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Chapters: Charles Lyell, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, James Mill, Alan Cumming, Albin of Brechin, Gavin Douglas, Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Ingram de Ketenis, Henry de Lichton, Lewis Spence, James Falconer, John Playfair, Andrew Melville, Michael Lockett, Carnegie of Finhaven, George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, William Chalmers Burns, David Lindsay, John Pringle Nichol, George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, Aindréas of Caithness, Thomas Lowson, Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet, Thomas de Lundin, David Duncan, William Tulloch, Charles Melvin, James Tytler, Bill Skelly, John Erskine of Dun, George Haliburton, Thomas Scott, James Maule, 4th Earl of Panmure, Henry Nicoll, Irene Mcgugan, Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus, George Dempster, Thomas Tulloch, Thomas Renny-Tailyour, Matilda, Countess of Angus, Dubacan of Angus, Maol Choluim, Earl of Angus, Gille Críst, Earl of Angus, Adam, Earl of Angus, Gille Brigte, Earl of Angus, Donnchadh, Earl of Angus, Colin Campbell of Lundie. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 193. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 9 February 2002) was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II and the daughter of King George VI and his wife Elizabeth. Margaret spent much of her early life in the company of her elder sister and parents. Her life changed dramatically in 1936, when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson. Margaret's father became King in Edward's place, and after her elder sister, Elizabeth, Margaret became second in line to the throne. During World War II, the sisters stayed at Windsor Castle, despite government pressure to evacuate to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was not expected to perform any public or offici...http://booksllc.net/?id=38567 ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Alan Cumming, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1599 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Carol Ann Duffy, Alan Cumming, Edwin Morgan, Gavin Maxwell, Jackie Kay, Ali Smith, Val Mcdermid, John Henry Mackay, Ricardo Pinto, Hal Duncan, Ellen Galford. Excerpt:Alan Cumming Alan Cumming , OBE (born 27 January 1965) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor , writer , director, producer and author . His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye , Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United , and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy. He has also appeared in independent films like The Anniversary Party , which he co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in; and Ali Selim's Sweet Land , for which he won an Independent Spirit award as producer. His London stage appearances include Hamlet , Madman in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist , for which he received an Olivier award, the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent , and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae . On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera , the Emcee in Cabaret , for which he won the Tony in 1998, and "Design for Living". Cumming also introduces "Masterpiece Mystery" for PBS. He has also written a novel, Tommy's Tale , had a cable talk show ("Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming") and produced a line of perfumed products labeled "Cumming". He has contributed opinion pieces to many publications and performed a cabaret show I Bought A Blue Car Today . Retaining his British citizenship , Cumming also became a U.S. citizen in November 2008. Early life Cumming was born in Aberfeldy , in Perthshire , Scotland, the son of Mary, an insurance company secretary, and Alex Cumming, a forester. He has one older brother, Tom. Brought up in Angus , Cumming attended Monikie Primary School and Carnoustie High School and originally aspired to a career in... ... Read more

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Introduces Chadwick, a blue crab, and his various animal friends who live in and near the Chesapeake Bay. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Meet Chadwick and his C hesapeake Bay Friends
We bought all of the Chadwick books years ago when our grandkids were young.Somehow (of course, nobody knows how it happened), "Meet Chadwick" got lost in the shuffle.The oldest grandson wants the set to pass on to his kids.We were glad to be able to replace it still.
Thanks for having it!It arrived quickly and in fine condition. ... Read more

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Mr Norris Changes Trains finds Christopher Isherwood in his element--the decadent milieu of Berlin in the early thirties. Arthur Norris, an aged debauchee, maneuvers to profit from the deadly power struggle between the Communists and the Nazis--and the result is a beguiling, funny, and sometimes nerve-racking tale. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Alan Cumming has SUCH passion for Isherwood!
I have a bunch of audio books narrated by Alan Cumming, and I have to say that Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye To Berlin are the two best I ever heard.Maybe it's because that Alan was the Emcee in the musical Cabaret, for which these two books lent inspiration to.But for whatever reason, Alan brings you into the magical world of divine decadence in pre-war Berlin with Arthur Norris, the ideal of an enigma; Fraulein Schroeder, the chatty, light and amusing landlady; Otto and Anni, the next generation of Germans; and of course the narrator Chris.Alan knows what he's reading and because of his divine comprehension, he makes the recording sound so much more fun and enjoyable to listen to! ... Read more

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Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Captain Flint, young Jim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. For he has discovered a map that will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island. But a host of villains, wild beasts and deadly savages stand between him and the stash of gold. Not to mention the most infamous pirate ever to sail the high seas ...With a wonderfully funny introduction by award-winning author Eoin Colfer, "Treasure Island" is one of the twelve brilliant classic stories being relaunched in Puffin Classics in March 2008. ... Read more

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This exciting, new concepts text emphasizes all that is current, cutting-edge, and interesting to students in the introductory course.Focusing specifically on users, consumers and purchasers of technology, this text provides a no-nonsense coverage of the absolute essentials for using technology in today's wired world. The I-Series offers excellent coverage on the basics, as well as extensive information on building a Web site, E-Commerce, implications of technological advances, maintaining a computer system, buying your first PC, and more.Each chapter also contains coverage of security, ethics, and privacy and an introduction to the web-based Life Long Learning modules. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, published by SIECCAN, The Sex Information and Education Council of Canada on March 22, 1997. The length of the article is 4513 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Few significant differences were found between breast cancer patients treated with high dose chemotherapy and peripheral stem cell transfusion compared to those treated with conventional chemotherapy in relation to health-related quality of life, sexual psychology, and body image. Both treatment groups exhibited some significant effects on psychological aspects of sexuality and body image. Loss of sexual interest appeared to be a prominent concern. The survey involved 38 patients, 19 in each treatment group.

Citation Details
Title: Sexuality, body image and quality of life after high dose or conventional chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer.
Author: Kami Makar
Publication: The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1997
Publisher: SIECCAN, The Sex Information and Education Council of Canada
Volume: v6Issue: n1Page: p1(8)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine), published by Thomson Gale on September 25, 2007. The length of the article is 942 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Happy birthday, Advocate! Turning 40 is definitely cause for celebration when you have friends like these to wish you well.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Author: Alan Cumming
Publication: The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 25, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 993Page: 16(3)

Article Type: Letter to the editor

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When Jim Hawkins sets off as a cabin boy on the "Hispaniola" he looks forward to the excitement of searching for buried treasure. But he doesn't know that spine-chilling adventure on Treasure Island awaits him and murderous struggles with Long John Silver and his cut-throat pirate band. ... Read more

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Emma Woodhouse, the heroine of "Emma", is one of Jane Austen's most vivid characters. This audio cassette recounts the story of this beautiful, spoilt, vain and witty woman, who proves irresistable to the patient Mr Knightly. ... Read more

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These tales provide an introduction to some of Shakespeare's work, covering "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest". They blend detailed narrative with original dialogue and poetic language to convey a full understanding of the plays. ... Read more

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Here are some of Hans Christian Andersen's much-loved familiar tales and one or two that are less well-known. Each one captures the essence of the natural world and of Andersen's homeland, transforming it into a place of surprise and enchantment. ... Read more

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In this delightful collection, brave heroes and heroines like Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood battle with witches and wolves, while the Goose Girl and Rapunzel show that goodness can triumph over evil. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Fun!
Great to hear the original, pre-Disney, versions of these classic tales.Definitely a dark and even violent undercurrent that runs through them, but that makes the arrival into the light all the more satisfying.As usual, Naxos does a fine job.A journey back to childhood when dreams still hovered in the corner of your eye.

AUDIO CD REVIEW
Tha actress reading the stories does a very good job. Unfortunatly this CD version of the stories is very abriged, just the bare bones. The choice of predominatly russian music for German folk tales is a bit odd. Still this is the only version I have experianced so it's the best I know of.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK BUT NOT BABY -PRESCHOOL
THIS IS A LOVELY BOOK WITH CREAM COLORED PAGES, A RIBBON AND WONDERFUL ILLUSTRATIONS. IT IS NOT HOWEVER "BABY PRESCHOOL"
It is for older readers. Nice translation from the German.

Illustrations are not the same style as on the cover
I bought this edition specifically because I wanted to have some illustrations like the ones on the cover (I'm designing some costumes for a production of "Into the Woods" and wanted to use this book as inspiration).However, the illustrations inside the book are not AT ALL like the ones on the cover.I've returned the book and forgot to check, but I would guess that they are not even by the same artist.I love how Amazon now has images within books, however, this one didn't have any of the inside illustrations and so I didn't realize until I recieved the book.I'm still on the search for a book of fairy tales with medieval period illustrations.

A quality children's book
This beautifully illustrated book is a delight for Brothers Grimm and Arthur Rackham fans.High quality paper is used throughout so the color plates are presented where they occur in each story, instead of being jammed together in the center.The font is easy to read with ample margins, so the stories can be savored without feeling rushed or the aid of a good light.Well done! ... Read more

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Published to coincide with the revival of Cabaret, now opening on Broadway, Goodbye To Berlin is the original story of the chanteuse heroine Sally Bowles. Isherwood ironically captures life in Weimar Berlin, a city infamous for its flourishing demimonde and violent politics. 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Goodbye Berlin as history
This is a very good book that was sent to me by a German friend who grew up in Hamburg during the war. I asked her how the Nazis came to power and she sent me "GoodBye Berlin" for the lesson it teaches.

An Unexpected Delight
I knew nothing of either this book or its author when I picked it up. I was merely compelled to do so because the blurb revealed that it was set in Berlin, a city which I will soon be visiting - and in which I might even be residing. I hoped to get a good vicarious understanding of the city through reading it.

I can't say that this hope was completely gratified. I did, however, learn a great deal about the city's denizens and its political crises in the 30s, pre-Hitler. The narrator of the book is also called Christopher Isherwood. This he attempts to explain in the preface: "Because I have given my own name to the 'I' of this narrative, readers are certainly not entitled to assume that its pages are purely autobiographical, or that its characters are libellously exact portraits of living persons. 'Christopher Isherwood' is a convenient ventriloquist's dummy, nothing more."

In other words, this is very thinly veiled autobiography. The narrator even mentions a book he wrote - "All The Conspirators" - which the real-life writer also composed. I must admit, this didn't particularly bother me - just thought I should point it out.

There is something enchanting about Isherwood's prose. It is extremely passive, for one thing; rarely does the narrator reveal his feelings; he is, as he says, "...a camera with its shutters open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." He recounts several enticing, sometimes jarring, anecdotes about living as an English teacher in Berlin's capital, forced to live in murky working-class tenements and uninhabitable attics, or in idyllic villas with querulous homosexuals.

What makes this little novel of vignettes special, though, is the characters. Each of them is so realistically rendered that one might be inclined to think that they really did exist - and, truth be told, they probably did, only under different names. They are fascinating, in any event.

I am a Camera...
The opening page of Goodbye to Berlin contains one of the Twentieth Century's most famous sentences: 'I am a Camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.' One of the most famous, yet also most disengenuous sentences. For Christopher Isherwood might have wished readers to think that his authorial persona - wry, detatched, passive, laconic - was actually his real personality, but we know the reality - lithe and limber boys in bathhouses, for instance - was rather more colourful. In the end, Isherwood couldn't distinguish between what was real, and what was a product of his imagination, the two bled into each other, giving result to an immaculate set of writings from his Berlin period when he was living poor in guesthouses, teaching English and recording the final months of early thirties Berlin Bohemia with the menacing shadow of Hitler imposing on the edges, and moving ever more darkly towards the centre.

Goodbye to Berlin contains some of Isherwood's choicest writings. There is the memorable tale of Sally Bowles, a feckless slightly aristocratic girl who sleeps with producers in the hope of making her big break and sings clubs (badly) in the evening. Her story inspired the musical 'Cabaret', and Isherwood creates a superb portrait of a young glamorous woman using her transient sex appeal to manipulate men and their emotions.

What Kingsley Amis described as Isherwood's 'boyhorn' features, with a tale of Otto and Peter, a quarreling gay couple who struggle with their sexuality in the homophobic atmosphere of pre-war Berlin. Then there is Natalia Landauer, the rich Jewish Heiress of a wealthy family, and the poor and Frau Schroder, the plump, caring landlady who is intrigued by the patrician Isherwood and is enthralled by his stories 'Quite right Herr Isssyvoo!'

The passive prose style is a perfect foil for this decadent era in Weimar Germany. The people Isherwood describes are often selfish and feckless, but always bursting with humanity. The book concludes with a description of Jewish shop owners suffering increasing intimidation for Nazi bully boys.

The back end of that famous camera sentence: 'one day this will have to be recorded and fixed'. Well now that period is fixed in history. We knowwhat all this decadence ran into. For that, Goodbye to Berlin makes very poignant and powerful reading.

Down and Out in Berlin
Originally published in 1939, the vignettes which form this book were based on the period (1930-33) Isherwood spent in Berlin that coincided with the Nazi ascension to power. It exists uneasily somewhere in the grey zone between memoir and fiction. Taking a cue from Dos Passos' USA trilogy (whose fist volume came out in 1930, and which he certainly would have read), Isherwood described his writing as "I am a camera with its shutter open", thereby ostensibly branding it documentary in nature. The episodes certainly read as a straight memoir would, and since the narrator of each piece is called Christopher Isherwood, it's hard not to take them as such. But however much is fictional, and whatever else it may be, the book functions today as a time capsule of a society on the brink of horrific change. And it derives no little drama from our knowledge of what was to happen to that society over the next 15 years. Of course, it also endures in fame as the base material from which the musical/film Cabaret was formed, as well as the earlier play/film I Am a Camera.

The pieces run chronologically, beginning with "A Berlin Diary", which introduces the reader to the city, and to Isherwood's hand-to-mouth existence as an freelance English tutor and lodger in a low-end guesthouse. The idea is to introduce various colorful characters, such as the landlady and his fellow lodgers (a prostitute, a bartender, a music-hall singer, and a traveling salesman), and acclimate the reader to the setting. Next is "Sally Bowles", certainly the most famous of the stories, and featuring the most famous of his characters. I wasn't particularly engaged by the story of the 19-year-old English golddigging"actress", nor did it make a whole lot of sense as to why Isherwood would go to such effort to remain friends with such a self-absorbed chit of a girl. "On Ruegen Island" takes place at a vacation spot in northeastern Germany, on the Baltic Sea. It is primarily the story of Isherwood's English friend, and the young working-class German man he becomes infatuated with. It's a well-drawn, but almost cliche portrait of the neurotic, insecure sugar-daddy, his freeloading, bisexual plaything, and their dysfunctional mind games.

In the next story ("The Nowaks"), Isherwood catches up with this same dissolute hustler in Berlin, and ends up lodging with his family. This is an opportunity to sketch out daily life in an even lower-class milieu. This contrasts nicely with the next story, "The Landaurers", in which Isherwood becomes friends with a rather intense young Jewish woman from a wealthy merchant family. Here, Isherwood actively dislikes the young woman, and yet still cultivates her acquaintance for some reason. That reason may be the "friendship" he develops with her breezily cynically world-wise cousin Bernhard. There's something somewhat unsettling in Isherwood's offhand characterization of Bernhard's"Eastern" inscrutability and repeated references about how one could never really "know" what was going on in his head. These sound awfully like some of the classic stereotypes of Jews, and one wonders to what extent Isherwood harbored his own upper-class instilled prejudices. (This may be discussed in Peter Parker's Isherwood: A Life Revealed, but I'm not interested enough to track that down and check.) In any event, the contrast between the poor Nowaks and the wealthy Landaurers serves to highlight the growing Nazi menace, and Isherwood sees the writing on the wall in his final diary farewell.

The collection seems destined to be lauded ad nauseam as a fond farewell to the seedy, corrupt side of Weimar-era Germany and its fun-loving group of nightlife denizens: gay hustlers, women on the make, communist poseurs, and so on, all of whom would soon disappear or become reinvented under a completely different kind of of Nazi decadence. However, it's not at all clear to me from this that the Berlin of that time was markedly different from other large European cities of the time. Certainly Paris and other cities had a thriving "underground" scene at the same time -- Berlin's claim to fame (indeed a large portion of why Isherwood went there), was the steady and cheap supply of young boys, kind of a pedophile's paradise. In any event, those interested in the Berlin of that era may want to tackle Alfred Dobin's massive masterpiece, Berlin Alexanderplatz, which channels 1920s Berlin through the eyes of an ex-con.

It just WON'T Leave my tape player!
I was never one for audio books, I thought they were for people too lazy to read the real thing, and that many of them were read without feeling or emotion and sounded a bit like my 9th grade English teacher reading the death of Mercutio scene from Romeo and Juliet.But the combination of one of my favorite books and my favorite actor (Alan Cumming) led me to even buy used to hear what it sounded like.The search was well worth it!Alan puts so much into this brilliant recording.He intimately entwines you in the world of pre-war Berlin before the deluge.He is utterly witty handling the character of Fraulein Schroeder, uproariously funny with the famous Sally Bowles, and when he is Chris the narrator of the book, he takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, from joy to sorrow to everything in between.Alan knows the book so well as if he came from that world.He captures your attention for the 3 hours that the running time is, and for 3 hours does NOT disappoint!If you're fortunate enough to be able and get a copy of this, I know you'll agree with me, and in the meantime they have to start reprinting this gem among literary and performance gems! ... Read more