Book Description
In the best Harmony novel yet, Sam leaves Harmony Friends Meeting and must watch someone else fill his shoes. Will the Friends want him back? Will he want to return?
Customer Reviews:
Another Harmony hit!.......2007-09-11
Another Harmony great. Sam is tired of hearing the same old thing every day. Well he gets his chance to take a break when his father has a heart attack and he takes three months off from the ministry. They ask for a woman to fill his space and this sets off a whole series of events. Will she fill Sam's place? Read the book and find out!
Not Gulley's Usual!!.......2007-08-04
I've read every Harmony Novel and have enjoyed all of them but this last one is wanting!! I'm very weary of the character of Dale Hinshaw and his narrow mind. The author should put Dale in his place and have him pay for his bigotry and judgemental behavior. He seems to go on and on and on with no price to pay!! Mr. Gulley has the ability to write very touching, warm, reconciling stories. . .This book does not make the mark---I wanted Hinshaw and the old biddies that followed him to pay for their treachery and gossip about the lady Pastor. This kind of behavior is rampant in our society and all to often the evil doers get by with it. . .Note to Mr. Gulley--put Hinshaw in his grave and bring us a joyful story from Harmony!!!!!
The continuing small-town antics of the good folks of Harmony.......2007-06-06
The only disappointment readers will have with Philip Gulley's ALMOST FRIENDS is that it completes the Harmony series. Say it isn't so! This last installment stays true to the previous books --- chock full of dry wit and the small-town foibles of churchgoers, and permeated throughout with Gulley's own theology, which he co-writes about in his nonfiction books (IF GRACE IS TRUE and IF GOD IS LOVE).
Reader caveat: If you haven't read the Harmony series before, stop here and begin with book one, HOME TO HARMONY. This sixth full-length novel in the series (there are also some short novellas, including THE CHRISTMAS SCRAPBOOK) will be much more enjoyable if you've read the first.
Quaker pastor Sam Gardner is entering his sixth year at Harmony Friends Meeting in the small town of Harmony, Indiana, and he's ready for a sabbatical. "Sam was genuinely fond of the lost. It was the folks who were found who taxed his patience." The irrepressible Dale Hinshaw is a perennial burr in the saddle for Sam, this time as Chief Evangelist at Harmony Friends Meeting, "unleashing a series of events not even the most clairvoyant among them could have anticipated, trials that would test Sam to the core and find him sadly lacking." Dale, Gulley reminds us, once erected signs throughout Harmony in the Burma Shave tradition: "Go to church and learn to pray, Or when you die, there's hell to pay." Now, Dale's new "scripture greetings" recorded telephone messages are programmed to wake up townfolks in the middle of the night, inciting a near-riot in Harmony that Sam has to negotiate.
When Sam's father has a heart attack, Sam petitions for three months off to care for him. A new female pastor, Krista Riley, takes the church while he's gone and works her way into the hearts of the congregation. This provides Gulley an opening to look at the issues of gender and ordination. Through flashback chapters, we learn that Krista has grown up in the Catholic Church and once longed to be a priest. (Her parents had encouraged her that she could be anything she wanted to be when she grew up, but as Gulley says, they hadn't counted on this). Krista discovers that she might fit in with the Quakers, who have a shorter and quicker list of requirements than the Presbyterians and the Methodists for ordination. Or, as Gulley notes, the Quakers are "fewer in number and desperate for new members."
As Krista's no-nonsense approach and genuine love for her congregation earns her plenty of respectful and enthusiastic supporters, Sam finds himself battling jealousy. Krista has even laid hands on Fern Hampton and seemingly cured her warts! Old parishioners who had left the congregation (including the Harry Darnell family, after losing a "scorching debate over the proper color for pew cushions") are coming back. Even Sam's kids, Levi and Addison, like the new pastor.
But rumors begin swirling around Krista after she's spotted --- gasp! --- holding another woman's hand. Is she gay? After all, she isn't married and doesn't have a boyfriend. How will the small town of Harmony respond? Gulley tackles the issue of homosexuality as perceived by the church, as well as the challenges of forgiveness and the destructive power of wrong assumptions. What will keep readers who disagree with Gulley's theology turning the pages is his delightful dead-on portrayal of small town life, particularly the oddities of small town church life.
The relationships of sons and fathers is another subtheme in the book that offers a mostly lighter note. Sam and his mother are soon exhausted after his father's heart bypass operation, as his dad barks orders, "booting Sam outside to pull weeds and ordering Gloria to the Kroger to buy more Cheetos and Dr. Pepper." However, almost losing his father helps Sam rethink his own priorities as a dad and as a son.
Although this is the last installment of the series, readers will hope Gulley won't leave fiction for good. His novels are just plain fun, and the fiction world will be a little emptier without the continuing small-town antics of the good folks of Harmony.
--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
More Politics than Harmony.......2007-05-03
This book is a little outrageous, lol. This guy really has an ax to grind I have seen him become more cynical and embarrassingly political as his books continue. A little hard to take at times. Aside from the obvious message of tolerance I'm not sure what the story around that message is really meant to convey. He seems to demonize those who don't tow his party line and seems confused about what he believes. Sam Gardner seems lost in his dim view of others except a select few. The characters in this book do not seem consistent with how they were in past books. I'm not sure if this is to demonstrate how he has been too long in the ministry and now it is only his skewed perception of others or if he really wants us to believe all the people in the church have become unbearable.
A rival for Sam.......2007-01-14
Sam Gardner is feeling burned out with his pastorship of the Harmony Friends Meeting. At the same time, Sam's father suffers a heart attack and Sam feels that he should take a sabbatical in order to help both of his parents until his father gets back on his feet. His congregation agrees with this and they request an interim pastor. The pastor turns out to be a divinity student named Krista Riley who soon charms the congregation with her preaching and pastoral concern. Sam's nose is out of joint and soon he begins to fear that his flock will not want him back but will hire Krista instead. As usual Dale Hinshaw and Fern Hampton begin to find fault with Krista and soon ask her to leave. Sam is faced with an unusual situation in which his conscience is telling him to defend Krista, but his practical side is afraid that he might lose his job and his home. This crisis of conscience is at the crux of Philip Gulley's latest book, and although it may not be solved in a way which is pleasing to all readers, the book does serve to entertain and to make the reader think about some important issues for modern-day congregations.
Book Description
A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.
Flash forward twenty years.
Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.
Customer Reviews:
truly romantic as a love story should be.......2007-08-14
I am not going to talk about the wiring, the vocabulary, the plot device, etc. No, I am not interested all your usual technical stuff about writing a good book. I simply love this book because it truly is what it's meant to be: a love story. Love among partners, lovers, friends, family, etc. that are genuine and heart felt. Craige and Travil's road to HEA is one of the most romantic story I have ever read. Even the triangle relationship ( a hot button for me and I normally have very low tolerance for this type of story) of the three men works out beautifully. I don't know what the author hopes to accomplish writing this book, but to me, this is simply a feel good book that I love to re-read over and over. It feels good because it sends out the simple message: everyone, no mater how odd or strange you are, deserves love and will eventually find true love (even if you have to travel across the country to find it! )
Almost Like Being In Love.......2007-08-08
Almost Like Being In Love is the unconventional love story, the nerd and the jock hook up and actually fall in love with each other, both boys by the way. The story is something that I was skeptical about at first, but once it traveled to their adult lives I began to take it more seriously. I feel as though Last Days of Summer is Kluger's best work, but Almost Like Being In Love uses his style of writing just as eloquently and allows for each side of the story to be told in an amusing way.
A Good Romantic Comedy.......2007-05-22
I liked what one critic said, that the novel is "as preposterous as a Broadway musical." I would add that things get a little too precious when Craig and Travis have raisin fights in their dorm room, and the mocking, sarcastic banter among all the characters is sometimes groan-worthy (if people really talked like this all the time, it would be a very annoying world indeed). I also have a gripe about how the gay characters in this book have 30-inch waists, muscles to spare, and upwardly mobile careers. In the real world not all of us are perfect, just like you straight folks! What kept me reading is the love triangle between Craig, Clayton and Travis. It seems like the situation could never be resolved in a satisfactory manner, so I kept turning pages to find out. If you're a sucker for romance, you'll enjoy this.
Funny and romantic.......2007-05-13
Without a doubt, this book is one of the funniest and most romantic stories I've ever read. I laughed, I cried, and as soon as I was finished, I wanted to read it again! Highly recommended.
Amazing!.......2007-04-28
This book is beautifully written! It is funny, classic, involving and suspenseful. You find yourself routing for the characters and cheering and crying all at the same time. A true page turner. This book will awaken emotions in you that you may have put away on the shelf. Highly recommended.
Book Description
ALMOST, Elizabeth Benedict's fourth novel, is "her most spirited to date" (New York Times Book Review). Forty-something narrator Sophy Chase has just begun a lighthearted, romantically adventurous life in New York City when she learns that her almost ex-husband has been found dead on the New England resort island where she left him just months before. Lured back to the island by feelings she thought she had left behind, Sophy must navigate treacherous emotional terrain involving her grown stepdaughters, a former lover who is now a celebrity lawyer, the mystery of her husband's death -- and her own darkest impulses.
Customer Reviews:
What a gem!.......2007-08-27
This contemporary novel, set in that moment when Al Gore's presidency was a possibility and terrorism seemed a distant threat, reminds us that it was not a perfect world. Nor is ghost writer Sophy Chase a perfect person, but she is an excellent, thoughtful narrator, full of guilt about having torn herself from her ten year marriage to Will, a former CIA operative, but determined to create a new life in New York's Greenwich Village, where she met her lover, Daniel, the only other straight person at an "open" Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Elizabeth Benedict is a writer who can tell you all this without sounding snide or cliched. Without a word of physical description, we know that the forty-plus Sophy is attractive and engaging; one of Daniel's adopted Vietnamese daughters, Vicki, wants Sophy to move in with her family while her first adopted mother lies in a coma in a nursing home. Sophy already has two adult twin stepdaughters to whom she hasn't spoken since leaving Will, but the most painful part of her life when the book opens is that she will never bear her own children.
Fresh pain arrives with a phone call from the police in the midst of a bout of spirited lovemaking with Daniel. Will's dead body has been found at Swansea, the island off the coast of Massachusetts where he lived year-round, and Sophy leaves right away to find out what happened and to give him the cremation and dignified send-off that he wanted. Suicide is a possibility; he had tried it before. But it might have been a heart attack, or even a murder. An autopsy is soon under way. Sophy discovers she is still married; Will never signed their separation agreement.
It's difficult to categorize this novel. It's more plotted than most literary novels but more literary than your usual mystery. I most admired Benedict's abilty to cast her eye across class and race and sexual orientation without ranking or judging anyone. Sophy's long-ago lover Evan is now a media-savvy defense attorney who lives with his professor wife and seemingly perfect family in one of those lavish homes that dot every resort community now, but he discovers Sophy in despair at the local airport and takes her home in spite of an impending domestic drama of his own. And Benedict also shows us the local working men and women who stay behind when the wealthy take their leave: among them Bert, Will's sympathetic neighbor who owns a gas station, and Crystal, a single mother who lives in a tent during the summer while her winter residence is rented out, and who had a mysterious connection to Will. Then there's Henry, the dog Will got Sophy when they discovered they would never have children. Henry is missing, but Sophy believes he knows what happened to Will, and she's determined to find him.
A sarcastic remark about Will's death by the local bookstore owner plunges Sophy into a tailspin, threatens her relationship with Evan and propels the novel forward through a funeral that Will would have hated. There are dozens of plot turns and cogent observations of the human condition along the way, but Benedict renders Sophy a stronger woman at the end, back in the Village with a story to tell all her own.
The New York Times let me down on this one.......2007-07-30
I found this book at Half Price Books for $1, read that it was a New York Times "Notable Book" and thought, "What a bargain!" Well, it's going right back to Half Price which is where my books go that I don't intend to keep or recommend and loan to a friend (and there have not been very many!)
At first I was drawn in to the main character and the story, but halfway through I was disappointed. I didn't even finish it but rather glanced through the last few chapters just to see how it ends. The author blends so many different tragedies and suspenseful situations swirling around at once (her ex-husband's death, her battle with alcoholism, her strained relationship with her stepdaughters, her questionable relationship back in NYC, her boyfriend's daughter's disappearance, her ex-boyfriend-turned-friend's scandal involving a mistress and his wife.....) Whew! It was all too much, really. The constant foreshadowing was so contrived it often caused me to roll my eyes with an "oh, please" look. I finally just wanted to get the damn thing over with and move on to something else.
There is a glimmer of a good writer here, but plot lines and characterizations often fall flat. For all the different stories going on, only half of them are resolved at the end. Perhaps that is the way the author's own story ended up (the book is supposedly semi-autobiographical), with loose ends, and I agree with another reviewer that I don't like things tied up hastily at the end just for the sake of it. But I felt cheated, as if many of the characters and subplots were completely unnecessary and didn't add to the book at all.
This could have been a great story about a woman's self-reflection in dealing with death and with love and relationships and the changes they bring in her life. But it fell short, way short, and I'm surprised the New York Times praised this work so highly. At least it only cost me a dollar.
Life as almost (un)knowable.......2005-09-22
"Almost" is a smartly written book. There are wonderful, succinct descriptions, observations, insights, etc scattered about. Most of these come from the perspective of Sophy Chase, a moderately successful novelist (autobiographical?) , but more importantly "almost" divorced from Will, her husband of ten years.
Sophy is in the midst of a new, highly sensual, relationship with a New York art dealer Daniel that is causing her some concern, when a phone call at an inopportune time informs that Will has died unexpectedly. Her anxiety level is turned up considerably as she is forced to reengage with the world she has just left. She returns to the Northeast island, Swansea. There she agonizes over her involvement in the death. Was it a suicide? What happened to Henry, her dog given as a substitute for children? And there is the added burden of mingling with the society types of the island and their attitudes and problems.
If Sophy is any indication, life for this author is awkward and somewhat unknowable. The story moves in fits and starts as Sophy interacts with ex-lovers, step-children, Will's first wife, and the mysterious Crystal who had dealings with Will shortly before his death and has to deal with her attraction to alcohol.
It is all rather inconclusive. Sophy hardly comes to any great understanding. Her connection to Daniel's adopted Vietnamese daughter Vicki seems to be about the best that she can expect. Ironically, author Benedict, has author Sophy preparing to write a novel about Benedict's story. Got that?
A great book to lose yourself in.......2005-05-28
"Low tide. Piping plovers. Sanderlings with their toothpick legs, skittering over the shoreline like wind-up toys on speed." Putting it simply, Benedict is a master of the language. The way she can nail a character, or describe a room, or evoke an emotion with a few very choice words tells you everything you would ever need to know about writing first-rate fiction. This one takes place all over a single very long weekend, beginning with 48-year-old Sophy Chase with her lover in New York when she receives the phone call from the police that her husband, from whom she has been separated for three months, has been found dead back on the island where they had become full-timers. Maybe he committed suicide. If so, maybe it's her fault. It's an apocalyptic catalyst for change in Sophy's relationships with her grown stepdaughters and her lover's Vietnamese adoptees, in the way she sees her own life, where she's been and where she's going. The plot-threads of her intermittant alcoholism, her longing for children of her own, her dependence on a gay male friend, her discovery that she's being upstaged by another friend on the island whose perfect life is facing a marital disaster of his own -- her neediness in general -- all these create a rich narrative fabric. It's often a funny story, but in the sense that the human condition is often funny, if you pay attention. And her characters absolutely ring true. I confess, it's hard for me to read a book like this one without trying to cast it as a film. But with the right screenplay, it would be a terrific flick.
Well written and worth reading.......2005-03-04
Someone suggested I read this little gem of a book and I am glad I did. I have never read anything by this author and was immediately engrossed in this story. A story well told of coming to grips with ones's life, about love,sex, dissapointment and expectations.
This book is extremely well written and a most enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.
Book Description
In Brooklyn, in the Age of Disco, Valentine Kessler -- a sweet Jewish girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Virgin Mary of Lourdes -- has an unerring gift for shattering the dreams and hopes of those who love her. Miriam, her long-suffering mother, betrayed and anguished by the husband she adores, seeks solace in daily games of mah-jongg with The Girls, a cross between a Greek Chorus and Brooklyn's rendition of the Three Wise Men, who dispense advice, predictions, and care in the form of poppy-seed cake and apple strudels. When her greatest fear for Valentine is realized, Miriam takes comfort in the thought that it couldn't get any worse. And then it does.
Sagacious, sorrowful, and hilarious,
An Almost Perfect Moment is a novel about mothers and daughters, star-crossed lovers, doctrines of the divine, and a colorful Jewish community that once defined Brooklyn.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
You could do worse..........2006-08-02
This novel immediately reels you in, but throughout the whole novel you'll wish you knew more about the characters. The novel lets you into the minds of Beth, Joanne, Mr. Woleski, Miriam, and Valentine, the main character(among other people). And interestingly enough, you find out the least amount of information on Valentine, which seems odd because the story revolves around her. As a result I found the novel somewhat of a dissapointment. However, at least I wasn't suprised by the novel's ambiguous ending. And of course this novel was beautifully written, and the characters are enticing and relatable but sometimes that's just not enough.
A perfect evocation of a lost Brooklyn.......2005-09-25
An absolutely wonderful novel that so clearly evokes the Brooklyn of my childhood, I'd almost forgotten it existed. Kirshenbaum's eye for the smallest of details, and the rhythm of dialogue-- especially the banter of older woman among the clacking of mah-jongg tiles-- is so refreshing, so well developed, they are for me the highlight of the book. The central plot is curiously offbeat, but so full of symbolic events, it does well as a framework of the real brilliance of this novel, which is the development of such completely period-perfect characters. Those of us in the "other Brooklyn" of the 60s and 70s-- the Brooklyn of Kings Plaza, Waldbaum's, suburban tract homes, Flatlands Avenue, Mill Basin and Sheepshead Bay-- will absolutely eat this book up, and then shake it up, hoping more pages filled with dialogue will fall out. An absolute pleasure.
NOT SO PERFECT (2 1/2 stars).......2005-08-12
An Almost Perfect Moment was far from perfect for the members of the Jewish Book Club, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. Not that there wasn't anything to like. Members enjoyed the depiction of life in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn in the 1970s, the way the author, Binnie Kirshenbaum, kept the reader's interest in finding out what happened next, and the camaraderie of The Girls as they played mah-jongg (some did question the calls) and cared for one another.
However, there was a feeling that we could never quite bond with the main characters of Miriam, her daughter Valentine, and the schoolteachers John Wosileski and Joanne Clarke. Although there were realistic elements in their characterizations, we just had a hard time liking these obviously lonely people. Part of it may have been a feeling that the author's empathy for them was just not that visible to us in mid-America. Does Binnie Kirshenbaum like her characters, does she truly care about them, or is she at times mocking them? Perhaps in the third person narrative, the author could not exude the warmth for the people she probably spent a good deal of time creating. Just as there is a time distance from life in the '70s to life in the 21st century, there appears to be an emotional distance between Kirshenbaum, who does write well and who, apparently, is an admired teacher and mentor, and the sad people she depicts. We would have liked to have seen more depth of character development rather than so much emphasis on people's weaknesses and frailties.
In many ways, reading An Almost Perfect Moment was like attending a mad-cap, comic opera with a tragic ending that left viewers hanging when they really would have wanted to feel more connected.
More character development, please........2005-08-04
I hate to say this, but I guess I was pretty disappointed by this book. I really did like the author's style of writing, but I didn't feel as though the main character (Valentine) was very well developed. I didn't understand her motivations or have any inkling of what she was thinking. I don't know if the author did this on purpose, or what.
I would like to read more by this author to see if I might like her other work better.
Simply Delightful.......2005-03-27
I loved this book! Growing up as a Jewish girl in the 1970's on the east coast, I thought this book was so creative and extremely well written. In fact, I couldn't put it down. Yes, parts are silly, but it is so well written that I had a smile on my face the entire time. I can't wait to read more by this author. Perhaps other cannot relate to it, especially the significant amount of Jewish humor and the many references to food and clothing of the 70's, but I couldn't have enjoyed it more and look forward to sharing Almost Perfect with my friends.
Book Description
Written by the advice columnist of Girls’ Life magazine, this hilarious companion to The Diary of Melanie Martin finds Melanie off to Holland–with her best friend!
Dear Diary, You will never ever believe this! It is too good to be true!! Guess who is going with us to Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam? Cecily!
Since Cecily’s mom is having surgery, Melanie’s parents invite Cecily on their family trip to Holland. Melanie thinks having her best friend along will be terrific. But things don’t go exactly as expected. First Melanie loses her luggage, and soon it looks like she’ll lose Cecily’s friendship.
But Holland isn’t a total disaster. Along the way, Melanie learns to look through the eyes of van Gogh, Vermeer, and Anne Frank. Soon she discovers that being a good friend means seeing the world through your best friend’s eyes, too.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Are you ready to go Dutch?.......2005-06-03
Are you ready to go to the Netherlands where bicycal riding, canal site seeing, and tulips are done almost all year long? Do you want to know the real story? Know what's happening with Cicily's family. Join me into a world where the Netherlands are the best place to be!
Melanie Gets Better and Better.......2005-03-15
The sequel to The Diary of Melanie Martin is just as charming and rings with the same truthful voice, as Melanie records the ups and downs of a vacation in Holland with her family and best friend. Melanie is reading the Diary of Anne Frank on this trip, and this historic diary lends a thoughtful note to Melanie's own diary, which includes dealing with the threat of the cancer which has infected her best friend's mom. With the heroine's observations as witty as ever, Melanie Martin Goes Dutch will delight young readers as they experience both van Gogh paintings and topless beaches through Melanie's eyes.
Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: A real "that's just like..." book.......2004-09-14
When you open this book, you will find yourself peeking into the private diary of Melanie Martin, a ten year old girl living in New York with her mom, dad and Matt the Bratt (aka little brother!). Her mom is an art teacher who teaches her kids to appreciate art, and she loves when they do, even if its only because it includes naked people or blood scenes!
The story starts when summer vacation has just got out, and our girl Mel is getting bored. She and her mom do puzzles. It is one utterly boring day when Melanie's mom gets a phone call telling her that she's got the grant (for her teaching) and they're going to Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam!
They barely get this news before it is discovered that Cecily's mom (Cecily is Melanie's best friend) has got breast cancer.
Mel's mom invites Cecily on the trip and Melanie is overjoyed!
They all leave together for Amsterdam. They all expirience lots of adventures including lost luggage, a topless beach, LOTS of museums and a HUGE argument.
Mel thinks Cecily is getting way too much attention so they silently fight.
Will the fight turn this best-friend bliss into a bummer summer?
Read and find out!
Melanie Martin Goes Dutch is a great book that plenty of kids can empathize with - even grown-ups too!
I hope everyone will enjoy this book as much as I have, including Carol Weston's other fantastic books!
3 cheers, two thumbs up, plus five WHOLE stars as well!
My summer vacation with a Dutch Touch.......2004-06-27
Wishing you could take a trip this summer? The title of this book just makes me smile. Melanie's mother has a grant to study Van Gogh in Amsterdam for the summer and the whole family gets to go along. Melanie's diary of their trip is a fun read. Travel disasters such as lost luggage, an annoying little brother, and a fight with her best friend are not what she imagined her vacation would be like. Melanie is reading Anne Frank: the diary of a young girl. As events unfold on their trip Melanie finds herself empathizing with Anne. Her visit to the Secret Annex is very poignant.
I loved "hearing" the Dutch phrases (complete with pronunciation,)smelling the food and seeing the sights through the eyes of a character who is the same age I was when I lived there. This is a very funny book. The presence of Anne in the background of the story gives the story a sweetness beyond the humor.
Melanie Martin is the Best!.......2004-02-21
This is the best book ever! It taught me a lot about Holland, and I learned a LOT of dutch. Now I can speak a little of a different language!
Average customer rating:
- The best novel of its kind
- So bad, I couldn't finish it
- R-E-S-P-E-C-T
- Not bad but not great
- Can't put it down
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Almost Adam: A Novel
Petru Popescu
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0688148638 |
Amazon.com
In an unexplored Kenyan savanna, a paleoanthropologist finds a boy whose physical characteristics match those of the "missing link" and realizes that he's discovered a place that has escaped the normal evolutionary processes. Soon the modern world threatens to encroach on his bond with the boy as a poacher tracks them down and another anthropologist threatens to steal the discovery. Their only hope is to disappear into the forest with the boy's tribe.
Book Description
In a forgotten corner of a country torn by violence, American anthropologist Ken Lauder is about to make a discovery that will challenge everything we've ever believed about the ascent of humankind: a boy who should not exist...a race the defies all logic...inhabiting a secret world of wonder, splendor and peril, a world that cannot be...
A world Ken Lauder may never escape...alive.
Customer Reviews:
The best novel of its kind.......2006-10-17
Much more believable than the books it's often compared to, John Darnton's "Neanderthal" and Philip Kerr's "Esau," this is the best novel ever written in the small niche that might be called "primate discovery thrillers." Popescu has done a thorough job of research, and his animals, people, and settings are all believable. The pacing has slow spots, but the pluses more than make up for them.
So bad, I couldn't finish it.......2005-10-07
I am glad I bought this book at a used bookstore. The story sounds intriguing, but don't be fooled. The characters are not developed, nor do they develop throuhgout the story. And the dialogue is terrible. The writing in general is just terrible. It was so bad I literally could not finish reading it.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.......2005-05-02
I really enjoyed "Almost Adam" because I found it to be a tale of friendship. Ngili is the son of a prominent Kenyan who is friends with Ken Lauder. Lauder very much appreciates Ngili's scientific expertise. The bond between these two friends is not influenced by color. This is contrasted with Hendricks the airplane pilot who is racist and numerous other tensions which ripple through the story. Ken also has an attraction to Ngili's sister Yinka who slyly refers to Ken as "settler," a derogatory term used toward whites who stayed in Kenya. The sexual sparks between them puts Ngili in an odd situation, not really accepting his sister's relationship with his best friend because of race. Compound this with the political unrest with Ngili's father Um'tu who is a minister in the government & gets fired because he's from the wrong tribe. I. V. Haskar is threaded into the story, racially from India, whose racial history guides his injection into the plot. Then you have Ken's encounter in the wild with Long Toes and the Hominids and their battle with the racial group, the Robusts. So I found "Almost Adam" fascinating because on many different levels it explores issues of racial differences and racial tolerance. Aretha Franklin sang that classic song about respect, "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me." That kept playing in my head somehow as I went through this story. So many will enjoy this novel for its science, some for its unrelenting action and breathtaking jumps in plot. I found it an allegory on racial tolerance. Enjoy!
Not bad but not great.......2005-02-09
I read Almost Adam a few years ago and recall thinking that it was a decent read. What did irk me however, **SPOILER** was while at the Neanderthal encampment, the female expeditioner (I forget her name) joined with the Neanderthal's in a whirl around the bonfire in a sort of mating dance. In her primalistic enthrallment, she picks Ken (the main character) as her "partner" for the evening. The exact dialogue eludes me but Ken comments on her uninhibited dance and she says something to the effect of "Wow, I felt so in touch with my inner cavewoman, I wasn't sure who I would pick (Ken or the caveman)." That, ladies & gentlemen is just retarded. No woman when given the choice will choose a slope-headed unga bunga over a human male as a sex partner. It just about ruined the rest of the book for me.
Can't put it down.......2004-11-23
So pick it up! Excitement, character development, logical plot, it is all here. I love paleoanthropology and any historical fiction that goes along with it. Top of my list!
Average customer rating:
- Do you know your worth???
- Impressive
- Decent Read
- Unrealism
- Good book
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Almost Doesn't Count
Electa Rome Parks
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Ties That Bind
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Loose Ends
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Sins & Secrets
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Other Men's Wives: A Novel
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Friends With Benefits
ASIN: 045121515X |
Book Description
The author of Loose Ends returns with a novel of a woman who can almost convince herself that love doesn't matter.
Mercedes needs men for one thing only-and it has nothing to do with her heart. Growing up with her mother has made her sure of that. Now Mercedes has to travel home to South Georgia, where her mama, Miss Betty, is recovering from surgery. Back to the rickety old house that holds a lot of memories for her. If she could only learn to deal with the bad ones.
Because a man has come into her life, a fine, bald-headed, church-going black man-the kind of man Mercedes never dared believe in. And she's going to have to get herself together to deal with what Darius is doing to her life-and with what he's hiding about his own.
Customer Reviews:
Do you know your worth???.......2007-09-12
This is another winner from Electa Rome Parks. This novel introduces us to Mercedes, a young woman born and raised in the projects who made it out and went on to finish college and land a job at the bank with a prestigious title. She was beautiful, sexy, and seemed to have everything together.....but the one thing that people couldn't see was the dirty secret from her past. This dirty secret made her not value herself and she vowed never to let a man make a fool of her. The way she distanced herself from love was by using the men before they used her. She sexed them and left them and her life was perfect until she met Darius. Darius was handsome and showed Mercedes what love was....she thought she had found the one until she found out a secret from his past. Will Mercedes be able to move forward from the past and give love a chance??? Will she ever truly know what her worth is?? Will Darius be able move forward from his secret and make it work with Mercedes?? You have to cop this book to find out!!! If you are looking for a upbeat romance with some HOT AND STEAMY sex that will knock your sock off, look no further than this book!!!
Impressive.......2007-01-29
I received this book as a Christmas present and was very pleasantly surprised. As an author myself I try hard not to "put myself in the writer's shoes" and diagnose the story and how I might have written it; rather, I read for enjoyment first, then read it a second time for content. This work is full of some of the more interesting plot lines I have read in African American fiction and I am proud of the writer for maintaining and speaking to the dignity of the characters in the story.
Excellent job Ms. Parks!
Decent Read.......2007-01-10
This story was about letting go of childhood secrets and really accepting who you are, and how you got there. Mercedes and her mother have always had a rocky relationship, but the summer that she spends with her mother proves worthwhile because both of them really come to grips with their past. Mercedes also finds a man (in a grocery store of all places) and develops a crazy summer fling that turns into more than she bargains for.
Unrealism.......2006-10-15
I was shaking my head early on due to a contradicting chain thrown at the reader from the start. One moment, Mercedes' bra size was 38C. A few chapters later she wore a 36C. First she was an Assistant Vice President of Customer Service at the bank. Later, she's a Customer Service Representative III? The author definitely got lost in her own details of the story.
I often pray for a forgiving heart, but the rate and extent of forgiveness in the book was highly unlikely in the real world. I couldn't possibly picture Shaneeka's boyfriend Jamal forgiving her for coldly trashing his place and begging for another chance to be with her. The fact that he had the money to repair the damage seemed irrelevant. Mercedes accepted Darius' apology for the way he physically and verbally abused her too easily and to also forgive him for not telling her about his child when she had been so open and upfront with him about her past all along and against her better judgment. It hardly made sense. And no woman will come to your job with baby in tow offering her blessings for a happy life with the father of her child...a man she's still deeply in love with and hoping to reclaim as her own. It just wouldn't happen. The contrary would seem more fitting.
This book was a good attempt at proving that true love is out there for everyone; even if you try to deny yourself, but the lesson is hardly learned when it's out of touch with what's real.
Good book.......2006-08-09
This book keep me wanting more. I finished it in two days. The main character was someone I could really relate to, a woman attempting to love and find herself. I would recommend.
Average customer rating:
- Micari Shelly - yaoirealm.com
- Ho Hum.
- One word - "sweet"
- Not quite my thing, but some may enjoy it!
- Adorable!
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Almost Crying Volume 1 (Yaoi)
Mako Takahashi
Manufacturer: Digital Manga Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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The Art Of Loving (Yaoi) (Art of Loving)
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La Esperanca Volume 2 (Yaoi) (Esperanca)
ASIN: 1569709092 |
Customer Reviews:
Micari Shelly - yaoirealm.com.......2006-07-20
If you like very silly, sappy, mushy Yaoi romance with no purpose or meaning (or erotica), you might like this manga.
Personally, I thought it was a waste of money.
The book includes several different stories, with different characters. But each story has at least one character who is overly-emotional.
If you want a more sophisticated Yaoi romance manga, with the same feel to it, try reading "Same Cell Organism".
Ho Hum........2006-07-14
One would think Western publishers would pick the cream of the crop to put out in English, but it seems they have decided to give an accurate sampling of Japanese manga mediocrity instead. It's difficult to thumb through the slew of BL popping up all over the place for the good stuff, but I bet my luck on this because it looked cute. Well, cute is pretty much all there is to it. There's almost no character development or progression. In fact, they're all flat as a pancakes. There's also almost no reasonable story progression to make the characters get together. They just do. But if that's what you're looking for, hey, it's right here.
One word - "sweet".......2006-05-17
A collection of sweet shounen-ai stories (some of them pretty good) if you like a dose of sticky sweetness once in a while. The boys are so cute that they look babyish. This is fine as there is nothing beyond hugging and chaste kissing though the last few pages are up to your imagination. For those of us who want more of this kind of sweet and cute shounen-ai, try "Beyond My Touch" which I prefer.
Not quite my thing, but some may enjoy it!.......2006-05-16
As the other reviewer mentioned, this book may appeal to people new to yaoi. There are some unique stories, with unusual characters (with unusual fetishes - such as the character with a thing for dolls). This is definitely a cute book, with cute characters with cute problems.
However, all of the characters looked between the ages of 7 and 12 to me - even those who were supposed to be over 18 or were the owners of amusement parks. Also, I found the bodies to be oddly proportioned.
This was a book with many small mini-stories as opposed to one main storyline, but unfortunately, I was not able to really be drawn into any of the stories. I know it can be done, as `But you're my teacher!' by Row Takakura had a similar `many small stories' format but there I was easily drawn into each story.
For a reader way out of her teens, such as myself, this was not the manga for me - but this manga may appeal to younger readers. :)
Adorable!.......2006-04-22
This book was so sweet it may cause diabetes. It's an anthology of stories by the same creator all done in the same sweet style. The boy/boy love is innocent and cute with sweet kisses often climaxing the stories. The characters are often overly naive and optimistic, believing that there's no evil in the world and certainly none in their love interests. In Takahashi's settings there's nothing to dissolution them. No tragedy here, no danger.
I loved the cute artwork. The characters look young, and in some instances they can't be more than 15 or 16, but that's ok since there's nothing illicit happening. For the ones who are supposed to be adults you find their childlike heads on lanky adult bodies, so it's not too hard to accept the ages you're told.
The cutest thing was the creator's free-talk page where she did a little comic. She conveys her insecurities so well. It was like everything else in this book: Adorable.
We need yaoi books like this sometimes. It reaffirms the sweetness and innocence that can be found in the genre. Not everything should be smutty. Every once in a while you want a book that makes you go 'Awwwwwww.'
Average customer rating:
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Personal Geography: Almost an Autobiography
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth
Manufacturer: Countryman Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0881503002 |
Book Description
In 1996, a small Irish press approached Nuala O'Faolain, then a writer for The Irish Times, to publish a collection of her opinion columns. She offered to compose an introduction for the volume, and that undertaking blossomed into an "accidental memoir of a Dublin woman" and a book called Are You Somebody? that was published around the world and embraced so wholeheartedly in the U.S. that it reached the number-one position on the New York Times bestseller list and launched Nuala O'Faolain on a new career.
Hailed universally for her unflinching eye ("A beautiful exploration of human loneliness and happiness, of contentment and longing."-Alice McDermott, The Washington Post Book World); her wisdom ("A remarkable memoir, poignant, truthful, and imparting that quiet wisdom which suffering brings."-Edna O'Brien); and her boldness ("An immensely courageous undertaking."-The Irish Times), Are You Somebody? took readers from O'Faolain's harrowing childhood, through decades defined by passion and a ferocious hunger for experience, to a middle age notable for its unbroken solitude and longing. The success of the book's publication robbed O'Faolain of her obscurity, but the traits that defined her life remained obstinately intact.
In Almost There, O'Faolain begins her story from the moment her life began to change in all manner of ways-subtle, radical, predictable, and unforeseen. It is a provocative meditation on the "crucible of middle age"-a time of life that forges the shape of the years to come, that clarifies and solidifies one's relationships to friends and lovers (past and present), family and self. It is also a story of good fortune chasing out bad-of an accidental harvest of happiness.
Almost There, like its predecessor, is a crystalline reflection of a singular character, utterly engaged in life. Intelligent, thoughtful, hilarious, fierce, moving, generous, and most of all, full of surprises.
Customer Reviews:
Brutal, disturbing, honest.......2007-08-05
This is my first book by this author and thus have nothing else to compare this memoir to. My first impression was her honesty, with herself and with others: her alcoholic mother, her own drinking (a bottle of wine a night), her relationship failures both with men and women, and her regrets in life. Had she been an American publishing this book it would have been a sensation, but alas, because she is Irish and Catholic and an unknown in the US, the book made little waves here.
She mentions her first book "Are You Somebody" a lot in this memoir and this seems to be a sequel. It's the book that shot her to fame, which brought her interviews in the more progressive US Northeast where many Irish live. She ponders her success almost to the point of insanity, rather than enjoying her success for her efforts. It's that typical Catholic guilt feeling.
Her honesty with her seemingly gay relationship had me at first stumped. I almost stopped reading after her first mention of her ex-partner leaving her, but I overcame that after I continued her chapter. Then I realized that subject is just too tabu in the US. So I congratulate her for bringing that subject out in the open.
Her candor of her first book caused some heartache to others in her life, others who may have hurt her in the past. Was she trying to get even with them by publishing the events as they happened according to her? She's honest and covers the other person's point of view, which was a courageous act. Most people who write memoirs mention the people who hurt them, but few take the time to ask themselves why they hurt them, or the reasons for the behavior. Different people, different perspectives, says Nuala. Who's right?
It's definitely not an easy read or one that one laughs out loud reading. It's one more of the "Damn, that hurt!" reaction that, after more thought, allows the reader to gain greater respect for the author, and allows the readers to look deeper into themselves.
NOT HALFWAY THERE YET ................2007-06-09
first off i want to say i shouldn't complain too much as i bought an autographed hard copy of this book for just $1.00 . Thank God for small favors . to begin with i really was enjoying this book in the beginning and too quick to imagine myself buying her first memoir .
what bothered me the most was her having an illicit affair with a man who even she described as not being educated, nor really a " looker " . yet time and again she would drive miles, hours, and pay for their trysts .
he'd bring hard candy ....lol.
like, didn't she wonder why she never heard nor saw this gink on holidays such as xmas . not even a card ? I think she knew in her deepest being. she's just the type of woman for some reason needs to be exploited as that's all she feels she truly deserves . it was sickening .
she's lucky to have found someone who cares . but, i didn't give a damn about her during this entire fiasco of a book . she saw the inside of more motels then " the gideon bible " .
my advice to her ...go back to column writing . she ought be ashamed to have her siblings read this as well as everybody else .
i don't believe in bookburning ..but, i'm tempted .
A brutally honest book read by the author.......2007-04-18
I could really relate to her life's reflections in relation to her own personal experiences as well as her perspective on universal family situations. Nuala's frank proclamation revealing her loneliness was quite powerful. The fact that she read this book on CD herself with wit and prose makes me want others to listen to her gift of gab.
How Did Oprah Miss This One?.......2006-11-25
Yes, ma'am, this `analyze my life and then tell-all' book seems like the sort of fare on which Oprah could chew for several shows. It was ready-made for her book club and would have instantly been embraced by her angst-loving fan base, but somehow it stayed outside that sort of recognition. But that's not a cheap shot, I mean it, this is a book for those who like the sort of reading material common in Oprah's book club. So Oprah readers, go get this!
I don't know if I was supposed to, exactly, but I found this book gloomy, and mostly only liked the rare parts where Irish Times writer Nuala O'Faolain wasn't speaking so personally. Her reports on the state of Northern Ireland, her experiences in America (page 195, " 'America' was always the word for promise." Boy have I ever heard that before...) the compare and contrast moments that dealt with Ireland in relation to other places she's been, these were a lot more likely to hold my interest, I found, than her oft-murky forays into her own allegedly bleak childhood, her controversial romantic life, or her stark realizations at her own failings, failures, and foibles.
Still there's something endearing about a woman whose best mate is her dog, Molly, and whose singlemost passion in life seems to be her readiness to delve into self-deprecation as if it is also her salvation.
I don't regret reading Almost There, but I don't plan on seeking out any of Nuala O'Faolain's other published books, either.
Redemption.......2006-05-15
I love this book. While her first, Are you Somebody, was so full of darkness, this is full of hope. It is a book about redemption. She is not there yet, but almost there. She writes BEAUTIFULLY. A real wordsmith. The way she writes alone makes it worthwhile. I am in my 30s and male, and I found that I could relate to the themes she raises. They really are universal.
Books:
- Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Angels in America)
- Aquamarine
- Back to the Bedroom
- Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller, and Countrywoman
- Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride
- Bread Alone: Bold Fresh Loaves from Your Own Hands
- Buddhism for Beginners: A Complete Coruse On The Heart Of The Buddha's Teachings (Sounds True Audio Learning Course)
- Burning Tigris, The: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response
- Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight
- Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change
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