『Poetess, fallen woman and wit, Laetitia Pilkington spent her life as close to fame as she was near to ruin. Favoured by, among others, the newly celebrated Jonathan Swift in Ireland in the 1730s, she collected the stories and developed the brazen femininity that would be her only currency in London a decade later. Divorced by her husband after she was exposed as an adulteress, she led a life of precarious self-sufficiency. Through humour and intelligence - and her skilful use of scandal, most notably in her Memoirs - she survived on the very fringes of respectability. Norma Clarke's hugely rich and enjoyable biography tells of a woman determined to be known as a writer on equal terms with men - in spite of Swift's dismissal of her as 'the most profligate whore in either kingdom'. It brings to life a remarkable character, who embodied the scandal, energy and sadness of a time when literature, gossip and the lives they described were inseparable.』 fetish『 Alex Haley's Queen 』
『 Roots: The Saga of an American Family 』
『 Alex Haley's Queen 』
『 A Different Kind of Christmas 』
『 Mama Flora's Family 』
『 The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley 』
Alex Haley,David Stevens
Kakaku：3494 saved$34.94
Pan Books
IPhone 3G used's review (Interesting story of a peculier situation) 『Ethnic novels really are not my thing. But this one had me interested after seeing pictures in a book on the civil war titled 'Slave Children of New Orleans' featuring mostly mixed race children of near caucasion appearence I became curious about them. Having read a great deal of the civil war there really isn't that much. So when I found this book I quickly took to reading it.
The main character is what is called 'A child of the plantation', the offspring of a slave owner and a slave woman the product not of love but of exploitation who are so casually discarded as to be a disgrace. In the beginning, she is very naive and optimistic. Regrettably, life doesn't treat her that well.
An interesting story. Admittedly I would have done things different but since this one is based on fact I can't rightly complain. I liked reading about the main character and how she was treated by all parties. Certainly I do not like that she was mistreated by many. Her ability to move among white circles was interesting only when her heritage is revealed do things get bad which disgusts me.
Overall, I take people at face value and wish everyone else would do the same. People should be judged by their behavior rather than by pseudo scientific nonsence.』
(Excellent!) 『This is one of the best books I've read in my life. Alex Haley was such a skilled writer. "Queen" deals with many harsh facts of the antebellum South without becoming vulgar. It is also an inspiring tale of an American family.
One of my complaint with "Queen" is the blatant misuse and fabrication of facts by David Stephens, who finished Alex Haley's posthumus masterpiece. The writing of Mr. Stephens also doesn't measure up to that of Haley. While it is a great book as it stands, I wish I could see what this book would be if Haley had been alive to complete it.』
(The parts written by Alex Haley are good.) 『This book is a travesty. The guy who wrote it isn't even American. He plays fast and loose with historical facts. The potato famine is in the wrong century. Napoleon invades Ireland before he even rose to power. There are at least two chapters that are totallly irrelevant. Why does he feel the need to give us a history lesson on Andrew Jackson and the Indian removal? Does he think the Indian removal and slavery are the same issue? On the other hand, the parts written by Alex Haley are exceptional. It is very easy to pick out which parts Alex Haley wrote. They are well-written and historically based. It is just such a shame that Mr. Stevens was allowed to add to Alex's work. Mr. Stevens cannot not write anything but cheap, historical romance. He should be writing for Harlequin, instead of, ruining the work of a great American writer.』
(A triumphant story of hope and glory.) 『Alex Haley&Dave Stevens' QUEEN is a rare gem---the story of an american family that touches many lives. Queen is the main focus of the book but her story spans past&future generations from Ireland to America. Some of the characters are tragic but all have hope for a better tomorrow. The heartbreak of Easter's love for her "master", Queen being taught to read by her grandpa and the Haley family's quest to get a better education for their youngest son are just some of the heartbreaking stories in this novel. I enjoyed the book very much and I now hope to finally read ROOTS.』
(Come Up With Serene Responses to Today's Suttle Racism) 『I just finished reading this book, this morning. And, I read "Roots," 2 weeks ago. In both of these books, I was able to vicariously be there, and emotionally travel with each person in these stories.
And it gave me a sense of peace that I had not had before about being African-American. It helped me to come up with the most empowering responses to not only suttle racism from Euro-Americans, but also suttle responses to African-Americans who seem to be bound by expecting to just get by (who also believe that empowered African-Americans somehow owe them endless worthiness).
To me, even though this book is titled "Queen," it has many stories: politics; narcissism; racism; boys growing into manhood; belonging; the price of not having someone to verbalize your pains to; and, how whites turned their outrage over their motherland into what drove them to do the same to blacks, in this country.
During the entire time that I was reading these 2 books, as I conducted my day to day responsibilities, I felt like I had a secret weapon against being held back. And I saw things that I might not have seen before in what I could do to turn suttle racism into my opportunity to expect mutual respect between myself and my interlocutor.
I recommend this book, and "Roots" to any who is looking for a means to grow beyond your wildest expectations. You will cry with these stories, laugh, and feel every possible emotion, knowing that you are breathing new life into your life.』 『Opening in Ireland, this book follows the author's family history from his great-great-grandfather, James Jackson to Queen, his grandmother. James Jackson was sent to the US from Ireland and there his son and a slave, Easter, had a daughter - Queen, Alex Haley's grandmother.』
Kakaku：1595 saved$15.95
Osprey Publishing
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Armies of 19th Century Africa) 『This Osprey volume covers a somewhat miscellaneous collection of enemies faced by Britain in the mid-late 19th Century from Egypt to Kenya, notable among them being the fearsome Asantes, the Abyssinians, and the fanatical Muslim Madhists, as well as some minor tribes and the following of the rebel Egyptian leader Ahmed 'Urabi.
The text provides good coverage of the often inadequate arms of these peoples as well as their respective fighting styles, and the how's and when's of their surpressions. The color plates particularly impressed me as well, being very life-like and colorful.』 『The British Army in Queen Victoria's reign fought a series of regional campaigns against various African groups with complex military traditions well-suited to their environment. In many instances, the outcome of the ensuing fighting was by no means one-sided. This book focuses on the large-scale wars in northern Africa in which British regular troops were engaged throughout the 19th century, including those in Abyssinia, Asante, Egypt and the Sudan. Containing a number of rare contemporary photographs and eight colour plates, the book charts the history of these campaigns and describes the African groups against which they were waged.』
Kakaku：659 saved$6.59
The History Press
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Good Book for a fan of European royals..) 『I only knew Queen marie to be a Grand daughter of Queen victoria and whate ever I read in the wikipedia. But this book made me realise what an extraordinery person she is.』
(A little self congratulatory but still interesting) 『The autobiography of Marie, Queen of Romania, is well written, but somewhat florid and self congratulatory in its attempts to describe her feelings about events, particularly her appointment as the "face of Romania" at the Paris talks that brought the end of world war one in 1919. Her style is best when she is most lacking in self consciousness. Her estimates of the various players at the peace conference are penetrating and probably correct. Certainly her description of the war torn countryside of Europe through which she passed are graphic and emotionally moving visions.
The book is probably most charming in its depiction of the family relationships within her own immediate household and in her extended family. The characterizations, especially of Edward and Queen Mary of England, provide a much more intimate picture of the royal family than most biographical and historical works are able to do.
That this is significant to an understanding of the period is very evident when one realizes how throughly interrelated were all of the royal families of Europe. For them, the world war was not just a political issue, it was a family feud. Most of the contenders, with the exception of the United States, were countries lead by various descendants of Queen Victoria. In short, almost everyone on both sides of the conflict were cousins, aunts, uncles, even parents. That the conflict lead to emotional agony for many is certain, as the account of Maries' last meeting with her mother Alexandra shows. The authoress herself realizes that the world has changed, that her mother has little place in it, and at the end of her own life, that she herself has little place in it.
What she doesn't seem to realize is that the war was actually the death knell of the monarchical form of government and lifestyle as it had been practiced. Hereditary rule was being replaced by other ways of selecting governors. Marie's amusement over the American volunteers and their curiosity about a "real" queen reveals this blinkered point of view. Her use of the terms "peasants" in respect to the rural population of her country and her patronizing attitude toward them reveals the pitfalls into which this ancient form of government was headed and into which the Russian branch of "the Family" had already fallen.
That Queen Marie was still functioning in the ancient mode of monarchy herself is apparent by the pride with which she recounts the connections she arranged for her children with other royal houses, arrangements which would hardly last much past her own life. The photo of the "Three Queens and the Infante of Spain"--Marie, two of her daughters and her younger sister Beatrice--is a little sad. The emotionally drained, almost tragic face of Beatrice, already facing issues in Spain, is virtually a prophecy for the three smiling queens in the future. Knowing as one does the end of the story, one can hardly be unmoved by the tender family scene the photo portrays: the last happy days.
One has the sense that the lady was enough aware of world affairs and of the ways of the world to know already at the end of her life that Europe was again headed for a major war. Though she probably penned these last memoirs to preserve them from her son Carol II's interference, she probably also wrote them as a coda for the war through which she herself had lived and in which she had taken an active part.
She certainly seems to have been abundantly aware of the failings of the 1919 peace accords even as they were being pounded out and signed. Most who study the two world wars as history congratulate themselves over seeing that the seeds of the second were sown in the first; but then, hindsight is 20-20. For the Queen, however, this knowledge was foresight. It was as if she alone could see, at the very beginning, that Europe had set itself up for a second great war by its own unwillingness to forgive.
This is perhaps the very point at which the change in the political intellect changed. The cardinal point at which Monarchy died and Democracy/Socialism begins. The family feud was settled by outsiders, so-to-speak, making punishment and reparation the rules of the day. Family cannot afford to do this. Family must remember that it depends on all of its members, that it has interests in common, that hurt feelings have to be addressed. Democracy/Socialism knows no "feelings." Rule by the Demos-Athens aside-is a relatively new phenomenon, and it still has to struggle to learn what thousands of years of monarchy had learned the hard way. Marie is painfully aware that the terms of the peace agreement would not work, that it would cause anger and hate, and ultimately war. The years of peace were only going to be a period of catching political breath before the fight began again in ernest and with more ferocity. The so-called Great War would just be round one.
My only complaint is that the authoress did not describe more events and more people. Much of the book is a repetitious self congratulation, an awareness of her place in history. This leads to saying the same thing in a dozen different ways which I found frustrating. The prose style moves along more smoothly when the author is focusing on others and events. Admittedly the book is an autobiography and the author a queen not a jounalist, but it could have used more focus. She doesn't really hit her stride until about a third of the way through the book, but by the final chapter one is wanting to hear more.
』 『Synopsis The granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania was one of the most brilliant monarchs of the twentieth century. She distinguished herself not only during the years of the First World War through her charity activities or through her informal political-diplomatic effort, but also because she was a gifted writer. This recently discovered last volume of her memoirs, entitled Later Chapters of My Life - long believed to have been destroyed - covers the period following the First World War, the economic recovery, and the new political configuration in reunited Romania. The 1919 Peace Conference - at which she informally represented the country's interests, meeting Clemenceau, Poincare and Hoover, Queen Marie's informal visits to Paris and London, where she stayed with George V and Queen Mary, and her visit in Transylvania, are broadly depicted in these lost chapters. The memoirs also contain other details about the royal family, her last meeting with her mother, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, in Switzerland, the first parliament of Greater Romania, social reconstruction, the charity activities co-ordinated by the queen, and the Coronation (1922).』
Kakaku：399 saved$3.99
Cherry Lane Music
Usually ships in 24 hours 『Songs for the Deaf, QOTSA's third release, is widely regarded as one of the best rock records of 2002. Our matching songbook features transcriptions with tab for every note emanating from the axe of the great Josh Homme on all 14 songs: Another Love Song * Do It Again * First It Giveth * Go with the Flow * God Is in the Radio * Gonna Leave You * Hangin' Tree * Millionaire (You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar but I Feel like a Millionaire) * Mosquito Song * No One Knows * Six Shooter * The Sky Is Falling * Song for the Dead * Song for the Deaf. (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)』
Kakaku：699 saved$6.99
Leisure Books
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Augusta Tabor, the first Silver Queen) 『Augusta Pierce has her eyes set on Horace Tabor, a Vermont master stone mason hired by her father, from the first moment she sees him. Left behind when he goes to Kansas to shore up the abolitionist movement, Augusta misses him terribly. His letters seem formal and intent on decreasing her fears for his safety as the the abolitionist and pro-slavery forces make Kansas the political battleground. When Horace (nicknamed "Haw") returns from Kansas to marry Augusta, she moves from being a daughter to an independent woman who faces the hardships of trying to settle a home in Kansas. Determined to make a success of this new venture and her marriage, Augusta faces fear and hardship with resoluteness, thriftiness and creativity. When rumors of gold reach her husband's ears, Augusta followed him to Colorado. Alone most of the time while her husband is out prospecting, Augusta Tabor provides the stable force within the family, running a store and pinching pennies, the very pennies her husband wants to give away to all those who ask. When Horace is elected mayor of Leadville and one of his schemes hits paydirt in Colorado's Silver Boom, suddenly their life changes forever. Whereas their life had been a battle against the elements with poverty always a step away, now the Tabors are among the richest people in Colorado. Augusta is now the wife of Colorado's Lieutenant Governor. With unlimited power and wealth, Haw Tabor sets himself on a path that leads to a shocking scandal, a scandal that will test Augusta to the very depths and threaten everything she worked so hard to attain.
In THE SILVER QUEEN, Jane Candia Coleman presents the life of Augusta Tabor, the First Lady of Leadville, Colorado from her early youth in Maine to her arrival in Pasadena, California in 1895. An epilogue set in Leadville, Colorado in 1935 rounds out the last details of the cast of characters. The narrative centers on the Tabor family's life in Kansas in the build-up to the Civil War, the boom and bust cycles of Colorado's gold rush and silver boom, and the Tabor family's political life in Denver as scandal and the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act bring another turn to the Tabor family's life. Winner of several Western awards and a multiple Pulitzer prize nominee, Jane Candia Coleman narrates one of Colorado's most fascinating high profile historical families through the eyes of the lesser recorded figure of Augusta Tabor, the first woman in Colorado's silver-mining camps. THE SILVER QUEEN provides an insightful look into the pioneer history in Kansas and Colorado with precise details of the era, the stages of mining exploration and development as well the interrelation between Kansas and Colorado history. Without sidetracking from her main focus, Jane Candia Coleman ties regional history into the larger picture of American history of the time.
Based on the memoirs of Augusta Tabor, THE SILVER QUEEN's first person narrative draws readers into the inner thoughts of a woman whose life suddenly changes as she moves from the security and community of her Maine childhood to a harsher Western landscape where independence and inner fortitude are often the difference between poverty and survival. Often alone, Augusta's self-reliance and resiliency inspires within her a sense of creativity to reach out to others' needs and in doing so, she also finds a way to take care of her family. THE SILVER QUEEN chronicles the rags to riches story of the Tabor family through the eyes of the woman behind the man, not only the woman but the lesser known woman. Whereas ballads and operas, and websites galore tell the story of Elizabeth Doe McCourt, also known as "Baby Doe Tabor," Jane Candia Coleman tells the story of Colorado's first Silver Queen. While historians Betty Moynihan in Augusta Tabor: A Pioneering Woman and later works by Evelyn Furman provide intriguing biographical insights into Augusta Tabor and the period, Jane Candia Coleman's first person historical fiction combines historical research and fictional imagination to give readers a look into the inner life of this woman. Set in a time where marriage often defined a woman, THE SILVER QUEEN gives a glimpse into the fortitude of Augusta Tabor not only during the harder financial times, but the most devastating emotional challenges as well. Although modern readers themselves might not make the same decisions today as those made by Augusta Tabor when faced with similar circumstances, Jane Candia Coleman presents an empathetic portrait, highlighting the themes of steadfastness, independence in the face of adversity, compassion for others, and inner strength. THE SILVER QUEEN presents a portrait of a historic pioneer woman who faced difficult challenges and several reversals of fortune, a woman always bold in her taking on of the challenges of the movement West in all its forms.
COURTESY OF BOOK ILLUMINATIONS 』
(superb biographical fiction) 『In the late 1850s Augusta Pierce and Horace "Haw" Tabor marry and leave Maine for the "Bleeding" Kansas Territory. Soon afterward gold is rumored to have been found in the Rockies so Haw with his wife join the "Fifty-Niners" heading to West Kansas Territory. For the next two decades the flexible Tabors make a living in various jobs amongst the silver-mining towns. When they were short cash, Augusta worked the mines alongside Haw; they were a team.
When they finally become the wealthiest couple in the Colorado Territory as Western Kansas is now called, Augusta remains thrifty as she remembers the bad times. On the other hand Haw relishes his affluence flaunting his nouveau riche status and becoming a successful politician. When he meets Elizabeth "Baby Doe" McCourt, he dumps Augusta. Once their divorce is final he marries "Baby Doe". Augusta knows her soul mate dropped her, but she never quits on life; thriving without her Haw at her side.
This is a superb biographical fiction that focuses on the lives of three intriguing individuals who were major regional figures in the latter half of the nineteenth century in Colorado. The prime focus is actually on THE SILVER QUEEN, Augusta; however because much of what occurs happens with Haw and later with Baby Doe, the story line provides a deep look at their triangle. Fans will appreciate this superb Americana as Jane Candia Coleman writes an insightful look at three strong obstinate people.
大満足！北国のホタテ・いくら・ボタンエビがぎっしり！
