It's Kate's world...we just live in it
932313
Well, it's been 12 years since we've gotten an album from Kate Bush...and 16 years since we've gotten a good one (sorry fans; "The Red Shoes" had it moments, but overall was a big disapointment). And somehow, with the release of "Aerial", the wait has been worth it.

Whereas once Kate's quirky world once included songs about calling to Heathcliff, dancing with Hitler, menstration, cloudbusting, sounds used to kill people and making deals with God, it now seeming wraps around the normal, seemingly meaningless things of everyday life. Yet in her eyes and voice, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

And only Kate could sing the numbers of pi and make it sound sexy.

What is most striking about this album is the siplicity and restraint that Kate maintains thruout the recording. Kate's been known to do some weird and quirky stuff in her time. A bit of this still pops up here and there on this album, but this time the focus is on her stellar voice and her piano.

There is much I can say about this recording, but others have already pretty much said the same that I would. No point in repeating.

However, this is an album you need to make time for; give it your attention and let its gifts be revealed to you. An extroadinary piece of work from a musical alchemist. Want to know where Tori Amos, Nellie McKay, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, Prince and Big Boi (Outkast) have gotten many ideas from? Check this out...and then start exploring her back catalog.

Let's just hope we don't have to wait until 2017 for the next one.
463456
I've been waiting for this since I finished volume 1. Kate continues her escapades across the country and into some new kinky experiences. It didn't end like I was expecting but still has just what I'm looking for in this type of read.  I won't ruin it for you but her 'body is a traitor.'  ;) Looking forward to volume 3.
4197123
So many of McKinley's books take place in worlds where "modern" technology is not  yet a factor, but suddenly we're in a world quite like our own, with scanners. gene therapy, and "pocket phones." However part of that world uses magic to protect itself from disastrously bumping up against other realities, and in Maggie's country, science rules and magic is illegal.

I love the tools the good guys use to save the world ... no swords or massive explosions here!  Its animals and origami, books and fuzzy friends, and there's not a bit of cuteness anywhere. The tension builds rapidly, as the main part of the story takes place in about three days. The good guys are neither stunningly beautiful nor overflowing with wisdom or power.  They make things up as they go along, and the ties between parents and children, animals and their people, and deep friendships allow them to overcome a very bad situation.  I like that this feels like kids awakening to a bad situation and their growing awareness that one's senior year in high school is not meant to be one of life's pinnacles.

I also like the implication that evil doesn't spring from dark supernatural creatures, but from ordinary humans trying to face problems with a military, security, or police state mindset.  This is not a political book, and the canine and feline characters kept me smiling. It didn't leave me breathless (like Sunshine) or feeling as though I'd just eaten something splendid and chocolate (Spindle's End), but as if I'd spent an engrossing evening wrapped in a cozy quilt with an animal companion I loved.
4764333
Kate's world seems so wacky, but the lessons life sends our way can help us become more who we are, and sometimes those lessons really hurt.
4652441
This is Melanie's fourth book, and she's one of those authors I read every time she comes out with a new one. Church of the Small Things felt particularly timely. We live in a chaotic world where we hurt one another with our Facebook responses, with our tweets, even Lord-have-mercy with mass shootings. This book reminds us there's still a world of good we can do. I loved her reflections on her growing up experiences, but also her thoughts on parenting and marriage and community.
1980169
Ive heard it said believers are so heavenly minded they're of no earthly good. Kates compelling story proves the opposite. Its exactly because shes learned to take the long view  living with eternity in mind  that her impact is this world is so startlingly powerful. With courage, humility, wisdom and an infectious love for Gods Word, Kate weaves truth and hope around the hard, unvarnished realities of life on this broken, beautiful planet.
Her fascinating portrayal of cross-cultural missions, marriage and motherhood is a breathtaking glimpse into how God is building His Kingdom, and making all things new across the divides of cultures and continents.
This is Kates story, but its yours and mine too. I cannot recommend A Place to Land highly enough to believers on each side of the Atlantic Ocean  and indeed anywhere that, for now, they call home. This is a page-turner that will quite possibly shift your worldview, inspiring you, as Kate puts it, to die a little every day, until true living becomes the art of dying well.
4342236
What a story! Kate is a gifted writer who tells her story like no other. Once I began her book, I could not put it down.. Although I've  never been to Capetown, South Africa,I was able to imagine its beauty through Kate's eyes and her love for it while she call it "home.". Her took is truly an aid in our lives as each of us longs in our hearts for a true and final place to land; eternity.
581137
Kate's unique magic continues with this beautiful cd.  Filled with all the talents we've come to expect: Kate composing original songs sounding wonderfully old, Kate putting traditional lyrics to her perfectly fitting new music, and Kate once again singing so subtly and yet with such emotion.  She even performs a cover from a much more modern time, Pee Wee King's "You Belong to Me."  There's a traditional bawdy song, several songs that play like the loveliest of lullabies, and even a kid's song.

Once again, Kate's instrumental genius of a husband, John McCusker, produces the album.  His and Kate's arrangements include some of the most dense (and yet somehow still spare) groupings of acoustic instruments-played by the amazing regulars in Kate's band: Ian Carr, John, Andy Cutting, and a host of others.  Roddy Woomble from the band Idlewild duets grandly with Kate on "No Names" and Roddy and Kellie While provide lovely harmony on several other songs.  Even with such virtuoso playing (on fiddle, viola, flute, whistle, piano, cittern, accordion, harmonium, a brass section and an extra string section), the guitar work stands above all else (played by Kate, Ian, John, John Doyle, and Kris Drever).

The heart, of course, is still Kate's great voice.  Yorkshire and folk music have never sounded so fine.

MOON SHADOW,

HE'S THERE BUT BARELY VISIBLE

MOON SHADOW,

WHEN I'M SCARED AND FAIRLY MISERABLE

A WATCH FOR ME HE'LL KEEP,

SO I MIGHT FALL ASLEEP.

(from Kate's "Moon Shadow")
4072755
I like the series.  It's light and fun.  Moms can relate to Kate (well the family part of it).  I think if your looking for something different this is the book for  you.
2982333
Done with the first read-through of the physical book. Even though I read The Authenticity Experiment on-line as it was published originally, there is something magical about having it physically in my hands. Something about the way Kate takes a deep breath between essays when you turn the page. Literally a change of seasons, and how my own perceptions and feelings gear up to receive the next section.

Did I mention that I deliberately bought two copies, because I knew I would need a second one to share?

I was right, but I might need a third copy for lending or gifting. Kate speaks not just for herself, but for all of us. Every few pages, I found her words piercing through my armor and touching upon the sad places, the ridiculous thoughts, the long-buried hopes and fears. You need to read this book, and maybe more than once. I will be reading it again.
2576216
Originally posted on Confessions of Carlisa | http://bit.ly/1PjEl1Z

This book. Ive seen it described as Kate Middleton fan fiction and that description is spot on. Its the story of an American girl, Rebecca or Bex, who takes a year abroad and studies at Oxford, where she finds herself living down the hall from the future King, Prince Nicholas. They fall in love, they kiss a lot, romancey things happen, yada yada yada. Basically the average girls fantasy. Except its different. Because life isn't a fairy tale. Its real. This story was 4 stars for me because it took that classic, almost-clich&eacute; story and made it real.

First the characters were so well-developed and this was completely necessary. It follows Bex and Nick through eight years of their lives and their relationship and if their characters hadnt been believable or hadnt been well-rounded, it would have been eight years too many. As we take this journey with Bex and Nick, we see every side of them. The bad and the good. The charming and the not-so-charming. The beautiful and the ugly. We even see these different sides of the Queen of England herself throughout the pages. The emotions of the characters are so sincere and honest to real life that they were almost hard to read at times. But thats how life is. Emotions and relationships aren't easy and as we experiences these eight years with Bex and Nick, we see that.

Also Bexs voice as a narrator is awesome. Shes awesome and I love her so much. There are so many places where I wanted to reach through the pages and hug her or laugh with her or cry with her and a few times even slap her. Shes just Bex and shes great.

I also just like how this completely throws us off of what we expect as this modern-day fairy tale. Thats why I like Into the Woods too because it builds what we know as a fairy tale and then completely warps and destroys all of those expectations. This is similar (though not quite to the extent Into the Woods takes it). The perfect magical thing doesnt happen just at the right moment to save the day. There are no fairy god mothers or genies to grant them wishes. Its just life despite the princes and the castles. This story shows the side of these fairy tales that we don't often see. The honest side. The hard side. The real side.
1670349
At this point I have read a ton of reviews for Things I Can't Forget. Almost all have given Miranda Kenneally high praised (very well-deserved) for her writing and the story. Almost all have also mentioned having a hard time connecting with Kate. I am absolutely not trying to argue or discount those feelings, each person comes to a book bringing their unique outlook on life and relationships. What I want to do is offer an alternative point-of-view in regards to Kate.

Kate Kelly is maybe the best example I have personally read for a character who is driven, and often conflicted, by their faith. I know this might make her appear to be judgmental and pushy, and I'm not going to argue with that. The thing is, if you've been raised in a very strict church that takes the Bible and it's rules very literally, this is often who you become. I know this because almost all my friends were like Kate, and I even caught myself doing it when I was really young. We were raised going to a very, very strict church, probably even stricter than Kate's because it didn't even allow music in church or dancing. Kate was raised with a specific set of standards to live by, God's standards, and she takes that seriously. I had a friend (of an even stricter religion) tell me I was going to Hell for cutting my bangs. My best friend told me my Uncle would go to Hell for getting a divorce. Though my feelings were hurt, I didn't exactly get mad at them, because I knew that's what they were taught. A lot of that went by the wayside, though, when we became teenagers. We went to parties, we kissed a lot of boys. We still knew these things we "wrong", we just traded our piousness for a buttload of guilt.

See, Kate feels guilty; for things she's done, things she's said, every errant thought or feeling. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt. And it will drive you crazy, trust me. My point is: Yes, with her judmental thoughts, worries, and guilt, Kate may be hard to connect with, but that just means that Kenneally nailed the portrayal of a girl conflicted by the world around her. Kate sees the world in black or white, wrong or right. Things I Can't Forget is Kate's journey of learning that the world is not concrete, there are many shades of grey to what she thought was absolutes. And if you don't see that when you're reading this, you're going to miss a really powerful story.

 Okay, I'm climbing down off my soapbox now... So how about that story?! I personally love books set at summer camps, maybe because I never got to go. I enjoyed the different personlities of the counselors, and how they interacted with one another. Of course, my favorite counselor was Matt, a super cute, super sweet guy Kate knew from her own camp experience. I loved that Matt had this open, affectionate way with Kate, but still maintained a bit of a mysterious edge. To see Matt, with his relaxed nature, help bring Kate out of her shell was so endearing. I loved being able to experience them falling in love. AND, it was so so so great to have Parker and Will at camp, and to get to see a bit of Sam and Jordan!

 Ultimately, for me, Things I Can't Forget was Kate's journey of forgiveness and acceptance. She needs to forgive herself. She needs to accept that others won't always see the world the same, or feel the way she does. And she needs to accept herself.

Things I Can't Forget was a beautifully written, very thoughtful story. It's my favorite Miranda Kenneally book yet.
2493338
i love kate bush, the reason why is that she's so different from any other artist, she's got her own world and just that is already a plus. very good idea she had to release a double album, because her world is too complex to put so much ideas on one, so with two, that album can breathe.

kate always released interesting records, but she would sometimes get lost among too much ideas, so what should be a strengh would become a "problem".

that one is the most stable record she ever did in terms of quality since the kick inside. we can "clearly hear" that there's a lot of work on that album, the mix is perfect and her voice still is a miracle. even the guitars are so typical of her world, this is no gibson or fender but modern guitars with modern amps with racks.

And let me tell ya that she kicks ass and the sound is huge and the whole thing is very subtil, even the sound that she produces on her records is so different, this is like discovering another galaxy. like "sunset" suddenly goes like a bit spanish and "somewhere in between" a bit oriental.

we find sometimes the same trademark we're familiar with, like with the song "aerial" it reminds me of "rubberband girl".

BEST SONGS: king of the mountain; 3,14; sunset, somewhere in between, aerial, nocturn and bertie.

obviously a good idea she had to do a baby.
748729
This is a book about many things, but it is not about Kate Middleton the human being and her path to individual fulfilment. Rather it is about KM the media object and her path to financial and semiotic hegemony. It is not about her individuation but rather about her capitalised education. It is not just about social and economic power, but about psycho-power and bio-power, about the production of desire and subjectivity in a capitalist society, and about the economic and semiotic war to control subjectivity and to reorganize our very drives so as to serve only capital and to desire according to its models. For David Cole our global post-industrial capitalist society is not the society of the spectacle but semiocapitalism, where the economic struggle for control of the market is relayed, intensified, and completed by the semiotic struggle for control of subjectivities. The royal family is not some medieval atavism artificially maintained as spectacle by the media for a world that has left such things far behind. The royal family is a formidable financial and semiotic assemblage of elements from diverse historical epochs, converging on a new iteration of the power to control financial fluxes and to define our desire not just for the consumption of the spectacle of the royal family and of its associated products but also for the sort of capitalised education writ large that KM benefited from and that we can experience at our own level and on our own scale as we live out, or try to live out, our own success story. It is a book about education, that educates us into immanence even while it lays bare the capitalised education that edifies such semi-transcendent models as KM. Kate Middleton media object is neither an instance of purely transcendent royalty (unattainable and so incapable of mobilising our desire), nor an example of purely immanent caring for one's life and one's loved ones (attainable by quite other means than frenetic capitalisable consumption). The book is also a reply to the claim that the age of immanent materialism as exemplified in Deleuze and Guattari's works is dead, and that academic commentary is the best that we can hope for from that direction. Cole does not comment Deleuze and Guattari, he uses them, as he uses Laruelle and Berardi, Agamben and Zizek, Marazzi and Lazzarato, but also William Burroughs and Philip Jos Farmer, and many other writers and thinkers in the mobilisation of his own immanent education for the task of understanding the KM-effect in all its multi-layered amplitude. This is a very rewarding read, and can only make us more thoughtful about the motivations that guide our lives.
4706529
Kate Mitchell is busy woman all about work, work, work, and MacDermott Ellis.  Both Kate and Mac head the publishing team at Lavigne House in NYC.  While Kate is the publisher, Mac is a hot-shot who all the ladies seem to desire.  This works vice versa too.  The dynamics at the Lavigne House are always intense and stress-filled because of the daily demands from authors.  I was thus able to gather some insight into the publishing world.

The love of Kates life is Mac- or is it Nick Lavigne?  Kate used to be engaged to Nick before she broke it off to be with Mac.  She made herself believe that Mac was her one and only.  All women can relate to the ups and downs, and more ups and downs of Kates life.  Luckily, she has good support system from her friends- Grace and Andrew. One of my favorite moments was when Kate threw a dinner in the hopes that Grace and Mac would learn to get along.  Grace never cared for Mac, and wasn't shy about expressing her misgivings about him.  All women seem to pander to Mac, but Grace never seemed to have that problem.

Yet Grace isn't the only person in Kates life who is relentless about telling her the truth.  Vivienne Lavigne and Dr. Ruth Ann Wilson impact Kates world in ways she never thought possible.  We could all use some brutal honesty with love in our lives.  Only then can we see the truth we were so afraid to meet.  But like Kate, it is a beautiful truth full of love.

I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
2751282
I always admire her style-millions do! It show how to get hair, makeup, workout, and clothes. Even list the shops & websites should you like to spend like her, This a great book on how to's and where to go to get your Kate look/fix. If you're a fan; get it!
884583
This series just continues to get better and better with each book. I'm only finishing the second and am stoked to start the third. Here I come Kate! :-)