The historical information and pictures of classic furniture are useful and can serve as some inspiration when putting together your own 50s look. The projects in the book, however, seem like a lot of work for not a lot result, time consuming, perhaps more expensive than an equivalent purchase, and in one instance (a wall hanging from a CD sleeve) downright tacky. There are way better books on this subject (see, Pad).

Giving a house today a 1950's look is a dated idea. The cool thing now is creating your own look. What isn't cool or very creative is just sort of buying a lot of 1950's things and attempting to create that look instead of mixing things up. What we and our friends are doing is mixing all styles. I mean, like, we're not the Jetsons. This is 2002. Almost 2003.

This book has many helpful ideas about turning modern items into retro-looking pieces. A definite help if you're in the market for something and just can't find it you can do it yourself.

I'm not a great fan of Chesney, her books are generally too incredible and move far too fast for my taste. 'His Lordship's Pleasure' is particularly guilty of this. Though only a 200 page regency it moves swiftly through a complex and yet completely meaningless plot and so wastes precious time that could be spent developing the somewhat two dimensional characters. If you want an enjoyable romance however and do not ask for believability or an immersing read then you may well still enjoy this as it has some charm. It is nothing like a Georgette Heyer however (which the publisher claims) and frankly the comparison is an insult to Heyer. A mildly enjoyable adventure.

I used to own all of Marion Chesney's novels.... all 80 or 90
of them, however many there were. When I couldn't find some of
her books new at bookstores, I would search them out at second
hand stores until I had the entire collection. While admittedly
perhaps a dozen of these 90 novels are a bit frothy and appear
to have been written in a bit of a hurry with not enough
development of the characters. I still enjoyed each and every
one of her books. Later my relatives after reading a book I
loaned them, discovered that they were also Marion Chesney fans
and I loaned out my entire collection of books to relatives for
them to enjoy. Marion Chesney has a quirky sense of humor which
I enjoy, and I also like her characters and the romance scenes
she writes. (I recall reading Georgette Heyer books a few years
ago and thought them a crashing bore.) For those unfamiliar to
Marion Chesney I would recommend one of her 6 book series,
particularly the one about the six sisters which was excellent.
The nice thing about Chesney is she doesn't write one of those
syrupy, sugary regency novels or one of those prim repressed
style regencies. Her books are fun and make me laugh. I like
them a lot.

I find Jungian analysis interesting however this book is the most hateful book towards women, and fat people that I have ever read. The author has the most hateful attitude towards anyone that has any weight problems. She uses all the worse stereotypes towards people in these predicaments to forward her "theories" which ignore everything scientific about the human body. I guess in Woodmans world, we are all supposed to be stick thin and if we are not, this means we are psychologically disturbed. I think this author somehow felt morally superior to the women she was writing about. The horrible thing is she had case studies about "obese women" and they averaged ONLY 160lbs! Shocking. A sad disaster of a book. A hate manifesto disguised as intellectual enterprise.

Marion Goodman is one of the foremost Jungian Analysts in the world. I have found ALL of her books, including "Owl Was A Baker's Daughter" to be exceptionally compassionate towards women. She has great reserves of empathy and profoundly subtle insights into feminine psychology. This book explores a very painful aspect of many women's lives, and the exploration is undertaken with scrupulous honesty, integrity and wisdom.

Normally I quite enjoy Marion Chesney's Regency romances. They often feature witty dialogue and absolutely hilarious secondary characters. This book features neither of these. Unfortunately, the heroine I found unsympathetic and the hero was quite dull. The only funny moments came from the little menagerie the heroine builds for herself, and those were few and far between. The overall tone of the story was lonely and disaffected. This isn't the best example of Chesney's work. To see her in much better form I would recommend any of the books in the School for Manners or Six Sisters series, which are all far superior to this one.

While Chesney does put more work into her six book series of
novels. I can think of a couple of her novels put out in the
1990's that were a little slapped together like she had written
them too quickly and hadn't put the usual effort into them.
I liked this one, thought it was cute and liked the characters,
sure the one woman in the book was selfish and wasn't nice, but
she was an interesting character psychologicaly. I thought the
parrot who repeated things and either ruined romances or brought
people together was a rather cute and amusing addition to the book. Worth a read in my opinion.

Boring and pointless. Terrible job of editing. Why it was done, I don't know. Why I picked it up, I don't know either.

I heard about this book from a friend who knew Kay when she was a student at the LSU Library School in the 1940s. She thought Kay was one of the most interesting people she had ever met. When I saw the size of the book I thought I would have reading material for quiet moments over the next few weeks, but from the very first page I was pulled along by the drama and suspense of the story as it unfolded so I had a hard time putting the book aside and finished it in a few days.

Not only is it a charming love story, which keeps you in suspense until the very end, but it is a social history of life in the small college town of Marion, Alabama during the early years of World War II. The letters are intensely personal, and I can understand why Kay wrote that she didn't want Ted to show them to anyone else. I'm glad that he had them published so that the world could get to know Kay and I'd love to get to see the other side of the correspondence.

This was my first Balzac, and I was very disappointed. The story line was both thin and unconvincing, and I felt Balzac struggled in vain to make it interesting. Much of the novel was a brave attempt by the author to pad out the story to make up for the inadequacies of the plot. The introduction stated that Balzac was influenced by Sir Walter Scott - this explains a lot, as this novel belongs to the same sorry collection as Scott's worst.

This early novel is set in the civil war which followed the French Revolution, betweeen Republicanists and Royalists, called "chouans". These were guerrill-type bands sponsored by aristocrats, fighting to depose the new regime and reestablish the old one. In the plot, a Republican woman is sent to France to help with intelligence-gathering. But she falls in love with one of the chouan leaders. Another spy maneuvres to make her think her lover has betrayed her, and so she conspires against him. I don't share the other reviewers's opinion that it is a bad novel. It is just an average one by a great writer. I enjoyed it, though.

I am shocked at the negative reviews here. Sure, this is Balzac's first published novel and it may not have the elegant maturity of the many wonderful works he later wrote. But it gives us an exhiliarating heart-on-your-sleeve romanticism and a youthful audacity that makes it very special.

If you are going to read only one Balzac in your life, then maybe you wouldn't choose "The Chouans", but then I would wonder why you would ever choose to go through life and read only one Balzac.

I love the 19th century French novel...Balzac, Hugo, Zola, Flaubert. It may be somewhat of an acquired taste, but if you have the taste, "The Chouans" is a deserving member of the club.

I just stumbled upon Bradley's Darkover series recently, and have really been enjoying them, so I figured I'd like a selection from her witch series, as well.

'Witch Hill' is a quick and somewhat entertaining read about a young woman who has just experienced a horrific series of deaths in her immediate family that quickly wipes everyone she's close to out. But, right before her father's death he starts to tell her about an aunt of his, her namesake Aunt Sara, and she soon learns she's inherited Aunt Sara's ancient house in rural Massachusetts. Sara heads out to check out her inheritance, and decides to spend the summer. Everyone in the town thinks she's Aunt Sara (who died seven years earlier at the ripe old age of 80), and a portrait shows the resemblance IS uncanny. Ol' Aunt Sara was a powerful witch, and the town is ready for young Sara to take up her Aunt's reigns in the local witch temple. Meanwhile, a sweet romance has sprung up between Sara and the young hunky doctor.

But all the intricate plot-work aside, this novel never really gets revved up. The reader is put through the paces, but the story is pretty two-dimensional. The characters have the MOST atrocious dialogue ever. But, it's a fun, goofy, light, and FAST read, so I give it a neutral two-stars.

I gave this book 3 stars because, while I enjoyed it, it was totally unlike the other MZB books I have read. But thats OK. It was essentially pulp. It reminds me of some of the Gothic type romances I used to find at our local used book store when I was a kid. Way back in the day when books cost a dollar! So I guess I enjoyed this story, with the old dilapidated inherited home setting, and steamy sex scenes more out of a feeling of nostalgia. But, you know, sometimes it's just nice to read something that flows along and allows you to relax. There's nothing wrong with that. A Calgon bath for the mind. I am tempted to give this a higher rating just because I enjoyed it, but I suppose it doesn't really warrant it. Not a bad read for all of that.

I'm a fan of MZB, but this book was just- different. I felt that it definitely was rather risque, and believe that it definitely has some chapters that are just pure porn, which is unlike MZB. I think it's very pro-sexuality. The plot gets a little bit odd, and is sort of cut off, but is not impossible to follow. It starts out well, but about halfway through goes sour. I really wish it had been better, and I enjoyed it even though it was absolutely nothing like what I expected. I just wouldn't expect something like that out of MZB. She's usually different.

I haven't read any other Darkover novels, but I have read other novels of Bradley, and she can write well. The problem with this novel is that it is predicable and the ending was too tidy. Almost the moment there was a problem, it was solved by magic or by coincidence.

This books feels like the author might even have been thinking of writing a Darkover children's book. There is almost no conflict. What should have been a tense story of twin brothers separated from infancy, each of whom thinks he is the sole heir of the kingdom, works out far too neatly and with unrealistically little fuss. The main reason to get this book would be to complete a Darkover collection. I wouldn't seek it out otherwise.

The story is more simplistic than Bradley's best work, yes.

It is not the best Darkover story, and not one I'd advise starting off with.

However, for those familiar with the setting, it's an enjoyable tale, perhaps on par with _Star of Danger_: fun, light reading in a familiar world.

I hunted down this book used because I was desperate to read some commentary -- any commentary -- on Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. When I found this, her ex-husband's work on the series, I was immensely disappointed.

"Darkover Concordance" is extremely outdated, to begin with. It was published sometime in the 1970's, and many Darkover books have been written since then. It contains reminders of the stormy relationship between Marion Bradley and Walter Breen -- almost every sentence of his harbors a tone of resentment.

And the commentary itself? Any drooling Darkover fanatic could have written a better work. Don't waste your time trying to hunt down this book -- it's obscure for a reason.

The Darkover Concordance contains a lot of information about the universe of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover that is not available anywhere else. Much effort has been put into the etymology of the different languages, and it offers a good guide to pronunciation of Darkovan words and names, which is of great help for, for instance, live role players. Also fan writers may find this book a nice source. Apart from the concordance itself, it also contain several appendices, including proverbs, genealogies, and ballads.

The book does not contain much information about characters, events, places, etc., described in material published after 1979, which, of course, makes it incomplete as a guide.

However, only 5000 sewn paperbacks and 300 sewn cloth copies were made, and this makes this book a real treasure for any collector. 100 copies of the cloth version are numbered and signed by Breen, MZB herself (she wrote the foreword), and the illustrator, Melisa Michaels.

I am a lucky owner of a paperback copy, bought in Sweden in 1989 for the incredible sum of 30 Swedish kroner which in those days were worth about 3 US dollars...

"The World Wreckers" is awful. Plain and simple. Now, I'm a die-hard Marion Zimmer Bradley fan, so this is not an easy thing to say. Take my word for it -- this is a BAD BOOK.

Why? The plot is inane. Basically, some evil scum developers come to the invented planet of Darkover with the intention of exploiting its people and antural resources. The aristocracy of the planet jumps into action, and the author seems to forget their previous indifference to the well-being of the peons.

Why else? The characters are better described as caricatures -- always seen by the reader as stereotypes and extremes. The writing itself is confusing, unstructured, and full of grammatical errors. The book lacks originality, and reads like every other science fiction pulp ever written. Even if you love the Darkover series, skip this one.

Although this is not the best Darkover novel written, it contains a conflict we all knew had to happen--Terran interests try underhanded methods to gain control of Darkover. How Darkovans deal with it is interesting. I do think it's a shame that the major villain had to be a lost Cheri. Too predictable. However, I like the reorganization of the Comyn which was forced by the ecological disasters and the weakening of the major bloodlines.