Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine Review

Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine
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Due to the fact that the Minoans left no decipherable texts we know very little about their religious beliefs. Usually the Minoans are approached from a Greek perspective, often retrofitting Greek mythology to what is presumed to have been Minoan reality. Actually the Minoans are best viewed as a north-west outpost of the Near East rather than as a south-east anlage of Europe. Marinatos presents an extraordinary tour-de-force viewing the Minoans from a Near Eastern perspective. This is the best analysis of Minoan religious beliefs that I have come across. It is not easy reading, but for anyone truly interested in the Minoans this is an essential text - there is nothing else published that comes even close. Highly recommended!

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Ancient Minoan culture has been typically viewed as an ancestor of classical Greek civilization, but this book shows that Minoan Crete was on the periphery of a powerfully dynamic cultural interchange with its neighbors. Rather than viewing Crete as the autochthonous ancestor of Greece's glory, Nanno Marinatos considers ancient Crete in the context of its powerful competitors to the east and south.

Analyzing the symbols of the Minoan theocratic system and their similarities to those of Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt, Marinatos unlocks many Minoan visual riddles and establishes what she calls a "cultural koine," or standard set of cultural assumptions, that circulated throughout the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean at the time Minoan civilization reached its peak. With more than one hundred and fifty illustrations, Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess delivers a comprehensive reading of Minoan art as a system of thought.


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Complete Shorter Fiction (Everyman's Library) Review

Complete Shorter Fiction (Everyman's Library)
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The seller of this book was very nice and he seemed to care a lot about the customer satisfaction. It's hard to say more than this, because this is the best I can expect when I purchase a book. Ciao. Dav

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The Beekeeper's Apprentice: A Novel Review

The Beekeeper's Apprentice: A Novel
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After the death of her family, Mary Russell, a fifteen year-old, moves to a farm with her "evil" aunt. In one of her walks around the area she meets the famous Sherlock Holmes, who is retired and dedicates his hours to the study of bees. Right from the start the two main characters in the book match their wits and Holmes is surprised by the potential he sees in this young woman. He then decides to tutor her and introduce her to the art of investigative work. In the next few years, they go through a few cases and Mary goes away to Oxford to continue her studies; but at one point they are faced with a more dangerous opponent, who wants to kill not only Holmes, but also Mary; even Dr. Watson and Mycroft are in danger. If you want to know the rest, you better read the book!
In my opinion the author does a very good job in maintaining the particular characteristics that define the characters in Arthur Conan Doyle's books, especially in the case of Sherlock Holmes. It is amazing how you feel that the deductive work is done by exactly the same detective you knew from the past, and with the added benefit of a fresh mind assisting him!
I was very pleased to see the ingenious way in which Laurie King connected this new series with the Conan Doyle's work. She concocted a story about her receiving the manuscripts of the different stories in the series some time ago, and that she is merely the editor. The manuscripts were of course written by the enchanting Mary Russell.
Finally, let me tell you that, since I am an avid chess player, I thoroughly enjoyed the way in which Holmes uses a chess game with Mary to explain the strategy he was planning to utilize in one of their cases.
I will definitely continue reading the books in this series, and if you haven't started yet, I recommend you do it now!

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Out the Summerhill Road: A Novel (Evelyn Oppenheimer Series) Review

Out the Summerhill Road: A Novel (Evelyn Oppenheimer Series)
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Out the Summerhill road is the latest of Jane Roberts Woods insightful and gracious novels. It tells a timeless story of friendship and longing. The friendship is a strong, decades long relationship amongst women that spans the time from high school graduation through middle age. They weather marriages and murders together. It's the murders that set the stage and move the action forward. It is a page turner. It is the family stories that provide the gentle, enduring background that is so satisfying.
Jane Roberts Wood is a past master at observation of the familiar. She shows us what is there but often unnoticed. This works wonderfully both in murder investigations and appreciation of daily life. You will not want to put this one down and when at last there is no more you will miss the characters and wonder about their future.
Summerhill Road is filled with lovely places to visit. You will want to linger and savor this witty and charming book.


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From Jane Roberts Wood comes a quietly riveting novel revealing the banal faces of evil in a small East Texas town. In 1946 a young couple is brutally murdered in Cold Springs. And, now, thirty-four years later, the rumor is that Jackson Morris, who had been the only person of interest in the murders, has come home. Or has he?

When the four women of the Tuesday bridge club hear this rumor, their responses range from a reckless excitement to a shaky uneasiness. There's Isabel, compelling and passionate, who foolishly and inexplicably longs to see Jackson, her first love, again while the seemingly innocent Mary Martha prays that the sheriff will put Jackson's head in a noose. Although the eternally optimistic Sarah looks to the law to determine Jackson's fate, the fourth woman, an Irish immigrant and a misfit in Cold Springs, is guided by the spirit world, including a cat, in deciding his guilt or innocence.

When a second murder occurs after Jackson's return, Cold Springs reacts with fear and paranoia while the women struggle to protect their friend's reputation and desperately try to find a murderer.

Number 5 in the Evelyn Oppenheimer Series

Praise for Jane Roberts Wood's Fiction:

"A genuine Texas treasure."—The Dallas Morning News

"Wood handles whatever she touches with delicate precision, and leaves an impression, not of bitterness of life, but of the tenderness of the human soul."—The New Mexican



Praise for the Lucy Richards Trilogy:

"It's a winner!—A real down-to-earth story that keeps you spellbound from page to page."—Liz Carpenter, former White House press secretary

"A truly fine tale of the indomitable human spirit, told in the honest voice of a strong young schoolmarm in early day West Texas."—Larry L. King, author of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

"Wood's lively, eccentric characters leap off the page and will live in the reader's heart long after the book is closed."—Jean Stapleton, actress

"Wood has a rare gift for transcending the ordinary and this heartwarming continuation of her earlier novels is no exception. Wood's narration is seamless and she is especially masterful in creating meaningful characters."—Publishers Weekly


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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia Review

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
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I find it so surprising--reading the angry, negative reviews--that the people who hated the book hated it for exactly the reasons why some steer clear away from the the spiritual-journey-memoir genre. Yes, the author is self-absorbed, yes, she seems to think of only trite stuff, yes, she seems self-indulgent with her problems. And yes, she's allowed. It is after all a book that is positioned to address these things in the author's self; who otherwise would not be searching for something more: more meaning and more appreciation in/of her life.
Here is a woman who shows all the possibly-perceived-as-lacking-substance thoughts of hers and we are throwing tomatoes at her. One thing, she obviously wasn't afraid of that. She wasn't aiming to be coming off as some deeply wise woman but a fumbling girl-woman trying to break out of what she felt was imminent disaster (had she had the baby and delayed her need to find out what she truly wants from her life she might have left not only her husband, but their child, or most probably ending up not leaving out of guilt and becoming crazy instead: exposing her family to that for years; not an uncommon reality). She is not one for anti-depressants, remember.
This memoir falls in the same category as the TV show Sex and the City (of which it was compared to in a review here). Both get trampled for being supposedly superficial, covering the silly plights of city girls who don't know what they want and yet have everything. But this book--as the TV show--actually are part of a wider story that is illiciting reactions from the public because it reflects the transition in which women in the modern world are experiencing: now that we have equality with men professionally, now that we are liberated from all the limitations being a woman dictated two generations ago, how does that affect us? From a distance, in a glance, it seems that women have all the cards to play with now. But this book and many other works by women and/or about women of this generation show that having all those cards does not mean Happiness.
There are still things in society--in regards to a woman's role--that grates. And then there are things within our Modernised, Westernized, Individualized, Ambitious selves, that are lacking.
This is what Miss Gilbert's search is about, and what she represents.
On a collective level, much of the modern world is in search of God, Spirituality (one just needs to walk through bookstores in the US and see the plethora of soul searching self help books on the shelves). This is what needs to be observed and understood as a phenomena in the West; the small voices, small cries, here and there by those who come up with the balls to share their journeys and thoughts with us--no matter how trite-sounding, how shallow-seeming--are part of a collective howl for the meaning of life.
Elizabeth Gilbert's voice is just one of many that calls for recognition as part of a chorus for something that firstly, many women are hollering about, and secondly, humanity in general--humanity in the first world--are crying for: some kind of guidance, indication, that the collective paths we fought for and chose (the best education, career ambitions realised, a certain amount of money needed to live that certain kind of magazine-lifestyle life--which is what Liz Gilbert's life is a reflection of, remember--love in the form of marriage and what society dictates) are truly the things that give us peace and happiness in the infinite sense.
Eat, Pray, Love might not be that deep, wise voice representing the deep, wise journey into the deep, wise self. But this book's packaging and tone, hell, its WORDS, never did say it was. It is a fumbling--almost child-like in its guilelessness--show of the ego's awareness and needs, and its attempt at searching for what many people from all walks of life only wish they could go out and find: THEMSELVES. SELF, being the keyword here. And in this memoir, ultimately, God, being in each of our selves.
To the people who were disappointed that the author didn't seem to give a hoot about India's poverty, they must have not read the book through: Miss Gilbert never ventured out of her ashram and the little village it is located in, after making a decision to further develop her meditation skills and thus skipping the rest of India. She also ignored Italy's corruption with her indulging in good food and focus on learning and enjoying the Italian language. Again, the critics missed the point of this memoir. It's a book about a writer, a New Yorker, a recently-divorced-woman-in-her-early-thirties' journey to heal and find spiritual strength through various means: pleasure first to recover (Italy), spiritual examination and purging (India), combining the two for balance (Bali), which would result hopefully in the kind of substance and depth and balance that so many critics mentioned she lacks.
One doesn't pick this book up to: 1. Be exposed to India's poverty and expect the author to discuss that in depth. 2. Be exposed to Italy's corruption and expect the author to discuss that in depth. 3. Be exposed to Balinese wiles and expect the author to discuss that in depth. (which she actually did in the account of the Balinese woman she raised money for to buy the land the woman needed to build a home).
Next time you pick a book up at the bookstore, call up your powers of perception before purchasing it. A book IS pretty much its cover. Did everyone really expect a book titled "Eat, Pray, Love" A Woman's Search for Everything, to be an experience of religious fervor, one that would reveal the secrets of the universe? It's a story about a girl who thought everything she thought she wanted, would bring her happiness. It didn't. It didn't for her, and possibly not for many other women. If it took this one woman to go to Italy, India, and Indonesia, to get away after a difficult and painful divorce to heal and get perspective--instead of festering and turning into a pile of flesh in depression--then by all means. Yes, she financed her travels through her book advance--after giving away the suburban home and NYC apartment to her ex-husband. And if she wrote this book for us, it's really for us to appreciate and enjoy the ride with her. Anybody else who got so upset needed only to put the book down and pick another one to their taste. If anything, that's this book's lesson: Do what makes you smile and thankful for life.

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Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrère Review

Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrère
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What an enlightenment this book was for me! Ms. Toff is really the Dean of American Flute Writers and this book is a masterpiece.


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Georges Barrère (1876-1944) holds a preeminent place in the history of American flute playing. Best known for two of the landmark works that were written for him--the Poem of Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Density 21.5 by Edgard Varèse--he was the most prominent early exemplar of the Paris Conservatoire tradition in the United States and set a new standard for American woodwind performance. Barrère's story is a musical tale of two cities, and this book uses his life as a window onto musical life in Belle Epoque Paris and twentieth-century New York. Recurrent themes are the interactions of composers and performers; the promotion of new music; the management, personnel, and repertoire of symphony orchestras; the economic and social status of the orchestral and solo musician, including the increasing power of musicians' unions; the role of patronage, particularly women patrons; and the growth of chamber music as a professional performance medium. A student of Paul Taffanel at the Paris Conservatoire, by age eighteen Barrère premiered the landmark Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. He went on to become solo flutist of the Concerts Colonne and to found the Societe Moderne d'Instruments a Vent, a pioneering woodwind ensemble that premiered 61 works for 40 composers in its first ten years. Invited by Walter Damrosch to become principal flute of the New York Symphony in 1905, he founded the woodwind department at the Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard). His many ensembles toured the United States, building new audiences for chamber music and promoting French repertoire as well as new American music. Toff narrates Barrère's relationships with the finest musicians and artists of his day, among them Isadora Duncan, Yvette Guilbert, André Caplet, Paul Hindemith, Albert Roussel, Wallingford Riegger, and Henry Brant. The appendices of the book, which list his 170 premieres and the 50 works dedicated to Barrère, are a resource for a new generation of performers. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories in both France and the United States, this is the first biography of Barrère. It is being published in conjunction with the centennial of his arrival in the United States in May 1905.

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A Fine Balance Review

A Fine Balance
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India, a country I knew little about, haunts me since reading this book. The author captures on paper the feeling of India on every page. The sounds, the smells and the people stay with me well after the last page was turned. Unforgettable characters that evoke every type of emotion!
Rohinton Mistry meshes the lives of four people of diverse backgrounds into a bond that lasts a lifetime. The in-depth look at a culture and a people that I knew little about has brought about an understanding that I previously lacked.
Dina Dalal, widowed and determined to make it as an independent woman in a world where women have little value, becomes the unwilling glue that supports 3 other lives.Maneck Kohlah is a student, sent by his parents from his mountain village to attend school in the city. Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash are tailors escaping the terror in their village by moving to the city to look for work. This unlikely group of people become dependent on each other out of necessity, their lives entangling to create the basis of the story.
This book is written with much sadness as well as humour and has touched a place in my heart. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future. Bravo!

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The Scandinavian Garden Review

The Scandinavian Garden
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It is spring here in Norway, and the perfect time for gardening. We moved last fall to a 25 years old house with a huge garden, and now we are looking for new inspirations everywhere.
Many of the garden books I find are from a climate much warmer than the one here in the middle of Norway, so reading about grapes, olive treas, huge flowering plants in huge terracotta pots only makes me dream about Italy France and Spain. But then I found the fantastic book about Scandinavian Gardens by Karl-Dietrich Buhler.
Buhler has travelled in the Scandinavian countries and is writing about special and remarcable gardens he has met on his travellings.
The book start with a story of a little boy, actually Buhler's own son, chasing wild gooses, and this reminds Buhler of Niels Holgerson's fantastic travels written by the Swedish Selma Lagerløf. And then Buhler takes us on a travel almost as fantastic as Niels Holgerson's one.
The gardens we meet through the book all has their own charm. Very often when you find a book trying to describe the best gardens, you are taken to the big, public ones, but in this book, together with some of the public garden we also visit some of the quite small, private gardens. We meet the owners and can read about their work of planning and maintaining the gardens.
The book has lots and lots of charming and outstanding pictures. A joy to own, a joy to have on a coffee table, or the garden table. Not as a decoration only, but as a book to look through and get inspiration from when you have washed your hands after hours of garden work.
Britt Arnhild Lindland

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Scandinavian landscape and garden design is original, sophisticated and poetic. Powerfully architectural, with an emphasis on geometry and sculpture, it is an evocative and romantic tradition. The Scandinavian enthusiasm for outdoor living, making the most of the endless summer daylight hours, has meant that garden designers are particularly innovative in treating gardens as outdoor rooms or extensions of the house.Karl-Dietrich Bühler has an unrivalled knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the gardens of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. This book focuses on the best gardens of the region, both the small jewels produced by amateur gardeners and the gardens designed by world-famous landscape architects such as Carl Theodor Sørensen and Andreas Bruun. With the aid of full-color photographs and plans, he describes elegant town gardens, and country, woodland and coastal gardens that are carefully designed into their landscapes.

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Moon in the Pines (Sacred Wisdom) Review

Moon in the Pines (Sacred Wisdom)
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Poetry is soppy, Zen is impractical and Orientals don't think or feel like the rest of mankind - three myths demolished in one elegant little book. Every poem breathes humanity and warmth, and the pictures complement them beautifully. A translator should above all respect and preserve the intent of the original author; Clements' fine, perceptive translations allow the underlying emotions and sensations of the works room to breathe, and give the reader space to make his own interpretation. These are poets who, attempting detachment from the world, have stood back far enough to observe it and themselves with loving exactness. Beautiful in every way.

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An illustrated collection of translations of classical and contemporary Japanese "haiku". This popular art form is the poetic expression of Zen Buddhism. Traditionally, a haiku poem is just 17 syllables long, which requires the poet, like the follower of Zen, to cut through surface appearances to the heart of an experience. In this collection, translator Jonathan Clements seeks to capture the elusive spirituality that enabled the Japanese poets to preserve their experience of the moment in a mere three lines. This collection, drawing on three centuries of haiku, features haiku poets from Basho, Buson and Issa to Shiki, Hakuin, Ikkyu and Chiyo-Ni. The poems are sympathetically illustrated with Japanese prints from the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Big Medicine from Six Nations (Iroquois and Their Neighbors) Review

Big Medicine from Six Nations (Iroquois and Their Neighbors)
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This is a rare gift! Ted Williams shares with us the experience of Mystery, Spirit,and Medicine. Through his wisdom and real life stories, Ted gives us a powerful, funny, and magical perspective. Having had the great blessing to have known Ted, this book is a special treasure - reading it I can hear his voice honoring all creation as he recites prayers, his 'tricky' laugh as he tells amazing stories, his choking on tears as he recites his sweet 'love Ted' poems.

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Celebrated author Ted Williams' account of his lifelong engagement with traditional wisdom, spiritual knowledge, and his search for higher consciousness among the Six Nations of Iroquois. Big Medicine from Six Nations is a series of reminiscences and essays by the lateTed Williams on the themes of "medicine" (physical/spiritual/psychic healing). Williams intertwines the lore and lifeways of his Tuscarora upbringing, illustrating the dynamic encounter of tradition and innovation at the heart of contemporary Haudenosaunee culture. At the same time, he writes with an irreverence, irony, and good humor unmistakably his own. Colored by his wry wit, Big Medicine from Six Nations amply fulfills the promise of its title. It offers a fascinating view not only of herbal medicine but also of prayers, omens, feasts, vision quests, sweat lodges, spirits, and the sacred teachings of the Great Law of the Great Peace. But readers will find that there is more to this book about the "spiritual mechanics" of humankind writ large.

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The Epidemic: A Collision of Power, Privilege, and Public Health Review

The Epidemic: A Collision of Power, Privilege, and Public Health
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The flowering of institutionalized corporate crime at the end of the 20th century is often so opaque and obscured, it is sometimes impossible to see in which of many the blind alleys and shadows the tracks of the culpable may reside. Early in the 20th century, however, the nefarious and their misdeeds were easier to illumine. In Ithaca, if we had to have plutocrats, the Tremans seemed benign enough, though no less haughty and imperious. Their name adorns bucolic state parks and beautiful marina lands. The mass murder that took place in Ithaca in 1903 - the instrument of which was an entirely avoidable typhoid epidemic - is traced in THE EPIDEMIC with pellucid clarity to a self-protecting cadre of Cornell administrators, patricians such as the Tremans, and a more basic kind of crook fueled by moneylust. Tales of crime are often reframed as mysteries, yet this one was replete with purple drama from the beginning, involving crooked deals of a upper class brotherhood, a broad pathos of needless deaths, the first unmasking of truths buried for nearly a hundred years, and a redefinition of the elements of social welfare. This book gallops along with the engaging and rhythmic pace of a Wilkie Collins crime or suspense novel, though the heart of the story has more in common with the dark malice of a tale by Poe.

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The dramatic account of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century struggle against a frightening disease-with lessons for todayThe Epidemic tells the story of how a vain and reckless businessman became responsible for a typhoid epidemic in 1903 that devastated Cornell University and the surrounding town of Ithaca, New York. Eighty-two people died, including twenty-nine Cornell students. Protected by influential friends, William T. Morris faced no retribution for this outrage. His legacy was a corporation-first known as Associated Gas & Electric Co. and later as General Public Utilities Corp.-that bedeviled America for a century. The Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 was its most notorious historical event, but hardly its only offense against the public interest.The Ithaca epidemic came at a time when engineers knew how to prevent typhoid outbreaks but physicians could not yet cure the disease. Both professions were helpless when it came to stopping a corporate executive who placed profit over the public health. Government was a concerned but helpless bystander. For modern-day readers acutely aware of the risk of a devastating global pandemic and of the dangers of unrestrained corporate power, The Epidemic provides a riveting look back at a heretofore little-known, frightening episode in America's past that seems all too familiar. Written in the tradition of The Devil in the White City, it is an utterly compelling, thoroughly researched work of narrative history with an edge.Praise for the author's previous book, Fire Underground "Enough bureaucratic villains to fill a Dickens novel." -New York Times Book Review "DeKok has not only reported and written a compelling first-hand account of how an underground fire destroyed Centralia, but he even gives us an anatomy of how the disaster happened and analyzes its implications for one community, and in a sense for all of us. A thoughtful and thoroughly engrossing read!" -Lisa Scottoline, author of Dirty Blonde, a fictional story about Centralia

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South India Handbook, 4th: Travel Guide to South India (Footprint - Handbooks) Review

South India Handbook, 4th: Travel Guide to South India (Footprint - Handbooks)
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very disappointing. the only information in this book is about temples. i wanted to learn what else south india has to offer and came up empty.

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Mesmerising and manic in equal measure, South India will have you enthralled from the minute you arrive. Footprint's 4th edition South India Handbook will help you discover, digest and delight in this beautiful region.The guide opens with a colour section full of inspirational photographs and advice to help you plan your trip giving you a flavour of the best things to see and do. The guide then includes carefully selected itineraries giving you advice on how to get the best out of your stay whether you're travelling for a week or 6 weeks. From the tropical calm of Kerala's bucolic backwaters, to the riotous exuberance of Hindu temples this guide provides extensive, thoroughly researched information which will help you plan your trip as well as advise you on the ground. The Essentials section provides great advice on how to get there and how to get around as well as information on sleeping, eating, drinking and shopping giving you an idea of what you can expect to pay. The heart of the guide is broken in to the key regions of South India – Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa - and gives you comprehensive information on each of the regions. Each regional section has an overview map, local information on how to get around with transport and street maps where relevant, a short history of the region, thorough advice on what to see and do and a directory of key local information on banks, embassies, internet cafes, medical and even laundry services. There is a full-colour mini atlas which has maps of each region to help you get your bearings. South India is an assault on the senses. Whether you want to explore chaotic cities, hire a houseboat and navigate your way around the beautiful backwaters, discover tombs and temples galore or simply lie back and relax on one of the many stunning beaches, immerse yourself with Footprint's fully updated 4th edition South India Handbook; with everything you need to know, including how to hunt out the silks and spices, where to find heritage homestays or mountain ghats and the low-down on the movie madness.

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Old Border Road: A Novel Review

Old Border Road: A Novel
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Old Border Road has exceptional descriptions of characters, situations, and Arizona scenery. The characters are unique, and the storyline is appealing.
The main character, Katherine, lives with her in-laws in southern Arizona and must work with them in their everyday routine of keeping up their ranch while her husband is habitually absent at night. Katherine has to work hard, deal with unhappiness, deal with loneliness, and with THE KNOWING. As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walked down the aisle as a seventeen-year-old bride have been an omen for her life's path?
Katherine....aka as "Girl" learns how to rope cattle, ride horses, make dinners, repair clothing, and cope with a drought plaguing Arizona. All characters mesh well together even though they are distinct in their own ways.
Ms. Froderberg's style is splendid...her beautiful prose reels you into the tale and allows you to become absorbed in the lives of Girl, Son, and Rose's Daddy.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book...it is one you will want to read as well. 5/5

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Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story Review

Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story
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The Henrietta Mears story is very inspiring. This is a wonderful book for anyone to read who is interested in being an impacting Christian leader. Women, if you are looking for an awesome role model for leadership, look no farther. I am a male, and this is one of the best books Ive ever read. Tells an awesome story about an amazing women.

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Pushing up the Sky Review

Pushing up the Sky
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Trevor's book leads us down the path less travelled; the path where life's dreams collide with cultural identities, shakable family values, childhood tragedy, and the loss of self that can only come from raw grief. Here is a story of strength that is renewed by letting go of what's safe, daring to fall into deep pain, then starting all over by holding onto the ribbons of love that connect all families. This thought provoking memoir should be read, shared, and savored for the feelings it evokes, the hope that it brings, and the courage that it imparts.

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In 1987, Terra Trevor and her husband Gary adopted a ten-year-old daughter from South Korea. Her new daughter experienced difficulty adjusting to becoming the oldest child in a mixed blood American Indian family. Her birth daughter, usurped from oldest to middle child, had a difficult transition too. Then her son, also adopted from Korea, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, an event that changed all of their lives forever. This is the story of a remarkable family facing incredible challenges. It is a story of compromises and insights, profound joy, deep suffering, and terrific rewards. Parenting birth and adopted children is one theme of this book. Most of all, it is a story on the meaning of family, and learning to let go of expectations and to forge a new identity.

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Stargirl Review

Stargirl
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I could only wish I was as brave and as overwhelmingly generous as the magical girl the book is named after. Told from the perspective of sixteen year old Leo, who falls under her charms like the rest of Mica High School, it is a wistful, heartfelt, and bittersweet narrative that ultimately packs a gentle but firm emotional punch.
This book should be required reading for adults young and old for it's ringing endorsement of individualism.It reminds us that like Stargirl it's okay to be different, that sameness is boring, and that we should all, as Will Shakespeare once said,"To thine own self be true."
At just under two hundred pages it can almost be tackled in one sitting. A perfect gift for someone who may not feel that they totally belong, or that their being different is a bad thing, or simply to be gently reminded that acceptance starts from within.

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Tempest At Ox Hill: The Battle Of Chantilly Review

Tempest At Ox Hill: The Battle Of Chantilly
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This is one of 3 books to have been written on this important but neglected battle in the past 3 years. Mr.Welker has done his homework in a book that emcompasses the battle from the days leading up to it to the aftermath. The book is beutifully written and researched in 12 chapters, a photo section, and an order of battle. A book on this battle is extremely rare and I would consider it as the only definitive record on the Battle of Ox Hill, along with He Hath Loosed The Fateful Lightning by Paul Taylor that you will find. Very informative, addicting and recommended.

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Every Civil War buff has heard of the Battle of Chantilly, the bloody 1862 engagement fought in a driving rainstorm only twenty miles from Washington that claimed the lives of two of the Union's most promising generals. Yet few have known the full story of courage and human drama because no one has ever produced a lively and historically accurate account of the battle-until now. Tempest at Ox Hill compellingly evokes this pivotal battle of the war, in which the Union army faced annihilation after Robert E. Lee's overwhelming victory at Second Bull Run. At Chantilly, Virginia, on September 1, 1862, a small Union rearguard faced down some of Lee's best generals. The retreating main Union army, and Washington, were saved, but at a frightening human cost, including the deaths of two Union generals-the promising Isaac Stevens and the dashing Philip Kearny, a Mexican War veteran who had also served with Napoleon III's imperial guard. And around these two Union generals lay nearly twelve hundred American soldiers, both blue and gray, dead fighting for their chosen cause. Tempest at Ox Hill captures the moment, the courage, and the carnage unforgettably.

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