On-the-tape

I just recently stumbled upon Ken Davis, and I'm so glad I did! He is without a doubt one of the best comedians I've heard in a long time. His appeal crosses all age groups, and is probably one of the few I can listen to with my kids and be comfortable. Ken has a unique way of looking at life, as most comedians do, and I challenge anyone to listen to him and not laugh. And while he's weaving his tale of humor, he intermingles a message about God's love for us. I highly recommend this audio tape to anyone and everyone. It's laughter for the mind and soul!

As someone who is a seasoned stand-up-comedy-goer, I used to be under the general impression that Christian comedians were among the worst of them, doing mediocre acts that might occasionally elicit a giggle from their audience, although rarely more. And then I discovered Ken Davis.

This guy is funny! Everything from his facial expressions to his accents to his casual observance of the most inane but hilarious details of life made me laugh. I cannot hear him say "snowplough turn" enough! And to top it off, I was also incredibly touched by his message of the joy that knowing Jesus brings.

This is clean comedy that (for once) is actually funny. See this video now!

Awesome video in general!!! Any audience would get some serious laughs out of this. Ken Davis speaks about joy and love, and at the same time will leave you gasping for air between episodes of laughter!

Two Plays For Voices is part of the Seeing Ear Theatre Productions from the Sci-Fi Channel. More television stations should follow their lead. These two stories told in the form of radio plays are terrific! I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman and this format brings two incredible stories to life.

Murder Mysteries is expertly presented and the twist at the end is a surprise to say the least.

Snow Glass Apples is a shivery fairy tale which cuts to the core of good vs. evil and that some things aren't always what they seem.

I'm a fan...Neil's worst works still qualify as excellent in my mind, and these are some of his best. I read these stories when they were published 10 years ago in a small distribution book called Angels and Visitations. Then I saw them reprinted again in another book some years later.

The two plays in this package provided my wife and I the best entertainment we were going to get while being stuck in 8 hours of traffic. Finally I got my wife to pay attention to Neil's stuff (she refused to read Sandman)and she dug it.

If you like books on tape, this is better. If you like reading Neil's work, you'll like it even better this way.

Neil, if you're reading this...can we have some more of these?

The voices truly bring the stories to life. An absolute must-have for any Gaiman fan.

For many of us,the poems that we read in childhood and adolescence are those that stick with us the most. When I was fifteen, I bought this volume and promptly fell in love with Auden's poetry. His work showed a restlessness with the social and political state of his world, and I found that I could connect with it both intellectually and emotionally. To this day, I can revisit this book's pages feeling like I am visiting a childhood friend. Auden expressed some feelings I shared with him, and I was moved by his ability to express them better than I ever could: with frankness, wit, and grace. A must for any literary enthusiast (or any curious fifteen-year-old, for that matter).

I can do little more than echo the other reviewers here. This is all a 'selected poems' shoud be: introductory and selective. Yes, "Funeral Blues" is missing. But no one can complain about what is here, which includes "In Time of War", the great sonnet sequence; "The Quest", another long sequence; and the entirety of THE SEA AND THE MIRROR, which is based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. If you are, however, only interested in his love poems, I'd have to steer you toward TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, a nice little chapbook containing only those.

My own personal experience with this book may be relevant. It has served to introduce me to one of the finest poets of the last century and sparked a desire to read THE COLLECTED POEMS, also edited by Mendelson, to see how Auden re-wrote thirty of the brilliant poems here included. I'm continuing on my voyage; hope you are starting on yours.

The poetry is splendid -- Auden is a brilliant, sensitive, musical and entertaining writer -- and the selection is fairly representative. Mendelson prefers Auden's later poems to his earlier ones, so the twee middle-aged sequences "Bucolics" and "Horae Canonicae" are included complete, while most of "Twelve Songs" (which has some terrific love poems like "Fish in the unruffled lakes", "Funeral Blues" and "Tell me the truth about love") is not. Still, there is enough in here, esp. in the first two-thirds of the book, to give you a fair enough taste of Auden's verse to entice you to buy his Collected Poems.

(You'll still need the Selected; it has a couple of good poems that Auden decided not to republish, and superior versions of some early poems.)

This is a ghost story with an absorbing historical edge. To be honest, Michaels has treated this theme better in other of her novels and the characterizations are a bit superficial. Nevertheless, these are petty qualms in the face of such an entertaining work. The novel is set in the late 70s or early 80s, and some of the characters' ideas, not to mention the dialogue, are ludicrously out of date (actually, I enjoyed this for nostalgic reasons, but younger readers may be bewildered and/or roll their eyes a lot!). I have read this novel three or four times, and although I don't love it now as much as I did upon my first reading, I still highly reommend it. Michaels is simply a master of suspense, and this book will grip you and not let go until you turn the very last page.

Walker in the Shadows is a book that is timeless in it's intensity and thrilling from start to finish. Imagine yourself in an old, historical home, complete with things that go bump in the night. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a whisp of smoke, curtains blowing with no breeze to sway them, a glowing light with no apparent source...well, you get the idea! Ms. Michaels has wonderful three dimensional characters to go along with her chilling tale that takes you from the present to the past, with all the mystery and intrigue you can possibly desire. Walker is a wonderful book to cuddle up with on a dark, stormy night...but do yourself a favor...you may want to leave the night light on after you read it!

I started reading Barbara Michaels' (aka Elizabeth Peters) novels a loooong time ago. Of the three spookiest, this is one, along with Ammie Come Home and The Crying Child. Every time I re-read one of these three, I get the cold shudders. The atmospheres are wonderfully creepy, and the characters are like normal, real-life folks who find themselves in seemingly impossible situations. Grab this author's books wherever and whenever you can, and turn on all the lights in the house before you start reading!

I have never read a book that i could not put down,i bought this book yesterday 1/10/03 and just finished it now 1/11/03. My heart goes out to those American Soldiers who were in this battle and how brave and galently they fought,i had never heard of this battle until i saw the movie,i wanted to find out the facts as to what happened in the battle.This book told me everything down to the last detail.This is a book everyone should read to see what its really like in battle.That battle and bravery our soldiers will stay with me forever.

I recommend this honest and very straight forward book to all who care to know more about the Vietnam conflict. As a kid who was born in the 1960's, my appreciation of the soldiers who fought and gave their lives has been limited to the various movies and stories of the era.

The authors of this book have done an incredible job gathering information from their fellow soldiers (and in some cases those soldiers families) in order to convey and portray what can only be described as an incredibly poignant account of their experiences.

I know that this will be a story I will one day recommend that my own children read in an effort to improve their understanding of the sacrafices such brave people have made for the sake of our continued freedom.

I wasn't quite old enough to fight in Vietnam, but after reading this book and listening to this tape, it's as though I had been there. The book was absolutely gripping and the tape ... well ... for those of you who saw the recent movie, Joseph L. Galloway is the on-scene reporter. His rough, unpolished voice is PERFECT for this tape. It's Hal Moore's story recounted by the reporter who flew into battle with him. A priceless, classic combination. I've worn out the tape already ... time to reorder. (Hint: Make sure you get the Galloway edition. The CD has a slick Hollywood-type doing the narration. It's not the same.)

I am a hypercritcal reader and I love it when I pick up a book I cannot stop reading. I have subsequently ordered all of Mosher's books and cannot wait to read them. Mosher is not a good writer he is a great American writer. He builds character and place like the master he is. Thank you Mr. Mosher.

I'm saddened to see far too many people pigeon-hole Howard Frank Mosher as a 'writer of regional interest' -- maybe only those who live along the Mississippi should read Mark Twain, then. True, Mosher's books all take place in Vermont -- but these are such well-written, absorbing stories, the characters so unforgettable, that any one who appreciates fine literature can thoroughly enjoy them.

This volume collects 6 of Mosher's short stories along with the title novella -- the latter being possibly his most well-known work, having been made into an exceptional film with the amazingly-talented Rip Torn in the role of a lifetime as Noel Lord, Mosher's cantankerous ex-lumberjack. Lord is mentioned in some of the other stories, as well as in some of Mosher's novels -- and other characters make appearances in more than one work as well.

Set in 1927 Vermont, 'Where the rivers flow north' takes the familiar theme of the rugged individualist going up against the evil, unfeeling corporation, and breathes new life into it. Mosher's flowing style, combined with his incredible ability to bring to the printed page all the nuances of his characters' personalities -- warts and all -- give this and all of his works the finishing touches that only a fine craftsman can give. Noel Lord's Native American housekeeper/wife, Bangor, is one of the most memorable characters you'll ever run across. She and Lord have a classic yin-yang relationship that, most likely, neither one would acknowledge. A reader from any part of the nation can get inside these people, can feel and experience everything that happens to them -- and any time we can do that, we can learn and we can grow.

The characters in all of the stories here are, as in all of Mosher's works, vividly drawn -- Alabama Jones, the innocent-but-worldly aspiring carnival performer -- Burl, an old woman lying in a nursing home waiting to die, looking back at her life with a combination of bitterness and longing -- Eban and Walter, brothers, neighbors, at odds in their life over things large and small, but brothers -- a man dying, clinging to life through a kept peacock -- a boy passes through a coming-of-age event, a flood, which changes forever the way he views both his brother and his father -- another man, Henry Coville, makes some painful recollections and decisions as he feels the end of his life approach. Mosher paints them all with the deft brush strokes of an artist who intimately knows his subjects and the landscape in which their lives are played out.

Howard Frank Mosher is an immensely talented, always entertaining writer -- he deserves to be widely read, and what a treat is awaiting those who read him for the first time...!

After I found out that my in-laws knew Howard Mosher personally and my husband had him as a teacher and coach in school and hung out with Howard's kids in high school I HAD to read a book written by him. This is the first book I read by Howard and I can't wait to read more. What a great illustration of Vermont in the early 1900's!

The e-book download shown above is the older, Jowett translation and not the more recent Grube Translation, so be careful when ordering, especially when ordering used. Both translations are now available spoken on tape (which may bring tears to your eyes!), so when ordering, be aware of which translation you are getting.

Note that the e-book download shown above is not the most current translation by Grube, but the older Jowett translation. Make sure to look for the newer translations when ordering, especially used editions.

For those of you who must have it all, buy PLATO COMPLETE WORKS, edited by John M. Cooper. Personally, I would save your [money] and just buy this. I have read and reviewed many other Platonic texts, but I really don't think you need anything else. This is the irreducible core of Platonic Goodness.

THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES is a compilation four dialogues: the "Euthyphro," the "Apology," "Crito," and the "Phaedo". As the title clearly states, these four dialogues convey the story - and philosophical debate - that surrounded Socates' trial and death. In these dialogues we find Socrates defending the righteousness of his actions and views, and tearing away at his prosecutors with the skill of expert lawyer. His only weapon being the truth.

In spite of, or perhaps because these four dialogues were written while Plato was still a middle-aged man (as opposed to the "Republic" and the "Laws," which are thought to be his more formulated philosophical expressions), they absolutely sizzle. The text bleeds with life, and so-called Socratic method of endless penetrating questions is here exemplified in the most dire of occasions - Socrates defense against the State of Athens.

It is in these dialogues that Plato expresses the core of philosopohy: a committment to truth, beauty and justice, and the the supreme tenent: "The unexamined life is not worth living." That said, if you still yearn for more Plato after reading these dialogues, grab a copy of Allan Bloom's translation of THE REPUBLIC. It is currently the best English translation available, and you will still be saving [money] over an edition of Plato's complete works.

A regimental history that really reflects the combat history of the Army of the Potomac from Antietam to Appomattox, this piece of Civil War literature is well worth your time.

Pullen puts you in the action so effectively that you really begin to wonder how regiments like the Twentieth Maine were able to perform so heroically for so long. Credited with single handedly saving the Union flank the second day Gettysburg, this unit produces one of the finest battle field commanders of the war: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

With a combat record second to none, the Twentieth Maine just may have saved the Union. It is because of their efforts that the United States owes such a deep sense of gratitude to the State of Maine.

This is one of the best regimental histories written about a Civil War outfit on either side. It is also a story of high valor and drama, of lost youth and heavy, heartbreaking losses. It is also the story of the maturing of a good man, Joshua Chamberlain, into a good soldier who does more than his assigned duty and ends the war with a general's stars, and more than one wound.

The regiment doesn't start with promise, however, and its first commander, Colonel Adelbert Ames, a hardened regular, is somewhat dismayed at his new command. However, hard work and professionalism pay off, and the 20th Maine does evolve into 'a hell of a regiment.'

The payoff is at Gettysburg on the second day on the far left flank of the Army of the Potomac on a wooded hill known locally as Little Round Top. Now commanded by the Lieutenant Colonel, Joshua Chamberlain (Ames being deservedly promoted to Brigadier General and brigade command), the regiment becomes the focus of the southern effort to capture Little Round Top and flank the Union Army. If one man could lose the war in the afternoon, it was Chamberlain and his homespun regiment from Maine.

They rise to the challenge, at heavy loss to themselves, execute a bayonet charge down the hill after running out of ammunition, sweeping up 400 prisoners and saving the Union left flank. It is the stuff legends are made of.

This is only one episode in this superb volume, and this book belongs in every Civil War collection. It is written with wit, verve, and accuracy, and it stirs the soul that our country was fought for and saved by men such as these.

John J. Pullen is to be commended for writing a masterful and interesting account of the famed 20th Maine led by Colonel (later Maj. General) Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. From the founding of the regiment made up of fishermen, lumberjack and regular men of various towns in Maine, Pullen describes the unorganization and various other problems the regiment encountered when it was first formed.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was made Lt. Colonel when he first arrived to join the regiment and soon afterwards the regiment was becoming disciplined and effective, also under the command of Col (later Gen) Aldebert Ames.

From the first battles the unit fought in to the carnage of Fredericksburg and thus to Chancellorsville and finally to the 2nd of July 1863, Pullen describes vividly the heroic stance the 20th Maine made against the brave attack of the 15 Alabama and 4th and 5th Texas under Col. William Oates. The suprizing bayonet charge by the 20th Maine, when all seemed lost was a daring and bold moved that quite possibly saved the Union line and thus ultimately won the Battle of Gettysburg. The heroic regiment also fought bravely for the rest of the war especially at Petersburg where Gen. Chamberlain was seriously wounded.

Pullen does an outstanding job describing the everyday life of the regiment and describing various soldiers and the routine that made life away from home very tough to bear, however this regiment is to be commended for their commitment to the Union, to the state of Maine and to their families most of all.

This book is HIGHLY recommended to all Civil War Readers and once you start reading it, it will be hard to put down.

Ballard novels have never really impressed me - they seem too unfocused and convoluted. I am a big fan, however, of his short stories - generally well-written, interestingly plotted, and providing just the right amount of alienation, making even a mundane situation seem like an otherworldly experience. "The Best Short Stories of..." is a great place to start, with many fiction and sci-fi classics, a great representation of the short story form. "War Fever" is a worthy follow-up. I don't know why it took me so long to try these stories, but they are definitely worth it. Here, he doesn't really go out of his way to write in any established genre (sci-fi, horror), but his stories seem to drift that way ever so slightly, as if trying to just tread the edge of such. He uses some interesting variations with form as well, seeing what the reader will accept as a story: a questionnaire? An index? Both are equally valid, and Ballard uses them to great effect. Give this collection a try and see how well the stories hold up to his more classic works. I think you'll find that his output from the mid to late '80s was just as good.

I'll let the scholarly types explain all the deep insight contained in these stories. All I can say is this is the collection I hand out to people who want to explore Ballard's work. Some great stories in there.

These are some of the most creative short stories I've read. Ever. A sailor wrecks his chemical-laden ship on a remote Caribbean island, and the island environment reacts surprisingly well. A young assassin escapes an English mental institution and begins targeting astronauts. A man locks himself in his house and locks the rest of the world out...forever. Intelligently written, well-researched, and ever fascinating, these stories represent Ballard at his visionary best. I couldn't put it down!

Bobby Unser was a very successful race car driver. This book shows that he always is a successful business man. Not being a racing fan, I wasn't too excited at first, but I enjoy reading motivational and self-improvement books, so I thought I'd check it out. Although I wouldn't say it turned me into a racing fan, I got to appreciate the scientific and sporting aspects of racing.

The advice given, although not earth-shattering, is both true and effective. For example, he talks about the desire to succeed and how this is a necessary "fuel" for winning. Many other self-development authors speak about this much as well. It is not anything new. However, He gives vivid examples from his racing career and from other anecdotes of friends and acquaintances. These examples are well-chosen because they are inspiring.

This is similar to other sections of his book. Bobby Unser seems to be very principle oriented as well as a man of integrity. He talk about instances where he could have turned his back on a commitment for monetary gain or to get on a better racing team (he made it seem like it was a somewhat common occurance in auto racing), but he stayed true to his commitment and it ended benefiting him in the end. This is refreshing considering some of the stereotypes of big business today where the search for a dollar seems to be the guiding principle sometimes.

I highly recommend this book. Even though it has a lot of auto racing stories, Unser tells them in a way that non-fans would really enjoy them and get motivation from their example.

...and visions are meant to be shared.

Bobby's translation of what it takes to move from leading a race into the winner's circle to leading in business is an analogy well made in this book, particularly for all racing fans who find themselves wanting to gain a winning edge in life.

Paul Pease parlays Bobby Unser's winning focus in driving to be first for the checkered flag into a shared vision for his readers of what it takes to succeed in business. Bobby's lessons learned on the track and in between race days made him a part of one of America's most winning race families in a sport that has literally killed many who took on its challenges.

Bobby's experience in the business of racing and in the business of business in his twenty years of retirement, make him an excellent teacher of valuable lessons for the lay reader. The examples of lessons learned from his years of racing provide an entertaining and enlightening background for the reader to gain perspective on each message Bobby has to offer.

Bobby is clearly a monumental character both on the track and off. Being a willing teacher of what it takes to make a difference in business as in life makes this book very satisfying to the finish.

I found Bobby's book to be not only a fun read, but also packed with great motivational tips. Applying the tips to racing really hit home and was great reinforcement. It was nice to read about someone who actually practices what they preach, and can then explain it so that others can benefit.