No comments about Wokcraft.

No comments about Shannon: The Road to Whiskey Creek.

5 comments about A Christmas Carol (Apple Classics).

1. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMER i HAVE EVER HEARD. MR. STEWART BRINGS TO LIFE THE COMPLETE STORY. MAKING THE STORY MR. DICKENS INTENDED GO RIGHT TO YOUR SOUL.
   I HAVE PUT IT ON THE LIST OF THINGS WE ARE DOING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY, THIS HOLIDAY SEASON AND TO SIT DOWN AND LISTEN TO THIS GREAT STORY.
   YOU WILL NOT BE UNHAPPY WHEN YOU BUY THIS CD.
   THE HALLEY FAMILY



2. I saw this script produced at the Castle Museum in York during its first run. It's the most faithful adaptation I have ever seen of A Christmas Carol, which is one of my favourite novels.
   
   Highly recommended.



3. Everyone has their favorite version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Make this dramatic retelling yours. At about 2 hours, its perfect for listening in the car while running around during the holidays or on your MP3 player while putting up Christmas lights. I plan on listening to it every year from now on. Patrick Stewart gives voice to every character, including the narration, and gives the kind of performance which I have come to expect from an actor of his immense talents.



4. I ordered 30 copies of this Dover Thrift Edition of A Christmas Carol and used them as stocking stuffers at work.
   
   This is a great item for the price, lower than some greeting cards, and I suspect appreciated a tad more than the usual overflow of candy around at holiday time!



5. Cute book to add to my table of Christmas Stories. Will make a cute addition this Christmas.

5 comments about Great Expectations (English Library).

1. Many people scoffed this book back in my freshman English class, because it was Dickens, and Dickens meant "boring" to them. However, shrug off the normal tendencies to stereotype an old-time classic to be a bore, one can find a true delight in this beautiful story of a young man struggling with an impossible love, the pressures of money and society, and, of course, himself. It is an excellent, absolutely enriching read.



2. Great Expectations didn't meet my expectations. I was a little bored throughout the begining and middle of the story. I think what kept me reading on was the desire to read a "classic" (I usually read biography or history).
   
   I continued reading because I wanted to find out if Magwitch would meet his daughter. In addition, I was interested in Pip's strong desire to be a gentleman. Other than help his friend in business and dawdle about thinking about an emotionally deadweight chic, Pip didn't seem interested in obtaining a job or taking real advantage of his opportunities. I'll give Pip credit for helping his friend attain stature in business, and eventually going on to operate with his friend after losing his unearned wealth. But the lazy part is 19th century gentleman, huh?
   
   Maybe Dicken's purpose was to show the benefits of wealth and the slothfullness of one who didn't have to work himself to attain it. Maybe it hit me at the wrong time, as my fiancee just took a hike and left me after I just sold my house (and now have no place to go). Trust you me, I won't be wasting my life away like Ms. Havisham though. I haven't reached gentlemanly status and need to continue working . . . .
   
   I've only read Charles Dicken's Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist in addition to "Great Expectations". Of these, I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholas Nickleby. In the future, I'll look for Kates and Madellines and not Estellas. Great Expectations was a tougher read for me as these characters just simply didn't entice my interest too much. Of course, maybe I needed a brighter read . . .



3. Philip Pirrip, otherwise known as Pip, has great expectations. Given the opportunity to become 'a gentleman', his life becomes a quest fueled by his misguided and false hopes and dreams. And most of all: of unrequited love. All of which unravels.
   
   There is something there for everyone: mystery, thriller, drama, comedy, social commentary, romance (in a twisted sort of way). GE is about human nature and love, forgiveness and hope; a perfect blending of all these gritty elements that make up Life.
   
   I'm not going to go into the plot, others have done it, and much better than I ever could. What I will say is that Great Expectations is a book that everyone should try to read. Don't rush, but peruse, read slowly, savor it, appreciate it. The characters are vivid and heart-breaking, the personal growth of Pip from young boy to man, emotional and dramatic. You will feel for all the characters that will stay with you long after you've finished it.
   
   The introduction by Irving should be read. But AFTERWARDS. He gives an interesting biosketch on Dickens, the story arch and influences of GE. I was definitely enriched for having read it. The back also has the Original Ending of GE that Dicken's wrote, a list of works and a short but concise bibliography about Dicken's the man and his works.
   
   This was my first read of Dicken's and I was expecting a book bogged down and heavy with prose or overtly poetic speeches, and a book that would make me want to go to sleep: I was pleasantly surprised. While the style can be difficult & you will have to re-read parts of it, it's manageable, though, it's a good idea to have a dictionary on hand. There are parts that do go on and chapters that seem static, but the language and rendering of 19th century England and the characters make it all the worth while. Only then, will you understand why this book a true Classic.



4. "Great Expectations" is one of the few works by Charles Dickens that I had neither read nor had any contact with. Other than knowing title and author, I had no knowledge of the work before reading this book. After reading it, I can say that the effect was what one would hope the Classics Illustrated works would have on people. The contact generated a desire in me to read the original work.
   The artwork is generally dour, reflecting the reality of London in Dickens' time. While there were pockets of great wealth, there were enormous sections of grinding poverty and struggle. The lot of orphans was especially hard, with no social safety net of any kind, they were at the mercy of whatever benefactors they happened to encounter.
   In many ways, the best way to learn about the social conditions of England in the mid nineteenth century is to read the novels of Charles Dickens. He tells it like it is, a place of great social consciousness, where the upper classes could do no wrong and the lower classes were expected to know their place. There is no better indicator of that than when working class Joe Gargery nurses the now gentleman Pip back to health and then after his recovery, Joe leaves Pip and goes back to his social station.



5. It is astonishing to read literature this good, such that within the first few pages you know that no matter what the author does to the characters or how he concludes the story, and whether it suits my tastes in any specific direction, you realize that here is a work of lasting skill, value, and impact, truly a classic.
   
   Now I came to this book with perhaps reduced expectations, not great ones, having only remembered reading The Christmas Carol by Dickens, a story so well known that it seems more created ex nihilo than spun of raw materials from the human mind. It exceeded my expectations in every direction--humor, plot and pacing, dialogue, description, action, romance, poignancy.
   
   And it is interesting that in the end, Pip, despite his tremendous character growth and recovery from terminal and self-defacing self-centeredness, is still not the moral equal of Joe and Biddy (I should have seen that one coming, but didn't). I'm not sure even Dickens is conscious of the fact that no matter how far Pip has come in his redemption, he is still far behind Joe and Biddy in their pure human worth.
   
   Wow.

No comments about The Easter Ribbit (Read With Me Paperbacks).

No comments about Weekly reader children's book club presents a new Peanuts book featuring Snoopy.

1 comments about Coffee.

1. This is the best book about coffee, bar none. It is a good overview of the history of coffee, its many blends and styles and how to make good coffee. It is an indispensable book for anyone who wants to have an idea of what they're drinking in the morning is really all about.

No comments about JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS 1914: A Reprint of the 1914 Edition of Fighting Ships Edited By Fred T. Jane; Including a Chapter on the Progress of Marine Engineering By Charles De Grave Sells.

1 comments about The Charles Bronson Book of Poems (Ng).

1. A Walk Through LifeIf you like artwork and illustrations then this book is highly reccomended for you but not for the poetry itself.

1 comments about The Longwood Reader (4th Edition).

1. The Longwood Reader is a wonderful work - it clearly and distinctly addresses different college writing formats, differentiating them, and addressing some common writing issues. The selections of different types of essays is broad and many of the authors represented are very current. I am the instructor for the course, not a student, and I am very much enjoying using this text.