of the class. That way they can begin the session or end it with a smile.

I do plan to try the recipe for his famous cookies for Christmas. I'll be glad to let you know if they turn out famously.

I found this book to be extremely educational. This book should be interesting to everyone, no matter what political beliefs they hold. Murray's ideas are cleverly presented and linked together with brilliance. This is a writer who is intellegent and very perceptive of todays society. I can find not one flaw in this perfect example of insightful political writing.

Andrew Murray's writing style is brilliant. This book is not only well written, it also raises some very clever and well thought out points. Murray seems to have a excellent insight into society and shares it with the reader in a captivating manner. This man is a great writer and thinker, and this book is gem.

In this fascinating, and very relevant book, Andrew Murray has not only accurately explained the world as it is, but has also indicated the direction in which it is headed. His analysis of the decline of US hegemony, the rise of Europe(esp Germany) and Japan as well as the division of the world between the major capitalist powers and their corporations is well worth reading. Moreover, his realism concerning the possibility of war in a nuclear age is generally not found elsewhere, and neither is his appreciation of what the Soviet Union achieved in its short existence - testimony to the control of the mass media by capitalists. A rare gem, which combines some of the best Marxist and non-Marxist research concerning the world economy, and pays attention to such neglected issues as the struggle for power in Central Asia, it is a valuable read.

This book must surely be the greatest tragedy in the history of Christian publishing. A giant of a man, Andrew Murray, has become the latest victim of a movement that has finally managed (long overdue) to earn themselves a chapter in the much celebrated Kingdom of the Cults. Unbelievable, but true: The Word Faith Movement has decided that Andrew Murray's theology needs correction, and they have put their scissors to one of Christendom's greatest classics. What we are left with is a pale counterfeit of the original work, yet deceptively published under both the name of Murray and the original title. Christians, please don't be fooled. This is not Andrew Murray, but Gloria Copeland's version of what she thinks Murray should have said. In the process of enlisting him as an apologist for their cause, the Copelands have obliterated the true Murray. How they've managed to legalize such chicanery boggles the intellect. The tragedy, of course, is that sincere believers are led to believe they are actually reading Murray. I suggest that those who are interested in protecting the legacy of authors such as Murray, Spurgeon and Nee, do everything in their ability to raise their concerns to publishers, distributors, book shop owners and fellow book lovers.

Andrew Murray explores in depth some the themse he touches on in other books, as he walks the reader through the book of Hebrews. This is a devotional commentary, not simply to increase your knowledge but to lead you to a deeper place of prayer.

Written in a daily devotional style yet with real depth. I couldn't absorb more than Murray gave at a sitting and was repeatedly amazed at the way he opened the word with both great spiritual insight, intellect and deep feeling. I am eager to read another Murray title.

I purchased this book after a glowing review on NPR. Big mistake. Perhaps it is the translation, but there are, no joke, 2 or 3 exclamation marks per page! The writing is stilted and filled with stereotypes. The central mystery lacks any major surprises and Tursten even fails to capture the omnipresent chill of a Swedish winter. If you want to try some international crime fiction, try the excellent 'Shape of Water' by Camilleri or 'A Very Long Engagement' by Japrisot.

This liesurely paced Swedish police procedural, the first in a series, centers on the characters who make up the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden, particularly 40-ish Irene Huss, wife, mother and detective inspector, as they investigate the murder of a rich financier. Richard Von Knecht took a header off his balcony, but suicide is ruled out even before Huss and her colleagues have finished gawking at the deceased's lavish furnishings - far beyond the means of even rich Swedes. As the team makes its way through the dysfunctional Von Knecht family, a bomb goes off in the murdered man's office, killing two more people and sending Huss into the underworld of bikers and drug dealers and easy death.

Though Huss has a supportive husband (for a refreshing change), there's trouble at home with a burgeoning skinhead daughter and trouble in the force with colleagues covertly and overtly uncomfortable with women. Tursten changes viewpoint with ease and each member of the squad has a chance to shine, from the hard-pressed superintendent trying to mesh personalities and political change to pretty, young Birgitta, enigmatic Rauhala, abrasive Blom and more.

Well-written, if a little long and convoluted, "Huss," provides an intriguing portrait of the workings of a murder squad as well as modern Swedish life.

I liked this book because it is so interesting and exciting. The story is fascinating and I couldn't put the book away, once I'd started to read. You meet a lot of interesting people, both among the suspects and the policeforce. The plot is very different and unpredictable. I highly recommend this book!

While the appeal of the 'oxford' name and the attractive price/page ratio make this book seem like a good deal, I found it extremely difficult to get any useful information out of this book. The authors give their opinions on subjects, before (or in many cases, in place of) giving any coherent summary of it. Just for example, try to figure out who Draco was. If you don't already know, this book is not going to tell you. The writing style is not especially clear, either. If this is one of the best texts available, I can see why nobody learns classical history anymore.

The best aspect of this book on Greek history is its comprehensive treatment of all aspects of Greek life. Literature, politics, religion, etc. are all covered in this book. My favorite sections dealt with how the Greeks socialized through organizations such as the Gymnasion and the Prytany. It really showed how the Greeks were devoted to the polis and how they were required to be very social creatures from cradle to grave. A serious problem of the book is tendencies by some of the authors to write in a style that is not user friendly. Also, a background in Greek history is required to recognize names and places. Without that you will be lost. Don't buy it unless you are really interested in Greek culture.

This is a very good work on classical Europe.

There are many virtues of this complete book, I would like to stress though its most important: its fresh look at ancient world (eg the first chapter by Mr G.Forrest is a good example), and although one might not agree with all points in the book (e.g the hindoeuropen idea at which Mr Griffin is attached is at best weak), but certainly one agrees that the concept of the book is on the right track.

I especially enjoyed the very good chapters in a not well known part of hellenic history, that of the hellenistic times, at which the Macedonian hellenes, made Greece a Universal culture. Buy this book and study it, you can only gain!

As others have stated, this is a good survey of the period that emphasizes technological developments and draws on Murray's previous work. Unfortunately, Murray makes a major error in his well-illustrated description of the "Immelman" maneuver. While named after World War I German aviator Max Immelman, there are actually two completely different maneuvers that went by that name, the one perfected by Immelman in World War I and a completely different one used in World War II. The illustration shows shows a World War I aircraft executing the World War II version: a rolling half loop that would have torn a World War I aircraft to pieces.

Murray in War in the Air 1914-1945 takes an seldom used approach to describe a period in miliatry history where technology and military theory advanced at a rapid pace. By choosing to discuss the First World War, the Interwar years, and the Second World War in one continuum, it is easier to trace the developments in technology, strategy, and tactics (wood to metal, biplane to monoplane, scouting to ground support to strategic bombing, naval scout to capital ship)

The one major shortcoming of this approach is that it does isolate some of the developments from the overall global course of events. For example, the decision not to develop strategic bombers by the Luftwaffe is not given any emphasis, despite being a critical strategic error. Also there is strangely little mention of the possible role of jet propulsion which appeared at the end of the war. Though developed years earlier, this important technology was not given emphasis because of other strategic concerns.

In brief: a very good book in the series from Cassell concerning the rise of Air Power. Both airwar buffs and generalists will enjoy this book, but there will be some points where the experienced reader will be left wondering.

This book has it all. From the start of aircraft warfare, to World War two, it explores the advances in air combat during the two World Wars, providing a detailed history of the battles over Europe and the Pacific.
This book includes pictures of battles, planes and maps, along with how each power utilized their defenses and tactics. It covers every region of study in World War I and II, and it shows how air changed warfare forever.
Being a World War II history buff, I found this book very attractive. No long amounts of text but diagrams to show what happened, when and where. This is an invaluble resorce to anyone who is interested in this subject.

Honestly, I wish there were negative stars so that I could express my opinion of this book more accurately.

This book should be better listed in the "fiction" category, since so much of it is based on unreliable personal accounts. The whole premise of the book rests upon the old Euro-orientalist myth that "sinful" behavior such as homosexuality runs rampant in the "sinful" realm of Islam, and that the religion of Islam is more tolerant of gays and lesbians than Christianity.

As most Muslims know, such ideas are utter nonsense. After all, a few strict Muslim jurists argue that the death penalty is the proper Islamic punishment prescribed for persons convicted of homosexual intercourse. How many Christian high-priests would today concur with that sentence? (Of parenthetical note, however, is the fact that the Biblical book Leviticus actually recommends that very punishment.)

All things considered, the book represents less an in-depth analysis into homosexuality in Muslim culture than an idealized, perverted fantasy world of these Western-born and bred authors.

Put aside the homophilism and the jargon, both of which are a bit strong, and what's left is a fascinating and eye-opening book about a topic much hinted at but little considered systematically. The authors not only have the benefit of knowing homosexuality in many other societies but are well grounded in matters Islamic. Despite the title, they deal predominantly with men; lesbians are little known about.

As with so much else in the sexual realm, Islamic norms differ profoundly from Western ones. The authors establish several points: (1) Islam treats homosexuality far less harshly than does Judaism or Christianity. (2) Sex between men results in part from the segregation of women and in part from the poetic and folk heritage holding that the penetration of a pretty boy is the ultimate in sexual delight. (3) Sex between men is 'frowned upon, but accepted' so long as the participants also marry and have children; and also if they keep quiet about this activity. (4) The key distinction is not hetero- vs. homosexual but active vs. passive; men are expected to seek penetration (with wives, prostitutes, males, animals); the only real shame is attached to serving in the female role. (5) Youths usually serve in the female role and can leave behind this shame by graduating to the male role. (6) The great Muslim emphasis on family life renders homosexuality far less threatening to Muslim societies than to Western ones (Muslim men seeking formally to marry each other remains unimaginable).

In the most startling parts of Islamic Homosexualities, Murray and Roscoe re-interpret important historical developments through the prism of male sex among Muslims. For example, they make a plausible case that sexual attraction was a significant impetus for the development of military slavery throughout the Muslim world. Less persuasively, they speculate that the relaxed Muslim attitude on this subject incited medieval European hostility to homosexuality as a way for those otherwise backward peoples to 'feel superior' to Muslims.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1997

From the cover to the last page, *Islamic Homosexualities* is packed with information that is really useful to the queer Muslim of today. From "Slave Elites" of the Ottoman Empire to the "Gender-Defined" roles of African Homos, from the "Male Actresses" to the "Pakistani Male Prostitues," the book is truly packed with shocking yet factual information.

There is little information about lesbians in the book. In fact, there are only two lesbian voices in the book! A "Balkan Sworn Virgin" and a "Gender-Crossing in Southern Iraq." Beside those, the book is all about the boys, the boys and just some more boys.

I will tell you right now, the last part of the book is my favorite! Why? Because it is packed with stuff from our time. While it was interesting reading about Muslim fags in the Ottoman Empire, it couldn't be compared with the current situations in places like Pakistan. Delicious, Oh my Goodness! And I don't mean that in a sexual way, mind you. But rather it feeds the soul. Hassan Mujtaba, a journalist, hits the road and you can just take big guesses what he finds!

Without giving away the nutrious stories in the book, let me just say that it remains the top on my "best" list... for... ever!

Before considering reading anything by Elizabeth Claire Prophet, read this eye-popping report at ... ...

I heard about Kabbalism and was interested in learning more about it so I came to the Amazon.com website to see if I could find a book about it. When I read the review of this book that another user wrote, I decided to purchase it. It was just as excellent as the other user had said it was. I found it explained many concepts that I had learned from the Bible/church and Catholic school in a way that made them make so much sense to me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wanted to know more about those topics discussed in the Bible and who wanted to understand them more fully. I also enjoyed the book "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" by Drunvalho Melchizedek that contained many of the same things that were in Mrs. Prophet's book and explained them just as well and she did.

I almost gave up studying the Kabbalah in depth given the difficulty and general "user-unfriendliness" of most deeper books. Have you ever tried starting with the 3-volume "Wisdom of the Zohar"?? This book is astonishing in that while there is always more scope for study of this subject of course, Prophet's work is not only by far the best introduction to Kabbalism, but gave me the best idea of the subject's history and origins, the purpose and use of this esoteric system, and even topics barely mentioned elsewhere. For example, what did the original Kabbalistic mystics actually DO? How does the Kabbalah connect with the subject of twin souls? And how to use "the science of the spoken word" in conjunction with the Kabbalah? Finally, with this great guide, exhaustively researched, I feel able to read other works with true understanding and application.