This book helped me to appreciate the evolution of Marion ...
930824
This book helped me to appreciate the evolution of Marion fandom over the years.  It was nostalgic for me, having grown up a Mario fan.
1205767
I liked the holistic perspective presented on how life evolves through the tribal stages; I identified myself in each of these at different moments in my career and helped me understand the reason behind stage oscillatory changes.
1758897
Having spent many summers on the Cape and still a frequent visitor, I am interested in the history of the Cape's tourism. This book is an interesting, concise, easy-to-read history of the Cape's appeal and how tourism has evolved. If you are interested in the Cape's past, present and future, this is a book for you.
1346990
I was drawn to read this book because of it's tie to the modeling world. In my youthI was very interested in the lives of models.
Now I'm grown with children and haven't really given that much thought, but this book brought those days back when I saw it.
I loved Lexi's personality at the beginning of the book but she goes through a lot of situations that definately lead her to be a  different young woman at the end. What I most appreciated from Raw Deal was that Lexi doesn't convert overnight and the book feels more authentic because of it. We are actually following along through her bad choices and seeing the hope for her in glimpses-I have a feeling that her conversion will take place in the next book when she is really ready for it.
I plan to share this book with my teenage and young adult nieces and I feel like they will really enjoy it.
2887136
I'm just finishing this book now and have loved it.  At first I was disconcerted that I could not follow all the characters, especially when Mantel did not make it clear to whom she was referring.  However, when I stepped back and decided I did not need to know everything that happened precisely, I found that I gained a marvelous view of the life and times of the people involved.  Her writing style is somewhere between prose and poetry, which allows room for me to roam about in the sentences, finding layers of meaning.  I caught up on some of the details on Wikipedia.
1756172
For me the most significant aspect of this book is the historic one.  The personal stories served as a way to tell the 19th century  perceptions of natural history and the changing understandings.  I had not realized before the strength of the rejections of the idea of fossils and what they meant:  the blasphemy of believing that God can make mistakes as many saw it then.  This was a "Wow!" for me.  The story shows the beginnings of the acceptance of of science--or natural philosophy as it was called then.  It is one of my favorite books of all time, probably second only to To Kill a Mockingbird (for very different reasons).
3052265
Having heard of Abraham Verghese as the Indian doctor who'd made a name for himself as an AIDS doctor (that was ten years ago in a newspaper article in India), I was curious to know more about his real experiences with the tragedy that AIDS brought in its wake. By a quirky coincidence that allowed me to share my interests in writing and medicine with him, I was even more intrigued by him and his story. In the end, as I turned the last page of the book, I wondered aloud, "when was the last time I came away so moved?"

I applaud his patients for allowing him to lay their stories bare open for the world to pry. The motions of weakness, anguish, helplessness, tire, and then those of gratitude and appreciation that doctors find themselves in have been richly described. After a long time, I found a book with a soul - mostly because it belonged to real people who lived these stories, and suffered the tragedies it described.

The writing is sparkling, sharp, and well-edited. For someone who loves the classics, it is also testimony of superlative modern English writing. But ultimately what won my heart were the people in it - and I am not lying when I say that I was moved to tears in some. For someone used to seeing the frailties of illness and inescapable death as part of their profession, I am thankful to Dr Verghese for taking time out for sharing his experiences and for the subjects for allowing us a glimpse of how they faced grave uncertainty.
4451610
This is an excellant book which documents the discovery of what could be an ancestor of man.  A creature that is extremely tiny, but shows all the characteristics of what will become the branch of evolution that leads to man.

This book goes into great detail on evolution as well as how the fossils that are found are characterized into different families and branches.  This is a book for someone who is really interested in the details of evolution and how species differentiate over millions of years.

I would recommend this book to someone who has a strong interest in evolution and fossils.  The details that this book goes into may turn off a casual reader and inundate them with infomation.  For those who take the time to read it all, it is well worth the effort.
601943
I moved to Salem, MA 18 months ago because of its history, diversity, and culturally-rich environment.  Not knowing too much about the city (except for the unfortunate witchcraft trials and its successful maritime trade) I wanted to learn more about Salem than just the usual, and overworked, witchcraft tragedy.  I saw this book, Legendary Locals of Salem and bought it. It covers the 1600s to the present day and what a concise, neat and truly great education I got on the more than three centuries of this fascinating city.  The authors, Dorothy V. Malcolm and Jerome Curley did a magnificent job in highlighting some of the characters, both the good and bad ones, who have made an impact on Salem life these past 300+ years.  Jerome Curley is a fine, local historian, and I have seen Dorothy V. Malcolm on several talk shows, was interviewed and found her knowledge and love of Salem is evident and enthusiastically contagious.  Having read this fine volume, Ive learned more than I had ever hoped to about this great City of Salem, but now Im waiting that there will possibly be a Volume 2 in the works.  What an inspiring tour de force this book is!  It is a great read.
1265964
I have enjoyed reading this book and am glad that someone took the time to gather all the material together!  I am amazed at the vision of this Man and am thankful for His ministry over the years!  I thought most of the information was fair to the history of Dr's legacy.
1059318
As a former Kwaj resident this was a wonderful book to see what the island was like in e years before I came.  I am sure it is factionalized but it is fun to read a book about my little island
2542683
I just finished reading When Shovels Break, the sequel to A Muscle and A Shovel. I found it quite interesting. It shows the difficulties one encounters with the world and indifferent brethren that causes one to become disillusioned and discouraged to the point one falls away from the faith once delivered to the saints, becoming a wayward member of the Lords church. It took the person several years to find the way back out of the world the second time and return to the Lord. You will find the latter part of the book very helpful in not only seeing some of the causes for people leaving the faith, but also how they can return. Overall I would recommend it as a helpful tool in seeking to restore prodigals to the family.
1382464
I purchased this book as a continuation of my recent reading of Caravans. It has been very enlightening on several levels. The story is interspersed with flashes back to the archaeolgy team at the dig that demonstrates the train of thought that provide the conclusions in the development of the story. I have found it to be very educational towards the development of a region as well as the field of archaeology which I have never taken the time to investigate. My lack of knowledge in this field now seems odd to a western Kansas farm kid that grew up using a rather large fossil bed as a playground. Thank you James Michener for once again seeing that my education continues.
4672656
I have only read "Falcon at the Portal" and was not very impressed. However this book gives a lot more insight to Elizabeth Peters' characters and their environment of nineteenth and twentieth century environment. We weave reality with literature never really knowing where one starts and the other stops. The book is jam-packed with actual monochrome photos and sketches of famous (at the time) people and landmarks.

Under the section marked "People and Places" Heinrich Schliemann received a whole paragraph. This must make up for the lack of a bibliography and index.

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Crocodile-on-the-Sandbank-Amelia-Peabody-Book-1/dp/0445406518/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody, Book 1)</a>
1795748
I just got through reading A Land Remembered after having seen it in book stores over and over. I was always curious as to what it was about. Not being a native Floridian (grew up in California), I've been wanting to learn more about the history of Florida and Smith's book was a good way to get a better understanding of what life was like in Florida during and after the Civil War. What I found particularly interesting is the fact that it follows three generations of one family. As Smith's book is historical fiction, this family by name did not exist but it's a reflection of the families who did come South out of Georgia to build a future for themselves with grime and grit.

It describes a time that is largely unknown to use today. The hard and grueling work of Tobias to carve out a place in the Floridian wilderness to establish his place. The bold and brave attitude that people had to have in order to build out in Florida. This is something that many people take for granted today and something that most of us will and have never known.

I would highly recommend this book to anyway, especially people who live in Florida. It's a good way to get a better understanding of the place you live in.
1937776
I loved this book. I felt so grateful for all of the people who came before us that fought so hard for abolishing such a hiddeous thing as slavery and for women's equality. This book allowed me to feel more deeply the unimaginable sacrifices made to begin a cultural change. We have come a long way and have more to do in raising our consciousness for our evolution.
4142726
I have devoured this book - I am most familiar with Gilbert's non-fiction work, but I was pleasantly surprised by this period piece novel about an unusual woman in the 1800s. Gilbert has created a woman of her time and yet, beyond her time; following her life was a great read. As a scientist (okay, social scientist) I was especially impressed by her grasp of the scientific and anthropological. I never thought that reading about mosses would fascinate me, but it did. What a wonderful lens through which to view that century and the amazing advances that occurred in those times.