The Art of Howl's Moving Castle

Customer Reviews:

Don't Let The Cover Sketch Scare You Away.......2007-09-27

This book opens a world of anime art like none other. Primary characters & secondary characters are carefully drawn out and walk through a world & story created for them. As a professional artist, I found great interest in the prelimiary drawings straight through the setting concepts. This is also a great book for fans of the movie. If you loved the movie, you will love this book.

A Visual Feast !.......2007-06-16

I totally enjoyed the layout and discussion in this book. I have been a Miyazaki fan ever since, "My Neighbor Totoro" which I saw when I lived in Japan. If you relish animation and all the details of this art form, you'll like the format and attention this book gives.

Janine Bolon, Financial Coach, Radio Talk Show Host, author of "Money...It's Not Just for Rich People!" available on amazon. Money...It's Not Just for Rich People!

The Art of Howl's Moving Castle.......2007-04-06

If you loved the movie, you will love this book, The Art of Howl's Moving Castle it's hard cover, with original sketches, storyboards and the final screenplay!

The book explains every step of the complex story, from the original book adaptation to the final movie. Also have quotes and articles from creators of each process (designers, art directors, supervising animators, etc.) It's like seeing the movie scene by scene with artist commentaries.

Excellent book.......2007-03-24

Being a great Miyazaki fan I really love this book. Even though majority of the books is filled with movie stills, I love it. I revisit those pictures in the books and get myself lost in the beauty of colors. Also being a student of animation, I really get to learn a lot of things. Character concepts and other drawings are really helpful. I highly recommend this book for anybody who likes stories, animation and colors.

A great book.......2007-03-09

Hayao Miyazaki is a genious. This book is simply a must for all of the director's fans. The book is full of drawings, sketches and images from the actual movie.

Green Arrow: Moving Targets - Volume 6 (Green Arrow (Graphic Novels))

Average customer rating:

Ask Yourself This Before Buying This Book.
Important Moment in the DC Mythos
A Book with a Split Personality

Green Arrow: Moving Targets - Volume 6 (Green Arrow (Graphic Novels))
Judd Winick
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401209300

Book Description

Star Citys underworld has been taken over by criminal mastermind Brick, and Green Arrow finds taking him down harder than imagined. Brick wants the Emerald Archer out of his way, preferably dead. So does the Riddler, whos back in town and seeking revenge. Adding to the Emerald Archers troubles is Drakon, the inhumanly agile mercenary, who returns to plague Green Arrow and his comrades. Mia Dearden, Green Arrows new ward, also experiences new highs and lowsfirst she gains a costume and sanction as the new Speedy, but she also recieves tragic news that alters her outlook on life.

Customer Reviews:

Ask Yourself This Before Buying This Book........2007-09-26

Do you believe that Oliver Queen - a man who came of age in the swinging 60's/70's and was reportedly quite active in the Free Love-making - can make it into the 21st century without knowing about AIDS and HIV, much less having contracted it?

Do you believe he requires a lecture on the subject that appears to have been taken word-for-word from the kind of comic books you got handed in the 4th grade?

If so, you're probably the key audience for this book. If not, you probably paid attention during your health class or already read "Pedro and Me". Which is a much better book even if you ignore the blatant female exploitation in this title. It isn't enough for Winick that Mia is an ex-prostitute with an abusive father - he writes a past as a drug-user into her background as well.... a past that had never been hinted at before and would likely have come up.

Important Moment in the DC Mythos.......2006-02-22

Warning: If you've ignored national media for the last year, you may read some spoilers below...

So why write a review for Green Arrow: Moving Targets you ask? Is it the excellent writing? Perhaps the exquisite art? None of the above; but, don't get me wrong, both are adequate, perhaps even above average in the comic book world. No, the reason I'm writing this review is because Judd Winick (some of you may remember him from an early season of MTV's The Real World) has written an HIV positive character into the DC mythos.

Green Arrow's had some hard luck with his sidekicks. His first junior superhero named Roy Harper, aka Speedy, became a drug addict ironically enough. Well, Speedy cleaned up his act and is now a full grown superhero called Arsenal. Then, Green Arrow discovered he had an illegitimate son named Connor Hawke, who, after dad died, took over the role of Green Arrow. Well, I won't bog things down with explanation, but the first Green Arrow returned from the dead and now works side-by-side with his son, but not as a sidekick, as a partner.

Enter Mia Dearden. She was a fifteen-year-old prostitute that Green Arrow took off the streets and gave a home as introduced by writer Kevin Smith. Winick decided to take things a step further and revealed she was HIV positive from her days as a prostitute. Although pestering Green Arrow to let her become his sidekick long before her discovery, Green Arrow finally gave in, granting her the control over her own life she desperately needed, and so Speedy was reborn.

Now, despite some obvious issues I have with this plot (How do you rationalize a teenage girl with HIV working as a vigilante who uses a bow and arrows? Why did she have to contract HIV by prostituting? Not everyone with HIV acquired it through "illicit behavior," you know?), I will grant Winick credit with treating it as sensibly as one can in the comic book genre. He kept Mia strong and assertive, without crossing into sanctimonious territory. Not only that, but Mia's story is more sub-plot to the overall story taking place in Moving Targets. That overall plot, by the way, paled in comparison to Mia's plight.

So, would I recommend Green Arrow generally? No, I wouldn't, though Meltzer's Green Arrow: The Archer's Quest was excellent. But, I would give Green Arrow: Moving Targets a read simply to witness a writer introduce a rather pioneering character into the conservative universe of DC.

(Visit author S. William Foley at www.swilliamfoley.com)

A Book with a Split Personality.......2006-02-19

Collecting comics #40-50, this is the 6th graphic novel featuring Green Arrow. Unfortunately, it's one of the weakest to date.

A big part of this is the fact that the art team changes half-way through the book, and the contrast is so jarring as to make it difficult to continue reading. After the sophisticated, clean lines of Phil Hester and Ande Parks, the work of Tom Fowler, etc. comes across as cartoonish in the worst possible sense. The characters whose appearence we've become familiar with during the entire run of the series suddenly seem to be clownish caricatures of themselves.

The writing is a bit better--the story is fast-paced, if a bit fragmented, with plenty of twists and turns and a large number of new and returning villains for Team Arrow to overcome.

There is also a significant subplot involving one of the supporting characters--but I won't go into that here, since it would definitely be a spoiler for the book. (Regular readers of online comics discussion boards will already know what I'm talking about.)

Overall, a decent effort, but hardly the best book in the series so far.

Average customer rating:

Hard to put down
A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF A REAL FAITH
One of this Year's Best
Count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (Js 1:2-3)
Entertaining

Welcome to Fred: A Novel
Brad Whittington
Manufacturer: B&H Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Living With Fred
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ASIN: 0805425551

Download Description

In January of 1968 Mark arrives in Fred, Texas, from Fort Worth via a brief stay in Ohio. He has followed his father who is pastor to a 100 member church in this simple town of simple people.

Mark, a young man of extraordinary intellect, has to find who he is in this town with which he seems to have so little in common. In his journey he finds more than himself; he finds his faith.

A westward family vacation car trek, puts a strain on the family but also provides many entertaining and humorous situations as Mark is forced to deal with many questions about himself, life, and finally-his God.

Customer Reviews:

Hard to put down.......2007-04-19

The cover (interesting) and the content (the story of a preacher's kid)made me carry this book to the check-out counter. However, it was the pacing, humor, honesty, and believable characters that made me turn page after page in rapid succession until there were none. Fortunately, I'm a bit behind the times, and so there was a solution: another trip to the bookstore to pick up the next book in the series. A wonderful read!

A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF A REAL FAITH.......2006-08-10

It seems ironic that such an honest and realistic depiction of the journey of faith is to be found in a fiction. I became familiar with Brad Whittington's "Welcome to Fred" from a review in the local paper. Being a native of east Texas and having pastored two churches, both within an hour of Fred, my interest was peaked. I am so glad that I went ahead and purchased the two sequels as well--"Living With Fred" and "Escape From Fred." Having been hooked by the first I would have regretted having to make a later order to complete the adventures of PK (Preacher's Kid) Mark Cloud. Once they arrived I read all three over a ten day period.

Mark Cloud could be any young teenager trying to find his place. Like most young people, he thinks his destiny is to be found in anyplace other than where he presently finds himself. The faith of the father influences the son, but a series of events leads Mark to discover and embrace it as his own. The father is a wise man who not only allows his son to ask probing and skeptical questions, but encourages them.

Whittington's vivid depictions opened a floodgate of memories and laughter as I reflected upon some of the colorful characters that do, indeed, inhabit the woods of rural east Texas. But more than that, the author captures well the honest struggles of the individual seeking to discover and embrace the mysteries of the faith. It was a refreshing break from the easy "believism," put God in a neat tidy box so you can have your best life now pabulum that dominates Christian publishing today.

One of this Year's Best .......2006-08-02

Immense praise for a writer whose lean, hysterical prose are a joy to read. Full of great scenes and real insight into characters. Completely believable. Plus, Whittington has an inspired approach to simile and metaphor, drawing the reader into a given moment seamlessly. His habit of taking a cliché by the feet and standing it on its head is both refreshing and clever, too. And the novel's message, while ringing clear and strong, doesn't intrude on the story. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (Js 1:2-3).......2006-07-31

Pimply, nerdy, scrawny PK Dude endures big city life as son of a Southern Baptist preacher until moving to unbearably small Fred, Texas from whence 70s California counterculture tantalizingly beckons.

"Abandon hope all ye who enter here."

Psych.

Actually, if you can somehow find the strength to stumble/stagger/crawl your way through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death that is the first 64 pages (i.e. the first 7 chapters), then verily, verily, I say unto you that you WILL cross over the River Jordan & enter into The Promised Land Flowing With Milk & Honey ... um ... that is, you will surely enter into that social, economic & cultural wasteland otherwise known as:

Fred, Texas.

Because that's where (for me, at least) the fun, fun, fun roller-coaster ride of count-it-all-joy-my-brethren begins & doesn't end until everything is wrapped up tighter than the Wicked Witch of the West's congo drum in the ... um ... end.

Therefore, come all ye burdened & heavy laden, taste & see that the Cloud is good:

"I weighed the options. In one sense I was with Mom. If I had to sit on the side of a West Texas road in hundred-degree heat to learn patience, I could do without it. My interest in refining my soul had a limit, and that was definitely beyond it. On the other hand, I was fervently anticipating our arrival in California, the land of Ultimate Cool. I was willing to endure considerably more than occasional turns tapping on the carburetor in order to get there ... "

And that, gentle reader, was Mark Cloud -- preacher's kid & bookworm extraordinaire -- & he will be your narrator for the duration of the trip.

Entertaining.......2006-05-24

Fun story to read but there were way too many words that I had could not understand. Not just a few but at least 3 a page. I am an adult reading it. I bought it for my [...] son but there is no way he could follow the advanced words. I do not recommend this book for the younger generation.

Average customer rating:

great story inspite of slow start
Not Free SF Reader
1 half boring politics, 1 half decent story
Boldly Go...
A good solid work of Sci-Fi from Greg Bear

Moving Mars: A Novel
Greg Bear
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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Eon

ASIN: 0812524802
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Amazon.com

In this 1995 Nebula Award-winning novel, a revolution is transforming the formerly passive Earth-colony of Mars. While opposing political factions on Mars battle for the support of colonists, scientists make a staggering scientific breakthrough that at once fuels the conflict and creates a united Mars front, as the technically superior Earth tries to take credit for it. Backed against a wall, colonial leaders are forced to make a monumental decision that changes the future of Mars forever.

Book Description

She is a daughter of one of Mars's oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples--the extended family syndicates that colonized the red planet. But Casseia Majumdar has a dream of an independent Mars, born in the student protests of 2171. During those brief days of idealism she forged bonds of friendship and hatred that set the stage for an astonishing war or revolution on Mars.

Customer Reviews:

great story inspite of slow start.......2007-09-29

Found the SF parts of the story - especially the Quantum Logic thinkers part - truly amazing. I found the entire concept - that of a young Mars finding its own voice - really well conceived and well written. Perhaps the only shortcoming (for me) was the first somewhat 250 pages before Bear gets to the real meaty SF stuff. It wasn't excruciatingly slow - but the first half wasn't a page turner. The second half was!

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-04

New colony gets a transportation industry leg-up on the old bastiches on Earth.

The inhabitants of Mars have to deal with trying to build a society how they want, and not in the old way that has been done before. This requires a lot of politicking and brainstorming.

They also have to deal with the usual greedy types that covet their resources and technology back where they came from.

1 half boring politics, 1 half decent story.......2007-08-27

There are two halves to this book: the boring, political half followed by the adventurous plot in the second half. One would expect the interlude to be between chapters or to over the course of a chapter. However, the shift from the halves was brought upon on one single page - like, "WHAM! here's the other part of the book you wanted to read but I made you read all the character background and political dialouge first. Haha!" Jarring would be a good word for the interlude.

Because half the book is boring (character building, political dialouge, etc) the entire book doesn't get 5 stars. The author is lucky he made a darn good last half of the book... but even then I deemed it a bit ridiculous and over the top. The ultimate ending seemed extreme (a bit ridiculous, but mostly impressive and original).

Boldly Go..........2006-10-02

Moving Mars is a high-quality story of imagination, science, and good characters. Greg Bear imagines a Mars set nearly two centuries in the future inhabited by fossils of the wet past of Mars and humans who dream of independence from Earthly overlords. The main character, Casseia Majumdar, is a budding politician who sees the world strictly through human terms. Her counterpart, Charles Franklin, is a scientist who sees the world in terms of epochs, physics, and technology. Together, they struggle through a budding Earth/Mars war and find the means to save their homeworld Mars by bending space to move their planet out of harm's way.

A good solid work of Sci-Fi from Greg Bear.......2006-09-07

This book was a fine piece of science fiction, and if you've loved Greg Bear's other works, you'll probably enjoy "Moving Mars" just as much.

I've read quite a few of Bear's works so far, and this book encouraged me to want to read more. The science in the book is solid, and the plot enticing. It took me a little while ( <10 pages) to get "into" the text and characters, which is unusual - but from a slow beginning came a story of great interest. The plot is set on Mars, and revolves around scientific and political developments in the late 22nd century, after a crowded earth still bursting at the seams has successfully colonized both Mars and the Moon. If I would have changed anything, I feel like this book could have used more epilogue - as I was reading the story I didn't want it to end, though end it must. As our intrepid characters accomplish their mission, save themselves from certain annihilation and look out over mars with new hope for their future I hungered for more story.

A great read, and one I would recommend to friends.

Dominic Sebastian
ebacherdom.blotspot.com
060907.0144

Average customer rating:

Moving On!
In the mood. . .
A Grand Achievement
Moving On
Just like the flag of Texas - A Lone Star

Moving On: A Novel
Larry McMurtry
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers : A Novel
Somebody's Darling : A Novel
Horseman, Pass By : A Novel
The Desert Rose : A Novel
The Evening Star: A Novel

ASIN: 0684853884

Book Description

Moving On is a big, powerful novel about men and women in the American West. Set in the 1960s against the backdrop of the honky-tonk glamour of the rodeo and the desperation of suburban Houston, it is the story of the restless and lovable Patsy Carpenter, one of Larry McMurtry's most unforgettable characters.

Patsy -- young, beautiful, with a sharp tongue and an irresistible charm -- and her shiftless husband, Jim, are adrift in the West. Patsy moves through affairs of the heart like small towns -- there's Pete, the rodeo clown, and Hank, the graduate student, and others -- always in search of the life that seems ever receding around the next bend.

Peopled with a riotously colorful cast of highbrows, cowpokes, and rodeo queens, in its wry humor, tenderness, and epic panorama, Moving On is a celebration of our land by one of America's best-loved authors. Moving On is vintage McMurtry.

Customer Reviews:

Moving On!.......2004-12-07

This is the best Larry McMurtry book. Don't be fooled by imitations! (So many of his new books pale in the shadow of his earlier works.) Try this wonderful novel. You'll be haunted by it long after you have finished it.

In the mood. . ........2004-03-14

This is an early McMurtry novel, a long, rambling story with young Patsy Carpenter at the center of a large cast of characters that includes graduate students, ranchers, rodeo cowboys, a Hollywood writer, Haight-Ashbury hippies, and wealthy Texans - both new and old money. Written in the late 1960s, and published in 1970, "Moving On" is interesting for its attempt to capture the subtly shifting moods of its central characters instead of focusing on action and storyline. As page follows page, McMurtry describes his characters' feelings of self-assurance, annoyance, boredom, frustration, and sexual tension. And often moods degenerate into tears - Patsy's in particular.

There's more than a bit of Henry Miller in much of the novel, as characters attempt to match up their levels of sexual passion, often finding that they are rarely feeling the same thing for each other at the same time. Seduction is often unsuccessful or unsatisfying, a rendezvous full of romantic promise may turn into an argument leaving both parties exhausted. A pass made after several drinks at a party or over a milk shake at a soda fountain may elicit an exchange of bitterness and barbed recriminations. A married couple talks openly of their infidelities. A wife accuses her husband of being neglectful, while she routinely meets a colleague of his for sex.

For readers who like action and narrative development, this book will seem very slow going. For some, the many shifts of mood and ironies of thwarted intentions will make the story seem flat and the central characters unfocused. By contrast, the marginal characters, especially an old widowed rancher, a rodeo clown and his young barrel-racer girlfriend, and a teenage bronc rider spring from the page fully realized. A few scenes are pumped up with melodrama (a professor's wife breaks down in front of the girl her husband has tried to seduce; a champion rodeo cowboy refuses to accept that a ranch-owning woman he's been bedding is growing tired of him; a pregnant young woman is rescued from a drugged existence with a sinister boyfriend). But the most crisply vivid and emotionally honest scenes involve the death and burial of an old man in the nearly treeless prairie northwest of Dallas. They're simple and understated like the country folks who people these pages.

McMurtry says that this novel emerged from an image of a young woman in a car eating a melted chocolate bar. What follows that image is one thing after another, until we reach the end almost 800 pages later, and that same woman, now divorcing her husband, feels a kind of independence that may never surrender itself to another man. Some readers will find this ending worth the trip; others may find themselves, like McMurtry's characters, in a somewhat different mood.

A Grand Achievement.......2003-09-23

I am in the process of rereading Moving On and just checked Amazon for other readers' comments, which I found intriguing. I originally bought this book for two reasons: 1.)I'm a Larry McMurtry fan and 2.) I was interested in the rodeo aspects of the book. I was initially disappointed when Jim and Patsy left the rodeo circuit for the "desperation of suburban Houston," but I finished the book anyway. When I picked it up again recently, I intended only to reread the rodeo-related passages, and now (deep into the Houston section)I find I can't stop reading. McMurtry's creation of Patsy Carpenter is a grand achievement. Her endless crying aside, she is one of the most completely realized characters in contemporary literature. I can't think of any other novel that chronicles with such convincing precision the moment by moment emotional life of a single character. There are times, certainly, when I find her annoying, but she is also endlessly compelling. The other characters (Pete, Eleanor, Sonny)are a great added treat in the novel, but it is ultimately Patsy who impresses, and it is for the creation of her that we should consider Moving On one of McMurtry's best works. (P.S. to the earlier reviewer who gave the book a "lone star," what you say about the Waggoner ranch is very true. The descriptions are so beautiful that you want to move there (but then it functions as a kind of oasis in the book), and Roger is a touching character whose simple language belies great depth. McMurtry has created him with great affection.)

Moving On.......2002-05-23

This is my favorite book of all time! I would recommend it to anyone--McMurtry is also my second favorite author (1st being Pat Conroy).

Just like the flag of Texas - A Lone Star.......2001-08-22

At the time McMurtry started this novel, he had established himself as a regional writer of some talent. His first three novels were turned into screenplays, and two of them, "Hud" and "The Last Picture Show," did quite well at the box office and with the critics. Perhaps to shed this regionalist mantle, McMurtry began writing what would be a series of "urban" novels centered on characters associated with the Houston area. After reading the first of his urban novels, I think that he should have stayed with the subject matter he knows best: the frontier areas of Texas. Very seldom have I encountered a novel that was so misconceived, overblown, and poorly written.

It is as if McMurtry had two novels in mind when he began writing: one about rodeo and the other about graduate study at Rice University. That he tried to combine the two themes into one novel was foolhardy. The amalgam that resulted is a strange creation (almost embarrassing), imploying all the hackneyed tricks of pulp writers: the incongruous interconnection of characters, unbelievable crux moments, and titillation. Thus you have a world champion rodeo star, a Black Panther type, an English professor at Rice, graduate students, a cattle queen, a Hollywood screen writer, a rodeo clown, hippies and an overbearing Houston socialite all sharing each other's lives. Such unlikely relationships result in even more unlikely denouements.

His main character is Patsy Carpenter, a sort of trust fund debutante with no visible means of support who spends her life worrying about what "fetching" or "wild" outfit to wear; how to furnish her new home (formerly owned, it just so happens, by the Rice English professor); taking care of her baby; giving orders to her maid; rescuing her drugged out sister from Haight-Ashbury (naturally); matching witicisms with her acquaintances; learning how to be an adultress; trying to decide to divorce her shiftless husband; reading all the important authors (boy, those Texans can read); and crying. In fact, she cries so much that she could easily replenish half the empty tanks in West Texas. No wonder Jim ran off to California with that red headed siren, Clara Clark (love those alliterations).

But I think I might have been able to at least accept some of the improbabilities of the novel if it had been better written. McMurtry has talent and has a fine sense of place. When he writes about the Wagonner ranch, he brings the reader along. His descriptions of early morning at the ranch are wonderful. Everything he writes about becomes palpable, from sound to smell. Unfortunately, the ranch scenes represent an infintesimal proportion when compared to the rest of this huge, rambling book. More frequently, McMurtry is content with describing banalities and making very poor literary witicisms. These drove me to distraction and filled the novel. Just to give an example from the last chapter. He writes of "motherly mouthings" and "being dogmatic about dogs." I'm sure the author felt that these would bring smiles to the faces of his readers. To me, they were like fingernails on a chalkboard.

My biggest question was whether to give this book one or two stars. I tried to remember all the redeeming qualities of the book, trying to be judicious in my judgement (God, McMurtry is rubbing off on me!) but could only think of all the time wasted reading this book when I could have been enjoying other things. Sorry, Larry. Just like the flag of Texas: a lone star.

Philosophy Made Simple: A Novel
Average customer rating:

Philosophy Made Simple

A spiritual letdown

A Solid Narrative and a Jaunty Exploration of Ideas

Story Without Answers

A very fun little book

Philosophy Made Simple: A Novel
Robert Hellenga
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0316058262

Book Description

Rudy Harrington has spent half his life in a rambling Chicago house, raising three daughters with his independent-minded wife. But his wife has died, his daughters have moved away, and Rudy is restless. In what he interprets as a moment of transcendent vision, he puts the family home up for sale and buys an avocado grove in Texas. While adapting to his new vocation, new home, and new friends, Rudy takes up a bookPhilosophy Made Simpleand begins to struggle with Plato and Aristotle, Hume and Schopenhauer. His newly acquired wisdom is put to the test when he enlists the neighborhood elephant to preside over his daughters Hindu wedding and falls in love with the grooms mother. Hellenga brings back characters from his bestselling The Sixteen Pleasures and introduces many compelling new onesincluding the elephant, who paintsin a novel that illuminates our deepest concerns: love and death, marriage and family, and the mysterious tug of beauty on the human heart.

Customer Reviews:

Philosophy Made Simple.......2007-09-23

A delightful story of a man who has reached retirement age but who launches himself into space with no safety net, yet he (sort of) lands on his feet. Quite unmoored from his background, he nonetheless has enough of a sense of self to make friends, new loves, and adventure where he has never gone before. The end is elegiac, but that may just be me: I'm a sucker for romantic endings.

A spiritual letdown.......2007-01-09

Although I have great admiration for Robert Hellenga's writing which is beautiful, after finishing Philosophy Made Simple, I was left with an emptiness and sadness for his character, Rudy. Rudy was so close to finding the fullness of life through the understanding and acceptance of his circumstances and the way he respected others with whom he lived and experienced life. He was the greatest of the philosophers, not those of history who cast aside the miracle of life. As his daughter Margot did when she bought an impulsive ticket to Italy, Rudy's character would have been much better served if he had closed the door to the past, left Texas behind and filled his life with beauty and love and bought an implusive ticket to India.

A Solid Narrative and a Jaunty Exploration of Ideas.......2006-12-11

In Philosophy Made Simple, Robert Hellenga wisely places plot and characterization above idea, to pave the way for a reality beyond forms.

The plot unfolds capably and simply--a 1960s retired widower elects to sell his Illinois home and buy an avocado farm in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. He encounters adventures and misadventures, seeks love and meaning, and searches for a moment of true insight.

Yet the novel is not bound to the sum of its parts. This is not one of those "Egg and I" novels about a misplaced person having comic adventures in strange territory, nor is it "A Confederacy of Dunces" in its its exploration of a fellow exploring personal philosophy. It's instead a gentle, flowing story, whose moments of amusement come in well-hit singles rather than in swings for the fences. The novel successfully evokes the late 1960s and contains a nearly dead-ringer feel for the Mission/McAllen area of south Texas.

Mr. Hellenga's book engages the reader who seeks an old-fashioned "good read", but it's not at all a hidebound work out of fashion. It's instead
light reading in the best sense--breezy, well-thought-out, and a delight.

I recommend Philosophy Made Simple for those who may not want their philosophy too elaborate, but instead suffused into the ether surrounding the reader by a novelist's knowing pen. Rather than write another "wasted life" retirement story, Mr. Hellenga celebrates the life in all of us, despite having a skeptic's practiced eye and a satirist's ready chuckle. This is a fine book indeed.

Story Without Answers.......2006-08-22

This book flowed along most easily, and there were many places where I stopped and give good pause for thought. Given the title, that's to be expected. But it lacked impact near the end and I just can't classify this as anything beyond mediocre in many respects. Still, an enjoyable read for those trying to understand life "thus far" from mid-life vantage point. This book just takes the right reader and is not intended for everyone.

A very fun little book.......2006-06-15

Philosophy Made Simple is a nice little read, very pleasant and a little poignant. The plot if amply described in other reviews, so I'll add just a few quick non-plot thoughts about this book.

First, it is very pleasant. No points are belabored, the prose is clean, simple and straightforward. As Mark Twain said about his own works (perhaps not accurately!) this book has not a single word more than it needs. It is refreshing to read a book that strives to communicate a weighty philosophical point of view that is so unassuming.

As to the philosophical point... I almost wish that the book gave me a little more help along the way. I felt that each chapter tried to make a philosophical point by demonstrating it in the story rather than beating you over the head with it, which I appreciated, but I frequently finished a chapter feeling like whatever it was I was supposed to come away with... I had missed.

Until the end. At the end, all of a sudden, kind of out of the blue, the philosophy is laid out in all its naked glory. The revelation is made and all the strands come together. It is an interesting philosophy, and the road to it is very pleasant to stroll along. I would have liked a few more signposts along the way!

But none of this is to complain. I liked the book a lot and while I wouldn't say it leads to major revelation it was fun to read, exceedingly pleasant, and in the end provided a point of view that I happen to embrace very much - which was nice!

Average customer rating:

Moving right along

Moving Day
Ralph Fletcher
Manufacturer: Wordsong
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1590784537

Customer Reviews:

Moving right along.......2006-12-12

The other day I was idly flipping through the books in my possession, searching for one contained poems. A well-written book of poems by a single author that also happens to be pleasing to the eye is a rare and wonderful thing. Emphasis on the word "rare". And "Moving Day", to be honest with you, didn't get my attention right off the bat. The cover is rather lovely but I credit illustrator Jennifer Emery for penciling in the autumn leaves that finally lured me closer. Written in a series of small autobiographical poems, author Ralph Fletcher tells the simple story of a twelve-year-old boy whose family is moving from one state to another and the problems that come with something so seemingly simple.

The new mountain bike probably should have tipped Fletch off right from the start. Ditto the fact that his little brother Ray got a hockey outfit out of the clear blue sky. Their family is going to move near to Lake Erie and there isn't a darned thing Fletch can do about it. It's rough. First his friends start separating from him before he's even moved away. Then there's the fact that he'll never see that cute girl, Gwen with the dark sparkly eyes, ever again. Slowly, however, good things happen as well. While packing he finds his Willie Mays baseball card he lost a while ago. He will never (perhaps) carry the unfortunate nickname of "Retch" instead of "Fletch". And when at last he finds himself in a new home with a new room, there are new people about, a doorknob that lights up like a diamond when the sun hits it in the morning, and leaves that swirl, old and new, together.

The writing itself is more than a little clever. For example, Fletch's little brother Ray is always worrying about seemingly minor things. He wants it perfectly clear that his mother is not allowed to throw any people away. And when he asks his dad at the dinner table if the moon will stay in Massachusetts his dad says without hesitation that the moon is coming with them to Ohio. On hearing this, Fletch says, "Just the kind of thing to make you feel better, if you're a little kid". You get the definite feeling from this that the little kid he's referring to may not necessarily mean Ray. There are thirty-four poems in total here and together their story is one of ups and downs of an everyday nature. Sometimes I wondered whether or not certain sections were taken directly from Mr. Fletcher's own life. Did a mover "not much bigger than me" really come into the kitchen and carry out a refrigerator on his back while quoting Archimedes' great line, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth!"? Did his friend Kyle really give him a going away present of a shoebox filled with ball bearings alongside his friend Alex's gift of "decapitated piñatas"? I don't suppose it matters, since they work so well within the story. I just wanted to know.

Then there are the illustrations to take into account. Ms. Jennifer Emery has taken the good design choice of rendering all the poems in easy-to-read black on white. There is nothing worse in this world than a children's book of poems hidden in a field of too much ribald off-setting color. Then, for each of these selections, there is a single picture that illustrates what is either being said or thought. These pictures are just quick snatches of images. They look almost as if someone had taken a page and then erased a large swath of it, revealing the hidden illustration behind (if that makes any sense). Each one is a different watercolor color, with the figures drawn in graphite. The effect is startlingly effective. In the poem "Boxes" for example, Fletch reminisces about Gwen, the girl at school. Mostly he concentrates on her eyes. In response to this, Ms. Emery shows just a small section of Gwen's face. All of it is gone, save the lightest sprinkling of freckles on her nose and, of course, those eyes Fletch can't stop thinking about. Well played, Ms. Emery. Well played indeed.

The age level on this book is interesting. The hero is twelve-years-old and a little interested in girls. Yet a quick glance at the book and you see that it seems geared for younger kids. An eight-year-old, perhaps, would be better suited to its simple words, pictures, and story. These days publishers are quick to thrust 700 page fantasy tomes at their twelve-year-old readers, totally disregarding those that are either reluctant or not fully prepared to swallow "Lord of the Rings" in a single sitting. I foresee, "Moving Day", having a lot of popularity with kids who read at a lower level, but don't want to be caught reading "baby books" or anything with a protagonist younger than themselves.

A quick confession. I wasn't until I reread the bookflap a second or third time that I noticed that this was an autobiographical book. Honestly, I just thought it a weird coincidence that Ralph Fletcher would write about a kid named Fletch. Oy. Much with the thickness of the head, have I. In my defense, aside from the name of the kid there's not much to tip the reader off to the story's personal nature. Neither Fletcher's words nor Emery's pictures date the tale in any way. I mean, Emery doesn't load the book up with iPods and images of kids reading manga either. Together, author and artist have just managed to carve out a small timeless little niche for themselves. Something that won't date in a year and a half or so.

By the way, the cover of this book has me a little baffled. Here you can see Fletcher sitting in the back of the truck looking vaguely hopeful about everything. And next to him is a box that reads, quite clearly, "library books". If these people are moving from Massachusetts to Ohio then what the heck are they doing high-tailing it out of the state with a box of library books in their truck? Labeled at that, the clever things. Librarians of Massachusates, beware.

In some ways, the book of poems that "Moving Day" reminded me the most of (in terms of storytelling, characters, and the quality of the illustrations) was "Speak To Me (And I Will Listen Between the Lines)" by Karen English. The two would actually work well together, should you wish to pair one small book of poems of 39 pages with one of almost equal length (32 pages). The great thing about "Moving Day", though, is that this isn't one of those mindlessly slap-happy cheerleading books about how everything involved with moving is GREAT! This book respects kids enough to show them some of the problems, and the benefits, of going somewhere new. Add in the great pictures and the clever writing and you've got yourself a keeper. So here's a note to all you children's librarians out there. If a parent comes up to you and demands all your picture books on moving, make sure this puppy sits on the top of your pile. A keeper, to say the least.

Howls Moving Castle Picture Book (Howl's Moving Castle Picture Book)

Average customer rating:

Love the chicken feet on the castle!
Gorgeous book with easy to follow story.

Howls Moving Castle Picture Book (Howl's Moving Castle Picture Book)

Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1421500906

Customer Reviews:

Love the chicken feet on the castle!.......2007-09-02

I saw the movie, Howl's Moving Castle, and then saw the picture book advertised. As I am a teacher-librarian in a high school, I decided to buy the book to put in the school library. I found the pictures bright and eye-catching, and I knew that our students do a study of picture books in English in their senior years. The castle also links very strongly to the story of Baba Yaga, whose house was on chicken feet, although it was a much darker abode. One of the seniors has reserved the book already, so I think my decision has been vindicated. Also, the book is much more appealing than the text version, although the text version does explain some of what happens to Sophie. I highly recommend this book.

Gorgeous book with easy to follow story........2007-04-27

My 5 year old loved the movie so I bought this book and it is/was a big hit. Even though it is rather long for a childrens book each page isn't too wordy as some can be and the illustrations are a beautiful as the movie's animation.

The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through Film, Fiction, and Television

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The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through Film, Fiction, and Television
Katie Mills
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0809327104

Book Description

In The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through Film, Fiction, and Television, Beat studies scholar Katie Mills examines how road stories, which have offered declarations of independence to generations of rebellious Americans, have been transformed by media, technology, and social movements. The genre, which includes literature, films, television shows, and several types of digital media, has evolved, says Mills, as each new generation questions its own identity and embraces the thrill of “automobility” (autonomy and mobility) thus providing audiences a means to consider radically altered notions of independence, even as the genre cycles between innovation and commodification.

This cultural history reveals the unique qualities of road stories and follows the evolution from the Beats’ postwar literary adventures to today’s postmodern reality television shows. Tracing the road story as it moves to both LeRoi Jones’s critique of the Beats’ romanticization of blacks as well as to the mainstream in the 1960s with CBS’s Route 66, Mills also documents the rebel subcultures of novelist Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, who used film and LSD as inspiration on a cross-country bus trip, and she examines the sexualization of male mobility and biker mythology in the films Scorpio Rising, The Wild Angels, and Easy Rider. Mills addresses how the filmmakers of the 1970s—Coppola, Scorsese, and Bogdanovich—flourished in New Hollywood with road films that reflected mainstream audiences and how feminists Joan Didion and Betty Friedan subsequently critiqued them. A new generation of women and minority storytellers gain clout and bring genre remapping to the national consciousness, Mills explains, as the road story evolves from such novels as Song of Solomon to films like Thelma and Louise and television’s Road Rules 2.

The Road Story and the Rebel, which includes twenty illustrations, effectively explores the cultural significance of sixty years of rebellion in film, literature, television, and digital media. Spanning media platforms and marginalized communities, the text offers new interpretations of canonical works and reintroduces forgotten works, revealing the genre to be more political and philosophical than previously understood.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Utopian Novels: Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Ourland

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Moving the Mountain

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Utopian Novels: Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Ourland
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Manufacturer: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0838637612

Customer Reviews:

Moving the Mountain.......2004-04-08

Moving the Mountain showed in more than 15 spots through out the text where someone was powerful or powerless. I would recommend this book or The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman to anyone, especially The Yellow Wallpaper. I would also recommend that you do a little bit of research on Gilman and her life as a chil and as a young adult.

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