its a wonderful book that accompanies Slumber its companion in the Duology ...
580653
its a wonderful book that accompanies Slumber its companion in the Duology series. I loved every word of this book and the ending of the book is a wonderful way to end the series let me tell you.

Lets start off by my favorite part of the book which is the ending so I am not going to spoil it for you. There is a sad part and what great book doesnt have those right? But what you already know from the last book and the synopsis is that Rory (the main character) is now queen of ancorda  and she is fighting for her kingdom and something else as well. What is that you ask? Well youll just have to read the book and find out.
4459338
I took a class with Prof Ruck at Boston University, and found it absolutely amazing. In fact a lot of what I learned in his class I later applied to my novel PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES (especially the story of Medusa). I use this book as a sort of encyclopedia, and it IS impressive how expansive it is, but some figures are just mentioned/glazed over. The book would really benefit by having a glossary/index of figures. That said, as a companion book for Prof Ruck's class, it's perfect as you can directly ask him to expand on anything, but as a stand-alone book, this isn't quite the end-all encyclopedia of mythology.
1318312
Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick: a medieval illumination packed with obscure incidents; strange characters tucked away in unexpected places, the unraveling of things at the edges, byzantine hierarchies of caste and class, strange conventions. A glorious self-indulgent wordscape; also filled with allusions, gestures to things outside itself and beyond our ken: ghosts and shades crowd out the living, something in them struggles towards representation, shapes move beneath the ice, slippery intrigues against consciousness (Hardwicks obsessive-brilliant Billie Holiday  desirable and intimidating, always behind a closed door).

Hardwicks stories of an east coast parasitic bourgeois intellectualism and the larger social body which is its unconscious host is a study of how the weight of time crushes memory flat, compresses it into entangled strata that can only be picked apart with the patience and expertise of a highly skilled technician-writer like herself. There is a stretch of five pages or so in Sleepless Nights(from about 153 in my battered library copy)on homeless women and the false self-sufficiency of the rich that telescopes mid-20th century New York, ancient Rome, post-Napoleonic Germany, and pre-Achaemenid Egypt into a single conceptual space  not beside each other or like each other or analogous to each other in some sort of useful comparative exercise but as part of an ongoing human catastrophe that is reminiscent of Benjamins theses on history. Like in Benjamin, the way to understand history in Sleepless Nights is not as a sequential chain of events that leads to a particular consequence and which memory can reconstruct, but existentially or phenomenologically as a fusion of memory and action, a sort of eternal return I suppose. Hardwick is a much more interesting time traveler than the bland normalized do-gooder who wants to save JFK or kill Hitler, the point is not to go into the past so we can save the present, but to consume time as a drug, to eat it, to succumb to its poison and experience the distinctions we rely on in day-to-day life as fluid (then-now, here-there, me-you).

Hardwick gasses the bustling hive and picks it apart, showing the moving parts stilled, fixed in their functions, she illustrates not just the complexity of relations but, by extracting them from the social world in which they are produced and arranging and rearranging them as words on paper, reveals the utter failure of our imagination to capture things as they actually are. Her last page is the gasp of the patient waking after surgery, of everything starting back to life, of starting over again.
3528805
Rather than a study of their friendship, this volume - a great improvement on Duriez's "Inklings Handbook" - is a joint biography, popping back and forth between the two even in their most intertwined years.  Duriez uses both primary and secondary sources fairly well, skillfully skating over weak spots (e.g. that little is known of the early years of the Inklings) and sticky points (especially the causes of the friendship fading).  It's a soft-minded book with little original to say, and Duriez's greatest achievement may be in writing imaginary vignettes of the subjects' lives that are not wincingly terrible.  This book is for casual fans of the two authors who warm to the thought of them being pals together.
2590404
this is my favourite story, when i was young i used to read it before going to sleep. This is a great edition of the novel
1454099
I have given this book to two dear friends and they both love them.  The Sleeping Bear Press books are high quality and so fun to read with children at various stages!
1610048
What a wonderful companion. It's weight nd warmth make it the perfect snuggler. The lavender scent is a nice touch, too
4840494
Very amazing  companion to the book that i absolutely love. it helped me understand so much, and get more into the book itself. do to understanding not only the characters but the setting as well.
3315608
I had read The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories earlier this year and absolutely loved it  I immediately went out and bought the two other Penguin collected editions of Lovecrafts work, and only just got to reading The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories.

This edition has, as the others do, several short stories and longer novellas written by Lovecraft. Its also annotated extensively, and includes suggestions for further reading, including both primary and secondary sources. The only regret I have is that those notes are end notes rather than footnotes, which makes flipping back and forth kind of tedious. However, the additional information in the end notes was absolutely worth it. I loved being able to read when Lovecraft wrote a story, what inspired it, why he went with particular details and further elaborations on why those details were important.

Included stories, stars for favourites: The Tomb, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The White Ship, The Temple, The Quest of Iranon, The Music of Erich Zann*, Under the Pyramids, Pickmans Model*, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward*, The Dunwich Horror*, At the Mountains of Madness*, and The Thing On the Doorstep.

As you can see, I actually preferred most of the longer novellas to the short stories. Under the Pyramids was a delight because it was essentially Lovecraft writing Harry Houdini fanfiction, and the backstory behind that is actually fascinating. The Music of Erich Zann was my favourite of the shorter stories, although Pickmans Model came at a close second. The novellas  The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dunwich Horror, and At the Mountains of Madness  were so engrossing. Once I got to the second half of the book, I practically flew through. CDW is the longest of Lovecrafts works but I found that the exposition really helped draw the reader in. Ive never felt such sympathy for a character in a horror story before, and it was truly full of horror. The Dunwich Horror was extremely atmospheric and in fact relied on what the characters and reader didn't actually see for its main effect. This was also echoed in At the Mountains of Madness  the beginning of that story was quite slow for me but once it went through to where certain discoveries were made, I was drawn in. I loved this one as well for the way it expanded upon previously very brief descriptions of the Old Ones and the Outside; this novella went into detail on the history of that group of fantastical and horrifying beings, and that history was fascinating in its own right. The world building throughout Lovecrafts stories is fantastic.

I haven't left too many details in my review because I wouldnt want to give anything away; Lovecraft is truly a master storyteller and his works should be experienced by reading in full rather than spoilers in a review. I honestly would recommend his work to anyone, but would start off with The Call of Cthulhu and then read this volume, as there are some references here to works which appear in that volume.
4529611
I've loved Stephen Isserlis' work as a cellist for a long time, but this book (and the previous volume, Why Beethoven Threw the Stew) are fantastic.  Not necessarily for young children (the teacher or parent should read these first to determine what parts of the book are suitable for a particular age) but certainly fascinating...I reread this after we were done reading it together.

Isserlis' scholarship and care was clear, and his voice well-defined...and his passion as a musician and for the stories of these men and their music.  Also....there is a great sense of pacing.

If you love this or its predecessor, then also type in Isserlis on youtube and you'll find some small performances and "lectures" he gave to children.  Adorable.  He's definitely got a natural wig of his own. (:
42847
A beautiful and fun book that covers various segments of Camille Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals, with catchy rhymes by Prelutsky, and energetic illustrations by GrandPre.  There are 15 sections, including an intro and finale, and the CD begins with Prelutsky's dramatic reading, followed by the relevant section of Camille Saint-Saens' music.

The concept behind this book and CD is that Prelutsky wrote a set of lyrics to accompany Camille Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals, composed in 1886.  It's a perfect introduction to classical music for children of all ages as it consists of a set of orchestral character pieces, with each depicting a particular animal.  Think of it as like Peter and the Wolf, where each character was represented by an instrument that complimented its nature and personality.

Prelutsky has put together a great set of lyrics that captures the essence of the movements and has a great knack for words and rhythm.  And I think that GrandPre's work really shines here, compared to in Harry Potter, as she uses vibrant colors and stylized set-ups to convey big movements and sounds in the lion, rooster, and donkey pages, but also beautifully captures the quiet stillness of the turtle and the swan.

The book alone is wonderful, but it's the CD that really seals the deal here.  Enjoy this by reading the book, listening to the CD, or doing both, and you can do it all at once or in chunks.  This can be as interactive or lazy of a read as you want it to be.  I bought this for my niece and nephew last holiday season for the concentrated all-day family events when I knew we would all be too busy and too tired to read books all day.  It was perfect and they still love The Carnival of the Animals to this day.
1921646
We love this book at our house. I want to find the author and give him a hug. There used to be nights when it would take an hour or sometimes two to put my daughter to bed. Since getting "The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep", it has become more 10-15 minutes. She usually settles down and starts falling asleep by the second page. If you read it very steady, slowly, calm, and in a low voice it works like magic. There have even been times I feel myself drifting off while reading. Lol
3634342
Sleep and waking states are like separate countries with a common border. We cross over twice daily, remembering one world and forgetting the other, inadvertently tracking invisible residues from one into the other. The seemingly unknowable hours we spend in sleep constitute recurring gaps in our waking awareness, and the inescapability of sleep suggests that something important happens during those gaps. It is an occurrence that is so common, so habitual, so ubiquitous, we barely notice. Like the air we breathe, it is something we become aware of only when its quality is deteriorating.

This is a delightful book that draws from literature, culture, science, and spiritual traditions around the world to understand the reservoir of human sleep experiencesand how sleep has become a dwindling resource. Rather than presenting definitive answers however, the author engages curiosity and open-mindedness in her research, narratives, and insights to discover what happens to us in the divide between sleeping and waking. She begins by exploring interdisciplinary attitudes toward sleep and dreams, noting the words of English poets, ancient Greeks, historians, traditional peoples, anthropologists, wisdom traditions, and more. From there she begins at the beginning: how, exactly, do we fall asleep, the stages of falling asleep, brainwave patterns in sleep, dreaming and dreams/nightmares, and finally coming full circle to how we awaken. It is only loosely a linear foray, however, interspersed with explorations of personal and social attitudes toward sleep, the history of sleep patterns, sleep disturbances, sleep aids, as well as the metaphysical mysteries and importance of sleep to our existence and in our daily lives. Easy to read and filled with surprising facts and engaging inquiries and stories, this book offers a contemporary, refreshing, and enjoyable look at what lies beyond our eyelids when we surrender to the secret life of sleep.
435337
I've only recently started reading H.P. Lovecraft with the purchase of two books from Amazon. And while I've only sampled a few of his stories so far, this particular book is very nice to have on my shelf regardless of how big a fan I become.
Under the black, dust cover it is a very plain, classical looking book that suits the atmosphere of Lovecraft's writings very well.
The only thing that would make it seem like even more of a tome would be if it were about four times larger.

But if you can picture yourself in a housecoat, sitting in a musty old wing back chair, smoking a cigar or a pipe and sipping a goblet of wine or brandy, while letting yourself get lost in a fine book, this is the one for you.
It's just that classy.
4233800
I love to lesin to this at night when going to bed. I have had to have it reread several times as I keep falling a sleep.;)
740588
For fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire" this is the ultimate companion book that explores so many of the different philosophican themes and threads that run through the series.

it is an interesting way to gain different perspectives on the story, the philosophy within it, the characters, physical settings, etc. from other writers.

This book is exactly what I anticipated it would be and it is a wonderful resource for fans of the series who are interested into getting deeper into the characters, issues and stories but from other angles beyond George R.R. Martin.

I highly recommend this book!

(Now, if only someone would invent a Halloween Costume for my Min Pin of one of Danaerys Targaryen's Dragons... I'd be in heaven!)
2103763
I absolutely ADORE this book. It is very sweet and a lovely bedtime story about all the different ways that animals say goodnight to each other. It's fairly long for a board book and when we first got it my just turned one year old daughter didn't always make it through the whole thing. I really enjoy reading this to her though...one of MY favorites in her ever growing library.