Amazon.om
Of the many well-documented horror stories associated with the U.S. Healthcare System, none are more shocking and hard to believe than that exposed by investigative reporter Katherine Eban in Dangerous Doses: How Counterfeiters are Contaminating America's Drug Supply. By riding shotgun with a small group of investigators in South Florida who refer to themselves as "The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse," Eban outlines in chilling detail a vast system of criminality underpinning the wholesale trade of prescription drugs throughout the country. The Horsemen are a committed and colorful cast of characters not even the best crime novelist could create, who are hopelessly underpaid, rarely sleep, receive little respect, and face bureaucratic obstacles at every turn as they fight to keep tainted drugs out of hospitals and off pharmacy shelves. Their chief target is Michael Carlow, a flamboyant ex-con turned pharmaceutical wholesaler who has amassed millions through the sale of both stolen and fake prescription drugs. The more evidence the Horsemen uncover about Carlow's network of shell companies, phony labeling techniques, Medicare scams, and other tricks of the trade, the more deadly the picture becomes. By the end, you don't only want to see Carlow and his associates behind bars, but the entire pharmaceutical industry put on trial. You also want to give a copy of Dangerous Doses to everyone you know, as it is not just a great page turner but an important book that demands the widest possible audience. --Patrick Jennings
Book Description
In the tradition of the great investigative classics, Dangerous Doses exposes the dark side of America's pharmaceutical trade. Stolen, compromised, and counterfeit medicine increasingly makes its way into a poorly regulated distribution system-where it may reach unsuspecting patients who stake their lives on its effectiveness.
Katherine Eban's hard-hitting exploration of America's secret ring of drug counterfeiters takes us to Florida, where tireless investigators follow the trail of medicine stolen in a seemingly minor break-in as it funnels into a sprawling national network of drug polluters. Their pursuit stretches from a strip joint in South Miami to the halls of Congress as they battle entrenched political interests and uncover an increasing threat to America's health.
With the conscience of a crusading reporter, Eban has crafted a riveting narrative that shows how, when we most need protection, we may be most at risk.
Customer Reviews:
A good book.......2007-08-26
I am using some of the facts in this book for my novel writing. Thank you Katherine Eban for writing this book
Excellent Research.......2006-07-22
This is a well researched book (really well) and uses easy to understand language. It was a bit confusing to me in the beginning since he used some flashback type story telling. I was hoping to pull some powerful statistics out of this book, but was only to get some weak ones. This a a great book to have if you like having evidence that the U.S. Government is no saviour.
Dangerous Doses.......2006-07-16
This is an outstanding book every American should read. This book was recommended to me by a Vice President of a large mail order pharmacy corporation. I am the Assistant Vice President for Supply Chain Pharmacy Operations of a large healthcare system. As such I am responsible for making our Supply Chain Pharmacy Operations more safe and efficient. This book has been an eye opener for me. I have already quoted it several times in meetings and on conference calls. We all need to be engaged in making our healthcare supply chain as safe and efficient as possible. This is a non-fiction book, but it reads like a fiction one because its so unbelievable. It could very easily be made into a movie and be very successful in that media.
More Government Bungling!.......2005-12-13
While the FDA and drug companies rail about the potential dangers of imported drugs, they ignore or downplay reports about adulterated, counterfeit drugs from within the U.S., and fight efforts to improve the reliability of the system. Meanwhile, law-enforcement efforts to correct the problem are frequently blocked by political intervention for donors, legal threats, a patch-work of varying State laws, fraudulent paperwork, regulators giving drug wholesaling licenses to known criminals, and inter-departmental squabbling over who's in charge or gets the credit.
Sources of problem drugs include theft from warehouses, trucks, and hospitals, diversion from lower-priced markets (eg. foreign sales), purchase from Medicaid recipients, relabeling vials containing weak doses with fraudulent labels claiming much stronger contents, and pills made from worthless ingredients.
The book also summarizes the serious impact in two instances of seriously ill patients receiving adulterated drugs.
MUST READ THIS BOOK,.......2005-10-13
As a Professional working in the Pharmaceutical business and living in the State of Florida, I can identify very well with the contents of this book.A great deal of bureaucratic barriers are set causing obstacles to efficiently operate our Pharmaceuticals within State Law.The Investigators listed in this book were committed, determined, tireless and underpaid servants of the State, that worked in a system that was largely unappreciative and at times seen unorganized.Dangerous Doses is a very scary and real story about the importance of regulating and overseeing the buying and selling of drugs.I highly recommend this book, because of its informative and real look into the world of counterfeit drugs. Remember this effects us in one way or another.
Book Description
When counterfeit prescription medicine started turning up in the nation's supply and threatening some of the sickest and weakest patients, Katherine Eban went in search of the story. What she found was an unlikely and irresistible group of heroes-five aging South Florida investigators who dubbed themselves the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and held their meetings at Hooters. Working around the clock on cases no one else wanted to tackle, they followed the trail of stolen and contaminated medicine in a takedown eventually dubbed Operation Stone Cold. This riveting page-turner takes us along with the Horsemen as they wade into "more rank Florida unseemliness than a Carl Hiaasen novel" (Salon) to ultimately uncover $33 million in bad medicine and make more than sixty arrests.
Thanks in part to the attention Dangerous Doses received in hardcover, the media, politicians, and drug companies are starting to address the problems it uncovered. This new paperback edition includes a chapter with the latest update on these developments.
Book Description
'Tis done.
The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.
No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.
Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.
Everything that was will be changed forever ...
The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with
Quicksilver and continued in
The Confusion.
Download Description
"
'Tis done.
The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.
No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.
Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the ""holy grail"" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.
Everything that was will be changed forever ...
The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with
Quicksilver and continued in
The Confusion.
"
Customer Reviews:
High praise for the whole series........2007-09-08
The System of the World is the third in Stephenson's massive Baroque Cycle, and worth every minute that I spent reading. The entire series is something that I would enthusiastically recommend. It's fun, in the biggest sense of the world. Thought provoking, clever, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Not bad for what can only be described as rather dense historical fiction.
I wouldn't want to or attempt to write a plot summary, but suffice to say that this book continues the series preoccupation with economics, currency, logic and alchemy. I know that some didn't like the extensive descriptions of London in this volume, but I really enjoyed that part-- great to be a virtual tourist.
I have to say that the ending was a bit much (the bit with Sir Isaac at the Trial of the Pyx), but my that point I was almost willing to forgive Stephenson anything.
Highly recommended.
This is the Foundation Series for the new millenium.......2007-09-04
Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy/Series is considered one of the great science-fiction collections ever written, forming the basis of countless derivative and inspired works over the past fifty years. The Baroque Cycle will not, unfortunately, inspire fifty years of copycats, for a unique reason: it would be far too difficult to undertake with even moderate effort. This is a nine-book/ three-volume masterpiece of historical fiction that really has no peer in my experience (and please comment if you find any!)
As an aside, I could, at length, review each of the nine books and prattle on endlessly about this or that, but that's far too many reviews for what I intend to say about the Cycle as a whole. My comments apply to all books equally.
The cycle begins in the mid 17th century and spans the adulthood of one Daniel Waterhouse, a fictional contemporary of Isaac Newton. Of course, it also traces the life of one Jack Shaftoe, a fictional hero with his roots in every pirate story ever written or filmed. And then there's the mysterious Enoch Root, popping up again from the Cryptonomicon to move things along as the deux ex machina of certain story elements.
The number of interleaved story lines would be an impressive enough feat of writing, but the historical references were simply amazing. The sheer amount of research Mr. Stephenson invested for the Cycle must have been enormous. In short, Mr. Stephenson describes London before, during, and after the Great Fire of 1666 politically, sociologically, geographically, architecturally, and economically; he performs the same rigor of place-setting with Hanover and present-day Germany, Paris and present-day France, diverse parts of Egypt, Algeria, India, Mexico, South America, and Boston. This is the kind of book series that would inspire high-school students to PAY ATTENTION. For, if the students really do their homework and have a teacher partnered with them to put the book details into their proper context, you could quite possible craft an entire school year around the nine books, such is the depth and breadth of scholastic research involved in putting together such a series. It's no small achievement or idle boast: Mr. Stephenson has in some way taken his education and put it to its greatest use, as an inspiration to students.
All of this would be for naught if the stories weren't truly excellent at their core, and they are. You could boil down the Shaftoe story line to "pirate story" but that sells it short after the first book -- and there are eight more to go. What starts as a pirate story quickly become something of a precursor to spycraft and terrorism/counter-terrorism in the 17th and 18th centuries: currency manipulation, political scandals, and assassinations. I haven't even mentioned Isaac Newton versus Gottfried Leibniz in the battle for Calculus, or Isaac Newton's Alchemy, the reconstruction of London post-fire, the gold trade, the silver trade, piracy in the Atlantic and Pacific, the timber economy, the commodities exchange of northern Europe, the court at Versailles, and so on. I'm astonished as I write this.
This is well-worth the time invested to read, as a Cycle. If Mr. Stephenson ever posted his complete bibliography, or if some doctoral student ever decided to craft that two-semester, eight-course class tracing the book's scholarship, I would be among the first to delve deeply into it and re-learn my forgotten history, mathematics, and economics. Simply, this is one of the finest fiction series ever written.
-Fred
A Brilliant Conclusion.......2007-04-25
I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the three volumes of the BAROQUE CYLCLE. Even the middle volume did not suffer from the normal "middle of the trilogy blues". This volume, though is the trump card. It too is a masterpiece.
In volume one, the reader was treated to a series of narratives that bounced back and forth between the latter 1600s and the early 1700s. The same principle character, Daniel Waterhouse, appeared sometimes as a young man in England and sometimes as an old man in New England. After the first third, we are left hanging with Daniel on the way back to England and nothing more is heard of this story line until volume 3. Most Frustrating!
The wait was worth it though. All of the many threads are tied together nicely and the individual stories come together to make a whole greater than the sum of the parts . (And the parts are very good indeed!) It is, dare I say it, like a masterful baroque organ fugue.
Jack Shaftoe, the King of the Vagabonds, has been given a mission by Louis XIV of France. He is to destroy the English system of currency set up by Isaac Newton, the greatest genius ever. Louis's hold on him is through the one woman who Jack really loves. Jack may not be well educated but his daring and cunning make him a formidable adversary.
Daniel Waterhouse has been called back to England by the heiress to the English throne. He is to patch up relations between Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Liebnitz, the two greatest minds in an age filled with them. He becomes sidetracked by a plot on his life. The solution to that plot sets him to scheming against those who most trust him.
The story seems deceptively simple but it is not. It abounds with unexpected twists and turns, lots of humor and even more trivia for those who are fascinated by the period. Those who do not like such details would be better served with another book but for me, this entire series was delightful!
A new system of the world emerges.......2007-04-12
Book Three of the Baroque Cycle brings to the series to a very dramatic close. I think this book represents some of Stephenson's finest work along with Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. Reading the Baroque Cycle is difficult work, particularly the first book which mostly sets up the characters, but after reading TSotW, I found I finally understood why Stephenson wrote the series the way he did.
The series really is about the emergence of Europe from a barbaric and superstitious age to the beginnings of Enlightenment. The book mentions near the very end about a new System of the World, and what this is referring to is a new way of understanding the world; a new system of thought.
The book is pretty fast-paced as it brings many things to a close. Jack Shaftoe's part in the series is really some of the most exciting parts, but the efforts of Sir Isaac to capture him are quite fun to read as well. More so than earlier books in the series, you really get a sense of Stephenson's flair for adventure.
I have to say that reading this book makes the whole Cycle worth the time. I learned a great deal about pre-Enlightenment Europe through this series, and had a good read at the same time.
Too sprawling.......2007-03-13
I am a huge fan of Stephenson's earlier books and started the Baroque Cycle with great hopes. While all of Stephenson's books require a bit of dilligence to get through due to their intricate descriptions and complex plots, I have always felt that the payoff at the end of the books was enormously satisfying. In the case of the Baroque Cycle however, I felt that ultimately what should have been two great books was stretched (or more to the point, not edited tightly enough) into three books. There are elements of the plot in the System of the World which are entirely new to trilogy and these come at the expense of existing characters and story line which are left somewhat abruptly or unsatisfyingly. I feel that there was so much about this period that Stephenson wanted to describe and write about that he ultimately lost sight of the cohesiveness of the story.
Book Description
A young artist pursues a search for knowledge through the treatment of homosexuality and the collapse of morality in middle class France.
Customer Reviews:
Minor Masterpiece.......2005-10-23
This qualifies as literature, and should be read by everyone, but, compared to the rest of the literary pantheon, it really is a bagatelle. It's quintessentially Gallic in style, and Gide inserts a great deal of his Oscar Wilde-like wit into the characters' dialogue; this accounts for most of the reading pleasure. There is a plot of sorts, but the narrative isn't plot-driven. Very easy to read, funny, and well-written. (There is a dour, rather melodramatic climax, but I got the sense that this was dutifully tacked on, as it didn't represent the culmination of the overall arc of the novel...which may have been the point!)
good read.......2005-07-23
This is not a plot-oriented story, so if you are looking for "what happens next", you will be disappointed, even though there is enough happening. For example, in the beginning, the affair of Vincent and Laura is in the foreground, but then half way through, after Laura goes back to her husband, it's almost forgotten and Vincent is out of the picture, and the reader is not going to be informed about what happened to him or Laura in details. Instead, the other issues of the other characters take over the story. In other words, the "events" aren't the important issue Gide is dealing with.
There are so many, in fact too many, for my little brain to grasp, characters and each of them has his/her own story and issues to be dealt with, and at times I felt I couldn't digest them all (to remember all the names alone was a challenge). As Gide says in his notebook, this book could have been divided into two books. Nonetheless, he decided to put everything in one book, one story, and he "gave everything" he had, as he expected this story to be his last novel.
There are more discussions on art, literature, and moral issues than the story itself, which I enjoyed and learned a great deal. This sort of novels are very rare these days, as the current trend of novels are more "event-based" than "idea-based".
His notebooks are even more enjoyable.
As for homosexuality, I didn't find a trace of it in this novel. Would someone tell me where people got that idea? Or am I missing something? My guess is the affection and respect between Eduard and Oliver is the cause of it, but they're Uncle and Nephew, which makes it only natural that they possess affection, fondness and love, especially if they share the same interest, and both of them being artists, shy and sensitive by nature.
The corruption of the society, both in adults and young people, was brought up brilliantly. Only, I wish it was told through Oliver's eye. (I really wanted to get to know him better, but there were too many other characters who took up the pages.)
The sudden ending caught me by surprise, and I was a bit dissatisfied, but after reading the notebooks and realized that's how Gide wanted it, I decided to respect his decision.
Some of the characters needed a bit more attention and needed to be developed a little more, I think, especially Boris, as he is the one who ends the story by a drastic action such as committing suicide. (I never got to know him well enough to know what was going on in his head.)
The style is unique. It's written mainly in 3rd person omnicient, but often Gide lets Eduard tell the story in his journal, in 1st person. And then he goes back to omnicient again in the next chapter. This repeats throughout. The trouble I had was that there were so many characters, and I really didn't get to know any of them intimately. Eduard was the only one I felt I got to know, but that's because he was given many chances to write journals in 1st person.
There are several main characters obviously, but then occasionally the less important characters also come out in the foreground. So you think there's going to be a story about them, but then they disappear and you don't hear about them for a while.
In the notebook, he says that the important characters shouldn't be in the foreground but instead let the reader figure them out, or something to that effect. It was only then I realized what he was trying to do. It is a rare style, I think, and requires some adjusting.
In any case, it's a very readable novel, has a lot to offer, and I should say you will get your money's worth.
"Strip from the novel everything that does not belong to it".......2004-04-14
There's no shortage of quality literature, but it's not so often that you find someone who actually seems to be working with the limits of the medium, and stretching them. With this book, Gide did for the novel what people like Lynch and Tarentino have done for film.
'The Counterfeiters' is a novel presumably written by one of its characters, Edouard, who is planning to write a novel titled 'The Counterfeiters,' but is struggling with a case of writer's block. What seems to give him trouble is that the complexity of his experience keeps defying his attempts to apply a scheme of interpretation to it, and a sense of personal crisis which makes it difficult for him to maintain his objectivity as an artist. As a read, though, it isn't half as strange and experimental as that might make it sound; its wide cast of characters is typical of a traditional novel, such as War and Peace or a Tale of Two Cities, but Gide works with incredible subtley behind the scenes. Edouard's musing about the nature of narrative structure (to other characters) is suddenly reflected in his world, as though he were unconsciously God. The themes are tenuous and only gradually developed. Some characters are the ordinary sort of people who began to emerge in the literature of Twain, Dostoevsky and Turgenev, while some are more like the dramatic heroes of Shakespeare and Dickens. There's even a guest appearance by Alfred Jarry, the gleefully profane French dramatist of the period. Halfway through, in a chapter titled 'The Author Stops to Appraise his Characters,' Gide himself (or possibly Eduoard) offers his frank opinions on the characters (or real people?) who populate the novel.
If possible, buy a copy which includes 'The Journals...,' the record that Gide kept while writing this, which provides even more insight into his method.
Decent novel, but overrated.......2003-07-10
Three-and-a-half stars. Gide's reputation precedes him. He is generally regarded as one of France's best novelists and is widely admired by American writers as well. I plunged into this novel eagerly and emerged from it, two days later, with little more than a shrug. I hesitate to be too critical about books that I read in translation; one never knows how accurately the translator has captured the original work.
All in all, there's nothing really wrong with The Counterfeiters; it reads and feels at times like Dickens and a spate of other nineteenth-century British novels--the cast of characters is rather large, there are ample doses of melodrama, and the story makes use of several nice "coincidences" to tie otherwise disparate storylines together. It's been said that Gide's style was revolutionary for his day, but it's fair to say that readers today will find it fairly conventional. The same goes for the book's "scandalous" reputation--there is nothing about The Counterfeiters that will shock or amaze readers in 2003 the way it may have in 1926, when it was first published.
That said, The Counterfeiters is a decent book. There are moments when the reader feels that Gide has touched upon something greater than the story itself; some cutting observation about the relationship between Art and Morality, or the decline of social morals. But the material and style is otherwise dated. I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book, if so inclined. But as for me, six months from now, I'm doubt I'll remember much about it. It just didn't make much of an impression.
A brilliant, lyrical masterpiece........2003-06-19
"The Counterfeiters" (1926), by Andre Gide (1869-1951) is a fascinating chronicle of life in Paris before World War I. It begins as two high school friends, Bernard Profitendieu and Olivier Molinier, prepare for the bacchalaureat, their final exam. Bernard finds some letters hidden at home which show he is illegitimate, and runs away from home, thus setting in motion a rich set of adventures among a cast of mind-boggling proportions. From Bernard, Olivier and their parents, the story quickly grows to include Olivier's younger brother George, his uncle Edouard, Edouard's friend Laura, Olivier's older brother Vincent, Vincent's friend Robert Count Passavant, Passavant's lover Lady Griffith, Edouard's old schoolmate Victor Strouvilhou, Victor's nephew Gheri, Laura's father Vedel, Edouard's old piano teacher Perouse, and Perouse's grandson Boris, among many others. As this prodigious cast assembles itself, the fireworks really begin!
The reader will be amazed by all the ways these characters interconnect with each other. For example, at the beginning of the book, Edouard is traveling from London to Paris to visit and advise Laura, who is trying to extricate herself from an extra-marital affair, but only upon arriving will he learn Laura's paramour is actually his nephew Vincent. Many similar connections between most of the characters will be revealed during the course of this motivating story. "The Counterfeiters" is less a plotted novel than a finely-woven tapestry. Every character interacts with almost every other. The chapters are brief, only a dozen pages or so, but most focus on one of these interactions in particular, making for a compelling narrative. It was notably experimental for its time, but extremely readable, and still fresh today.
The title describes a counterfeiting ring which uses children, like something from Dickens's "Oliver Twist", to pass off gold-plated glass disks for coins. Gide's broader theme, however, is that of falsehood in general, like that popular theme of 19th-century French literature, namely hypocrisy. Beside the counterfeiting ring itself, Gide describes fathers with illegitimate children, adults with hidden affairs, and people generally searching for truth among the artifice of life.
Gide's characters are brilliantly conceived, executed on a par with his predecessor Balzac, whom Gide himself called "possibly our greatest novelist" (as published in the invaluable reference in the appendix of this book, the illuminating journal Gide himself kept while writing "The Counterfeiters"). There is something of Balzac's Goriot in Gide's Perouse, something of Rastignac in Bernard, and perhaps even a little Vautrin in Passavant. But Gide's literary style is markedly different. Where Balzac told self-contained stories, usually ones with social morals attached (as did most 19th-century French authors), Gide tells us he is "fond of sudden endings," and "it is an insult to explain what the attentive reader has understood" (both also paraphrased from this book's appendix).
Gide weaves dozens of strands of the story, intersecting every character with every other character, drawing lines to question the moral behavior of each interaction, an experimental gambit for its time. But I'm pleased to say Gide's experiment worked. The complete book is a brilliant success. His "novelist's novel" is perhaps one of the most important literary results of the early twentieth century, crafting a compelling story of interesting characters, maintaining great intellectual interest throughout. This novel is recommendable to anyone who enjoys fine literature.
Note: Other reviews invariably paint this book in shocking shades of homosexual or hedonistic material, but this is misleading at best. It's true, a homosexual and hedonistic tone appears at places, Count Passavant being the worst offender, but Gide is not a pornographer, he is a moralist. Homosexual himself, Gide was also Protestant (Huguenot), and like his brilliant work "The Immoralist", he believes in showing a moral lesson through human action.
Finally, two small quibbles: An emotional incident at the end of the book, based on a newspaper article Gide clipped, seems incongruous with the rest. It doesn't detract from the book, but it seems tacked on for special effect. Also, while excellent for the most part, the translation insists on leaving some expressions in the French original, such as "chef d'oeuvre" instead of "masterpiece", or "entr'acte" instead of "intermission".
Book Description
A chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin-turned-legendary swashbuckling adventurer -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox. . . and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.
Customer Reviews:
Get Past It.......2007-05-10
Should the publisher have printed King of the Vagabonds separately? Sure, why not? Where they missed was in not clearly labelling it for those of us who bought Quicksilver, in which this book is contained as the second part. Readers felt ripped-off when they purchased a book they'd already read, and that's understandable. But the blame goes to the marketing department of the publisher, not to Neal Stephenson, who wrote an incredibly fascinating and diverse portrait of the world at the time when knowledge was first beinging to replace belief; when science emerged out of religion; when the world as we know it now was first being born. And it is an amazing accomplishment--for a second, just say out loud that someone could make a best-seller out of an eight volume series about the acrimony between Newton and Leibnitz over the discovery of the calculus, about the necessity of a stable currency, about the birth of 'natural philosophy', about the beginnings of cryptography; and that they'd be able to put in a grand showdown between alchemists and pirates--it sounds absurd, doesn't it? But Stephenson carrys it off magnificently.
This particular volume (yes, it IS the second book of the large volume Quicksilver--if your Quicksilver is divided into three books, you've read it; if your Quicksliver ends with Watterson escaping from pirates, you haven't and it's safe to buy) is a complete and shocking contrast to the first book in the series. That book was about the birth of science, it was very intellectual with little action and focussed mainly on the characters of Daniel Waterhouse and Issac Newton. King of the Vagabonds could not be more different--none of the characters in the first book appear (and I kept waiting for them to do so), none of the action overlaps, and the themes are completely different. Where Quicksilver (the book, not the volume) was about ideas, King of the Vagabonds is about action. It's pirates and gypsies and fighting and cavorting mostly through continental Europe. Not until the next volume (Odalesque) will any of the characters from the first two books meet, and then only incidentally. The big confrontations come much later, so don't expect it now.
I throughly loved The Baroque Cycle, as did my 20 year old son. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are interested in ideas, if you enjoy the detailed portrayal of times and places other than our own, you might love it as much as we did. I was only sorry it was only 8 volumes.
Repackaging Can Be a Good Thing.......2006-06-03
First off, this book and all the books in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, however packaged and numbered, make for excellent reading. My stars are based on the excellence of the books themselves.
As for the reviewers who feel that repackaging is evil or greedy, well, okay. But if I were the author, I would be delighted that the publisher is investing the money and effort to repackage the books in a way that will bring them to a wider audience.
The new titles on the cover are racier and more true to the content; "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque" will pull more readers to pick up a copy than "The Confusion" ever could. "Quicksilver", however, holds its own as a title in this company, so keep it.
Breaking up the enormous page counts into more tractable sizes will pull in many of my friends, who simply refuse to pick up fat books. They don't have the time, they're afraid the book will be hard reading -- whatever. So the publisher is accommodating that potential readership, and at the same time returning to the days of skinny book classics. (Ever read The Great Gatsby? That's a novella or novellette, not a novel! Ditto most of Hemingway's stuff. Ditto C.S. Forester -- novels, sure, but SKINNY novels.)
The fact of the matter is, it's cheaper to print one fat book than three skinny ones. In choosing to repackage the Baroque Series books in a more extended manner, the publisher is taking a calculated risk; they're boosting their costs, but also expanding their potential market to more first-time readers, who will then buy the complete inventory of Stephenson books once they get hooked.
So, good for Harper. And go, Neal Stephenson!
Baroque Cycle.......2006-03-22
The Baroque Cycle is not a trilogy, trilogy meaning "a group of three novels which together form a related series, although each is complete in itself." It is eight novels published in three hardcover volumes. Thus "cycle." In an interview in 2004, Stephenson said that one reason why he named it a "cycle" was that some people would call it a trilogy when it obviously wasn't and he wanted to, as best he could, prevent that anoyance.
Stephenson and Harper Collins could have published this series in eight hardcover volumes from the beginning. After all it is EIGHT novels. They would have sold almost three times the volumes and made a lot more money. They didn't. Instead, they published the entire series in THREE volumes and as quickly as possible. It takes a long time to proofread, edit and typeset four hundred thousand words. Also they would have sold almost three times the amount of trade paperbacks. Now they are publishing each volume seperately in mass market. I think it comes down to two reasons. First, that it is, as above stated, eight novels. Second, some people find a nine hundred page volume intimidating but would be willing to read a four hundred page novel. This is who these editions are for.
It's striking how eager some people are to point fingers and claim someone else is greedy. They are ignorant concerning how difficult it is to write a book and their reviews end up revealing how ignorant they are concern writing and the publishing industry. I've read reviews of people claiming it was half the book, that the volumes were renamed. I questioned whether they have even read it. All I have to do is grab my trade paperback volume of Quicksilver and flip through it to find that the first novel (like the name of the volume) is Quicksilver, the second is King of Vagabonds and the third is Odalisque. How can a person read something so obvious and not remember? It isn't difficult.
A little education concerning payment rates for popular books. Agents commission is fifteen percent of the top of the author's commission. Author's commission for a hardcover is fifteen percent. For a trade paperback, seven and a half. For mass market, ten percent. This means that Stephenson earnes approximately three and a half dollars off every hardcover (85% of 15% of the cover price). He makes sixty-eight cents (7.99x10%x85%) from each paperback.
It's not difficult to do a little research concerning the contents of a book before it is released. The information was revealed on amazon months before the book came out in bookstores. The simple answer is, research before you buy.
If you haven't read the books, start with the Baroque Cycle start with #1. If you have, shut up.
Don't buy it.......2006-03-20
I have to agree that extracting a part of a previous book and marketing it in this confusing way seems to be a rip off. Especially as I bought the initial book here at Amazon. Getting a e-mail about a "new" book sucked me right in.
Half a novel is better than none........2006-03-18
Since the "Baroque Cycle" novels are so large, it looks like the paperback versions will be split in twain. It make sense, although it looks a little greedy.
Anyway, if you've already read QUICKSILVER, skip this book. If you haven't, dig in! Stephenson's epic historical fiction is a delight. His mix of history and politics (Louis XIV vs. William of Orange), math and science (Newton vs. Liebnitz), and rollicking adventure (the eponymous "Half-Cocked" Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds) makes for a rich reading experience. Stephenson gets a lot of flack for his tendency to "infodump" (go off on long factual tangents), but if you have an interest in the subject matter they just fly by.
Customer Reviews:
good history of an overlooked criminal legend.......2007-02-07
The book is a reproduction of various writings about Robber Lewis (including by David Lewis himself). It really puts history into perspecive as the legends and tales of David Lewis grew to include a few pretty tall tales that now seem to be considered factual (maybe they even are????). It really takes you back to what life was like in the early 1800s and passes on some stories from a criminal legend. Unfortunately, much of the book is devoted to the criminal's time spent in the city as a pick-pocket and about his love interests. I would have preferred to read more stories of his conquests and adventures in the mountains of PA. The book does detail his jailbreaks, though.
Average customer rating:
- Marvelous period thriller
- In Spite of It and Myself...
- There are better historical mysteries.
- Issac Newton the Sleuth
- Interesting...but had some shortcomings
|
Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton
Philip Kerr
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| Classics
| Contemporary
| General
| Historical
| Humor
| Letters & Correspondence
| Middle
| Old
| Poetry
| Renaissance
| Shakespeare
| Short Stories
General
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Mystery
| Book Clubs
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The One from the Other
-
Hitler's Peace
-
Berlin Noir (Crime, Penguin)
-
The Shot
-
A Philosophical Investigation
ASIN: 0609609815
Release Date: 2002-10-01 |
Book Description
I swore not to tell this story while Newton was still alive.
1696, young Christopher Ellis is sent to the Tower of London, but not as a prisoner. Though Ellis is notoriously hotheaded and was caught fighting an illegal duel, he arrives at the Tower as assistant to the renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Newton is Warden of the Royal Mint, which resides within the Tower walls, and he has accepted an appointment from the King of England and Parliament to investigate and prosecute counterfeiters whose false coins threaten to bring down the shaky, war-weakened economy. Ellis may lack Newton’s scholarly mind, but he is quick with a pistol and proves himself to be an invaluable sidekick and devoted apprentice to Newton as they zealously pursue these criminals.
While Newton and Ellis investigate a counterfeiting ring, they come upon a mysterious coded message on the body of a man killed in the Lion Tower, as well as alchemical symbols that indicate this was more than just a random murder. Despite Newton’s formidable intellect, he is unable to decipher the cryptic message or any of the others he and Ellis find as the body count increases within the Tower complex. As they are drawn into a wild pursuit of the counterfeiters that takes them from the madhouse of Bedlam to the squalid confines of Newgate prison and back to the Tower itself, Newton and Ellis discover that the counterfeiting is only a small part of a larger, more dangerous plot, one that reaches to the highest echelons of power and nobility and threatens much more than the collapse of the economy.
Dark Matter is the lastest masterwork of suspense from Philip Kerr, the internationally bestselling and brilliantly innovative thriller writer who has dazzled readers with his imaginative, fast-paced novels. Like An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Name of the Rose, and Kerr’s own Berlin Noir trilogy,
Dark Matter is historical mystery at its finest, an extraordinary, suspense-filled journey through the shadowy streets and back alleys of London with the brilliant Newton and his faithful protégé. The haunted Tower with its bloody history is the perfect backdrop for this richly satisfying tale, one that introduces an engrossing mystery into the volatile mix of politics, science, and religion that characterized life in seventeenth-century London.
Customer Reviews:
Marvelous period thriller.......2007-08-06
I borrowed this audio book from the library, assuming it without really even checking the cover was some kind of a biography of Newton. When I realized it was actually a Sherlock Holmes / Watson type detective thriller, I was initially disappointed and planned to return forthwith, since I'm not really into fiction for the time being. But, I had listened to just enough to make me curious about what was going to happen next, and before I new it, I was hooked. I'm glad in retrospect that I gave this book a chance, because it turned out to be thoroughly entertaining, through and through. Written from the point of view of Newton's assistant at the mint, Christopher Ellis, and superbly narrated by John Lee, this book is worth listening to just for the wonderful usage of the English as it was spoken at the time. When it comes to good writing, this is what I'm talking about. The descriptions of the strumpets, jades, whores, wenches etc. is titillating and a bit shocking. The cruelty of the punishments dished out to the victims of the justice system in that day are horrifying, yet appealing to that part of all of us which lurks beneath the intellect. The love affair between Newton's niece and Ellis handled beautifully, and the culmination of their infatuation is graphically and entertainingly described. Along with the gruesome murders, and action sequences, this book actually delivers a bucket full of sex and violence. Still, the nicely developed plot and the elevated use language makes this book an extremely satisfying read - or I should "listen" in my case. Which leads me to John Lee, whose rendition is about as good as it gets. I agree, though, with a reviewer who stated that the sex and violence need not have been so thoroughly described. It seems a contradiction that such a well-researched and written book should delve so often and so descriptively into the baser matters. It's actually kind of shocking. Toward the end, there emerge some parallels to the DaVinci Code, and the Ellis's questions and speculations in that area eloquent and pleasing. This book is certainly infinitely better written than the DaVinci code. Having read the reviews, I think I'll have to look into Kerr's noir trilogy. I'm quite certain based on this novel that they, too, will prove to be eminently worthwhile.
In Spite of It and Myself..........2006-09-19
...I liked it. Is it the definitive biography of Newton? Well, no, but if that's what you're looking for, why would you read a novel? It is, I think, a good stab at making a living character of Newton--which is saying something considering the pains Newton took to hide just about every personal detail of his life.
The murder mystery/forensics aspect seems to me just the stage dressing behind the portrayals of the characters. Newton and his spunk-bucket niece Catherine are the most fully delineated, followed by pretty nearly everyone else, followed by the narrator, Christopher Ellis. Ellis is the most one-dimensional character, perhaps because he's the only one Kerr had to create without the springboard of reality. (There was a real Christopher Ellis, but apparently almost nothing is known about him.)
As to the writing itself, Kerr does pretty well at keeping the flavor of seventeenth-century English without making the text impossible to wade through, and throws in a few clever allusions along the way. My only beef is that he uses whole quotes by and about Newton without paraphrasing. That comes across as jolting and stilted; it would have been better had Kerr springboarded off them as well, working them into his own writing style and keeping them fresh.
I know this sounds like a lukewarm review, but I really did like the book! It's winning and curiously entertaining. Not a heavyweight, but diverting, and besides there's plenty of ponderous stuff about Newton out there. Let your hair down, relax, and enjoy it.
There are better historical mysteries........2005-04-06
In spite of the length of the book, it did read quickly, probably because I did a lot of skimming. Kerr's detail of the period is fascinating and well researched, but the characters of Ellis and Newton seemed a parody of Watson and Holmes and lacked any real depth. Even though you were aware the author was trying to make the dialogue appropriate to the period, it came off stilted and awkward. There were descriptive sex scenes which seemed gratuitous. As one who enjoys historical mysteries, there are many better choices than this.
Issac Newton the Sleuth.......2004-06-22
London at the turn of the century, 17th, that is, is a place of intrigue and mystery. Will the recoinage fail and cause England to be destroyed by France and the Catholics? The mystery is deepened with each new murder, but, is Issas Newton, and his faithful sidekick, up to solving the case? Read on, and learn. This book was a little tedious, but it had its moments.
Interesting...but had some shortcomings.......2004-06-19
The book, Dark Matter: The Privet Life of Sir. Isaac Newton was a very interesting book. I read through the first 250 odd pages with excitement and enjoyment. However, once the book reached page 300, it felt like the author realized he had to finish it and then quickly tied up all the lose ends almost to neatly. My other main problem with the book is something, which I encounter with the vast majority of modern fiction, and that is sex. There seems to be this idea that a book must have at least one scene during which people must engage in the act, now I understand that on occasion this is important to the plot or the character development, however, must we actually be subjected to a detailed analysis of the actions preformed? This book would have been better, and the characters as well developed had we not been 'privileged' to their sexual activities. Still on the whole, it was an enjoyable book, with strong characters, and an interesting plot.
Average customer rating:
|
"The Counterfeiter" and Other Stories
Yasushi Inoue , and
Leon Picon
Manufacturer: Tuttle Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0804802165 |
Book Description
These three short stories, The Counterfeiter, Obasute, and The Full Moon, explore the roles of loneliness, compassion, beauty, and forgiveness in day-to-day life in Japan, all within the context of the Buddhist-influenced notion of inescapable predestination.
Average customer rating:
|
Counterfeiter
Yasushi Inoue
Manufacturer: Owen, Peter Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
ASIN: 0720607388 |
Average customer rating:
|
Mackerel Sky: A Novel
Natalee Caple
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0312330243
Release Date: 2004-08-12 |
Book Description
A novel of criminal intrigue, eccentric love and the power of women.
After a twenty-year absence, Guy Vidoq is returning home to meet his daughter for the first time. He discovers his mercurial daughter, Isabelle, has been raised in a bizzarre, cloistered environment by her libertine mother, Martine, who is now living with a young man, Harry, roughly the age of their daughter. If the intense, closed and sensual relationship of these three housemates wasn't bad enough, Guy soon discovers that the entire household is deeply enmeshed in a counterfeiting operation that produces fake American currency for the black market.
Extraordinarily intelligent, though volatile, Martine soon becomes the obsession of Guy, turning his world upside down. As they begin to rekindle their relationship, tension in the house rises. And when the counterfeiting operation begins to break down, everyone finds themselves in desperate situations as they are each drawn closer to the criminal underworld.
Compared to Milan Kundera, Leonard Cohen and Barbara Gowdy, Natalee Caple constructs an exquisite portrayal of the human psyche with a daring, provocative style. Reminiscent of crim films from the French New Wave, Mackerel Sky is a dark, thrilling novel about seduction, the intricate, often destructive relationship between parent and child, and the impulses of the heart.
Customer Reviews:
Canada should be proud.......2004-04-12
Caple has written a strong, fun, sexy and beautiful story with well written characters. They are probably not the type of people you have ever actually met but I'm sure you will feel like you completely understand and know each.
Imagine a mother and daughter counterfeiting team, Martine and Isabelle, that include a young man, the age of Isabelle but the lover of Martine, in their scheme. Enter Guy, Isabelle's father, a man she has not met before and Martine's young lover year's before. All set in beautiful locations in Quebec, this novel was a pleasure to read.
Caple is a Canadian writer we should be proud of. I hope we see much more from her pen.
Books:
- Dark Possession (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 15)
- Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (Classic Seuss)
- Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition
- Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon
- Engineering Graphics (8th Edition)
- Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment (Essentials of Psychological Assessment)
- Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands Ready to Make One Out of You
- Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance
- Goldman Sachs : The Culture of Success
- Good in Bed
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mr. Shmooze: The Art and Science of Selling Through Relationships
- Dynamic General Equilibrium Modelling: Computational Methods and Applications
- Cagney
- Early Pottery: Technology, Function, Style, and Interaction in the Lower Southeast
- Chess Openings for Black, Explained
- Handbook of Flavor Ingredients, Volume II
- Empress Orchid
- Intermediate Accounting, Chapters 1-14 , Working Papers
- Accumulated Appreciation: A Career Guide for Accounting Majors
- A Woman of the Century, Frances Minerva Nunnery
Dangerous Doses: A True Story of Cops, Counterfeiters, and the Contamination of America's Drug Supply
The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
Knockoff: The Deadly Trade in Counterfeit Goods: The True Story of the World's Fastest Growing Crime Wave
Is It Me or My Meds?: Living with Antidepressants
Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat
