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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 - 18 March 2009) was an English-born American stage and screen actress. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Early in her career she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of her notable films included Patty Hearst (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002). ... Read more

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From the Nobel Prize-winning author of Love in the Time of Cholera, a startling new novel -- the story of a doomed love affair between an unruly copper-haired girl and the bookish priest sent to oversee her exorcism.

Of Love and Other Demons is set in a South American seaport in the colonial era, a time of viceroys and bishops, enlightened men and Inquisitors, saints and lepers and pirates. Sierva Maria, only child of a decaying noble family, has been raised in the slaves' courtyard of her father's cobwebbed mansion while her mother succumbs to fermented honey and cacao on a faraway plantation. On her twelfth birthday the girl is bitten by a rabid dog, and even as the wound is healing she is made to endure therapies indistinguishable from tortures. Believed, finally, to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, the Bishop's protege, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train; who is already moved by this kicking, spitting, emaciated creature strapped to a stone bed. As he tends to her with holy water and sacramental oils, Delaura feels "something immense and irreparable" happening to him. It is love, "the most terrible demon of all." And it is not long before Sierra Maria joins him in his fevered misery.

Unsettling and indelible, Of Love and Other Demons haunts us with its evocation of an exotic world while it treats, majestically the most universal experiences known to woman and man.

Natasha Richardson's film credits include Nell, Widow's Peak, The Comfort of Strangers, and The Handmaid's Tale. She has appeared on stage in Anna Christie, High Society, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (71)

A short book that packs a punch...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is quite possibly one of the best authors alive today, right up there with Toni Morrison.Of Love and Other Demons, although short, packs a punch and delivers just as well as his other longer books.

I was completely drawn in to the 18th century world that Marquez created.I couldn't help becoming fascinated with the accuracy of not only the historic elements of the times but by the beliefs and thoughts of the citizens, especially that of the church.The fact that exorcisms and being possessed by demons was a legitimate and real danger that the church presented adds a lot to the realism of the story.His writing is a recursive style, one that will continually backtrack to a person's past in order to fully develop that character before returning to the present time of the story.Add in some of the comical aspects of the characters, slipped in next to the more serious elements, and you have a very rich and deep story.

You have the sorry Marquis going through life being manipulated by almost everything, an unloved child until it is too late, the myths of the slaves and the very dangerous belief in the demon possession.A string of unlikely occurrences that unfold to further the story does nothing to diminish the realism of what you are reading.

Marquez is a joy to read and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend not only this book but anything written by him.

5 stars.

Great stuff


Marquez is up to his old tricks just writing a darngarn great story chock full of the things a master mixes into his pot, and plasters on the walls. There is a psychological treatise underneath the religious application of possession, in the way of misspent aspirations (the Marquis), depravity, and conviction, both religious and secular, and an excellent read for today's adolescent women.At the very bottom of it, another great tale by a great writer.

Pure human condition, vulnerablility, and nature
This fine novel was meant to be a Literature assignment. Once I opened it, however, I read it continuously whenever I had the time, which did not take long to finish! Marquez creatively describes the human condition so expressively and beautifully that I have not forgotten the characters' vices, dreams and situational miseries. He vividly expresses character vulnerabilty that allows the audience to seek understanding, if not desire to hop-in the novel for modern day intervention! The title was accurately appropriate for such a beautifully written novel!

Masterful Mystical Realism
Only a liar of the magnitude of Gabriel Garcia Marquez would get away with a story like this.
There is a somnolent town with a newspaper looking for something to write about, a reporter goes to look at an excavation going on at a monastery and witnesses an ocean of golden hair flowing from one of the graves.

And the story takes off as it is obvious that the tomb had to belong to a girl named Sierva Maria, born in a planned, hateful marriage of a marquis and the daughter of a petty merchant. The baby was born with bad omens, before time, umbilical cord around her neck and denied of maternal care.

Brought up by the slaves, she learns African languages, spirits and gods. She also has a way of moving gracefully without a sound, dancing like the flames of a bonfire and singing with a voice that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at all.

There is an epidemic of rage, the girl gets bitten by a dog and nearly dies -not because of the dogbite but because of all the well-meaning treatments. As people find the girl defending herself with all the instincts and vigor of a viper and a jaguar, it is decided that she has been possessed by demons.

Marquez cooks up a nice sauce of fear, superstition, Catholic and African traditions, people who lie just for the habit, rumors turning to truths, and the sad fact that whenever people make decisions, they are badly informed, agitated and influenced by malicious people.

I have met people who cannot stand Marquez's exaggerations, his use of screaming colors and pit black. I am not familiar with all the Catholic vocabulary, so there were quite a few words to look up. Well, this is how things are learned...

Is there a moral in Marquez's book?
Strangely, the answer is yes.
Sierva Maria's mother who had planned the marriage and hated every minute of it and her daughter also, degraded into an old fat hag addicted to fermented honey and sexual services bought from her slaves.

Sierva Maria's father who never had the courage to defend or approach her daughter succumbed in loneliness and misery, buzzards picking on his bones.

Sierva Maria's exorcist, after turning to her lover, loses courage and misses the chance to make something of his life.

Sierva Maria return to the dream that she and her lover had shared before they had met and gulps down the grapes that symbolize the days of her life and finally finds herself looking at the snowy landscape, alone.

So much lost life, so much suffering because of beliefs grounded on lies or nothing at all.

This book is a rare polished diamond of Magical Realism.
Gabriel Garcia Marquz has graduated from a Wise Man to a Magician.

A masterpiece of the first order
It is a mark of the genius of Gabriel Garcia Marquez that this is not his best book. It is a sign of his status among writers that it might not even be his second best work. But this says a great deal more about the brilliance of Garcia Marquez's books than it does about the quality of this short novel. I believe that as time goes by, this particular book will come to be regarded more and more highly. There are reasons for this. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is such a towering masterpiece that it would overshadow the work of any author. And a very long novel nearly as good as SOLITUDE, LOVE IN A TIME OF CHOLERA naturally attracts the next level of interest. The next best known of his books is probably CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD and for a very simple reason. College professors, attempting to select a book by Garcia Marquez to work into a college course, frequently turn to CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD, partly due to its extraordinary excellence and partly due to its brevity. There are very few short novels as superb as CHRONICLE and that is one reason why it is more frequently read than OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS, even though the latter is only very slightly longer than the former. One thing that this should alert us to that sometimes is obscured by the genius of SOLITUDE is that Garcia Marquez is incontestably one of the great masters of the short form in literature, whether short novels or short stories. His output isn't as large as some writers, but in quality he has few if any competitors.

What I find most amazing about Garcia Marquez's short novels is how rich and complex they are. A good contrast would be Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, a very great book in its own right, but one in which comparatively little happens compared to OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS. When you read the Hemingway story, you get the sense that very little occurs, but you enjoy the slow pace and the way Hemingway allows things to very mildly take their. Hemingway has a single, simple story to tell and he wants to take his time telling it. Garcia Marquez in a similar amount of space wants to create an entire universe, an 18th century world with different beliefs than our own, a cast of characters with richly detailed social relations determined by class, status, wealth, age, and religion. The amount of detail and degree of complexity contained within the pages of the novel is nothing short of spectacular, yet it never, ever feels like Garcia Marquez is overdoing things, that he is putting too much in his story, that he is pushing his subject too far. Instead, everything feels perfect. The story feels perfectly told.

Like many of Garcia Marquez's stories, the premise gives no real clue as to what the story will actually be about. The description of this book -- a thirteen-year-old girl who is bitten on her birthday by a dog with rabies is assessed both by doctors and by churchmen for signs of the disease -- is utterly incapable of doing justice to the novel. Like most of Garcia Marquez's stories, the plot is really quite secondary. What is important is the metaphysics of the situation, the depiction not of what happens, but of the things that can happen in this particular world. It is a world where a husband, lamenting the death of his wife, can find himself deluged with the folded paper birds that she excelled at when alive. And a world where a young girl's hair continues to grow after her death to the length of over twenty meters.

I especially enjoyed the way this particular book began. It begins in the voice of Garcia Marquez himself, recalling allegedly real life events from the late 1940s when he, as a reporter, was sent to report on the moving of several bodies from a former convent prefatory to it being torn down to accommodate a new luxury hotel. There, in the decaying monastery, we encounter most of the major characters that we will encounter in the novel. Here, at the beginning, they are undifferentiated by death; later, in the course of events, they will be distinguished by the roles that they play differentiated by rank, gender, and caste. The richness of the world that they inhabit would appear to be too complex for the length of the novel, but just as Garcia Marquez described himself as a magician, so he performed a magic trick in making a very, very big story fit into a very small number of pages.

I would rank this as not merely one of the finest works that I have read by Garcia Marquez, but as one of the greatest short novels that I have ever read. I absolutely must be read by anyone who loves either Garcia Marquez or great literature. It is pure genius. ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Sonny Bono, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Natasha Richardson, Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz, Edward Lachapelle, Doak Walker, Buddy Werner, Michael Lemoyne Kennedy, Nicolas Bochatay, List of Skiing Deaths, Sara Mustonen, John Mcwethy, Régine Cavagnoud, Ulrike Maier, Doug Coombs, Barbara Henneberger, Ross Milne, Jonatan Johansson, Rob Williams, Michel Trudeau, Josef Walcher, Stephen Crean, Hugh Lindsay, Louis Lachenal, Ilio Colli, James Palmer-Tomkinson, Giacinto Sertorelli. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 18 March 2009) was an English-born naturalized American actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Early in her career she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of her notable films included Patty Hearst (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002). Her first marriage to filmmaker Robert Fox ended in divorce in 1992. In 1994 she married Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom she had met when the two appeared in Anna Christie. The couple had two sons, Micheál and Daniel. Richardson's father died of AIDS-related causes in 1991. She helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS through the charity...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=594667 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nell is a 1994 drama film starring Jodie Foster as a young woman who has to face other people for the first time after being raised by her mother in an isolated cabin. The film was directed by Michael Apted, and was based on Mark Handley's play Idioglossia. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham. Foster was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award. The two co-stars, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson, married the year the film was released. ... Read more

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Jennifer Aniston Jen's Shocking Decision I Will Never Marry, Issue #14 April 6, 2009, Jade Goody, Reese Witherspoon, Natasha Richardson, Liam Neeson, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey ... Read more

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Chapters: Lanford Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Nell Carter, James Woods, Natasha Richardson, Melba Moore, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Barbara Cook, a Man for All Seasons, Jennifer Holliday, Frances Ruffelle, Edie Adams, Cara Duff-Maccormick, Victor Spinetti, Natalia Makarova, Richard Cross, Priscilla Lopez, Joan Hackett, Michael Jeter, Kelly Bishop, Sally Mayes, Lachanze, David Wayne, Dan Fogler, Lynne Wintersteller, Maureen Anderman, Boyd Gaines, Isabel Bigley, Marian Mercer, Calvin Levels, Michael Rupert, Michael Maguire, Shirl Conway, Janie Sell, Patricia Elliott, Carlin Glynn, Sammy Williams. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 179. 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: Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor who has had a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable types of characters. He first drew critical praise for the 1966 Off-Broadway play Eh? for which he won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. This was soon followed by his breakthrough movie role as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967). Since then Hoffman's career has largely been focused in cinema with only sporadic returns to television and the stage. Some of his most noted films are Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Wag the Dog, Meet The Fockers, and Last Chance Harvey. Hoffman has won two Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, an Emmy Award and an Annie Award. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999. Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, the second and youngest son of Lillian (née Gold) and Harry Hoffman, a Russian-born father who worked as a prop supervisor/set decorator at Columbia Picture...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=42148 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Love This Book!
This was one of my favorite books of all time as a kid.Roald Dahl is just the greatest!

Too Wonderful To Miss
The BFG is the Big Friendly Giant whose values get him in a heap of trouble among bigger and not-so-friendly giants.My kids LOVE this story that we originally borrowed from the library.When I saw amazon's great price, I had to buy 2.One for us and one to gift away.Roald Dahl is at his best here and as a teacher, I enjoyed pondering the potential geography lesson applications from this story.No matter why you buy it the book is loaded with teachable moments and lots of heart.

Loved it!
I gave this to my 7 year old grandson so he could listen to it before we went to a children's theater to see The Big Friendly Giant.He loved listening to the 4 hours of story, and because he knew the story and all the characters, the play really came alive for him.The actual book is above his reading level, so the tape was a good way for him to hear the story.

Awesome
This CD is great! The reader does an awesome job with the voices of different characters. The book is wonderful. The two are combined, here, for great entertainment. ... Read more

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Weekly celebrity news magazine. ... Read more

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Performance by Natasha Richardson
Two cassettes, 3 hours

Dr. Sarah Baldwin races to a Boston hospital with a young woman whose normal labor has suddenly become a matter of life and death. As she struggles to save both mother and baby, she doesn't know that two other women have already died under identical circumstances. And so begins Sarah's own nightmare, as she learns that the prenatal herbal vitamins she prescribed are the only thing these women have in common. Soon Sarah is fighting to save her career, her reputation--her life. For she's certain there must be some unknown factor linking these women, and as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that someone will do anything--even murder--to keep a devastating secret.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Natural Causes
This book is like most other Palmer novels - awesome. It is a fast paced light read. I enjoyed it.

One of Michael Palmer's weaker efforts!
We all know what it means to die from natural causes but, in this era of modern medicine, it is an exceptionally infrequent occurrence for someone to be cured by "natural causes". Indeed, the conflict between natural medicine in all its forms - homeopathy, chiropractic, herbal remedies, acupuncture, naturopathy, midwifery, and so on - is the theme of Michael Palmer's latest medical thriller entitled, of course, "Natural Causes"!

The story starts off with dizzying speed graphically describing the catastrophic deaths of a number of women in labour who essentially bleed to death because of an obscure viral illness that prevents blood clotting. The career of Sarah Baldwin, a young up and coming obstetrician, is in jeopardy as the initial epidemiological research on the deaths seems to indicate that the culprit is herbal supplements she had recommended to her patients in the early stages of their pregnancy.

It seems such a shame! "Natural Causes" started out as a whirlwind page turner that had so much promise - exciting passages that detailed medical emergencies as this bizarre blood clotting illness consumed its victims with horrific speed; realistic insights into internal hospital politics, the necessity to generate funds through community foundations and the grueling routine of medical training; and, most interesting of all, the conflict between advocates of alternative medicine and standardized medical care as we understand it in the western world of modern medicine.

Sadly, "Natural Causes" ultimately failed to live up to its own potential. With one or two plot twists too many, it finally just devolved into a morass of medical thriller melodrama - big money, corporate greed and institutionalized medicine versus the vilified, persecuted lone doctor's voice crying from the wilderness! What's even worse is that Palmer couldn't find any better way to ultimately reveal the plot than that hoary old device of having the villain gloat about his megalomaniacal plans to the victim as he metaphorically ties her to the railway tracks in front of the oncoming train! How sad is that?

Despite its failings, it will still appeal to Michael Palmer fans and those who enjoy a medical thriller. But it's clearly one of his weakest efforts thus far and falls a long, long way short of the chills provided by such bombshell medical thrillers as Robin Cook's "Coma" or Tess Gerritsen's "Harvest".

Recommended

Paul Weiss

Nothing to write home about
This book was Ok.I've read a few of Palmer's books and this was not my favorite.It wasn't terrible, just nothing too exciting.

It's about a hospital that is mixed with traditional type doctors vs. new-age doctors.And when pregnant women start dying from some unknown cause, the two clash on what is the cause.

The characters were interesting, as the scenario.The ending was pretty easy to guess.Overall it was a decent read, just nothing to write home about.

Pretty Interesting
I came across this book at a used library book sale and purchased it for trading but ended up reading it because of the reviews here. The book held my interest all the way through.I found myself wanting to get back to it in between reading sessions. I found the ending to be a bit anti-climactic and was a bit disappointed with it.I thought because the rest of the book was quite good that the ending would be better.

Good reading
A medical thriller, different from what I have been reading but interesting all the same. Well written. ... Read more

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11" x 8.5"; 32 page booklet with production information and many still photos from the movie. Also includes a 2 sheet letter from the Disney Studio with PR contact information and a lengthy synopsis. ... Read more

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Anna, 18 and independent both by circumstance and by character, has exchanged the West Indian island of her childhood for the cold, grey island of England, with its narrow streets and narrow rules. She comes to understand a world where people offer you no help unless there's something they want. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Author desperately in need of treatment for depression
Eighteen year old Anna is sent toEngland from a life in Dominica after her father dies. She becomes a chorus girl, then a "kept" woman.Her life is extremely dreary, as Anna is neither valued as a woman in these times, nor does she seem able to care about herself .The characters are all as cold and grey as the setting.The author was reported to be, in later life, an alcoholic and suicidal;from the overwhelming sense of depression oozingfrom these pages, I would guess that she was depressed all of her adult life (and treating and exacerbating it with alcohol).
I loved the story as a period piece, I enjoyed it for it's honesty and the fact that it was ahead of it's time, and I liked the simplicity and flow of the writing, but I guess I needed some little tiny tidbit of redemption or hint of joy somewhere, from someone. I've enjoyed many dark tales, but in this particular dark, depressing, hopeless sort of depiction of people, it felt like there was nowhere to turn for kind human connection (which is exactly what untreated depression feels like).Sadly, Ms. Rhys could probably have been successfully treated in this day and age.

Beware of seller
They have bad communication and I never received my product. I actually paid extra for it to be shipped quickly. when I emailed them, they said they will refund my money, but they never did,

Decadent, Dissolute, Desolate
A stern warning to my teenage son: Stay clear of wistful waifs who exude sexy depression and masochistic neediness, especially if they seem to be talented with words; you won't like yourself in the novel they write about you.

Certainly Ford Madox Ford, a great unhappy writer on his own hook, would second that advice after reading the portrayal of his relationship with Jean Rhys in her second novel, Quartet. Rhys's first four novels - Voyage in the Dark, Quartet, After Leaving Mr. Mackensie, and Good Morning Midnight - are all essentially chapters in her self-excoriating semi-autobiography, the agonizing tale of her life-spiral into degradation and suicidal depression. As a pretty-but-not-beautiful young white girl from the Afro-Caribbean island of Dominica, our heroine takes one step toward shaping her life by de-exiling herself to England. From that step on, it's all adrift, from sexual exploitation (two-way) to exploitation, grimmer and grimier with each episode. She's a sad, sick kitty, this self-hating waif. She also writes with a poignant, painful realism that was way ahead of her time (the 1920s in London and Paris) in terms of confessional literature. There's something in almost every chapter of Rhy's fictionalized desolation that makes me want to run a few miles in the hills, take a cold shower, and listen to a Bach cantata to revitalize myself. There's also something so honest in her that I come back for more desperation on the page.

That's not what I expected when I bought the complete novels. I'd just spent two weeks in Dominica, hiking, snorkling, bird-watching on that beautiful volcanic cone of an island, where equal parts are blended of pitiful colonial detritus and indomitable Black joyousness. I'd never read a word of Rhys, but I noticed a shabby house with her name on a plaque in Roseau, the mildewed rubble-heap that passes for a port city. I expected something on the order of Jamaica Kincaid, or even better, the early hilarious novels of VS Naipaul. Ooo-wee, was I on the wrong track!

I seldom urge people to read depressing novels or down-hearted poems. The world has a way of supplying each of us as much despair as we need. Rhys is an exception. Her sorrow is so pure than it exonerates her degraded life. I haven't read her last novel yet - Wide Sargasso Sea, written 30 years later and considered her masterpiece - but I will. If ever a life required a redemption, it was Jean Rhys's.

Discovered too late
This is an enjoyable, if short, early novel by the once forgotten British writer, Jean Rhys, who’s celebrated, Wide Sargasso Sea, contains the same inspiration that of her upbringing in the Caribbean.

Essentially autobiographical, she tells the story of Anna Morgan, a 19 year old girl, recently arrived in London from Dominica (Rhys was born and raised on the small Caribbean island of Dominica). Evoking a penurious existence of cold London bed sits, surrounded by bleak fog and bad food. (Unsurprising as Dominica is famed for its lush habitat, “The Nature Island of the Caribbean”).

She relates the people that Anna encounters who invariably are sexually predatory men, selfish and jealous women and cold hearted relatives. But Anna is also a callow youth, cold towards everyone she meets and so I couldn’t relate to her, but mainly as she acted impulsively and without reason.

However, this novel was ahead of its time in describing the alienation of a newly arrived emigrant and also the situation and plight of women when sick or unemployed. In the absence of a social welfare system, Rhys portrays the women who relied on finding a man to look after them, and also the men who used them for their ends.

Apart form this I personally wouldn’t buy this book on its own despite it having some insights into the world of London and a woman’s place in it at a certain time period. I don’t think it’s a fully appreciated work unless read together with those of her other earlier novels, perhaps as part of a collected works series.

moving, pitiless, beautiful
this is my favourite book of all time.i came across it accidentally in Croydon library when I was 20 years old, i loved it then, and i love it now, 20 years later. i read other works of hers (and I think she is an amazing writer) and her biography (by Carole Angier - also utterly brilliant and very highly recommended) - but Voyage in the Dark is still my favourite.

Why this is is hard to say.There is something about the prose style - concise, clear but dreamlike.The subject matter - a woman alone in the world written with a pitiless observation.The themes, loss of innocence, the struggle for survival, the loss of love - all beautifully written.

Carole Angier analyses all this far better than I ever could - if you love literature the chances are (man or woman) you will love this work.I do recommend it, and others works by Rhys, and her definitive biography by Carole Angiers. ... Read more

Product Description
"Well, first of all, " said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist."

Sophie discovers that giants not only exist, but that there are a great many of them who like to guzzle and swallomp nice little chiddlers. But not the Big Friendly Giant. He and Sophie cook up an ingenious plot to free the world of troggle-humping -- forever.

The BFG is one of Dahl's most lovable charactercreations. Whether galloping off with Sophie nestled into the softskin of his ear to capture dreams as though they were exoticbutterflies; speaking his delightful, jumbled, squib-fangled patois;or whizzpopping for the Queen, he leaves an indelible impression ofbigheartedness. (Ages 9 to 12) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (347)

NJB Thoughts on BFG
The BFG.
By Roald Dhal


The BFG is an awesome book. The BFG (short for "Big Friendly Giant") is no ordinary bone crunching giant. He is to far nice and jumbly.In the book The BFG saves a little girl named Sophie. The BFG saved her from all the mean giants that eat little kids like Sophie. The BFG takes her to his cave and hides her there. At first Sophie is scared when she meets The BFG. Then she finds out that he is nice and asks The BFG to help her get home but he says no it's to dangerous. But Sophie says I need to get home. There are many mean giants in The BFG, there's The Fleshlumpeater, The Bonecruncher, The Manhugger, The Childchewer, The Meatdripper, The Gizzardgulper, The Maidmasher, The Bloodbottler, and The Butcher Boy.

Roald Dhal is a great author of children's books. Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales, to Norwegian parents. In 1943 Dahl wrote his first children's book, The Gremlins. Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The Big Friendly Giant. I would recommend any of the Roald Dhal books. They are really fun and entertaining to read and I especially liked the BFG.

Gotta love the BFG
We first read the BFG 15 years ago when my oldest was small.We lost the original copy in a flood years ago.We just replaced it and reread it.It's like watching Monty Python; once you read it you never talk quite the same way again.The Big Friendly Giant does good and always puts the needs of others first.Uncommon virtues today.So watch for whizzpoppers and enjoy.

It's A Pretty Good Book
This review is written by my daughter:

It's a good book.I don't know Daddy, you write it.That wasn't part of the review!I'm serious Dad! Please! Just write it for me! I don't want to write this review. I don't know what to write.To everybody who is reading this review, my dad is typing it, and I want him to stop.Stop for serious, Dad.You can write it Dad. I want you to delete this review and you can start it again.I want you to delete what you just wrote because I want you to write it. Dad, I have a paper airplane with an edge and I'm going to poke your eye out if you don't delete this. With a sharp edge.With a pointy edge. Okay, Dad, I'm going to do it.

Good story but plot holes much?
Number one: I read this when I was six, so forgive me if I get some things wrong.
Okay, so the main character is an orphan called Sophie. She can't sleep one night, so she happens to look out the window. She happens to see a giant. He happens to turn around and see her. As a result, she knows too much. She's in bed, and next thing she knows, the giant has abducted her. Lucky for her she was taken by a nice giant, who is known as "Big Friendly Giant" or BFG for short. Unlucky for her she now has to live in Giant Country, and is constantly in danger of a human-eating giant finding her.
Here we come to plot holes. First, I noticed that the BFG mentions being hungry just before Sophie finds out the truth about him. This doesn't make any sense, considering the next happenings. Second, the reason he took Sophie was to make sure she didn't tell anyone, yet at the end, the pair are living happily in London, and everyone knows. Third, if everyone knows, what exactly happened with the orphanage? Did anyone even notice Sophie was gone?
However, none of these hindered my enjoyment of the book, and most kids of six wouldn't notice-I only noticed these as a teenager!-so I recommend the book. I loved all the Roald Dahl chapter books when I was five, "The Witches" being the first chapter book I read by myself, and I recommend them all.

A golden phizzwizard of a story
On the face of it, "The BFG" seems just plain wrong as a children's book.Its story revolves around giants who steal children out of their beds in the night and eat them. Oh, that's just PERFECT for a bedtime story!

And as a parent, do you really want a book in which the title character delights in flatulence?

Indeed, the scary parts of the story may have led to my 7-year-old son having some nightmares. But both he and sister still loved the book!And as for the flatulence - "whizzpopping," in the giant's parlance -- of course, my kids thought that was FUNNY!

"The BFG" is the story of a Big Friendly Giant ("The BFG") and a little girl named Sophie. The BFG introduces Sophie to the strange world of giants, and together they set out to stop the nine child-eating giants.

The book has a little too much talk - and too little action - in the first half.But still there's something charming about the relationship between the BFG and Sophie. And, as a read-aloud book, it was delightful to read the giant's peculiar vocabulary. Human beings are "human beans," dreams are "bogthumpers," "grobswitchers" or "trogglehumpers," and he eats snozzcumbers while drinking frobscottle. (Run that sentence through your spell checker!)

The giant and Sophie are very likable main charactersand the story takes some wondrous turns. They go to the land of dreams, for instance, and capture dreams and nightmares to put in jars.There's plenty of silliness, and then an exciting rush to a conclusion that kept us all going.

"The BFG" is the fourth Roald Dahl book I've read to my kids. Each one leaves me shaking my head - sometimes in wonderment, sometimes in puzzlement.But they've never failed to surprise!
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Product Description
In an alternative world in which every human being is accompanied by an animal familiar, the disappearance of several children prompts Lyra and her bear protector to undertake a journey to the frozen Arctic in pursuit of kidnappers. Read by Natasha Richardson. Amazon.com Review
Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, thatis. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at timesheart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensiblyfor children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. Theprotagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, aprecocious orphan growing up within the precincts of OxfordUniversity. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is notprecisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people thereeach have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their soulsin animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science,theology, and magic are closely allied:

As for whatexperimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. Shehad formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with themovements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, butthat was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had daemons just ashumans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.

In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiecethat transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal toadults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardenedrealist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience,nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book,and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, andan abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelmsit. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would neverend. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife,will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --AlixWilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1489)

Good but not for all kids (possible spoilers in review)
I've vacillated on the stars I'd give this ever since I started it and still don't know if this is right (if there ever is a "right" in ratings).I'd *probably* give this three and a half stars if it were possible.Because, I'd give it three stars for my personal enjoyment/tastes and four stars for otherwise.

I should preface that I listened to the audio version.I really liked the cast and felt they added a good amount of emotion without being too distracting.I liked that it was narrated by Pullman himself, but sometimes his voice seemed on a different volume level than the actors, so I found myself struggling with the volume nob in my car quite often (probably if you didn't listen while driving it wouldn't be an issue).So, the good and the bad is that in some instances I think the audio book enhanced my enjoyment of the story (perhaps I took to the characters more than I would have had I read my own interpretations of their inflections) but sometimes it was a little too easy to get distracted during the narrative/explanatory sections.

Okay, so, the book itself!
I was actually quite drawn into the story.It had me hooked from the beginning and I was super curious to see how the whole thing unfolded.One of my issues with the book ...

(possible spoilers ahead!!!!)

... is that the book was finished and I still wasn't really sure how things unfolded.The book (The Golden Compass part) is told in three sections, and I really only felt one story (that of Iorek Byrnison) was completed.There were numerous revelations during the last book (what dust is exactly, just who Lord Asriel is, how Mrs. Coulter fits in (well, half explained) and what Lyra is going to do next), but, there were a lot more questions posed, I felt, than answered, and while I do understand this is a trilogy, personally I like a little more conclusion at the end of each book (but, that's just a personal taste thing, so...).Still, some things I thought weren't totally explained that could have been, but perhaps this was the author's intention to leave more mystery and for the readers to bring their own versions of... reality?their own beliefs? to the story.

I really like some of the 'messages' in this story: self-reliance, that authority isn't always right, that the world may hold more mysteries than we may realize, and I *loved* the ideas of demons!!!What a fantastic world to have animals as part of your soul!!

I liked Lyra, despite her oft used talents at lying - she was determined and always had her heart in the right place.

I'm not sure if this book is targeted at middle-grade or YA, but I'd be hesitant to recommend it to just any middle-grader.There are some possible disturbing issues, and some rather nasty/vivid descriptions.The end of the bear fight kind of made my insides squirm... not to mention that head in the beginning...
But, if you don't mind this, then it's not an issue.

A few other things that I didn't mind but might be considered before reading:

The book has a little 'old fashioned' feel to it.Personally, I kind of liked it, but the descriptions are longer, and the action more spread out than more recently written books.

Also, the book doesn't present organized religion in an especially pretty light.At least, that was my take on it.Not that God or religion is presented poorly, just the whole authority thing again.

So, overall, I was intrigued by the book.Perhaps I found it more intriguing than enjoyable?But, I did enjoy it, I liked the characters (Pan is so wonderful) and looked forward to listening to it.I'm glad I finally know the story and I'm glad to have finally read this "classic.":)

"You cannot change what you are, only what you do"
"You cannot change what you are, only what you do"
Lyra Belacquais an orphan in the care of the scholars at Jordan College.Gradually, she begins to learn more and more about her surroundings: her Uncle Asriel, the mysterious "Up North", a substance called "Dust".But when her friend, Roger, is abducted by "Gobblers", Lyra joins up with gypsies, "Gyptians", to rescue the boy.

I Liked:
So much controversy over a book!
Pullman's part alternate universe, part steampunk, part fantasy world is most assuredly breath-taking.I am not big on the whole steampunk thing, for whatever reason, but I felt Pullman did a great job making me interested.He took time and care into creating his new world and it is vivid and real.I love the anbaric lights, the balloons and zeppelins, the experimental theology, the lights, and all the other subtle differences (or maybe not so subtle!) to our world.
By far, my favorite part was the concept of the daemon.This was particularly well thought out and imaginative.I liked how daemons were companions, souls, advisors.I liked how a child's daemon would change while an adult's would not.I love how the daemon's form and actions represent the person's character and inner feelings.And I love the care with which Pullman creates a relationship between Lyra and Pantalaimon.When they were nearly forcibly separated, I was on the edge of my seat, mentally screaming, "NO!Don't do that!"
Slap me around and tell me I'm mad, but I really liked Mrs. Coulter.Sure, she was a "bad guy", but I felt that she did an exceedingly cunning job hiding it behind a façade of niceness and concern.She was truly more menacing than, for instance, the King of the Bears.And her monkey...that guy gave me shudders!
I was impressed with Iorek the Bear.In fact, Pullman using bears was interesting.I've noticed that a lot of fantasy either relies on Greek/Roman mythology (centaurs and satyrs and the like) or Tolkien-esque fantasy (elves, orcs, dwarves) or Gothic/urban fantasy (vampires, werewolves, witches).Having sentient bears was a nice departure from the Narnia-esque talking animals (honestly, I never really did like Mr. and Mrs. Beaver).
After a slow start, the book really picks up and I found myself more and more interested in what would happen next.This, for me, started once the Gyptians began their trip up North.It was a great "adventure" yarn, and gave Lyra the chance to succeed based on quick-thinking (like when she was captured and placed in Bolvangar) and her wits.
There is also a whole lot of subtext that makes the book interesting.Almost everything is a symbol for something else--a theme of sorts, as I see it.In some ways, I can almost see Pullman telling us we need to be like Lyra, to pull out our alethiometers and decipher the symbols to our questions.Questions like: What is fate and destiny?Who am I and what will I grow up to be?Is there a power (such as the Church in the book) that has too much control over me, holding me back, forcing its own beliefs on me?

I Didn't Like:
It took me half the book to actually get around to liking Lyra, our protagonist.When we are first introduced to her, she's a mean little "liar", rude, uncivilized, unrestrained, and unlikeable.It took her quite some time (and many pages) for her to be a character that I could partially relate to--an even then, she was far from my favorite character in the novel.Now, I don't expect all protagonists to be perfect, admirable, loving--basically, little Pollyanna copycats.And part of what Lyra was makes sense for her background--and for what many kids are like.But still, she was a little too selfish and mean for me to really care about her.
As I really got into the story, I noticed that more and more of the characters were "evil"--maybe not Mrs. Coulter evil, but definitely selfish, lying, cheating, self-seeking evil.Lord Asriel, for example, is an arrogant, haughty man who, instead of raising Lyra himself, throws her at the mercy of Jordan College.How are we supposed to want to see him rescued?How are we supposed to side along with Lyra, in her quest to save him?Maybe some could, but I wasn't one of them.
Other characters are rather sketchy, particularly Roger, the kitchen boy and Lyra's friend.He is barely in the novel, barely has anything to say.It would be a compliment to call him a 2D character; there really is nothing about him remarkable or noteworthy.If I had to describe him, I'd be at a loss.For a story that somewhat hinges on his disappearance, you would hope that he would at least make an impression, make you want to find him again, to be reunited with Lyra.Unfortunately, I didn't feel anything about him at all.I was more interested with Lyra's second mission, to free Lord Asriel, than her primary one to save Roger.
As I mentioned above, the beginning is really slow and kinda confusing.Pullman doesn't spend a lot of time with exposition (which isn't necessarily bad--I hate it when there is too much time spent on backstory) and instead leaps head first into the story.But the story takes quite a long time to move anywhere, and it would be easy to become confused and give up or to get bored and give up.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
I spotted a few instances of @ss and he**.
Serafina had an intimate relationship with the Gyptian King.She also mentions how witches take lovers.Lyra's mother had a relationship with her father when her mother was married to another man.
Iorek fights the Bear King.It gets quite violent at the end.Also, a young boy is found after his daemon has been removed.Lyra gets captured quite frequently.

Overall:
The Golden Compass is a unique fantasy novel.Even though the protagonist is only eleven, it's not exactly a child's novel (though I could easily see pre-teens and teenagers being interested in it).There are a lot of messages, dark and serious, that may appeal better to adults.But this deeper, darker message only helps it stand out amongst its counterparts, like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Narnia.
While it was slow in parts, and it took me a long time to like Lyra, I did find the book interesting and, yes, even enjoyable.There is excitement, adventure, a deeper meaning--everything one can ask for in a fantasy setting.As it is a completed trilogy (and not a never-ending series of doorstoppers) with somewhat of a sequel hook, I might even check out book two.A slightly above average novel, 3.5 stars rounded to 3 stars.

Brought to you by:
*C.S. Light*

Intriguing Fantasy (with some flaws)
***spoilers ahead***
You could view this story on many, many levels. On one level, it's a charming little fairy tale about a child who gets sucked into events bigger than herself and finds herself fighting for people she loves only to run into tragedy in the end.
On another level, it's a negative commentary about the pervasiveness of religious views.

Some Flaws:
Don't know what to do? Ask the little compass, it'll have all your answers.
Need to face off against an evil armored bear? Call in your own as backup, just make sure his armor is truly his soul because it's flawed if not.
Find out your best friend's been kidnapped? Vow to save him. Then you'll get sucked into one event after another, oh, don't forget your customary hero training courtesy of a picture-perfect woman of culture, who happens to be your evil mother.
Find out your father's being held captive way up north? Run until you get rescued by gyptians who also are missing a few kids and are preparing an expedition north. Hitch ride.
Etc. etc. etc.

In short, the whole story is one convenient event after another sucking our young heroine along for the ride. She doesn't really do much besides ask the darn compass for directions.

A Top Quality Adventure of Epic Proportions!
"The Golden Compass" is an outstanding read and one of the most thought provoking book's I have ever read. The story takes place in an alternate universe where people's souls are external from their bodies in the form of animal companions called daemons. Lyra an orphan under the care of Jordan College in an alternate Oxford, England is thrust into the adventure of her life in order to save her world and countless others, as well as fulfill her destiny among the very fabric of time and space. Of course this is unknown to her at the time.
I barely ever took a break while reading this novel and loved every bit of it, the characters were very believable, the plot well thought up and interesting enough to cause you to not want to go to bed (I had this problem a lot), and the ability for the material within the story (alternate universes, souls, religion, etc) to force you to continuously reeducate yourself to matters you may think you already know. Out of the many books, and novels I have read so far in my lifetime this one definitely comes out among the top ten. I strongly recommend this book.

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I fell in love with this whole series. Every pain Lyra felt, every smile she smiled, I felt with her. If I have ever read a better series, I would be surprised. amd trust me, I have read a lot of books. ... Read more

Product Description
3-D Movie Preview, Glasses Included, Paul Rudd, The Most Lovable Leading Man on the Planet ... Read more