Book Description
What would you do to inherit a million dollars? Would you be willing to change your life? Jason Stevens is about to find out in Jim Stovall's The Ultimate Gift. Red Stevens has died, and the older members of his family receive their millions with greedy anticipation. But a different fate awaits young Jason, whom Stevens, his great-uncle, believes may be the last vestige of hope in the family. "Although to date your life seems to be a sorry excuse for anything I would call promising, there does seem to be a spark of something in you that I hope we can fan into a flame. For that reason, I am not making you an instant millionaire." What Stevens does give Jason leads to The Ultimate Gift. Young and old will take this timeless tale to heart.
Customer Reviews:
life enhancing experience.......2007-10-10
A close friend gave me the book and the minute I opened it I knew I would not be able to put it down. It is a very fast read and it is packed full of valuable insights. As soon as I finished it I went on line and ordered a copy for each of my adolescent grandchildren. I believe there is something to be gained from each chapter. The book held my interest to the end.
Read the book, watch the movie - both will inspire!.......2007-10-01
I received this book as a gift shortly after watching the movie by the same name - I was greatly impressed with the movie and anxious to read the book (since everyone knows that the book is always better than the movie). This book is no exception to that rule - an outstanding read and it was as easy to read as the movie was to watch. This is a novel, a work of fiction that drives home some real life points! The premise of the book is about what's really important in life - is it what we build with our hands or the money and worldly success we achieve, or is it something more than that, something that isn't tangible and can't be bought or sold for any amount of money? In his final will, a dying wealthy man tries to communicate from the grave the true meaning of life to a family member who up until this point hasn't got a clue!
I would think that this book could probably be read to children in upper elementary school and could be read by 7th or 8th graders on their own. The book should be read by parents first so that they can engage their children in conversation along the way. While the book isn't overtly Christian, you'll find that the lessons taught in this novel are very similar to the wisdom shared in the Book of Proverbs and throughout Scripture. Stovall isn't preaching, but he sure can drive a point home with this story; and these twelve "gifts" passed from one generation to the next are essential for each and every one of us to learn as well.
While some say that the movie isn't as good as the book, I say that they are a pretty good compliment of each other. The movie takes various liberties with the book to get this message on screen, but you won't be disappointed with either. The book is written to provoke thought and discussion and families should use them as tools to teach valuable life lessons to their children - Red Stevens would have wanted it that way!
The Ultimate Gift DVD.......2007-09-27
The Ultimate Gift you sent me was a total disaster. I ordered the movie edition and you sent me a book and a promotional DVD. I did not receive the movie edition of the Ultimate Gift. Unfortunately I had ordered it to take on a bus trip that I was directing and I had not taken the time to watch what you sent me, thinking it was the movie edition. When I put it in the DVD player with everyone on the bus eager to watch the movie there was only the promotional disc. Needless to say I was embarrassed and not too happy. Fortunately along the way I was able to purchase the DVD that I thought I was buying from Amazon at a much higher price. I have ordered from Amazon before and have been very pleased but not this time.
A Timely Gift.......2007-09-24
Several copies of The Ultimate Gift were placed on a table at my workplace. A handwritten note read, "Take one and pass it on." The title was intriguing and never one to pass up something free or an opportunity to read, I took one.
Having gained knowledge of most of these gifts through the ups and downs of life, I enjoyed the validations, while unfortunately identifying with Uncle Red's mistakes. I am grateful to the person who made it possible to have a copy of the book.
I titled this review 'a timely gift' because I received in time read it and mail it to my son as a gift for his 26th birthday. Like Uncle Red, wishing to provide, I robbed my children of many of the gifts. I am hoping the book will make a difference in my son's life as he is not a happy person even though he has many blessings. When and if I am in touch with my prodigal daughter, I will share The Ultimate Gift with her, also. It is my goal to share copies of The Ultimate Gift with many, many young persons.
Good , but not terrific.......2007-09-19
The reviews I read promised an inspiring book. It was not to be. It was an interesting premise and story. But the lack of detailed story left me disappointed. Reading the story from the lawyer's view did not give us an opportunity to really travel the road to enlightenment. I felt I was reading the summary, not the story.
A movie of the book is coming out soon. I dare say, I see an immense opprtunity for the movie to outshine the book.
Book Description
He saw her across the Piazza San Marco and fell in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; and she, a divorced American chef, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thinks she is incapable of intimacy, that her heart has lost its capacity for romantic love. But within months of their first meeting, she has packed up her house in St. Louis to marry Fernando—“the stranger,” as she calls him—and live in that achingly lovely city in which they met.
Vibrant but vaguely baffled by this bold move, Marlena is overwhelmed by the sheer foreignness of her new home, its rituals and customs. But there are delicious moments when Venice opens up its arms to Marlena. She cooks an American feast of Mississippi caviar, cornbread, and fried onions for the locals . . . and takes the tango she learned in the Poughkeepsie middle school gym to a candlelit trattoría near the Rialto Bridge. All the while, she and Fernando, two disparate souls, build an extraordinary life of passion and possibility.
Featuring Marlena’s own incredible recipes, A Thousand Days in Venice is the enchanting true story of a woman who opens her heart—and falls in love with both a man and a city.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful.......2007-09-19
If you are looking for a wonderfully human story of pure delight, this is the book for you... It gives you a real flavor for one of the most romantic cities in Italy.... You can almost smell the food... and feel the puch of the tourists... She is steeped in the Italian experience...
Fairytale for Grown-ups.......2007-09-12
In a world of multitudes of choices, Marlena chose the road (or actually, waterway), less travelled. She fell in love with someone she barely knew and moved half way round the world in the process. She opted for the unexpected - an adventure. I chose Marlena's story as my "beach read" this summer and it was perfect. It's quick and light - fun! She didn't weigh her story down with complaints about how different we all are - she chose the language of love (and food) to find commonality - yet she still added charming stories that suggested how Italian lifestyle and priorities are a bit different from Americans. Instead or wondering "what if..." - she did it! What a brave soul!
An excellent read at all times.......2007-07-22
Reading De Blasi's story is like going to Venice in person. Love her comments on italian men and all her recipes that come with the book.
Fantastic, candid memoir!.......2007-06-19
I was really impressed by the author's honesty in chronicling her new life in Venice and the changes that came with her marriage. She didn't sugarcoat the bad parts and unlike others, I understood the narrative reason why she continued to call her husband "the stranger". Who has not gotten married and at one time or another thought, "Who is this? Did I marry this person?"
I loved her attention to detail of Venetian life and culture and the care in which she described the people she came in contact with. A truly enjoyable book from cover to cover...and some day I'll be brave enough to try the recipes in the back!
Living The Good Life...........2007-06-12
Blasi's little story of her whirlwind romance does not read conventionally, as a novel with readily discernible plotting and themes would. This is not to say the book is difficult, since it is not: the prose is clear and straightforward. However, "1000 days" is far more introspective than a typical armchair traveler read, and this makes it more about Blasi's inner life and the changes in attitude and values she experiences after deciding to change her circumstances.
I found it an extraordinarily thoughtful and intimate book, almost like reading a personal diary, and the embellishments of an exotic locale and gourmet recipes did not turn it into another cliched "life with the eccentric locals of generic popular place #4". Instead I found myself absorbed in Blasi and her choices. I will look for more by this author.
Amazon.com
Sometimes an off-key phrase in a soulful song can wrench at the heart, nay, the soul and send one off into that same far-away place that a great book can take you to. Amanda Eyre Ward's second novel, How to Be Lost, provides for the reader with a finely-tuned ear, a nicely wrought, syncopated, octave-changing story. Featuring a hard-living, almost down-on-her-luck narrator, How to Be Lost isn't lost at all when it comes to telling a literary mystery wrapped in the arms of a strong woman's tale. Ward's story bounces between New Orleans and New York, taking her protagonist, Caroline, into steely encounters with her somewhat-estranged family, especially her older sister and mother, as they continue, many years after the fact, to deal with the wrenching effects of the unresolved disappearance of Ellie, the youngest of the Winters family. Readers may find uncanny similarities between the eerie tone and dark nature of Deborah Schupack's The Boy on the Bus but won't be disappointed at all with the story that unfolds and the clever, darkly humorous nature of Ward's pitch-perfect voice. --E. Brooke Gilbert
Book Description
Joseph and Isabelle Winters seem to have it all: a grand home in Holt, New York, a trio of radiant daughters, and a sense that they are safe in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the family are exposed: Joseph, once a successful businessman, succumbs to his demons; Isabelle retreats into memories of her debutante days in Savannah; and Ellie’s bereft sisters grow apart–Madeline reluctantly stays home, while Caroline runs away.
Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in a magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister. Armed with copies of the photo, an amateur detective guide, and a cooler of Dixie beer, Caroline travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, determined to salvage her broken family.
Customer Reviews:
Great read!.......2007-09-25
I could not put this book down. Even though the plot is a little predictable, there is something about the book that draws you in and you find yourself rooting for the happiness of the main character, Caroline.
Love Memory Keeper's Daughter? READ THIS BOOK!.......2007-09-21
I was a little wary to read Ward's second novel because I loved her first (Sleep Toward Heaven) so much I didn't want to be let down with a one-hit-wonder. Not to worry! The characters in this book are so real and so well defined you'll feel you know them. Ward's writing is so beautiful, sometimes you just have to re-read to look at the words again! If you're reading the reviews here, you already know the basic plot so no need to rehash here. The sisters left behind in this novel each live with their pain in different ways but you can sympathize with both. Some reviewers have complained about the ending. I do not. Not all books are going to wrap up every detail for you and that's OK with me. Your imagination has to take over. Loved the book; loved the ending; ready for Ward's next novel. If you loved Memory Keepers Daughter, or anything by Anita Shreve, chances are good you will love How To Be Lost... or probably anything by Amanda Eyre Ward.
A Good 1-Sitting Read.......2007-09-18
It's possible I read "Missing Mom" by Joyce Carol Oates too recently to judge "How to Be Lost" on its own merits. Both involve a family tragedy (and in the book's main timeline) that leaves a mother on her own and leaves her daughters (the good daughter and the daughter who is adrift) trying to define their relationship with her and with each other.
The aspect of "How to be Lost" that was most powerful to me was the description of the three girls in their youth - trying to raise themselves and pretend as if they had parents. (They do - but the dad is an abusive alcoholic and the mom only dresses the part). My parents were divorced at an early age and as the oldest, I felt like I was raising my brother and sister sometimes. That responsibility and forced maturity of a child is powerfully described here and brought back some strong memories. This type of family situation creates a whole new bond with one's siblings - which in my case has been a wonderful one. I'm not sure if I would say the same for Caroline's situation.
Beyond that - I felt like the plot followed pretty standard lines - will the family ever truly start to heal, will Caroline be able to move forward in her life, will Ellie be found... and I wasn't surprised by the ending. Still - I enjoyed Ward's prose a great deal - I am not one for flowery descriptions. Also - I was lucky enough to read the book in one sitting - turning the pages faster as I reached the end.
Though I did like the way Ward uses flashbacks, letters and first person narrative to give more depth to the story - I felt like the book was strongest when the reader was hearing Caroline's voice. The letters from Agnes never really rang true for me - I thought parts of them were cheesy and I just didn't buy into the sexy pictures.
All in all - it was a good read. I enjoyed the book and was I ever going on a trip and wanted a good book to take on the plane - I would pick up one of Ward's.
Great Book, Lousy Ending!.......2007-09-16
I adored this book until I was left hanging at the end. I felt so cheated I was angry and tempted to write the author. I never did because she wrote it years ago and figured what did she care about it now. I didn't know how many stars to give it. How about this? Five stars until the last page.
Just Ok.......2007-09-09
After reading "A Sleep Toward Heaven" I was really looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I felt let down during the reading and it seemed that the ending was just too abrubt. It was no where as good as "A Sleep Toward Heaven". Hope her next one is better.
Book Description
I am convinced that at birth the cake is already baked. Nurture is the nuts or frosting, but if you’re a spice cake, you’re a spice cake, and nothing is going to change you into an angel food.
Tall, slender Violet Mathers is growing up in the Great Depression, which could just as well define her state of mind. Abandoned by her mother as a child, mistreated by her father, and teased by her schoolmates (“Hey, Olive Oyl, where’s Popeye?”), the lonely girl finds solace in artistic pursuits. Only when she’s hired by the town’s sole feminist to work the night shift in the local thread factory does Violet come into her name, and bloom. Accepted by her co-workers, the teenager enters the happiest phase of her life, until a terrible accident causes her to retreat once again into her lonely shell.
Realizing that she has only one clear choice, Violet boards a bus heading west to California. But when the bus crashes in North Dakota, it seems that Fate is having another cruel laugh at Violet’s expense. This time though, Violet laughs back. She and her fellow passengers are rescued by two men: Austin Sykes, whom Violet is certain is the blackest man to ever set foot on the North Dakota prairie, and Kjel Hedstrom, who inspires feelings Violet never before has felt. Kjel and Austin are musicians whose sound is like no other, and with pluck, verve, and wit, Violet becomes part of their quest to make a new kind of music together.
Oh My Stars is Lorna Landvik’s most ambitious novel yet, with a cast of characters whose travails and triumphs you’ll long remember. It is a tale of love and hope, bigotry and betrayal, loss and discovery–as Violet, who’s always considered herself a minor character in her own life story, emerges as a heroine you’ll laugh with, cry with, and, most important, cheer for all the way.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
Praise for Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
“Highly entertaining . . . almost as hard to put down [as] Mary McCarthy’s The Group.”
–The Seattle Times
“A lively story as delectable as a five-pound box of chocolates . . . a thoroughly engaging chronicle of friendship and the substantive place it holds in women’s lives.”
–Anne LeClaire, author of Leaving Eden
“It is impossible not to get caught up in the lives of the book group members. . . . Landvik’s gift lies in bringing these familiar women to life with insight and humor.”
–The Denver Post
“A guilty pleasure . . . This light, snappy read may be [Landvik’s] best yet.”
–Midwest Living magazine
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Don't miss this one.......2007-08-29
Hands down, Landvik's best work. I loved it, everyone I've loaned it to loved it, you will too!
Another Winner from Lorna!.......2007-02-13
I was hooked on Ms. Landvik after reading Patti Jane's House of Curl. This is another great read from her. The first chapter was a little hard to get into but I was quickly hooked! And very surprised with the turns the book took. I have to agree with the reviewer's remark about the historical information. I read things I had no idea about! The characters are real and unforgettable. I highly recommend this book.
Lorna never disappoints her readers.......2007-02-09
Once again Lorna Landvik presents a novel that is full of unique and endearing characters. How can we not fall in love with Kjel or want Violet to succeed? In a story that deals with both outer and inner beauty, readers are taken on a road trip that is not only memorable, but life-changing for each of the characters. Landvik's storytelling abilities are unsurpassed. I've enjoyed all of her novels and this one was one of her best. I can't wait until her next release.
Good but Forgettable........2007-01-30
Save this book for a rainy day. The main characters - Violet, Kjel, Austin, and Dallas - are all sympathetic, but slightly underwritten. It was a nice story, but nothing to sink your teeth into. I particularly felt that the author was thinking of what a nice Lifetime movie this would make as she got deeper into the book. How else to explain the immediate transference of love and loyalties following a tragedy befalling one of the characters? (When you read it, see what I mean, and try and tell me that I'm wrong.) The author seemed to run out of plot 3/4 of the way into the book, and cobbled together a hasty ending that not only didn't jibe with the rest of the story. It was a good read, but not satisfying, and completely forgettable 24 hours after reading it.
very enjoyable.......2007-01-22
Don't be put off by the corny title of this book (for me, it gives the impression of a sappy romance) - this book is great. I was pulled in right from the beginning and could not put this book down.
I loved Violet's character and enjoyed seeing her transformation. I loved the other characters as well - the band members, Elwin, the Clamshells, etc. My only (very slight) criticism is that the book got a tad slow for me at the very end but not enough that I wanted to stop reading it.
This is definitely one I will be recommending to my friends and to my reading group.
Average customer rating:
- Two Lives - really such a good read?
- An expansive story...
- Another good book from Vikram Seth
- A remarkable work
- Coping with loss
|
Two Lives: A Memoir
Vikram Seth
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Travel
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
British
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Indian
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Seth, Vikram
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
A Suitable Boy : A Novel (Perennial Classics)
-
From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet
-
An Equal Music
-
The Golden Gate
-
Suite Francaise
ASIN: 0060599677
Release Date: 2006-06-13 |
Book Description
Widely acclaimed as one of the world's greatest living writers, Vikram Seth -- author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy -- tells the heartrending true story of a friendship, a marriage, and a century. Weaving together the strands of two extraordinary lives -- Shanti Behari Seth, an immigrant from India who came to Berlin to study in the 1930s, and Helga Gerda Caro, the young German Jewish woman he befriended and later married -- Two Lives is both a history of a violent era seen through the eyes of two survivors and an intimate, unforgettable portrait of a complex, abiding love.
Customer Reviews:
Two Lives - really such a good read?.......2007-09-18
The book was recommended to me and after reading a review about it, I was really keen to finally read it. The first two parts of the book were coming up to my expectations, but I found it difficult to follow the events and persons of part III. Reading all those letters is exhausting and finally boring. All those introductions and ends of letters carry so much unnecessary information, it fills the pages of this book, but in fact interrupts the flow of the story. Even if the rest of the book makes up for some of the draw-backs of the letter-dominated part, all in all I was rather disappointed.
An expansive story..........2007-01-21
told through amazingly good writing. I had never read anything by Vikram Seth, but thought this story sounded interesting, which indeed it is. The other posters have really summed up the brilliance and the breadth of the story of Shanti Uncle and Henny Caro in their reviews. There's really nothing to add.
Another good book from Vikram Seth.......2007-01-11
After reading A Suitable Boy, I was hooked on Vikram Seth.
I found this book interesting and informative. It was a personal look at the way WWII shaped the lives of two very different people. I also enjoyed the autobiographical information on Seth. He is an excellent writer and a bright guy. I find his observations are insightful.
A remarkable work.......2006-12-17
This deeply researched and often highly moving memoir traces two small private lives, and in the course of this reveals to us an important chapter in world- history. Indian born writer Vikram Seth at the age of seventeen was sent to London to study. He stayed at the house of his dentist uncle Shanti, and Shanti's wife German- Jewish refugee Henny. Seth brilliantly and warmly relates the story of that time, of how he with the aid of his aunt Henny learned German, and how he later came to investigate their lives. To my mind the most interesting part of the book is the letters of his aunt to her friends and family in German, and later in various parts of the world. Part of the story here is the loss of Henny's family, the death of her mother in Thereseinstadt and the murder of her sister in Auschwitz.
Seth also tells the story of the courting and relationship of Shanti and Heddy. He speaks of a love which was not outwardly romantic, but based on mutual respect and consideration. The couple courted for seven years before marrying when they both were forty- three. They did not have children and clearly when Seth lived there he was a kind of substitute- child. He rewarded their dedication to him an affection with an affection and dedication of his own in writing their story.
Seth conncects their stories not only with their own extended family's stories but with the history of their time and even this time.
I was very much impressed by the great care Seth takes in exploring even minor aspects of their character and story. One of the consequences of his research was that he in a sense knew more about them after their lives than in their lifetime. And surprisingly he may have known more about them than each in some ways knew of the other.
I do have one strong objection to the work based on one page in it. In that Seth shows a misunderstanding of the whole enterprise of modern Israel. Because he dealt exclusively with assimilated and assimilating Jews in this work, including Hetty he did not have a real understanding of the centrality of return to Israel in Jewish historical experience. I would too have expected him who so closely, carefully documented stories of the Holocaust to understand that Israel exists in the mind of many Jews as the one place in the world where they could at least ideally be wholly at home and protected. This when the whole world rejected the overwhelming majority of Jews who would have escaped from Nazism and the death- chambers.
Nonetheless I wish to repeat that this is a remarkable work and highly recommended. It gives much on many different levels, most of which I have not been able to indicate in this small review. It is a master work and I am sure that each and every one of its readers will be humanly enriched by it.
Coping with loss.......2006-10-21
The Two Lives of the title are those of the author's great-uncle, the Indian-born Shanti and of his Jewish German-born wife Henny, both born in 1908. They were living in London when 17-year-old Vikram arrived there in 1969 from Calcutta to go to school at Tonbridge; and they remained his base in England until their deaths in 1998 and 1989 respectively, for they were like parents to him, rejoicing in his academic and authorial achievements, and he loved them dearly. Most of the first 50 pages of the book give a charming account of their intimate relationship.
After Henny's death in 1989, Vikram took up the idea of writing the biography of Shanti. He interviewed the then 85 year old for this purpose in eleven lengthy sessions during 1994. Henny had never wanted to talk about the past - even to Shanti she never referred to the deaths of her mother and sister in Nazi camps - , and Vikram knew never to ask her about it; but in 1995 there was found, tucked away in a corner of Shanti's attic, a cabin trunk which Henny had brought with her when she left Germany in 1939. It contained a mass of papers and photographs from which Vikram was able to reconstruct her earlier life and her first few years in England in as much detail as he he had gleaned in the interviews with Shanti about his early years; and that enabled him to expand his book into a dual biography. Even Shanti did not know of the trunk or of much that it revealed of his wife's earlier life and thoughts.
Financed by an elder brother from India, Shanti had come to Europe in 1931 to study dentistry. These studies were too expensive in London, so he had gone to Berlin, having at that time no German at all. One of his landladies there was Ella Caro, Henny's mother. He qualified with distinction in 1936, but then found that as a foreigner he was not allowed to practise as a dentist in Nazi Germany. (He does not otherwise seem to have felt much affected by the atmosphere there since 1933). So he left for Edinburgh, where he had to re-qualify. After that he began to practise in London.
Back in Berlin, the Caro family was suffering all the discrimination that the Nazis unleashed against the Jews. A month before the outbreak of war, Henny was able to come to England, sponsored by the distinguished Arab scholar Arthur J. Arberry. She had to leave her mother, her sister and her half-Jewish fiancé behind.
When the war broke out, Shanti joined the Army Dental Corps. The correspondence between him and Henny is now very loving, especially on his side: his letters suggest that he may already have proposed to her, and that she had neither rejected or accepted him. She had already learnt that her fiancé had become engaged to a Christian girl.
In 1944 he found himself in Italy at Monte Cassino, where a shell hit him and he lost his right fore-arm. After the war, back in England, he was able, remarkably, to continue practising as a dentist.
Henny in the meantime had had to come to terms with the news she received after the war that her mother and sister had died (the mother in Theresienstadt, the sister in Auschwitz-Birkenau). Her former fiancé was trying to resume contact with her; but she had been told (probably falsely) that he had professed enthusiasm for Hitler. She brusquely rejected further correspondence, as she rejected similar efforts from other former friends who had behaved badly during the war. But she sent Care parcels to those of her now needy friends in devastated Germany of whose faithfulness she felt sure. Yet even in those cases, she had struggles with herself when she came to learn of compromising incidents of omission or commission: her very best friend, for instance, was married to a former member of the Nazi Party even if he may not have been, as one letter had told her, a Storm Trooper.
The correspondence between Henny (she kept carbon copies of many of her letters) and her friends in Germany is fascinating. It paints such vivid pictures of the moral dilemmas just described, both for Henny and for her friends, and also of the terrible conditions in the immediate post-war years in Germany, in the Western as well as in the Soviet-controlled Eastern Zones.
Shanti and Henny had been what we now call `an item' for a whole five years after Shanti had returned to England before he proposed to her, and another two years before they actually married in 1951, both aged 43. As a work of art, the book ought perhaps to have stopped there; and I found the last 130 pages or so something of an anti-climax. For after that time, there were no more dramatic or exotic aspects to their lives. They no longer interacted with world events or with different cultures. Though Vikram continues to explore their personalities and the nature of their relationship to each other, the account is less interesting than that of their earlier lives. Their declining years of ill health are then described in considerable detail and - Shanti's especially, which was accompanied with mental senility - at great length. Like some senile people, Shanti used the one power that was left to him to sow family discord with his Will - a rather sordid story told, in my opinion, at excessive length at practically the end of the book. A pity, that.
Book Description
Walks in Hemingway's Paris is the perfect companion to the most romantic and fascinating of cities for those who want to experience Paris beyond the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Covering all the area of Paris that Hemingway and his fellow expatriates once roamed from Left Bank to Right, Noel Riley Fitch provides an intimate visit to major Parisian landmarks as well as to out-of-the-way cafes, hotels and residences immortalized by "Papa" and his friends.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful Guide.......2001-03-23
Hemingway fans will adore this book, but for anyone interested in literary and artistic Paris, this exceptional guidebook will also lead you to the haunts of such luminaries as James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, e. e. cummings, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Author Fitch includes a helpful introduction to Paris, followed by an insightful introduction to Hemingway's Paris. Seven self-guided tours contain detailed commentaries for each stop along the route. The best of the itineraries take you along the Seine, through the Latin Quarter and around the Luxemburg gardens, which are the most pleasant places to walk in Paris anyway. Even though it's easy to get lost in the maze of short and angled streets of Paris, clear, good-sized maps throughout the book keep you oriented. Nearly fifty black-and-white photographs, many of them historic, evoke the ambience of Paris in the 1920s. Photos include Sylvia Beach in her Shakespeare and Company bookstore; Scott, Zelda and Scottie Fitzgerald celebrating Christmas in their apartment on rue de Tilsitt; a wicked cartoon of James Joyce drawn by Fitzgerald in 1928; and, of course, Hemingway. A detailed index helps you find information about places and people.
After loosely following Tour Two through the Saint Germain neighborhood, my daughter Anne and I had morning coffee and pastries at the Cafe de Flore, Anne scribbling away in her journal. When I teasingly asked the waiter how Hemingway, and later the Existentialist writers who haunted the Cafe de Flore in the 40s and 50s, managed to get any writing done on the tiny, round tables barely large enough to hold a plate, he teased me back by pushing two of the tables together so I had plenty of room to pen my immortal postcards. But unless money is no object, it's too expensive to order much more than coffee at the famous Left Bank hangouts of Hemingway and his expatriate cohorts. On Rue de Buci and Rue de Abbaye in the Saint Germain neighborhood, close to Hemingway's Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots, you'll find less expensive, less pretentious cafes where you can order a great bowl of French onion soup.
Fail-proof walks, great Hemingway quotes.......1998-07-16
After two important introductory chapters, the seven walks take the reader or tourist to every Hemingway (and Fitzgerald) site in Paris. These walks were tried/previewed by many classes of students at the American University of Paris. Although a few details date the book, it holds up today! The walks, by the way, include wonderful quotations from many of Hemingway's novels, short stories, and his memoir of Paris. Buy the book and come to Paris!!
Book Description
Maya, the temple dancer, is a very expensive womanand shes been bought by one of the most powerful men in Bijapur, India. The problem is getting her across India in the 1600s. Protected by settlement men and accompanied by a eunuch and a spoiled, rich Portuguese woman, Maya must overcome incredible odds only to live out her worst nightmare. A sweeping, page-turner filled with sex, violence and adventure, The Temple Dancer begins a three book journey that will cover the final years of Indias Mogul Empirethe period that shaped the politics and religious warfare of modern India.
Customer Reviews:
A Waste of Time.......2007-05-09
I found this book a bit insulting in its unbelieveable set of characters and their predicaments. A waste of time and money.
Couldn't Put it Down.......2007-02-10
I never thought I would say this but John Speed now rivals Philippa Gregory as one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. Set in India in the year 1657, "The Temple Dancer" is a riveting tale of two women: Lucinda Desana, a beautiful Goan heiress; and Maya, a devadasi (temple dancer) who is bought by Lucinda's family and sold as a concubine. They meet in Goa and travel through the Western Ghats by elephant, each heading towards a fate that has changed by the time their journey has ended. Escorted by a dangerous man with a reputation for violence, a conniving eunuch, a cold-hearted businessman and a mysterious prince, their story is filled with intrigue, adventure, sensuality and forbidden love. Indeed, I lost many hours of sleep because I simply had to find out what Speed's exotic collection of characters were going to do next. His immense knowledge of Indian history and culture transforms them into vibrant people who inhabit an unforgettable world. The back cover of this book says that Speed has studied Indian history, art and religion for over thirty-years and I believe it. I can hardly wait for the next two books in this planned trilogy.
Splendid read.......2007-02-06
I read this book in three days straight, could not concentrate on anything else. Especially since I am born Dutch, grew up in Portugal and lived in Goa for a while, this is the book that I've been waiting for all my life. Can barely wait for the follow up. Adventure, History, passion, love and murder, what else does a reader want. Bravo!, Nicolette
A book you won't want to put down.......2007-01-23
John Speed, a long time student of India, uses all his knowledge and skill as a writer to bring this epic to life. Filled with graphically formed characters involved in adventure and intrigue, the story moves with astounding clarity.
Bring us more, John Speed! Bring us more!
Historical India Adventure.......2006-12-18
The author does a great job in taking us to 17th century South India. As you read it, you want to read more and get drawn into it. You want to know what happens next. Combine the intrigue with some history, and that makes this book a very interesting read. I especially enjoyed the historical slant.
Book Description
From the highly acclaimed author of Bandbox and Dewey Defeats Truman–a searing new historical novel about the competing claims of faith, love, and politics during the McCarthy era.
Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s: a world of bare-knuckled ideology, hard drinking, and secret dossiers, dominated by such outsized characters as Richard Nixon, Drew Pearson, Perle Mesta, and Joe McCarthy. Into this fevered city steps Timothy Laughlin, a recent Fordham graduate and devout Catholic eager to join the crusade against Communism. A chance encounter with a handsome, profligate State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim’s first job in D.C. and–after Fuller’s advances–his first love affair. Now, as McCarthy mounts an increasingly desperate bid for power and internal investigations focus on “sexual subversives” in the government, Tim and Fuller find it ever more dangerous to navigate their double lives. Drawn into a maelstrom of deceit and intrigue, and clinging to the friendship of a beautiful young woman named Mary Johnson, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his love for God, and his love for Fuller–an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal.
Moving between the Senate Office Building and the Washington Evening Star, the diplomatic world of Foggy Bottom and NATO’s front line in Europe, Fellow Travelers is energized by high political drama, unexpected humor, and genuine heartbreak. It is Thomas Mallon’s most accomplished and daring novel to date.
Customer Reviews:
LOVE, LUST, BETRAYAL, LONGING, REDEMPTION, REGRET...you find it all here!.......2007-08-14
The time...the early to late `50's....The place...D.C....The story....well...BRILLIANT!
Hawkins Fuller is sophisticated, debonair, handsome, witty, droll, sexy, single, and in the closet...as are most gay men in that era. He is also great sex, physically "very male" and he works at Foggy Bottom, the United States State Department.
Tim Laughlin, who is nick-named "Skippy", by Hawk (Fuller), is petite, freckled, young, cute, somewhat submissive, impressionable, and very Catholic. He, like Hawk, is in the closet.
As the result of a chance meeting between the two men, a strange, lustful, passionate-less (at least on Hawk's part), and sexually charged "relationship" begins. Less than a "relationship", their trysts are more like a series of "sex sessions" that span a number of years. Hawk, the more experienced is a player, while Tim is monogamous...well...sorta'...he does have, at least in his mind, a "relationship" with his very Catholic. Mysterious, and Inscrutable God.
Their personal drama plays out over almost a decade, amidst the insanity of Washington, D.C., McCarthyism, repression, the Cold War, two Presidential elections that elect Ike, the ghostly presence and foreboding of Nixon, and a purging of gays throughout government, either by fact, innuendo, or intimidation. To add insult to injury, the hovering manic and contradictorily homophobic presence of Roy Cohn is added to the mix.
Tim adores Hawk, is in fact, in love with him. Hawk doles out his lust as he sees fit or as his needs demand. He, Hawk, is also very cognizant of the necessity of marrying for a "beard". He intends to remain un-purged, and marriage provides that cover. In fact, he successfully eludes a lie detector test that is designed to "out" him. So much for fair play, but, he does keep his job.
The backdrop of Eisenhower America and D.C., the intrigue of same, the machinations of "fighting" the Cold War, Communism, the Red-scare, and sundry other tid-bits of the era, add color, dimension, and dynamics to the plot line. These details also paint for the reader, a stunning portrait of an America of another time.
To say more would be to reveal too much about this wonderful book. Suffice it to say that is book will provide a wonderful history lesson, and an heroic story for any reader. I unhesitatingly recommend it.
Historical, Poignant & Fun.......2007-07-01
This is the first book I've read by Thomas Mallon, even though I already own "Bandbox". I will be certain to read it now and probably all the rest. I was very young during the time this novel covers; but I find it fascinating. The novel has peaked my interest in Washington as a city. I've been there before; but now I really want to visit again to delve into the city. Even though it would probably be impossible to separate government totally from the city, this novel reminds us that Washington has and always will be a place to live as well.
An amazing amount of research was put into this novel. An unbelievable number of references to actual living persons during this period and actual events related to them add a touch of authenticity. Other individuals are woven into the story in minor ways to add an even greater feel of the 1950's. During a weekend visit to New Orleans, Tim even meets Clay Shaw at a time long before the Kennedy assassination and it's aftermath in New Orleans. Whether this meeting was based on an actual event or simply a narrative invention is not known; but the novel is full of these sidelines.
The story of Tim & Hawk was absolutely wonderful and so true to life as it was then. For the reviewer who gave the novel one star because he/she thought it would be impossible for two men to carry on a relationship right under the nose of all their associates without actually coming out, I just want to ask this person when he/she plans to remove the blinders. Men have always done this, especially then. In addition, it would be true to say that in most cases, they weren't fooling anyone except themselves in believing that no one knew. I guess it was a sort of 50's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" kind of mentality. Believe me it existed; it still does.
It is heartbreaking and yet so nostalgic to read about Tim's thoughts and feelings regarding Hawk and how he obsesses over the meaning of every word or gesture from his somewhat older and more experienced love object. It is heartbreaking and sad in a different way to look at things from Hawk's perspective because he was, in a way, less qualified as a candidate to lead a double life since he doesn't know restraint nearly as intimately as Tim. Yet Hawk becomes the one to lead that double life, placing himself out of reach of true happiness forever.
After reading this novel, I long to find others with similar themes with stories from the 1950's. Not since "Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life 1918-1945" has there been such an intimate look at the lives of gay individuals during a period of time long ago. I really recommend "Fellow Travelers" to anyone, gay or straight. There is much within it's covers for all of us.
Can you give zero stars?.......2007-06-29
I learned about McCarthyism with my mother's milk--literally. An ardent liberal she gleefully watched Tail Gunner Joe crash and burn on our new Admiral console TV while nursing me. No, I don't actually remember much about the era, but I grew up hearing enough about it, and it was still such a raw subject with my college professors in the 70s, that I feel as though I lived through it. So I was extremely excited when I saw this book reviewed in the Inquirer.
What a horrid disappointment. McCarthy and the hearings serve as a non-essential backdrop to this love story, a la Brokeback Mountain, of two homosexuals in a time when Gay marriage meant covering your homosexuality with a wife and two kids. Yet these guys meet at public functions, exchange quasi-intimate gestures right in front of people, leave significant notes with each other's staff, and somehow manage to get away with it. Just about all their friends acknowledge the relationship overtly or covertly. When the more love sick of the two has occasion to ask, "who else knew?" I laughed out loud--like how about most of DC?
There are far too many superfluous characters. The subplots go nowhere--in fact the main plot goes nowhere.
Finally, someone should tell Mr. Mallon that a good historical novel does not have to include everything the writer happened to learn in his research. The book is filled with awkward devices for including information that has no value in advancing the story. "As he started down H Street...Fuller passed the worst of the neighborhood's gingerbread shanties and wondered just how impressed the Negroes...were by the knowledge that one of their own, the State Department's Dr. Ralph Bunche, had been dispatched to sort things out in the Middle East." (p. 320). Given that neither Bunche, the Middle East, or the Negroes of Foggy Bottom are ever mentioned again, why did he need to go to such awkward lengths to tell us that tidbit of information?
There was one thing I enjoyed about this book. Having graduated from George Washington U, albeit in the 70s, it was fun learning what was in various locations 20 years before my time. That's about it.
eh.......2007-06-27
great book, and the man on the cover is my grandfather Robert Cuddeback but didnt even know Mallon....he was at a bar one day and the photographer aurthur fellig took a picture of him and this picture was published in one of his books and my grandfather died last year....and he was NOT gay
Charming and Compelling.......2007-06-20
I've enjoyed Thomas Mallon's other novels--Bandbox, Henry and June, Dewey Defeats Truman--especially his deft mixtures of history and fiction and a gossamer-light touch. Fellow Travelers does not disappoint. In a manner that will be familiar to fans of Anthony Trollope, Mallon is able to take on serious national issues of a given historical period, and intermingle them with intense and empathetic treatment of a small circle of characters. All the while, he is making us laugh at will. This is both a charming and an emotionally compelling novel and readers will know from the opening pages that they are in the hands of a master storyteller at the top of his form.
Book Description
A successful Web designer, forty-year-old India has a fabulously hip life in Denver and a sexy Irish lover in New York who jets out to see her on bi-weekly visits. The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesn’t want things to get too serious. But then her father passes away, and India must honor the promise she made to him: to look after her mother when he’s gone.
Suddenly India finds herself back in Colorado Springs with the woman who both intrigues and infuriates her. Eldora is sixty something and exquisitely gorgeous, but her larger-than-life personality can suck the air out of a room. True to form, Eldora throws India a curveball, insisting that they hit the road to look for India’s twin, Gypsy, a brilliant artist who lives a vagabond’s existence in the remote mountain towns of New Mexico. It looks like India can’t avoid her mother’s intensity any longer, especially after she discovers stunning secrets from Eldora’s past.
Thirty years ago, Eldora regaled her twin girls with glamorous stories about her days as a Las Vegas showgirl– stories of martinis and music at the Sahara, back when Frank and Sammy ruled the town. But the story of how she really ended up in Sin City, and the unsavory life she’d run from with her daughters in tow, is full of details she’s never seen fit to share–until now.
As mother and daughter sail down Route 66, the very road Eldora drove those many years ago, looking for Gypsy, while passing motels, diners, and souvenir shops, Eldora must relive a lifetime of memories that have tormented her before she can put them to rest once and for all. . . .
Award-winning author Barbara Samuel brings us a heartfelt story of second chances and unexpected detours. As two women come to terms with themselves and each other, the past unravels and the future spreads out before them like the open road.
Customer Reviews:
Lady Luck's Map of Vegas.......2007-03-12
This is a very fun read. I enjoyed the information in the book as well as just a chuckle from time to time.
Never judge a book by its cover.......2007-02-19
Never judge a book by its cover is so true of titles and the characters in this book untill you get to know them. Barbara Samuels writes a wonderful story about people you really care about and want to know better.
Loved it........2006-09-21
This fast-paced novel takes mother and daughter, Eldora and India, down Route 66 in search of India's schizophrenic twin sister, Gypsy. India is not pleased to leave her work and long distance lover, Jack, to take her mother on a road trip down memory lane in her mother's cherished 1957 Thunderbird. But she promised her father before his death that she would take care of her mother, and so she agrees to the trip hoping that the time on the road will help her to reconcile issues in her own life and also to help her make the most important decision of her life. Eldora, who has been living with the regrets and mistakes she made many, many years ago, wants to make peace with one daughter as she searches for the other one. Eldora is faced with revealing her true self to India and in the process risks losing her daughter forever. Both India and Eldora each tell their own story as they travel the same fateful route they took several years ago and try to reconcile their past to their present and dare to hope for a future but ultimately discover that in life and love there are no guarantees.
***** I thoroughly enjoyed Barbara Samuel's heartwarming story of a mother and daughter who both dare to risk their current tolerable relationship for a chance to really understand one another. The realness of these two characters makes the reader feel deeply connected with what both India and Eldora are facing. This novel needs to be a movie because India and Eldora's stories would be wonderful played out on the big screen. I highly recommend taking this real and endearing and ultimately hopeful journey with India and Eldora along Route 66. *****
Reviewed by Barbara Stabler.
WOW!.......2006-06-01
One of Samuel's best. This book made me laugh out loud and cry, the need a box of Kleenex, don't try reading on the elliptical kind of cry. I read it on one day and immediately wanted to read it again. The realness of the characters amazed me. I felt like I knew these people. I loved this book!
Wanted: Strong Women.......2005-03-26
I'm always so impressed with Barbara Samuel's novels, and Lady Luck's Map of Vegas is no exception. Samuel, who lives in Colorado, writes about women in the western United States who may have had family problems, but resolve them, or find a way to live with them, by the end of the books. I checked out her website at www.barbarasamuel.com, and she has also written a number of romances, some under the name Ruth Wind. But her women's novels are the ones that impress me - No Place Like Home, A Piece of Heaven, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue, and, now Lady Luck's Map of Vegas.
Forty-year-old India is a successful web designer with a large circle of friends. She also has an Irish lover that she sees monthly, Eldora, her widowed mother who can be demanding, and a schizophrenic twin sister who disappers into the unknown periodically. And, she's pregnant.
When India's mother wants to take Route 66 from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas, she reluctantly agrees to accompany her, fleeing the truth and her own doubts about her pregnancy. As they hunt for Gypsy, India's sister, along the route, Eldora reaches into her own past to reveal secrets she has covered up about her life.
Once again, Barbara Samuel has written of two women coming to terms with the results of their own actions. It's a strong, beautiful novel.
Books:
- The Underdogs
- Things Fall Apart: A Novel
- Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, Eleventh Edition (Times Atlas of the World Comprehensive Edition)
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
- Visions in Death (In Death)
- Watchmen
- When Bad Things Happen to Good People
- Where the Heart Is (Oprah's Book Club)
- Where There's a Will
- Windows Vista Inside Out
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice
- Bringing Up Boys: Practical Advice and Encouragement for Those Shaping the Next Generation of Men
- Things to Come: A Critical Text of the 1935 London First Edition, With an Introduction and Appendice
- Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown
- Accounting: Concepts and Applications
- Broken Wings
- City Secrets: New York City
- Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment
- The Wealthy Pauper
- Rasputin's Revenge
The Ultimate Gift
Success Secrets of Super Achievers
The Ultimate Life (The Ultimate Series #2)
Wisdom of the Ages
You Don't Have to Be Blind to See
