Book Description
n Introducing a stunning collection of homes as magnificent as the vistas they showcase. n A 32-page full-color gallery section showcases the best of the best n Expansive windows, quaint porches and wide-open decks bring the outdoors in and allow these plans to take full advantage of their surroundings. n Painstakingly crafted by the top architects and residential designers in the nation. n Complete construction blueprints are available for every home in this collection.
Customer Reviews:
House on the River.......2007-06-27
This book was particularly helpful with orientations toward a particular view. We live on a river and are looking for ideas.
Give me a break.......2007-04-30
Not really homes with a view. Just run of the mill home plans. Save your money!
Disappointed.......2006-03-03
I was looking for house plans that had the major rooms on the front of the house overlooking a view. The title led me to believe I would find that type of home in this book. I did not. Also, most of the plans were very complicated with multiple roof angles and expensive building items.
Book Description
The romantic elements that define the traditional southern cottage-a picturesque picket fence, a breezy sleeping porch, and well-worn heirloom furnishings-have made these small homes perennially stylish. The Southern Cottage showcases the best cozy dwellings in popular seasonal destinations-from the mountains in Virginia and North Carolina to Florida's Panhandle shores and the coast and islands of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Louisiana. A pristine Victorian lake house and a rustic mountaintop retreat express two moods of escape in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Summer beachside cottages include a colorful Key West home and a century-old family Florida retreat that captures informal old-fashioned spirit. Examples of 19th- and early 20th-century cottages reveal ways in which these diminutive houses satisfy the need for privacy as well as communal living. With tantalizing photographs of shaded porches, stone paths lined with flowers, and wicker-filled rooms, this is an inspiration for those who want their getaway home to evoke the timeless charm of southern living.
Customer Reviews:
Southern Cottages .......2007-09-06
This was an absolute page turner for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful pictures and descriptive dialog. The photos were amazing and were varied with many interior, exterior and garden shots. The only dissapointment was coming to the end!
Fascinating subject:).......2007-05-23
Ever since I purchased a turn of the century farmhouse I have been a bit obsessed w/ reading about the history and culture of the south. I enjoyed this book and the photos but most of all I love reading about the people who choose to live a simple life:)There is something magical about this way of life. I feel so lucky to experience living in a historic home and I enjoyed reading the reviewer's home featured in the book! OMG!!!! It is an honor! CONGRATS!!!! I googled and made trips to the local museum in my area and found my farmhouse written about in a history book and it is thrilling beyond words! Hope someday the author chooses to write "The Southern Farmhouse" Hint!:)
A Treasure.......2007-05-08
Susan Sully's "The Southern Cottage" is a beautifully written book, illustrated with stunning photographs of eighteen charming cottages. In the spirit of full disclosure, my home is featured in the book (four pages of text and eight photos). I had never met Susan before she visited me last year. An officer of our local Preservation Society recommended my home, a mid-nineteenth century "story-and-a-jump" cottage rehabilitated to historic preservation standards, to her.
Susan's photos show my house as it is. All of the furniture and other items in her pictures are mine, ones that I use daily. Sometimes I sit in my parlor with Susan's book open on my lap, and think, "what a wonderful testimony to the love and care we've shown to this historic old house."
In addition to capturing the spirit of my house in photographs, Susan has written several pages describing the house (it belonged to my grandparents), our family history (including colonial settlers, sea captains, and shipwrecks), and life today on a barrier island.
So far I have read only a few other sections (each cottage has its own chapter), but if the book captures the spirit of every house as faithfully as mine (and I have every reason to believe it does) this is a book worthy of any bookshelf.
Customer Reviews:
Great.......2002-05-09
I received this book as a gift when I was fourteen, but have only begun to appreciate it as an adult. Organized by subject, this is a wonderful look into Laura Ingalls Wilder as an adult. Contains many anecdotes from her life that provide that window. Definately worth the time of anyone wanting a closer look into Laura's home life, as well as her political views.
Book Description
Panoramic views, high ceilings, exposed timber, and sophisticated design are all part of the rich tapestry of today's mountain homes. Every style takes on new meaning when interpreted in a mountain venue. Moderne, Arts and Crafts, high-tech, cowboy, rustic, country, provincial-all design directions-are more splendid when their backdrop is a pine- or aspen-covered slope.
Customer Reviews:
Fireside Reading.......2004-12-23
While cabins can be a year-round fascination, I have a fondness for log cabins in the winter. There is a secret place I like to visit when I want to escape for a weekend and watch movies in a very cozy setting. To own a cabin of my own would seem a dream, but for now it is a "rare" weekend reality.
If you love log cabins, Mountain Style shows cabins with panoramic views, high ceilings and sophisticated designs. This is an eclectic mix of Modern, Arts & Crafts, rustic, country, high-tech and provincial styles.
Mary Whitesides has worked with craft groups all over the world and helps to create original interiors for the Sundance resort. Some of the most beautiful pictures in this book are the natural surroundings like the waterfall or fields of flowers, mountain scenes and newly fallen snow. It is all so romantic. There is even an indoor pool and decorating ideas galore.
After you read this book you may become very inspired and plan a weekend at a cabin. I'd love to live in a cabin, but that dream has yet to come true. Of course, somehow we'd have to figure out how to build a tower nearby. I love cabins and towers.
This is the type of book for fireside reading while snuggled up with a down comforter.
~TheRebeccaReview.com
Simply wonderful browsing.......2004-06-08
Mary Whitesides draws upon her years of experience and expertise as an interior designer to showcase high-tech, cowboy, rustic country, and regional provincial oriented designs for mountain homes, that are truly spectacular -- and enhanced for the reader with spectacular full-color photography. Of special interest is a remarkable chapter devoted to the creation of truly gorgeous gardens suitable for cool climates and rock soils. There is also a complete resource guide of artisans, manufacturers, and designers which will prove invaluable for anyone seeking to create, modify, or re-design their own mountain home. Mountain Style is simply wonderful browsing.
Book Description
It is the early 1900s in rural Kentucky, and young Saul Sullivan is heading up to Redbud Camp to look for work. He is wary but unafraid of the Cherokee girl there whose beauty is said to cause the death of all men who see her. But the minute Saul lays eyes on Vine, he knows she is meant to be his wife. Vine’s mother disapproves of the mixed marriage; Saul’s mother, Esme, has always been ill at ease around the Cherokee people. But once Vine walks into God’s Creek, Saul’s mother and brother Aaron take to her immediately. It quickly becomes clear to Vine, though, that Aaron is obsessed with her. And when Saul leaves God’s Creek for a year to work in another county, the wife he leaves behind will never be the same again. The violence that lies ahead for Vine, will not only test her spirit, but also her ability to forgive—both others and herself. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully written sensory experience.......2007-05-25
Silas House has written a beautiful book that is so descriptive that you'd swear you could smell the wet leaves as the characters walk through the woods after a spring rain. This love story between Irish Saul Sullivan and Cherokee Vine is not to be missed. Wonderfully drawn characters, (my favorite is Serena, the wild midwife who befriends Vine), and lyrical, evocative writing make this a story not to be missed. If you enjoy this as much as I did, read House's The Coal Tattoo next, followed by Clay's Quilt. This will follow the whole family's saga from start to finish. All of these are wonderful stories, but this is the best of the batch, followed closely by Clay's Quilt.
A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House .......2007-02-24
Silas House writes beautiful novels. He teaches rich American History many of us would never learn if not for his books. I love to read about the Appalachians.
Wonderful..........2006-08-23
This is a beautifully written, beautifully told story of Vine, a young Cherokee woman in Kentucky of the early 1900's. Vine is a three dimensional character, well-defined and very real.
While the story is slowly paced, it does not lag in any way. House does a great job of describing what "Holler" life was like during that period of time, and especially what life was like for Native Americans. Esme, Aidia and Serena are also well written characters and add a great dynamic to the story.
I did find that the characters of Saul and Aaron needed a little bit more defining for me. Why did Aaron become the type of person that he did? Other than Saul being described as a man of few words, I never got a good sense of him. I'm not sure it was an entirely good idea to have written him out of so much of the book. I would have liked to have read more about the relationship between him and Vine. Regardless, this is still a great book that I highly recommend.
Beautiful.......2006-03-15
One of the best novels I have ever read. This book has everything a good read should: characters that become real to the reader, a wonderful sense of place, a sense of history and knowledge. Not only do you get completely wrapped up in the world of Vine Sullivan, but you also learn more about yourself in the process. A truly beautiful book that I can't recommend highly enough. I've bought a copy for everyone I love.
Beautifully written.......2006-02-27
I read this book during a rainy weekend and loved it. House's familiarity with Kentucky and his love for the hills and the heritage of the area resound in this tale. I was amazed that a male writer could get into the hearts and souls of the female characters he created. Bravo!
Book Description
“A YOUNG WRITER OF IMMENSE GIFTS . . . One of the best books I have ever read about contemporary life in the mountains of southern Appalachia. . . . I could see and feel Free Creek, and the mountain above it.”
–LEE SMITH
After his mother is killed, four-year-old Clay Sizemore finds himself alone in a small Appalachian mining town. At first, unsure of Free Creek, he slowly learns to lean on its residents as family. There’s Aunt Easter, who is always filled with a sense of foreboding, bound to her faith above all; quiltmaking Uncle Paul; untamable Evangeline; and Alma, the fiddler whose song wends it way into Clay’s heart. Together, they help Clay fashion a quilt of a life from what treasured pieces surround him. . . .
“A long love poem to the hills of Kentucky. It flows with Appalachian music, religion, and that certain knowledge that your people will always hold you close. . . . Like the finely stitched quilts that Clay’s Uncle Paul labors over, the author sews a flawless seam of folks who love their home and each other.”
–Southern Living
“Unpretentious and clear-eyed . . . A tale whose joys are as legitimate as its sorrows.”
–The Roanoke Times
Customer Reviews:
Somewhat disappointing..........2006-10-27
I read both A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES and COAL TATTOO prior to reading this one, and while I liked CLAY'S QUILT, I felt it was lacking some of the beauty and charm of the other two books.
I found it a bit difficult to like some of the characters (Cake and Evangeline were a bit to cliché for me) and I felt there could have been more written about Dreama and Darry's situation. I also found some of the story predictable - I could see the bar brawl and the confrontation between Clay and Denzel coming down the road a mile away.
I was also a little confused on what I was supposed to surmise about the relationship between Clay and Cake. A couple of times while I was reading this book, I though for sure I was going to start reading some scene from BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
Also, having read A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES and COAL TATTOO prior to this one, I became very aware of some inconsistencies in the three stories. For example, in COAL TATTOO, Easter and Anneth refer to both of their grandmothers by their first names, Selena and Vine. In this book, there are references made about "Granny" - I don't recall the two grandmothers ever being referred to as Granny in COAL TATTOO. Also, the character of Marguerite seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. She did not exist in COAL TATTOO.
I thought that the last 50 pages of this book were well worth reading the entire story, but if you have not done so, please read the other two books in this trilogy.
Truth and honesty???.......2006-10-02
This book (and other's by Silas House) celebrates too many negative aspects of life in Kentucky's Eastern Appalachian Mountains. First, Clay is an undereducated coal miner who drinks and does pot and spends his free time in bars. Second, the other characters are equally undereducated, one a teenage mother, and almost all are in abusive relationships. Third, Clay falls in love with another man's wife and the two fight it out in a drunken brawl at a local bar (which is apparently the only entertainment around).
Moreover, the overall theme of House's work is that of "celebrating one's heritage". While this may be a good thing for many people, Clay's family never encourages him to better himself. He doesn't go to college, and while Clay does briefly leave home, he later returns and builds a house right in Aunt Easter's yard. Having come from a large family in Eastern Kentucky, I know that this is one of the problems in the area, no one wants their children to leave, and thus people rarely reach their full potential.
Clay's Aunt Easter doesn't leave her own home very much either (Easter behaves similarly in the Coal Tattoo), and she condemns Clay's mother for trying to "live a little". Clay's mother equally fails at leaving home and comes back to Eastern Kentucky in The Coal Tattoo. It would be one thing to celebrate the families and communities if they were strong, but they are not. The Eastern Kentucky region is fraught with issues of poverty, under or no education, unemployment, drop outs, drug abuse, and a large amount of people on government assistance (Clay's cousin in the novel is on WIC). While other areas of America have the same issues as Eastern Kentucky, I wish that some writers would have enough courage to honestly write about them. And I wish House's novels had explored these issues more instead of adopting the attitude of acceptance and celebration. While Eastern Kentucky is an area rich with its own language and culture, people who are endearing and pioneering, and people who are agrarians at heart, the area does have many problems that cannot continue to be brushed under the rug. Many Eastern Kentuckians do not have proper educational opportunities (or do not take advantage of those offered), are slow to accept change, and most do not want their children to leave the area.
Of course there are other major issues in all three of House's novels that he addresses very well. In particular the issues of big coal companies taking over the land, taking advantage of the undereducated, and reeking havoc on the land and the environment. The coal companies and timber companies are in direct conflict with the agrarianism that many of the older generation of Eastern Kentuckians have held onto. In addition, House adequately explores the dangers of the coal mining and timber mining industry in his novels. However, I was left wanting more truth and honesty from House's work, but I suppose the literary world will have to wait for such a writer.
Outstanding - Clay and Alma are great character in fiction.......2006-07-23
Silas House's trilogy on the lives of people in Kentucky coal country is one of the best-written series of novels I have seen in many a year. The writing is not only superb in structure but gripping and evocative without seeming forced, as so many modern novelists seem to be. His characters are not always likeable but are always interesting: they are real characters, as opposed to "types," and that makes all the difference in the world between a light read and something deeper.
"Clay's Quilt," the third and last book in the series, focuses around the maturity and life of Anneth Sizemore's son, who is only four years old when his mother is murdered by the stepfather he never knew and doesn't remember. Haunted by her image and wanting resolution, he spends the bulk of his young adulthood searching for pieces of her to put together like the crazy quilts his granduncle Paul makes. Raised equally by his kindly aunt Easter and his wilder but equally kindly uncle Gabe, Clay matures into a deeply sensitive young man, inheriting that side of his mother without even realizing it.
One of the best aspects of this book is the character of Alma, the estranged fiddler daughter of a powerful Baptist preacher who leaves her abusive, cocaine-snorting husband to live a life of relative freedom with her even wilder sister Evangeline, a singer in a honky-tonk. Alma's deep connection to music is as mysterious and unexplained as Clay's connection to his family and the area in which he was raised, and lives. Descriptions abound in the book of the way Alma's deep, intense focus on creating and/or performing music remove her completely from the physical plane and put her in the realm of pure spirit. Though Anneth and Easter both responded to the folk, pop and country music they heard in "Coal Tattoo" in an intense way, Alma's connection as both composer and performer kept me spellbound. This is as close as music comes to theism, and Silas House explains it in a way that is both logical and completely understandable, at least for her.
Highly recommended.
Long live House!.......2006-05-21
I had the privelege of reading this book years ago, and immediately sat down to write its creator; little did I know that he would write me back (spending the time to scratch out his thoughts on a post card no less) and express how truly down to Earth that he was.
I have read all three of his books, and was lucky enough to meet him in person when he came to Birmingham. Even though, "A Parchment of Leaves" remains to be my favorite, I still love anything he writes. I can't tell enough people about this writer who not only celebrates life, but through his novels, urges others to do the same. While Clay's Quilt is tacitly connected to the 'trilogy' about Anneth and Easter, Clay's mother and aunt, it can still be read on its own.
I never have been to Kentucky, but when one reads a Silas House novel, you will not be able to say you haven't experienced the spirit of Appalachia anymore. Stunning, lyrical, and absolutely heartbreaking. I can't recommend it enough.
Although this review is a nod toward the author more than his work, I assure you once you read one of his books you will be an instant fan, as I was.
A Welcome New Voice in Southern Fiction.......2006-03-26
There's a great new voice in Southern fiction, and it belongs to Kentucky novelist Silas House. Two years ago, I had the privilege of reading "The Coal Tattoo," his third novel, and was haunted by its depiction of how land, religion and family simultaneously freed and circumscribed an unforgettable Appalachian family. So when someone in my book club suggested we read "Clay's Quilt," House's first novel (which addresses a later generation in the same mountain family), it was my top choice.
The novel has everything: passion, family, faith, violence, and did I mention passion? One recurrent theme is the idea that there exists only a razor-thin separation between life-making zeal -- for God, for music, for family -- and life-destroying violence. The same characters are capable of both extremes, even Clay, the gentle young miner at the heart of the story. House uses a quilt as a metaphor for Clay piecing together his family hstory (and yes, this has been done before; quilt-as-metaphor is certainly familiar literary territory, but I can't think of anyone who's done it better than House). When his own unspeakable act of violence causes him to remember the details of his mother's tragic death, Clay stands at the brink of the abyss, pulled from self-loathing and depression only by the grip of his family's love.
I loved the literary symbolism in this novel, particularly the red birds, who flit in and out at key moments, and Anneth dancing in the snow in her red coat. But House uses these not merely to impress the critics but to emphasize the characters' unbreakable ties to the land where they live. The birds, the flowers, the trees (which House describes at one point as "burning" with God's presence) are extensions of the family and their love for each other. The people are inseparable from nature.
I think that Silas House ranks up there with Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver as the holy trinity of Kentucky writers. I'm going to read "A Parchment of Leaves" next, which takes the Sizemore family back yet another generation.
-- A longer version of this review was posted on March 17, 2006 at The Review Revolution (janariess.typepad.com).
Book Description
No one knows when Hòn Non Bô., or Vietnamese miniature landscape art, began, but creating a scenic landscape in miniature has been a special pastime for Vietnamese people for hundreds of years. The duplication of nature in an artfully reduced scale is now appreciated by many Westerners as well. Lít Phan and Buller's unique new book is a comprehensive and exciting introduction to this elaborate natural art form that is akin to—but different in essential ways from—the more familiar art of bonsai.
The book begins with an introduction to the scenic highlights of the landscape and unique geography of Vietnam. Subsequent chapters provide historical details on cultural and philosophical traditions of Hòn Non Bô., followed by in-depth information of both an aesthetic and practical nature on how to create elegant and meaningful examples of miniature landscapes. The detailed text is complemented by fine color photos documenting the creative process and providing excellent samples of finished work. Both inspirational and practical, this handsome book is sure to introduce many new devotees to the art of Hòn Non Bô.
Customer Reviews:
The book that we have been waiting for.......2002-09-14
The amount of work that has gone into this excellent book shows clearly in the clear writing and great images throughout. Not everything is Bonsai now, we are learning about other cultures, and their path to what we find is a mutual interest. This is not a book about Vietnamese Bonsai at all but a book about creating landscape in miniature. Popular for many centuries but little know outside its home, Hon Non Bo is exciting in concept and immensely pleasurable in developing. Not difficult as an art form but does need this book to explain to you how to get started and how to develop your understanding of this ancient art. I enjoyed the book and found myself reaching for it a number of times this year. I recommended it to all my classes, friends and students.
Produced by one of the worlds leading Horticultural publishers, Timber Press, the guiding hand of the editor is apparent in the demand for concise and clear explanation throughout the book that reflects the quality of the rest of their excellent publications. The task was very well achieved by Lew Buller who developed and wrote the book over many years with one of Americas leading exponents in this art, Lit van Phan.
You really do need this on your bookshelf although I have a feeling it will rarely stay there.
Book Description
Now in Paperback "A virtual encyclopedia of the whimsy and imagination that inspired the rustic designs sometimes called twig furniture . . . a fascinating chronicle."
-Denver Post Published in 1987 to rave reviews and substantial sales, this bible of Adirondack rustic furniture-an essential resource for dealers, collectors, designers, and hobbyists-is now reissued in an affordable paperback format. The book illustrates over 300 of the finest pieces of this enormously popular style, from elaborate sideboards ornamented with twig mosaics to chairs and beds made of gnarled branches. To thumb through this book is to appreciate immediately why the Boston Globe declared it Aa wonderful present for anyone interested in the rustic look or for those furnishing a vacation home." CRAIG GILBORN received the Charles F. Montgomery Award from the Decorative Arts Society of America for Adirondack Furniture and the Rustic Tradition. For 20 years he was director of the Adirondack Museum, and he was founding director of the Delaware State Arts Council. He and his wife live in Danby-Mt. Tabor, Vermont. 374 illustrations, 51 in full color, 85/8 x 111/2"
Amazon.com
The Adirondack "Great Camp" style bears witness to the long and interesting history of New York State's northeastern corner, from the splint basketry and bark sheathing used by the native people, the furs and skins so prized by the earliest white traders, the thick walls built by the French soldiers eager to protect their North American strongholds, and the unpeeled log structures of early lumberjacks. As well-heeled sportsmen of the late 19th century flocked to the area's lakes and mountains, they brought the touches--electric lights, Persian carpets, Craftsman-style fixtures--that made luxurious resorts of these large cabins. The word camp certainly doesn't imply makeshift; as Alfred Donaldson wrote in 1921, "It can only be said that 'camp' in Adirondack parlance has become a loose term applied indiscriminately to anything from a tent to a palace created in the woods, in more or less isolation, primarily for pleasure and summer recreation."
Ann Stillman O'Leary has developed what amounts to a primer on camp style, concentrating mainly on contemporary interpretations. As this style has come back into favor, it has incorporated more Scandinavian and Japanese elements that complement its rugged simplicity, and the interiors reflect the 20th-century insistence on better light and warmth. In short, the modern Adirondack camp style is at once cozy and elegant, and the faithful and appealing examples shown here will lead many readers in search of ways to create their own little "camps" at home.
Book Description
More than 200 photographs and a rich narrative illuminate this rustic building and decorating style, from its beginnings in the Great Camps to spectacular contemporary interpretations.
“This book is a superb work that will inspire lovers of the Adirondack style. Ann Stillman O’Leary brings a contemporary note to the rich history of the region. Future owners, architects, and interior designers will find in this book a wonderful source of information and inspiration.” —Harvey Kaiser, author of
Great Camps of the Adirondacks
“I’ve always loved the Adirondacks. Ann Stillman O’Leary’s Adirondack Style brings me the closest I’ll ever get to living there.”
—Mary Emmerling, author of
Mary Emmerling’s Quick Decorating and creative director of Country Home magazine
Customer Reviews:
Adirondack Awesome!!.......2004-12-10
I totally "loved" this book. One of my favorites. I am totally into "camp,cabin,and adirondack" decorating books and this book totally delivered the goods. Gorgous pictures gives one many cozy decorating ideas and just a book to daze and dream away an afternoon with.
Handsome but limited.......2001-08-06
In looking for ideas for the second home getaway we are planning, I came across this book and added it to my collection. It is handsome but, as the title would suggest, limited to one style. If that is your thing, fine. In this genre, the book that keeps rising to the top of the little stack on my coffee table is called SECOND HOME/Finding Your place in the Sun (or Fun or something like that). Second Home shows rustic styles and romantic cottage ones, too, taking me on a little tour of the United States as I turn the pages. The author obviously did his homework, too, because Second Home is filled with information on how to shop for real estate, evalute an area, decide what you want (and where you want it), etc.
A nice look at one style.......2001-01-20
As I just wrote in a review of Cabin Fever, this book, too, is a delight to look at. But it is limited (as its title says, of course) to one style that is a bit more rustic than what we have in mind. Still, this is a lovely book to peruse. As we gather information on vacation homes, our favorite book is a new one called Second Home, which includes visits to everything from oceanside homes and lake cottages to mountain cabins. Second Home also includes information on how to shop for a second home, how to decide what location is right, and tips on building, decorating and so on. I've never met a vacation house book I didn't like, and I like them all. But Second Home is our favorite because it has such variety of home styles and helpful tips in it.
A dream book.......2000-11-03
In planning the vacation home we hope to have soon, we bought this book and a new one called SECOND HOME. Adirondack Style is more of a dream book and includes historical information about the style. It's also limited to one style, of course. The book called Second Home works on a couple levels as a dream book but it also includes information on shopping, building, decorating, and so on, and it shows a wide range of second home styles around the country. We like both, but if we had to pick only one, it would be Second Home. (A book called Cabin Fever is fun, too, but limited to very rustic styles.)
Dream, dream, dream!.......2000-01-11
Between this book and another, also from amazon, called Cottage Style, I have more than enough to fuel my vacation house daydreams. A great start for 2000 and for my own dreams of early retirement.
Average customer rating:
- couldn't relate to its ambiguities
- Unfinished Masterpiece
- A Kind of Paradise
- Kept my attention...
- Disappointing Ending
|
Hotel Paradise (Random House Large Print)
Martha Grimes
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Grimes, Martha
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ASIN: 0679758798
Release Date: 1996-04-30 |
Book Description
Internationally acclaimed Martha Grimes once again turns her hand to crafting a story of such rich atmosphere and intricate suspense that she transports the reader to a world unlike any other.
A once-fashionable, now fading resort hotel. A spinster Aunt living in an attic. Dirt roads that lead to dead ends. A house full of secrets and old, dusty furnishings, uninhabited for almost half a century. A twelve-year-old girl with a passion for double-chocolate ice-cream sodas, and decaying lake-fronts, and an obsession with the death by drowning of another young girl, forty years before.
Like all important events in the past, there are repercussions and ramifications in the present. In the world as seen by Martha Grimes, those repercussions simmer and seethe and wind their way through hearts and souls. The ramifications can be subtle. Or exhilarating. Passionate. And they can also be deadly.
Hotel Paradise is a delicate yet excruciating view of the pettiness and cruelty of small town America. It is a look at the difficult decisions a young girl must make on her way to becoming an adult and the choices she must make between right and wrong, between love and truth, between life and death. It is a novel with extraordinary range and depth that ultimately becomes a thrilling morality play.
With its narrative grace, its compelling characters, and its moment-to-moment suspense,
Hotel Paradise is Martha Grimes at the top of her form.
Customer Reviews:
couldn't relate to its ambiguities.......2007-08-14
I couldn't get into this novel. I don't think Martha Grimes took the time to create a vision of a realistic setting, time, and character definitions for this book. As a consequence, I couldn't relate to the place, era, or people that make up the fabric of the story. It felt like being in Disney World...one minute you're on Main Street USA, then a few steps later you're on the frontier 40 years earlier. Disney makes it fun, but in this novel it's just confusing.
The main character, supposedly a 12 year old girl, sounds like Martha Grimes, the adult, sometimes remembering to pretend she's a 12 year old girl. And I couldn't tell if this was set in the 90s, 70s, or 50s, because the cues were inconsistent. If this were deliberately meant to be a surrealist novel, it would have been more interesting, but I think Ms. Grimes just couldn't get her context clear. It became distracting. After a while, I got tired of wandering around in this tale and just stopped reading it. Perhaps the ending provides some logical reason for the confusion.
Unfinished Masterpiece.......2007-02-22
This is the first Martha Grimes book I've read. It reminded me of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (one of my all-time favorite books) in its setting and characters, and particularly the main character, the extremely appealing and spunky Emma. I thoroughly enjoyed it...up until the end. Yes, the plot is all over the place, and the pace is slow, but it's beautifully and intelligently written, laugh out loud funny at times, and the descriptions of the wonderful food prepared by Emma's mother will make you hungry! I only gave it three stars, however, because of the ending. However, I did read in another review that evidently this is the first book of a trilogy and the story is picked up in "Cold Flat Junction," so I'm heading to the library to find that one!
A Kind of Paradise.......2006-08-22
This book begins a trilogy that surpasses the genre of mysteries. The development of Emma as a young narrator is both real and poignant and humorous--I found I was thinking of her as a real human being, whose brave acceptance of the life she's been given moved me. If you enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird, or even Anne of Green Gables when you were young, you should find this book and enter this beautifully drawn world of a South from not so long ago.
Kept my attention..........2006-05-22
I bought Belle Ruin on CD to listen to in my car during my long commute to work and back every day. I found that this was the fourth book in this Martha Grimes series and did not stand alone because of the references to prior stories and characters. I liked what I heard of the beginning of Belle Ruin enough to look into the other previous books. I found Hotel Paradise. Thought there is a previous book, the End of the Pier, that one is not about Emma, so I skipped that one. I will go back to it though. Anyway, who would have thought that the ramblings of a 12 year old girl could be so hypnotic? I am listening to the audio book and find myself looking forward to the time in my car so that I can hear more. This story is as much about the insights and musings of this girl as it is about the deaths around her in which she is so interested. Left mostly to her own devices, with little, if any, adult supervision, Emma gets it into her head that a young girl, a girl her age, who died 40 years ago was murdered as opposed to being in an accident. Using her age as manipulation, she goes places and talks to people who wouldn't have given the time of day to an adult in the same way. She asks and asks an thinks and thinks until she comes up with the answer to the death of Rose Devereaux and who killed her. This book ends with that revelation and just stops. I was a bit disappointed in that until I started on Cold Flat Junction where I realized that the story had only just begun. The first line of Cold Flat Junction is, "I'm sitting here where you left me hardly more than a week ago." and on Emma goes with more of the same in Martha Grimes next novel of coming of age in a small town.
Disappointing Ending.......2005-11-13
Good read right up until the very end. The well-written characters and wonderful descriptive prose keep you turning the page. I was a bit disappointed in the ending...I was hoping for a more dramatic resolution of the mystery.
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