literature

Aside from the clarity of his prose and his engaging tone, Screech managed to synthesize the multiple editions of the essays into a single work, giving the readers an insight into Montaigne's development.

The essays were originally published in three editions. With each revision, essays were amended, expanded, and edited as Montaigne's thoughts developed. Screech uses a subtle system to note these later additions and revisions, pointing out where the essays grew over time.

Screech's translations of the hundreds of classical quotations are also well handled, giving both the original language and a clear English rendering of the passage without interrupting the flow of the text.

This is an amazing book. Moving, insightful, humane, and thick enough to kill any bugs you choose to smack with it. I've had to order a second copy of this volume, since I've reduced my first copy to tatters, reading and rereading it. Okay, and smacking bugs.

They are the perfect-sized books for your little one and a great way to get them interested in learning to love books. The pages are strong and sturdy and will take any amount of page turning your little one can dish out.

The best thing about these books is the wonderful photography of each item - clearly labeled with it's name. As you read this book over and over to your child it won't be long before they are the ones pointing to the picture and telling you what it is.

I've read this series of books (over and over)to my children since they were about 6 months old. The eldest (now 4 and a half) still flicks through the books and has started to point things out and say the words to her little brother.

Highly recommended!

On the other hand, I once took my ailurophilic spouse Bessie on a camping trip to one of those cat-ridden ghost towns in New Mexico (Winston) and the interaction between owl and kitty cat was not quite as Lear describes in his charming book--imagine an entire evening interupted by the continual caterwauls of nature's inferior puddy tat. I only wish Bobo (her annoying tabby) had been along for the ride!!! Recommended, but not as enjoyable as the Winston Owlprey Symphony Orchestra.

I've just re-read this book the second time, and I cried and laughed again, just as much as I did the first time. It's amazing how deeply this story and it's characters can affect me. It obviously touches a place in my memory and soul that needs to wake up occasionally.

So thanks, Ms Macgenn, for writing this story. I've already made a list of the people who are going to be getting it for Christmas!

Lee Ellis, retired editor, narrator, and journalist.

Do yourself a favor and get this book. Read it--you'll fly through it because you won't want to stop--and then read it again.

This is a coming-of-age story for both mother and son. She has to confront the demons of her past; he has to come to terms with his gay father and the act of violence that his mother perpetrates against her new husband. Her memories haunt her; his are the basis for his new awakenings. As the book goes on, we learn more and more about the family and Pixie's mother, whose eccentricities are forgiven when her own past secret act of courage is unearthed. All this is set in the wasteland of suburbia, and every detail of description is unique, offbeat and fresh.

I totally enjoyed this book and the probing insights that go way beneath the surface. Ms. Baggott has a gift of using humor and pathos with brutal honesty. It makes for good reading.

My only quibble is that the suggested reading level is ages 4-8. My nearly five-year-old can't do these projects alone, (I also use a hot glue gun, so it's too hot for her) so I've ended up letting her direct what goes where on the puppets. I think a six year-old working with less dangerous adhesives could do many of the projects himself, and I think kids even older than the age range would find the projects fun, especially if they have little siblings or an opportunity to teach younger kids. (Like helping out at Sunday school).

The book is full of projects that are easy to do right away, don't cost much money or require special trips to the craft store and let your child develop her imagination/creativity/emotional skills.

I found the essay and Wine and Milk quite engrossing. Equally intriguing were the ones on The Face of Garbo, Novels and Children, The Writer on Holiday, and Romans in Films. My favorite essay, however, was the one on Wrestling. I am not, nor have I ever been a wrestling fan. Perhaps I felt enlightened when I read the essay, especially when I compared it to wrestling today. Even though Roland Barthes brings up the fact, and acknowledges that French wrestling is different from American wrestling (remember, he's talking about the 50's and 60's), The differences have in my estimation only grown more noticeable. And yet the one thing that remains the same is that WRESTLING IS NOT A SPORT...it is a SPECTACLE. Through this essay I was able to add a new word to my French vocabulary... La Barbaque... meaning stinking meat. A term I wouldn't have associated, before reading Barthes, with wrestling.

If you're an essay enthusiast, and enjoy reading about our immediate past, MYTHOLOGIES may be of interest to you.

I'm not saying that I fully understand him yet. I'm not sure that I ever will. I think that "Myth Today"(the book's final and most central essay) still remains fairly firmly out of reach. But it's true that each time I re-read Barthes, I get something more out of it-- I manage to scale heights that I didn't think I would ever get to the last time around.

Isn't it the mark of a brilliant book that it grows with you?

Particularly recommended this time are the essays "Soap Powders and Detergents" and "Operation Margarine".

The only photograph of Mrs. Lindbergh is the one that appears on the cover. The photograph depicts a young woman at the start of what would prove to be a life as fascinating as it was lengthy. The closing months of this woman's life are chronicled above all else with a great deal of respect. This is a most private family event, and just as the book is devoid of any pictures for the voyeur, the narrative too is informative without taking away any of the dignity of her mother. This would seem to be an obvious manner to write of one's parent, but a person does not have to look far to find books written with sales as the first goal, and exploitation of the subject left unconsidered.

Reeve Lindbergh is a poet, she is reflective, and these aspects of her personality provide a narrative that is unique. This book is not simply a diary; it is not a chronological description of the systematic health decline of her mother. It is more of a story that is driven by the limited interactions she was able to have with her mother, and the memories that were either hers or recollections of her mother's life. This is not a sugarcoated story of what was a very trying time. The book is a balanced memoir about how difficult it is to deal with not only the death of a parent, but also the very real difficulties and frustrations that caring for an elderly, ill parent involves. Mrs. Lindbergh had the best care available which took much of the moment-to-moment care off of the family. It did not remove many of the difficulties, and the reader can easily imagine what it would entail to care for a parent with little, or no outside help.

This is a very contemplative book that moves at an associated pace.

This accomplished, literary family has shared so much of their private lives in so many ways. It is fitting that Reeve Lindbergh (who has her mother's rare gift of perception and expression) shared these final months of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's life with us. As was true of nearly all of the Lindbergh diaries (Bring Me a Unicorn was the upbeat exception), reading No More Words left me emotionally-drained at times. Ms. Lindbergh weaves memories of her strong, wise mother into the story of her mother's frail final years. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's works which somehow puts the upcoming chapter into perspective. This book falls within the "couldn't put it down" category -- it is easily finished in a couple of sittings.