| |
|
The Living Is Easy 5 reviews
Dorothy West
Ayer Co Pub, 1969
Brilliantly written!
I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wedding" but "The Living is Easy" is brilliant. Cleo is excellently portrayed....the kind of person that you want to hate but you can't help but admire her determination to attain her goal. Dorothy West skillfully reveals to us the inner woman of Cleo and we see that she is not so cold-hearted but has her share of hurt, pain, vulnerability etc. Her way of dealing with ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Saga of the Jomsvikings (Select Bibliographies Reprint)7 reviews
Ayer Co Pub, 1955
A tale of great courage.
This was only my second saga so I can't really compare it to many others. Having said that, this is a great saga to start out with. As expressed in previous reviews, "The Testing of the Jom'svikings" (chapter 23) is a great example of courage; men are able to face death completely void of all apparent fear, without so much as flinching at the blow of the sword. The excitement level is kept up ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Short Story Index Reprint Series)8 reviews
Montague Rhodes James
Ayer Co Pub, 1977
First collected stories of M. R. James
The ghost stories of M.R. James (MRJ) are widely considered to be the best supernatural literature ever written. "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" was his first collection of short stories to be published (Arnold 1904) and is a fine introduction to this chilling, scholarly author. However, you might want to spend a bit more money and buy the "The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James." If ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
My Bondage and My Freedom. (American Negro: His History & Literature)7 reviews
Frederick Douglass
Ayer Co Pub, 1968
One Man's Journey; Inspiration for a Nation
Standing in line at the Lincoln Memorial, a book beckoned to me that I previously hadn't seen before. The face of Frederick Douglas grabbed my attention; a man that I've respected for many years, encountering him mainly through my study of Abraham Lincoln. On the spur of the moment, I snatched up a copy of "My Bondage and My Freedom", and within a few days, my admiration in Frederick Douglass was ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Lord of the World (Science Fiction Series)9 reviews
Robert Hugh Benson
Ayer Co Pub, 1975
The Last of All
R.H. Benson wrote two mystical visions of the future. _The Dawn of All_ is an extremely romantic and improbable 1911 parable of a 1971 world mostly Catholic and at peace, ready for the Second Coming. _The Lord of the World_ came first, in 1907, and was a darker vision. A world of flying craft, major scientific advances, and comfort has become a place of materialist despair. Euthanasia is ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Mrs. Craddock (The works of W. Somerset Maugham)5 reviews
W. Somerset Maugham
Ayer Co Pub, 1976
A Neglected Masterwork
W. Somerset Maugham has long existed somewhat on the periphery of literary and critical respectability: "a first-rate second-rater," someone once called him. But the more I read Maugham the more I become convinced that this is a snobbish appraisal, derived perhaps from his extraordinary popular success (if it's popular, it can't be good) and, later, from revelations regarding his homosexuality ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (The collected works of Arnold Bennett)8 reviews
Arnold Bennett
Ayer Co Pub, 1976
When it comes to self-help books, quality dilutes with time
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution first in England and then quickly following in America, more and more of the workforce transitioned into what we call white-collar jobs, where the workplace was outside and often far from the home. Because these new jobs more reflected our modern 21st-century jobs, in which the work was tedious, repetitive and the ambiguous results not always readily ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz7 reviews
Gisella Perl
Ayer Co Pub, 1948
Explicit in detail and horror
Dr. Perl wrote skillfully and with clarity of the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. Auschwitz was pergatory and Bergen Belsen was hell. She told it just as it was with very little digression into unrelated subject matter. As Matt stated in his review...she writes as a surgeon, always cutting to the core of the story she had to relate. I must agree that this is one of the very finest books ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America5 reviews
Banastre Tarleton
Ayer Co Pub, 1968
Authenic behaviour of British Dragoons in 18th Cent. Amer.
The style of the antique font is most appealing to devotees of British Militaria. It is though one is reading the dispatches from "Bloody Bana" himself. This is the point of view never learned in America. If you enjoyed "The Patriot" you will enjoy this book. Refers in the 1st part to Major Patrick Ferguson, the inventor of the Ferguson Breechloading Flintlock rifle. The descriptions of ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Homeric Hymns (Select Bibliography Reprint Ser.)5 reviews
Homer
Ayer Co Pub, 1972
Ian Myles Slater on: An Established Favorite
The Athanassakis translation of the "Homeric Hymns" -- a somewhat disparate collection of narratives, possible opening invocations for performances of longer poems, and a mix of what seem to be actual religious documents and literary exercises -- displays both literary grace (in the verse-line translations), and scholarly explication (in the introduction, and in the accompanying notes to the ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
As We Go Marching (Right Wing Individualist Tradition in America Ser.)4 reviews
John T. Flynn
Ayer Co Pub, 1972
A Hard Look In The Mirror
"As We Go Marching" is a three-part examination of fascism in Italy (part 1) and Germany (part 2). Part 3 ties things together with an examination of Franklin D. Roosevelt's so-called "New Deal." The book covers periods from the mid-1800's, the time of the respective unification of Italy and Germany, to mid-WWII. Briefly, neither Mussolini nor Hitler laid the foundations, let alone invented, ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom5 reviews
Ellen Craft, William Craft
Ayer Co Pub, 1970
A must read for American history students
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom is a must read for all American history students and should be required reading at least at the high school level. This book gives the reader a first-person view of that "Peculiar Instition" known as slavery and to what lengths one will go to achieve personal freedom. This book will change your view of slavery forever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Diana: A Strange Autobiography (Homosexuality)4 reviews
Diana Frederics
Ayer Co Pub, 1976
Compelling and realistic
This book was originally published in 1935. I was surprised to find that it was an honest, realistic telling of one woman's journey to accepting her orientation and owning love. No sensationalism here. One of the scenes was so startlingly similar to an experience of mine that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise. A lesbian-positive book that really brings forth the idea of authentic ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Superstition in All Ages (The Atheist viewpoint)4 reviews
Jean Meslier
Ayer Co Pub, 1972
Atheist Masterpiece
First of all, this work was not written by Jean Meslier, and the real title is not "Superstition In All Ages." In reality, this work is Baron d'Holbach's masterpiece, "Good" or "Common Sense." Due to the severe restrictions on the press in the 18th century, d'Holbach published virtually all of his work under the names of famous dead people. Amazingly, the only edition of this fine work that ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Life in Ancient Egypt4 reviews
Adolf Erman
Ayer Co Pub, 1940
"Life in Ancient Egypt"ÿ
Adolf Erman did a very fine job on writing this book. It basically covers what it was like to live along the Nile in Ancient times. His writing is very easy to understand and I recommend it to teachers to read to their classes. Unlike some other books, this one does not just talk about the well known pharaohs but some that I have never even heard of. He also includes many special events. This ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Ann of Ava (Biography index reprint series)3 reviews
Ethel Daniel Hubbard
Ayer Co Pub, 1941
Truly Inspiring!
A well written account of the life of an early American woman who set forth with her husband to share her faith with the heathen in Burma; of the devotion of Ann Judson, and her unfailing faith in God through many trials endured in an uncivilized country at the mercy of the very people she went to help and teach; this book is a must read!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
History of Spiritualism (Perspectives in psychical research)4 reviews
Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle
Ayer Co Pub, 1975
The St. Paul of Spiritualism
Besides being the Father of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the St. Paul of Spiritualism. Having become disenchanted with the Roman Catholic faith at an early age, Doyle searched for years, before becoming a convinced Spiritualist. The evidence that convinced him was communication with his son, Kingsley, who died at the end of the great war. This information came through in seances. ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
David Glasgow Farragut: Admiral in the Making (Navies & Men Ser. Reprint of 1941 Volume 1)4 reviews
Charles L. Lewis
Ayer Co Pub, 1980
From Farragut's birth to the Civil War
Using sources ranging from official documents and ship's logs to personal letters and the Farragut family bible, Lewis presents the fascinating true story of David Glasgow Farragut. An officer in the U.S. Navy at the age of 11, he was prizemaster of a captured British whaling ship (and required to put down a mutiny by her former Captain) at age 12! Described by his Commanding Officer as ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Land in California (The Management of public lands in the United States)4 reviews
William W. Robinson
Ayer Co Pub, 1979
Land in California
When W. W. Robinson wrote this history of land titles in California he was employed by Title Insurance and Trust Company in Los Angeles. He was what was referred to as a Titleman, a person trained to research and interpret land ownership and land titles. As a fellow Titleman for over 40 years I have purchased at least 100 copies of this book, which I use as a training aid in the title insurance ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Zone Policeman 88 (American imperialism)4 reviews
Harry A. Franck
Ayer Co Pub, 1970
Excellent account of life & times in the panama Canal zone.
This book was enjoyable reading...but it does not hold a candle to his other works. For his best work read: Vagabonding Down the Andes (Garden City Publishing 1917) and A Vagabond Journey Around the World (The Century Co.
1910) You will probably have to look around for copies of both books...but they're out there.
|
|
|
|
|
|