Hello my name is . This book is one of my favorite books to read over and over. It's about a boy that will open a church that was not opened for sixty years. And the pictures look like they were hand painted by the author. When I read the book for the first time it seemed like a true happening.

Young Alexi helps the people of his village come together to pull off a Christmas miracle in their small, deserted church. Beautiful illustrations and a heartwarming story you will want to share time and again with your family.

Hi! My name is Jacqueline Whelan. This book is a great holiday time picture book for all ages. The illustrations are wonderful, and each book appears to be had painted! A touching story, very well written.Jacqueline Whelan:-)

This is a tale about a cricket and his band. They play beautiful music for all of the animals that come to the lake. The name of the band is the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. Their favorite place to play is at the Little Lake and the Little Stream. This story is mainly about how soft and beautiful their bands music sounds and how it gets all of the animals to dance and have a good time. It is a good book if you would like to read it.

Josh V.

I have to say that I have enjoyed Nicholas Cricket from the very first time I read it to my daughter 9 years ago. I play the banjo myself and have always been fond of "bugs". I find the illustrations to be marvelous and evoke a joyful jazz age when banjos were hot and zoot-suits were cool! The text is lyrical and very enjoyable to read aloud. I have recommended Nicholas Cricket to all my friends and to both public and school libraries. It is a great book.

This book is full of beautiful, rich illustrations. I enjoy it just as much as my 2.5 yr old who insisted we read it every night for a month!

The goal of An Open Heart is to give the reader a basic understanding of Buddhism and to show how Buddhist practice can lead to a more compassionate and wise life. Many of the problems encountered in life are self-created. This leads to endless cycles of suffering, misery, and disappointment. The first step towards liberation from this painful cyucle is to commit and devote self to the practice of compassion in a very deliberate and systematic way.

There's a really good reason why books by the Dalai Lama are so popular. He presents himself as an equal., He conducts himself as a servant of humanity. And his explanation of Buddhist concepts is logical, intelligent, and persuasive. However, the Dalai Lama's most alluring quality is his personal willingness to "walk the talk." This book is a demonstration of his deeply personal commitment to lessening the suffering of the world.

This book received a score of 8.250 on a scale of 1(low) to 10 (high) from the spiritual reviewer. A score of 8 or higher designates the book as "a classic."

The topics of these writings, gathered from numerous lectures the Dalai Lama has delivered, range from the Need to Practice the Dharma, Compassion and Cultivating the Compassion Within, Altruism: Cherishing Others, Impermanence and Death, Recognizing the Enemy Within, Dealing with Anger and Hatred, and Universal Resonsibility. They will resonate with individuals drawn to the Buddhist conceptions of human life, and will surely provide reflections that may enlighten the daily confrontations that are the stresses and constraints of modern life.

Despite the Buddhist overtones, the practices and wisdom written in this book is universal. It tells us the way to live a fuller life and gives meaning to everyday actions. The Dalai Lama is a powerful communicator who has an intricate world view. I agree on his analysis of the problems that we face and his solutions. He claims that he is just as anyone of us without anything special of miraculous but his words are the rare words of a man who knows much more about life than most people. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to recover inner peace through the Buddhist way, though not necessarily through Buddhism.

this is a wonderful collection of images, but so many of them are presented poorly. they're extremely grainy and tinted hideous sepia tones. chalk it up to the 80's, i guess.

despite this problem, the album is definitely worth adding to your collection if you are a serious Romanov fan. General royalty buffs who want just one Romanov photo book would do better with Prince Michael's _Nicholas & Alexandra: The Family Albums_ (a book that everyone interested in royalty and/or the Romanovs should have, imo).

Lovely photographs. I have seen many of these before at Yale's Digital Beinecke Library, but some are new to me. It shows Nicholas II not as an autocrat or the "tyrant" historians say he was--it shows him as a kind man who adored the world he knew, that of his wife, smiling beautiful girls and his happy, albeit ill, son.

"The Romanov Family Album" is probably one of the earlier photo collections on the last imperial family of Russia. The photographs come from the photo albums of Ania Vyrubova, Empress Aleksandra's closest friend; the albums are now among the collections in Beinecke Library at Yale University.

Most of the pictures are of the family's annual summer trips to the Crimea and through the fjords of Finland, with a fair smattering of the family during World War I and a few photographs of the imperial family in captivity at Tobolsk. Numerous lengthy excerpts from Ania Vyrubova's chatty memoirs add some entertaining color. An introduction by Robert Massie gives a brief (and interesting) history of how the albums ended up with Yale.

On the whole this is a very interesting book. The main flaw is that it's very difficult to find.

Nicholas Brown at the University of London has given us a dictionary of the 10,000 words he believes are the most common in Russian. The interesting twist is that the first part of the dictionary is sorted, as the subtitle says, "in frequency order". From the most common word meaning, "and" to the 10,000th most common meaning, "furious,raging, fervent", he outlines a method for expanding your Russian vocabulary. This book could prove to be a useful tool in deciding to memorize particular words.

A helpful alphabetical listing follows the frequency list.

I think this volume is best used by a second or third year student of colege Russian.

This books strength is in its ability to assist in the consolidation of useful Russian words. Rather than learning words that are unlikely to arise in everyday conversation or literature this book definitely assists in strengthening your grasp of the most commonly used words. As the author quite rightly states, although "(do)sveedanya" (goodbye) may be one of the first words in the language you may learn - in usage terms it is the 1273th most common in usage (sveedanya). You'd be better in general terms to learn "ryeshat" "to decide, solve" being number 1272 in frequency, even though this may not even be mentioned in a conventional Russian course - indeed in the authors excellent new Penguin Russian Course this word is not mentioned until Chapter 13!

My personal usage of this book is to highlight with a bright marker words that I have learnt. A quick glance at the book then immediately gives me feedback on my progress in vocabulary terms.

This alone is an excellent tool and encourages you to an even greater vocabulary. Where else can you get such instant feedback?

I've bought a lot of books in trying to increase my vocabulary in Russian. This one, however, has been the most practical. It seems like every time I learned one of the most frequently used words, I'd begin to hear it almost immediately (we were living in Russia at the time).

Before this, I'd picked up a lot of words (thousands) that I simply never used. Wish I'd had this book about a year earlier.

Nicholas Brown at the University of London has given us a dictionary of the 10,000 words he believes are the most common in Russian. The interesting twist is that the first part of the dictionary is sorted, as the subtitle says, "in frequency order". From the most common word meaning, "and" to the 10,000th most common meaning, "furious,raging, fervent", he outlines a method for expanding your Russian vocabulary. This book could prove to be a useful tool in deciding to memorize particular words.

A helpful alphabetical listing follows the frequency list.

I think this volume is best used by a second or third year student of colege Russian.

This book is also available in paperback.

Nicholas Brown brought use the excellent revised Penguin Russian course, and this offering is up to his usual high standards.

A self-explanatory title - allows you to gauge your current performance in written russian (I do this by simply highlighting with a marker pen the words I already know). And allowing you to fill in gaps in your knowledge.

I think this book is one of the best Vocabulary building tools on the market - this is of course the books intended purpose - and it serves it well.

Whatever posessed Brown to embark on the mind-bending task of figuring out the 10,000 most frequently used Russian words is unclear, but I'm glad he did. This book is a great study aid, enabling one to prioritise word lists so that the most useful ones can be memorised first. Each entry comes with a small phrase to give the word context, and stress marks are given throughout.

The fun part is when you've absorbed, say, 10 words from the list and then listen to native Russian speakers. The new words pop up with surprising regularity and give a major boost to one's comprehension of what's being said.

It's an ideal accompaniment to any Russian course and could really help you pull ahead if you're studying in a classroom environment.

What happens when an unexpected supernatural guest shows up on the stage of a play in Elizabethan England?

I was confused at the beginning of this book because there is a large cast of characters, and they are all introduced at the same time... once I got the characters straight in my head (I think) I found this mystery enjoyable.

The Merry Devils is a very creative work of art. It really shows what Tudor England was like under the reign of the Virgin Queen.
It blends theater and history into an astounding read from cover to cover.

"The Merry Devils" is Edward Marston's second episode in the Nicholas Bracewell "Elizabethan Whodunit" series.

It's now curtains up for the London theatrical group known as the Westfield Men.Their patron is Lord Westfield, who, often times, has his own misgivings and even problems. Still the troupe carries on, as the series reveals, with murder, mayhem, and political, social, and religious intrigues!

Behind the guidance of Bracewell, the company's book holder and general stage "boss," the group is enjoying measured success, after all it is good times in England as the Virgin
Queen seems happy on the throne and prosperity seems at an all-time high.

Not so fast, though. The troupe is excited about their production of a new play, "The Merry Devils." However, on opening day, a strange and surprising event occurs: instead
of two devils appearing on stage, mysteriously there are three devils there. This catches everyone's attention and they prepare for a second performance. This time, only one devil
appears and the crew find the second one dead beneath the stage!

Now, our Nicholas takes over. Despite the fact that he's a top theatrical manager, he's also a great detective. Now, with the help (and oftimes hindrance!) of his fellow troupe members, he begins slowly to unravel the circumstances surrounding this death. And, of course, it is no accident. Like a spider web, the event spins off in a number of directions, areas where jealousy, revenge, and political intrigue step forward. Marston's supporting characters include the indomitable Lawrence Firethorne, Edmund Hood, Barnaby Gill, and their nemesis Banbury's Men.

Marston does an excellent job with this historical
"whodunit," weaving excellent characterization, plot development, historical accuracy, and authentic tone and atmosphere to make "The Merry Devils" one worth the read. This story is not a history lesson, but history "with a twist," well worth the time it takes! (...

I was a member of Roger Guillemin's Nobel Prize winning research team for several years at the Salk Institute, and was later invited to also work with and in the laboratory of the Nobel-laureate Andrew Schally at Tulane University/Veterans Administration Medical Center in New Orleans for several more years. As far as we know, I am the only one who was a member of both teams for years each. I know what happened because I was directly involved in a little more than the last half of the book. I have also conducted research in other similar laboratories, both independently and collaboratively for decades. Nicholas Wade wrote more about the spirit of the activities which occurred, as compared with what actually happened. This book did provide, however, some insight into the almost incomprehensible pressures, the phenomenal strivings toward a stellar goal (reaching for the stars), the dreams and the unimaginably grueling work (24 hours a day, 7 days a week - nonstop) which inherently resides at these intellectual levels, and did in our research groups. I felt, however, that THE NOBEL DUEL did not go far enough in some instances, and was simply incorrect in other instances. This book does, however, provide the general public with a glimmer of what it is like at these levels, and what is involved in winning the most coveted research award in the world, The Nobel Prize (in Medicine/ Physiology).

. . .of the behind-the-scenes research activities and fierce competition behind two teams of scientists both on the same 'track', racing for the greatest scientific prize of them all -- the Nobel. One thing is certain -- human nature is as evident in the laboratory as it is everywhere else!

Having had a long friendship with the lead chemist to one of the teams, the late Roger Burgus, led even more enjoyment to this book.

This book is a fascinating blend of actual science and human passion and spirit. Scientific research used to seem so cold and unhuman but after reading this book, you realize that many people put all of their lives...money, heart and soul...into the pursuit of science and in this case, the Nobel Prize. Makes for fine reading.

The main reason I read Nicholas Delbanco is for the musicality of his prose: the cadence, tempo and unusual rhyhtms of his sentences, here addressed to a conventional drama of Professor Meets Girl. I'm reminded of an American ensemble who could only explain jazz to Chinese musicians by playing a traditional Chinese melody a la Theolonius Monk. Delbanco is like that. Each sentence reveals careful thought, each chapter orchestration. Not unlike a jazz musician, Delbanco receives too small attention: hunt down his novels and essays, and give a listen.

In 1969, thirty-something Professor Paul Ballard teaches philosophy at Vermont's Catamount College. Paul is normally aloof in the classroom until Elizabeth Sieverdsen attends his class. The student and the teacher fall in love and begin a torrid affair that abruptly ends when she rejects his marriage proposal. She leaves him without informing him she carries his baby. Not long afterward, Paul is injured in an accident, ends his teaching career, and becomes a hermit on his remote farm. Elizabeth gives up the baby for adoption.

Over the years, Elizabeth marries and has children with her spouse, but never forgets her first love for Paul nor her abandonment of their child. With her marriage over and her nest empty, Elizabeth finally returns to Vermont for the first time in a quarter of a century. She meets Paul and hesitantly they try to regain what they lost.

OLD SCORES is an intriguing modern day retelling of the classic Abelard and Heloise tale. The story line works, especially the subplot occurring in 1969, due to the genuine feel of the interrelationships between the characters. Although not quite as masterful as WHAT REMAINS, Nicholas Delbanco provides a complex, intelligent tale centering on the difficulty of forging a relationship even when love ties the players together.

Harriet Klausner

Nicholas Delbanco is an extraordinary stylist with a compelling purchase on the human condition. In this, his latest novel,the author scores an ancient story (love found, relinquished, and recovered) so that it resonates and sustains long after the final notes are struck. Delbanco has found the emotional center of his subject without the sentimentality or maudlin cliches with which a lesser writer might have been content. Here, instead, we have a discerning wisdom that rises from the particularities of our lives so that the story, the characters, the emotional terrain emerge fresh and real amidst sentences that delight, vivify, ring true.

The year is 1588, England is at war with Spain, Queen Elizabeth I is on the throne, and London is a bawdy, boisterous mix of courtly elegance and general squalor. Against this background, Marston paints a picture of the precarious life of a small theater group, Lord Westfield's Men, who perform in the galleried courtyard of a pub called the Queen's Head. Nicholas Bracewell, the company's bookholder, not only holds the troupe together but also solves a murder in the bargain. The wild and colorful period comes vividly to life in Marston's mystery.

Amidst the quest for novelty in the mystery genre during the late 80s, when contemporary and 20th century period settings became passé, came THE QUEEN'S HEAD. Despite its weaknesses, it is sure to delight many fans of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE as author Edward Marston hit a fresh, new concept for milieu, especially when the book's 1988 British release gives it a good eleven-year clearance before that of the successful movie scripted by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.

This Elizabethan mystery is the story of Nicholas Bracewell, the bookholder of an Elizabethan theater company, who seeks justice when Will Fowler, one of the actors and a good friend, is murdered in a lowly tavern. Although this 1989 American release novel does not give its readers any red herrings, it is captivating entertainment that takes place during one of England's most colorful periods of history.

On the dying request of Fowler, Bracewell searches the unseemly streets, boozers, and brothels of London for the mysterious, violent red-bearded man who ran the victim through with a sword. During his investigation of Fowler's unwarranted murder, Bracewell finds Fowler's daring lifestyle disguised his more latent proclivities. In the meantime, Bracewell also has to deal with the pulsating, on-going problems of day-to-day working in the busy Lord Westfield's Men theater company, which frequently plays at The Queen's Head Inn.

Marston brings the crowded, busy atmosphere of Elizabethan London to life. The affecting ramifications of the Queen of Scots's execution, Philip II's impending invasion, and the subsequent defeat of the Spanish Armada on English society bring even more life to the historical background. His knowledge of Elizabethan theater is thorough, successfully transporting his readers into another place and time.

The colorful mixture of characters bring about some hilarious and ironic situations. Lawrence Firethorn, the leading actor and manager of Lord Westfield's Men, does his darndest to keep peace at home with his wife despite taking a fancy to one of his more distinguished female punters. Edmund Hoode, the company's resident poet, decides it has been too long since he was last romantically involved, then pursues the daughter of the protective landlord. The youngest and most promising apprentice, Richard Honeydew, yearns to be accepted by the other three who constantly make him the butt of their practical jokes. Meanwhile, someone else has more sinister plans for him.

Readers are not kept abreast of everything Bracewell knows in this mystery, but humor and suspense still abound in THE QUEEN'S HEAD. Any reader looking for a fun mystery can quickly overlook this story's shortcomings.

An Elizabethan theater troop is bedeviled by mishaps, including the murder of one its players in a tavern brawl, the theft of its one complete copy of the script with stage directions for a performance before the queen, an attempt to kill on the young boys who plays the female roles, and others. "Book holder" (akin to the director with extra duties) Nicholas Bracewell hunts for the killer while trying to hold the troop together. Great period details. General bawdiness and terrific dialogue add up to a fun read. Also, don't miss Marston's other series, which follows a group of traveling magistrates just after the Norman conquest of England. More terrific historical whodunits.