IPhone 3G used's review (Lots of details but too biased) 『This book about Athénais-Françoise de Montespan, Mistress of Louis XlV left me slightly annoyed. It has a wealth of details about the life and customs under the reign of Louis XIV, but I didn't like the snooty, hoity-toity writing tone of Lisa Simpson-she let too much her british snobbery get in the way of her writing.
The other thing that annoyed me is, although I am fascinated by Madame de Montespan, I found the author way too biased in her descriptions: Athenais the goddess, Athenais the good mother, Athenais innocent from poisoning her rivals, Athenias versus the "haughty and imperious" Madame de Maintenon... Our heroine was not exactly an innocent nor examplary type. Lisa Hilton makes things look as if everybody is bad, wrong and pathetic except her subject.
This said, although I enjoyed the pictures and the many details, I was disappointed by the bad writing of the author. I'd recommend the book of Pierre Combescot Les Petites Mazarines or the Memories of the Princesse Palatine, Madame (sister-in-law of the King), for a more accurate and nuanced view of the marquise de Montespan.』
『The reign of Athenais de Montespan as principal mistress of Louis XIV corresponds with the most glorious period of the Grand Siecle. Athenais was "the true Queen of France", symbol of a dazzling French culture in the 17th century. As a lover, she risked the disgrace of double adultery to conduct an affair which scandalized Europe; as a patron she supported many of the leaders of the cultural renaissance including Moliere and Racine; as a mother she is the ancestor of most of the royal houses of Europe. The greatest beauty of her day, Athenais lived her life publicly and sensationally until accusations of witchcraft forced her from power in the "Affair of the Poisons", a mystery which remains unsolved. She fascinates not only because she achieved power at a time when it was denied to most women, but because she achieved that power through her manipulation of a prescribed role. This biography explores her life and influence.』 fetish『 THE QUEEN'S CAPTAIN 』
Margaret Hope
Kakaku：499 saved$4.99
Aladdin
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (crime in the queen's court) 『I have 22 nancy drew mysterys and this is the best of all』
(The BEST!) 『This is the best Nancy Drew book I have ever read and I have read a lot! Put this on the top of your reading list even if you hate reading. IT's that good!』
(Really, really GOOD.) 『The mystery is very good and Carolyn gives you no clue as to who is spoiling the show or why. One of the best.』
(If you love Nancy Drew, you'll love this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 『This book was one of the best books in the series. ( At least I did.) This book was full of surprise's. The list of suspect's keeps on growing.』 『When Nancy Drew joins the troupe of an Elizabethan festival that comes to River Heights, she discovers that the entire festival is a target for sabotage, and she must uncover a devious plot.』
Kakaku：160 saved$1.60
Mariner Books
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (a delight) 『I had this collection of short stories thrust on me by one of my favorite ex-students when I was complaining that "there was nothing new good to read". She told me to stop whining&give it a try&I am VERY glad that she did. From the funny-but-heart-wrenching title piece to the wonderful portrait of Darwin in heaven (he is doing just fine until he is joined by a totally Tiggerish Richard Feynman!) Whitty never misses a beat. I read the whole book in one sitting&am waiting for more with some impatience. These are short stories for Thinking People who still have a sense of humor!』
(Amazing new writer!) 『A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga is that rarest of birds: a first collection of short stories that educates as well as entertains. Whitty's extensive familiarity with the natural world make each one of these stories sprout from the page and root in the mind like well-tended plants. From Antartica to Africa to Tonga Whitty carefully guides us through subtle dramas where flora, fauna, and homosapiens try to co-exist in a world that is both sad and almost unbearably hopeful. A wondrous find.』
(smashing) 『wow! I loved this book. Julia Whitty is an artist. She paints these lush, passionate, mysterious gems. I found her weaving of nature, characters and story telling so compelling I couldn't put it down until the end----and even then I didn't want the spell to be broken. She is so orginial and so touching. Please, somebody tell me she has another book coming out soon.』
(smashing) 『wow! I loved this book. Julia Whitty is an artist. She paints these lush, passionate, mysterious gems. I found her weaving of nature and chacters and story telling so compelling. I couldn't put it down until the end and even then I didn't want the spell to be broken. She is so orginial and so touching. Please, somebody tell me she has another book coming out soon!』
(Novel readers will love these short stories!) 『I read novels and non-fiction, I don't like short stories and rarely read them. Well . . . that was true untill I picked up Julia Whitty's short story collection, A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga. What caught my eye was the title (being a tortoise lover all my life) but what captured my intrest and kept me reading was Whitty's unusual weave of people, animals and beautifully rendered scenes of exotic places. Whether viewing ice age art in a French cave with The Story of the Deep Dark or under the Antartic ice cap with Jimmy Under Water, I was so completely involved with the stories that I didn't want them to end. These ten stories with Whitty's unique outlook on life and nature have captured my heart and introduced me to fantastic short story writing. I look forward to her next collection and hopefully a novel soon.』 『Bringing a unique perspective and a singular voice to contemporary fiction, A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA features lush, poignant stories about the natural world. Here are mammals, historical figures, everyday people who discover the liberating properties of memory and knowledge in the face of captivity and loneliness. We meet a forlorn tortoise forced to live among humans. We witness orcas at Ocean World staging a revolt, using celibacy as their weapon. In a French cave, a young computer animator draws parallels between Cro-Magnon and modern women. One story even travels to heaven, where Charles Darwin seeks the source of human happiness. Whitty joins her authority about wildlife and her rich imagination to spectacular effect. Drawing on twenty years' experience with making nature documentaries, she takes readers inside the minds of animals and people struggling to overcome their limitations. In a voice as magical as it is informed, A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA bridges the mythical and the mundane, the animal and the human. Julia Whitty is a brilliant new storyteller in American short fiction.』
Kakaku：359 saved$3.59
Hal Leonard Corporation
Usually ships in 24 hours 『18 bass transcriptions, including: Another One Bites the Dust¥ Bicycle Race ¥ Bohemian Rhapsody ¥ Crazy Little Thing Called Love ¥ Killer Queen ¥ Under Pressure ¥ We Are the Champions ¥ YouÕre My Best Friend ¥ and more.』
Kakaku：3495 saved$34.95
The National Archives Press
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. IPhone 3G used's review (Mary Tudor - a fresh look at a much hated Queen) 『David Loades wrote a biography of Queen Mary Tudor fifteen years ago. His earlier work has been revised and looked at afresh in this biography written for National Archives in the UK. His biography has been based primarily on original documents about Mary in the archives - and many of these have been reproduced in this publication as well. Its something that serious historical authors used to do in earlier centuries and its actually welcome to see the practice return as a way of preserving this information if the original is ever lost (and that happened quite a bit).
Loades has come to some unusal conclusions about Mary with a fresh look at her life - but I would also say that this is a very balanced assement of this woman who lived though a bitter divorce and the overthrow of all she loved in her youth. If you have an interest in Mary Tudor this book is one you should pick up.
Bloody Mary 』
(Some clarification...) 『David Loades is an authority on Mary Tudor and a fine author. Just a point of clarification on the earlier review, however; the first reviewer confuses Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart, two very different rulers. Mary Tudor was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and the only surviving child of Catherine of Aragon. She succeeded to the throne in 1553 after her brother Edward VI and died in 1558. She has indeed been criticized for what many consider her overzealous push to return England to Catholicism, but in her defense, she was doing what she thought was right.
On the other hand, Mary Stuart was the cousin of Elizabeth I (who was in turn the younger sister of Mary Tudor and daughter of Anne Boleyn) and was the one ultimately beheaded during Elizabeth I's reign in 1587. It should be noted that Elizabeth I herself was briefly imprisoned by Mary I (Mary Tudor) but was released unharmed.
This is a fascinating period of history and this book is a good starting point to learn more about Mary Tudor's brief and sad reign. Mary Stuart's life is also very interesting and Amazon carries several good biographies on her as well.』
(An articulate and very highly recommended work of impeccable scholarship) 『There have been many biographies of Mary Tudor, the British contender against Elizabeth I for the throne of England. History being largely written by the winners, Mary Tudor became notorious for her lethal persecution of the Protestants, her unceasing efforts to deliver Britain to the Catholics, the loss of Calais to the fledgling British empire, and her decades long struggle to gain control of Britain that was to result in years of confinement by Queen Elizabeth and her eventual death at the headsman's axe at an advanced age. In "Mary Tudor: The Tragical History of The First Queen Of England", historian David Loades (Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wales and an Associate of the Centre for Early Modern History at the University of Oxford) fully explores the dimensions of a complex life in a time of political volatility, religious wars, male domination of government, royal marriages for political advantages, personal devoutness, and a woman who was in many ways stronger than any of the men with whom she associated in her quest for royal power and Catholic supremacy. "Mary Tudor" is an articulate and very highly recommended work of impeccable scholarship that should be a part of every academic library British History&Royal Biography reference collection and supplemental reading list.』 『Although achieving notoriety as the persecutor of Protestants, Mary I of England had to contend with great personal, religious and dynastic stress. Her mother, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, fell from grace while Mary was still young, and her own future seemed bleak. Her eventual reign and its tortuous lead-up were set against the political and religious confusion that Henry VIII bequeathed to his kingdom. Despite this, Mary established the precedents for queenly power that her 'glorious' half sister and dynastic competitor Elizabeth could later exploit. David Loades, one of the UK's leading experts on Mary, provides the full personal and political story behind the queen. Her steeliness belied an emotional fragility, and her doomed marriage to the King of Spain threatened the peace of the realm. Original documents, letters and color illustrations combine with the text to make an absorbing historical journey.』
Kakaku：2995 saved$29.95
University of California Press
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Mediocre mystery) 『AB&the Queen of Spades is a serviceable but not terribly engrossing mystery--a fast read for the plane if you couldn't find anything better. I picked it up because I love San Francisco in the Gilded Age and I enjoy historical mysteries. After a strong start, I found a surprisingly flat book. Hall doesn't really do much with his setting except describe it, and his characters and plot are weak.
I was unable to get interested in Bierce, who after a vivid first appearance does very little (all of it predictable) until he announces the solution to the assembled cast at the end. Tom Redmond, his idealistic and energetic sidekick, is more intriguing, but his love interest is never a believable character, and there's an lot of heavy-handed dialogue. Too much information about the railroad robber barons also bogs down the story.
A few flashes made me think Hall might once have been a better writer than this book reveals, but he doesn't seem interested in making the events meaningful to the reader or even creating suspense. Midway through I stopped caring about the mystery, but I would have given the book another star if its resolution hadn't been both wildly improbable and a triple-whammy cliché.
The real problem with this book is that others have done it better elsewhere. Karen Joy Fowler's novel Sister Noon brings the same setting to vivid life with a fraction of Hall's they-wear-this-type-of-hat details; her incisive writing brings greater insight to some of the same figures and events (notably the Sharon trial and the infamous Mary Ellen Pleasant), as well as race relations. On the historical mystery front, there are many more satisfying; my bet would be Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January books, set in New Orleans in the 1830s. Hambly uses the cultural clashes between American frontiersmen, an older colonial culture, and a minority underclass to great effect, and makes the question of whether the city's corruption will allow the guilty to be punished as suspenseful as the whodunit--two things Hall has every chance to do and never attempts.
If you're fascinated by Ambrose Bierce, the book would be worth reading, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone else.』
(MARVELOUS HISTORICAL FICTION) 『Oakley Hall is easily one of the finest authors of historical fiction -- and historical mysteries -- in the publishing world. Too many writers who produce a series based on the same character quickly run out of fresh stories, fresh images, fresh characters. Hall never seems to rush or compromise in the marvelous Ambrose Bierce series, and the Queen of Spades is one of his best. The best mystery writers -- Raymond Chandler, Caleb Carr, Dashiell Hammett, Walter Moseley -- are able to create portraits of a people and an era that are as compelling -- often much more so -- than any historian. Hall's portrayal of Victorian-era San Francisco, its sophistication and barbarity, its charms and horrors, are seamless and masterful. I think he strikes as perfect a balance between history, plot, and character as any writer I have ever read. The use of Ambrose Bierce as the intellectual guide to the series' protagonist and narrator, the ambitious, puglistic young reporter, Tom Redmond, may be the finest coup. I find myself wanting more and more of the brilliant Bierce. The fact that Hall is able to write "Bitter" Bierce with the same acerbic humor and scathing insight with which Bierce himself wrote is an extraordinary achievement. Bravo, Mr. Hall, may Redmond and Bierce continue on their marvelous journeys through one of the most fascinating cities and periods in history.』
(Please don't compare this with The Alienist) 『To start, I liked this book, but not as much as I hoped to like it. It is a nice historical mystery, but it is not in the league of The Alienist, a work to which it is often compared. The narrator, Tom Redmond, is a likeable character, but just as he is confused with the many characters in this mystery, so is the reader.
The story searches for the Morton Street Slasher, but the reader who wants a plot similar to the Alienist (which follows the trail of the killer) will be disappointed to learn that this book is more about mining and railroad politics than the search for a killer. If you are interested in the backroom politics of San Francisco in the 1870's or really love the wit of Ambrose Bierce, then you'll probably love this book ... if you're like me, and you like Ambrose Bierce's dark humor but could do without the smoke-filled rooms, then you'll just find it an interesting diversion.』
(Entertaining, informative hystery\mistory) 『This book tells the story of young Tom Redmond, apprentice to the famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) Ambrose Bierce. Redmond and Bierce try to track down a Ripper-style killer of prostitutes and unravel a mystery that has ties to the California Gold Rush and the Railroad boom in California. All in all, the history is good (and you'll probably learn a good bit if you know nothing about mining or railroads) and the mysteries provide a nice little puzzle. Despite the title, Bierce is not the main character, Redmond is, and he's quite an interesting, well-developed and sympathetic one. Bierce is kind of a secondary character, although the book is peppered with his acerbic, sarcastic thinking (one of the things I enjoyed most of all, actually). This book is less Holmes-and-Watson than Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, which is a more satisfying arrangement, I think. I enjoyed it and I think most people who like historical mysteries will enjoy it also.』
(Ambrose Bierce, writer, curmudgeon, detective?) 『Using Ambrose Bierce as the detective in this mystery novel set in 1880's San Francisco is a clever concept. Acerbic and fiercely intelligent, Bierce makes a good protagonist. Told from the perspective of a young reporter, Ambrose Bierce and The Queen of Spades may be a bit convoluted as a mystery but as a look at a California that was in the control of the railroad industry it excels. Starting each chapter with a selection of Bierce's Devil's Dictionary sets the tone for the book well, and this a solid addition to the historical mystery genre.』 『The Morton Street Slasher has been leaving the corpses of his victims around San Francisco's Union Square. On the women's naked bodies are spade playing cards. The city's infamous newspaperman, Ambrose Bierce, blames the rash of murders on his old enemy, the Southern Pacific Railroad. A naive reporter at Bierce's Hornet pursues the case, uncovering conspiracy at every turn. In a fast-paced novel that is a combination of murder mystery, historical fiction, and quirky biography, Oakley Hall draws the reader into 1880s San Francisco and the changing world that was California in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Local and state politics, the exploitation of the Chinese, the power of the mining and railroad barons, and San Francisco's colorful history provide a backdrop for this irresistible thriller. The novel's chapters are introduced by appropriate excerpts from Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary and narrated by the young reporter Tom Redmond. Redmond is interested in the murders because of his attraction to a woman threatened by the Slasher, and Bierce encourages him because of his personal vendetta against the Big Four of the Railroad. Bierce's misogyny is an influence as well, which Hall uses to advantage in portraying the enigmatic journalist. Hall knows his territory and his characters well. The sights and smells of late- nineteenth-century California are cleverly evoked, and the story's key players are refreshingly authentic. Bierce brandishes his famed cynicism with all the aplomb of the sharp-eyed, sharp-witted newspaperman he was. Cameo appearances by such California worthies as Ina Coolbrith and Joaquin Miller add to the novel's historical richness. Intelligent, gripping, and often quite funny, Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades will satisfy any reader who craves adventure, mystery, romance, and fine writing.』
大満足！北国のホタテ・いくら・ボタンエビがぎっしり！
