IPhone 3G used's review (LET THEM EAT CAKE...) 『Victoria Holt was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. A master storyteller, she would consistently weave a story that would have the reader turning the pages. This work of historical fiction is one of her best. Riveting from beginning to end, this fictional autobiographical account of the life of Marie Antoinette is superb. Written in the first person, with little dialogue, it is the rumination of a life that was to end tragically. Pampered, spoiled, and fun loving, the beautiful Maria Antonia of Austria metamorphosed into Marie Antoinette of France upon her marriage to the Dauphin, who would eventually become King of France, the ineffectual, but benign, Louis XVI.
This is her story, grounded in historical fact and set within the framework of history. This work of fiction about the life of Marie Antoinette, as seen through her own eyes, is fascinating, as it captures the flavor of those uncertain times and the events that led to the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy in France. It is a reflection on how Marie Antoinette's own behavior influenced the fate of France. Indulging in the excesses of the day, she initially gave little thought as to how her actions might affect the people of France or the monarchy. By the time she realized that her actions and excesses had wide spread political ramifications, it was too late, and the fate of her and her husband was sealed. No amount of personal regret could change it.
This book will be enjoyed by those who enjoy good, well written historical fiction. It is little wonder that this book spent two months on the New York Times Best Seller List. It is simply historical fiction at its best.』
Kakaku：1500 saved$15.00
Beacon Press
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Required Reading) 『Joan Murray deconstructs the boundary between poetry and science, biography, tourism, history, womens' studies. I am a college instructor and plan on using Murray's book of poems in an essay-writing course next year. She has written a stunning, subtle, believable book and has created a new genre.』
(compelling! murray choreographs language exquisitely!) 『i read murray's poetic and lively journey of annie taylor in one sitting. it was breathtaking, honest and all too real. Taylor was centuries ahead of her time. Her major flaw was that she believed that her feat would transcend gender. Murray's book should be taught in every grammar school so that children of all genders can exerience the world of realizing one's imaginative and so daringly creative forces. RUN OUT AND GET THIS BOOK! I GUARANTEE YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN UNTIL THE LAST GASPING PAGE!』
(compelling! murray choreographs language exquisitely!) 『i read murray's poetic and lively journey of annie taylor in one sitting. it was breathtaking, honest and all too real. Taylor was centuries ahead of her time. Her major flaw was that she believed that her feat would transcend gender. Murray's book should be taught in every grammar school so that children of all genders can exerience the world of realizing one's imaginative and so daringly creative forces. RUN OUT AND GET THIS BOOK! I GUARANTEE YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN UNTIL THE LAST GASPING PAGE!』
(Richly powerful poetry with the pace of an adventure tale.) 『With passion and compassion, Joan Murray gives Annie Taylor a voice and makes her a heroine, a woman of courage, who did what she had to do to survive. My colleague Jack and I both read this book about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and we each read it in a single sitting--very unusual for a book of poetry. But this is an unusually compelling book. Highly recommended.』
(a wonderful and personalinsight of Annie Taylor's life) 『This is a book for all! Joan Murray has put into print what must certainly have been Annie Taylor's innermost thoughts and emotions.』 『The Forgotten Heroine of Niagara
This novel-in-verse tells the fascinating story of Annie Taylor, who, in 1901, became the first person to plunge over the brink of Niagara Falls in a barrel. But as Joan Murray reveals, America didn't know what to do with a mature and self-possessed heroine: Annie Taylor, as an "older woman," was rejected and exploited and finally eclipsed by the man who repeated her stunt ten years later.
"A portrait of a woman so achingly intimate it will linger long in your memory." -Joyce Carol Oates』
Kakaku：2300 saved$23.00
JRP|Ringier
Usually ships in 24 hours 『Most viewers will associate the Swiss artist Olaf Breuning with high-production-value film and photography projects, not low-tech, pointedly handmade work like these sketches. But on a recent trip from England to New York on board the ship The Queen Mary II, he sat down and made 73 direct, powerful and funny drawings. They combine memory with daydream, humor and subversion, and they concentrate the references to media, popular culture, and consumer dreams that appear in his multimedia work. Anthropomorphized lipsticks smile out and cute little mushroom clouds swirl up. So do fireworks, and a "Comfort Dragon" uses his many arms to carry a cell phone, radio, coffeepot and plant. Breuning's solo exhibition venues have included the Swiss Institute and Metro Pictures in New York, as well as other international galleries and museums.』
IPhone 3G used's review (Superb Plaidy Masterpiece!) 『George I has finally died, and George II is proclaimed King and Caroline of Ansbach, his wife, is the Queen. Much to their dismay, almost all of the jewels were given away to the former king's mistresses. In fact, they had to have jewels loaned to them for the coronation ceremony!
Throughout their reign, they bring England back to where is should be, mostly through Caroline and Walpole, the Prime Minister. Caroline hides her illness from her husband and the world. Eventually, when is must be known, the world mourns and her husband declares, "No one is fit to buckle her shoe!"
Jean Plaidy is one of my favorite authors, and whenever I find a book of hers, I get very excited. Not only are they wonderful to read, but they are unfortunately difficult to find. This one is superb, as all the rest of them are, and is an excellent choice.』
(All in the Family) 『In this book, one begins to understand the long history of scandals in the family of Britain's monarchs. Elizabeth II's 'annus horribilis' is not an isolated event but an on-going saga of sexual high jinx and jealousies that have been a part of the British royal family for centuries.
Unlike their German cousins, the British people have an equally long-standing tradition of lampooning and laughing at the follies of their monarchs. Tabloid journalism was alive and well as far back as the early days of the House of Hanover.
The long-suffering Queen Caroline does her duty to the best of her abilities-gently leading her arrogant and insecure husband, George II, into doing the right thing in spite of himself. But the need for a government, independent of the whims and follies of the monarch, is by now most evident. The evolution of power centered in the Prime Minister and Parliament, and the ability of the British people to not take their leaders too seriously, is the reason England ruled a mighty Empire while Germany floundered and fell in two world wars.
Jean Plaidy not only has a gift for making history easy to read, but easy to understand. This book should be read after "Queen in Waiting."』
Kakaku：399 saved$3.99
Purple Bear Books
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (Lovely, But Some Parts Left Out) 『I loved The Snow Queen as a child, and so I bought this version to read to my children. They loved it, and we all found the illustrations beautiful. However, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing, and had to search on the Internet for an unadapted version of the original translation by Mrs. H. P. Paull to confirm my suspicion. Most significantly, the entire conversation that Gerda has with the flowers in the garden is cut out, and while perhaps the plot does not suffer, there is something so mystical in those conversations that I remembered them more than I remembered many other elements of the story. I suspect the editor removed them because of the images of death (the Hindu widow on the pyre, the black dog kicked by the kids on the swing), as a later reference to the death of the black crow who guided Gerda to the prince and princess was also cut out. It annoys me that children's book authors these days feel they have to bend over backwards to shield children from death. I personally believe the more we try to hide death away from them, the harder they will be able to deal with death when they do encounter it. I would have preferred that the editor left the story intact so that I could share it in its entirety with my children.』 『
A magic mirror in which good and evil are hideously distorted breaks, and its tiny pieces fly all over the world. One piece lodges in the eye of a little boy named Kay, transforming his vision. Another pierces his heart, turning it cold as ice. Kay’s playmate Gerda is shocked by the change in her friend, and becomes heartbroken when he disappears. A perilous journey to find Kay takes Gerda to a land locked in ice and snow, where she must outwit the powerful Snow Queen to rescue her beloved friend. The haunting illustrations capture all themystery and magic of Andersen’s longest, most imaginative tale.
Kakaku：2200 saved$22.00
University of Hawaii Press
Usually ships in 3 to 5 weeks IPhone 3G used's review (Great Find!) 『After trying to secure this book through Barnes and Nobles, I was told that there would be a delay on the shipment date. That would just simply not work as it was a present for a friend, so I turned to reliable Amazon. As a Peace Corps Volunteer from the South Pacific, I try to read as many books about that region of the world as possible, but it is often extremely difficult to find books about the South Pacific. This is a great find. Thanks!』
『The Queen Mother and Her Century presents the life of a remarkable woman. A Canadian perspective on a sovereign who created and cultivated a special relationship with Canada, it is the portrait of a queen who always evoked passionate reactions. Whether it was the anonymous soldier who vowed "to fight for that little lady," Adolf Hitler who described her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe," or the Canadian journalist who coined the expression "the Queen Mum," the Queen Mother seldom left people unmoved.
Opening with the royal tour of 1939, during which Canadians first felt her personal magnetism, The Queen Mother and Her Century describes Elizabeth's background and development, relating how she made a marriage that brought her to the centre stage of public life. It traces her tender support of her shy husband, a reluctant king, shows how she began her Commonwealth role, and recalls her shock at the sudden and unexpected call to wear the Crown.
Faced with the never-ending duties of a queen, Elizabeth proved capable of providing inspired leadership for a society faced with the stark prospect of destruction in a war to save the world. On the premature death of her beloved husband she became Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, a role that has shaped nearly half her life, and one in which Canada has always played an important part. The authors analyze Her Majesty's successes and failures, both public and private, against the background of a century of violent disruption, material achievement, and incredible change.』
Kakaku：280 saved$2.80
Berkley Trade
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. IPhone 3G used's review (4 stars) 『This is marketed as fantasy romance, but it's mostly just fantasy.
**** "A Whisper of Spring" by Lynn Kurland.
Literally a fairy tale. It was love at first sight for a mage king and a fairy princess, but fairies don't wed mages. They get their chance when his evil brother captures and imprisons her and her brother asks him to rescue her.
It was a nice story, but it felt as if a lot of it had been left out. We learn, for example, that he's one of the most powerful mages, but don't see much evidence of it. We also learn that her mother had betrayed her to the evil brother, but not why or how. It would make sense if it were part of a series, but I couldn't find any evidence of that.
**** "When Winter Comes" by Sharon Shinn.
In a land where magic is distrusted, a young woman tries to protect her sister and infant nephew. The baby's father was a mystic, and the baby himself has magic powers that make it hard for them to stay incognito. They're aided by a man of the nobility and a pair of female mystics.
It was interesting, but felt more like the introduction to something than a complete story in itself. The romance is virtually nonexistent, which isn't a bad thing, except that it's marketed as fantasy romance.
**** "The Kiss of the Snow Queen" by Claire Delacroix.
Re-telling of the snow queen fairy tale, but instead of the brother being affected by the snow queen, it's the handsome prince. The heroine's a seer in training, who's been told that she must remain chaste to preserve her power. She's barricaded herself in her room to avoid a forced marriage to a cruel prince, calls for help in her magic mirror, and gets more than she bargained for. In the end, she has to choose between her power and the life of the man who came to her aid.
All the sensuality in this one is related to an angel who calls himself Loki, who feeds on sexual energy. The ending was a surprising let-down.
**** "A Gift of Wings" by Sarah Monette.
Again, light on the romance, which, again, is only a problem because it's marketed as romance, which has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with the publisher. Also again, I felt as if I'd come into the middle of a series, though according to her website, "'A Gift of Wings' takes place in the same world as Mélusine and The Virtu, though it is a standalone story--no overlap with the novels."
The hero and heroine are on their way to seek help for him--he was wounded physically and his magic was damaged or destroyed somehow in a war. At an inn, they come across an arrogant wizard who'd told him that his injuries were all in his head, then later that night, they discover the man dead. Being the obvious suspects, the hero and heroine have to find whodunit.
Fans of gender reversal will like this one--the heroine is larger and stronger than the hero, and he's very dependent on her. Call me sexist, but I don't find that romantically appealing at all. As a fantasy, though, it's fine. It does turn out that she'd fallen in love with him before his injuries, so that redeems the love story for me--otherwise, I'd be thinking she was more in love with the image of herself as a longsuffering caretaker to an invalid.』
(Great read) 『I bought the book for sharon shinn's story cause I am a big fan of her 12th house stories. The other authors are decent but not up to my standard』
(disappointed) 『I was disappointed with all the stories in this book, they were not up to what made me fans of these authors.』
(A mixed bag (three and a half stars)) 『It seems that the people who read this anthology fall into either of two groups: romance readers who love Kurland's story and mostly dislike the other ones and fantasy readers who pick the book up for Shinn's story and don't know what to make of the rest.
The plots are neatly summed up in the book description, so I'll just give you my impressions.
"A Whisper of Spring": Sometimes the impossible is closer than you think. I'm more of a fantasy reader, so Kurland's story was very nice, life-affirming, cozy, predictable and perfectly forgettable to me. No background building whatsoever. Maybe if it were a full-length book... Well, it's obviously a part of her Nine Kingdoms series, with another story published in the anthology "To Weave a Web of Magic" and a full-length novel "Star of the Morning" coming out in December 2006, so there's still hope. Three stars.
"When Winter Comes": Fight for the ones you love and you'll get rewarded. I love Sharon Shinn, so I liked her story very well, though it started as slow as her novels tend to, which may be annoying to unaccustomed readers. The story is a spin-off of her novel "Dark Moon Defender", the third volume of her Twelve Houses series. Even though it can easily be read without knowing the series, I suspect that in order to get a better feeling of the political/social background it would be best to have read at least "Mystic and Rider" first. Four stars.
"The Kiss of the Snow Queen": I've no idea what this story was about. Deveraux' story was the one in the lot I simply disliked and was bored by. It's not that it was badly written. I suppose that there may even be some readers who'll love it. However, the mix of Christian faith and Norse myths combined with the fairy tale of the Snow Queen and stuffed with both modern slang and medieval archaisms was... chancy, to put it mildly. I'm not usually bothered by such things (obviously, since I love Shinn's books), but some readers who are serious about their religion may even find it offensive. And if there was any romance at all, it was not between the hero and the heroine. Two and a half stars.
"A Gift of Wings": Love heals. I've never read anything by Monette, so I was pleasantly surprised. The best story in the anthology, in my opinion. It was maybe too obviously a 'healing' romance, developed against a background of a 'whodunnit'. Intricate world building, very interesting characters. This story is a bit darker than the other ones. What some readers may not like about it is that the heroine is obviously the stronger partner and the hero does a lot of crying, sometimes coming across as seventeen rather than thirty, but, hey, he's entitled ;-) I think I'm going to give her novels a try. Four and a half stars.
In my opinion, this anthology is such a mixed bag that each person will find a different story to his or her liking, but never all of them.』
(5 stars for Lynn Kurland, no rating for the others) 『I got this book for the first story, "A Whisper of Spring" by Lynn Kurland. I love her writing, while the other authors here just aren't my style. I love the way Lynn's stories are all clean... the romance is real love, rather than sexual "chemistry." This story didn't disappoint me. The emotion and tension is there, even though not even a kiss can be found in its pages. It is a BEAUTIFUL story of two people who discover that the chance that they never thought possible, has been given to them... to be together.
Iolaire, an elfin priness, has been kidnapped by the evil Lothar of Wychwold. Her brother seeks out Symon, the mage king of Neroche, to help rescue her. The rescue is swiftly accomplished... but Iolaire cannot return to her home... and Symon finally dares to believe that maybe he can have her as his own.』 『From four of today's most imaginative authors come four stories of love as pure as the driven snow that will warm the coldest of hearts.
USA Todaybestselling author Claire Delacroix delivers an enchanting tale of a gifted seer who receives a vision of a man whom she was not meant to marry, but was meant to love.
USA Todaybestselling author Lynn Kurland spins a story of a mortal man and an elven woman who endure both the mundane and the magical in their quest to remain together.
Award-winning author Sharon Shinn writes of a brave young woman who saves her sister's magically- gifted child, only to receive an unexpected gift of her own.
And newcomer Sarah Monette's romantic novella tells of a warrior maiden trapped in a deadly storm with the only man she ever wanted, whose scars she must heal if he is ever to want her.』
大満足！北国のホタテ・いくら・ボタンエビがぎっしり！
