November 30, 2005 – 7:33 am
“One of the liveliest and most inventive fantasies of recent years.” Book List
A truly stunning piece of art, a world in it’s own- trapped in the humble body of a book! Combining the wickedly humorous djinni, Bartimaeus, with the somewhat gloomier Kathleen, and good old Nathaniel who, like Bartimaeus, played one of the two main parts in the Amulet of Samarkand, and has now become a high-flying magician commonly refered to a “Mr. Mandrake” Together with the intriguing prologue, cheeky footnotes from Bartimaeus, frightening monsters faced by Kathleen, and the traditional Bartimaeus-picking-one-Nathaniel, this book is the perfect read. It’s only equal is the first title in the series, Amulet of Samarkand- which, of course, everyone should read too. Both are marvelously descriptive, and beautiful in their own dark ways… Read More »
November 29, 2005 – 6:40 am
Though I am normally not interested in gothic novels, Anne Rice seems to change my tastes with each novel. She recovers well from the sparse, boring, and unmoving world of “The Mummy” with this feast for the senses. Like “The Tale of the Body Thief” and “Cry to Heaven,” this ranks as one of her best novels ever. Do not judge this book by its length. There is nothing boring here, whether it is the entire history of the Mayfair clan, or Rowan Mayfair’s mortal struggle with the daemon Lasher, this novel maintains a fast pace and deep insight throughout. Definitely one of my favorite modern-day novels
Book Description
From the author of the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles comes a huge, hypnotic novel of witchcraft and the occult through four centuries.Demonstrating, once again, her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches–a family given to poetry and to Read More »
November 28, 2005 – 6:37 am
This book really made me think and brought up some really great points about the way that people have grown to view the world around them and what they can do to change that world view. By forcing himself to do the slowness exercise, Paulo learns to see different parts of the world and by doing the cruelty exercise he learns how to be kind to himself. I found it a beautiful and inspiring story.
Synopsis
A Spiritual Journey Toward Self-Discovery
The Pilgrimage recounts the spectacular trials of Paulo Coelho as he journeys across Spain to discover personal power, wisdom, and a miraculous sword that seals his initiation into the secret society of the Tradition. With his enigmatic mentor, Petrus, he follows a legendary road Read More »
November 25, 2005 – 5:11 am
“In a novel of daring international duplicity, sex becomes the ultimate secret weapon . . .”The Second Lady – by Irving Wallace is one of the first books I read, when I started some serious reading. It is really well written and worth giving a shot for first time fiction readers.
The way Irving Wallace has built the characters is really amazing. And the PLOT – it is one of the best I have ever read…you cannot keep this book down once you start reading it.
Second Lady is a very good novel. A really magnificent plot executed by the Russian KGB during the cold war where the superpowers want to out-do one-another. The way the KGB finds and trains the second lady’s double Anna Vavilova and her mentor Alex Razin who spends a lot of time in teaching, training her for Read More »
November 24, 2005 – 7:54 am
The Third Summer of the Sisterhood is an excellent book by Ann Brashares. There are four girls, Bee, Tibby, Lena, and Carmen. Three years ago they were spending their first summer apart. Now they are spending there last summer together, then in September, they’re off to college. Of course, you can’t forget the pants. The pants…they’re a pair of jeans from a thrift store Carmen picked up and hadn’t even worn in the first place (three summers ago). And now, they use it as they’re…well, let’s just say that the Pants keep them together always. As spending their last summer apart, there is one rule that they each have to follow. Their colleges have to be within 4hours away from each other. It’s along time, but still, they’ll get to see each other. A few ups and downs in the girls’ road to success and falling in love ties it all together so well. I definitely recommend this book. Read More »