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Katherine 241 reviews
Anya Seton
Houghton Mifflin (T), 1954
A gem that will always sit upon my shelf
I read this book not knowing what lay ahead. All I knew that Katherine had been John of Gaunt's long time mistress who bore him four children. But from the first sentence I was hooked. I was taken back to a time that I have so longed to explore-the 1300's and the Plantagenet rule.
As I read, I saw Katherine and her world so clear that it was if I could have been there myself. I felt glad when ...
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)5409 reviews
J. K. Rowling
Scholastic Trade, 2000
Please don't summarize!
I loved this book and read it in two days and began the next immediately. One thing that troubles me -- about many amazon reviews -- is that they are NOT reviews. Person after person summarizes the story (which is, basically, summarized in the official editorial paragraph. WHY OH WHY does everyone do this! WHy not just say what you liked/disliked and why?
Rowling uses EXQUISITE VOCABULARY ...
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Mandy138 reviews
Julie Andrews Edwards
Harper & Row Publishers, 1971
Much better than "The Secret Garden"
This book reminds me a lot of "The Secret Garden" without being quite as preachy and overly descriptive. My two daughters absolutely love this book and consider it one of their favorites.
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII129 reviews
Alison Weir
Grove Press, 1991
Impressive book, riveting story
What I liked most about this book is also what since distresses me most about films circulating on this topic. Weir so thoroughly researches the profusion of biographic material available (besides Britain, courts throughout Europe had documention on the wives of Henry and him) that it is clear there is no need to fictionalise this fascinating story (you wouldn't even try to imagine it). And ...
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All Creatures Great and Small106 reviews
James Herriot
G K Hall & Co, 1973
Just as relavent now...
Wonderful and inspiring stories of a country vet are humorously written but also deliver a good amount of practical veterinary insight. It's nice to read from the point of view of a kind-hearted yet practical country animal lover.
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The Sunne in Splendour139 reviews
Sharon Kay Penman
Henry Holt & Co, 1982
Plantagenet tragedy
Autumn 1459. A seven year-old boy gets lost in the forest. His easy-going eldest brother has had better things to do than watch over him, that is to say seducing a pretty servant girl. After a prolonged search the lad is found, having bravely fought his fear, and despite being afraid of punishment he doesn't even think of informing against his sibling. A fiercely loyal and earnest boy, he is the ...
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Rebel Angels (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)110 reviews
Libba Bray
Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2006
One of the best sequels
Gemma Doyle has had to face much since she discovered her magic. But her journey is not over. She still has to defeat Circe and find the temple to bind the magic which is now free since the runes were smashed. Circe and the Rakshana are still after her and she does not know who to trust and who to blame. She does not even know if she can trust her dead friend Pippa. Along with all that she still ...
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84 Charing Cross Road95 reviews
Helene Hanff
Random House Audiobooks, 1995
This Book Captured My Heart
In less than one hundred pages, Helene Hanff has given her readers a rare and special gift. Here in this delightful little book are the notes she exchanged with the employees of Marks & Co., a used-book store in England. Being fond of the old-fashioned yet still highly personal act of letter writing, and being equally fond of old books and used-book stores, Hanff seemed to have compiled these ...
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The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Unabridged) 272 reviews
Lawrence Wright
audible.com
Awesome
I wanted to respond to the reviewer who said the Bin Laden of the book wouldn't have denied the 9/11 bombings right after they happened. Remember, he does say in the book that Bin Laden denied the bombings of the East African embassies right after they happened. So I don't think the argument that Wright carefully omitted facts to make Bin Laden into a stock movie villain holds much water. In ...
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Good Night, Mr Tom118 reviews
Michelle Magorian
Tandem Library, 1999
powerful story about family
Timid, scrawny, Willie Beech is the abused child of a single mother. She sends him to Mr. Tom, who lives in the English countryside, because London is being bombed by the Nazis.
The two main adults in this story, the mother and Mr. Tom, seem very similar in the beginning. Yet, by the end, we see that they are completely different. What really hit home was this: hard times can make hard ...
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If Only84 reviews
Geri Halliwell
Dell, 2000
Awesome Book, Awesome Girl!
I bought this book after seeing a spice girls documentary. Even though I wasn't a big fan of the Spice Girls I always found Geri likable and decided to read her book.
The book is awesome. She takes you from her childhood up until she left the band. She and her friends reminded me of my friends and I. The book is very frank, down to earth and fun. I highly recommend reading this one and then ...
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King of the Wind59 reviews
Marguerite Henry
Perfection Learning Prebound, 1990
Late Childhood Should Always Include Books This Special
The Christmas I was nine, I got a boxed set of Marguerite Henry novels and while I loved all of them and read them day and night during the break from school, I think this one goes down as my favorite. A few years after I first read this novel, my family moved and I discovered it was also, by a nice coincidence, one of the favorite books of a girl I met in our new neighborhood, who went on to be ...
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In This House of Brede42 reviews
Rumer Godden
Viking Adult, 1969
I have read this book over 20 times
My first copy of this book was a used paperback that was given to me when I was about 10. I read it and read it until it was falling apart. (I was excited when I found a hardback copy in a used bookstore a few years ago.) To this day, (30 years later) I still love this book. I can pick it up and read it cover to cover, or just open it and read from that chapter. I am not a very spiritual ...
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Slave: My True Story46 reviews
Damien Lewis, Mende Nazer
PublicAffairs, 2004
Taken for Granted Freedom
The story of Mende begins as a young girl growing up in a harsh environment in the mountain region of the Sudan. She is playful, witty, too smart for her own good, somewhat at odds with her mother, and completely enamored by her father. She is loved by her family and culture, and loved back in spite of some harsh rituals (female circumcision) and a harsh environment (dangerous wildlife and at the ...
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Old-Fashioned Girl47 reviews
Louisa May Alcott
Little Brown & Co (Juv), 1969
Simple Good Clean fun
Do you ever feel like you are tied up in our times? Worrying too much about cell phones, fashions, and the latest whatevers? This book can set you straight. It gives you a peace of mind and fills you with simple pleasures.
The stories main character, Polly, we meet at the age of 14. She has come to stay with rich friends for a while. THey do everything so differently from she. The family has ...
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The Complete History of Jack the Ripper62 reviews
Philip Sugden
Robinson Publishing, 1995
The best book on the subject yet written.
Unlike most "Ripperologists," Philip Sugden does not have any pet theories to prove. Therefore, like a good historian, Sugden concentrates only on all the facts of the case as they can be cooberated by the primary sources. Very well written and thoroughly researched, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper not only covers each of the known murders in detail, the book also looks at several other ...
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The Journey Is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon51 reviews
Dan Eldon, Kathy Eldon, 1997
Truly Profound
I bought this book upon it's release in 1997. I can remember allowing the contents of this memoir to captivate me for hours on end. I lent my copy to a friend shortly thereafter and subsequently forgot about it. I recently ordered a replacement and I must say, this book is even more compelling than I ever remembered. Dan Eldon was a profound visionary, an articulate statesman and a devoted ...
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Jane-Emily43 reviews
Patricia Clapp
William Morrow & Co Library, 1969
A classic tale of the supernatural!
Many thanks to the publishers who deemed it time to reissue this classic tale of the supernatural by Patricia Clapp. Imagine my delight when I saw the book at a local bookstore, after all these years! I have been relying on my local library all this time [a dog-eared copy that has been lovingly taken care of]whenever I've felt a desire to re-read this timeless ghost story.
For those unfamiliar ...
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Nineteen Eighty-Four62 reviews
George Orwell
Plume, 2003
Unbelieveable
When I read this book I saw a snapshot of what is actually happening today. How ironic someone would have know this was going to happen so many years ahead of time.Excellent reading and I don't normally read fiction.
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The Perilous Gard69 reviews
Elizabeth Marie Pope, Richard J Cuffari
Houghton Mifflin, 2001
My intro to the Tam Lin legend
One of the things I like about this book is that it manages to retain an archaic feeling without sounding fake (you know, the type of dialogue that sounds like a bunch of college students roleplaying). Pope's choice of using modern language for the dialogue doesn't spoil the setting at all, whereas trying to force readers to jump back and forth between Elizabethan dialogue and modern narration ...
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