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I read this particular book several times in school and will definetely continue using it."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Dr. Seuss was a master at introducing children to reading. This book is a classic example. The simple rhyming pattern combined with the wild and fantastical illustrations, provide for a great introductory book to reading. The only drawback to this book (as is the case with about half of the good doctor's works) is that there is no story; the book is basically a collection of random rhyming phrases paired with complimentary drawings. Of course, there is amusement to this type of writing and younger children find it highly entertaining. Still, other Dr. Suess stories (such as THE CAT IN THE HAT) are just as fantastical, but include a story as well. Nevertheless, one cannot go wrong with a book by Dr. Seuss; both children and adults love his books."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I like this book bacause Dr.Seuss is my favorite male author . And the book one Fish Two Fish Fed Fish Flue Fish is the book I like that I read from dr.Seuss. Dr.Seuss is a favorite arthur from many kids and after the movie the Grinch! came out on movies I think most kids will love even more his books Grade: 4th"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"There was all diffent kind's of fish like young fish,old fish new fish, old fish and it was really relaxing to read for me .If you like fish this is the book for you."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book as well as others from his collection give children the chance to grow and enjoy life through books rather than with the technology of a television. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish helps teach children how to count as well as the some of the primary colors."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I love this book since kinder. I have this book for 8 years almost 9 .But I still like that book alot."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"this book taught me how to read and count pretty good. I read when I was 4 and still read it and im 7"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I didn't really understand this book. I guess maybe it was trying to show how things can be different. This might be a good book for kids because it has made up things in it and kids tend to like that more than real things. The rhyming in this book was to repetitve. It didn't have a plot at all. This was an okay book but one of the not so good books of Dr. Seuss in my opinion."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I don't know what the previous reviewer was thinking, but this book deserves way more than one star. Apparently the writer of \\"puh-lease\\" doesn't know good literature or childrens' literature when they see it. Not only does this book help young children to learn colors and numbers but there is more meaning to this book if you read between the lines. Dr. Seuss was a wonderful wonderful author and had this knack for incorporating pressing social issues into his work. I would highly recommend this book to any educator or parent."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I grew up with Dr Suess books so I couldn't wait to share them with my own children. The books are illustrated simply, the text is easy to read and creatively laid out and the silly rhymes make me and my children laugh.What I've noticed from reading them Dr Suess books (they are 1 and 2.5 years) that it has really helped my 2.5 year old with increasing her vocabularly, saying words properly and recognising sounds that a letter or group of letters make. A wonderful series of books to read aloud to your children."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I like this book bacause Dr.Seuss is my favorite male author . And the book one Fish Two Fish Fed Fish Flue Fish is the book I like that I read from dr.Seuss. Dr.Seuss is a favorite arthur from many kids and after the movie the Grinch! came out on movies I think most kids will love even more his books Grade: 4th"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"It was purely by accident that I found myself with a copy of Dr Seuss's \\"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish\\" in my hands and actually reading it. The nostalgia trip lasted about 3.5 seconds before I started enjoying the book in its own right as an adult. It is just plain linguistic fun. And, yeah, it will appeal to kids as well.The story itself is nonsensical fun, and the use of sounds to create that sense of fun is very creative. As only Dr Seuss can do, he makes reading the book not only fun at a mental level, but the rhythm and sounds also have the ability to make reading it fun. I found myself captivated in anticipation of what Seuss would do next with the words. The names of various creatures are also just plain fun and really appeal to the child in us all.The illustrations are what one would expect from Dr Seuss: gaudy colours and not too much detail. They are fantastic pictures, even though they are quite simple. They do not distract from the text, but there is enough there to keep younger kids focused. Of course, that should not stop us older \\"kids\\" enjoying them.This is a true classic of a book, and is among my favourites of Dr Seuss books. I have to confess to still enjoying it and know that kids do too. It is a great book and well-written. Kids everywhere should have at least one Dr Seuss book.Oh yeah, this book is great for pronunciation classes, as well, with foreign students! It targets some common sounds that are problematic for some nationalities."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"My children grew up with this book. We would snuggle up and read it nearly every night. This copy was purchased for my Granddaughter and I am snuggling once again reading this little book. She loves it too...as do I."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"My 14 month old loves this book! Seuss is a genius. The rhyming keeps his attention throughout the whole book!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"The book \\"One Fish Two Fish\\" written by Dr.Suess is very good. There is not a lot of text in it, but it does teach kids about colors, and rhyme. It also has a message about accepting everybody as different.This book would be suggested for ages 2-100 because I'm twelve and I am still in love with this book. I bet everybody alive has read a Dr. Suess book. They are classics and just flat out amazing.You can get One Fish Two Fish in pop up version and hardback but I have never seen it in paperback. I think that you should get it. You can buy it at any of your local bookstores or you can just buy it on this website for $8.99. It is well worth the price.- Melina Jansen]"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"If you can get the child down to read and get interested, it's a free flowing, in the style of a man that can get down to the simplicity of capturing the free-flowing rhyme without-reason style that makes his individuality so captivating. Whether for a child or an adult, his books are always a classic. LLO'C"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"As I titled this, all these Seuss beginner books are so delightful to read with my children, and the right length."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is one of our favorite Seuss creations, along with Fox In Socks. My son lvoes to finish every sentence for us. We love this book and the funny creatures in it! (\\"From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!\\""},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is a great buy. What an easy way to read to your child in the tub! This book floats and gets wet, it is perfect for my son. He draws on it and it washes off. I highly recommend this one!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Dr. Seuss books never go out of style. They are a fantastic tool for the young reader."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book is a fun book for young children all the way to teens. A book filled with tongue twisting rhymes starting out with just \\"One Fish\\". Many pages filled with great elaborate mad up animals to fit the amazing rhymes. I give this book four stars because it is so fun to read."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book is amazing!!! I'm 16 now and I still LOVE to read it!!! I don't know what it is about it, it's just so cute!!!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book is good for people of all age's. IT has been around for many years bringing joy to all families . It can be read on all levels. The First level is childern. Most kids see this as a fun filed book with funny pictuers and tounge twister's. The second level is adults. If a adult were to pick it appart the would say it was talking about differnt culters and ethnicity's and how we should all be treated equal. So This is a good book because people of all age's enjoy it."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"a classic that you had read to you and now you're reading it to other little ones and so on and so on....a fun book from your childhood to share"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is actually the first book I remember reading as a I child. I still treasure it to this day. However, I recently reread it for a Psychology class I am taking at Cal State Northridge. After closely analyzing this book, I noticed that there is a lot of gender role stereotyping. For instance, most of Dr. Seuss' main characters tend to be male. The boy in this book is shown boxing, while the little girl is shown combing an animal's hair. While riding a tandem bike, the boy is in front, thus in control. The boy is shown leading the girl throughout the entire book. I realize that the time this book was written in is a bit different that the times today, but I still think that children should be taught about gender equality. Would I recommend this book? Definitely, it is a great way to help children learn to read, as well as expand their imagination. However, you might want to point out these subtle gender inequalities and let them know that all children are equal."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I thought this book starts off great, one fish two fish, red fish blue fish,etc etc, but then it ends the fish part and goes on in random mini short stories. For this reason, i think it's just OK. Confusing to my toddler I suppose, it doesn't keep his attention...since it skips around a lot. wish the fish part was longer or the entire book. wasn't impressed. thought it would be better based on reviews"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss is a funny book. Like when a fish has a hole on its head. This is another reason to read the book that is has good illustrations. Like when the new fish and the mom fish. One more thing it has good rhymes. As One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue. One more thing is my opinion, I think you should read this book because it is about fish. If you like fish you will like this book."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"When I saw this book I knew I had to purchase it for my niece who is turning 5. I have great memories learning how to read from this book, one of my all time favorites!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is my favorite book by one of my favorite authors. The characters are all excellent, from Ned who does not like his little bed to Ish who wishes for fish on his \\"Ish wish dish.\\" The stories are short, usually one page each, and are all fun in one way or another.I recently bought a copy for myself and since the first time I read \\"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish\\" about 10 years ago, to today, the simple phrases and pictures still amaze me. I have never found an author of children's books that can compare to the imaginative drawings and stories of Dr. Seuss (Not even Theo Lesig which is weird because that is just another pen name for Mr. Gesel) This book is a must have for every home-kids or not."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I have read this book to my 4 year old daughter about 20 times to date. She will keep asking me to read this book until kingdom come. What is it about dr. Seuss books that have those kids asking for more?????"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This teaches a very good lesson to children so they will always put there fish in a ocean to begin with.This was a wonderful."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I read all the Dr. Suess books to my four month old baby boy. He loves them. They are great books for children. However, this particular book is a little long for him."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books because it is simple and easy to read. The illustrations are much fun and appropriate for the words! I can read this book over and over to the kindergarten children at my school and I never get tired of it."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This bath book is small but colorful and just long enough to hold my toddler's attention while playing in the bathtub. It's a wonderful paired-down version of the classic children's book that doesn't lose it's exciting rhymes in the reduced length. The larger version of this bath book, however, called \\"Red Fish, Blue Fish, Old Fish, New Fish: An Utterly Stupendous Vinyl Extravaganza!\\" has the same exact text and a detachable red fish that squeaks!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book teaches kids colors and numbers. it teaches them new words that will help them in school. its got great graphics and its fun to read! :)by:laura r."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I simply never tire of this book. My children are grown, but I still get opportunities to read this to my jr. high students. I look for ways to work it in to a writing lesson at least once a year. If I could have only on Seuss book, this would be it. I sure envy you parents of young one! I miss reading this weekly with my sons."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is such a fun book for children and adults. A good counting book also. So very much fun and silly with fun drawings as only Dr. Seuss can do. My favorite Dr. Seuss book and I love them all!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book was fun to read as a kid and continues to be fun to watch my kids enjoy this book. My three year old loves it because of the colors and funny shapes and sizes of the characters. My five year old loves to try to read some of it. My seven year old loves to read it to his younger siblings. Learning colors, opposites, and rhyming words and even the nonsense words makes this book learning fun. Go ahead and get it!!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"i liked this book because the ryming went together really good, i feel that can help a child learn in a way."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Dr. Suess is one of the best authors of children's books ever in my opinion, and I think this is one of his best books even though it is not one of his most well known books. I grew up with Dr. Suess books and it was very enjoyable for me. I would recommend this book to any one who was looking for a good Dr. Suess book, or even just a good children's book."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"The book one fish two fish red fish blue fish is about all kinds of fish in the water. It names all different types of fish that Dr.Seuss thought of. The book talks about all the things the fish do and how they act.it talks abouta friend named mike and a poor old fish named ned .this is a good book because its very easy to read and it would be a good starter for young kids begining reading."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I grew up with this book and now my nine month old loves it too. the text is very rhythmic, as you would expect from Dr. Seuss. The illustrations are composed of heavy black lines and bright solid colors, making it easy for an infant to see. The text is arranged creatively around the page, adding to the visual interest and also helping the beginning reader to relate the pictures to the words. As a biologist, I interpret the central theme of the book as playing off biological diversity (Some have two feet and some have four. Some have six feet and some have more . . .), and expanding the idea to include the diversity of people and human pursuits. The fitness craze, furniture design, and silly kitchen gadgets are all covered in the brief and funny vignettes. The one limitation of the book is that there are some stereotypical differences between the interests of the boy and girl, and it is somewhat lacking in ethnic diversity. But hey, it was written in 1960. It also would be great if it had a board book edition, since it is hard to keep the little guy from crinkling the pages."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I read this book when I was 2 and I got it out when I was 13 and I still loved it. Maybe even more. I think Dr. Seuss was a good role model and a very good poet. He has the funniest poems and stories ever. Thanx Doc. If you can read this from up above.From there to here. From here to there. Funny things are everywhere."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"My 3 and a half year old absolutely loves this book/cd combo. We have the whole series. He has no trouble at all reading along with them or keeping up. In addition to reading the books along with the cd, he sometimes listens to just the cd alone. They are honestly one of his favorite things. I've never written a review in my life, but when I read the other review I wanted to write to say that my son really loved them - it would have been a shame had I read that review before buying these & my son would have missed out on something he enjoyed so much. Different kids are different but we really enjoy this series. Even when he doesn't use the cd, we have the books to read/enjoy. I hope people find my comments helpful."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Unlike most Dr. Seuss books, this book has no real plot. For the most part it is made up of unconnected pages that flow nicely into one another. The lack of plot is not something that harms the book in my eyes, I like the chance encounters with the strange creatures, and I think the lack of a plot helps to make this story special.Throughout this book we are introduced to a number of cute creatures from fish to Wumps to Zeds. Like all Dr. Seuss creations they are very cute, bold, colorful and expressive. Another characteristic of a Dr. Seuss book is how the words flow wonderful and manage to rhyme well in a manner completely unforced and effortless. This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books.Loggie-log-log-log"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"A wonderful Dr. Suess book. The illustrations are a bit wacky, but always match the text and always show a sence of humor. The text is fun. The rhyming and rythm make reading this book 20 times a day (as we have been doing lately) a joy.The words that repeat make this a book that is good for beginning readers. However, the tongue twister text makes this a fun book for the more advanced reader as well. The illustrations only add to the text making reading comprehension easier.A wonderful book that is fun to read.Enjoy"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This is one of the longest of all Dr. Seuss's books. It is filled with terrific Rhymes and Pictures and is an absolute gem to read aloud to children. This is one really long book that will mesmerize our twin boys. You will find yourself repeating his rhymes all day long, in your mind. For example,\\"Look what we found in the park -- in the dark -- we will take it home -- we will call it Clark -- it will GROW AND GROW -- Will our Mommy like it ?? -- we don't know !!!\\"And we named our third dog \\"Clark\\" after this wonderful rhyme from Dr. Seuss's \\"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish !!!\\" This is among the Top-3 Dr Seuss Books of all time, right up there with \\"The Cat in the Hat\\" and \\"Happy Birthday To You!\\"."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"If your child is a beginning reader, consider this book. Children enjoy the wonderful rhymes and made-up words. The delightful illustrations help them figure out the words. As an added bonus, adults will enjoy it, too, even if you read it many years ago."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Great illustrations, full of imagination, and witty rhymes, in the style of Dr Seuss. Children always love it, and adults do too sometimes."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"As with every book that Dr.Suess wrote this one is yet another pleasure for young and old. Being a little bit longer than the norm just gives more pages of giggles and time to share with your little one.Illustrations are bright and colorful helping to bring every word to life. Lots of fun for everyone."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book as well as others from his collection give children the chance to grow and enjoy life through books rather than with the technology of a television. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish helps teach children how to count as well as the some of the primary colors."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Alot of kids feel that reading is stupid but this book will change theirminds. This book will make you laugh and is also a very educational book that teaches the young minds how to rhyme. Many kids think that reading is stupid, but this book makes it fun with silly rhymes."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"One fish two fish red fish blue fish is a good book and it was funny to me i think all the readers of this book will enjoy it because of it is kinda like a learning book because it sort of helps you learn to count."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"An epic, amazing, astonishing tale into true philosophy of the human intellect. The story dives deep down into the bowels of our minds, posing us the question- what if the fish had a car? The thoughts have puzzled me for 75 years, and I am yet to discover the true solution to the problem. Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Vagaries of perception, although only Dr. Seuss mind could invent something as insipid as love. Truly, one of the most astonishing stories I have read in my life, and without a doubt the greatest, deepest, and most politically influencing novel of all time. With ventures into the intersanctum of the human construct, it's a book for anyone attempting to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"This book would be it! It is not so tongue-twister like a lot of Dr. Suess' books. My children love the bright colors of the characters in this book and I enjoy reading it to them. I am able to inflect different meanings to different things every time I read this book to them. It's a fun and great book on words. I read it to my nephew 10 years ago and I am still enthralled with this book.If you are looking for a book that will keep your children's attention while you're reading ~~ this book is it. It has more of a rhyming to it than his others. It's fun and sassy and bold. Perfect for kids learning to read too! This will help them find words that sound a like as well as rhyme a like.It's a definite addition to this mom's library!10-13-03"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Luckily and happily I will report that my daughter did not get confused. I did, but that's another story. She won't admit it, but I think this was her favorite Dr. Seuss book. It was the one I remember reading to her the most. I remember picking it up from the bookcase. The cover attracted me. I flipped through it and then purchased it. I read it to her every night for some time. Those were good days. I would have to say that these books made a difference in her ability to learn and want to read. Green Eggs and Ham also stands next to this book as I remember."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"I bought this based on memory instead of a quick re-read. I probably wouldn't have bought it, otherwise. The rhymes are OK, and there's a lot of silliness that seems like it is just in there to get things to rhyme. It doesn't really have a story. My daughter doesn't get engaged by it, and would rather flip through the pages to look at the pictures rather than actually read through it. Among the Seuss books, she prefers Sneetches and Yertle the most."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Came in excellent and pretty quick! My grandaughter likes it b/c I keep many aquariums. Thanks for the, One fish Two fish Red fish Blue fish book by Dr. Suess"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"The book was bought for my two boys for bedtime reading. It is a sturdy book and they enjoy listening to it. This one is meant for younger kids."},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Came on time. Love the book, and giving it for a baby gift. What a great beginning book for children!"},{"Title":"One Fish two fish red fish blue fish (Beginner Book)","review":"Extremely flimsy quality..kids will shred this quickly..not worth the money..very dissapointed..get the hardbound copy. This is a classic that should last for years and the paper back issue is not worthy of the story."},{"Title":"Working with Angels, Fairies and Nature Spirits","review":"This book is a must-read for anyone interested in connecting with the perfect blueprint of any activity, place, or idea. The style is practical, engaging, and anything but airy-fairy! The author teaches how to relate to these unseen beings as helpers in all aspects of your everyday life. Full of paradigm-shifting ideas."},{"Title":"Working with Angels, Fairies and Nature Spirits","review":"I highly reccommend this book! It is down to earth, connected to spirit, and rings true. It is truly one of the best books about the subject that I have read. Try it for yourself, and do try the practical work it suggests-- it is a terrific aid to everyday life."},{"Title":"Working with Angels, Fairies and Nature Spirits","review":"I am so glad I discovered William Bloom's writing. This book has zoomed to the top of my favorites list. Down-to-earth, sensible, yet profoundly spiritual, I have read this book over and over and find something new every single time. If you are interested in the world of angels, faeries, devas and all other sort of spirits, I URGE, no I BEG you to buy this book!Kathy"},{"Title":"Working with Angels, Fairies and Nature Spirits","review":"William Bloom here introduces us to the reality of the presence of angels and devas, and explains how they can be contacted.As far ss I remember, angels and devas are similar but not identical. I think devas are a form of angels, or the opposite. But Bloom uses the term \\"angels\\", devas\\" and \\"spirits\\" interchangeably.One of the negative features of this book is in my opinion that its energy is somewhat diffuse and while reading it I felt frustrated, since the very nature of the subject - these ethereal beings -, together with the energy and the style of writing of the author, was so \\"airy-fairy\\" that I felt it hard to get to the nitty-gritty of things, and was left with the feeling that the book lacked some concrete facts. (Tthough I'm a Pisces and thus at home with spirits and angels, I have a Capricorn ascendant, which requires specificity.)The author teaches us that there's an angel or deva for everything imaginable, and that these can be contacted. Actually I'd recently learnt all this from another book - \\"Co-creative science\\" by Machaelle Small Wright- But Bloom brings the matter to another level, explaining that even the various parts of the body, each of the chakras and even each atom in the body, contain tiny devas.Again, I must say it bothers me that Bloom doesn't distinguish between angels and devas, or even between them and nature spirits. I had understood from Wright's books that devas and nature spirits represent two different levels and functions within \\"the nature consciousness\\". According to her \\"system\\" (defined by Nature itself), the devic level creates \\"order, organization and life vitality\\", while the nature spirit level \\"infuses the devic order, organization and life vitality and adds to this the dynamic of function and working balance\\". The devic level \\"creates -- the blueprints for form, while the nature spirit level implements those blueprints.\\" (These quotes stem from Wright's book \\"MAP\\".)Bloom recounts his own personal background and how he first encountered and came to work with these spirits.There are chapers on tuning into the spirits, \\"Sensing a Deva\\", Working more closely with Spirits\\",\\"The healing dimension\\" together with \\"Working with Angels that help humanity\\".We learn about working with the devas of, for example, one's house or business, just as Wright describes in her book \\"Soil-less gardens\\". There exists also a Deva of Computers (though not described by Bloom), and here I would like to recount a personal experience with this Deva. I am no computer expert, and I have for perhaps years had a specific problem affecting certain of my files. Whenever I had accessed a file and wanted to come out of it, whether or not I had changed the file and tried to save the new input, I encountered severe difficulties in getting out of the file again, no matter whether I pressed \\"yes\\" or \\"no\\" to the question, or whatever, being asked interminably whether I wanted to save the file in this or that way, and being warned about possible lost material.It was like there was no solution to the problem. Then one day, several weeks ago, I simply entertained in my head the notion of contacting the Deva of Computers to engage its help in solving the problem. The problem then IMMEDIATELY disappeared and I haven't had it since. Note that I didn't actually ask this deva for help - there was no time for that. This seemed like a sort of miracle. since the problem had plagued me for so long.I can only conclude that the Deva of Computers read my thought/felt my wish and went in and fixed the problem without further ado.There also exists a household Deva in your home, which you can ask for help with various matters. I have begun to do so with success.I further learnt that there exist negative \\"pathological\\" elementals in diseased parts of the body, and these can be contacted, transformed and removed. The author also discusses how to tackle other spirits in need of healing, and how to call in an Angel of Death for help with persons on the brink of death, but needing help to die in a comfortable manner.Those who might be interested in working with these spirits should get hold of this book, which can be used as a guidebook for frequent reference. I would highly recommend the book for such persons."},{"Title":"Working with Angels, Fairies and Nature Spirits","review":"This book covers the basics and is a great book for beginners, but if you are looking for something with a lot of meat and new and in depth information, it may not be the book for you. If youare already into this sort of subject matter, this will seem elementary and very basic 101 stuff. It is good, but very basic. Some of the things written in this book also seem to miss the point. But, I will let you decide. Personally, I felt a little let down by this book as it just didn't give very much deeper information."},{"Title":"Sid's Way: The Life and Death of Sid Vicious","review":"I have read all the books on the last, late bass player of the Sex Pistols, and I would have to say that this is the best of them all. This book has lots of pictures from Sid's birth to death, and it tells many different facts about him that aren't in any other books. His mother, Anne Beverly actually gave full cooperation in the publishing of this book, and so it has a few stories from Sid's childhood years as well. This is a must for anyone who is a Sid Vicious/Sex Pistols/Punk Rock fan. This puts the late punk icon in the untainted limelight of truth."},{"Title":"Sid's Way: The Life and Death of Sid Vicious","review":"In my opinion this book captured Sid's persona quite well, but could have been even better. It basically summarised Sid's life (with quite a few interesting and entertaining stories thrown in every now and then). The writing style was pretty basic, good and simple to understand, and got to the point. The pictures were most definetely the highlight of the book, LOADS on every page and plenty I've never seen before, (and trust me, I've seen a lot). There are great images ranging from his childhood, through to his teenage years and capturing his last. It was definetely worth it but I'd recommend it more for fans than those whom want an inspiring read."},{"Title":"Current Medical Terminology, Seventh Edition","review":"I have been a medical transcriptionist for more than 25 years and this is the single most valuable resource that I have. This book was written for medical transcriptionists. Rather than focusing on the basics, it is written for the professional transcriptionist who has a fairly extensive knowledge of the field. Whenever I hear a word with which I am not familiar, more times than not, the Silver Book will help me. I use it more than all of my other reference books combined. I highly recommend Current Medical Terminology for all medical transcriptionists - new comers and veterans alike."},{"Title":"Current Medical Terminology, Seventh Edition","review":"I need to see an index to determine if this book is to date on certain new technical jargon such as GERD -- gastroesophageal reflux disease. Please respond. HKT/HKK"},{"Title":"The Very Small Church Revival Guide: The Life and Growth of Small Membership Congregations","review":"This book is the only one I know in print that addresses the issues of the very small church. Written in interesting, fast moving style, yet with great insight toward the challenges of the below 50 attendance churches and practical suggestions for these churches not only to survive but to thrive. As the pastor of a church that is only slightly larger than the churches the book addresses I have found it very helpful for my ministry, and as one who has served below 50 churches in the past, I would say it is a \\"must read\\" for every pastor and every member of a a church smaller than 50.Vernon Burrow, Pastor of Commerce Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Lebanon, TN."},{"Title":"The Very Small Church Revival Guide: The Life and Growth of Small Membership Congregations","review":"James Alexander's The Very Small Church Revival Guide is a great resource for those asking questions about how to operate within small (less that 50 congregants) environments. The book helps to fill a notable gap in resources about small churches as it is tailed to discuss issues regarding very small (or perhaps, as the author puts it, \\"micro\\") congregations. It is well written and well thought-out. The book is written in a manner that makes it accessible to many people, both congregants and pastors, in small church settings.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone involved in a small/micro church setting or those interested in such congregations. While written using examples from the author's current work with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the material presented in the book crosses denominational lines in its applicability. Alexander includes statistics from studies as well as a list of potentially useful resources for those interested in pursuing small church issues. Overall, a great read."},{"Title":"The Very Small Church Revival Guide: The Life and Growth of Small Membership Congregations","review":"This book provides an excellent analysis of the problems of very small churches, backed up by statistical information. But it goes beyond analysis into solutions. Solutions are not just programmatic but involve readjustment of vision and self-image. This is a must read for those who lead or are involved in small congregations.John F. PhelpsDirector of haOr Ministries"},{"Title":"Hiking the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness","review":"Being a hiker and nature lover, I found this title one of the best hiking guide books so far. The author convinced me to try the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness, his detailed description of trails in this wilderness is a first. It ties in well with another book, "The Pintlers, Majestic They Stand", both of history and mountain adventures in the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness over a century ago."},{"Title":"Hiking the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness","review":"Mr. Arkava's sense of Montana is overwhelming - like he spent all his life here. As a home-dweller in Montana for 43 years, I can tell you that the moon shines loud, the animals sing to you at night, and the sun beats hard in the summer and retreats mightily in the winter.There is also the gaze of the old mountains on young hearts (yes, even though my face is full of wrinkles, I still have a very young heart which beats faster with each word I write) and the majestic views of a still young land from the peak.I admit the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness is even more beautiful than my hometown of Big Timber. I sent this book to three of my four kids to remind them how beautiful this place is (my eldest child, Barbara, still loves her mother and hasn't moved away even though HER three kids have long left)."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"Practical information a Project Manager can use throughout the process of managing a project is the strength of this text.For example, Effort Variance Factor describes (see pg 325) how one estimates the productivity variation between a fully experienced Subject Matter Expert (SME) and a Learner. A description of the skill level of each person's skills is provided. This facilitates schedule estimates among varied skill factors.Another example I particularly use is the Look-ahead Window. This window is a span of 4 to 6 weeks forward from the date of a Weekly Progress Review or Status Meeting. It asks 3 questions of team members: Will (or did) it start on time, will (or did) it finish on time, are there any obstacles? These 3 questions have headed off more than one \\"surprise\\" in my projects.A third useful example (pg 407) is the four-step \\"Punchline\\" status-reporting methodology. To sum: start with the conclusion when reporting and finish w/ the explanation. It cuts to the chase - the team and project manager learn the important information first, followed by supporting information.This text ranks with Kerzner's and three others in my past experience."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"This text and the \\"Project Process Architecture (PPA)\\" described within is a solid and effective recipe for managing traditional projects. I have personally used the PPA and Mr. Kapur's materials to deliver successful projects, and will continue to do so in the future.When I teach students or employees about traditional project management, I give them two books: The PMBOK and Mr. Kapur's textbook. The PMBOK describes \\"what\\" must be done, and the PPA answers the all-important question of \\"how\\" the PM and the team should plan, execute, and control the project.All in all, a solid textbook that provides a solid foundation in PM fundamentals.Reviewer Credentials: PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, Master Black Belt."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"Wow. Well I've only read the first 10 pages but they were just full of logical fallacies and rants. This book is absurd. It frequently cites anecdotal evidence as \\"proof\\" and then doesn't provide detailed citations for it \\"statistics\\". There have been four unlabeled and meaningless pie graphs from a not cited \\"study\\".There has got to be a better written book on project management out there."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"Mr. Gopal Kapur has captured the essence of project management in this book. The Project Process Architecture (PPA) supplies proven techniques backed up with practical tools and provides the foundation for successful project management. However, this work goes beyond the \\"mechanics\\" of project management and discusses the topics typically not covered in project management material and seminars. These topics include the importance of business and IT leadership, why clear communication is vital to project success, understanding individual and team dynamics, why it is vital to have a disciplined and consistent project management approach, and why a project can't succeed without clear project ownership and strong sponsorship.The material covered in this book will help aspiring and experienced project managers be more successful in both current and future projects."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"It is unfortunte that I couldn't rate it lower than a one. I had to buy this for a class. It is poorly written and organized and along with the standard test that comes with this course, the whole thing is a tortured exercise in semantics. Plus, For starters on pg 54 there are \\"WBS Definitions\\" and finally on page 58 one is told that WBS means Work Breakdown Structure. It would appear that this author's native language is not English and unfortunately, I haven't yet made sense out of the babble."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"It is easy to understand, i recommend it for international students.On the other hand, for the Americans try to find better book."},{"Title":"Project Management for Information, Technology, Business and Certification","review":"I recently received the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. I purchased and read your book in my desire for continued growth in this area. Your book was recommended to me.I just want to thank and congratulate you regarding this book. I've read many books over the years to improve my skill sets, and this book is, by far, the best.The methodology is presented in a very clear and understandable format. The tools and techniques you've developed over the years are nothing short of outstanding. The tools and methodology are presented in a way that makes its application very understandable and provides a firm foundation for justifying.I confidently look forward to applying your methodology to all future project management assignments that may come my way."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This was a great beach read, which is just where I read most of it. The story moves with great pace but is pretty improbable. I liked the assortment of characters. Not literature, but a fun thriller."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"The third installment in the Alex Hawke adventure series is easily the best book yet, though there were still a few wrinkles that needed ironing out. Sometime spy Alex Hawke is called in to rescue an American spook who has fallen into the hands of the Chinese. The Chinese, who have become close friends with France, are up to something big, and it somehow involves beautiful actress Jet Moon, whose bed Alex is roused from when duty calls. Jet's father, General Sun-Yat Moon, is in league with her dubious boyfriend, Baron \\"Schatzi\\" Von Draxis. The French, the Chinese, and the German shipbuilder are up to no good, infiltrating the Arab empire of Oman as part of their plans. While Alex's ex-Scotland Yard investigator pal, Ambrose Congreve, travels to New York to hunt for witnesses to a decades-old murder related to the French-Chinese plot, armoire-sized Stokley Jones rescues Jet from her angry boyfriend and travels the world gathering clues with her, figuring out what the French and Chinese are up to. Meanwhile, Alex has to infiltrate an impregnable fortress to rescue a sultan and his harem from their enemies. There were a lot of loose ends to tie up, and just when it seemed like things were winding down, they kicked into overdrive, and Alex suddenly found himself in a race against time to save New York City.Though the book wins points for handling a multi-faceted mystery, I have a few small complaints. First, though Ambrose Congreve is a charming character who adds wonderful texture to the back story, he was given far too large a role. Pages that were spent describing his fondness for the finer things would have been better spent on Alex, whose role in the book was minuscule. Alex is recovering from severe heartbreak, which is a challenging aspect to add to an adventure yarn, but merely leaving him alone for the bulk of the book made me feel cheated. I like Alex! This would have been a good time to delve into who he really is, maybe have him get back to some hobbies he had let slide in his grief over his wife's death, but he merely played a bit part instead. Stoke's part was just about right, and I always find myself smiling when he's on the page. My other complaint is about the action. Though Bell can write a pretty good action scene, this book had a tendency to leave the action when it was hot and not return until the dust was settling, cheating us out of the juiciest bits of the story. These scenes are utterly vital in an adventure novel, and he's doing well up to a point, but the final quarter of the important, tense scenes needs work. Two scenes I sorely missed in their entirety were Jet's family dinner that ended badly and the final takedown with Stoke and one of the bad guys at the very end. Shame on the editors for not insisting on a few more pages there.There was a great deal of character development going on here...for Ambrose Congreve. The rest of the characters, especially the star, needed a little more attention. Bell is still relatively new at this, and he's taken on one heck of a story with this book, which was a smashing success. Its few imperfections mar the overall product very little. He's created a great cast of characters; so it's natural that I want to get to spend more time with some of them. Alex Hawke and friends are climbing the ranks, and they're high on my list of favorite adventure heroes."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I enjoyed this book, but not as much asHawke: A Thriller. It is a roller coaster, page turner book for a long weekend or a sunny day on the beach. Don't expect great literature or admiration to the laws of physics (and sometimes common sense) but it is a fun read especially if you like James Bond movies, Bruce Wayne persona, and Sherlock Holmes character."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This book is a perfect storm of a bad novel: unbelievable plot, absurd writing and annoyingly incorrect details.First is the plot. A thriller doesn't have to be realistic to be good but it does have to have internal consistency. This one doesn't. Time after time, our hero(s) get caught in unescapable situations. You turn the page and they've escaped. No explanation, just escape. it's sort of like trouble, trouble, touble, oops miracle occurs, no more trouble. No explanation, just no more trouble.Next is the writing. Mr. Bell's bio says he was the former creative director of Young & Rubican. Presumably, he was a former art director, not a copywriter because his writing is awful. Other than our three heros, characters flit in and out and back in to the book with no explanation or depth. And the quality of the prose is astounding. I could fill page after page with examples like \\"Moon's sidekick, a nasty little horror-show featuring a bald head with greasy black locks, leaned casually against the sweaty bulkhead, whistling a pretty ditty.\\" I could go on but some readers may have sensitive stomachs.Finally, the details. Mr. Bell, Ile St. Louis is west of Ile de la Cite not south; Hong Kong Shanghai Bank is abbreviated HSBC, not HKSB; von Draxis's sloop cannot have three carbon masts because a sloop, by definition, only has one mast, etc. etc. etc.I'm generally against book burning but I'd make a exception in this case. I'd give negative stars if I could."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This book is another roller-coaster thriller ride from Bell featuring his protagonist Alex Hawke, who again must contend with crazed madmen hell-bent on world conquest and destruction. Only this time the bad guys are the French!! What fun! The Chinese and French team up in a nefarious plot to assume world dominion backed by a nuclear power-play, and Hawke must race against the clock, face impossible odds, and battle through with the help of his old and trustworthy friends. This is a fun read with tons of action as our espionage hero Hawke takes it to those smarmy French and gives them \\"what for\\". Have fun, I sure did! Nothing quite like a vicarious pounding on the French to make you feel better about your day.Bell's prose is taunt and experienced in this his third outing and his character development is becoming convincing and enjoyable. The pace and writing crackle with Bell's trademark electricity and he deftly ratchets up the tension and odds in each successive scene leading to the spectacular denouement. The settings are exotic, the characters urbane and adventurous, the villains deeply satisfying, and the book a completely enjoyable addition to the action/espionage thriller genre."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I picked this book up after listening to the Glenn Beck Program, on which Beck sponsored this book, and even had Bell on for an interview. So, that's the backstory.The book itself is really a great \\"summer\\" read. By that, I mean that you can just turn off your brain, lie in the hammock, frink some cold lemonade and enjoy the thrilling adventure of Alex Hawke. But, trust me, don't start it in the evening -- you may have to call in to work the next day to finish it!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Pirate was my second Ted Bell book to read after Assassin and was a better written book overall.Once again, Alex Hawke is thrown into another crisis in the volitile world in which he lives. Madmen are teaming up with rogue governments to consolidate power and try to regain respect in the world if by way of the sword and the book moves at a pretty fast clip.The thing that I couldn't shake throughout the entire book was the fact that Hawke is in his early thirties and carries the resume of a cia retiree. It drove me nuts! I'm in my early thirties and started thinking \\"What have I done with my life?\\" Hawke is personal friends with the President of the US who utilizes Hawke and his team to figure out this French / China connection; Hawke is trusted enough to fly a brand new design of a US fighter jet where he is known by the US Navy from previous exploits; His friends are Vietnam Vets and senior Scotland Yard detectives; and he travels around in his personal yacht converted over to a personal battleship. Hey, must be the money!Anyway, this is a fun read that goes well with a beach and a beer, just turn your brain off and you'll do fine."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is the most shallow, one dimensional, tedious, skimmable book I have the SHAME to admit I read. Boring! The idea is not original. It mimics aspects of the NUMA and Dirk Pitt series and feebly attempts Tom Clancey technology dicourses. It is fanciful to have a dashing type pirate descendant doing the \\"derring do\\" stuff,the plot is too predicatable and the characters so cliche. The reviewers listed on the book jacket include Clive Cussler and Nelson DeMille who I guess must be drinking buddies of Mr. Bell because they certainly didn't help him with his fiction writing! I wonder how the author was fortunate enough to get it published in hardback. And did the publisher assign an editor??? My copy of this book will end up added to the give away pile."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Okay, I'm hooked! I picked up \\"Assassin\\" at the airport, ruined my visit with friends because I couldn't put the book down, and just rushed home from work (with circles under my eyes from reading late last night)to finish \\"Pirate\\" in 2 days. I love the cast of characters, the array of locations, and maybe the munitions/aircraft technicalities have a few holes, but it's a great \\"take your mind off everything else\\" series. Can't wait for \\"Spy\\"!p.s. Ted, could you please crank them out a little more quickly : ) ???"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted Bell's Hawke books just keep getting better. This one was by far his best effort to date. It kept my attention from the first page to the last. Hard to believe that he can keep coming up with such interesting plots on his own. What an imagination!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"There isn't anything ground breaking here, it's just a positively fun book to read. A lot of action, intrigue, bond-esque kind of book that just entertains, which is preciously what it's supposed to do.This isn't my genre, so I'm not about to compare it to whoever the percieved \\"masters\\" are, it was just 500 pages of fun reading. I know that's redundant, but I can't think of any other way to say it; I liked it."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I like the style and process of unravelling a good mystery.The Alex Hawke series continues to improve. Well worth the read."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I'm loving the whole series of Alex Hawke stories. Ted Bell knows how to concoct a plot and tell a story. What more can you ask from a writer?"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted Bell is a really good writer. I compare him to Don Pendleton that used to write the Executioner series. It's as if you are right next to Alex Hawke as he goes about his business"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Other than Phantom I've read all the Ted Bell \\"Hawke\\" series books and have enjoyed them. I didn't care much for Pirate and if it was my first Hawke book I wouldn't be reading any more.The paperback book is 605 pages long and to me it didn't get exciting until in the low 500s. Far too much time was spent on Ambrose and his love affair and other fluff. There really wasn't much story with our hero Hawke until the end. Pirate did nothing to advance or give more insight to the Hawke character. Also, far to much time on Stokely with his comical remarks in life threatening situations. The main villains came to their end far too easily with little drama.There were interesting moments in the book that kept me reading but not enough to overcome my overall disappointment with Pirate."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Riveting, suspenseful, a very good read. I tried to stretch this book out but I could not leave it alone for very long.I"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I read Phantom first. I was so taken with it that I went back to the beginning of the series, and purchased the entire series. I have not been so captivated for a long while!Cliff"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I had problems with this book early on, I slogged on...page 77..Mrs. Purvis is shot, her heart is nicked---coma----page 173-TWO days later she is home and doing needlepoint...page 178 I quit--I coulnd't finish the book---"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Excellent book, Fast paced - Great character development. I got in trouble with my wife because I couldn't put it down."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Pirate was a great read and as usual Hawke gets himself and his crew get themselves in sticky situations and it is a thrill to ride along."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Just great! This electrifying thriller rips the lid off all the make nice nice policy in placewith our soon to be nemesis China. Sure, we're stretched a little thin militarilybut this is one bear that's going to bite us sooner rather than later and Pirate usesthat truth to weave a heart-stopping story of espionage and intrigue. Hawke isa perfect hero and readers will cheer his exploits from page oneto the nerve wracking climax. Do not miss this one...all Hawke books verystrongly recommended."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I bought this book for help on a 12 hour flight, what a mistake. Totally improbable, filled with fluff, a waste of my time, and yours too. See my listing, you can buy it for $10"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is a real bad version of a Tom Clancy technothriller. The characters are cartoon like, continuity editing is missing and is continuously harping about the evil French. The premise could be interesting, but it is written for an extremely simple minded audience."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Compared to Ted Bells other books, this was a big letdown. I hope his next book is better."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Save your money. Anyone that picks the book up will know what happens. We all have seen the characters and story line before. I find it hard to believe that the book was published and that the series is still around.Bell would have had a better series if he took the rich hero and have him battle financial crime. I just found it disgusting that the author would want anyone to believe that this guy is the only guy that can save America and the world. What a cruel joke."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Far and away the best of the Alex Hawke series and by far the best thriller, period, this summer! The story just hums and the characters (good guys and especially bad guys) jump off the page and into your mind for good.I can't imagine a better way to while away the last days of summer...Highly recommended to say the least!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted Bell is a new author to me; my brother-in-la sent some other books in the series and I wanted to read them all and in order so I ordered this to fill a hole. Book arrived promptly and in good to excellent condition (page or two of prologue missing). Still an excellent action/adventure read in my opinion."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I just finished the book (unabridged audio version)and found it to be an OK thriller provided you can overlook the major faults with the weapons and tactics used in many places in the book. There are more problems and plot holes with this book then there are with a book by Clive Cusler.For example the US military loans Hawke a preproduction model of the F35 to fly into a hostile foreign airfield to test the status of the now fly zone and how they will react to the US. First he's not really trained on the plane which even the author admits flies substantially different than less advanced fighters, but the bad guys (foreign nations) would just about do anything to get a working version of the plane which he had planned to land in their laps. Later in the book there is an insane (from a military standpoint) intent to use a super gun with 120+ mile range to cover the 20 mile wide Strait of Hormuz. Not only wouldn't it be appropriate to use it there the installation parameter and the relatively flat trajectory the gun installed where it's supposed to be would negate the effectiveness and range of this gun which was in the real world is intended to launch it's shell in a ballistic trajectory. Beyond the faults with the weapons there are other problems that our hero solves in impossible ways or in impossible time periods. The damage to the auxiliary engines latter in the book is just one glaring example.The book is like a James Bond movie. It works if you don't care about the details. This was the first and will be the only book I read by Ed Bell."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I heard Rush Limbaugh rave about Ted Bell's new thriller Tsar, and decided to get it. Thought I would get some interesting background about Alexander Hawke by first reading Pirate. Getting Pirate was first my Ted Bell mistake. It is so Slooooooooooooow and at 600 pages that's not good. I have personal rule that if I start I book, I finish it. That rule rule and this book are killing me. I hope the decision to buy Tsar was not also a mistake."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I really wanted to like this book. Looking for a fun, summer, beach read--I picked this one up. It started off pretty well. Very interesting plot line, a couple of interesting characters...but then it fell flat for me. I ended up dropping it about 3/4 of the way through. Too many cliches, characters that were caricatures and a lack of understanding by the author of the military, CIA, etc. Not terrible, but not that great either."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I was so excited to read this book after my mother gave it an excellent reivew. However, I did not enjoy it as much as she did. I found the prior Alex Hawke books were far better than this one. It seemed to drag on forever, trying to make it exciting. An ok read, but not recommended"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"The typical airplane 'thriller', but on the long side, andunfortunately not thrilling. The author hates government,hates the French and the Chinese, and has an overdevelopedsense of sadism. The tone is flip/cool but the author lackseven the modest talent of an Ian Fleming to pull it off. Thehero is infallible, independently rich, and invariablyattractive to beautiful but dangerous women, which onlyadds to the dullness. There are much better books out there.It is a sign of trouble when the gushing inside-the-coverreviews are from Booklist, Library Journal, a few paid sources,and the Shreveport Onion-Harvester Monthly. It is hard tobelieve this was ever on an NYT best-seller list, but that'swhat they claim."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"A big let down from previous two books. Bell uses unrealistic time and distance factors that move the action and people around the world at the pace of a modern vidio game. Operations and deployment factors are unrealistic to real world military and /or special operations capabilities.A great spin but he is nowhere in the class of Clancy."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is the second Ted Bell book I've read. The first was \\"Hawke.\\" Perhaps I should have cut my losses. Bell's writing and research have improved but \\"Pirate\\" is still burdened with hollow characters and jarring implausibilities. In providing fast-paced action and a lively plot, Bell has sacrificed all else.Bell's target audience would seem to be 18-year-old military enlistees with time on their hands. As for myself, I cannot suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy a Bell novel."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This book is a book written as a \\"formula\\" book. It has several outright inaccuracies as has been previously cited. Hawke was given the first F35 to buzz around in? Riiiightt! Come on that plane wouldn't have been allowed to be photographed much less flown by a rouge guy like Hawke. What was the point of the F35 Flight in any case?An anti gravity train? Is this Science Fiction?Another case was when Jet was about to be set upon by a frothing at the mouth Doberman, Jet says release the dog. It turns out the dog was a long lost pet of hers named Blondi. Riigghtt! A pet does not show fangs and froth at the mouth.I believe several parts of this book were just stuck in for filler.To often someone shows up miraculously just at the right time to save the day.There is a great lack of creditability in this writing."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I got this one at the library (thank goodness I didn't pay for it!) after hearing someone highly recommended it. I will rememeber this book whenever he recommends something in future.The premise is imaginative, but the execution is formulaic and in dire need of editing. The characters are cliche, and a good portion of the action had me rolling my eyes. The way the characters behaved was so unrealistic; I tried to suspend my disbelief, hoping for a twist but none came. The tempo was uneven; I expect a thriller to be hard to put down, but that was not a problem here. There were some well-written action sequences, but there were a lot more scenes that were mired with long explanations as if the target audience were teenagers (and not very bright ones at that).There were a lot of situations with Hawke and Congreve (God help Britain if Scotland Yard detectives are this dim) that left me wondering how they ever survived. There were too many situations in which spies just boldly walked into situations and started interacting with the bad guys as if an unwelcome American or British intruder wouldn't be shot first and interrogated later (if he survived).If the author had grounded the fanciful plot with realistic action and believable characters, this novel would have been truly terrifying. As it is, it is mediocre and way too long. I would have stopped reading but I was hoping for a surprise twist (again disappointed).If you are looking for an intelligent and well-written spy thriller, check out 'The Gun Seller' by Hugh Laurie."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I have never written a review of any kind. This book was so bad I felt it necessary to warn off others who may be foolish enough to spend money on it.I read about 1300 pages per week so I know quality work when I read it.Absolutely horrible and unbelievable. If this were the last book on Earth, I would burn it for fuel."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I recommend this book 100% and since a lot of readers already talked about how awesome this book is I can just say that I enjoyed reading it very much."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted Bell has created a hero for modern times, not unlike the James Bond series. His characters Alex Hawke and his team of very capable associates get the job done, no matter what the obstacle. As all of Ted Bells books, Pirate is an easy read, and holds your attention with every page."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Highly recommend this book!This is the first Ted Bell book that I've read and about 1/4 of the way in I was completely hooked. I couldn't put it down, listened to it through the night. I have the audio version (great for commutes, laundry and woodworking) and the narrator is excellent. The story moves fast and is told from the viewpoint of multiple characters -- this is what slowed me down in the beginning, figuring out who all the characters were and what their role was.If you like your novels action packed with characters that you really care about, some humor and a good ending, then this is the novel for you."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I've read several of Ted Bell's novels and they always entertain and keep me turning the pages until the end. PIRATE held my attention throughout the entire reading experience. I loved it."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"How lucky I am? Searching for a new author I find three books by Ted Bell. Well I sure made a good choice. Lots of action, good plotting and plenty of exciting friends of the hero. I enjoyed the big picture of the possiblity of probable occurance that was a major part of the book. Yes, I will now continue on reading all of his writings. I am sure I will enjoy them all, will you follow my lead?"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Pirate is the third installment in the new Alex Hawke series by Ted Bell. It follows the adventures of Sir Alex Hawke a descendant of the pirate Blackhawke who works as an Intelligence officer for both the English and American government.The novel opens with an American spy being held captive on a Chinese yacht off the shore of France. He holds information about a ominous link between China and France. Hawke is then sent to save the American spy and learn what he knows. He also has to prevent the plot from being fulfilled.At times the plot is a little far fetched, but it written in a style that prevents you from second guessing anything you are reading. Bell convinces us that anything is possible just by writing it down strongly. The story is always interesting and keeps you involved.Hawke is clearly the next generation James Bond. Hawke has fewer gadgets and focuses more on brute force and hard action tempered with high society intrigue. Which in my opinion makes it a much more enjoyable read. It is a great story written with great style."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Being a fan of Cussler, DuBrul, and Rollins are am always wary of a new adventure author. And I must say after the first few chapters of this book I was a little worried it would be terrible. But once you get used to the writing style (which is a little strange because the narrative takes the flavor of the current character), I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be a very good adventure read. I have just started reading SPY and can already tell that the editing is better.Keep it up Ted!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This book was very much like a summer blockbuster action movie, both for the good and for the bad.There was very little character development, pretty much everybody seemed the same to me. I got kind of tired of the bullets flying right next to our heros without hitting them, or them jumping off the boat just as it explodes. Just like an action movie, this type of thing happens over and over.There seemed to be a lot of things just thrown into the plot just for random coolness value. For example, an antigravity train appears for one chapter, bringing our hero to safety and shielding him from bullets with its antigravity field. Then we never hear from the train again. Huh? I sort of expect that something that fundamentally breaks the laws of physics to play a more significant role and have some kind of backstory. There were other things like this but this was the worst.On the other hand, the action was pretty exciting and the plot was fast-moving. I got it for a long airplane ride, and it was perfect for that situation. When I got home, I finished the last few chapters. Reading it at home, where I'm less demanding of action and demand higher quality, the book felt pretty silly."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I am not going to repeat other reviewers discussion of the lack of character development.My issue is with the lack of basic research. One incident has Hawke's Zodiac being fired upon by a French Patrol Boat's missile. Bell uses the Harpoon missile as the weapon. The French have their own very effective ship to ship missile in the Exocet. Very unlikely that the French would use an American made Harpoon. Later in the novel, Hawke is taking off from a carrier deck in the latest VTOL aircraft, the F-35. The catapult fails and Hawke is put in grave danger. My problem, this is a VTOL aircraft, which the author goes to great lengths to mention and describe. Why would there be a \\"cat shot\\" at all. VTOLs are designed for vertical takeoff and then transistion into level flight, which, again the author describes. Also this scene has nothing to do with the story. Just another \\"Saturday Cliff Hanger\\" episode.This is my second attempt at a Ted Bell novel, ASSASIN being the first. There are too many other writers out there than give a sense of believability for me to waste my time on this type of thriller. I believe the author has the ability to create a very good novel. I wish he would cast aside the unbelievable and go with something a little more creditable."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This was my first novel by Ted Bell and I can't wait to read more! \\"Pirate\\" was a spellbinding, edge-of-your-seat, awesome adventure from page one. With a wide assortment of interesting, complex characters and situations, this book is anything but dull. It spans several continents and jumps back and forth from various story-lines which are all clearly connected. There are twists and turns galore and the ending will not let you down!Ted Bell is an truly exceptional writer which is so refreshing in this genre where most authors tend to be creative yet not particualrly talented. The book is intelligent, the characters practically jump off the page and the diaglogues very well-written. I HIGHLY recommend this to everyone!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"There is some good writing in this book, but it is limited to about 100 pages out of 600 pages. The main character, Alex Hawke, excuse me I mean Lord Alex Hawke, is a magical combination of James Bond, Austin Powers, Batman and Superman--he can do it all...around the world in a day. He is friends with the President of the US, he's a British Lord called on to rescue a hostage from the Chinese, rescue the Sultan of Oman from a fortress, rescue NYC from a nuclear bomb, fly a $50 million stealth jet on loan from the USA to a US aircraft carrier. Apparently the US Navy Seals, US pilots, etc don't exist in this book, as the Pres of the US, the CIA, Scotland Yard, etc rely solely on Lord Hawke to save the world. Hawke is apparently in his young 30's too.In the book, there is also the ego-maniacal descendant of Napoleon who murders his way to the top of the French Government. There is also the Chinese version of Hannibal Lecter who is an assassin and total freak, The German industrialist Neo Nazi who are all scheming to take over the world. They all meet with anti-climatic ends.And of course Sir Alex Hawke gets the girl, a beautiful Chinese spy, actress, singer, diva, etc who, after one night with Sir Hawke, betrays her country, kills her evil twin sister, almost kills her father, betrays her ex-boyfriend, helps Hawke's friend Stokley, the 6'5 260lb ex Jets running back who sneaks into all of the enemies' lairs to help Hawke save the world.The tone of the book varies from life and death serious to total tongue in cheek; it makes me think that even the author doesn't believe what he's writing.Bell's new one is on the best seller list. I guess that is what marketing can do for you."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"It is probably too late, but I've decided that when I grow up I want to be Ted Bell. You can tell from the opening page of any of his Alex Hawke thrillers --- be it HAWKE, ASSASSIN, or the newly published PIRATE --- that the guy is a marvelous, unique talent: he has a canny understanding of how apparently disparate events and facts are connected, and a unique way of providing explanations for them --- so much so that his novels, taken collectively, could be subtitled \\"How The World Works.\\" He is also married to a woman who, while not a household name, is possessed of one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Lest you need any further endorsement, keep in mind that \\"10s\\" don't marry \\"2s.\\" Bell's most significant literary asset, however, is that he understands people, so that while his excellent novels are plot-driven, there is always a set of living, responsive hands firmly at the wheel.PIRATE is the third and best of the Hawke novels, an already brilliant series of derring-do and contemporary swashbuckling that contain more action and interesting characters than most books do in three. Hawke is brilliant, wealthy and talented; notwithstanding all of that, he is quite believable, even as he executes every task flawlessly, from (almost) single-handedly rescuing a hostage who possesses knowledge that threatens the free world, to carrying off a seemingly impossible escape from a technological grave with the coolheadedness and collectiveness of a Harry Houdini.The secondary characters are a delight here, ranging from Stokely Jones, who is guaranteed to save Hawke's bacon at least once per novel, to Hu Xu, who may well be one of the most unique villains introduced in recent fiction. Indeed, Xu, a cross-dressing assassin and expert interrogator, is guaranteed to creep out a reader from first appearance to last, as much for what he does as how he does it. His ingeniousness and depravity put me in the mind of Fu Manchu, a brilliant pulp villain from the early 20th century; as bad as the guy is, you can't wait for his next appearance, as he plots to...Well, yes, there is a plot to all of this, and a great and timely one it is! Luca Bonaparte, the ruthless descendant of Napoleon, plans to seize control of the reins of the government of France in a daring, de facto coup d'etat. His aim is to restore France to its 19th century status as a major world power. Bonaparte forms an unholy alliance with China to achieve this goal. China, with its nuclear arsenal, and France, through the use of an otherwise benevolent alliance, plot to occupy and control a sovereign, oil-rich Middle Eastern nation in order to utilize its most abundant natural resource for its own purpose. Hawke is brought in to provide clandestine support to the CIA in an attempt by the U.S. to thwart this alliance of convenience and the deadly nuclear confrontation it represents.It isn't entirely all Hawke's show, however. Stokely Jones is heavily involved as well, as he squires a beautiful, enigmatic Chinese actress across Germany while attempting to unlock the secrets of a wealthy German industrialist, hidden away in a mysterious and magnificent fortress near the Untersburg and Waltzmann mountains. Bell, never without his masterful touch, switches back and forth among various and precarious events, keeping the reader consistently off-balance and constantly entertained, from the first page to its thrilling, countdown conclusion.Bell easily could be considered the rightful heir to the throne of Robert Ludlum, but he is too talented to assume the chair of another; he brings his own to the table with unique and considerable talent. PIRATE and its predecessors are unbeatable. Highly recommended.--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"couldn,t finish this rubbish.the technical inaccuracies were legion,.so much so that I just got angrier and angier!eg....\\"a speed of 20 knots an hour!\\"I thought writers were supposed to be reasonably educated, and do some research!And \\"a small cottage in Hampstead Heath, London with just a few acres\\"What absolute rubbish, and the whole book is like this."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I've been sticking with this author and it's been a wild ride. I think each book isgetting exponentially better and the first one was out of the park. This one, wherea descendant of Napoleon comes to power in France and forges a secret alliancewith the Chinese to rob oil from Oman (the plot alone shows you that Bell is notone the many blow-up/torture/as many middle-eastern terrorists as you can authors)is superb. The characters are each carefully and distinctly drawn. The humor is laugh-out-loud funny, and the suspense is awesome. Bell is headed for the stars and you out to hitchyour wagon to this series. Hollywood's got to be knocking his door down!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I really enjoy the Alexander Hawke series, and this third book is arguably the best so far in my opinion. The pace is relentless and the action keeps the reader in its grip right up until the very end. We go to some exotic locales with Hawke and his merry band of mercenaries while they attempt to save our world from the terrors and bad people that have cruel designs on it. We even get a truly nasty villain that it is our pleasure to \\"love to hate\\".The book breaks off into about three or four different story lines, but that does not seem to fracture the plot. It just adds whole new dimensions to the pace and to the tension. Hawke is a wonderful new \\"James Bond\\" type of figure who gets into and out of more scrapes than we can imagine. His entourage led by Stokely Jones (my favourite character), Brick Kelly and the indomitable Ambrose Congreve mange to get into and out of a lot of trouble all on their own. I highly recommend this series if you like political thrillers, but be prepared to stay up late trying to finish each book. This particular book is over 500 pages, but it doesn't seem that long once you get into it."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is billed as a Hawke novel, but there are two other great main characters that fill out the book. This is the thriller blueprint for beyond the year 2000.Starting with Lord Hawke - he's the 21st century's James Bond. His sidekick Stokely is the 21st century's Hawk (to Spenser). The inspector is the 21st century's Sherlock Holmes.The three team up (with help from other equally good side characters) to meet and beat a conspiracy of Chinese, German and French megolomaniacs that have a plan for Chinese domination that fits the 21st century as well. These bad guys are perfect Moriarties/Dr. No's, etc. for this century.To cap the comparisons, there is the understated British humor throughout - that rye, dry look at the world - that Hawke and the Inspector exhibit that is reminiscent of Bond. Stokely's humor is American all the way - a black Spenser rather than a tight-lipped Hawk. You can't help but enjoy these guys.There is non-stop action and thrills (of many varieties) for the full 500+ pages. Like all of this genre, you know the good guys will win. However, every scene poses a different challenge, including the possibilities of moles and traitors. The expected outcome never diminishes the tension or excitement.This is highly recommended and I will be rushing to Bell's other Hawke novels."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I have been a fan of James Bond for many years. This is the updated James Bond!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"One of my favorite authors. Read the whole series. Make sure you pick up 'Nick of Time\\", as well. I believe it was recently re-released."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"There are too many technical omissions/errors to make this book readable to me. I get it that a \\"thriller\\" is over-the-top, but when I hit errors of this magnitude(flying a Gulfstream onto an aircraft carrier???), my reading comes to a screeching halt. I got about halfway through it, and just couldn't pick it back up. The characters are likable enough, but they're very one-dimensional and predictable. I'd rather re-read GOOD books than try to slog through this. I gave it one star because I had to in order to write a review."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Bell has created an uber James Bond. He's rich, he's powerful, he's able to do absolutely anything. Everything he owns is the biggest, fastest and most technically advanced. All his friends are the biggest, smartest, strongest, and most connected. Therein lies the problem. He's just too everything. Bell's books are decent for casual reading when you don't want much of a challenge. There are two things that bother me about Bell's writing: 1) notwithstanding Hawke's amazing abilities, he still abysmally stupid at times, and 2) the little technical errors scattered throughout the book. Examples: Speed at sea is measured in knots, not knots per hour. A sniper does NOT put his eye against a scope. 9mm cartridges don't come in belts. A 327 is NOT a big block Chevy. Tomcat F/A 18 Super Hornets? What is it, F-14 Tomcats or F/A-18 Super Hornets? Aircraft carriers and navy bases are not commanded by admirals - that's a captain's billet. The propellers on the Lincoln turning 2,000 RPM? That's about 1,570 MPH at the tip. Ridiculous!Unfortunately, these small errors are distracting, rather like walking into a closed door when you're preoccupied. I read Bell when I'm up for mindless entertainment, not when I want a real story."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"My God this was horrible. I got half way through and had to stop when it was becoming obvious that the bullets would always narrowly miss our hero, wound his sidekick in the shoulder, and kill the bad guys.However, I loved the author's description of France:\\"A demented version of Italy.\\""},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Sorry to say, but Pirate isn't very good. Bell has come up with a thrilling plot, but the narration is just awful. Maybe I am over critical but I find the narrators voice to be annoying. The narrator 'changes' depending on which character has the lead in which chapter. When following Stokely, a ghetto refugeee cardboard cutout figure, the narrator throws around vulgarities \\"and sh**t\\" and generally pitches his \\"voice\\" to mimic the inner city. When following Hawke (half English, half American) the narrator is always shaving the differences. \\"Rather\\" was used to qualify descriptions three or four times on one page of narrative.The characters are all cardboard archetypes. Spy- conflicted, brilliant, irresistable, and talented. Cop- virtuous, dogged, refined. Big man- uneducated, wise, gruff, loyal. Villians- evil, evil, evil and evil. Prostitute- hidden heart of gold etc. under pressure from evil, but desiring to be a good guy after all.The reality is just bizarre. One character can tell if a handgun is loaded by the weight in his palm. Jet Rangers are \\"big\\" helicopters. I guess that is small stuff, but it takes away from the 'thrilling' elements."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This was ridiculously bad. And yet, like a train wreck, I found myself continuing to read it, which is why I'm bothering to review it. Since there are all kinds of \\"bad\\", I'll clarify what I mean: it's written in a pulp fiction style--the characters are more stock caricatures--the foppish english detective, the swashbuckling hero, the former-NY-cop (who was a former navy SEAL and former NY Jets football player) African-American=giant-who-kicks-ass, megalomaniac villains from China, France and Germany. The prose is as purple as it gets. The action always takes place under dark-and-stormy skies. Nobody works hard at anything (or accomplishes much of anything).And yet...I kept reading. I'm a sucker for plot and loved the premise--that Bonaparte's heir teams up with the Chinese to take over the world's oil supplies. I lfound it silly, but kept forgiving, hoping that it would gel and live up to the promise. I forgave characters having a broken leg in one chapter, then walking into a room a few days later, apparently right as rain. I let it pass that a world-class espionage agent didn't know that the woman he slept with, daughter of the Chinese military leader sworn to kill him, has a twin sister, or that both women are military agents. Apparently, he's a world-class agent who doesn't do any research on his target. I kept letting things slide. My mistake.In the end, I was disappointed in myself for sticking with it. There was never any real sense of danger, never any challenge that our characters had to use wits to overcome; things that didn't make sense were swept aside and forgotten; even the final moments with every villain in the book took place OUTSIDE THE STORY. Seriously, someone would walk into the room and say \\"I had to kill so-and-so\\" or \\"they found the body of bad guy x. apparently he'd been shot by...\\" Or, the military would just show up and save things. The reviews that compare this to Bond do Ian Fleming a disservice.Apparently, the publishers have given up having editors edit for this to so miserably fall short of the promise. For that, someone should be keelhauled."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This was the first book by Ted Bell that I have read - I selected it based upon the reviews and Amazon recommendation based upon other books I have bought. While the storyline was really good, the writing was not - there are too many attempts at \\"clever banter\\" along with details that contribute nothing to the plot. Additionally, some areas of the story are passed through very quickly while others go into long, unnecessary detail - I ended up jumping through several sections of pages without missing anything. I also did not care for the abrupt ending - I actually thought my Kindle download was missing pages. Based upon the writing style - and not the plot - I would not recommend this book which is too bad because this could have been a really good book!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"As a BIG fan of well-plotted spy/adventure yarns, I have been frantically searching for someone, ANYONE who could fill the HUGE shoes left by Robert Ludlum after his death. Without a doubt, Ted Bell IS the man to do it. However as a reviewer also mentioned, he is too unique in his own right to assume somone elses spot. He has created his own place in the world adventure/fiction, and he has done it quickly and he has done it very well.Just a few minutes of reading any of Bell's 3 novels and you can sense he just writes differently than what you normally find in this particular genre. There is almost a harmony to how the sentences flow. All I can say is in this case, Different isn't just good, it's GREAT.With Pirate, we see Alexander Hawke on his most daring mission yet. A crazed decendant of Napoleon has a plan to unite China and France together against virtually any and all nations in order to pull off a frightening scenario that includes the Middle East and the one thing they produce more of than almost any other place on earth: Oil. At first I thought that nobody in France or China could be stupid enough to pull off such an insane stunt, but trust me as you read Pirate, you will be utterly shocked at not how realistic it all is, but just how downright PLAUSIBLE it is. Shockingly realistic.Do yourself an immense favor and give Ted Bell a shot. You will NOT be disappointed. Yeah, I know I've heard that one before and it certainly SEEMS like an overused cliche, but in this particular case, I simply cannot endorse this guy enough. But if I could also bend your eye for just a few moments longer, if you take my advice, begin with 'Hawke' and then move on to 'Assassin' before reading 'Pirate'. NOT because you must read them in order, they are ALL excellent, but they simply get BETTER. I cannot WAIT for Alex Hawke's next outing. Yes, the book is THAT good."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted Bell extends his tale just a little too long. But it is good adventure for the arm chair tough guy. Ted Bell wants us to enjoy the ride...in this he is successful."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Bought this book for my brother, he loved this book and I received it in the mail in a very timely manner."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ok, let's create a thriller. Throw in a 4th rate James Bond, using the Ian Fleming style of product placement, an extremely silly plot - the French! the Chinese! World Domination! - and some hack writing and here you are.The wooden villans can not shoot straight (although they are armed with machine guns). Our hero never misses. His character is lacking. For example, (spoiler alert...just kidding) to rescue the tortured CIA agent he is able to walk onto a Chinese ship (in the harbor of Cannes - Thank God the Chinese decided to hang out with their captive) after stabbing two men. He then rushes the pilot house (oh yeah, best place to keep a captive, a place with huge glass windows). There he is overpowered, but luckily one of the villans decides to monologue. The friendly Navy Seal (I hear that they are great to have around in times like these) intervenes. Our hero has a moment of thought when he sees the villan on the ground - he hates to kill in cold blood (um, what about the two guys on the dock?). Our hero continues to look for the captive and finds him in a closet. One of the bad guys is shooting at them, but the hero is able to shoot him, whipping his Walther out in less than a second, from a rubber boat before his friendly Navy Seal (who is slow to respond to a machine gun - I guess he was sick that week in training) is killed.If you have time to kill, and do not require much besides the occasional \\"blow stuff up\\", this is the book for you. If you require that the author writes proper English, creates characters, has a sense of place and setting, then pick up someone else. This one wanders off into French-hating, evil Chinese, and a plot defined by twelve monkeys and a typewriter."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Ted writes a fine thriller dealing in some of todays most compelling topics. I read all of his books and will continue to. If you like Tom Clancy and the other writers in this genre you'll love Ted's books!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"A little slow out of the gate, but once this novel picks up pace it'll hold you rapt in the story. Very well thought out & written, Mr. Bell has done well here. Give it a go, it's certainly worth the read"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I am halfway through Pirate my second Bell book and like Assasin it is a darn good yarn.As a devotee of the Jack Ryan novels by Tom Clancy, Clancy this is not, but as an alternative book to simply fall into to escape the challenges of the day, Tom Bell certainly provides a great distraction.Respectfully the comparisons to James Bond are clear enough. Nevertheless I am having problems putting this book down.Take this book for what it is worth, fictional entertainment.5 stars."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is the third Alex Hawke Book I've read and my feeling for it, is the same as for the other two. There's potential there but it rarely lives up to the hype. I was amazed that Hawke let himself get so stupid over Jet in this novel. And I really couldn't understand why Jet would all of a sudden be in love with Hawke and willing to betray everything for him. There was no real development of that story. It felt like there were too many side plots in this novel - Ambrose falling in love? That was hooky. Hawke almost dying in that new plane? Really what was the point of that. I keep reading his books in hope of him finally getting it ALL right. So far it hasn't happened. So I'll probably wait until the next Hawke book hits my library instead of wasting money on it here."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This novel really gets going with an interesting bang. Ted Bell sets up an interesting James Bond type who has seemingly met his match and in a few pages manages to grab the reader with a well told remminice of past events. However, Bell then goes and adds several other interesting characters who manage to overlap one another. Quickly we are accosted by two other James Bond types, one of whom is also a primary protagonist. It all becomes a bit ridiculous after about 50 pages with swashbuckling rancor.My main beef is that Ted Bell goes wayyyyy over the top here. He has a nack for terrific writing, and well fleshed out characters. But sadly he over does it by a multitude of twenty and turns what could have been great into a silly comic book. I kept thinking that 'Pirate' had all of the ingredients to become a modern day Sabatini adventure, but instead it falls on its face with James Patterson-ites.Perhaps what was most disturbing to me while reading this, was the way the chapters were set up. He has so many characters rambling about here that it at times takes six or seven chapters to get back to the one in question. I am used to the modern day second person story telling that jumps back and forth between protagonists. But Bell has a nasty habbit here of leaving a chapter in a cliff-hanger moment. You want to know what is going to happen next, your into the plot, and then you have to hurry through five chapters that also simmilarily set you up in the same manner to find out what happens next. Only by then you probably are exhausted by so many climactic moments that you have put the book down and an hour or a day has passed.I really like Bell, and I hope his next one puts to rest my main beef with Pirate. I think that if it does, Bell will be up there at the top of his field."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"It took a little while to get through the 600+ pages of the paperback. Not that it was hard reading, it wasn't, just the sheer number of pages.It was worth the effort.Pirate opens with a spy, caught by the Chinese, on a slow boat back to China. The spy, however, has knowledge of a Chinese conspiracy to directly get oil from a Middle Eastern country with the assistance of France. He is the only person privy to this information. The CIA sends in Alex Hawke to rescue him, and thus begins an excellent novel. The novel takes you from Cannes, to Taiwan, Paris, New York, and England. Along the way, you meet a very unsavory cross-dressing Chinese agent/assassin, very deadly, twin female assassins, and a megalomaniacal French politician (a direct descendent of Napoleon Bonaparte). Pirate brings all of these characters together for a very believable plot concerning Red China pulling the strings of France to get direct access to oil, access to Taiwan, and subplots concerning super tankers doubling as atomic bombs and a 30-year old murder. The whole point is to crush America's standing as an economic powerhouse. And to sever their ties with Middle Eastern oil.The heroes of the novel, including the main character, Alex Hawke, are well drawn and believable. Bell does a great job of not making the secondary characters two dimensional. He also is able to tie all of the subplots together in a fashion that doesn't seem rushed or contrived. But you have to know that Alex Hawke gets himself out of some jams that will remind you of a Cussler novel. But not as quickly (hey, it is 600 pages - and it was a paperback!)This is the fourth novel in the Alex Hawke series, and I will have to go back and read the others, before reading his latest novel, Spy. This is one of those times when you are glad to have picked up a novel, without knowing that it was a series, and are happy to find that you have additional books to fill in some of the backstory.Another highly recommended series."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Grabbed this in a (poorly stocked) airport bookshop. $8 down the tubes.Ted Bell is an accomplished guy in other fields, but this is book is to classic spy fiction (early Ludlum, Forsyth, Le Carre, etc) as paint-by-numbers is to the Mona Lisa.The characters are awful stereotypes. The English characters are typical of what bad American writers make of British characters -- their mouths full of locutions from British movies of the 1930s and 40s that are heard nowhere in the British Isles of the 21st century.The characterizations are so inconsistent as to be laughable. We're supposed to accept, for example, that a Scotland Yard detective with a legendary reputation suddenly is struck dumb by the beauty of a suspect he's about to interrogate -- so stricken in fact, he begins to act like a schoolboy, unresponsive to others.I confess that this is the point at which I stopped reading, somewhere around page 125. Giving up on a book, like walking out on a movie, is something I almost never do -- I'm a persistent guy, and I'm usually curious enough about the plot to keep going. Hell, long after Ludlum lost his orginiality and became a factory, I bought and read all his non-ghost-written novels. But Ludlum at his most tired, \\"I-signed-the-contract-so-I've-got-to-churn-it-out\\" worst is better than this.If you want good contemproary spy fiction, try Daniel Silva instead."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"What happens when you have a rugged good-looking, quick-witted hero named Hawke, dangerous beautiful women, international intrigue, terrorism and the open sea.........TED BELL is what happens, Pirate: A Thriller is the result!!!Ted Bell puts together a fast paced intense story where the future of the free world is at stake. His characters are unpredictable and cunning. The mission is impossible. Failure is definitely not an option. The action is intense and lightning fast. The romance is heavy and dangerous. Throw in an irreverent sense of humor and you have a complex tale that plays out around the globe in a fascinating down-to-the-wire novel."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"If you enjoy a fast-paced adventure story and you're not critical about details, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this book.Bell has created a decent yarn with fairly interesting characters. Too bad he and his rewrite editors were so careless.Unfortunately, Pirate contains entirely gratuitous sequences, unexplained holes in the storyline and factual inaccuracies, making the overall effect a little comic-bookish."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I rarely stop reading a book before the end, no matter how bad, but this one makes that short list. I like the spy/thriller genre, and I like the premise of France and China collaborating to counter the United States. But I can't stand it when an author doesn't even take the time to check his facts. If he had reviewed his manuscript with any number of 14 year old military buffs, he could have gotten some easy improvements. Not to nitpick, but Lear Jets can't land on aircraft carriers. The Navy doesn't fly CIA agents and their rich British friends around on prototype fighter planes. Harpoon missiles can't be launched from yachts. Etc, etc. None of these things is really central to the plot, so why didn't Ted Bell do just a little extra work to get things right? Laziness."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I know that Bell and James Patterson are friends and neighbors in Palm Beach, but still. If Patterson continues to praise fluff like this, he''l lose all credibility. Where does one begin? A laughable plot line, cartoon characters, and dialogue unfit for remedial English class. I especially enjoyed Bell's one black character, whom he so cleverly named Stokely. After a few lines of Stokely's dialogue, it seems pretty clear that the only black person Bell has ever spoken to is the guy who serves him mint juleps at the club. Bell's back cover bio tells us he used to be in advertising. Ted, do youself (and us) a favor, see if they'll take you back."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"The fall of the Soviet Union caused a real problem for the writers of spy stories. All of a sudden there was no more big, bad KGB to go do nefarious things. For a while we had a really hard time finding stories with a credible bad guy. Most of the writers have turned to terrorists. You can go save the world from the small group of bad guys that want to nuke New York or whatever.Not so with this novel from Ted Bell. He has leapfroged the terrorist problem to what just might be a really big problem in the future. China is becoming hooked on oil, just like the western countries. China is now the second largest importer of oil in the world. And with a billion people trying to become industrialized, where's that oil going to come from.Enter France, always difficult to determine where France is on the world stage. But clearly France has an oil problem. (The reason she didn't support us in Iraq was that she was selling Iraq proscribed weapons in turn for a more favorable price on oil.)So can France and China get together and ... It will take Ted Bell's hero, Alex Hawke, and his co-hort Stokely Jones to solve this one."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I was beginning to despair of finding a new author in thisgenre. No more. This book and the prior Hawke books completely restored my belief that you canbreathe new life into a tired format. Everything about the whole series feels alive and fun. A great read you won't want to end.Finally. The thrill is back!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"Alex Hawke is James Bond with an attitude (and a title) He seems to be turning up at trouble spots around the world either on a jet fighter plane, his own super yacht or other various and sundry means of transportation and when he does so he is forever putting monkey wrenches to the plans of the enemies of freedom. In this case that would be the Chinese and the French.The French? Mais Oui! Always an easy country to concour in the last two centuries, they are taken over from within by a direct decendant of Napolean, one Lucas Bonaparte who has schemed his way to the presidency that he considers his birthright (except he wants to be Emporer) by crushing all who stand in his way.The Chinese are simply the last really bad guys on the planet with the wherewithal to make things dicey for the forces of good and they have convinced Bonaparte to join their cabal.Add some delicious characters such as Stokely Jones, Jet and her twin sister along with a few others and enfold them in several ongoing crises and you have the receipe for a barn burner of a thriller novel which is written with a touch of elegance and a whole lot of imagination that will keep you turning pages and burning electricity into the wee hours until truth and justice prevail. You never doubt that will happen, although the path to that outcome will look very problematic from time to time. Ted Bell has done it again!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"An exciting story and hard to put down... There was more than on night that I read past midnight because I wanted to see how the action was going to turn out... Great book I would recommend it to anyone who likes thrills and action in abundance."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This newest thriller by Ted Bell does not disappoint. Alex Hawke and his merry band keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. This is an excellent read for those who enjoy adventure novels."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"I read with interest the reviewer who dissed this book and couldn't disagree more. As a once Cussler fan I got bored with the sameness and the venture off into the Sci-fi arena. Ted Bell does it a little better and it remains to be seen if he continues on this path. Loved the twins, the jaunt to Germany, and tie in with WW II. Also found the French-Chinese connection viable and the Bonaparte character a hoot. Keep it up Ted, you have a fan here!"},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"At first the premise seems promising... But then the book begins, you have a decision to make.. 'Do I keep reading or cut my losses?' This is by far one of the most poorly researched and unrealistic \\"thrillers\\" I have ever read. His editor should also be taken to task in allowing whole chapters to remain in the book which serve no purpose other than to raise his word count. (The now infamous F-35 carrier scene being exhibit A in the indictment) The miraculous outcomes at every turn give new depth to the term daux ex machina. Clive Cussler at his most absurd and campiest is no match for Mr. Bell's drivel. Avoid... unless you are doing a research project on mass paperback literature that shouldn't see the light of day."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"This is my first experience with a Ted Bell novel, and will be my last. I find the writing to be too heavily cliched, and the storyline somewhat unbelievable. I'm struggling to finish the book, in the hope that I'll be rewarded eventually, but things aren't looking good."},{"Title":"Pirate (Hawke Series)","review":"The book is uneven, the plotting is virtually non-existent, the technology is lame, the characters are caricatures, and you are in no danger of your disbelief being suspended.If you aren't picky about such things, then the book is relatively fun for summer reading. Nothing like Preston and Childs, but fun. Most disappointing were the four and five star reviews given by Amazon \\"top reviewers\\". Such ratings dilute the value of reader reviews. Even books that don't presume to be great literature should be rated according to their purpose. In this instance, the genre is international thriller, espionage. If this book is worth four or five stars, then what is Clancy's best work to be rated? Not all books should be rated four or five stars just because one will bother to read them. This book is readable -- even enjoyable at a certain level -- but it is not an example of the best of the genre; it's just something to read until something better comes along."},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"I originally purchased this book for my 8 year old daughter. I think I like it better than she does! I absolutely *LOVE* reading about 14 year old girls who rocked the world... and I feel empowered to follow my dreams to rock the world a little myself. I especially love the current-day kids at the end of each section with their plans!!"},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"In her teens, Amelie Welden began writing this book, "Girls who rocked the world", about girls under 20 that have had a major impact on the image of women around the world, throughout history. These tales of hardships and obstacles women have overcome to reach success against the odds is perfect motivational reading for the girls of today. Amelie Welden combines girls from all different situations and backgrounds in this book that share the same characteristics of a heroine. Whether it is Joan of Arc, a French crusader, or Martina Hingis, Women's tennis championship, girls can find good role models. Among the 33 women mentioned in the book, three of which, I found exemplified outstanding characteristics of a heroine making this book a worthwhile read, Cleopatra, Phillis Wheatley, and Helen Keller.This book begins with most likely the most famous woman ruler of them all, Cleopatra. Blessed with riches from the beginning, this girl had all the makings to become a woman who would rock the world, and she did. She faced incredible responsible at the age of only 18 when she was crowned Queen of the Egyptian Empire. Ruling her empire was a difficult task when she was thought of as inferior, for being a women to other male rulers, but that didn't shake her confidence. From the start things went rough for the Queen and she found herself exiled from her own country because advisors felt threatened by her ideas and independence. However, determined, and clever, she devised a plan in order to get into her country to meet Julius Caesar, and the rest is history. The significance of her story is to prove to the world that girls can succeed in a position dominated by men. With the right skill and attitude shown by Cleopatra for her country, any girl can become good at her passion. Cleopatra's heroic courage and willingness to put her life on the line for the sake of her beloved country, is an admirable quality every girl should have.Unlike Cleopatra, Phillis Wheatley was born at a time when it was unheard of for African-Americans to be anymore than slaves, let alone women. However, Phillis Wheatley decided to change her stars, and follow her love for writing. Writing was a way for Phillis to express her feelings, a privilege that any girl should have. Unfortunately no one would listen or hardly appreciate the poetry of a black girl, no matter how good it was. But knowledge is power and as Phillis advanced in her studies, she gained respect. Her life proved that even a black girl could be an intelligent and an educated person if given the opportunity. She opened new doors for the rights of African-Americans and took society a step closer to accepting her race. She taught the world to look past superficial things like skin color and take a deeper look into what the person has to say. It takes a lot of courage to do this at a time when the slavery issue was so controversial, but Phillis Wheatley dared to be different and never gave up on her dreams. Her patriotic spirit but unwillingness to accept the injustice she was forced to live among made her one of the most respected heroines in our society and an excellent role model for girls to follow.Left blind and deaf when she was still a baby, no one could have guessed Helen Keller would become one of the most important advocates for the disabled of her time. Although very intellectually bright Helen was never given the chance to learn because it was the common idea that disabled people were not worthwhile to educate. Finally a teacher decided to take a chance on her and suddenly concepts started to make sense to Helen. She became a rapid learner up to where she could read, write, and speak as well as anyone. The rest of Helen's life dedicated on trying to break down the barriers of education discrimination and to change the way people thought of the "disabled". Girls who have disabilities can relate to Helen's story. The significance of Helen Keller's life is that she not only had to overcome a huge disability herself, but then went on to help others overcome the same obstacles so they could have equal opportunities. She fought her battle by educating and spreading awareness to others, so disabled people wouldn't have to face the discrimination she had. She rocked the world by speaking out and was devoted to her life's goal no matter how impossible it may have seemed. Helen devoted her life to help others so they wouldn't have to go through was she did. All these characteristics make her a heroine in everyone's eyes, including the disabled.All the women in this book possess very admirable characteristics that allowed them to follow their dreams against all odds. Along their journeys they encountered obstacles that only girls could take on. It takes courage and spirit to attempt what they did, and even more strength to succeed at it. But they believed in themselves which took them far and made them heroines who undoubtedly rocked the world. As the young orator Anna Dickinson said, "The world belongs to those who take it", these girls did, and so will the girls of today after they read this book!"},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"I read this book with my daughter who is 7. Both of us were awed by the featured women in the book. The book is short and the stories concise. It is inspiring to see not only women who changed the world, but young women doing so much. Every school and girl in America should read this book. I am buying them as gifts for every girl we know!"},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"Girls Who Rocked the World is an inspiring book. Not only do you learn interesting facts about many famous and accomplished women, you also receive a unique perspective into their dreams, fears, struggles, and successes. I will recommend this book to everyone I know!"},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"This book, Girls Who Rocked the World, gives concise biographical overviews for female role models to young girls. Recommended to ages 8 and up, I found even adult members of the family picking up the book for a quick flip through the pages and many 'I didn't know that' responses.Girls Who Rocked the World is probably best utilized as a starting point to fuller papers or projects based on young women who achieved significance at a young age, but may be used by younger students as a mini-book report (depending on school requirements). As inspirational or motivational material, the book is merely a starting point and should lead to more discussion with an adult parent, mentor, or teacher."},{"Title":"Girls Who Rocked the World : Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes","review":"History is full of women who made a difference in the world. This book profiles several. Focusing on women in history who were extraordinary before they turned 20, this book highlights heroines such as Cleopatra and Phyllis Wheatley among others. A good collection since the greatness of these women have always been played down throughout history. Cleopatra, who is one of the world's most fascinating women and my personal favorite, especially. An inspiring book. Also recommended if you enjoy reading about important historical female women - Lucy and the Beauty Queen (a fictional book about a young Cleopatra) and the Emily Cobbs Collection which references a young Queen Victoria."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"Rainek is the son of a king. He is also part Dragon. Denith his dragon part must chose his mate, until then Rainek is celibate. When Rainek visits a neighboring kingdom to meet some Princesses he is kidnapped and held captive by one of the Princesses. Merena, a powerful witch, wants to have a child with him so she can become even more powerful. She knows he shares a body with a dragon and if she can get him to marry her she will be able to control the dragon in him and any children they have.Tiana is left mostly to herself, because she has no powers. All the rest of her sisters are powerful witches. When she sees Rainek chained and tortured in the dungeon she wishes she could help him but she could be killed for treason if she touches Merena's captive. Somehow his capture has awakened her dormant powers. As a fire witch she could be exiled or even destroyed, so she fears for herself and Raniek, maybe together they can escape from this danger and have time to investigate the powerful attraction they hold for each other.This is a very hot book, and I enjoyed the story, I am going to find the others in this series if I can. You do not have to read the others to enjoy this one."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"Don't get me wrong this is not bad erotica, but it didn't really stand out or become a favorite for me. The story has a cute premise, Prince Rainek shares his mind and body with a dragon Denith. Dragons are of course misunderstood as dangerous beasts who either kill or drive insane the woman who are sacrificed to them. But Denith is looking for his mate, the one woman he will love forever. While Denith and Rainek look, Denith will not allow Rainek to have sex. As a 30 year-old virgin Rainek will do anything to find his mate. Even go to Matriarchy's lands, where woman rule and they are rumered to kidnapp men and use them as sexual slaves.Rainek is kipnapped while sleeping and wakes up to find himself chained and the prisoner of Princess Merena a very powerfull witch. On the up side Merena sends Tiana, a virtual outcast because in a kingdom of magic she has never had powers, Danith immediately recognizes her as his mate. After Denith thwarts Merenas seduction she orders Tiana to care for Rainek. Sleeping with another woman's captive is treason but Tiana is having trouble resisting Rainek and soon learns that \\"power comes from passion.\\" So Rainek must now get free, tell Tiana he's a dragon and avert a major political disaster.From here the story becomes kind of repatative and predictable. Early in the story there is decent sexual tension, which many erotic novels are lacking, but the story later disolves into kind of lackluster sex. None of the later revalations are perticularly startling, but that is not a big problem for me in erotica. I read it for the sex, characters and relationships not complex plot twists. I just wish the end was as good as the begining.Note: this story contains sex with Denith as a dragon."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"It's been forever since i've read a book like. Erotic and sometimes downright raunchy sex scenes and an actual plot! Great story development, and decent characters. Now if only I could find 'Dragon's Kiss'!"},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"I loved this book as much as the first! I've already bought the rest of the series. My husband also likes it when I read them. Wink, wink"},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"This book is as thrilling as the first. All mystical and paranormal interaction with the characters if great. Waiting for Book 3"},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"I really liked the first book in this series and was not disappointed with this one. I think that both of the main people in the book were both strong in their own ways. And the romance scenes were HOT!!!"},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"I v got the first book for free, and first I did not like it so much, but then, amazing. I finished it and boot second book, then third...Very good author and such hot, hot book. I enjoyed every single page, it is rare! The story is about Rainek the second son of Dragon king. You must read the first story; it is easier for the reader. So Rainek is on the way to another kingdom, maybe he could there find his mate. But he is kidnapped by spoiled jungest child of queen of witches-Merena. She has big plans for him. But of course, she needs help with Rainek, so Tiana, is always available for all work and no pleasure from her sister.There comes the interesting part of the story, indeed. Because she must tend to Raineks needs, by washing him...Buy it, and if you don't like much sex scenes, just look for maybe ferry tales!I don't like the comment about too much sex, well if you do not like it, just look for another author.So, Tielle, you are great, please, please do not change a thing about your writing style, the true readers will appreciate it, thanks for such wonderful stories.5- Points, it was amazing."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"Hot! Have a cold shower or a hot husband ready after reading this! I have enjoyed the first two books in the series and look forward to reading the rest."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"Great start to a hot series that does not dissapoint the reader looking for hot couplings and fantasy elements. Typos take away from some of the scenes, though not sure if edit situation or the change into the Kindle format from an original format. If you ever wanted to feel like the most precious treasure of a dragon, give this series a read."},{"Title":"Shadow of the Dragon: Dragon's Fire (Book 2)","review":"This book began great then sort of fizzled. Now don't get me wrong, I like steamy love scenes as much as anyone. But not every single page! The characters: Rainek, along with his dragon Denith, and the witch Tiana are so busy having sex that the plot is seemingly forgotten. I found myself skipping through the sex scenes (which were numerous!) to get to the plot that really didn't happen until the last few pages of the book. The love scenes just seemed so superfluous and unnecessary for the most part. If they had been integrated more into the storyline, and the plot more developed and detailed, this would have been an excellent book. As it is the book is just a love fest with the story being secondary. Which is truly a shame because if it was written better this book would have been great. Unless you like constant love scenes with little to no plot, this book is not for you. Take my advice and skip this book all together."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"Ellery Queen, hoping for anonymity and some quiet time for writing, has rented a house in Wrightsville under the name Ellery Smith. The town, Wrightsville, appears ideal - attractive homes, friendly people, and little crime. The writer Ellery Smith is quickly embraced by the community, especially by the founding family of Wrightsville. All is tranquil, that is, until a series of arsenic poisonings earns Wrightsville the name Calamity Town.Calamity Town (1942) falls chronologically in the middle phase of the Ellery Queen canon and differs considerably from his earlier mysteries. The setting is far from New York City, although the exact location of Wrightsville remains unclear. Several chapters are devoted to an extended courtroom scene that, I believe, is unique to this EQ story. Ellery himself even takes the stand.Ellery's somewhat one-dimensional character is now more fully developed, more complex, more realistic. Unexpectedly, Ellery even becomes romantically involved with an attractive, quick witted, and independent young woman.Most noticeably, the characters and the plot, possibly because the setting is a typical small town, are more conventional than is found in Ellery Queen's more imaginative earlier stories such as The Greek Coffin Mystery, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, and The Siamese Twin Mystery. It is not hard to imagine this story, repackaged somewhat, transformed into a British manor house mystery.This atypical Ellery Queen mystery makes good reading. Calamity Town has often been reprinted and should not be difficult to locate."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"Well known mystery writer Ellery Queen has decided to set his next novel in a small town even though he had lived his entire life in New York City. To overcome this lack in his background Ellery has decided to spend the next six months or so living in a small town while writing the book. He has selected the small town of Wrightsville to take up residence and, in order not to become the 'local celebrity', he has decided to live under an assumed name - 'Ellery Smith'. He was surprised to find that there were no hotel rooms available, nor any furnished apartments as Wrightsville was filled to the brim with workers at the defense factory. The only place Ellery could find to stay that October of 1940 was a furnished house, one with an unfortunate history of broken hearts and sudden death. Ellery finds himself being drawn into the family of his landlord, especially the youngest daughter, Pat, and joining in with them through the holidays. Unfortunately for all the celebrations are tainted with plots and murders that are not resolved until the spring.This is a transitional phase in the Ellery Queen series. In the earlier novels a very cerebral Ellery who dabbles in interesting problems writes mysteries as a hobby. In the later novels Ellery is a famous writer who travels often promoting his books and takes frequent breaks to peaceful Wrightsville to relax, usually with unfortunate consequences for at least one local resident. This novel is the first time Ellery visits the little town and, like all the books in the series, is contemporary to the time it is written. Life in a small town in the pre war years is an alien landscape to the 21st century reader. It is a time when people did not book accommodations ahead of time, when people were who they said they were and paid cash for things. As always with this series though the problem was complex and intriguing, one that will challenge the reader to stay ahead of Ellery.Fans of the series will not want to miss seeing Ellery's first trip to Wrightsville but those who are new to the series might be better off starting elsewhere. This is not a typical Ellery Queen story of either the first or second half of the series. It also features some rather prolonged court scenes, something that thankfully did not occur often in the series."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"As other reviewers have pointed out, this isn't a typical Ellery Queen puzzler nor is it typical for the era. It certainly qualifies as a good puzzler with tragic undertones. The structure of detective fiction in those days doesn't allow the feeling of deep tragedy that you'll find in contemporary novels such as those by Charles Todd, Val McDermid, and others. But there is a fatalistic and tragic flavor here.Others have done well in summarizing the plot. Ellery leaves New York to get the feel of small town America as a setting for a book he's writing and becomes involved in a tragic train of events which culminates in the apparant attempted murder of one woman and death of a second. The culprit apears obvious and this uniquely has a lengthy and well done courtroom sequence which includes Ellery as a reluctant witness for the prosecution.There are minor flaws here and there, but basically it's a good read. I was surprised by the number of lady smokers portrayed because my recollection of a small town at that time is that very few women smoked. Also there is a Biblical goof in which an otherwise learned character confuses David and Goliath with each other. That aside, this is worth reading for those who enjoy classic whodunits."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"In the first of the Wrightsville mysteries, Ellery seeks the peace and quiet of a small town for his writing, but soon becomes involved in the affairs of the Wright family. When newlyweds Jim and Nora Haight find themselves unwilling hosts to Jim's sister Rosemary, it is only a matter of time until Nora begins to suffer from sudden attacks of illness. However, it is Rosemary who dies on New Year's Eve of arsenic poisoning. What appears to be a straightforward murder case against Jim turns out to be anything but. There are plenty of romantic twists to the satisfying plot."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"There's nothing worse for a murder mystery than to fail to surprise the reader with the solution. Unfortunately, that's what happened to me with _Calamity Town_. It's like Ellery himself says in the novel: \\"Two plus two is four,\\" and therefore the solution is obvious.Now, it's true my subconscious may be playing tricks on me. The book title _Calamity Town_ meant nothing to me when I picked it up to read. However, the more I delved into the book, the more it seemed to me as if I'd read it before. It's possible I had read it sometime in my teenage years. One thing is certain: one of the novel's characters seemed suspicious to me from the get-go... and sure enough, it turned out to be the culprit. Although it's possible that the solution remained hidden in my subconscious mind for decades, and now presented itself to me as I was progressing through the book, I'm not sure that's the only reason it turned out to be so disappointing.In reading _Calamity Town_, I was reminded of Raymond Chandler's criticism of \\"Golden Age\\" murder mysteries. Chandler said that in order for the \\"Great Detective\\" to excel, everyone else around him, notably the police, needs to be monumentally stupid. This seems to apply to _Calamity Town_. Seriously: can anyone possibly believe that a young, smart, up-and-coming county prosecutor like Carter Bradford would fail to at least glimpse the solution that Ellery pompously presents at the end of the book? Also, there is one accomplice character (very smart) in the book; again, how could we suppose that this accomplice would fail to divine the same solution to the whodunnit that Ellery saw? And why would the accomplice remain silent, instead of doing everything to save the accomplice's protégé before it's too late? I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for this -- when you get bored by a murder mystery with dozens of pages left to go, and find the solution obvious. The dénouement seemed overly theatrical, with dramatic gasps by Ellery's listeners, Ellery emphasizing whole italics-printed sentences, and so on. Well, it might have been impressive if we had not expected where all of this was going to end.The book's plot itself is wildly implausible, and the implausibility is nicely illustrated in one detail. Ellery Queen arrives in an American small-town, choosing to remain anonymous as a writer working on his next book. The pseudonym he chooses is... Ellery Smith. Say what? How many American writers named Ellery can there possibly be? I know that people in the 1940s didn't have Google at their disposal -- but Ellery Queen was already famous when _Calamity Town_ came out. With the entire small town of Wrightsville struggling to find out what Ellery Smith's real identity was, even visiting the local library in droves to find out, it seems improbable to me that only one person would discover the truth; \\"Ellery\\" is just too eccentric a first name to choose for someone who wishes to remain incognito. If this was the 1940s and a writer arrived to your English small-town in order to write her next book, and her pseudonym was \\"Agatha Smith\\"... gee, I wonder what the real name of that writer might possibly be?_Calamity Town_ has its good sides, too. It represents a turning point in the Ellery Queen oeuvre, with the character of Ellery Queen, thankfully, moving away from the card-board character of the earlier, \\"strictly cerebral\\" books, to a genuine human being of flesh and blood. Some of Ellery's interactions (particularly the flirtatious ones) with the Wrightsville population are nicely depicted; and so is the overall small-town atmosphere. Even so, please don't mention _Calamity Town_ in one breath with Hitchcock's masterpiece _Shadow of a Doubt_; it's just not warranted, and the narrative structure of _Shadow of a Doubt_ is as different from _Calamity Town_ as can be. In Hitchcock's gem, we know from the opening shots \\"who did it\\", yet the movie still manages to remain suspenseful to the very last seconds; whereas _Calamity Town_ pretends as if we didn't know the culprit when, in fact, and disappointingly so, we have a very good idea."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"I first read this detective novel in English, before buying it in French. I probably read it fifty times, and each time I enjoy the same enthralling pleasure. I'm a \\"good\\" reader, which means I [nearly never] discover who's guilty. If you are like me, it's a book you should read chapter by chapter, day after day, and enjoy it meantime. Yes, the clues are clearly indicated where they should be, but you wil not find who did it. A great classic, where our writer-detective keeps a constant eye on the supposed will-be murderer, but can't prevent the crime. You'll like all characters, especially Pat of course. You'll like this little American city, you'll believe yourself wandering in the streets. You'll know the map of the city, and everybody. And when it seems to be over, it's only a start for truth, the genuine one. A real masterpiece of detective novel, a grand one!"},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"To refer to the authors, I'll use their real names - Fred Dannay and Manfred Lee - to distinguish them from their chief character, Ellery Queen. CALAMITY TOWN was first published in April 1942, nearly 3 years after THE DRAGON'S TEETH. At this stage, Ellery Queen is in his second incarnation. He's no longer the 'pure reasoner' of the first EQ stories, who had filed for divorce from the human race; he agonizes over the consequences of his investigations, he loves and loses like anyone else. (Mind you, in the right frame of mind, I can enjoy the pure puzzle type of mystery, too, but *this* is a *novel*, where 'why?' can be as important as 'who'.) In fact, Ellery's been fleshed out enough to serve as the viewpoint character for most of the story, though not in first person. The fleshing out of characters and emotional situations is decent, although through Ellery's perception we're often given his take on something rather than being left to draw our own conclusions - i.e., some gracefully handled exposition here and there.Ellery, no longer drawn as a dilettante, takes his writing seriously. Since his next novel will be set in a typical small town, the normally city-dwelling Ellery plans to live in one for the next six months, incognito, researching the setting and producing a draft.Welcome to Wrightsville, Wright County, New York, making the first of its many appearances in the Queen canon. As in most Queen stories, the setting was contemporary when written - in this case, August 1940 - May 1941 - making it a period piece today. Rural Wrightsville, founded by Jezreel Wright in 1701, still has some cobbled streets, and horses are still commonplace in the area. The fact that Ellery can *sign a six-month lease* under an assumed name, with no ID and no credentials (other than 'I'm a writer under a pseudonym' and 'here's 3 months' rent in advance') *really* drives home that this is a vanished world. Even 2 years later, he'd have been a suspicious character, if not actually arrested for espionage or whatnot. (He later avoids being exposed by draft registration by quietly registering in his native New York City.) As it is, the defence industry is rejuvenating Wrightsville's economy, although not yet on a war footing, so Ellery can find only one available furnished rental: Calamity House.The Wrights remain the first family of Wrightsville: John F., bank president; his wife Hermione, holding the reins of Wrightsville society. They built a separate house on their property three years ago as a gift to Nora, their middle daughter, upon her marriage to Jim Haight, a promising young bank officer - but the engagement was broken, Jim left town, and Nora shut herself away, as much to protect herself from the town's petty gossip as from her broken heart. A now-ex newspaper reporter coined the tag 'Calamity House' when a massive heart attack struck down a would-be buyer. Ellery scoffs at the jinx theory, of course: \\"Calamity House! As sensible as calling Wrightsville Calamity Town!\\" Only gradually does he come to see the calamities inflicted by spite and mean-spirited gossip, and the hidden wish to see the mighty fallen.In this small town, the arrival of 'the famous writer, Ellery Smith' (as the realtor calls him while buttering up the Wrights) causes a stir - think of Hitchcock's film _Shadow of a Doubt_ for the flavor. Most of Wrightsville society bluffs its way through enthusiastic gushing over the famous author nobody's ever heard of, following up with clandestine visits to the library that, of course, come up empty. :) But even during Ellery's smooth entry into Wrightsville society, shadows occupy the picture, not only for Nora, but her elder sister Lola, who not only eloped, but (gasp!) got *divorced*, then refused either to take alimony or crawl back to her parents - who won't take her back since she won't play by the rules. Lola lives on piano lessons, alcohol, and guts. Only the 3rd sister, Patricia, is socially in good standing, and frankly enjoys using Ellery to make her *real* interest jealous - the Wright County Prosecutor.Ellery's lease soon creates a problem - Jim Haight reappears, demands to see Nora, and the long-delayed wedding finally takes place. Their long honeymoon cruise (late August - Halloween) is all very well, but Ellery's lease will still have a few months to run. He amiably offers to leave before being asked, and the Wrights, senior, settle matters by offering him rooms in their mansion for the rest of his lease.But upon the newlyweds' return, disturbing patterns begin taking shape: quarrels, escalated as Jim's poisonous sister Rosemary settles in for a long visit; a book on toxicology containing letters about an illness and death that haven't happened, yet; Jim's occasional binge drinking. And at last, on New Year's Eve, a poisoned cocktail sets events in motion that lift the lid off Hell, as the subsequent murder trial and its aftermath bring out the worst in Wrightsville. This tale is more like THE SCARLET LETTERS than the earliest Queen stories, as Ellery's part is more concerned with the court case than the arrest."},{"Title":"Calamity Town","review":"As usual this book is well written with interesting characters, settings, and story. The only problem, as with many Queen novels, is the identity of the killer is obvious. Still its a fun book and is well worth listening to with Scott Harrison's solid naration."},{"Title":"Learn Italian Together (Learn Together)","review":"I purchased this to teach Italian to my 7 year old as part of our homeschooling this year. I do not speak Italian, so I needed something basic. This set has been just what I wanted- something simple and low key. Each lesson has a CD portion to listen to, and an activity to do to reinforce what we've learned. I do wish that the lessons built on each other more, to reinforce vocabulary from the previous lesson- but its very easy to add that in myself with this program. You won't learn to speak fluent Italian from this program, but its a great introduction for the price."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Before I read this book I wanted to write romance books. Although, I just didn't know if I had what it took to go for it. This book helps beginning writers to give a little push when needed. After reading this book I'm ready to type away I can't wait till I'm finished with my manuscript just to see what happens. Julie helps to let beginners now what to expect and what not to expect. Over all this is an excellent book for anyone who wants to write a romance or has written a romance. I will use this book to look back on whenever in need :)"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This is a veritable mine of information on writing a romance and also on the romance writing industry. I wish I'd bought this book sooner and saved myself weeks of research on the internet.A definite must-buy for anyone considering writing a romance."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"In all sincerity you don't have to be an idiot to benefit from Ms Beard's advice but even if you were you would be able to write a very publishable romance by following the simple steps outlined in this book.She covers all the points pertinent to good writing in general from characterization to plot points, dialogue to Point of View and does it by ever pointing to the way well known authors use these devices. She singles out certain authors for each type of device for the would be author to read and study to see how it is done.Ms Beard's sense of humor sparks through out the book and makes the learning that much easier and more fun. I found the book a delight and though I have many similar more high brow ones, this has fast become one of my favorites. I highly recommend it to novice or seasoned writers or those wishing to switch genres."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This book should be mandatory reading for every beginning romance writer. Julie Beard with wit and charm present step by step process - almost a self critique list to see if your story has what it takes to be published!!She gives you the dos and donts for character and plot developments, what you can include in the story line, what are no nos...Just every phases of romance writing the beginning needs."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Being a total novice myself, this book answered ALL my questions on writing a romance and getting it published. Very easy to read and understand, I read the whole book without putting it down!! Very informative! If you are like me and know absolutly nothing about the "insides" of the romance genre, this is THE book for you!"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This book is everything I expected it to be, and more. It's a step by step guide starting with your idea for your book, all the way up to what happens when you have 10 novels published and are on the New York Times bestsellers' list. There is a comprehensive section for each important aspect of writing a novel (characters, plotting, finding an agent, etc.). No matter what your skill level, this book will help you!"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This is a wonderful, wonderful resource to own. After reading this book if you don't write a novel you have no one to blame but yourself. Author goes step by step through the writing process. The book is full of encouragement. The chapters are easy to read and understand. Most of all this book is extremely PRACTICAL. I recommend it highly."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"The Comlete idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published is a perfect starter book! It guides you from initial concept all the way through the publishing process. It's clear, consistent, effective and the information is offered in short blurbs. It outlines all sorts of genres, hero/heroine traits, virtually everything you need to guide you through getting starting, writing, reviewing and rewriting, searching the market, publishing and marketing. It's really a great book."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"how-to-do-it book for the genre, make it this one! Has everything you need to know to get started and gives you the encouragement to do it instead of just talking about it. This book is practical, realistic and detailed about the process and where/how to find more information on the topics you need/want. For the cyberknowledgeable, lots of websites are listed."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"What a fabulous book on writing and publishing romance novels! It covers everything from plotting and pacing to marketing and networking. A MUST have for romance writers."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This was a great resource for romance writers of all genres. After seeing this book in person, I knew I had to have it. IDIOT'S GUIDE discusses everything from finding an agent to what to do after you're published. This is a definite must-read."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"I would recommend \\"On Writing Romance How to Craft a Novel that Sells\\" by Leigh Michaels and \\"Writing Romance Fiction For Love and Money\\" by Helene Schellenberg Barnhart before I would recommend the Idiot's Guide. After reading those two, the Idiot's Guide was redundant and the style irritated me. Having said that though - I'm glad I bought it, if only because, somehow I got through the other two without fixing my signaling phrases. Because of the Idiot's Guide I was able to clean up my signaling phrases. The other two books are much better over all though."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Great book--valuable resource, easy to read. I've already recommended it to a number of people."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This book is great. I keep the refernce card from it on my computer as I work on my very first historical romance. All of the information was extremely well written and helpful"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"OK...my question is WHY all the 5 stars? I really don't know.I've NEVER purchased and IDIOT's guide before and...after THIS one, I won't be purchasing one again. I absolutely HATE the way this book is laid out. Not only did it give me headaches, if I read another callout that says, "Stop the Presses", I think I will puke!Whoever EDITED this was NOT thinking of their audience. Writers are NOT idiots or imbeciles. And, this book is an INSULT in many ways just because of the way it is laid out. All of the cutsie cartoons and callout sections that are attention DISRUPTORS...I just HATED it. Yes...there MAY be some info in it. I bought it because ONE lady said there was ONE thing covered that wasn't in other books. BUT...I get nauseated even trying to read this book...and it's hard to fight nausea with fighting aggravation.This led to me buying several other romance writing books, including a few out-of-print ones...and signing up for a workshop.I've bought DUMMIES guides before and still own several. I did not buy one on this subject because the reviews stated that THIS one was better - that the DUMMIES guide essentially had nothing new. Well I can honestly say I've been had.Did I mention that I HATE this book???----"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This guide is one of the best that I have purchased. It's simple, cuts to the heart of the matter and is very user friendly! I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for answers to improving their writing, getting published and great advice on keeping your focus."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"A must have for every writer. Provides things every beginner needs to know, and great topics for the veteran writer as well."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"I admit to loving the organization of the Idiot/Dummy books. I have found this one to be quite helpful to me in my pursuit of being published."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"If you are interested in becoming a published romance writer, this is the best book I have read on the topic. Julie Beard is an excellent writer, so I knew this had to be a great book. Her advice is simple to understand and to-the-point. She gets right down to what is important and what isn't. The format of the book makes it fun to read, and the expert advice offered from other superb writers is helpful and informative. After reading The Complete Idiot's Guide, I felt inspired and motivated, and I still use it as a running workbook for my manuscript. She touches on just about everything I have thought about, from plot development to how to negotiate a contract. I applaud her ability to explain what sells and what doesn't, yet encourage writers to push the limits of what is currently popular. Even if your goal is to publish in another genre, The Complete Idiot's Guide gives great overall advice concerning characterization, dialogue, voice, conflict...all of the important aspects of creating memorable fiction. This is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in writing fiction. Thanks Julie!"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Terrific! When I first read this book I'd just finished the first draft of my first novel, and while I was pleasantly surprised at parts of my work, whole sections of it were just plain sucky. I had no idea why some things worked and others didn't. I started by reading Chapter 14, Polish Until It Shines, and found the advice on using your strengths to fix your problems especially helpful. After being mesmerized by this chapter, I went back to page 1 and read the whole book. Golden nuggets were everywhere!"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Make sure you read this book when you plan to write a romance, possibly before you even start. Julie Beard covers all aspects of the subject and keeps her tone light and encouraging. She also includes great references to publishers, resource books and organizations.She mentions so many other authors that all have something unique to contribute, that I would have liked an alphabetical list and maybe their specialty and of course where they are mentioned in the book.But even if you don't want to write a romance novel, you learn a great deal about why they are so fascinating, what their basic structure is and what separates the good ones from the rest."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Easy to read with plenty of input from published authors this book is a must have for those that are even thinking of writing a novel of their own. Or perfect if you are new to the idea and have no real direction.Written by a published author Julie Beard this book takes you from determining what kind of book you would like to write to how the romance industry works. It has a little bit of everything to get you started on the right path! I highly recommend this book!"},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This book is fantastic! If you just have the idea that you might like to write a romance novel but aren't sure if you can do it or aren't sure how to do it - then this is the book for you! It's so easy to read with an outline form and layman's terms. It taught me many things I didn't know about the industry. It even gives you a list of publishers. This book and some of your old paperbacks are really all the reference you need to know how to do your basic writing. I would gladly spend my money on this book again."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Excellent advice on how to write, what to write, and where to send it once you've finished it. A realistic look at the romance industry."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"If you are truly serious about becoming a successful romance writer then you MUST have this book. I've read TONS of books on writing, not only romance but fiction and non-fiction as well. None of them were as user friendly and focused on how-to info as this book. Most other books quickly brush over the how-to. This book actually shows you step by step what to do from choosing the type of romance to write, structuring your book, synopsizing each major part in 4 paragraphs to getting published!! This puts other writing books to shame and it makes me feel like I've wasted so many years with the others when I could have had this gem the entire time.If you want to write romance and you want to get started on the right foot then you MUST HAVE THIS BOOK. No exceptions. And if you are trying to decide between this book and another (or several others), get this one! The others can't hold a match to this one. Not by a long shot."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"Having read hundreds, maybe even thousands of historical romances over the last 20 years, I always dreamed of one day writing my own novel. This book is an extremely helpful tool for anyone that dreams of one day becoming a bestselling author. Julie Beard shares information about the industry and the various tricks to getting published. For those aspiring historical romance writers bogged down by the research process, Beard also gives insight to resources with which to build your historical framework.This book is a great read. It's funny and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to break into the romance industry."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"This was the first book that I had ever read by Julie Beard. After reading her thoughts and ideas, I'm sure that it won't be the last. The book was intresting and to the point. Her ideas were well organized and thought out. A two year old could understand and utilize the information. At points there was humor and it felt as though you were talking to an old friend. Julie Beard has a new fan in me. Even if I find that I'm not intrested in her romance novels, when I am asked who is my favorite author, my answer will undoubtably be Julie Beard. The help and confidence that she offered me in this book were well worth the price. I'm not sure that I'll ever be an author, but if I fail it won't be due to anything that was lacking in her book. If I were given the opportunity I would send her a personal thank you. My out look and my life were changed in a couple of hours."},{"Title":"Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published","review":"I have pretty much every book on romance writing I can get my hand on, and while there's certainly a lot of overlap among them, this is definetly the best.While all of the books have helpful information on the romance industry, this one really stands above the rest. It's wonderfuly organized - it's the one I turn to first when I need to find something quickly. It's also well written - the information doesn't differ a whole lot from the other books, but this is by far the most fun to read. I've also found that the suggestions are truly helpful. The hints/suggestions sound really basic, but have made the writing process MUCH easier (I'm a beginner).Most of the books in this genre have something new to offer, but if you're only going to buy one, this is definetly your best option."},{"Title":"Seven Years\` Residence in the Great Deserts of North America","review":"If you like history and/or Biblical history, this brings it all together. Indian peoples and religions expanding to the Americas, written in a time when truth had not been streached into wild ideas for simple entertainment."},{"Title":"Love for an Enemy","review":"Alexander Fullerton is one of the best writers of 20th century naval fiction today. It is really a shame that his works are not more widely published, because his writing is on a par with Patrick O'Brian. What is more: Fullerton was in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, having served on both surface ships and submarines. He knows well what he writes.This particular work gives the reader a flavor of the dynamics of the naval war in the Mediterranean and a view of life in wartime Egypt during 1941. There's also romance and intrigue. So, if you're looking for a novel that has a richly textured plot, and is also fast-paced, look no further. \\"LOVE FOR AN ENEMY\\" is it!"},{"Title":"Love for an Enemy","review":"I was looking foreward to reading this book as I have read most of Douglas Reemans books and was looking for new books on navel warfare. Compared to Douglas Reemans books this was very slow on the action parts and characters. I found myself skipping pages to speed up the action. Operational descriptions were very good but make dull reading. I was going to purchase the book Submarine by the same writer but decided against it and ordered a Reeman book that I had read a number of years ago. I would rather read a good book a number of times than a poor one once. If you are not familiar with Douglas Reeman or a book titled HMS Trigger by Anton Melville-Ross get them. I am sure you will not be disappointed."},{"Title":"The Kuzari","review":"I have been learning the 'Kuzari ' in a chavruta with Rabbi Yonatan Chipman for the past two years. In the learning we see how strong the work is in stressing that the heart of Jewish faith comes from the Revelation at Sinai. The collective experience of the Jewish people is the real 'proof' which moves the King of the Khazars to choose Judaism before other faiths. We also learn of the strength of the connection to the land of Israel, an essential element of Jewish religious faith.But there is much much else to learn and think about in this foundation work in Jewish thought."},{"Title":"Harry Black & The Delphi Conspiracy","review":"A great read. I could\`nt put it down. I only hope their are many more HARRY BLACK NOVELS COMING."},{"Title":"Harry Black & The Delphi Conspiracy","review":"I have been lucky enough to travel to some of the places where the action in this book happens. Mr. McGraw's descriptions are so clear and real that I felt that I had returned to Egypt. The story was fantastic. I stayed up an entire night to finish the book. The characters are unique and in some cases \\"hateable\\", which adds to the spellbinding story. Great entertainment!"},{"Title":"Harry Black & The Delphi Conspiracy","review":"I might have titled this review location, location, location. Harry Black and the Delphi Conspiracy takes place in Egypt and in Newport Beach, California and the writer obviously knows these locations because he really makes you feel as though you're there. The harsh brutality of the middle east, where money, power and religious zeal mingle to make life unpredictable is portrayed in the context of rich descriptions of the locale. Simlarly, the opulence of upper-class Newport Beach is accurately portrayed, yet the desperate greed that underlies the lifestyle of the rich in Newport leads to the same kind of brutality that occurs in Egypt.McGraw's characters are well-drawn, the plot to hold the world at ransome, so to speak, is believable in the context of today's terrorism, and the end, with Harry coming up reunited with his daughter is satisfying and leaves me hoping for a sequel"},{"Title":"Harry Black & The Delphi Conspiracy","review":"Harry Black and The Delphi Conspiracy is a well-paced thriller filled with exciting characters and a lot of action. After reading about half of the book, I knew I wanted to read the author's sequel-so ordered The Egyptian Conspiracy."},{"Title":"Harry Black & The Delphi Conspiracy","review":"This book centers on Harry Black, an attorney with a formidable education from Harvard Law School. Harry is hired by an international firm, Delphi of Orange County, California to seek funds from the Egyptian government for payment for computer software. As Harry and his firm is preparing for settlement of their claim, suddenly another amendment to a contract which support their lawsuit is found. Immediately Harry painstakingly attempts to determine if this amendment is a forgery or authentic. The difference in the amendments is worth $80 million to Delphi.As Harry travels between Orange County, California and Cairo, Egypt, people involved in the case are being killed. The story line gets even more compelling as Delphi is involved with the testing of the Ebola virus on a small town in Arizona.The author, Ron McGraw, does a masterful job of weaving the various story lines into one. The story is fast paced and has an ending which is not as easy to predict as you might think. As someone who spent my earlier years in Orange County, I appreciate his attention to detail when describing the area. His vivid description of Pacific Coast Highway is a classic.This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good mystery or an action adventure story."},{"Title":"Healing in Psychotherapy: The Process of Holistic Change (Perspectives in psychotherapy)","review":"Diane Shainberg is a master of healing and the healing process. incorporating eastern (buddhist) concepts of the mind with western concepts of psychology and the \\"therapeutic\\" process, she manages to detail what cannot be detailed; she undergoes the expression of healing in words and scenarios that can only be imagined by that part of the mind that believes in things unseen. many clinicians pay homage to tomes such as dsm-iv-tr, etc. without understanding that the contents of such material is only relative truth and not Absolute. many clinicians have never taken time or undertaken a path of inner exploration, hence they continue to speak in terms such as \\"the borderline patient in room 12,\\" or \\"the bipolar patient,\\" rarely if ever, considering that the patient is a person first, not a diagnosis. reading shainberg is like returning to the primordial form of understanding human nature as it applies to human beings; in essence, understanding and allowing one's self to simply digest the wisdom and compassion flowing within these pages will, by force of nature, impel one toward following one's heart wisdom and one's mind wisdom, being able to dissolve the seeming duality between them. just read this book. don't analyze it. don't theorize it. don't memorize it. just let it be. live it. your life and that of those who come to you for assistance with their healing will be thankful for a life of less suffering and more compassion."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"In a time when one mostly sees the popular books written by armchair herbalists and sycophantic ND's, I found seeing Dr. Airola's book still in print a distinct pleasure. Dr. Airola not only writes and presents the material well, but he also transmits a charm and a positiveness that is healing in and of its own self. Dr. Airola practiced what he preached--what is in his books are the results of his clinical experience. No Bravo Sierra here.I'll offer my testimomial here. What is in his book worked for me and worked in three weeks. The M.D.'s failed after three years. The experience moved me enough to study natural medicine in depth to the practitioner level. Dr. Airola's book were the first textbooks. Despite being layman's books, they are chocked full of knowledge.Should you use this book, be prepared to juice. You need to either grow your own herbs or find good sources since the capsuled stuff in healthfood stores is garbage.In this book, you will see a diet that is the progenitor of the some of the more recent popular diets, except that Airola's worked and has stood the test of time. The treatments for specific disease are complete, comprehensible, and usually on one or two pages.One of the beauties of this book is that one who knows nothing of natural healing can take this book and get started right away to heal themselves, gain a strong backbone into natural healing, and turn their live's around.To the negative, there is no information given on how to make herbal preparations. There is more to herbalism than eating a weed and Dr. Airola just gave the principle herbs for a specific treatment. In most cases, that would fine, however I suggest a good herbal or a practicing herbalist who makes their own brews to help in the preparation.This book is an excellent first book for the prospective student of natural medicine (or biological medicine as Dr. Airola called it). It would be my first choice if one asked me for a guide to curing themselves, and it should be found to be an indespensible addition to one's library. It is the only book I loan to people and I have been through 3 copies as it gets worn out and stained over time."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"This book has the ring of truth to it, unlike many books on nutrition I've read. Dr. Airola lists most common diseases (and even includes a chapter on smoking), and gives step-by-step instructions on how to deal with those maladies, including dietary suggestions, herbal and other supplemental recommendations, as well as other techniques such as juice fasting. (I have followed Dr. Airola's protocol for fasting several times and have found it a cleansing and healing experience.) Several appendices are very helpful, including dissertations on how to fast properly and what constitutes a healthy diet. The writing style is engaging, even entertaining. I consider this book an essential part of the home library. It is a shame it doesn't have a wider readership in the United States."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"I found many answers to what occurred in my body from this wonderful, simple yet direct book. I love the juice and soup recommendations and the formula for facial skin care. Everything I have tried from the book worked, so it's a keeper that I highly recommend to other people!"},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"This easy to read book has got an amazing amount of very practical information. It's written in such a manner that you can easily find an ailment with it's corresponding therapeutic program (specific foods, supplements, herbs etc.) Dr. Airola also gives in my opinion the best lacto-vegetarian diet around. I've never been ill and feel great every single day since implementing this diet and his other health-boosting recommendations in my life. Bluntly said, this book covers everything you need to know to get healthy or get healing - the natural way."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"This is not one of the regular \\"health books\\" which flood the current book market. It is the first practical, authoritative manual on proven and effective drugless treatments for our most common ailments. Never before has such an incredible amount of vital, reliable and useful information on the drugless approach to health and disease been assembled in one volume. A complete program of treatment for all the major diseases and ailments is outlined in detail - including diets, specific vitamins and supplements.Leading experts on nutritional and biological medicine, notably Alan H. Nittler, M.D., H. Rudolph Alsleben, M.D., and Barnet G. Meltzer, M.D., have collaborated with the author in reviewing and determining the most effective nutrional and biological treatments for each ailment.Her's what Dr. H. Rudolph Alsleben, M.D., writes about this book:\\"Your book is sensational! I'm impressed with the way in which you conceived and constructed it, with your fabulous and expert presentation of the philosophy of biological medicine, and with the common and academic sense it makes... There are but few informed and courageous leaders who have not only dedicated their lives to helping their fellow men, but who have the sufficient knowledge and qualifications to accomplish this. I am proud to tell you that I feel you to be one of those few. By writing this book, you rendered a great service to a disease-ridden mankind.\\"How To Get Well is destined to become the most treasured and used reference manual not only for doctors, nutritionists and researchers, but for all those who are earnestly seeking information leading to better health.--- from book's dustjacket"},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"I have had this book for almost 40 years. It really has overall helped me at various times as a valuable reference tool. However it also inspired me early on to go on a couple of fasts, which for me were not the wisest thing. As it turns out I had too many underlying problems, and fasting brought them out. I had been exposed to a number of toxic substances growing up. It was in some ways both a dangerous and innocent era that I grew up in and in which Dr. Airola wrote his book.If Dr. Airola had said some words of caution about poisons in the environment, or more about food sensitivities or allergies, or when to desist going on a fast, it would have been better. However, he probably didn't know much about those subjects either, given the times during which he practiced. I was also at that time unacquainted with alternative medicine, so I never even considered going to see a naturopath until later. The doctors that I saw were of little use, so Dr. Airola's book presented a beacon of light, even if his book wasn't always oriented in the way that was best for me given what turned out to be severe gluten and salicylate intolerance.Given the climate of the times, Dr. Airola was a pioneer. What he wrote about continues to be helpful to many overall. And certainly his approach I think has inspired others to be more systematic too, especially those practicing alternative medicine."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"This is a BIBLE of medicine that covers just about everything that can happen to you. Once again, Dr. Ariola has outdone himself. Although this book has been written many years ago, it still is very helpful in giving you details about natural healng. I just wish that Dr.Ariola could have written more books before he passed."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"I wish what this man says would really cure all the ailments he states despite the fact that there are some good suggestions that if one followed, would feel healthier. He mentions these clinics in Sweeden, and let's face it, are we really going to be able to afford them let alone if they still exist from the time this book was written. A friend swears by this man so I am going to give this book to him as he gave his copy away."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"Thirty two years ago, I was having lots of joint pain. I was thirty then. My wrist hurt and I couldn't go up the stairs, because of the severity of the joint pain.I saw Dr Airola's book and bought it.. I did the fasting with the vegetable broth and followed his process. The pain went away within a week.I tell people of the pain that went away and they don't believe me. I have three siblings that rather put all that poison into their bodies like prednisone than to follow his advise.Lately, I have been eating lots of meat. Not only am I looking pretty ugly, but my joints are beginning to hurt. I have to do a cleansing during the Christmas break and change my diet, Pronto to highly nutritious vegetable diet and start back with my green juice and start not only looking beautiful, but also feeling it."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"I learned a lot from this book about food-health relationship. Something never changes: people are what they eat, more or less"},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"This book is great both for people who want to live a healthier life and to treat acute conditions. Despite being written in the '80's, it has information that is still not mainstream, making it very ahead of its time. It is more of a manual than a book to read straight through, making it a great resource book on health and well being. His writing on juice fasting was helpful for me in completing a recent long fast."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"Although this book by Dr. Paavo Airola was written decades ago, it is still contain very important and informative advice to maintain health."},{"Title":"How to get well;: Dr. Airola's handbook of natural healing,","review":"Not only did my book arrive quickly, but it was packaged VERY THOROUGHLY to ensure nothing could happen to it in shipping AND was in better condition than described! EXCELLENT - EXCELLENT - EXCELLENT!!!!"},{"Title":"Shadows in the Dawn: The Lemurs of Madagascar","review":"I think the best part of the book is that it shows children the fun and excitement of doing primate research in the wild. It shows why Alison Jolly hasreturned to the same piece of forest for the last30 years. It balances that by displaying some ofthe sorrowwhen you cannot help a dying animal.And of course, it describes Lemur catta social organizationat a level which should be entertaining to children,and mentions briefly some of the other lemurs foundin Berenty reserve.The book is nicely illustrated with photographs onevery page."},{"Title":"Shadows in the Dawn: The Lemurs of Madagascar","review":"This book is very nice, with wonderful information and pictures. However, at the end, the authors writes of the death of a baby lemur by falling. While I understand this is how life is, I am not sure all young children are ready for a picture of a dead baby lemur with it's distraught mother."},{"Title":"The Battle of Leyte Gulf","review":"It's a shame to find that this book is out of print because it avoids the two pitfalls that many books fall into regarding this vast battle: it doesn't get confusing and it's well researched enough that it doesn't neglect any details of what actually happened. It is also told equally from the Japanese as well as the American perspective. Easily the best book about the subject I have read."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"Despite the heavy emphasis on chemical and paper, this book's essentially about cropping, contrast control, and presentation. These are the core topics you'll need to master even if you only do digital photos. All the better if you use PhotoShop, because it recreates the controls (like burning and dodging) of a darkroom.One thing that may be disappointing is the focus on black and white. Color control is crucial in making color prints and intimately tied with contrast.The three books in this series can be read independently, but together provide a complete clinic from positioning the camera to displaying a final print."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"Stop using this from the library... Just buy it and get it over with!!Ansel's fantastic images and stories combine with his technical discussions to provide the perfect insight into how to become the necessary craftsman. His uncompromising approach into printmaking and photography are clear and simple examples that any novice should at least start with. There are other books out there - but no better start than this. Enjoyable and instructive at the same time!"},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"The book is excellent. Although these techniques are not widely applied today, with appropriate experience and thinking this knowledge can be applied and transferred to modern software like Adobe Photoshop. It can help relate modern and classic photography printing processes (traditional vs computerized).One little remark would be for the publisher. The paper the book is printed is gloss with quite a high reflectance index. This results in making reading the book at certain angles quite impossible for your eyes."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"The last of a three book series, this volume provides comprehensive instructions detailing the developing process. Chapters on mounting and displaying photographs are at the books end completing the readers education. This book written by Ansel Adams, made famous for his B&W photographs, will disapoint any reader interested in the art of color photography. This three book collection is a must for any B&W photographer."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"This is one of a few books in this Ansel Adams series. He discusses a number of aspects of the print, it's limitations, and many techniques that can be used to exploit print characteristics. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is at all serious about B&W photography whether developing your own prints or not."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"In this third part of Adams' technical writings, you'll find a guide to go from what a camera recorded (it talks about a negative, but can be well applied to a digital raw file) to a fine print delivering \\"what you saw and felt\\" to the viewer.Even if it applies to B&W;, I find that much of the content can be applied to color work if you think a bit more about it - mostly now, in the digital age with separated luminance and chrominance controls.You'll also read some good ol' kitchen recipes about developers and toning... These will be less and less useful, but can bring back the smell of the darkroom to your memory ;o)... And quite often, the principle that based the recipe can be applied to another media.A reference, whether shooting film, digital or glass plates (and of invaluable interest for the two former)."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"Following my purchase and delight at the thorough masterpieces that were The Camera and The Negative, I knew that I just had to finish the series. Few people, in my mind, are able to create such an encompassing and complete work in three short books, and yet Adams manages just that.Whereas 'The Camera' and 'The Negative' treated with the pre-image stages of a photograph, 'The Print' obviously deals with the final result. It is all very well and good that you have a decent camera, a nice new roll of film and a darkroom, but if you cannot produce a print of substance and depth, they you might as well not have picked up a camera in the first place.While there are more \\"updated\\" books on b&w; printing, in my humble opinion they lack the writing motivated by a desire for beauty that is the earmark of Adams' trilogy. He explains with tender passion not only the methodology of creating a print (enlarging, contrast, grain, exposure) but the philosophy behind it too!It is rare that I love a book to the point of not finding any serious fault, but Mr Adams has created a legacy within his three works that will be around for as long as people are still shooting film (which is a long time yet), and I believe that speaks for itself.Sadly, we can no longer have the opportunity to learn from Ansel Adams in person, but his legacy is continuing to educate photographer you and old alike, even though there hasn't been a reprint of this book in many years.HIGHLY recommended"},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"If you are serious about understanding what goes into the making of an excellent photograph then this book is a must have. Even the most talented artist must understand the tools and conditions they use to create the end result, and this book guides you through understanding the technical considerations before tripping the shutter."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"If you long for the days when photography, real photography, was black and white on film, then you will love this book. Of commercial necessity it has been years since I maintained my own darkroom and printed my own prints . . but how I miss the magic! This book brings it all back and in so doing opens some new creative channels in my mind as to how to get beautiful prints in the digital age. If you're a purist, you will love this book. If you are a pragmatist you will find ways to correlate traditional methods to digital processing and printing (even though the book does not address the topic of digital at all.) If you are serious about b/w get this book then work with your own shots and in your own workflow until you can emulate the look of this master."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"Ansel Adams is the master of photography, black and white, but still photographic principles and concepts have been throughly tried and tested by him and he teaches you so much in his series starting with \\"The Camera\\" and ending up with this book which focuses more on the final piece. The 2nd book in the series is also so very crucial because it outlines and describes his \\"Zone System\\" in great detail. A must have for any avid photographer and a great shelf reference for any professional. Now go out and shoot.. waste some film for crying out loud and get some awesome shots :)"},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"This is the third and final book in Ansel Adams photography series. I really cant stress enough the importance of reading all 3 of these books and reading them in their proper order. Ansel talks about a lot of techniques and many of these techniques build upon previous knowledge. If your serious enough about photography to have an interest in these books then you should want to do it right and doing it right is buying all 3 books and reading them in order.Its important to note that these books mainly deals with black and white and rightfully so. Ansel's passion was Black and White and it would have been a huge mistake to have included a serious teaching of color into these books. If you are interested in color I recommend buying a separate book that specializes in color and to read it after you have finished these 3 books.I wont bother going into much detail in regards to what this book teaches. That would take too much time and it would make this review way too long. Ill simply say that this book will put you on the road to becoming a master printer. As you most likely already know Ansel is one of the best black and white printers in the history of photography, in fact most people would credit him as being not one of the best but THE Best printer ever. His prints are magical and there is a reason for this. He was absolutely obsessed with quality and his skills in the darkroom were amazing. This book teaches you the techniques that made Ansel Adams one of the best printers ever to pick up a camera.The bottom line - This is hands down the best 3 book series on photography ever made. If you are serious about photography and want to learn how to master shooting and printing in black and white then look no further. By the time you get finished with this series you will be a completely different photographer and will have a much better understanding of the skills required to become a master. With that being said if your a beginner you might want to think about starting with something a little less demanding. These books are a bit much for beginners.5 stars and then some."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"JUST PERFECT. INMEJORABLE LA CALIDAD Y PRESENTACIÓN DE LOS ARTICULOS QUE LLEGARON A CASA. GRACAS POR EL SERVICIO Y POR ENTREGAR PRODUCTOS DE CALIDAD."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"An excellent book with an depth summary of what one needs to know if you work in a darkroom. Ansell's writing is clear and precise and this book is a gem."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"Things become clear by reading in a book how to use it! This is such a book to accompaign the normal photolessons on school-level"},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"I have all three books and i believe that they are the best exploration books i have read till now. a lot of detailed information for people that want to know about the practical and technical aspect of film photography. information that could not be find in other surces."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"In this book, Adams said Expression is more important than reality, idea more important than fact, the print more important than its subject. For it is only in the print that such magnificence can be unfailingly orchestrated. Those words made me think that what is good photograph. The book opens with a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, history of photography before getting down to explain printing techniques.The majority of the text concentrates it's efforts in educating the reader in the art of B&W photography. This book tells readers that what are good prints making techniques. After reading this book you will feel like that your printing skills are very improved. The reader will see many wonderful pictures as examples, that will surely create a better impression as to what type of pictures Adams takes."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"That Adams' \\"The Print\\" is a landmark in photographic processing instruction is indisputable.But while the visual objectives that Adams illustrates are as valid today as ever the bulk of this book is strictly for film printers. Digital photographers will go very hungry looking for any genuinely practical and useful tips here. For them, I recommend looking at the several excellent books on digital b&w; printing that are available today. The best embody precisely the same visual objectives but present the solutions in terms of contemporary digital tools and techniques."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"When I was a teenager Mr. Adams was kind enough to be a penpal with me, a novice. He, his works and books will always be a welcome addition to my library."},{"Title":"The Print (New Ansel Adams Photography Ser., Bk. 3)","review":"This book though dry and technical has plenty of information that is a must have for any aspiring photographer who wishes to push their black and white print skills further. Given that digital camera sales are now out stripping analog cameras will this book still have relevence?"},{"Title":"Behind Closed Doors: Women's Oral Narratives in Tunis","review":"Fun and easy reading. Challenges stereotypes and cliches one may have about women in muslim societies. This is the tale of tales which explores the oral tradition of a society's women to pass on stories of one's culture. By the telling stories -often "dissed" as old wives tales - of women in non-traditional roles, or sometimes ordinary roles, these tales validated and placed a value on the lives of many women in a society which tended to devalue their existence. Read and see how important that part of your growing up may have been. I liked the book and challenge you to find a reason to dislike it."},{"Title":"Behind Closed Doors: Women's Oral Narratives in Tunis","review":"This book is a wonderful collection of tales told by Tunisian women, translated into English. While it is folklore, it is not for children--some of the tales are quite risqué! Highly recommended--but for adults!"},{"Title":"Mega Health","review":"This is the best book ever written on how the body works, what fuel it requires and what to do to obtain the ideal health availble to the human being. I have read over 2000 books on health, immune system, the biochemistry of our bodies, etc, all books related to human health. I have five graduate degrees, including a MD, and make a living in the area of human physiology. I use this book as a hand out and those that follow Dr. Sorenson's guidlines make dramatic turn-arrounds with all their health problems. Lifestyle (What you eat, what you drink, what you smoke, and what exercise you do) is the genesis of almost all chronic illness. Knowing how to correct your lifestyle will give one a healthy edge. Dr. Sorenson has 1900 journal article references in this book. If you doubt what he says, you can look up where the study was done to validate his statements.drmikemd@flash.ne"},{"Title":"Mega Health","review":"If anyone implemented in their lives and diet just 1/4 of what this book suggests our country would be in much better shape both health wise and financially. Changing your diet is tough though. People would rather take a pill that eat veggies. I know, I'm one of those people. This book is a thoughtful review of research that provides some valuable insight into the causation and possible fixes of many of today's common ailments. Hypoglycemia and high cholesterol were my issues and after implementing these changes in my diet (which weren't small) I am now free of any need for drugs. It worked. My mother, who insisted her cholesterol was genetic and that she had to have the drugs, reduced hers to 160 by reducing her intake of animal products during a diet. Yes, her issue was genetic. Just as we genetically need to avoid rattlesnakes, she needs to avoid foods containing much cholesterol. It was pretty simple. Give it a read and implement just a few of the suggestions and see what happens. You'll be healthier for it."},{"Title":"Lest we forget","review":"This historical remembrance is very specific to Alexander, ND, and surrounding townships in McKenzie County. If your family or ancestors settled there, this book gives terrific descriptions, including some first-person accounts, of what it was like to homestead in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For the generalist, these descriptions would probably inform as well, despite the fact that the homesteading experience in this case focuses on a small geographic area. The excerpts from newspaper accounts include brief obituaries so may be helpful to genealogists, but they also contribute to an understanding of life on the prairie (including dealing with the vagaries of nature) and how agricultural settlements evolved. This is a good book for better understanding the development of \\"community.\\""},{"Title":"Webster's New World Pocket Encyclopedia","review":"Compact and complete, this book is easy to navigate, has virtually every fact you may ever need, and is easy to store rather than the traditional bulky volumes. The price, size and quality is A-1 !"},{"Title":"The Call for the Master","review":"This book makes the top of my list of Best Books. I came across it in a used bookstore and was intrigued. I had loaned it to a friend and he also said it was on his list of the top six books that he had ever read. It has been about 10 years since I read the book and I need to read it again. One of the themes in the book is the layers of reality, which is a recurring theme in my own life. I am one of those people, who sees what is going on when no one else does. To me, the book is focused and truthful, as in when you recognize the truth and there is a calm. The author Karlfried Durckheim (a German) studied Zen in Japan, which explains the truth and the calm."},{"Title":"The Call for the Master","review":"For those on the path, I highly recommend this book. It is well-written and highly insightful. It is too bad that it is out of print."},{"Title":"The Gods at Play: Lila in South Asia","review":"William Sax's book gives a wonderful start to the scholarship of lila in South Asia. This is a very exciting and interesting topic and this is one of the first books written on it. Lila is the concept of divine play in Hinduism, the deities in this religious tradition use play to show their freedom and spontaneity. The Gods at Play is a compilation of many authors, some historians, theologians, and anthropologists, who write on different aspects of lila in different traditions in India. There are essays written on Shiva, Vishnu, and the goddess and work written about Brindavan, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Bombay and others. However diverse this book may appear, the author doesn't accomplish what he sets out to do. As a book on lila Sax wants this to show the theological, historical elements to this concept as well as the modern anthropological ideas. This would have been done successfully if Sax had authors of theology and anthropology write on the same tradition, and show this from all aspects. But what the reader is presented with is various and random essays on different traditions that don't connect to each other at all. All in all this book is worth reading if you enjoy reading about Hinduism or different religious traditions in general. There are some great essays especially by authors Vasudha Narayanan and Norvin Hein but there are also equally wordy and uninformative essays."},{"Title":"Ozark Dawn","review":"The past is what drives the future. So Jolene Springer found out when she returned to her home town of Sunrise nestled in the Ozarks.Jolene believes it is time to confront the troubles of her past that followed her into adulthood and drove her from home. But there are parts of the past that won't go quietly and one of them is her old boyfriend, Will Bradley, who wants her to stay in Sunrise.She finds the decision to be more difficult that she'd thought. New troubles have cropped up to be added to the old. Her little sister is nearly grown and fancies herself in love with Will.Torn between hurting the people she loves and protecting her battered heart, Jolene struggles to find a way to safety.This is a book with much more to it than the basic romance plot. The very talented author, Bonnie Drury, has created a world where the reader will feel at home with a great cast of characters. It isn't a place one leaves willingly and it will long linger in your memory even after the last page is read. Highly recommended as a very satisfying and pleasant read.-Anne K. Edwards, All About Murder"},{"Title":"Ozark Dawn","review":"In Sunrise, Arkansas, Dr. Will Bradley sees the woman he has loved since college, Jolene Spencer for the first time in five years. She left for the coast after telling him she does not love him. In California, Jolene has become a reporter for the Sacramento beacon and does TV too.Jolene fled to because her mother refused to believe that her abusive stepfather made overtures and told her he will have her one day. She has returned because her beloved grandfather said her teenage sister and mother needed her. Jolene and Will realize they still love one another, but she refuses to hang around once she helps her family as she has not forgiven her mom. Making his second attempt to keep Jolene by his side forever even more complex is his past returns with a little one that is probably his.Fans of second chance at love tales starring the same two protagonists will want to read the warm OZARK DAWN. The story line contains serious undertones centering on the long-term impact of abuse, but also provides a delightful tale of love. Bonnie Drury engages her audience with a fine tale of two people who respect and love one another, but must overcome the past, especially the haunting reminders of her stepfather that Jolene sees in Sunrise.Harriet Klausner"},{"Title":"A History of the United States","review":"This book is an amazing read. It sets out in clear, concise terms the History of the United States from the sixteenth century to the present. The narration is crisp and the flow is smooth wihtout getting caught in polemics, although not entirely free from bias. Regretfully there is no information on the period prior to 1500 AD probably because the author figures the history of the land and its people before the invasion of the Europeans is not worth reccounting. However the book still remains an interesting introduction to the History of the U.S for the layman"},{"Title":"The Sea Around Us","review":"she will give you a very profound perspective of what impacts our oceans and why me must respect them. It is a fairly simple and elegant read, that simplifies where we fit into the earth's ecosystems."},{"Title":"The Sea Around Us","review":"We love the earth, and what it provides for us, but we aren't into evolution. I actually threw the book out. I didn't appreciate the whole \\"Mother Earth\\" feel of this book. Should have done more research and saved my five dollars."},{"Title":"Sourcebook for Children with Attention Deficit Disorder: A Management Guide for Early Childhood Professionals and Parents","review":"Newer Edition"},{"Title":"Certain people of the Book","review":"This is a collection of a remarkable set of studies of characters in the Hebrew Bible. The subjects are Ahasueros, Balaam, Naomi, Rebeccah, King David and his wives, Jezebel and Elijah, and Joseph plus some shorter sketches of more minor figures. The essays are wonderfully readable and profoundly thought-provoking. I have not seen this reprint, and therefore cannot vouch for its physical quality."},{"Title":"Drawings by Degas;","review":"Degas in all periods of his career is well-represented, and this book is to be preferred to the other book of Degas drawings that is published by Dover."},{"Title":"How to Prepare for the Coop Hspt Catholic High School Entrance Examinations (Barron's How to Prepare for Catholic High School Entrance Examinations Coop/Hspt)","review":"I recently coached a group of eighth-grade students on how to take standardized tests, including the COOP. Their school had instructed them to buy this book, so we began by using it as a reference and workbook. We quickly discovered that the book was filled with poorly written exercises, obviously wrong answers, and systematic labeling errors. Please do not buy this book! It is so badly written that it may actually do more harm than good, and the authors should be ashamed of foisting such a flawed work on unsuspecting students. If you're going to take the COOP, there is a perfectly serviceable book, published by ARCO, that we found to be a much better resource."},{"Title":"How to Prepare for the Coop Hspt Catholic High School Entrance Examinations (Barron's How to Prepare for Catholic High School Entrance Examinations Coop/Hspt)","review":"This book might give you good practice on high school entrance exams, but the careless mistakes make it frustrating to get through even one subtest! They don't even know their alphabet! This is the first book I have seen which has a language test with the options (A), (B), (D), and (D)! It is an outrage to know how poorly this book has been put together. In the long run, it will teach your child to learn a thing or two about entrance exams, but please, if you have other books to choose from, choose another one!"},{"Title":"A TOAST TO TOMORROW: A Tommy Hambledon Mystery","review":"I was interested in reading this book but did not want to invest very much of my \\"book\\" funds. The book turned out to be a good read at a very good price."},{"Title":"How to Help Children with Common Problems","review":"I read the 1981 edition to understand the 2 years-old son of my wife. The book then has become my guide to understand the child for the next ten years. I didn't need to read any additional book but only devote time for the son.I reccommend everybody, who needs to understand children and help their parents, to read and digest the book."},{"Title":"How to Help Children with Common Problems","review":"If you work with children, this book is a good practical guide to assisting children and their families with many common problems. I found this book to be well written with many hepful suggestions and techniqes for dealing with a varity issues."},{"Title":"How to Help Children with Common Problems","review":"As an elementary school counselor for 20 years, this book was a staple in my office. It was one of the first resources I consulted when confronted with children's concerns. I had 2 copies: one for my shelf and one for checkout, often with a waiting list. I highly recommend this wonderful tool for teachers, administrators and parents."},{"Title":"How to Help Children with Common Problems","review":"I first encountered this book when I was in college and bought is right away. Although I still do not have kids, I have enjoyed sharing the book and the tips with my family members and fiends. This book is very organized and user-friendly. It actually works more like a manual. You can look up any type of problem that your child has, read about the definition, causes, prevention, solutions, case study, references for parents, and stories for children. It is comprehensive and I think it is so important to parents and children that it should be bought in every school to all children before they even become parents.This book can change your life!!!"},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"Though "secret transmissions" is somewhat of a misnomer, what the author presents is a collection of early published taiji material--mostly by Yang Cheng Fu, though there is one workindirectly attributed to Yang Ban Hou.These early works are not a step-by-step manual, but guides to the practicing student to help gain insight into what they're practicing. What any reader should immediately pick-up, however, is that these guides were written for someone learning how to fight.Though much of the material is by (and thus, oriented towards) a Yang-stylist, the fundamental principles of taiji remain the same in all styles, so there is enough material that all taiji practitioners can benefit by. In fact, this book was recommended to me by a Chen-style practitioner.The other part of this book, the author's foreword, gives the colorful (and sometimes conflicting) historical background and accounts of the Yang family, which is in of itself a fascinating read.This book is definitely recommended for any serious taiji student."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"This book passes along much history and workings of the Tai Chi Style. As time goes on, these writings are be re-interpreted and the original translation or meanings are getting lost or clouded. It was good the see this book which commented and had explanations from the Yang Family founders and Masters"},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"I've searched through, and read, quite a number of books on tai chi. This compilation of translations is excellent. It is clear, and has the resonance of true classics."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"This is a wonderful book but it is most suited for serious practitioners who already know the CORRECT Yang 103 empty hand form. This book will truly motivate you to become a better Tai Chi Player."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"Douglas Wile did a fine job in compiling the Taichichuan (Taijiquan) Classics for the western world.A must for any serious Taijiquan practitioner, teacher or master.All the works in the book are difficult to find and translate, so we must thank the author for this."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"This book goes into a great deal of knowledge about Tai Chi. very well translated. Fully recommend this book to everyone who does Tai Chi or is just interested."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"Another of Prof Wile's milestones on the history of the old boxing art.While there are more than a few errors in this notable work, most were due sourcing information in junior Yang Family students.Highly recommended for anyone seriously interested in understanding the old boxing art."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"The T'ai Chi Classics, songs (instructional poems), discourses, and old photographs make this collection of fragments a colorful and instructive addition to your library.One of the better books for a beginner of Tai Chi. It chronicles the origins and also legends and feats of the ancient masters, and principles concerning it's practice."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"When you are ready to take your Tai Chi practice a little further be sure to get this book. It will whet your appetite for more training on applications and it will generate lots of questions to discuss with your coach and fellow players."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"It is a very interesting approach to Tai Chi. It explains the philosophy and the basic. It is good for people that are starting with the study of Tai Chi."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"If you pratice Yang Style T'ai-Chi Ch'uan this book should sit next to your copy of the T'ai-Chi Ch'uan Classics!"},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"If you truly know how to obtain Qi / Chi / Ki energy(Produce heat energy into your hands), This book is a fantastic philosophical guide on using the energy with martial art's techniques !This book is required reading for Ki Master certification with the Ki Development Assn."},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"Here's a statement issued by the Yang family (Yeung is Cantonese forYang-----Yeung Family's Tai Chi ChuanThe Yeung family's style of Tai Chi Chuan is unique to the Yeungfamily.It was started by Great Master, Yeung Lu Chan, who was born over twohundred years ago, and has been passed down to family members,generation after generation to the present day. The lineage underdiscussion is that of Mr Yeung Sau Chung, the eldest son of Mr YeungChing Po. Mr Yeung Sau Chung moved to Hong Kong with his family in1949, and continued to dedicate his life to practicing and teaching Tai Chi Chuan until his death in 1985. Since then his family has devotedthemselves to practicing and teaching Tai Chi Chuan.Mr Yeung had taught for over fifty years, and his daughter Ms Yeung Ma Lee, taught for over twenty years. Over these seventy years, they both have taught many students. Their method of teaching is personal and individualized. Through this methodology, they have employed various teaching approaches that take into consideration an individual's learning level, capabilities and physique.It is important to clearly define the different categories of learningmore fully:Category one is family. Yeung family members are taught the completebody of knowledge. In the family, the methods and formulas are observedmost strictly, and the teaching methods employed are quite severe.While all family members learn, not all like teaching and not all takedisciples.Category two is disciple. Generally, a student is required to spend aspecific amount of time studying with the teacher before beingconsidered for discipleship. Students are accepted as disciples basedon several criteria. The disciples must have aptitude and possess virtuessuch as honesty, kindness and loyalty to the Yeung's family. Onceaccepted, they would acquire from the Master skills that lead to alevel of comprehension that far exceeds that of the students so that they can help the Master to spread the Yeung Family's Tai Chi Chuan.A disciple is allowed to use the Yeung family's name when teaching.Disciples can choose to take their own disciples. All disciples arelisted in the chart of School of Yeung's style of Tai Chi Chuan but notin the Yeung's family lineage despite the fact that some peopleshamefully promote themselves this way.Category three is student. With permission from the Yeung's familystudents could teach using the Yeung's family name.The family itself has published books about Tai Chi Chuan. One mustunderstand that books only serve as a guide; you could only learn theart well with instructions from the Yeung family. Recently a movie ofMr Yeung Sau Chung surfaced on the internet (without family permission).The same principle applies. It may be the best form one has ever seen,but without the underlying formula, it is impossible to learn from it.There are a lot of claims by some people saying they are practicing the\\"real\\" Yeung style, or they possess the \\"forgotten secrets\\" etc. It isabsolutely important that the followers should exercise the utmostcaution to discern the authenticity of these claims and whether themartial art is appropriate for their physique, otherwise it is not onlya waste of time and money but also it might cause serious injury. Yeungstyle Tai Chi Chuan is both an extraordinary defensive art as well asan unparalleled health maintenance exercise. The principles andapplications are only as valuable and effective as the source fromwhich they spring.Know your source.-----------------------Not my words, but the words of the Yeung family. There are a lot of taichi chuan masters teaching terrible and innacurate form. Buyer Beware!"},{"Title":"Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions","review":"The books contains a few interesting passages, along with the common banalities that I hear all the time from anyone who knows what's what in Tai Chi.Still, the stories are nice. It's refreshing to find a book where someone doesn't show you a (poor) form with 2 basic applications and claim to the the God of Tai Chi.If you really want something to sink your teeth into, hit the tai chi classics.PS- The best laugh in the pages of the book are the pics of Yang Chen Fu in \\"action\\". For a master, he had sloppy form."},{"Title":"The Papin Sisters (Oxford Studies in Modern European Culture)","review":"After seeing a movie about these ladies, and learning it was true, I immediately checked for relevant books. It's been a little while since my last great true-crime find. This book is meaty and well-researched. It's got extensive quotes in the sisters' native French, with English translations (most of the time.) This is *not* a light or a quick read, which is why it's been living on my coffee table so I can go back to it in little sessions. I read far more fiction that non-fiction, and even for non-fiction this one's a bit dense! It's the only book on this subject that I could find online, and worth reading. So, struggle on!"},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"I have read all the other books but this one particularly caught my interest. It was very clever and as much with the other books I finished it in a day. Annie learned from her experience and Kate was trying to be more open about her Wiccan interests. Cooper was learning how to be a girlfriend but still reeling from her experience in "In the Dreaming". Very well put together."},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"Kate, Cooper, and Annie are 3 best friends brought together with the help of the year and a day study of the Craft. So far they have done many things together and have gone through a great deal. So one would expect that on the Blue Moon, all 3 would preform a ritual together, right? But when Annie brings up the idea, she realizes that she is quite different from the others. Kate and Cooper both have boyfriends and have a confidence about them that Annie has never had. And since they cannot attend the ritual, Annie decides to hold one by herself. During the ritual she asks for the help of a goddess to help her become more like her friends. After the ritual Annie has changes in her appearance and attitude, so dramatic that Kate and Cooper are worried for her. But can they help get the old Annie back before it's to late?"},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"I'm an avid reader of the Circle of Three series. I was kinda sketchy when I read "So Mote it Be" but I was hooked. This book definitely lives up to its predecessors and I'm sure that the next will be just as good if not better. This is a must read for all witchcraft fans!"},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"Annie has always been my favorite character in the CIRCLE OF THREE SERIES. In this book she gets her chance to shine, even if she does get into some trouble along the way. Her transformation from mousy bookworm to femme fatale is hysterical. I especially love how she shows up Sherrie, surely the nastiest literary bad girl ever. Isobel Bird must have been in a good mood when she penned this one, because it's really funny while still being filled with lots of good info about Wicca. It's good to see her let loose, especially since book 6 (IN THE DREAMING) was so serious. The wedding scene alone is worth reading the whole book for. This series just gets better and better."},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"The Circle of Three series is about three teenagers - Kate, Cooper and Annie who are practicing the Wiccan religion. The difference in this series (and perhaps the problem) is that each book does not have a beginning, middle and end, but is rather the continuing story of three girl's lives. Reading one out of sequence is confusing as it picks up right where the last one left off, and the events that take place are more like a sequence of events, rather than a structured plot with character building, suspense and a climax. For that reason it is hard to review just one book separately, as each one should be considered as one big novel divided into separate books.However, the books do have their merits - they successfully jump onto the Wiccan/witchcraft/pagan bandwagon that everyone seems to be so obessed with lately, and provides an unbiased and realistic view of this religion as it appears today. Whether you believe in it or not, the books serve to shatter several damaging stero-types.In this case, one of the main heroines, the slightly shy, bookish Annie invokes the goddess Freya to uplift her self-esteem in a ritual known as 'aspecting'. Gaining some of the goddess's characteristics such as confidence and assertion, Annie struts her new life-style, causing minor damage on the way. But it is only minor damage, and when her friends tell her how she's behaving, she reverses the 'spell' and regains her normal personality. See what I mean about no climax?But I'm being unfair, because these books aren't written for riveting reading. They are written for a open-minded, realistic view at the Wiccan religion seen through the eyes of three young people, and in doing that it succeeds."},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"In this book Annie is upset when Cooper and Kate blow off her idea for a blue moon ritual. She's beginning to notice that they're more focused on there own lives (and boyfriends) lately and she hates it. So she decides to do something for the full moon herself, a special ritual in which she invokes a goddess and spends time with her. At first the ritual dose nothing more than gives her confidence but soon Cooper and Kate are disturbed by the new Annie. She's turned into someone that they don't recognize anymore. But her friends have other serious problems on their minds. It's becomming obvious to Kate that's she's going to have to tell her mother about Wicca. And Copper's offended by TJ's responce to her wiccan poetry. Can they save Annie and solve there own problems at the same time?I thought this book was one of the best in the series so far. Annie has always been my favroite charecter and in this book she really gets to shine. If you're a fan of the last 6 books you HAVE to read this one. I fully reccomend it. I can't wait until the five paths come out!"},{"Title":"Blue Moon","review":"I have actually never read this book but i have read the other 6. They have all captured my attention so much i finished 2 a day! These books not only keep your attention but they wet your fet in paganism. If you have no idea about it these are good books of learning and storys. If you are starting some is new and some is review and if you are experinced witch it might all be reviews. I find myself caught up with the characters and there lives and i easily read a book in two hours and when i finish say, wow well that was quick. Well whatever age i'm sure you'll love it. Please give these books a try, they should be worth while. Each book has a pretty belivable real life story, with witches of course."},{"Title":"Asian. Woman. Alone.","review":"Presented in the format of a series of essays and prose-poems, Asian. Woman. Alone. is the personal memoir of Ayoung M. Kim, a Korean woman who, after having to call off her wedding, found no acceptance among her family in her native Korea and then traveled to Southeast Asia. There she saw great suffering in the people and animals around her, and gradually constructed a path to healing and forgiveness through compassion and love. Asian. Woman. Alone. is highly recommended as a powerful and moving autobiographical story of personal hardship and growth."},{"Title":"Asian. Woman. Alone.","review":"as someone who tends to be an "impatient" reader and usually takes weeks to finish a book, i couldn't put this down and finished it in a day! each story has its own unique personality... sweet, funny, despondent, empowered, etc. the author's description of her surroundings and travels blends beautifully with the honest and raw accounts of her thoughts and feelings. i definitely recommend this!"},{"Title":"New second course in algebra: Enl. ed (Mathematical texts for schools, ed. by P. F. Smith)","review":"I have the shorter 1926 edition,(334 pg) it bears the name of a long ago student (Annie Denison) on inside cover boardI am presently reviewing old math principals I learned a long time ago, and when I opened this book which I got as part of a lot from an ebay seller, I was amazed at the clarity and wonderful examples given for a student. The chapter end exercises are challenging and I wonder why they constantly revise and reinvent the wheel each year with new books on an old subject. The book is perfection and a classic in my opinion."},{"Title":"Layamon's Arthur: The Arthurian Section of Layamon's Brut","review":"First of all, this is not a review of the poem (it's alright as far as Arthurian stories go); rather, it's a review of the edition. The biggest problem I had was a lack of a glossary in the back. For those who are unfamiliar with Middle English the original text becomes sort of an annoying visual aid or historical oddity as the translation dominates one's reading. I think it could have been made much better by original text side-glossed, with translations at the bottom of the page if needed. That would actually encourage people to learn Middle English as opposed to looking at it, thinking it looks pretty or quaint and then reading the translation.I also think a side-by-side printing of both manuscripts would have been helpful as well. I believe TEAMS makes an edition like this with the entire Brut but I'm not sure.Bottom line: pretty good edition, but it could be a bit better for both the serious student and the newcomer to Middle English."},{"Title":"Holmes Principles of physical geology","review":"Holmes is an all time classic.It has introduced generations of geology students to the principles of geology with it's many updated editions.Not only highly informative but one of the most readable books of it's genre.Belongs in every earth science collection.B.Miles"},{"Title":"Holmes Principles of physical geology","review":"A Holmes was a great geologist and this textbook is a great testimonial to a man who most certainly was a great earth scientist."},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":"I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader."},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":"In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton."},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":"Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages."},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":""A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!"},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":"The path of literary biography can be a treacheous one . Too much detail and the work can descend into triviality , not enough and the reader is left feeling shortchanged and the book appears insubstantialDiana Birchall succesfully avoids these pitfalls ,and draws the reader into the text delivering an insightful and captivating biography of her "Bad Grandmother".Onoto Watanno / Winifred Eaton was , despite her Japanese pen name , of English/Chinese extraction .She was a Journalist, Screenwriter and author of numerous Japanese romances ,the most famous of which is "The Japanese Nightingale" first published in 1901 (and freshly republished a century later ). It is thought to have sold around 200,000 copies and was later made into a play and a silent movie.Diana Birchall would seem to have inherited her grandmothers literary prowess and this book is a fascinating look into the world of literary pursuits and the life of Asian women in early twentieth century America."},{"Title":"Onoto Watanna: THE STORY OF WINNIFRED EATON (Asian American Experience)","review":""A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.The closing words are:"To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USAThis biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.What more can a biography do?Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing."},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"I've had several VW's starting in 1987 and a Bentley manual for all of them. This latest edition seems to have sacrificed detail for sake of being able to cover a myriad of engine types/models. Notably missing is any information on the power window mechanism, not even a diagram. Also vague is information about the removal/installation of distributor cap and rotor. There is a lot of "installation is the reverse of removal" (This makes sense in a purely logical world, but not in the real world). Finally, I notice a total lack of the wonderful symptom/solution troubleshooting tables that have appeared in previous versions. It's better than nothing, but doesn't seem up to the regular standards of detail!"},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"This is a must have for any VW owner that's planning on doing some sort of modification... Or simply if they just want to do self maintenance (VW owners all know how expensive scheduled maintenance can be).I only give this 4 stars though because certain European parts that exist on North American models are ignored (ie: the rear fog light - the socket exists, is shown in an illustration of the tail light assembly, but is not labelled)..."},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"Awesome could wish for better condition but has everything i need to get anything done on my vr6 including how to properly modify"},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"It has saved me A LOT of money, I'm a do it yourself person, and if I can't do the repair by myself in a weekend or because of the heavy duty machinery needed, at least I can go the shop and talk the same language and with authority with the mechanic. Down here in Mexico City this is very important. Too bad the editorial doesn't have a book like this for more import cars"},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"I had this for my 1999 Volkswagen GTI. This book is very thorough, detailed, and provides great directions. This is not a $15 generic service manual, this is the real deal."},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"Helps me with my DIY car maintenance. I am annoyed by the use of special VW tools in the book which are not necessary."},{"Title":"Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI Service Manual 1999-2002 : 2.0L gasoline, 1.9L TDI diesel, 2.8L VR6, 1.8L turbo","review":"This book doesn't have sufficient disassembly instructions.It shows exploded views of engine components, but not enough of how to get in and actually service them. Because there are so many models covered, the lack of detail is stunning.Buy this book only if you want to look up the parts you just spent $$$$ at the dealership having replaced. Don't expect to be able to service your own car with this."},{"Title":"The Bridesmaids ~ Inside the Privileged World of Grace Kelly and Six Intimate Friends","review":"The author provides an insider's glimpse into the worlds of show business, royalty, and the New York social scene in the 1950's. Not only does Quine bring the reader into the world of Grace Kelly as a young actress and ultimately Princess of Monaco, she also tells the story of the lives of her and the other bridesmaids. For readers unfamiliar with her life, you cannot help but admire and respect Grace Kelly after reading this book."},{"Title":"The Bridesmaids ~ Inside the Privileged World of Grace Kelly and Six Intimate Friends","review":"Quine did a nice job writing about Grace Kelly life as the Princess of Monaco,and as a true and trusted friend. Over all i would say Quine's writing was factual as well as interesting."},{"Title":"The Bridesmaids ~ Inside the Privileged World of Grace Kelly and Six Intimate Friends","review":"Judith Quine's book on Grace Kelly is perhaps the most entralling books I've read! I recommend it to all Grace Kelly fans."},{"Title":"The Bridesmaids ~ Inside the Privileged World of Grace Kelly and Six Intimate Friends","review":"Most appealing for its personal flavor of the events as they unfolded throughout the book. The reader will come away feeling she has shared in all the activities. A must for anyone who enjoys being part of the preparation and inside details of a friend or loved one's wedding. Not only is getting an inside perspective most appealing, but the sensitivity of the author's style makes the reading quite personal as if you, too, are involved in the friendship. Very enjoyable reading that lets you escape from the mundane into a world of glamour."},{"Title":"Research in Psychology, Study Guide: Methods and Design","review":"This book is a very well-written introduction to methods in psychological research. Goodwin's style is friendly and often humorous. The information he provides is interspersed with case studies, historical antecdotes, and other "real-world" examples of research principles being put into practice. I found the reading to go extremely fast and painlessly.Goodwin covers such topics as the goals of scientific research, types of experimental research, the fundamentals of experimental design, ethics, subject sampling, types of measurement, assessing validity, and analysis of results. He does not go into great detail about statistics or computational analysis, as this is really meant to be a general introduction to methodology of designing research experiments.Each chapter begins with an overview, so you have a sense of what to expect ahead. He also provides study questions at the end of every chapter which are very helpful to work through. They are in various forms: multiple choice, short answers, essays, etc. so you can practice describing the topics to be sure you understand the material. There is also a study guide published for this textbook, which I would recommend getting if only for additional practice.Having a thorough grasp of research methods is critical for any student of psychology, and this book is probably required for many methods classes in universities. Luckily, it's a great textbook to use and makes research methodology interesting and enjoyable."},{"Title":"Research in Psychology, Study Guide: Methods and Design","review":"I needed this book for a Psychology course. Didn't use in very often except for assigned readings but found it very useful when I did need information. This book is organized very well as well as well written and easy to read. Each chapter starts out basic and develops from there in a clear and understandable course. Would recommend for any beginning researcher:]"},{"Title":"Research in Psychology, Study Guide: Methods and Design","review":"Product came in a timely manner and in good quality, just as the seller advertised that it would. Book is as interesting as it can be for the topic it is about."},{"Title":"Research in Psychology, Study Guide: Methods and Design","review":"It was a very clear introduction to research methods. Simple and straightforward."},{"Title":"Chopsticks Acupuncture","review":"The author claims that his innovative self-treatment technique works miracles... and he is absolutely right. As a practitioner of acupuncture I have often been frustrated at my disability to treat myself when I was in pain. This book has given me the gift of being able to treat myself - and very very effectively. It is also a fascinating book for people interested in Chinese medicine.Hallelujah Shmuel, thanks for this unexpected gift. My chronic backache has gone (forever?)."},{"Title":"Chopsticks Acupuncture","review":"I love this book and keep it handy. It is easily read and understood and practiced. By way of example if one were to wake up in the morning with a stiff neck, you would simply turn to the contents, look for neck pain, there is is on pg. 75. On page 75 there is a short general description along with the main perscription. The following pages go into detail on each point of the perscription (about a page per point), clear illistrations and pictures and intructions tell you how to locate the point, the energetic actions of the Qi connected to it, the symptoms and functions and how to best manipulate the point.Self treatment is easy. It is also simple enough that I can call my wife over who knows nothing about it, hand her the long stick show her the diagram and say put it here and push. Best of all it has yet to fail me. I can't recomend this book highly enough."},{"Title":"Chopsticks Acupuncture","review":"This book is a very easy and ready to use guide to acupressure which can satisfy both those who are willing to get a first idea of acupuncture/acupressure/chi flow theory and to those that are already familiar with these concepts and want to learn how to apply them at any time a for a large variety of situations without having to go through boatloads of theory or techniques that require long and supervised practise.Fundamental theory is indeed covered, but, further studies may be necessary for those who are interested in theory."},{"Title":"Chopsticks Acupuncture","review":"Hard to follow, especially if you're a beginner. I'd recommendAcupressure's Potent Points: a Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailmentsis so much easier to use, so helpful.Also needs more editing (typos, etc).This intrigued me because it said using chopsticks, but it's just accupressure, you can use your fingers/chopsticks/whatever can reach that pressure point."},{"Title":"Chopsticks Acupuncture","review":"I tried the chopsticks technique for TMJ. It worked immediately and provided long acting relief for my client. Excellent book! Highly recommended. Fun and easy to learn too. Having a meridian chart is extremely helpful as a companion to this book."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"With great enthusiasm, I opened this much-raved-about cookbook which is a Christmas present for my husband, the foodie and avid cookbook collector. It looks to be a fascinating story and a completely new take on cooking.Here's the problem for me. Beautiful as it is, with this book, the art director was WAY too much in charge. Art directors tend not to be as concerned as writers (and READERS) about actually being able to read a book easily. Looks and originality in layout are far more important. The result: much of the text is in what appears to be 8-point font size and less. It's layed out in a column format, sometimes 2 columns, usually 3. Compounding the problem, the small text is often printed in colors, so, for example, we have what appears to be gray text on a cream colored page. Additionally, most pages have at least 3 font styles ... so you have serif, sans serif, and italics all on the same page.My advice: carefully study one of the sample pages online, if possible ... or go physically examine this book before buying. It's gorgeous, but this is a case of good looks winning out over good (layout) sense. Cooks need to be able to glance down at a recipe while standing and easily see what their ingredients and directions are. Not the case here."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"This volume contains a series of recipes, grouped according to dish. It has much the same format as most standard cookbooks: vegetable dishes, salads, soups, seafood, meat, desserts, etc. The dishes reflect the unique culinary approach of author/chef Forley and most are fairly complex and delicious. The skill of the home cook using this book would need to be moderate to advanced; the available cooking time, fairly extensive.What is disappointing-- or actually somewhat misleading, given the way the book is being promoted-- is how little educational information is presented. The volume is touted as a new approach to cookery, based on a botanist's information about the plants that serve as the foundation for Forley's dishes. True, charts of botanical family trees are provided, listing the plants according to type. What is missing is any kind of theory that allows us cooks to use this information. Forley says that it can be instructive to think in botanical terms rather than according to standard edibility groupings of vegetables or according to times that plants ripen. Unfortunately, she doesn't guide us in any ways to employ this knowledge of plants' flowering types. She says she has gotten far using this scientific information, but a reader gets the sense she pays short shrift to her intuition and taste buds, preferring to cloak her instinctive experiments in academic terminology. She does not explain how her knowledge led her to combine different vegetables and herbs, or to build from basics into a full-bodied dish. She simply asserts that the botanical genealogy charts promote these types of skills.In the end, what the reader gets is a collection of recipes with a theoretical idea tacked on. If you are interested in tasting the dishes that are served in the author's restaurant, Verbena, or want another chef's cookbook, this may fill the bill. If you are seeking a theory-driven, educational book about culinary skills, look a bit further-- there are several on the shelves right now, including Culinary Artistry, Healthy 1-2-3, Sauces, and Great Tastes Made Simple."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"Neat background that the author provides of her interest in having a garden as vital part of her restaurant has turned into this passion to plan and create dishes and menus around plant groupings.She builds on this by providing the normal dining classifications of appetizers, soups, salads, etc., but by forming and explaining how she utilizes this plant class system.There are exceptional creative stuff here, e.g. Artichoke Bruschetta, Lemon Porridge with Asparagus and Basil, Ruby (Beet) Risotto with Winter Greens, Sauteed Scallops with Onion Pan Gravy, Sauteed Flounder with Braised Rhubarb, Short Rib Terrine, Quinoa-Crusted Chicken.Working with veggies, fruits and grains, this concept will start you thinking and dreaming up your own variations of this plant classification scheme.Fascinating stuff to read, try and explore."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"As a chef I turn to this book when I need information fast. It is complete, well-structured, and tells me what I need to know with just a glance. It has replaced Culinary Artistry in my kitchen."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"Compiled by Diane Forely (Chef and Proprietor of the Verbena Restaurant, New York City), The Anatomy Of A Dish is a mouth-watering compendium of delicious dishes that cover every aspect and stage of sumptuous dining. After the interesting and informative preambles \\"Why Botanical Studies\\"; \\"My Garden and My Kitchen\\"; and \\"About This Books\\", each recipe is organized into one of the three major sections: \\"Building a Dish\\"; \\"Developing a Menu\\"; and \\"Concluding with a Sweet\\". Enhanced with superbly presented, full-color photography by Victor Schrager, as well as a list of definitions, a bibliography, acknowledgments, and an index, The Anatomy Of A Dish offers palate pleasing, appetite satisfying, gourmet recommended fare that ranges from Mixed Grain Pilaf; Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Avocado Cream; Toasted Angel Hair Pasta in Shiitake Broth; and Braised Octopus; to Tamarind-Marinated Flank Steak; Quinoa-Crusted Chicken; Pan-Roasted Duck Breast with Pineapple Chutney; and Frozen Mocha Roulade."},{"Title":"The Anatomy of a Dish","review":"This is an absolutely gorgeous book - the kind people love to give and receive as gifts. Getting into the recipes, though.... it is an intimidating book. The titling of the recipes, the difficulty of obtaining many of the ingredients, and the awkwardness of the layout combine to make it a book I am not going to be turning to much. Somehow, the layout makes the recipes look too complex and time consuming, even when maybe a closer examination would reveal they aren't. Not a user-friendly book."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"Probably one of the best writers of our time!This shorts stories by Mario Benedetti go from excellent to "to good to be true"Like he once said: "and now that we know all the answers, they've changed us the questions" and Mario Benedetti is a master in making you find new questions and new answers...a lesson in life..."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"Este libro es una recoplicion de todos los cuentos de Benedetti hasta antes de "el Buzon del tiempo". Este liro tiene toda la calidad narrativa de Benedetti en una cantidad enorme. Uno puede pasarse horas enteras leyendo este libro sin aburrirse sabiaendo que siempre le queda mas. Uno puede leer todo un "libro" de Benedetti y al dia siguiente leer otro, a forma de capitulo, o bien leer uncuento diario e irlo degustando poco a poco. Es un libro excelso y digno de cualquier biblioteca."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"I stayed up late one night, not reading, but \\"leafing\\" through this 615 page document, inserting bookmarks for each of the approximately 120 stories. This appears to be the only way of creating a usable, if crude, table of contents. So two stars. Five for the work itself, minus 1 each, for the three hours I spent at this tedious task.By the way, I recently purchased Abelardo Castillo's Cuentos Completos, also published by Alfaguara.Cuentos completos (Spanish Edition)This one comes with a thoroughly interactive t.o.c., so it appears that someone at Amazon or Alfaguara got the message."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"This is the finest collection of Benedetti stories available, so as a collection this gets 5 stars. I'm detracting 2 stars simply because there is no TOC, meaning that to get to a particular story you have to leaf trough the entire volume. A very poor showing Alfaguara and I hope this doesn't extend to all future kindle editions."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"I love the stories of Benedetti and was happy to see the Cuentos Completos available in Amazon's Kindle store. However, this edition is impossible to navigate. There is no table of contents (that I can find anyway) and not even a way to move from one story to another. I found the same problem with the smaller collection, La Muerte y Otras Sorpresas (Yes, I am obviously a slow learner) and patiently went through the whole thing, making notes at the story points. That doesn't seem acceptable in a collection this comprehensive.The publisher should be able to rectify this. I'd re-buy in a heartbeat. I was so happy to see Alfaguara available for Kindle, but now realize one should tread with care re: purchasing their electronic editions."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"This is a 5 stars hands down for content, but it lacks an index. You can still navigate between stories with the "LEFT" and "RIGHT" keys, and you can use the search function, but it would of been easier with an index."},{"Title":"Cuentos Completos, Benedetti/ Complete Works, Benedetti (Alfaguara Cuentos Completos) (Spanish Edition)","review":"Well, If you are looking for a book with a lot of short storys (over 100), and I mean really good storys, of all type, this is a perferct book for you. Mario Benedetti writes very well and you will not regret about buying this book."},{"Title":"A D Anno Domini","review":"Kirk Mitchell presented an inspirational look at early Roman/Jewish relations. The characters were filled with personality; the details presented about the era were spectacular. The plot was woven with such care that the novel reads like an authoritative treatise that explains early Jewish, Roman, and Christian life. It is as inspirational as it is informative.The novel was outstanding!"},{"Title":"A D Anno Domini","review":"This is an interesting book based on the NBC miniseries of the same name that aired in 1984. It covers the early history of Christianity from right after the crucifixion of Christ to the trials and tribulations of the apostles in the first century AD. There is not only a good explanation of how early Christians fared in Rome, but a lot of Roman history, information, and intrique.The book is enjoyable to read and flows very well...the stories and ideas contained within are intresting and the author did a good job with characterization.Sadly, this book is out of print, but may be in the library, used book shop, or Ebay."},{"Title":"A D Anno Domini","review":"An excellent book on the early days of Rome in the First Century.It begins on the scaffolding after the crucifixion of our Lord in A.D.33 and ends with the burning of Rome in A.D.69.It covers the Claudio-Julian Family with the emporers Tiberius,Caligula,Claudius and Nero.A great story that could have been taken from the Bible.I also enjoyed the NBC mini-series."},{"Title":"The Cinderella Hour","review":"In Quail Ridge, Illinois, eight year old Snow Ashley Gable meets ten years old Lucas Kilcannon. The two lonely outsiders forge a bond to include e sneaking him food as his father, a local hero as a successful swimming coach fails to feed him. When his father decides to kill him, Lucas jumps out his window to escape the fire his dad lit and died in. However, he lands in the glass and nails that his father placed in the dried out swimming pool. Most people blame Lucas who is considered a bad seed.In High school he and Snow begin seeing one another. However he leaves for the West Coast to go to college with plans to come back and marry his pregnant beloved Snow. When she miscarries, she tells him good bye and vanishes.Years later successful Atlanta radio host Snow Gable takes her show The Cinderella Hour to Chicago not knowing that the past that started in Massachusetts before she was born will come back to haunt her. Also Lucas demands to know why she left him. She knows she owes him the truth, but how to make the man she still loves understand that she suffered from post partum depression.Though at first there seems as if there are too many subplots, all tie brilliantly together inside a strong romantic suspense thriller. The story line is character driven, but not just by the second chance at love between Snow and Lucas. The major ensemble support cast plays critical roles with each having their secondary segment fit into the bigger picture. Katherine Stone writes a complex but winning tale.Harriet Klausner"},{"Title":"The Cinderella Hour","review":"30yo radio-talkshow host goes back to small town to have closure with her 1st love, who was the town's black sheep when they were kids but who is now its respected & hardworking firefighter. Their quest to set things straight about their past becomes complicated as characters from their past confess to their part of separating Hero & heroine. Hero & heroine also find out that other unresolved incidents from the past are rearing its deadly heads again.Overall, this Stone book had a poignant & angtsy childhood-sweethearts romance. Sexual tension & its very few love scenes were ok. My emotions were involved & my reading went fairly fast until the last 1/4 of the book. Basically, once Hero & heroine discussed their past fully & reconciled, the tone & pace of the book changed. The suspense part unfolded in a contrived & predictable way. It destroyed the smooth & emotional-poignant feel of the story beforehand & things became awkward & boring.Recommended for its love story."},{"Title":"The Cinderella Hour","review":"This one was interesting from page 1. Not always the case with KS books. All the characters were lively and well-developed. Although I could have done without the lead character being named \\"Snow.\\" Nevertheless, KS did an outstanding job with this story. I just loved it!"},{"Title":"The Cinderella Hour","review":"This book takes place somewhere other than the East or West Coasts wehre a lot of Katherine Stone books do. I loved this one because although I am familiar with the area I was taken in with the characters. I love Katherine Stone books and this one didn't disapoint me."},{"Title":"Waste minimization assessment for a manufacturer of brazed aluminum oil coolers (SuDoc EP 1.96:600/M-91/018)","review":"Fantastic Invasion is Douglas Adams in Africa galoshes and all....discovering new tribes like the WaBenzi's and the like. This is a look at the modern African continent with a bit of tongue in cheek and none of the paternalism or simplistic viewpoints that normally pervade literature about Africa and its problems. If you are not a sensitive viewer and want your mind blown away by someone that tells it like it is read this journey through Africa. Notwithstanding that this book is more than 20 years old it still has lessons to teach us all."},{"Title":"How I Turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate--in My Spare Time","review":"I read this book at about age 22, and it literally changed my life. By the age of 23 I bought my first house. By the age of 25 I bought my first rental property (a duplex) rehabbed it and rented it out. By age 28 I converted my house into a rental. By age 32 I bought a tri-plex with the down payment from refinancing the duplex. I then traded the tri-plex for 2 duplexes and two houses. I then sold my first duplex and bought a motel. The result: Before I was age 36 in 1980 I was worth about $450,000 ($1.5 million in 2011 dollars.) Bill Nickerson's common sense approach made it easy for me to get started on a part-time basis. I was never the wheeler dealer that he was, but even after over 40 years, I still can't bear to toss out this book that put me on the path to long-term financial success 40 years ago."},{"Title":"How I Turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate--in My Spare Time","review":"Nickerson is the original Real Estate guru!He really walked his talk and bought and sold many properties during his investment career. A few interesting points set him apart from many of the modern day gurus. For example, his approach included employing brokers and agents to buy and sell and he is not teaching you to get rich quick - he shows how frugality and a restrained spending lifestyle can actually help you reach your financial goals. His plan is simple and especially now, with real estate prices falling back to the point where positive cash flows can happen, is still relevant literature to gain insight about building wealth with real estate."},{"Title":"How I Turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate--in My Spare Time","review":"I don't remember where I found this book, but, once I read it (in the mid 70's) I knew that was how I wanted to build my fortune. I ended up become a real eastate salesman in order to be close to what I wanted to do, invest in real estate.I became a very good salesman and with the money I made as a salesman I bought rental properties. I had a good eye for a real estate deal and was able to do quite well.Following the suggestions in the book I always bought for the long term and did most of the work on the property myself.Needless to say, today, I am a five time millionare and have enjoyed financial freedom for quite a while now.Don't work to make money. Make money work for you."},{"Title":"Automotive Mechanic (U.S.P.S.)","review":"didn't have much to do with the exam. Lots of complex math problems, questions about rockets, medical questions, etc. in this book that did not show up on the exam.I spent a lot of time studying this book before the exam and not one question from here was on the test. There were things I had never seen that I had to identify (symbols)on the test that I wasn't prepared for.I passed the test based on what I already knew but my score could have been higher and I could have easily prepared for the test in a matter of days had I known what type of questions were going to be on it.Bottom line: If I were to do this over again I would study from basic study guides online. Maybe the exam has changed but this book has very little to do with the current 943."},{"Title":"Automotive Mechanic (U.S.P.S.)","review":"I passed the exam after spending several hours studying this book. One needs to already have a working knowledge of mechanics, but this study guide definitely helped. I wouldn't have passed it without it."},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"This is a VERY good \\"beyond the basics\\" guide to OneNote 2003.The only problem is ... that I have OneNote 2007. Now, I'll be the first to say that all of the philosophy and many of the commands cross right over, but there is enough of a difference to make you scratch your head.However, when I bought this book, I also bought this reference card:Microsoft OneNote 2007 Quick Reference Card - Handy Durable Tri-Fold MS One Note 2007 Tip & Tricks Guide. 6 Total Pages. Stores Easily. Ultimate Reference for Shortcuts, Tips & Cheats for Microsoft OneNote 2007 Note Taking & Management Software. (Softwa...and between the two, have been rapidly learning OneNote.Oh, and as far as I can tell (March 2009), there are no books on OneNote 2007 on the market, so the above approach may be your best bet!"},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"This is a very good book on OneNote!If you have OneNote you should get this book. It is the only book about OneNote that I am aware of that has been written with the SP1 enhancements in mind. Whole chapters were added to cover new SP1 features.The book has a chapter on the live interactive sharing of notes over a network. There is a chapter on controlling OneNote programmatically (information not available anywhere else).OneNote is a unique product. If you just install it, it is hard to understand why it is better than Word. You need a book like this just to get a handle on what the software can help you.If you have not tried OneNote, download a copy and play with it."},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"\\"Life on OneNote\\" by Jacobs and Jelen is very nicely written with a clear and enthusiastic tone that renders the prose enjoyable. So why one star? Easy, there is absolutely nothing in the book that you can get in animated demonstrations for free off the Microsoft Office OneNote site: http://office.microsoft.comClick on \\"OneNote\\" in the left hand menu. Save yourself time and money and skip this book."},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"I was disappointed with this book. Although it is structured reasonably well, the text often seems to assume prior knowledge - ie it talks about elements/actions as though the reader is already familiar with them.Then when you look up the reference in the index to see if there's clarification later on, the item cannot be found.As another reviewer says, there is much better information available both on the Internet and in other books.There's also a lot of irrelevant padding - like pages of quotes from the program developer about the......development of the program. As if it matters.I read it in a few hours and immediately put it up for sale. No takers so far."},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"Author knows her stuff. From beginning to end, I felt like I was reading a collecting of fast & easy tips from a pro, not just another slog through a computer book.I don't have the patience to sit through online clips or animations; they usually are slow paced and/or aimed at n00bs. With Power OneNote I can got up to speed quickly, skipped around and browsed, skimmed and read what I wanted when I wanted. With OneNote running on my laptop and the book propped up on the table next to it, I went through it in an afternoon.OneNote rocks! I really like the integrations with the rest of the Office suite, especially Outlook. Although the book targets Office 2003 (which is running on my old laptop), I also have a trial of Office 2010 (and an Office 2010 book) running on my desktop. Judging by the trial, the differences in functionality aren't that big. The interfaces, however, are vastly different."},{"Title":"Power One Note: Unleash the Power of One Note","review":"I wish that I'd read the reviews before I bought the book. My version of OneNote is 2007, and the book is about 2003. To top it off, all of the websites mentioned in the book (except the Microsoft site) no longer exist. What a waste of my hard earned money."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"All right, my satirical review of this book and the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential was not widely appreciated, so I offer this straightforward look at things.Our family has been doing this program for two years, and we've been able to see its effects on three children: A 12-year-old diagnosed Severely Mentally Retarded with Angelman's syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, etc., a mildly brain-injured six-year-old who has symptoms fitting several forms of dyslexia, and a six-month-old, who actually started the program several months earlier, since it's so easy to do with babies. (Actually, we've seen it work on many children, including those with Down's, but I'll reserve my comments for these three.)The baby, now 2 1/2, is reading, has an encyclopedic knowledge of birds, primates, U.S. Presidents, and a few other things, and has a way better grasp of geography than most high schoolers (she can point out Madagascar, Sumatra, Borneo and other exotic locales out on a world map). She's physically superb: she can run a mile and climb, well, anything.The middle child, now 8, has stopped reversing his Ds and Bs, can read and write and =enjoy= reading and writing, and has evolved more drawing and artistic abilities.The 14-year-old, formerly speechless, now says about 2-3 sentences a day. She used to be on the ketogenic diet to control her seizures, now she's on a normal diet. She used to lurch and stumble as she walked, and now she can run, if only for half a block. I won't discuss her mental achievements here because, frankly, they have to be seen to be believed (cf. Savant Syndrome). And the program didn't make her that way, it \\"only\\" allowed us to see and appreciate what was there.The Institutes have nailed their success rates down to very specific numbers, but out of ten kids, roughly, two won't be materially helped by the program (and their concept of \\"not materially helped\\" includes things considered as relatively large gains by every other professional who has ever seen this girl), six will be materially helped, one child will be improved enough in his parents' eyes to graduate from the program, and one will meet the Institutes standards for \\"superb\\".The Institutes publish their results quarterly. They have for 30 years. They've offered, for 30 years, to publish anyone else's results. They actively, aggressively seek others who are successful in their field. They put together money to fund a study to compare their results with those of a local university's. (The university took the money and spent it on remodeling.) It's easy to cast stones, and it's probably comforting to many to believe that \\"nothing can be done\\".Now, let's talk Jell-O. This program is not for everyone. If Jell-O figures prominently into your view of what childhood should be, this program is not for you. Wider: If junk food, junk entertainment, institutionalized education or even \\"me-time\\" are your priorities, just keep moving, there's nothing here for you to see. This isn't to say that you or your child won't or can't have these things while on the program, simply that they can't come first.I'll take it even a step further: If you view a program of dedicated physical and intellectual excellence as a sacrifice, you probably ought to just give this a miss.The hurt kids have the least slack in life. Every day they're not growing faster than average--every day they're not catching up, that is--they're falling behind. And the social stigma gets worse, too. As a 2-3 year old, my daughter used to love going to the mall. Even though she was different, at that age people commented on her beauty and charm and disregarded (or more likely did not perceive) her injuries. As she's gotten older, people are less and less able to deal with her, and when she recognized that (probably around 7 years old or so), she stopped wanting to do those things. As she recently wrote \\"People are polite to you in direct proportion to your ability to speak\\". As a result, the program for hurt kids is the most intense.Well. Duh.More to the point, those of us with hurt kids wrestle with guilt, regret, shame, accusatory looks, superstition, moralizing and caveman-grade ignorance, and this program--any program, effective or not--can focus that all in one laser-like beam. If you read this book, and you \\"get it\\", you begin to see brain injury on the one hand as a spectrum, something we all have to one degree or another, and on the other, akin to a broken leg or bruised arm. If you don't \\"get it\\", you may come away feeling guilty, inadequate or bitter.There's considerable effort on the part of the Institutes to avoid that; They never ask you do more than you can, or to do something you're not comfortable with. You're the parent. You are the expert on your own child. There are many stories related in this book and others from the Insitutes that detail the contributions of parents.I'll be honest. I would like to be able to say that, after two years, our oldest was completely well, indistinguishable from \\"normal\\" kids except for her towering intellect. But it wouldn't be true. I would guess she has another two years to go. At least. I've watched much younger kids at the institutes make much faster progress with a certain degree of envy. (I wish we hadn't discovered this when she was twelve, rather than when she was two.)But that's okay. She's measurably better. She's clearly happier. And her siblings have been hugely benefitted as well.And, for that matter, so have her parents.I will, in the future, write another review and report honestly on how all the children are.But as a father who has been told by doctors, therapists and \\"conventional wisdom\\" that his child would never crawl, walk, live, stop having seizures, comprehend anything or amount to anything before he ever heard of this book, forgive me if I regard the naysayers with bemusement."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"I have a Down's child. I found this book to be very helpful. There was a bit of weeding of the history of the Institute to be done. But, by following the information I was able to create a program to fit our lifestyle. (It helped to read the other books by the author on Reading, Math, Physical Activity and Knowledge.) I read the author's other books first, and I felt that this book was the missing link I needed to create a program for my child.If you are looking for a Step A, Step B... it is not quite that clear. This is a guideline...not child specific. But, frankly if it was specific I would be very skeptical. How could one program be good for the wide variety of \\"brain injured\\" children that exist?If you want to help your child, it will take effort on your part. And, it can be time consuming, depending on how far/fast you want your child to advance. But, after only a couple of months mild/moderate effort, I have seen significant progress...and my son amazes his therapists."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Before you do anything else; read this book! You will not find another like it on the face of the earth; unless it is linked to The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. I'll wager that none of your child's doctors or disability representatives told you anything about The Institutes. I found out about them purely by divine accident. At age 2 1/2, I began some of their "Multiplying Your Baby's Intelligence," methods at home, and my son was reading by age 3 1/2; and his memory and focus have improved dramatically. We will be going to The Institutes later this year, and applying all of their suggested methods for our brain-injured son upon returning home. I will update this review in the future, to tell you how the methods worked out. I believe Glenn Doman and Temple Fay were inspired men who began their years of research with nothing more than a sincere desire to help hurt children become well. What they discovered is you CAN increase brain cell growth; and you CAN create new pathways around the injured area(s) of the brain. Come on, 100,000 hurt children can't be wrong! Yes, it requires a leap of faith; but I already endorse this book and all of their programs. Perhaps that's the first step to making our hurt kids well---by first believing that anything is possible!"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Most parents of children with brain injuries would do ANYTHING to help their child! I was no different -- especially after having medical specialists tell me there is nothing they could do.The concepts in this book made a lot of sense to me. Although they take a lot of time and effort, they cost NOTHING in the way of medicine or equipment. So, I convinced my husband and family to give it a try.After one month of patterning, our son (with Static Encephalopathy, cerebral palsy, and cortical blindness) began crawling. After six months of patterning, our son would pull himself to a stand. After a year of patterning, he began walking with a walker (with help). It has been two years now since we began patterning and he walks independently with a walker; we expect he won't need the walker at all by June. Not only that, but after 9 months of patterning, the Ophthamologist announced he miraculously had normal vision!Do miracles happen? Certainly. Could our son have progressed this well without patterning? Maybe. But you know what? I wouldn't want to risk NOT TRYING it! I have personally bought this book for many people I've met because I see it as THAT important.Our son is now 4.5 years old. He has no seizures, nor does he take any medications. His doctors and therapists cannot believe his progress. I wish I was still on speaking terms with the doctor who suggested I institutionalize him and "get on with my life"!Give it a try! I cannot hurt!"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"A better title for this book might be \\"How a wonderful, caring physical therapist labored on behalf of brain-injured children\\". It is an interesting story about the admirable life of Glenn Doman. It is NOT a book about what to DO with your brain-injured child. There was literally no specific information about therapy techniques or teaching protocols. It was not a wasted purchase because it is a beautiful story, but it does not fulfill the promise of the title."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"I have read the book twice, and have attended the "What to do about your Brain Injured Child" course at "The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential" in Philadelphia. For people with a brain injured child, there is no more important book. Through a story line of dogmatic research, Doman presents in a logical manner how the brain grows by use. A simple concept, but dramatic improvements result when applied to those who need it most -- the brain injured child. The Developmental Profile outlined in the book is a God send to parents who wonder "what exactly is wrong with my child, " and "what can I do to fix the problem?"Yes, I (we) have a brain injured child, and this book has provided direction, hope, and through hard work, tangible results that will be of lifelong benefit for our lovely daughter. Is there a rating higher than 10?I would be happy to answer any questions about this book or the Institutes in general."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"I attended the school at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential between 1981 and 1984. Though I was not brain injured, I did have a learning disability that the staff of the Institute did help to "cure." I also spent much of my time in the clinic, along with the rest of the children in my class, helping the staff pattern and entertaining the hurt kids. Over the years I witnessed incredible things--children who had previously been uanable to sit upright were now crawling, identifying words and connecting with those around them on a meaningful level. Glenn Doman does not offer a miracle cure-all,and sometimes all he can do is offer the parents a kind word and an attentive ear; but for all of those parents who are now able to see their children succeed far beyond the expectations of doctors and specialists around the world, Doman offers something to the parents of brain injured children that is in short supply: Hope.P.S. It is interesting to note that when I was younger, I had always just taken it for granted that the Institutes was a good thing. They helped kids--no question about it. It was not until recently that I heard about the controversy surrounding Glenn's ideas and I have to ask: if it doesn't hurt the child, it includes them in their surroundings, and makes them aware of their environment--what's the controversy over?"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"For parents of hurt ("handicapped," "cerebral palsied," "mentally retarded," "autistic," "downs," etc., etc.) kids, this book is a MUST READ. After hearing nothing but "let's wait and see" for the first months of my son's life, and being faced with the prospect of a lifelong use of potentially toxic drugs for seizures, spasticity, etc. and ghastly surgeries to relieve the symptoms of brain injury, I found this book. I devoured it. It offered a real way for any parent of a brain injured child to help his/her child.After reading it twice, I then attended the workshop in Philadelphia. The information presented in the book and at the workshop is tremendous both in quantity and quality.The book is the first step in forming a battle plan to help your child. Every parent of a brain injured child needs to read this book."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This book leads you to believe that you will get instructions on \\"What to do with your brain injured child.\\" I found it was more like one man's personal story of the development of a therapy program and the his institute. Details of his analysis and people in his life get tiresome and I found myself often thinking. \\"Okay fine. I agree with the principle but what DO I DO?\\" There are some sketchy instructions, but I found myself at a loss for how to carry them out since my daughter doesn't understand spoken language. When you are desperate for instructions and frankly don't want to read a story, this book is frustrating!"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"When my son was born with brain damage this book was given to me (an original copy) and I bought this for my own library after I had read the original. Very in depth and helped me get my mind and perception of my son on a positive path. I learned many little things that are actually big things in helping my son's development."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Essentially a book-length advertisement for Doman's "patterning" therapy, which needless to say omits to mention that the vast majority of scientific studies have shown it to be entirely useless, with the result that it has been condemned by reputable medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.The book itself is repellently manipulative in style, painting a picture of Doman and his associates as the only people who care about or are interested in helping disabled children. Doman is presented as the only person who really respects parents and is willing to talk honestly to them and teach them how to "cure" their children, unlike other professionals who are cold, arrogant, and uncaring (agreeing with the accuracy of the latter description, alas, does not guarantee the truth of the former). He uses a "folksy" style, in which dubious conclusions are presented as homely truths, and in which a long-discredited theory of human development (that children "need" to go through the stages of crawling, creeping and walking in a particular way for normal neurological development to take place) is presented as state-of-the-art science.If you are considering Doman's therapies, at least read "No Time For Jello" by Berneen Bratt as well - this first-hand account of her intial passionate faith in and painful disillusionment with "patterning" for her disabled son, plus an excellent summary of the scientific research on patterning to date, might at least cause some people to think twice."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"For all parents, interested in Glenn Doman's techniques on how to increase any child's intelligence, this is the first book to read. Explains how it all begin and gives sample case stories. This is a fun read.For the most dedicated parents, take the seminars. go to iahp.orgThere is hope. Know a friend how's 6 month old was legally blind and doctor said no hope. 6 months later using techniques in this book and of course taking the seminar she can see and will have no problems. btw, she was reading at 9 months old, but no fair she had volunteers helping her 7 days a week 12 hours a day. Masking, Patterning, crawling, hanging, bits, dots, words, oh my.Good luck."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"All of the other positive reviews on this page are 100% correct. The Institutes staff have been teaching parents of brain-injured children how to make those children well for 45 years. They, and the parents they have taught, already know what the rest of the world is just beginning to suspect: brain development is NOT static. It is an ever-changing process which can be stopped (as it is by traumatic head injury), slowed (as it is by mild head injury or lack of oxygen), but most importantly, can be SPEEDED. The brain-injured child's chief enemy is time. Don't waste any more of it -- read this book! At the very least, you will never look at your child in the same way again."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This book provides a good history of how brain-injured children have been treated in the past 50 years and what has been done to improve their chances of recovery. I read this book in order to try to help my brain-injured son who is recovering from meningitis. While this book gives a lot of good insight into how the injuries are treated, it does not give me any information I can personally use for my son. A more appropriate title might be \\"What Can Be Done For Brain-Injured Children\\". Dr. Doman's Institutes has a 1 week course for parents with the same title as the book which is a pre-requisite. I would recommend this book to a parent of a brain-injured child, but I would also tell them not to expect an answer to be found here. I will continue my search for help for my son and hope all parents of such children find help as well"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Glenn Doman & his Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential make ground-breaking progress in the treatment of brain-injured children. Where the conventional medical community treats symptoms with medications & surgical interventions, IAHP treats the actual injury by training the brain to learn and develop. This method is controversial, but there are just too many success stories to ignore."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Before I read this book I'd been starting to feel as if there were not much long-term hope for my severely-handicapped child. As I continued to read I became more and more excited about the possibility of some life changing answers for my daughter. I rate the book with a 9 for the reason that I have not tried the tecniques described and am allowing fora margin of error. So much of what the author has written about makes common sense (as opposed to what the medical community tells me) that I have to hope for the sake of my child. I do have to give him credit for being on the parents side though - Thank you Mr. Doman"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"I read this book while on the waiting list to take my developmentally disabled baby to Glenn Doman's Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. My wife and I had previously been advised to read hisHow to Teach Your Baby to Read (The Gentle Revolution), which in turn prompted me to contact the Institutes, learn what they proposed to do with kids like mine, and then apply.With regard to reviews pointing out that this response is not endorsed by the mainstream: yup, it's not, and alternatives like this exist for the very reason that for many years the mainstream has had little to offer in response to the urgent demand for help from afflicted families. Our son's doctors recommended only patience for a year and then counseling to help us learn to accept the inevitable. They never attempted to help our son.On the other hand, those who discern a cult-like attitude on the part of people who go to the Institutes are justified in that observation. Parents who must have hope that their kids' futures can be better do tend to embrace whatever is said by those who offer that hope. It's understandable, although I regret the us-vs-them attitude with regard to the outside world.We were on the Institutes' Intensive Program for four years, from 1986 to 1990, during which time my immobile son became a walker and made other impressive gains, and I documented the experience in a memoir.For someone who has the driving motivation to find answers for a beloved child's poorly understood problems, Doman's book offers perhaps the first glimmer of hope. His account tells how he and the other founders of the Institutes arrived at their philosophy, and while some of what he says was out of date even when I read it, that philosophy struck me as being very common-sensical. Until other resources also offer hope, the appeal of this sort of thing is undeniable.My view of Doman's Institutes itself is more complicated than my view of his book, but the book about how it came into being deserves an enduring place in the literature."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"It's a nice history about the live of the author (really a great doctor) but does not propose any suggestion. It's an advertising about his fantastic method."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"If you have a brain injured child this book is a must or if you would like to learn more about helping children with brain injuries."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This fantastic book taught me more in 2 days than I've learned elsewhere in 2 years. Finally actual help is out there, not just negativity. This is what I expected to learn from my developmental pediatrician, but didn't. It's wonderful to know there are people in this world who give so selflessly for our children. I loved this one so much I ordered \\"How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb\\" & \\"How to Teach Your Baby to Read\\" I can't wait to see some real improvement in my daughter!!"},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":""What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child" is one of the greatest books written in the twentieth century. The writer, Glenn J. Doman, has come out with incredible breakthroughs which no one has come up with in the history of mankind. This book has saved lives and by doing so: humanity. This book has become a bible for parents of brain-injured children. Glenn Doman, through his books and his work, has truly helped in saving the world."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This is a great book if you have a brain injured child, it really puts things into perspective that there really is hope for your child even if doctors say that it is hopeless. As parents we always believe for the better don't let doctors discourage you as children are very resilient and you will never know the outcome unless you work it through and try."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"My sister was born with severe cerebral palsy, most likely due to lack of oxygen in the womb. Without much other hope my parents turned to Glenn Doman's books, methods, and programs, including a bunch of volunteers coming over to our house constantly to do patterning. My parents never saw any progress, she deteriorated and died when she was a few years old and I was a young kid. That was extremely hard on my parents and my family, and they said later that instead of hoping for constant change it would have been better to learn to accept that their baby might not be like other babies.Now it is 30 years later and I have my own baby, who is doing well, and I happened to be looking for ways to teach baby to achieve milestones - and who do I notice writing the books but Glenn Doman. If Glenn Doman wants to write books about getting babies to do math faster, fine. If it works, great, if it doesn't, baby will have to learn math along with all the other kids his age. But this book is telling you what to do to address a tragic situation.I don't know if Glenn Doman is well-meaning. Whether he is or is not, I think he pushes a decent amount of pseudoscience and that his ideas are backed not by rigorous studies but by some anecdotes. He is appealing because he offers seemingly simple answers to complex, perhaps unsolvable, problems in which parents are desperately looking for solutions. He's contradicted on point after point by pretty much everyone serious in the field (do a web search for him and see what you find).At least I would say this... if you are going to go in this direction, be very skeptical. Actually read the criticism. Talk to some people with opposing viewpoints. Seek out alternatives. And think about the possibility that, perhaps, your child is who he is."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"While this book has an interesting program and premise, I feel that the subtitle is misleading. Even though the cover mentions \\"autism,\\" not one of the cases cited in the book is that of an autistic child. All of the cases offered as examples involve children with severe impairments. These are children who are unable to talk, walk, see or hear. They have cerebral palsy or were injured after birth in an accident. Since this is a \\"revised and updated edition,\\" I feel that the author just put autism and other impairments on the front cover to attract a wider reader base, even though the method doesn't really seem to address the problems of an individual who is higher functioning."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Bought this book for my daughter who has a child with a brain injury and she said she could not put the book down. It was very enlightening for her. Said she learned a lot from it."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"Educational and informative book on helping parents educate them self on helping their children with CP. Found it very usefull."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"After my son was diagnosed with oral motor dyspraxia I checked this book out of the libary. What a waste of paper! It is a book long ad for his program in Pennsylvania. It did not have anything useful for a parent with a newly diagnosed neurologically disabled child.Skip it, and go get Berneen Bratt's \\"No Time for Jello.\\" They actually did the routine, and found it without merit."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This is just a painful read. The author likes to hear himself talk, and loves to repeat conversations he had with his peers, which would be fine if they taught me how to heal brain injuries, but they don't. It starts off in 1941 when he's a physical therapist who is befriended by a talented neurosurgeon. He gets to observe the surgeries, and learns a lot about brain injuries from the doctor.He goes on to have his own practice and discovers that what they are doing (it's now 1960) isn't working at all. They start all over, with a heavy emphasis in measuring that continues throughout the book. They discover that if the development process from wiggling in a cradle, to creeping, to crawling, to walking is disrupted, it creates long term developmental problems. Well this may have been a radical discovery in 1960, but it's not now.They have the parents of brain injured children help the children go through any phases they may not have reached or finished. They eventually add some tactile stimulation and auditory stimulation to their therapies also.On the cover they boast that 300,000 copies are in print. Which is quite misleading to the average consumer, because all it means is that's how many they printed. It tells us nothing about how many have been sold which is how most books are rated such as \\"best seller\\" not \\"most printed\\".My primary interest in brain-injury is for children on the autism spectrum. I didn't find anything really helpful or new in this book. It has been my experience that parents of children on the spectrum are very sophisticated consumers of health care. I doubt that many of these parents would find this book useful."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"What do you need a book like this for? After all, everyone knows what you do with your \\"developmentally disabled\\" child, whether he has Down's Syndrome or Autism or epilepsy: You drug them, take care of them for as long as you live, or as long as you can stand it, then you institutionalize them, where they get more drugs, shock treatment, and some therapeutic abuse from the doctors and orderlies. It's a problem that society has totally handled, yet the Domans and the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential ... insist on pushing \\"alternate solutions\\" to something we're all happy with.And they have the nerve to insist that their techniques work on almost =all= children, and that, really, brain injury is largely a matter of degree. The kid who has trouble reading may have an extremely mild brain injury, as may the kid who has trouble sitting still. And that a perfectly normal kid can become physically, intellectually and socially \\"superb\\" through techniques described in the above book and the Institutes other works. Can you imagine responsible doctors and therapists suggesting that kids =don't= need drugs, and lots of them?Worse still, they actually fix these kids! They've developed techniques for helping blind kids to see, deaf kids to hear, and immobile kids to move. Not only have they brazenly published their results in the Institutes magazine, they invite all others who work with hurt children to submit their results for publication! They even have the audacity to introduce you to these children.The clincher, though, is their insistence that highly trained professionals shouldn't be raising, educating and rehabilitating our children! They expect =parents= to do that and actually give them the tools to do so! What do they expect the hundreds of thousands of tax-funded professionals to do if =parents= are raising their own children and helping them get well far faster and far better than the experts?This book recklessly places the health and well-being of a few children over that of a well entrenched, extremely lucrative agglomeration of pharmaceutical companies, mental health professionals and public educators. It cannot be endorsed by any responsible person."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"This is very helpful to my friend who is working as a physiothoropist. He got everythings what he wants to know."},{"Title":"What to Do about Your Brain-Injured Child: Or Your Brain-Damaged, Mentally Retarded, Mentally Deficient, Cerebral-Palsied, Epileptic, Autistic, Atheto","review":"My son has Down's Syndrome. My friend suggested I look into Doman's program as several people she knew with typical children were big fans. So I bought this book which offers no real practical advice at all but documents the history of Glenn Doman's research and treatment program. Doman claimed to have developed these treatments with his team in the 50's and 60's at which time other treatments for brain damaged children were completely unsuccessful or worsened the child's situation. Reading the book I thought it seemed authentic and the things he was suggesting didn't seem very different from the early intervention strategies that my son was already benefiting from in the state funded program. I thought perhaps Doman was an early pioneer of this now readily accepted treatment.I asked my son's physio-therapist - provided by this state funded program - who has a PHD and did her research on children with Down's Syndrome (I know that she knows what she is talking about - I have seen it with my own eyes) - if she had heard of Doman, expecting that he would be a major name in the field. She turned quite white and told me that this program is dangerous. She said that she had seen children with dislocated joints from the treatments and that the program was so instrusive it would ruin our family life and my marriage.What I think is most instructive is that when I saw one of the 'fans' that my friend knows - and I told her what the physiotherpist had said - she still offered to give me literature to join the program! - she was like some cult member. I am so happy with the state funded program - I don't understand why anyone who wasn't brain damaged/washed themselves would get involved with these people? Please use your critical faculties and check out any program fully before treating your child ."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"This was the first Hemingway book I ever read. It was about 25 years ago and at the time I had tried to read H's longer books, such as The Sun Also Rises, and failed. Well, I was only in seventh grade and I had rather puerile tastes. At the time, Torrents reminded me very much of the Richard Brautigan and the Kurt Vonnegut books I was devouring. I still think this is a great book for kids. Its not the most representative introduction to Hemingway's work, but its much more fun to read (and shorter!!!) than The Old Man and The Sea."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"I have wanted to meet Hemingway for some time now, but that being impossible for obvious reasons this book is the next best thing. Not only is this book outstanding but with all Hemingway's notes to the reader it's almost like he's right there with you telling the story. Every time I read Hemingway I feel the current story is better than the last, that rule holding true with this one as well. My advice to you, read it. It's less than a hundred pages anyway, so if you don't agree with me on how absolutely great this novel is you will not have wasted all that much of your time.But at least read it for the notes and to see the struggling Hemingway trying to get you to advertise his book for him. It's quite amusing."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"Torrents of Spring is a slim work, a short story--I guess. This early, almost experimental (but for the fact that it is a) satire takes to task a number of more verbose, stylistically florid contemporaries. The plot, if you called it that, is linear enough, and the characters are based more on a medley of ideas and events than any real people--displaced from the current of American history swirling around them. It's a nice short read and a must for any Hemingway fan looking for something different."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"To start, this is my second Hemingway book I've read. I read The Sun Also Rises and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. So I wanted to read more by him. The first half of this book was not good. Just rambled. The second half is good. I've read other reviewers that talk about it being funny and a slam against other authors of the time. I'm not an English major, just a person who likes to read. This was not an enjoyable book to read because it just rambles....and then ends.I marked this as a 3 star because the second half redeems it...a little. I am still going to read the other books Mr. Hemingway wrote."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"Hemingway was competitive, in everything. In his first novel (not the Sun Also Rises) he lampoons a literary style that was all the rage in his day. It's as if Hemingway were both taking an artistic stance and purging himself so he could get down to what would be the real business of writing The Sun Also Rises."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"As incredible as it may sound, this is Hemingway's best work. Here is Hemingway at his earliest, before the world knew him--when his genius was inspired. The style is so fresh, you would believe it had been written recently, not over 60 years ago. Truly hilarious. Truly amazing."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":""The Torrents of Spring," by Ernest Hemingway, is a curious little book (90 pages) by one of the 20th century's most distinguished novelists. According to the back cover blurb, "Torrents" was first published in 1926. The short novel tells the story of the intertwined lives of World War I veteran Yogi Johnson and writer Scripps O'Neill, both of whom work at a pump factory.I think of "Torrents" as a metafiction: a work of fiction that reflects on its own creation as a work of fiction. The story is interspersed with authorial asides to the reader in which the narrator comments on the process by which the story was written, and sometimes makes specific pleas to the reader. These asides are often ridiculous and funny. Example: "If any of the readers would care to send me anything they wrote, for criticism or advice, I am always at the Cafe du Dome any afternoon." This metafictional flavor is further enhanced by the frequent references to various American authors: Henry James, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, etc.The story itself contains some whimsical and surreal scenes. Hemingway offers a curious presentation of race and gender issues; in particular, there are a number of Native American characters. Recommended as companion texts: the also very metafictional "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien, and "Breakfast of Champions," by Kurt Vonnegut."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"hey yall! Ernest Hemingway is the bomb diggity!! The Torrents of Spring is so funny!"},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"This isn't a novel that would be very enjoyable to someone who doesn't have much experience with other literary works of the 1920s. Read alone it is pretty silly and vulgar. Read -after- you have finished Sherwood Anderson's _Dark Laughter_, however, this book is very funny. Hemingway spoofs both Anderson's style and his silly plot. And throughout, EH offers a treatise on the art of parody. The book is very short, and tightly controlled by Hemingway (something Anderson didn't get right with Dark Laughther). The book is also interesting for those invested in the perennial Hemingway was/was not a racist argument. Read alone, the bits about Indians would be highly offensive, but read in light of Anderson's horrifying primitivism and liberal use of the N-word in Dark Laughter, Hemingway's depiction of the Indians is really a chastisement of Anderson's silly racist story. Hemingway's complex sense of humor, visible in his other novels under the surface, is fully on display here. Too bad time has eradicated a fuller understanding of all the jokes. I recommend this book for Hemingway aficionados and for students of modernism who need a wake-up call about Hemingway's place (and his understanding of that place) in the modernist canon."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"For one to understand why Hemingway wrote a book of this caliber, it must be understood that Sherwood Anderson, whom Hem parodied, had a contract with the same company Hemingway had signed a contract with. An offer had also been made by Scribner which was more prestiegeous of the two literary firms. To get out of the contract, Hem offered this book, which he knew would be turned down by the firm of Boni and Liveright, thus giving Hemingway the chance to accept the contract from Scribner. The contract essentially said that if the second book of a three book contract was turned down, Hemingway could break the contract. Hemingway knew that Boni and Liveright would never publish a book which lampooned Sherwood Anderson (one of the stars of Boni and Liveright). Hemingway actually had other offers besides Scribner's. He did, however, take Scribner's offer, basically because he had given his word to Maxwell Perkins who worked at Scribner that he would work with them. The book was not intended as a great literary work, and thus must be examined in the light of which it is written. There are many funny idosyncrasies which Hem used for some of the characters in the book. Most of these came from people he knew there in Paris. Entertaining? Yes it was to me. A great literary work? It achieved what he was looking for. So you be the judge."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"I thought I'd read everything Hemingway ever published, but I was not even familiar with this one. When I read that it was a parody, I thought I might not get it, since it had been a long time since I'd read any of the authors he was targeting. Instead I found myself laughing out loud. So much reminded me of best-sellers I had read in recent years(The Bridges of Madison County is one which comes to mind). It just goes to show, great writing can come in many styles, but bad writing remains amazingly consistant over the years."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"\`The Torrents of Spring' is an early novel from Hemingway that was written during his time Paris. It is relatively short in length and is a satirical parody of the literary style of his fellow expat writers at that time. This follows Yogi Johnson and Scripps O'Neil as they go about their lives in a small town in Michigan. It is quite funny and although stylised, easy enough to read. It is unlike any of Hemingway's later novels and although his style is evident throughout, you can tell he hadn't quite found his voice yet. I found this to be a short, but entertaining read and whilst it doesn't have any great depth or substance, it is still well worth a read if you have enjoyed any of Hemingway's books in the past.Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"With Washington Irving's 'A Knickerbocker's History of New York' (1809) and Dawn Powell's 'A Time To Be Born' (1942), Ernest Hemingway's 'The Torrents of Spring' (1926) is one of the funniest books in the annals of American literature. A parody of the \\"the Chicago school of literature\\" and especially of Sherwood Anderson's 'Dark Laughter' (1925), the book is simultaneously a short story, a novella, and a false novel fragment that haphazardly exams the lives of Scripps O'Neill and his acquaintance Yogi Johnson, two rambling dreamers who timelessly represent the American everyman.As a light-hearted attack on the sentimentality, humanistic philosophy, and conceptualization of the \\"American Dream\\" in the literature it parodies, the book presents Scripps as a reverie-addicted individual who is consistently but unknowingly his own worst enemy. Earnestly obsessed with self definition and struggling to grasp the larger picture in any given situation, no matter how inconsequential or obvious, Scripps lives in a constant rhetorical haze. Perceiving unbounded potential everywhere, irrepressible Scripps is actually able to concretize very little. Like Scripps, the more prosaic Yogi finds his illusory assumptions about life and other people flatly shot down at every turn.In a hilarious series of fugue states, Scripps indulges in dramatic but false memories of being present while his ancestral home is burned to the ground during the Civil War, of his childhood as a starving urchin on the streets of Chicago, and of the ethnicity and social prominence of his forbears. Forgetting that it was Yogi, not himself, who visited Paris during the Great War, Scripps longs to make a return visit.Gloriously unsophisticated and uneducated, Scripps deduces that becoming a world-renowned composer is simply a matter of getting the job. Sensing the power and esteem attributed to words in the highest circles of society, Scripps adopts a cultish attitude towards famous writers and literature, and intermittently imagines himself to be a great novelist who has merely failed to commit pen to page.Like Bruce Dudley and Sponge Martin, Anderson's Scripps and Yogi prototypes, the Hemingway protagonists anxiously but futilely fixate on questions concerning masculinity, sexual identity, physical prowess, and the threatening presence of the creative impulse in the psyche of the American male.But Scripps and Yogi are also endearing, small town folk heroes clearly not to be despised, for almost every character in 'The Torrents of Spring' lives in the same fog-bound world of desire-skewering contingency, misread signs, and naiveté. These include elderly British waitress Mrs. Scripps, who desperately subscribes to elitist literary journals in the hopes of \\"keeping her man,\\" and the foreman of the pump plant where Scripps and Yogi are employed, who is continuously unable to determine with absolute certainty whether \\"the chinook wind,\\" the harbinger of spring, is genuinely blowing or not.The title of 'Dark Laughter' had several meanings, the most literal of which referred to the \\"high shrill laughter of the negroes,\\" which, Anderson said \\"must always be imagined at the back of the story.\\"Hemingway pushes Anderson's metaphor--and patronizing attitude towards Blacks--as hard as he possibly can, and thus one of two Black characters in 'The Torrents of Spring' manifests as nothing but a disembodied voice almost continually in the throws of howling offstage laughter. Hemingway corrects Anderson by portraying both his Black characters--a cook and a bartender--as the only two people who actually comprehend the absurdity of the events unfolding around them.Hemingway's genius was to immediately perceive and respond to the multiple unintentionally amusing qualities in the Anderson novel, especially since Anderson was, at the time, the well respected author of 'Winesburg, Ohio' (1919), and Hemingway, an unknown, was shortly to become the highly influential voice of American literature on the world stage.Through subtle recreation, Hemingway beautifully punctures such mawkish 'Dark Laughter' passages as \\"words flitting across the mind of Bruce Dudley, varnishing wheels in the factory of the Grey Wheel Company of Old Harbor, Indiana. Thoughts flitting across his mind. Drifting images. He had begun to get a little skill with his fingers. Could one in time get a little skill with thoughts, too? Could thoughts and images be laid on paper some day as Sponge Martin laid on varnish, never too thick, never too thin, never lumpy?\\" Few readers will be surprised to learn that 'Dark Laughter' has been out of print for decades.There's little doubt that Hemingway loved Scripps and Yogi; his playful appreciation of both is abundantly evident on every page, giving the text an ironic sentimental glow of its own. In fact, it is surprising that 'The Torrents of Spring' isn't longer. At eighty-seven brief, disciplined pages, readers may wish that the adventures of these two remarkable men, each of whom is perennially caught in the headlights of life, continued on and on."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"This little 90-page novella/short story was written in 1926, and is very representative of Hemingway's style and sense of humor. It is a parody of the early so-called vogue of a writing style, that all writers were expected to follow; but Hemingway broke the mold and wrote an entertaining story in his own way and style. He wrote in short, declarative sentences and was soon recognized for his tough, no-nonsense prose. This is a quick read enjoyed along with a glass of sherry or sogu on a cold wet evening - he mentions winter and ice quite often - so a warming toddy would be perfect."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"I thought Hemingway was very humorous when reading A Movable Feast; the part with the touring he did with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Torrents of Spring actually broke me up in places. How delightful to know that Earnest Hemingway had a good sense of humor. If you like the man, I recommend this read."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"The only other Hemingway novel I have read is 'Fiesta'. There is something about Hemingway that seems to be illusion for me - the ease of the reading, the detail of the observation. As if, perhaps, his works are more like viewing a painting rather than reading a novel.When I first read 'Fiesta' I was linked with the book by an early reference in it to W H Hudson - one of my favourite writers. When I read 'Fiesta' a second time (and reviewed it for Amazon) I was intruiged by another literary reference that had meant nothing to me on my first reading - Ivan Turgenev. What intruiged me even more was that Hemingway had written this novel - 'The Torrents of Spring' - and Turgenev had written a novel called (in English translation)'Spring Torrents'.But Hemingway is nothing like Turgenev, although the penultimate chapter did bring me some reminders. And then the literary references grabbed me again as Hemingway refers to Huysmans whose 'Against Nature' appealed to me greatly.As Spring approaches in 'The Torrents of Spring'(firstly with a false chinook) changes occur in a number of character's lives - recoveries, disappointments, brief pleasures, radical - if temporary - alterations. Sometimes the changes are slow and dreaded, sometimes they are abrupt and unexpected. Whatever the case, life does go on - dreamily it seems to me. Turgenev's idea of a torrent much more closely matched my understanding of the word than Hemingway's.Hemingway is easy to read. You will probably enjoy this light and amusing novel. I am less sure that it will be memorable. Not in the way Turgenev's 'Spring Torrents' is."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"Torrents of Spring was published in 1935 but is hardly dated. It's classic Hemingway short story style, but hardly his best or most engaging work. A good quick read, with a very innovative structure. Interesting."},{"Title":"The Torrents of Spring","review":"The book came in a beautiful leather binding. I plan on purchasing all of Hemingway's major works from this company."},{"Title":"Everybody's Favorite Songs (Series No. 1)","review":"I have played music from this music book since the 1940s. It has a wide variety of songs from America and different countries--Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, Jewish, etc. It also includes children's songs, opera, hymns, spirituals, Stephen Foster songs, home songs, romantic songs, college songs, cowboy songs, etc. It is easy music to play on the piano and guitar, and the words are easy to read. This is an important music book that deserves to stay in print and to be available. It is intergenerational, can be used by a wide variety of people and in different settings, and can be discovered by the rock-and-roll generation. We must not lose these songs because they are part of our heritage that has made America great. These songs should be taught to school children, played in nursing homes where they bring tears to the eyes of residents who have not heard them for years, played on the radio, returned to television music hours, etc. Please keep this available and in print."},{"Title":"The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)","review":"In The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency, William Rottschaefer attempts to build what he calls a synoptic view of moral agency. He hopes to ground human moral activity within the sphere of natural science, rather than leaving it to religion or a priori philosophizing. The book is an excellent summary of the present state of out knowledge, but a few gaps and weaknesses prevent my endorsing it fully. The author's prose is dense, making the small print book even harder to read than it need be.The author develops a model of moral agency that includes four levels. 1) The base level created by evolutionary forces, including our learned tendencies and basic beliefs. 2) The behavioral level, a set of moral beliefs and desires that motivate our actions. 3) The reflective level, the set of normative beliefs that influence the lower levels. 4) The self-referential level, which has the notion of a separate self acting morally.After discussing his model, Rottschaefer spends a great deal of effort trying to show that the human capacity for moral action was created by evolutionary forces, in particular natural selection. He then gives a detailed account of the development and extension of empathy in children. Rottschaefer argues that empathy has its origin in natural selection, and that it can serve as one of the basic capacities in the first level of his model.The rest of his book is dedicated to an overview of the leading theories of behavioral development, including Skinnerian behaviorism, Piaget and Kohlberg's theories of cognitive development, and Bandura's social cognitive theory. He spends some time dealing with the philosophy of neuroscience, arguing that cognitive and behavioral levels are not necessarily reducible to mechanism.The book is a triumphant overview of the major components of developmental theories, especially cognitive theory. His discussion is dense but lucid, and graduate students and academics in sociology, philosophy, and psychology ought to find the book quite stimulating. His discussion of infant and toddler empathy is fascinating.Some caveats need to be attached, though. First, as with most practitioners in evolutionary psychology, Rottschaefer assumes at the outset that moral capacities are products of evolution, and in particular natural selection. For a biological theory of moral agency to have any meaning, they assume, the moral capacity must have had some utility or advantage in our remote past.As with all such stories about the origins of a given human trait, there is little evidence to back it up. We have few closely related species to draw from in any comparative study of human traits, and cross cultural studies cannot remove the effects of universal human experiences such a birth, the presence of a mother, and life in small groups. Indeed, the fact that such experiences are universal is one of the major problems with assigning them a \\"genetic\\" or \\"evolutionary\\" origin. It is possible that these features are in fact the result of evolution. It is also possible that many of these features are due to the dynamics of self organization among living animals. Stuart Kauffman argues explicitly for this latter option in his popular book, At Home in the Universe.Alternatives to evolution aside, there is no reason to assume that a trait with an evolutionary origin is the result of natural selection. Rottschaefer gives the alternatives to selection only the briefest discussion. I don't think it would weaken his model if human morality was an emergent trait rather than an evolved one, or if it evolved by chance rather than through selection. In the absence of a compelling case for an evolved basis for morality based on comparative data between species, Rottschaefer's arguments about evolution seem irrelevant. Unless we know which species had moral capacities and when, and what the consequences are, every evolutionary argument is just a story. Since this book deals only with humans, I must assume that Rottschaefer is telling a grand yarn, rather than presenting concrete evidence that morality is an evolved capacity.Although his description of human empathy is detailed and interesting, it is not clear that empathy can be used in the way Rottschaefer wants. Empathy is a response to the sight of others in distress. It is a long way, indeed, from helping children in Africa or believing that contraception is immoral. Rottschaefer might argue that empathy is just one of his Base Level capacities, but he does not examine any other candidates in detail.Also, Rottschaefer's case for the evolutionary origin of empathy is quite weak. In addition to the more general concerns outlined above, others must be added. Rottschaefer states that 1) empathy is present at all ages in humans, 2) all humans display empathy, 3) empathy involves the limbic system, which is evolutionarily old. Each of these arguments has its own limitations, but even together they are not sufficient. Without comparisons between related species in different habitats, or unrelated species in the same habitats, the above evidence neither favors nor weakens the assertion that empathy has a genetic or evolved basis.Finally, despite his mention of the limbic system, Rottschaefer's chapter on the neurphysiology of moral agency has no mention of brain areas that might function as moral circuits. Such areas as the amygdala, the hippocampus, the ventral tegmental area, and the inferior temporal cortex might play a role in recognizing and responding to distress, but they are not discussed. Instead, the \\"neurophysiology\\" chapter is really a chapter on the philosophical debates surrounding reductionism.Overall, the book is an excellent overview of human moral learning and development. Its summaries and critiques of cognitive theories are very enlightening and useful. The evolutionary and neurobiological sections of the book are incomplete and lacking in depth. I would not recommend this book to anyone outside of the relevant fields of science and philosophy."},{"Title":"Mad Hannah Rafferty","review":"It was slow-going at the start, but became very engaging as I delved further into the novel. The unraveling of Hannah's mind is chronicled with flashbacks from her childhood through the present. A worthwhile read..."},{"Title":"Mad Hannah Rafferty","review":"I thought the way the book was written was excellent. It just didn't necessarily hold my attention for the whole time. Definitely worth purchasing and reading though."},{"Title":"Mad Hannah Rafferty","review":"I finished this yesterday and I'm very happy with it. The writing is first class, excellent use of description. There is some jumping back and forth in the time line of the character but you get used to quickly. I recommend it."},{"Title":"Foods That Heal Companion Cookbook: Showing You the Light at the End of the Refrigerator","review":"This is an excellent work. The author cites all-natural methodsfor healing. For instance, appendicitis may be prevented witha high fiber diet. Arthritis may occur due to food sensitivities;such as, nightshade plant derivatives, pepper and eggplant.The Bingham Regimen consists of 16 hours of bedrest, 8 glassesof water daily, an increase in protein, fish, lean meats,nuts and seeds, organic fruits/veggies, no alcohol or tobacco,2000 ml. Vit C, 3 glasses of raw certified milk, Vit D 1000 IU,fish oil, pantothenic acidic foods, royal jelly, soy, lentil,alfalfa, peanuts, bee pollen and walnuts-all aimed at arthriticconditions. Gallstones may be minimized with Vit E.Vitamin A and B2 and bilberry are noted for eye problems.Cramps may be controlled with Ca., Mg., K(potassium-deficiency),B6, Vit C and Vit E.A \\"Vitamin C protocol\\" consists of rose hips, guava, blackcurrant, green peppers, spinach, papaya, tomato and squash.Cod liver oil, tuna, egg yolk, cheese, milk and bee pollenare natural sources of Vitamin D.This book has a wealth of information pertinent to the treatmentand control of a variety of chronic and painful conditions.As people get older, they no longer get diseases that tend togo away with an overnight treatment. Instead, many conditionsrequire ongoing treatment, maintenance and diagnostic testsbefore a meaningful remission can be accomplished.This work is well worth the cost. It should be in every healthmaintenance library."},{"Title":"Foods That Heal Companion Cookbook: Showing You the Light at the End of the Refrigerator","review":"This is one of the best recipe books around. My wife bought this book for us because she was tired of the junk that is out there called food. Some of the recipes call for more natural ingredients including things like wheatgerm.What flavorful foods my wife has made since getting this little gem. There is information regarding antioxidants, reducing sugar intake, recipes for people with chronic conditions.One thing that happened to me was really peculiar. I felt a little deprived the first day or two, then, suddenly, the dishes were actually giving me massive amounts of energy. I thrive on these foods now.To say that I highly recommend this book would be an understatement. Since I dislike superlatives, the above will suffice."},{"Title":"Foods That Heal Companion Cookbook: Showing You the Light at the End of the Refrigerator","review":"She's a great help and encourager in health matters and was a national/international leader in making it possible for the consumer to access the minerals and vitamins. She really dedicated her life to helping people."},{"Title":"Foods That Heal Companion Cookbook: Showing You the Light at the End of the Refrigerator","review":"I have prepared a few of the recipes in this book. They are quite tasty! Sometimes I forget that they are for my health.A great deal!!"},{"Title":"Objects of Design: The Museum of Modern Art","review":"MoMA canonized modern design as it did 20th-century art, and this anthology of pictures and expert texts highlights a collection of 3,708 objects that range in size from microchips to a helicopter. About a tenth of those are illustrated in nine thematic sections. Many are icons, but there are a few surprises, especially among recent acquisitions, where the inventive use of materials supplants functional beauty. Paola Antonelli, MoMA Curator of Architecture and Design, describes the collection as presenting a history of ideas and realizing a part of Alfred Barr's dream of a unity of the arts. She explains how the old selection criteria of truth and beauty have changed while retaining some of their old authority. It's comforting to know that relativism does not yet extend to firearms, making MoMA's collection a gun-free zone. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)"},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"An unbelieveable source of reliance great for research and guidelines on assignments. A teacher at home. Easy to understand and the writer is very dedicated to in helping educate. The MLA format is also shown while description of verbs, tenses and subjects are given in chapters of depth. I strongly recommend this book."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"I bought this book sight unseen as a desk reference and I am sorry that I did. Technically, it is good reference guide - not the best. There are many concepts and terms that are not explained in the body of the text. Rather, as you are reading up on a particular topic,instead of defining the key terms, you are forced to flip through the glossary at the end of the text.Example, page 100: \\"Forms of the verb that end in -ing, called gerunds...\\" Well, he author never mentions the fact that gerunds are used as nouns. This you learn from going to the glossary (P. 555)This sort of thing happens all the time. Ahhhh!!My second issue has to do with the excessive number of mind-numbing number of practice exercises. They alone take up 30% to 40% of the text. I think it is a great idea to practice what you are trying to learn but guess what? There is no answer key provided.Why is it that you can get a solutions manual (at least odd number)to every math text ever produced but every other discipline restricts them to instructors only. It is so, so annoying. If anyone knows how to get resources reserved for instructors, please let me know.Bottomline, you are not getting your money's worth with this writer's reference guide. Muriel, I expected better from your textbook."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"If you have a job where your life depends on how well you write reports, or simply attending college for your classes of English comp I and II, this is a plus-plus to have.Different citation syles, even the ones you are not used to it, but you know you have to know about it."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"This book does not make you dig and work to find the answers you need. The information it contains is presented very straightforwardly with clearly written examples. I am a professional writer and editor, and this book sits on the shelf right above my desk. I also gave a copy to a colleague in Ghana who was most impressed with how easy it is to pick up and use."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"I didn't particularly like this book. I found it difficult to find something when I needed something specific. It was not easy to follow at the best of times. It's not my favorite."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"I bought this for a writing class I am required to take before I graduate. It is a great resource. I remember buying these when I was just a little freshman and they were never of much worth to me. This one is spiral bound, so it lays flat, it has sample papers to show you exactly how to use the format you need and many exercises that I have admittedly never touched. It will be a good resource for undergrads, graduate students or anyone who is interested in writing a research paper. It also has ample information on how to document electronic sources, which most guides tend to skimp on."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"This item was in good qualities, but it took a while for me to receive it. This book has very interesting information that i am sure will help me in the future. VERY GOOD!"},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"This is a wonder tool for writing. I'm keeping it for me and my kids."},{"Title":"Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage","review":"This reference guide was highly reccommended by an expert scholar. While I have yet to use it, I absolutely trust his judgement as he exceeds the standards of great writing. My trusted friend has referred to this book as a 'must-have' type of book for when English excellence must uphold the expectation of a college professor."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I've only read a few of Ian Rankin's Rebus mysteries, and this latest installment in the series is the best Inspector Rebus mystery novel that I've read so far. This is a satisying read on so many levels -- the plot is quite convoluted but not in a meandering way so that you loose all interest and start skimming chapters to get to the meaty bits. No, it's complex and intriguing and keeps your attention firmly hooked on what's taking place between the pages. Ian Rankin truly is a gifted story teller, and quite a lyrical writer. I found myself rereading several paragrahs over and over again so as to better apprecaite his prose. And he is truly a master at depicing Scotland in all its grit and glory, past and present, architecturally and politically. I felt as if I was walking the streets of Edinburgh myself, trying to unravel all the strands of this mystery.DCS Watson, Rebus's boss has sidelined him to the Policing of Parliament Liasion Committee (PPLC) in the vain hope of keeping Rebus out of trouble and out of his (Watson's) hair. However while on a tour of the Queensbury House that is to restored so as to serve as an administrative wing to the new Scottish parliament, the workers unearth the remains of a man in a sealed off fire place. Rebus of course jumps at the chance to do some real police work, even if it means investigating a 20 year old crime and having to put up with and work with DI Linford, the police commissioner's current blue-eyed boy. But even before that investigation can take off another body is found on the Queensbury construction site: that of a prospective MP, Roddy Grieve.In the meantime DC Siobhan Clarke, is doing some investigating of her own. There have been a series of assaults carried out by two men on women who frequent single's bars. To her frustration and chagrin, Clarke is having very little luck with this investigation. And on her way home one night, she walks onto a suicide scene. As the only senoir detective on that scene, Clarke is given the task of investigationg the suicide of Chris Mackie, a homeless man with apparently four hundred thousand pounds in his bank account. Why would a man with that much money be living on the streets? And why would he commit suicide?As the various police officers begin to dig into their different mysteries, the reader will of course suspect that all these disparate strands will somehow connect. But what could a 20 year old corpse, an up and coming politician and a rich street person have in common? Half the enjoyment of this novel was trying to figure out the connection -- if there even was one, that is.This mystery novel will probably make it onto nearly everyone's list of top ten mystery novels of the year. It's beautifully written and has a good attention grabbing plot, and is very atmospheric. A very good read!"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Ian Rankin has been my favorite author ever since I discovered a remainder copy of "Strip Jack" at a bookstore four years ago; after reading that I found everything I could that he had written, and I have snapped up each new book. I hate to say I am a little disappointed with this one. The intricacies of the plot and spare, terse writing style are equal to Rankin's previous Inspector Rebus books, as are all the characterizations but for one: John Rebus himself. I couldn't help but feel that DI Rebus got relegated to being an almost secondary character alongside the other detectives, suspects, and criminals peopling the book, and worse yet, he didn't put up much of a fight about it. I've read every Rebus book and if there's one thing the guy doesn't do naturally, it's "subdued." His interrogation of a heart-attack victim near the close of "Set in Darkness" was, I felt, the first time I really recognized him in this book. Also good: the thread involving Rebus's dogged pursuit of an underworld boss who's probably the closest thing to a friend Rebus has. But if you haven't read a John Rebus mystery, I would recommend trying "Knots and Crosses" or "Tooth and Nail" first if you want to see Rebus at his flawed, fascinating and incredibly capable best."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"This is my second book by Ian Rankin but it won't be my last. I really loved this mystery -- it was full of atmosphere, characters with depth and vitality, well plotted, and a page turner -- what more can you ask for?The plot involves two murder investigations -- one from the past, based on a 20 year old skeleton of unknown identity found in the course of renovating a very old building to become the new Scottish Parliament; the second involves a politician found murdered nearby in the construction area. Additionally, there is a suicide of a homeless man shortly after the skeleton is discovered. Who is this man, was it suicide, and why? The homeless man turns out to have some very surprising qualities. Inspector Rebus (who is considered the bane of his department) comes to believe that all three deaths are somehow related. The Grieve family (the family of the murdered politician) may be at the center of all three deaths -- or maybe not. Maybe they really ARE unconnected, as the powers that be are assuming. TO make matters more difficult, Rebus is being forced to work with an ambitious young man who is the "fair haired boy" of the powers-that-be, but who doesn't have Rebus's respect -- so he must content with the politics of the situation as well, which is not Rebus's long suit.This series is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, but not in the touristy Edinburgh but in the tough underbelly, where there are pubs that it is wisest not to go into and where there are gangs and thugs. The location is so well described that it is easy to imagine being there.All in all, I have no hesitation in giving this mystery 5 stars. The only question is which Rankin book I read next."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I am a late-blooming Ian Rankin fan. Until being directed to him (by amazon.com) last year I didn't know the pleasure. Rankin, and authors like him (John D. MacDonald, Martin Cruz Smith), are the reason I read. Complex, but very human, well-layered characters that strike a chord inside. I also love mysteries, and all of Rankin's Rebus books are great credits to the genre. "Set in Darkness" is a multiple murder mystery, 'done' to the max. If you like murder mysteries, this book is an excellent choice. If you are fascinated by characters with depth, breadth, and all those nasty human traits, to go with your appetite for mystery, go back to the beginning ("Knots and Crosses") and read them all...it will make "Set in Darkness" all the more satisfying when you get to it."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Rankin's books about Inspector Rebus and his colleagues on the police force in Scotland are very bleak mysteries, with more than a shred of reality about them. Those who move from American mysteries where the protagonists are able to solve the crime and deal with a variety of other problems at the same time, may find Rankin's books hard to swallow. To me, they seem more like what truly happens in life...at the end of this book, Rebus is presented with the fact that his nemesis (who he had put away for a while) had just gotten away with not just one, but several murders...and there is not one thing that Rebus can do about it! No wonder Rebus is so bleak: his own personal life consists of alcohol and music and concern about his daughter who was hit by a car, he not only has to fight those up at the top who disagree with his manners of handling cases but he also has to deal with snakes on his force who have problems with the word 'No' from his female partner, and he runs into the darkest forms of human life on his beat and he cannot put them away (or deal with them as he would like and still remain within the law).Rebus fights to come to terms with his own mortality and his own moral compasses in this book. Rankin's writing is excellent, and as per usual, the education they get over in Britain and Scotland (now a more separate entity) leaves our own educational system in the gutter. I find myself having to look some things up, and saving others for later because Rankin is writing over my head. Of course, I do not recognize the music he instills as a passion into Rebus, except for the very old stuff.If there are any complaints about Rankins's books, it is that there are threads of plots all over the place...and weaving them into a whole is often difficult. Some of them make sense, such as Rebus' partner dealing with an overly ambitious coworker who she goes out with for a few times, and then decides not to see anymore outside of the 'office' because he doesn't interest her and his own moral compass is skewed. This guy stalks her, and unfortunately for him, doesn't do it well enough to keep her partner, Rebus, in the dark. When Rebus catches this idiot in the act, it colors their own perception of each other and they find it hard to work together to solve the homocides they are working on.But the little thread of dual rapists is too much and adds little to the story, besides an inconvenience to be worked out. Life is not tidy, but neither is it as dark for most of us as Rebus finds it in this book. Sounds to me like Scotland gets as little light as we get in Pittsburgh, PA in the winter. Rankin even brings up Seasonal Diffective Disorder (SAD) which is a problem here because of sunlight. His work may be psyhologically dark, but I still want to go to Scotland to see the places he talks about historically.Karen Sadler"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"By and large, fictional detectives aren't a cheery lot. Kay Scarpetta spends her time contemplating the ugliness of humanity, surrounded by corpses which illustrate man's inhumanity to man. The brilliant Adam Dalgliesh isn't exactly the life of the party, though he's an extremely sensitive soul who writes poetry - an intriguing character facet.But Ian Rankin's Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus is a breed unto himself. He loves the Rolling Stones and rock music in general. He has terrible luck with women and drinks far too much for his own good. He's stubborn, often rude and causes his superiors a great deal of worry. How many of us can identify with us on one level or another?Yet I'm always glad to see him in any new novel by Mr. Rankin and "Set In Darkness" does not disappoint. Rankin's Rebus is one of the most memorable characters in 20th century crime fiction. Though his is a morose personality, his dark sides never eclipse his basic humanity. He makes mistakes and bad choices in his personal life, but when it comes to solving a crime he's dead on and often at odds with his long-suffering co-workers.This time, Rebus must solve the mystery of the death of Roddy Grieve, an up-and-coming member of the Scottish Parliment who possesses a surname I found rather interesting, given his tragic fate. Grieve turns up dead on the same piece of land where a new Scottish Parliment building is going to be built. But he's not the first body to turn up in the ruins of the building on this property which is being demolished - an unknown skeleton has preceeded Grieve in death and has been walled up in the old building. Who put it there? Who is it? And what's being covered up?Rankin sprinkles his main story with well-constructed subplots. This time, Rebus is confronted with a co-worker who is also a stalker harrassing a police-women and personal friend of Rebus'.To look at the world through Rebus' eyes is to see it through a painful lens. Yet his moody persona permeates memorable sequences and Rankin's plots are always delightfully twisted. I've read all the Inspector Rebus novels from the first to this latest one, and have never been disappointed in the least by any of them. Rankin's skill as a mystery writer is in the same superior league as P. D. James and Agatha Christie."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"First, a caveat: I am a die-hard Ian Rankin fan, eagerly snapping up anything he writes the minute I can find it available. If you are familiar with Rankin's wonderfully layered John Rebus, then by all means indulge in his newest title. Replete with political machinations, the basic storytelling is flawless--a great multiple murder mystery! If you are unfamiliar with Rankin's work, some of the nuances of shifting relationships may be lost on you, and that would be a shame. Rebus's complexity is such that over the course of the books featuring him, he becomes better known and more self-destructive with each new title. This is not the Rankin book to start with, but for those who have been interested in Rebus's faltering romantic life and, more importantly, his position at work and on-going thorn in Cafferty's side, the changing dynamics do not fail to satisfy."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"This is a well written police procedural/hard boiled detective novel. Part of a popular series set in Edinburgh and featuring the distinctly hard boiled Detective Inspector Rebus. As with many novels in this genre, Rebus is flawed human being redeemed by his obsessive interest in pursuing the truth and establishing justice, features often unappreciated by his superiors. While hardly at the level of Raymond Chandler, these books are solid examples of the genre, written well with good plotting and creditable characters. Good entertainment reading."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"In Queensbury House in Edinburgh, the Highlanders are pulling out their tartan colors, as the first Scottish parliament in about three centuries is to convene. To the chagrin of law enforcement officials everywhere, especially the more ambitious, the locale is right in the middle of Detective John Rebus' zone making him the liaison.However, all is not well. As the restoration project continues on Queensbury House, the remains of a body are found as a fireplace is reopened. Not long afterward, an apparent suicide occurs near the site of the first person. Finally, a third corpse of a politician lies murdered in the outside gardens. On the surface the three dead people seem to not have a connecting thread except the locale. However, Rebus concludes tremendous profits can be made if you are on the right side of the new Scottish political power, but who would murder to fix the odds in their favor.The John Rebus Scottish police procedurals are some of the best detective novels of the past decade. The latest tale, SET IN DARKNESS, brings to life insight into the Scottish parliament and a flavor for modern day Edinburgh. The murder mystery is intelligent and entertaining, and the characters, especially Rebus, retain that feeling of genuineness while dealing with power-struggles, and intrigue. The roles of several reoccurring secondary players fade into the backdrop this time around. Rebus retains his freshness inside an exciting police procedural.Harriet Klausner"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Dreary winter is settling over Edinburgh but the building boom bustles on and Inspector John Rebus, for his sins, finds himself assigned to security at Queensbury House, the intended home of the new Scottish parliament. His tour of the renovation is as dull as expected until their guide rips the boards off an old fireplace, exposing a skeleton dating from previous rebuilding in the late 70s.This is only the first of three bodies. The second is a suicide, a homeless man with a substantial bank account, but the third is a scion of the prominent Grieve family, an up-and-coming politician. The first two are parceled out to underlings (and lively, well-drawn characters they are) but Rebus gets young Roddy Grieve, killed on the parliament grounds. Only trouble his, Rebus is seconded to a young department protégé, an earnest, desk-bound go-getter (and ultimately a marvelous, scary character). For loner Rebus, this is no way to work.Gruff, direct (some would say confrontational), with a sardonic sense of humor, Rebus is as hard drinking and broody as ever. Educated hunches and police footwork takes him and his team into the roughest alleys and pubs as well as the highest echelons of the privileged. In the intrigues and intricacies of high finance and corruption, Rebus begins to spy a pattern. But the unexpected release of Rebus' nemesis, crime boss Gerald Cafferty, exacerbate his difficulties with authority, threatening both case and career.Though longer than Rankin's previous novels, there is no padding in the twisting, turning plot. Rankin ("Dead Souls," "Black and Blue") draws the reader into damp, gritty Edinburgh and Rebus, a man of dark depths, is the personification of the city. Well up to Rankin's award-winning standards, his vivid style has a trenchant immediacy."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Ian Rankin just gets better and better. His (anti-)hero John Rebus, an Edinburgh cop, never fails to fascinate. Like the other books in this series, the mystery is edgy, tight and suspenseful, the secondary characters compelling, and Edinburgh--almost a character in itself--looms in the background, grim, shabby and poignantly dignified. What makes Rankin so good is the moral dilemmas he throws Inspector Rebus into and the choices he forces his character to make. Rebus is cynical, world weary, irreverent, alcholic--a loner who has failed at his personal and professional lives in all the recognized ways. And yet we like him immensely and sympathize completely, even when we don't agree with the choices he makes.Somehow, Rankin keeps producing great reads, each better than the last, and "Set in Darkness" is no exception. I just hope Rankin never tires of Inspector John Rebus, because I won't."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"This is the first of Rankin's Rebus Edinburgh police procedurals I've read, so perhaps I'm simply lacking in backstory, but though this neophyte found Rankin's sharp, astringent dialogue and thoughtfully textured scenes impressive, they eventually add up to not much at all.Spinning far too many characters to keep straight into multiple unrelated subplots that eventually collide seemingly only because its a mystery and they have to, Rankin seems to have little sense of how to tell a compelling story. And though his dialogue is first rate, Rebus, Clarke, and the multitudinous supporting cast never really come alive as characters, just lively noir cliches relocated to Edinburgh. Surely there should be some kind of moratorium on series detectives drinking and listening to classic rock, on either side of the Atlantic, at this late date.But perhaps I've merely chanced upon one bad apple in an apparently beloved series. Ranking writes well enough that at some point I'll give Inspector Rebus another try."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"The problem with Ian Rankin is that he makes all the other mystery writers I read (and I read plenty) look second rate. I believe he is the best writer active in this genre today, surpassing even Robert Barnard, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell.Inspector Rebus is brilliant and flawed. The story is as close to perfect as a mystery gets. The dialog is unforced and natural. The description is mood-setting without being distracting. If you haven't read any Rankin, do yourself a favor by going back and reading them all."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"After reading the other reviews, I wondered if I read the same book. Slow, complex, convoluted. Honestly, Edinburgh does not present the alure that it apparently does to others.Plot focuses around simple greed of land developers and double crossing by the dark side of a seedy lot of players.It took me much too long to connect any of the dots and when I did it was a disappointing picture. First and last visit to Mr. Rankin's world. Buyer Beware."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I consider myself a major fan of detective fiction worshipping the likes of Carr, Stout, Queen, Christie etc.Ian Rankin has been touted as one of the finest crime writers around but after this maudlin item I am left wondering why. Rebus is in my opinion a poor quality detective spending too much time mooning around the wrong end of a whisky bottle and giving us insights into his tortured personal life. Let's have more detection and less social conscience salving. I give this book 1 star only because zero doesn't appear to be an option!"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"This is one of the most satisfying series I have ever read and this one is a gem. The story about Scotland regaining its parliament and the history of Edinburgh are a superb backdrop to this dark chapter in the life and times of John Rebus. Rankin has really set up a puzzler this time--three murders (one old, new two) with no apparent ties. But as Rebus begins the hunt, the pieces start coming together into an extremely satisfying and well-constructed conclusion. As always, the supporting characters and subplots are as intricate and vital to the overall story as is Rebus and the initial crime.I finish each book and it takes awhile to come back to the real world. Rebus' ongoing personal and professional problems are beautifully woven into the story. His is so complex a character that I would suggest that, if you are thinking about reading the series, you start at the beginning. READ THESE BOOKS! You will not be disappointed."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Farmer Watson has decided to keep Detective Inspector John Rebus out of trouble by assigning him to a committee concerned with the new Scottish Parliament's security. Rebus inspects the building work at Queensbury House with his colleagues, including fast-tracker Derek Linford. However, Rebus seems to attract trouble, and it's not long before a body is discovered...I've only read the one Rebus novel before, The Hanging Garden, and in that earlier composition, Rebus seemed to work much more on his own. Set in Darkness is a more of an ensemble piece, and seems to hail from the tradition of the police procedural. Rebus's colleagues are very much in the limelight, featuring Linford's flirtation with Siobhan Clarke, and the 'Time Team' of Wylie and Hood. There are just as many coincidences as you'd find in three editions of TV's 'The Bill' (where the two crimes per episode are always inextricably linked). This is probably related to the Kevin Bacon game, the \`six degrees of separation' (where everyone on the planet has links with everyone else), mentioned in the novel. Rankin concentrates on the smaller universe that consists of Edinburgh, and this is more than enough. Indeed, so flourished is this novel with characters, that if you put the narrative down, you're bound to be really confused when you come back to it.Not long after 'Skelly' is discovered in Queensbury House, the corpse of the prospective MSP Roddy Grieve is also found there. Siobhan Clarke witnesses the suicide of a tramp who had half a million in the bank. Meanwhile, two men are assaulting women from singles' clubs. Rebus's investigation brings him to Rosslyn Chapel, the cryptic home of cranks and the Knights Templar, the secretive movement that was the first police force, invented banking, that fought at Bannockburn, and laid the foundations of Scotland's Masonic tradition. However, Rebus is far more interested in the Edinburgh masons of the last twenty years, since the previous devolution referendum. Just whose is the body in the fireplace at Queensbury House? Early on in the novel, a historian relates a tale about the lunatic son of the Duke of Queensbury, who ate a servant on the night of the Act of Union, and left him on a spit in the fireplace. This is where Rankin is at his best - he employs the real Edinburgh to great effect. The Oxford Bar, Rebus's local, is a real hostelry. This adds a note of authenticity to Rankin's work, and it's quite stimulating trying to track down all the locations mentioned in this novel. It's also amusing to see Rebus's scepticism about devolution - rogues will always be rogues, no matter where they're housed. Ian Rankin also seems to be warming to his new career as literary critic. There's quite a bit of Hugh MacDiarmid in this book, fairly appropriately, as he was a founder of the Scottish Nationalist party. MacDiarmid also joined the Communist party at a quite inappropriate time. The Grieve family have been in politics for generations, starting from the Liberal Party, from Old to New Labour, with also a flirtation with the Tories. An artistic as well as a political family, they have an 'unknown' MacDiarmid poem hanging on the walls of their family home. MacDiarmid's real name was Christopher Murray Grieve (although he's no relation of the Grieve family here). He's not the only one to use a pseudonym in the novel: so does the mysterious suicide victim, 'Chris Mackie', but for less artistic reasons.You don't have to have read all the other novels in this series to appreciate Set in Darkness. I can compare this with The Hanging Garden and see that Rankin still maintains his obsession with popular music (but then Rebus is an aficionado too, so that's alright - although this does mean that the inevitable recording session makes its way into the book). This might seem a bit tiresome, but then again I guess detectives do have to have some small talk to relax their subjects. Rebus says he's been reading up on his Edinburgh history recently, but so has Rankin too. Indeed, the city seems almost more alive than the inspector himself, even though most of its tales concern death. The mortality of someone very close to Rebus is brought into question, someone who seems larger than life, and someone with a lot more vitality than Rebus, say... I think one of the problems with Rebus is that he's so hard to picture, and as the TV producers have probably found, so very hard to cast. Rebus seems more thing than man, hard to make out from the shadows (not a pop reference). I see that Rankin's new novel is called 'The Falls' - will Rebus ride the Reichenbach, locked in mortal combat with his Moriarty, in the city where Doyle learnt from Bell? Has Ian Rankin grown tired of his creation? Or has he just developed a new obsession for the music of Mark E. Smith?"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"A body found in a bricked up fireplace after twenty years, a murdered candidate for Scottish parliament, and a suicide with a big secret and it all ties together? Well, it's a bit of a stretch in this one. Renkin works hard and it shows. This is a disparate lot of puzzles, and it is really reaching to work them together. Without the deus ex machina in the form of Rebus's favorite foe, Big Ger it wouldn't really happen at all. It is this occasional dependence on the Scottish crime lord that often works against the series, sometimes it seems an easy way out when Rebus needs something done, either directly or indirectly, and in pops Cafferty. This is a solid outing, but too many characters pop in and out without real purpose making the novel probably 100 pages more than it needs to be."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I heard that Ian Rankin was a very good writer, but I never picked up any of his books to read. That was my mistake."Set in Darkness" is the second Rankin book that I have read, and I am now convinced that he is one of the best crime/detective/mystery writers out there. "Set in Darkness" was a true pleasure to read. The plot was intricate and well-conconstructed, the setting (Edinburgh) was enchanting, and the characters were clearly drawn and they were fascinating.The only drawback is the Scottish colloquillisms and slang terms that Rankin uses. They are a bit hard to follow at times, but this is a minor inconvenience. John Rebus, the main character, is as good as they come.Put Rankin on your "A" list of authors- you'll not be disappointed."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"It's been awhile since i've read old Rebus, and I enjoyed getting back into the series. Ian Rankin is an extremely skilled mystery writer, and his Rebus creation is awesome. John Rebus is a very complex character-brooding, intelligent, determined to solve mysteries at any cost (even his own career as a policeman in the Edinburgh police force). What I really enjoy about Mr. Rankin's books are his perfectly believable and sinister plots that just roll along with no lagging or side stepping. And Rebus is a real hard-boiled police inspector. We not only see the dark side of Edinburgh life, but we are up front and personal with Rebus' dark side at all times throughout each of the books.This book starts with a mummified body found boarded up in a fireplace at an old building undergoing construction. Almost right away after this 20 some year old body is found, another body which is much fresher is discovered. The two appear to be unrelated to each other, but as Rebus and his team start digging, connections start appearing that reach far back into the Edinburgh underworld and an old nemesis reaches out to John Rebus as well. I cannot recommed this crime series enough. If you are a fan of United Kingdom police procedurals, then don't miss Rankin's wonderful Rebus series. I know I will be continuing to read again after a little hiatus."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Rankin is always a good read. If you have traveled to the UK and Scotland in particular as much as I have, there are many subtle references that become clearer to the reader. Good mystery in any case."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Set in Darkness seemed like a jumbled mess to me. I enjoyed most of the previous books but this one was not a good read. First it was difficult to get into. The plot then is like a tangle of multiple balls of yarn. First a body is found in an old fireplace. Then a tramp throws himself off a bridge leaving behind a lot of money and a politician is murdered. It is clear of course that it will likely all get connected but in the meantime Rebus will pal around with Big Ger, drink too much, possibly hit the sack with an aging celebrity, antagonize colleagues, experience incredible strokes of luck, only to tie it up neatly in the end. Good yarn is usually enjoyable but this seemed like a mess to me."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"While this book was readable, it's not one of the better Rebus novels. It's one of those that I could have taken six months to finish because it didn't really hold my interest but was easy to pick back up whenever. The way the multiple cases tied up into one felt sort of forced in places. As always though, I enjoyed the rapport between Rebus and Siobhan. They're a fantastic pair."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"It seems the longer I go with the John Rebus novels the better written they are. Compared to Rankins earlier novels, the plot is much more involved. It seems the more Rebus drinks, the more human he is. I enjoyed the book very much and am looking forward to the next in the series."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I definitely don't think this novel deserves 5-star reviews. It's a bit long at 444 pages. On the plus side, as an Americaner, I enjoyed reading a novel by a Scottish author writing about Edinburgh and Scotland's Parliament--definitely new territory for me. Rankin's strong point is definitely his use of dialog throughout. The interplay between Rebus and his co-detective, DI Lindford, is golden and very entertaining. His dialog involving other characters also shines. Many times I found myself thinking, \\"If he came up with this dialog in his head, I must say he is a very creative man\\". On the down side, I found much of the story uninteresting with what interesting parts I did find spaced far apart. When I finally got to one, it was like finding water in the desert(I will give the author credit for, at times, taking risks with his plot lines--which most of the time worked for me). Overall, the book is mediocre. Snappy dialog is the strong point with some mostly uninteresting situations making up much of the rest of the book."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Rankin is a Scotsman who writes mysteries set in and around Edinburgh. Since I visited Scotland last summer and spent time in Edinburgh, I have really enjoyed immersing myself in stories within that familiar area. Set in Darkness was written while the new Parliament building was under construction and a (fictitious) body was found in the old walls being torn down to make way for the new. This is an \\"Inspector Rebus\\" mystery. I also have The Complete Short Stories of Ian Rankin, which includes 20 Inspector Rebus stories as well as 15 others. Sometimes a short story is all I want to read--just enough to absorb during lunch on my own! If you're attuned to the Scots' way of thinking and speaking, you'll find Rankin's books and stories very interesting."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I'm a big Ian Rankin fan and a lover off all things Edinburgh. This is one of the better of Rankin's early Rebus novels, and has almost as much depth as some of the later ones (like Naming of the Dead). The novel is fine (worth 5 stars) and a great read. This particular e-version, however, has a lot of problems. It was obviously scanned from hard copy. It would benefit from about some serious editing. Words are hyphen-ated in the middle of sentences. Paragraphs sometimes run together. Dialog often runs on, with two different speakers back to back in the same paragraph - confusing at times. There are lots and lots of words that are simply wrong. You can see what the OCR program was trying to do just based on letter shapes. And it gets funny in places. Several (more than I can count) times the word \\"the\\" is clearly meant, the text reads \\"die\\". Then a couple of places where the word \\"die\\" is clearly meant, the word \\"the\\" is in its place. For Rankin and Rebus fans, this is a mandatory book. It deserves a better editing for its electronic version!"},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Set in Darkness\\" (2000) is 11th in the Detective Chief Inspector John Rebus series, by the award-winning author Ian Rankin, O.B.E., currently the best-selling writer of mysteries in the United Kingdom. And, mind you, it was published before the author was 40. \\"Set\\" can, like most of his work, be described as a police procedural, within the tartan noir school, and it is set in Edinburgh, in contrast to most Scots mystery writers at work now. The east coast Edinburgh is more or less his home town, as he was born in nearby Fife; in comparison to the west coast Glasgow, it's a more beautiful, smaller city, the administrative capital of the country, where you might expect the crime to be white collar, rather than blue, and bloody. But Rebus always seems to find enough to keep busy. Now, just what's tartan noir when it's at home, you ask? A bloodthirsty, bloody-minded business, to be sure, more violent than the average British mystery, but, thankfully, leavened a bit with that dark Scots humor. Written (duh!) by Scots.The novel at hand, \\"Set,\\" opens at an exciting moment. For the first time in nearly 300 years, Edinburgh is about to become the home of a Scottish Parliament. Detective Inspector John Rebus is charged with liaison to the parliament's building site, as it is under construction in the middle of his patch at the St Leonard's cop shop. Queensberry House will be home not only to Scotland's new rulers-to-be; it is also the site of a legend of a young man roasted on a spit in the kitchen by a madman son of the noble who owned it. When the fireplace where the youth supposedly died is uncovered, however, another more recent murder victim is revealed. This body is at least twenty years old, dating from the last interior remodeling of the mansion, and is unidentifiable. Days later another body is found in the grounds of the mansion. This time the victim is the well-born Roddy Grieve, prospective Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) and the powers that be are on Rebus's back demanding instant answers. And then there's yet another body; a homeless man commits suicide shortly after discovery of the unidentifiable body, and, puzzlingly enough, the police learn that the vagrant had 400,000 pounds in the bank.Rebus catches the case of the murdered Grieve, and must navigate his way around the man's prickly family: his mother Alicia, a well-known artist, sister Lorna, formerly a famous model; brother Cammo, already a political power in London. His cop's instincts shout at him that the three cases are interrelated. The detective also finds his old nemesis involved, Morris Gerald Cafferty, ruler of the city's underworld, unexpectedly benefiting from an early release from Glasgow's Barlinnie prison, back on his home turf. And the cases seem to point to the city's former crime lord, living in splendid self-imposed, non-extraditable exile in Spain, Bryce Callen, and his nephew Barry Hutton. One thing is clear: there will be lots of money to be made as Scotland approaches self-governing status; and where there's lots of money to be made, people often play rough. So Rebus ends up working the three cases; his frequent assistant, Siobhan Clarke, has been working another case, of a serial rapist, and that case too ends up thrown into the mix. And then there's a time when Rebus wonders if the classically beautiful, nearby Rosslyn Chapel, made famous by Dan Brown'sThe Da Vinci Code, isn't somehow involved, as several of the characters seem to be interested in it.The title of the book \\"Set in Darkness,\\" can be found in a poem by Sarah Williams, \\"The Old Astronomer to his Pupil:\\"Though my soul may set in darknessIt will rise in perfect light,I have loved the stars too fondlyTo be fearful of the night.Rankin delivers the complex, dark tales with his customary vivid grittiness, wit and brevity. At one point he describes a couple of minor characters: \\"Big women they were, addicted to Scotland's pantry: cigarettes and lard. Training shoes, elasticated waistbands. Matching YSL tops, probably knock-off if not fake.\\" He continues to give us brilliant, high-energy writing on Edinburgh, its flora, fauna, geography, weather, and inhabitants, and the adjoining ancient \\"Kingdom\\" of Fife, best-known now for its slumbering coal mines, and its vanished linoleum factory. The author has been nominated for an Edgar Award forBlack and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Mystery (Inspector Rebus Novels)for which he won England's prestigious Gold Dagger Award. His novelDead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)was nominated for another Gold Dagger Award. He won the Edgar in 2004 forResurrection Men: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels). Ten of his novels have been televised. He seems to be closing the Rebus series out now: you want to catch it, while it is still relatively fresh, if you can."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I'm a long-time fan of Ian Rankin ... and enjoyed this book. My comments are not about the book, however, but about the Kindle edition. This was my first book experience on my new Kindle. I was dissapointed in the digital edition since there are obvious errors that are, I assume, introduced by the computer creating the digital version. For example, hyphens appear incorrectly throughout the book; some words are incorrect. While it may not be a \\"big deal\\", I found it very irritating and it did take away from the enjoyment of the story. I think a human editor may help."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Ian Rankin's \\"Set in Darkness\\" is actually a reprint of a book he originally wrote and published in the late 1990's. As I have read all - I think, anyway - of his books about Inspector John Rebus, of the Lothian and Borders Police Department in Edinburgh, I was a little worried when I received this book from AmazonUSA that I had read it years before. I was glad to realise I hadn't - it was new to me.\\"Set in Darkness\\" is definitely not Rankin's best Rebus book. It's good enough to enjoy - three plot lines are reduced by the end of the book - but to a novice Rankin-reader, it's a tough slog. John Rebus, a moody, go-it-alone kind of cop, is the bane of his supervisors' existence. Not a team player when it counts in solving a crime or two, Rebus is not a sympathetic character. He is, however, an extremely interesting one to read about. He's surrounded - loosely - by his fellow police officers and works with them, as needed. The \\"loner cop\\" is one we've all seen many times before. Rankin does a good job at fleshing out both the good guys and the bad guys in his work, and \\"Set in Darkness\\" doesn't disappoint in its nuanced character development. I think, though, the plot sort of fell a little short of great.If you've never read Ian Rankin, I'd start with one of his other Rebus books. They're all described in Amazon fairly well."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"This was my first Ian Rankin novel. There are three investigations going on in this novel and at the end they all tie in together. John Rebus is well drawn and is interesting. I found the story dragging at times. It's a complex crime novel. I rate this a A-."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"I have been reading this series in sequence, so I have been entertained by how Rankin is getting better at creating complex and convoluted plot twists and marveled at how refined his character development has become.I believe this book marked a turning point. Rebus' drinking had always been a continuous and important sidebar of the story, it got relief earlier in the series. But when Rebus'friend Jack Morton was killed, Rebus fell off the wagon hard, and it really and truly made the character all the more complex and interesting. The drinking is now front and center and ruling his life and his work. Rebus can be seen to be in a slow death spiral towards uncontrollable depression, or does it? This is the beauty of the Inspector Rebus series, you begin to care about Rebus, no matter how bad he is with truth, women, relationships, and rules. As in a relation ship with real people, no one starts being completely hateful, but over the series of 12 books, I have come to know the character, I feel I know his history, and despite his odious state of de-evolution, I still care about the character because of the history that Rankin built up over the 12 books. I can't wait to read the rest of the series just for the Rebus development.The mystery part involves three seemingly disparate deaths, one of a tramp, the second of a up and coming politician, and the third of a man whose death went unnoticed 20 years ago but he jumped back into the public consciousness in a very notable way. At first blush, I didn't think Rankin would be able to pull all this together into one story arc, but he did. I really should stop doubting his ability to do this. The procedure and methodology that Rankin uses to progress his story is once again, very enlightening. Mix in his accounting of the Scottish government and history, the history of 60's and 70's rock and roll, as well as his understated sarcastic asides makes this a very complex and enjoyable read, if you like life complicated, real, and not easily categorized nor understood. The story comes to an end, a very conclusive end, but also with a very depressing twist which sets Rebus up with a very difficult reality. You may not like it, but it is definitely a juicy beginning for the rest of the series."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Once again (it's so repetitious) Ian Rankin has written a novel that is almost perfect in every way. The story just seems to grow as it goes along, and the characters appear as if this is just a narrative of some tragedy that actually happened and Rankin is just the reporter.A murder (of a man of a well known family who is standing for the Scottish Parliment and brother of an MP), a suicide (by a man we would call a street person) and a dead body (murdered twenty years ago and wall up in a building under renovation. All this is happening around and in the new Scottish Parliment building and John and Siobhan are off on the most interesting story so far (until the next one).With the imminent retirement of the Chief Super, Farmer Watson, we know that John is in for trouble with whoever becomes his next boss. It's nice to see Watson get in a few good licks before he leaves the scene. Another DI (the blue eyed boy), is sent by Fettes to watch over this case which they feel is too high profile for a maverick like Rebus.Of course Rebus gets on his bad side immediately, not to mention everyone else. But with the tenacity that he brings to everything his does, Rebus will find out the truth in the end. What he's not expecting is how. Once again a great read."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"What differentiates 'Set in Darkness' from the preceeding novels is the amount of character development Rankin puts into DC Siobhan Clarke this time around. Previously the emphasis had been on Rebus and his 'relations' with drink, family and love (Patience and, to a certain extent, Gill Templar). However, without going into plot, in this book DC Clarke finally gets her due, perhaps foreshadowing the weight of role she will play in subsequent stories.The only negative I have of the Rebus series is that I find it hard to believe that Rebus is so mistrusted and disliked by most of the higher-ups within the L&B gang, regardless of the fact that he generally tends to get the necessary result. Perhaps that's a true representation Scot 'polis' politics.Nonetheless, you won't find a writer more aware and informed of his city and its environs than Rankin - however, its a city (regardless of its magnificent Festival and copious amounts of drinking establishments), I wouldn't want to live in - certainly not with guys like Big Ger running around. Besides, I can watch Hibs on tv."},{"Title":"Set In Darkness (SIGNED)","review":"Ian Rankin writes a good book which will keep you interested without giving away too much. He also keeps one interested in the characters and how they react with one another. I would recommend this as one of the better mystery novels that I have read."},{"Title":"Renaissance Medicine (History of Medicine (Enchanted Lion Books).)","review":"My son in 7th grade needed to write a paper on Health in the Renaissance. This book was simply written and full of information for his report. I would recommend it for information on health and medicine during the Renaissance period. I would recommend this book for 3rd through at the most 8th grade, since it is simple."},{"Title":"Amityville: The Nightmare Continues","review":"If you are into the "The Amityville Horror" and all the evil and horror that "Amityville" holds then be prepared because this is fiction regarding the continuing saga of the infamous house however anyone who has followed the story knows another family moved in after the Lutz's left while this book claims it has been empty for awhile. So it may not be true but still an interesting and at times scarey novel that will keep you reading . I read it over the course of three days as I wanted to know what would happen next and was sorry when I reached last page as eager for more. Can a sequel be in the works???"},{"Title":"Amityville: The Nightmare Continues","review":"I own almost all The Amityville Series both in video aswell as book format and I must say that Robin Karl actually took us away from The Lutz and DeFeo Families and added to the legend of The Amityville Horror a fine peice of fiction worthy of standing next to the Original aswell as Murders in Amityville and the Amityville Curse in my personal buy this book fine a nice spot and curl up and enjoy this well written strory."},{"Title":"Amityville: The Nightmare Continues","review":"I wasn't even born when the Amityville murders happened. I found this book on my bookself. It was one of my grandmother's. After I read it I asked everyone about Amityville. Now I am hooked. I want to read all the Amityville Books. It is very interesting. I couldn't put this book down. Don't read it to late at night, but do read it. I'm now going to purchase some other Amityville Books."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"I am no newbie to cycling. I have read many books from Benard Hinualt's book to all the major "new" cycling books including "Performance Cycling", "The Ultimate Ride", and the Cyclists Training Bible".NONE of these books discribe and outline proper training like Lemonds book! Lemonds book may not be quite a "scientific" as some of the newer ones but that does not mean it is an inferior book.Lemond has put his wealth of info across in a very easily understood and practical way. I especially liked his info on training and fitness for the serious cyclist and also training for the older athlete.If you want to know how to become a top cyclist, or even a pro, then this is the book for you.This book is not just for the serious cyclist. It has all the info that a newbie to cycling would need to know as well. The more experienced cyclist can easily weed through the basic and dive right into the "meat and potatoes" of training and tactics.The only thing that this book is weak on is training by measuring power output, which has become all the rage of late. The fact is though that one doesn't ever need to measure "watts" in order to train productively and become the very best cyclist that one can become. Experienced cyclist know that preceived effort at various intensty levels along with a decent heart rate monitor is all anyone ever needs to reach ones peak.As far as I am concerned this is the best book ever penned on cycling!"},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Some of the information in this book may be a little out-dated, but I think it is still worth it for the beginning cyclist. The chapter on sizing a bike is a must-read for all people who are beginners and may be seriously considering cycling. I would buy the book again just for this chapter. I think there are other books out there with more up to date information, but this one should be on every cyclists' bookshelf."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"This book covers just about every facet of riding a road bike as well as fascinating information on the United State's most accomplished modern bicycle racer.There is one "gotcha" though and that is that you need to take Greg's advice about bicycle sizing with a substantial grain of salt. Riders of more than average height will arrive at bicycle sizes much too small if the sizing procedure is followed to the letter.On the other hand,the fitting information is about the best in print.Greg's understanding of bicycling history is the most complete and accurate I've found."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Great insights on climbing, racing and training tactics. In depth fitting chapter is worth the price of the book alone. Equipment write-ups are dated, but that's not what you're buying this book for."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Reading Greg LeMond's story - from his first race as a fifteen-year-old in 1975 to his second Tour De France victory in 1987 - makes you want to get out there and ride. LeMond still rides, you know. A friend recently participated in a benefit ride with Greg. Fans will be happy to learn, although he's picked up a few pounds over the years, LeMond still has a huge engine.Included in this superior collaboration with fellow cyclist and writer Kent Gordis are extensive chapters on bike fit, training, diet, maintenance, and riding tips. These are techniques useful not only in racing but for everyday cyclists - road hazards, traffic issues, the proper gear to have along. It's all there.I first read this book in 1992 when I began cycling at the age of 51. Even though the bikes are better now, and everyone can afford a HRM and software that will help you keep records of your workouts, the superior and detailed section on bike fit remains valid. Actually, nothing here is really outdated. It's still you, the bicycle, and the hill just ahead. Cycling is hands down the best way to get yourself in shape. Read, and then go for it. On your left!Art Tirrell - author of The Secret Ever Keeps - coming March 07 from Kunati Book Publishers, rides a 2003 Lemond Chambrey."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"I read this book first in 1996 when I was getting into ROAD RIDING. I was 46 and needed to exercise regularly to avoid the early onset of Type II Diabetes and to control Hypertension. Since then I have become a 2,500 miles per year rider in the rolling hills of Bucks County, PA and I credit this book for most of the "book" knowledge I have acquired so far. The first part of the book tells the "Lemond" story which is fascinating in itself. The second part of the book deals with Technical issues in excruciating details which my engineering mind adores and appreciates.I consider this book as a "must read" companion for all aspiring road riders."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Back in the 1970's I really enjoyed reading Sloane's Complete Book of Bicycling. LeMond's book is not nearly as general, but is for people who are training to ride hard, not just those who want to ride better and longer. I did learn something valuable about pedaling technique. While I enjoy reading about cycling and such reading inspires me to ride more, this was a little too much about LeMond and too little about cycling for my tastes. I am not sorry I read the book, but it is not what I hoped, even though it came highly recommended by others."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Like \\"Gray's Anatomy\\" for physicians, LeMond's is one of those classic texts in a subject, bicycling in this case. However, by having been published nearly a decade ago, it's obviously outdated in few sections, particularly equipment's; it was written before handlebar gear shifters and heart-rate monitors became easily accessible to the public, for example. On the other hand, the chapters on how to pick and fit a bike, techniques and tactics and maintenance are superb. This book should be fixture on any serious cyclist personal library. It's just a pity that LeMond hasn't considered updating it (...yet?) for the benefit of \\"fellow bikers\\"."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"I've just read this book. It's very nice to see what Greg thinks about cycling, his philosophy, and the racing tatics is very good. What kept me from giving it a five-star rating was that equipment choice and other chapters are totally out-dated. Other than that a very nice book. I advise you to get it, especially if you like Lemond."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Read this back in 96' - one of the best cycling books ever written. Combines Greg's story with some excellent, timeless advice that will serve anyone from the beginner to professional."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"This book shows the topic of bicycling training from practical point of view, despite some inaccuracy around heartbeat training, I find it very helpful."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"This is probably the best overall book on cycling ever written. Very comprehensive and detailed about any and all facets of cycling, including training, diet, bike fit, equipment, and even LeMond's own Tour de France drama, when he battled teammate Bernard Hinault for the crown in '85 and 86. Great read.Only major drawback: the section on equipment is HILARIOUSLY out-of-date. LeMond debates the merits of six-speed freewheels vs seven-speed, for example. Hey Greg, might wanna re-write that chapter sometime, we're up to eleven-speed cassettes these days, at least on Campy.Aside from the equipment section being about 20 years out of date, it's well worth getting."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Greg LeMond had a great career as a bicycle racer, but that does not equate to his writing an authoritative book on bicycling. He doesn't correctly describe how to use the brakes effectively, and neither does he have a solid background in how to ride in mixed traffic. From another cyclist, I have heard that LeMond's advice on bike fit can get people into trouble if, like most, they do not share his unusual physical proportions. So, I dip my helmet to LeMond in respect for his stellar racing career and the impression he gives of being a good and generous person; but I suggest other books for detailed technical information on bicycling."},{"Title":"Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling","review":"Every cycling enthusiast should have this in their library. Good information and a good read."},{"Title":"Book Repair: A How-To-Do-It Manual (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 107) (How to Do It Manuals for Librarians) (How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians)","review":"Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Kenneth Lavender's Book Repair is a complete course of instruction on all aspects of basic book repair and book conservation practices. A superbly presented "how to" manual, Book Repair offers illustrated sections on cleaning, mending, hinge and spine repair, strengthening paperbacks, and more. Newly added material covers wet and water-damaged books, mold and mildew, repair of book linings and pamphlet bindings, using acid-free materials to repair damaged books, lining paper objects, affordable repair tools and supples, and much more. Book Repair is an essential, critically important acquisition for book collectors, academic and public libraries staffs, as well as antiquarian and used bookstores in-house reference collections."},{"Title":"Book Repair: A How-To-Do-It Manual (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 107) (How to Do It Manuals for Librarians) (How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians)","review":"I've used this book quite a lot and I have to say that it is very user-friendly. The graphics are nicely done and everything is explained in detail. It is very practical for anyone who repairs rare/old/special books."},{"Title":"Book Repair: A How-To-Do-It Manual (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 107) (How to Do It Manuals for Librarians) (How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians)","review":"As an artist that has only taken a couple bookmaking classes yet makes mostly books, this book is awesome! I bought the book solely for it's instructions on clamshell boxmaking and it is spot on! I have many how-to books and by far this is the clearest, most concise instruction both in its writing and diagrams. I have yet to use the rest of the book for any repairs, but the clamshell box instructions were perfect and I was able to make a beautiful box in 1 morning what had been taking me weeks to troubleshoot. Totally worth every penny!"},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"Stanley Gayetsky was born in 1927 & died in 1991. He changed his name to Stan Getz because Jews were not accepted in most societies. His parents came from a small village near Kiev in what was then the Ukraine, or \\"white Russia\\" the same place my parents came from.Getz was bebop all the way, except for a period from 1963-1965 when he did what he is now famous for: the jazz style Bossa Nova. His most famous tune remains to this day \\"The Girl From Ipanema.\\" Well it was written by J. Gilberto & sung by Astrud Gilberto with whon Stan had an affair. So that was that. He was also a heroin uuser which plagued him, & whenever he was to perform he would shoot up about a half hour before so the \\"nodding\\" would wear off.He was known as the \\"sound\\" because of mhis smooth lyrical style, & was one of the Four Brothers in Woody Herman's big band. He became famous for his solo on \\"Early Autumn.\\"His career spanned 49 years and played with such bands as Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton & Woody Herman.He also had his own combo which specialized in bop, usually in a quartet setting. He used piano or guitar with bass plus drums.He used heroin till age 27, then became a violent alcoholic. However he lasted till 1991 when he died of liver cancer. But his days with heroin were to plague him again. I know this from experience.Even people who didn't like jazz, liked Getz, & the tone of his tenor sax has never been duplicated. If you like jazz, you'll love this book. My only criticism is that it didn't focus strongly enough on his music, but you can't have it all.Highly recommended."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"This is a wonderful book about a very underrated tenor sax player. If your reading this you probably know some things about his drug/alcohol problems. I won't bother you with those details. The book was brilliantly written. It's a fast read but not because of a lack of substance. It's a comprehensive book about Stan Getz and the jazz world in and around him."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"Being a recognized translator and a Stan Getz fan, I would like to translate the book to Swedish. At the same time I am aware of the fact that certain aspects concerns an important family in Sweden, i.e. Silfverskiold. Anyway, Maggins book is of too great importance to be ignored and Stan Getz is a legend..."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"I read this a few years back, and it was brutal to get through, black clouds of depression lurking on every page. This is actually by way of saying that Maggin did his job well, although it couldn't have been much fun. There is account after account of a phenonenomally gifted yet self-absorbed monster who lived in a world of rationalization and evidently felt his talent justified doing unspeakable things to people (which, of course only means doing the same to oneself). You find yourself, as reader, torn: On one hand, one feels sympathy for one of the great musicians of our time who literally grew up on the road with no parental discipline (he started out, for example, at 15 with Jack Teagarden, a great player and undoubtedly a father figure to Getz, but also a notorious lush)who had to grow up fast and couldn't quite handle it. On the other, there's the aforementioned devil that the substances either created or, more likely, merely brought out. By the time Getz sincerely tried to mend his ways (a terminal illness will do it every time)the train had long left the station leaving much emotional wreckage in its wake.But as with Charlie Parker, also widely reported to be a less-than-admirable person, we care about the art, and want to remember that. Sadly, this is where Maggin fails. He really means well, but his musical insights and prose style on the subject are, frankly, clumsy and less than helpful. He gropes for, but does not find Getz the musician or why he is so beloved. It's really simple: Getz was a fountain of melodic beauty, even as he swung his tail off. Improvising melodically sounds easy, but is one of the hardest things to do. Plus, his sound was a miracle--a force of nature. This is what puts Getz in the rarified category of accessible musical genius that includes very few others, Parker, Armstrong, Baker, Farmer and Davis among them. Maggin also even gets musicians' names wrong, a definite no-no.Fortunately, Getz's music speaks for itself loud and clear. Perhaps someone will write the critical work Getz's enormous corpus of work deserves. Hopefully it will be a musician (we have a bad rap for being inarticulate and illiterate for some weird reason) However, Maggin deserves credit for his unflinching portrait of a complicated, at times loathsome man who nonetheless was chosen to be a conduit for some of the most rapturous and beautiful music this world has known."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"As far back as I can recall, Stan Getz had always been my personal favorite jazz musician of all time. Blessed with an incredible musical memory - you just have to listen to the amount of quotes he would use during the course of a solo - he was able to render some of the most obscure lines from popular music to jazz lines to Jewish anthems. His personal sound was readily identifiable, pure,wholesome and wondrously beautiful and never filtered with sentimentality. When you heard a Getz solo there was never any mistake who was playing. Lester Young flowed through him and initially set the mold to this master jazz musician. Stan Getz carried the banner from Lester and ran with it.This book covers much of Stan Getz and his musical as well as personal life. Behind his playing was a torturous life hampered by drugs, alcohol, severe depression and anger. You would never have known this about the man after spending years of following and listening to the progressions of his performing art. Unlike the Chet Baker book this book chronologically follows his music as well as the events in his personal life. I found it inspiring to read about various recording sessions and all that was happening in his life at the time. All this while following it, by listening to the particular recording mentioned. He was a perfectionist and achieved it most of the time. If he felt his playing not to be at par this depressed him and would sadly result in dissonance for him and his family. He thought he needed to be stoned to play better. The irony is that he was throughout much of his life. Maggin mentions the many times when Stan would be inspired, either by another musician or a piece of music, that his playing would suddenly ignite and reach incredible levels of Art. I, for one, have on many occasions,witnessed such performances by him.This again brings up the question that has bothered me as a very devoted jazz follower: In order for the music to become a pure art, must it have flowed through the artist through suffering and artificially altering his senses with drugs and alcohol? Further, are the jazz musicians of today too antiseptic to ever achieve pure estheticism? These are troubling thoughts and often lends me to think that it may be impossible to truly create in a totally sober environment. True, the music can be technically brilliant, intricate and interesting, but would it be Getz,Parker, Monk, Baker, Davis or Coltrane?The book is very well written by Maggin and covers the career of Stan Getz thoroughly. Maggin has struck a delicate balance between the music, life and times of Getz. The nurturing, friendships and relationships of the musicians who began playing, developing and expanding with his various musical groups are clarified throughout the book. This book is an indispensable guide for anyone that has followed any of the aspects of Stan Getz the musician and the man."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"Okay, I'm a fairly knowledgeable jazz buff, got lots of Stan Getz CDs. Thought I'd try a book about the man behind the incredible sounds of deep emotions. But whoa! This guy was as much a mess off the stage as Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, Art Pepper,et. al. I had NO idea!! Donald Maggin does a fine job of reporting the events as they occurred & lets us formulate our opinions about this incredible "Life In Jazz". The book badly needs a discography although to follow along w/ the story. Maybe next edition?! Otherwise a book hard to put down for jazzbos AND paparazzi/soap opera lovers! Dr.Mike Baughan Richmond,Va"},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"In his 49 year career Stan Getz was a master in all the major movements in jazz. Yet, in eachidiom he was able to sustain his distinct style and voice on the tenor saxaphone and remainedan important contributor to the evolution and vitality of Jazz throughout his career. Like manyof his contemporaries he also endured a troubled personal life including drug addiction, alcohol abuse, troubledmarriages and agonizing emotional pain. In "Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz" Donald L. Maggin not onlyeffectively chronicles Getz's personal and career developments, but he also takes time to establish thecontext of Getz's musical development in the careers of the people he played with and the larger jazzmovements. This is a compelling story which celebrates Getz's triumphs and empathizes withhis pain without excusing his abuses. An excellent biography which offers a view of the jazz world since WW II.Highly recommended reading of equal value to jazz enthusiasts and casual listeners.Charlie SaxeChicago, Illinois"},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"I am so fed up with jazz biographies and histories loaded with racial politics. Maggin's book is such a breath of fresh air in that regard. Through this fascinating biography, you learn how collaborative jazz has long been between the races as Getz comfortably performed with white and black musicians. It definitely needs a discography. But given the amount of work Maggin put into detailing Getz's life, he was probably too worn out to tackle a discography. Great book."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"Am two thirds into this heavy tome... Why am I reading it? Because Getz was some kind of sax playing genius, in my opinion...and we always wonder what our favorite artists were like away from the stage. Well, sadly (& maybe not so sadly, depends how you look at it), you get it here.The trick is, once you have put the book away, to forget the negative and return to the music, appreciate the artist's art. Not always easy to do--but we do it. His art endures. You just wish he and his first wife (both junkies at one time) had been better parents to their kids, etc.So then, was Getz a total lost cause? Of course not. He had his decent side--although when messed up on booze and/or drugs he was not pleasant to be around, to put it mildly.Guy had demons, to be sure. Am talking about suicide attempts and depression. But then, how many of us haven't gone through a thing or two? It happens.Don't know if this can be called the definitive bio on Stan the Man, but it is certainly worth reading.Be warned, though, the last third is a heartbreaker. Just finished reading the entire thing. I'd like to give this tome 4 stars, instead of the three shown above, but (for some reason) amazon doesn't make it possible to change the rating.I'm glad this biography was written."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"There was a Time-Life commercial that featured Jazz masters on a cable channel. Astrud Gilberto was singing \\"Girl from Ipanema\\", and I was captivated by her beauty and her vulnerability on stage. I didn't realize it at the time, but Stan Getz was the one supplying the sound.As I picked up this book, my interest was in learning about the man and his music. Stan Getz was a croosover talent in the history of jazz. His story is often painful to read. His flaws are numerous, and detailed in this book. He was a wife beater, heroin addict, alcoholic, adulterer and self indulgent artist.But he could play, compose and improvise jazz to a level that put him with few, if any, peers in th ehistory of jazz.Jazz has never been the ticket to wealth like its weak step-sister rock n roll. (Don't get me wrong, I love rock n roll, but jazz is so much more expressive). But Getz made a phenomenal amount of money playing his horn. He was in great demand, both by his fans, and by other musicians to play with.His story is interesting, painful, and inspiring. Never formally educated, he took his God-given talent and rode it to incredible heights in the music world.There are few other books on this subject. This one is worthwhile to learn about a jazz legend."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"a good biographic book on stan getz, i guess it always helps to appreciate more the music of you know the background of the artist. this book provides that."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"I knew that Stan lived a complicated life, but this book says it all. His life with all its ups and downs.....highs and lows...no punches pulled. Informative and well written, the book covers all the important events in Stan's life right to the end. The final period when he became sober, attempting to make amends to as many people as he could for his apalling behaviour is well documented. A tortured genius but the author covers in full the power and artistry of this great unique musician."},{"Title":"Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz","review":"I bought this book because I'm a bossa nova fan, and perhaps no one did more to bring that music to an American audience than Stan Getz. Getz had a career that spanned about fifty years, encompassing the big band, swing, hard bop, bossa nova, and jazz-fusion eras. In those years, Getz played some of the best jazz music ever recorded. Maggin has done his research and the book is well-written. But I have several problems with his biography.First, is Maggin's inclusion of lots of extraneous detail. The book does not skimp on describing who Getz was playing with at any given time or where and when (to the hour, in some cases) he was playing. Getz was constantly on the road, and the author is admirable in not ignoring any facet of Getz's work. However, I often felt Maggin gave us far too much detail. The text often reads like liner notes of a CD box set. At times, paragraphs are nothing more than the musician line-up for a particular Getz gig. If you are an avid jazz fan, you might want to know such details, but sometimes it makes for reading about as enjoyable as the end credits of a movie. Another problem, related to this one, is Maggin's use of indented quotations. A lot of them. About every page has a block quotation. Maggin could have boiled down this material for us to make for faster reading. In short, the book is long on description, short on analysis.Second, is the lack of focus in the first third of the biography. Until Getz is arrested for heroin use, the book felt more like a \\"life and times\\" than it should have. We don't need, for example, pages of information about who Benny Goodman was, especially when Getz's name disappears for pages at a time. Context is good, but a writer can easily give us too much. A biographer should never diverge from his subject for very long. When the author drifts, the reader drifts.Third, is Getz the man. For Maggin, this is a larger problem than the excessive detail he includes. Maggin has no constraints when it comes to analyzing Getz's music: his subject clearly was a genius with the sax, and his output was prolific. There's lots of music to talk about. Getz the man is less impressive. He comes across as very two-dimensional person focused only on music and drugs. Getz could play regardless of how messed up he was, but the drugs turned him into a monster. He was a verbally and physically abusive man when drunk or stoned. And his abuse seemed reserved for his family more than his fellow musicians. I have a lot of respect for Getz the artist, but I came away not liking Getz personally and not having much respect for his intellect.Fourth, is Getz the artist. Composing was not part of Getz's legacy, a fact which perhaps relegates him to the second tier of jazz greats. Unlike, say another subject of music biography, John Lennon, Getz did not write the greatest songs he played on. It was Carlos Jobim who wrote the hits on \\"Getz/Gilberto,\\" and it was Chick Corea who wrote the greats songs on \\"Captain Marvel.\\" Getz also didn't have much of a sense of irony. John Lennon always had some good lines for the press, and he had a wicked sense of humor. Getz, in contrast, seemed a rather humorless workaholic. Unlike Lennon--or say, Ian Anderson or Pete Townshend--Getz probably wouldn't be much fun to talk with at a dinner party. It's his lack of intellectual depth (as say, Miles Davis) or spiritual depth (John Coltrane) that makes 380 pages about him too much. Getz was like a Hall of Fame baseball player who was boring when not on the field.Getz certainly deserves serious work done on his mastery of the sax, but as a personality, he's a disappointment."},{"Title":"New York Is a Rubber's Paradise","review":"I visit Cemeteries on vacation. If you do and you paln on visiting the NYC area this may very well be indispensible. It is a listing of cemeteries in all 5 Burroughs and what you can expect to see there, a little info on doing rubbings and a section on New York Area carvers, there are several intersting reproductions of rubbings from the area. It's really worth the money if you plan on visiting or if you were doing geneaology I imagine as there is an address and phone to contact for most if not all the listed cemeteries."},{"Title":"Investigator: A guide for independent study projects","review":"I like this book, but it was published in 1985 and does not include the internet as a resource for projects. If this book was updated it would be great!!"},{"Title":"The Memory Bird: Survivors of Sexual Abuse","review":"I am the founder of an incest survivor network in the UK. This is one of the books that we recommend to people who make contact with us. Contained within the pages of the book are the voices of 100 survivors - drawn from all over the UK. The book helps to remind individual survivors that they are not alone. That there are other people out there who have suffered sexual abuse and who know what the reader has felt/is feeling. Difficult to read at times but a definate connection."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I know of no better source than Judy Brown's Comedy Thesaurus for quickly finding a wacky quote or memorable quip. If I could get a searchable Kindle version, I'd gladly buy it again.One thing I wish for - a table of contents or index. I created my own table of contents so that I could find things quickly without getting sidetracked, laughing at all the jokes Judy has collected rather than making a beeline for my intended topic. That's easy to do with all the first-rate material she's included."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"A below \\"review\\" on this site (if it hasn't already been removed) accuses me of \\"stealing\\" comedians' material via a \\"legal loophole.\\"Which is a not only a misreading of US Copyright Law, but misrepresents the content of my book, my methods for compiling it, and my intent.Up to 100 comedians directly contributed jokes to me for this book; and the material gathered under the Fair Use provision of US Copyright law is not only correctly contributed to each comedian, but in addition I have, whenever possible, provided contact information for comedians, so that readers who like the glimpse of a comedian's act provided, can then contact the comedian and buy the CD, DVD of his/her act or find out where to see that comedian live or on TV.The Fair Use provision of the US Copyright laws is no mere \\"legal loophole\\" -- it has not only provided the basis for the compiling of every other quote book in existence in the USA for at least 100 years, but is the underpinning of every news report you read (or hear), and every history book written in the United States. Fair Use has not only been upheld by the Supreme Court, it has been championed by every free speech advocate imaginable, including the ACLU.If my intent had been to \\"steal\\" I could have printed the quotes without attribution (which happens all too often on the internet, usually by those unfamiliar with US Copyright law or fair use, in any sense.) And I certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble to provide comedian credits, bios and contact information (including email or website addresses, whenever possible.)But as a reporter on the comedy scene for over 20 years -- including as the comedy critic for the LA Weekly for over a dozens years, and also freelance for the Los Angeles Times, Mademoiselle magazine and other newspapers and magazines -- that would be unlikely to be my intent."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"This is basically a smart-ass version of Bartlett's Quotations -- and what a terrific deal. 3000+ quotes for $16.95. And they're not the same quotes that you see in all the other quote collections -- no Mark Twain, no Oscar Wilde, no Dorothy Parker. These quotes are all refreshingly contemporary -- culled by the author from a ton of standup performances. If you're looking for funny/fresh observations to use in a speech or article, this is the perfect reference. (And kudos to the book's illustrator -- the oddball chapter openers are delightful!)"},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"i'm usually lazy writing book reviews, but this book is quite good and i think it deserves my compliments. I bought this book b/c the it's a relatively clean joke book and seems to be better than the other books that i glanced thru when i was at the book store. When i started reading it, it was much better than i expected. not everything in this book is funny, but the majority is. it's not a dumb joke book, it's witty & clever & right into the point. it's worth my money. everyone who has a sense of humor would definitely love this book."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I have several Humorous Quotes books as references but I have enjoyed none of them as much as Judy Brown's new book. Ms. Brown gets her quips almost exclusively from stand-up comics and late-night talk show host soliloquies. It is organized into topics and sub-topics which make it simple to use to find just the joke you want for a speech or presentation. The cross-referencing eliminates much of the searching typical of books of this nature. An excellent choice for anyone doing public speaking or making presentations."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I'm a standup comic and I contribute jokes to Judy for her joke books. I've connected with many new fans who found me through the jokes in Judy's books. I'm glad I let Judy use my material, because despite my film and tv credits, it was Judy's use of my jokes that convinced my family that maybe this comedy thing of Basil's might pan out into something real. Thanks Judy. Her books are also great for speechwriters who need a joke about a specific topic. Her books are organized like Bartlett's Quotations, but with jokes that are actually funny."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I noticed that someone claims that Judy Brown has illegally published comedians jokes in Comedy Thesaurus. I am one of the contributors to the book and I can say that I sent Ms. Brown 15 jokes, at no charge and with my permission, to include in her book The Comedy Thesaurus. I have also contributed jokes to her book, Squeaky Clean Comedy. I must say that my dealings with Judy have been a pleasure.All in all the Comedy Thesaurus is a great book. Buy it!"},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"Packed with hundreds of hilarious quotes, this book is an outstanding source of humor on all topics. Comedians, writers, and funny comments from famous people of all genres fill the pages of this book. Sectioned into topics permitting one to easily focus in on their favorite subjects, the organization of this thesaurus makes it a terrific piece.Among a few of my favorites:\\"I grew up hearing such stupid things. My mother would say, 'That's the last time I'm gonna tell you to take out the garbage.' Well, thank God.\\" - George Wallace (page 61)\\"A Canadian psychologist is selling a video that teaches you how to test your dog's IQ. Here's how it works. If you spend $12.99 for the video, your dog is smarter than you.\\" - Jay Leno (page 110)\\"Some people see things that are and ask. \`Why?' Some people dream of things that never were and ask, \`Why not?' Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all this s---.\\" - George Carlin (page 314)"},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I would recommend this book to anyone. I find it to be funny, inspirational, and uplifting. I actually use it as a daily reading and have encouraged other friends and family to purchase this book. However, I found I could not find it at my local book stores. I cannot say enough about this book!"},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"If you want to sharpen your wit in conversations or toss out a quip in a speech, this book will provide you with all the \\"gems\\" you could ever want or possible use."},{"Title":"The Comedy Thesaurus: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Smartass Remarks","review":"I bought this book to read cover to cover for a laugh.After all laughter is the best medicine.This book definitely has a diverse group of one liners and quotwes from some of the best comedians ever.Great read and lots of worthwhile wit.Definitely a treasure chest."},{"Title":"Life in Nelson's Navy","review":"This book provides an invaluable resource for readers of any 18th century naval series. It clearly explains Naval life from the aspects of all involved. The book is well illustrated with consice, and really usefull diagrams, and is filled with sketches of artefacts from the period it describes. A detailed Bibliography and index make this book a rival to Patrick O'Brian's similar book. Although I have not read any of the Ramage series, and have read the entire Aubrey/Maturin saga I prefer this to the other author's work. For an account of what life was like in Nelson's Navy I would advise you that your money is better spent on this book than any other availiable on the market currently."},{"Title":"Life in Nelson's Navy","review":"Mr. Pope (greatly missed) does a superb job of detailing the activities, traditions, command structure, punishments, battles and nautical slang. This book is filled with informative information for anyone with an interest in the Age of Sail, the battles, the famous ships and commanders. If anybody reads the Kent, O'Brien, Pope or Forrester novels, this book will assist in rounding out the overall picture, a couple of sterling examples are the promotion system and how the ships were rated. Excellent and often humorous account."},{"Title":"The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek","review":"This is an excellent and well researched biography of Chiang Kai-Shek.It provides insights to a man who in many ways remains an enigma, but this book brings the reader to a much closer understandingof its subject and the politics and political culture that was and perhaps still exists in China.The Princelings of today seem to have learnt much from their Elders. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in trying to develop an understanding of Past and Future China."},{"Title":"The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek","review":"If you believe the Chicom stooges, Chiang Kai Shek deserves to be villified. Crozier balances both KMT and CCP sources to get a balanced look at the man who attempted to bring the Sun Yat Sen's democracy to fruition. Crozier traces Chiang's life from his boyhood in Chekiang to his death on Formosa. Chiang was vain, surrounded himself with corrupt yes-men, but he did care about China and would have united it had not his American allies sold him out. No matter what your assessment of the KMT, you cannot deny that given the results of the Cultural Revolution, that Chiang is the lesser of the two evils."},{"Title":"The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek","review":"A very good and in-depth look at one of the most contraversial men in Modern Chinese history.Chiang was a typical Chinese of the past generation.He was vicious, authoritarian, inflexible and narrow-minded. He had brought a lot of miseries and sufferings to China and the Chinese people. But I am inclined to believe that the Chinese people were partly to blame. Up until recently the ideas of democracy and equality never entered the China mind depite appreciation of Western ideas and philosophy. I understand that F.D. Roosevelt considered getting rid of him but the Chinese people could not have a leader replaced unless death or convulsive revolution took place.I do give him credit for letting his son run the country in his later years without interfering. The younger Chiang worked hard in economic development and made Taiwan one of the tigers of South East Asia.I would urge politicians of both China and Taiwan to read this book carefully so as to make China a true modern and democratic state."},{"Title":"The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek","review":"OK, China was seriously ill. Here is the prescription, Three People's Principles of Sun Yat-sen and supplement with General Tseng Kuo-fan's Letter to His Family. It is like the snake oil, cures all and no alternative. Three People's Principles was a two-semester course in Taiwan high school. It was the same weight as math, physics in college entrance examination. One core course in all the university is Political Theory of Sun Wen. I do not think the instructors knew what they were talking about. I believe that CKS and KMT just use Three People's Principles to demonstrate that they are the legitimate rulers of China. There are many ambitious people like Mao and Chiang in China. They are like the pests. I do not know whether CKS loved China but I do know he loved himself more than China. In Taiwan he placed \\"Lin-show\\" (supreme leader) ahead of nation in slogan. I do not think he understood democracy at all (even the US educated Mme. Chiang Kei-shek, as commented by Mrs. Roosevelt). A mystery is he never set feet on the soil of western Europe or United States (may be he must have 1,500 Blue Shirt agents to protect him). He initiated the New Life Movement to improve personal moral virtues, but he was a frequenter of brothel. It is like the Confucious said to be a leader you should tell the people what to do but not to tell them the reasons. Basically the purpose of the New Life Movement was to blame the Chinese for their failure but not because of his leadership.As it is mentioned in John Fairbank's book CKS enjoyed in reshuffling the power shares among party, military and civic government to solidify his control. Real secret of Chiang's power was his manipulation of rival groups. Besides that any of his subordinates overshadowed him will be suppressed. He dispatched the anti-Japanese resistance hero 19th Route Army to Fukien and hope they would destroy themself against the communist rebel. Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang was asked to fight communist and suffered a huge loss. That is why General Stilwell gave him the nickname of \\"Little rattlesnake\\". CKS's leadership is the mob or Mafia style. Assassination or \\"White Terror\\" is one of options to achieve something. He attempted to kill Wang Ching-wei by sending a police officer to Vietnam to carry out the assassination. His mob character was shown in his pursuit for his 15 year old 2nd (or 3rd) wife. He threatened to cut off his own finger if Jenny Chen did not accept him.(Jonathan Fenby book) This is more like the Japanese style mob. He said you should be punished as a communist if you did not report the authority the communist you knew. The student to be registered in the college must accompany an assurance certificate by someone who insures your loyalty to the government. Because of his mob mentality he distrusted the subordinates. Chiang desired to hold as many strings as possible in his own hands, so that his own position could not be threatened (comment by Stilwell).In order to demonstrate that CKS is Dr. Sun Yet-sen's legitimate successor CKS changed his name to simulate Dr. Sun's name. He even pursued Dr. Sun's young widow. What a guy! Chiang had the habit to alter the name of the cities, mountains, lakes and streets. Every city and town in Taiwan the major streets are named after him since 1945. The boulevard in front of the gorgeous Japanese built presidential mansion is named \\"Honorable Longevity\\". A beautiful lake in Kaohsiung was named \\"Giant Clam Lake\\" in Taiwanese, but because it sounds like \\"Huge Loss Lake\\" in Mandarin, he had a lakeshore resort there, so the name becomes \\"Clean Lake\\".Stalin and Roosevelt betrayed Chiang in Yalta Summit and the American failed to honor any of Roosevelt's Cairo commitment to Chiang Kai-shek. The San Francisco Treaty detached Taiwan from the Japanese Empire but left its future status undefined.There are three major weak points or mistakes of CKS. 1. He was lacking the exposure to the other culture or civilization. Shortage of the knowledge of the western philosophy. 2. Shanghai is China in his eyes. He disliked Canton, Peking. He has no real understanding of China in culture, economy, people and geography. He never unified China at all, it was just superficial. He ignored the majority, the farmers. As it is mentioned in Fairbank's book loss of revenue because of Japanese occupation of Shanghai created a tremendous financial burden on the Chungking government. 3. His reluctant to cooperate with Russia. Russia asked him to chose sides. Russia or America? (book by Jay Taylor) Russia abandoned him after 1941. His treaty with Russia to exchange Mongolia for Manchuria was a disaster and he would be sorry for not bringing Young Marshal Chang back to Manchuria.The success of Taiwan economy should not be credited to him. Without him Taiwan can do better. The elite Japanese educated Taiwanese were retaliated and suppressed. The surge influx of his armies, party agents and civil followers played the role as conquerors, they took the houses left by the Japanese. They took the positions of the school principles and teachers. Not to mention the government posts. Taiwanese has to feed the 2 million mainlanders despite 60% of the budget went to the military. CKS did not lose China, because he never own it."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This is good book to have if you are looking for work as a Virtual Assistant."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book has a lot of good information. However, the authors purport to be actual Virtual Assistants in business for themselves, and I was very disappointed to find so many typos in their book. I expected better from a couple of \\"pros.\\" I know for sure that if my work product was not better than theirs, I would be out of business. I'm sure Spellcheck is the culprit, but surely someone like these authors would either be able to edit their material manually or have someone on hand to help them with it."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I've read this and another of Diana's books and she is very thorough and knowledgeable in the administrative and entrepreneurship fields. Throughout reading the book, I felt very motivated and cannot wait to get started on my venture of starting my own VA business. Prior to reading this book, I was not confident I would have the ability to actually start my own business. However, that completely changed after reading and studying this book. Its a must have for anyone considering the VA business. Its also a must have for a resource after the fact. I can just picture myself keeping this book and the workbook on my office desk at all times once my business has started!Thank you, Diana and Kelly, for the wonderful motivational and thought provoking book!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book is an excellent source for any person interested in this field of work. Diana Ennen has covered just about ever aspect of the process of setting up a virtual assistant business as well as providing other avenues to obtain more information. The book is easy very organized and easy to follow. I definitely feel more confident about starting my own business after reading this book."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I found this helpful. It allowed me to really consider all the aspects of beginning a new VA business. I purchased 3 books - to be honest each of them covered some of the same ground but each of them also covered some new ground. Each helped a great deal."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"One of the original VA books on the net and STILL one of the best books I've read yet for information and guidance to help start up a Virtual Assistant business. These veteran VA authors definitely know their industry since they've been in the VA business for years themselves. Who better to learn from? Of all the Virtual Assistant books I reviewed over the last 5 years, I choose \\"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA\\" together with \\"Michelle Jamieson's, The Virtual Assistant's Guide to Marketing\\" book to include as supplements in my Virtual Assistant Startup System sold to VAs around the world. Diana and Kelly's book is a VA bible that everyone should have on their business book shelves and I recommend it to all the new virtual assistants I coach. I look forward to the next book in this series!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"As a contributing Virtual Assistant for the Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA., Diana has done an awesome job in putting this series together. She not only has put forth a outstanding book but has requested the latest information from world-renown VA's who have contributed to this work. I must say I am honored to share my experience and expertise with others who would benefit.I honestly wish I had this resource when I started my business 8 years ago. This book would have assisted me in assessing my skill set and finding exactly what I would have wanted to offer in my business.Personally, I have spent hundreds of dollars on resources that were not as comprehensive, clear and concise as the Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA.Specifically I found the other individual VA's trials and trimuphs to be poignant, wise, assistive as well as being presented in an easy going style for all to enjoy.I would highly recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone; but specifically those who are thinking of becoming a VA or are already an experienced VA. There is something to learn for everyone in this book."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Loved this product. Was informative and not to bad to read. Would recommend to anybody who is trying to work online."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"If you are thinking about start a Virtual Assistant business this is a must read for everyone. It has all the tools you will need and then tells you where to go to have help and follow up."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Great info for those wanting to venture into the world of becoming a Virtual Assistant. Very easy read and full of good information."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book covers so much and is so easy to read and understand. This is a great book for someone who is starting a business even if it is not the Virtual Assistant Home Business."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"There's nothing confusing about this book, or overwhelming as in the \\"Dummies\\" books (an oxymoron, huh?).This book is the best of two that I've read because it has more enthusiasm and a less lofty approach to the career, in my opinion. I plan to use this as my \\"tutorial\\" guide."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"These book is encouraging and easy to read. It makes you want to start work today!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"The book is OK, but very American oriented. Processes in Ireland to set up a business are very different. I expected it to be something 'harder' and more business practice oriented and less 'inspirational'."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Diana and Kelly's book on Virtual Assisting is one of leading books in the VA Industry. I purchased this book because it was so highly recommended by other VAs. If colleges were using it as their textbook it was a definite purchase for me. I found it to be a tremendous help in marketing, pricing, and just general \\"how to\\" tips. I couldn't put it down. Any VA serious about their business needs to have it in their reference library."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I wish I would have had this book when starting my own VA business. I have been a Virtual Assistant for 8 years and when I started there was not much in the way of VA Training. Diana Ennen & Kelly Poelker have put together a reference tool that I will refer to time and time again.Just the financial planning section is worth the price of the entire book!Virtual Assistance U and Red Deer College utilize the book for training future Virtual Assistants! That speaks volumes to me in regards to how valuable this book really is for anyone entering the Virtual Assistant industry.I would like to thank Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker for making my daily work life a little bit easier!Nancy A. Brownhttp://www.virtualgalfriday.com"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"While I consider myself a qualified VA, I found many interesting and helpful points in this book, to help boost my determination to gain more business in the coming year. It's all pulled together here, in one convenient place. CR"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I ordered Virtual Assistant-The Series and it arrived 2 days later!This book is very informative and has very important information to help get started and continue on as a Virtual Assistant. Any questions I had, were all answered in this book. The book is like a \\"workbook\\" with easy reading with larger type. I refer back to it all the time and it is kept right on my desk."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I work as a medical transcriptionist from home and had my own company for 5 years. A lot of the information in this book covered being self-employed, working from home, and marketing, but I'd already dealt with those issues. Although helpful as a starting point for a fledgling entrepreneur, it would have been more effective if these subjects had been discussed less extensively with referral to other excellent resources (i.e., \\"Guerilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business\\" by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin and \\"Fail-Proof your Business - Beat the Odds and Be Successful\\" by Paul E. Adams). No need to reinvent the wheel here, folks! I would have found this book more useful if there had been more information covering the idiosyncrasies of this specific career path. I realize that the phrase \\"virtual assistant\\" is nebulous, and there was good advice about how to firmly define your services and explain the pros and cons of utilizing a virtual service to a customer. There are some great links for researching the field and putting you in touch with seasoned professionals, though. In a virtual world, you'll find your lifeline is mentors and colleagues that are often nothing more than words on a screen. Overall, a good starting point, but not a book on which I'd open a business without more research into the field."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"A useful and inspiring book for those looking to commit to home work. Contains a lot of common sense but puts it in an order that helps you work through the process and succeed in the set up of a home business as a virtual assistant. Note that it refers a lot to the American market but this can be adapted to anywhere in the world."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"If you are even thinking about becoming a Virtual Assistant, espeically if you are planning to start a business venture on your own as one, this is a must have! Very Informative from A to Z and includes many valuable resources."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This was one of three books I purchased when I decided to start my business as a Virtual Assistant and I will have to say this book was wonderful! There is sooo much information, knowledge, and guidance packed into this book. I would not dare sell it for it is full of highlights and earmarks!!!! This book is more than worth the cost and has given me a lot of insight on how to get started with my business. The only thing I would caution is the information provided on Training. There is a section that mentions a certification program at Red Deer College (pg 23). After reading about the program I quickly went to the school's website to retrieve additional information. The curriculum was ideal for what I had been searching for so I made contact with the school, paid for the application, enrollment, and transcript fees, and waited for the course date. Two weeks before starting my first course I discovered I am considered a \\"foreign\\" student because the program is in Canada and therefore the cost of the courses literally tripled (courses fees went from $350 each to $1,000 each). Unfortunately, all of the fees I had paid are non-refundable but I think I am more disappointed I did not have the money to attend; the school's curriculum for its VA certification program looks better than any certification program I have come across so far! I highly recommend this book for any newcomer to the VA profession!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"It's a book designed for new Virtual Assistants to give them a headstart into their new business, but you will need other resources later on. If you need a clearly written beginner book, this is the one for you, but I would also recommend adding other resources to your VA collection.What is missing is the new Web 2.0 information any VA nowadays requires, such as social media marketing, ecommerce, blogs, etc."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I liked the book in its conception. It did in fact put a lot of things on my to do list that I may have otherwise not known to do. However, I would have liked a more HOW TO approach, for example...the very important part about business licenses, they gave a very brief summary of the different types of licenses, with absolutely no mention of where to get started in acquiring the licensing application, and forms. That part was very difficult for me and it would have been nice to be pointed in the right direction at least. Also, there was a lot of commradery marketing...I noticed that the \\"real\\" people testimonials that were giving real experiences and feedback, when I visited their sites, were not as open to assist and offer advise as proposed in the book...a lot of the sites were marketing pages for businesses with no way offered to contact the owners. That was a little discouraging.Overall, the book touches on very key points to consider in doing your virtual business but it is very general in mentioning those things...anyone who gets this book should be prepared to do a lot of internet research, and spend time at the library because all of the must know information is elsewhere."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Anyone who is interested in starting a Virtual Assistant business should read this book. It includes the all essentials you need to know to start and build a successful business.Cindy GreenwayGrowYourVABiz.com"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I have not finished reading this book, but I highly recommend it. It has a step-by-step approach that is very helpful."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I am fortunate enough that the local college a certificate in virtual assisting, and this is the textbook that was required (together with the workbook). So far I am liking the text because it gives very concise and concrete information. The comments from VAs are very good because it makes you feel like you are talking to them. As we go along the book, we complete the exercises in the workbook which really makes the text become alive."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I can't say enough about this book. Anytime I buy a book that I know Diana has had anything to do with, I know I will not be disappointed. As a VA who is just starting out, Diana's books have always provided me with all the information in one great resource. The book is easy to understand, without being overwhelming.I love the fact that in just about each section, she asks for the opinions of other VA's as far as what they went through with a certain situation. It is great to see the input they have to offer, which is also helpful when you are trying to make your own way in the business.Overall, I would definitely recommend Diana's book. Her book helps you to be well equipped to face the unknown challenges of the VA industry with confidence."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Information is too simple. I found this book to be useless to my somewhat established business. Buy a NOLO or book specific to what you need (marketing, finance, etc.) Give this one a miss."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I have read the VA Series from cover to cover and I love it! I am just starting my VA practice and I keep referring to this book over and over again. Some pages are already worn! I also have the workbook and it provides great practical exercises that go along with the book. I highly recommend this series."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker capture and provide you with all the information you need to be armed with to be a highly successful Virtual Assistant. The information they provide is based on their real life experiences, making this book a must have for anyone considering this field. If you only purchase one book to guide you or help you decide if being a VA is for you, this is it. Use this book as you decide to become a VA, as you set up yoru office, as you market your services, and as you run your buisness. Everything you need it right here in one easy to follow format."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Kelly and Dee have written an excellent resource manual for VAs. In an era where unsuccessful VAs decide to write or coach, it is refreshing to see a book written from the successful, seasoned VA's perspective. Virtual Assistance U has trained successful VAs globally since 2000. We have recommended and used this book since the first edition. They include ideas and wisdom from other successful VAs who have made it through several years. That is invaluable, since so many businesses fail during the first five years. The VA industry oftentimes includes isolation, so it's helpful to have a team of \\"virtual\\" gurus to learn from through their experiences, when you encounter challenges. I've been in this industry since 1980 and wish that I could have had their wisdom to learn from when starting up. Hands on experience is always more helpful than just an author who thinks it will work based on a writing and research only perspective, or experience of short unsuccessful duration."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I purchased this book in February 2006 and it is the one item that never leaves my desk. This is the best reference book for new or seasoned Virtual Assistants and I find myself referring to this book over and over. Not only does this book give vital information to opening your own VA business, but it gives an insight into the daily life of real VAs. I found this book to be a great inspiration and also plan on purchasing the new 'Virtual Assistant the Series Workbook'. Thank you Diana!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I found this book to be extremely helpful in the planning stage of my Virtual Assistant business. It gives you all the practical information you need to get started as well as other Virtual Assistant's input on their businesses. There are helpful examples for contracts, etc. also included as well as listings of organizations and other helpful resources."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This has been such a great book to get me started with my business and I think I could learn from it everytime I look in it. There is so much assistance in this book and I feel like I will have so much fun with becoming very successful. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and your expertise on such a wonderful career choice."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book is amazing; it addresses so many of the trials and tribulations a VA could face, and the various resources available to resolve the issues. Many VAs have gone through the adventures you are going through now starting and building a successful business, and they share their bits and bites about what does and does not work. You never feel as though you are alone in your own VA world. The industry is growing and your business will too with the assistance of \\"Virtual Assistant - The Series.\\" It's definitely worth the read."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"For someone to be a Virtual Assistant, I was very disappointed to find so many typos in this book. I found it hard to concentrate on the information because I was so distracted by the poor editing. :(N."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book is truly a great reference guide for new VA's!! It covers every phase of becoming a VA!!It's a must read!! Thank you Diana and Kelly for a great book!!Linda Cooper"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"A \\"must read\\" for anyone in the virtual assistant industry. This book offers proven facts and indepth information from highly respected authors who walk the walk and talk the talk.A great educational tool for VAs looking to improve their game or those just starting out in the wonderful world of virtual assistance.This book is very thorough, concise and was an easy read for me - one that I didn't want to put down. I look forward to reading future books in the series."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I have learned a lot from this book. I would recommend anyone who wants to work at home, and start their own business to purchase this book. This book has taught me how to start a marketing campaign, submit contracts, create my own website, etc. This is a must buy!!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This is a wonderful resource book for VAs starting out and any who are struggling to build a practice. Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker have put together a comprehensive volume that covers everything one needs to know. Easy to read and even easier to understand and put into practice."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Diana Ennen is the icon of the industry. When I started my business in 2003, Diana's book was the only one I bought. I have continued to use her resources and guidance in my business. If you are looking for an expert author to help guide you in establishing your business, this is the lady to read!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Very informative book. Has given a few great Ideas for me start as a Virtual Assistant.Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA (Virtual Assistant)"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I am almost embarrassed to say that I'm just getting around to reading this book. It's one of the most popular books for/by Virtual Assistants on the market today. I found a few things that apply to me now, but the book is written mainly for those that are just looking at getting started as a Virtual Assistant. Extraordinarily valuable for those that are thinking about starting a practice or are just taking those first few steps. A must read for that group. Well done, Ms. Ennen and Poelker!Just a little side note: It's very large. It had large type (which is great for my old eyes), but hard on the hands. I hope they release the next version in a trade size or paperback size."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book is okay. I am coming from an engineering background into the realm of virtual assistance, so much of the book to be \\"yes, I know that, let's get onto something new already.\\" I imagine if I had been coming from more of a straight admin position that I would consider the book to be excellent. The authors pull together just about everything you need to know to start you own virtual assistant business. They talk about business plans, training, web sites, skills and services offered, and marketing."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"There is a lot of general business information in this book that you can find in just about any business-related, how-to book. You'll find the typical marketing advice, typical Web site advice, and typical advice on writing a buisness plan.The virtual-assistant Web sites listed in the \\"You're Not Alone!\\" section are mostly outdated, although I realize the author has no control over that.There is some useful information in the book, such as the sample marketing letter and the sections on choosing services and setting fees. There also is some useful advice from other virtual assistants. However, I'm not sure those things make the book worth its cost. It may be worth the cost for someone who is totally unfamiliar with business practices.Frankly, if you're interested in offering writing services through your virtual-assistant business, I would recommend reading the book titled \\"The Wealthy Writer\\" by Michael Meanwell."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"When I designed a college course of Virtual Assistant training almost 4 years ago, I looked at many books that were available at the time in consideration for selecting a text for my new course. I chose \\"Virtual Assistant - The Series\\" by Kelly Poelker & Diana Ennen for several important reasons. First of all, the contents covered topics often overlooked by other books, such as deciding if you are right for this sort of self-employment, creating a disaster plan to avoid interrupted services, and juggling the demands of home life and career under the same roof. Another import reason for selecting this text for my classes is that there is an accompanying workbook available where the student answers questions and records their thoughts and notes about the content of each chapter. This approach is very useful in validating what was learned in each chapter. Each chapter in the book contains a section called \\"In their own words\\" where leading virtual assistants make comments from their own experience. This is like having a team of professionals at your side offering suggestions as you proceed through the course!My final decision for choosing this book for my classes was based on Internet research which produced some glowing accolades about both authors of the book, proving to me that this book contained useful and relevant information derived from the personal successful experience of the authors.Since then, I have taught the Virtual Assistant course many times, both lecture and online, for two different college districts in the San Diego area, and have found that the layout of the chapters and the length of the book is ideal for a 16-18 week college semester. I just added my own lecture notes and provided some hands-on exercises based on the reading, and the students have been quite happy and successful, and many are now working as a virtual assistant after reading this book and completing the course. I will recommend this book without hesitation to any college or business school desiring to offer such a course, or to those of you who choose to purchase the book and learn the virtual assistant business on your own."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA should be considered the Must Have handbook for anyone considering a career as a Virtual Assistant.Diana Ennen, with 20+ years in business and Virtual Assistant experience and Kelly Poelker, Master Virtual Assistant have created an informative manual that covers everything from choosing your business and domain names, creating a business and marketing plan, to designing your website, advertising and promotion of your new VA business.Offering tips and articles from other industry experts including Liz Foldger, Janice Byer, Michelle Dunn and many more, Virtual Assistant - The Series leaves no stone unturned. This professionally written handbook is easy to read yet in-depth. Much of the information covered could easily be adapted for any home business start up.Resources including information on target markets, specialized VA services, business accounting and daily operational procedures provide readers with extensive information. The final chapter includes checklists, sample forms, sample contracts and links to numerous other Virtual Assistant resources.Throughout Virtual Assistant - The Series, you'll hear from many virtual assistants offering information about their business, which areas they specialize in, the training they've received, business rates, the mistakes they made and their accomplishments - all \\"In Their Own Words\\".I strongly encourage anyone considering the VA profession to grab a copy of Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA today. You won't be disappointed!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I'm just getting started as a virtual assistant and the information in this handbook has helped me set up my company and plan for the future. The information in the chapters is very well-organized and provides comments from actual virtual assistants in addition to the authors, so the reader gets several points of view."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I just had to write and say that I love this book! I already own a home business, and I actually figured this guide might help me find resources for locating a VA, since it's known as \\"the\\" resource for virtual assistants. And wow, not only did I get a ton of great resources, but I learned so much that I could apply to my own business. (Loved the coaching tips!)Virtual Assistant, The Series is simply chock full of everything you would ever want to know about starting a virtual assistant business - learning the skills, contracts and forms needed, the day by day expectations of a VA, plenty of niche services to explore, resources on starting a VA site, even collection tips. It also has a great list of resources that can help those of us looking for a VA find someone great.If you want to start a VA business (or any service business for that matter) or want to add those services to your current business, you are definitely going to want this guide!"},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"This book gave me the motivation I needed to get my business started. Just about everything you need to know in an easy to read format that I couldn't put down. The fact that I found several typos gave me even more confidence - knowing that the writers aren't perfect, but are still very successful and proving that I have excellent proofing skills! I would recommend to anyone thinking about a virtual business."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I really thought this book was great for starting the virtual assistant business. The only thing that I didn't like was it talked alot about getting certified as a VA which costs alot of money and for someone just starting out without a lot of money they can not afford to do that. Other than that I really found the book informative."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I have been stalking the Virtual Assistant profession for about 8 years now....back when information was really really scarce. Over the years, I've collected information here and there and always said as soon as I get my business established I would compile a book so that others interested in the VA field wouldn't have to dig the way I had to. Well, Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker beat me to the punch. And they really nailed it. Everything is covered here. As an added touch there's commentary from other VAs that provide hints and tips on their breakthru into the industry. If you are considering the profession, please do yourself a favor and pick this book up ASAP."},{"Title":"Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA","review":"I am a self-confessed small business book junky who recently decided to launch a VA business.The book itself has a nice heft and large format, though the content itself had a distinctly \\"off the laser printer\\" look that seemed homemade.I would have liked to see the authors dig a bit deeper into helping the reader find a sense of direction and reality as they enter this business. Some of the contributions made by working VAs were helpful, though I don't think there should be so many of them. Space would be better used on practical information.Good appendix!Donna"},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"If you have bought a Loeb Classic before you already know that they are well manufactured books that are meant to last. In addition, the major feature of the series is that the original text appears in the original language on one page, across from the translation on the facing page - with a few exceptions.****Exception example: with the works of the poet Catullus you will find all the steamy good parts are in Latin on both pages.Another feature of the series is that the translators are generally top notch.That said, let's talk about Julius' tome. Extremely fun to read and in general of significant importance not only as it pertains to Rome - it's politics, military agenda, etc. -- but in respect to understanding who was doing what in the provinces.As a fan of barbarians everywhere, but particular of those tall woad-blue fellows, I can say this work is critical, although there are assuredly some historians that would debate Caesar's accuracy.As to the translation, Prof. Edwards departs from the modern tradition (or they depart from him) by using third person, just as Caesar did. Most modern scholars have converted to first person, but this hardly matters unless you have a fear of formal, proper English. For this is precisely what you will find in this book. No modern cadences here.Besides a fine translation, inside this book there are maps and sketchings that include that wonderful bridge that was constructed over the Rhine, as well as the gallic wall construction, roman seige appliances and a very valuable campaign map.I don't know about you but I find the campaign map a God-send. And after reading more recent translations I have had to resort to my old Loeb because it takes me forever to figure out where the heck the Helvetii lived and where I left Uxellodunum. [Yes, it's in France but east or west of the Garonne river I am forever forgetting.]Five Stars. [A+]. Sturdy little book made to last. Opposing pages have Latin on one side and English on the other. Annotated and footnoted for scholars. Includes fold-out maps and diagrams. Excellent story for history buffs.For those practicing their Latin: Caesar's Latin is the some of the clearest and simplist of the classic style. In other words, not too much future or past pluperfect tenses and that sort of thing. Frequently quoted in Wheelock and other texts. Having the translation right there on the facing page is invaluable.Additional Information on what you will find:Table of 'Contents'IntroductionAnalysis of Books- (This entails a brief summary of Caesar's activities w/ dates. Under Book V, one would see (54 BC) and something like the following:1-23 Second expedition to BritainPreparation of a fleet - (2-8. Caesar composes the factions of the Treveri' Cingetorix and Indutiomarus - the intrigues of Dumnorix....Gallic War (the commentaries themselves)AppendicesA. The Roman ArmyB. BritainIndexesI. PersonsII. TribesIII. GeographyIV. SubjectsMaps and Plans--The Battle against the Helvetii--The Battle of the Aisne--The Battle of the Sambre--Bridge over the Rhine--Plan of Gergovia--Plan of Alesia--Siege Appliances--Gaul--Campaign MapEditors Note (1979)"},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Although there are many translations of Caesar's Gallic War, Loeb is unique in providing the reader with not only the translation, but the original Latin text on the accompanying page. Loeb also provides translations from some of the best scholars in classical studies. As for the text itself, it is a priceless insight into the life of one of the world's greatest statesmen and military leaders.Caesar's third person account covers his campaigns in Gaul, Germania, and Britannia (modern Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, and England) from 58-50 B.C. Most modern scholars agree that the works were probably dictated by Caesar and written down by one or more of his subordinates. It is important to understand that Caesar's Commentaries were rhetorical and had a political agenda. Caesar often dictated the development of his campaigns to be dispatched to Rome so that it could be propagated by his political supporters. This was done because Caesar's extraordinary command in Gaul was always subject to being terminated by his opponents, whereby he could face criminal prosecution upon his return. By the public circulation of these propagandist bulletins, Caesar sought to obtain support in the Senate or in the Forum with the people to both avoid Rome's political pitfalls and subjugate Gaul at the same time while getting filthy rich in the process.Caesar is extremely detailed as to his tactics and strategies. He presents his information in a brief and concise way without sophistry. Caesar provides his rationale for his strategies and his evaluation of the enemy's potential. Caesar gives a detailed account of movements, sieges, river crossings, and his mastery of logistics. His best account is probably his final struggle with Vercingetorix, the fierce and charismatic Gallic chieftan who rallied all of the tribes in one final struggle against Rome and surrendered at the siege of Alesia. Ceasar clearly shows admiration for his fierce opponent and how he honorably surrendered himself at Alesia in 50 B.C. to save his followers from imminent starvation: Caesar had him garotted soon after returning in Triumph. The Commentaries also recite his unfulfilled victory/miserable defeat in conquering Britain. Caesar's commentaries are also extremely valuable in understanding the Gauls or Celts in general. As time passed after Caesar's conquest, the Gauls and most Celtic cultures became completely assimilated into Roman civilization and left little of their heritage behind. Unfortunately, Celtic culture had no written tradition and much of their culture is understood through the works of their Roman invaders or through Greek writers such as Polybius. Indirect information about Celtic culture is also obtained from studying its surviving offspring in Wales and Ireland. Thus, Caesar's writing offers a unique insight into Celtic culture, politics, and religion of druidism. As a matter of fact, Caesar probably sped up the extinction of Celtic culture by systematically persecuting the druidic sects who were the Celts' spiritual force and keepers of knowledge. A similar strategy was effectively carried out by the Spanish conquistadores in the Americas 1500 years later, thereby eliminating all essential traces of indigenous identity and solidarity. His commentaries do have some exaggerations as to troop numbers and fabled stories of the still unknown Germanic tribes; in those cases much of what he recites are rather fanciful accounts similar to those of 15th century European navigators.As an author, Caesar is one of only three statesmen/authors from the late Roman Republic whose works have survived (Sallustius and Cicero being the others.) Along with his Civil War commentaries, his work is a priceless look into the politics, culture, warfare, and personalities of that period. Few, if any, political or militray leaders in history have had an impact on humanity as great and far reaching as Caesar. His conquests and statesmanship still resonate today in both our political and social institutions. It is a work that everyone should read at least once in their life to better understand the world they live in today."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Just imagine that in this book you can read the account of the Gallic wars told by the hero of them. Yes, an egocentric and arrogant hero, but who among us feels able to accomplish what he did? This book is an example of rigorous writing, of military genius, of courage and will. First, Caesar quenches the revolt of the Helvetians (in today's Switzerland). Then, the German Ariovistus invades Gaul and is defeated by Caesar. Next year, Caesar defeats the Belgians. The third year, Caesar goes to sea to fight a maritime battle against the Vanesians, and then pacifies Aquitaine, in today's Northern France. In the winter, he crosses the Rhin and defeats the Suavians. And then he accomplishes a prowess: he crosses the English Channel to fight the Britons. Hey, a Roman conquering England? That is adventure.But not everything goes smoothly for the Roman armies. In an ambush, the Gaul Ambiorix (is that where Asterix comes from?) devastates the armies of the Romans Sabinus and Triturius. This sparks a revolt by other Gaulians, who set siege to the Roman general's Quintus Cicero's fortress. But Caesar comes to the rescue and they win. Other battles ensue, but the last campaign is the most famous: Vercingetorix, a Gaulian leader, revolts and manages to put the Romans in great trouble, since his revolt has plenty of followers all over Gaul. After defeating Vercingetorix, Caesar has to placate all the Gaul, in a series of hard battles. Seeminlgy not tired after eight years in Western Europe, Caesar then returns to Italy and starts the Civil War.The greatness of this book is that it takes you by the hand to some of the most important battles in History. Yes, they are far from us, but they shaped the Roman Empire and thus, our very own civilization. There is no substitute for the story being told by the main protagonist, strategist and conductor of it. It is many things: a crucial History book, good literature, and exciting adventure. What else can a reader ask for?"},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Julius Caesar's dramatic commentary on the Gallic campaigns is an extremely riveting account of a man whose brilliance has yet to be eclipsed by any other political or military leader. As a work of military history, Ceasars campaign style combines exciting strategic and tactical views that led him and his legions to excel in pivotal battles against armies 2 and 3 times thier size. In addition, Ceaser shows his diplomatic knack, with detailed descriptions of his negotiations with the Gallic leaders. A read which is well worth it, in either the original Latin or as a translation."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"This book is fullof not only wonderful Roman history but also an interesting point of view on the way war was conducted in this period. I have been amazed at Caesar's candor and willingness to be fair to enemy stratagey and to admit his own mistakes.The third person narrative style makes it easier to swallow as genuine and not just Julius Caesar bragging."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Edwards' translation of Caesar's 'de Bello Gallico' may not be the best, but all the same, this edition heartily deserves 5 stars. While I never found anything in his translation that I really disagreed with, it is not a typical Loeb hyper-literal translation. This is not a real issue for the initiated reader, as Caesar's Latin is not difficult to read. I can't blame Loeb for wanting a less-literal translation of Caesar, as the casual reader would quickly tire of the ablative absolutes and long sentences. Thus, it is decent. While not terribly literal, it is correct and readable.The appendices are where this edition really shines. It includes a number of useful battle and campaign maps, as well as a brief essay on the bridge over the Rhine and a number of drawings of siege works.The Penguin edition may a more literal translation, but this has the Latin text and a great set of appendices. This edition should remain the standard text for 'de Bello Gallico' for years to come."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"This review concerns the Kessinger Publishing's \\"Legacy Reprints\\" edition:Caesar: The Gallic WarThis edition is a reproduction (photocopy) of the Heinemann/Putnam 1919 edition. As such, it is very difficult to read (every page is a poor-quality photo reproduction with black text on a gray background - very low contrast, difficult to read for long).There are no maps included in this edition."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"I'm a history major and find Greek & Roman civilization fascinating. You may wonder why I only gave Caesar's book 4 stars. Well, for someone who specializes in this field, "The Gallic War" is probably about as good a source material as you're going to get. However, for the casual fan of ancient history, "The Gallic War" can get a little bland at times. Yes, Caesar is a brilliant writer, but there's almost no humor or self-depreciation in this book. The mood of the text is: Caesar knows everything, and don't forget that. It's a dry, straightforward account of Roman aggression on the people of Gaul, told from the Roman point of view, naturally."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Caesar's writing is clear, cogent and concise. He paints a complete picture of the time, the place, the culture and the behavior of Romans and Gauls at the time of the Gallic wars. It is a harsh and cruel world he describes. Reading it makes you realize that Caesar was a brilliant strategist, tactician, psychologist, and politician. He was genuinely courageous, and in battle he led from the front, a tactic that motivates his legionnaires like nothing else can.All in all, Caesar's The Gallic War is a remarkable document."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"If you're looking at this book, de bello gallico or The Gallic War in its sturdy Loeb classical version then you are probably already familiar with the work. You'll know that in any Loeb edition you get duel languages - the original and a transliteration that places accuracy before readability. (A more readable version might be the Penguin Classics edition) The B.G. itself is an excellent example of very well written Latin and the subject is certainly interesting. There are even nice fold out maps and diagrams to really complete Caesar's immodest rendition of events.You get all that, and I have no doubt about the fact that you'll enjoy it, if you get the right version. I've been looking at the comments and reviews here and it seems that there are people who receive reproductions of the 1900 version and some who have downloaded ebooks and been unsatisfied by those. To my knowledge the Loeb's will always be hardcover, not paperback and although I haven't checked I haven't heard anything about Loeb producing any ebook versions. I wouldn't mind at all if they did though.So there you have it. It's an excellent version of the work, just make sure you get the right one."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"In this book you will find poor photocopies of the original translation. No maps are included despite being advertised. At no point is it clearly stated that the book is a poor photocopy of the original printing. It has been nearly a hundred years since the original printing of this translation. It is pathetic to have just paid so much for such a poorly copied issue. If, for some reason, you have a mind not to pay a luxurious price for sloppy and effortless work then be warned. This edition is very poorly made."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"A great book, but I am totally surprised that Caesar, with all his education and first-hand knowledge of Gaul, makes no mention of Le Petit Village Galois and Asterix. That is the only flaw I could think of. Translation...yes, it is stylistically nowhere the original, but helps poor slobs like me with a second-rate knowledge of Latin to understand the passages I could not otherwise, so it is basically serviceable, if used only for this purpose"},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"The Gallic War by Julius Caesar. Published by MobileReference (mobi).Caesar's first-hand account of his campaigns is very sincere and to the point, yet strikingly authoritative and deep at the same time. Not a hint of arrogance or prejudice is found in his narrative as well. His prose is eloquent, and certainly rivals some of the greater Latin authors of his age. If there were anything Caesar was as skillful at other than the arts of war, it would have to be his ability as an author."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"I bought this expecting it was the LOEB in mobi form, but it was a completely different translation with no Latin. If you just want a translation this one will work, but there is no Latin text."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"The version that was sent to me reads \\"recensuit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit Renatus Du Pontet,\\" along with \\"first published 1900\\" and \\"Scribebabm Ventae Belgarum mense Iulio A.S. MDCCCC.\\" Du Pontet's edition may well be the authoritative edition, I really don't know, but the descriptions on the Amazon page say things like \\"1968,\\" and the reviews among which mine will be placed clearly do not all describe the same thing. Some chap got the 1914 edition of Holmes (magnificent work, that, but again, not what the product description indicates) and another person is clearly describing the Loeb in their review.The text that I have received is a digital reproduction of the Du Pontet OCT published in 1900, reprinted now in 2009. The cover is shiny plastic, not the usual OCT cloth binding with paper dust jacket, but that's not a major problem for me. I'm hoping that the reprint is on acid free paper, but I have no way of telling - it certainly doesn't say so anywhere. The inside top of the cover page contains this notice: \\"This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability.\\" So let the buyer beware, 1968 was certainly not the date of Caesar's campaign, or his publication, or the re-edition by Du Pontet, nor even of the reprint now being sold on this Amazon page. And DO NOT BUY THE KINDLE VERSION FOR $0.95, that absolutely must be a reproduction of one of the many Gallic War commentaries floating around out of copyright and on GoogleBooks.Edit: much to my chagrin, there is already a GoogleBooks version of the 1900 edition that was sold to me (for the princely sum of $30). You can download it for nothing and save it as a .pdf to read at your leisure. So very disappointed with myself."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"Ceasar apparently wrote this little gem for the same reason that a modern politician makes a speech, basically for his own publicity and fame. If you know that, and know about how the romans fought, this is a cool book to check out."},{"Title":"Caesar, the Gallic War","review":"First and foremost, if you are about to write a commentary of a book... you should at least know what century it actually did occur in. Ceasar did not make it to the First Century, he fell 44 years too short. BTW... puntuation with Latin is always sketchy because word order in Latin is not crucial. I gave the book Four stars because translations, no matter how excellent (with few exceptions, e.g. Robert Graves), would be worth Five Stars."},{"Title":"Maple Leaf Rag Sheet Music","review":"In my opinion, buying this version of this sheet music was a waste of time and money. When I tried to open it with Kindle, I found that the font size was extremely small and pixelated, making it very hard to read. Aside from this, you cannot zoom to see the text or notes any closer. Granted, it's a fairly cheap version of the sheet music for this song, but I still don't think its worth the price if you want to use it to read the text of the song or even play it on any sort of instrument. I would look for a higher quality version of this piece or one that at least shows you a sample of the actual sheet music."},{"Title":"Maple Leaf Rag Sheet Music","review":"I couldn't believe the first, second and third movement are included in this download! I can now, thanks to my husbands Kindle dx, have my sheet music with me no matter where I am :) It is the original version. It would be a tad to small to learn it off of the kindle (and doesn't allow you to change the size of the script- bummer!) but, if you already can play the piece and just need to occasionally look up and be reminded of where you are, it's all good!"},{"Title":"A Call For Justice","review":"It's kind of hard to classify this book. It's not a memoir -- though it does contain a lot of testimonies -- or a book about the Holocaust in Lithuania per se; rather, it's an aggressive piece of journalism in the style of Zola'sJ'accuse. Zeimantas calls on the United States and other countries to stop harboring Nazi war-criminals and extradite them to Europe for trial and punishment. In the book he provides the accused criminals' current names and addresses, as well as accounts of their crimes in great detail. In one case he even had the person's phone number. (Zeimantas called the man at home, but as soon as the man figured out he was talking to a Lithuanian journalist, he hung up.) I'd love to see what he would have done to these people if the internet and blogging had existed back when this book was written.Unfortunately, I Zeimantas's book did little if any good. Surely all the people he's talking about must be dead now. I looked up some of the names on the internet and found a lot of obituaries. One of them was deported to Germany in the 1990s, but I can't find out what happened to him after that. Several more were stripped of their American citizenship but not deported or otherwise molested.I wonder if a good part of the reason why the US didn't extradite these people is because that would have meant sending them to the Soviet Union, and this was during the cold war when the US and the USSR were at each other's throats. Perhaps American officials didn't trust Soviet justice, or just didn't want to give them the satisfaction. In any case \\"political reasons\\" is a lousy excuse, especially for these monsters.I think I could only recommend this book to people who are REALLY interested in the Holocaust in Lithuania. I was intrigued enough by it to find the author's Facebook page and send him a message (I hope he can read English), but most people would not find much to interest them."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"Dr. Ponton writes an unusual book that gives voice to troubled teens and their families, using their engaging stories to teach about contemporary adolescence. As the reader eavesdrops on these lives through absorbing narrative, accounts of therapy, thoughtful reflection and application to relevant issues, and analyses of family interactions, important facts and facets of adolescent development and devlopmental issues are learned almost effortlessly. The book is engaging and at times exciting, as we come to know these teens and their struggles. The variety of teens and adolescent problems profiled is impressive--from the general need to explore and define the self (Jill) to gang involvement and aggression (Evan and Cecilia), from drugs and sexual activity to self-mutilation, depression and anorexia nervosa. Readers also learn about mental health services, and how therapy helps adolescents and families grow and change. This is a terrific book for parents, educators, any mental health field worker, or teens themselves! I used this book as a supplemental reader to a course I taught in adolescent development at a major university where I am a doctoral student in clinical psychology. Students loved it, and several bought copies as gifts for their parents or other family members. I will be using it again for a section of Adolescent Development I will be teaching in spring semester, 1999."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"Dr. Lynn Ponton has been treating adolescents for many years and through this book has attempted to chronicle the key lives and issues that have influenced her views of teenager psychology. Presenting a range of often likeable characters, Dr. Ponton does an excellent job of showing the intelligence and resilience of her patients while at the same time demonstrating how parents can feel angry and confused about how to parent their teen. The book illustrates all the main issues surrounding adolescents, eating disorders, drugs/alcohol, sex, and abuse, as well as analyzing the complexity of mother/son, mother/daughter, father/son, and father/daughter relationships.If I had to offer one criticism of this book, it would be that Dr. Ponton's language (particularly at the beginning of the book) tends to be extremely clinical and often presents a layer to wade through to find her point. Although we live in the era of the pseudo-psychological talk show, and some of the language will be familiar, parents and teens seeking answers to a problem may find this quality of the book off-putting. Conversely, I think this book would be of intense interest for other therapists who are interested in seeing various past and current adolescent theory put into practice by a skilled practioner. The stories of the teens and their families are compelling to all audiences, however, and I cautiously recommend this book to a large audience."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"This book was like a box of chocolates, so many great and spiffy stories to read and I didn't know which to choose. I advise anybody with free time and an intrest in teenagers or just an intrest in finding out about the meaning of adolesence to read this great book!"},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"The content of this book was so thought-provoking and informative about adolescence that I wanted to give it to my teenage daughter to read. The stories aout the teens are exciting, helping me understand my teenage years and my daughters'. This book should be read by every parent and teenager!"},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"I found this book to be very interesting and easy to read and recommend it to other parents. Dr. Ponton uses colorful examples from her work with teens to explain the motivations behind some of the dangerous and not so dangerous things our kids do. Moreover, she makes the important argument that teenage risk taking is a normal part of development in our culture. I felt like I was in better shape to relate to and understand my teenager after reading the book. Her other book on adolescent sexuality is also good."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"I loved this book- although a little technical, it provided a wealth of information about how parents and teens should intereact around the topic of risk taking. I have found it useful in talking to my own teenage daughters."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"It's really interesting. Read it before school started and got hooked on the stories that were told. It helped me redirect my mind of issues I was going through at the time. I would read it again prior to having my own children."},{"Title":"The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do","review":"The author weaves her creative skills of writing and her intellectual skills into the "Mona Lisa" of books. It pulls you in, in the first paragraph."},{"Title":"80251 Microcontroller, The","review":"A friend of mine lent this great book. I have plenty of experience with the 8051 and needed to learn about the 80251. Great tips and examples enabled a smooth transition from one processor to the other. It's very clearly written. I would recommend it to anyone. It could have some good examples in "C" though."},{"Title":"Industry Genius","review":"This book presents the inventive genius behind technological breakthroughs by ten global companies including Alcoa, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, ST Micro and Visteon. Readers will gain understanding and insight into how cutting-edge technology is helping protect the climate and/or the ozone layer, while contributing to the company's bottom line. Each chapter chronicles the challenge and triumph of invention, introduces the engineers and executives who overcome conventional wisdom, and demonstrates the contribution these companies are making to environmental protection. In full colour and crammed with graphics to illustrate the creative process of technological breakthroughs, the book is accessible and informative. The genius of these ten companies will inspire the engineer, the policy-maker, the student, the environmentalist, the CEO and the investor alike."This is great stuff. Extraordinary results when the genius of industry is turned loose on what to some may seem like an insoluble problem like protecting the Earth's climate. The ten featured companies are reducing energy and pollution with smart strategies and innovative technologies. They have chosen to be leaders, but think what they could accomplish if the politicians showed equal leadership and gave these companies and their competitors incentives to transform our economy from the biggest source of greenhouse gasses to the biggest source of climate solutions."- Jonathan Lash, President, the World Resources Institute"The genius of engineers has never been more important than it is today for inventing the technology needed to protect the global environment. Andersen and Zaelke give ten stirring examples of what committed companies are doing today to protect the climate system. Their profiles of the process of invention - geniuses at work - help us understand how much more this industry can and must do."- Alan S. Miller, author of Green Gold: Japan, Germany, the United States, and the Race for Environmental TechnologyThe Genius-Hunters contributing to this book are Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel (France), Yuichi Fujimoto and Tetsuo Nishide (Japan), Margaret Kerr (Canada), Helen Tope (Australia), and Stephen DeCanio, Caley Johnson, Hal Kane, Alan Miller, Roxanne Sher-Skelton, Sally Rand, Paul Tebo, Michael Totten, and Richard Truly (United States)."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"It's simply amazing how our minds can fool us into believing things that simply are not supported by facts.For longer than I care to admit, I was involved with Mormonism; this book is helping me see beyond the lens that occluded my views of life & others."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Dr. Fine provides an excellent description of some of the ways our brain can trick us or create illusions for us. Those working human error issues should read this book. Although the content of the book is excellent, the writing style and format provides a challenge for readers when the readers attempt to extract the key lessons from the text. (I have encouraged Dr. Fine to consider a different format for her next book.) Therefore, prepare to work through this text as if you were taking calculus physics: the lessons will not come easy."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"When I received this book, I was hoping the title represents content. I read the preface, only to learn that the author who was expecting an addition to the family had to rely on her spouse to divide the number of pages to be written into so many pages per week, etc. Somehow, this algorithmic discipline gave an impression that had it not been for this discipline, the author could not concentrate often or long enough to add to the manuscript.About content, I found out that much of the discussion and analysis was so flawed with subjective judgment or questionable analysis. Hardly anything prescribed or proscribed had much credance from a clinical, behavioral, or logical view. Explaining how the brain deceives you is the most challenging task in medicine or psychiatry. Yet, here is someone with hardly any experience or certification is trying to explain how or why the brain acts the way it does when one makes a questionable decision. Sorry, but I lasted less than 15 minutes reading through chapter one before I decided to return the book to the bookstore where it was purchased."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"It was a so-so book. Lots of interesting facts written in an almost chick-lit style. It was a bit like Becky Bloomwood writing a Steven Pinker review, but the jokes didn't work. \\"Shopaholic & Brain\\". You want the real thing? Go buy Steven Pinker, he can be smart too, but his humor is more elegant, his writing much better and you will learn tons more in a more objective way. Fine attempts to shock you, by showing how easily we can be fooled by our unconscious, is a like watching FOX news.You want to laugh? Go buy a Sophie Kinsella book, she is funny!The book could be a good introductory reading for people interested in neuroscience, but, nah, if you are really interested you better spend your money in a real author."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Cordelia Fine's \\"A Mind of its Own\\" reminds me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell's \\"Blink\\"--it is filled with surprising and counterintuitive observations about how the brain really works. Fine's thesis is that our brains do a fine job of deluding us--making us think that we are smart, attractive, above average, considerate, unbiased and blissfully free of the shortcomings and moral defects that plague other people. It's a good thing, too--as Fine points out in one striking paragraph, \\"there is a category of people who get unusually close to the truth about themselves and the world. . . . They are the clinically depressed.\\" Ignorance really is bliss!With a witty style, Fine reviews the psychological experiments that show that our moods and judgments can be dramatically influenced by external factors like beautiful weather or by what someone just said or did to us. Our brains make up lots of excuses after the fact to explain what we did and why, or to shift blame to others, all in an effort to make it seem that we are good people who are in control of our lives. We end up being bigoted, pigheaded, immoral and emotional, even when we think we are none of those things. On the whole, it's not a very flattering picture, although Fine does point to some encouraging studies suggesting that some of the brain's worst excesses (e.g., bigotry) can be curbed by careful attention to our thoughts--of course, in other contexts (such as trying to fall asleep), focusing on our thoughts can make things worse!This book is full of lots of \\"aha!\\" moments, but it's not a self-help guide. The message sometimes seems to be \\"you're not really in control here--try to enjoy the ride!\\"That said, I draw one very important conclusion from this entertaining book: avoid spending time with scientists who are conducting psychology experiments. These people are apparently always testing things other than what they pretend to be testing, and your brain will invariably come out of the experiment looking rather shoddy and ill-mannered. (\\"Not my brain!\\" you may protest, in which case you definitely need to read Chapter 1 of Fine's book.)"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"According to the story, in a survey taken several years ago, all incoming freshman at MIT were asked if they expected to graduate in the top half of their class. Ninety-seven percent responded that they did.And another piece of research in 1989 compared mathematical competence in students in eight different countries. Korean students ranked the highest in mathematical skills, while those in the United States had the lowest rating. Yet the American students had the highest overall opinion of their ability, while the Koreans who had the best results had the lowest opinion of how they had done.Most of us believe ourselves to be to be above average compared with most other people: better drivers, better at evaluating character, more ethical and capable. Indeed when people begin to feel that they are below average that alone can lead to a referral to a psychologist, for it may be a sign of depression or some other disorder.How is it that we are so good at insulating ourselves against reality? That is the core question that Cordelia Fine tries to answer in this, ahem, fine book.She details - perhaps, at times, over-details - a number of fascinating research studies into the very common problem of self-deception and self-distortion. This is a problem that stretches beyond the confines of academic psychology into psychotherapy, personal and spiritual development, relationships and even politics.She coins a nice term - our \\"Vain brain\\" - to capture the way in which we distort reality about ourselves and the ways in which the brain biases perception to favor the perceiver. It is a commonplace that when things are going well, we tend to attribute our success to our sterling qualities, while failures are more commonly a result of bad luck and trouble, the perfidy of others or that there were other \\"reasons\\" that staked the deck against us. Our brains have a remarkable ability to edit our memories and insights in such a way that it can constantly protect us from the truths that surround us.Cordelia also discusses the way in which the brain warps perceptions to match emotions. She discusses one of the most bizarre things that you will see in clinical practice: the so-called Cotard delusion in which people believe that they, or parts of their bodies, are dead. It most often occurs in psychotic depression in the elderly: the depression drives the thought that they are dead.One of the things that makes this book interesting is that Cordelia also proposes some ways of dealing with the problems of a self-deception driven by unconscious (? preconscious) processes: recognize and acknowledge your brain's scheming, and become aware of the ways in which your brain and mind play tricks upon you; develop greater self-awareness and work to see the world as it is. Though she does not explicitly say so, this is what spiritual teachers have recommended for millennia.She also mentions the way in which we can recruit our unconscious processes to fulfill unconscious aspirations. She does not go into very much detail about the \\"hows\\" of doing so, and that might be a good topic for her next book.This is a well-written, entertaining and engaging book that I recommend highly.Richard G. Petty, MD, author ofHealing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"In \\"Consciousness Explained\\", philosopher Daniel C. Dennett proposed a Multiple Drafts Model for human consciousness. The drafts were assemblages of information derived from however the brain stores memory information. The retrieval and use process was only partially outlined by Dennett and some have said he only \\"explained away\\" consciousness. Cornelia Fine has done some assemblage of her own, retrieving a wealth of cognitive science and behaviour studies to formulate some new ideas about how the human mind works. In a light, almost breezy style, she presents some fascinating insights. Whether \\"conscious\\" of it or not, her analysis validates Dennett's original premise. Ideas reside in the mind to be picked over and drawn upon when required. Who does the selecting?The brain, she says, is a powerful organ. So powerful that, as the title states, it has \\"a mind of its own\\". There are patterns in the brain which lie either hidden or dormant, emerging sometimes when prompted by events, or remaining obscure even while driving our behaviour. While she can't \\"place\\" these elements in the brain, they can be demonstrated through a variety of testing procedures or by examination of people suffering various forms of brain trauma. Her chapter titles depict the factors as \\"Vain Brain\\", \\"Deluded Brain\\", \\"Immoral Brain\\", \\"Bigoted Brain\\" and others. Each of these chapters describes how the brain manifests these conditions and, in some cases, where the trait originated. That many of these conditions can be formed in childhood and remain fixed in place even when countered by later information is little short of frightening. It's not quite confirmation of \\"the blank slate\\", but uncomfortably close. The brain, once matured, is amazingly resistant to later challenges.Fine correctly opens the book with \\"The Vain Brain\\", since it is ourselves that concern us most. Even though the human species evolved to live group-oriented lives, our brains are overwhelmingly concerned with the individual they inhabit. We form opinions about ourselves, which become firmly entrenched even when there is good reason to modify that ego-centrism. When we succeed in any social competition, it seems only \\"natural\\", but when we fail, we rationalise the defeat in many ways. This attitude is carried through in domestic relations, work environments or any other social circumstance. Nearly every social interaction arises from each of us \\"negotiating from a position of strength\\". Yet, in \\"The Weak-willed Brain\\", we learn that we also provide ourselves with any excuse for failing to carry through on our intentions. Goal-seeking requires massive amounts of mental resources to achieve success, and the brain, which already consumes a fifth of our body's resources just to tick over, is easily wearied.The author's sources in producing this book are many and varied. Brain injuries, whether externally caused or as the result of stroke or other lesion, have provided the basis for many insights on behaviour. Thankfully, she doesn't trot out poor old Phineas Gage again, as so many others have done. Other victims of brain trauma are presented, which some experienced readers will recognise from other sources. The main support for her classifications relies on numerous clinical or academic experiments. As she stresses often, many of these lie on or over the border of ethical limits. Participants have been shocked - electrically and emotionally - and results carefully tabulated. Fine is rightly concerned about the long-term effects on some volunteers, as were the more aware experimenters. Given what Fine reveals about the persistence of memory and its impact on \\"conscious\\" activity, her concern is well-founded. Yet, even those questionable experiments have demonstrated that much of what we believe is our personal expression of will is a false concept. We cannot dismiss the findings of such research because the data was achieved in a dodgy manner. As Fine explains, we mustn't assume we have full control of our own minds. The brain is \\"unscrupulous\\" and \\"unreliable\\" and we trust it at our peril. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]** with apologies to Steven Pinker"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"The funny thing is the thought itself. Self-delusion is a keystone of human cognition and Cordelia Fine has described our sad state with great humor. Even though I got much of this from my undergraduate psych classes, Fine is such a wit and pulls the material together in such an engaging manner that I just loved reading the book.I disagree with an earlier reviewer's suggestion that Kida's \\"Don't Believe Everything You Think\\" is a better book. I appreciated Kida's book a lot and it has a different goal for the reader. But as a writer I enjoyed Fine's delightful wit more. Both writers have something to offer towards a better understanding of human behavior."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This is an excellent book. It brings together a wealth of academic research into the way our brains work and, in particular, how we can't rely on them, and I found this fascinating and in the case of some chapters genuinely helpful and illuminating. What sets the book apart is the fact that this material is presented so clearly and readably - and it's often very funny - but that doesn't mean it's simplistic. The last reviewer said it was suitable for 12 year olds but the fact that it is easy to understand doesn't make it any less insightful.This book was strongly recommended to me by a friend and I'm very glad I have now read it. I in turn recommended it to a friend who is an eminent psychiatrist, and in fact he'd already read it and thought it was very good too. So it works for a top brain-doctor and for a complete layman like me. Exceptional."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"If you can't trust your own brain, who can you trust. We've all seen those drawings that fool your brain into thinking that this line is longer than that line or that these straight lines are curved. Those are just trivial, amateur things compared with the experiments described in this book.In fact, what's really striking to me on this particular day (election day) is how the professional politicians seemed to have studied the brain and how it works very well. (I just got my fourth phone call - 'I am _____ and I really hate receiving those automated phone calls, but I've just got to tell you ....) If she hates these calls so much, I agree, hang up on her machine, and am not going to vote for her.This book is aimed at the interested casual reader. But if you're in advertising, public relations, sales, or (God forbid) politics, I'd consider this book to be mandatory reading. And that's besides it being fun and interesting."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Cordelia Fine's book, A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives, showcases an aspect of the brain many scientists and researchers don't talk about: how your brain manipulates stimuli to your favor. Through the summations of hundreds of research studies, Fine portrays the brain as a manipulative force which protects us from the environment. Our brains, Fine concludes, are egotistic. We are always right, always attractive, and always considerate and never biased or with faults - even when faced with evidence of the contrary. I read this book for my undergraduate neuroscience course, and was overall satisfied with the information presented.Fine presents information through a series of analogies of research studies to her personal life, which may leave the reader, as it left me, disinterested. While informative, the style of writing and tone of the book edges of gossipy in nature, and does not represent the seriousness or complexity of the material it describes. The tone of the book therefore becomes too casual and distracting at times; this weighed heavily into my rating of this book. When Fine sticks to describing research studies, her tone may be helpful to those not versed in the field. Complex research studies are boiled down to their essence, describing only the important set up scenarios and final outcomes. Then, Fine curtly states what this means. This honestly, is likely good for most readers as many difficult subjects are explained sensibly and understandably. For those wishing a deeper understanding, namely WHY, not just \\"this happens as shown in this study\\", this book falls short.The book is broken down into 8 chapters, each similar in structure. Fine begins each chapter with a story relatable to the few housewives of the audience who might be reading this book; something about her kid, her husband, or her unborn kid, or some combination of the three. From there, Fine shows us how these everyday actions are the result of our brains. The tone ranges from informal to methodic and back to informal when Fine culminates each chapter with another maternal comment about her family. This is truly my only complaint with the book. The information presented in the rest of the book reads extremely easily, almost like a good research journal summary article. Most of the studies are relatable and easily understood.Fine provides a large amount of research studies on which she bases her conclusions (there are 20 pages worth of citations at the end of the book). These studies are used to explain 8 aspects of the distorting brain: vanity, emotions, immorality, delusions, steadfastness, guile, unconscious deception, and bigotry. However, many of Fine's best examples and arguments arise in the first section of this book with a simple scenario: everyone assumes were are the best driver on the road, despite the speeding tickets, bumps, dents, dings, scratches, and crashes that prove otherwise. This is our brain at work, Fine says, manipulating what we think as to protect ourselves. Coupled with our ego is our memory, and fine credits many studies that show the positive events are more accurately stored in memory than negative events. Thus, our brains get an extra ego boost each time something good happens yet we shun off (most) negative events. Fine notes that this goes against the obvious (and as we learn in later chapters, it is our brains that conclude what is obvious), and despite the strong evidence for it, our brains our steadfast in conviction against the obvious answer. It knows what's right, and its not budging.Also discussed are how subliminal messages affect our brain, which I found to be one of the most interesting sections. Fine notes experiments that show how culture affects which words come to mind when shown strings of letters. For example, the word POLI_E is completed as POLICE is America but as POLITE is Japan. The author suggests that our brains have been shaped by the environment and are now responding in ways to relate with others in the environment. Fine also noted another interesting subconscious experiment that showed participants responded they were thirsty when subconsciously shown pictures of coke cans flashed between frames of The Simpsons.In all, this book was very bipolar to me. At times, it was extremely engaging and interesting. I enjoyed the studies presented and the detail shown. On the other hand, there were times I could not stand to read anymore of Fine's casual writing style. I found any paragraph mentioning the words \\"my infant son\\" or \\"my husband\\" extremely dreary, which unfortunately was easily three pages of every chapter. However, if you wish to gain an introductory level understanding of basic neuroscience concepts presented in a nonchalant, casual manner, Fine's A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives is an excellent book. However, if you wish a deeper understanding, I would suggest another book."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"You think you know who you are and what you are doing, but really you don't. That's the message in Fine's book. In 8 chapters she shows us how our mind plays tricks on us: it distorts evidence, stereotypes, applies double standards, and will influence our beliefs and behavior in ways we don't have a clue about . All to make us feel better about ourselves and the world we live in. By the end of this book we will not look at ourselves the same way.Fine dishes up the disturbing product of decades of research in social psychology in a non-intellectual, humorous style. The book is basically a giant string of metaphors that make vivid how we are manipulated by our unconcsious. The unconscious is our lawyer, butler and our sergeant major It is vain, pigheaded and bigoted. It is even compared to someone matching socks. Fine typically constructs sentences like \\"Certainly we do not have razorsharp rationality to thank for quickly felling any tentatively sprouting seedlings of insanity\\".This metaphor-fest makes the book very accessible and often funny, and earns her stars. However, inevitably, it comes at the expense of precision. You will not find things that convince the firm skeptic: experiments explained in great detail, evaluation of the robustness of the claims or rigorous definition of the concepts.If you want hard science of the unconscious, you may be better off elsewhere (Timothy Wilson does a bit better in this respect). If you want an entertaining and disturbing account of how we deceive ourselves, read Fine."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"If you're interested in this topic and want to read an entertaining yet expert presentation of it go directly to Thomas Kida's new book, \\"Don't Believe Everything You Think\\" instead. Or, even better, Thomas Gilovich's \\"How What Know What Isn't So,\\" or, for a more technical than popular account, Scott Plous' book on judgment and decision-making. Fine's book is too talky, filled to the brim with tedious anecdotes, and lacking any reference to the real research that has gone into the results that she superficially presents. Ironic that she glosses over evidence and proof that are necessary for clear and critical thinking while at the same time attempting to describe the phenomena that often cloud our thinking rationally! Maybe this would be appropriate for 10-12 year-olds but certainly is far below the level of adults who'd like some real information on the subject."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This is a breezily and wittily written book on an important subject--the quirkiness of the brain and its functioning that often leads us to distort \\"reality\\" and deceive ourselves. It refers to a wide range of literature, such as that on cognitive \\"heuristics,\\" shortcuts that we use to make decisions--and many of which lead us to rather strange conclusions.One of these heuristics which Cordelia Fine mentions at some length is the so-called \\"fundamental attribution error.\\" Here, one explains one's defective decisions in terms of forces or circumstances outside ourselves; when others do the same thing, we attribute their behavior to motives or laziness or some other internal characteristic. In other words, we cut ourselves lots of slack. This error is mentioned over and over in the book, to good effect.She begins the book with a sly way of expressing her thesis (page 2): \\". . .the truth of the matter. . .is that your unscrupulous brain is entirely undeserving of your confidence. It has some shifty habits that leave the truth distorted and disguised.\\" This book might be considered in concert with Linden's recent book, \\"The Accidental Mind,\\" in which he argues that the brain, as a result of the evolutionary process, is not any example of excellent engineering. Fine's book plays with the same thesis in a different way.Some may be skeptical because of the writing style. However, whether she is describing Milgram's experiment or other research of which I am familiar, she does so in a way that reflects pretty accurately my understanding of those pieces of research. Hence, I appreciate the fact that she has made accessible to a broader audience important scientific research.One example of how we delude ourselves that she mentioned a couple times: those who support President Bush ignore the evidence that there were no WMDs and believe that the U.S. actually found them; those who oppose the President observe that there were no WMDs and the war was based on erroneous assumptions. Whatever your political views, the findings that she mentions clearly indicate that evidence isn't very relevant when one's emotions and feelings are at stake. We'll often distort \\"reality\\" to fit with what we want to believe. And our brain is a key part of such intriguing results.For those familiar with the brain and cognitive psychology and related fields, this won't tell you a whole lot that is new, but it sure is fun to read. For those who are not so well acquainted with the literature, this is a pleasant way of becoming more familiar with important work that is ongoing."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"An engaging examination of the common, everyday ways that we delude ourselves and the conscious and unconscious motivations behind these very common tinkerings with reality."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"In _A Mind of Its Own_, Cordelia Fine does a fine (sorry, it's hard to resist the obvious descriptor there) job in warning us why we can't believe everything we think. Although our minds are incredible, they are also at times incredulous. Each chapter provides convincing evidence (and amusing self <and husband> disclosures) exposing how--in the service of protecting our egos, core beliefs, and illusion that life really makes sense--our minds can be vain, emotional, immoral, deluded, pigheaded, secretive, weak-willed, bigoted, and vulnerable. (But, in line with the findings, we all think that these traits certainly do not apply to each of us as they do the general population!) Although most of the book exposes the dark side of the brain, Cordelia does sprinkle in some suggestions and techniques for taming some of of the mind's mind-blowing methods. Quite an entertaining, delightful, and mind-altering journey through our all-too-human ways of thinking!"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Everyone that reads this book will relate to it, on a very real level. You will find yourself thinking \\"How does she know all this about me?\\"Sometimes funny, sometimes a little scary, and definatly entertaining.Everyone that survives deppression should read this book and keep it very close for reference. I say 'survives' rather than suffer because suffering suggests that we, I, feel negative affects when really they are only socially negative. Read the first chapter of the book and you will understand exactly what I mean. For people who have friends who live with deppression, and have difficulty dealing with, understanding what is going on for them will get a great insight as to what is actually happening. Hopefully this will be enough to begin understanding, bridging the gaps.To quote a great quote, Tell me and I may forget, Show me and I may remember, Involve me and I will understand. This book will involve everyone!"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"The earlier reader reviews (of the paperback and hardcover editions) are quite accurate about the content and tone of this book. It is very lively and easy to read. Fine presents a thorough survey of the various devices that that the subconscious uses to keep us on an even keel in an unsettling world. But those devices are devious and deceptive, and reading about them is deeply unsettling for the picture it gives of how completely at the mercy of this deviousness we are. We end up feeling that nothing is at it seems, that nothing is quite what we believed it to be, not our thoughts, not our idea of ourselves. I have read many books, both fiction and nonfiction, over the years, but I cannot remember one that so materially changed my outlook on myself and on other people. Read it at the risk of your own peace of mind!"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"If you are at all interested in how the mind works and what is going on behind the scenes in the thought process, then this is a very good place to start. Ms. Fine takes you on an excursion into the various emotions and convictions that shape our lives in a digestible way that is informative yet not unduly clinical. Her style is friendly and smooth and does a nice job of piquing your curiosity to delve even deeper. If you are already a student of this field of interest, you may find the book a little too tame, but for the novice, you will be drawn in quickly with this book."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This book reads too much like a text or reference book to have been intended for the general public and its topic is not one that would make it a common sight on the New York Times best seller list. This would lead me to believe book is written with a more academic audience in mind. The book is written at a relatively moderate reading level with a slight preponderance on author discussion over study results. In addition, the author often uses a light tone and frequent humor when presenting topics which would lead me to believe that this book would be appropriate for senior level high school or first year college psychology students. The objective of the book is to get the reader to realize that while your brain is the only means through which we comprehend the world around us, that same brain distorts perceptions, distorts memories and distorts reasoning for its own selfish ends. Through understanding how the brain twists information to its own ends, and by very carefully consideration of what we believe we \\"know\\", we can come to a closer understanding of the reality happening around us.The book is broken down into nine chapters that each make arguments for the brain being vain, emotional, immoral, deluded, pigheaded, secretive, weak-willed and bigoted; the very things which high minded people try to convince themselves that they are not! Convincing someone that they are all the things they don't want o be is a difficult task but the author did a good job supporting her arguments. Going into each chapter I was convinced that author must be referring to other people, and yet by the end of each chapter I was saddened to admit that her arguments applied to me as well. The author's use or her personal experience with her children, interactions with her husband and examples of her own thought distortions made the book seem personable and enjoyable to read. The majority of the support for each of the author's arguments came from referencing studies. The author was fairly consistent in referencing four to eight studies per chapter while mixing in personal stories and examples of how the results apply to each of us in the world at large. Her selection of studies were appropriate to the topic and were often humorous in themselves, although I would not have liked to have been a subject in some of the studies done before ethics in psychology research became popular. One drawback of her attempt to keep the book at an introductory level was that most research sited was only analyzed in light of the topic for the particular book chapter she was writing at the time. Several of the studies seem to have application to topics covered in other chapters or to other ways the brain deceives, but the author chose to keep the lines of reasoning overly simplified by addressing only one or tow aspects of each study.Overall the author achieved her objectives of demonstrating that our version of reality is only a distorted image of what is actually occuring (of course it is possible that my brain distorted what the author was trying to say so as to make it easy and unthreatening for me to understand!). As stated before, at the end of each chapter I had to reluctantly (very reluctantly) concur that I fall prey to the same distortions the author was describing in each chapter. It seems this realization of how the brain distorts is one very small step towards being able to untangle my own thoughts, perceptions and memories in an attempt to perceive events as they are, rather then as I would like it to be.I would recommend this book for managers, leaders or teachers looking for light, entertaining reading on some of the secrets of how the mind perceives the world around us. I have even used some of the lessons from this book in the leadership development discussions that I hold at work to illustrate how leaders and followers color their perceptions of reality in such a way as to make themselves look good. Understanding how we and those around us distort reality can help us to work better together and become better leaders as well as better followers. The one area I would like to see the author improve upon is in discussing ways we can actively counter the brain's distortion mechanisms and how to apply these techniques in a variety of real world situations. At the end of each chapter I felt as though I was left hanging with new found knowledge but no guidance on when, where, or how to apply it. While I found this to be a bit disappointing, it does allow teachers as excellent opportunity to stimulate valuable group discussions."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Ever wondered about how other people can be so unaware of what their REAL motivations are. Wondered if you are equally clueless? This is the book for you."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"In the world of brain science and psychology, there seems to be opposing camps. When the subject is geared toward general audiences, it is said to be \\"pop\\" and without substance. When written with much scientific evidence, though, the text gets laden and not especially readable. Cordelia Fine is one of those rare talents who knows her subject and knows how to write. I found A Mind of Its Own to be a best-of-both-worlds page turner. Each topic was rounded out by vignettes which made some very conceptual ideas tangible. I laughed out loud a few times in seeing others' fallability. She illustrates that we are so enamoured with our own brain power that we overlook - or refuse to look at - the ways our brains trick us. The fact that she used snippets from her own life is a courageous offering. With someone so willing to show her own vulnerabilities -- and she studies this stuff for a living -- how can you not look at your own life and the ways you may be deluding yourself? Otherwise, it's a tough pill to swallow to accept that our brains are -- according to Fine's categorizations -- Vain, Emotional, Immoral, Deluded, Pigheaded, Secretive, Weak-Willed and Bigoted. My favorite take-away is the effect of schema priming -- that we all have pictures of life (whether tested as accurate or not) which color and influence perception and decision-making. While all of this may make you want to join another species, she holds out hope: \\"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.\\""},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"If you want to learn more about your own behavior and the behavior of others and why we do and say the things we do, this is by far one of the most engaging books on the brain. It was an easy read despite the many references to social and psychological experiments and studies. It explores such issues as vanity, prejudice, self-preservation, and self-evaluation, and does so in manageable chapters written in laymen terms.This is one of the best books on human thinking I have read. It enabled me to review my own thoughts and behaviors to see if I am controlling my brain, or if my brain is controlling me.One very practical thing that I got from this book, albeit a bit comical, is help with falling asleep. The book cited an experiment where people with chronic insomnia were told to lay in bed and think hard about staying awake. There is something about the brain called, I believe, the ironic process. It basically refers to something that if we think hard about, the opposite often comes true. This process protects us by keeping us alert to what should pass through the gate of conscious thinking and what should not. Bottom line: the subjects, and myself, fell asleep much faster than if we had lay in bed thinking about falling asleep.I appreciated this book and think it should be required reading."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"The writing style in this book is like a \\"stream of consciousness\\". The author uses several paragraphs to make a point that could be made in one or two sentences. The style may appeal to some readers but I found it very difficult and tedious. I read a lot of books, but after slogging through the first two chapters of this one I gave up!"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This is a wonderful book. The author has a magic formula for capturing and keeping the attention of her readers despite the sometimes heavy stuff she's unloading on them. She combines a delightful sense of humor, an often self-effacing personal candor, and a thorough knowledge of her field to create a lucid demonstration of what we know and think we know about our own minds.While most of the information has been presented in other earlier works, Dr. Fine does a splendid job of making our motives and behaviors much more transparent than many of them do--though my all time favorite is stillWhy Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition.I found some of the more sobering information a little depressing. While the author makes her discussion of these areas, many of them dealing with racism and sexism, upbeat, I can't help but feel that changing anything in a positive way will be a very up-hill proposition. The most hopeful of her observations is that while we may continue to be both unconscious racists or sexists, at least by arming ourselves with this knowledge, we can start to make changes in our behavior and in our society; fore warned is fore armed, as it's said.This probably is a very good starting point for anyone interested in the topic of mind and how it works. The author does not give a great amount of neurological or biochemical information on the underpinnings of the nervous system, as \\"Zebras\\" does, nor does she go extensively into the neuropathology that has given science so many insights into the workings of the human mind, as do Sachs,The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, or DomasoThe Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, so it shouldn't be a \\"scary\\" read for the uninitiated. It therefore makes a perfect book for \\"getting aquainted\\" with the subject and provides a fine set of end notes with bibliographic entries for further reading."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"An excellent, quality read. A small book, packed with research-based information about why our brains think the way they do! One of those books you pick up and can't put down until you finish the chapter, then the next chapter and the next. The author reports on a multitude of tricks our brains play and explains the research (behind the theories) in a witty and succinct way. The book is also interspersed with some light entertaining comments on life! Highly recommended to any student of brain & behaviour, psychology and the human condition!"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This book brings you up to date on how your brain is programmed to deceive you. Don't worry about having to wade through a lot of Freudian BS; it describes a lot of fascinating research, with each chapter dealing with a particular aspect of self delusion.When it came I was surprised to see the large font and small pages. It is not a massive tome by any means. But it is quite enjoyable and told with an engaging wit.I was on the verge of giving it 5 stars but it was just a little to thin to get that ranking. Still, go ahead and purchase this book. You'll enjoy."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"The information is interesting and the research seems sound, when you get to it. The writing style is much too casual and detracts from the subject matter. Ms. Fine's personal life is of no interest to me. I find pages of what appears to be not much more than journal entries in a book I purchased for research material.Thank-you,Diana Jacobs"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"An amazing book. Highly entertaining, yet grounded in science and research. Book really makes you think exactly how much control you have over judgmental topics. WELL WORTHT THE MONEY!THANKS, Maggie"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Read this book if you're brave enough to learn what is wrong with your mind. My mind is just fine. I'm glad I don't have any of the mental bias described in the book. A very fun and enjoyable read. You'll be glad you read it and maybe you can learn to get rid of some of your bias, but I doubt it."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"My own education was in the field of experimental psychology, and people are forever asking me \\"what do experimental psychologists do?\\" This is a totally fun psych book for those with no or limited exposure to the field of psychology. Ms Fine presents the reader with a large number of experiments that help us understand our individual and social personalities.The author discusses the infamous Milgram study of obedience to authority where a majority of volunteers gave other volunteers (actually experimenter confederates) what they thought were increasing amounts of electrical shock when the experimenter told them to. Inner moral virtue sometimes yields to external situations involving authority. My favorite study is the classic where a group of subjects have agreed to give a speech in another building. One group is told that if they leave now they will just get there on time. Another group was told they had plenty of time, and the third group was told they had to hurry as they will probably be late. On the way over to the next building each individual passed a man lying against a wall who seemed to be in considerable pain. Only 10% of the \\"late\\" group stopped to help. Only the \\"lots of time\\" group showed a stopping rate of over 50%. The kicker here is that these volunteers were students at Princeton Theological Seminary who had agreed to give a talk on the Good Samaritan. Do our inner values or attitudes always convert to behavior? Evidently not.There's lots of good stuff on how we frequently delude ourselves into thinking we are doing a lot better than we really are - after all if we didn't we'd probably get depressed. Ms Fine has an extremely interesting section on \\"priming\\" in regard to stereotypes and prejudice. In one experiment one group of men were shown a group of ads that presented women as sex objects while another group were shown ads with no women in them. Individuals in each group were then asked to interview a female job applicant. Those who had seen the sexist ads just prior to the interview sat closer to the applicant, flirted more, and asked sexually inappropriate questions. How easily we can be influenced to display bigoted behavior.This is definitely not one of those \\"new age\\" books that unfortunately tend to fill the Psychology section of most book stores. It is informative and entertaining, and will give you a good introduction to psychological research. I should point out that several of the older studies, like Milgram's, couldn't be undertaken today as current day experimental ethics rules won't allow them. Then, of course, there's the old joke that these studies tell us a lot about college sophomores (probably the biggest source of volunteers), but what about the rest of us?Ms Fine also slips in some anecdotes about her experiences with her husband. They are generally quite amusing, but I can't help but think that she is giving us a cry for help."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"A fascinating and ego bruising journey through our self-centered brains in which Cordelia Fine lays bare our \`true human nature' to protect our identity constructs and fantasy beliefs and our need to be \`right'. However, the reliance on college population studies undermines the validity of generalization to every brain. Different personal, cultural, and religious experiences of individuals, particularly in later stages of development would provide a wider range of responses and reactions than the her overreliance on the narrow college populations in her book.That said it is an important work that punctures the veil of an altruistic human nature and frames a much more complicated and ambiguous human nature that can only further our understanding of the \\"real\\" human brain."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"The subtitle of this book is \\"How your brain distorts and deceives\\".This is a readable and interesting book about the way our brains access and interpret information. The chapters are titled \\"The Vain Brain\\", \\"The Emotional Brain\\", \\"The Deluded Brain\\", \\"The Pigheaded Brain\\", and \\"The Bigoted Brain\\".The author gives lots of examples and explains the results of experiments to show how our brains work. In effect, our brains work the way they do to protect us, keep us healthy, make us more efficient and make us fully human. For example, in \\"The Emotional Brain\\", the author talks about how we often depersonalise a situation which is very traumatic; that is, we take the emotion out of it so we can survive the event. This is fine if we do it now and then. However, there are people who have a psychiatric condition called depersonalisation disorder who are always in the depersonalised state, and for them it is as though they are not alive at all.It is not a heavy book to read and there are plenty of funny anecdotes and passages. Still, there is a lot of information and new insights into how we tick.There is an abundance of footnotes and an index, which is a great idea because you will probably want to read and re-read the book (there is a lot to take in).The author, Cordelia Fine, has studied Experimental Psychology, has an M.Phil in Criminology and a Ph.D in Psychology. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"A MIND OF ITS OWN: HOW YOUR BRAIN DISTORTS AND DECEIVES explores the mind's deceptions, methods, defenses and processes - and provides a special focus on how the brain tends towards self-delusion. Our brain wraps our perceptions and incoming data, Dr. Fine maintains: as an experimental psychologist she holds the background and technical insights to link everyday brain functions with understanding of ways in which the brain can deceive.Diane C. DonovanCalifornia Bookwatch"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This is a reasonably short book but it packs a lot of entertainment and a lot of insight into its pages.The common theme is that your brain doesn't work the way you think it does. Cordelia Fine makes the case for this very strongly. With many interesting examples and case studies from psychology research we learn the many ways we deceive ourselves.This book shows just how far psychology has progressed in the last 30 years. There are many powerful insights into human behavior. This is not a self-help book, but with a little imagination you can easily apply these insights to everyday life.What I most liked about the book is that it actually convinced me that these things apply to me as well. So, for example, I am now aware that I am blind to my own faults and that I exaggerate those of others. I can take this into account and live more harmoniously with those around me.I have probably read 300 books in the last 5 years and this is the best. I can't recommend it highly enough."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"A MIND OF ITS OWN: HOW YOUR BRAIN DISTORTS AND DECEIVES explores the mind's deceptions, methods, defenses and processes - and provides a special focus on how the brain tends towards self-delusion. Our brain wraps our perceptions and incoming data, Dr. Fine maintains: as an experimental psychologist she holds the background and technical insights to link everyday brain functions with understanding of ways in which the brain can deceive.Diane C. DonovanCalifornia Bookwatch"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This slap-dash, casual and cheery style of non-fiction writing must be a generational thing. Cordelia Fine has a very similar \\"voice\\" to that of the delightful American historian, Sarah Vowell (born 1969). By using an informal tone, both writers make serious academic subjects easily accesible to the general public.It would be easy to blow this book off as being written by a light-weight, but that would be a serious mistake. Cordelia Fine, PhD (born in 1975) is an award-winning British psychologist currently working in Melbourne.\\"A Mind of Its Own\\" is both informative and funny. Packed with interesting information, backed up with scientific data and well-footnoted, the book can easily be read in a single evening.Kim BurdickStanton, DE"},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"I have long suspected that we were made of many layers of consciousness, and that our perceptions could not be trusted. This book verifies that and much more. I strongly reccomend that this book be manditory reading for anyone in law enforcement, judges or any person in a position of authority."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"I am not a scholar but am very curious about how a book like Games People Play by Eric Berne would be interpreted by these scholars specializing in self-deception and how these games people play are set up apparently by prescriptive statements to young children like, \\"you will die in the gutter like your alcoholic father.\\" or \\"you are a slut like your mother, etc.\\""},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"This book is a real jewel. Cordelia Fine does a thoroughly satisfying treatment of this complex subject in an easy-going manner that just plain makes sense--we do not think as much as we think we think. What we consider thinking is in fact a lot of preconceived concepts and prejudices that are designed to make us feel good about ourselves, over-value our efforts and opinions, and avoid the anxiety of life's biggest questions by creating fantasies.I love the part about how we believe in incredible things that would be qualified as insane if we just switch the characters:\\"It is a tricky task to differentiate between faith and insanity without becoming somewhat subjective about it. Mental health professionals are not much concerned by the devout Christian who has been fortunate enough to experience the presence of Jesus. But if the identity of that presence happens to be Elvis, rather than the son of God, eyebrows begin to be raised\\"This book is teeming with studies, facts and insights into the workings of the human mind and how the brain deceives itself. This is important information in world facing such daunting problems as ours."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"A Funny way of the showing how the brain works. Good book, I really enjoyed reading it! Wish I had to read it at the beginning of getting my degree."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Cordelia Fine's book is dangerous. It's dangerous to the vain, immoral, and bigoted brain. With surgical precision, the author reveals and peels away the layers of self-delusion that cloud our thinking. Philosophers and theologians have long speculated about the reliability of human reasoning. Contemporary ideologues, on the other hand, vociferously contend for the objectivity of their unique perspective. And so they must, for their very claims to authority rest on their premise of possessing some form of transcendent objective knowledge.Fine, however, goes far beyond speculation and pontification. As someone immersed in the science of psychology, she relies on copious clinical and behavioral studies that observe how people actually formulate their beliefs and self-perceptions. The results are not flattering. With clarity and humor, Fine lays out the evidence for the human ego's propensity to distort reality and project its prejudices on others. With understanding comes the prospect of change. The book offers strong motivation to be skeptical of one's own hasty insights, generalizations, and rationalizations. Ironically enough, thinking about what you think can offer some antidote to erroneous thoughts. The book spends minimal time addressing any such strategies against unreliable thinking. Fortunately, there's a wealth of good books over the past few years that do just that -- namely, offer clear insights and tools to help develop critical thinking.Don't Believe Everything You Think...is one such example.At times, certain sections of the book stray toward a tedious recitation of one clinical study after another. But overall, it accomplishes it goal of summarizing and synthesizing substantial research on the inner workings of human cognitive processes. In the end, reading this book could promote a greater level of self-critique, fairness, and humility regarding one's own beliefs and opinions...virtues which the world could always use more of."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"We humans are even more persuadable than we like to think. Cordielia Fine takes us on a breezy tour of some well-known psychological studies, and others that are less well known.We create flattering self-identities and then protect them in the face of evidence to the contrary. We are all delusional. We may like to think that we are logical actors, that we can be persuaded by reason, but when it comes to the test, (and there are many experimental tests) how we imagine ourselves to be, and how we act, are usually at odds.Ms. Fine shows how we are vain, emotional, immoral, deluded, pigheaded, secretive, weak-willed, and bigoted. Is this enough to get you to want to read it? These are the chapter titles. This is an intriguing look into how vulnerable we are to external stimulus and how our brains delude us.The only criticism I have, and it is a minor one, is that I would have preferred less about the author and her family."},{"Title":"A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives","review":"Sure, human reasoning is a very powerful tool. But -in (vain) human brains-certainly not a tool used in a crusade for truth.No, in vain brains, reasoning is there to save us from truth!?In vain human brains, reason is a lawyer (that works for you).Evidence that supports your case is quickyly accepted. Evidence that threatensreasons most important client (i.e. you), is subjected to gruelling cross-examination. Accuracy and plausibility all come under attack,and the case is soon won.A victory for justice and truth - Not really, as the only lawyerworking in the courtroom was working for you!So, the only people who actually come close to the truth about themselves,with a balanced balanced self perception, who assign responsibilityfor success and failure evenhanded - are the clinicallydepressed.Selfknowledge is indeed a dangerous thing! As Cordelia Fine brilliantlydemonstrates in this witty book about the vain human brain.-Simon"},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"Using a beautiful amalgam of line, space, and form, this 1952 Caldecott winner is truly worth of the award it won so long ago. In this simple story, two dogs (Nap and Winkle) dig up a bone together in the yard. The two find themselves unable to determine who the bone belongs to, however, due to the fact that Nap saw it first and Winkle touched it first. The dogs then proceed to ask a variety of different people (a farmer, a goat, an apprentice barber) who the bone belongs to. The people they ask, however, each have their own agendas and leave the dogs no wiser than before. It's only after the two ask a fellow dog that they come to a single conclusion about the bone's rightful owner.Ostensibly, this is a book about sharing. But I like to think the plot is a little more complex than that. Sure, sharing comes into it, but the story really seems to show how people are only interested sometimes in satisfying their own needs, rather than the needs of others. Even the big dog at the end is more partial to the bone for his own purposes than the purposes of Nap and Winkle. So what we have here is a deceptively simple plot wrapped in an easy to understand package. The plot alone is enough to keep it memorable for years to come, but then you get to the illustrations. Ladies and gentlemen, I need only direct you to the first title page spread show how adept and spectacular this book truly is. This picture displays all the characters in the book interacting in interesting ways. All well and good, but the impressive nature of the picture comes through when you realize they've all been drawn against a black background. Suddenly the illustrator is using negative space in creative new ways (as well as placing the colors you'll find in the book as outlines). This is really a remarkable story. Only the colors red, black, white, and yellow appear in the illustrations but their adept combinations make the book both a fascinating look at 1950s design as well as the perfect compliment to a great story. On the whole, I give this book two thumbs way way up. I can't promise you that the book hasn't grown a little dated over the years, but the kids who loved it back in the day will be equal in numbers to the kids who love it today."},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"Finders Keepers is a cute story about two dogs named Nap and Winkle who dig up a bone. They seem to have trouble deciding who gets to keep the bone since Nap saw it first yet Winkle touched it first. They come across a couple of people/animals and ask them who they think the bone belongs to. Each of them reply that they need their assistance in some type of task before they can answer who should keep the bone. After Nap and Winkle are generous enough to help them, in return they each state \\"Bone?, Who cares about a bone?\\" which leaves Nap and Winkle still undecided of who should keep the bone. At the end a bigger dog comes along and takes the bone from them. Nap and Winkle fight with the big dog until they get their bone back and decide to share the bone. As I was reading along I thought the pictures were neat. I enjoyed reading the part where they come across the barber apprentice and they let him cut their hair, they end up looking silly. Overall I find this book to be splendid for young children."},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"I read this book at a family book night. The children and parents enjoyed the story. It is a Caldecott winner so that was a part of the presentation as well."},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"What a great book!I bought it on a whim and am so glad I did.Teaches a good lesson about coming to an agreement and sharing and not worrying so much about how I can get what I want but how we can all get what we want.My 2 year old son loves it and sometimes just randomly blurts out \\"Bone? Who cares about a bone?\\""},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"This book is very cool. I would say that it is for children ages two to eleven. This book is about two dogs who are digging one day and dig up a bone. Well, they cant decide who should get the bone beacause they both dug it up at the same time. They go around town asking people who should get the bone but the peole are interested in other things. This book has great pictures that go with the story. Kids would love this book! This book teaches kids that they should share things because if they fight over it thay might end up losing what they were fighting for."},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"I don't get the other reviews of this book. I find this book less about sharing and more of a commentary on american society of self absorption and taking things by force. this is not what I want to teach my son"},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"Finders keepers is a weird book. The pictures are really weird. The story isn't bad but the ending is horrible. The two dogs are pretty cute until they get there hair cut. They basically go around the neighborhood looking for someone to solve there problem. They both found a bone and they need some help deciding whose it is. My favorite person they met was a barber who cuts there hair for them. They look real funny after that. I like how the dogs seem to be best friends.This is a good book for kids, there isn't much meaning but I think it's rather enjoyable. I think kids would like the weird pictures and there crazy adventures. They have funny names also \\"nap\\" and \\"Winkle.\\" It's a decent book I recommend it to everyone."},{"Title":"Finders Keepers","review":"Is there time to put it off another day? Two friends will experience the task of sharing a prized possession. The challenge will help us to plan our stragies for future events."},{"Title":"After the Fire: A Novel","review":"This is a great view into the life of a wildland firefighter. I commend Mr. Robinson for tackling the darkest side of the profession. Many other books have dealt with the romanticism of wildland fire but this book takes on the rough issues of survivor's guilt and the burden of leadership. As a veteran of many seasons of wildland fire I totally recommend this as authentic, original, and well written which is a compliment that I would rarely bestow to a book on this profession."},{"Title":"After the Fire: A Novel","review":"If you want to explore the humanity beneath the "American hero"--the moral complexity of decisions, the hopes, dreams, and disappointments--then this is the book for you. After the Fire's wealth of behind-the-scenes details place you right on the burning hillside with the firejumpers,while the haunted reflections of the protagonist connect to every person's struggle to make sense of loss. The simple wisdom that comes with an earned resolution will surprise you."},{"Title":"After the Fire: A Novel","review":"What a wonderful first book! I was hooked the moment I opened and read the first page. Robinson takes you inside Barnes life and keeps you there. You feel his sadness at losing his crew, you see the ghosts that haunt him, but more importantly, Robinson puts you in the middle of the fire that starts all of this. It was a book I couldn't put down."},{"Title":"My life in architecture,","review":"No product imageRalph Adams Cram's My Life in Architecture is a treasure for any serious architectural library. Any student or architecture buff should have it."},{"Title":"Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus (Vision Books)","review":"I believe Saint Ignatius of Loyola to be the most faithful servant of God. As a young Christian reader I love to read about saints. August Derleth sure has a way with words! Ignatius was truly a Saint. For me reading this book was like making a friend. I hope you have the same experience I did. "Make a friend"."},{"Title":"Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus (Vision Books)","review":"the story of saint Ignatius of Loyola is one that all Catholics and other Christians should read and have in their home library - very insightful and very good"},{"Title":"Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus (Vision Books)","review":"Great book. I roughy it was going to be hardfory kid to do a book report because all the ingo the book has. But it is written in a way that is easy for young teens to understand"},{"Title":"Political Parties A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy","review":"In the many arguments I've had over the merits of collective action, I have found few arguments as useful as Michels' "iron Law of Oligarchy", stating that even the most egalitarian orginizations wind up having their decisions made by a select few at the top. Morever, institutional reforms will not help, since this tendency is inherent to complex orginization. Surveying the intensification of power across a host of socialist parties and publications, Michels provides much empirical evidence. Too much, at times, as after about 200 pages of stories about leadership groups developing in socialist orginizations, the book starts to drag a little bit. It is all worth it, however, as the "iron law of oligarchy" is one of the most fascinating arguments you'll ever find in a book about politics. Seymour Martin Lipset's introductory comments provide interesting background info."},{"Title":"Political Parties A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy","review":"This is not a review of the text itself, but rather just of the production value of this edition. The production is AWFUL. It was clearly just scanned by someone and imported into Word and printed out. Chapter breaks aren't where they should be. Footnotes are just thrown into the text. One chapter just starts italicizing for no reason halfway through. The index is useless. The book is basically unreadable. I've never been so disappointed at spending $20 on a book. Buy a different version by a different publisher and save yourself the money."},{"Title":"Political Parties A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy","review":"Michels was a member of a socialist movement who wondered if one could ever have what today is called participatory democracy. The result is this wonderful book, in which Michels discovers the "Iron Law of Oligarchy", that even in the most egalatarian movements, elites will call most of the shots. Michels goes further than many elite theorists who simply claim that this has always been so: he claims that elite management is inherent to complex organizations. Whether you agree or disagree, you must read this man and debate his ideas!"},{"Title":"Political Parties A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy","review":"Got it as a gift for him. Intend on getting it for myself, as was highly regarded by Mencken. Quality of the book physically looked to be of a very high standard. If you're concerned about how something looks on your bookshelf for your library, this edition would compliment the finest."},{"Title":"Political Parties A Sociological Study of the Oligarchial Tendencies of Modern Democracy","review":"Ironically, this book is known for producing one of the fundamental theories of political science, Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy. But everybody seems to forget that the book itself focused more on Michel's to reconcile socialism with socialist parties. Michel uses his understanding of the self-interest of institutional leaders to express his skepticism that a democracy of the proletariat would ever arise. These parts of the book are interesting in that we get to see Michel engage in some soul-searching, but also probably involve more socialist ideology than modern readers would care for. However, for modern readers, the introduction by Lipset and Rokkan is probably all you need to understand the logic of the theory."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"If you are interested in learning how to compose music, this book is a must. It was written in 1725 and was used by Beethoven, Mozart, and Hayden. I figured that if it was good enough for them, it would be good enough for me.Just make sure that you know harmony and intervals before trying to read the book. Also, make sure that you know how to read music. If you don't know any of this, this book will be way beyond your understanding. If, however, you understand those concepts, this book is a deep treasure ready to be discovered."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I am only halfway through this historic masterpiece and my compositions have improved greatly. This is a fun study. I highly recommend this for beginning composers of any genre"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I am using this book to help me in writing music, along with Tchaikovsky's Guide to practical study of harmony I plan on teaching myself into a composer. It's going well so far and I've learned a lot. So I do recommend these two books along with Modulation by Max Reger, but that's only when you get really good."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is mostly valuable for its historical significance, but that is no mean thing, and it is worth your while working throughit--every composer and theorist should. The translator distributes his English version of Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" between this and "The Study of Fugue" so I recommend you pick up a copy of "The Study of Fugue" too.Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"The item I ordered has delivered quickly and it is almost new as they promised. I am satisfied."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"the student mastering counterpoint cannot go through without 'The study of Counterpoint' by Joseph Fuxray.sant"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is a great introduction to species counterpoint. It has been in use for many years and was studied by many great composers. It still engages the modern person today because it is concise, imaginative and teaches concepts in a digestible and easy to follow manner.The form of the book is a relationship between a teacher and student. The student is not the brightest bulb on the tree, but the teacher shows him concept by concept how counterpoint works. This story format is entertaining, but also serves as a way to anchor concepts.If you are looking for something that is a quick, easy read with lots of good content and historical interest, you will enjoy this. I feel it is a must have for any serious student of music."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is an indispensable work for anyone with a serious interest in musical composition. It lays out the entire foundation of tonal composition (i.e.: counterpoint) in a lucid, organized systematic manner.The serious student of musical composition should have this book, work through it not once but regularly. I re-read it constantly and work through all the exercises again once or twice a year.It should also be used in conjunction with "Structural Hearing Tonal Coherence in Music" by Felix Salzer (Schenker's protégé)."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"The book has a nice pace. It is not a fat book. Content is presented succinctly. The platonic-type dialog is as charming as it is civilized and effective. There is something inspirational about reading a treatise previously studied by people like Bach, Haydn, Mozart, etc. I would say that even the most anti-traditional composer-person might benefit from the straightforward analytic of it all, even if one's harmonic sensibility differs from those presented in this text. All in all, a book to check out, if counterpoint intrigues you."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This book is written in the form of an imaginary dialogue between the author, who plays the part of a humble and eager student, and Palestrina. If you sit down and take the time to do the lessons, contrapunctual lines seem to write themselves for you. Useful for many styles of music, it really helped me write better bass lines and voice leading in general. Self-taught musicians! Don't be afraid of studying theory! This is a great book!"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This book, originally entitled "Gradus ad Parnassum" was the book used by many of the great composers of the classical and romantic eras in learning their craft. Mozart is said to have studied it. Papa Haydn's copy, dog-eared and worn, is on display in a museum in Europe. The book is set up as a series of lessons on the technique of counterpoint, with the student asking questions and the teacher providing answers. There are many examples, both of proper and improper technique. It starts with the easiest forms of counterpoint and moves into the more difficult ones toward the end. It takes itself very seriously and requires a lot of work of the reader. Some of the ideas are outdated, and all of the counterpoint examples are built on bland cantus firmus type melodies, but the exercise of going through this book is invaluable."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I recently started studying composition, and this book has been immensely helpful! My composition teacher uses the same method of graduated study of starting with one note against one note and then building in complexity to four-part counterpoint. After a lesson, it's useful to read the corresponding section in the book as a refresher before doing my assigned exercises. Plus, it gives me a second explanation about the do's and don't of part writing if I didn't quite catch it in my all-too-brief lesson time. Finally, it's a great way to make sure I don't lose my proficiency over vacation; there's plenty of examples for me to work on in my spare time. After finding this book, I'm surprised it's not on my required booklist! It's a definite must for all serious composers who want to develop a strong classical training. (Let's not forget the value of classical education! Most professional artists that I've talked to, in any field, have told me that it's the best way to begin.)"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"When most people think of species counterpoint they think of the method laid out by Johann Joseph Fux in this book. This is a late 17th, early 18th century document describing a theoretical practice of a hundred years earlier, but still used pedagogically in teaching composition students for another hundred years. You might say to the present day, but really this is used as a historical document in musicological studies. Some students might read it for themselves, but few actual courses on counterpoint would be taught at a music school from this book alone.It is set up as a dialogue between a master, Aloysius, and a conveniently doltish student named Josephus. Josephus is us and asks all kinds of questions to prompt the teacher to say what he was going to teach us anyway. He also provides comic relief.If you want to understand species counterpoint, this is a concise and historically important way to get at it."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"[reprint -- sorry]At one point in the text, Aloysius pretty much says it all: "These lessons are not worked out for actual use but for exercise. If one know how to read one need no longer bother with spelling; similarly, the species of counterpoint are given only for purposes of study."I have been working out of this book (which is really an excerpt of a larger book called _Steps to Perfection_) with a private tutor for a year, and it has been a difficult but rewarding experience. Essentially, the species provide a platform to learn how to compose concurrent melodic lines. Each following species builds upon the knowledge of the previous. Rules that begin absolute slowly become contextual. While the book's original title is anachronistic, the program within encourages steps towards the understanding of basic tonal principles that have formed the foundation of the grand tradition of western music.I'd recommend keeping an open mind about the rules. These are treated as the "rules," but are expected to be broken with time and experience. After all, the rules are no more than the collected general tendancies of the great composers.Another thing to keep in mind is that Fux's book provides an introduction to composition based upon the limitations--and, accordingly, the beauty--of the human voice. This book does not deal with the embellishments and ornaments possible on all instruments.More caveats: One, I would recommend studying this book with an experienced teacher. It's like a beginning yoga text: basic, but someone with experience will put things in perspective. Two, the exercises, especially for three and four voices, are difficult and require commitment and discipline. (Again, like yoga.) There is no need to rush through the exercises. Three, Fux's book should be part of an integrated tonal curriculum that at least includes four-part writing and ear-training.And Fux's book is hardly the last word even on counterpoint! At the very least, study 18th century and 20th century counterpoint, because those broad styles used Fux's treatise as their basic foundations. Those who criticize this text do so because it does not immediately apply to modern music situations. But they often fail to see how the text fits beautifully within the broad spectrum of composition. This book reflects the basics of tonal architecture. No more, no less"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I have really changed my mind about this in the last couple of years - recognizing that Fux's homage to the style of Palestrina is a rhetorical device rather than a scientific study, he is not to be faulted for failing to present Renaissance style accurately, and instead should be praised for offering a very wonderful window into Baroque style as taught by a conservative musician of his time. As with any field of study, no one book can be the sole authority - Fux's book (and including Mann's \\"Study of Fugue\\" which has the missing second half of this book included) has an honored position on my bookshelf along with a number of other books on counterpoint.My original review, left intact:It's true that this is the classic work on species counterpoint, used by Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven and endorsed by Bach. It belongs in every serious musician's library. But nowadays, it's not the first book to get on counterpoint. If you are just going to embark on studying counterpoint, do yourself a favor and get Jeppesen's book \\"Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the 16th Century\\", which builds directly on Fux's work and presents essentially the same material with a more informed historical perspective and a somewhat more modern point of view (1929). (There are more recent books as well. Also I have to acknowledge the common complaint that to read Jeppesen requires reading C-clef.) Later you can fill in your knowledge of historical esoterica by reading Fux, just so you can say you did it."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This most famous text on counteropoint was the standard counterpoint reference for centuries, and was used by such greats as Bach and Beethoven.It is true that contrapuntal theory has developed significantly since Fux's time (the Gradus was originally published in 1725), but it remains a useful and entertaining introduction to the field of counterpoint. Furthermore, its historical significance cannot be exaggerated."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"Would you study Western religion without reading the Bible first? Nor should one study counterpoint without reading this book first. I'm glad I was able to purchase it from Amazon.com at a good price."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is mostly valuable for its historical significance, but that is no mean thing, and it is worth your while working through it-every composer and theorist should. The translator distributes his English version of Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" between this and "The Study of Fugue" so I recommend you pick up a copy of "The Study of Fugue" too.Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"Fux's masterful use of his counterpoint will leave you wanting more. Best know for his masterful thrust with a foreceful tempo, contemporary pianists have emulated his approach to great success. J. Holmes is reported to have read Fux's work daily prior to his strenuous orchestrations of thrust and release. Do yourself and your entire choir a favor and buy this book."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"Take Beethoven's, Bach's, Haydyn's, Mozart's (Wolfgang -and- Leopold), Hindemith's... This text may deal with a style of music long antiquated, but the principle's and structure of its techniques still hold strong today, and a knowledge of them is unquestionably helpful. Fux was also very careful to set the book up as a basic course for the reader, so that all one must do is follow along and do as the Master dictates in order to have a series of excellent lessons.I know that in my own writing, I now see many places where my ear has lead me to follow many of these rules (and also many places where I have completely ignored, butchered, broken, and smashed them). These rules and tendencies continue to guide, if not dictate, much of contemporary composition.And if you're still not convinced, the dialogue is so extremely, ridiculously over-the-top as to make reading it an enjoyable experience purely on an entertainment basis! Gotta love 18th century Europe."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"U will love it don't even think twice to buy this amazing book.From the beginning goes step by step, very fluently and elegant.Most buy"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"Fux does a great job laying out the principles of counterpoint in this book. The dialogue between the student and master helps to present the information in a way that could have been otherwise very dull. It's a small book, so if you're looking for a basic introduction to the art of counterpoint, this book does a great job."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is a short book and a keyboard student probably won't need to study all of it.One method of playing keyboard is right hand plays melody, left plays chords. This is different!Here, right hand plays melody. Left hand plays, note for note, a counterpoint melody. The examples given are short. e.g. 11 note melody and eleven note counterpoint melody. You play both at the same time.The Reason: If you come up with a melody you like, that's 'catchy', the counterpoint melody adds a new dimension. Not a second dimension, like you'd think. IMHO, this is like skipping to 'The Fifth Dimension.' Not 1 plus 1 = 2, more like 1 plus 1 = 127! Very cool.Try the short example on page 36 or 37 and see if you're not completely astounded.The book explains the rules and methods for deriving the counterpoint from the melody. The remainder of the book explains 2 notes against one, 3 against one, etc. The first 40 or so pages are worth the price of the book.Unlike some keyboard practice materials, this is fun. Also, learning the very first example (page 36?) which takes 10 minutes, makes a newbie sound _profound_"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"After reading through this book, I think it would be suitable for students of all levels. It contains everything you need to know about modal counterpoint and is completely comprehensive and easy to follow, as long as you do the exercises. The dialogue mode in the book provides some levity (though maybe not entirely intentional) in a subject that has a proclivity to become dry. Highly recommended if you are looking for something to start or further your study of counterpoint."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is an incredible book that is easy to understand. I really love the format (a dialogue between teacher and pupil), because it feels like you're actually in a classroom. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Music (voice, nonperformance) two years ago and am beginning my Master of Music in Composition this fall. I wish we had used this text when I was in undergrad! Definitely a worthwhile investment."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"Yes, you should buy this book! The book is short, succinct, and to the point. It is quite thin and reads easily. One of the things that I truly admired about this book was the fact that Mann preserves the dialog between the Master and the Student. The book was obviously written from a spiritual perspective by the original author, cautioning the student that to undertake this particular course of study is to eschew the material and pursue with the utmost humility the art of musical counterpoint with God's help! I was as inspired by the dialog of the text as I was by the content of this little manual! Get it! You will most certainly not regret this decision if you a serious about music composition !"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"At one point in the text, Aloysius pretty much says it all: "These lessons are not worked out for actual use but for exercise. If one know how to read one need no longer bother with spelling; similarly, the species of counterpoint are given only for purposes of study."I have been working out of this book (which is really an excerpt of a larger book called _Steps to Perfection_) with a private tutor for a year, and it has been a difficult but rewarding experience. Essentially, the species provide a platform to learn how to compose concurrent melodic lines. Each following species builds upon the knowledge of the previous. Rules that begin absolute slowly become contextual. While the book's original title is anachronistic, the program within encourages steps towards the understanding of basic tonal principles that have formed the foundation of the grand tradition of western music.I'd recommend keeping an open mind about the rules. These are treated as the "rules," but are expected to be broken with time and experience. After all, the rules are no more than the collected general tendancies of the great composers.Another thing to keep in mind is that Fux's book provides an introduction to composition based upon the limitations--and, accordingly, the beauty--of the human voice. This book does not deal with the embellishments and ornaments--so the exercises can sound dry.More caveats: One, I would recommend studying this book with an experienced teacher. It's like a beginning yoga text: basic, but someone with experience will put things in perspective. Two, the exercises, especially for three and four voices, are difficult and require commitment and discipline. (Again, like yoga.) There is no need to rush through the exercises. Three, Fux's book should be part of an integrated tonal curriculum that at least includes four-part writing and ear-training.And Fux's book is hardly the last word even on counterpoint! At the very least, study 18th century and 20th century counterpoint, because those broad styles used Fux's treatise as their basic foundations.Those who criticize this text do so because it does not immediately apply to modern music situations. But they often fail to see how the text fits beautifully within the broad spectrum of composition. This book reflects the basics of tonal architecture. No more, no less."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I picked up this book and began reading it right away. In two weeks I understood it completely. It is very easy to understand. There are parts you have to work yourself through, but all in all it is very comprehensible. About the only two things you need to know to understand it is intervals and of course how to read music. I notice when I follow the rules closely enough I compose very much like people of the renaissance did. well actually this was the theory of the time so of course if you follow this book your music will sound that way. If you don't want to sound as they did in that time and just want to have more pleasant music, this book will still be helpful. Good price. Good classic theory. Good book."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I recently started studying composition, and this book has been immensely helpful! My composition teacher uses the same method of graduated study of starting with one note against one note and then building in complexity to four-part counterpoint. After a lesson, it's useful to read the corresponding section in the book as a refresher before doing my assigned exercises. Plus, it gives me a second explanation about the do's and don't of part writing if I didn't quite catch it in my all-too-brief lesson time. Finally, it's a great way to make sure I don't lose my proficiency over vacation; there's plenty of examples for me to work on in my spare time. After finding this book, I'm surprised it's not on my required booklist! It's a definite must for all serious composers who want to develop a strong classical training. (Let's not forget the value of classical education! Most professional artists that I've talked to, in any field, have told me that it's the best way to begin.)"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"It is amazing how this text is still useful today! This is still a fundamental work to this day. How wonderful it is to read the dialog between teacher and student!While species counterpoint is only a means to an end, one cannot underestimate its value for the study of melody, process and form."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This book has been the basis of strict counterpoint instruction for over 200 years. In that period of time music has changed considerably. As a composer of a strange variety of music I have to say that these exercises are among the most useful things I've ever done. I dont think that the rules in the book were ever meant to be followed exactly in real composition, look at Handel Bach or Telemann( they were all in the middle of their careers when this was published:1721) but learning to do the exercises strictly to the rules influences the way you think about composing. Of course the main area that this book is concerned with is VOCAL polyphony, most of the rules of writing the individual parts are based on the general limitations of the human voice. I cant accurately explain how much this book has helped my music the exercises are realy helpful in making you think about certain details. Every composer should be force their way through the entire thing before they graduate from the conservatory."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"The wording may seem a bit strange, but this is one of the classic texts on counterpoint. Must have."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"This is a really fun book. It teaches counterpoint, yet I could read it for leisure reading. It is written as a conversation between an instructor and a student, and there are many, many examples... based on these teachings and recieved great feedback on them.A highly recommended read for anyone who has ever written a song."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"In a side-by-side comparison of this Alfred Mann translation with the Latin original,Gradus ad Parnassum, sive manuductio ad compositionem music regularem, methodo nov, ac cert, nondum antè tam exacto ordine in lucem edita, the English translation seems very good, but also very incomplete. The original Latin sentences have been expanded where necessary to clarify the meaning, and absurdly long sentences have been split into shorter sentences. It is not a precise literal translation, but conveys the meaning faithfully.This Alfred Mann translation of the Fux \\"Gradus ad Parnassum\\" follows fairly exactly pages 43 to 139 of theLatin original, then skips to half way down page 279, translating only the last half-page. These missing pages, from page 140 to half way down 279, constitute 139.5 pages, which coincidentally is exactly 50% of the original 279-page work!Also missing is the first book, \\"Liber Primus\\", pages 1 to 42, and the 2-page dedication, and the one-paragraph appendix to the original preface. So in total, about 65% of the original Latin is missing!The C-clefs in the original have been converted to modern clefs. (I guess 99% of readers will be thankful for that!) But the original C-clefs are indicated before the modern F and G clefs for the reader's interest.No one can deny the enormous importance of the Fux book. I first heard its virtues being extolled in first-year Uni music composition class in 1971, with its curious title referring to a mountain to the north of Delphi. The Fux book has justly survived almost 300 years in multiple original copies. As the 10-page translator's introduction mentions, Haydn learned counterpoint from this book, and both Leopold and Amadeus Mozart seem to have studied it. But JS Bach obviously did not learn counterpoint from it, since it was published when he was 40 years old.This book is possibly best read in conjunction with the Jeppesen book:Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century. Both books describe the inferred style of Palestrina.Fux's style of presentation is perhaps the most important virtue of this book. It was intended for self-study, as page 17 of the Alfred Mann translation indicates.\\"I do not believe that I can call back composers from the unrestrained insanity of their writing to normal standards. Let each follow his own counsel. My object is to help young persons who want to learn. I knew and still know many who have fine talents and are most anxious to study; however, lacking means and a teacher, they cannot realize their ambition, but remain, as it were, forever desperately athirst.\\"On page 18, Fux indicates the advantage of the systematic order of presentation according to the \\"species\\" of counterpoint.\\"When I used this method of teaching I observed that the pupils made amazing progress within a short time\\"It is still true that Fux's reductionist, analytical method of presenting counterpoint has advantages.The untranslated pages 140 to 279 of the original Latin work deal with fugue, double counterpoint, and various other subjects. I would have liked to have an English translation of that. But luckily I have some good Latin dictionaries! (And I got high marks in 3 years of Latin at school.)PS. 2013-1-17. Now I know where the English translation of some of the missing pages 140 to 279 went. The English-language translation of pages 140 to 217 ofthe Latin originalis on pages 78 to 138 of Alfred Mann'sThe Study of Fugue. That translation gives you half a sentence from near the bottom of page 139 of the Latin, then skips to page 140 of the Latin, just one sentence before the start of \\"Exercitii IV, Lectio Unica, De Imitatione\\". Then he translates everything up to two-thirds of the way down page 217 of the original Latin, and finally skips to the last third of page 279 of the Latin, which is the last page.In summary, 35% of the Latin is translated in this \\"Study of Counterpoint\\", and 28% is translated in Alfred Mann'sThe Study of Fugue. In other words, you get a total of 63% translated in these two books by Alfred Mann. For the other 37%, you will have to read the Latin original, unless there's another translation lurking out there somewhere."},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"I had heard about this book in my music history classes years ago. I had always wanted to read it - but I was a poor college student and money was hard to come by (living expenses, food, tuition, course books, etc. . . ) Unfortunately, it wasn't in my music library at the Uni . . . by the time you hit grad school - you end up reading books for class. Leisure reading takes a back seat.I had all but forgotten about it until recently. I decided to buy it. It's a great read in my humble opinion because the text/content is revealed via a conversation between a student and a teacher. The student, who might come off as dense, is a great vehicle for Fux to explain the principles of counterpoint. The exercises start very easily to explain the basic rules - become progressively harder as the book goes on.The book gives plenty of examples, exercises (with the \\"correct\\" answer) and common problems that might plague students eager to learn the craft but not schooled in species counterpoint. It should be noted that Bach worked through the entire book. Bach's chorales are the mainstay of teaching 4 part choral harmony (which occupies most of your musical schooling). I feel that any student going through music theory should own this book. I almost wish it was required reading in my 4 semesters of theory. I would have seen a different light on counterpoint.It's a slim book - much slimmer than I had anticipated given the subject of counterpoint. It's also at a great price point, again IMHO. I haven't finished it yet (I just got it a couple of days ago) but I can't wait to finish it and complete all the exercises.BUY IT! ;-)"},{"Title":"The study of counterpoint from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum","review":"The absolute best book for learning 16th century counterpoint. Nothing better!"},{"Title":"It's rumoured in the village","review":"'It was a surprise to Naomi when she found herself in charge of a young niece and a large house in a charming Dorsetshire village, and without much money to keep either of them.She was grateful for the willing help and advice of the villagers, but when they started to plan her love life as well, she began to wonder if things had not gone a little too far!'Naomi Fulder inherited a large house and a cousin not a niece, and with the help of her girlfriend Sydney Robinson they turned it into a boarding house.Naomi had lost her love Kent in WW II, He was missing in action presumed dead.She later found out he was very much alive and engaged to a sweet young woman whose step-sister lived in the village.This is a very funny book. A real keeper."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"This book tells the story of a mirror that brings love to those who look into it. It can drive people away, bring them home, prevent events from happening, and help events occur. No matter what a person sees in this mysterious mirror, the mirror brings love to many of the people who have looked into it."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"This is a lovely 3 in 1 book of the Delaney's: "Christmas Past", "Christmas Present" and "Christmas Future." A lovely mirror carved with holly was supposedly given to Shamus Delaney by the gypsies. Succeeding generations have discovered that it is a magical mirror enabling only Delaneys to see past, present and future. Don't miss Dominic and Elspeth's story in "This Fierce Splendor"--the one that started it all!I loved Iris Johansen's "Christmas Past" because here we get a glimpse of how Silver Savron is doing, as well as the love story of Rising Star's son. Zara St. Cloud is outcast even among her fellow gypsies. She is desperate to prove she has Delaney blood in her by searching for the mirror. Kevin Delaney is bored. When he finds a housebreaker at Killara, he is determined that she will be his Christmas amusement. Hot!"},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"This is the first story that I came across about the Delaneys. I absolutely love Iris Johansen's books and I was thrilled to read this! It is one of the best and it has made me interested in finding all of the books that cover the Delaneys. An awesome read, I couldn't put it down for a second and when it ended, I wanted more. I recommend this to anyone!"},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"Have the series of the Delaney's and this was the missing book. Pleased to find it and enjoyed it very much."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"Easy reading, as always from these ladies I was kept interested. Fun and a good relaxing read.Made yu feel like you new the characters."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"I have never read any of these authors before. I really enjoyed the book by Iris Johansen -which is the first story set in the past. I think that is because I tend to prefer historicals. The three books in one to do mesh well with the story line and seem to continue well thru the past, present and future. They all had lots of lovemaking and really all three storylines really did not keep my interest like some others. I think it has to due with me not really liking the writting style of these authors. I would much rather have more converstion and getting to know the characters than all the lovemaking that has no meaning, personally. As for it being a Christmas book--that part is true-they are all set in the december/winter time. That was my main reason for buying the book. Overall, it was a really quick read but not worth paying $5.54 for new - like I did (of course hindsight is always better). So if you are looking for a quick Christmas read that will let you put the book down and go finish wrapping presents or any other menial task-then this book would suit just fine."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"My favorite author, Iris Johanson, has yet to disappoint me. I love all of her books and would recommend them to anyone."},{"Title":"The Delaney Christmas Carol (Random House Large Print)","review":"I was a little disappointed; it's not that I thought it was bad, it's just that only 1 of the 3 stories really caught my attention. I wanted more adventure and/or action to draw something emotional out of me. Of the three stories within the anthology, Christmas Past by Iris Johansen was probably the only one that affected me. I'm not sure if it's because I'm more into historical romance than contemporary or if it's because I found the main characters more powerful than the others.The magic mirror had me intrigued but slowly faded away as I read the next stories. While this won't be a book I would personally reread again for future seasons, this still might be the book for someone else."},{"Title":"Murder on the Appalachian Trail","review":"This could have been a great 250 page book. The first 150 pages are pure background, half of which is absolutely irrelevant to the story. The author drones on about the religious epiphanies and work history of the victims and their families.As for trail life on the Appalachian Trail, I detected some gross factual errors that made me question the author's research. Damascus is not a week from Pearisburg on the AT, and Chestnut Knob is not, under any circumstances, a day's hike from Wapiti shelter, the scene of the crime.Although the narration of the crimes and subsequent manhunt are page turners, the book again needlessly boggs down in courtroom proceedings which are rehashed verbatim.I only recommend this book if you REALLY want to know about these murders...."},{"Title":"Murder on the Appalachian Trail","review":"I am the son of the man who prosecuted the double murder this book is about, so I have an informed perspective.This book has all the facts about the murders of Robert Mountford and Susan Ramsey and murder trial that ensued. It also has a lot of background information on what life is like for those hiking the Appalachain Trail. Although interesting most of it is not relevant to the murder case.Since the killer never spoke publicly about his motives or whether he had an accomplice the author presents this story as sort of a true life novel. He speculates as to what he thinks happened and why. Most of Mr. Carr's prior books were novels so was comfortable telling the story this way.The author interviewed the people involed including my father. Dad got a lot of heat for the plea bargain he accepted in the case. He also never told anyone be me or my brothers what his unedited opinion of the evidence was. He felt there was a 50/50 chance of a not guilty verdict in the murder of Ms. Ramsey, and virturally no chance of a conviction in the murder of Mr. Moutford. There were no eyewitnesses, the murder weapon was never found and this happened in a remote wilderness area not exactly ideal for preservation of evidence. The murders were in 1981, well before anyone had heard of DNA profiles.I do recommend this book. It is well written and everyone but the perpetrator was interviewed by the author. With the exceptions mentioned above it has complete information on what happend, plus author guesses at the remaining unaswered questions."},{"Title":"Murder on the Appalachian Trail","review":"I am sorry to have to take exception with Mr. Osborne's review; however, Mr. Carr did not interview everyone but the perpetrator.He certainly did not interview me. DIDN'T EVEN CONTACT ME. I was the last hiker to sleep at the lean-to before the bodies were found. As a result I found myself in the thick of things for days. I saw and heard much. Mr. Carr uses my name, spells it correctly (most people do not, so he at least deserves credit for that), but then sticks a preposterous quote in my mouth.Ever play \\"Telegraph\\" as a kid? The first kid whispers a statement to the second kid, the second kid repeats it from memory to the third kid, and so on, and so on down the line. By the time the statement gets to the last kid, it bears little resemblance to what the first kid said. Mr. Carr must have interviewed the last \\"kid\\"; however, he never contacted me to learn what the first kid actually said. But he could have: Father Winter knew how to contact me (he and I still communicate); therefore, that Carr failed to contact me tells me he didn't bother to contact me. Instead he was content to libel me. Had he contacted me he would have heard something 100 times more interesting than what he wrote, as well as accurate.I have only read the two or three pages on which I have a walk-on role. If those pages are any indication of the book's overall accuracy, then by all means read the book, but enjoy it as a work of fiction.Amazon.com will not accept a review unless the reviewer deigns to use their 1-to-5 star rating scale. The pages I've read deserve 1 star, and that's only because the author spelled my name correctly."},{"Title":"Murder on the Appalachian Trail","review":"This book was a little long but I really appreciated the research the author had done to bring this story to us and I did enjoy reading the background of the characters. I wish I had discovered this book about twenty five years ago when it was published. I would like to have thanked the author. It is an interesting read and I do recommend it."},{"Title":"Murder on the Appalachian Trail","review":"Boring,boring,boring! The author spends way to much time discribing every pimple on each character. So much so by page 40, I forgot who was who, who's life experiences was who's and who was meeting who where. I have read many many books on the Appalachian Trail, but this one was a real snoozer. I bet this book would have been better if it had been written in about 300 pages less and possibley written by someone else. Of course the victims were nominated for sainthood because they never did a bad thing in there life. Just to much. You'd think the author was with them every second even in there intimit moments. Oh brother. If your interested in the murders,read the 3 pages on the internet instead of the 500 plus pages of fluff in this book. A tip,pass this one by and put your money towards a better book."},{"Title":"Workshop Manual: Volkswagen Types 11, 14, and 15 : 1952-1957","review":"If you're restoring a zwitter or an oval beetle, this book will tell you all you ever wanted to know, it's extremely descriptive and packed with illustrations. The book covers everything from replacing a door handle, to an almost complete rebuild of the engine. This book is one companion you don't want to be without."},{"Title":"Workshop Manual: Volkswagen Types 11, 14, and 15 : 1952-1957","review":"The big blue book for the 52-57 vw's is the best there is out there, plenty of pic and excellent explanation of all the procedures. Perfect for the person wanting to do a good restoration to one of these 45+ year old cars, a must have."},{"Title":"Workshop Manual: Volkswagen Types 11, 14, and 15 : 1952-1957","review":"This manual is the complete reference guide to oval beetles.It has clear precise details that are easy to follow with fantastic illustrations.Covers everything from complicated mechanical repair to simple repairs like removing a semaphore"},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"These beautiful portraits by renowned artist Louis Glanzman have inspired author Edwina Gateley to reach into the soul of these women from the New Testament, and apply their stories to situations that have happened in modern times. One of my favorite comparisons is that of the widow who gave her two mites, all she had (Luke 21: 1-4), with Gateley's experience as a missionary in Africa and of being given three tiny eggs wrapped in banana leaves, as a gift of gratitude.Each chapter begins with a portion of scripture that pertains to the woman in the painting, and continues with an average of ten pages of poetic text. The twelve portraits and chapters are: Elizabeth, Anna the Prophetess, Mary, The Widow's Mite, Martha, The Infirm Woman, The Samaritan Woman, The Woman Caught in Adultery, The Woman with the Hemorrhage, The Daughter of Jairus (which is the lovely portrait on the cover), The Penitent Woman, Mary Magdalene, and there is a thirteenth portrait of a mother and child next to the preface page that is unidentified.Perhaps my favorite is the one of Mary, with her large, luminous, wise and sad eyes, entirely clothed in white, set against a halo of golden tiles.Louis Glanzman is an extraordinary artist, who has also painted twelve portraits of men of the Bible in a book titled "Soul Brothers", and among his many accomplishments are eighty covers for Time Magazine, and the illustration of the "Pippi Longstocking" children's book series.Edwina Gately has authored many books, among them "A Mystical Heart", and is the founder of the Volunteer Missionary Movement."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"Not only do these new drawings of well-known biblical characters captivate you, but so does Gateley's narrative. What a fresh perspective! This book is a gem. Edwina Gateley's insight into these women's lives engage the reader, inspiring and challenging the possibilities for women's relationships today, as well as offering a deeper understanding of the women in Sacred Scripture."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"Never before have I encountered such a deep and rich interpretation of the women of the New Testament. Glanzman's insightful depiction of each woman is both remarkable and riviting inspiring Gateley's profound and poetic meditation upon each one. Occasionally we encounter a book that is life-altering. This is one of them."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"Edwina's stories really move me and challenge me to keep trying. She makes me think...I find the insights so pertinent to my own experiences. It's obvious she's 'been there', walked her journey, and I feel blessed for her sharing of it."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"I have always had a high regard for Edwinna Gately, both as a poet and as a woman of faith. In the Preface, she states that when she saw some of the paintings by Louis Glanzman, she felt an overwhelming desire to be the author for his upcoming book. Indeed, the combination is one of power and beauty, affirming the spirit of women and opening our eyes to ways that the lives of these 12 women of the Bible continue to teach us today. My first encounter was the poem of Mary Magdelene and I sat and cried both at the injustice we have perpetuated around her life story, and the power of her story for our world today. The picture of Anna the Prophet was one which I used for prayer of gazing for many days. It is as if Glanzman was truly able to see into the souls of these women and gives us the opportunity to do so as well. The poetry does not tell us what to think, but rather invites us to look inward and see our own souls. A book I will forever treasure in my library both as a spiritual director and as a woman of faith."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"This is a great book on the women of the bible. Edwina Gately is a wonderful author."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"The illustrations and poetry in Soul Sisters is breath taking. Gately brings the past into the present and touches the heart. This is a wonderful gift for any woman interested in the Bible."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"My sister presented this book to me about three years ago. I find myself reading it over and over and have gifted it to other women in my family and also to my friends. It's a beautifully written, inspiring book that I have on my night stand and pick up to read all year long."},{"Title":"Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today","review":"We use this with 15 homeless women who love the insights and reflections. I highly recommend this book for women's reflection groups."},{"Title":"How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Examination English: Literature and Composition Language and Composition (Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Examination in English, 6th ed)","review":"I truly loved this book. I am on an Academic Bowl Team and needed to be able to cover the information explained in AP English/ Comp. This book has helped oh so greatly in my playing ability, and I feel that I could pass the AP Test without have taken the class. The book clearly explains everything on the test and shows manners of remembering how and when to use certain things. I highly recommend it!"},{"Title":"The Complete 30 Days of Night","review":"I say second because, really, can anything compete with 'Sandman'?The illustrations are gorgeous, lush and full of movement. The story is interesting but is secondary to the artwork. If you love dark art, buy this. If you love beautiful high-quality books, buy this."},{"Title":"The Complete 30 Days of Night","review":"I got this for Christmas in '05 and it is probably the most beautiful edition of the core trilogy 30 Days of Night (which is not a film franchise). I wont be talking about the story, (there are plenty of reviews of that here and elsewhere) other than to say its one of the most original takes on the popular vampire mythos of the 21st century. The books are hardcover and over sized, which present the color and artwork in amazing detail. Volume one is signed by both Niles and Templesmith, volumes 2 and 3 are not signed. The slipcase is really sturdy and handsomely illustrated in black. The individual volumes are hardcover and contain added features like the original script, sketches and storyboards. If you are a fan of Niles/Templesmith's 30 Days of Night this is a must have collection, if you can find it for less than $150."},{"Title":"The Complete 30 Days of Night","review":"THere are some very orignal ideas in the script, but most of all it has unique and beatifull art(I were almost drooling when I read it!). After reading this comic I have become a hugh fan of Ben Templesmith.It is a bit expensive compared to other TPBs, but the quality of the paper is well worth it. (BTW the quality of all IDWs TPBS are outstanding but expensive!) I highly recommend this."},{"Title":"The Complete 30 Days of Night","review":"I purchased this title mainly because i like the artist.so i bought the "complete" edition thinking there would be alot more artwork and stories-as said in the discription-.but to my dissapointment there wasnt,just the script to the book which is just pointless seeming you read it throughout the story anyway and a diary from some1 in it.And thats it.the story starts off half good then is just rushed towards the end,like the writer thinks "right i've had enough of this,lets just finish it up".I suppose i can sell it on ebay when the film comes out to double the money i paid for it."},{"Title":"The Complete 30 Days of Night","review":"I liked this story when it was done in Vampirella by Mark Millar.I wonder why all of the author's stories feel so familiar?"},{"Title":"Strategic Analysis for Venture Evaluations: The Save Approach to Business Decisions","review":"This is an excellent guide-book for project managers. It contains very highly organised techniques for measuring the success potential of virtually any project decision.It been written by two eminently qualified authors - one, trained as an engineer & the other, an architect, but both had worked as principal economists & management consultants & involved in myriad project feasibility studies & new venture evaluations.Of all the books I have in my personal library over the years that relate to project feasibility studies & new venture evaluations, this one is my personal favourite. It is also the most comprehensive & yet indepth! It has assisted my professional work while I was working in the corporate world.In a nut shell, this book has a very practical, well-structured & clearly-defined numerical rating system, ranging from rough processing to full evaluation, to help you in your exploration & evaluation, covering:four (4) broad facets, namely:- your product/service/activity (in terms of prospective performance, salability, defensibility);- yourself or your company (in terms of personal traits & relative strengths/weaknesses);- your environment (in terms of possible effects);- your venture (in terms of investment considerations & strategic possibilities;These are broken down into:- thirteen (13) general aspects;These are further broken down into:- sixty nine (69) individual factors;The authors coin the acronym 'SAVE' (hence the book title, Strategic Analysis Venture Evaluation) to sum up their wonderful model. The model approach will definitely save you from potential failure.Packed with forms, checklists, questions, it will compel your careful attention to all the factors involved in a new venture, thus preventing dangerous blindspots. It also help to prevent over-valueing a few dominant factors that tend to distort decision/judgement.As the authors contend in the inside cover of this book: "This is the only book that provide you with immediate answers to such complex questions as, How attractive is this proposed venture, to this company, organisation or individual, at this time, and under this set of conditions."I highly recommend this book to all project managers!"},{"Title":"Strategic Analysis for Venture Evaluations: The Save Approach to Business Decisions","review":"I must say I bought this book based on the list of enterpreneurial recommendations given by Mr. Keng. At that time, it was only at 11 $ used.First the book is written from the perspective and background of two influential authors who worked for the US army. The methos is right down to the point, that it will be compulsory to evaluate all your ventures by it. Only if you tackle a complex project will you go to the complete SAVE approach.I have seen some of the books Mr. Keng recommends, those ou-of-print and almost at 200 $. If you are looking for a structures methos to see if your venture project is solid, this book is what you are looking for."},{"Title":"Urban Public Transportation: Systems and Technology","review":"I had referred this book in 1995 during my post-graduate dissertation on "Busway Transit for Ahmedabad (India)". I feel it is the only book on earth that covers all the aspects related to mass transit technology and planning. Beautiful photographs and illustrations. A must have book for all planners. Bhargav Adhvaryu (Engineer-Urban/Transport Planner)"},{"Title":"Urban Public Transportation: Systems and Technology","review":"Indespensible tool of any transportation professional, be it an engineer or a planner. Still seems current even though it was written almost 20 years ago. Excellent diagrams and a highly in-depth look at transit modes"},{"Title":"Urban Public Transportation: Systems and Technology","review":"Dr. Vuchic does an incredible job of covering urban transit and the varieties of it in the world. While showing its age with parts getting dated, the book still offers sound planning advice in a comprehensive manner. It is a must for the urban planner."},{"Title":"The People's Republic : Stories of Boulder, Colorado","review":"Funny and touchng at the same time, this book consists of 52 very short stories. Watch out, they'll grow on you and you won't be able to put them down."},{"Title":"Dreamship: Lullabies for Little Ones/Cassette","review":"I'm a fan only of Kathie Lee Johnson Gifford's Christmas Specials that aired in the '90s--in fact, those are a riot. I purchased this to hear the duet with Sandi Patty, and that duet is actually done very musically, and makes for a pleasant piece of music--and in fact, I found myself listening to some of the other songs, and I actually liked them. Some of them are really pretty, and Kathie Lee doesn't do a bad job vocally on them."},{"Title":"Dreamship: Lullabies for Little Ones/Cassette","review":"Yet more evidence which testifies toward the flawed character of Kathy Lee. Highly deplorable."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"sooo much information. subjects on everything. i have over thirty books on natural and alternative medicine and once in a while i get one that is sothorough and easy to understand, thanks to james a duke."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"One of the best guides i have seen,covering 180 herbs and a reference on a lot of common ailments."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"So you're looking for an alternative to pill popping ? Now that's a change! I'm in awe of people who think it it's ok to take a pill to prevent something that they think is going to happen - for example, a friend mentioned that she needs to take a strong pain pill (I won't mention the name here) because she \\"may\\" get back pain. That's not what pills were made for. If you worry about the side effects of even the mildest drugs, then this book is for you. I hate taking any kind of medication, and am always on the lookout for alternatives to medication. Give me an herb or a fruit, or vegetable, and tell me to take that for a medical problem, and I'll happily give it a try!I like this book because it's filled with information on various natural remedies. There's a reason God created these herbs and plants - for us or the animals to use them to cure ourselves. Sure, we can't cure everything, but this book certainly shows you how to \\"cure\\" or control many, many problems. I highly recommend it!Another one I love is \\"Back to Eden\\" by Jethro Kloss."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"Every household interested in natural remedies should have this book on hand. It is easy to use and has a good reference section in the back."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"The format of the physical book is not my favorite---the Mass Market paperback is not my favorite. Gives good background for the herbs, not for things outside of that (Kelp, sea salt, calcium sources, etc)---so that's what the title is and doesn't disappoint. Practical application (e.g. Take 1/4 cup of yellow dock and 1 cup of water....) is not present, but that is not the purpose of the book.---good reference book!"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I bought this book for my wife and she really loves it. I recommend the matching book The Green Pharmacy New Discoveries in Herbal Remedies"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I have purchased several copies of this herb book so have been able to give one to my sister and one to each of several friends. When someone expresses an interest in learning about herbs, this is one of the books I recommend. It has lots of excellent information; I can't say enough good things about this book!"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"This is a practical, quick and easy to navigate book. The majority of the book is an alphabetical listing of herbs by their common names. Each herb entry contains the following descriptions:- What is it- Therapeutic uses- Medicinal properties- Dosage options- Safety rating- PrecautionsAt the end of the book there is a guide to conditions where various diseases are listed alphabetically and the herbs that can be used for treatment. Finally there is an index. There is not much information on how long an herb should be taken."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"this book is supper,i love the way it explains things.it will be a real help to people"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"The Green Pharmacy is full of herbal info and basic facts regarding most popular herbs. I refer to it a lot and really felt it was a good investment. I'm new to herbs so I've learned a lot. I've started taking some additional supplements after discovering the health benefits available from herbs."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"Many people may know the name of the products in the book, but many may not. Therefore, pictures to help identify them would have been great help."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I found Earl Mindell's 'Vitamin Bible',at the Paperback Corner,in Princeton,Illinois.And i found the 'Green Pharmacy',at the Dollar-Store,for only a buck.I was amazed at how much information that small paperback had to offer,for just a buck.Dr.James Duke gives excellent scientific stats and uses of various herbs.He reveals the full skinny on every herb of value and interest,for everyone's prime health-care and preventive care.He also has a similar book called,'Renewel',that i would also recommend.I would have gladly paid the full-price for his book.This guide sadly got bumped to the discount shack. Yet,the mall-herd want their fast-food literature,that offers mostly 'empty ideas',and no food for thought.State governmernts could buy-up the copies,at discount bulk-rates,and hand-out the herbal books to all medi-care users.Have them take a 100 question multiple-choice test,over what they read.The ones who scored a 100 ,could collect their aid-money.The ones who did not pass ,were allowed the re-take until they passed with a perfect score. It would relieve alot of the health-care cost,that has grown so prohibitive ,for most local and state relief public aid offices.But,it seems business-as-usual from the pharmco-companies,who charge outragous sums for their re-formulated herbal product.Consumers Beware!"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I really like this book and have learned a lot from it. I recommend this book for anyone who deals with herbs."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"For all the hype, it was average. I have shelves of herbal guides and agree that pictures and more detailed info would be better. Too preachy and too \\"Don't try this at home...and just to be sure, I'm going to be very vague about how to use this...\\" Also picked up a rather paternal tone, but that could be me."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"The book is great but I hate to have to type all of this new way of saying the product was good and service great. But having to go through all of this mess is too much!"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I am quite impressed with this book. The amount of information that Duke has crammed into this slim volume is unbelievable. The herb profiles contain everything you would want to know about an herb before using it. The safety rating is such a great tool. I wonder why Duke is the first herbalist to think of it (at least I think he's the first. Never seen it in any other herbal). In this collection of herbs, there are North, South and Central American plants as well as European and Asian ones. There's a nice therapeutic index too, listing what herbs are good for which conditions. Duke has a great writing style. It reflects his incredible knowledge, sense of humor and just plain common sense. Excellent book! If I could only have 3 herb books, this would be one of them."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"Dr. Duke's book, The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook, contains accurate, no-nonsense information on many of the medically useful herbal preparations. His background in botany, provides excellent advise on uses and possible dangers.For those herbs he includes there are lists of optimum dosages and warnings of possible contra-indications or dangers involved.Over 180 herbs are described, in a quick to use format.Even though it covers a small number of the herbs available for use, the ones he includes are important in treating a range of conditions.I found it quite readable even for browsing in an evening, and emminently useful when faced with a sudden onset of a medical problem of the sort most treatable with herbs."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I have read all of James Duke's books and this one is the best and most essential. Every common medicinal herb is described and rated for its value medicinally and for safety in a uniform and formulamatic way in alphabetic order. This makes this book both concise and incredibly valuable for quick reference. No matter how many times I have read this book I find myself going to it daily for quick information and in this regard it has no equal. The only shortcoming is really by design it excludes \\"non-herbal\\" though related information. For instance, you may find information on bromelain, but no reference to using it with quercetin since quercetin is a flavonoid. Duke's newer book on \\"anti-aging\\" does take this into account, but it is not neatly or usefully organized for quick reference. Lastly, many books of this type are quite expensive, \\"The Green Pharmacy\\" is the exception with new copies available for around $10. and used for around $6."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook is an informative and concise resource on the medicinal value of herbs written to the layman yet of value to the practitioner. Dr. Duke's no-nonsense approach to demonstrating the therapeutic value to useful herbal preparations as well as potential adverse reactions provides the reader with a useful index of commonly used herbs. This book is an easy read, and it is written in a straight-forward manner that makes it easily understood by those new to the ageless use of plants in our environment to ease and cure disease."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I have been reading through \\"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook,\\" trying first one thing then another for several weeks now, ever since the book came in the mail. Let me tell you, this book is a life saver (not literally, but maybe).The first thing I tried was 100% cranberry juice, not the cocktail product. Please pardon this personal comment, but I had dark urine from not drinking enough water. After drinking 100% cranberry juice for a couple of weeks, my urine is now normal. I must admit that I could not drink 100% at pure strength and added a little orange juice to it. I also committed to drinking more water.Celery seed, or celery stalks, helps control high blood pressure and cholesterol. Medication is not getting my high blood pressure down so I can have eye surgery. I'm eating lots of celery to see if this truly works.Rubbing crushed basil leaves on exposed body parts will keep mosquitoes at bay when outdoors and people when indoors (haha, just a little old lady joke).Pour about four ounces of oats into your bath water for a good soak to relieve itchy skin, especially psoriasis.Powdered or fresh ginger aids in preventing blood fats from forming, keeps fibromyalgia pain at bay, and helps abate joint pain, among its many benefits.These are just a few things I tried or passed on to family members to try, with each having success. I highly recommend this book not only for its health benefits, but also for its entertainment value. The book is fun to read!"},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"James Duke's book \\"The Green Pharmacy\\" was one of the first few I read about herbs used for healing. It still has a place in my bookcase. This book has much more complete information about the plants included, and seems more geared for the level at which I practice now. As a nurse and now a trained herbalist, I like the mention of pharmaceuticals used for the same treatment goals. The last 14 years, I have studied both herbs and prescription drugs extensively. Dr. Duke's scientific yet down to earth approach is greatly appreciated. This book will find use as a reference for both the pharmacology lectures I present, as well as those about healing with botanicals. My thanks to Dr. Duke for another winner."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"This is a great book to keep on hand. If you enjoy the outdoors and want some home grown remedies for just about everything, this is the book to keep with you. It will become your best companion as you work to get away from the world of big pharma. I have used it to guide me in what herbs I plant so I can keep on hand some of the basics. It also has some recipes in it, just for fun. It is amazing what is out there that we overlook every day."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"I have truly enjoyed reading this book. Lots and lots of important information. Not only does it give you the good herbs, but it also names to bad herbs and gives its contraindications. I was very pleased upon receipt of book."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"Overall I really like this book and it is a great resource. However, I have looked for a couple Herbs and they are not in the book. So that was disappointing. Still a good book. I did receive the book quickly and in excellent condition."},{"Title":"The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing","review":"James Duke has a real winner here. I have tried many of the remedies in this book and they work. Great advice, affordable health care, what more do you want?"},{"Title":"Farm Machinery: Heavy Equipment (Discovery Library of Heavy Equipment)","review":"Farm machinery discusses such heavy machinery as tractors, plows, combines, cotton stripper, windrower, and harvester. There is a glossary and an index. Karen Woodworth Roman, Children's Science Book Review"},{"Title":"The Saguenay trip","review":"Published by the Canada Steamship Lines, the book reads like a cross between a geography textbook and tourism promotion. Historical notes of a voyage down the Saguenay in 1859 is contrasted with the \\"modern\\" transportation luxury of a similar trip on Canada Lines at the time of this publication. There is a large fold out map in the back with geographical information. The color plates are quite nice."},{"Title":"A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays","review":"Joseph Epstein is the type of writer whose works everyone should read but, sadly, too few do. He is both erudite and witty while retaining the nonchalance of \\"just one of the guys from the neighborhood.\\" His writing is always insightful and always enjoyable. To those who keep a notepad and pencil handy while reading to jot down a tidbit of obscure information or a reference to a book to be explored at a later date, Mr. Epstein's books will necessitate the presence of a good pencil sharpener as well. Sadly, most of his books, of which there have been many, are now out of print. Such is the fate of interesting, witty, and sublime writers in our questionably literate time. Thankfully, A Line Out For A Walk remains available.Comprising a series of essays, most of which originally published under his pen name \\"Aristides\\" while serving his remarkable tenure as editor of that once great journal of American letter, The American Scholar, A Line Out For A Walk is a remarkable book. In it can be found something to please the tastes of most everyone; reminiscences of old friends (some notable, some known only to a few), literary investigations, histories, ponderings, puns, observations, laments, biographical sketches, and reflections - all are offered in the straightforward yet eloquent style that has become Mr. Epstein's trademark. Should anyone finish a reading of this book and not felt themselves to have spent the time wisely and profitably, they should abandon reading altogether as they are obviously missing the point of it.Mr. Epstein's essays are not the thin, watery things we so commonly see today, containing only a few personal, usually embarrassing remembrances of the author' life. They are full of life, being composed both the high and the low, the intellectual and the mundane. In one essay alone you are likely to find some of the life of Henry James, a note on the achievements of Jewish baseball players, an observation on the nature of indoor cats, three snippets from Lady Montagu's travel journals, a tale of life in the Chicago of the 50's, a little known personal habit of Woodrow Wilson, the real meaning behind one of Gainsborough's paintings, and a brief life of a little known but highly respected journalist from the 1890's. These are not things expected in a modern essayist; these are the qualities of products from the golden years of the essay. Indeed, Mr. Epstein should be, and no doubt someday will be, ranked among the likes of Lamb, Hazlitt, and Leibling. After all to which he has been subjected in his lifetime, it is the least that can be done to honor his outstanding work."},{"Title":"A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays","review":"In the past few years I have read a large number of the essays of Joseph Epstein. I find that he is one of the best essayists now writing. He writes with a real grasp of American everyday realities, He also has a real feeling for Literature. But what most impresses in his work is his mastery of Ideas , and his ability to clarify his experience conceptually.Reading him is a very special kind of education, enjoyable and interesting."},{"Title":"A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays","review":"As a wordsmith, Epstein has few peers. These essays are to be luxuriated in, read and re-read. Pure pleasure."},{"Title":"A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays","review":"Your best friend, this book, when you are down, when you go to sleep alone (you no longer feel alone), when you do not mind laughing out loud to the amazement of your pets.The best gift to a friend you care about. Better be over fifty though to thoroughly enjoy. A Brenner"},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I have been lifting for a couple years on and off, predominantly by myself and with minimal instruction. After finishing the book, gaps in my weight lifting knowledge that I had not known existed had been filled in. The authors came across as humble, self-effacing, genuinely helpful, and very human. The expressed human element helped to convey that weight lifting can be beneficial for everyone. Looking through the table of contents, a prospective buyer might be surprised that the specific weight lifting exercises are covered in the last half of the book. However, the first half is well worth the price of the book by itself, in my opinion, as it explains the ins and outs of proper nutrition, stretching, gym and gym equipment selection, and gym culture. The authors goals of instilling good habits, good technique, and proper mindfulness in weight lifting is well served."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"When I first read this book, I thought it was too broad in scope. A re-read has changed my mind. Here's what I think threw me the first time through: This book is written by athletes who have other sports as their prime activity. One is a cyclist, the other is a kayaker, and the third is a power-lifter/physical therapist. They're not bodybuilders, per se. They "weight train" to build strength for their other activities. They acknowledge the aesthetics and general fitness that weight training brings, but they keep coming back to their roots. The reason I'm making a 180 on a recommendation for this book is because the advice is sound. All of it. That is SO hard to find in bodybuilding/weight lifting books. If you haven't discovered it yet, you'll find that bodybuilding is full of hype. This book is not like that. Your motivation is your own, so use this book as a tool to attain either increased strength, better overall fitness, bodybuilding, or whatever. It's valuable as an adjunct to whatever else you're doing."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"This is the best book that I have found on weight training. I needed a thorough book to get started and this was it. Other than my very lackluster lifting durig high school I have never seriously lifted, so I am far from an expert on lifting. I must add however that after having looked at many books on weight training I feel like a bit of an expert on the literature. What I found was that most books are geared to those that already know the subject. These books assumed many techniques I did not know, implied that I needed to work out about 3 hours at a time for 8 days a week and rambled on and on and on.The Idiot's Guide to Weight Training thoroughly introduced me to everything that I needed to get started. After reading this book, I walked into a fitness store, bought the starter equipment I needed and started to lift. As I write this I am bit sore from the first few lifting sesions, but I am excited and looking forward to the future weeks and months. This book helps with equipment, clothing, eating, stretching, excercise instructions, routines and safety. The authors have provided a very thorough, readable and motivating book. In my estimation this book is an extremely valuable addition to the topic, and is indeed as far as I can tell the best book available to the beginner."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"Having lifted for years, I was looking for a book to inspire my mother-in-law who has expressed an interested in weight training but seems intimidated by the "foreign-ness" of the gym scene. When I stumbled on this informative and surprisingly amusing book, I knew I'd found what I was looking for. While this book is clearly written for beginners -- picking a gym, basic technique, etc. -- it offers some good routines for experienced lifters and debunks various myths that you constantly hear in the gym like "I don't want to lift heavy weights because it will make me 'too big'." The illustrations are helpful and the prose easy to follow. If you've thought, "I've got to get back to the gym" or know someone who feels the same, check this book out."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"After many years of doing very little exercise, I returned to the gym about a year ago. I purchased this book 3 months later and read it cover to cover, an enjoyable read. I continue to use the book as a reference to add additional and change exercises on a regular basis. Having followed some of the sample routines they provide, I can attest to a significant increase in strength and in general well-being. There are enough details and variations to satisfy someone just starting or getting more serious about lifting. I recommend this book - and thank the authors."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I got this for my husband who is build like a horse, very active, but entirely unatheletic. I wanted to work out again and he never had but wanted to try. He learned alot about how wieght training works and is thrilled with the results (say Arnold!. I still refer back to it regularly to update our workout. It is simple and has all the info you need to get started whether you have lifted before or not."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"Loved to read this book. Covers all aspects of weight training without focusing on pure bodybuilding. Suitable for everyone who wants to get or keep in shape."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I'm glad I started with this book...it's well organized and very thorough. Covers all the essential things a person should know to get started in the weight room. It's also going to stay on my shelf for a long time as a reference, because it gives good tips on form, exercises, etc., as well as for other things that might pop up. you will probably want more info as you get more into training, but this book will continue to be of use as a reference."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I find this book lends itself to everyone who comes into my home. It keeps getting borrowed. It is light and humorous reading yet extremely infomative. Fitness buffs rounding out their knowledge base and those hesitantly looking into beginning a weight- training regimen will find this book an enjoyable read and an informative resource. Just hold on to your copy......"},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I am not quite as enamored of this book as some other reviewers, but it is good. One author is a powerlifter, which both adds some amusing stories but occasionally gives this book an odd slant. I wish they would have fleshed out their weightlifting routines a bit more instead of just providing a skeleton - I am a bit lazy like that. Despite the above comments, the authors do a good job providing information without the hype."},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I am an amateur health enthusiast who bought this book to take my home workouts and weight training knowledge to the next level and was not disappointed. This book is an easy to read, plain talking guide with a superior explanation format; cock full of solid knowledge regarding work out technique; body facts and the science of health through weigh training and ongoing fitness development. I fully explains such key factors as: proper preparation before, during and after, body movement and lifting techniques, a complete A to Z on the \\"How To\\" and \\"Don't Do This\\", regarding technical exercises with a constant goal of improving ones body and mind through weight training. I keep this book handy in my small home gym and refer to it constantly, to keep my interest engaged while I continue with my overall fitness plan. A real winner!S R Hoyt"},{"Title":"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training","review":"I had already started lifting weights when I got this book. It had a lot of helpful info, but it also had a *lot* of info. It is a terrific book for beginners and those looking for a lot of text definition."},{"Title":"Three essays on the theory of sexuality","review":"Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is an important work for a number of reasons. Anyone in possession of even a passing familiarity with Freud will certainly be aware of the importance Freud places on the sexual instinct in his psychology. Freud's theories on human sexuality are often criticized for being reductionistic (for reducing love to sex) but as Freud himself says in his Preface to the fourth edition of this work, \\"anyone who looks down with contempt upon psycho-analysis from a superior vantage-point should remember how closely the enlarged sexuality of psycho-analysis coincides with the Eros of the divine Plato\\" (pg. xxx). Three Essays is one of Freud's most sustained analyses of this important aspect of his thought and is valuable for that reason alone. No one who is interested in Freudian psychology in general, Freud's theories on the sexual instinct in particular, or in human sexuality in general can afford to miss this book.I also think this work is an important step (or can become one) towards dispelling some of the myths about sexuality (like the myth that heterosexuality is \\"natural\\" and homosexuality is \\"unnatural\\"). It is true that Freud still uses the term perversion when discussing homosexuality (which he calls inversion) but his analysis also tends to undermine the view that heterosexuality is in some sense more natural than homosexuality in a number of ways (or I should say Freud's analysis undermines the metaphysics of the sexual instinct that underlies such a view). The sexual instinct, for Freud, is complex and is something constructed in the concrete development of the individual; in other words, even the \\"normal\\" sexual instinct is unnatural to the degree that it is constructed and not innate or based on immutable laws of nature. It is a river made up of a number of separate tributaries. This means there is no difference, metaphysically speaking, between heterosexuality and homosexuality.And finally, for anyone who is interested (as I am) in phenomenology, Freud's essays in this volume can serve as a foundation for a phenomenology of sexual life, though it is necessary to update to some degree the mechanistic physiology that Freud couches his theories in. For this purpose I would recommend reading The Organism by Kurt Goldstein and The Structures of Behavior by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.The first part of my review will briefly outline Freud's main theses in this book. The second part will be a few of my own thoughts about how Freud's theories contribute towards a phenomenology of sexual life and should only be read by those who are interested in this topic.I.There are, in Freud's opinion, some common misconceptions about the sexual instinct. It is assumed to be absent in children, to set in at the time of puberty, to be directed solely towards the opposite sex, and its aim is supposed to be sexual union (pg. 1). This is the accepted picture of the sexual instinct in terms of common understanding. Freud believes this is a considerable falsification.Freud will challenge nearly every one of these premises. First, he believes that the sexual instinct is present in children though children do in general go through a period in which it is suppressed (the latency period) only to have it reawaken during puberty. Freud believes a great deal can be learned by studying the sexual instinct as it appears in children (before it has undergone the transformations wrought by society). Freud writes, \\"A thorough study of the sexual manifestations of childhood would probably reveal the essential characters of the sexual instinct and would show us the course of its development and the way in which it is put together from various sources\\" (pg. 39). Some characteristics of childhood sexuality are that it often tends to be auto-erotic, it is not limited to what later become the dominant erotogenic zones, and its goal is pleasure, or a repetition of the feeling of satisfaction derived from sexual stimulation of an erotogenic zone (sexual pleasure is also not as strictly differentiated from other kinds of pleasure, such as the pleasure of eating, in children as it often is in adults). So much for the first premise of the ordinary view of the sexual instinct.In regard to the second premise there is definitely a change that takes place in the sexual instinct during puberty. The change, however, does not consist in the awakening of a previously absent instinct. Puberty is not the beginning of the sexual instinct but it is the point at which it tends to shift from auto-eroticism towards object choice. This is the period when the affectionate feelings that were directed towards parents and family (which Freud believes are the remnants of infantile sexuality) and the pleasures achieved through stimulation of the erotogenic zones converge and attempt to find their satisfaction in a single object. A number of other changes take place during puberty but that is enough of a summary.In regard to the third premise, Freud does not believe that the sexual instinct is defined by a unity in terms of its object. There are many variations in terms of object (homosexuality being the most common). Freud discusses briefly the question as to whether the choice of object is innate or acquired and decides that the question should not be posed in terms of such an exclusive choice (pg. 6). Freud's views on this topic should, obviously, not be viewed as the final word on this important subject (the work was published in 1905), but Freud does not seem to believe that the nature of the sexual object is what is truly central to the sexual instinct. Freud writes, \\"Under a great number of conditions and in surprisingly numerous individuals, the nature and importance of the sexual object recedes into the background. What is essential and constant in the sexual instinct is something else\\" (pg. 15). There is something constant in the sexual instinct which justifies us in classifying various object choices as still belonging within the same realm of human sexuality, and as different manifestations of the same sexual instinct. This constant factor is what Freud is on the trail of in this work. What justifies us in calling activities with different objects and different aims as \\"sexual\\"?Freud also challenges the final premise, the notion that there is a single sexual aim which the sexual instinct seeks to fulfill. The aim of the sexual instinct is not defined univocally as sexual union but can be as varied as choice of objects. I should point out that Freud uses the term \\"perversion\\" to designate any deviation from the \\"normal\\" object or aim of the sexual instinct, but I do not believe this term should be taken as implying any kind of negative value judgment on Freud's part. Freud was a scientist and his goal is not to judge various manifestations of the sexual instinct from a moral standpoint but to understand them. It is undeniable that the sexual instinct manifests itself in extremely variable forms, and this is true no matter what your moral stance is in regard to various manifestations of human sexuality. This is the undeniable fact that Freud seeks to understand. How is it that the sexual instinct comes to manifest itself in so many different forms? Freud attempts to answer that question by tracing the genesis of the sexual instinct in childhood up through puberty.II.There are a couple of things I would like to say in regard to Freud's relevance for phenomenology. I am not going to labor this point but I would like to make a couple of points.First, it is clear reading Freud's work that the sexual instinct has an intentionality all of its own. It is not some blind mechanism seeking discharge in whatever way happens to lie open to it. The sexual instinct has preferred objects and preferred aims. Heidegger, in one of his lecture courses on religion made the claim that Augustine in his analysis of the heart's restless search for God penetrated much more deeply into the self-world and factic life of Dasein than Descartes did with his cogito ergo sum. I would say the same about Freud. His analysis of the sexual instinct penetrates far more deeply into the factic (and embodied) existence of human life and experience than any analysis of conscious or theoretical cognition ever could, and he reveals that the body has a life of its own, as well as an intelligence of its own, and its own aims that are not at all (or not always) under the control of the conscious mind. This is one of the truly enduring achievements of Freud's work. Many of his ideas are couched in terms of a mechanistic physiology that I think is obsolete, or at least one that phenomenologists tend to challenge. But this aspect of Freud's work is not essential to his meaning.Freud's work is always interesting for anyone interested in an ontology of the subject. I do not believe the subject can be adequately understood based on Descartes's cogito or as a pure subject of cognition. Freud's work penetrates much more deeply into the ontology of the self, its drives, and its compulsions. Freud also sees a conflict between the self and civilization the consequences of which \\"can be followed far into the structures of our existences\\" (pg. 108). In my opinion this is a place where Freud's own work points beyond his own mechanistic understanding of the human body. The human being is a being that is shaped to its very core by societal influences. There is no strict dualism between the natural and the artificial. This to me seems to be one of the major implications of this work, that even something as \\"natural\\" as the sexual instinct is utterly plastic and malleable (this is why I say Freud's work undermines the metaphysics of the sexual instinct which provide the basis for negative attitudes towards homosexuality).For all these reasons I believe Freud's work is very important for those working in the field of phenomenology. I should also point out that Freud's work can be considered a challenge to phenomenology as well in many respects (which is also good for people working in phenomenology in my opinion). I won't go into this aspect of Freud's work in detail but it is definitely present.I would recommend this work to anyone interested in psychology, in Freudian psychology, in human sexuality or in the phenomenology of embodied existence.[As one final note: another reviewer has warned readers against the Basic Books edition of this work and suggested attempting to find the earlier James Strachey translation. I would just like to point out that the Basic Books edition is the James Strachey translation. Nancy Chodorow did indeed write the foreword but as far as I can tell she did not have anything else to do with the editing of this volume. So I would not let that review dissuade you from purchasing the Basic Books edition]"},{"Title":"Three essays on the theory of sexuality","review":"Well, it's going to keep you interested, that's for sure. Freud is dissecting some strange topics here, but it's informative, interesting and worth the read."},{"Title":"Three essays on the theory of sexuality","review":"Do not buy this Basic Books edition. You will be getting Freud as filtered through the ideologically-driven eyes of feminist Nancy Chodorow, who wrote the foreword (check out her entry on Wikipedia).It seems the radical feminist influence is everywhere. Feminists vehemently deny Freud's pen** envy theory, but the roots of feminism go back to Marx, and Freud himself..the two great armchair theorists of the twentieth century.Get either the Brill translation, or see if you can find an early edition of the Strachey translation. In the meantime read Popper, for an objective discussion of why Freud was wrong (or at least non-scientific) - instead of an emotion-based (selective) rejection of him."},{"Title":"Three essays on the theory of sexuality","review":"It's not first book on sex in the world you know. But Considered the esseys in this book published in 1920s, it's so shocked and execellent. Freud extend his own typical attitude on sex. At first, he seems to believe that the original reason of all mental disease is on Libido or sexual drive. it's same with his other articles like [The interpretation of Dream] and so on. The content of this book is composed of so many esseys different from the "real" title of Book [three essays...]. He studied from fetishism to sex life of children variously. And continued to...anal eroticism, sexual desire of women and children... Even Most of people recently think children and women(especially young girl) have a passive sexual drive or no desire. But Freud thought the start of Sexul desire from infant period. So called Oedipus Complex! you know. Babies' Oedipus Complex formed by jealousy on their fathers. Babies want to kill their father then have [or have intercourse?] their moms according to theory of Freud. And this failed desire make growing persons sick(of course mental disease). These disease or symptoms divided variously e.g Fetishism, Paranoia, Hysteria... In conclusion, i hope you should choose this one if you wanna get deeper knowledge about origin of YOUR Sexual desire! Humm... mail to me if there comments."},{"Title":"Wind of Change","review":"Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and KritiquesIf one wishes for an intriguing historical romance, with some paranormal thrown in for good measure, this is the book to read. A heart-wrenching story told from the Native American point of view, this will keep one engrossed through the end.Hiawatha Craft is in a bit of a dilemma. While waiting for his car to be fixed, he visits a local junk shop, and peruses their Cherokee artifacts. Something about them strikes a familiar cord though he can't for the life of him figure out why. After his car is functioning again, he ventures on his way to a nearby city known for its Cherokee history records, in the hopes of tracking down some of his ancestors. Much to his dismay, a tornado comes up out of nowhere, sucking him into itself and depositing him elsewhere, alive and uninjured, but over 150 years in the past!Valerie Redhook despairs of ever being happy again. Her family and their village have all been rounded up to head west, along the \\"Trail of Tears\\" to their new home. Her people have long suffered on this journey, falling ill faster then ever as winter approaches. All she longs for is to do her best to tend to those in need, and to prove to her father she is more than capable of becoming Chief someday. When a man in strange garments appears and is put in her wagon with her, she is unsure if he is the answer to their prayers, or the biggest danger yet to be faced.Hiawatha is in disbelief over his plight and his only thought is to find a way home to his own time. What follows surprises him. As he travels the Trail of Tears with the Cherokee he is amazed by the quiet strength of his people, and of Valerie herself. As with any long journey, this one is fraught with peril as they try to overcome their difficulties and find their destiny. He is drawn to Valerie the more he is with her, and soon faces his greatest fear yet. How will he leave this woman he has come to love when he must return to his own time?This was an interesting look at one of the most heartbreaking events of Native American history - The Trail of Tears. This period of history is one many wish they could forget ever happened, realizing that the government may not have been the wisest at the time. The reader experiences the hardships of the harrowing journey of the Cherokee from the only home they had ever known, to a new place they have not yet seen. Yet through it all, the illness, and lack of food, the deaths of many loved ones, and a long cold journey, the people never lost hope. They believed that at the end of the road they would find a new home they could love, even if it never replaced the home of their hearts. The reader will feel their pain and sorrow, and their joy of life throughout the whole tale, and will find oneself wishing not to know how things really played out for them, long term.Hiawatha and Valerie are strong characters. He has to overcome what happened, and find the purpose behind it, for he never doubts there was a reason such an extraordinary thing happened to him. Valerie suffers in silence, never complaining about her plight and the added responsibility now falling on her shoulders as Chief's daughter. She is proud of her people and her tribe, feeling the greatest thing that could happen to her would be to be chosen to lead them in their new life. Yet she deals with the traditional beliefs that a woman cannot lead, hoping to prove otherwise through her deeds. Hiawatha and Valerie are a good match, her quiet dignity the perfect compliment to his more modern views, as well as balancing his drive to return home, only for him to find out home is not what he thought at all.One thing this reviewer liked about the book was that there is not the traditional good vs. evil plot. This story was a saga of the life of the Native Americans on their journey west, so there is no particular \\"good\\" or \\"bad.\\" All of the characters were a complex blend, from Valerie's uncle, Charles, who is an embittered man, to little Sally Black Cloud, who shows the indomitable spirit of a child.What was also nice was that the Cherokee did not rail at their fate, crying about the injustice of it all. They kept their pride and as much of their old ways as they could, in spite of what was happening to them. Hiawatha too, does not allow himself to complain about what happened to him, he carries on, knowing he has a purpose, hoping he finds and fulfills it before he must leave.This was an excellent story, the first this reviewer has read by Ms. Troxel. It kept her interest and made her hope for more stories by this talented author. Hopefully, more will follow in the near future.Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2003. All rights reserved."},{"Title":"On actors and the art of acting (Amateur series)","review":"Mr. Lewes book is a gem--he was a keenly-observant Victorian theater-goer whose detailed analysis of the craft of acting is as good as I've ever read. HOWEVER--- this edition of his book, which I assume has long been out-of-print, is unreadable. It has, according to a disclaimer inside the front cover, been produced by robotically scanning an old copy of the book. The disclaimer says there may be \\"a few typos\\" and some \\"missed pages\\". (Missed PAGES?) This is an understatement-- the punctuation in this edition is haywire and the spelling is almost as bad (hilariously, in some cases-- on one page Shakespeare is printed \\"Quakspere\\"!). At first I thought I could put up with the errors, but there are so many of them that you get no sense of the flow of Mr. Lewes' thought and no pleasure in the reading. I ended up sending it back. I had purchased this edition with the idea of giving it to an actor friend-- it would have been a very sad gift!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"i dont know why there are so many good reviews... after 150 pages this book is all about a girl rambling to herself in a swamp about baseball and her boring dysfunctional family. i keep reading it the same way you watch a trainwreck.... i keep asking myself, can it really be this bad? how can king make money writing this junk?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Mom and brother are arguing so the daughter, the good daughter, opts to slip into the woods. She teels herself she has to go to the bathroom but she doesn't really need to. What she needs is a break before she screams because she can't stand it anymore. The problem here is that this girl who loves #36, Tom gordon, slips a little too far away and, before she knows it, she's lost. Thank goodness she has Tom to keep the terrible things away or else \\"it\\" might find and get her.I had high hopes for the book but I found that these were quickly dashed against repeating metaphoric rocks. There were pages upon pages spent telling the reader about snakes and being lost and \\"I wonder if I'm really using the third object in my homemade compass to tell me the right way to go?\\" Over and over again there seemed to be things added into the background that really didn't matter, and the repeating - it felt like it was meant to drive me insane.She loved Tom gordon. got it.He protects her from \\"it.\\" got it.She wants to be found. Got it yet again.For fans of King, this isn't for you. It advertised itself as something of a fairytale - I really didn't see that. I saw a kid who was lost in the woods and was scared - scared that she would be attacked and scared that she would not be missed and scared that Tom Gordon would be her only saviour in the end.Not recommended."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have never read anything else from Stephen King besides this book, which I just finished less than an hour ago, and I absolutely hated it. It read VERY slow, and it was extremely boring. Right at the beginning of the book, the girl, Trisha, gets lost in the woods.Then you spend the rest of the book following her around. She's tired, shes sick, she's hungry, she's frightened- SO WHAT?! I saw no point to this story whatsoever. I was waiting for some big climatctic ending, and there was nothing at all. Again, I am not familiar with his works, but the whole thing seemed way too bubblegum sweet to be written by a person with the frightening reputation Stephen King has. Maybe his other stuff is better, but I thought this book was boring. I couldn't stand it by page 20 and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Story is about a 9 year old child who is lost in a forest. The story is very monotonic and did not excited me. I only liked the last chapter and after reading that one i got near to cry. All the story passes in a forest and contains some references to her past experiences. She is a little shysophrenic becouse most of the time she "saws" Tom Gordon (also she know he is not there :)).Book may be can be used for a reference book: "How to survive in a forest" bot not for getting excited.Kings little "excited" tellings did not made me feel so. It may be a great book but did not gave me what i had waited for. May be was not my style."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was like a breath of fresh air after reading Dreamcatcher. The plot is very simple: a survival story about a little girl lost in the woods and she is looking for her parents but doesnt find them til the end of the book. King manages to avoid the psychological babbling of his recent books but still pull you in with well developed characters.In this story a little nine year old girl must battle the elements, her fear of a stalking creature, and the deterioration of her body and senses.This book is not meant to scare you into the wee hours of the night but it will keep you turning the pages just the same. King makes you care about this girl and whether or not she will survive, which makes it a given that she will (this isn't a Bachman novel). Knowing this doesn't take away from the intensity of her struggle.I highly recommend this to Stephen King fans or anyone who loves a good read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I like Stephen King. But this book was a waste of my time and money. I wanted to stop reading mid-way because it was so predicable what was going to happen at the end. So many endless pages about the forest/wood. It just dragged, on and on. I have to rate this at 1 star, because I have no other choice. But is should be a -5 stars."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha is lost in the woods of Maine for about a week. She begins to hallucinate baseball player Tom Gordon accompanying her through the thicket. What she doesn't imagine is something (not someone) stalking her through the woods. The climax is very exciting. The book does tend to drag a little through the middle. King does an excellent job of scaring you. This book is good but not great."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is the one book by Stephen King I could not finish. Usually his books grab me from the first paragraph but this one held no interest at all. I quit about a 1/4 of the way through and didn't even care enough to turn to the back pages to find out how it ended.King has only left me disapointed once before and that was with Gerald's Game."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Wow, not at all the usual King. Just scary enough to keep the kids from wandering off the trail. I forgive you Stephen, your're entitled to one loser now and then."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't know what he was thinking when he wrote this. Not scary, not frightening, and not even any good. There isn't a hint of suspense in this book. The whole book is just disappointing. It's about a girl that gets lost in the world and lives off of berries. She's scared the whole time and if she had just stayed on the trail, I wouldn't have had to read this garbage for two hours. Leave this be."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought the novel was more about her adventures through the forest than it was about the supposed beast following her around. It was really fascinating to read, and how she survived day to day, and it was one of those page turners where you just want to know what keeps happening. I thought it was good, not really scarey, but more entertaining and different if anything."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"idont think this book was as good as his others it didnt scare me. it wasnt what i expected."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This wasn't the most exciting book I've ever read. In fact at times (in the middle of the story) it was pretty dull, but it made me feel sorry for this poor little girl, and I wanted to finish it to see how or if she would ever get out of the woods. I might have enjoyed it more if I was a baseball fan, but I'm not. But, all in all it wasn't bad."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"4 WORDS FOR YOU: A VERY GOOD BOOK. It is a good book. STRONGLY recommended for those Teenagers who love thrilling, suspencful-adventure book! It's was great!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a typical King story in regards to the quality ofwriting, but there wasn't much of an actual *story*. It's only 224 pp!And what about what King wrote in the forward of *Four Past Midnight*?The whole lot about having written the four pieces in the collection and "they were too long for a short-story, and too short for a novel."? So he waited until he had enough to make a book? Well, he didn't wait with this one--at a cost of almost as much as one of his 500-700 pp novels, *TGWLTG* just ain't worth it. END"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really liked this book. Told in the point of view of a little girl lost in the woods was refreshing. I have recommended this book to my 16 year old son. The book really kept my attention and I couldn't put it down. Then, at the end, it just fizzled out. I wish S.K. would have put as much enthusiasm in the ending as he did throughout Trisha's journey in the woods.And let this be a fictional lesson to parents going through divorces not to create such a hostile environment when they have kids to consider first. hmmm..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book in two sittings. King does what he does best: He takes you on a journey through the strange and the terrifying. The story revolves around a nine-year old girl who gets lost in more ways than one. If you like King, you'll love this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a different route of horror for King. Imagine being lost in the woods for several days, the terror of hearing every little noise and imagining the worst. For any King fan, this is a great read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really liked this book. It's a little different then some of his other work. It reminds me of Gerald's Game somewhat. It's not very long though but it's enjoyable reading."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The title is deceiving, but gets you thinking. I got mosquito bites(Or seemed to) When I read the book. You feel like you are in the woods with her!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"i am into really scary books and alot of them try to be gross and use that to make up for their lack of real writing well and interesting plot line but this is a very well writen book and i am very impressed with it but if you are looking for a real scary keep you up all night nightmare book this is not it but if you want to kept up all night cause you can not put it down beacause of it is very interesting and well written then i will recomend this book for you. and please consider my advice i am 14 years old but i do know a good book and this is it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've been reading most of King's earlier novels and expected this one to be like the others, with monsters and various paranormal experiences. But this novel isn't like that. It's actually not much of a horror story at all. But it's still one of the most scary novels he has ever written.The way King descibes a 9-year-old girls struggle through an unfriendly world, a world which couldn't care less about here, is truly fascinating. Being a hiker myself (in the northern Swedish mountains), I can easily picture everything she is going through. And that, I can assure you, is scary... This is a novel about courage and the will to survive against all odds.Even though you know that it's just a novel, you still can't help feeling for the girl. You want her to survive, you want her to get out of there. I was forced to put the book down after reading about half of it, and until I got the time the finish it, I actually found myself thinking about it all the time. I just couldn't keep my mind focused on anything else.The only bad thing about this otherwise great novel was that it was to short..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought that this book was told very well. At times you thought that it was going to be hard for Trisha to get out of the woods. King told the story great by using many things throughout the woods that were helpful to her and harmful to her. The book ended quickly but other than that this book is great!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If I hadn't been given the novel as a present I probably wouldn't have picked it up in a while, but I believe that Stephen King has written much better novels than this one. He is characterized by being a master of terror, but there wasn't almost any terror portrayed here as in other, usually older, novels of his. Though I guess it would be fine for younger readers. So they won't be scared off too soon by King and dare to read his novels further."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I used to read a lot of Stephen King's novels. In fact, "The Stand" remains my favorite novel of all time. But I quit reading him in 1993 after I read "Gerald's Game"- too gross and scary for me. I felt forced to finish it against my will because when I stopped I kept having horrible imaginings and dreams about how it would end. I feared my imaginings might be worse than the book's own ending so I begrudgingly and fearfully finished it, but I swore that I would not read anymore King. I turned to the less frightening (and often less interesting) "literary fiction" section of the bookstore and have been happily buried there for much of the last 7 years. Then I unexpectedly caught site of this little book at the check-out aisle at the grocery (a place where I had never previously purchased a book). Hit with a burst of nostalgia for my previous fondness for the author of my favorite book, I tossed it on the counter. I read this book in a single night and yes, I was scared. But, I remembered that I like that! Also, my years away made me realize what a fantastic writer he truly is. His characters and stories are the best of the best. Since then I've been making up for lost time, reading (and listening to and downloading) all the Stephen King I can find. Long Live the King!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King is a writer who has ripened with age. He no longer writes horror stories, but humanity stories. We saw glimpses of it in his earlier work, but as he has gotten older, so have his novels.He wrote a book about a decade ago titled "Gerald's Game". That book, about a woman who is strapped to a bed for four days without rescue, is almost the same novel as "Gordon". A woman is alone with her thoughts,a woman needs a figure to get out of the mess( in this case tom gordon, in "gerald's game" her long time friend), each women is stalked by a mythical, terrifying god-like figure, and each goes deep into the main characters mind to find resolution to what ailement they might have( trisha's mom and brother's fighting,in Gerald's Game her sexual abuse). In "Gerald's Game" it's like somebody dared KING to write a novel about a woman tied to a bed; in "Gordon" it's like somebody dared the authour to write a novel about a girl trapped in the woods. If you read both novels they are incredibly similar.With that having been said, the book isn't entirely bad. There are parts that are very good, but a climax where a walkman is thrown at a bear that has been stalking a girl through a swamp....please! Gordon I must say is nothing more than a wast of an afternoon. A deep love for baseball is the best part about this book, but even that is not enough to redeem it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am a huge Stephen King fan and have read as many of his books as I can get my hands on. This story was one I couldn't put down , it's the only one I have read from begining to end without putting it down. I couldn't wait to see if this little girl would overcome the odds facing her on her "journey" through the forest. It's not quite a horror book, but as many true fans would know of Stephen King's books it doesn't have to involve supernatural things to be great."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It is a good book but certainly not "hot horror" as categorized above.Unfortunately, I fear there will be people who choose not to read this book as a result of its headline here.As avid King readers know, some of his books simply do not fit the stereotype that exists in many minds. This is one of those books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was good, but not great. I was looking for more and didn't get it. In any Stephen King novel, there is a bit of the supernatural that drives the book forward. I didn't get it here, so I was let down. However, it was still a good book and recommended for those looking for a safe read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am far from being a Stephen King fan, but I must say that he is a masterful writer in this work. The girl is lost in the woods after a truly beleivable sequence of events where she got separated from her mother and other members of her party. King places you side-by-side with this girl, wise in the ways of the woods, in many respects. You walk with her. You sense her mounting apprehension. You come to rely on hearing how Tom Gordon is doing. The reader must marvel at her tenacity and staying power. King takes you right up to the end, arm-in-arm with the girl."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book didn't do it for me. And while there are obviously many people who love books where nothing happens and there's really no big point to be made, I'm not one of them. I could have spent the time it took to read this snoozer doing pushups, but instead I'm a scrawny guy with a super-dull plot crowding his subconscious. Thpppt to you, Stephen King, for stealing my muscles."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King wrote an earlier book about a woman that was accidently chained to a bed in a log cabin (he's written so many that I forgot the name). In it the woman struggles to survive and escape from her bonds. While doing this she has time to examine her own life and realize a great deal about herself. Well in this book, instead of a woman we have a girl (Trisha) and instead of being chained to a bed, she is lost in the woods. While trying to survive and reach civilization, Trisha also examines her life and starts to realize a lot of things about herself. While doing that she fantasizes about Tom Gordon, a relief pitcher for the Red Sox. Sometimes she imagines seeing him and getting advice from his image. I think because King is such a big Red Sox fan that he needed to put together something with the Red Sox.The books tends to drag a little past the middle. I might have rated this book a little higher had I not read the first book (which I thought was a lot better)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Though I have been an avid fan of Stephen King's for 15 years, I must say that this work is completely unworthy of his talent. Rather than a novella, it should have been written as a 10-12 page short story so its readers would not have to have suffered for so long. I have read almost every thing King has ever written, and for the first time, I skimmed the majority of the book. After about 5 chapters it was no longer interesting what might happen to the young heroine, who, for whatever reason, believed Tom Gordon would see her though her ordeal. It was a more arduous journey attempting to read the story than it was for the girl to be lost in the woods. For anyone who is a true Stephen King fan, this book will be a huge disappointment, and anyone who isn't a huge fan should not judge his writing prowess on this piece of trash. This is by far the worst piece of literature King has ever published."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The world may have teeth, but this novel sure ain't. It's a short story pulled out so long that you begin to wonder when that rotten tooth will finally go. The heroine, Trisha McFarland, is extremely irritating. No, make that Stephen King's writing. So determined is he to rough and tumble Trish that she ends up seriously injured before the first 30 pages are up. Agony after agony is prolonged in this torturous prose. I suppose it's difficult for a European audience to appreciate this book, since we're not used to wilderness on an American scale. Neither are we used to baseball. I was very surprised to learn that the Red Sox play games nearly every night (I suppose it's closer to cricket than soccer in this way). Even more astonishing is that Tom Gordon is a real baseball player (according to the book). I bet his socks are even redder now. Due to King's predilection for writing about writers, I had expected something more on the lines of King's recent trip to England, i.e. famous novelist faces his worst nightmare by being hit in the googlies at Lord's.It's clear quite soon that this isn't meant to be taken as a horror novel, but even so, I was surprised how flat a novel by such a highly paid writer could be. Perhaps a little more mustard could beef up the next bap."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was in great condition but the smell of smoke was so strong when I opended it that I had to let it air out for awhile before I could stand to read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was actually listening to the audiobook, read by Anne Heche (who added a lot to the story with her narration, I think).While listening to the book, I had thought the girl was a bit older than her 9 years, as Stephen King writes the protagonist as a mature individual. [She doesn't necessarily 'act' her age until the end when she is so desparate to get home].'Tom Gordon' refers to the baseball player she of whom she is a fan; who shows up as a 'spirit' to motivate her to keep on going. [The protagonist ran away after her brother and divorced mother were arguing while on a trip, and soon regretted her actions].This type of story [a child is lost, survives on his or her own while parents search] has been told before, but this story is told pretty well."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't have too much to say about The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I read it years ago. A girl gets lost in the woods with nothing but a baseball game and her favorite player (tom gordon) for comfort, but theres something else is in the woods to. It's following her, and it's getting closer as she gets lost deeper. The book actually builds some very good suspense but when it reveals it's cards at the end your left thinking \\"thats it? thats what it was?\\" It's a short novel and far from his best but it will do the trick until you reach the final chapters."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Produced by Simon AND SHOESTER AUDIO USAWhen I was preparing to listen to this short story audio book, my instinct was that this book was about baseball, my second instinct was that the book was about a famous international baseball player named Tom Gordon.My third instinct was that this would be a light-hearted story about Trisha McFarlands infatuation with her favourite sporting hero.However THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON.Is about being lost and alone in a dark wood, somewhere that no one can see you no one can hear you, no one will ever find you and no one knows you are there.Saturday 12:00pm, the McFarland family were going on a weekend treek through the woods.Nine year -old Trisha was hounding her older brother Pete about the talented and good looking Tom Gordon.Before Pete can answer Trisha decides she needs a toilet stop, when she returns her mother and brother are nowhere to be seen.One of the most frightening aspects of this book is when she begins to hear voices inside her head.My favourite moment is when Trisha, starving and naked comes across a thorn bush with wild berries. Abandoning all human behaviour she attacks the bush in a very animal like way.One week later, local emergency clinic 10:30 Tuesday morning, Trisha Mcfarland is rescued after spending 9 days and nights alone in the woods.No one knew how she had survived except her best friend Tom Gordon.This has been one of the best books I've had so far.I think the secret to Stephen King's books are finding out what are our deepest darkest fears and what would happen if that fear came true.Written by Steven Dart20/909"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a good audio production. Anne Heche does a very good job. Many of the scenes are taken from a radio broadcast and she does that part perfectly. So we get a good range of voices from Anne.Now the story itself is one of the weaker Stephen King stories out there. It deals with a very scary proposition - losing ones daughter while hiking through the forest and she is lost for days. But what makes it not so scary is the overabundance of baseball and in particular the Boston Red Sox. Now if you love baseball and the Red Sox you'll love the story.As mentioned it deals with a small girl who gets lost in a National Forest while hiking with her mother and brother. She tries to find the path again, and cannot and as a result she is lost for many days in the forest. She has to deal with food and water, and she has to deal with keeping sane and not breaking down. As she gets further into the forest she starts hallucinating, brought on by her fear of being lost, what keeps her sane is the radio that she has where she can listen to the Red Sox every night, and her hero Tom Gordon: The closer of the Red Sox. She starts hallucinating about Tom too, but it is that hallucination of Tom that helps her get through.This is a very short story for a Stephen King novel, and worth the read, while it's not one of Kings better works. The reasoning is it won't take a lot of your time, and it's still not bad, just a little too much baseball in my opinion.One thing of note: this is not a horror story, it's more a suspense story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Girl gets lost in the woods, does everything right, and comes out unscathed.\\" NOT! Stephen King takes you into the woods, the DEEP woods, and lets you know it...right down to the last blistering, bubbling mosquito bite. Ouch! Forget the bug repellant...there ISNT any! The strength of this novella lies in sheer description. I wont go into further details, but lets just say this novella makes a \\"bad night of camping out\\" look GREAT...not good, GREAT! Enjoy this book;you'll enjoy the safe haven of your home after the final sentence is read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have enjoyed SK for many years and truely love many of his works. The Dark Tower Series may be the best series I've ever read and I actually read both versions of the Stand and loved them both, but when SK and his publishers start streeeetching short strories into short novel length and putting a high list price on them they have gone beyond creative marketing and have approached "fan rip off".......I for one object!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read through the reviews and found myself wondering, "Is this the intellect of society?" Trashing the writer and then having spelling mistakes. Hypocrisy at its best. For those of you with a sense of change, what it means and what it can accomplish, read this book. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" is not the best written book. It does not hold your imagination that many of King's earlier novels have. In the long run, though, it is a decent read. A young girl steps off the path for relief and finds herself taking a wrong turn. The difference here is that the girl's imagination takes over; brought on by hunger, despair and sickness. No, it is not the "Old" King, but it raises the possibilities of the man's talents. I was disappointed in the simplicity of the characters that were heard about but rarely seen but well compensated by the development of the main character. I am looking for something more from King but not 'just' horror. Read "The Eyes of the Dragon" if you belive that King cannot develop something more but throw your ignorance somewhere else."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I can't believe Stephen King wrote this book. There wasn't one bit of horror in it. I kept reading hoping that it would get better by the end but it didn't. What a waste of time!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"... and writes a book. Mr. King presents people and/or animals with situations and does a wonderful job of portraying how they react or act in that situation.I am a great King fan and always will be. I do not understand these people saying this is not a typical King book and being dissappointed in it. Did they read Gerald's Game or Cujo to name two similar works?King makes you think about what is around the next corner and here he does a terrific job of it through the mind of a nine year old.Thanks again, Mr. King"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I finally bought TGWLTG Thursday. I started reading it Friday and finished that night. it was a pretty good book. i think it is different from most of king's work. in fact i don't know if i'd call this book horror. the things that are horrific about the book could be just in her mind, and that's what i think they are. (well, the location, near TR90, makes me wonder about that though). it was interesting the way i read it. i had gotten off of work, and i was tired from the day before as well as work that day. i had to take my two hour train ride to get home (after walking 45 mins to get to the train station). when i got there, nobody was home, and i hadn't had a key to the apt at that time, so i sat on the steps (very uncomfortable steps) for 4 1/2 hours waiting for someone to get home to let me in. let me tell you, when you are tired and hungry and sore and very uncomfortable and you are reading a book about a lost girl who is tired and hungry and sore and very uncomfortable...well, it adds something to the book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"From reading all these negative reviews, I have to wonder if a writer is permitted to stretch his talents and try new things.I can hear the assembled cries now, "Bring back the guts and the horror. Bring back psychopaths and dripping eye fluid and cateclysmic apocalypse."If that's your attitude, read some Brian Lumley or something...You can like Salem's Lot and like this too. It's OK. Really.And, no, this isn't the greatest thing he's ever written, but I liked it. I thought it was fascinating and sort of sweet, yet always suspenseful.Give the guy a break. He is a savvy observer and chronicler human behavior. He writes interestingly.I guess it comes down to the fact that no matter how good Elton John is at writing musicals, people will always clamor for Don't Go Breaking My Heart.Sort of sad, really."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Y A W N. That really sums it up. Will someone out there tell me what has happened to the REAL Stephen King??? I haven't seen anything but boring from him lately and am beginning to lose faith ever since Gerald's Game. Do I dare spend my hard earned money on his next one??"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I can't believe I paid money for this "novel". It reads like a Readers Digest story. Plotting and characters are amateurish. Without the King name this would be laughed out of any publishing house. I'm embarrassed that I spent the time on this junk."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Wow. I haven't been so impressed with a Stephen King novel in years - not since "Salem's Lot", and he wrote that back in the 70's.I'm impressed with this for far different reasons, of course. "Salem's Lot" was a pure horror novel - a small town in Maine is visited by a vampire. "Tom Gordon", by contrast, deals with a totally different kind of horror. No vampires, werewolves, or any of the other creatures King's dark imagination has come up with in his other novels. No, this horror is something that everyone can identify with in one form or another - the horror that occurs when a child turns up missing. King deals mostly with the child's point of view here - what happens to that child when she loses her way, to put it euphemistically.In this case, Trisha McFarland's imagination simply runs wild. She imagines good things - her conversations with Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon, for example - and bad things - the "thing" that is following her throughout her journey. I won't spoil the resolution of that particular part of the story, except to say that it has a happy ending.And I actually cried when I got to the end of this book - something I never dreamed I'd do for a Stephen King novel.Oh, it's not perfect - but it's a damn sight better than a lot of what King has written over the last few years. And because of the kind of horror it deals with, it's also one of his most frightening books ever."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"ALTHOUGH, NOT THE USUAL "HIDE MY HEAD UNDER THE COVERS" STORY THAT I EXPECTED, I DID REALLY LIKE THIS BOOK. I THINK IT SHOWED THAT TO A CHILD, HAVING A HERO TO LOOK UP TO CAN MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GIVING UP OR HOLDING ON, IF ONLY TO LISTEN TO ONE MORE GAME. HER HERO GAVE HER THE COURAGE AT THE END TO FACE HER DEMON FACE TO FACE, AND WIN! AS A STEPHEN KING FAN AND A SPORTS FAN, I THOUGHT HE DID A GREAT JOB. NOW, SEND ME SOMETHING TO SCARE THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The young heroine of this story, a young girl lost in a very dank woods, is certainly admirable and strong and courageous, and we root for her.But the obstacles thrown in her path, while certainly dangerous, feel far too mundane to really get our blood racing. And King's fawning use of the Red Sox as a form of salvation and connection for the girl really doesn't work. Maybe if you're a fanatical Sox fan, but even then, I think the device is thin, at best.Once again, as King does from time to time, he takes a perfectly acceptable short-story (or maybe novella) and pads it to book length. He did this with CUJO, but that book had such momentum and drama behind it that we actually enjoyed the unnecessary detail, but it kept us in that world a while longer. But as with GERALD'S GAME or FROM A BUICK 8, TOM GORDON simply feels padded. And this makes it seem a bit tired and uninspired. It's rare to read a King book that feels rote and uninspired, and therefore I feel particularly harsh towards it. He's certainly got enough money without needing to release work that clearly didn't fully fire his imagination. Less is more, on several levels.The only positive to this book, I would say, is that if you have younger kids (like 12-15) and you want to introduce them to King without full immersion in his better, but bloodier and rawer, books, then TOM GORDON might be an okay way to start. But I'd go with EYE OF THE DRAGON, which he wrote with a younger audience in mind. THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, sadly, is one of the very few Stephen King books I can't recommend."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If I hadn't gotten this one in an airport, and then was a captive audience, I would never have finished it. I suppose if you were a big baseball fan, it would help your enjoyment of this book a lot. The end leaves you wondering, in fact years after reading it, I still wonder sometimes."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a good Stephen King novel. It's relatively short, and has some of the mystical element that King is so well known for. What works in the plot is how you follow the trail of this girl from getting off the trail, to what could be the end of the line.However, what made this most memorable was the stellar performance turned in by Anne Heche. She not only did the narration; she brought this girl to life, and more importantly, brought this girl's fears to life. I still think of "Tough Tootsie" when I think of this book, and I loved listening to the "play-by-play" of the Red Sox, since I've listened to Joe and Jerry quite often over the years.A good reading can make a good book outstanding. This is truly a book you should listen to, whether or not you read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've been an avid reader of Stephen King's works for quite some time, reading everything of his I could get my hands on. I stopped about 4 years ago, however, when it seemed that everything he wrote sounded alike.I bought "The Girl Who.." on a whim; it was on clearance at a book store, and when I read it, I fell into it. There was no stopping until I finished it. I could almost hear the buzzing of the mosquitoes.I recommend this book to absolutely anyone. I think this was a very exploratory novel for King and he did a wonderful job of incorporating a simple lost-in-the-woods tale with a spiritual revolution for one young girl and many readers, I'm sure.No, there is no gore, it won't haunt you at night, but it is worth reading, every word. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish for more, so you'll read it again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While this is not a bad book, it is most certainly not in keeping with what most would expect from a Stephen King book. It is lacking in horror, suspense and drama. Truly not what a true King buff would read were it not for having his name on it. It was disappointing to say the least."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have. It was only for a few hours, in a dark forest, burned by a recent fire. The terror was immeasurable against anything I've ever felt in my life. I thought I would never find my way back to humans. It was only for a few hours, though. And I was in my early 20s. Imagine the fear of a child. Imagine it.This story made my heart pound with fear. It will make yours do the same."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As an avid reader of King's works, this book surprised me in many ways. As most of his readers know, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is especially different from King's previous works. This story was certainly more realistic than most others because it did not deal with the supernatural. I was hesitant in reading it, but pleasantly surprised. He kept my interest throughout, and although it was realistic and nothing too earth-shattering as far as the climax of the story, it was a page-turner. King never fails to keep me turning the pages - with the exception of Insomnia perhaps - and once again, he has gained my approval. I would love to see this as a movie. The episode/s of the bear throughout the wooded area reminded me so much of Gerald's Game. I was beginning to think that the 'something' that was watching the girl would end up being a figment of her imagination because she was becoming so ill and her health was declining. Thanks SK, once again. Next one up will be Hearts from Atlantis. (I know it's been out a while, but I rotate authors with King always along the way...)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"...P>Trisha McFarland, a clever nine-year old with incredible wit and character, has enough of her family while on a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, and decides to take her own path. But as she wanders off by her herself and then attempts to use a shortcut to return to her mother and brother, she becomes lost in the dark, mysterious wilderness. While on her quest back to safety, Trisha uses the comfort of her radio, which she uses to listen to the Red Sox and her favorite player--closer Tom Gordon. When the radio's reception fades, she uses Gordon as her guide away from a terrifying enemy that lurks in the woods. Not one of King's most exciting works, but at only 264 pages, it is fortunately a quick read. Trisha is a well-developed character who has many levels to her, but ultimately her love for baseball and God is what carries her presence through the novel. Having a love for baseball (and even Tom Gordon) is not a prerequisite, but it certainly helps. A good tale of courage, innocence, and love for the game."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a great book! My first of Stephen King (I know, I know). I have a feeling it is very different from his other books, just judging from their movie versions, which are probably pretty chopped up. I really enjoyed this book, it was breath-taking to see what was going to happen next. A page-turner!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"First off, I loved "Tom Gordon" and next to "The Stand", I believe its King's best book yet. I've read about 10 Kings in the last year or so. While this book seemed to reflect the same pattern of thinking, suspense, and fear as the others, It had a lot more deep thoughts as well as better and more surprising foreshadowing than, for example, "Hearts In Atlantis" or "Thinner". I especially like the fact that it didn't get anywhere near as sick as "Pet Semetary". I might be a little prejudicesince I a huge Red Sox Fan as a pitcher too. I'm only a freshman in High School, in a Nowhereville in MO, But I've played enought to know the feelings that run through the second half of the book. Anyone who has played ball will get chills with the mental images of "Flash" Gordon standing tall on the mound, motionless, and collected, while the little girl tunes in to the broadcasts on her walkman. Even if you aren't a rabid baseball fan, you will love the way everything unfolds as the girl just gets deeper in and I couldn't put it down until I finally finished it. That would explain My fourth hour tardy today."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This a terrific Stephen King novel that, right from the start, is a little different from many of his other novels: it's a lot shorter. Here, King doesn't use endless narrative as he sometimes does. Instead, he writes a succinct, spooky story of Trish McFarland, a 9 year-old girl (who's tall for her age) who gets separated from her family in the New England woods. She is left to fend for her herself, and she finds solace in her beloved Boston Red Sox, and their relief pitcher, Tom Gordon. During her travails in the woods, she encounters hallucinations, the downside of drinking stream water, and what may or may not be a large bear.King is blessed with an incredible ability to place the reader in the minds of ALL of his characters, whether they are 9 or 99, by thinking like they do. Here, he creates a novel that isn't really horror, but a suspenseful one that crackles with imagination, baseball, and of only wanting to come home."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I didn't expect much from this book, but as the mother of a nine-year-old girl I found it especially compelling. I started reading it the day I brought it home and ended up neglecting all my usual weekend stuff because I couldn't put it down. Some of Trish's actions and language didn't ring true for a kid that age, but what the heck. This story of being lost in the woods and chased by a monster was scary, satisfying, and just plain fun."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" is an attention-grabbing read that keeps you on your toes. The spine-chilling suspense keeps the pages turning. Trisha, the main character in the novel, is a nine year old girl who constantly drifts off into her own world where the consistent fighting between her brother Pete and her newly-divorced mother seems to disappear. One Saturday, while on an innocent walk with her family, Trisha drifts off and becomes separated from her mother and brother. What happens to her in the following days is enough to keep the suspense alive. A main issue in the story is that of Trisha feeling alone. Her father was an alcoholic and she has always felt so separated from everyone else in her family. Reading this made me think about what it would be like to be alone, and feel so isolated from everyone else. King uses a great amount of detail in describing events and occurances in the novel, and it makes the story behind all of the description, all the more interesting. This novel is excellent for readers who enjoy suspense and frightening excitement. I loved reading this book and I very highly recommend it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A spellbinding book that will keep you turning the pages. The book shows greatly in detail the changes a mind makes when you are alone in the dark, miles and miles away from anyone and anything.I could not stop reading this book. I couldn't put the book down. This book was exhileraing and action packed. All wilderness loving people this is your book.This book realliy goes into depth of the mechanics of the way a person thinks and how they gradually go insane."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen Kings never stops to amaze. This book was a great tale about courage, struggle, and love. I don't want to tell to much about the story, but I can tell you - this book can make you think. My heart went out for little Trisha McFarland, as she is lost in the woods, her only hope for survival a walkman - so she can here the baseball games. I give this a big thumbs up - as it makes human life and the relationships we have seem very real."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had not read any Stephen King and picked up this novel as a sample. A huge disappointment. The story is weak and contains little suspense. Given the nature of his success, I assume this work is not indicative of Mr. King's abilities."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This short (224 pages) novel begs the question, WHY? Why wasit written, published and sold to the public. It's about a girl whogets lost in the woods and listens to Red Sox baseball games to get her through her ordeal...THAT'S IT! A short story at best! Some King *scholars* will no doubt talk about the piece as being about survival, etc. I found it to be a quick read with no redeeming rewards. Just a cash cow. That being said, I love King's work. But this novel and his short story, "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" have just been worthless slices of the King pie. Not recommended to even your worst enemy."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After enjoying King's lyrical prose and some of the best storytelling I have ever read in 'Bag of Bones' and experiencing the final walk along the Green Mile, 'Tom Gordon' failed. King used the idea of being lost in the woods to try to evoke fright but never does.The best of King's new works consist of original plots mixed with remarkable dialogue-both of which are absent here.King's attempt seems to show that even the best writers have their off days-better luck next time. Any King afficiando looking to be enthralled or excited should not read this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"One of Stephen King's best works! Growing up in the woods of New England, I could put myself in Trisha's place. Stephen King made the hair on the back of my neck stand up on more than one occasion. This is a must read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was an excellent book! I am not normally a big reader of Mr.King because I usually kinda get lost but when I started this book I could not put it down. He does such a good job in relaying her adventure and her feelings...I mean I felt I was going through everything right along with her. I have never felt like that. You have got to get it, it's excellent. When I was done with the book and ran up to my room to get another one of Stephen King's books. Now I'm reading Skeleton Crew. I love this one too! You just gotta get it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The 9-innings with Trisha are wonderfully described. Having spent some time in some dank, bug-ridden New Hampshire woods, I could almost feel myself trying to swat away the noseeums as I read the book. And the "did he or didn't he" appearances/advice from Gordon - and the "was it or wasn't it" ambiguity of "the threat" leave the reader to make up his or her own mind. Really good reading!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Whenever an author like Stephen King strays from a tried and true formula, he opens himself up to critcism. But, I for one enjoy these forays into the untested. I think Mr. King is a very talented writer in any genre, even those outside of his typical "horror" stories. I thought this was a compelling story, although not as "lively" as most of his readers are used to. I found it gripping and interesting, since it wasn't typical. And, most importantly, I cared whether or not the girl got out alive, which is more than I can say for some of his recent characters in his more accepted form of writing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This has got to be one of the best Stephen King books I've read...and Ive read most of them. There's no real violence or goriness but the whole suspense of the story is what hooked me. I could really see Trisha lost out there in the woods talking to Tom Gordon. I finished it in three nights...probably about 5 hours total reading time, and sighed a very contented sigh at the end. King incorporated baseball into the storyline perfectly..down to naming the chapters after innings in a game. This was truly an excellent book, I hope he writes more of like this. It shows that King doesn't need to rely on goriness or the supernatural to tell a tale."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King once again shares with us that he is a master story teller. Our heroine is a young girl who gets lost in the woods and becomes a champion in our hearts. She is resourceful, and terrified but keeps her cool better than most. She shares her journey with some close friends and takes us along with her to involve us with her tale of woe and fear. It is captivating from the first page on. I couldn't put it down and I am still cheering as I watched her survive the most harrowing of experiences day by day minute by minute."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I collect Kings books in hardback only. I hate to say it but this book and his last 4 are boring. He used to write scary to where you were griped in the book while reading. Now Dean Koontz is kicking kings butt. I keep buying them out of habit but don't enjoy reading them any more. I always drift away from Kings books.They just don't have that hold on you like they used to. Sorry I don't mean to be cold. I couldn't write a book if i tried.Lynnae"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is great if you need instructions on how to survive in the woods. There are very few scary moments and it is hardly suspenseful. Go for Bag of Bones instead!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read everything of King's and enjoyed this book -- no rapes, murders, blood or guts...just survival in the woods....and by a nine year old girl at that.....nice....."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King often uses McDonald's as an analogy of his writing style and that's what this book is...a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and fries, not a seven-course meal. Still tastes good (or reads good), admittedly nothing special, but still satisfying."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved it i am only 7 but i have the tape that listen to in my walk men the girl who loved tom gordon and the book"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As a fan of Stephen King who reads everything he puts out I was a little disappointed with this book. He has tried this style before with better results(Gerald's Game). I do think that writing in this style allows the reader to see the range of King's talent as a writer...horror is not his only medium. I would not reccomend this book to one who had never read King before, however. Real King fans might apprieciate the effort, but it must be kept in mind that "they can't all be gems.""},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Personally, I thought this book was great and really travelled through emotions of a child. He does this without adding in any of the gore that he usually has in his other books. His latest books (this one and Bag of Bones) have really taken a turn from his usual horror genre. Some people, who like the Stephen King gore, would not really appreciate this book becuase they might not be able to be used to this style. He has ventured out into the emotions of one person- Trisha. His study of that one character is great and he leaves room for the imagination with the other characters. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to everyone - even non-Stephn King fans."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Easy read, I waited for it to get King-ish, and it never did. Even Bag of Bones, which I read, and Storm of the Century, which I watched, were not King-worthy. Steve is mellowing out; hope he has some bad dreams so the next one will make me go to sleep with the lights on."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Great book without all the gore he usually writes. I'm having my 12 year old daughter read it for the sheer survival aspects!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a TRUE fan of Stephen King I was disappointed by this book. His readers depend upon his writting style! This book seem hastily written and thought over. What was this bear thing in the woods and Why was it following Trisha? Nobody knows and will never know. I thought after his last "bad" novel, "Bag of Bones" He'd return to his good writing, his style, the horror he's known for. Let's get back to his true form and stop wasting our time with this dribble."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is what would happen. Having been throughly dissappointed by many of King's more recent outings, I was hesitant to try this slim volume. Fortunately, I forged ahead and picked it up. King is at his best when he tackles archetypal horrors, and this work contains just such a element. The protagonist, Trish, is a typical King child: tough, optimistic, determined, intelligent, and besought with trials that most adults would be unable to face. One of his best in YEARS!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read most of stephen kings works and he is by far my favorite author, but this was a very bizzare book for him. don't get me wrong, it was interesting to read and it did keep me interesting but it seemed more like his first book than his 30 -ish. If it were someone else who wrote it i would give it four stars, but i have come to expect more out of stephen king."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What a great book! Not a horror story by any means, but a great suspensful novel. It had me at the edge of my seat right from the start. One bad thing though, it is too short. But aren't all of Stephen King's books too short?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am a big King fan. I really enjoyed this book. I have read most of King's books and feel that this story to be so realistic. I grew up in the country as a kid and spent alot of time in the woods. I always wondered what I would do if I ever got lost and now I know what it would be like. I felt everyting that Trisha felt. I enjoyed this novella very much. I am trying to encourage my 12 year daughter to read it. I think it would be a excellent book for young adults to read. I am also a Baseball fan so I can relate to that part of the book also. Very delighted with all of King's novels. He is truly an artist."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I love this book and am an avid fan of S. King. On the other hand, my Mom doesn't appreciate his work. I gave her this book to try and she gave it back to me the next day. She had already finished it and totally loved it. So even if your not a King fan, give it a try. I think you'll love it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Mr. King has given us an interesting new character who isn't so besieged as yet with adult horrors as to be beyond her years, but is just beginning to be adult enough to understand that the world is not as rosy as "grown-ups" would have us believe. Fascinating character study, and again (as in Gerald's Game) the themes of isolation and what the mind will do when left to its own devices. The "villain" in this story is not as horrific as usual, which was a welcome departure from previous works which have had a little too much "fantasy" in them. Almost believable, which I have to say is a fabulous quality in a Stephen King novella."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Immediately prior to beginning work on the exquisitely boring Gerald's Game, some one made the mistake of telling King his female characters were "too thin", that he needed to work on rounding them out. Evidently someone made the same mistake and told him his characterizations of female children needed work. Thus, we have The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Like Gerald's Game, it's somewhat pointless. But unlike Gerald's Game, it's actually a neat little package. I'm still unsure if I was turning the pages to see what happened next or turning them ~hoping~ something would happen next, but regardless, it was a page-turner. And while the "monster in the closet" was nature all along, it was a formidable (if invisible) monster. While a departure from what I normally read King for, I enjoyed it. And I hate to admit that."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read The Little Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, with great expectations. Hoping for another classic like the Shining or The Stand. While i considered it quite good , it just left me wanting a little more at the conclusion. I think Trisha spent too much time in the woods, but not enough at the fringe of the woods where she encounters the beast who has been preying on her."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A bit of a slowstarter. What a pity"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Waterless Cookware!! Pretty good book. Stephen King once again proves that he actually is a very talanted author and not just an oowy-goowy gross out master. I am happy to add this novel to my ever growing King collection, (I have all of his novels but one 'Cycle of the Werewolf'...cant find a first print for the life of me!!). This latest work has again secured me as a lifetime fan, (not 'your number one fan',I'm no psycho!) and I look eagerly forward to future works by Stephen King. Thanx for this book Stephen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'be been a King fan since forever, but lately, I feel his work has been getting a little hackneyed. If you're looking for something with a bit more stimulation for the old cerebral cortex, I'll recommend THE LAST DAY, by Glenn Kleier, which I just finished prior to GIRL/GORDON. It's very unusual and reminds me of the King of old in the way it twists and toys with your mind and keeps you on the edge of your seat till the very last page. A truly frightening and intriguing read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I wish everyone would read this,I couldn\`t put it down,I felt her every emotion.I finished it in one night,that poor girl, how scared she must have been, my own daughter is ten and I thought of her quite a bit while reading this. The ending was great!I can\`t wait for more,Stephen King is a great writer."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Looks like a classic King read--modified style, in the tradition of Cujo and Misery, while knowing the heyday is past. King's books, like the man himself, are more psychologically developed than those earlier, strictly horror genre novels (with the "common touch") like The Shining and 'Salem's Lot. Where does ...Tom Gordon fit in? I'll let you know in a later review. It would be more encouraging to read reviews written by readers literate in the English language."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What a wonderful captivating book about how a little girl manages to overcome the very real dangers of being lost in the woods. I feel King did an excellent job in using the girls love of Gordon to help keep her focus on the one thing that would get her out alive......."going for the save." It was not the usual "gore" King is known for but the issues of reality dealt with here actually seemed more scary than the fantasized ones that we would most likely never encounter. If you go hiking, remeber to stay on the path.....it really could happen to you."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read a few Stephen King books, but admit I only read the ones I feel have potential to reflect Shawshank and Stand By Me qualities. Most don't but this one does. King presents a wonderful story of how baseball and God often drag the outcome to the last pitch of the last inning. As a youth pastor two things ring true, God often makes us wait until next year and then answers in the bottom of the ninth, and we don't always like the final score."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I would like to say that I loved this book. I have never read a book of King's that I did not enjoy. I read some of the reviews and was surprised that there were readers who didn't like Storm of the Century or Bag of Bones. I can really relate to the way King writes and thinks. I believe he is the most talented writer that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I give you five stars King for this and all your books. It's a good thing that he knows that everyone will always have something to say, whether it be good or bad. I would like to one day write a book myself and I can only hope that I will have the style <atleast some of it> and the grace that he has. I am forever your constant reader."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was a refreshing alternative to King's usual horror story habits, and I'm glad to see that he's trying out new styles and genres. However, I was not all too enthralled with TGWLTG. It was well-written, descriptive, original and cute, but it lacked any interesting plot twists. I enjoyed it, but at times I was anxious for something different to happen and whenever I felt like something was going to take place, nothing ever did. Tricia McFarland was a sweetie-and-a-half, however, I was anything but impressed with this book as a work of literature."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"To the readers who came before me and said this book was boring, I must disagree. I think Stephen King's true talent lies in his ability to get inside a character's head and give a sometimes creepy, often hilarious account of what they are thinking. This is a great example of that talent. It's a simple story without a lot of flash, but I never found it boring. "A good read.""},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Normally the nine-year-old Trisha McFarland really enjoys the Saturday outings her recently divorced mother organizes. Even this time the six-mile hike on the Main-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail promises to become an enjoyable first experience for Trisha. But when her brother Pete starts to squabble with his mother, Trisha starts to trail behind in the hope that the quarrel will soon come to an end. Then she makes a terribly bad decision: she leaves the path. The last words she can hear Pete say are \\"-don't know why we have to pay for what you guys did wrong!\\" It doesn't take long for Trisha to realize that she is lost. Lost in the woods.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a novel that stands out between the numerous other works of Stephen King for two reasons. First it is a small book; it only counts about 200 pages, which in itself is quite remarkable if you compare it to the sizes of King's later novels. Secondly, and most remarkable, is the straightforward story-line and small cast.One girl gets lost in the woods and that's all it is. Not true!Although the story is very simple, it goes directly for the throat of the reader. The powerful characterization of that little girl creates a deeply rooted involvement. It is as though the reader can feel the pain Trisha has to go through. At one point you even want to shout: \\"Don't go there! Don't do it!\\", just because you've been completely swallowed up by this emotional roller coaster. Although spared from real action scenes, this little fairy tail reads like a page turner.Put it like this: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is an \`evil' book, just because you will get hit while reading it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I must admit that I enjoyed this book, but I was only able to do so because I suspended my belief in reality and accepted King's premise. The little girl is lost early in the book, and from there I read each page wanting to find out if and when and how she would be rescued. The rescue at the end would be the big payoff. The girl Trisha spent several weeks in the woods, getting bitten to death by bugs, slowly going crazy, starving and sick, but somehow she keeps moving. Her favorite baseball player is Tom Gordon, and she listens to his games on her Walkman and talks to him to try and keep her sanity. All of this works well, and the end is a satisfying payoff to the girl lost in the woods story.But was this good for a Stephen King effort? Sure it was, but it wasn't worthy of a novel. Even at large print and 220 pages, this short novel seemed to drag in places and to also be repititive. This would have been better a short story part of a larger collection. I think King could have done better than producing this afterthought of a novel. Other recent novels are probably 4 times longer than this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The story of Trisha McFarland, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is much more than just a quick read about a 9 year old girl lost in the woods. It is a rite of passage, a journey through all of the questions she has and the pain she feels in her life. As she makes her way through the woods, she encounters her pain, her father's "god", her fear, her hero Tom Gordon, and ultimately, herself.As good a book as any King has written, this is another great example of his talent without all of the horror story trappings that do tend to keep some readers away. Many thanks to Stephen King for a book that entertains on several levels."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Ordinary people in extraordinary situations. That is what Stephen King likes to write about, and that is what this is. The most terrifying part, especially to those of us who love the outdoors, is that it could really happen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was my first Stephen King book when I was 10 years old. It was the book that got me reading a lot more. Now I love to read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"My father pushed The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon at me for 10 years but I wouldn't read it. I was mad at Stephen King because he had let me down, selling out to write gory horror movies during his drug & alcohol addiction spell. He was on the wagon (and thankfully still is) when he wrote this one though. While obstensibly a simple story of a girl lost in the woods (with some scary stuff thrown in - it IS SK still), it is also, like The Stand (my fave book by him), very much about God. I get it now, Daddy!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The most impressive thing about The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is how effectively Stephen King is able to layer many, many layers of tension on top of a very simple story. You start out with young Trisha McFarland, out for a day hike with her mother and brother. Then you realize that her parents are newly divorced and the tension has spilled over to the children, as always. Next out heroine stumbles off the trail momentarily, and decides to take a shortcut though the woods to meet the trail - a trail she won't be able to find. Terror settles in as she gradually realizes that she is officially lost in the woods. On top of all of this is layered a twisted ankle, illness, lack of supplies, bugs, hopelessness and despair.As Trisha approaches the breaking point, her reality starts to bend and distort. Her favorite Red Sox player (Tom Gordon) is out there in the woods with her, offering advice and inspiration. Unfortunately there's something else out there with her, the God of the Lost, some sort of amalgamation of nightmares and woodland mystery that is stalking Trisha as she tries to stumble her way out of the woods.This book is a bit of a departure for King at only around 200 pages, but it's efficient, well-told, and the proper length for the story. It's a page-turner, and if you're anything like me than you'll read the whole thing in one sitting to find out what happens to little Trisha lost in the woods."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was not what I expected from Stephen King, one look and hold of the book made me decide that. Its roughly 220 pages, pretty sparse for one if his novels. But I was itching for a new King book after Under the Dome.I was intrigued by the setting and the beginning of the story, and soon that wavered, and at times I was downright bored. But King has a special way of delivering his stories, he gives his characters a lot of dimensions, he breathes life into them, and none more so than Tricia. She is 9 years old, and it always felt that way. As I was reading this novel, and especially now afterward, I believe she's a real person.She is quirky, and downright weird sometimes, the way we all are in private. She recalls memories and distorts some, just like we all do. This was my absolute favorite aspect of the book, and it never failed to cheer my up to peer into the mind of this lost 9 year old.The book is not frightening, nor do I think it tries to be. Although reading the book won't take long, the journey inside it sometimes did. As much as I liked the main character, you got the sense that there really wasn't much to write about or to really progress the story at times.I must admit I am a huge fan of the very ending, it was truly satisfying for me and made the whole experience worthwhile, however short it was."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I enjoyed the book very much. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. I found this book to be intriguing and captivating in a totally new and different style. I couldn't put it down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's Story \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\"A story of perseverance, survival and self-discoveryThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a riveting suspense-horror story written by Stephen King. The author positions a girl against not only a creature of terror but also tests her inner resolve in a multitude of challenging conflicts with both herself, nature and family.The story is different than most because Trisha is only 9 years old and sees the innocence and simplicity of the world. Trisha is confronted with a new ideal, that \\"the world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted\\" (King, 1999) and her only rationale was \\"All because I needed to pee\\" (King, 1999) as understood through her thoughts.The Structure of the story is setup and broken down into innings like a baseball game and the baseball terminology plays a huge role in understanding the ending of the story. As Trisha tells of her struggles in the story the settings progressively worsen and environments she is exposed to reveal more information about her thoughts, beliefs and the deterioration of her mind and body as she struggles for survival and entertains blind hopes for a rescue.Throughout her ordeal, Trisha learns about her environment and her impact, or lack thereof, on her environment. What starts off as simply a bathroom break leads to a more serious turn of events as she wanders farther and farther away from civilization in Maine's wilderness. Her only tether to reality is her Walkman radio, upon which she listens nightly to the World Series and accounts of her hero, baseball player Tom Gordon. Her belief of his icy veins in stressful situations leads her to find her own steely resolve to take each day and each step further into her adventure, which at times becomes perilous as well as exhilarating.King's use of description allows the reader to feel the elements, to breathe the rank air, to experience the terror felt by a nine-year-old girl lost in the wilderness. The depth of experiences faced by this girl on her eight-day journey takes the reader with her and becomes the champion for her survival. As she wanders through the countryside, she ruminates about her family, one which is going through divorce, how she misses her father, and of course, her hero, the infamous Tom Gordon, with whom she shared many lovely memories with her father. This rumination and the memory of one man's resolve leads her to believe she will experience another day. The hope experienced by a pre-teen girl leads her to the depths of her being to a resolve previously unknown even to her.As her journey becomes more and more perilous toward the end of her resolve and resources, the beast that had been at her side and terrorizing her seems to come closer and closer to her, if only in her mind. Trisha stumbles across a meadow where she finds the remnants of a gate and a fence, and as elation washes over her, her excitement is soon replaced by the terror being stalked by the huge beast that had accompanied her through her journey. At the end, she faces her demon down with the only tools with which she is armed, her Walkman, batteries long dead, yet still an element of her survival.\\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is a story of resilience, survival, and hope. It is also a story of surviving with the very few tools you are given in this life, albeit told from the perspective of a very young and guileless young lady. Her story is everyone's story - we fight our daily battles with the tools we are given and hope to see each day through. Even though we may come out on the other side - broken, battered, and somewhat cynical - we do indeed come out and continue forward."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was Stephen King doing what Stephen King does best: making readers squirm. The story was more realistic than many of his other adventures--The Dark Tower Series, Pet Sematary, and Black House, to name a few--and because of its more practical backdrop the main character (Trisha) was truly able to shine. There was comedy, albeit gross humor, and a true sense of danger in this tale. One felt as if what happened to Trisha could, in fact, happen to him or her, which was a terrifying prospect. That King also used hallucinations (caused by the starvation felt by the little girl) to create elaborately horrifying scenes with his monster was, again, very smart and scary. All in all, it's a good read, it's definitely worth your time, and it's a great introduction to the works of a master storyteller."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha McFarland is a nine year old who is going hiking with her mom and older brother. As the hike begins, the mom and teenage brother are busy arguing once again and Trisha who is walking behind them, decides to veer off and use the bathroom in the woods. She figures she won't be missed and she even hopes that her mom and brother might look back and be scared once they realize she's gone, since they've been paying her no mind.Once she's done using the bathroom, Trisha decides to take a shortcut through the woods, instead of going back to the trail. Within minutes, she's completely lost. Her brother and mom still haven't even realized she's not walking behind them anymore.\\"Trisha turned back toward the slope, and then turned around again as the worst idea of her life came to her. This idea was to go forward instead of backtracking to the Kezar Notch trail. The paths had forked in a Y; she would simply walk across the gap and rejoin the main trail. Piece of cake. There was no change of getting lost, because she could hear the voices of the other hikers so clearly. There was really no chance of getting lost at all.\\"p.21Days roll into nights and the deeper she walks into the woods, the worse it is for her. Soon enough, Trisha realizes she is not alone, something is following her. She can't see it, but she knows it's there. This 'something' is leaving dead animal carcasses and claw marks on trees. Trisha's poor sense of direction continues to lead her further and further into the deep woods.Do you know what amazes me most about this book? The fact that Stephen King can write a story about a nine year old girl being lost in the woods and turn it into a tense, creepy, page turner. I decided to re-read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon one weekend and it was a nice dose of horror.Characterization is wonderful here as per King's usual. Trisha's parents are divorced, while in the woods she has flashbacks of her mom and dad. She wonders how she could have been sitting in her car one minute, and lost in the woods the next. You can't help but root for her and be scared for her too. King doesn't miss a beat though, Trisha hallucinates at times as the exhaustion and stress take their toll on her. As I read I could easily envision the dense woods, the sounds of birds, the fear Trisha felt.You don't really know what is following Trisha, whether it's a bear or a monster. King does a fantastic job at making you scared of something that hasn't even shown itself yet. It's simply the thought of that monster in the woods that is really scary.\\"The unreliable moonlight had changed the shapes of the trees, had turned them into bone faces with black eyes. The sound of two branches rubbing together became the clotted croon of a monster. Trisha turned in a clumsy circle, trying to look everywhere at once, her eyes rolling in her muddy face.\\"p.98I recommend The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon to all King fans or to anyone looking for a quick dose of horror. This one is mild compared to his other works, so if you are new to this author and are looking to read one of his books that isn't too scary, I think this is a good choice.The fear of the unknown, inner strength, courage and hope are what lies at the core of this scary story. King delivers here and I'm glad I re-read this one. King has a knack for creating young characters that the reader can root for and care about.Disclaimer:This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any type of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers and authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I purchased my copy of this book.read my full review here"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This novel is one of Stephen King's lesser known works but like all his books the quality is extremely high.I would personally rate this relatively short novel up there with his bigger and better known titles. The story is itself fairly simple, a girl gets lost in the woods with only her radio walkman connecting her to civilization while she struggles to find her way out of the woods. She listens to the radio broadcasts of the Boston Red Sox baseball games and her hero Tommy Gordon. Meanwhile there is something stalking her in the darkness of the woods. The genius of King is that he takes a simple premise like that and builds it into an absorbing story that addicts the reader until the very last page. Like all of King's novels you will enjoy this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I remember reading this book back in middle school years ago and I loved it then. Went on a vacation and decided to reread it on my kindle. It was just as good as before!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As always Stephen king writes marvelous books. Well written.Good book of you are a baseball fan. Definitely recommend. Confusing at some points."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read it all in one day. I couldn't put it down. I had to know if she survived her ordeal or not. I would highly recommend this book to anyone."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is truly remarkable it is one of my favorite books for sure!! It's a must-read!! I highly recommend this"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you are a collector of Stephen King's books, this is a must have. This book is well made and entertaining. I have it on display in my living room. Absolutely not complaints and I would buy it again!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After reading Bag of Bones, I thought I'd never buy another S.King book. I am half way through The Girl Who Lvd T.Gordon and it has me anxiously waiting to read what will happen next. The book really holds your interest. I find myself saying out loud saying hang in there Trisha just hang in there everything is going to be OK. For those skeptics that thought King was losing his touch well he's not! I don't think I'll every go hiking again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I can't believe that readers were "touched" by Trisha McFarland....how could you care when it was SO obvious that she would make it out of the woods?This story( please note: I say story, not novel!) would have been more suspenseful had the child molester in fact been in the woods...hiding from him would have seemed more plausible than being stalked for days by a bear! As to the ending, how about Trisha's parents arranging to have the real Tom Gordon come to meet her @ the hospital? Her disappearance had been publicized, so it would not have been unrealistic for a major leaguer to respond after hearing of her devotion. Now that would have been a big finish to an otherwise lame book!P.S. Believe it or not, I am a Stephen King fan!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"He did it again ! Stephen King knows kids and what scares most people. This time the moster is in our minds until we're half waythrough the book. Then the tension builds, while we wonder when the first confrontation will happen. The end is both suprising and exhilerating."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Now, listen up, all you negative reviewers. True, this was not like King's other books, but Carrie and Salem's Lot were almost universes apart! So what if it's different? It's still enjoyable. King has captured the feeling of being stalked by a wild animal perfectly in this book! No matter who you are, if the image of 1,000 dead and mutilated deer hanging in the trees didn't at least make you uneasy, you're lying. This book was everything the name promises, and while the villan didn't turn out to be what I expected or hoped, the narrative and imagry was, as always, flawless. Keep it up and bravo, Mr. King. We LOYAL fans are still behind you!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"hmmm....how does one say this?? this book is not very good. there was a time when this good man we all know as stephen king could put life into the dead. he took dracula and made him into a town. he brought the devil back to life in an antique store. this is the same man who reinvigorated telekenisis at a high-school prom. but those days may be over now. if this novel is any indication of a new direction, a new form, a new genre, a new anything that may be permanent, than society may have to kiss those heydays of interest a sweet goodbye. this book is as boring as most any ancient classic and without the major literary merit. i'm sorry mr. king, but if u intend to go down as one of america's greatest writers than something must be done, for to go out like this would be far from great."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a moving tale, one of those books which have touched me deeply. Of all the books I've read in the last few months, only The Triumph and the Glory touched me as profoundly as King's latest. I highly recommend it, in fact I highly recommed both books!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When an author touches my emotions, he has written a successful book. I cried for over an hour after finishing this one. You will root for this little girl all the way through the novel. Thank you, Mr. King. You've done it again!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read most of Stephen King's novels and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is quite different from the others. I thoroughly enjoyed it's captivating account of 9yr. old Trisha's ordeal lost in the forest.Her survival instincts and " know how" sort of made me wonder if I could accomplish such a feat, never mind my "camper experienced" 8yr old granddaughter,but iI guess,"what a difference a year makes". Trisha's instinctual survival efforts seemed a little too mature for her age. However the book is a fast and easy read and another Stephen King "must read"."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is one of the best. I really enjoyed it"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is not The Stand, a feast for several days, but it certainly is a very tasty snack when one's personal reading time is limited. Perhaps those disappointed readers have lost the knack of becoming a Trisha, heart pounding, trying to stay calm, singing in the dark... A wonderful lose yourself for a day book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Am I the only one who thought this story was a total snooze? I realise that the premise of the story limited it somewhat but essentially all this is about is a girl getting lost in the woods and having hallucinations about her favourite baseball player. After I put this book down, I had no better understanding of the protagonist, Trisha, than I did when I started it. The baseball theme was effective, but Tom Gordon's role in the book is never explained. I was disappointed in this book, but I almost always enjoy reading Stephen King. Yet 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' lacked humour and drama. Worse, it was SLOW. King can do better than this. Hey Stephen, don't worry, even great ones are allowed to stumble."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It was well written but need more evil to it at the ending. I didn't like how it turned out. Not too scary!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"First, I'd like to submit that summer books needn't be long. Second, Stephen King novels don't need to make your skin crawl!! In this short novel I found plenty of suspense, this is written from a child's perspective and it brought me back to my childhood and some near misses with "getting lost". Despite being a guy in his early 40's I found myself relating very well to Trish'. As an adult I was hooked on the depth of detail in this adventure (after all with a one character story you better have background). Now this isn't "THE STAND" or "THE SHINING" and I don't think it should be compared to them. It was a nice summer read!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What happened to Stephen King and his writing style? After BAG OF BONES, I started to read this one. Very dissapointing indeed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I recently finished reading Stephen King's latest book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. It's the first of King's books that I've read, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I can say this: IT wasn't quite what I expecteed. The book is about a girl who gets separated from her mom and brother on a mountain train and ends up lost in the woods. She wanders for days, trying to find any sign of human life or of civilization. As she travels she listens to Boston Red Sox games on her walkman and has imaginary conversations with her favorite player, Tom Gordo. All the while, she senses a "thing" in the woods that is watching her and waiting for just the right moment to tattack. THe book is interesting, but not really scary, like I thought it would be. My favorite thing about it was all of the baseball references - I'm a huge fan of baseball (NOT the Red Sox!). Overall, I liked it, even though it wasn't quite what I expected. i wouldn't run to the library to get it, but if you happen ot be in one and you see The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, pick it up."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"nonetheless, it was extremely good, give it time, and be patient. It's one of those books you just have to let devolop. Fans of King's "bloodbath" stories won't enjoy this one too much. Enjoyment hinges on your identification with the feelings of the main character, an 8 year old girl... if you are not the empathtic type, I'd suggest finding another King book to read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read everything Stephen King's published, and I didn't think this one was a masterpiece. The story was incredibly repetitive, and the main character was unbelievable. I could feel the fear of being lost in the woods, but after a while I didn't care anymore."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After "Bag of Bones", another novel that testify the new writing style of Stephen King. I don't like it at all! The plot of this book is simple, there's only one character. In short: just a good tale for kids, nothing more, nothing less. A REAL fan of the REAL Stephen King can't to anything but missing the novels that consecrated him the King of Horror."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is shortest Stephen King book I've ever read but it is one of his best. King has the ability to really get you entranced by his characters and this is no exception. I raced through this book in a couple of hours feeling that I was lost in the woods. Most of his books lately are warped in some way but this one is totally believable."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King can write about Vampires to a little Girl lost in the woods and scare the pants off us,and this book shows us just that.Anyone who is a Stephen King fan (and even if there not) will enjoy this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"These tapes are expensive but would make a wonderful gift for someone who loves Anne Heche and for those people who can not get out for one reason or another. I am giving a copy to my brother who is undergoing back surgery. The story is filled with inspiration. As a teacher the only books I used to censure were Stephen King stories. He has done an about face and I would now recommend this book to teens. I am glad that Anne Heche had such good taste to do the voice for this story. BUY IT!!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this book very compelling, but it wasn't like the King books I've read in the past. I did however like the approach he used in her hallucinations...and Tom Gordon. It had sort of a different meaning then some of King's past novels. Something to check out if your a King fan."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King has been writing horror for what...30 years or more? He is writing what he wants and how he wants and is enjoying what he does. This book has a lot of problems with it in a purely mechanical sense...and it does seem a little rushed. HOWEVER, it is still entertaining and gripping and King's ability to write through the view of a 9 year old girl is astounding. So what does it matter that it's not pure horror in the vein of Pet Semetary or IT? If King was still trying to write stories like this at a time in his life when he didnt want to, do you think we would be getting good material from him? No, if he didn't enjoy writing it we wouldnt enjoy reading it. He'd be churning out derivative and boring trash which just added alot of gore and death. And besides, it's not like he is writing romance's or anything (although some people seem to think 'Bag of Bones' was romance - wake up!), these new breed of King novels are still dark and fantastic. Give the man a break - let him enjoy what he writes."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A good surface plot but nothing underneath. I kept thinking that with every page turn something new and exciting would happen but it was the same thing ... bugs, dark, rain etc... Definetly not one of King's best."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Only The Triumph and the Glory can compete with The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for suspense, profound insights into human nature, great adventure, and emotionally powerful scenes. Stephen King has displayed great virtuosity with this one, it is a wonderful book. Mainstream Stephen King readers may not find what they expect in this one, but I think it is a great change of pace for one of the finest writers of our time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a good book, yes, but not what I've come to expect from King. This was the first time I read A King book soley for the fact that it was written by Stephen King. While it was a good story, it lacked any mysterious "spooky" stuff to keep me hooked and wondering what was going to happen next. I'm sure he'll get us next time!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I feel that this book IS the kind of thing we would expect from KING. He has matured into an author of fictional literature, and cannot any longer be considered just a writer of pulp fiction.This is a teriffic story of one little girl and the very frightening experience she has.I enjoyed the book very much. Non-King fans can pick this one up and they will be pleasantly surprised."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not as exciting as I thought it would be - Not like BAG OF BONES, which I thought was his absolute best! None the less, it was good, but not like the scary Stephen King of the past."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A girl lost in the woods, a slightly interesting plot. But hardly the kind of thing that you would come to expect from King. However, that aside, the book contains a feel of actually being in the childs place and makes these woods come alive. The book isn't all that long and should hold your attention enough to finish it at a moderate pace."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON touched my heart, which is a rare occurance for a Stephen King book. He usually just scares the daylights out of me. My husband bought me this book, while getting THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY for himself, and we are both very pleased with this month's purchases from amazon. I will never forget DESPERATION, or IT, or NEEDFUL THINGS, and will never forget THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, but for different reasons."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I absolutely LOVE this book. I first read it while in the 6th grade. It is unforgettable. This book has everything: horror, suspense, thrills, hope... Stephen King really out did himself. I did not put this book down until I had finished, all the while imagining it was myself in the story. A must read!!! Pure genious!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a lifelong fan of Stephen King (I read his seminal NIGHT SHIFT collection when I was 8 or 9....), I just couldn't pass up a pop-up book (POP-UP STEPHEN KING!!!!!) based on one of his novels. It's been a while since I read THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, but I remembered it as being especially well-suited to the pop-up format, seeing it was a kinder/gentler Stephen King novel.....After all, it had a young girl as the main character, and, while it had some genuinely creepy moments, it seemed like it could easily be watered down for a children's book.Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was NOT a watered-down children's book; It's more an illustrated Reader's Digest condensed version of King's novel. The adaptation, by Peter Abrahams, flawlessly encapsulates the entirety of the source novel, hitting all the appropriate bases, and the illustrations, by Alan Dingman, compliment the text (And there's PLENTY of text, neatly hidden away among nifty little fold-out sections of the book....) perfectly. The real marvel here is Kees Moerbeek's paper engineering, which is a marvel to behold. The pop-ups are huge and inventive, there are little hidden doors to open, wheels to spin, mirror effects, faux rain and shooting star effects......THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON: A POP-UP BOOK is probably the most fun I've had reading a book in a good long time. I can't recommend it highly enough."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Take the master of horror and combine him with a pop up book?! wow... collectors and fans of Stephen King will love. Children maybe not. Being a pop up book collector, this one is great! Probably makes more sense to read the entire book because this is the cliff notes version in a pop up."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This story of a young girl trying to survive while lost in the woods is one of King's best. While listening to the Red Sox games, she struggles to conquer her fears and keep going. I loved it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't always like Stephen King (he's a superb storyteller, but many of his endings just kill me), but I LOVED this book. It's not a typical King novel.I found the story to be remarkable. It is about a journey into strength and survival of a young girl that gets lost in the woods. Through her struggles, she ponders her current family dynamics. Her parents have divorced. Her brother and mom can't get along.This young girl sees herself as the peacemaker for everyone. Indeed, she is one tough cookie! I adored her. As she ponders her problems, and fantasizes about her crush on Tom Gordon, it is clear that one great message of the story is about the truly important things in life. In the end, I just knew that the little girl's family understood what was important in life...as did I."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I received the book I ordered in a very timely manner, and it is a beautiful copy"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I enjoyed this book and I wish that people who don't normally care for Mr. King would read this one. This one is well written without the gore, terror and intensity that so many of us love. ( myself included ) If I am being honest though I must say that my rating was probably a little affected by the Red Sox theme as I am a hard core YANKEES fan. Even considering that I would recommend this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Serena D. review of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, March 20, 2008.On a six-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant arguing between her older brother and newly divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in the never ending, terror filled wilderness.As the days wear on, Trisha decides to make a move and follow a stream to civilization, not knowing that she's actually going deeper into the forest. The only thing that keeps her going is her Walkman. She follows the outstanding performances of her hero, Tom Gordon, the relief pitcher of the Boston Red Sox. As her Walkman's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her. He protects her from an all-too-real enemy who stalks Trisha, leaving a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees wherever she goes. After poison ivy, starvation, more bug and bee bites than she could count, thirty lost pounds of weight, vomiting, coughing up blood, fevers, and extreme exhaustion, Trisha realizes she is going to die in these woods. After nine days, the creature finally decides that she has ripened enough and comes to get her. Her imaginary Tom Gordon gives her the strength to face the bear and not just collapse. It just so happens a man was illegally hunting deer and recognizes Trisha from the television news reports. He shot the bear as it ran away and carried Trisha to safety. Just like her hero, Tom Gordon, Trisha got the save. Game over."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I also read this all in one night. I could NOT put it down! King uses his natural storytelling genius to pull in the reader. Absolutely terrifying! Now if only his newest stuff could live up to his novels like this..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"To be 100% honest, Stephen King isn't really my kind of writer. However, I needed to pick a book to read for school, and I was trying to reach out of my comfort zone. And there was a Stephen King book, and it was fairly short and most likely easier to understand than any other King book, so I decided to read it.If I were to rate this book on how much I liked it, I would have given it three stars. However, as it is... it wasn't a bad book. It's just, like I said, not my thing. It was good and interesting, but at parts it seemed slightly repetitive. I also didn't like the way the whole book (plus or minus a few small parts) was written all about Trisha in the woods. It would have been interesting to have an outsider's perspective, either at the beginning or the end, at least. But still, it was pretty well written. I liked it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well, Stephen King has made yet another successful novel, this one shorter than most of his work, and personally his shorter novels seem to be better than the more lengthy ones.This book is, of course, very descriptive. You actually feel the itchy vexation of misquito bites, or the painful sting of a wasp. The only downfall of this is that it seems to be slightly repetitive, however, it also gives you a personal relationship with Trisha, and you begin to feel sorry for her, and the thought of her dying actually brings tears to your eyes.I highly suggest getting this book, or if not buy it, check it out at the library, for it is a diffinate Must Read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was very good. I would recommend this book to anybody who was in the mood for a short, kinda creepy book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"it's a great book. very stephen king. certainly worth a read. there's a few very, very scary parts. i'm writing this review to point out a huge hole in the plot- midway through there's a small part where someone calls and reports that they've abducted the girl, when in fact she's simply lost out in the forest. why? it seems like something stephen king meant to follow up on, and just forgot about. weird, and pointless. otherwise, it's an awesome book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm a huge King fan, read most of his works, and this one is up there with his best. What makes King such a great writer is he brings the characters alive so well that you feel like you know them. This story is very well paced, beautifully written, and has some great baseball insight. However, I was surprised to see King misspelled Jason Varitek's last name, but whatever, I loved this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The title of my book is "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon"; a novel by Stephen King. It takes place over a time period of a week and a half.A nine year old girl Trisha Mcfarland, along with her mother and brother were going to hike the appalachin mountain trail. while walking along the trail her mother and brother were arguing and Trisha realized she had to go to the bathroom really bad. She was trying to tell her mom but her mom was busy yelling at her brother. Trisha decided just to walk off the trail and go by herself. She didnt want anyone to see her so she walked in further. After she was done going to the bathroom, she started to walk back and she realized she was lost.Trisha yelled for her mother but no one came. She hadn't realized she had gone so deep into the woods. She kept walking, trying not to be scared. She started running, still yelling for her mom but still no answer. Mosquitoes started forming around her head and biting her. She started following a stream hoping it would bring her to people, but it didnt. It just brought her deeper in the woods. When this stream ends she ends up finding a new one and starts to follow it. When she drinks from it she gets sick. She throws up and has diarrhea. The only thing Trisha had with her was her walkman. On it, hse would listen to the Boston Red Sox, her favorite baseball team. Her favorite pitcher on the team was Tom Gordon. Listening to the games helped Trisha stay calm, because during her entire time in the woods she always thought someone was watching her.My opinion on this book is it ws very good. I cant believe how many bad and scary things can happen to one person in such a short period of time. When Stephen King writes books he uses a lot of detail so you feel like you're acually there."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought that this book was great. I started reading it and i couldnt stop! The first few chapters were kinda dull though, (thats why I gave it a 4). The story is about a girl that gets herself lost on a trail because she has to use the bathroom. Her parents and brother always fight, thats why they didnt notice she was missing.She gets low on supplies and starts hallucinating. She starts seeing tom gordon and believs that she is being followed by a monster of some sort. Its a real cliff hanger! Great job steve!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not your typically Stephen King. The story is about a little girl who gets lost in the forest and her love for a baseball player name Tom Gordon helps keep her going. You feel for the child every inch of the way. You feel her pain and fear. Stephen King has really out done himself."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The overall plot (a young girl lost in the woods being trailed by a mysterious creature) is interesting yet the book never quite delivers creepiness that readers expect. King shines in this book with his fully-fleshed and believable characters as he does in all of his work. However, when measured against other King titles, this one falls behind."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was like a breath of fresh air after reading Dreamcatcher. The plot is very simple: a survival story about a little girl lost in the woods scared to death and she's looking for her mom and brother and finds them at the end of the book. King manages to avoid the psychological babbling of his recent books but still pull you in with well developed characters.In this story a little nine year old girl must battle the elements, her fear of a stalking creature, and the deterioration of her body and senses.This book is not meant to scare you into the wee hours of the night but it will keep you turning the pages just the same. King makes you care about this girl and whether or not she will survive, which makes it a given that she will (this isn't a Bachman novel). Knowing this doesn't take away from the intensity of her struggle.I highly recommend this to Stephen King fans or anyone who loves a good read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was like a breath of fresh air after reading Dreamcatcher. The plot is very simple: a survival story about a little girl lost in the woods. King manages to avoid the psychological babbling of his recent books but still pull you in with well developed characters.In this story a little nine year old girl must battle the elements, her fear of a stalking creature, and the deterioration of her body and senses.This book is not meant to scare you into the wee hours of the night but it will keep you turning the pages just the same. King makes you care about this girl and whether or not she will survive, which makes it a given that she will (this isn't a Bachman novel). Knowing this doesn't take away from the intensity of her struggle.I highly recommend this to Stephen King fans or anyone who loves a good read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I stopped reading this very early because the character's inner monologue read like a middle-aged man trying to write like a 9-year old girl thinks. It didn't work."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had just finished reading Insomnia, so I decided to read this book next because of its length. It started off pretty decently like King's books usually do, but I wasn't left with my usual smile at the end. It's not to say the book was a complete flop, it's just that I have definitely read better by him. I have never been lost in the woods so I do not know how much of our basic survival instincts kick in in times of danger but I found this book a little unbelievable at times. Trisha seemed awfully intelligent for a nine year old girl, catching fish and just happening to know that checkerberries and beechnuts were okay for her to eat and having the strength to walk miles and miles daily for a week! Like I said, maybe this is what really happens to people in times of distress, but it made the book a bit less appealing. I did think the book was well written and very discriptive, of course. It's also always enjoyable when King sticks real people in his novels, like Tom Gordon and all of the other Red Sox players. I do not think I could ever read a "bad" book by King, so I feel I did not waste my time by reading it, it just is not my favorite!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's horror/sports dramatization fails in my book. The story is terrible, and does not even get scary until the end. It is mostly suggestion. Suggestion can be more scary than truth, but in this case, it is not. Dont buy this book, it is not worth the small amount of money that it costs."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this book very long and drawn out, with absolutely no suspense to keep the readers interest. King's format of organizing the beginning of each chapter with baseball \\"Lingo\\" was very inventive. However, I did fine that forcing myself to finish reading his novel was close to a self-torturing act. Just ask my husband."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've just recently finished reading this book and in my opinion it is just a simple ride of a book, with many emotional ups and downs. The plot is fine, the story is well written , judging that it is from the point of view of a nine year old. It is what I would call a mediocre piece of work. It is, in a sense, sort of long and tiring, leaving the readers feeling sorry for the main character as she experiences an endless array of survival problems. It is not boring , just wearisome. I thought that the conflict was resolved rather too quickly in that on meeting the Wasp God, a terror that unfailingly evoked feelings of fear, he was quite easily defeated. It is not detestable, it is ok, and in fact, the storyline is quite enthralling, a little girl fantasising about her favourite baseball hero so as to ward off all fears. Not an edge-of-the-seater but simple and nice."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"okay i LOVE stephen king.. but this book stinks. It totally goes nowhere fast..not too much of a point to it.I can honestly say, that I have loved all the of the reast of the books I have read by him."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's attempt at blending sports with "horror" is a failed one. This book is all just suggestion. It is just a big obsessive thought of this lost little girl who is only having an argument with her id (Fruedian Psychology). The god of death, who is supposedly a huge monster, without giving the ending away, is not that much of a monster after all. He is not even that strong. King also tries to include some theme in his novel. He tries to say that God does not help anybody, and is to busy to answer her prayers. I think Stephen King is running out of ideas. This book was probably more for teenagers than for adults. My advise, don't buy this book. The movie will be better, if they are actually going to make one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's attempt at blending sports with "horror" is a failed one. This book is all just suggestion. It is just a big obsessive thought of this lost little girl who is only having an argument with her id (Fruedian Psychology). The god of death, who is supposedly a huge monster, without giving the ending away, is not that much of a monster after all. He is not even that strong. King also tries to include some theme in his novel. He tries to say that God does not help anybody, and is to busy to answer her prayers. I think Stephen King is running out of ideas. This book was probably more for teenagers than for adults. My advise, don't buy this book. The movie will be better, if they are actually going to make one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am an avid King fan however this book was sort of boring from the start. It was hard to continue reading it at times. The story line seemed not to move to fast. I had a hard time concentrating on the book and pushed myself to finish it. Not the great bizare type of book you expect from Mr. King. Sort of disappointed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Tom Gordon bored me from the start. The introduction of the "monster" intrigued me, but in the end I was let down by the revelation of the monster's actual appearance. On the bright side, I have enjoyed King's daring to leave his tried and true gore."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While hiking the Appalachian Trail with her mother and brother, nine year old Trisha McFarland leaves the path to use the bathroom in the woods. No one saw her leave the path and she ventures so far into the woods that she is unable to find her way back. So begins The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.I'm a huge Stephen King fan. That being said, I was a little disappointed in this book. His stories usually grab me right away and don't let go until the very end. This one didn't do that. It wasn't a bad book at all. It just didn't grab me. As a matter of fact, this is about the fourth time I've tried to read this book and the first time I ever got past chapter two. Once I did get past chapter two, I was more interested in the story and was able to finish. I'm not a baseball fan either, so that probably added to my disinterest. Funny thing is, this book will probably appeal to people that are not fans of Stephen King's typical fare."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A girl wanders away from her family while hiking. She gets lost and through sheer determination trudges through the woods day after day trying to find her way to civilization. At night, she takes comfort in listening to her portable radio that is airing baseball games featuring MLB pitcher Tom Gordon. Eventually, she starts hallucinating and sees Tom Gordon, among other things, manifest himself into her psyche.As a Steven King fan, I can confidently say that The Girl who loved Tom Gordon is not his best work. King has written non horror type stories before and I have found them very enjoyable. This one, however, just didn't do it for me. The story went flat early on and the plot wasn't strong enough to keep the pace. All in all, the story was decent. There were simply too many gaps between points of excitement."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"thsi book was amazing. he really kept it up beat nad exciting,he never left a little detail out. if he did you would find it. i would tell everyong to read this book. and i would deff rate it a 5 star book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon to be a very gripping and heart wrenching book. This novel had me hooked on page one. The detail and the plot were amazing. Stephen King did a great job in painting a mental image of what was going on. I think this book was great. The ending did disapoint me though. I won't give it away but it was not what I expected it to be. But over all I think this novel was a work to be proud of. YOU DID IT AGAIN STEPHEN!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book from cover to cover on a two day road trip and there were times that talkin to my mother was more interesting. Like all Stephen King books, there is some great imagery in there. But it just doesn't have the edge that his really great books do. Stephen King has proven that he has the ability to write a gripping story even though there is very little character interaction or scenery change (see Gerald's Game) but it just didn't happen in this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a really good book. I would recamend it to anyone who like kinda scarey books. It has to do with a girl who gets lost in the wood and imagines that this Baceball palyer is with there.So read this book if you get a chance."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't usually enjoy horror novels, so Steven King doesn't show up often on my reading list. The premise of "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," however intrigued me, as it is not King's usual fare. It is scary, but not because of monsters or murderers or such, but rather because of the sense you get of Trisha's helplessness as she is lost in the woods. Her predicament goes a bit too far to be believable, but her method of reasoning through the situations she encounters seems appropriate for a bright girl her age. The story also could have benefited from a stronger focus on the parents' fear at the loss of their child. Overall, though, it's certainly an entertaining and easy-to-read book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The author has a big name and I love his books. Before I would purchase anything with the name Stephen King on it. But from now I will think twice. This book about a lost girl and it is an average fiction which wouldn't make any bestseller list if the author would be less known to general audience. Total waste of time and money."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm obviously not alone in my feelings that the book was boring. It really did move too slow. There was no attention getter at the beginning, or the middle now that I think about it. Nothing really happened. The characters were poorly developed. The plot was linear, with no real subplots. A storyline dynamic better suited for a younger reader. If this book had been written by a less popular author it never would have made it to print."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't read horror or fantasy novels. They just aren't my genres. But I wanted to read something by the great Mr. King. This looked like my one option.What a beautiful book! The \\"horror\\" parts were gratuitous. Trisha's ways of coping with steadily losing her grip on reality are the heart of this book. The Tom Gordon/baseball bits are woven into the story seamlessly, and add a lot to the final impact.This is the book to show to people who don't typically read King's books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"''The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon'' is a 224-page reader in which the main character is a 9-year-old girl who gets lost in the back woods of Maine. She copes with the situation by listening to Sox radio broadcasts (Joe Castiglione can be very soothing if you are lost in the wilderness). Gordon is her make-believe friend.\\" Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, 02/20/99. Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.Your \\"helpful\\" vote is greatly appreciated. ThanksA very short review is not necessarily a bad review. You don't want to re-tell the whole story. I try for the hook that will make a person want to read this book. In my opinion, you should read long reviews after you read the novel. Read a short review first.This story is not the blood-and-guts scary we're used to with Steven King, but it is scary. A nine-year-old girl becomes lost in the woods of Maine for days and days. What an adventure! And what's following her! I don't want to give anything away, but this story is only lightly supernatural.It's one of King's best stories in my opinion. The book-on-tape version is also fantastic.Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read King books over the years, some but not all, and frankly, I had stopped reading them. SPOILER ALERT (according to someone who read this, but I'm not giving away the ending as far as I'm concerned, but be forewarned I guess)!!!!!! My complaint was that there was always a totally unnecessary ugly event happening to a child, usually a death, that when you finished the book, you say, was that really important to the story? Like the girl dieing in \\"Langoliers\\", or the boy shooting himself in \\"Needful Things\\", the murdered twin girls in \\"Shining\\", the kid in \\"Cujo\\". I am not afraid of these elements, but they need to be important, and finding them not important, I got turned off. Well, here comes a book that features one main character, a kid, and I'm thinking, this is a disaster in the making (for me). I didn't read it for several years, it sat on a bookshelf (I gave it to my daughter as a gift, she was really into King novels for awhile). Well, I picked it up in a hurry the other day for a weekend plane trip, and read it, and I am blown away. It was not predictable, and it was simply, very moving. Very moving. I don't want to give away any of the story elements, because I do recommend it. If you're not moved at the end of this story, then your emotion switch is not functioning!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not a sports fan, but I know there are many who are. When this young girl, Trisha, is lost in the woods as she, her mother and brother decide to hike the Appalachian trail ,as her veering off the path to pee becomes to her a matter of life and death, you are there with her, you feel her sweat, her cold, her hunger, her thirst, and her fear. You feel everything she feels. This is a great Stephen King novel with nothing supernatural, although you are left wondering throughout.. I turned down a date to keep reading this, it's wonderful!You won't be disappointed!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I teach fiction in Manhattan. My students are very sophisticated, and they will only reluctantly admit they read Stephen King (who absolutely influenced me--I read all his books up until the time I was in 9th Grade). That's too bad. This story is so well told, and King's sense of plot is so muscular that it chugs along even when parts of it don't quite make sense. (It seems unlikely to me, for example, that the novel's protagonist, Trisha, would make the connections and leaps that she does; would a 9-year-old realize, for example, that it was the water that made her sick?) The ending is a bit confusing, thematically. We didn't realize that Trisha identified so strongly with the absent father, so the exclusion of the mother in that final epiphany feels a bit off. But these are minor quibbles. The conflict and character development in this book are so strong that every novellist wannabe should check it out. They'll probably enjoy the trip, too."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As Orson Scott Card once put it, there are three types of fear, and Stephen King knows which is the most powerful - Dread. This book keeps you reading (and sweating) simply because you don't know what the hell is out there. He won't let up on his poor character, and you truly care about what's going to happen to her, something which is typically missing from horror stories. I completely loved this book - one of his best, which is saying a lot."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. No one can write a story that relates to his and my generation like him. But, I have to admit that maybe I just missed the boat on this one. It read to me like King had about 250 pages left in his ream of typing paper and knocked this thing off to finish the pack. A little girl gets lost in the woods; a little girl listens to Red Sox baseball on her radio; a little girl gets found. While Trisha is a sweet and appealing character, the story, to my mind, has no substance and no filling. Sort of like the literary equivalent of cheese whiz. I think it would have come off better as a short story rather than a novel."Tom Gordon" is reminiscent, to my mind, of another King novel, "Gerald's Game", which involves a wife who, after going through some sexual hijinks with her husband, witnesses ol' hubby having the "Big One" while she remains chained to their bed. Kinky, yes. Enthralling, no. Yet the similiarities between these two books are there. 200 pages of the wife chained up was the equivalent here of 200+ pages of Trisha lost in the woods. It's not so much the lack of "action" in this book. There's no narrative to move the story along. As in "Gerald", King tries to insert an element of the supernatural that he brings in almost as an afterthought. It's almost as if he felt he needed to do this to save the novel. As a result, it comes across as if he isn't sure what kind of a story he wanted to write. I heard someone say, "'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' would make an excellent made-for-TV movie. That should be condemnation enough, right there.And, lastly, as a Yankee fan, I have to disagree with King. No way Tom Gordon strikes out Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill back-to-back with a high hard one. Sorry Stephen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I enjoy the work of Stephen King and believe that he is the father of modern day horror fiction. Unfortunately, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is not a work I would consider to be a favorite of mine. It doesn't hit the mark when it comes to the horror, the plot, and the character development that Stephen King is known for having and excelling at.Trisha McFarland is on a camping trip with her recently divorced mother and brother, who are arguing about the separation. During this time, Trisha goes for a bathroom break, but ultimately finds herself lost in the woods. During this time period, she treks deep into the woods, coming across many of obstacles, from a bear to her own body (hallucinations and pneumonia).In the mean time, her mother and brother find cops to look for her. However, they don't search far enough into the woods. There is belief she is murdered, which causes their involvement to die down pretty quickly.The lack of character involvement in this novel is something unusual for Stephen King. The goal to this novel seems to follow the notion of being adventurous and how this young girl loves Tom Gordon of the Boston Red Sox, which inspires her to make it through plenty of obstacles in the book. However, that's about that.\\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is the first King novel I read and was unfortunately my least favorite. If you want to read good Stephen King pieces, try \\"Bag Of Bones,\\" \\"Hearts In Atlantis,\\" \\"The Green Mile,\\" or plenty of others I could name for you. Skip this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I wonder if Mr. King was publishing this today (2011) if it might not be tougher, scarier, more troubling. I wonder if the last 11 years of \\"young adult\\" books might not have changed the overall tenor of this story. Maybe not. As it is, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" feels flat. I was never too concerned for Trisha McFarland. Good story. Interesting premise. Fairly tame. Fairly? Check that: very."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I admit it. I'm biased. I have read all of King's work. I love most of it. There have been a few that I appreciated as being well written, but didn't connect with emotionally.This book, however, was fantastic.And I really, REALLY connected with the tough little girl who happens to love Tom Gordon!This is classic King and yet also happens to be New and Improved, Wise, Mature King.A delightfully fast paced, action packed, heartbreaking, scary, thought provoking, masterpiece. Buy it now, and remember this:If you go ANYWHERE where you might end up lost in the wilderness, make DAMN SURE you let someone know where you are going, when you will return, when to call the search party if you don't check in, and some means of starting a fire and boiling water!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read every King book there is, and is constantly amazed at how he can continue to create characters & dialog that mesmerizes. There are very few authors who do the same. Once they become popular, their writing talent deteriorates. King never falters. This book was different, but very believable and entertaining. I felt like I was there with Trisha - her visions seemed to be realistic for someone going through such terror. Granted, it wasn't "The Stand", "It", or "Bag of Bones" but it sure rated right up there in by book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King brought this story to his publisher expecting it to be part of a anthology but his publisher liked it so much they decided to put it out as a hardcover to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Kings first book. Its not because he had to have a book out and was money hungry (although he'll be raking it in on this one). Other than that, this is a very good read. I never got bored reading it. I cant wait for his next book of short stories coming this fall."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King IS getting better as he gets older. He truly is a great writer. The wasp-priest was creepy as hell! I think this story is all the more scary if you've ever been lost in the woods. I know from experience that it can be a terrifying ordeal. It really is a great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A home run from SK! Although only 221 pages long, it held me completely captivated, and at the end, I didn't just cry - I wept! from what I won't say, not wanting to spoil it for anyone. On the first page (hell, on the back of the dust jacket) Trisha and her mother and brother pull into a parking lot, about to go hiking in the Appalachians. Immediately - since I live in San Francisco - I pictured the parking lot in Muir Woods, starting point for a hike through the redwoods. This wouldn't do! I knew that if I started down that path (har, har) I would never be able to shake the image of a story set in California, with the Pacific just over the next bend, so had to put the book down and close my eyes until I could envision the scene as SK described it - not on the West Coast but on the East Coast. I finally had an image firmly in mind, and I was off! The story was captivating, the characters real. I didn't want to eat, didn't want to sleep, even ending up taping 'Peter Jenning's The Century' for later watching, and stayed up past my bedtime, but it was well worth it. This story is so brilliant on so many levels, and yet from the reviews I've read in major publications (the SF Chronicle comes to mind) most people will not pick it up, dismissing it instead as just another monster story from that hack, Stephen King. I pity them - they are missing out on a rare treat: a totally engrossing and deeply satisfying reading experience. Thank you, Mr. King for letting me spend a few wonderful hours with you."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book. It didn't take long to read and I devoured every word. At first the book appears deceptively simple--a spunky little girl lost in the woods, but King uses this twisted nature tome to explore the very nature of God. I would have bawled like a kid after reading the last scene if I hadn't been on my way to a dinner date and hadn't wanted to mess up my make-up."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As masterful "bag of bones" was, the girl who loved tom gordon falls very much flat. As much as I hate to give bad reviews it seems to me, as this book has been hanging around in sk's drawer and met a tight deadline...as a non baseball fan I did not particular understand the "baseball talk" or was very interested in it. The bad entity in the forests was immediately identified as a bear. What a surprise! The whole story starts promising with family twists and so one and then suddenly we find ourselves in an enviroment which is not so scary.. As a big SK fan I was not very disappointed rather than surprised. So Fans go for it, read it in an hour and put it in your collection. Lets wait for another one...bt"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Long time fans, think twice. I have read every work of fiction published by Stephen King/Richard Bachman except for Dark Tower III and Insomnia. This is the first time I felt the material would have been better left unpublished. If refunds were available for dissatisfaction, I would apply. I did read it straight through in one sitting, but that is more attributable to its length than avid interest."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"An excellent story written by the master story teller. With Stephen King's stories the reader is transported to the world of the characters and this book was no different. I wanted to make the book last, but I couldn't help myself. Reading this book made me feel like a person stranded in a literary desert being given a drink of water."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this book to be a "snack." It had a good premise, and I hated to put it down, but it didn't have the meat of his other books. Another female survivor story, Gerald's Game, had more tension and scary parts. King has done better in the past, and will do better in the future, but I don't rate this one as one of his best. The obligatory monster was lukewarm and rather silly. Other villians, such as Flagg, It, and the necrophiliac in Gerald's Game, were better fleshed out. I'll keep it on my shelf but I won't be rereading it anytime soon. With King's talent, he doesn't have to write a book just to have one in the bookstore, and I'm a little disappointed in this effort."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book right from the first page had me hooked.Once again the king of horror had me wondering what next.I have read all but Bag Of Bones and for a fairly short book this has got to be one of his best yet.The reality of the girls fears and inner strength is awsum!!! you have to keep reading to find out her fate. Note to Stephen King keep up the great work i can't wait for the next book exspecially the next Dark Tower book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon" written by Stephen King was the kind of book you couldnt put down! It was awesome. Its about a girl who goes hiking in the woods with her family and they constantly agrue and she had to use the bathroom really bad so she went in the woods without telling her mom or brother,and when she was done she was LOST! for several days and ran into some unusal things. This is the book that you wonder "whats going to happen next?". I would say for everyone to read this book,and this isnt the typical Stephen King book you would have in mind its from a whole different point of view."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book about 4 years ago. I was spending two years in a state owned work farm for juveniles, as you can imagine I had alot of free time on my hands in those days so i read a whoooooolllleeee lot of books. Almost ever stephen king book, almost every john grisham book, tom clancy, then the beat generation, Then the classics.....etc. This is the only book by stephen king or any other author that has completely captivated me.The way the book is written is just unbeliveable. Following the girl through the woods and building so much suspense. What is the creature? Page by page you realize that there is something out there that is hunting her like a man. The book hardly leaves the girl in the woods which is the real story. It was like I was stranded out there with her every step of the way. I'll admit I was let down by the ending, but it didn' spoil the whole experience."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book. It is not one of King's back-breaking, eye-strainig 800+ page book. It is a breath of fresh air. It follows the lines of a classic horror movie where you're not sure if the mosnter is real or not. It is saturated in lovely symbolism and addresses issues like religion and self realization. You actually begin to love the main character. As a warning, this is not your typical overly-words, pedantic King. This gets straight to the point and is a very fast read, but worth reading more than once. One of my favorite books, ever!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"..that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Although the story line seemed to be pretty simple,it kept me interested & wanting to continue reading. I'd recommend this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Title- The Girl Who Loved Tom GordonAuthor- Stephen KingAt ten o'clock on a morning in early June Trisha Mcfarland was sitting in the back seat of her mothers Dodge caravan, wearing her blue red sox batting practice jersey (the one with 36 Gordon on it) and playing with her doll. At ten thirty she was lost in the woods. by eleven she was trying not to be terrified not to let herself think she would get seriusly hurt or die. This all happened because she had to go pee.This book is very interesting to read, Because it is cool to see what a person has to do to survive when they are lost in the woods with no food, drink and shelter.I would recomend this book to someone who likes adventure and maybe a little horror because it keeps you entertained and wanting to know what is going to happen next.By: J. Gordon"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As an avid hiker, I found this book terrifying! King demonstrated how easily a person could become lost and disoriented on a simple family outing. You think you're safe because there's a path, but what happens when you lose sight of that path in a massive forest? King did an amazing job of portraying the fears and natural progression of exhaustion of his lead character. This is King at his most subtle and most stunning! I rate this up with his best work. Highly recommended for a quick but satisfying read! My only regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is a great book. I guess you would enjoy it more if you were familiar with baseball and understood the game and the players as I did, but I still think if you like enjoy reading and Stephen King, that this book will appeal to you. I hate reading and I still enjoyed this book. Stephen King is good writer and I enjoy most his novels. I think that the plot and the creative way he incorporated the whole Tom Gordon theme into it was done real nicely. This book kept my attention the whole time. There were some scary parts and real descriptive parts where you get a real clear vision of what's going on. Overall I liked this book and I think that most readers would enjoy it too."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King has done it again, venturing away from the blunt supernatural, working with our inner paranoia. Everyone's greatest childhood fear... being lost in the woods. Then something is watching her... I would definately reccomend this book, but do not expect the classic creepy guts-and-gore Stephen King novel, this is a whole different kind of scary tale... as eaqually wonderful and worth-while read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Okay for all of you people who didn't like this book you clearly are just not people who like actual literature you just wait until the novel comes on paperback and pick it up while you're in the line in the grocery store. For the rest of you this story chilled me to the bone and brought me close to tears more than once. In this story you are introduced to Trish who wanders away from her mother while on a hike and becomes lost in the Maine woods. This may sound simple but as the story unfolds you are pulled into the mind of this very young and terrified girl, especially if you have ever been lost in the woods yourself. Every aspect of the woods begins to frighten her and as she becomes more lost, sick and terrified your emotions mount with them, making this an incredibly hard book to put down and an even harder one to forget about."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":""The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" doesn't contain blood, gore, specters or other things one might connect to horror, yet it still manages to intimidate.King's best quality is his way of making his characters come to live and his ability to create realistic environments. This book is no exception to that. Trisha's feelings are so strongly expressed, her fate so frightening and her strenght so pure, that it creates goose pimples. When I read the book I said to myself that I would never go in the woods again, of course, that feeling faded, but that's how real and scary the book felt when I read it.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is not like King's more typical novels, such as It, Carrie or Christine, but his way of writing is not gone in this book, therefor I don't think you'll be disappointed.A good thing about this book is that everybody can read it, regardless if you're a young teenager or an older adult. The only thing I'm not delighted with is the ending. It feels like it was rushed. Except for that, the book's excellent and I'd highly recomment it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have to admit since reading "Tommy Knockers" I have had a difficult time even considering getting back into a SK "Politico-Novel" all that glow in the dark stuff regarding N-power took too much away from what we all like the scarry stuff...but this one is very well written once you get past the 3 dudes on the bank of the stream. Give it a try if you ready to see a more mature King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As a grown woman who was once that lost little girl, waiting for 'it' to pounce on me from behind the bushes, or under my bed...I was caught.King reached into the recesses of a childs mind (or MY mind!) and brought forth all the fearful imaginations, the terrors of the unknown, and the real dangers of being small in such a big big world...and made us FEEL that all over again. Only this time...we were BRAVE.King is taking his work a step further. No longer is he settling for the rush of terror and in your face horror. Now he is expecting more of his readers. Forcing us to see beyond the words and into the real terrors. "what if...?" "what is...?" "what might...?" and the greatest terror of all "where...?"Bravo!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"By far the slowest King book I've ever read. Too much about baseball and not enough about the wilderness. PREDICTABLE"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I feel that Mr. King captured the essence of innocence. A young girl lost in the woods with nothing but a few items and a great imagination. A must read for anyone who has ever been lost as a child, even if just for a hour. The way she used her imagination to get her through the roughest of times is a reminder that we all should teach our children the importence of imagination and good role models."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen king has been on a hot streak lately. His past 4-5 books have all been very different from his old, darker style. His newer novels have all been much more creative in tyle, and this one is no different. This is a wonderful story, the suspense keeps up well and the various spiritual touches were nice. Also I thought the symbolism in the chapter titles[by baseball innings, e.g. the first chapter was first inning and was intro, and the Bottom of the ninth was the exciting final showdown, etc.] was great. all in all one of king's best works, along with the Green Mile and Gerald's Game."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought the writing itself was very, very good. But although the little girl seems to be a cute kid ...... where's the rest of the story? In the end, there just wasn't any point to the whole experience - and certainly no reason to read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I expected this story to be better than what it acutually was. Though it was good, I just thought that the plot was way too simple. A girl lost in some dark woods . . . that's it. And, as for the title, he could've had a better one. Something like, The Girl Lost in the Woods or The Girl and the Woods. But overall, I'd say, it was a fine book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Tom Gordon. Who? I'm not a baseball fan. That aside, I always enjoy Stephen King's descriptions of people and things. He has a special, sometimes disgusting, knack for describing things that we can understand, but rarely have the ability to adequately put in writing. This book includes wonderful King descriptions; however, I think the story itself falls far short of fascinating. I expected the book to have some climactic moments, it didn't. Scary? No. Looking for a surprise ending? There isn't one. Maybe you must like baseball to appreciate this book? I finished this book and immediately felt compelled to look for the missing pieces. Oh well, I won't give up on Stephen King yet though...Bag of Bones, here I come!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"My least favorite Stephen King Novel. I kept waiting for something to happen. Anything!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was quite a ride ~ enjoyable from start to finish, and I am not even a baseball fan. It read like poetry. The images were rich and extremely detailed and well developed. I felt as though I were right there with the heroine in the forest and in her head. Great imagery and who hasn't wondered about the boundaries of reality? Bravo and many thanks to Mr. King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found myself rooting for Trisha as if I were her. As per the usual Stephen King book, the details are conveyed so perfectly that you can almost feel the mosquitos yourself! He's an absolute master mind. Fabulous work!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Many of you may not have liked this book, but PLEASE dont give away the story! I now have no purpose to read this, except to finish the book. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well-reminded me of my Dad reading to me, so many years ago, Fendler's book about the boy lost on Katahdin. I would like to read "Tom Gordon" to my daughter in a few years, but maybe it will stir up more bad dreams then I had about being stranded on Maine's highest mount. At the end of Tom Gordon, I had goosebumps, joy, and tears, the trail Trisha took was so real to this Mainiac, I felt I was right there with her every step of the way, being semi-lost in the Maine woods myself before. Others may not "get" this book as well, but just take a walk off the beaten path during one of your summer invasions of Vacationland, and you might get the feeling."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have to admit i thought it started slow, I stuck with it to find out this little girls fate, knowing Stephen King it could be anything. I am glad i did, this was one of the best endings to a King novel i have read in along time. Trisha just proves how stong the human spirit can be. I do recommend this story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had given up on King's more recent books but thought this book sounded interesting and gave it a try. I loved it and am checking back on some other King books I missed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I see all of these bad reveiws by people and it seems to me that they are expecting a horror novel and this book is just not , and I think never was too be, a horror novel. I LOVED this book and will likely read it again. Please if you are trying to decide whether or not to buy this book ... BUY it and just think of it as a regular novel if all you read are SK horror you will be dissapointed. An excellent read!!!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King will probably reach a wider audience with this touching story. This is perhaps a softer side of the traditional King story. As always, character development is fantastic and you quickly become invested and involved with what is happening to the girl who loved Tom Gordon. Highly Recommended."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've only been reading King for a few months, and I was still between "faith" and "loosing faith" of Stephen King. I was afraid if I find The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon boring, as I found Bag of Bones (well, it wasn't that bad, actually, but...), I would really loose faith in him. As it turned out, it was Greeeaaatt!!!! I had to admit the plot is too simple, but, hey, it holds my interest from beginning to end, literally!! The metaphor was wonderful, almost touching. Truly a masterpiece, and I think King's maturing a lot in this work. He'd still be the KING if he ever decided to stop writing. Hey fans of King out there, we won't stop loving him just because he doesn't write anymore, right?? At least not me!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this book was quite interesting, and I was enthralled by Trisha's battle with the woods throughout. Unlike most (it seems), I enjoyed the ending. I recommend picking this up for a weekend read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I absolutely loved this book. The plucky nine-year-old grabbed my attention from the first page and I found myself with my heart almost in my mouth several times as her peril gradually increased. The creepy feeling of being watched and stalked was masterfully conveyed. The development of Trisha's character was brilliant, and I felt like I was drawn into the woods with her, pulling for her all the way. In typical King style, I never felt her salvation was a given - there was nothing predictable about the outcome (he did, after all, kill off the little boy in Cujo, so I never took for granted that this child would survive!), and I couldn't put the book down. I'd recommend this book highly, especially if you're looking for a fast, intense read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really enjoyed this book. I didn't think I would by the book jacket, but once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It's scary to think that one wrong turn can leave you wandering for miles in the woods -- but it can happen. King has shown us that he can stray from the genre of horror in the past with books like Deloris Claybourne (excuse the spelling) and the Green Mile, but this is his best of the "non-horror" books. I do hope, however, his next few books return to the supernatural. :)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Even thought I thought that it was too short, one of King's shortest novels, I really enjoyed reading it. King takes a new approach to writing, dealing with more details and less on muliple character development. TGWLTG really made me feel like I was lost, and I found myself getting up for something to drink and eat a lot. Pretty good book, but not the best. In one word: Different."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book made me think of what I would do if I were lost in the woods. For one thing I would wander off the trail in the first place, eat raw fish, or be ale to stare down a bear!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really liked this book, but I found it rather boring compared to S.K.'s other books. Maybe if it was longer and more details and weird stuff were added I would have liked it more."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Pardon my gushing, but this is one of those stories that take you in, absolutely convince you of imaginary dangers, and show you how courage, YOUR courage, can save the day. I've always said that King could write anything, not just horror, and this book is a great example of my point. It's a relatively short one, but they make the best movies. (Hmmm...) In short. I'd buy it, King fan or not."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Usually when I buy a Stephen King novel, I can't put it down. But this book lacked his usual suspense and imagination. The plot was shallow and somewhat predictable. It's lacks the usual King magic."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"One must wonder how some of the reviewers here can possibly rate this book as one star. After all, I do not believe that there are many authors among the critics out there, and certainly very few that can compete with Stephen King. Besides... people bought the book, and 3 months after it was released, they still ARE buying the book... does it not have to be reasonably good? I'm not here to say that the book is his best. However, it is an improvement from his other recent novels, and is probably (IMHO) among the top five or six he's written. It shows (as no other King novel has before) that he actually CAN write from the woman's (girl's, actually) perspective, although he does carry his somehwat chauvinistic biases along with it (for example, the girl's hero HAS to be a male, and a baseball player, at that). Chalk it up to a new age for Stephen King; just because his more recent novels do not agree with a person's reading preferences does not mean that Stephen King can't write anymore. To the contrary."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been a Stephen King fan for many years and read everything he wrote until "Pet Semetary" -- which was the launching pad for a long string of supernatural horror books. In "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," King proves his talent is at its best when he writes about human, rather than supernatural, events. This novel is very believable; it never strays from the realm of reality. Once again, we see that King can write a female viewpoint as convincingly as a male. I sincerely hope he plans more like this."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not as chilling as really good Stephen King, but still okay enough to while away a couple of evenings with. Try to get it from the library if you can, you'll only want to read it once."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Just as in the Dolores Claiborne and Misery, this is a captivating book that really shakes the readers attention. This could happen to anyone! The feelings of the main character were explained so vividly that I found myself screaming with her, feeling the bumps with every fall and getting caught up in her daydreams as Tom Gordon walked with her in the woods.... I can't wait to see if they make this into a movie!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"On one of my bookshelves, next to a series of large tomes by Stephen King, there now stands a small, 200-page book that looks out of place. Between Gerald's Game and Insomnia, King's new book is tucked away, seeming as if it doesn't belong there at all. Yet although The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a departure from his normal method of storytelling, it is still vintage King.The title character is Trisha McFarland, a nine year-old girl (but big for her age), daughter of divorced parents, and the glue that has been holding together her feuding mother and older brother. As they set out for a hike through the woods in Maine (where else?), Trisha stops for a moment to go off the trail in an effort to get away from the family bickering. Separated from her mother and brother, Trisha attempts to find her way back to the trail only to discover that she is completely lost.With a stoic resolve that King manages to make completely believable, Trisha sets off on an adventure, trying to find her way home. Her only link to civilization is her Walkman radio, which she cares for with a reverence. As she listens to the Boston Red Sox game, she begins to fantasize that closing pitcher Tom "Flash" Gordon is talking to her.As the hours turn to days, Trisha comes to the realization that something else is in the woods with her, too. She doesn't have a name for it, but she begins thinking of it as "the thing" in the woods and later knows it as The God of the Lost. Little by little, Trisha slips between reality and the dark place where King likes to play. She sees things in the night, feels the breath of it on her neck, but the reader is never sure if it's real or merely the imaginings of a young girl whose stress level is beyond the breaking point.Soon the barrier between reality and hallucination is gone, and Tom Gordon becomes not just an idle fantasy to pass the time, but a "real" person helping her through this nightmare. Tom gives her the strength she needs and comes to her when everything is all but lost. Through it all, Trisha tries desperately to discover what she believes and what she can believe in.King does a wonderful job of telling the story almost entirely from Trisha's point of view. He does cheat once or twice to tell the reader what is happening in the search for the missing girl, but these breaks are few and far between. The audience is stuck with Trisha, lost in the woods, and unsure if she will ever be saved.While The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon often seems out of character for King. More than a horror novel, it is a tale of survival and humanity fighting against nature. But there are still moments that mirror his past work, too. This is not to say that he is repeating himself, but rather that fans will see that this is a a King novel after all.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon may never be considered King's best (or best selling) novel, but it is intimate and inviting. There is no real horror, but it is a compelling tale wonderfully told."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King, through the mind of a young girl, gives a graphic picture of the terror one might feel alone and lost in the woods. I would think that anyone who enjoyed The Blair Witch Project would find this book appealing, because it fleshes out the feelings and emotions that were only hinted at in that movie. If your idea of a great Stephen King book is The Regulators, then you will probably want to pass on this one, but if you enjoyed his more thoughtful works, such as the recent Bag of Bones, The Stand, etc. then this should be a good read for you. I will admit, I was starting to worry that maybe my favorite author had lost some of his touch, but my faith has been restored. The things that scare us most are the things we create in our own minds, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon chillingly exemplifies that."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha is out for a hike in the vast woods of Maine with her mom and brother when she finds herself lost and alone. What follows is a trek that covers more miles than this nine year old should have to face alone, with only a pittance of food and a walkman on which she is lulled to normality by listening to the exploits of her favorite baseball team and pitcher, Tom Gordon. What starts out as a little girl trying to cope with a difficult situation ends up being a horrifying expedition leading to hallucinations. Along the way she finds the bloody remains of mauled animal carcasses, and there is this ever-present feeling that she is being stalked.I admit it was a page-turner, I wanted to know what would happen next, but it was mild compared to some of King's books. I enjoyed how the author developed the main character's change in mentation; we slowly watch her get weaker. The more time that passed the more Trisha's thought process and fears became warped and out of proportion. This book is a short quick read you can probably finish in a day. ...."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is yet another strong blow to those who blindly undervalue King as merely a popular horror writer. King is perhaps one the few writers of our time that will endure the filtering effect of time. A heart-wrenching and fast-paced adventure without any compromise and told in the language of great simplicity and sheer power. The Girl is a great piece of literature reminiscent of Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea. The story of the nine year old Patricia McFarland and her struggle against the nature is inspirational and heart-warming, I guarantee you it will linger with you long after you have finished reading the book. Many people dislike King's later works because they no longer offer the gruesome scenes and supernatural elements which were King's bread and butter back in the seventies and the eighties. Every writer has to grow, to mature. King's later, non-supernatural works show a great sign of maturity and mastery. For those who are still obsessed with King's early works, this is perhaps a time to recognize the fact that King is taking a turn into a bolder and wilder yet at the same time more simplistic literary realm."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While Stephen King continually gains respect from literary critics, his work remains controversial to many. People often dismiss him out of hand as a crass horror author. Rather than being so narrow minded, I would suggest reading this book. I will freely admit to being a fan of his work since I was in junior high, and as a fan, I felt that this novel took me places that even King's work sometimes misses. I was IN those woods, feeling every bug bite and painful bodily function that Trisha went through. I held my breath and read non-stop to see if she would make it out. And most importantly, I totally bought into her faith in Tom Gordon--if she could just believe enough, he would be her savior. Yet, he was also a part of her own mind, so in essence, she was her own savior. This work displays King's ability to leap outside of the horror pigeon-hole in which so many place him. His writing ascends to the lyric, while retaining its everyman feel. I think that this book could convert even King-haters into his camp. I've recommended it to a few that I know and the results have been completely positive. Even if you do not usually read Stephen King's work, try this--I think that you'll find it hard to put down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book has revived my faith in Stephen King. After reading Bag of Bones and being bored to death (Well, I only made it through about 150 pages. After reading this I may take another whack at it), I thought King may have lost his touch. I was dead wrong. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon rates up there with The Green Mile, and even comes close to touching what I like to call the "untouchable" "Stand." I read this book in less than 2 days, and during those two days I had several distractions that took me away from the book much longre than I would have liked. It is refreshing to read a King novel that is less than 500 pages long. I went into the book thinking it would be boring (considering the storyline, how exciting could it be?). But, once again I was dead wrong. This was THE most suspenseful novel I have ever read. I was on the edge of my seat through the entire journey. I got to know the character more than I ever got to know any character, movie or book. Thank you, Mr. King... for another great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I began reading Stephen King's books when I was not much older than the protagonist, Trisha. Twenty some years later, I think I can still remember what it was like to be her age. Unlike many other readers, I do not think she is terribly precocious. It is a bit of a stretch that she is equipped with basic wilderness survial skills, but if she wasn't, there would be no story.It is all too apparent that Stephen King researched the effects of hunger & dehydration, in places it feels almost like reading a case study in the affects of deprivation on the preadolescent child.While I enjoyed the change from his horror novels,(lately these seem same old-same old- as if he is just played out in this vein) this book seems transitional. About halfway through the pace picks up; as if King had lost interest & was in a hurry to finish. I feel the slower pace at the beginning ratchets up the tension and puts the reader more in sync with Trisha. Panic and just the fact of being alone in the woods can make minutes drag on interminably.I hope Stephen King further explores new territory and doesn't give in to demands from fans for more of the same old stuff. Hopefully, he will become more comfortable writing outside his usual genre and future novels will be the equal of his best in the horror realm."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am no fan of baseball, and I don't even know what a"closer" is. But I do know little girls (having been oneeons ago) and Tricia was the most real little girl I've read about in a very long time. This is King's genius -- getting into the minds of kids and knowing all the funny little alleys down which their thoughts travel. How on earth does he do this SO WELL? For those who complain this book isn't scary, I agree. It's simply not a horror novel. It's a story of faith and optimism and the incredible strength of the human spirit. I still don't much care for baseball. But he's made me a believer in the sub-audible."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This story has that new psychological twist that I have seen more and more in Stephen King's writing. It isn't so much the gory "blood & guts" anymore. I think that's great. Don't get me wrong, I like gore, but I like a good thriller better. And as always, Mr. King has the ability to draw you in and make you feel like you're a part of the tale. A must read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":""The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon" is an excellent novel. Stephen King has done a great job with this one. It isn't the typical horror story, rather, it is... Unnerving. It gave me an uneasy feeling as I read it. This story is about a girl who gets lost in the woods during a hike because she had to pee. Her constantly arguing mom and brother didn't take notice of her momentary leave. When she is finished, she begins walking but never finds the path. Now her only connection to the outside world is her walkman, which she uses to listen to baseball games where Tom Gordon is up. She is forced to survive the horrors of the woods - deadly snakes, swarms of stinging wasps, thousands of biting misquitoes, thick murky bogs, and many other dangers. The story was worded to strike horror the the reader's heart. The story's ending will leave you thinking for days. This book is MOVING, and it was very enjoyable to read. I may even read it again some day. The effect is a grand one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read the book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. I enjoyed this book and its many twists and turns. This book has very vivid details which make you feel as if you are Trisha, lost in the woods with a creature you made up out of your own personal fears. Although the fears of Trisha McFarland may not be your own, you absorb her pain because of the way the author portrays her fears. One of my favorite details is,\\"She could hear the sough of the wind through the big old west-countrey pines, she could hear the sqwuak of a jay and the far-off hammering of a wood pecker digging his mid-morning snack out of a hollow tree, she could hear a couple of freshley arrived mosquitoes(they were buzzing around both ears now)but no humans.\\"(p.g 28) Another breath taking moment in this book is, \\"\\"The world is a worse-case scenario and I'm afraid all you sense is true,\\" said the buzzing wasp-voice. Its claws raked slowly down the side of its head, goring through its insect flesh and revealing the shining bone beneath.(p.g 145)I think this books theme was very clear. Although this book can be seen in many different ways, about a girl lost in the woods, creatures in the woods, or a girls obsession with a base ball player; I believe that the theme of the book and the message the author was trying to get across was to never give up and to keep the important things in life close to you. He shows this by again and again putting Trisha through horrible situations, although because of her strong love and compassion for Tom Gordon her life time idol, she chose not to let go so she could one day meet him.This is one of my favorite books I have ever read. It is breath taking and chill giving. I reccomend this book to every one. It is something that will keep you on the edge with suspense, but at the same time teach you the true meaning of hope."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Once again Stephen King shows he can write more than tales of gore. The book starts out when newly divorced mother of two takes her children for a hike. Before this ever takes place nine year old Trisha gets lost in the woods by herself. "All becouse I needed to Pee" she comments to herslef. The novel goes on to discuss her nine day odyssey in the woods. Throughout her difficulties, and through her terror she finds comfort in listening with her walkman to the Red Sox play and her favorite player Tom Gordon. When her walkman wears out she just thinks of Tom Gordon and how he always seems to save the day. It is a great story about faith, inner strength, and determination. It is a quick read that will keep you turning pages until the end. In many ways it reminded me of times when things get so out of hand so quickly. One moment she is safe with her mother and brother, and the next thing she knows she is completly lost in a hostile environment. It goes to show that disaster can strike at any moment, often when we least expect it. Faith and determination is sometimes all we have."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I picked up Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" to see how well the author's work hewed to the writing advice he gives in "On Writing." Pretty well, it turns out. As a bonus, I liked this story.The simple premise revolves around a nine year old lost in a huge woods with only her wits and a few supplies to sustain her. Her wits devolve upon Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon, her favorite player, whose image accompanies her. The imagined Gordon provides the inner voice she needs to meet the challenges of the deep woods and her own mind. Of course, there also lurks the unknown terror at the edge of the wood, but from King's reputation I assume that this nemesis provides much less horror than is usually found in his more famous works. Rather, the unknown terror provides suspense and a motivating force that this child must deal with. More would give away the crux of the story. Suffice to say the reader won't be disappointed by the end of the book.Simple, but King's excellent writing sustains this simple premise over two hundred and fifty odd pages. His character development is wonderful -- one feels the little girl's (Trisha)emotions as she confronts her trials. His dialogue (in flashbacks) feels real and the whole story is believable.This book works and is an excellent quick read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is another success in my eyes by Stephen King.A little 9-year-old girl, who is completly innocent and in some cases ignorant to the unfair events in her life, is spending another weekend with her mom, who is bound and determined to spend quality time with her children on the weekend. However, the repeated challenging and rechallenging of decisions made by both her mother and her brother drives Trish crazy on a hiking trip.Looking for a break in the action as it were, Trisha steps off the trail for a moment so she can relieve herself. The result however, gets her very lost, very fast in the woods.As the days wear on for poor Trisha McFarland, and the batteries on her walkman (her only link to the real world) slowly begin to fade, Trish begins to de-evolve.The doubt that slowly begins to eat through her mind, and up to the conviction that is she is going to die, followed by a stupour and related halluciantions begin to drive Trish insane.Stephen King has again vividly described an excellent story of fiction in the horror genre. I highly recommend this book to any fan of the genre, and particualry to those, who like me, just LOVE the writing of Stephen King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"No one really reads a Stephen King novel, they become a Stephen King novel. His ability to make us feel as if we are in the middle of the woods...lost, alone, and nine years old is astounding. Although there was no "evil" in this book it was immensely gripping and in it's own way terrifying. The only thing I did not like was the title. Linda"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Is it just me folks, or has Stephen King decided to not be scary anymore? I just read 'Bag of Bones' which had some not-particularly-scary ghosts in it, and now 'The Girl who loved Tom Gordon' which is populated with a few icky moments and the occasional wildlife thrill. Suspensful, yes. Frighteningly scary? Uh...no. Another thing that kind of bothered me was the length. I paid the same for both books, but 'Tom Gordon' is only 200 and some pages thick (if you can call THAT thick). 'Bag of Bones' is around triple the length. I read this one in a single afternoon. All that aside, for what it is, it really IS a well crafted novel(?) of what its like to be a little girl lost in the deep wilderness without any woods knowledge and only her walkman for company. It really is despairing to read about how everything gets worse and worse as time goes on, and the parts where she is stalked are genuine page-turners. Just keep in mind if you're looking for the 'old' Stephen King, 'Carrie' this isn't."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I can already hear the arguements of all King fans. Half will say this a great novel the other half will say it is just not scary enough. I am in the first group. Many years ago I lost interest in King's novels. They were either too complex or bizarre. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" goes back to the primary basics of story telling. This is a true man versus nature novel, or in this case a little girl versus nature.The novel is about nine year old Trisha McFarlane who on a hiking trip with her Mother and Brother, takes a small detour and ends up helplessly lost in the woods. Trisha must overcome the elements plus her own vivid imagination to survive her lengthy ordeal. Slowly Trisha learns how to survive and deal with the fears of what nasty things that lurk the woods. Trisha's only finds comfort in her walkman, which she can listen to the Boston Red Sox games, and be with her hero relief pitcher Tom Gordon.The story is well written and flows so well that it it can be a one night read. As for the lack of horror, I found that King uses one of the scarist elements out there, a child's imagination. He takes the "monster under the bed" syndrome and blows it to gigantic proportions. This can be considered King's "Call of the Wild" or his "Old Man and the Sea" Novel. King truly shows he still has his literary juices flowing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have long been a fan of Stephen King. What makes this title particularly good to read is King's ability to meld the actually fears of being lost in the woods with the fear of the imagined. Throughout the story the reader is led to wonder if what the girl is experiencing is really happening or if it is just her imagination running away with her. Over time her fear and desperation become yours and in the end both you and she are glad to get out alive."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Leave it to Stephen King to make something as mundane as a walk in the woods into a heart thumping adventure. As usual, his characterizations and dead-on descriptions have you feeling like you know Trisha and are there with her, lost in the deep woods of Maine. Her trip through the swamp was heart wrenching and her determination so admirable that I found myself pulling for her as though she were my own daughter. This is not a very long book, which must have been King's goal. Otherwise, I think he could have had some fun with the storyline of Trisha's family as they await her fate. Instead, he remains focused on the heroine as only King can focus. I couldn't wait to see how this book ended, and I wasn't disappointed as the last chapter unfolds. I think non-hikers would probably like this book less than those of us who can relate to following a trail through beautiful, and sometimes eerie, woods and imagine what being lost there might be like. Completely terrifying!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is an excellent example of the growing maturity in the works of Stephen King. Now that King has finally decided to stray from his previous path of writing horror stories, we can truly see the extent of his talent. With his recent stories: Wizard and Glass, Bag of Bones, The Green Mile and Hearts in Atlantis (His best books by far), and now this beautiful tale of courage and the human spirit, Stephen King fans can finally see how diverse and amazing Kings' books can be. And for all of the people that said this book is boring and not true to Kings true genre, horror, you really need to wake up and see that he is now writing better than he ever has."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The girl who loved tom Gordon was very different from other books I have read. It gives you a hope in your life. The novel is written in the third person that tells you about the little girl and the accident that happened in her life. The story was based on the little girl Trisha's life and about her courage. The whole book was only 3 or 4 days about Trisha when she got lost in the woods but it seems like we knew her forever. This book is good for people who are fan of baseball player because Trisha was one the big fan of Tom Gordon who played baseball for red sox team. The author used a strong imaginary. It makes us fell as if we are there with Trisha when she got lost in woods and try to find her path. Most of the time it frighten us by making us fell like there is someone watching her and it can kill her anytime. In the beginning of the book, it seems so real when they talk about family problem in Trish's life, the reason that she got lost in woods. The conclusion of the book was satisfying when a man found Trisha, took her to the hospital and saved her life."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a great book for teens, and people who like books with a lot of interesting scenarios. A nine year old girl, Trisha McFarland, goes on a hiking trip with her mother and brother. Trisha's mother and brother get into an argument so she goes wandering into the woods, because she hates when they argue, and she also has to use the bathroom. Trisha suddenly can't find her way out of the woods when she is finished using the bathroom. Trisha starts to think she hears her brother's voice, but little she knows she is hallucinating.Throughout this story King makes Trisha McFarland fight against nature. It's not like his other horror books. In this book he stepped away from the horror genre, and took this one in a different spin. Trisha McFarland is only in the woods with her walkman and a scarce amount of food. Trisha's parents are divorced, and her mom takes them on different activities over the weekend. While being in the woods for so long she thinks that something is in the woods with her. Over the course of the story Trisha begins to realize the meaning of the word survival. Trisha received bumps, bruises, and scratches. When it was night time Trisha listened to her walkman just to hear the Red Sox game, and she listens for her hero Tom Gordon. She thinks that Tom Gordon is now with her in the trail.This was the type of book where after you finished one chapter you wanted to read the next. Its not as scary as other books written by King but it is the best survival book he has written."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The idea of a little girl (who is big for her age) lost in the wilderness is absolutely terrifying. It's a rare bird when that situation turns out good. When King tackles the subject matter you expect good things. Unfortunately, that's all you get -- good things. Good. Not great.Personally, King's best have been \\"The Shining,\\" \\"Christine\\" and \\"Salem's Lot.\\" This book takes a real-life type horror and puts you in the middle of it. You aren't quite sure of the girl's fate, though you get the idea she'll make it out alive.Supernatural elements aren't really there, and that's a good thing. With a story that has the potential to be utterly horrifying on its own, you don't want to dress it up with ghosts, werewolves, serial killers or motivated vegetation. You want the real-life horror of the situation to draw readers in and make them hold their breath. So with all the good aspects, why does this book fail to live up to its potential?I think King, the author who made me want to be a writer, pulled back. I think he grew to like his main character too much. The horrors of the world visited her, but they didn't stay. They also didn't make much of an impression. While reading this, it wasn't the girl's situation that horrified me, it was the fear that this could happen to my child. Instead of being concerned with King's protagonist, I cared about my own flesh and blood.Again, it's not his best work, but it also isn't his worst. It makes for a sometimes tense afternoon read ... especially if you live on the East Coast where you get those wonderful afternoon thunderstorms that let you know God can still wipe you out with but a thought."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King steps off into the woods and gives us Trisha McFarland. She's out for a day of hiking with her mom and brother (who don't get along) when after a quick step off the trail, she becomes lost in the wilderness. This book does not have the same supernatural theme that King normally uses, but this story is uneasy nonetheless. Getting lost in the wilderness is much more real than vampires and werewolves, and King does an excellent job giving us real insight into Trisha's thoughts. This book is one of my favorite Stephen King books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is not at all scary but the technique SK uses is brilliant.The books takes you through the forest and back,leaving you petrified...I would recommend it,definitely...Here is the plot:(based on my reading of the book and also my research)...The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother and mother constantly squabble about the mother's divorce, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break.She starts walking in the direction she thinks they went, but takes a wrong turn and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, four Twinkies, a boiled egg, a sandwich, a large bottle of Surge, a poncho, and her Walkman to survive. Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to baseball games featuring her favorite player, and \\"hearthrob,\\" Tom Gordon.As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her, and consuming edible flora such as birch nuts, checker berries, and fiddleheads; her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search. Naturally, the rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as she has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek, rationalizing that all bodies of water lead to a source and eventually civilization.As the cops stop searching for the night, she huddles up underneath a tree to rest. Eventually, a combination of fear, hunger, and thirst causes Trisha to hallucinate. She imagines several people from her life, as well as her hero, Tom Gordon, appearing to her. Author Stephen King purposely makes it unclear whether increasingly obvious signs of a monster in the woods are also hallucinations. (Noting she is in the same area of woods as Louis Creed in Pet Sematary, some even suggest that what Trisha observes are signs of the Wendigo, the bloodthirsty monster that haunts the woods of upper Maine, and the same thing the good doctor saw when he went to bury his son in the Micmac Burial ground.)Hours and soon days begin to pass, with Trisha wandering further into the woods. Eventually she begins to believe that she is headed for a confrontation with the God of the Lost, a wasp-faced, evil entity who is hunting her down. Her trial becomes a test of a very young girl's ability to maintain sanity in the face of seemingly certain death. Eventually she comes upon a road, but just as she discovers signs of civilization, she is confronted by a bear -- which she (possibly correctly) interprets as the God of the Lost in disguise. She attempts to fend the bear off by pitching her Walkman at it, but is rescued by a hunter....enjoy...Nigel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is about a girl who is going on a hiking trip with her family. She unknowingly wanders off the path and becomes instantly lost in the woods. Remembering little survival skills, she has to cope with being lost in the woods and the terror that lurks in the night.I thought this book was interesting, but not that scary. Also, a lot of times the book was about thoughts (not that there's much to say about being lost in the woods) when there should have been more action.I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.Content: 4 of 5 ; Action: 3.6 of 5; Plot: 5 of 5Jack McNamara"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Another winner by King. It is every child's nightmare to be lost in the woods - as we all know that is where the monsters lurk. Young Trisha just happens to be unfortunate enough to be in this unenviable situation. She is all alone in the wilderness with no one to keep her company, except her walkman -so she can listen to her favorite baseball pitcher play. Of course, the batteries are running low. Trisha follows a stream, and has food and water, but there is a mysterious force following her. She questions if it is a hallucination, or the mythical Wendigo that hunts children.Read this book for a great scare, but be warned, you may not enjoy walking in the woods after.Relic113"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I haven't read a Stephen King novel for awhile. I liked this story and it was well written, but just not what I expected for the King of Horror. I figured out what the thing wathing Trisha was. I guess you could say this was a predictable story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'll be the first to admit that when I originally read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I didn't care for it. I didn't think it was too scary and the climax was anything but. Looking back through my bookshelf this past weekend, I came across the book again and decided to check it out once more. Turns out I liked it a ton more than I thought I did.The book is scary but not in a nail-biting, Desperation or Shining, type of way. To coin a phrase that video game players will recognize (but not for the same reason), this book can be classified as Survival Horror. It brings in elements of survival from books like The Hatchet while maintaining the horror of King's more subtle works. Reading it for the second time really showed me how well King reduces us to the level of a 9 year old, lost in the big scary woods and having to fend for ourselves.The only lifeline Trishia has is her walkman and its radio presentations of the Red Sox games. Without that connection to reality, she is at the mercy of the forest and not only its natural dangers but also an unnatural one. The fear of the unknown fosters many books and movies about terror. What we don't see is pretty damn scary (as evidenced in the horror craze Jaws created back in the day) and its even more scary when you are a little girl who just a backpack and a walkman in a dense forest.As the novel progresses and the fear takes hold of Trishia, we feel her disoriented mind, the possible hallucinations, the remains of some horrific scenes and the pestering bugs. How will she ever escape? Is there a way she can pull out of this situation? Or will she end up like many lost children? If the novel grabs you with this tension, I promise you you will feel like you are poor Trishia, lost, scared and alone. And every little achievement she makes will make you silently cheer while every little detour, problem or danger will make you quake. If you aren't grabbed the story (as I wasn't the first time I read it) you will most likely not care for it.But my recommendation is to try it once more if you've read it before, or give it a chance if you haven't. It can be pretty terrifying in its realistic depiction and horrific unnatural situations. Its also been picked up to be made into a movie with director George Romero attached. Hopefully it won't become marred in developmental Hell, because it would make quite a good movie."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha is a 9 year old girl while on a hike with her mother and brother somehow gets lost in the woods. Whole trying to find her way back to civilization Trisha encounters a countless number of strange and unordinary things, such as a dead deer who seems to have died in a very unusual way. Something seems to be stocking this young girl in the woods and being lost doesnt seem like here only problem. This by far was not one of Kings best works, it was far diffrent from his shocking, gorry writing style that most of his books have. The ending of the book was very dissapointing and there were a lot of loose ends that were never really tied up. All and all the basic story and plot wasnt bad, but the ending really ruined the book for me. I would still reccomend this book, but be warned the ending ruins it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When you say Stephen King you think GENIUS. This is one of his best books yet! It was recomended to me by my english teacher who knows I love suspence. It's an exiting book about a brave little girl who gets lost in the woods because she needed to pee. She has hope of getting out of there always turning to her idol (Tom Gordon) for that extra push. But besides being lost in the woods by herself, all alone, without any contact with human kind exept a [bad] walkman, something is following her. I recomend this book to anyone who likes baseball and suspence, you wont regret reading it. 14/f/FL"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is one of King's best. A page turner that I completed in two days. His use of baseball terminology is sheer genious throughout the telling of his tale. Wonderful, wonderful book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I haven't read a Stephen King book in years. I totally enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Since I'm writing this anonymously, I'll even admit I had a tear in my eye and the end (I'm a guy and that's not something we admit openly)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is definately worth the read, but in my opinion it wasn't as good as I thought it would be, nor as good as everyone told me it was.Girl gets lost in the woods, after a few days she starts having dellusions, thinks \\"something\\" (don't want to give too much away) is following her, sees Tom Gordon (pro ball player) who helps her find her way.It's a fairly short book so you can probably finish it in a few nights."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After listening to the audio version of this book, read outstandingly by Anne Heche, I went and listened to it all over again - something I almost _never_ do.IMHO, this is the best book Stephen King has ever written. I think it may well have been Anne Heche's bringing Tricia McFarland to "life", but it held me enthralled just the same.While he does go a little heavy on the cheesy phrases and cliches, which he does in ALL his books, maddeningly; I still thoroughly enjoyed this book - so much that I may just go out and buy the audio tape - to throw in when I cannot seem to find any good books to listen to, which happens all to often. It is good for a week of solid, entertaining listening.If you haven't listened to this book - try it -- I bet you'll be impressed!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"With this book Stephen King proves one more time that he's one of the best in describing primary fears and feelings which sleep deeply inside a person until they break out. In \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" this person is a nine year old girl called Trisha. The fact that Trisha is such a young child makes you guess that she's never been in contact with those destructive fears up to now. This is the point which forces you to feel with her; to be afraid of the big bad thing that wants to find you at all costs and even - if you are very quiet - to hear Trisha's desperate breath and to feel its coldness on your back...If I was you, I would buy this biting novel right away!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The story was very well written. It really held your interest throughout the entire book, however, I kept expecting the supernatural to be involved when she felt she was being chased by some "thing in the woods". This book has nothing to do with the supernatural, yet has more to do with the very thin line of reality and hallucination. If you go into this book knowing it has nothing to do with the supernatural, then you won't be let down and it is a great read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a Redsox fan made this book very enjoyable for me although it would have been just as enjoyable if it had been the Yankees that the little girl fell to sleep listening to every night (well maybe not AS enjoyable) However, the story is beautifully written and although it's short, it leaves nothing out. The way King describes the landscapes makes you feel like you're right there in the woods with the little girl. And i promise that you WILL cry at the end."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I will admit that with the thickness, or lack there of, of this book... even as an avid King reader... I was truly hesitant to pick it up. I am sorry I waited for those few months!Trisha, the heroin, showed remarkable bravery when she gets lost in the woods... all she wanted to do was teach a little lesson to her Mother and brother. Armed with her imagination ( sometimes the worst weapon and defense of all) and her walkman, Trisha kept trying to find a way out, only to get in deeper and deeper.This is one of the very few times that I actually hoped for the bad things NOT to happen...I wanted nothing but sunshine and butterflies for Trisha (trust me, I can't explain it either, lol)but nevertheless I was very satisfied at ALL the occurances, details, and depth of this book...I can say only one thing more... don't shy away because it's not a thick book... you'll be very pleased with your purchase!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Ahhh, such primal fears, such real madness... such a sweet girl and such a sweet story.This is the best kind of writing there is. Not once during this book did I think "nice try, steve" or "that image ALMOST worked..."He's just perfect. Great, great book. And quick too. Highly recommended."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have always taken King's books seriously, so this attempt to write a "serious book" confuses me. Unfortunately, King has to live with the stigma of sub-literature that people put on just about any genre piece. This terrific novel by any other standards, did not hold up for me when compared to other King greats. There are moments of pure brilliance - in fact, page 100 to the end are terrific. Trisha's family history is very realized, as are her friends, but sometimes the voice of Trisha wavers. Sometimes she's too adult, sometimes too childish. The cacophony of her terrible mistakes clashed against her moments of insight are difficult to believe. Mostly, there are moments where we are wandering in the woods with her, and unfortunately, are also lost and a little bored."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not one of his bests....thank god! It was a very slow, weak, boring, ...I could go on an on! I thikn he shoudl stick to his usual frightening detailed books..this just didn't compare!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Please belive me I love Stephen King and have read all his books (does every review start off like this?) But this one left me wanting a lot more. I think he could have done a lot more character development. Not only with Trisha but Pete and her parents needed more content. I guess I am spoiled. But I really think Mr King is resting on his laurels on this one (reminds me of Cujo)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Since the postcript mentions that this story of a young girl's trek through unknown woods was written in Florida, one can assume that it was hurriedly scribbled on the backs of notescrap after an inspired romp through the sports pages while sitting on the beach. I'm going to read this again (when I can find 30 minutes)just to make a true count of the falling down/bodily function/bug swatting/gurgling stream references. Stephen King - meet Thomas Harris. Please!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What happened? I finished this book and was still waiting for it to start. Storyline: Girl wanders in woods for days. That's it. No twist, no excitement, and the climax was a letdown. King must have had a contract commitment. I'll bet he wrote this in one afternoon without much thought. Don't bother with this book"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Never having been a fan of mass popular fiction, I restricted myself to reading Stephen King. The old Stephen King who produced masterpieces such as IT, Misery and Bag of Bones. Wading through The girl who Loved Tom Gordon was just that; a struggle to finish it. The novel read like something cooked over the weekend to meet a publisher's deadline. It was offensive to my intellect as a reader both in its naive portrayal of the issue of religion and also the crass treatment of a teenager's nine days in the wilderness. The novel is suitable for teenagers, not adults fooled enough by the other works of King to buy this particular book. I hope that Mr. King will seriously ponder his latest novel and attempt not to fall into the trap of commerical productions whereby you had to produce anything once a year irrespective of the quality."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a small novel. Not only is it a short novel, a little larger than a novella, but it is small in scope. At least compared to many of the works of its author, Stephen King, who has been known to pen many a lengthy tale, sometimes into the thousands of pages.I read an interview with King once in which he said something along the line that he wrote two types of novels, one with the focus upon a single character and another which focused upon many characters.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon focuses upon one character, 9-year-old Trisha. The plot is quite simple. During a hiking trip with her mother and brother, Trisha becomes lost in the deep woods. Her story is one of survival.But it's also a bit more than that. For an adult, this would be a story about madness, the madness of facing one's imminent death while stranded in an isolated place with little food, water, shelter or protection of any kind. For Trisha, the tale borders on madness, but is more about a child's willingness to adapt and overcome one's own fears.This is by no means one of King's most popular novels. In truth, I've run across a number of his fans who detest this book. I'm not one of them. Actually, I think it's one of the best things he wrote in the 1990s, the book itself having been released in 1999.Why do I like this book so much? Despite the darkness it sinks into, especially concerning a child, it is in the end one of the most uplifting tales I've ever read. It is about the spirit of survival in all of us, a spirit of survival that focuses upon the humanity in all of us, not because of ties to any particular nation or religion or what-have-you. It is a novel of high spirits, of the links that can bring all of us together as human beings.That is why I love this book.And since it concerns a child, I'll let the reader know that despite the horrific elements of this tale, it is one most appropriate to a child. Should you read it to your own kid? Well, read it yourself and judge for yourself. I personally wouldn't have a problem reading it to a 10-year-old, but I tend to think kids are much more versatile than most of us give them credit. But then, I don't have kids of my own, so who am I to say?Oh, and if you need to know who Tom Gordon is, he was a professional baseball player, at one time a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, of which King is a huge fan. And yes, he is quite important to this story. Not as a character, but as a figure of myth, as someone to believe in, almost as an Arthurian figure in some ways, or perhaps a Merlin figure would be more appropriate."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read quite a few of King's greatest books and this one is very different. First, it is a short novel, so even if you don't love it you may get through it quickly (like I did...).Second, it is not really scary, the story seems endless and after 150 pages I was tired of the Tom Gordon intrigue. So, why is it not that bad ?!? Well, the main character (Trisha, a little girl lost in the woods) is very attaching and the story is well told by King. The description of the woods and Trisha's feelings is intense and keeps you turning the pages.So, if you like King's long descriptions and you are in for a short relax read, this book is still a good choice."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Legendary horror writer Stephen King takes readers on a trip into a parent's worst nightmare; finding out that their child has gone missing.Trisha McFarland, along with her mother and older brother Pete, have decided to spend the day hiking on the Maine-New Hampshire trail. Quilla, Trisha's mother, is determined to show her children a good time. Both kids have had a somewhat difficult time adjusting from their parents' recent divorce, especially Pete. He loved his school in suburban Boston, but now he's the subject of jokes and ridicule at his new school. Plus, it seems he and his mother are constantly arguing. This arguing drives Trisha up a wall.The arguing has continued on what was supposed to be a fun and enjoyable day. While walking on the trail, Trisha steps off for a minute to go pee, but also to remove herself from the bickering between her mother and brother. However, after a few minutes, Trisha discovers that she has wandered too far from the path and can't find her way back. She is lost.This miscalculation on Trisha's part begins a ten-day odyssey for Trisha that includes wandering completely out of Maine and into New Hampshire. She suffers from numerous falls, scrapes, bruises, and wasp stings, as well as hunger and thirst. But to make matters even worse, Trisha gets a sense that something is following her; something incredibly evil that keeps itself hidden from view and only touches the edges of Trisha's mind.Trisha's only contact to the outside world is her Walkman radio. She tunes it into the Boston Red Sox baseball games in the hope of hearing about her favorite Red Sox Player: Tom Gordon.As the days and nights continue to pass in the woods, Trisha begins talking to Tom, hoping that somehow, he will give her strength and help her to get out of the woods. She has lost twenty pounds, and has survived on stream water, nuts, berries, and edible frens she managed to scavenge. Its already been several days since she left the path; will Trisha, with Tom's subliminal help, survive in the woods until she can find a way out, or will the creature catch up with her?This is a fascinating book. Being a parent of three children, I can only imagine the horror of losing one, be it in a mall or in a forest. Trisha's development of character is handled magnificently by King. She goes from being a mostly happy and content nine-year-old to a terrified person who must call on every ounce of inner strength to survive. The transformation is both exciting and scary to read. Being a big baseball fan, I especially liked the parts about the Red Sox games and how Trisha called upon Tom Gordon to help her.I give this book my highest recommendation. Instead of blood and guts, King scares the reader with a real-life scenario and lets the tension build by having the reader guess if Trisha will make it out of the woods, or if the unseen creature will catch her first. If you're a fan of psychological suspense, then be sure to read this great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I use this book in my classroom, as part of a Red Riding Hood unit. In this unit, we explore modern versions of the classic fairy tale. The students love the graphics, and I love that I can supplement curriculum with Stephen King in under a week. This book triggers more kids going to the public library to find more King novels than anything I could have imagined! This adaptation holds intact the necessary elements of the original novel. I use this book, and this unit, to teach about Id,Ego and Superego. We also explore the use of symbolism with Red and the woods. The students examine the ways stories are used to morally instruct the young, and are able to see red riding hood develop from a damsel in distress to a hero in her own right. This unit helps 12 and 13 year olds see the ways that myth and fairy tale change over time, yet are still critical to literature centuries later. I use this book in conjunction with the film \\"The Village\\", and the original Grimm's Fairy Tale."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" was not the usual Stephen King book. However, this fairly slowed paced book turned out to be pretty good. The story of a nine-year old, Red-Sox fan, whose favorite player was the closer, Tom Gordon, touched your heart. Trisha gets lost in the woods and summons courage and maturity that many adults don't posses, to find her way out. This book took me about a week to read, however, everday that I picked the book up, i began to like it more and more. When I finished the book I new that it was a good choice to read it. Also, i would reccomend it to anyone looking for a quite-thriller."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I love to read and I really enjoy in depth stories ,yet feel I don't have enough time Vs. the anticipation of wanting to read all the time, so I started listening to books on cd's while I comuted I found myself listing to this book in my house, on my lunch break, aside from durring my comute; because it was that good. It really isn't typical Stephen King, but it is what we all know him for, in depth detailing and how he sucks you in to his story. A must read for all!!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"'The woods have teeth!'... Anyone who has been lost in the woods (been there - done that) can identify with the chill down the spine, the streak of panic and all the scenes that play in your brain. For nine year old Trisha McFarland, the 'special thing' that sends a chill down her spine is far worse than just being lost, she's being stalked by something she never imagined was in the woods. It saves itself for those unfortunate souls lost and afraid.The little girl's radio gives her some escape from the terror, and her love of Tom Gordon and his pitching style helps pull her thoughts away from the creature she can sense is out there with her. As usual, the character details are great and I always stay up way too late with a King novel, so don't read it on a work night.Chrissy K. McVayauthor of 'Souls of the North Wind'"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I started reading this book on a Saturday morning and didn't put it down again until the end. The main character (and really the only character of note)is a 9 year old girl who gets lost in the woods. She managed to inspire me with her toughness and strength as she faced one challenge after another. Her will to live almost jumped through the pages. You will find yourself liking this girl more with each page and rooting for her along every step of the way. This is really a great read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This novel doesn't fall into King's gross-out category. It's not a book about vampires or haunted houses or aliens from outer-space and no one gets slimed or disembowled. (Not that I have anything against those books. I think King does them pretty well.) Yet neither is it a book where King gives his take on a different genre--like his Westerns or crime stories. It's somewhere in between. Mostly it's just about a young girl getting lost in the woods. There's a supernatural terror that is hinted at, and that may or may not be real. But King keeps this terror mostly in the background.The book doesn't suffer for it, though. Just Trisha's narrative of traveling through the woods on her own, becoming more and more lost yet determined to survive, is a gripping as anything King has written. Maybe it lets King play to his strength--making the reader believe in a child's point of view is something he has always done as well as anyone. It's also all the more powerful because of the novel's realism. The book is effective because we are sucked into Trisha's reality--imagining how this could happen to someone and what it would be like to be lost in the woods. When the supernatural events (real or hallucinated) do come, King has already gotten us to accept everything that's happening to Trisha.If this novel plays to King's greatest strength, it also avoids his worst weakness--creating a situation that he doesn't know how to get out of. So many of King's novels (THE STAND, DESPERATION) don't seem to know how to end, and the \\"payoff\\" we get is unsatisfying. That's not true here. And while some of King's novels come with a heavy-handed moral--or else a garbled one, this one is right on the money. It's really a book about the misfortunes that some kids (and some adults) have to face--misfortunes that aren't their fault but which they have to deal with anyway. While some of King's novels deal with this in a symbolically and narratively clunky way, this one is graceful, poingant and rings true."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I cant say that Stephen King is my favorite novelist. I can take his mild novels, but pass on the hotter more graphic stories. He is an excellent writer though and this story is truly wonderful.The story is about Tricia Farland, a 9 year old, from a recently divorced household whose mother tries to fill her children's time by embarking on weekend outings. One of these outings is a 6 mile hike on the Appalachian trail which Tricia has geared up for with a pack, poncho, some food, and a walkman. On her head is Tricia's prized possession, a Red Sox cap that her father got signed by her hero, famed pitcher Tom Gordon.In the midst of the hike, Tricia's mother and older brother engage in a heated argument regarding the recent divorce and move when Tricia needs to take a bathroom break. Believing that she can catch up with them, Tricia takes a secluded route off the path to do her business. Then she makes her big mistake, instead of retracing her steps, she decides it will be quicker to walk into woods believing it would lead her to her family. What happens to Tricia afterwards is something out of well a King novel, but Tricia's love for Tom Gordon will prove life or death because he is the reason she finds the strength to survive."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Set between Maine and New Hampshire, this frightening tale chronicles Trisha McFarland, and her journey into every parents, and childs, worst nightmare.Forced to join her Mother and Brother on a grueling six mile hike, and tired of the constant fighting between them, Trisha wanders off the beaten path for only a moment. Soon she discovers though, that her moment away may cost her everything, for when she returns, she is left with nothing but a fork in the road. Armed only with a walkman, and her nine-year-old ingenuity, Trisha treks though the dense woods and swamps surrounding the Appalachian trail. While police search for a reputed killer, and fear the worst, Trisha wanders alone, stalked by a supernatural predator that is far too real.King beautifully illustrates the fine line between reality and imagination in an exausted child's journey, and her fear and desperation nearly become our own. This book is as heartwarming as it is terrifying, and after reading it, I find myself coming home to hold my little ones extra tight."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Other reviews have synopsized the story. My main comment is that what makes this book exceptional, for both kids and adults, is that King in no way trivializes nine year old Trisha's thinking processes. He is able to project her fears and ideas without sounding condescending or trite. The book carries one away into Trisha's world. S**t on Toast... what a scary place!! I rate this as a must-read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When I picked up this book to read, I would have guessed that I would end up rating it 2 stars. At most 3.The surprise for me was that Tricia McFarland would not be the average spoiled brat that most child stories center around but a very interesting person who I would come to deeply care about. That's the mark of a great writer in my book.I had always thought this was SK's attempt at how he would do The Blair Witch Project. This story couldn't be further from that other one though. It's a story about strength, and determination, about perservering, and how brave the human spirit can be.If you get a chance, don't miss this one like I almost did. I took me what, 5 years to give it a chance.I listened to the CD-Audio version read by Anne Heicht. I've never been an Ann fan. I thought she tried to get by on gimics more than acting ability. Watching her on Ally McBeal began to change my opinion. Hearing her read this has at least convinced me that \\"Anne, you can read me a story anytime!\\" Excellent capture of Tricia and the voices in her head."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I gave this to my secretary to read, who is the member of a literary club and had never read anything by King. She was hesitant but at my recommendation she read it. She loved it and it gave her a whole new appreciation for King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Is it me or does King just keep getting better?! I loved this book and poor little Trisha McFarland. I fought myself reacting to her out loud. Another amazing book by the incredible Mr. King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is King's desrciptive writing at its best. His ability to reflect the workings,imagination and problems of young adult minds has been one of the great hallmarks of his writing.This is a very simple story - well told. The real suspense for King fans is the memory of what happened in Cujo."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Let me start off first by saying that those who may be expecting King's usual fare may be puzzled when they pick up this book. That's not to say that it's bad, on the contrary, I feel that it is one of King's more enjoyable novels. When it comes to sheer, edge-of-your-seat, can't-put-the-book-down appeal, the novel's short length avtually works in its' favor. The action moves along at a very swift pace, and the nove's suspense never relents. Each scene is vital to tbe plot and filled with tension. Some of King's works tend to be weighted down by an immense amount of material, and this novel not only differentiates itself from his other books, it is a welcome adition to the King stable."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been reading Stephen King novels since the ninth grade, and in the past 12 years have read everything available on the market. This book amazed me. While I am still struggling through "Bag of Bones", I flew through this story in about three hours. Trisha is the most touching and well-developed character from SK since Ralph Roberts of Insomnia. While I do question the morality of selling a larger print 220 page novella as a seventeen buck hardback, the story itself is a brilliant craftsmanship of courage, love and faith. It will hold you until the last page is turned and have you pointing to the sky thanking God that the world has been blessed with the most extraordinary story teller ever to but pen to paper (or type on a WANG). This is a great read and a wonderful story. King has done it again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Once again, King sends us on a journey into one of our greatest nightmares...lost in the woods!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this story both fascinating and scary at the same time. Anyone who has grown up around a large wooded area would agree. It makes you think that sometimes there actually might be something lurking around the next tree."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King is still sharp, yes, but what is young Trisha thinking? Clearly this heroine has misplaced loyalties. She clings desperately to Gordon and the 43 straight he saved last season, but what of the post-season, Trisha? Where was that string against the hated Cleveland Indians? Where's the promised land? The fact that the streak survived another clumsy Boston October doesn't make ME feel any better, young lady. YOU need to reacquaint yourself with what it means to be a winner. The Sox don't need this kind of pre-playoff nostalgia. The ghost of Babe Ruth still haunts Fenway. Two stars."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"For all of you Stephen King fanatics out there, Stephen's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon hits bookstores on Tuesday, April 6. Definitely vintage King (imo). Though some of the words/thoughts used by the main character, Trisha, seemed a little too grown-up, she is a character you'll come to cheer for just as much as she idolized her hero, Tom Gordon (a relief pitcher for the Red Sox). For me, once I reached the part where she tumbled head over heels down a hillside, I had to keep reading. In fact, I couldn't read/turn the pages fast enough. In fact, the tension was as thick for me as it was in the climatic scenes of classics such as Cujo, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, & It. Great stuff for those of you who like to be hit over the head with suspense, tension, a little blood & guts, the ewwwwwwww factor, and characters who have a seemingless bottom of will to go on ... oh, and don't forget, a bogeyman! <ewg> Sue <<--- who ain't gonna veer off the beaten path any time too soon after reading this story!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"One year has passed since none-year old Trisha McFarland's parents divorced. Her mother gained prime custody of Trisha and her older brother Pete. The trio left the Boston suburb of Malden to live in Maine. Pete misses his old life and is always fighting with their mother. On those weekends in which the two children do not stay with their father in Boston, their mother takes them on field trips.Today, they begin the six-mile hike along the Appalachian trail. As Pete and their mom argue, Trisha stops to go to the bathroom. When she finishes, the little girl realizes she is separated from her companions. Over the next nine days she struggles to survive against an unknown enemy who has left many dead animals in his wake. For salvation, Trisha turns to her imagination and her hero, Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon, to help guide her through the nightmarish woods and her unknown foe. However, the odds of a pre-teen surviving this ordeal is almost as great as the Red Sox finally overcoming the curse of Babe Ruth.THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON is Stephen King at his most frightening best. No one blends real world and nightmare better than Mr. King and with this novel he does that very well. The story line, which moves along like an exciting nine inning baseball game, is filled with real life elements such as Tom Gordon being the prime stopper for the Sox. The terror felt by Trisha also seems genuine. As these elements combine into a fabulous plot, couch potatoes have a one sitting treat that takes them along the Appalachian Trail.<P<Harriet Klausner"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Excellent with the most surreal teror and realistic power of King's words that bring terrifying images on ink and paper by using the forest as a setting."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've just started this book, two days into it but it's good as only King books can be. I admit I detest baseball so that aspect of the story does nothing for me. It's far too boring a sport for me and I have never understood the allure. I prefer football and boxing. However Mr. King does a great job of making you feel like you are lost in the woods along with Trisha. My main complaint to this point is how at the beginning of her getting lost she runs in one direction in search of the path only to eventually reach a deep, wide valley. I kept waiting for her to make the connection that she had gone in the wrong direction and make a straight line back in the direction she came but then again she's only 9 years old. Thus far into the story, despite a few flaws, I am hooked. It's definitely a page turner if for no other reason than the fact Mr. King can make you feel like you are actually there with a person as the story unravels. I have never felt that King writes his best when writing in the female perspective (for obvious reasons) but his work is still better than the vast majority of what is out there. However, I wish he'd go back to the genre that made him what he is today. So far, aside from a girl lost in the woods, the story isn't scary enough to rank high on the King list of classics."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I got what I expected in terms of writing style. Stephen King's stories always make it easy to visualize the plot as you get carried away into the evening hour. However, I was left hungry for my chill fix. This is what we love you for Mr. King. A good story is nice, but please oh please, give us one that makes us check the door and all the windows; one that will make our hearts race far, far into the night!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was pretty dissapointed with this book. I was expecting much more, but I did come to love the poor lost girl. It was, however, a very drawn out story--- it's only 200+ pages. I was expecting better."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Only Stephen King can write an entire novel about a little girl being lost in the woods and make the story and the character so interesting that you can't put the book down. Definately a great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen Kings new book. It was lacking the macabre & gore that one expects from a typical with a King novel. This novel is for younger readers more than adults."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read nearly everything that Stephen King has published, and have never been disappointed. This book is closer to the genre of "the body" than most of his other work. Reading this book actually gave me a new appreciation for the simple things in life. Delving into this story and getting emotionally involved with the 9 -year -old Trisha was almost a religious experience. After finishing the book, I felt at peace. Calm and ready for anything. It is a wonderful read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been reading Stephen King for 20 years, and I am only 32. This book is an easy, quick read and worth the effort. It is a different direction than most of his works but it fails to completely engross the reader. Plus, it badly needs some editing. Joe Castiglione is the Red Sox' play-by-play man, Jerry Trupiano is the color man, sometimes these two are reversed. Also, please it is Jason VAritek, not VEritek! Overall, it seems like Mr. King tossed this one off in a few hours. He's talented."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Hooray for Stephen King! I enjoyed this one! It is fast paced, exciting, and difficult to put down despite it's relatively simple premise. Crank out some more like this one, Stephen!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is excellent. Vivid details. You won't put this book down. I didn't. Read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I think this is one of the best Stephen King books I've ever read. Don't start reading this thinking it's going to be a horror story; it's more like a Stand By Me story. I really like how the story is tied in with baseball the fact the it's about a girl who is a baseball fan. I really love this book! I just couldn't put it down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Overall this book kept me on the edge of my seat and I would recomend this book to anyone who likes a scary story. Stephen King is a good author and I like to read his books. Everytime I read one of his books it's hard for me to go to sleep because what he writes what can realy be true. I would like it even more if someone made this book in to a movie. I like to watch scary movies and if this was a scary movie I would miss out on a weeks worth of sleep. Tricia stayed brave and she is very smart. If anyone deserves any credit it would be Tricia. For anyone who wants to read this book go ahead and read it if you want to be reading for the next couple of hours. If I had to read this book on my own I wouldent be able to put the book down and all I would want to do was read the book untill it was over."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been a fan of Stephen King since Carrie came out; I thought, and still think, that The Shining is a masterpiece unequaled by any other horror author. However, I was terribly disappointed in this book. The story starts out with good information about the family nucleus, and as the story begins and the family starts their trek through the woods, I could really feel the emotions going through their minds, and the strong connection between the brother and sister. When the little girl disappears in the blink of an eye, I felt that this was the beginning of a very scary story, filled with lots of supernatural influence. Instead, I began to get bored because nothing much was happening; there were points when the story built and I felt that the moment was just around the corner when I would find King's sense of darkness and true horror, only to read on and say this is it? The plot of the story about a little lost girl all alone in the dark woods conjures up terror and unimaginable fear that I felt just didn't happen. I would say the book is an OK read, but definitely not up to King's usual standard of writing..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Here's the entire story: A girl gets lost in the woods. After reading this and Bag of Bones, king is on his way out."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought the idea of this book was intriguing as (like another reviewer mentioned) I think King's main strength is getting inside his characters' heads and showing us their thoughts. I thought that writing on a simpler theme might bring out the best of his writing but somehow it never quite comes off. As several others have also commented, Trisha is far too precocious for a nine year old girl. For example, at one point, early in the novel she remarks that her mother and brother's quarrelling is like a 'sick kind of love making'. Come on - what nine year old would make a comparison like that!I just found it hard to identify with Trisha and her perils and somehow I don't think King could either. I can see why people who haven't read any other King stuff might think it was a great book, it really isn't bad in itself but compared with earlier stuff like Cujo or the Long Walk it is a bit of a disappointment - but not a massive disppointment, as I don't think (apart from The Green Mile) that Steve King has written a really good book since the late eighties."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you have expectations of reading Stephen King as you once loved him, forget this one. The old and middle writings of King were my cup of tea! Then he changed. I no longer have any desire to finish the Dark Tower series (apparently nor does he) and what his current writing has become no longer interests me. This book deals with a nine-year-old who gets lost in the woods. Yeah, and... And that's the point. There's not anything to it. Skip this one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It took me less than a day and a half to read this book. And thats not because i was \\"glued to it\\" or \\"thought it was a real page-turner\\" but basically because it was a real fast read. However, this book, as i stated, is a perfect example of Stephen King's boredom with writing horror/fiction. His work within the last decade especially, has taken some well deserved criticism. Based on the concept that most of his recent books are churned out in a \\"cookie-cutter\\" method. Now, don't get me wrong, King is responsible for some of the most compelling stories ever. Stories that seem to transcend the \\"horror genre\\", and incorporate elements of mystery, romance, and drama.However, this is not one. I would rate this book only behind \\"Insomnia\\" as the most insipid King novels i've ever read. I don't know how to explain it to those who have not read most of King's work. But for those who have, it will make sense when i say that about a quarter of the way into the book, i found myself thinking \\"oh....it's going to be another one of THESE stories huh?\\"THESE meaning a really generic character, and a foreseeable \\"generic\\" villian, ultimately squaring off in a very \\"generic\\" ending. halfway through, i could already see how it was going to end. And this is one of those books where King's references to East coast culture are going to take precedence over the quality of the finished product.Some examples of King's finest work would be \\"The Talisman\\", \\"Night Shift\\"(THE best collection of short horror stories ever), The Shining, The \\"Dark Tower\\" sieries, and The Stand, just to name a few.And if you have not read any of \\"The Bachman books\\" (King as Bachman) \\"Rage\\", \\"The Long Walk\\", Road Work\\", and \\"The Running Man\\", are some of the most well written, and mind-bending stories ever told.This, however, isn't. And unless you can purchase this book for under $2.00 don't waste your money, or your time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The girl who loved Tom Gordon\\" By Stephen King.In June of 1998 Trisha McFarland has gone on a hike on the Maine branch of the Appalachian Trail with her brother and recently divorced Mother. As usual her mother and brother are arguing. Trisha has to pee so she leaves the trail and low and behold becomes lost in the woods......This has to be one of the worst books Kings has written and I have read quite a few of them. The story as mentioned revolves around Trisha over a period of 9 days as she tries to find her way out of the woods. There are no other immediate characters and therefore no interaction, almost no dialogue, and almost nothing interesting happening for 260+ pages.The Good: Nothing really comes to mindThe bad: As mentioned this story is completely boring. You are essentially reading the daily goings on of a 9 year old girl lost in the woods which is not interesting in the least. To make a bad story worse the main character Trisha is not believable as a 9 year old and hence doesn't work. I noticed that she constantly thinks and talks (to herself of course) about things I don't think most 9 year olds in 1998 would know about or think about. She mentions \\"MASH\\" the TV show, she mentions \\"I love Lucy\\". How many 9 year olds have seen these shows? She mentions V.C. Andrews. How many 9 year olds in 1998 have viewed \\"Flowers in the Attic\\" or read the book? She makes reference to a \\"Serta Perfect Sleeper\\" mattress and also to receiving junk mail. I just didn't get the since that this was a 9 year old girl. It seemed more like the memories of a 50-60 something writer were slipping into the story.Overall: Skip this at all cost. If the Author's name wasn't \\"Stephen King\\" I don't think this would have ever been published. Try something else."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been a faithful Stephen King fan for as long as I can recall. This book was sadly a dissapointment to me. The writing was terrific of course, but the story didn't seem to have enough substance."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I just cant understand why so many people pretend to likethisnovel. Stephen King has written many good books and a few greatones. But he has also written plenty of bad ones. Bt he is human and sometimes just does not deliver. If this book had been written by Michael Nobody everyone would have a differnt opponion of this book. IT IS VERY BORING.There is nothing scarry about this book. And it is not very entertaining. Very little happens over the course of 260 pages. I can understand some people liking the book but it just is not very good. But I I give it an extra star out of sympathy. END"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I usually like everything Stephen King pumps out of his book writing mill...but occasionally one of his books just doesn't catch my attention. I found this book very hard to get into, it was extremely slow and I didn't even finish. My husband read it and said it does get better in the second half of the book but he agreed it was hard to get into the storyline."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The girl who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King was interesting because it kept the reader glued to it. Situations that Trisha got in resulted in more bad things to endanger her health. A good example from the book is,"The rest of her face was as bad or even worst. Lumpy where she had been stung, merely swollen where mosquitoes in their hundreds had had at her while she was sleeping." It was eerie and almost real in some chapters. King did a great job making it sound life-like and scary. This is another great example,"But the black-clad arms rose...the claws that had left the marks on the trees, the claws that had torn off the deer's head and then ripped its body apart." But King also put in his writing; baseball talk. Tom Gordon was Trisha's favorite baseball player and she listened to his games on her walkman. She imagined that he was walking with her at all times and that he was protecting her throughout her time in the wilderness. Here is an example,"Well, the Red Sox have got their work cut out for them,"Troop remarked. "They're down seven to one in the bottom of the forth and Andy Pettitte is twirling a gem." This novel had a lot of special events in it that made the book hard to put down. I highly recomend this book to anyone that is a Stephen King fan."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a graet book to read.It was my first book ive read by the author Stephen King.There were many thrills and laughs in this book, and many scares included in this book.Like when she is taking a "crap" when she is lost in the woods and she falls in it. And there on all throught the storie when something bad happens she compares it to falling in her "crap".Or when she is walking up a hill and trips and falls down the hill and comes to a ledge and she rolls off it and falls down bashes on some rocks messes her all up.But what was interestin about it was that it decribed it all on the way down untill she stops rolling.Also she gets stung by wasps and bees all at the same time.This book to me was an all togeather an very thriling book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King is a book that isfrightening, perilous, and hits home. "The black-clad arms rosefalling away from the yellow-white claws...the claws that had left themarks on the trees, the claws that had torn off the head of the deer and ripped its body apart." That sentence is extermely frightening and full of suspense. Perils...hinder the girl's progress in finding her way out of the woods. It hits home because it is a perfect example of how a little girl could easily just vanish from her mother's side while walking down a seemingly harmless path. Frightening, perilous, and home hitting, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is all in all a great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I confess that I very rarely read Stephen King books these days. I don't know why I decided to read this book, but I am so grateful that I did! The characterization in this book was absolutely fantastic. Children have a great deal more knowledge and understanding than most parents and teachers ever realize, and I applaud Mr. King for reminding us!I'm amazed by people who don't make the connection between Trisha and themselves. Trisha is representative of each and every one of us, lost in our own woods, struggling with our own fears. King does an amazing job of illustrating how our once imagined fears become dangerously real as we weaken. There is so much more that I could say about this wonderful work. However, I fear that I have been long-winded, and should wrap this up. This book is truly a gift, for which I am eternally grateful."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King was an excellent book,because it's very suspensful, exciting, and can relate to some families.Lots of families can relate to the fighting that the mother and brother ,of Trisha, go through.The bickering over small and minor insidents.As the younger girl gets very upset with them and wonders off in her mind.What I also liked about this book is that it keeps you in suspense throughout the whole book.Wondering if she'll make it through the woods safely,or if someone will find her, or what would find her.Keeping those thoughts in your head if she's just going to give up,or keep on fighting and pushing herself to survive.Trisha also has to go trough all her troubles in getting bit by bugs,falling down cliffs,or if she'll be eaten by something before getting home to her mother.All in all this was a really good book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book called "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" written by Stephen King is a really intriging little book that is very interesting to me. I was glad to read a short quick paced book that fit my reading style perfectly. I thought it was great how Stephen King was able to get into the characters head so good. It made the book make a lot more sense because you know what all the people who are involved in the story are thinking. Some of the thoughts were a little old for a 9 year-old girl to be thinking but it's good he was trying. I thought the storyline was really beleivable how a family would go out hiking in the woods and a girl could get lost. I thought it was weird how a little girlcould fight through all the mental and physical needs it does take to get through the woods."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"In the past week I have read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Hearts in Atlantis. They are very different. Both are very worthwhile. This book sucks you in and won't let you go. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is very fast paced and I love the message. The last few paragraphs are outstanding. A recommendable book-even if you aren't a Sox fan."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book! An easy and fast read. I really felt for this poor little girl lost in the woods and also lost in the depths of her own mind. Highly recommended book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I bought this as a vacation read and but completely "left the beach" to fly through this book. I could not go to sleep that night until I had finished it. It was NOT what I expected. It was more."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The Girl...\\" is a short story aboutbeing lost in the woods. The little 9-year old makes a series ofmistakes that force her to spend more than a week in the wilderness, thick Northern forest of Maine and New Hampshire. (...)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Let me say this before I begin my review of this book. (Actually there are two things I'm going to say.)(1) It has been a few months since I've read this, so I may not remember it all.(2) It was the first Stephen King novel I have read.Okay, if you read that, you should be set for this particular review. And in that case, I'll start from the bottom and work my way up: if you didn't skip it, you found out that this was the first Stephen King book I've read. (However, since that time I've read many more....luckily.) This isn't the best he's ever done; I was expecting that, just something to keep me reading his work. The book got annoying at times. From what I remember, he mentioned bugs around her head at least 50 times...that got me a little annoyed at times. Plus, with one character wandering around the woods, there isn't much to talk to...you'll soon find that trees listen, but are quite quiet. So Trisha doesn't do a whole lot of talking, just walking...and falling.The book takes place in Maine, as most would expect. Considering he lives in Maine, it's proper for him to write about it. I don't mind a bit. But getting back to the point, a young girl, Trisha, wanders off in the woods while on a hike with her brother and mother. They're arguing abot something. (I think their father(?)) So instead of listening, she falls behind, but soon finds them out of sight. When she tries to cut through an unmarked path, she finds herself lost and alone...for the rest of the book, pretty much.While on her adventure she'd rather not be on, she listens to her radio, mainly the Boston Red Sox to hear them talk about her favorite player, Tom Gordon. She pretends that he is with her for protection, and basically he is the only thing she talks to throughout the book. I was surprised when the villian arrived...I just assumed it was the forest, but there was a spirit that showed up a bit late. (Maybe it got lost too.) It was described as having a head of a beehive. However, with its late arrival, I wasn't too impressed.I don't know what to really say about this book. Normally I find writing reviews incredibly easy, but this seems kind of tough. There isn't a whole lot to write...honestly. The book pretty slow, unlike some of his other books. I got bored of her always being in the woods, and wished that she would reach some sort of civilization before I starting going a little crazy with her. But she didn't...at least it was a short book. Personally I think the best part was when she bit off the head of a live fish, and reading that part made me realize that King was a pretty good writer despite this quite boring piece of work.This review may not be helpful for you. If I was reading it, I wouldn't get much out of it other than the guy didn't like the book. That's what I'm stating...I didn't enjoy it. It was boring and slow, and I tended to let my mind wander off. However, I read another book of his, loved it, then read another...I now find myself thinking, "Hey, everybody isn't perfect! Even Spielberg made Nineteen Forty-One!"If thinking that you never heard of that movie, don't feel embarrassed. It wasn't good despite hits like Saving Private Ryan and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, not to mention many others. So even if King has a bad day, give him some slack. He's still a great writer!(However, I suggest you read "The Running Man", "The Long Walk", "The Green Mile", and most everything else.)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Nine year old Trisha McFarland, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is out for a short hike on the Appalachian Trail with her divorced Mom and her brother, who are arguing so vociferously that they fail to notice when she stops to relieve herself. When Trisha tries to get back on the Trail, she becomes disoriented and is quickly lost in the dense woods. In the ensuing days she will be forced to fend for herself, armed with little more than some junk food, a poncho, a Walkman and a surpassing love for the Red Sox closer. Battling bugs, bogs, hunger, malevolent woodland spirits and bears, she is sustained by listening to Red Sox games, by visitations from a spirit Gordon and by "The Subaudible", as her father once described his impression of the divine in every day life.There are a couple of things I really liked about this book. First, it is one of the most feminist stories you'll ever read. Trisha is the sole character for nearly the entire book. She is determined and resourceful and easy to root for in her quest to survive. Second, I liked the sustaining effect of the radio broadcast of the Sox games. I am a huge fan of radio baseball; except in very rare cases, I would rather listen than watch. As it happens, I listen to Sox games too. Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano are not terribly good broadcasters--especially if, like me, you grew up listening to Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner do Mets games--but the rhythms of the game, the daily presence and the steady narrative flow over a period of months all combine to make them a welcome presence on Summer nights. Baseball is the one sport that can be fully captured on radio, perhaps because it is so familiar that we can run the films in our minds and don't really need to see in order to "see." Whatever the reason, anyone who has a similar love of radio can easily relate to the comfort that the games provide this little lost girl.There is, however, another aspect of the book which is much less successful, that is the spiritual angle. Taken purely for what he is, Stephen King is one of the great storytellers in all of literature. But that is pretty much all there is, Critics have tried reading more into this book in particular, by taking Trisha's relationship with the Tom Gordon spirit and with the Subaudible to imply that King has found God or something. Well, it is something, but it's not God. We Red Sox fans are familiar with Gordon's religious devotion, which he demonstrates by pointing heavenward after every save. Like her hero, Trisha determines that she will have to cultivate the quality of having "ice water in her veins." But Gordon, of course, derives his sublime confidence and self-assurance from his faith in God. Trisha seemingly derives hers from faith in Gordon and the Subaudible alone. If King's point is that traditional organized religions are all hogwash and faith of any kind suffices, even faith in a temporarily celebrated ballplayer, point taken. But to suggest that the book offers any kind of profound new spiritual side of King seems to be quite a stretch.In a way, this is somewhat disappointing. King had an opportunity here to actually grapple with a weighty theme for once. The book would be much better, and more significant, if Trisha's experience did forge in her some heightened spirituality. Her adoration of Gordon could have been a leaping off point for her to consider why his religiosity provides him with such empowering spiritual sustenance. Her fairly stock confrontation with the creature at the end of the book could have been replaced with a really interesting confrontation with the fact of her own possesion of a soul. But King's not really interested in these ideas, which is of course his right.Over all, I did like the book; it is helped greatly by the fact that it can be read in one sitting. I particularly like the idea that thirty years from now you'll be able to pick up the book and recapture one fairly mediocre iteration of the Red Sox (though I found it enormously frustrating that Jason Varitek's name was repeatedly spelled "Veritek.") and have a whole flood of memories come cascading down. This is an enjoyable enough way to kill a couple hour--an ideal plane book--but if you're looking for any important philosophical messages within its pages, you're bound to be disappointed.GRADE: B(N.B.--except for some brief and relatively mild profanity, the book is appropriate for teens, who should like it very much)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As a parent, I spend considerable time trying to educate my children how to protect themselves from strangers, be aware of their surroundings when they are at the mall, be alert to the potential of dangerous situations, and, ad nauseum, what to do should this or that occur and you find yourself lost and on your own.As a parent, no amount of information is enough to keep them safe in our minds. We stand at the edge of paranoia, always geared to protecting our young. As a family, ourselves, we take our time off and go camping, hiking and exploring in the Sierras. Ever attempting to pass on knowledge, my wild life biologist husband delivers education and passes on nuggets of survival tricks.I was impressed with the story line Stephen King delivers in this book. One child actually payed attention to the nuggets of wildlife facts her mother served up on their outings in the Maine woods. Interpreted as boring by the older brother, he oftentimes uses the occassion to protest verbally to his mother everything he hates about his life and what the divorce has done to destroy it.How fortunate that this chirpy 9 year old girl, Trisha, always eager to please and make peace anyway she can, listened to these seemingly useless tips. In the end, these morsels of information added up and saved her life when she became lost while on a hike with her brother and Mother.Trish was only trying to find a secret spot where no one could see her to pee. Trying to pee like her mom showed her, she gets turned around and as Mr. King puts it, began making some very unfortunate decisions. Having left the main trail, it turns into a guessing game as to where and how to get back to it. Trish loses and gets lost.Her tale is one of shear guts and determination, helplessness and physical and mental stress beyond the coping mechanisms of a 9 year old. She does however, recover the nuggets of information imparted to her by her mom, and struggles day after day to help herself.One of her saviours is the love for baseball and one player in particular, Tom Gordon. Carefully, she tries to allot herself only so much time to listen to her walkman before the batteries die and she is left without her human link and bond in a box. As she tries to conserve the batteries, her imagination and stress induced hallucinations bring Tom Gordon to her. As she challenges herself with the struggle of just getting enough water and a few berries to eat a day, she senses an ominous presence that has been following her day after day, night after night.A griping novel, one that makes you love and cry for this young, lost girl, it is full of drama, intensity and mystery."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Having been a Stephen King fan for most of my life, it is great when he can express his limitless range with books like this. The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon was an extremely painful odyssey for a girl whom I came to love as one of my own. My heart broke for her over and over again, yet I kept reading because I couldn't decide how it was going to end. King really draws you in and won't let you go until the last page. Will the girl find safety? Or will she die in a horrific way? Stephen King is capable of writing both kinds of endings, most of which are a mix between melancholy and not quite resolved. I have read the book three times and will probably read it again in the future."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book straight after I finished Bag of Bones. The latter was different than the usual for Stephen King, the same goes for this book. It might have been just a little more scary, but still I kept on flipping those pages and could not wait to finish it. The book is unusually short for King but still I think it deserves the 4 stars. I found the ending a little disappointing but I am sure that with a second reading I discover new elements. King is good (full stop)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha McFarland is lost in the woods and I found myself lost in the pages of this book. When I started reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I didn't stop until I was done. Stephen King puts the reader into his characters like no other and this is one of the best I've read. I haven't read a lot of King's works, but I haven't read a bad one yet. I found myself becoming Trisha, feeling, seeing, and smelling what see did. I cared for her and worried about her (something I don't do very often).To those who complained about its size, I would just like to say that it's the same as complaining about a movie being too long. A story is told in a determined amount of time. No more and no less... Stephen King transported me into Trisha for a wild, suspensful trip. All I can say is Bravo!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I think this is another big hit. A Stephen King book doesn't have to have vampires or ghosts to be a good read. I believe he has already proven that. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a page turner. I couldn't put it down. The suspense of what was going to happen to 9-year-old Trisha McFarland held my attention and I couldn't stop reading. I had my doubts about Trisha making it out of the woods alive. She hung on to hope and determination, and of course Tom Gordon, to bring her through this voyage of obstacles that this nine-year-old girl has to tackle. Thank you again Stephen King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"With over 500 reviews already, is there anything left to say? You bet! This is not just an outstanding novel of suspense (what did you expect from King?), but an outstanding contribution to the sizeable body of baseball fiction.Tom Gordon was the Red Sox closer. The closer is the man who comes on with the game on the line. The game is a metaphor for life, right? Two outs, bottom of the ninth, down two, two runners on . . do the Sox live or die today? Does little Trisha? It's up to Tom Gordon.In the hands of a lesser writer, this equation might have been obvious and labored. King's solution to the equation is unexpected and dramatic, even magical.When the ball went through Buckner's legs, I ran from my parents' den, went down the hall, and literally collapsed on the living room floor. And when my favorite player Trot Nixon recently beat Roger Clemens with a dramatic home run, I screamed and jumped up and down for ten or fifteen seconds. After reading THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, I understand better why we baseball fans care so much. And in the climax of this novel, those intense feelings are perfectly intermingled with our fondness for its young protagonist. Very powerful and very moving."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I agree with some of the earlier comments that the plot is simple & the entire phenomena can just be attributable to a kid's creative imagination combined with the pressure of being alone & lost in the woods. Afterall, who would not be driven insane if you're starved, scared, alone in a god-forseaken place. But you have to hand it to SK who was able to twirl the story & took the readers along for a walk into the woods...seeing what Trisha was seeing, hearing what she's hearing, feeling what she's feeling. Also, I noticed that despite the usual SK trademark of supernaturals (ghosts, apparitions, etc.), he seemed to point out that there is only one True God --- whether it be in the woods or not, late innings or not, baseball fan or no baseball fan --- if you truly believe & pray in Him, YOU'LL BE SAVED!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"i am into really scary books and alot of them try to be gross and use that to make up for their lack of real writing well and interesting plot line but this is a very well writen book and i am very impressed with it but if you are looking for a real scary keep you up all night nightmare book this is not it but if you want to kept up all night cause you can not put it down beacause of it is very interesting and well written then i will recomend this book for you. and please consider my advice i am 14 years old but i do know a good book and this is it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The girl who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King was interesting because it kept the reader glued to it. Situations that Trisha got in resulted in more bad things to endanger her health. A good example from the book is,"The rest of her face was as bad or even worst. Lumpy where she had been stung, merely swollen where mosquitoes in their hundreds had had at her while she was sleeping." It was eerie and almost real in some chapters. King did a great job making it sound life-like and scary. This is another great example,"But the black-clad arms rose...the claws that had left the marks on the trees, the claws that had torn off the deer's head and then ripped its body apart." But King also put in his writing; baseball talk. Tom Gordon was Trisha's favorite baseball player and she listened to his games on her walkman. She imagined that he was walking with her at all times and that he was protecting her throughout her time in the wilderness. Here is an example,"Well, the Red Sox have got their work cut out for them,"Troop remarked. "They're down seven to one in the bottom of the forth and Andy Pettitte is twirling a gem." This novel had a lot of special events in it that made the book hard to put down. I highly recomend this book to anyone that is a Stephen King fan."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Compared to Bag of Bones and other Stephen King greats, this book let me down. The writting was good but the story did not seem to go anywhere. When I finished the book, I didn't feel that much happened since the second chapter. I love Mr. King's books and will continue to read them. However, I do not recommend that this be one of his books that you buy."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been an avid King reader for years, and although I did like this book, and actually read it in a day, this isn't up to the King's usual snuff. Not bad, but I was a little disappointed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was too long and boring. I have read other books of Stephen King which are really scary. I found myself anxious to finish it and put it away."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If I had read the book I would say I couldn't put it down. I purchased this CD to listen to in the car on the way to work but I ended up bringing it inside and finishing it in two days. Stephen King pulls you in more and more with each inning. This is the best of his books I've ever "read.""},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been a Stephen King fan for over 12 years now and have read every single book, I make a special trip to the nearest book store when a new book comes out--I did the same with this, drove 40 minutes to buy this book. I was surprised it wasn't thick but it was Stephen King so I bought it. I read this book in 1 day, I think I kept reading because I was waiting for the "good part". I'm still waiting. I've read some of the other reviews and Stephen King is labeled a "horror" novelist because that is what he is and for all of you who say this is a nice change then you are not true Stephen King fans. I'm hoping his next book is like the old stuff, I'm sure he has grown as a writer but that doesn't mean he should change what he writes--just like the saying--"If it ain't broke, don't fix it""},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Sorry to 'break the rules' by commenting on another review, but for those King fans who haven't read "..Tom Gordon"....be forewarned.A reviewer (inadvertantly?) spoils part of the story by identifying the 'mysterious being' that is following the girl in the woods. I will not make the same mistake here (I hope!)If you have NOT yet read the book, please avoid the following review (about 1/2 way through the 2nd page): >>>>>A reader from California , April 15, 1999 unusual king... As masterful "bag of bones" was, the girl who loved tom gordon falls very much flat. As much as I hate to give bad reviews it seems to me, as this book has been hanging around in sk's drawer and met a tight deadline...as a non baseball fan I did not particular understand the "baseball talk" or was very interested in it. The bad entity in the forests was..... [DELETED!!!]........" <<<<<<<<<<< I'm sure the reviewer just 'flaked' when he/she completed that last sentence. Personally, I haven't read the book yet (I -just- found out about it while surfing Amazon.com !) Thanks to all of your positive reviews, I will head to my local library and put my name on the 'waiting list' for this new book!! It's much too popular to be sitting on the shelf waiting for me to check it out! :("},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I believe this book would be interesting for baseball fans . Unless you're familiar with the game it wouldnlt work for you as it didn't for me.It's an ordinary King's,containing some of his recurring motives ,and doesn't really innovate much. The main title is the inclusion of the game in the story ,as a main character . I didn't find it appealing, but as I adressed earlier, others can .I did not find the overall concept gripping, I actually browsed the book at some parts - for the first time in a King's novel. Maybe that says it all.This work isn't one of his finest, and it seems to me that he wrote it for self entertainment reasons ,since his love of the game is definite.One more point I would like to bring up is the distinct feeling of a minor reading . The entire story deals with the little kid and her thoughts, most of which don't seem to capture my attention. King hasn't done it for me this time. For instance, in "Insomnia" he touched my feelings ,when he ,so delicately, described the lives of old folks ,their problems and emotions, but this time it wasn't that successful. I was dissapionted.You might or might not ,but consider carefully before spending your money."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this book was very good. It made you feel like your were that little girl lost in the woods and you could relate to her. I loved the book and I am now reading Bag of Bones which is very good."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When I first picked up this book I thought that it was about a little girl who gets attacked or murdered. "WRONG" This book is pretty mild, its all about a little girl who gets lost in the forest and it talks about all the things she has to go through to survive. The book was still interesting even though it was basic. It is not really adult reading but its great for the younger audience. I don't think it should have come out in hardcover its more of a paperback novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl who loved Tom GordonBy, Steven KingThe girl who loved Tom Gordon, by Steven King, is a book for readers who are looking for adventure. In this book nine-year-old Trisha wonders into the woods while on a hike with her bickering mother and brother. She just wanted to get away. Her parents had just recently divorced, and her and her brother were not too happy about it.After getting of the trail, Trisha tries to take a short cut, but ends up getting lost in this unknown world. She survives on only the little lunch that she brought and anything she can find. Her plan, after finding a stream, is to follow it to civilization. This plan didn't work out too well though.She went through many journeys and difficult pearls along her way. While in the woods she feels as something is stalking her, watching her. Only her best instinct and hope can help her find her way.I would recommend this book to people who like adventure novels. This book had a variety of different subject that can attract many young readers like myself. Tom Gordon is a baseball player. Trish is a baseball fan, so the book speaks of baseball in many situations. People who are interested in baseball could most likely enjoy this book. I just hope whoever reads this book after me enjoys it as much as I did."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm a long time fan of Steven King, even though I found this book deeply involved. it's not really his best work. that's why I give it four stars. dont' get me wrong I loved the book but if I had to pick a favaorite of his this isn't it. the best book of his I've read would have to be Dorliors Clayborne. Which I found to be a break from his normal "Scare the Hell of you!" style which I do love. but this book defineitly shows King's abilaity to be so much more than just a horror writer. in fact I'm in his Libary and I can't wait to get every book he's ever writen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have mixed feelings about this book. It's well written, and gets exciting towards the end, but Stephen King takes a long time to get there and being lost in the woods for over a week is inevitably rather repetitive. The plot is negligible."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read many mysteries and terror novels before, however, I feel that this book is more interesting than the others. It describes in depth all the horror and terror of being lost in the woods, and how alone a little girl would really feel in this situation. I like how the author conveys this girl¡s love for the player, even though she is lost in the woods, she has the feeling that he is still with her. Her strong feelings for Tom Gordon are realistic and the book shows how a nine-year-old girl really thinks. When she is lost in the woods, the author uses many ways to convey the fear of what might happen, and also allows the reader to experience what it feels like to be lost in the forest alone.When I was reading this book, I would sometimes think and ask myself¡If I were this girl, would I be as brave as her, or would I be terribly afraid?¡It made me think about being alone and how I could cope. I enjoyed reading this book and enjoyed the fear of being in the woods."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is an almost completely psychological horror story. Stephen King takes you deep inside the mind of an eleven year old girl who has become desperately lost in the appalacian mountains. You will experience her hunger, pain, and thirst. You become witness to the importance she (and all of us humans) place on the familiar in a strange place. Gripping fear sets in slowly with an awareness that something is out there in the woods with you.When I read the reviews of this book it was interesting to note the difference between those who loved it and those who hated it. The interesting part was that there seemed to be no middle ground. I also note that most of the "haters" seemed to be readers who normally like Stephen King's work. It is sad and predictable that this should be the case.While it is true that this novel doesn't include any of the gore which Stephen King has become known for (which is what I suspect dislikers of this book felt was missing), it is a great story, told incredibly well. A novel with true craft, by a true craftsman.That being said, I did have one small gripe with this book. In my opinion, some of the insights of the eleven year old girl were just a little too mature for a child of that age. I found this to be just a bit distracting. Normally, this wouldn't bother me too much - but I was a little annoyed at being distracted from an otherwise truly all engrossing story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"OKlets get started, and one, and two, and one, and two, and reach, and three, and four, and three, and four, and done.OKlets get started, this movie is quite macabre, and it smells as though a creature of mass proportions hath eateth it with bacon grease. I liked the scene about the McDonalds hamburger that was planning to take over the underwater palace of Fruitopia :)The descriptions of nectorine juice and cocoanut milk were almost as tasty as the anchovie/glub pizza i had for dinner! I quote a friend when i say, "Take my splean, take my guts, take my liver, and take my heart, just dont take my glazed ham."You know, glazed ham goes swell with smoked turkey, and especialy smaller versions of the australian dingo drumsticks. Along with large quantities of bile, the mammoth grunt attacks are over used and overwhelm the common grub. Though many species of grub live in Wyoming there is a certain species that sucks blood. It is called the centinino monkey blood sucking virus, and is identified by it large tick infested ear drums. Thank you for your vital organs, they were delicious and i wish i had more time to spend with them, but i dont so, may the oil derrick be with you!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Make no mistake about it, The Girl that Loved Tom Gordon is a nail biter of a story. I just thought that King stumbled a bit in trying having to have the story both ways, having the threat be both natural and supernatural. Granted this is a "Stephen King" story, so gross outs and ghouls are to be expected and welcomed. I just felt that the book was a tad too sketchy in its use of the ghoul and that the scares would have been made more hair raising if a lighter touch had been used. I was however quite amused that this novel's original hardback release coincided with the early theatrical playdates for The Blair Witch Project, another lost in the woods tale with a concept not too dissimilar from King's."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Beware: this book is - although made of very simple ingredients - very scary. What do you get if you take Red Sox' Tom Gordon's #1 fan, a young girl who struggles with her parent's marriage and her brother, put her on a walk along the Appalaichan Trail and make her get lost? A nightmare showing Stephen King's true craft: making an extraordinary story out of an ordinary thought. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon deals with the psychological terrors of loneliness and fading hope of ever being rescued; of the lurking dread that somewhere behind you, deep in the woods, is a monster, that is real, very real ...... until Trisha finally confronts her true enemy, the monster, the thing of the woods, she has to defeat in a thrilling showdown that pushes you on the edge of your seat und ripps your nervs like a butcher. This book will definitely make your teeth grind, because it is very tense Stephen King at his best - at least in a way, if you stick to the fact, that it is an ordinary thought, but an extraordinary story.At the end of this book you will come to realize that sometimes the love for the true thing - for that one thing (whatever that is to you) you like best - is the only thing you got ... and the only thing you can fall back on, because it is YOUR thing. Maybe you will even get a few foot steps closer to that thing of yours!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This definitely isn't high on my list of great books. It's a big departure from what King usually writes, and I wish he would have just stuck w/ his usual fare. It moves too slow for my tastes...if you want an awesome King book, try Bag of Bones."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was the first book by Stephen King I've read and it made me want to go straight to the bookstore and get another. It tells the story of Trisha McFarland, a 9 year old girl from New England who is hiking along the Appalachan Trail with her mother and brother. She gets separated from them and wanders through the woods getting herself lost deeper and deeper in the forest. At first, Trisha thinks she is alone but soon she discovers she is not. She senses she is being followed. Read this book to figure out what is following her and if Trisha gets rescued before her companion catches up with her."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Sorry King fans, usually I love King's books, but this one put me to sleep. Kid gets lost in the woods, hallucinates, now fall asleep. YAWN"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is very good because it gave a good description of the woods, it created a sense of fear, and the ending was satisfying. Throughout the entire book the woods are described, and King tells how the girl, Trisha, felt. "Trisha was willing to leave sight of the brook if the clenches of trees and tangles of bushes near it got too thick, but she refused to leave the sound of it." King also created a deep sense of fear. "You won't even get inbarned because they're never going to find you. You'll die out here, just wander around in these woods until you die." The ending was satisfying. It was worked in perfectly and the girl survives. I like Stephen King. He has written many great books and this is just one of those that should be a classic."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I think King did an amazing job describing the scare of being lost in the woods. This book totally drew me in from the first chapter. I could not put this book down. It captivated me and made me keep reading just to see if the girl survived. His descriptive details and feelings of a nine year old lost in the woods was outstanding. I love King's books and this one just added to his spark that he possess when he writes. He is truly a masterpiece writer. Thanks for writing such a real and intense novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've always wondered how anyone could be imaginative enough to write several hundred manuscripts pages on a story, and especially when limiting themselves to the tightness of an almost singular scene. In particular, King in MISERY, where the story basically largely takes place in a single room. Again, here, he is able to build an entire story around a limited subject, and scenes. But then it looks like King can accomplish anything he sets his mind to--can write in any genre, not just horror. Along with writers with similar ability, in particular Dean Koontz and newcomer Charles Wilson (especially in the case of Wilson's GAME PLAN which is the best book I've read this year) King's abilities are as good as they get. Keep it up."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have heard from many people that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was one of Stephen King's best books. I strongly disagree. Like most King books, TGWLTG had a promising start, but it just dragged on and on and on. The villain in this story did not even affect me in the slightest. The reason I am giving it 2 stars instead of 1 is because I truly cared for Trish McFarland. This 9 year-old girl had a lot of spunk, I give her that. But in the end I was thoroughly disappointed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Just remember your childhood. Remember all of the things you had to struggle with just to make it from day to day. Remember your fear, so strong you could taste it. Now take those experiences and turn them into a parable. King has described all the things we face as kids in a lyrical story. Tom Gordon is the refuge we all sought when we were picked on at school, called on to read outloud, face our parents discord amd possible divorce. The courage and determination she shows in the face of such odds is the stuff we dreamed we could have done as kids."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"In order to appreciate this book, you have to put yourself in this amazing 9-year old girl's place. I can see by a lot of the reviews that many people were unable to do that. Thank you Mr. King, for this masterpiece."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although I'm a very loyal SK reader (and will continue to be), I can't give this one high marks. There isn't much suspense, and the "creepy bits" we all know and love stay at arms length through most of the story. The plot is rather uneventful, quite frankly.If you're a loyal fan, you *must* read it (you will anyway, right?), but if you're an occasional King reader for suspense, skip it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I like Stephen King, but this book was not up to his usual standard. It had the feel of a throwaway effort; maybe he wasn't really in a writing mood. It's a quick read and not boring, just not top-of-the-line King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I started to reading this book awhile after christmas. It was not that kind of book you cant put down, but it wasnt that kind of book you just read halt trouh. Its about this girl who get lost in the forrests of Maine. A book about how to be young and lonely and how to be afraid. All the book throuh I waited for this thrilling moment that Stephen King usualy has in his book, but it never came. The book is not the best hes ever written, but its worth a shot if you are a fan who dont need all the blood and horror. Harts in Atlantis is alot better!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This story was quite the page turner, like most of Stephen King's books, and easy to finish in one or two sittings because of its relatively short length (compared to King's other books). Nine-year old Trisha was definitely wise beyond her years, and was quite a likable character. What I found most compelling about the book is that it is realistic... it can happen... getting lost in Nature's wilderness, striving to survive when dealing with forest, the marshes, the ravines, the cliffs, the bugs, the lack of shelter, and the ever-present ominous spirit that King is so skillful in developing and making real. While I didn't think of Tom Gordon as a character per se, I thought his presence was skillfully used to develop Trisha's character. Overall, a very enjoyable book... upon finishing it at 1:00 a.m., felt compelled to check the locks on my door and the lights in the foyer. And if I every go hiking in the Appalachian Mtns., I've gotten some good tips about foraging in the forest for food!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I absolutely loved this book. It's not a typical Stephen King horror story and I think of a lot of fans are surprised by that. This is a horror story of a different kind - an incredibly plausible story.I think everyone can relate to Trisha's dilemma. Everyone has, at one time or another, found themselves in a situation that is seemingly out of control. One minute your life is traveling along it's merry little path and the next it's tumbling out of control. Trisha wandered off the path and found herself lost in the woods. All alone in the wilderness with no sense of where you are or what to do. That's a frightening thought on it's own but more so when you think about being a child in this predicament. It's a horror story and it's not an uncommon one. It happens quite frequently - sometimes with a happy ending and sometimes without.The appeal of this story for me was its simplicity. There weren't any supernatural horrors or maniacs stalking this little girl. She had plenty to worry about without them. This is a story of a little girl lost in the woods struggling to survive. In her isolation, her imagination became her saving grace. Trisha was fighting incredible odds. How many children could survive this situation? The God of the Lost is a brilliant aspect of this story. This creature was tormenting her. As a metaphor it was maybe a bit confusing until the embodiment became real. Trisha was isolated but never alone. Something very real was stalking her. It wanted Trisha and would stop at nothing to make sure that she didn't get away. Its eyes were following her from the moment she felt the "first minnowy flutters" in her chest to her final weakened steps. This creature kept pace with her every step - tormenting her and teasing her - waiting to take her when her fears collapsed into defeat. It isn't a supernatural force or even an evil force that is stalking this little girl but a reality. Little girls and boys die lost in the woods where nature - and God - is oblivious of their situations. That is the heart of this story.This isn't a typical Stephen King novel. It isn't filled with supernatural horrors. It's a story about a little girl lost in the wilderness. Set aside any preconceived notions and read it. It will not disappoint. It's a beautifully written novel. It's funny and frightening and lyrical and honest. Stephen King has done it again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"3.5.99 00:03:07 RED SOX NOTEBOOK Oh the horror! Gordon is savior of King bookBy SEAN McADAM and STEVEN KRASNER Journal Sports WritersFORT MYERS, Fla. -- Best-selling horror novelist and lifelong Red Sox fan Stephen King visited City of Palms Stadium yesterday for the team's exhibition opener agains the Minnesota Twins.King has just completed his latest book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon , which is scheduled to be published in the first week of April. The book tells the story of a young girl who gets lost in the woods of Maine, and finds her way by listening to Red Sox broadcasts on the radio. Tom Gordon is the little girl's favorite player.King said he came up with the idea of using Gordon as a central character because he was \`\`fascinated with the act of thanking God for the save,'' as Gordon routinely does by pointing toward the sky after the final out.\`\`When you're lost in the woods,'' said King, \`\`you're looking to be saved. This is Hansel and Gretel without Hansel.''King also hoped to meet with Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Matt Kinney yesterday. Kinney, like King, is a native of Bangor, Maine. He was dealt by the Red Sox to the Twins last year in the deal for Orlando Merced and Greg Swindell."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Reportedly, King was heard coming up with the idea of this book on a Canadian interview during his BAG OF BONES book tour, where he talked about how he writes by expanding on a simple idea, such as a little girl being lost in the woods. He also reportedly wrote this story in between stops on this same book tour on his laptop. It shows. In a book about a girl getting lost in the woods, King never decides exactly how she gets lost, foreshadowing her as \\"stepping behind a stand of bushes\\" to take a pee, then describing her getting lost by going off the path, down a hill and hanging on to a pine tree(no stand of bushes mentioned). She's described as going a \\"little way\\" down a side path, but it's later revised that this \\"little way\\" down the side path was \\"50, 60, 70 paces\\", in order to make it more believable that she could get lost between the fork of two trails, which a \\"little way\\" doesn't accomplish.Trisha, unlike almost anyone who has ever become lost, NEVER considers going back the way she came! At one point King, after giving Trisha the smarts to actually use landmarks to ensure that she is travelling in a straight line, apparently realized that she could easily use this sane, intelligent technique to send her in a straight line BACK THE WAY SHE CAME, and writes himself out of this difficulty by having Trisha run screaming like an idiot so that she can finally be believably lost. A major plot point is forgotten in Trisha's smashed Gameboy video game, a device which happens to run on AA batteries like the Walkman that Trisha depends on for spiritual support, and the reader waits in vain for Trisha to discover the batteries in this device, as the ones in her Walkman slowly weaken.The most disturbing part of the book lies in what seems to be King's personal antipathy towards women in general, whether they are little girls or adult women. King seems to relish torturing Trisha endlessly with bumps, scrapes, mosquitos, wasps, hunger, and has Trisha peculiarly focus on her own sexuality in a way that seems way too adult for 9 years old, having her think of herself as a stripteaser, imagine herself as an exercise video girl [...], repeat sayings of her friend Pepsi such as \\"Utterly [...]\\", and at one point is described, from the narrator view, as being \\"breastless\\" for absolutely no reason I could fathom. Does King think little nine year old girls SHOULD have [...]? An extremely disturbing and jarring moment is experienced when the story suddenly switches away from Trisha to describe the police search for her, and bizarrely comments on how, IF Trisha has been kidnapped by a child molesting murderer, the police DON'T expect to find her [...].His portrait of Trisha's mother is typically condemnatory, painting her as a hysterical witch who just doesn't understand how much little girls need their daddies, taking an apparent side with the alcoholic father, as being the more important relationship, and condemning her mother for her divorcing of the man.This story was written on the fly, and apparently in response to Anne Rice's release of a slim novella in hardback format, that made King realize he could get away with a similar slim novella to fulfil his contract obligations. I would recommend that you read early King, before the alcohol&cocaine-monster; got him, books such as THE SHINING, CUJO, SALEM'S LOT, THE DEAD ZONE. Anything from TOMMYKNOCKERS onward (with perhaps the exception of MISERY) is pretty generally crap. THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON is just an example of King trying to make as much hay as he can while the sun still shines on his brand name, despite his total lack of interest in storytelling anymore, a state of mind he has admitted to through the fictional protagonist in BAG OF BONES, and hinted at in many interviews. Don't waste your money on THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, and be wary of anything he publishes from this point on. He's made it quite clear he doesn't care about quality, but will publish just about anything his brand name can be slapped on."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not all that into baseball, but I think this book could be a horror to women that are mothers. I think it had it's scary points, such as her seeing this black eyed thing with great cocked ears like horns. The cast of characters was small and almost not even there. King thinks of things that really could happen in real life. He has changed his perspective and style of writing and has made a novel that doesn't scare someone until they go on themselves. This novel was very well written and made you see that a nine year old girl named Tricia, so vivid and even won against her worst fears. That is something not even something most adults can do."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A pleasant surprise from Stephen King.For years, I had not worried about this being the only Stephen King book that I hadn't read. Many people said that it really wasn't a great book and several said that they had started it but never finished it.Frankly, I don't know what the problem was. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a gripping story about a little girl who is lost in the woods. It narrates the trials and tribulations of her journey and struggle to survive on her own in a seemingly unending wilderness. During this we are shown the incredible strength of her character even as she falls deeper and deeper into madness. Along her journey, she encounters many pitfalls and dangers along with a brush with the malevolent supernatural.This is a very entertaining story and I thoroughly enjoyed it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a story of strength and survival suited not only for adults but for young teens as well. Great reading! One of my favorite Stephen King books and I have read them all."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King's pop-up version is everything I expected and more from a pop-up book. Usually with pop-ups, the story is a bit dull compared to the accompanied art of the book. But with this pop-up, the story was great...and I feel for both adults and children who love a good scare! And the art of the book IS wonderful. Everytime I go through the book, I discover something new about it. E.g. the way Trisha's face reflect when she looks into the water.This book is a must-have for book collectors and everyone who loves a good story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was done reading this book just as soon as I opened the cover. My friend recommened that I read the book because it was a \\"quick read,\\" but I didn't think it would go quite as quickly as it did. Stephen King really knows how to hold a reader's attention. The suspense was non-stop up until the end. I found myself worrying about the well being of this nine-year-old girl while I was suppose to be learning other topics at school. I've never been much of a fan of literature, but this book just might have turned me into a Stephen King fan. The usage of sports as a reason to stay alive was very refreshing. It made me realize that there's more to life than just money and careers; there's also entertainment. Life's simple pleasures can actually keep somebody alive. I loved the book and I recommend that everyone should read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Don't get me wrong- this story was well written, but it lacked the punch that other Steven King books delivered for me when I last read some of them years ago (e.g., The Stand, Pet Cemetery, It). King is gifted at describing horror in the commonplace (think Cujo or Christine), but even he couldn't wring macabre out of a simple case of a girl lost in the woods. The story was convincing in that I believed it accurately depicted what a 9 year old would do if lost in the woods, but I just didn't care that much. Also, the creature stalking the girl is a let down and kind of seems tossed in as an afterthought. The girl was perishing all right on her own without the intervention of evil incarnate shaped like a badly drawn bear."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book was allright it was very dissapointing for a Stephen King novel. The story was very lame and farfetched. Don't waste your money. Wait till it goes on a bargin book table at you local book stores!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While fans of horror author Stephen King may be disappointed with this mainstream novel of wilderness adventure and survival, fans of Stephen King, just plain author, ought to get a big kick out of it. Taking off his Master of the Macabre hat and taking a more than healthy dose of Gary Paulsen pills, King delivers a short, sharp tale of suspense without resorting to the usual genre trappings. No killers, no spooks, just a nine year old girl pitting herself against the environment. I loved it, and couldn't put it down. It's the first King novel that could be made into a really good Disney kids movie with almost no alterations (maybe cutting some of the language), and it's great."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King tends to wander from every day reality in most of his novels, however "The Girl That Loved Tom Gordon" is a thrilling adventure of a circumstance that could happen to any one of us. As a reader you become engrossed in every step the little girl makes. I loved it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King tends to wander from every day reality in most of his novels, however "The Girl That Loved Tom Gordon" is a thrilling adventure of a circumstance that could happen to any one of us. As a reader you become engrossed in every step the little girl makes. I loved it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book got my attention on the first page, and I could hardly put it down. It is not a work of horror, like most people would expect, but instead it is a well told story.Stephen King makes you feel like you are in the woods right next to the main character the whole time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book. I am an avid Stephen King fan and was delighted when I read this book. True, it was not one of his usual "scare me to death" stories, but it was indeed captivating. I don't know about you, but as I read about Trisha's ordeal, I really did feel like I was the one lost in the woods. It was hard for me to get beyond all those mosquitos! And, it would have to be just that way if you were truly lost in the deep woods. I found myself pulling for Trisha at every turn. The one thing I couldn't swallow was the fact that Trisha's parents could even sleep at all the night she disappeared. It takes all kinds.Be sure to read this book and enjoy it like I did."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Lost me after the first 25 pages. Skimmed about 20 pages more, then gave it back to the library. No dialogue, just thoughts going through a little girls head while she get lost in the woods. Big disappointment..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The images were so vivid, it was a well told story with feelings anyone can relate to. I have enjoyed Stephen King for years, and he just keeps getting better!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This short story about a little girl lost in the woods was frightening and wonderfully imaginative. I actually felt as though I was wandering through woods with her!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This short story about a little girl lost in the woods was frightening and wonderfully imaginative. I actually felt as though I was wandering through woods with her!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is one of the best Stephen King novels I've ever read. And who says it isn't a horror story? Trisha's mother and brother are creatures-from the Black Lagoon. No wander she strayed from the path. Wouldn't you?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I love Stephen King's writing but sometimes I just don't have time to get into one of his "heavy" novels. I started Bag of Bones about a month ago and can't find time to get a big chunk of it read, and reading little bits by little bits is by no means enjoyable. My dream vacation would be to have a clean house, no one in it but myself, a pile of fast food, with microwave nearby and my entire Stephen King library (only unfinished ones) and about 2 weeks. This book was given to me by my daughter as a birthday gift and I read it relaxing in the tub in about 3 nights. Really enjoyable!!! I really like the idea that Tom Gordon is real!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Suddenly, King is churning out his writing. His latest work is a 20 page short story that was extended into a 200 page "hardback" for a few more "greenbacks." The story has no real plot or even a purpose. A few of the ideas are good in the book but its mainly just plain boring. How many times can he describe the forest to the reader. Its just plants, plants, and more plants. King, stop trying to milk your readers and start producing good fiction again. By the way, Storm of the Century was another ill-conceived flop. If not, you'll turn into just another Dean Koontz and look at him now."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've been a King fan since Carrie and this is one of his better ones. Trisha comes to life in the story...couldn't put it down. I read the book in one day!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Great book, interesting idea. This was truly a good book, would definately recomend to a person looking to start into the world of Stephen King. He has such a way of pulling you into the story, I was constantly wanting to look ahead to see what was going to happen next. The only thing it lacked was length."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read almost everything Stephen King ever wrote and loved it up. This time however, I was quite disappointed. The book is (YAWN) really very slow and the plot is too simple. It would have been a better 50-70 page short story - maybe that's what it was originally and it was just stretched out to be a (very short) novel.For example, my wife asked me what the book was about and I was able to explain the plot, characters and climax to her in about 2 minutes flat. Not what I expect from Stephen King.In short, not worth the money."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a "can't put down" book...the story grips you from the first & won't let go. The suspense of what would happen next, and the very human nature of survival was so real. Didn't want to see the story end. One of King's best!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"You gotta love Stephen King. He has once again shown that he can not be put into just one box. This is a wonderful and warm story of courage and faith under trying circumstances. I loved this book, and it really leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling. A departure from his usual, but still a five star effort."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read all of Stephen King's books, and this book captivated me the way "The Stand" did. My father used to take us camping in New England when we were kids, so I can really relate to this amazing 9 yr old girl who loses her way on the Adirondack Trail in Maine, even an adult's biggest fear. The way he delves into her mind & imagination as she struggles to survive her ordeal is truely amazing. This has none of the gore, but all of the intensity of his other books - a must read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As an avid Stephen King fan, I love his gory, terrifying, edge of your seat works; but I have also found that King can take everyday things and make them scary too. I was with Trisha every step of the way in this novel. Reading is imagination and who could help imagining themselves as a nine year old lost in the woods -how would you handle it? No vampires or aliens in this one; just a simple story of everyday scary life that kept me on the edge of my seat."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was so amazed when I saw a new Stephen King's book while I was wandering in my favourite Bookshop, that I immediately bought it. Come back home I started reading it and found it absolutely good, also if it isn't at BAG OF BONES' levels. I think that it can be inserted in that sort of "King's theological period" in which DESPERATION and THE REGULATORS are collocated. In this book King reflects about God and his nature, that is of "coming on in the bottom of the ninth"; by the original idea of comparing the disadventure of Trisha with a baseball match, King reveals his great ability to mix up different elements with that sort of dissacration that is a constant of his works.....and finally he reveals his deep supporting of the "Red Sox"!!(sorry for wrong expression but I'm from Italy and my English may be not so good)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King has done it again! No fanciful imaginings in this book, this is real life gone horrfiyingly awry! If you enjoyed "Cujo," and could "see" the big doggie, then you'll enjoy "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." King weaves a tale from the threads of our own experiences and imaginations. Ever been buzzed by a mosquito? Then you can relate to this story. He masterfully takes the us to the edge and leaves us to fill in the pauses between her breaths with the emotions we would feel. Your heart pounds in unison with Trisha's... One of King's best and a fast read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This isn't a horror novel and shouldn't be construed as such. What King has done is to pen a great tale of adventure, courage, and coming of age in the story of a 12 year old girl lost in the woods. While gone, the girl comes to terms with her parents' divorce, learns to appreciate her family, including her surly older brother, and discovers a spirituality of sorts along the way, all with the help of her favorite Red Sox pitcher, Tom Gordon. Don't be driven off by that "thing" in the woods though. One word...bear."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was alright. Not typical Stephen King horror. "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" was sort of like "The Long Walk" revisited (written by King as Richard Bachman)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Little girl, who loves Tom " Flash" Gordon get's lost in the woods, and to get through a couple of weeks in the woods she uses an imaginary Tom Gordon to make it through. A must read for Stephen king fans."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is not a typical Stephen King book. But the adjective 'typical' should never be used in reference to Stephen King. There are enough vintage Stephen King sayings sprinkled throughout that give you that uneasy feeling that something is up and that the something is not good! If you ever had second thoughts about taking a walk in the woods and straying from the path, you will rethink that plan 'right fast and in a hurry' as I know Tricia wanted to do. The fact that the chapters were divided up into innings left you wondering if the 'game' was going to end in victory or defeat. It was worth the wait as all of his books are to those that enjoy a good story and a good scare."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After my total disappointment with the format of Storm of the Century, I was a little leary of buying another Stephen King book. This is more of what got me turned on to his writing style. He takes a real life situation and then weaves a story around it-made me feel like I was there in the woods with her-read the whole book from start to finish in one Sunday afternoon. Great book-way to go Steve"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is vintage King - once it gets you in its grip it is unforgettable! I will never again look at a woods in the same way, and am now even more frightened of insects than I used to be! It reveals how quickly life can go from safety to exteme danger, in a seemingly "normal" situation ..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although this book is a little different than King's normal style, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and looked forward to reading about Tricia next obstacle. However, the three "gods" that Tricia sees across the stream played no real role and served no real purpose to the story. The story would have been just as strong without their very strange appearance. I also feel that King either needed to develop the character of the Bear or leave him "just as a bear." I didn't understand the significance of him being "more than a bear.""},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I understand the debate among King fans as to whether this lives up to his talent, but having read only IT and THINNER, I prefer to compare this novel to other non-King novels on the market. As such, I just don't believe there was much effort put into writing this one. It seemed like lazy writing. The plot plodded along and some of the phrases left me wondering if he could have done better. Not bad, but not great...."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read about 10 of Stephen King's novels, and this one is my favorite. This riveting story of survival is scarier than most of his books dealing with the supernatural. The main character, a 9 year-old girl, comes alive in this great little novel. I strongly recommend this to both teens and adults, even those who would never think of reading a Stephen King novel because of his normal genre. If you like scary novels, or books about wilderness survival, you'll love this one. If you have some interest in baseball, it makes this even better."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Shame on me. As a writer of supernatural suspense, I've avoided King's books for fear of imitating him. Finally, on a whim, I picked up this book today--and proceeded to read the entire thing in one sitting. Was it as scary as I expected? Not at all. As gory? As horrific? No. Was it well-written and told with heart and soul? Absolutely.The girl from the title is nine years old, lost in the woods of Maine and New Hampshire, and tracked by an ominous thing. Young Trisha would write it off as imagination, except for the few signs of horrific evidence she discovers. She matures through the course of the story, facing her fears, embracing her dreams, and wrestling with issues of family and God. King does a fantastic job chronicling her survival, her mental state, and her slow deterioration. His words are fresh, his narrative flowing and believable.In the end, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Jordan\\" becomes a modern parable of sorts, a David and Goliath story. Though King's other stories may be more vulgar, more frightening, more meaty, I'm certainly glad to have made my first stumbling steps into his world of fiction with this slim volume. Even in a world of subaudible fears and doubts, King points to path of hope."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is only the second book I've read by Stephen King. The only other book that I've read is \\"Carrie,\\" and I have to admit that it nor this particular novel was very scary to me. However, King tells a great tale with his writing style. His is a very addictive style that gives you just enough (but seemingly never enough until the end) information that keeps you plugging along trying to figure out what is going on each tale.In \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,\\" King's central character, Trisha McFarland, gets lost in the woods of New England when she steps off of the path for a little restroom privacy. Her bickering mother and brother are already well ahead of her, and when she's finished her business in the bushes, she realizes that she is lost. This begins the long and obviously eerie tale of a little girl lost in the woods trying to make it home. While lost, she begins to have conversations with Tom Gordon, who at the time of the story was actually the closer for the Boston Red Sox. She adores him and \\"that little thing\\" he does on the mound after a save. She also talks with her father, whose divorce from their mother have affected Trisha and her brother. She manages to survive on chips, a Surge drink, a tunafish sandwich and bottled water until they run out. Then she takes to gathering berries (and eventually a couple of other things) in order to survive. All the while there is a \\"thing\\" in the woods that is literally stalking her and, in her mind perhaps, is waiting for the perfect moment to strike.King manages to keep the line between reality and near-insanity rather blurry throughout this book. The reader never really knows if what Trisha is experiencing is really happening or it's all in her head. Even the ending leaves the reader wondering about what she exactly experienced.This is not going to be my last King novel. In fact, I think I'm addicted. When I was nearing the end of this book, I went out and purchased the serial novel \\"The Green Mile.\\" I've seen the film that was based on it and I hope it's just as good or better. King has definitely earned his place on my bookshelf.**Spoilers**Just in case you were wondering, Tom Gordon is an actual baseball player. He's had stints with a couple of teams since leaving Boston, including the New York Yankees. He is currently with the Philadelphia Phillies, but there have been talks of him going back to NY to return to his roll as set-up man for Mariano Rivera.Also, Trisha believes that she is being stalked by something in the woods. That \\"something\\" may or may not have been a black bear. King makes you think that a black bear is the culprit, but even Trisha's rescuer wasn't quite sure if it was a black bear or not. However, there have been cases where black bears have literally stalked human prey. As far as I know, none of them tracked their prey for the length of time that Trisha is stalked, but it could have actually happened. This only adds to the eerieness that is part of being a little girl lost in the woods.Highly recommended read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"How many different types of projects can Stephen King tackle with such effortless mastery?The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon proves a lot of things. Once again, it proves that King's prose is in a class that is more in line with modern literary greats like Irving than his pulp genre contemporaries. It proves that King can stamp his special brand of horror onto a wide range of genres, in this case the classic tale of outdoor survival. It also proves that, long past what many critics call his golden years, King can find new types of protagonists and backgrounds to handle expertly.In this case, the protagonist is Trisha, a young girl. The background is a forbidding New England wilderness that hosts a palpable aura of menace.The most chilling parts of this book don't revolve around the supernatural. Rather, they are the parts when Trisha starts to break down because her body has been pushed to the brink, and beyond.If you are a big fan of King, you're probably going to pick this up regardless. If you're nto a big fan of King, this is an excellent book to cut your teeth on, particularly if you enjoy wilderness survival-type stories. It is steeped in King's style of writing, but also rises above his more generic horror works."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was shocked to realize this short novel has become my favorite Stephen King work. While it doesn't have the breathtaking scope of The Stand, it could be his most human horror story to date. I don't say this lightly, either--King, in my opinion, is the master of humanizing horror.It's wonderful to see how King's style has evolved over the years. Compare this work to the first book in the Gunslinger saga, and you'll be shocked. While I understand that some might prefer his younger, more edgy tales, I find The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon to be the perfect meeting of the anger and fear of youth and the contentment and satisfaction of proud middle age."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book, from its cover design, its author's reputation and its blurb at the back, seems completely to suggest a tale of seething terror.However, I find that it is more a tale of jungle survival couched as a horror story. The horror is really very much in the background, while the reader (and protagonist) are mostly absorbed in the nitty-gritties of finding food, fighting bugs and avoiding the rocks when falling into a river.It is admittedly a very charming book, especially in the characterization of 9-year old Trisha McFarland and the depiction of her struggles, her ever-deepening exhaustion and that fine line between comedy and tragedy; between hope and the abyss.Yes there is a good build-up of fear about the \\"special thing\\" that lurks in the forest; stalking Trisha; BUT I found myself actually laughing when the terror should have climaxed. Laughing. Sure, you might choose to interpret that I am twisted, but I think the climax was more than a little funny.Wonderful entertainment in all, but not what I bargained for when I bought a purported horror novel!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Pop-Up Book Version:This story, while often considered a work of juvenile fiction, is quite ageless. It gets at that spongy heart of fear-- where the prospect of being completely lost in a world that has \\"teeth\\" that it can bite you with anytime it wants to is more than probable. This pop-up book, like the story itself, is also ageless. A wonderfully condensed and brilliantly illustrated book with scores of secret tabs to pull and pop-ups to explore."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The tale begins when Trisha, 9 and her older brother Peter are taken by their divorced mother on a hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail. Mother and son argue the entire ride up (mainly about their living arrangements) and then continue the bickering on the trail. Trisha announces her need to use the bathroom, although mother and son are too busy arguing to even hear her.Assuming it's okay, Trisha wanders off in search of a remote spot. What happens next is every parent's worst nightmare. Trisha determined to have some quiet time, instead of listening to the bickering decides to take a shortcut to end the expedition quicker. Though things don't work out as planned, and Trisha accidentally gets lost.Amongst the wilderness, fear sets in, giving way to auditory hallucinations as well as visual ones. Trisha carries in her backpack, an egg, a tuna sandwich, a soda (lime), a bottle of water, celery sticks, 2 Twinkies, and a Walkman. To distract herself she focuses on baseball, especially her favorite closing pitcher, Tom Gordon.Trisha's survival skills are put to the test day after day, as she struggles to manage alone in the woods for a week! She does so buy eating raw fish, berries, nuts, then drinking from ponds, and puddles - once her own supplies have run out.The question is: How many nine-year-olds could survive such a traumatic event?Stephen King has done a wonderful job with this book, and the illustrations certainly helped bring his words to life. There are subtle symbolisms that address issues like religion and self-realization. Children of all ages are sure to love this spooky-adventurous tale-- I know I did!Reviewed by Betsie"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The story of a child lost in the woods has been done before by many authors, but never with this much depth and bite to it. For Trisha McFarlane isn't just dealing with how to build a fire or find berries to eat, she must stuggle to maintain her sanity and deal with the knowledge that something is stalking her.The more I read this book, the more I liked it. I read it once and thought it was decent; I read it twice and thought it was spectacular. The second time I read it I looked past all the references about the \\"sub-audible\\" and looked at the extremely well-developed character of Trisha. I realized that the fact that she listens to the broadcasts of the Red Sox is not a ham-handed attempt for Red Sox fan King to worm his allegiance into a story, but Trisha's only connection with the outside world and other humans.There are plenty of the traditional elements to a \\"child lost in the woods\\" story; obviously Tina is going to have to find food, water, and a way back to humanity, but it is the psychological and horror elements that make the story soar. Tina's growing detachment with reality is perfectly depicted, as is her growing knowledge that not only is there a creature stalking her...but it is no creature known to man. A good story well told, I can't imagine why it wasn't better received. 9/10"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's suspense novels seem to come in two primary forms; large-scale, over-the-top supernatural epics ("The Stand," "Carrie" and "Dreamcatcher" come to mind as examples), or, smaller-scale, introspective, character-driven, psycho-thrillers ("Misery" and "Gerald's Game" are but two examples).Of these two formats, "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" clearly follows the latter example as an introspective character study with dark overtones of impending danger around every corner. And, coming in at just under 300 pages, this novel also has to rank as one of King's quickest reads. But, don't let the length fool you - this book offers a tight, fast-paced plotline that will hold the reader right to the finish.Unlike King's big, supernatural extravaganzas, novels like "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" don't dwell on unseen forces of evil arrayed against the protagonist - rather, they are cleverly crafted personal dramas, where the evil to be found may only exist in the mind of the lead character.For his protagonist in "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," King has also chosen a unique study - that of 10-year-old Trisha McFarland, a Maine girl who goes on a planned one-day hike with her rather disfunctional family and gets lost for days in the wilds surrounding a stretch of the Appalachian Trail near the New Hampshire border. Here, King doesn't have to fall back on supernatural demons, malevolent ghosts or sociopathic killers - just being lost in the wilds without hope of being found is frightening enough, especially, one would imagine, if you are a 10-year-old-girl.The reader soon finds out, however, that Trisha McFarland is an unusually resourceful 10-year-old, managing to ration her meager supplies and finding sustainance in the woods around her. One of the things which keeps her motivated to survive, however, isn't to be found in nature - it is her walkman radio on which she tunes in her favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, and her favorite player on that team, relief pitcher Tom Gordon (hence the title of the novel). You often hear of people who survive long ordeals relying on the memory of loved ones to help get them through. Although Trisha McFarland has never met Tom Gordon in person, she obviously uses her infatuation with him to take her mind off the dangers of being alone in the wild.King also uses a rather unique device to structure this novel. Keeping with the baseball theme, he names chapters by inning (i.e. "Top of the Seventh") rather than number, with the obvious metaphor being that if McFarland is to be rescued, she will need a "save" in the late "innings" by her favorite pitcher.All in all, this is a very enjoyable read from one of our most gifted and prolific writers. Years from now, it might not rank among his most well-loved masterworks, but it is a perfect example of King's craft."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought Bigfoot was following her the whole time. But it was more spiritual journey. Hope that I never have to go through this."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had low expectations when I started reading this book. I got hooked quickly and could not put it down. I loved this book and it's main character. I really cared about what happened to her and had to put the book down and walk away when it took a bad turn. It is not a horror story in the classical sense, it is a horror story for the the parents and brother of the little girl and for the main character finding herself desperately lost in the wilderness. I highly recommend this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"For those of you who have read Lost on a Mountain in Maine you'll find this novel equally as satisfying. Trish, 9-years-old-going-on-10-and-big-for-her-age, steps off the trail to pee and decides to take a short-cut back to her mother and brother. Of course she gets lost and, of course, something is tracking her. Something not so nice. This is Stephen King, right? The class read the Bottom of the 9th & Save Situation twice before we finished it. They loved it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"fantastic i love it came within the time given and its in pretty much perfect condition i love it and it was a great price cant believe its also a first edition so excited cant wait to read it"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Nine-year-old Trisha has a hard time trying to escape an endless wilderness in southern Maine. I had as hard a time getting into this short-but-not-sweet adventure novel by Stephen King.Stephen King is known for horror stories. \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" isn't quite that, though the guy tries: \\"...the woods were full of everything you didn't like, everything you were afraid of and instinctively loathed, everything that tried to overwhelm you with nasty, no-brain panic.\\"Later on, King introduces the possibility of a creature stalking Trisha, but it reads like a sop to his Constant Readers, He even plays with the notion of the beast possibly being supernatural, which only makes it feel more labored to conform to reader expectations. He plays this annoying \\"was-it-or-wasn't-it\\" game up to the end, which is about as anticlimactic a conclusion as King has ever written.King's storytelling skills are in good form. Once you get past the static scenario he constructs, he keeps the plot moving with vividly described small incidents. Never mind that Trisha much too quickly wanders nine miles outside of her search party's rescue radius, or that her interior monologues read like those of a Baby Boomer in late middle age. King knows how to keep you reading, even when what he's writing is much below his best work.One critical element of the story is represented in the title, which references a Boston Red Sox relief pitcher enjoying success at the time of this novel's 1999 publication. Trisha, like King himself a big Red Sox fan, imagines a supportive Tom Gordon at her side. I found this subplot really cheesy, King using a novel to flash his team colors for everyone to see. The whole business of Trisha mirroring Gordon's signature move at various critical times of the narrative comes off especially lame.Much more interesting is King's use of Trisha's desperate situation to ponder the nature of God and the universe. She wonders if the Almighty is an insensate entity, \\"the Subaudible\\" as Trisha recalls her father saying, a Deist incarnation of cosmic indifference, \\"one with no interest in lost little girls, one with no real interest in anything, a knocked-out-loaded God Whose mind was like a circling cloud of bugs and Whose eye was the rapt and vacant moon.\\"Again, this reads like the thinking of a middle-aged guy, not a little girl. But it packs a punch.Ironically, this was the last novel published before King was nearly killed by an SUV. Certainly if King hadn't survived, this book's metaphysical musings would have carried some eerie echoes. Needless to say, I'm glad it doesn't and is regarded today as one of his minor works."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Great book, my daughter loves it! Id recomend this book to anyone! Once you start reading, its hard to lay it down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"They say \\"Don't judge a book by it's cover\\", but in this case, you can. It looks like a story about a girl lost in the woods, and that's what it is. To me, it's an extremely difficult task to keep a book entertaining for 250 pages while a girl tries to find her way. I'm not really a big fan of the psychological aspect. I prefer dialogue and characters, and perhaps that's why the story was just average to me. If you're a big fan of pyscholigical horror/suspense, then you would likely enjoy it more.Going into the book, I knew what it was. It wasn't great, but I wasn't disappointed because I didn't expect it to be. It's a good contrast to many of King's brick-sized books with many characters and situations. It's something different, not good or bad, but I much prefer the stories like \\"Needful Things\\" where the whole town is involved.I gave the book three stars because it was neither bad nor great. According the the rating system, three stars means \\"okay\\", and that's what this was to me. I ended up getting into the book more as it got closer to ending, probably because I knew by then something HAD to happen. However, the climax was rather quick, over before you know it.Overall, King did keep this book just entertaining enough to enjoy, as his witty writing willl throw in a light-hearted moment at the right time, and I give him credit for taking an incredibly simple plot and keeping it as enjoyable as it was, even if it wasn't amazing. I don't regret reading it, but I also don't think I'll be re-reading it sometime in the future."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What is there to say about Stephen King? While this story is not as fast paced as what you might expect from SK, it is still a good read. A little girl lost in the woods being stalked by an unknown evil and only her Boston Red Sox hero, relief pitcher, Tom Gordon, as a lifeline to civilization is, to say the least, tense. In the end she gathers all the courage that is left in her and faces the creature head on. King is a master when it comes to the written word. His characters are ordinary people who are up against circumstances that would tax the intellegence and resolve of any highly decorated Army Ranger. If you need someone to help you decide, I say, buy it; read it. You won't be disappointed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON by Stephen King.I was reluctant to read this because I feared it might be similar to The Blair Witch Project - being stalked by a supernatural creature, being afraid, and being a victim for most of the story. I was wrong. It's not like that at all. I'm so pleased. I enjoyed it. I loved Trisha's attitude. I was intrigued and charmed. Yes she is alone and lost in the woods. But what is interesting are her thoughts and actions. It's like she has been assigned undesirable and boring chores, but she trudges along, does the job, and hopes to be done soon. She finds a number of things icky and gross. She talks to herself and thinks about her favorite baseball player. At times her personal voice of doubt comes in telling her how bad things are. Then she makes those thoughts go away.I usually don't like heroine stupidity. In this book Trisha does some very stupid things, but that's ok because she is a nine-year-old girl. She doesn't have adult judgment. It fits her character. It is reasonable that she doesn't know about hugging trees. Instead, she looks for a stream of water that she believes will lead her to the ocean like in the Amazon jungle. But that doesn't work here. So her lack of knowledge gets her into trouble.The dangers to Trisha are lack of food, water, shelter, and warmth. She suffers insect bites. At times she senses she is being watched or followed. She may be the prey of an animal. I was surprised and delighted with her actions during a major conflict. And I was pleased with the happy ending for Trisha. I had tears of relief.This reminded me of \\"Hatchet\\" by Gary Paulsen, about a thirteen year old boy surviving alone in the wilderness. That story was written by a wilderness survival guy and I was wowed by things happening in the wild. King's book has survival elements but is more about the girl's thoughts and attitude. Both books are good for young adults, as long as one is ok with occasional strong language in King's book.The narrator Anne Heche was excellent.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook reading time: 6 hrs and 36 mins. Swearing language: strong but rarely used. Sexual content: none. Setting: 1998 New England. Book copyright: 1999. Genre: young adult adventure fiction. Ending: happy.OTHER BOOKS:For a list of my reviews of other Stephen King books, see my 5 star review of Carrie posted 5-11-12."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom GordonBy Stephen KingNine year old Trisha McFarland is hiking along listening to her mother and older brother bicker incessantly she begs for them to stop so she can use the restroom but they are so engrossed with their conversation they don't even notice. Trisha decides to stop anyways thinking she will do her business and she will be able to catch up with them in no time and maybe, just maybe, they will notice her missing and it will give them something else to talk about. But Trisha can't seem to find where they have gone off to; she can't even find the trail she was on. Now Trisha is lost in the woods with only her Walkman to give her comfort as she tunes into baseball games and fantasizes that Tom Gordon is there with her protecting her. Soon, something begins to follow her, something sinister, will Trisha be able to find her way to safety or will whatever has taken notice of her end her misery once and for all?With this novel it is hard to decipher what is illusion and what is truth as Trisha's imagination starts to play tricks on her but so does something else, at times it gets confusing and most of the time I kept thinking \\"well that must be fake too\\" when it was actually something that was supposed to be physically happening. I think this is why the book was so interesting though that you couldn't tell. I haven't read much of Stephen King's work, but this was spooky, not in the bump in the night sort of way, but putting aside that Trisha is nine how would anyone react to being lost for days in the woods. All in all it was an interesting story and a good read, Stephen King is a great writer and he was able to bring to life the deeper recesses of the human mind along with the supernatural."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book, entirely centered on a young girl, shows how such a girl can be creative enough, even in her deepest fears, to find the energy necessary to her survival in a very disturbing situation. Stephen King, for once, does not use any kind of fantastique special effects to get through with the story. And the girl shows how a model is used by her to sustain and nourish her energy to fight and win. And that model is a young baseball champion (a man mind you) with absolutely no open sexual innuendo, even if of course we can analyze the book at a deeper level. Yet this model is too simple in a way because it is too directly connected to her father. He is both a surrogate older brother and a link to her divorced father. That is a little simple. Yet, the psychology and the logic of the character is quite surprising. And it is a moving book too."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was not what I expected. It wasn't as scary as all the other King books!!! It started out very slow for the first 60 pages or so, then picked up to a semi-suspense for the remainder of the book. I'm not saying that this book is boring, or not good, but that it is just different. If you want to read a King book or any book that has a little suspense and it's intense moments, but is mostly drama, this is the book for you!!! If your looking for that kind of book I promise you will love this book!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Why is this such an extraordinary book? Well, for one thing, King is showing us once again how versitile he is, spinning a story devoid of vampires, ghouls, and various other monsters. King is riding the crest of a new age of horror writing in which the trick is to write something that will attract a more diverse audience of readers. It's a fine piece of work that complements some of King's other books like &quot;The Green Mile,&quot; &quot;Different Seasons,&quot; &quot;The Reach,&quot; and &quot;Bag of Bones.&quot; While King can write about creatures just fine, I believe his best work lyes in those stories which are more reality-based. As King grows older it's obvious that his writing is taking on more of a literary style. King is obviously taking a great deal more pride in his work and it shows in this fantasic story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It made me read another book about &quot;what to do if you get lost in the woods&quot;. I don't ever want it find my self in that situation like she did. This is not one of his best work, but it is good all the same."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The second I found out this book was coming out,I knew I had to get my hands on it! I bought it,started reading it,and was thrown headlong into the travails of a little girl lost in the woods. This was the first time I ever read a King novel,and I loved it. It's amazing how he delves into the mind of a child of the opposite sex. Trisha was very brave and tough for a kid her age. I know if my 9-year-old sister got lost in the woods,she'd never fare that well. Trisha held on as long as she can,then descended gradually into hallucinations,illness,and fatigue. The whole way through,I rooted for this courageous girl. I have to admit,though,that I didn't like some scenes in the book,like when she fell into her own feces. Some other parts were a little gross and mildly creepy,but everyone knows that gore and goosebumps are Mr. King's specialty.At least they added to the story. Also,I was somewhat surprised at Pepsi and Trisha's early command of foul language. But considering the state of the world today and Trisha's predicament,it's not that shocking. I'd probably cuss too if I were lost in the woods. Otherwise,this was a captivating,thought provoking book. If you want a quick,compelling read, I reccomend you buy this book from Amazon.com ASAP!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found it so real, every step that she took, from getting even with her brother to the last step. I have taken only about 2000 of those steps but can imagine with Mr. King the rest of the steps. Thank you."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As profoundly insightful of human nature as The Triumph and the Glory, as riveting as The Green Mile, with the classic Stephen King style and pacing and who can possibly complain ? What a great book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this was very good. And it is distinctively a King novel. King has not always been about gore and scary. This is the man who gave us Different Seasons with stories such as The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. One thing King does that no other author does quite as well is to detail out a character. King is a master of detail giving the reader every nuance of thought process and motivation in a character. I thought he wrote this so well. He wrote believably seeing through the eyes of a 10 year old little girl. As the reader, we become invested in her, her plight and wince and grieve and wonder if she will make it back to civilization.Well done. It is worth the read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book at times feels like a novella stretched out to become a novel. It's definitely King, nobody else could've written it, yet at the same time it feels unlike his other work in a curious way. The scary parts of the book seem thrown in, well, because it's a Stephen King book. Not bad, but not quite good enough to recommend, either."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Keeping writing plain horror has probably bored mr. King, and &quot;Bag of Bones&quot; showed us that. It took a very lot of pages to reach the dark core of the story. With this great book, though, he manages to scare people right from page 10. What I loved most of this book was that for once monsters weren't as easy to see as they were in other books. They were hidden in the mind and the soul of that little girl, and we feared and cried with her while all those things happened to her (no spoliers, all right...). I found myself lost in those woods, in a real, dark, wonderful way. Just like only Stephen King can make me feel. This book is ideal for everyone who ever believed there was SOMETHING hidden in the dark, right there."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this book was kind of slow half the book you can just predict. I love how Stephen King said the end..... &quot;Game over.&quot; . I think it was good overal. I have to say &quot;Bag of bones&quot; was a much better book. But one of the many good things of the book was how he described things, I could almost feel myself being bittin by all those mosquitos bitting my eyes. This was a good book to read and worth to read again. But dont take it from me a little 13yr old... Read it yourself :)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a great read. The reader feels he/she is in the forest too. Mystical yet real. This is a book that should be read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As an avid reader of King I feel this book was an amalgam of his talents as a involving story teller and as a suspensefull writer. I enjoyed this book because it was so much like somthing that you would read in the headlines...Little girl lost. What King does however is describe the whole story and the undeniable force of survival that exists in all of us. great read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King amazes me with his ability to write from the point of veiw of a woman(Geralds Game, Rose Madder etc.) This book comes straight from a 9 year old girls mind! If you want to be young, scared, and lost in the woods with Stephen King, read it. It is not a gripping horror, yet it manages to put you right there with young Trisha. Dealing with the breakup of her family, she finds herself facing deeper life issues as she survives days in the woods imagining her favorite ball player is with her, giving her strength. I dare not tell more, I read it in one evening. This book is full of truths and revelations!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This little beauty stands by itself as yet another incredible example of how King can take an ordinary situation and turn it into a cracking good read. I was initially suspicious of the length of the book, but was delighted to relish again in Kings great ability to write about a character so different in space and time to himself and still come up with something that feels completely genuine. One can genuinely identify with Trish Mcfarland and its always a constant source of amazement that king can seemlessly express the thoughts feelings and emotions of his characters-even a 12 year old girl.Kings characters are believable and interesting.Best read all at once on a cold afternoon on the sofa.."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King has always been my favorite author; he's always had a clever, if not repetitive, story to tell. Perhaps he's working too hard, though. His latest, &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; is typically King-esque; suspense, other-worldy elements, and of course, a kid in the story. However, the first one hundred pages drag slowly and terribly. Most of the book is a narrative, and very nature-oriented. One would think there would be more action, more brushes with death, no matter how unrealistic (that's never stopped King before), but here we find King (and his character Trisha) going in circles. By the end of this short novel, it is a rather enjoyable read, but not what one expects King to pull off with such a subject at hand. Steve, slow down. Take more time developing your books. But, of course, I'll always read whatever he chooses to write."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I bought this book because my realtor's name is Tom Gordon and I was selling my house. I like a lot of Stephen King's work, but this one just didn't keep me interested. I did finish the book, so it wasn't awful, but I didn't care about the main character at the end. I could tell there was plenty of research done, and some of it was interesting, but my overall take is that somebody can have my copy. Unfortunately, the realtor wouldn't take the book off my hands!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Once again Stephen King has brilliantly illustrated his belief in 'Belief'. As Trisha created the stillness, the walkman in her hand wasn't a walkman, it was a baseball, and she was in the bottom of the ninth, a close situation. It was her imagination, her total and complete belief in herself and Tom Gordon's God that caused the God of the Lost to back away, afraid. Trisha had won. Just like Jack Sawyer beat the guards at Agincourt with a guitar pick and Bill Denbrough and his gang beat the clown with ball bearings and Alan Pangborn defeated the devil with his son's magic kit. King has shown me time and again the power of belief, the power to infuse something ordinary with your own will, your own love, and make it a deadly weapon for the evil in the world. I found the novel inspiring and as hard to put down as The Shining. I believe this book the closest King has been to King for a while. A must for all TRUE FANS. Even if you don't like the Red Sox."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This one reads as if someone put a stopwatch on King &amp; said, &quot;You have 24 hours to write a story. Setting: girl lost in the woods. Ready, GO!&quot; 24 hours later, this is what we get. Hard to believe there are so many errors in a piece this short. It is still an engaging read -- Steve can spin a yarn. The other thing that kept me going was the knowledge, gained from reading King for almost 20 years now, that he has been known to kill off the kid and end the story tragically (see Cujo). That knowledge left the outcome uncertain, right up to the end. But this is a disappointing work, considering that King had gotten back to producing at least a few worthwhile pieces (Green Mile, Desperation, Storm of the Century) in the past few years after years of complete crap (Insomnia, Delores Claiborne, Gerald's Game)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This story was very well written; so much so, that my eyes are tired from reading almost all of it in one sitting. After reading awhile, I identified so much with the little girl, that it was almost like me trying to find my way out of the woods. It was very suspensful, exciting, and of course, it became so important that this gutsy little girl make it. The analogy at the end brought a tear to my eye and I was not disappointed in this book in any way. Thanks S.K."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"i thought this story was amazing i love my gory killer scary books but my imagination got the best of me on this one i really could feel how this little girl felt i think this has to be one of my favorite books ever"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Very interesting book--and the descriptions were spot on and nothing short of spectacular. As many of the reviewers have said--not his best work, nor his scariest, but certainly one of the more thoughtful novels that he's done. If you liked Lisey's Story or Bag of Bones, then this one comes recommended from me."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a story about a nine year old girl who becomes lost in the woods of Maine during a family hike. She wanders farther and farther from the trail in her search for civilization. Trisha is forced to endure the elements, hunger, tough terrain, and multitudes of insects. However, she is soon faced with a much darker problem. Throughout her journey she begins to have the feeling that something is watching her. The remains of several dead animals litter her path and trees that appear to have large claw marks through them enforces her certainty that there is something that is following her, waiting for the moment to strike.Her only retreat from the horrors of the woods is listening to Red Sox games on her walkman, featuring her favorite pitcher, Tom Gordon. Tom Gordon's ability to save the game at the last minute gives Trisha the courage to keep moving. Starvation and illness began to cause her to have hallucinations and her grasp on reality grows ever fainter. But is what is following her real, or only in her mind?What I most enjoyed about this book was the complexity of what would seem to be a simple story. You read about Trisha's struggles, but also about what her family is going through (they fear she has been kidnapped), and the emotional issues of her parents divorce. You know how close she comes to finding civilization before making a wrong turn. She is able to see the beauty in the hostile environment around her. She is able to realize how little you need to be content and at peace with the world."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The title sounds like some kind of love story. But no, it's the story of a little girl lost in the woods. Begins innocently enough, and before you know it, you feel as lost as she is, and just as helpless. Near the end, the character has captured your heart and you can't pull yourself away because you so want her to survive her ordeal. Her imaginary friend is Tom Gordon who appears to her and helps her survive her loneliness. Imagine a nine year old lost in the woods and trying to survive. Now that is horror. This is the 17th SK book I've read and it's one of his absolute best."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I saw the hardcover version of this recently at a used book store and picked it up. I haven't read anything by King in far too long. I read most of this in one day. I enjoyed the way he depicted the woods. I love how the special something or evil lurking was not completely revealed until close to the end. I found the nine year old girl's perspective plausible. I felt her despair and her weakening health. It was a great read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had avoided reading any Stephen King books for a long time, until one of my cousins handed me this book and said \\" You will like this \\". I am amazed by the power of this story. I was completely enthralled. A simple story it seems of a young girl who gets lost while hiking the mountains in Maine. This is a story of how she survives the experience of being completely lost....without much food or water.....the hallucinationos of dehydration creeping upon her as real as anything one could imagine. It is a brilliant story that completely changed my mind about Stephen King. I would love to read another of his books that has this same quality of story telling. Having hiked the mountains of NH and Maine as a child on up into my thirties, I could completely relate. I have been lost, with the sun setting, to find myself in a world much like what Stephen's story. It is the best story of what that experience is truly like that I have ever read. Kudos to King. He really got it this time and now I am a big fan !! Don't miss this one. The negative reviews are by people who don't understand what is happening in the book and how close to the true experience he writes in this book. It is just plain and simply the best Novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I just finished The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and have been wavering between giving it three stars or four stars. I ended up giving it four stars (even though in reality this book was more of a three and a half star book for me) because I felt that the good outweighed the bad.What absolutely made the book for me was the character of Trisha McFarland. If you don't care about the main character and what they are going through, then there's no way you're going to enjoy a book. As I was reading this, I found myself apprehensive about Trisha's fate. So much that I kept thinking, \\"If she doesn't make it, I'm going to be severely pissed off.\\" I was enthralled as I was reading about her deteriorating mental state and kept thinking how terrified I would be if I were in her situation at my current age, let alone at her age (I've always avoided going into the woods and this book really just pinpoints why). Stephen King excelled in making Trisha a character that just rings true.Even though throughout most of this book, I was feverishly turning the pages, there were some parts that lagged for me and because this was a relatively short book, the lagging parts were way more obvious. Another thing that bothered me was the inclusion of the beast. I think I would've liked the book more if the beast were just a figment of Trisha's imagination, just one of her hallucinations or if he just been representing an Angel of Death in her imagination.Anyway, even though the book had some shortcomings, I thought it was extremely good. I just found it heartwarming how Trisha would picture her favorite baseball player to try to get her through the tough time of being lost in the forest. I thought it was all very sweet. I've only read three Stephen King books so far and this one wasn't my favorite or my second favorite. But still, it was pretty damn good."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was a good quick read. Made you think about how important it is to educate our children on survival. I enjoyed this story. Reminds me of things that go bump in the night. Enjoyed the girls resourcefulness and how mind over matter can make a difference."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"From a dark and mysterious forest along a well known trail, Stephen King presents us with another gem. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a compelling horror novel about courage, perserverence, and doing anything to survive. The book follows the journey of young Trisha, who is \\"nine, but big for her age\\", on a terrifying trek in an attempt to get home. When bickering and anger drive her away from her family on a nature walk, she disappears in the forest. As she gets farther from the trail, her life begins to hang in the balance.King does a beautiful job in tell the story. With vivid descriptions of the environment and objects, you'll start to feel as though you are lost along side Trisha. King also does a wonderful job at melding comedy into the dark tale. I found myself chuckling at some parts, but i also found myself worrying about Trisha as if she was my own little sister. From early on she will touch your heart and establish a mental connection with you. This can make some parts of the story very tough to read due to the attachment you will start to feel. Some of the things she has to overcome are gizzly, while some just cause you to read on in awe.Overall this is a very compelling book and worth a read if you are looking for a horror/ adventure story. You wont want to stop reading about this brave girls journey."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've long been fascinated by Stephen King's incredible productivity as well as his remarkable recovery after his tragic accident. I'd never read any of his novels b/c, quite simply, I'm a fraidy cat. I examined the book at the Hatboro (PA) Library and pronounced it suitable for evening reading. No way was I opening myself up to being terrorized.Because the main character is a nine-year-old girl I wondered as I began to read it, should this have been a Young Adult book? No matter, I kept turning the pages and was pulled in slowly, just as Trisha, the main character was slowly pulled in to her saga of being lost in the woods. She and her family had gone walking on the Appalachian Trail in their home-state of Maine.Like all good mysteries of regrettable circumstances, we keep rooting for Trisha to \\"stay on the trail, keep your bearings, do not get lost,\\" but of course that's what the book is all about: that terrible feeling of being lost anywhere, this time in a huge forest primeval.The amazing thing King does is keeps us riveted even though the only action we see is Trisha walking thru the forest. How, I wondered, can the author so skillfully pull this off, so that we don't wanna miss one \\"hollow hammering of a woodpecker and the harsh cawing cry of the crows; the creaky-door sound of the crickets as the day began to darken.\\"King shows off his masterful story-telling in this 1999 tale as simple as a girl being lost in the woods. He skillfully interweaves then-superb Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Joe Gordon as the spirit that keeps our heroine going in her truly death-defying trek through the forest. We learn how ordinary people, like this nine year-old girl, muster their will to survive using everything in their repertoire and then some.I would recommend this book to everyone, including nine-year-old girls. Your emotions will get a good work-out in this book, especially, yes, a feeling of terror which runs like a softly babbling brook throughout."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Thin plotting makes THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON minimalist Stephen King, reasonably decent entertainment for a night but without the kind of imagination this writer normally displays. Coming off the far superior BAG OF BONES, it is a very slight effort indeed and, as it is actually only novella-length, it might have been wiser to save this story for the King anthology coming out later this year. The five-star raves for this rather ordinary book are typical of undiscriminating King readers; to suggest this book is as good as THE STAND or THE DARK TOWER series or even MISERY is simply ludicrous."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"To the &quot;reviewer&quot; from Temple, Tx. The word is AFFECTED ninny! Not only that, you duplicated the review and hurt my eyes twice! And to the other reader, if you don't like King, read something else!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book is a 'must read' for Stephen King fans, simply because that's what makes them fans -- they absorb it all no matter what! Nothing new here though folks, the standard 'SK format' minus true demonic entities (instead we got the boogey man). King also seems to think that African Americans aren't fans (ergo, the 'Sambo' analogies). I've been a King junkie since his beginning (plunking down my bucks on the hardbacks only) and he won me over as a fan with the 'Stand', where 'Good' was personified via a little old black woman. Move on Stephen, evolve, not regress!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although it is not the usual Stephen King book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is not without its pleasures. Trisha is a spunky young heroine; you can't help but care about her. &quot;Supernatural&quot; aspects of the story are limited but effective. The ending is a little bit of a downer, as I would have preferred some more resolution. I think the readers who panned this book were expecting a Carrie or a Pet Sematary; to me it's more like Gerald's Game or Misery. Incidentally, I am also awaiting the next episode of The Dark Tower."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I must say that I was a little dissapointed by this last piece. The description was terrific, but the dialog was lacking. I don't know many kids who speak like she does! All in all, not a bad one (it is written by the Master himself, what more can you say?), but I would have to put this on the low end of the &quot;to buy&quot; list."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I absolutely devoured this little treasure by King. It's definitely not his typical fare but I'd say it's one of his best! I read it in one night and put it down wanting more. I hope he writes more like this."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Again King evolves as a writer, but his subject matter and the thoughts he puts in the mind of a nine-year-old child just do not ring true. A good couple of hours diversion, &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tome Gordon&quot; should not be a starting place for new King readers. That spot should be reserved for &quot;The Shining&quot; or &quot;Salems Lot&quot;. King is, well, King, and so he is here. However, the novella feel of the book coupled with the almost &quot;deja-vu&quot; of other books I have read, made for a flat experience."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book for it's realism; I like it when the events in a horror novel could conceivably really happen, rather than reading about some nebulous monster or spirit that's obviously made up. This book was gripping for it's realistic imagery of a child's terror at being lost in the woods, with a little bit of the nebulous monster thrown in to boot. I like that the book concentrated on Trisha's feelings, rather than going off on a tangent about the unseen thing in the woods. Also, Tom Gordon went to my high school and I remember him playing high school ball here, so I sort of connected with the story on that level too! All in all, a gripping, though far too short, read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A tender recounting of the bitter conflict between desire and bedwetting. I loved this book and truly identified with the actor who portrayed Tom Gordon. I felt that this was a true departure from the recent formulaic works of Mr. King as he plumbed the depths of the soul and patience of the reader."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Thank you, Stephen King. You are the best writer since John Steinbeck. I really appreciate what you have done, and how you have effected this world. I advise everyone to read this book, and every other book by him, because he is a book genius. He deserves all five stars for this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't know if this was exclusive in Germany, but the book was published in a plastic case, as if the book shouldn't touch air or whatever. I don't know what this means, but it was... yes, unecessary. After I've read the book, I thought about it again and thought, well, maybe they wanted to give you something more, to make the money worth. The book doesn't really.The story of a girl lost in the woods could be an interesting premise. When I read the premise before the book was pubished, I didn't jump because excitement and yelled: &quot;What a wonderful idea.&quot; It is no revolutionary idea and the book isn't too. It's interesting to read how Trisha survives in the wood and it's exciting too. You really want to know what will happen. But after two thirds I thought, well how should this book end. Since King doesn't give us anything else than the girl in the wood, what will he do to finish his book? Well, what he does in the end ruined the book for me totally. It was surely the most hilarious end from King I've ever read. It has no sense, no meaning, no whatever. It leaves you with nothing, nothing to think about, or laugh or cry. Just nothing.I'm not against King writing serious novels (if you don't call horror serious), I always defended him, when someone said he's a horror-author. But books like this makes it hard for me to defend. King can do it much much much better and has done, but this one is thin, senseless and disappointing in the end. Enjoy it to the last ten pages, put it away and think about and ending yourself. Maybe this is more fun."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Patricia McFarland, (a nine year old girl whose parents are recently divorced), is taken on a walk through the woods with her constantly arguing mother and brother. while on the walk, trisha steps off the trail for a little bathroom break(and to get away from the whining of her brother). She soon finds that she can't remember which way she has gone. About an hour later, she realized she was definitely lost. Left without a compass, without a map, only a backpack with 1 sandwich, water, and some twinkies, this would have to be her survival food as long as she was lost. Close by, an animal is lurking and following Trisha's every move. Along the way, she is stung by wasps, forced to walk through a swamp, and can't find any more water. She is slowly getting sick and is losing hope when she knows that the search party won't even find her. What keeps her going though is listening to her favorite baseball player Tom Gordon on her walkman. She listens to him save the game and soon starts hallucinating that he is there with her. She doesn't know whether she'll survive or not, whether the animal will eat her or not, but she has to find someway to survive. But how?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a great book that I'd recommendto anyone. I love books about kids, and the 9-year-old main character in this book was a real spunky girl who reminded me alot of myself at that age.It all starts when a divorced woman takes her 2 kidson a hike in the Appalachian trail. The son and mother argue thewhole time. When the girl gets tired of the fighting, she goes off by herself, and accidentally gets lost.With what little she carries in her backpack, including, an egg, a tuna sandwich,a bottle of surge, a bottle ofwater,celery sticks, 2 twinkies, and a walkman she struggles to manage alone in the woods for several days. When she is found she is in a different state. Her love of baseball helped her to get through this.I wish King wrote more books like this. I preferit to the fantasy I find in his other books. This reviewer givesthis book a high score of 5 stars:)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is Stephen King at his best; not too wordy, not too weird, not going into make-believe monsters and things that go bump in the night, just an honest, true-to-life story about a 9-year-old girl lost in the woods. For people that won't read King because he's too scary or gory, this is the book for them.I was surprised when I read it. I have been reading King since I was myself 9, and while some of his work seems derivative at times, this was a new and exciting venture. Everything in it makes you feel like you are right there, that you are in the midst of a huge, unending sea of trees, bugs, dirt, hunger, discomfort, that all you want to do is be safe in your bed at home. Trisha McFarland is a well-written character; you feel at home with her in the harsh surroundings, you root for her when she uses all her wits and strengths to keep on going, you pity her when night closes in and all relative safety evaporates into fear of what you can't see.I actually wished this book was longer, that I could keep on reading well after I was done. At little over 200 pages, this is one of King's shorter works, and it's one that could have kept going for quite sometime before becoming tiresome. If you've never tried King before, here is where you should start."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a book that I picked up in the airport the other day and read on my flight. It's the first time that I've ever read King and I was thoroughly unimpressed. I would have to believe that this book does not reflect the talent that made him so famous.At no point during my reading did I feel any sense of suspense, fear or terror. The message of the book was great but I still have to give this a low rating because King's intent was to write a book that would give you the chills as well as tell a message, and in the end it didn't happen. This wasn't even a &quot;fun&quot; book to read (which is what I was looking for when I picked it up).When I finished the book I felt like King should have just kept this story to himself as a practice writing. It seems like he's reaching for a different style and hopefully this book will get him there - but I don't think it deserves to be sold to the public without some more work and effort. If I had written this book exactly the same, word for word, it would not have been published."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was the first Stephen King book I read, and I picked it up from my school library as a book report book. The book is about a girl named Trisha McFarland, a 9-year-old girl in Maine. On a hiking trip in the Appalachian Mountains with her Mom and brother, she wanders off the path to get away from her mom and brother who are arguing too much to pay any attention to her. Pretty soon, she finds herself hopelessly lost in the Maine wilderness. Soon, she looks to her walkman radio for a shred of hope for any human contact ever again. She listens to the Red Sox game, especially to her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon. But soon, her radio fades, and she pretends that Tom Gordon is there with her. It soon becomes clear that he can't protect her from the all too real enemy that has left a trail of slaughtered animals and fallen trees.This is a good book if you like Stephen King, horror stories, or just reading altogether. I highly reccomend it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"What happend to Stephen King when Stephen King was good. Pet Sematary: now that was a great King book. The Bachman Books are hard to beat. Rose Madder was excellent. But then comes Bag of Bones and this. King has lost his old charm and writing skill in the persuit of something more literary, and it is causing me to stick with his old stuff and other authors. The only reason I finished this book was that I listened to it on audio, and even then it was a struggle. I am a fan of Stephen King, not Jack London. ... it belongs in Young Adult Adventure. Well, I guess I am left to reading the old King and hoping that some day he'll come back in his former glory."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I first read this five years ago when it came out, I have since read it three times and I am still amazed at its ability to keep me glued to my seat under the lights in the living room (Driving my father crazy because I cant read with the TV on).At First Glance it seams like nothing Kings ever writen, and your probobly right, It's not just a horror story, and it isnt really even that scary in a 'don't look under the bed' kind of aspect. Instead he uses more realistic cues to make you fear for 9 year old Trisha McFarland as she desperately tries to return to civilization on a potty break gone as wrong as it possible could.I wouldnt want to spoil its plot line because its pretty streight forward, but sufice it to say that its about a little girl who gets lost in the woods and to put a little of that Stephen King flare into it, she is being followed by a beast that could or could not be just her Imagination.Its none of these things, however, that have me reading it multiple times and placing it among my most cherished books box, but the wey King manages to have me sympathizing and fearing right along with Trisha as the poor darling gets herself into scrape after scrape, and through undeniable courage and streangth only a kid could muster to bring herself above her fears and escape issolation. At times it has me teary eyed right along with her as I think of how horrible the situation would really be, and I'm sure it's an even stronger impact on an adult with children of thier own.A powerful, if not complicated, tale. A must read for anyone looking for an uplift at the end of a dark tunnel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I should've known something was amiss. Here was an SK paperback that weighed under 5 lbs and felt more like a novella (though touted as a novel). But, once again, I fell for the &quot;critical praise&quot; the preceded the forward. I now realize that the acclaim dished out to pump an author's work is as dubious - if not more so - than the crap slapped on movie posters. Just once, I'd like the peer reviews to be honest: &quot;King at his mediocre best!&quot; or &quot;King walks to first base! Again!&quot; Don't get me wrong. I love SK. And because I do, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the time he spent on this book was equal to or less than the time it takes to read it and say, &quot;I want my 15 minutes back.&quot; The story begins interestingly enough. A girl gets lost in the woods. Cool. Trouble is, neither she nor the story make inroads thereafter, no pun intended. The only obstacle King gives her are the inhospitable woods. Duh. Oh yeah, and he keeps reminding us that &quot;something is stalking her.&quot; Over and over. Each chapter (or &quot;inning&quot;, in keeping with the baseball substory) goes around in circles. She's lost, and &quot;something's&quot; following her. By the &quot;7th inning&quot; we're saying, &quot;OK, I get it already. She's lost and something's following her. Do something with it.&quot; Somewhere around the 4th inning, King introduces a crank caller who tricks the search party. A cool twist, but it goes nowhere. I was really hoping that King would dial up the intensity like he used to. I wanted the little girl to run into the cast of Deliverance. But she doesn't. Not even her imaginary friend, Tom Gordon, is interesting. And he's imaginary fer chrissake! Finally, the 9th inning arrives and King reveals the thing that's been &quot;stalking&quot; her (which we guessed the minute he introduced it) and it's as climactic as a bus trip to Buffalo. Then it dawned on me. This &quot;novel&quot; is actually a young adult book. By that I mean it's for girls between 9 and 15 -- the kind who don't get asked to dance. This book should be in the Young Adult section, not leaning against CARRIE. And in case you hadn't guessed, I'm not a young girl. I have hair on my knuckles. And if I'm gonna read a book about a young girl who's lost in the woods, she better damn well run into a chainsaw or Slingblade or both. Maybe it has to do with the whole baseball thing which ain't that exciting to begin with. It's too bad King isn't into hockey. He could've called the book, &quot;The Girl Who Loved Phil Esposito&quot; and thrown in some good fights as a gesture of good will to those who, unfortunately, didn't lose themselves reading the thing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha's mom and dad are getting a divorce. Her mom takes her and her older brother on a wilderness hiking trail but all it turns out to be is a continuous argument between her mom and brother about the divorce. Trisha falls back to avoid hearing the continuous argument and stops to go off the trail to relieve herself. When she starts back up on the trail she realizes the she cannot hear them anymore and gets worried. She begins chasing after them and tries to catch them but slides down a hill and becomes totally lost.She realizes that she is lost in the wilderness with limited food, her Game Boy and her Walkman. While she wanders through the woods she listens to her Walkman to see if they are looking for her and to listen to baseball games with her idol, Tom Gordon. She is getting deeper and deeper into the woods and starts to follow a steam as she believes that is her way to civilization. She is getting tired and exasperated at the ordeal and begins to hallucinate that people are appearing to her including Tom Gordon and some kind of beast......This story is wonderfully written and you can feel the emotions and fear of Trisha as she tries to find her way to help. This is a little different style of story written by Stephen King but it is enjoyable and fun to hear. My wife and I listened to this story on audio CD and liked it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I haven't read a lot of Stephen King's books, but from the few I have read, I can honestly say he's capable of better than this.(I believe even Mr King admitted as much.)There is very little character development, which gives one little reason to care if Trisha escapes the woods, in fact you pretty much know she will."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This slim volume is really a &quot;novella&quot; (which, I believe, is Spanish for &quot;short story at full-length novel price&quot;) and its brevity acts as a sort of defacto editor which reigns the author in to some extent and makes for a more straightforward tale than one might expect -- especially given the outlandish, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink nature (&quot;Hearts in Atlantis&quot;,&quot;Dreamcatcher&quot;) of King's other recent work. But the ending disappoints, like a slider that gets a bit too much of the plate and all you can do is watch helplessly as the ball leaves the yard...."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I used to be a HUGE King fan. However, his recent stuff simply pales in comparison to his earlier works, and this book is a prime example. Little girl lost is NOT what King does best, and using that as his premise doomed the book from the beginning. King is at his best when he does sprawling semi-supernatural, semi-horror thrillers like IT and the Stand(two of the best horror works ever written). He is not at his best with short puff pieces. Just like Tommie himself is breaking down as a reliever, Steve is, unfortunately, breaking down as an author."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After reading this, I felt that Mr. King woke up, ate breakfast, went to his computer and finished the novel before Tabitha called him for supper. Not great, but not bad -- if you're frightened of the woods, this makes a decent companion piece to &quot;PET SEMATARY.&quot; If you've ever been lost in the woods, it just might horrify you. Don't expect much and you might like it. A big plus is that it isn't too long, like many of Mr. King's past indulgences. Might be his shortest novel since &quot;CARRIE.&quot; It's just right."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is suspenseful and well-written but never kicks it further. The lead character, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, has to survive in the woods listening to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox games and (perhaps) stalked by some mysterious creature. The nature survival bits were more interesting than the stalker. The author batters the girl up in his usual fashion and pushes her to the edge, figuratively and in reality, but still something is missing. There is not enough material to sustain the two hundred plus pages (a very small novel for Mr. King) and it would have made a tight, thrilling short story instead. A quick read but not nearly as engaging as the author's usual efforts."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"'The girl who loved Tom Gordon' will never be considered one of King's best works and righteously so. But this book does have a certain quality to it...King is right on the money as far as Trisha, the main character. He thoroughly explores her emotions as she wanders in the woods of rural Maine (where else?) and becomes increasingly helpless and hopeless. The treatment of this character is up to par for King. Through the use of reflective imagery mixed with humor and a voice that really does seem like that of a nine year old (without seeming childish), King manages to suck the readers into this story and forces you to continue just to see what happens next. That is where the problem begins.The &quot;thing in the woods&quot; at first, is an abstract image that the reader is not really sure is real or imagined by a little girl pushed way past the breaking point. King lightly touches on this force then abruptly removes Trisha from it with the break of day. As the story progresses, the creature reappears and moves in closer and closer to do what Trisha (and the reader) fear most. But the mistake in this novel is pushing the envelope too far...way too far. This creature becomes more than a shadowy image that personifies Trisha's (and the reader's) worst fears, a force that may or may not exist outside the imagination. Instead it becomes real and quite ridiculous, which totally throws off what King tried to accomplish in the majority of the novel.As I said early on, this will never be considered one of his best works, but it could have been appreciated, as the saying goes, as a new trick for an old dog, as far as accomplished writers go. The writing style, as always, is exceptional. King's main character reflects bravery, resolve and a sense of realism that is typical for this writer...that is what makes his work so popular. You can't help but get attached to the characters but his effort to incorporate some form of horror made the story dissolve quickly and only served to diminish what he had accomplished up to that point.King gets good marks for storytelling and the creation of a truly interesting and well-developed character, but points off for what seemed like a last ditch effort to transform a harrowing story into a horror story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is good but to me when I compare it with other Stephen King books this one falls short. Don't get me wrong this is a good book with a good story and a good main character, but I just don't think it is nearly as good as other King books. In my opinoin if you want to read a good Stephen King book read this one the last."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I bought this book in an airport, depending on Stephen King to get me through a multi-hour plane ride. Imagine my disappointment. Trekking around the woods with a young girl being chased by a not-particularly scary monster. She keeps falling down, running the wrong way, etc. The allusions to the family's experience while she's missing were the strongest parts of this novel, but they are momentary. If you're a diehard Stephen King fan, get the book for your collection, then go back and read The Shining, Salem's Lot, or one of the other classics."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Since Insomnia, Stephen King's works are getting less and less complicated, gradually losing from the once-beautiful style and mood. Horror through a child's eye have always been the best area he writes in, yet this one, although it is not as disastrous as Rose Madder, is quite below his average. The plot is very simple, and, personally speaking, reeks too much of the Blair Witch Project to me. I admit that it is an easy and entertaining read, butn if you are a fan of his old ones like It or The Stand, keep away from this, it will only feel like a knife in the back."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was definitely not King's greatest work. As a mother of an almost-9-year-old, I found King's description of Trisha's thoughts too far off base. Additionally, I didn't buy that a 9-year-old would do the things King has her doing. Nevertheless, I was intrigued with finding out how it ended."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book by Stephen King is extraordinary, I especially love the detail put into the plot. The ideas are great and the suspence is thrilling. It's imposible to put this book down. Definitally worth a re-read! Once you're done the book, don't throw it away, you're sure to come back to it another time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a hiker, and a Stephen King fan, I started reading this in the bookstore and couldn't turn away. The story is not that unique, but King's writing makes it uniquely true-to-life. The sub-plots are very familiar and will have you thinking that King's knows the reader's thoughts."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon\\" was a pretty good book. I only gave it four stars because I got lost alot in the book and could'nt figure out what he was talking about. Otherwise it is a great book. And it really isn't King's normal blood and gore book, it has a small part with a monster. But the book seemed to center more around a girl getting lost in the woods and struggles for survival."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you've ever thought that Stephen King shouldn't publish everything he writes, this book will reinforce your belief. It is really quite surprising how King, in this book, will initiate a subplot and then simply abandon it, like he did with the considerably rocky relationship between the main character (Trisha) and her family. Granted, there is little opportunity for them to make appearances, but if the family dynamic is not to play a relevant part in the character's journey, why bring it up at all? The only salvation this book could have found would have been in the eeriness of the setting and the supposed monster hunting Trisha in the woods. At no point are we even tempted to believe that there is another presence out there with her, hunting her for no other reason than she is lost. The writing is simply not engaging enough. In short, this was probably the dullest 225 pages I have ever read. If you're like me, and you hate to have your valuable reading time wasted, steer clear of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and spend your six dollars on Richard Laymon's Bram Stoker Award-winning novel, The Traveling Vampire Show. The characters and the plot are much more interesting."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a great summer reading book. I started it at home one summer night and finished it on vacation in St.Lucia. it was a book I could not put down. Very well written and kept you in suspense till the end. Not many books keep my attention but this one did! Thanks Stephen King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While I enjoyed the story, and Stephen King is always wonderful, I really must comment on Anne Heche's reading/performance. She is mezmerizing! I listened to this book in my car commuting to work, but found taking the long way, wanting to hear more. Anne Heche sends chills down your spine as she speaks the words in Tricia's subconscious. I highly recommned listening to this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"For anyone who is expecting a scary book this is not one. This book is very interesting even though it starts off slow. It's basically a book about the fears and challenges of being lost and the power of the human mind to survive and invent under pressure. I read this book in one day so it's obviously hard to put down if for no other reason than to find out the surprising ending. Baseball fans will enjoy it, you'll see what I mean if you read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read several King novel's and this is one of the best books i have ever read. Trisha's perilous journey through the great forest reminds us of how how fragile life is and how with one wrong step, our lives can be altered in ways we can't imagine.This book is truly remarkable because of the numerous hidden meaing described within the text. Overall, an very, very good novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really enjoyed this one by Stephen King. It was one of his more logically writtn books about survival and love. A young girl with the strength and courage some of us could only wish for. I enjoyed this one immensely."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As a huge and long-time Stephen King fan, my first warning was the shortness of this book. Stephen King books are generally in excess of 400 pages, and this is a lightweight in comparison. Although some of his short books are excellent, such as Misery or Gerald's Game, I have found most of them to also be short of his standard.I found myself caught up in the story, as always with this author, with the vivid imagery and excellent character insight drawing me into the novel. I felt a real sympathy for the girl child heroine, and her thoughts rang true. However, I was left with a feeling of incompleteness. Perhaps he had to make a deadline so did not flesh out the story as he normally would have.If you're a big King fan, go ahead and get this book, but if you're looking for true horror or suspense, this does not deliver it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is absolutely the worst book I have ever read. It takes TWO THIRDS of the book for something exciting to happen! And the ending is the biggest non-event I can remember. If you think that a girl walking in the woods listening to her Walkman is a great story, buy this book. I was the world's biggest Stephen King fan, but that man is riding on his name now. I'm literally offended that he would put this rag up for sale and take my hard-earned money. Save yourself the four bucks and buy some Nytol instead - they will both have the same effect."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When I read this book. Its remind me of other Stephen King books, titled Geralds Game. There a lot of vivid nightmare, unseen terror, and flashback.The ending is not so good. The &quot;monster&quot; is just a BEAR! Final word, this book more like an adventure genre than a suspense."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was absolutely the worst book I ever read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Then take the time to read this short (for King anyway) book about a young girl named Trisha who ends up lost in the woods. It's not incredibly gruesome but I felt Trisha's fear and was always rooting for her till the end. Anyone who's ever gone hiking on the more rural areas of the Appalachian Trail (or in the deep woods for that matter) can sympathize with Trisha with just how much everything looks the same. Trees, plants etc. It can all look very similar. And when night comes so does the wild imagination of a scared child. Definitely not the best of King but a page turner that you'll just want to plow through to the end."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read an awful lot of Stephen King, and liked most of it. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is not his best, but it's far from his worst. It's got all the usual King themes, but he goes relatively light on the horror and mayhem in this one, since it's essentially just a story about a little girl lost in the woods. It's a quick read with a fairly unremarkable ending."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a great book that differs a bit from King's usual horror-fiction. Eventsare told from a single character perspective and we are left at the end wondering whether they actually occurred or were a figment of a young girl's imagination. The book is fast-paced and short making for a quick read. It should appeal to younger readers and those who like a suspenseful story with horror elements without a lot of 'blood and guts' killing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am a huge Stephen King fan, and have loved every book of his that I have read. And i was very excited to read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, as I have heard that it was one of his best works, but I has hugely disappointed. As I was reading I kept on waiting for the book to get better or the scary part to happen, and it never did. Don't get me wrong the book is very well written and it has it moments, but they a far and few in between. Please read this book because I am sure that a lot of people will disagree with my opinion, and you may to, and I do not want to ruin a book for anybody. I cannot wait though to read another Stephen King book, as I know the next one will be better and more suited for me."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Unlike most of Stephen Kings novels where there are monsters and ghosts that scare, what makes this story terrifying is the idea of being lost and alone in the Maine woods. Throwing in a 9 year old girl as the main character makes the story even more frightening.Trisha is hiking in the woods with her mom and older brother. Neither pay any attention to her as they are too busy fighting. Trisha stops to go to the bathroom, and before she realizes it, she is lost. Instead of staying in one spot, she walks and heads toward the river. Following the river until, after a few days, she is 30 miles from where she originally started.Near the end, Trisha is starving, growing sick with fever and at her breaking point for exhaustion. Is it really a monster that is chasing her or just an animal in nature hungry for a meal? My favorite quote is from the author that sums up Trisha's ordeal: \\"Sometimes you eat the bear . . . and sometimes it eats you\\"."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well, if not, you should read this book and see how heroic Trisha is. Trisha is a 9-year-old with an active imagination, but if you've ever been lost in the woods, her imagined monsters may seem just a bit more real to you. By the way, the Tom Gordon reference alludes to Trish's facsination with a professional baseball player. Fortunately she go lost in the woods while carrying a radio in her backpack, and despite being miles from civilization, she can still listen to baseball games at night. These keep her company, and they also help her stay connected to her dad, as Trisha and her dad share baseball as a common interest."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is one of my all time favorite of Stephen King's novels. Everyone should read it.I read it many years ago but still remember how much I enjoyed it. I don't always enjoy his novels, but this is one I kept to re-read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is my first time reading Stephen King and I can honestly say that I was very impressed. This story is about a 9 year od girl named Tricia who gets lost in the woods for nine days.I was drawn into this story very quickly and as strange as this may sound; I became attached to Tricia and found myself not wanting to put the book down because I didn't want to 'leave her', lol. I also cringed when she was sick, shuddered when she ate a raw fish and was so proud of her when her survival instincts kicked in. It was an amazing story of perserverance and survival and I just loved it. Even though this wasn't 'horror' per sae, I still felt fear for her in the sense that this could really happen and the building fear that something was tracking her in the woods...waiting.The only thing I didn't like was that for a 9 year old she uses some pretty strong language( I guess I would too under the same circumstances, though). Excellent read, well worth 5 stars in my opinion!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The flesh eating zombie never showed up but this book pleasantly suprised me. Trisha, the nine-year old main character is strong, funny, and believeable in an insane situation. King shows both his love for New England and the Red Sox but knowledge of either of those things aren't needed to enjoy this suspenseful tale."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Im all for short books(not to short) but once in a while its nice to have a GOOD book that doesnt take to long to read.Fast paced and well told.Very detailed which I love.It took me to the places in the book.Thats what books are supposed to do!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen king has written many great books, but I think The GirlWho Loved Tom Gorden is one of his best.This book takes you through the book like you were there with her, such good details. This book is about a girl who goes on a camping trip. When she finds out she has to go to the bathroom, she wanders off into the wilderness.If you are looking for a person vs.nature book, I would certainly recommend this book. All this girl has is her walkman to listen to while a massive beast hunts her, follows her every move. She gets the baseball games tuned in on her walkman and gets to listen to he favorite player play, Tom Gorden. She sees him, he is there with her suddenly. Can she survive with this all too real beast in the wild? Let Stephen king take you on an adventure you will never forget. I would recommend this book for 14 years and older."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well, What can I say, I wasn't surprised by how great this book was written. Before I read the book, I thought that it was going to be a traditional Stephen King horror story, but it wasn't. It was a survival story about a 10 year old girl who got lost in the woods and is desperately trying to find a way out. I loved the way King expressed the characters feelings and thoughts. After reading some of his other books like &quot;Salems Lot&quot; and &quot;Dreamcatcher&quot;, it's almost refreshing to read this book. I would recommend this book for ages 12 to adult. Great Book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The world has teeth Tom and it can bite anytime it wants to.\\" This quote is from Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and it is typical because the world is cruel and there is no telling what it might do. King's purpose in writing this novel is mainly to keep the reader guessing about what will happen next. King achieves this by using appealing settings, complex characters, suspenseful plots, and different language styles.This story centers around a nine year old girl named Trisha, who goes on a hiking trip with her mom and brother and gets lost. She stays in the woods for over a week with little food and water. Along the way, she encounters many dangerous and scary obstacles. There is always something watching her in the woods, but what is it? Will she be saved or will the \\"thing\\" get her?The main characters in this story are Trisha and Tom Gordon. King portrays these characters in a very effective way. Trisha is the girl who gets lost in the woods while on a hiking trail. \\"I'm going to die in these woods.\\" Trisha starts to think she actually will die in the woods after being lost in them for a while. Trisha shows very strong character in this novel and seems more mature than most nine year olds. Tom Gordon is Trisha's favorite major league baseball player and he plays for the Red Sox. \\"Tom, look!\\" \\"Look at the water!\\" Tom is never really in the woods with Trisha, but his spirit and her faith in him help her get through many struggles.\\"These woods scare me.\\" The main setting in this novel is in the woods. These woods are loaded with swamps, marshes, and wild animals. \\"If this stream goes into another swamp, I'll kill myself,\\" Trisha said. Every time Trisha finds a stream of water, it flows into a swamp. Will she ever find a road or a stream of water that does not lead into a swamp?The plot of this novel is Trisha being lost in the woods and trying to survive. \\"Nothing's watching me in these woods.\\" \\"Oh my God, those are claw-marks,\\" Trisha said. There is always something watching Trisha's every move in the woods, but what is it? Read the book to find out what happens to Trisha.King uses 3rd person point of view in most of this novel. \\"I'll never talk about this, never,\\" she said. This novel includes many obscenities and isn't recommended for young readers. King writes this book in an informal writing style.This novel is very suspenseful and keeps the reader guessing. It receives three stars from me because it is an overall good book. \\"Sooner or later, you'll have to deal with the \\"thing\\" to get it to leave you alone.\\" So go read this book and find out if Trisha makes it out of the woods alive or not. Remember, the woods are real and when visiting them on a vacation, bring a compass, good maps, and try to stay on the path."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It seems to me that The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is receiving a great deal of undeserved flack simply because it is not one of Mr. King's usual horror novels. I do agree that this is not a horror novel, and I can see where fans of that genre may be disinterested in it. However, I do not see that as a valid reason for such a low review.Mr. King's ability to write characters with whom we may sympathize, and his narrative skills remain undiminished in this book. Certainly I could identify with Trisha, and envision her struggles in the woods, but the most compelling elements were easily the psychological ones. Ravaged by fever, hardship, and isolation, while she does not completely go insane, Trisha's mind begins to warp, creating what I might describe as the world seen through funhouse mirrors. What suspense there is in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon comes from this. However, I really do think that those who are focusing on the lack of traditional horror have missed the point, and the opportunity to be touched by the message Mr. King seems to be sending about the power of hope and inspiration.Have you ever had a hero? I personally have been the beneficiary of inspiration in a difficult situation--inspiration provided, as in Trish's situation, by someone I may never have the privilege of meeting. Although I have never literally been lost in the woods, nor in a life-threatening situation, I have had to make some very difficult internal journeys. As I read, I found myself almost moved to tears by the fact that I was (metaphorically) seeing something akin to my own experiences, set into writing by someone else. Her final encounter with \\"Tom Gordon\\" was easily the most powerful--how touching the few words were, that he spoke--but I'll save this treat for the reader so it has its full impact.Given my very personal experience, I have to say Mr. King has done an outstanding job of depicting such inspiration, and also explaining what it is and is not. Unfortunately in the English language, we are rather limited when it comes to words for describing attachment to someone. The word \\"love\\" has been corrupted to where in most people's minds, it comes with physical connotations that make us very reluctant to use it. Mr. King, however, does not shy away from it, and for that I am glad. Trish's father, in the narrative, makes the distinction clear--yes, Tom Gordon is Trish's \\"heartthrob\\", and yes, she can see his attractiveness, but what truly makes her feel so deeply for him goes beyond the mere surface appeal and to the person that she perceives underneath. It is a much higher attachment than a mere crush.Only something greater could have possibly helped sustain Trish through the long, dark, and lonely nights."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is a departure from Stephen's King regular style. I am not a baseball fan and did not particularly love this book. I love Stephen King but I thought this writing experiment was rather dull and lacked a lot of the imagination in his other books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Wow! This is my first Stephen King read and I absolutely loved it! I picked this book up through one of the book orders at STMS in Herculaneum. I really loved this book. King tampers with my emotions enough to make this book a keeper. I think reviewers who were disappointed with this book were avid King readers, and may have anticipated more from him. It's refreshing when an actor can adapt to different roles on the screen, so it is also fantastic that King is able to cater to the needs of varying readers.Trisha McFarland is a 9 year old girl who is very ordinary in many ways. She is tired of her mother and brother bickering, tired of being ignored, tired of being taken for granted. When she slips out of sight of her family, Trisha soon realizes that she may as well have been forgotten. Lost in the deep forests of Northeastern America, Trisha must rely on her instincts, courage, and imagination to keep her alive.King practices so many qualities that I look for in an author. His use of description is satisfying. He reminds me so much of Ray Bradbury in his descriptive style. King uses symbollic and imaginative descriptions that stir emotional reactions in the reader making the story very real and personal.King's ability to balance readers and characters on the narrow line between sanity and insanity is tendered by his use of suspense, and stretching the limits of the hero's endurance. He tests our tolerance for his slow and deliberate taxing of a well designed character. It drives me crazy to think about a ten year old girl surviving many of the things Trisha had to survive.Finally, King keeps things very real. There is nothing in this story that could not haunt the rest of us forever because of its solubility in reality. I don't think I've read anything more satisfying for a while. Each barrier Trisha faces is believeable. Her mental interpretations of these realities is reasonable even when she starts hallucinating.I fell in love with Trish McFarland as a character because she is strong, courageous, and creative. She is a fighter and a survivor. She is the kind of girl that inspires me to be a better teacher because she is strong and confident, always looking for ways around obstacles instead of letting them be excuses for her not to learn or improve. Too bad more kids can't be like that.So why realease such a fantastic book? ... Hey I'm keeping my copy! Eventually I want it hard bound. I'm releasing copies of this one to people who inspire me. It is truly a practical book for a controlled release. I'm excited to read what others have said about this book. I know it must have been a popular title. King has always been a popular author. Now I know why."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book, it held my attention fully. I stayedup late a few nights to finish it because I could not waitto see how this little girl would finally make out infinding her way back on the right trail. I would read itagain, every page."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not normally a fan of Stephen King - I'll admit it, I'm too wussy for the level of creepiness he can achieve. But a friend told me I had to read this one and in a weak moment I bought it. I was glad I did. It wasn't what I'm used to from other books like IT and Carrie but I loved the story. Our young Trisha gets lost in the woods during a family outing. During her time wandering in the woods, she is starving and tired and eventually starts to hallucinate but keeps going as she tries to find her way out of the woods.It was a great book with good flow, I was never bored. My only 'negative' comment would be that it was not long enough.Fan or not, pick this one up!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was awesome to read. I first borrowed it from my friends' dad, when my friends told me it was a good book. I read it while listening to this one song and eating my fav. candies and taking the sun on the balcony. When I was finished, I thought it was a great book!I don't know what made it so great, maybe the fact that Trisha was only 9 years old and not an adult, which means she was very young to know anything about being lost, especially in the woods. I know my dad would have said it's a boring book, since he don't like Stephen King's books, but I don't think it was really boring, it was more like interesting because it had all the little details which gave you the feeling that you were in the woods with her and watch her journey.It was also good in a way, because this would really happen for real, so it wasn't just fiction, but a story which would happen to anyone at all as young as Trisha and also older, so it basically told you not to go into the woods by yourself without a good map and compass! Can someone please tell me everything she ate in the woods? What are the names of the berries she ate and what other things she found for food? My book's in Finnish, so I'd like to know the names in English!!! THANKS!EVERYONE READ THE BOOK! It's great!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well I must say after my last book (1000 pages and void of any real content - Elizabeth George &quot;Traitor to Memory&quot; DONT BUY IT) this was just wonderful! Short, sweet, definitely to the point, and it keeps you interested! I loved the little girl's attitude throughout all the nasty little things happening to her. Definitely a good and quick read. It's worth your time!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been an avid King fan since the age of 11, so it goes without saying that I picked this book up with much enthusiasm. Unfortunatly, though, &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; leaves much to be desired.But let me start with something positive. This book does succede on more than one level. King does a masterful job of showing how the main character's anxiety over her situation slowly begins to escalate, and how the time alone in the woods begins to affect her mentally. He does a wonderful job of making a complex, believable character out of a 9 year old.However...The story simply goes on to long. It just seems repetitive after awhile. It would probably work better in a short story or novella format.All in all, though, a minor negative blip on an otherwise spectacular career. Pick up his new memoir, &quot;On Writing.&quot;"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not a big fan (ok, but still a fan) of King's, but this book was excellent! Ya, not so scary as some (just finished Desperation a few weeks ago - more scary!), but a well crafted novel about a small girl lost in the New England north woods. No drooling, dissolving monsters in this book...just the kinds of &quot;things&quot; that any of us - adults included - could imagine if we were lost in the woods at night (or many nights in the case of this book). Highly recommended and a fast read as it is fairly short for a King novel. Good work Stephen!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Ok, first of all, all you people out there cutting up on this novel have to stop comparing it to previous King works. OBVIOUSLY, King was not trying to write a &quot;Christine-It-Gerald's Game-Salem's Lot-Carrie&quot;, so why make pros and cons based on nothing but the fact that King has been branded as a &quot;horror writer&quot; and therefore can produce nothing outside THAT genre. Though the tale isn't exactly a horror novel, it has a cleverly wound plot that keeps the reader interested and is incredibly well written under the circumstances given. King took a rather bland topic (I know ~I~ couldn't talk about a little girl being lost in the forest for 200+ pages without losing the reader's interest) and produced a great, intriguing story.The story is about a 9-year-old(?) girl named Tricia McFarland who becomes lost in the woods for days on end. Her only window to the outside world is her Walkman (she listens to the baseball games of her hero, Tom Gordon, hence the title of the novel). A bit slow at first, but becomes more interesting as it moves on. I would recommend this book to anyone."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is scary! ok theres no killer dogs or cars. Theres no blood sucking vampires or apocalpyses but its still a scary read. A little girl (nine year Trish, but big for her age) walks of the path and gets lost in the woods. She doesn't have a lot of food, and only has her walkman to keep her company - on which she listens to Red Sox games with her hero Tom Gordon. As she gets lost further (can you get lost even more?) she hears things, see things or thinks she does... Her imagination takes over, but it also keeps her together as she has visions of Tom Gordon looking out for her. I guess its similar to the Blair Witch Project (probably get cruficied for this comparision) but neither is really scary - its what goes on with the characters that is. And it both you're unsure of hows it going to end. Hey its a short book, grab it read and read it on a rainy day - just make sure you put it down before it gets dark! Also next time you go into the woods - stay on the path!Enjoy!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King outdid himself with this book. It was interesting and easy reading. I read the book in less than one day, however, it did make me &quot;itch.&quot;"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"OK. I admit it. When I read for work it's usually boring e-mails or some kind of memo or technical document, so I love the escapism of Stephen King. Yet I think he's at his scariest when he writes about something that it's easy to imagine could occur because it doesn't have a huge dose of the supernatural or paranormal (Gerald's Game is an excellent example). That's why I liked this book. Plus, I used to live in Maine and hike in New Hampshire and his descriptions unerringly recreate the atmosphere. Add to that having a kid the age of the protagonist in the book, and it seems close to home.The ending was a little predictable, but at least it gets away from the trend in many books these days of the bad guy squashing the good guy and walking away unscathed (try Hannibal). King's best books are ultimately about redemption more than retribution (try his alter ego Bachman for that).I also like Desperation and The Stand."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is the chilling,gripping,wonderfully told story of Trisha McFarland.Trisha is nine years old,but big for her age. While on a hike with her mother and brother,who are having,one,long,continuous argument,Trisha decides she needs a break. When nature calls,she steps off the path and this is where the chilling fun and games begin.Realizing she is lost,off she sets to find her way back to her family. After a disasterous occurence,she gets some good news when she makes the discovery that her walkman is in perfect shape. She listens in on the Boston Red Sox game and finds her lifeline,in the shape of her favorite releif pitcher,Tom Gordan,whom she also has a teeny crush on.We follow Trisha through her journey back to civilation. Along the way,she makes some disturbing and heart-stopping discoveries. Someone or something is trailing her,ready to pounce at any moment.Hurt and sick,Trisha draws on an inner strength to not live,but survive. All the while,Tom is there,encouraging and guiding her,until her ultimate showdown,with what she has come to know as,The God of the Lost.Short enough to be read in one sitting and compelling enough,as well,The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan will keep you glued to your seat and your eyes fastened to the page."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is another one of King's books that is a departure from the horror/supernatural vein that he usually writes in, however, in my opinion this does not at all detract from the suspense and excitement one feels while reading it. It follows the story of a nine year old girl who gets separated from her Mother and brother while hiking in maine. King does an excellent job of getting inside the head of a very young girl, thus proving again how good his imagination is. The reader is with her every step of the way as she tries to determine with her limited knowledge, what she should do and where she should go to find her way back to civilization. Only once or twice did I question that a real nine year old would think of some of the things that she did. Early into the book the reader knows the girl is being stalked by something or someone, and seeing how this is a King novel it could go either way. Eventually the title charater realizes that she is being watched and followed, and that is when the fear of being lost becomes secondary to the greater fear of being caught.This is a fairly short book for King but a very satisfying one which I enjoyed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King is an excellent writer and although this is definitely not one of his most chilling books, it's beautifully written.At 9 years old Trisha McFarland gets lost in the woods for almost a week. She overcomes many challenges to endure the days. Her love for baseball player Tom Gordon (#36) keeps her going. She conserves her walkman's batteries to be able to listen to the broadcast of their game every night.The ending wasn't too good, but the book in itself is good enough so the ending doesn't ruin the book.I'd recommend this book to anyone. Its very fast reading (I read it in one night) and although its a little over 200 pages... it seems like a lot less."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"even though i was disappointed when i realized that this book is a pshycological thriller and not Kings classic horror and bone-chilling books i got over it fast because this is a good book. Im glad that King kept it short and got straight into the plot, unlike many other of his books where he takes 200 pages to introduce to you his characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book up until the ending because after King took you to such peaks and realizations about Trisha's state of mind i would have preferred a more appropriate ending or way in which the outcome occured, but then again who am i to critic King, a master writer? I would recommend this book because King kind of toys with Trisha's mind, and the readers."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If I could, I'd give this book NO STARS!!! It was absolutely the most boring, nothing book I've ever read....and I love Steven King. Poorly written (I swear, he wrote it in the hospital while under anesthesia), no story, no suspense. I kept waiting for something to happen, for some suspense, for an interesting story, but this book bored me to tears. In fact, I speed read the last half of the book just to get to the end to see if something interesting would happen, but nothing did. Was this written for a 9 year old????? It sure seemed like it. Please, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!!! I can't say enough awful things about this awful book. STEVEN KING, WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU???!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I simply felt the story had alot of potential but never got off the ground. There was a number of moments when I thought &quot;ok, here we go, it's &quot;King Time&quot;&quot;, and the moment went away. The drive of the writing was something of a Stephen King who seemed uninterested in embelishing or even finishing the story at his usual level of excellence."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was a third of the way through this book and mentioned to my roommate that I wondered if the people who had made the Blair Witch Project had read the book. I love King's older stuff and I loved this book, too. He proves that you don't have to have goblin's and deamons jumping out and drinking human blood every other page in order to ratchet up the reader's fear. Patricia's desperation and degeneration as the days of her trek continue were very believeable and very frightening. The one thing I didn't particulary like was the &quot;God of the Lost&quot;. It felt as though he just through this supernatural element in as a bone to all those people he knew were going to be whining because it wasn't another &quot;Salem's Lot&quot;. All in all a good book and a scary read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you have read the other books by King, then you don't find his ability to create a 'cosy, creepy' athmosphere in this book. Also there are no characters he has elaborated (not even the girl). Disappointing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I finished to read this book yesterday... 2 days after I bought it... I found it like a tale for teen-agers! There was the King's style but... not like his old great titles!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As most of King's latest novels (excluding The Green Mile) this book sounded promising but just didn't deliver. I wasn't the least bit frightened. As a matter of fact I kept reading in hopes of at least feeling a slight chill in the air...nothing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is the only book of Stephen King's that I could not finish which is amazing since it is such a sliver of a little book. I remember a time when Mr. King made fun of such slim volumes, in particular his ridicule of Vox vs. A Simple Plan. I would say that it could be cut to a short story but even then it isn't that interesting. It reads more like a Reader's Digest true life story. The saddest thing is that the book starts out so well and then goes downhill quickly. Mr. King obviously didn't spend much time with a girl of the age of the protagonist in 1999. She constantly makes cultural references that are much more fitting for someone of Mr. King's age. When Mr. King found religion in Desperation I hoped that this would be a passing phase. I don't read horror for its inspirational character. Bag of Bones was so good my fears were allayed but now with this book I'm not sure where he is coming from. Apparently his next book consists of four connecting novellas centering around Vietnam and is supposed to be a return to the brilliance of Bag of Bones and The Green Mile. Almost losing Mr. King in his accident was terrible. He is truly a national cultural treasure. I wish him luck during his painful rehabilitation and I wish I could say better things about this book but unfortunately I can't."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I buy every book King writes looking for his old self. I read all his old books and had sleepless nights, not with this one. This is the only book he wrote that I did not finish. It should also be the first book that Amazon,com offers people that buy it their money back."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is without doubt a failure. The 10 year old girls and boys who read it might find it enjoyable; however, in my opinion, it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Give me a refund!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Make me care and Stephen you failed. I couldn't get past page four and had no qualms about giving up and closing the book forever.Different strokes for different folks, but I remember when I could not put your books down...a long time ago I know, but you got me longing for the good old days."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Once again Stephen King has come through for us! This book was a real page turner. It was very rich in details and suspense."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I could not put this book down until I finished it. this book is one saurprise after another. I recommend this book to anyone who loves mystery, nature, and baseball. even if you do not like baseball you will like this book. Stephen King is the best author."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":".....Trisha McFarland was a 9 year old daughter of divorced parents. She and her brother stayed with her mother.One weekend, they had a trip for hiking through the wood. Along the way, while her mother and brother were bickering, Trisha got lost. She attempted to find a way to get out the forest, and then she decided to follow the stream. She had many exciting adventures there. Unfornately, she got sick and had a confusion between reality and imagination. However, she finally met the way back home from her intelligence......\\"The girl who loved Tom Gordon\\" is one interesting story from Stephen King. This story expresses a 9 year old girl which has ability more than her age. She solved the problem by herself and could find the way out off the forest. I strongly recommend for whom who love adventure."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was definitely a slow mover and not what is a normal Stephen King novel. Though, I have to admit, I had to finish the book because I needed to know if and how the little girl gets out of the woods."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon takes place mainly in the Appalachian mountains. Its about a 9 year old girl who wanderrs off a trail while on a hiking trip with her mother and brother. It takes you on the journey that she had while she was lost in the woods. She had to live without things we couldnt imagine being without. Starvation, creatures in the woods, and loneliness are just to name a few. The reason that Tom Gordon, a professional baseball player for the Red Sox, is on the title is because he was basically her companion throughout her journey. although he was just a hallucination, he is what kept her going. i thought this book was alright. it just never really got me totally interested in the story. A lot of the beginning was a little boring because it just talked about her walking around in the woods. what was interesting to me is that a 9 year old girl could know so much about the forest and be able to survive as long as she did. i would only reccomend this book to someone who has time on their hands to read a book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The world has teeth Tom and it can bite anytime it wants to.\\" This quote is from Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and it is typical because the world is cruel and there is no telling what it might do. King's purpose in writing this novel is mainly to keep the reader guessing about what will happen next. King achieves this by using appealing settings, complex characters, suspenseful plots, and different language styles.This story centers around a nine year old girl named Trisha, who goes on a hiking trip with her mom and brother and gets lost. She stays in the woods for over a week with little food and water. Along the way, she encounters many dangerous and scary obstacles. There is always something watching her in the woods, but what is it? Will she be saved or will the \\"thing\\" get her?The main characters in this story are Trisha and Tom Gordon. King portrays these characters in a very effective way. Trisha is the girl who gets lost in the woods while on a hiking trail. \\"I'm going to die in these woods.\\" Trisha starts to think she actually will die in the woods after being lost in them for a while. Trisha shows very strong character in this novel and seems more mature than most nine year olds. Tom Gordon is Trisha's favorite major league baseball player and he plays for the Red Sox. \\"Tom, look!\\" \\"Look at the water!\\" Tom is never really in the woods with Trisha, but his spirit and her faith in him help her get through many struggles.\\"These woods scare me.\\" The main setting in this novel is in the woods. These woods are loaded with swamps, marshes, and wild animals. \\"If this stream goes into another swamp, I'll kill myself,\\" Trisha said. Every time Trisha finds a stream of water, it flows into a swamp. Will she ever find a road or a stream of water that does not lead into a swamp?The plot of this novel is Trisha being lost in the woods and trying to survive. \\"Nothing's watching me in these woods.\\" \\"Oh my God, those are claw-marks,\\" Trisha said. There is always something watching Trisha's every move in the woods, but what is it? Read the book to find out what happens to Trisha.King uses 3rd person point of view in most of this novel. \\"I'll never talk about this, never,\\" she said. This novel includes many obscenities and isn't recommended for young readers. King writes this book in an informal writing style.This novel is very suspenseful and keeps the reader guessing. It receives three stars from me because it is an overall good book. \\"Sooner or later, you'll have to deal with the \\"thing\\" to get it to leave you alone.\\" So go read this book and find out if Trisha makes it out of the woods alive or not. Remember, the woods are real and when visiting them on a vacation, bring a compass, good maps, and try to stay on the path."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha McFarland's parents have divorced and her mum isn't very considerate of the divorce's affect on her daughter and spends most of her time yelling at her and her brother Pete. On a hiking trip Trisha wanders of the trail to escape another session between Pete and her mum then becomes lost.This is an amazing tale of a little girl's survival in the Maine wilderness. A big fan of baseballer Tom Gordon she tunes into his games on a radio with fading batteries for inspiration and hope. This is not your typical King novel and will appeal to both horror fans and those who do not like that sort of thing."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The girl who loved Tom Gordon is a story about a young girl named Trisha. She goes hiking with her Mom and her brother which argued a lot with each other about a lot of things then wanting to have a break and needing to answer a nature's call Trisha gets seperated from them but she can not find her way back. She's lost in the bush.I am a huge Stephen King fan but this one wasn't what I have expected. OK. At least 95% of the plot was regarding Trisha - it almost seemed that King forgot with whom did she go hiking!I struggled but I still made it to the last page when Trisha is finally found."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I don't recommend it at all"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Empece a leer este libro con la esperanza de verme sumido en los placeres que solo el sentir miedo nos da. Sin embargo, al pasar las paginas me vi envuelto en una historia para colegiales; un tanto estupida. Es un libro aburridisimo.EL CRITICO LATINO"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am a big fan of Stephen King movies, but I haven't read much of his novels. This is only the second novel by him that I have read. I found it a very simple and very exciting novel. It's about a girl who gets lost in a forest, but she realizes she is not alone. It's very excellent and it will take you only a day to read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Actually 4.5 stars. This is King nearly at his best. For any other author it would be a 5 star, but I know what King is capable of. He does a wonderful job making you feel the tension and fear this little girl is feeling. This is work is tight and focused (not an extra word that isn't needed, which to be honest was one of things King has seemed to have trouble with.) This along with his other recent works reaffirms him as a master of storyteller. Pick it up, I doubt you'll be disappointed"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this book a letdown, probably because I read The Green Mile right before this. I was expecting more. King describes the forest in a way that you can envision yourself out there with Trisha. The parts of her listening to her walkman to hear Tom Gordon were interesting. Mr. King does his job though, as I found myself feeling worried and sorry for her all along. I did like the ending."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I actually put off getting this book due to the fact that I thought it was so different from other King books. When I did buy it I couldn't put it down. It was an excellent story that puts you in the center of everything going on. I would definately recommend!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not the usual Stephen King but nevertheless easy to read, you want to know &quot;what happens next&quot; to Trisha. Not the sort of little girl that gets on your nerves at all. A younger version of the women in the book Rose Madder, a strong character. Recommended to all readers not only &quot;horror&quot; afficionados."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read most of Stephen King's books &amp; absolutely loved this one! It's not a typical King &quot;scary&quot; story, but I couldn't put it down. It's a &quot;feel good&quot; book and I liked the ending. I highly recommend it, although Stephen King fans may not like it as much as it's not really scary. But it's one I can have my children read and not be too scared to go to bed at night."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"For most SK's fans he is The King Of Horror. I do not mind, but, people,he is also a brilliant writer whose works represent a deep psychological insight into the human nature!A wide range of emotions is shown in this book - from surprise up to desperation and your beloved horror, but it's all done in such an astonishing way! This book is really worth reading at least twice. Irene Andreyeva"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When you pick up the book and read the first page, it looks like a pretty good book. You keep reading and like it, it builds up to an ending,suspense,suspense,suspense, stupidity.It is the worst ending Stephen King has ever written. It seems a good book about a girl lost in the woods, with something after her, it gets you excited about the ending, then disappoints you. I don't reccomend it at all, just skip it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is the first Stephen King book I ever read, and I have to say, I am impressed. His attention to detail is amazing and his suspense it very good. He takes the reader down the woods with a little girl and gets her lost. What is very cool about this book is where it takes place. I live in New Hampshire, and this book takes place on teh New Hampshire/Maine border (about 20 minutes away from me)and King describes stuff that I recognize. It's weird to read about stuff that I know. Juwst so you know, for those who are not from New England, King does a great job describing NH and ME. Well..all in all, this is a cool book"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book started strong, lagged in the middle, then finished on a pretty high note. I did enjoy the story and how it was told by King, but it was just missing something needed to be a great survival story. It was not as scary as most King novels, but it had a few moments of fear. I recommend this story for a good short read, if you have nothing else to do."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A great one by Stephen King. It was sweet and to the point not all long and drawn out like King's books often are. I read it in one day and loved it. Trisha, a little girl lost in the woods off the Appalachian Trail, has to learn survival while trying to find a way out of the forest. Her encounters are spooky and her thoughts terrifying. It is a great and exciting read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"After reading Jaws, my carefree days at the beach were ruined forever. Likewise, after listening to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, my camping gear was sold at the next yard sale. While I can laugh off vampires and resurrected pets, getting lost in the woods could happen to anyone. Trisha's indefatigable courage was awe inspiring. I don't think I would last nine hours alone in the forest, much less nine days. Anne Heche's child-like voice as nine year old Trisha is perfect and the story is wonderful. Please, Mr. King, give us more books like this. (This refers to the unabridged audio-book version)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"From time to time, King write something that the line between horror and a &quot;normal&quot; book is very thin. This is one of then, not a horror story (but there is a evil entity), is more like him, telling us how some parents are so self-centerd that they won't notice until way too late that their children are missing or anything like that. No gore, no scares, only the suspense of whether the girl lifes or dies (which i won't tell, so you go read it). Not a bad book, yet not one of his best work. What it lacks in horror made up in impressive descriptions and suspense. Buy it so you can have the King collection."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is far different from other SK novels, first of all this has to be the shortest book from Stephen King I've ever read. Second, unlike &quot;Insomnia&quot; and &quot;Desperation&quot; this book lacks a strong supernatural tone. But, over all, this book was a nice read and might just get some new Stephen King readers, while keeping the returning victims of his books interested."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"..then you know the kinds of things that can play tricks on your mind. Imagine you are a scared little girl, with only a bag lunch to eat, and no clue on how to get out. Thats the mind set you have to be in to begin to read this book. Many will tell you that this book is about spirituality, or finding yourself, or whatever. But this basically comes down to the mind games you play when you are in total solitude, and the with the absense of normal 20th century comforts, how vulunerable you indeed are. This book does show however, that despite that you may be mad at your loved ones, or feel like you hate the position you are in, it is still best to be amongst the ones you love, and in your current position, because that is better than the alternative, which is solitude and lonliness. Read this book, its a quick read, easy to understand, and it might make you appreciate your comforts, and even like the little annoyances that normally would drive you nuts."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Besides King's two novella's, &quot;Shawshank Redemption,&quot; and &quot;Stand By Me,&quot; this was my first foray into Mr. King's frightening world. I purchased it because I knew it to be less horrifying than most. As a general rule I don't &quot;do horror.&quot; However, I always wanted to read his work, his descriptions, his genre. Once. I discovered ONCE is quite enough for me. Though incredibly impressed by his expertise as an excellent story teller, this was as creepy as I could stand. I knew I was in for it when I read, &quot;A stump of a branch thick as an amuputated forearm......&quot; I would not envision that analogy.....Stephen King would.I am glad I read this. His vile descriptions and eerie story made me wince and shake.....what good horror is supposed to do. I now leave him to all those who love the macabre. The quality of his writing is supreme. Good writing.....wrong subjects! Stephen King belongs to his legions of ghastly, ghoulish fans. King is the king of the macabre......I am the queen of the scarity cats and &quot;never the twain shall meet&quot; again!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"this is not a bad book, its good to see stephen king hasnt made it overly long. some of the characters are a little one dimensional,but it dosent effect it in a bad way. just dont expect anything brilliant."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"In this book, King once again shows his ability to write a convincing younger character. This tale of survival in the New England woods shows the King that gets right to the action; a short novel unlike so many of his recent bloated epics that could have used some judicious editing.Our heroine, Trisha McFarland, decides to leave the constant arguing of her divorced mother and unhappy older brother by taking a bathroom break while on a hike in the woods. She quickly gets turned around and ends up wandering farther than anyone can imagine. This is the essence of King's story. Her intelligence, love for her father, and her everlasting faith in Red Sox closer Tom Gordon are all she has to sustain her. Will it be enough? If King had just avoided his philosophical concepts of &quot;the subaudible&quot;(you'll see) and an unnecessary evil &quot;presence&quot; this book might have stood alongside &quot;The Body&quot; as one of King's better short works. As it is, it should captivate the King fan and perhaps is a good choice for those who say &quot;Stephen King&quot; with an air of disdain."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this book was pretty spiffy. It was the first book since I've started my binge of reading that I was actually captivated by it. I wasn't paying attention to page numbers or anything else going on in the world. And I used to love it when there was lots of dialoge especially when the author dished it out well...but this book barely had any and I couldn't have made it better. The only downside to it was the ending. Since the book was building up to be so good I thought the ending would be like &quot;KABLAMO!&quot; but it was just like &quot;boom&quot;. yeah that's all"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha - to say it rightaway - is not a character that is in any way too realistic. She is nine years old, has an understanding of baseball that is normal in a forty-year-old, reflects on her situation that is getting worse and worse like a mature and adult person, knows about survival and her metabolism more than any kid of her age. This is one side of the medal. The other side is much more positive. The book is really nerveracking. You can understand that someone gets lost in a vast ocean of trees and animals and evil spirits as it happens to Trisha. It is possible that search parties do not find a single person in this maze, and it is possible to fight for your life in an ordeal like this - even if you are only nine years old. Nature is your friend - but then it is also your enemy, it can help you survive and it can kill you. Even as an adult you would have to fight. You have to fight a merciless environment, and you have to fight yourself and the ghosts that try to kill you, the ghosts you imagine and those that haunt the woods, bears or real ghosts - who cares? So don't forget \\"a compass and good maps\\" as the master says. It may be vital.A very good read, a genuine horror thriller."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The man writes like it's an obligation (which, contractually, it probably is). Perhaps if we stopped buying his drivel (face it, he's written nothing since The Shining/Stand/Salem's Lot era), perhaps he would be content to sit down and write one good novel ever two years or so rather than one bad one ever four months. And with this latest...man, finishing his stuff lately is a chore. Little trisha isn't the only one lost in this &quot;novel.&quot; Forget it. Wait for the TV movie. And then don't watch it, either."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It is hard to believe that this man has been so successful. This is the fourth book I've read by King and (of those four) only The Green Mile was any good. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is slow moving and dull. One more thing. The Red Sox catcher is Jason VARITEK."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I just love reading King, I think 90% of what he's written is pure genius, but this one falls short on many levels. No excitement, no thrill, not much of a plot either. Maybe this might satisfy juveniles, I don't know. I didn't find the young heroine particularly interesting, although she is clever enough to stay alive. But the book died somewhere early on. I can't say pass this one by since King is a great writer and there's always something to admire in how he writes, but not all his stories are worth the energy to read. I admit I like King's crazed psychopaths best, but I also appreciate his tamer stuff, usually. Not this time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a great disappointment. This had a lot of posibilities. There was no supernatural, unless you consider Trisha's imagination. Placing yourself in her situation, it was frightening. However why didn't Trisha observe the first rule taught to all who are lost in the woods: &quot;hug a tree.&quot; After all she did learn some survival techniques from school and her mother."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm enjoying The Girl who loved Tom Gordon for it's setting. I love the New Hampshire forest and can appreciate King's description of the landscape. Yet I also have to say, it's a little slow. I'm 150 pages into it and Tom Gordon has only been mentioned a few times. I bought the book because it combined the outdoors and the subject of baseball. But the latter hasn't appeared as much as I'd hoped.Like I said before, i'ts a good book but not since The Green Mile has King been truly impressive. I have yet to read Bag O'Bones but I will soon.Hopefully something of the likes of The Green Mile will be put on paper sometime in the near future. I am a relatively new fan of Kings and hope to be for a while now. Let's hope he doesn't let me down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found the book &quot;The Girl who loved Tom Gordon&quot; excellent and very catching, however, it lacks something King has had trouble regaining in his last few novels; yes, I'm sure all you King fanatics know this, scariness. &quot;Bag of Bones&quot; was very boring and surreal, &quot;Storm of the Century&quot; was rather uneventful, and now &quot;The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; takes the takes the torch as the latest King horror novel without the horror.If you are truly afraid of being banished in the lonely depths of the Massachusetts forests, buy this book; you will likely find it catching. However, if you're my kind, this book is not the kind you'd flush your $10 for.Anthony skelly@mvn.net"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Okay, to start with we have Stephen King, a truly gifted horror writer who can squeeze terror out of any situation, even the most mundane. We then have a tried-and-true scary situation; a little girl lost in the woods, with an unseen evil apparently stalking her. This SHOULD have been utterly terrifying. It SHOULD have been gripping, suspenseful and impossible to put down. I SHOULD have found myself unable to sleep after reading it because I was trembling too badly. The problem was, none of this happened.This is a short book for King (only 260 pages) and it seems like a large chunk of it is missing; mainly, the good part. For the first 200 pages, King describes the first week that his little girl hero is lost in the woods. He describes it not only day by day but hour by hour. Over that time, the girl is a little bit scared, a little bit hungry, a little bit uncomfortable, but never shows the level of dismal fear that any 9-year-old girl would actually be showing at this point; King's hero actually talks and acts more like a sassy 13 or 14-year-old, and her inner thoughts are more like those of a bright college kid!Then, after that first 200 pages, King skips ahead by about 4 or 5 days to a point where the hero is finally REALLY tired, REALLY hungry...although still not really scared. She never gets scared, so neither do we. When we finally meet the invisible evil that has been stalking her, the discovery is dull, common, and not only not scary, it's almost silly. I found myself wanting to rewind this book and write my own version, but better!If King had actually described this lost-in-the-woods experience from the viewpoint of a small child, the book would have been gripping and entertaining even if it wasn't terrifying. As it was, I felt like I was reading about some high school or college kid who was in a mildly unpleasant situation---nothing to be really concerned about. This book will make its way back to the used book store in record time, no doubt about it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is another example of Stephen King writing well but not writing his genre. The writing is first rate and the characters are good but the story was certainly not up to snuff. So I say again, PLEASE STEPHEN KING GO BACK TO WRITING HORROR!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I got tired of the whole thing after 50 pages of nothing but a lost girl walking in the woods"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is absolutely beautiful. Any King fan MUST HAVE this, and at such a great price. Don't buy it to read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, buy it to have an amazing piece of work done entirely by the greatest author of my time, Stephen King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was quite disappointed with this one. I usually love Stephen King, but I have to admit this was slow going. A girl is lost in the woods......with a lame ending. If you're looking to be scared about being in the woods....rent &quot;The Blair Witch Project&quot; and watch it by yourself at night. I'm just glad I borrowed this book and didn't purchase it. Stephen King has MUCH better books. Maybe next time.........."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A young girl is lost in the woods. Period. A reader waiting for that great Stephen King plot twist or suspense will be utterly disappointed. King's book starts out with an intriguing first chapter, but everything afterwards is a tedious account of Tricia's prolonged nature walk. No surpises here, but plenty of lost-in-the-woods cliches."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I loved this book. I'll always think the Stand is his best, but this is a very close second. I found Trischa to be a delightful and ingenious child. I read this book in early March, right before the Baseball season began and never stopped watching the ballgames. It's now the end of the season and I can't wait for next April. I thought the book was fun - I thought the monster in the woods was the deranged psychotic from Gerald's Game. I'm glad I was wrong!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As a Redsox fan, I definitely liked this book. And you will really enjoy it if you are a New Englander and a fan of his work. Who cares if itt wasnt a horror story with someones head getting decapitated. And if you think getting lost in the woods is no big deal for a book and is overused, go walk deep into the New England woods and see if you can find a way back. Im sorry, this was a great book about courage, a great chiller, you can feel what she feels, and a great book about America's pastime, and my favorite team."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"SK should write more books like this one. Just enough suspense to keep you interested with not too much horror and gore."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The first 100 pages are excellent and the last 120 are outstanding (and then some!). A magnificent metaphor for the demons that each of us face. A superb novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Supurbly written, perfectly paced, this is one of the leanest stories King has told. His tiny group of characters are flawlessly cast. The plot is simple and rock-solid. This little lost girl could be anyone's child; and you simply can't stop reading until you find out how she survives. Not your typical supernatural spine-chiller 1,000-page epic. Tom Gordon and the Sox make this tale romanticly haunting. And the thing that lurks in the dark is just...well...maybe it's best each reader finds out for himself."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Let your imagination run away with this one and you will be right in the middle of the woods (bug bites and all)with this wonderful 9 year old girl. The thought that this scenaro could actually happen is what makes it truly scary. The &quot;thing&quot; in the woods was a little disappointing at the end but otherwise a very good read!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is an edge of your seat thriller by one of the most amazing authors of all time. The cliffhangers at the end of certain chapters keep you always wanting more."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a good, quick read. It wasn't his best(IT), but certainly not his worst(Dolores Claiborne). It would probably be a good book for a teenager who wants to read King. I'm waiting patiently for the next book in the Dark Tower series to be published. Hopefully I won't have to wait as long as I did for Wizard and Glass."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've been a Stephen King fan for years, but this one takes the cake. It was a boring and predictable story. This book would be good for pre-teens who are interested in beginning to read science fiction. A horror book it is NOT. I barely stayed awake to read the end which I had already figured out in chapter one! The only good thing about this book is it was SHORT."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was a waste of time and money!There was no character development, the story was weak and predictable."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King stirikes again in his horrorifying new novel The Girl who loved Tom Gordon. This book gets you lost in the woods with a young and sometimes hallucinating little girl. It has the dark feel of a CLive Barker novel. King emphasizes the girls dieing and just when you think the terrors over King leads you on another wrong turn.The Girl who loved Tom Gordon is a book that really makes you realize what being lost in the woods really means. A terrorific book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Every now and then, a Stephen book comes out that's totally unique to the King genre. This book seems to be one of those. I wonder if Stephen King's wife writes some of the books which are then published under his name. Who would ever know. The book will sell millions of copies just because his name is on it!I found this book to be one of the poorest reads (listens actually because I listened to the book on audio cassette). This book never really captures the essence of a 9 year old (going on ten and big for her age). No 9 year old would have the full robust vocabulary that is described in this novel. In my opinion (for whatever that's worth), the 9 year old character in this book was not very believable at all.Lastly, Ann Heche should try listening to Frank Muller or Frances Sternhagen reading a King book. These two are fantastic readers that really make the books exciting to listen to. Ann wasn't too good at changing/accentuating her voice for different characters. And she didn't seem completely prepared for upcoming story events. She did sound like a little girl though, so that was a plus!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Kings best work is still the two weeks of Guiding Light episodes he wrote in '77. All of his books run together in a mush of slippery allusions which read more like aspersions. Yeah the woods are scary and McDonalds is too and so is the fact that Stephen King sells more books than Jimmy Carter."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"and i could care even less about the Red Sox, but somehow King found a way to make me care about Trisha McFarland, the heart wrenching and gutsy 9 yearold of, the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. She is lost in the woods, seperated from her bickering and broken family. As our heroine bravely fights the elements of the forests, something imagined or real is after her, it goal to be her demise.Never a dull moment in this King novel. I just had to finish it in two days because I couldn't put it down. Just the right amount of action and blurbs from outside the forest that Trisha struggles to find a way out off.Five stars. You will enjoy this short, exciting read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you are looking for an amazing story filled with suspense and horror steer clear of \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.\\" Although this was the first story I read by Stephen King, I found it to be lacking in substance and terror from what I've been told about his other books. This is the story of a girl named Trisha Mcfarland and her \\"troubles\\". The book starts off telling the reader about the Mcfarland family and how they have gotten a divorce and now Trisha and her brother live with their mother. Their mother decides to take them out on a hike and along the way Trisha decides to wander off the trail and go to the bathroom. Before she knows it her mother and brother are nowhere to be found. The rest of the story is now a long and boring telling of how she wanders yet further from civilization and any hope of ever seeing her family again. King is known for his suspense and terror but this book was more of a nature story. The only part that is even remotely scary is the fact that she thinks something is watching her all along and waiting for the right time to go in for the kill. Throughout the story the reader is made to believe that it is a human following her; but at the end it turns out to be a bear that gets shot by a man that is wandering through the woods. Also what makes this book really boring and actually very weird is her obsession with the baseball player Tom Gordon, as mentioned in the title. When she first gets lost in the woods she is very worried about her Walkman and saving the batteries so she can listen to the games at Fenway Park. She then starts to imagine that Tom Gordon is standing there with her throughout the story. While all this is going on in the woods Trisha's family has gotten a search party out looking for her with helicopters, dogs, and policemen leading the way. King didn't focus on the search for Trisha very much the whole story was all about her walking through the woods trying to find her way home. This book does not live up to the \\"Stephen King\\" name. It is boring and lacking in the gore and bloody bodies that all King fans have grown accustomed to. If you are looking for a story to read right before you go to bed that'll make you have sweet dreams and put you to sleep this is the book for you. Otherwise, I would recommend that you read another King book or something with a little more action and suspense."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am an avid reader of any Stephen Kings books and expected much more from him then this book offered. It was very slow and had a very boring, repetative plot. The book is based on a little girl who gets lost and does the same thing day in and day out, over and over again. If you would like a excellent adventure..check out some of Bently Little's books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was really disappointed!!! I'm a 13 year old girl who has read many Stephen King books and I think he is an excellent writer. This book didn't even compare on my scale to other books such as Salems Lot. It was genuinly not scary at all to me. I was so bored with the book by page 100 but I thought it might get etter so I stuck with it. I was wrong."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King got long winded with this short story and had to publish it as a book. Don't waste your time reading this boring story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I finished this book a couple of nights ago and I found it to be wonderfully written and with a very good story line. This is not typical King, it does not have the intense shock value of books like \\"The Regulaters\\" or \\"Pet semetery\\" {\\"Pet Semetery\\" being my favorite King book} I can understand how some found the book slow and lacking in the shock department, I will admit that the girl acts and thinks in a way that is older then a nine year old but this is a great read non the less. If you are new to King, check out \\"Pet Semetery\\" and \\"Cujo\\" before you read this one and I think you will be able to enjoy it more."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read some of these reviews before the book and they really put the book down. But, I enjoyed the book, it is a good story with heart. Don't listen to anybody else, if you want to read a good story, that moves right along I recommend this book with high honors."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"If you read \\"The girl who loved Tom Gordon\\" you will be awake the whole time. It's not like those little, stupid, small booksthat make you go to sleep. You never know what is coming next, you'll be surprised. This book is about a girl who goes with her mom and brother Pete, on awalking trail. Mom and Pete are always fighting and were at it again. Trisha(the girl)had to go pee and couldn't get her moms attiention. She goes off the trail and goes pee. She gets lost and cant find her way. To find out what happens read the book. I rate this book a 4."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read Stephen King because Stephen King spins a wonderful yarn. I don't think that this novel represents what the majority of Stephen King fans (like me!) expect when they buy one of his books. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a short story instead of a novella. The material (plot) is too thin for the number of pages it fills....and the target audience seems to be smaller than that of the usual Stephen King novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found that The Girl That Loved Tom Gordon was very similar plot-wise to Gerald's Game. I do think that TGTLTG was a much better telling of the story though. Even though the plot is pretty straight-forward and predictable it kept me wanting to continue reading. The ending was kind of abrupt, I was hoping for &quot;Extra Innings&quot; :) All in all a suprisingly good effort for a re-hashed plot. In contrast I think I gave Gerald's Game one star."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"this book is about a little girl who was walking on a trail and wandered off into the woods.she got lost and she did some pretty impossible stuff to survive out in the wilderness.stephen king said that this book was supposed to be scary and it is more into the fantasy section.it would go under scary books,but when people read it they might think that the book is scary.I think if you put yourself in her posistion it would be scary.i did not fall asleep reading it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Out of all the horror novels I have read, this is the only one that really scared me. It was very well written, and it kept you wanting to read more, and more, and more...I would think that anyone that likes to read horror fiction would like to read this book. Also, anyone who likes to read about people overcoming their fears. This is a thrilling novel and anyone scared easily should NOT read this!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"&quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; by Stephen King,is a great book and exspecially great for teenagers. It is an inspiring, exciting, and adventurous book. It is about a girl who gets lost in the woods and is trying to find her way home. She is frightened and the thing that is following her is making it even worse. She doesn't know what the thing is and neither will you if you don't read the book. She is only surviving on her love for Tom Gordon. This is an excellent book and I'm rating it a five star book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Only Stephen King could write a story about a little girl getting lost in a national park and make it both believable and chilling.Trisha Mcfarland goes on a hike with her mother and obnoxious big brother. On the way she gets off the path to take a pee. While attempting to find the path again she gets thoroughly lost.Instead of sitting and waiting for help to come, 9 year old Trisha decides to keep walking, knowing that she will find help eventually.As Trisha becomes more and more exhausted and discouraged, she counts on her walkman to bring her Red Sox games and her favorite player, pitcher Tom Gordon. These games and especially Tom Gordon give her the strength and courage to keep going.Trisha can feel something following her. She can't quite see it, but she knows it is there, haunting her. What is following Trisha? What does it want?Take a walk in the woods with Stephen King and the woods will never be the same"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A spellbinding book that will keep you turning the pages. The book shows greatly in detail the changes a mind makes when you are alone in the dark miles and miles away from anyone and anything.I could not stop reading this book. I couldn't put the book down. This book was exhileraing and action packed. All wilderness loving people this is your book.This book realliy goes into depth of the mechanics of the way a person thinks and how they gradually go insane."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"...that King isn't just a horror writer. The last time he did a &quot;person in non-supernatural trouble&quot; was &quot;Gerald's Game&quot;. The less said about that one, the better. But in one of King's anthologies, he even plays the sportswriter for one of his son's little league ballgames, referring to the kid by his last name like any other player. In this book, he takes on the story of a little girl who's a Red Sox fan and how she gets lost in the woods. This one (would you believe?) could hit the screen as an afterschool special, because there's so little adult language that it could be edited without eviscerating the story. The book itself (would you again believe?) could be put in the YA section of most libraries. So much for Stephen King as a one-dimensional author, huh?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read most of everything King has written. this was such a strange change. If I had been given it with out the authors name I would not have identified it with King. I was drawn into this childs life, she was not only lost in the woods but also lost in the aftermath of a divorce. You walk every step with her through the woods and her efforts to survive. You follow the mystic love and belief she has in Tom Gordon. I felt the same way about Norm Charlton, the Seattle Mariners closer, that faith that he can save the day. I would hope my daughters would have the same mental support system if ever placed in this situation. It is the first time I have ever cried at the end of a Stephen King Book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Always a King fan, I must say, I haven't picked up anything so utterly suspensful in a very long time. While more complex King books almost always satisfy, once in a while the pure simplicity of a book like this is like having a really long drink of cool water on a hot day. This is also possibly the most reality driven King book I have experienced. No supernatural occurences here, only the harsh horror of a worst nightmare come to life. A great read! Demands to be read from start to finish!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Steve, Steve, Steve, I didn't want to put this book down. I skipped my overtime at the mill so I could get back home and find out what Trisha was going to do next. When I finished the book I cried like a baby. Like a baby Steve. You know how that makes me look? My family no longer respects me Steve. I lost my job because I missed two overtime shifts. Now all I can picture is Trisha on that road standing up to that 400+ lb thing looking down at her. It's like a Norman Rockwell painting in my head that wont go away. Seriously folks, this is a great read. Get it for someone you care for."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King takes us with him to make a trip through hell. Through the eyes of a young girl, he describes in an excellent way, the fears of a young girl in the woods. I felt really the horror of being lost in my stomach. This is one of the best books I read of King. In Holland me and my friends say: 'Een prachtig boek, met duidelijk voelbare spanning.'see you"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"First, let me say that I am a huge fan of Stephen King, but I did not like this book. I was utterly bored and couldn't force myself to finish. It was so slow and the story wasn't compelling at all. Such a disappointment after Bag of Bones!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Don't read \\"The Girl who loved Tom Gordon\\" if you are looking for Stephen King's stories of horror and gore. This is the story of a girl called Trisha McFarland that gets lost in the woods while in a hiking trip with her mother and brother and then tries to find her way home.Although the back cover says that \\"she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror\\" that is not true.The reader is the one that gets lost in a maze of monotony and boredom that could have used some of the thrills and chills that you usually find in other King's books.The book lacks suspense and the \\"all-too-real enemy\\" is not nearly half as terryfing as other King's creations.While the writing style of King is great, as usual, the plot of this book is really monotomous because he spends too many pages detailing Trisha's wanderings thru the forest.King could have involved the enemy more in the plot and spend more pages describing the hard moments that her family was going thru instead of telling us so much about her misfortunes in the Appalachian Trail.King also could have detailed the efforts of the search party to introduce more adventure and thrills to the book.Overall I think this book is more suited to introduce teenagers to King's books than for King's fans craving the classic suspenseful terror stories of gore and blood.Not worth the money for those of us used to his classic stories."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this short (for King) novel in one sitting. I was impressed with how well a 50 year old man could present the inner workings of a scared and lost 9 year old girl. I was about that age when I became lost on the summer desert of Central Arizona (a long ways from Western Maine) and I know how that sort of thing works. More than once I had to stop reading and remember just how it really was for a scared and brave little kid. King got it and then some, but I don't trust King. He's taken a turn that makes me cringe too many times for me to think I know the story before he's told it. By mid book I was there in the deep forest with Trisha and I couldn't quit til I knew her destiny. Worth the read and then some."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Many people seem to think this book isn't scary, but I thought it was much scarier than some of Mr. King's earlier works. It's true that not a lot of real action occurs in the story, but everything that the poor little girl goes through was more than interesting enough to keep me reding. This book has become my second favorite work by Mr. King after the Green Mile."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not a baseball fan. In addition, I don't like horror books. So why would I want to read a book where baseball plays a prominent role by the King of horror writers?Well, for one thing, I spent a few years in Maine and in Boston. This book takes place in the woods of Maine. Trisha, a 9-year-old girl, is hiking for a few hours with her mother and brother on the Appalachian Trail in western Maine. The other 2 are arguing, so Trisha lags behind them a bit, then goes off the trail a bit so she can pee. She tries to take a shortcut back to the trail, but winds up lost.This is basically a one-character book. Trisha is lost in the woods and there\\"s no one else around. There are other characters in the book, such as family and searchers, but they get only a few pages. Trisha is the one you follow throughout almost the entire story.But there is another character. He is Tom Gordon, Trisha's hero, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Lost in the woods, with no people around, Trisha listens to Red Sox games on her Walkman so that she can have at least one contact to humanity. Listening to the games, and later imagining that Tom Gordon is with her in the woods, helps her to stay sane and alive while searching for civilization.One final character is the Something that seems to be following Trisha. This thing has a horror element to it and, in my opinion, distracted from the main story. It would be scary enough for a nine-year-old to be lost in the woods, what with little to eat and biting insects and strange noises in the night, without having to resort to a semi-supernatural creature. There is a powerful confrontation at the conclusion, but I thought it was rather unbelievable and disappointing because something else suddenly pops out to save Trisha, rather than Trisha having to solve the problem herself.I think that if you have lived in New England, especially in Maine, you'll like this book, even if you don't like the \\"usual\\" Stephen King books. If you like baseball, especially the Red Sox, you might like this book too. Readers of suspense stories will also appreciate this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"As far as a Stephen King book goes, this is a little one - 262 pages in paperback, but a keeper. Within, young 9-year old Trisha becomes lost in the Maine woods after leaving her Mom and brother on the Appalachian Trail to answer Nature's call. By the time she emerges from the wilderness more than a week later, she's mosquito ravaged, nearly starved, suffering from double pneumonia and hallucinations, filthy, ragged, and in the process of being stalked by a malevolent bear. Not an adventure for sissies.I cannot remember a King novel that presents the reader with such an attractive main character. And, in this book, Trisha is, for all intents and purposes, the only character. A bravura one-girl performance. The fact that she survives at all is due mostly to an incredible amount of pluck that would make even the most indifferent of parents proud. She is also buoyed-up during moments of despair by the presence of her Walkman, on which she listens to broadcasts of games played by her beloved team, the Boston Red Sox. On the team is relief pitcher Tom Gordon, on whom she has a Major League Crush. It's not surprising, therefore, that some of her hallucinations feature her stalwart hero. The odd thing is, though, his ghostly presence at one point specifically directs her to the right path towards rescue. Hmmm ...This is not a \\"scary\\" tale in the Stephen King tradition. Rather it's one of True Grit in the face of almost overwhelming adversity, with just a hint of the paranormal. A cautionary tale (\\"Stay on the path!\\") with a feel-good ending that might inspire you to touch the visor of your favorite team's baseball cap, and point your index finger to the sky."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It took me one night to read this- even if the plot did seem to 'drag' King has a way of making you (well some people) need to know the outcome. His clever use of language as a tool of suspense was a major drawcard. Even though I am Australian and have know idea (and don't really care) about baseball, it didnt matter to me- I still found it an effective little novel. I dont think anyone else other than King could get way with the dodgy 'monster' or 'God of the Lost' or whatever it was. It was a scary being until the end when it revealed itself. Still, I kept on reading because King has this knack of making you want to find out what happens. I can see where some people might find it lame- its not everyones idea of a good scare, but I really did enjoy it for the simple fact that King has that effect on me- even in some of his really lacklustre novels (Regulators, Thinner)he still has a way of leading you to the end of the story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"My daughter sent me this book for Christmas. I've been a Stephen King fan for years but had stopped reading his books because I thought he was becoming too grim and blood-thirsty. I forced myself to start this book simply because my daughter had sent it to me. I couldn't put it down until I had read the whole thing. Thanks Mr. King for bringing back true suspense. Thanks for not having this book become so gory that I wanted to puke. Thanks for having the girl survive and come out the heroine! I was lost once and had my son lost in the woods and know it can be terrifying; your mind plays tricks on you. Thanks for having the heroine a girl, a young girl, and one who shines -- survives with true grit."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book in about 4 hours. I can't remember the last time I had to read one start to finish. I could feel everything that little girl was going through. I have never been lost in the woods, but now I have a pretty good idea of what it feels like. I don't care who you are or how old you are, if you were truly lost in the woods, you would feel just like Trisha did."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been waiting for this book to come out on paperback, an then an opurtunity knox came along. I read it in a couple of days and I liked it. It was well writen and easy to read. The story was great but it had some mistakes. I know that some of you don't want to read about some girl lost in the woods through the whole book. And Stephen King still hasn't gotten back into his original scary novels. I would recommend this book to everyone except for the ones who are fans of Stephen King and want a good scary novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am an avid reader of Steven King. The last book that I read of his was one by Richard Bachman, The Running Man, and what a difference! King paints a masterful picture, leaving you up at 4 a.m still reading. Don't turn it down because if it's size. It maybe short, but it is jam packed with details. Steven takes you back to when you were a kid. And all of the horrific fears that went with it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"First I can say that King has returned to the better stories. A girl, nine years old, loosing her way into another world, trying to survive, and \`something' following her trying to get her, it can only be a King story. In my view it can become a story that easily fits in some like Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was an incredibly compelling and wonderfully moving statement of faith: &quot;It is God's nature to come on in the bottom of the ninth.&quot; This book was almost torturous at times, seeing desperate levels of hardship blurring the lines between human and animal. Yet it never gave up hope, rooting the human (American) spirit in the game of baseball. This book called to mind another book, early evidence of King's insight into the human condition. Those who are disappointed by the book are probably the same who thought that &quot;Cujo&quot; was a story about a dog. I kept thinking of the &quot;monster words,&quot; and the realization that there are monsters in life. This time however, the monster shows itself and faith throws the curve ball in the bottom of the ninth. A fabulous story!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm not much one for your popular novels, preferring the classics to the bestellers. But with Steven King I always make an exception, for even when the plots are stretched, the terror minimal and the story implausible, the strength and depth of his characters cannot be doubted. King can write any character- men and women, children and adults, as if he was in them. From the diabolical Annie Wilkes in Misery to drunk dreamer Jack Torrance in The Shining, King always creates memorable characters, and his new novel, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, is no exception. The short novella centers in the mind of it's single character, Trisha, a nine year old girl lost in the wilderness of Maine, dealing with her own physical struggles and emotional fears as she fights to survive. She pushes through the book driven by her love for Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon, even as she is haunted by the caustic shadows of the invisable force she feels is watching her. As her will to live falters, so too does her belief in god, and as the manefestations of her fears enter reality, so too does her belief in God. As the Gordon of her dreams walks with her he becomes her savior, the nightmare force of the forest become her satan, and God, who &quot;always come in during the ninth inning&quot; as Gordon puts it, becoms her own self-determination. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a fascinating and enjoyable read, through it may not chill you as some of Kings other books. But as for literary value, it surpasses many of his other books, and is definately a good buy."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A good read, in the same vein as &quot;Bag of Bones&quot;. It looks like King may be heading away from the formula that has served him well in the past. Readers who expect King's usual bag of tricks (ghosts, omnipotent shape-shifters, possessed automobiles, etc) will not like this book. If, however, you can appreciate a compelling story with real-life implications (God, I used to play in the woods when I was a kid), then you'll like this one. The main character, Trisha, seems a tad mature for a 9-year-old, but you can look past it and enjoy the exploration of the human survival instinct when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. The Tom Gordon plot device was not used quite the way I was expecting (which is why I gave 4, not 5, stars) but it works. Sort of.One last thing: what about international readers who do not understand baseball? How can they expect to appreciate the story when they don't know the game?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Not since Gerald's game have I been so dissapointed in a King novel. I'm still waiting for something to happen and I've already read every page. Am I missing the point??? I'm not one of those readers who believe that King is only good when writing horror, but this book really failed to reach me. I'm surprised that the other reviews are so glowing. I think King should spend a little more time thinking about his next book before sending this out to his adoring fans."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A very disappointing novel; the pre-adolescent narration was painful to read, and the plot was predictable on every occasion. Save your money and reread The Shining or Misery."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although I admit I'm a \\"fan\\", this was a great read about something all New Englanders fear -- being out in the woods alone and not knowing how to get back. Thankfully the 9-year old heroine had her walkman (and poncho) with her, so she could listen to her hero, Tom Gordon finish night games for the Red Sox (in his own inimitable style)A great starter book for someone who's not familiar with King's ouevre. Note that there is a smattering of curses (who wouldn't curse in this situation?) in case one is considering the purchase for a child."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought Storm of the Century was an aberration but this is way worse. This is a book about abolutely nothing. Nothing at all happens. Red Riding Hood is a better story and I'm truly disappointed in 'The Girl who loved Tom Gordon'. When you compare this book to some of the masterpieces King has written such as 'Salems Lot' and 'The Stand', you realise this was written very quickly and maybe just to fulfill obligations."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"this was different stephen king fare. i thought it was very well written and very believable. he proves once again that real life is stranger - and much scarier - than fiction."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was mesmerized and totally caught up in the adventure. It was a great read!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"At last, another King novel worthy of the author. Stephen King has digressed and veered so far off of his original style that I was beginning to wonder if he would ever come back. I am thrilled to say he's back, and just as good, if not better, than ever. His vivid descriptions of nine year old Trisha's experiences in the woods are hair raising at best, and the element of &quot;something out there&quot; adds flavor to an already suspenseful twister. This story needs no salt, Stephen King's flair for the bizarre and his brilliant, innovative mind will capture the reader just as in the King days of old. DON'T MISS THIS ONE."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"With the intelligence of Stephen King you can never go wrong with any of his novels, with this newest novel, it goes to prove I beleive he is the master when it comes to horror, or mystery books. I really felt for Trishia in this book, If I was her I would of never thought of the things she did to servive as she did, she was abrave little girl. Makes you want to hug your children, at every chance you get, cause you never know what can happen at anytime, never take life for granted, its to precious."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am two thirds through this book. It seems good at times and then boring too. I am very tired of her circumstances as of this point and wish something quite interesting would happen. I do not like Kings science fiction works but this is too bland. I loved Shawshank."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was overjoyed to see that King had a new novel out. I really enjoyed his last, &quot;Bag of Bones,&quot; which got back to his old &quot;leave the lights on&quot; style. But I was sorely disappointed in this book.It almost seemed as if he rushed through it. You never really 'connect' with Trish, the main character. And in most of his novels, you feel as if you intimately know all of the characters. I thought he did a much better job of getting into the mind of the father in &quot;Pet Sematary&quot; when he was digging his son up and redepositing him in the spoiled micmac burial ground. He didn't even come close with this one, as I thought he would. She slowly becomes delusional, just as Louis did, but there is a lot lacking in detail.The book is filled with uneventful and boring chapters. I do believe I was more terrified reading &quot;Lost World&quot; by Michael Crichton.The 'God of the Lost' is so poorly described, it is barely on par with the boogeyman, and, sadly, not nearly as scary.I believe this novel had the potential to be great, but I don't feel he was really into it. I will keep reading, but this one really felt like he &quot;cheated.&quot;"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Steven King is the best. His spiritual insightfullness is astounding. He is so in tune with the spiritual world as was his book &quot;Desperation.&quot; I felt I was right there with Trisha in the woods. He makes it so real and the content wasn't violent or vulgar, but just as powerful in a different way without it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The first thing that struck me about this book was its length--I can't remember the last time King published a novel this short. But what it lacks in length it amply compensates for in characterization and suspense, proving that a writer doesn't have to write a gazillon pages in order to captivate you!I enjoyed the way that the story revolved around a child--King has always excelled at depicting children who are facing great adversity. Another horror writer I've discovered who's good at this is Brandon Massey, who wrote a book titled Thunderland. I encourage King fans to check it out.Thanks, Mr. King, for another winner!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When I picked it up, I first noticed how short it was. But once I got into it, that didn't matter. This was probably one of the best King books that I have read in a long time. And it being so different from the rest of King's books, is really what made it so gripping. Through King's plot developing, I was pulled into the story and felt evrything that Trisha felt. Her pain, her sorrow, her fear, and most importantly, her joy. I was so hooked, that I read this book in one day. If anyone out there is loking for a good, exciting read, please read &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.&quot;"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book exemplifies King's ability to thoroughly develop and interact with his characters. By the end of the book, King had brought me to the point where I really cared about what became of Trisha. The story was not as exciting or imaginative as some of Stephen King's other tales, but the book was still very entertaining considering it was 90% monologue. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great character novella (also it is easy and entertaining reading for the beach or poolside)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King at his best, as a great story-teller. Are fans aware that they can get the personal, playfun side of King on STRANGER THAN FICTION! (the Wrockers- a bunch of singing authors!!!), the new CD?????"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I will admit first of all that I am not a King fanatic, though I do enjoy much of his work. Usually I am turned off by his gratuitous violence which is thankfully not present, and his profanity which is minimal in this book. This was a good story, though the beginning was uninteresting and the end awful. The middle got progressively better until I could feel my own pulse race and I began to truly get jumpy, but one can sense in the last four &quot;chapters&quot; the plot winding down. The last two are like King just got sick of it and decided to slop something off to make it appear like an ending. It was horribly contrived, formulaic, melodramatic and boring. But don't let the last few pages discourage you from reading it! Overall it is a pretty good book, short enough to read and finish just in your spare moments, and creepy in some places. I would really I guess give it three and a half stars. Try it, you might like it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I could not put the book down, King has done it again. I felt like I was lost in the woods. Great story of personal survival and dealing with what nature has to offer. READ THE BOOK King fans you won't be sorry"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A totally absorbing novella that pays homage to Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Instead of a smile carved into a waxen bullet, we have a transistor radio and a determined pitcher. Brilliant!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Good heaven's! I'm just to my last few pages of this book but oh boy I dont want to finish it it yet. I just love this one. Bags of bones wasn't so appealing to me. It was more drama than horror. For the last two years I just been reading fierce stephen king. He is the best storyteller ever. He makes you to want to keep waiting for the next one. His characters are outline in a way that's almost like real life your reading about. Stephen king your the best. Don't let any bad reviews from keeping you from making fans happy like me... Take care stephen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Good heaven's! I'm just to my last few pages of this book but oh boy I dont want to finish it it yet. I just love this one. Bags of bones wasn't so appealing to me. It was more drama than horror. For the last two years I just been reading fierce stephen king. He is the best storyteller ever. He makes you to want to keep waiting for the next one. His characters are outline in a way that's almost like real life your reading about. Stephen king your the best. Don't let any bad reviews from keeping you from making fans happy like me... Take care stephen."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I just finished the book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and was so moved by this exquisite work that I felt compelled to write a review. In my opinion this story reflects the diversity and range of storytelling King is capable of. Instead of sticking to his &quot;creepy-blood-and-gore&quot; niche, the author has stepped out and written one of the most believable adventure stories I've read in a long time, while still managing to horrify the reader. I literally couldn't put this book down.Some very good books often make you feel you are there with the character throughout the story. This one makes you feel like you ARE the character. Kudos once again to Steve for giving us the details (noseeums, slimey mud, fiddleheads) that other authors would forego."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am not an avid Stephen King reader, so I am not very familiar with his writing style. But, I am however extremely familiar with his movies and I would have to say that if this were made into a movie, it would be pretty juvenile. Most adults wouldn't sit through a two hour or hour and a half film about a child lost in the woods. But, that doesn't mean no one would. This novel/ short story was a nice read. It was slightly suspenseful in a mediocre sort of way. The ending was kind of happy if you like that sort of thing. But, I did thoroughly enjoy all of the characters. Especially Trisha's friend Pepsi (one of those people who like to call people by their last names) and little Trisha's father who calls God the &quot;Subaudible&quot;, he was the true definition of a character. All in all, it was a fairly good read, just not your typical Stephen King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is one of the most restrained and tasteful of King's books. This story is great for a few hours reading. It is short and one of King's most together plot lines. It's full of testament to his writing skills and a good break from his over the top works for his constant readers. This is not a brain buster. The simplicity and the perfection in which it plays out is masterful. Kid gets lost- and this is what goes on in her head, how she keeps it all together without letting the dark creepy forrest get the best of her. A few scenes away with the relatives and police... Kid gets into trouble and nobody knows how real the trouble is or if it happened at all. When something bad happens to her you may feel a slight knot in your stomach and when something nice happens to her you feel a little bit relieved yourself. It's all in good fun. A really perfect short read, great Sunday evening material. A great book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read a lot of stephen king books and the other day i saw this one at the store so i thought that i would pick it up i didnt really like it that much, there was not a lot going on like in most Stephen King novels. Another thing was that this book was not scary at all, i dont think it was meant to be a thriller but all the critics are saying it is scary, i didnt see any scary parts in it at all. so if you want to get scared dont read this book.But if you do want to get scared readSalems lot, also by King Strangers, By dean Koontz Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I love Stephen King, I've read probably all of his books at least 2 times. When I got this book for my birthday, I read the inside flaps of the book and thought I wouldn't like it. I expected a supernatural story with vampires and ghosts and other stuff like that (but, hey, doesn't all Stephen King fans expect that).I started reading the book. It is about a 9 year old girl named Trisha, who lives with her brother and mom, her parents are divorced. Her brother is constantly arguing with her mom because he wants to live with their dad. Trisha's mom is always taking Trisha and her brother on family outings, despite Trisha's brother's complaints. This is where it begins.They're hiking in the woods in Maine, and Trisha decides to go pee. Her mom and her brother are fighting so she walks off without telling one of them. She goes off and then gets lost trying to find her way back. I was stuck in the book thinking about what would happen to Trisha.I felt sorry for her and was hoping for her to get out of the woods, but I won't tell you if she does, you have to read that and find that out yourself. Stephen King does an excellent job of writing a real life terror story. It made me think about various endings during the time I read it and when I was finished, I finished it in about 1:30 hours. I recommend that you buy this book and read it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I admit being an avid King fan having read every book he ever published. I also admit that not every book he has published is a masterpiece, and Tom Gordon is sadly one of these. I will never say that Mr. King published this work as an offering to the gods of finance and the pleasing of his publishers; however, I think Tom Gordon could have been more fully prepared than it was. I enjoyed the hallucinatory images by the protangonist and really enjoyed the attempt of Mr. King to see into a young girl's mind in an extraordinary situation. There was something I thought was left out of the story, I can't tell you what it was because its just a feeling. The only other reason I give this novel an average rating is that for first-time King readers the level of abstractness can be confusing. I sometimes look at his work in the mind of a first time reader and abstractness is the first to come to mind. Overall this book is worth the read in that it has a satisfactory ending and gives you a sense of completion."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I liked the book because it was intresting sand the littel girl pand her mom and brotherwent for a walk in the woods. The littel gril was complaing about how grouchy her father was. Trish brother said he still loves his dad even know he can be a groiucy person. It was boggy out so mom ask her kids if they want bug spray on. The kids were talking and not really looking at all the neat stuff. They were walking on the appalachian trail. They ran in to a littel hut that had a water pump in it and said to remember to fill the jug for the next person because there was no water for a long ways. Trish wanted to stay tell a liitel kid came around so she could mak freinds. Trish thinks that she is invisible to every one so she thinks that she should have stayed home it would not have made any diffrents to her because nobody pay attention to her. Trish said that she had to go and nobody paid attention. So trish went right there well heer mom and brother and trish moms boyfrind kept on going not knowing. The bok is also good becuse it will keep you on your feet or on the edge of you seat because you will not know what is going to happen next and how the moms kisd are going to act about things that there nmom is going to do. Not knowing the littel girl got lost in the woods becuae her mother was not paying attention to what her littel gril had said to her and her mom keep on going and not stoping and waiting. Trish was trying to find her way out of the trail but could not she just keep on going and she keep her eyes on the direction of the main trail. Her mom fialy notice after a while that trish was not there by her side. Then they started looking for her and yelling her name. Trish herd the voice and walk in the direction that she herd it coing from. Then the woods became silent and she herd nothing Then she feltsomthing moving under her she looked down and saw a black snake. she scream in horror because she hats snake. I think that a lot of people could learn from this book if they read it. I think that it has lots of life lessons in it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"then you'll really enjoy &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot;. Stephen King, as usual, opens up your imagination...you can picture every move the girl is making as she gets herself lost deeper and deeper into the woods. Getting lost in the woods while hiking is a real danger, which gives this book it's edge."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was as I said in the title not typical King but not all that bad. The only thing that really bothered me with this book is the lack of dialogue and writing that would hold the reader throughout the whole book.The book is about young Trisha McFarland that gets lost in the woods fromher mother and brother. Bascially the book is a story of self survival and she does this by imagining that Tom Gordon, the relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, is with her. Using this and her radio, she finds the strength inside of her to go on. She finally makes it and has a final showdown with the &quot;thing&quot; that was scaring her.Although not horrible I wouldn't recommend it over any other King book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought this book represented a departure from standard Stephen King fare. I loved it. I thought that Tricia sorely pressed by her predicament had to make a choice between two visions of God, The Subaudible God of her father, a kind of deist interpretation of God. God as the clockmaker who made the world then left it behind, but maybe watches in a passive or disinterersted fashion. Or the God of Tom Gordon who cares and even intervenes - but only if you earn the &quot;save&quot; through your own courage and efforts. In the end Tricia chooses Tom Gordon's God and earns his support. When her parents visit in the hospital, the one thing she tries to communicate to her family (most importantly dad) is that she earned the &quot;save&quot;. I think because she also hopes dad can be saved as well."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King has an incredible talent with his characters. The young girl in this story is a well-developed character. Though young, she is not uninteresting to an adult reader. The plot line is realistic, and King's ending is more evolved from his earlier novels where the line between reality and imagination was bold and crisp. Here, he has blurred the distinction to such a degree that the reader is left with a satisfying feeling that the heroine was living a story that nobody would believe--though the reader does.Ok, it might have had a few paragraphs here and there which dragged a bit, and that is why I offer four stars rather than five. I likened it to a more interesting &quot;Gerald's Game&quot; (which in my opinion was a huge disappointment), but truly, it also blends the feelings of &quot;The Body,&quot; and even, perhaps &quot;Bag of Bones;&quot; offering that brooding, Maine-woods feeling I always get from a King novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is the first Stephen King book I have ever read, and I must say that it motivates me to read more works by him. I could not put down this book. I read it for a book report, but realized that I also enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed the spiritual themes, which from what I hear, is unusual for King. Tom Gordon represents Trisha's guardian angel, her only hope for &quot;saving&quot; herself. Whenever he saves a game for the Red SOx, he points to the sky to say thank you to God again reflecting the spiritual theme. Even if you have never read a Stephen King novel, I highly suggest you start with this one. It's not really that scary, but it offers enough horror and suspense to keep you interested."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Whatever I might think of the storyline,(which was awesome) I always fall in love with Mr. King's characters. This little girl becomes so real, I expected to see her playing with my kids in the back yard.I remember growing up on a farm, surrounded by acres upon acres of woods. I would often go into the woods by myself, and pretend that I was being hunted by a T-Rex, or a monster of some kind. This book gave me such a feeling of deja-vu, it took me a couple of days to shake it off.Want to be a kid again? Read this book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm a longtime King fan and although this is not a classic horror-tale, it is very much a classic story. I came to care very much about the little heroine and could not put the book down because I had to know what she would encounter around the next tree. I felt like I was right there alongside her throughout. This book is very much like Gerald's Game in that you are in the mind of the main character and the entire story is based on her thoughts, but unlike Gerald's Game it is nowhere near as gruesome. This is King's new generation of novels, thought-provoking, sympathetic, and completely engaging through the last page. I absolutely loved it, and will definitely consider it a favorite."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It's rare to come across a book that can actually grip you, personally involve you and change your way of thinking, if only for a time. This is one of those books. I also like the fact that the main character is a young girl, for once."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"When you finish reading this book you will feel emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, and ultimately happy that you picked it up in the first place. Don't be put off by this book's length, in fact, it makes for a &quot;one-sitting&quot; read, that will leave you as aforementioned. King really touches the inner parts of your heart and mind, as you feel the struggle and pain of this lost little girl. I wonder how many of us would react as well to the perils that besieged little 'Tricia in this journey through the human heart, mind, and wilderness."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Although this is one of King's shorter books, it is quite a journey. The reader is taken to places and through situations that would terrify anyone. This tale is told through the eyes of a child, something which King is a master of. What makes this book more frightening to me is that most of what happens is possible. It's not all flights of fancy, although there is some typical King outrageousness. I loved it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"....then buy this book. This book is very good. It is short enough that it can be read in one or two days easy. After reading what all the little girl goes through in the woods I'm more thankful for what I've got than I ever have been."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I hate to jump on the band-wagon of negativity, but let's analyze the book. Probably a great book if you're a young teenager. However, the plot, storyline, and characters do NOT receive the intricate development that SK is so well known for. The anatagonist is weak to say the least (what's up with this bear). Put aside the issue that this is not a &quot;horror&quot; book. Authors should be able to expand their topics. However, I have followed SK since the mid 1970's (since Carrie), and this book does not live up to his talent. I believe he's resting on his name on this one. As a collector, I had to get it anyway, but unless you collect SK, don't waste your time. I only hope his next work (available 9-14-99) is better. Horror, or otherwise, SK is an excellent author, but this is not worthy of the tree that died to print it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I didn't like this book, but I did finish it. It was a short book, but seemed too long! To me, it's as disappointing as &quot;The Blair Witch Project.&quot; Unless you've been lost in the woods, or you are a little kid, this isn't scary. A reviewer here on Amazon.com said &quot;The Koran would be scarier!&quot; and I have to agree.A lot about this book was unbelievable, too. I remember myself at 9 years old. I might have wandered off in the woods, but I certainly wouldn't think to myself &quot;Gee, this is just like in Lord of the Rings&quot; or &quot;...just like a V.C. Andrews novel.&quot;Those are the supposed thoughts of a nine-year old girl who #1-loves her little dolly, carries her everywhere and #2-loves to watch baseball?! The character is just too impossible to believe. Nine year olds don't have this much personality or scope of experience. I know a &quot;talented and gifted&quot; nine year old who loves to read dinosaur books, Animorph books and Pokemon books. He collects pokemon cards. He certainly doesn't know a whole genre of fiction enough to make comments about a walk in the woods.Plus, the distance this girl travels is hard to believe, especially being sick and dehydrated.I'd recommend this book to teens, I suppose. I mean, I read scarier things in my early teens, that were part of those series (maybe it was called &quot;The Darkwing Series&quot; or something) with witches, voo-doo, ghosts and vampires.FWIW, I haven't read a lot of Stephen King, but I have read Pet Semetary and Thinner. I also read 1/2 of the Talisman."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King just may be the greatest American writer of the later half of the 20th century. Although, the Girl who Loved Tom Gordon doesn't prove this basis, it is wonderful and spiritual piece of brilliant writing. It is particularly moving in addition to the suspense it obtains. King is a terrific writer."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am fascinated by the readers who call themselves King fans and yet cry for the old stuff. King has grown and so should his so called &quot;fans&quot;. The book was very well written, very descriptive and the characters charming. Except for the Boogy Man. Loved the baseball aspect. I also thought the book was scarey in parts. I was reading alone in the house at night and a couple of times had to put the book down, it brought out things that go bump. A must read! Thanks Mr. King!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have read several of the reviews posted here and many of the not-so-good ones are just plain confusing. People say that it isn't the &quot;old&quot; Stephen King, that it isn't &quot;scary&quot; enough. But have any of you out there really read Stephen King? Do Any of you understand that Mr. King has fallen under the label of a &quot;horror&quot; writer? Probably not. I hope every one who picks up any of his books isn't always looking for gore and monsters. He's done that, sure he has. But what kind of writer would he be if he didn't attempt (and I daresay achieve) other genres. Stephen King has never truly scared me. Well maybe the short story &quot;The Boogieman&quot; did. Everything else he's written has just been interesting, entertaining reads. This book is no exception. Gripes about the story being too short, too involved with baseball, uninvolving and the likes either come from readers who are biased against the works of Stephen King or who just cannot grasp the concept of writing as expression, as art. If the palette of the writer doesn't hold many colors than the work becomes boring, overdone, the same old thing. I praise Mr. King for his jaunt into children's fare, but can it be labeled as such? There are simplicities in his writings that hide complexities that haunt the mind. So whether it's a town filled with vampires, a writer plagued with an evil twin, a hotel haunted and just maybe possesed, or a little girl lost in the woods pursued by &quot;something&quot; it all boils down to one great conclusion: Stephen King can write, he gets paid darn well for it, his family will never go hungry, and if you don't get that maybe, just maybe, you ought to apply for just a few more brain cells!!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read many reviews by King fans who are not happy with this book. Can it be that you are not Red Sox fans? Can it be that you don't understand what King was going for in this book? It does not all have to be action, horror, monsters or fear. This is the story of a lost girl who perseveres and survives. She has a hero who inspires her and after a few days, lives with her in her hungered mind. I loved this book. I think that King is exploring other avenues with great success."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was my first Stephen King book which is probably why I liked it (not having any of his other books to compare it to). I was drawn into the story and felt the pain Trisha went through as she found herself lost in the woods. I thought her feelings were totally realistic - one minute she was feeling extremely satisfied and content with feeling full for the first time in her life and then she was having a screaming temper tantrum wanting to get out the woods immediately. I might have to try another King book and see what I think"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was the worst book that I've read in a long, long time. It was so predictable and definantly was a boring ciche. Even if you do like baseball there was only like three games that Trisha listened to and they weren't all THAT exciting. I don't recomend this book to anyone, unless they need to fall asleep."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The worst book I've ever read in my life.I can't believe this book ever got published.Don't waste your time like I did."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am an avid fan of Mr.King's but this was not one of his better books. It was just a book about a little girl lost in the woods. Come on Stephen, you can do much better."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I could not put this book down! Not because it was good, but because I kept waiting for it to get good. I kept asking myself if it was written by Stephen King? I put this in Stephen King's &quot;uh-oh&quot; list!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The main character is totally off the wall unbelievable. There is no real story. I mean you can only read so much about the flora and fauna of the woods. And Trishas endless debate...which way should I go, which way should I go, up, down, east,west,south,north,straight line etc. Whew! It gave me a headache, as did Storm of the Century."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King can't write children...his kids always have the sensibilities of a 40-year-old....and he can't write women. Beyond that, he no longer can write. Period. Pity. He used to be so good. Last hope...dark tower. Should have packed it in a long time ago."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"(I apologize in advance for my baseball puns)What happened to the psychological thrillers of the 70's, or even the cheap dime-store paperback slash-gore novels King has produced in the past? The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is basically driven by the general American standard: a young girl lost in the woods who loves baseball cannot die. So right off the bat, you know that anything that happens in the novel has to be about her struggle, meaning the meat instead of the bread of the book has to surpass. Unfortunately neither really step up to the plate. The finale, the grand unveiling of our monster du jour is so anti-climactic, disappointing and dull that it leaves one wondering: is King even trying anymore? If you want to wash out the bad taste Gordon has left in your mouth, pick up &quot;The Dead Zone&quot;, by far a superior novel."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am a huge Stephen King fan. I have read several of his books and have loved them all. Then I came across this horrible dissapointment. The entire book is centered around one girl who I found extremely annoying. Stephen King has written so many great books, so don't waste your time with this one. Instead read Four Past Midnight or The Eyes of the Dragon...those were great books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is one of the worst Stephen King books I've ever read. It wasn't even scary and it took me two weeks to read it. If it was better I could have read it in two days. This book did not keep me on the edge of my seat, and I would never reccommend this book to anyone."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I am no longer a Stepehen King fan. I don't dislike his stuff as much as I outgrew it (though Cell does sound interesting.)I picked up \\"...Gordon\\" after years of having moved on from King's novels. Let's just say that I haven't picked one up again and have no desire to. This is writing to make a buck at its finest. The character is weak and only mildly interesting. The story is unsure if it's a tale of horror or one of survival. The payoff is as if King lost interest, decided to throw something together and get back to re-runs of Oprah. The payoff in \\"IT\\" was much the same, however, the characters were so well drawn that you forgave this slight. One of the things that you initially loved about King, which also became increasingly annoying, was his use of hip language and references; his ability to paint characters with the use of dialogue. Either King tried too hard, or not hard enough. And what's with the Tom Gordon reference? Tom Gordon? That's like using Shooty Babitt (Oakland A's fans will know what I'm talking about) in your title. Scrub, just like the story. There's only one good thing about the Red Sox winning the series: Maybe we won't get anymore titles using marginal Sox players as the catalyst for a bad story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Ha Ha....and now Tom G. is a YANKEE !!! What's next?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON not only isn't on par with King's other novels, but, in my opinion, is one of the [worst] books ever written...The story is about a small girl who -when accidentally separated from her mother and brother on a nature hike- becomes lost in a Maine forest wilderness for several days, and the perils (or imagined) that she encounters during this time. 99% of the book covers her adventures in the forest while she is lost, and believe me, the story is even FAR, FAR more boring and uninteresting than you may think, considering how simple the plot is. Basically, all this book does is describe this girl's day to day experiences in the forest such as: eating poisoned berries and vomiting them up, listening to Tom Gordon pitch for the Red Sox via her walkman-radio, flee from an imaginary creature, vomit some more, etc. etc. The story drags on and on and on and on and it never becomes either interesting or suspenseful during any stage of it.Other than sparse profanity here and there (uttered by the little girl -who talks to herself and apparently learned to swear from a classmate) this is totally a rated G little kid's book, and it's the most insipid kid's book you will ever read in your entire life, by far.Reading this book, one will be hard-pressed to believe that it is Stephen King material; it's untalented, extremely boring, and nearly completely devoid of suspense...Don't make the same mistake I did. Reading THIS...will be the biggest 4 or 5 hour waste of time in your entire life."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"No doubt this is the worst book by Stephen King after Geralds Game. I forced very hard to read this book but after 200 pages, once again: 200 pages I dont found any suspenseful paragraph even words! Dont waste your money buying this book. Except you are a teenagers who love adventure genre (lonewolf,etc.) and not like a disturbing book, like IT, PetSemetary, THe Shining,etc. If you like to comment this review or just want to discuss with me about SK e-mail me at: indopsycho@yahoo.com"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"HEARTS IN ATLANTIS by Stephen KingTHE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON by Stephen KingTwo reviews in one? What up with that? Well, I read HEARTS IN ATLANTIS some time ago and, beyond \\"rah rah go read this,\\" I said it exposed my inadequacies as a reviewer. How stupid was that? I'm going to try again.I finished reading MY LIFE by Bill Clinton late one Tuesday afternoon, then immediately picked up THE MAN WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. I figured my old friend Stephen King could clear my exhausted mind. He immediately pulled me in, and I read it in a single sitting. It's gripping stuff. Incredibly realistic, insightful regarding human nature, and it'll scare your pants off. The Master is most definitely at the top of his game with this book. Ditto with ATLANTIS.Authors, how do you feel when you spend months (years?) writing a book only to have some reader say he polished it off in a single evening? Actually, I think you oughta feel good. No writer, not even Isaac Asimov, could/can be sufficiently prolific to be the only one a reader ever needs. I think this is very cool, and I love working with fellow authors to promote this thing we do.Okay, back to my book review. King was always great, right? But there came a point where a certain sameness crept in. It's hard to define, perhaps, but you know what I mean. I don't think he was having as much fun as he used to, and after a time, neither were we.Then came ON WRITING, which I never run out of breath raving about, and now books like these. He's scaling back the supernatural, which never bothered me at all, because he's found even scarier things to write about. The Master has raised his game, and it's a joy to know I've got a big old pile of unread Stephen King novels downstairs. Expect more rave reviews.Oh, and Stephen, if you're reading this, and you ever get the desire to raise your game yet again, just let me know. I'll go rent a truck and hit you with it. (It's a joke. Just like the idea that YOU subscribe to MY rag. I know you'd rather read DAVE'S RAG.)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's attempt at blending sports with &quot;horror&quot; is a failed one. This book is all just suggestion. It is just a big obsessive thought of this lost little girl who is only having an argument with her id (Fruedian Psychology). The god of death, who is supposedly a huge monster, without giving the ending away, is not that much of a monster after all. He is not even that strong. King also tries to include some theme in his novel. He tries to say that God does not help anybody, and is to busy to answer her prayers. I think Stephen King is running out of ideas. This book was probably more for teenagers than for adults. My advise, don't buy this book. The movie will be better, if they are actually going to make one."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've been a fan of Stephen King for many, many years and although I haven't had time to read much of his \\"newer\\" stuff lately (the last book I read was \\"Bag of Bones\\"), I did manage to pick up the pretty short \\"Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" and read it in two wonderful hammock visits. And in the end, I was actually crying.The story is pretty basic. Nine-year-old Trisha is on a hiking jaunt with her older brother and mother, and when she steps off the main trail to relieve herself, she gets lost in the woods almost instantly. King brings Trisha alive with an uncanny maturity for a 9-year-old, and throughout the tale, he manages to keep the same setting but through Trisha's hallucinations (Tom Gordon, the Boston Red Sox closer and Trisha's favorite baseball player, who seemingly walks the woods with her), her memories of friends (Pepsi, whose banter keeps you laughing), family (Dad, whose love of baseball and beer keeps Trisha close, yet so far away), and the scary things in the woods (you'll have to read for yourself), it never gets mundane.To keep it simple, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is a quick, wonderful book that takes a unique 9-year-old girl and thrusts her into an extremely dangerous setting. King's way of showing Trisha's maturity as she copes with the denizens of the forest is terrific, and as always, he makes you care about the fate of this little girl.Again, King throws away the supernatural and pure terror (as he did in \\"Bag of Bones\\") and gives you 200+ pages of emotion. You won't put it down until it's Game Over."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book starts out with the main character, Patricia McFarland. Trisha is a 9-year-old die-hard Red Sox fan who lives a fairly normal life with her brother and her mother. Her parents are divorced and her father lives halfway across the country in Las Vegas. Trisha and her family are taking their annual trip hiking through the Appalachian Mountain trails. Trisha really wants to get away from the incessant fighting of her other 2 family members, and she stops to pee in a fork in the path. Her family goes right, and she decides to take the left path, figuring she'll enjoy the scene until they meet again when the two paths meet. Unfortunately for her, they never do meet again. Trisha lives for about 2 weeks in the wilderness. She faces many problems. One of the major problems that go on for the majority of the book is insects. Moths, mosquitoes, and wasps make up half of this depressing story. Mosquitoes torment her, which causes her to fall down a hill into a wasp's nest. Through the story she faces problems like bears, bad water, lack of food, and a rapist supposedly lurking through the woods (although he never actually APPEARS.) In the end, she dies of pneumonia, what a horrible ending! Because of the way my book was written, there was only 1 character. An interesting aspect of her would be her love for the Red Sox closer, Tom Gordon. During her adventure in the wilderness, she starts becoming delirious and she starts seeing things. She believes her heartthrob, Tom, is with her, and she has many conversations (although they're mainly 1 sided) with him. She also tries her best not to get her autographed hat dirty and lost. She even jumps into a raging river to get it back. I think that this is pretty realistic, because many girls hold celebrities in a special place in their hearts. To many readers, I would not recommend this book. This is more of a story to read for die-hard Stephen King reader. This is certainly a break from his writing style, because the horror was weak and almost non-existent. I was very disappointed, and horror readers will be too."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon By Stephen King is about a girl who goes on a hike with her divorced mom and brother. On that hike, the girl gets lost in the woods. With her courage and intuition, she sets foot detriment to get out. But ventures deeper into the woods. Only armed with her walkman and her pack, she is followed by a creature only known by the noises, mangled trees, and slaughtered animals in its path. Her only relief is to imagine that relief pitcher Tom Gordon is with her every step of the way.This is a fabulous book that I would recommend to anyone who likes Stephen King novels. This book is different from what Stephen King usually does. This book wasn't bloody like the other books. I liked this book because it was very suspenseful. I loved the action. It's a great book to read in the dark!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is the one book by Stephen King I could not finish. Usually his books grab me from the first paragraph but this one held no interest at all. I quit about a 1/4 of the way through and didn't even care enough to turn to the back pages to find out how it ended.King has only left me disapointed once before and that was with Geerald's Game."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was one on the least interesting books I've read. Didn't anyone else notice how absurd the so called &quot;monster&quot; bear was? The kinds of bears that live in New Hampshire don't kill deer and spread thier entrails all over and would never track and attack a human. It would have been more interesting if he had used a &quot;real&quot; monster instead."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book should not be in the Hot Horror section of Stephen King's novels. There is nothing horrific in it. It's about a little girl lost in the woods, period. I kept waiting for something to happen. It's a good thing I was listening to it on a CD when I exercise and just kept on listening until I was finished, otherwise it would have been one of those books you get a few chapters into and never open it again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Trisha, a nine-year-old girl is lost in the woods during a hike with her mother and bickering older brother. Realizing finally that she is in danger, becoming more frightened and weak as the nights and days move in their cycle. Her hallucinatory conversations with the Boston Red Sox's relief pitcher Tom Gordon begin, helping her to fight off the panic she feels, as she understands she might not get out of the woods alive."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I had wanted this book since it came out. I wasn't a big King fan, but liked the plot of the story, so my mother got me the book on tape. I LOVED it. It was a great book. I felt myself putting myself in the main character's shoes. I loved it. It was a great book!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon wasn't a bad book, it just could have been a lot better. I find it a little implausible that a 9-year old would have been so industrious in the face of such horror and vast nothingness. Additionally, if there was something stalking her in the woods, why wouldn't it have moved in to feed right away? Credibility was what was lacking, that's my biggest complaint.As a Red Sox fan, I find it painfully ironic that both Tom Gordon and the author were befallen by injury not long after the release of the book. The Sox do dominate the hearts and minds of New Englanders and it was cool that King mentioned the team's broadcasters, commercials and players in the text.If you love Stephen King's work, this book will be a bit of a disappointment. If you just take it for what it is, it is not bad."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"While it is little slow at the start this novel takes off. A great thrill ride and a must read!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The premise of King's book is too good: a young girl lost in the woods, her furtive imagination going wild as she tries to find her way out. Unfortunately, the actual story is about as compelling as watching a 3 day cricket match. Who knows if King could have written it in a way to hold my attention, but as it stands, the story is dullsville. The best moments are when our heroine talks to Tom Gordon, but those are far and few between. Most of the book is written in a rather sophomoric way and many of the events in the story make you want to roll your eyes. A nice payoff at the end may have redeemed the book, sort of like a closer coming in in the ninth to save a losing game. But alas, this one will have to go in the &quot;L&quot; column."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'm a fan of King, but this one didn't seem like him at all. More than half the book is a survival novel. It shows how a little girl finds food to eat, how she protects herself from the elements...etc. Until she starts to see mangled animals and trees does King's writing kick in. King wrote this well, but it had a few boring parts. It seems King is incorporating religion in more of his books too. Pick this up if you want a King book that is mild horror/survival."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King takes a step away from his usual horror novels to write a story of survival and the blurred line between fantasy and reality.The story of slightly trouble-making yet lovable nine-year-old Trisha McFarland is not as much a story of horror as it is a story of humanity. For a 250-page book, I found the middle a bit slow, but by page 175 I was definitely hooked, and I found myself so deeply absorbed in the book as I usually get when reading Stephen King. As usual, King shows off his uncanny skills in characterization, as the reader finds themself caring deeply for Trisha within the first pages.Overall, it was an outstanding book and a nice refresher from the usual 500-page novels. I would definitely recommend it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King writing short stories, of which I consider this to be, taking into account the majority of his novels, generally does a superb job with them - and this is no exception.He still has the evocative descriptions that populate all of his novels, but in Tom Gordon he has kept the story to basically one level, with none of the intertwining tales he generally includes in his longer books. There's no outright &quot;boogeyman&quot; in this story, it's left up to the reader to decide if there's really something out there, or if its the state of the girl's mind, and she's imagining it all after being in the woods alone for so long.An enjoyable read, easy to get through in an afternoon sitting, and without any of my usual reactions to his books, ie. have I REALLY locked all the doors? and what's that noise I'm hearing?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have a very biased opinion on Stephen King; I have enjoyed all of his work; and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is great work. In general I think SK has a wonderful ability of writing such different tales, whilst managing to introduce interesting characters, and presenting some chilling horror. In this book King has continued his mold of the late 90's by delivering a unique book that is different from any of his other work. Very few writers could write a whole book about a young girl lost in the woods, fewer could keep it interesting for 250 pages and only Stephen King could leave you at the end wanting more. This book could have been twice as long, but come to think of it, so could The Stand!. Long Live the King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King basically has two styles of writing: Horror and suspense or in depth glimpses into the human soul. This book is the latter. King amazed me with his ability to get into the mind of this little girl lost in the woods. He used a child's logic to explain how this little girl was trying to find her way out of the woods and back to civilization. Excellent characterization! A classic in the making!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought that &quot;The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; was an excellent depiction of what it would be like to be lost. Getting lost in the woods is a lot easier than most people think. King describes everything how it should be and the God of the lost was an exellent touch."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"My mom gave me this book, after a recent minor surgery, to keep me occupied while I recovered. I loved it! I didn't put it down unless I had to (that pesky thing called sleep). I've heard folks who say that this isn't King's usual fare. I think it is, because it's a pleasure to read. For the last few years, I haven't read many of his newer books, and I missed the feeling I got out of books like Night Shift, Christine, Different Seasons, etc. This book is pure 100% Steven King at his best, and anyone who perhaps may of not read his work for awhile as I did will want to give him a second chance, and check this out. I think you'll be just as pleased as I was."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I originally bought this book at Sam's when I saw a poster that said they had the new Stephen King book. I bought it and began reading it instantly. I loved the description that Mr. King used and was brought in by the tale of Trisha becoming lost in the woods. However, I was soon disapointed because of how very little action began to happen. There were many pages of flashbacks that didn't fit into the story that well. I became lost about two-thirds of the way through and lost interest due to the &quot;supernatural&quot; events. The ending was quite a disapointment as many of Mr. King's books are. Now, you are probably wondering why I gave this book 4 stars with all of these complaints. Well here are the good sides: A. It is a good story B. It is vividly descriptive C. It was written by Stephen King!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a graet book to read.It was my first book ive read by the author Stephen King.There were many thrills and laughs in this book, and many scares included in this book.Like when she is taking a &quot;crap&quot; when she is lost in the woods and she falls in it. And there on all throught the storie when something bad happens she compares it to falling in her &quot;crap&quot;.Or when she is walking up a hill and trips and falls down the hill and comes to a ledge and she rolls off it and falls down bashes on some rocks messes her all up.But what was interestin about it was that it decribed it all on the way down untill she stops rolling.Also she gets stung by wasps and bees all at the same time.This book to me was an all togeather an very thriling book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Having been a huge fan of Kings' work for years, I was so let down by this book! It starts out good and about halfway through it starts to get tediuous to the reader. By the end, you realize there is so much more that could have happened. This is the only book by him that I have not enjoyed much. Everyone is entitled to a few let downs. Come on Stephen!=)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It thought it was okay, nothing more."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A great short story from the master of writing. King does some of his best work when keeping the story short and too the point. Something for everyone not too scary and not too big just right for a quick 1 to 2 night read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, is a truly haunting and all to believable book. Even though there is an evil lurking around it is still a truly wonderful adventure book. It was so good as an adventure/survival book that I didn't want ti to become the usual Stephen King book with some sort of evil lurking around.Trisha Gets lost in the words and for the first day she thinks that she will just find her mom and brother again but she dosn't. So she decides to Ration the food, but she didn't do it enough so she runs out of it in two days and has to begin eating berries and drinking creek water.The Girl who Loves tom gordon is an absolutly brilliant visionary tale, it is well written and very colorful, a true treat that is brilliant, but a little to much of the same Stephen King to be his best."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This novel is about survival to say the least. When reading this novel, you feel as though you are apart of it. Your heart will go out to this brave little girl as she struggles to overcome obstacles not only in the wilderness, but obstacles caused by family strife and fear. The girls survival through the wild goes far beyond what most adults could ever endure. Stephen King does another extordinary job creating a story that has you turning back to the first page to read it again!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"A nine-year-old girl and her family go on a six-mile trip on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trial. Trisha McFarland goes on this adventure to leave the city and forget their problems at home. Later her old brother, Pete,and her recently divorced mother start arguing. Trish wanders off, then realizes that her mom and Pete are nowhere to be found. She tries to catch up by taking a short cut, but finds herself lost as she goes on. As the night start to fall, she tries to find a place to rest and sleep for the night, but as soon as she tries her mind takes over. Then she finds herself scared walking around the woods finding a slaughtered animal, and thinking that a &quot;THING&quot; is watching her every move. The only thing that keeps her in contact with civilization is her Walkman, on which she listens to the broadcast of the Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows every performance of her favorite pitcher Tom Gordon. As her Walkman's batteries go low, Trisha starts to imagine her favorite Red Sox player Tom Gordon. Then days later her luck turns worse and she has all kind of misfortunes.This book is a mystery and suspense book that keeps you on the edge of your chair. I recommend this book to anybody that likes mystery and suspense books because Stephen King makes the characters seem real and this problem can happen to anyone."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a King fan, I was fairly disappointed in this book. Though he has the ability to capture what could go through a persons mind in a situation like this, I found this book a little slow without much happening. Just alot of walking around in the woods. So if you are looking for the bizarre and something with action that will capture your imagination, this is not it."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was a very good book. I am not the type of person who likes to read a lot, and I could not put it down the entire time. The book was about a young girl, named Trisha, who lived with her brother and mother and rarely saw her father, because her parents were seperated. Her mother wanted to try to keep the family together, so she planned a camping trip with her kids. The brother and mother fought the entire time, and so Trisha could not stand it anymore and decided to take a walk in the forest, just to get away from things. She ended up walking to far into the woods and could not figure out how to get back to her family. You should read the book to find out how she survives, or if she even does. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants some &quot;easy&quot;, yet enjoyable reading, that won't let you put the book down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Steve hits the mark with this quick read. If you don't know, it's about a little girl lost in the woods and having just been a little girl not too long ago, I can say this novel rings true.Great pacing, vivid description and nice touches. I don't want to get lost like that ever. Thumbs up!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I just finished reading this book and I think it was one of his best. Not his best but one of his best. The Editorial Reviews says everything. You can just see this poor child lost in the woods and feel her pain and her fear. I was glad it was only 219 pages because I couldn't wait to find out what happered to her. I am not interested in baseball or know anything about it but I was glad that child had someone to keep her from going totally nuts. I raved about this book to other readers and talked them into reading it. Thank you Stephen for writing a book I could sit down and read in a couple of day."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I've read \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" at least a half-a-dozen times and it never gets old. The story is both believable and compelling and well worth your time."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This was a gift for my sister. She really loved it. Thanks."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is very chilling. It makes you look behind your back in your own comfort of your home. The book is a little slow, but it was worth every minute of it. Trishia is a loving character that is a very interesting 9-year-old girl. I could not put this down. How about you?"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The girl who loved Tom Gordon\\" by Stephan king is a wonderful young readers book. This story is about one girl who visited a camp on her vacation with her family. The girl name is Trisha, she is 10 years old. She has only one older brother Pete. They live with her mother because their father left when they were young. Pete is a good brother and best friend. Always he helps Trisha and encourages her. But her mother and Pet have bad relationships because they don't respect and understand each other.That's the big reason, why she left the camp alone to go to woods.When she lost in the woods, she only believed Tom Gordon. The tom Gordon is a real person, who does indeed pitch in the closers role for the Boston Red Sox, but the Gordon in this story is fictional.Trisha and her father used to watch Red Sox's game when she was very young. She loves base ball players specially Tom Gordon. When she lost in dark woods, she had only one thing is her Walkman. She turned on her walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red sox baseball game. When the walkman worked, Trisha imagined that Tom Gordon was with her and protecting her from all the real enemies. Finally she found the right direction and survived 7 days with her imaginary hero Tom Gordon.There is one story about one family lost on deserted island. They had to survive one month without enough food. Obviously it was impossible to do it but they survived and find the right way to get out the deserted island. This story sounds very fictional but it based on true story. The Trisha's story is fictional but it seems non fictional because in this story the impossible things become possible. If we compare these two stories, we will see one same thing. The main point is to believe your own power, and then you can find right direction.There is much kind of horror books in the store but they have same types.If you read this story, you will see very deep relationship between real person and imaginary person. This is very delightful story, and I enjoyed it very much.I think this book tells us too many things about human rights. And the book gave me a good advice. If her mother understands her children feelings, she would understand what they want. It showed us the woods are real. If we visit them on our vacation, bring a compass, bring good maps or try to stay on the camp."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I read this book in 6th grade. I picked it up and said, &quot;I'll never be able to read this&quot; i was wrong I read it in 2 days. I hated reading until I read that book. He's so descriptive and the words run so smoothley. I highley reccomend this book to people from ages 12- 50"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The title of my book is &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot;; a novel by Stephen King. It takes place over a time period of a week and a half.A nine year old girl Trisha Mcfarland, along with her mother and brother were going to hike the appalachin mountain trail. while walking along the trail her mother and brother were arguing and Trisha realized she had to go to the bathroom really bad. She was trying to tell her mom but her mom was busy yelling at her brother. Trisha decided just to walk off the trail and go by herself. She didnt want anyone to see her so she walked in further. After she was done going to the bathroom, she started to walk back and she realized she was lost.Trisha yelled for her mother but no one came. She hadn't realized she had gone so deep into the woods. She kept walking, trying not to be scared. She started running, still yelling for her mom but still no answer. Mosquitoes started forming around her head and biting her. She started following a stream hoping it would bring her to people, but it didnt. It just brought her deeper in the woods. When this stream ends she ends up finding a new one and starts to follow it. When she drinks from it she gets sick. She throws up and has diarrhea. The only thing Trisha had with her was her walkman. On it, hse would listen to the Boston Red Sox, her favorite baseball team. Her favorite pitcher on the team was Tom Gordon. Listening to the games helped Trisha stay calm, because during her entire time in the woods she always thought someone was watching her.My opinion on this book is it ws very good. I cant believe how many bad and scary things can happen to one person in such a short period of time. When Stephen King writes books he uses a lot of detail so you feel like you're acually there."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I only have one thing to say: Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland may be the greatest heroine in all literature."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Young Trisha McFarland is put through the test of her young life while on what started out as a six-mile hike on the Maine-NH branch of the Appalachian Trail. Mom's been difficult since the divorce and Trisha's older brother Pete hasn't been much better. Trying to escape their constant arguing, Trisha allows herself to fall a little behind, but wanders off the path, takes a wrong turn and falls deeper into the woods, finding herself completely lost.Trisha's Boston Red Sox hero, number 36, relief pitcher Tom Gordon, helps comfort her as she catches a couple games on her Walkman and through her own vivid imagination. A story of a child's terror, her faith and her love of the \\"game.\\"A pretty good story that really held my interest. Growing up just south of Boston, I really enjoyed all the Red Sox talk."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I borrowed this audiobook from a relative and found it to be so boring that I had to give it back without finishing the story. From what I can tell, the plot consists of a mother, daughter, and son who fight constantly yet end up going on a hiking trip. This trip is supposed to consist of some quality family time, but ends up in another mother/son fight. In the middle of all the fighting, the daughter (Trisha) ends up stopping to go pee in the woods, which ends up with her getting seperated from her family. And the rest of the story is about her being scared and lost in the woods. It just wasn't very interesting to hear about how scared she was and how she couldn't find her way back to her family. There wasn't a scary twist to it...just a girl lost in the woods."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Some of Stephen King's best stories have featured young(ish) children as protagonists or main characters - we offer \\"Firestarter\\", \\"It\\", \\"The Shining\\" and especially \\"The Body\\" as evidence. Time and again, Mr. King has demonstrated an uncanny ability to tap into the minds and emotions of the children we all once were and recreate those magical years for us to live, fear and enjoy again. Unfortunately, \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" doesn't fall into this category; many of the book's problems could have been solved merely by aging our heroine.As offered, \\"The Girl\\" asks readers to suspend their disbelief that a 9-year-old city girl could survive while roaming the southwestern Maine woods for more than a week, a feat that most adults would be unable to accomplish. Moreover, this young girl (named Trisha) possesses a self-awareness and presence of mind - demonstrated by the book's near continuous internal monologue - that elude most people twice her age; note the sensitivity to the subtle differences between definitions of \\"God\\" and what her father (i.e., Mr. King in a rare personal appearance) calls the \\"Subaudible\\". Finally, Trisha has an attachment to Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon (not the \\"real\\" Tom Gordon, Mr. King assures us in a book-extending author's postscript) that is, frankly, unnatural for a prepubescent young girl. Put these qualities into a 13-year-old character, shorten the length of her trek by several days and two-score miles, and the reader might be able to accept the premise.\\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" could have benefited from more of Mr. King's attention in other areas as well. Instead, he relies on his old standbys, the supernatural and delirium. When Trisha first hears unexpected sounds and experiences a sense of being watched, habitual readers of Mr. King's fiction know that a monster is in the making (though few students of his prose expect him to break one of his fundamental rules and actually show it to us). When the girl is first visited by visions of her friends and Tom Gordon, we can guess that one of these phantoms will guide her to her ultimate fate. By concentrating on the claustrophobic effect of being lost in a vast forest and eliminating the unexplainable, Mr. King could have created a scary story of what happens inside the mind and soul of one so horribly lost. Change the protagonist again - now use a 33- or 43-year-old woman experiencing typical but stressful life changes - and we might have a truly terrifying and universal examination of our age.Instead, Mr. King gives us what he has always promised, the literary equivalent of a Big Mac & fries. For this consistency if nothing else, we suppose, we can be thankful."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"One day on a hiking trip, nine-year-old Trisha needs to pee. Her brother and divorced mother, who've been arguing throughout the entire trip, seem to have no care whether Trisha, who has been trying to catch their attention, is there or not. Trisha is annoyed. She hikes off the trail with the intention that her arguing mother and brother will soon notice they have lost Trisha. Unfortunately, a brief walk into the woods turns into hours of frantic search for the trail. Trisha begrudges that she is lost, and her only dependence now is her survival kit, or poncho of tuna and dearth supply of water. Trisha's only connection to the world now is her Walkman, where she listens to Castiglione and Troop announce Red Sox games. With killer hordes of mosquitoes and wasps on the lookout for fresh flesh, the nine-year-old thrives to escape the evil watching her every move.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon may be that quick read you've been looking for over the past weeks. Especially if you're not familiar with King's talent, it displays how many pages he could write about a lost girl in the woods and yet, thrill the reader by every turn of the page. Okay, fine. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon isn't one of King's page-by-page thriller, but still, a lot of people liked the book.One thing that I disliked about the novel was all the baseball talk. Not being a baseball fan, I really had no interest in reading chapters of Castiglione and Troop's announcements. However, don't get the wrong idea. Even if you're not a baseball fan, you can still get the gist of what's going on. If you're a King fan, check it out. It's one of King's shortest novels. Too bad it was just too cutesy for my taste."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is indeed Stephen King. Who else could make a suspense story about a nine-year-old (but tall for her age) girl who strayed from the hiking trail on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail? Not only is King's story suspenseful, it is believeable. I had forgotten how well King writes--his other novels so gripped me with their story lines, I never really considered his writing skills. My loss.In Legend, King tells his story from the perspective of the lost Tricia McFarland. It's not in the first person--that would have detracted from the story line,as readers would wonder how a nin-year-old , one even tall for her age, could think in sentences of a mature adult. This approach to the narration allows the author to think like a young lady, but narrate in terms ofa young lady's perspective. Confusing? Trust me.Consider some of Tricia's thoughts as she muddles her way throught the forest. &quot;She said the Our Father, but it came out of her mouth sounding flat and uncomforting, about as useful as an electric can opener would have been out here.&quot; Or,&quot;The moon was so bright that it had embarrassed all but the brightest stars into invisibility.&quot; Or, when thinking of her mother,she says to herself, &quot;If Mother had been at Little Bighorn, the Indians might still have won, but the body-count would have been considerably higher.&quot; When Triciaaccidently comes across an abandoned road in the forest, King captures the moment as &quot;the night stretched out ahead of her like a thousand miles of empty road.&quot; Mosquitoes? They were clustered on the back of her neck, lined up just below the hairline like kdrinkers at happy hour, guzzling their fill&quot; And the scene in which Tricia and a wild bear meet in the forest is uncomparable King.King's c hapter headings are called Pre-Game, First Inning, Second Inning, and so on.The title of the novel comes from TRicia's hero-worship of Tom Gordon, Boson Red Sox pitcher whose chief responsibility was that of entering the game as closing pitcher, that is, as the one responsibe for protecting a lead. There is a real Tom Gorgan on the Red Sox team,but King assures us in an author's Postscript that his Tom Gordon is fictional. Tricia hallucinates throughout her adventure,seeing Gordon, talking with him, and being guided by his calm and wisdom.Child=like, but not childish. Big Surprise."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Let me start by stating that I am not a died-in-the wool Stephen King fan, and definitely not a horror fan. However, the reviews on this book correctly led me to conclude that it is not a usual King book, and I definitely liked it.Nine-year-old Trisha strays off the Appalachian Trail as she lags behind her arguing mother and brother, and then becomes hopelessly lost when she tries to take a &quot;shortcut&quot; back to the trail. The suspense and tension in this book are those inherent in a story about a young, but determined child, armed with a very small amount of survivor knowledge. For emotional support, she increasingly imagines that her favorite pitcher, Red Sox's Tom Gordon, accompanies her on her trek and provides her with guidance and support.This is a wrenching story, as you keep hoping that this poor child will be found, will escape the woods unharmed, and so forth. I found myself saying &quot;NO!&quot; out loud when she made bad decisions, and encouraging her as she plunged ahead.This is a suspenseful and inspiring story."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is certainly not one of Stephen King's best works, but based on what he has done over the past decade it looks like he is on the comeback trail. I think it's safe to say that this is more of a young adult novel than traditional King horror-fiction, so that is how I am basing my review. It is certainly a satisfying chiller to the graduates of the Goosebumps books, and provides a decent introduction into the world that Stephen King can create.Most of the traditional King elements are present, and the ones that are left out are a very welcome deletion. King still posesses great ability in making the reader feel as if they are actually part of the setting. Also present is his amazing way of bringing the characters of his stories to life, and he flaunts that power to the maximum in this story, giving life to inanimate objects with stunning clarity. Of course King's traditional flop ending is included, but it nose-dives more graciously than in his previous works. It is one of King's most unusual trademarks, and I wonder if he just lacks the ability to end a story in a way that doesn't make the reader want to skip ahead to the epiplogue. What is missing in Girl, thankfully, is every trace of King's recent delves into perversion that seemed a mainstay only a few years ago (i.e. The Library Policeman, The Regulators, etc.). Overall this is a very good story that can attract suspense fans as well as horror fans.I am reviewing the audiobook version of this story, however, and that portion of it was simply torture. I don't know who liked Anne Heche's voice enough to give her this reading, but it might has well have been Fran Drescher for all I could stand. At some points I honestly feared that my ears would start bleeding. Heche's screams for &quot;help&quot; were so loud and so frequent that I felt totally embarrassed, thinking that everyone within a block from me could hear it through my headphones and wonder what the hell that noise was. It certainly took away from my enjoyment of the story, but I have the decency enough to base my rating on King's work and not Heche's. Ugh. Recommended read, but stay away from the audiobook (unless you listen to it through a pillow)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Others above me have said they are true King fans and then ripped the book to shreds. They said it was far-fetched. Hello? Vampires, killer 58' Plymouth Fury, End of the world, killer hotel, animals brought back to life, a gypsy curse, etc... So what is so far fetched about a little girl getting lost in the woods? I am a true King fan and I found the book enjoyable and very eerie in spots. You can't pin Stephen King down to one style of writing, If you're a true fan, you have to keep an open mind."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I have been a fan of SK forever! Die hard fans like myself will read it out of loyality to THE MAN, but this book, although suspenseful, was not the edge of my seat page turner of old. SK is taking a turn toward the philosophical and spiritual as he gets older. This book like many of the other new ones is missing the EDGE, that used to keep me up after the lights went out wondering if just reading created the magic necessary to have his creatures come to life and be in my closet. I'll keep reading, but I miss the old SK. For folks who are new to his writing, begin here and work your way back through the years to the REALLY GOOD STUFF! This is a good intro the the pyschological terror that has made SK famous."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I found this novel to be a solid thrill ride. Although some may say that Mr. King could've have done away with some of Trisha's happenings in the woods and the novel could've been shortened to a short story, I believe that it is Mr. King's intention to pace the story in such a way that we experience what Trisha experienced - a long, tumultuous journey in the woods. This helped me appreciate the plight that she went through as well as accepting Trisha not only as a little girl lost in the woods, but rather a young heroine whose mix of innocence and ingenuity urge the reader to delve into the woods alongside of her.In short, this book is a fast read that stirs enough excitement and curiosity within you to keep the pages turning. The only problem I see here is that it may be hard to follow or fully appreciate the novel if you are not familiar with the game of baseball since Trisha's hero that &quot;guides&quot; her through the woods is a baseball player. Enjoy!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought is was great, just like everything else Mr. King writes. I could not put it down. I finished the book in just one day. Thank you for sharing your gift Mr. King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I can't say that this was bad, but it wasn't especially good either. I think that's because I'm really expecting something scary, something like Carrie or some of his other books. This reminded me of Cujo, I think that it's just too real...too possible. I really liked the idea about walking with Tom Gordon and being followed by the God of the Lost though."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book is a great read and, from my perspective, a departure from what I am used to reading by Stephen King. King paints the wooded environment of Western Maine as a fine artist. I felt like I was along on Trisha's journey and was experiencing the toture that she was forced to endure. Excellent character development of Trisha and her family. I also liked the ending. Standing, facing the bear, with the Walkman poised, I could see the picture as clearly as if I was standing there as an invisible spectator. Nice job. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a page turning thriller."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I'll admit that &quot;The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon&quot; isn't as gripping as Stephen King's other novels, but I found it to be an enjoyable, quick read. Enough has already been said about the plot, so I won't rehash it. Instead I'll comment on why I found this novel to be worthwhile.For one, King does a commendable job with making the story flow, considering the fact that the vast majority of the novel has no dialogue and centers around Trisha's character, alone by herself in the woods. Instead of the typical dialogue, King must rely on imagery and narrative alone to carry the story. Accomplishing this isn't an easy task.Anyone who sees this novel as simply &quot;a girl lost in the woods&quot; isn't looking deep enough. This novel has many themes including the feeling of isolation, survival, facing our most primitive fears, and in my view, coming-of-age to a certain point. And maybe the scariest thing about it is that any one of us could be faced with a similar situation.I give this novel a strong recommendation even if it may not be as &quot;loaded&quot; as King's other novels. Here he strips down the story to the most basic form and the result is one that works. And to other fans of this novel: there's supposedly a movie adaptation in the works that will star the real-life Tom Gordon."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Well, since this is not the first Stephen King book I've read, I was quite disappointed of the story. That doesn't mean it's not good, it's just not scary enough. On the other hand, though the story started quite slow at first, it picked up the pace and you began to relate to Trish as she struggled to survive in the woods. The suspense is when night arrives and all creatures come out, and you could feel the tension of not knowing what is out there, and you wonder if there will be a happy ending after all. The climax is a little bit of a letdown, but I think the adventure has made up for it. An average book."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"It's not that \\"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon\\" is a bad book, it's just that it's not up to the standards of what this humble reviewer expects from Stephen King.When a headstrong nine-year-old, Trisha McFarland, wanders away from her constantly bickering mother and brother while on a nature walk along the Appalachian Trail in Maine, she finds herself faced with one of childhood's greatest fears - that of being lost in the wilderness. As Trisha attempts to reunite with her family, she actually ends up moving farther and farther away from them. As day turns into night, she finally begins to realize that she will not quickly find her missing family and now instead, must be concerned with survival.The rest of the book, of course, deals with this \\"struggle\\" and gives King an opportunity to delve into the mind of a \\"not-so-average\\" nine-year-old. Trisha relies on her hero, Boston Red Sox closer, Tom Gordon, for inspiration as she fends for herself in the woods. One of her biggest concerns is whether or not the batteries in her Walkman will hold out long enough for her to continue to turn in to the nightly Sox game before she is rescued. She is as resilient as most of King's strong female leads and wise beyond her years. Along the way, King introduces the \\"boogey-man\\" of this story which is a mysterious and unseen entity that leaves deep, deep slash marks in trees and various forest animals along the way. This entity never quite exhibits the true terror that most of King's creepy characters demonstrate.As the book lumbers along to it's expected climax, the reader will have an opportunity to enjoy King's style of prose. The book is wonderfully written (as are all of King's works) with the usually memorable phrases and word pictures. Don't let this review deter you from reading this book, just don't go into it with the typical expectations that one might have if they are a frequent reader of King's work."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is, I think, the first Stephen King book I've read. It takes place on the Appalachian Trail. Somehow, King gets into the mind of a small girl who accidentally gets lost in the woods when she goes off the trail to go potty. She keeps walking along the river and gets extremely far from the boundaries of the search party, which has been started for her. What keeps her going is her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon; she keeps her radio close to listen to his games and wish he were there to help her. King keeps us as scared as the little girl when a creature begins to follow her, and leaves its traces of carnage. She finally begins to lose her mind and really believe Tom Gordon is there with her. You get scared for the little girl just by reading it. \\"Shadows were too black, and when a breeze stirred the trees, the shadows changed in a disquieting way. Something twitted in the woods, seemed to choke, twitted again, and was silent...\\"- it keeps you on edge the whole time you're reading it, hoping the girl comes out okay. You don't see too many books out there with this theme, though almost everyone has a \\"lost\\" experience as a child. I think this would be a great book from anyone of almost any age, from small children, who can relate to the girl, to teens, to adults."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King is a superb read and I hope this review is helpful. Compliments to Stephen King on another fine novel.Outline of Novel: The novel is about a 9 year old girl (Patricia McFarland) who leaves her mother and brothers constant arguing and heads into the woods. Patricia manages to lose the path and in doing so...her way back to the camping area where she was staying. She travels deeper into the forest without realising, in the aid of finding the path back to civilisation. Patricia turns to her favourite baseball player Tom Gordon in her imagination and listens to the games on her radio for comfort. However, something is in the woods, watching...waiting...Opinion of Novel: This is a gread read, although you may not think that possible from the un-original plot. Stephen King manages to keep the action constant and keeps you on the edge of your seat, with the ever changing struggles which Patricia faces throughout her treacherous ordeal. The novel is not extremely long and in depth as some of his other novels (i.e. The Stand), which makes this a nice easy going read, but it is not for the faint hearted. It is a novel which will have you reading until the end and a definite recommedation to anyone who likes King's other novels. After reading this novel, you will never feel the same way about being in the woods again..."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Big Steve is back, and he's at the top of his form. This is just an amazing piece of work. Much shorter that King is used to writing- he's learning the difference between a novel and a phone book.Central to the story is Trisha, a nine year old girl who can only be described as spunky. She and her brother are trying to recover from their parents' divorce. Mom takes the kids on a nature hike. Trisha gets off the path to answer nature's call, and things go downhill from there.The main character is so real that I had to read the whole thing in one night so as to find out what happens to her. After all, just because you're a little kid doesn't grant you immunity from death and pain in King's stories- witness PET SEMETARY, SALEM'S LOT, and most especially CUJO.Almost as interesting as the main character is the setting. I live in central Texas and DARN but I want to go to Maine next summer. I want to smell those trees and see those stars at night myself. There are scenes in this book of such beauty that you can temporarily forget the grave danger that Trisha is in.Good work, Big Steve!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I cannot believe that Stephen King could write a book like this. It certainly shows his softer side-- definitely is not a horror story--almost spiritual in its rendering.I have not read any of King's books in the last 10 years, but this sounded different, and it certainly was! I had to restrain myself, over and over again, from reading the ending early (something I never do). It was such a gripping story....I felt every bump and bruise and pain that nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, lost in the northeast woods, felt as she tried to find her way back to civilization.King's rendering of the thoughts of this child, her terror, her spirit, and her resourcefulness were right on target. I felt myself growing increasingly anxious as Trisha wandered in the woods, trying desperately not only to survive but to stay sane. Good writing...no dialogue and essentially only one character, which must be a difficult kind of book to write; but despite this, the story never lagged. It was fast and easy reading.Like Paul Watkins' \\"Archangel\\" and Jean Hegland's \\"Into the Forest\\", the forest was a character in the novel as much as was any human."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"There are a great number of ways people read. Some love short anthology books, other are more keen to go through novels and eat them whole. Still some readers are more of on a genre basis, reading just horror, romance or what have you.I love reading. Perhaps one of the great past times that I never tire of is just sitting down and going for a really good read. To move from places you can only imagine and try to be in. To actually live in the setting the author draws on with his words. When it comes to reading I would go forth by reading a novel or two after each other and them taking a break by reading some short story anthology. Kind of a way top draw a breather.My last Stephen King book was Bag of Bones and that story grabbed by the neck and kept me completely enthralled by every aspect of it. The whole thing. I stood and wondered how a man like King could actually scribe such a masterpiece. He was more cast as a stereotypical horror writer, but what Bag of Bones had was something that not authors can emulate or draw from. That work was so much different from all his previous work that a person could have been fooled that the author was not really King himself. That book was big and long and after reading it, I thought that I needed time off from big novels and, though he's my fave author, from King himself.Through it all, I was thinking, ok, Stephen, you did it once, but can you really do it again?? It was only after more than a year from my last King book that I finally knew the answer.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a short book by all standards. A fast reader could gulp it up in one setting and an average one could go with it for around a week. The book follows the same trend as Bag of Bones, with King relying more on his literary prowess more than his ability to scare powers. But does that mean, he doesn't have that in him. Oh no no! He just has it more in check and it's really in it. The whole idea of a girl being lost in the woods for God knows how long alone, and the reader experiencing what she has to go through is a feat all by itself. The notion of having a nine year old, alone, scared s just too incredulous to really fathom. Only King could have tackled such a thing and he does it superlatively. King's descriptive abilities are so strong that you will feel that you're with Trisha, wherever she goes, feeling whatever she does and seeing what she is seeing. Her dreams become reality and even her delirious hallucinations make the fear crawl inside you.This book is a winner. I won't go into what I think King was going for in the story, but I guarantee that you will be touched by it. By the determination of that plucky 9 year old girl who looks older than her age."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Stephen King has been under fire of late by some of his so-called fans for daring to move away from his traditional style of writing and exploring new themes. Books like &quot;Hearts in Atlantis&quot; and this novel have received scathing reviews from &quot;veteran&quot; King readers, but I implore anyone who has not yet read one to do so before making up their mind.&quot;The Girl Who...&quot; is a beautifully written, rite-of-passage novel detailing the exploits of 9 year old Trisha McFarland when she finds herself lost in the woods of Maine. Trisha's odyssey begins when her divorcee mother takes Trisha and her brother for a hike through the woods. However, mother and son's constant bickering soon becomes too much for her, and she momentarily steps off the trail to relieve both her bladder and her aching head. Big mistake. She soon finds herself lost and blundering deeper and deeper into the woods, stalked by something that may be the object of her imagination, or may not...King so accurately describes the thoughts, fears and emotions of a 9 year old girl that one has to wonder if perhaps he might have been one in a former life. There are times during the book when you think that if one more misfortune befalls Trisha, you might just give up and die yourself. We feel her pain just as keenly as trisha herself.There are people who have reviewed this book and complained about the baseball references. However, they obviously do not see them for what they are; the means by which Trisha keeps herself sane. Her precious walkman and the Sox games are her only link to the civilised world while she stumbles through the wilderness.Please do not let the prospect of baseball references turn you away from reading this book. They are few and far between, and easily understood, even if you've never seen or played baseball in your life."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"First, know that I am a longtime Stephen King fan -- you should be aware of the reviewer's biases, after all. I was particularly happy with Bag of Bones, which was the novel that came immediately before this one, and which seemed to mark a return to form for the author.This book started off very strongly, and managed to keep me interested in the plight of a girl who gets lost in the woods. King does a great job of building suspense as he reveals, well, that there's *something* in the woods with her. Something that shouldn't be there.So far, so good. Great character development, and great suspense. But, somewhere along the way (at around the half way point of the novel), the character stops developing and the threat fails to materialize. I am no longer spooked, and I am no longer interested.As we near the end of the story, there seems to be a rush toward the conclusion. While I don't want to spoil the ending, suffice it to say that the uncomplicated plot is mostly resolved through a deus ex machina.I give the novel a three star rating mostly because I still enjoyed the writing, even though I was ultimately disappointed in the story's conclusion. While fans of the author will still want to read this book, newcomers may wish to try Bag of Bones (a recent favorite), The Dead Zone (an amazing early novel) or Night Shift (a very satisfying collection of short stories)."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Quick and dirty, this is a book about a girl who gets lost in the woods. Of course, nothing ever written by Stephen King has been quick and dirty. Once she is separated from her family, it becomes a race to return to civilization before she loses everything. Along the way, the girl, Tricia, must fight obstacles both real and imagined. Her only weapon against the fear and loneliness are the Red Sox radio broadcasts she can pick up on her Walkman. Days may run together when you're lost in the wilderness, but her Red Sox games kept her in a sense of normalcy. She may have been lost, but her hero Tom Gordon was still saving games. There was still hope, as long as Gordon kept taking the mound. The only question becomes if hope is enough.I don't read as many Stephen King books as I probably should. That might be why the one thing that struck me about this book is that it could actually happen. I may never meet an evil spirit, undead pet, or whatever else might appear in his novels. But, I could get lost in the woods. I could take a left when I should have gone right. That reality made it even more chilling to me. I could see myself wandering in circles. I could imagine waiting for the Sox game to come on, just so I wouldn't have to worry about how scared and alone I was. I could see myself grasping onto a Red Sox game like it was the only thing that could save me. In that case, Tom Gordon was the perfect person for Tricia to idolize. During the season in which the book takes place, Gordon led the American League in saves, saving 43 in a row to end the season. What better player to put all your faith in. To place your hopes and dreams with? Obviously, King is a gifted writer. I don't need to tell anyone that. He is also a great Red Sox fan. I don't need to tell you that either. In this novel, he wonderfully combines the two. As expected, this was a great book. Go find it, and read it. (Maybe not right before bed.)"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"this is a great little book. I put off reading it for a long time because the title turned me off but I'm really glad I got around to it"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"this book came to me in great shape almost new looking and arrived very quickly im very happy with this order!!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I was given this book several years ago so I did not buy it here but I can review it anyway.I read many not all of Steven King's books. I have to be in the mood this one was oddly appealing to me. It did not make sense to me at times, but after all the little girl was walking in the woods afraid and all alone and yes very lost. the poor thing suffered from exhaustion, hunger, and bug bites. she a, at times seemed a bit disoriented and it felt that her love for Tom Gordon, a baseball Pitcher, is what was carrying her forward.I think this was a story that was not like his usual but I have not red all of his books, this lacked the scare factor that I found in other of his books. I think that is why I liked it so much.this was not a sit on the edge of your chair book it was a sit, relax and mentally push this girl to freedom and her family. I knew That is why I was oddly drawn to her even as she suffered, maybe because I felt that the author would not let anything really happen to her. I read this book several times and have felt a kinship to this young girl and within the context of the story I felt like she was in no danger and that made me feel very relaxed. I loved this story, I will probably read it again."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I felt this was a great story. A child lost in the woods, trying to make do with whatever survival instinct she can muster. With what seems like every decision taking her farther away from where she wants to be. Whether it is God or Tom Gordon, she knows there is something watching over her. All the fears and dangers of the wilderness and problems that can kill someone lost in the woods can be settled by the soothing sound of a radio broadcast about familiar Red Sox Pitcher closing up the last innings. But then it is back to reality, how to survive, how to make it out of the wilderness.Definitely worth the short read."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This is a great book for a quick read, and does effectively capture a very common fear: getting lost in the woods and being stalked by a giant, unknown creature. This probably would have been better as a short story, but King did a great job pulling you in and relating with the main character. Most people who have read some of King's other works will probably not enjoy this that much, but this is tame enough that some younger readers (teens) would probably enjoy it quite a bit."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Dying in the woods: not a common fear in 10-year-olds. But for Trisha McFarland, this is an all-too real problem. In the fictional story The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King, Trisha is on a not-so-peaceful hike through the wilderness with her bickering divorced mother and older brother. To get away from all the arguing, she takes a few steps off the trail, and soon finds herself in the scariest situation of her life: being totally lost. With primitive survival instincts, and the friendly voices broadcasting the Red Sox games, Trisha fights her way through miles of forests. Soon, her imagination takes control, and she pretends that she is traveling with her hero (and crush) Tom Gordon. Unfortunately, Trisha eventually realizes that she is not alone in the woods as she thought...I enjoyed this book. I felt like I was there with Trisha because of the great descriptive words and setting. I found that her reaction to what was going on around her was more mature than any fifth grader. Being lost in the wilderness is a very scary thing, and though I've never given it much thought, the characters made me feel like I was going through it, too. I recommend this book for anyone who likes survival stories, because Trisha has to find ways to live in the woods. Also, anyone who is interested in the way the mind works when we are in a weird or strange situation would enjoy this. It's a little unnerving how Trisha's mind tricks her into believing that Tom Gordon is there with her. In conclusion, this story is a must-read and you wont be able to put it down!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Dying in the woods: not a common fear in 10-year-olds. But for Trisha McFarland, this is an all-too real problem. In the fictional story The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King, Trisha is on a not-so-peaceful hike through the wilderness with her bickering divorced mother and older brother. To get away from all the arguing, she takes a few steps off the trail, and soon finds herself in the scariest situation of her life: being totally lost. With primitive survival instincts, and the friendly voices broadcasting the Red Sox games, Trisha fights her way through miles of forests. Soon, her imagination takes control, and she pretends that she is traveling with her hero (and crush) Tom Gordon. Unfortunately, Trisha eventually realizes that she is not alone in the woods as she thought...I enjoyed this book. I felt like I was there with Trisha because of the great descriptive words and setting. I found that her reaction to what was going on around her was more mature than any fifth grader. Being lost in the wilderness is a very scary thing, and though I've never given it much thought, the characters made me feel like I was going through it, too. I recommend this book for anyone who likes survival stories, because Trisha has to find ways to live in the woods. Also, anyone who is interested in the way the mind works when we are in a weird or strange situation would enjoy this. It's a little unnerving how Trisha's mind tricks her into believing that Tom Gordon is there with her. In conclusion, this story is a must-read and you wont be able to put it down!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This story begins inauspiciously enough as 9-year old Tricia McFarland gets lost on a family outing in the hills of western Maine. Determined to find a shortcut to the path that her mother and brother are on, Tricia strays further and further from her goal. The result is a defenseless child whose only resources are her youthful physical resiliance, limited knowldege of the northern New England wilderness, and nearly indefatigable mental determiniation inspired by her love and loathing of her own father and her love of a great professional baseball pitcher--Tom Gordon. It is Gordon and her father who continue to reappear to her in hallucinations that guide her foward and ultimately to her salvation. Her nemesis, the God of the Lost, who appears once as a human-like apparition and then later in the form of a black bear is very real causing physical destruction as he stalks the child for over a week through the woods. By the time of the showdown between the two, Tricia has undergone an existential transformation--she no longer sees herself as a defenseless little girl but as a full-blown human being with icewater in her veins and the ability to stand up without fright to the demons of her mind and of the physical world. Though a hunter with a high-powered rifle intervenes to injure the bear/demon, Tricia displays remarkable intestinal fortitude in launching her portable radio player at the beast emulating her hero Tom Gordon. While this book has some references to sex and offensive language, and probably could be reduced to novella or even short story length, overall it could be quite compelling for young adult readers."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"\\"The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.\\" I took this quote straight from Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan. This book is sort of a horror book, but it doesn't have as much gore as most of his books. Trisha, a nine-year-old girl, is going hiking with her mom and her brother who are constantly arguing with each other ever since their parents divorced. Trisha, who is the main character, has gotten fed up with all the fighting; if they're not fighting then they're not together. She wants to get away from the arguing for just a minute, but that minute turns into an hour, then turns into a week. Soon she finds herself lost on the Maine - New Hampshire boarder of the Appalachian Trail.With nothing but a walk man and some potato chips to keep her alive, she soon realizes the dangers of being stuck in the woods. As she tries to find her way out of the woods she faces many obstacles such as trails of slaughtered animals. The further into the book you get the more intense. So if you're not planning on finishing this book then don't start reading it. As you get into the book you can picture the setting even more, with all the gruesome details. It's almost as if you were right there with her going through all her troubles.I liked this book a lot; I would recommend it to any one that's up for a challenge. It's not that hard of a book reading wise, but you would have to read carefully and completely understand one part before you move to the next. Age wise I would recommend it to 12 and older. Overall it was a very good book and I think that who ever is reading this should give it a chance. It's worth it!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Nothing is more frightening than our own imagination. As an adult, the thought of being lost in the woods, in the dark is one that I don't want to comtemplate for long. As a mother, the thought of my child being in the same situation is worse. Stephen King reminds us all that we should never stop looking under our beds. Sometimes our imagination does bite!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I really loved this book.Trisha McFarland was a great character. I love King's books in which he releases a single character in peril and just leaves them alone to be with their thoughts. One wouldn't usually think of a simple story of a girl getting lost in the woods of being all that spectacular, but King's character is so real that it is in this case. One can only imagine the scare that anyone would get from being lost, let alone a 9 year old girl.I also really liked the baseball references in this book because...I love baseball. They made an already enjoyable read that much more enjoyable: especially at the beginning of the baseball season."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was a great read, I truly enjoyed it, definitely one of his best books."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"This book was an outstanding peice of work.Although if your looking for the king of the past with all the blood and guts its not here. This does not mean he should hang it up it is an excellent book that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first to last page.Anyone with an open mind can really feel the fear that Trisha does.If you figured out what the creature was before it was time so what for those of us who know the power of the bear could still feel frightened for her safety.This was a little out text for King but was still a fine reader this book will reach out to those who can't read his true horror novels theres nothing wrong with expanding his horizons keep up the great work i'll be waiting for the next one this summer."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"King seems to be tackling, new (to him)waters recently with Bag of Bones and now The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon. While I'm starting to miss the old gory fun of King of old, I enjoy his new found writing style. I actually care about the girl. I wanted to see her survive. Now that's a strange twist."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Finally, after several so-so books, King made me a fan again. I've read all his books and his earlier works thrill me more than later ones. But this book brought me back into his fold and kept me engrossed."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Another over-hyped disappointing read by S.K. The &quot;being&quot; stalking the girl in the woods could have been so much more chilling..remember Cujo? I think Trish needed some more harrowing adventures on her trek and more physical obstacles to overcome. The story plodded tiredly along, just like Trish."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Being a Stephen King fan from the beginning and a Red Sox fan for forty years, I couldn't put it down. Stephen King's ability to make you &quot;see&quot; his characters is truly amazing. Having been to Fenway Park, I could see what Patricia was seeing. The part I laughed the most on when she mentioned putting &quot;jimmies&quot; on her ice cream. Only someone from the East would probably know right away she was putting &quot;chocolate sprinkles&quot; on the ice cream. Keep writing, Mr. King."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"&quot;The Girl Who..... was one of my favorite King books so far!!!! I started it on Wed. night and finished Fri. afternoon(I work 9 to 5). Trish talks like she's 40 and she's as smart as a whip!!! This book was very true-to-life. I just wish it was longer. I hope for a sequel, or at least another book that mentions this wonderfully smart creature!!!"},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"Finally, a book that King fans can really enjoy. After some dismal releases by him, I was little worried with this one. However, this one was quite enjoyable and I managed to polish it off in an evening. The ending was a little sappy, but otherwise solid through and through. Suspenceful and one of those books you couldn't quite put down."},{"Title":"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon","review":"I thought the book was good, but not typical King style. It could have been more frightening, and it was drawn out a bit. But I did enjoy spending time with Patricia."}]`),W={name:"App",components:{PoemCard:S},data(){return{visibleCount:6,poemsData:A,isLoading:!1}},computed:{visiblePoems(){return this.poemsData.slice(0,this.visibleCount)},hasMorePoems(){return this.visibleCount<this.poemsData.length}},methods:{async loadMore(){this.isLoading=!0,await new Promise(n=>setTimeout(n,1e3)),this.visibleCount+=6,this.isLoading=!1}}},x={class:"card-container"},K=["disabled"],L={key:0},H={key:1};function q(n,o,s,u,r,a){const c=m("PoemCard");return e(),t("section",null,[o[1]||(o[1]=i("div",{class:"top-banner"},[i("div",{class:"top-banner-title"},[i("div",{class:"top-banner-title-text"},"🎉 Your reviews 🥳")])],-1)),i("div",x,[(e(!0),t(f,null,w(a.visiblePoems,(h,g)=>(e(),y(c,{key:g,poem:h},null,8,["poem"]))),128))]),a.hasMorePoems?(e(),t("button",{key:0,class:"load-more-button",disabled:r.isLoading,onClick:o[0]||(o[0]=(...h)=>a.loadMore&&a.loadMore(...h))},[r.isLoading?(e(),t("span",H,"Loading...")):(e(),t("span",L,"See more"))],8,K)):b("",!0)])}const B=d(W,[["render",q],["__scopeId","data-v-91be4367"]]),C=JSON.parse('{"title":"","description":"","frontmatter":{"page":true},"headers":[],"relativePath":"quotesmag/3.md","filePath":"quotesmag/3.md"}'),j={name:"quotesmag/3.md"},D=Object.assign(j,{setup(n){return(o,s)=>(e(),t("div",null,[p(B)]))}});export{C as __pageData,D as default};