The music is very lovely, and the history and background on tea and its uses over time are somewhat interesting, but it's just a little too high-brow for me. The recipes are a little too labor-intensive.

Chamber's book on the life of a middle aged man trying to find his way and having the world fall apart on him in the form of back trouble is pretty predictable and doesn't have much in terms of storyline and content. It is however saved by her wonderful sense of humour which keeps you laughing from start to finish. When the protagonist ends up with the woman he loves and ends the novel feeling happy, we actually feel happy along with him and wanna clap him on his back. Entertaining stuff.

In this, his first novel, Craig Chambers demonstrates a keen sense of human character and motivation. Many of the specific scenes and incidents remain in my mind months after having read the book. Chambers preserves the indirect, somewhat bashful and terribly polite approach to matters of intimacy and sexuality so common in 19th century British society at all social levels. The author values the depth and intensity possible in family relationships and thereby leads the reader to share in the feelings of the main characters in the narrative. Every now and then the narrator indulges in telling the reader a bit more than need be known about a historic castle or some social practice or a particular landscape, but these excursions off the path of the main narrative actually add to the somewhat innocent charm of the book, an innocence rooted in the heart of the central figure, a young boy who in his growing up knows profound frustration and despair, hope and idealism, and disappointment and loss, but who never gives up on life, even when isolated in a strange land. It is clear that the author has reseached his material and that he cares about it very deeply. And that makes for a good read.

Breaktime is a book centred around Ditto and his experiences trying to prove to his friend Morgan why literature is valuable.
It took me a while to become interested in this book, mainly because the themes seemed boring and uninteresting, but the story actually turns out to be quite a good read, and it mainly concerns Ditto's discoveries about himself, life, other people and sex. Its a story about growing up, experiencing new things and changing.
Or at least thats what it seems like, until you get to the last page, which will make you smile - and re-think the whole thing.

This is an excellent reproduction of Delius' scores including the dedications and notes about the scores. It includes Brig Fair and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, but it does not include Appalachia, Paris, Florida Suite or other more minor works. So be aware!

This book, part of the Chambers Encyclopedic reference series, looks at catastrophes of all kinds and arranges them by category in alphabetical order from air disasters to windstorms. Wars and terrorist acts are generally excluded. Each entry provides basic coverage of a calamity, and a small box after each account tells the reader about an interesting fact or aspect related to the event. This book is fine for the general reader with an interest in this area, but it must be noted that not all of the information is accurate, so one must be careful not to rely too heavily on what is written here.

The book "Chamber Music" was very touching. It takes one back into the life of Caroline Maclaren as she tells her story of the most important people to her, throughout her whole entire life.

She tells of the the life behind marrying a composer who puts everything into music, and cares nothing of his surroundings. Later in her years, she has learned to love someone unexpectedlyl. The later years in her life, were the happiest yet, because she has learned to love someone, and that someone wasn't her husband, the composer, but a companion and friend she has made through caring for her husband before he died.

Doris Grumbach has worked wonders with this book. Her writing is very strong and caring. She wrote with feelings as if her, herself, was in the body of Caroline Maclaren. This book is worth it! It will shock you and touch your heart at the same time!

THis is my favourite dictionary, the standard against which we measure words in our scrabble game when someone risks a bluff. But now that we are in the 21st century I can't help feeling that we need an update. I'm not going to get all bolshie over it and I know I should probably chill but the franca is expanding lightspeed and we need the books to morph with the times, so make with the update and pronto dudes, y'all ready for dis?

A disconserting novel and apparently the only one Ruth Coe Chambers ever published.. It begins as sweet as Moon Pies, Coca Cola and salt peanuts, and shifts, just a bit too suddenly, into the kind of rancid, white Southern underbelly -- KKK rallys as comedy, (but 'O Brother, Where Art Thou' has just covered that) -- that is now familiar to many who appreciate the genre. I think Chambers was ahead of her time in some cases. Sympathy for the ignorant red-necked devils is a large part of this novel. The story is seen through the eyes of a (WW-II era) 9-year-old Gulf Coast girl who, in less than a year, discovers she is adopted, has incestious feelings for the uncle who may be her father, is molested by a trusted neighbor...go'wan. And on. There's even an S&M angle, albeit minor. But it plays pretty well once Chambers pumps up from ecstatic sun-blasted lassitude to grim cold-moon attitude. I'd liked to have known more. But like a lotta good books, that's the case. Wish she'd published a sequel.

Grown-ups (and older children) who are fans of MadeleineL'Engle's Austin family books will love this short Christmas story.

It is a picture book, but it really isn't a children's story in the same sense as L'Engle's _The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas._  For one thing, Full House is told (in the first person) from Mrs. Austin's perspective rather than 7 yo Vicky's.  It takes place a few years after _24 Days_.   Rob is no longer a baby, and Suzy is 8.   In the story, Mrs. Austin, her father, and the children come home from Christmas Eve service to find their former babysitter huddled on the doorstep.  It turns out that Evie is pregnant.  Here is an excerpt:

"I remembered hearing that her father seldom came home without stopping first at the tavern, and that her mother had the reputation of being no better than she should be.  And yet I knew that their response to Evie's pregnancy would be one of righteous moral indignation..."

Not typical picture-book text, and while I loved it myself, it's probably not something I would read to my 6 and 8 year olds.

BTW, the ENTIRE text of the story is also found in the grown-up book A Miracle on Tenth Street, which is a collection of short stories, essays, poems, journal entries, etc...mostly about Christmas.  (It also includes the text of 24 Days.)