The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
348573
It really got me to thinking just how lucky women are in this century.  Yikes!  It was an excellent read, well written and carried you along with the story line.
4300373
I really enjoyed reading this book.  The letters of correspondences between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley were  particularly of interest.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading the history of our country during the cival war years or simply about slavery.
3638623
Good book! I remember watching an old movie about The Scarlet Pimpernel a long time ago and I absolutely loved it. I never thought about the book until I saw it for free on Amazon. The book was as entertaining as the movie. I really enjoyed it.
2548830
This is such a wonderful book.  It is based on actual letters written to and from Thomas Jefferson.  I learned so much about the people and times.  Things were a lot like our political problems today.  That was a surprise.
830533
Joseph Conrad's Freya of the Seven Isles reminds me a lot of "The Beach of Fales" 1892 by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It is about fights and islands and ships.  Lovely stuff.
3339322
This is a great book. I tried to read The Scarlet Letter years ago.  I put it down after reading about 30 pages because the old English writing was terrible to weed through.  This NO FEAR series is wonderful.  The left hand side of the book has the original version with the right hand side of the page written in today's language, making it easy to understand.  Very nicely done!
332354
I just finished reading The Nightingale.  It is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.  It has left me emotionally wrung out, crying for the characters that became so real.  I didn't expect to like the book so much but it is one I will not soon forget.
878364
A wonderful story I enjoyed reading I thought it was wonderfully written and a amazing piece of literature. My thanks to the author Jeffrey A. Ballard for the pleasure of reading his amazing book .This book I would be delighted to recommend this story to my friends so to all happy reading and enjoy from wee me. xxx
4251168
This intriguing portrait of Sophia Peabody and Nathaniel Hawthorne was a wonderful read. The complexity of their relationship was so well drawn. Two gifted and very different artists in a passionate marriage. It also focused more subtly on the necessity of a woman taking the passive role no matter the circumstances; a historic perspective. The book led me to research Sophia's paintings and I plan to read Hawthorne's works again, this time with a broader view.
3980026
I read and enjoyed your book some time ago. It was fun to read something written by someone my own age so I could appreciate the allusions. Making associations with the past we knew is a pleasure.

I loved your naturally fluid writing style. The literary device I most enjoyed was the use of the leit motif of the wind that opened several of your chapters. The writing made it a very good book about a very good life.
4949736
Read Beauty for Ashes too. Both are wonderful. I reread the a lot.
2227422
Includes:

O. Henry - The Gift of the Magi
Booth Tarkington - A Reward of Merit
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews - American, Sir!
Katherine Mayo - John G.
Myra Kelly - Friends
Hamlin Garland - A Camping Trip
Dorothy Canfield Fisher - A Thread Without A Knot
Francis Bret Harte - Chu Chu
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Feathertop
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Red-Headed League
James Matthew Barrie - The Inconsiderate Waiter
Alphonse Daudet - The Siege of Berlin\
Selma Lagerlof - The Silver Mine
3374616
This is an awesome book. This was the first Rachel Hawthorne novel I've read, but I will difenitly be reading the rest of this series once available.
2837253
I love this book. It held my interest and it was fun to read about that time in American history. Patience, was a great character, as well as Hester and all the rest.
2183863
This book is part of a wonderful series published by Golden Press, no less.
I wish it would be reprinted because it is so well written.

This particular book has a wonderful description of the American Revolution.
4666823
If you are a fan of Mr. Hawthorne, you will enjoy this biography written by Frank Preston Stearns and published in 1906.
It is very informative and well written with a clear admiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne and his genius, yet not afraid to make critical examination of his literary work. The author gets long winded in certain sections about current events of the early 1900's, well after Nathaniels's time, just to make his opinions known and having little to do with the subject matter, it seems. Still a very worthwhile read. I enjoyed it.
272193
America the Beautiful in ruins, there are no cities, no skyscrapers in what has become a distinctly medieval landscape, travelers on foot and with laden carts, horses and donkeys replacing the frantic cacophony of a world reduced to the basic elements of survival. Knives, bows and arrows have replaced the stuttering menace of assault weapons, the steady roar of jets extinguished. Now weary folk trek eastward, toward the ocean where they hope to cross to Europe. Followed only by disease and want, superstition takes the place of science, the land demanding payment for its generosity, farmers valuable for their knowledge of the soil. In Ferrytown, the needs of travelers have bestowed a constant source of income for those industrious enough to build their town around ferrying and hostelry. Pestilence visits Ferrytown intermittently, the only recent victim thirty-year-old Margaret, whose own father died from the flux that now excoriates her every breath. Left to recover, or not, in the small, removed hut of the pesthouse, Margaret slumbers, fevered.

Brothers Franklin and Jackson Lopez have left their home in the west at the behest of their widowed mother. The brothers are notable for their size, seen as giants compared to other men, their muscles and brawn valuable barter along the way. When Franklin's aching knee will no longer support their journey without rest, Jackson goes ahead to Ferrytown, where he finds respite and sustenance for the night. But fate has other plans for Ferrytown, a great looming upheaval of natural confluences. Meanwhile, discovering the ailing woman in the pesthouse, Franklin shelters with her, the two forging an unexpected alliance; together they will travel across a barren, mud-slogged landscape, the rich natural resources of the old America long extinct. On this extraordinary journey, Margaret and Franklin achieve a closeness that neither could imagine before they met, a joining of wit and will that is their only comfort as they confront the perils ahead.

Civilization reduced to anarchy, menace is everywhere. Even the supposed safety of the Ark, where metal is anathema, exists partly through the fantasy that good intentions can prevail against force. Nearly lost to one another after being attacked by a violent band of bandits, Franklin and Margaret realize the extent of their isolation, savoring future intimacies while embracing a vision for the future. Crace's prose, while weighted and bleak, is filled with the nuances of hopeful beginnings, an appreciation for the simple, pure struggle for survival in a world informed by possibility. Franklin and Margaret are remarkable characters, putting me in mind of Margaret Atwood's stark prose, survivors who face the future and find it lacking, recreating instead the dreams of their forefathers, the pioneers who envisioned a new prosperity from the bounty of the earth. The Pesthouse is remarkable, beautiful and encouraging, life stripped to the essential, relieved of the cynicism of greed. Luan Gaines/2007.