History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

A SOULFUL STORY HUMMING WITH BLUES, ROOTS & LOVE
Magic with every passing word
This is a wonderful book!
Flowers Reigns *****

Another Good Loving Blues
Arthur Flowers
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

De Mojo Blues

ASIN: 0670848212

Book Description

"A charming, provocative novel in which Mr. Flowers seamlessly blends the rich rythms of the blues and a Deep South patois in a lyrical, literate style."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
It's Beale Street in Memphis in the age when jazz was spelled "jass" and ragtime was just a glint in Scott Joplin's eye. Lucas Bodeen is the bluesman, and Melvira Dupree is the conjure woman he loves. But pitted against them are all the forces of nature, the clashing of their own stubborn wills, and a society mired in the laws of Jim Crow and the mob. Combining the ancient African storytelling art of the griot with the American offshoots of blues and hoodoo, Arthur Flowers sings us a story that makes us smile - a story of life, and how love and happiness really happen.

Customer Reviews:

A SOULFUL STORY HUMMING WITH BLUES, ROOTS & LOVE.......2002-10-22

Talk about how (as a character suggests in the movie "Hurricane") "sometimes a book chooses you"... Was it quirky intuition or some funky higher power that moved me when, as I was about to leave the library, a sudden urge made me turn around and, overlooking all the other fictions on the shelves, with unknown purpose shuffle aside the books in a bin until my hand lit on this one. Had never heard of the author or the book (although the title was appealing), but something inside of me whispered "Read this!"

Whatever the spell, subconscious or spooky, I'm glad I did. This was a book that started out good and only got better; read it practically overnight. In the end, it was Arthur Flowers' vibrant storytelling, so warm and alive with understanding of human frailty and fullness of spirit--like a downhome, latter-day incarnation of the oldtime poet who said, "I am human, therefore nothing human is alien to me"--that spoke to me, made me smile and ache and glow.

"I am hoodoo, I am griot, I am a man of power," he trumpets at the opening in a verbal fanfare, a narrative device echoing and acknowledging ancient oral tradition; there is power in the word and magic in the story. "My story is a true story, my words are true words, my lie is a true lie--a fine old delta tale about a mad blues piano player and a Arkansas conjure woman on a hoodoo mission.... Plan to show you how they found the good thing. True love. That once-in-a-lifetime love.... because when you find true love my friend its strictly do or die."

Set in the Mississippi River delta country in and around Memphis, Tennessee, at the dawn of the Jazz Age, ANOTHER GOOD LOVING BLUES tracks the sweet & sour course of the relationship between bluesman Luke Bodeen--peacock proud, stylish and sure--and alluring, stiff-necked hoodoo woman Melvira Dupree, who's haunted by her past and future. Yet other rivers run through it: memories of arcane gods and religious rites variously practiced by descendants of African slaves throughout the Americas; the trickle, then stream, of Southern blacks fleeing impoverished indenture in the fields for the promise of Northern urban opportunity post-World War I. Race-conscious workingclass intellectuals gather with college-trained professionals to debate Garvey vs. Dubois, the church vs. traditional African religion. The periodic floods of "The Great Muddy," the mighty Mississippi itself, become legend in song and story.

It's territory that Zora Neale Hurston (who makes a "guest appearance," as does W. C. Handy) plumbed and celebrated, and more recently Ishmael Reed: the nexus of history and folklore, literal and visceral, sanctified and streetwise.

But, aah, the core of the story, that man-woman thing! Heart of the blues. "You don't know what love is until you know the meaning of the blues," goes the famous song. Flowers, a veteran bluesman himself, is especially deft, and searingly compassionate, showing "how to go down like a natural man" after Luke breaks off with Melvira:

"Lucas Bodeen let the music say all the things he wanted to say to her. O baby, I love you so. I don't understand why or nothing, I just love you. Lucas Bodeen played his heart out, another man hurting cause my baby's gone and o the loving sure was good blues.

"O God baby, how could you really leave me?

"Tears.

"...After awhile the music start getting good to him, and ol Bodeen, he forgot all about how bad he felt. Got into the music, made that piano stand up and do tricks. No matter how much trouble you got in mind, the blues tend to remind you that the sun is going to shine in your back door someday. For all the pain it cost him, he had to say he was glad she had come into his life. Don't do for a man to live and die without having known at least one great love in his life. He would have hated to have died without having ever felt like she made him feel."

Flowers, besides his talent, experience and skill, obviously has considerable affection for all his characters; all the people of this book live and breathe. What's more, he tells a plethora of stories and all of them involve you. And his triumphant narrative voice is the finest, most lyrical and comprehensible use of Southern black vernacular I've ever read. I love this book: It's a work of enormous heart, healing and redemption. Told plain and simple, touching and to the point. ("Literature and hoodoo," says one character, "both are tools for shaping the soul." "Spiritwork," says another. "Sacred literature... Rootwork.") Let this nexus of love, blues and hoodoo work its magic on you.

Magic with every passing word.......2001-08-17

I read this book a couple of years ago... It was not a book I normally would have read, but I picked it up and was quickly drawn into it. The voice of the narrator is very powerful and persuasive, convincing you that the characters are real--the emotions behind each of the words certainly are! The story is very believable. It seems simple, but it is more. You can actually hear someone telling you this story and it almost doesn't feel as if you're reading. In the end, you definitely feel a deep appreciation towards the writer and his gift.

This is a wonderful book!.......1999-10-09

Need something to cozy up to and sweep you away on a mighty good time? Get this book. The writing is lush, beautiful, yet concise. It's a good read. Thank you Mr. Flowers! And keep on writing. I, for one, want more.

Flowers Reigns *****.......1999-05-25

Arthur Flowers has created the most beautiful love story to come out in years.I was drawn into the world of Melvira, Luke, and the Delta's conjure women. I gained a deeper appreciation for the blues, (that I could hear gliding across the pages)as I savored the flavor of this magnificent work.

Average customer rating:

Charming
Towards the blue horizon
wonderful book!
Mildly interesting, but I expected a lot more
Sentimental

The Blue Flower
Penelope Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0395859972

Amazon.com

Penelope Fitzgerald wrote her first novel 20 years ago, at the age of 59. Since then, she's written eight more, three of which have been short-listed for England's prestigious Booker Prize, and one of which, Offshore, won. Now she's back with her tenth and best book so far, The Blue Flower. This is the story of Friedrich von Hardenberg--Fritz, to his intimates--a young man of the late 18th century who is destined to become one of Germany's great romantic poets. In just over 200 pages, Fitzgerald creates a complete world of family, friends and lovers, but also an exhilarating evocation of the romantic era in all its political turmoil, intellectual voracity, and moral ambiguity. A profound exploration of genius, The Blue Flower is also a charming, wry, and witty look at domestic life. Fritz's family--his eccentric father and high-strung mother; his loving sister, Sidonie; and brothers Erasmus, Karl, and the preternaturally intelligent baby of the family, referred to always as the Bernhard--are limned in deft, sure strokes, and it is in his interactions with them that the ephemeral quality of genius becomes most tangible. Even his unlikely love affair with young Sophie von Kühn makes perfect sense as Penelope Fitzgerald imagines it.

The Blue Flower is a magical book--funny, sad, and deeply moving. In Fritz Fitzgerald has discovered a perfect character through whom to explore the meaning of love, poetry, life, and loss. In The Blue Flower readers will find a work of fine prose, fierce intelligence, and perceptive characterization.

Book Description

In eighteenth-century Germany, the impetuous student of philosophy who will later gain fame as the Romantic poet Novalis seeks his father's permission to wed his true philosophy -- a plain, simple child named Sophie. The attachment shocks his family and friends. This brilliant young man, betrothed to a twelve-year-old dullard! How can it be? A literary sensation and a bestseller in England and the United States, The Blue Flower was one of eleven books- and the only paperback- chosen as an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review. The 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner in Fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Charming.......2007-08-18

This is my first time reading a Penelope Fitzergerald book, and I have to say that I am charmed. Her style is economical and witty. I am something of a fan of spare writing - I always like that tension that comes from what is left unsaid.

Why is Fritz, the future poet Novalis, so taken with Sophie, a plain, not-especially intelligent 12-year-old girl? The back of my book mentions the 'irrationality of love' and the 'transfiguration of the commonplace.' Does Sophie have something incomparable, something that makes Fritz instantly fall in love, or is she a blank sheet that he can project his romantic ideals upon?

"On Silvesterabaend, six days after Christmas, Fritz received a letter from Sophie.

Dear Hardenberg,
In the first place I thank you for your letter secondly for your hair and thirdly for the sweet Needle-case which has given me much pleasure. You ask me whether you may be allowed to write to me? You can be assured that it is pleasant to me at All Times to read a letter from you. You know dear Hardenberg I must write no more.

Sophie von Kühn

'She is my wisdom,' said Fritz."

Sophie is not just wisdom, but Philosophy, fate, a guardian spirit, darkness (her hair) and light (her skin), and, with her eager, bright expression, the essence of being alive. When you are all that, it doesn't matter what you write in a letter (or do not write - Sophie "must write no more" because she "scarcely knows how to," her education being not much of a priority.)

I would definitely recommend this book. If you are looking for a book that speaks with no ambiguity and makes all explicit, perhaps you should avoid it. If not, I should mention it has the added bonus of each chapter being only a few pages long! For myself, I will read more of P. Fitzgerald in the future.

Towards the blue horizon.......2007-05-18

This is a Bildungsroman about Friedrich von Hardenberg, son of an impoverished aristocrat, whose poetry, published under the name Novalis, would come to define the mystical side of German Romanticism, a quest for an ideal harmony of man and nature symbolized by the Blue Flower. But Fitzgerald merely hints at the poet's later (but short) life in this lean, succinct book. Instead she shows him at home with his strict religious father and many siblings, impressing his professors at Jena with his curiosity about the latest thinking in seemingly every field, living with the family of a regional magistrate to study administration, making friendships, and falling in love. This love for a girl who is only twelve when he meets her is so absolute on his part, so little motivated on hers, that it becomes the embodiment of his philosophy of the ideal: that the qualities of an object of desire depend more on the beliefs of the beholder than on what it may be in itself.

Ultimately, the book is about that ideal, or about the notion of reaching towards a romantic ideal, the blue flower, the distant horizon. But the Blue Flower of the title is only mentioned two or three times, in a quotation from the opening of Novalis' unfinished novel HEINRICH VON OFTERDINGEN. Fitzgerald knows that to establish the horizon, one first has to map the ground at one's feet. (This is especially true of Novalis, whose romanticism was not an escape from the real world, but a belief that everything in it -- human beings, animals, plants, even the rocks -- might communicate with one another on an equal footing.) Much of the book is concerned with daily life and domestic details, but its first impression can be disorientating. Fitzgerald writes in a clean but curious style that seems at times like an awkward translation from German (the definite article before some people's names, for instance, or the use of "maiden" instead of "girl"); oblique references to Kant and other thinkers of the day are tossed in but never explained. The reader is plunged into life in full spate, a busy repetitive life where the details of daily routine serve as ballast to flights of intellectual enquiry. But the strangeness wears off, the writing simplifies, and the book's ultimate effect is to give the stamp of absolute authenticity to everything that the author describes.

This is not a conventional love-story, or indeed a conventional novel in any sense, although it is filled with memorable people. Ideas are sketched in with a few deft strokes, then left suspended. The author assumes that readers have either a good knowledge of the political and intellectual history of those watershed times, or that they can pursue these things on their own. She does not use the novel as a means of explaining history, let alone an aesthetic, but attempts a much more daring task: making you experience it at first hand -- even without quite knowing what you are experiencing. Perhaps a bit disappointing at first, this turns out to be a depth-charge of a book that stirs the mind long after the ripples of reading it have disappeared.

wonderful book!.......2007-01-06

Wonderful insight into the heart and mind of a poet. Very sad love story.

Mildly interesting, but I expected a lot more.......2006-10-26

After enjoying Fitzgerald's "The Bookshop," and finding out that "The Blue Flower" was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award above such nominees as Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" (Pulitzer winner that I enjoyed tremendously), Don DeLillo's "Underworld" (Often regarded as his masterpiece, and chosen by the New York Times as one of the best American novels of the last 25 years), Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" (National Book Award winner), and Andrei Makine's "Dreams of my Russian Summers" (Prix Goncourt and Prix Medicis winner), I was definitely looking forward to an excellent book which would at the very least keep my attention.

Perhaps I was expecting too much. Perhaps the characters and their everyday existence (based on history) were too far removed from my personal experience. Perhaps there wasn't enough drama for my more modern taste. Whatever the reason, I found it difficult to care much about the characters or the story, and most of all, to pay much attention. I wish it were different.

There were some interesting historical tidbits, for certain, and I felt better acquainted with the 1700s after I finished, but overall I really couldn't settle into this comfortably. Nothing against Fitzgerald herself. Her writing is vivid without a hint of strain, simple and easy to digest. She's really very good. I just didn't enjoy the storyline.

Sentimental.......2006-03-12

An interesting book about love. The reviewer who comments on the feminine character being boring is correct, but love rarely has to do with mutual admiration.
The word for that is friendship, or partnership.
Just a thought.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful story, ugly binding...
"Blue Flowers" = Life, Love & Beauty
An enchanted story which affirms beauty and life.

The Land of the Blue Flower
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Manufacturer: H.J. Kramer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0915811464

Book Description

The Land of the Blue Flower is the tale of Amor, a young king orphaned as an infant and left in the care of a wise elder. His caretaker, known as the Ancient One, spirits the infant away to a castle, far from the gloomy city where Amor was born. In the lands surrounding the castle, the Ancient One teaches Amor to respect and learn from the beauty and mysteries of nature.

When Amor ascends to his throne as a young man, he returns to the city, which has been in a state of ruin for many years. The people of the kingdom are surprised when their new king issues a mysterious proclamation that all persons must plant and nurture the seeds of a magical Blue Flower.

The people follow King Amor's decree with trepidation. As they learn to care for the flowers, they learn to care for the Earth and one another. Soon, the once-gloomy kingdom becomes known as the Land of the Blue Flower.

Audiences of all ages will be delighted by the reemergence of The Land of the Blue Flower, a lost classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of much-loved children's books, including The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Judith Ann Griffith's elegant illustrations beautifully complement this ageless tale, which offers a timely message.

Miss Griffith discovered The Land of the Blue Flower when she received a copy of the 1909 edition from a friend. She was deeply impressed with the book. Griffith writes, "It was in the woods and in the garden that I gained the awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. In The Land of the Blue Flower, Burnett conveys her understanding of this universal principle through the classic symbolism of a fairy tale. Wisdom gleaned from the Earth and the stars leads to creative solutions."

Download Description

Every fair night through the King's earliest years the Ancient One carried him to the battlements and let him fall asleep beneath the shining myriads. But first he would walk about bearing him in his arms, or sit with him in the splendid silence, sometimes relating wonders to him in a low voice, sometimes uttering no word, only looking calmly into the high vault above as if the stars spoke to him and told him of perfect peace.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful story, ugly binding..........2006-05-06

My daughter fell in love with this book after checking it out at the library. The version she read was a beautiful picture book with pages and pictures as wonderful as the story. She had earned a treat and only wanted this book.
Let me just say how disappointing it is to open a box and find a small, flimsy paperback with not one, single picture! The cover pictured is the actual book cover and inside is small type covering pages with small margins. Only half of the pages are even printed; the book ends just over half-way through the pages of the book.
This is a beautiful story, and I realize that this is a rare publication, but it is still a letdown to find such a book especially at this price.

"Blue Flowers" = Life, Love & Beauty.......1999-05-15

This charming fairytale by the author of the beloved _Secret Garden_ is not just for children, but is a kind of "spiritual tonic" for folks of all ages. Ever since discovering HJKramer's magical edition, I have turned to _Blue Flower_ during times of spiritual or physical depletion and have always felt uplifted and enlivened by its positive message and exquisite artwork.

The book came to me in a strange, "Heaven-directed" way, during a time of immense grief over the death of a relative. I was ripe for its insightful messages that, "If you fill your mind with a beautiful thought, there will be no room for an ugly one"; and "There is no time for anger..." I have always been bolstered by this particular edition, so gracefully illustrated by Judith Ann Griffith, and over the years have gifted a few special souls, adults and children alike, with copies of this delightful book.

The "blue flowers" at the heart of the story have gradually become a sort of shorthand-code between me and cherished friends/relatives; and on special occasions, we sometimes exchange "blue flowers" as a colorful reminder of truths taught in Frances Hodgson Burnett's tale. The "blue-flower code" is simple and speaks directly to the heart, saying, "We choose love, life, and joy over fear, bitterness, and grudges." (Given current global upheavals and conflicts, maybe certain folks in High Places would do well to read this little book and internalize its simple truths.)

_The Land of the Blue Flower_ is very enthusiastically recommended for hearts of all ages, and Kramer's gorgeous edition is sure to become a family favorite.

An enchanted story which affirms beauty and life........1998-08-23

Though the story carries a brilliant message of hope for us all, if we can affirm our connection with the earth, it is the lovely illustrations that bring home this heart-felt promise.

On almost every page of this classic tale the artist has embellished the authors words with delightful and imaginative representations of the story.

Book Description

Whether its skunk cabbage blooming in the late winter chill, columbine and phlox bursting with color in the summer heat, or witch hazel blossoms patiently waiting for the cool of late fall, the flowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains put on a spectacular show for all but the coldest months of the year. Whether on a dayhike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park or winding through 469 miles of mountain beauty along the Blue Ridge Parkway, appreciating the wildflowers along the way, using Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains as your guide, adds a level of enjoyment that has no price.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful book.......2005-06-06

There is no doubt this is the most beautiful wildlfower book I have ever seen. Each of the 120 photos are full page, full color, and absolutely stunning in their clarity, composition and ability to help you identify a flower. The text is also very informative--and nicely written. Instead of technical jargon, the author gives you all kinds of information in easy to understand and often entertaining language. I'll cherish this book for a long time and use it often as he also tells you specific sites to find each flower. Again, A BEAUTIFUL BOOK.

Average customer rating:

Blue Guides are reliably the best for those who believe a thousand words are worth more than a picture.

Blue Guide Denmark (Blue Guides)
W. Glyn Jones , Kirstenn Gade , and John Flower
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Blue Guide | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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Blue Guide Sweden, Second Edition

ASIN: 0393316394

Customer Reviews:

Blue Guides are reliably the best for those who believe a thousand words are worth more than a picture........2005-09-05

Blue Guides are meant for those who prefer several paragraphs of historical background to a glossy picture. They are well researched and well written. They do not, however, include much about accommodations or food.

Blue Guide Turkey - The Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts (Blue Guide)

Average customer rating:

Very Specialized
A good guide book
Not for every traveler to Turkey....but
Travel Guides Don't Get Any Better Than This

Blue Guide Turkey - The Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts (Blue Guide)
Bernard McDonagh
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Blue Guide | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0393311953

Book Description

Full of insider information, this is the book that official tour guides in Turkey rely on. The most visited areas along the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines are covered in extensive detail. This highly acclaimed Blue Guide also provides more information on central and eastern Turkey than any other guide and unrivaled coverage of Turkey's wonderful artistic heritage. 35 illustrations, 75 maps and plans.

Customer Reviews:

Very Specialized.......2006-06-28

The "Blue Guide" is not a guidebook in the "Eat at Dogan's, sleep at Mustafa's" sense, although a bit of that (dated) information is featured. Rather, it is an exhaustive compilation of data regarding the historical sites of Turkey, usually with accompanying maps. On our last trip, we carried it and the Lonely Planet guide, and found that the LP guide was, as you'd expect, more useful for travel logistics, but was surprisingly also about as good for site information. This is because the Blue Guide's descriptions are often taken verbatim from official tourist information that's generally provided free at the sites. As a result of our experience, I'd go with just the LP another time.
If you're going to Istanbul, however, be aware that the Blue Guide to Istanbul is outstanding. It has excellent walking tours that make every step through the Old Town meaningful, and excellent maps as well.
The Blue Guide to Turkey makes a good read at home to plan before you go, and is a good reference when you return, but I wouldn't pack it along again if I had access to the Lonely Planet Guide.

A good guide book.......2004-07-28

After spending a month of traveling through Turkey visiting archaeological sites, ruins and museums, I found this book to be helpful since there was little I knew of the specifics of the history of the sites to which I was visiting. And yet, some of the more specialist historians and classicists with whom I was traveling found many, many errors in the book.

Basically, if you are looking for a wealth of information on the archaeological and historical aspects of Turkey this is the book for you. However, be careful as you read and do a little extra work if you are using it for research. It is a guide book after all and excels at that purpose.

Recommended for the typical visitor to Turkey.

Not for every traveler to Turkey....but.......2003-03-03

We returned in Feb 2003 after 3 months of independent travel in Turkey. We were there mostly to visit archeological sites and ruins, and we traveled with several other books. Nothing, however approached the exhaustive, invaluable and often overwhelming information that the Blue Guide provided us with.

There are many guidebooks that provide basic information on accomodations/restaurants/etc in TK for the casual tourist who will primarily be visiting Ephesus and the other major sites on the Aegean Coast of Turkey. There any book will do, and if you are traveling with a TK licensed guide this is one of the books that they will have had to master in the grueling University program that allows them to become licensed tour guides.

But if your interest in Asia Minor takes you even slightly off the well-trodden path, the Blue Guide is indispensible. I can't imagine understanding places like Boðazkale,Seleucia, Letoön, Xanthos,Iassos,Miletus, Stranoniceia without either this book or a licensed guide.

There is often little in the way of informational signage at the important yet lesser visited sites, and compared to other countries ,there is little published information available in book form at the sites other than glossy tourist-photo books.

I can not recommend the Blue Guide too highly to the specialist visitor to Turkeys rich archeological past.

Travel Guides Don't Get Any Better Than This.......2001-04-02

The first thing to understand about Blue Guides is: they're not for everyone. In particular, they aren't for people who only want to have to take along a single guidebook when they travel. Although in recent years the series has begun to include some fairly sketchy data about hotels and restaurants, information about where to stay, eat or shop has never been the raison d'etre of this series. Rather, the purpose of the Blue Guides has always been to provide accurate and astonishingly comprehensive information about the history, architecture, art history, and literary associations of the countries or regions each guide covers. For those purposes, the Blue Guide has no peer. (The series has also always been distinguished by the abundance and excellence of its maps, city plans, and museum floor plans.) If you want to travel, miss nothing of any interest or significance, and come back with your mind much enriched and primed for further reading and exploration, then you're one of the people Blue Guides are written for.

Traditionally, Blue Guides were known for being authoritative and reliable, but the writing was typically understated and restrained. That began to change a few years ago, and now -- just as with the New York Times -- Blue Guide authors no longer shy away from writing marked by local color, word pictures, and individuality. At the same time, the series retains its old virtues of exhaustive research, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Bernard McDonagh, the author of the Blue Guide: Turkey, is the Michelangelo of the new model Blue Guides. He began by authoring a volume for the series on Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, which was widely acclaimed, and then expanded it to cover (almost) the entire country a few years later. I say "almost" because this volume covers Istanbul only in summary fashion, since there is another Blue Guide volume (by the estimable John Freely) that covers that great metropolis in microscopic detail.

The Blue Guide: Turkey's comprehensiveness immediately distinguishes it from the competition. The coverage of the best-known sites like Troy, Ephesus, or Aphrodisias, of course, is superb: Ephesus merits 22 pages, along with one full-page and another two-page plan of the site and its environs, and Aphrodisias gets 10 pages. But lesser-known sites like Assos, Priene, and many others that might receive a paragraph in most guidebooks are also covered in detail, usually with an excellent plan. Indeed, the book includes no less than 45 site plans of archaeological sites, including such relatively obscure ones as Nysa, Labraynda, Limyra, Sillyum, Sura, and Uzuncaburc.

For years, the secret behind the Blue Guide's comprehensiveness was its authors' willingness to mine obscure archaeological excavation reports and 18th and 19th century traveler's accounts for nuggets of information that would have escaped the less diligent. McDonagh lifts the veil on this technique, often quoting at length from the impressions of visitors from centuries past. And these are anything but tedious: for example, we have Lord Byron's observation that "The Troad is a fine field for conjecture and snipe-shooting, and a good sportsman and an ingenious scholar may exercise their feet and their faculties upon the spot . . . .", or Pliny's report that the tombs in the necropolis at Assos were made from stone containing "a caustic substance which consumed the flesh of bodies placed in them within 40 days," or the 18th century antiquarian Richard Chandler's recollections of sharing quarters with a Greek family in a sepulcher located amidst the ruins of Iasus.

The great delight and ornament of this volume are McDonagh's reflections and word pictures, which grace the text the way similes grace the Iliad. A sampling follows.

"In summer the view from the temple [of Athena at Assos] is one of the most beautiful in W Turkey. Across the calm waters of the Bay of Edremit, Lesbos, homeland of the first settlers ion Assos, is clothed in purple haze. Far below lies the little harbour, from which St. Paul sailed on his missionary journeys, while on terraces cut into the steep slope of the hill the ruins of the ancient city protrude like sun-dried bones through the maquis."

"Miletus is not one of the most attractive sites in SW Turkey. During late autumn, winter, and early spring much of the area is an unpleasant morass. In summer this becomes a drab brown wilderness covered with thorny scrub. A sense of profound melancholy broods over the ancient city, a feeling of abandonment and decay that is accentuated by a monotonous landscape little relieved by the occasional tall clump of reeds or the jagged stump of a ruined building."

"The dervishes no longer dance in the semahane. The sema is now held in a high school gymnasium in another part of Konya. Presented as an exhibition of folklore, for some it is nothing more. However, others find it a moving religious experience. The dervishes who take part in the sema today live in the world. They are bus mechanics, teachers, schoolboys. They are no longer obliged to submit to the extended novitiate and strict discipline of the past. Yet, when they dance, the air becomes charged with a feeling of great spirituality and the spectators forget the bleak setting in which the sema is being held, are no longer conscious of the icy temperature and discomfort of the unheated arena." "The attraction of Ulucinar lies more in its delightful situation and relaxed atmosphere than its historical associations. To stand on the bridge over the small river and watch the fishermen land their catch, to swim from the clean beach of the Arsuz Hotel, to enjoy an excellent meal on the terrace within a few metres of the sea, these must be sufficient reward for even the most demanding traveller."

Whether you're a first-time visitor to Turkey or a veteran -- or even an armchair traveller -- you could hope for no better companion and guide than Bernard McDonagh.

The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, The Blue Flower (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

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The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, The Blue Flower (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
Penelope Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Booksellers & Bookselling | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1400041260
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Penelope Fitzgerald, who died in 2000, emerged late in life as one of the most remarkable English writers of the last century. She began her writing career in 1975 at the age of fifty-nine, and over the next two decades she published three biographies, nine novels, and a collection of short stories. Now three of her acclaimed novels are gathered here in one volume.

The Bookshop is a postwar tragicomedy of manners, set in an isolated seaside town where an enterprising woman opens a bookstore only to find it beset by poltergeists, weather, and hostile townsfolk. The Gate of Angels is an Edwardian romance within a novel of ideas: a young doctor devoted to science and to his all-male Cambridge college finds his life and views disrupted by a nurse named Daisy. The Blue Flower, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, revitalizes historical drama through the story of Novalis, an eighteenth-century German romantic poet and visionary genius, and his unlikely love affair with a simple child-woman.

These three novels all display Fitzgerald’s characteristic wit, intellectual breadth, and narrative brilliance, applied to an array of traditional forms into which she breathed new life.

Time.mine Blue Flowers: August 2006 - December 2007

Average customer rating:

Time.mine Blue Flowers: August 2006 - December 2007
Tanglewood Press
Manufacturer: Tanglewood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Calendar

Familytime.mine Blue Ric Rac August 2006-December 2007 Calendar

ASIN: 1587263246

Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains

Average customer rating:

Wildflower lover
Helps me hone in on plant identification
An excellent guide to wildflowers in the Blue Ridge
An easy to use, well illustrated wildflower guide.

Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains
Oscar W. Gupton
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0813908140

Customer Reviews:

Wildflower lover.......2006-07-01

Excellent guide to the wildflowers in my region of Southwest Virginia. Good pictures and descriptions.

Helps me hone in on plant identification.......2005-02-21

Nice guide targeted at our area. Each page is on a specific plant - there is a large photograph covering the first 2/3 of the page with a short description below. The photos are excellent - very useful for identification (or at least narrowing in on the id) if the plant happens to be in bloom at the time. The descriptions are quite short - only a few sentences but do tell if the plant is native or introduced, if they're common or not, where they're likely found, the family they're in, and some description of unique aspects of the plant. I've found this to be a very useful book as I walk around our yard which was once an old farmers field and is now grown up with trees and thickets and other plants that were deposited by birds or brought in by the wind. Having the photos made identification easier. Also being focused on just plants of our area takes a lot of guess-work out. I then can use other books or online resources for more details such as benefit to wildlife etc.

An excellent guide to wildflowers in the Blue Ridge.......1999-04-14

This book is an excellent summary of wildflowers you can expect to find in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley. The full color pictures are beautiful and organized to make identification of flower names easy for the beginner.

An easy to use, well illustrated wildflower guide........1999-04-07

This is a non-technical field guide, designed for people with all skill levels. Wildflowers are organized by blossum color and illustrated with color photographs. A very useful book when searching for that elusive flower name in the Shenandoah Valley or Blue Ridge Mountains. The authors have written a similar book on Trees and Shrubs in the Shenandoah Valley.

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