Books

Average customer rating:

The lyrical prose and powerful sense of place
As Publisher's Weekly said, "a snoozer."
Not the Piano Tuner
Visionary, unforgettable, stunning
A Far Country

A Far Country
Daniel Mason
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Piano Tuner: A Novel
On Chesil Beach: A Novel
Christine Falls: A Novel
Ten Days in the Hills

ASIN: 0375414665
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

From the best-selling author of The Piano Tuner, a stunning new novel about a young girl’s journey through a vast, unnamed country in search of her brother.

Raised in a remote village on the edge of a sugarcane plantation, fourteen-year-old Isabel was born with the gift and curse of “seeing farther.” When drought and war grip the backlands, her brother Isaias joins a great exodus to a teeming city in the south. Soon Isabel must follow, forsaking the only home she’s ever known, her sole consolation the thought of being with her brother again. But when she arrives, she discovers that Isaias has disappeared. Weeks and then months pass, until one day, armed only with her unshakable hope, she descends into the chaos of the city to find him.

Told with astonishing empathy, and strikingly visual, the story of Isabel’s quest—her dignity and determination, her deeply spiritual world—is a universal tale about the bonds of family and a sister’s love for her brother, about journeys and longing, survival and true heroism.

A tour de force of great emotional and narrative power.

Customer Reviews:

The lyrical prose and powerful sense of place.......2007-05-30

Daniel Mason's haunting THE PIANO TUNER left an indelible imprint on my memory, which helped to launch a never-to-be forgotten visit to Southeast Asia in 2004. Such can be the power of a gifted writer --- that the potency of his words can open doors and windows of the mind to seek further information on the subject, learn more about the circumstances in the book, or even to book passage to lands far away. So it was with great hopes when Mason's newest, A FAR COUNTRY, became available, and I grabbed it without hesitation.

Isabel is the 14-year-old daughter of a farm laborer and his wife, living next to a sugar cane plantation in an unnamed equatorial America country, quite likely Brazil. Her older brother Isaias is a talented violinist who chafes at the idea of being forever tied to seasonal work cutting cane or loading river barges, the occupation of villagers for generations. Drought and the increasing attacks by raiders as poverty spreads among the displaced peasants drive Isais to join the growing Diaspora of young people who drift hopefully toward the city in the south. On his infrequent returns home, he talks glowingly of gaining fame as a musician, always going back to the city and sending small amounts of money to help out his impoverished family. His visits stop, replaced by occasional phone calls, and then he simply vanishes.

Isabel yearns for her brother, and when she is needed to babysit for a few weeks for her cousin in the same city that has swallowed Isaias, she is eager to follow him. With little more than a few dollars and a meager lunch, she embarks on a journey via "parrot perch" --- riding in an open flatbed truck on a four-day journey to the South. She arrives, after much travail, in The Settlements. She has directions to her cousin's apartment in a neighborhood called Eden, a name that turns out to be a cruel joke. Eden is nothing more than an endless sprawl of tin-roofed shanties, baking in the tropical heat, indistinguishable from hundreds of other neighborhoods housing millions of displaced camposinos in pursuit of work and shelter. When she finally locates the apartment, she is distraught to find that Isaias, whom she expected to be there to greet her, has not been seen for weeks.

And so begins Isabel's search through the teeming city for her brother, with baby Hugo, her cousin's son, on her hip. Isabel was born with a second sight, an ability that frightened her parents to the degree that they had her exorcized by a holy woman. But she still feels the uncanny, compelling presence of her brother, which drives her to find him. She enters the world of people looking for "the disappeared" --- the tens of thousands who come to the city and are never heard from again. Yet she feels that he is close at hand, watching over her, and cannot abandon her quest.

A FAR COUNTRY is a bittersweet journey of the heart; a story of family love yearning for security and survival. Mason's brilliant lyrical prose carries the reader along in a mixture of fantasy and reality. While the story verges on magical realism, it is not in the mystical realm of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende. Yet the surreal location and Isabel's ability to find lost objects and people whom she loves lend itself to the genre.

While A FAR COUNTRY doesn't quite achieve the magic and panoramic exotica of Mason's first triumph, it still offers the lyrical prose and powerful sense of place, which is quite enough if armchair travel to other places through a good book is your goal.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

As Publisher's Weekly said, "a snoozer.".......2007-05-14

Reviews by Amazon readers were very encouraging but I should have read the Publisher's Weekly review at the top of the page. That review gets it exactly right; good descriptive writing, but a bit cliched, and ultimately a snoozer. If I had not been trapped on a 10-hour flight with nothing else to read, I would have put it down half way through when I realized there was very little story, just description.

Not the Piano Tuner.......2007-05-09

As stated in many of the reviews, Mason certainly has a talent for writing truly amazing descriptions of reality; however, that is basically all this novel is. I just couldn't get into the story, what there was of it. Mason's earlier novel, Piano Tuner was phenomenal in that it not only was deliciously descriptive, but it was also a great story. I just didn't enjoy this story. To be frank, I found it a bit boring. Having said that, I will eagerly await Mason's next novel.

Visionary, unforgettable, stunning.......2007-05-08

Are you the type of person who can sit alone contentedly for a many hours merely observing and sensing the world around you? Are you the type of person who delights in reading words put together so creatively and carefully that they come to life on the page and in your mind? Are you the type of person who reads in order to better comprehend the human condition and, in particular, the currrent state of the world at this, the beginning of the 21st century--at this dangerous tipping point in earth's history where mankind finds itself entering a century of possible global climate and ecological disaster? If you are, then you might enjoy getting to know Isabella, the main character in Daniel Mason's second novel "A Far Country."

Isabella is the teenage daughter of present-day peasant farmers in an unnamed, most-likely South American country. Her people are cane-cutters. The family lives in a dirt-floored hut and sleeps hip-to-hip in hammocks slung together in a single tiny room. There is a small town nearby, but they are a good four-days' journey, "by perch" (a crowded flat bed truck filled to overflowing with dusty migrant travelers) from the big city (a megametropolis of over 14 million).

Isabella is a contented, quiet, gifted child, extremely close to her older brother Isaias. She idealizes him; for Isabella, Isaias is perfect in every way.

As the result of a long cataclysmic drought, first the brother and then the sister must leave their village for the big city. Almost the entire novel is taken up with Isabella's quest to find her brother in the city. The book is full of vivid observation and sensing. The author has the gift of making it possible for you live inside Isabella's mind. As a result, the civilized world takes on otherworldly and alien dimensions.

The plot moves slowly to the climactic scene in which Isabella finally finds her brother. It is worth reading this book for no other reason than to experience this one scene--to live inside Isabella's head when she finally finds Isaias. This is an experience you will not forget; mark my words, it will haunt you. You will find yourself thinking about it long after you've finished the book.

Mason took a leave of absence from his medical studies at UCSF to write this second novel. He was urged to do so after the considerable success of his first novel, "The Piano Tuner." He wrote the novel while living and traveling in Brazil. Much of the people and locations have the feel of Brazil.

There were times in this novel when I thought it was taking place in the near future. There are frequent descriptions of major climatic trouble: widespread drought; city-engulfing dust storms and floods; and ocean storms devouring coastlines. There are descriptions of epic migrations of rural poor fleeing drought to find any type of living in the big city. A man in the city tells Isabella that these migrations from drought-plagued lands are happening all over the world. If it was Mason's intent to place this book in the near future, I wish he had developed this idea more fully.

I enjoyed this novel, and hope that Mason will continue to make room within his medical career for more writing. If so, I will seek it out and read it.

A Far Country.......2007-05-06

Not as good a read as the Piano Tuner but worth the price at any rate. Daniel Mason's prose is quite descriptive and allows your mind to see and experience the emotions he is writing about.

Average customer rating:

The Year of Fog
when a child goes missing
Great fast read, but poor ending
Petered out in the end....
The Rare Literate Page Turner

The Year of Fog
Michelle Richmond
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Nineteen Minutes: A Novel
Body Surfing: A Novel
Barefoot: A Novel
Heartstopper: A Novel

ASIN: 0385340117
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Book Description

Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach. In the seconds when Abby Mason—photographer, fiancée soon-to-be-stepmother—looks into her camera and commits her greatest error. Heartbreaking, uplifting, and beautifully told, here is the riveting tale of a family torn apart, of the search for the truth behind a child’s disappearance, and of one woman’s unwavering faith in the redemptive power of love—all made startlingly fresh through Michelle Richmond’s incandescent sensitivity and extraordinary insight.

Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.

Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in religion and scientific probability—but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost. With her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has led her to another man and into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.

A profoundly original novel of family, loss, and hope—of the choices we make and the choices made for us— The Year of Fog beguiles with the mysteries of time and memory even as it lays bare the deep and wondrous workings of the human heart. The result is a mesmerizing tour de force that will touch anyone who knows what it means to love a child.

Customer Reviews:

The Year of Fog.......2007-06-27

This book was selected by one of my Reading Group hostesses. I was rivited from the first page. The drama, not just of the missing child, but also the emotional toll taken on those involved in the search, was so well described.

when a child goes missing.......2007-06-16

This is a book about a parent's worst nightmare. Unlike similar books, such as Beth Gutcheon's Still Missing, this book goes beyond the facts of a girl who disappears. The father, Jake, sticks to a police-procedural approach in trying to locate his daughter, sending out flyers, offering a reward, setting up a web site, appearing on television and radio. But Abby, Jake's fiance, feels responsible for the girl's disappearance and takes a much more imaginative approach. The themes of the book are presented through Abby's eyes. One is memory, recall of details, hypnosis, looking for clues that might have been overlooked. Abby and her friend Nell study the workings of memory, amnesia, the inability to forget. Another is the passing of time and the artificiality of time. The police say the longer a child is missing, the less likely he/she will turn up alive. Jake accepts this, Abby studies what time may mean. Abby is a photographer and looks for clues in her pictures. Jake and Abby are in agony, and I feel the story is realistic, including what eventually happens. There are different possibilities when a child disappears. She may eventually be found alive, like Elizabeth Smart in Utah. That doesn't mean she's undamaged. She may be found dead, like the child of one of the characters in a support group in the book. A child may be dead, but it can turn out there was no abduction, like the case of two boys in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last year. After a nationwide search, the boys were found accidentally drowned in McGovern Park lagoon in their own neighborhood. And then there are the children who are never found and the family never knows what happened. Jake wants closure, Abby refuses to give up. Although some people think the book is slow moving, time could really drag for parents in this situation. I couldn't put the book down and found it interesting up to the end. I think this could turn out to be one of the best books of the year.

Great fast read, but poor ending.......2007-06-06

I found this book to be a quick, engrossing read. It holds your attention and you are interested in the people and how they are handling the situation. However, I do agree with several other reviewers in that it's a bit dragged out. Also, I didn't care for the ending at all. I was very disappointed in how she brought the story to a close. I also agree that you do get a feel for San Francisco and information on memory and photography. I gave it 4 stars because I read it long into the night to see what would happen but I wasn't happy with the conclusion.

Petered out in the end...........2007-05-19

Entertaining if you are able to accept that a huge coincidence is part of the story; you must accept this or the story seems contrived. I guess it didn't seem believable or realistic to me. When I got to the end I felt like I wanted some sort of reason for having read the book. I felt like it just pooped out...

The Rare Literate Page Turner.......2007-05-18

This riveting tale of a woman (Abby) trying to find the missing child of her fiance (Jake) is rife with insights into the emotional turmoil of the grieving and guilt-ridden. While the book is truly about the impact that the child's disappearance has on Abby and her relationship with Jake, Richmond peppers the propulsive plot with some very tense scenes that keep the reader sucked in -- guessing and second-guessing page after page.

Average customer rating:

Makes you really think about the character's motives and actions
AWESOME NOVEL!
deep psychological study

Helpless: A Novel
Barbara Gowdy
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life
What the Dead Know: A Novel
Without a Map: A Memoir
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
Promise Not to Tell: A Novel

ASIN: 0805082883
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Book Description

From the internationally acclaimed author of The White Bone and The Romantic, a haunting and suspenseful novel of abduction and obsessive love

Nine-year-old Rachel Fox has the face of an angel, a heart-stopping luminosity that strikes all who meet her. Her single mother, Celia, working at a video store by day and a piano bar by night, is not always around to shield her daughter from the attention—both benign and sinister—that her beauty draws. Attention from model agencies, for example, or from Ron, a small-appliance repairman who, having seen Rachel once, is driven to see her again and again.

When a summer blackout plunges the city into darkness and confusion, Rachel is taken from her home. A full-scale search begins, but days pass with no solid clues, only a phone call Celia receives from a woman whose voice she has heard before but cannot place. And as Celia fights her terror and Rachel starts to trust in her abductor’s kindness, the only other person who knows where she is wavers between loyalty to the captor and saving the child. Will Rachel be found before her abductor’s urge to protect and cherish turns to something altogether less innocent?

Tapping into the fear that lies just below the surface of contemporary city life, Barbara Gowdy draws on her trademark empathy and precision to create a portrait of love at its most consuming and ambiguous and to uncover the volatile point at which desire gives way to the unthinkable.

Customer Reviews:

Makes you really think about the character's motives and actions.......2007-05-15

This author seems to have a real way with characters. I found myself thinking hard about each one, trying to understand how their lives have influenced their actions. There is just the right amount of flashbacks, enough to make you see that each character has a whole backstory. I think quite a few more books could be written using this same set of people. One of the main characters is a very disturbing person who does very upsetting things, but it's to the author's credit that you are left feeling as if he has fought a fairly courageous battle to not make his life a total disaster. The only time the book dragged for me at all was during police procedural and searching parts, which seemed a bit textbook. But this isn't really a plot driven book. I read it frantically whenever I found a moment, and have been thinking about it ever since.

AWESOME NOVEL!.......2007-04-24

I haven't read any of Barbara's novels previously but I loved, loved, loved this book! All the characters are so real, and the dialogue and storyline flows. I am definitely recommending this novel to friends. It weaves mystery and suspense with the feelings from the human heart. Gowdy creates a character so believing in Ron, the reader actually feels sympathetic toward him. Just a great, great story!

deep psychological study .......2007-04-07

In Toronto, single mom Celia Fox works two jobs while raising her beautiful mixed race daughter nine year old Rachel. Celia works at Tom's Video and plays jazz and blues at Casa Hernandez Motel. As protective as Celia is of her daughter, she is unaware of the impact her exotic looking offspring has on men, but begins to comprehend when a child model agent wants to hire Rachel; Celia has doubts, but Rachel sees a chance to earn money that she and her mom could use. However, mom is unaware that repairman Ron has seen Rachel and fallen in love.

Ron wants to save his beloved from poverty and maternal neglect and abuse. When a blackout occurs, Ron realizes he has the opportunity to save his Rachel so he abducts her for her own good. He enlists his girlfriend Nancy to help him "protect" the child, but finds his needs for her beginning to overwhelm his reasoning. As the police search for the missing preadolescent and Celia fears the worst, the media turns the abduction into a circus.

This is a deep psychological study that looks into the minds of the key cast members especially mother, daughter, kidnapper, and accomplice. The story line is totally character driven with the suspense coming from the subtle changes in attitudes of the prime quartet. Celia suffers from guilt and doubt as she deals with a caring mother's worst nightmare; Rachel begins to change her attitude as the Stockholm Syndrome begins to take affect. Nancy begins to have doubts that they did the right thing for the little girl as she realizes that Celia is not a terrible abusive mother. However, it is creepy Ron who makes the tale as he begins to conclude his pristine reasons are not pure. This is a frightening insightful suspense thriller that never lets the readers pause for a moment.

Harriet Klausner

The Missing Piece 30th Anniversary Edition (Ursula Nordstrom Book)

Average customer rating:

Really , being careful what you ask for, you might just get it
for a wedding gift
if you've never really grown up. . .
the missing ;iece 30th anniversary addition
I loved this book

The Missing Piece 30th Anniversary Edition (Ursula Nordstrom Book)

Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O 25th Anniversary Edition
The Giving Tree
A Giraffe and a Half
Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back
Falling Up

ASIN: 0060256710

Book Description

It was missing a piece.
And it was not happy.
So it set off in search
of its missing piece.
And as it rolled
it sang this song -
Oh I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
Hi-dee-ho, here I go,
Lookin' for my missin' piece.

What it finds on its search for the missing piece is simply and touchingly told in this fable that gently probes the nature of quest and fulfillment.

Customer Reviews:

Really , being careful what you ask for, you might just get it.......2007-01-22

My daughter, Sophia, recently reminded me that this was her "favorite" Silverstein growing up, though she certainly read them all and grew up on them. Well, not the adult magazine stuff, the kid stuff. Now almost 16 she tells me that she thinks this particular story has a "genius" that she relates to her view of the "search" for "love" and "completion". A part of me, as her mom, cringes now figuring this relates to our homelife somehow as we Mom's tend to feel things always relate to our mistakes or our blindnesses and on some level parental dynamics... but...that's the point really.

This is a very clear description of her father (her sister disagrees and makes this a nice pointed discussion) she says to me happily today as I relate I'm writing this review of a past favorite, and I suppose I can nod that I know it is, really. In the story a missing piece meets a rolling ...thing...a story of how a pie shaped piece completes a circle after long search..a story of something that is unhappy alone that searches for others to plug the gap, or to plug another's hole, making and then losing,then breaking, then fleeing from wholeness possibilities in those completions found. A perfect one or two situations present themselves (to make a deeper point about what this story is really about) to be crushed or left, as life didn't become perfect enough in this unity based on this "needing". In the end, in a kind of epiphany, it would appear better go along unfilled, being happy or at least free, understanding this thing called "need" that can't be filled by another at least for long- and singularly or at least in "self"- enjoying in a Thoreau like way flower, fields, slow pursuit, smells, clouds, days. Just as the Tree in the "Giving Tree" comes off female, the piece in the Missing Piece projects male. I want to say a few other things but I will stop as it will reveal my thoughts on those that look, judge, decide and move on.
A kind of Silverstein looks at relationships guidebook I suppose. This is another aspect of human dynamics, different from the Tree story, not about parenting but about living, and no easy parable- open to many interpretations and likely quite telling in how one relates to its meaning. Fits for my daughter something that appears to be very much a part of her self concept. She wants to go out and develop her life and feels searching for another to be a true fools bargain, well I was quoting her. I'm mostly just wondering. I suppose a bit more confused as ever. not allowed enough insight to really understand a typical Silverstein technique. Torn by whether or not I can accept the message. Reminded me of "What's It All About Alfie?" but I'm not sure why. I stand by it as my response however.

When I read it to Sophia young I often thought that I should:
1)hide the book from her father
2) change the ending but she read early and so I would try to edit but she was not fooled
3) disparage it vehemently
But I picked:
d) just kind of wonder why it spoke to her so clearly

And I imagine it still speaks to many including Sophia. I read someone here relating it as a wedding present. I'm trying to picture that happening. Somehow not sure even as a completely actualized being or couple if I'd be entirely joyful with this as a wedding present, it seems a pretty strong argument against the state, but that's just me. Who knows maybe I just prefer silver patterns and china. Maybe I'm not there yet.

Sophia, who loved round heads in stories, at two Charlie Brown being her favorite, always stopped the story and said, "I don't think this is a good end." And would make me read it over and over loving it, shutting it as it rolled down the hill. And my son would leave the room but he wasn't so big on this story....he and Sylvia loving the poetry volume "Where The Sidewalk Ends"..in the end I felt this had mixed family reviews optimists on one side calling the other side pessimists, pessimists on the other calling themselves optimists and label makers aimed...in short, my husband found the book "exactly right"..."It's the pursuit, Sarah"....
And I looked out wistfully and sang internally the "The City of New Orleans" and thought about days when we were both free to travel....in this way Silverstein captures feelings in our heart....(And for the record I do not recommend the Big O as to me speaking as powerful a message though it is a message one might "want" to hear.. I thought it was a poor attempt to dumb/numb/water/happify the message,a sequel.)
And yes I do recommend it to read with the caveat you might want to read it yourself first and think a bit about how you feel.

for a wedding gift.......2007-01-10

This is a wonderful children's book, but I have given a copy as a wedding gift. It was very well recieved.

if you've never really grown up. . ........2007-01-04

Like nearly all of Silverstein's book, this is excellent and is worth reading over and over again. Cute for kids or the potential to have a strong social message to adults dealing with relationships. . .or just life.

the missing ;iece 30th anniversary addition.......2006-11-10

Book came in good time and in perfect condition. Thanks

I loved this book.......2006-08-25

What a great book. Timeless. Highly Recommend for children and adults. Right up there with the great works of Dr. Seuss. And don't forget to get The Missing Piece Meets the Big O.

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)

Average customer rating:

The Golden Compass
A promising beginning
Best Book Ever
his darkest materials
Silver Compass(oops wrong title)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)
Philip Pullman
Manufacturer: Yearling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Adventure & Thrillers | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2)
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3)
Lyra's Oxford
The Amber Spyglass Deluxe Edition (His Dark Materials)
The Subtle Knife Deluxe Edition (His Dark Materials)

ASIN: 0440418321
Release Date: 2001-05-22

Amazon.com

Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:

As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had dæmons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.

Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.

In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. 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, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Download Description

Pullman introduces readers to a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, of Redwall, wherein lives a half-wild, half-civilized girl named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars of Jordan College is about the shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors.

Customer Reviews:

The Golden Compass.......2007-06-25

The best of Young Adult literaure transcends the label itself; it defies labeling by standing on its own terms. That confidence is clearly apparent in THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a novel that should not be pigeon-holed into any grouping that would make most adults skip over it without a second thought about it. Within the first 100 pages alone, author Philip Pullman has created a realistic fantasy world which includes glorious descriptions of fascinating characters making unexpected choices that develop into a wholly satisfying fantasy adventure that just happens to be about an eleven-year-old and the worlds around her.

Questions have arisen about the theological bent of the trilogy and of the author in particular. While each reader brings to each piece of writing his or her own set of standards, preferences, and judgments, I believe that the suggestion of an atheistic tint to the character shadings of THE GOLDEN COMPASS are practically irrelevent -- though, "to each his own." The story stands on its own merits of gorgeous writing, brilliant pacing, and a thoughtful overtone that makes this more of an adult fantasy adventure told through the eyes of a young girl. Of all YA fantasy I've read, this stands out as being most suitable for adults.

I believe that most middle school-aged children will pass over any of the details of adult character motivation (including discussion of religion) in favor of more action, as they are generously rewarded throughout the novel. Those adults who choose to emphasize the religious aspect and demean the novel as promoting atheism, should consider a couple points that I have yet to see mentioned in any review that really play toward a positive religious statement: thinking at a metaphoric level, the outcome of Iofur and Iorek's last confrontation should be considered -- who wins and why -- and the value of having a soul may be the key; "freewill" comes into the discussion late in the novel and should be thought about without over analysis; and the message about "people of religion" is different from the message about people who live morally (think Lyra, not Mrs. Coulter). In other words, religion is not a person or a building, but an idea.

I recommend this novel, and for parents who wonder whether to allow their children to read this, the answer is easy: read it with them, and discuss it and their thoughts (and yours) about it. Shooing young minds away from learning about those who may think differently is far more dangerous than practically anything -- and, strangely enough, is perhaps the real theme of this brilliantly written book.

A promising beginning.......2007-06-05

While waiting for the latest of each successive Harry Potters, I struggle to find something engrossing the keep me occupied in the meantime. I stumbled upon this series and felt I had discovered something special. This book starts the series off with a bang. My heart raced and I *needed* to keep reading. The first books is very strong but has some seriously disturbing elements that make it seem less than appropriate for young children. However, the characters are extremely believable and it does an excellent job of showing how the world exists in shades of gray rather than the black and white good versus evil struggles of the Potter books.

Best Book Ever.......2007-06-01

I love this book. If I had to pick one book to be my favorite, it would be The Golden Compass.

his darkest materials.......2007-05-17

Imagine having your own Daemon. A daemon it is part of you with out being with you but at the same time it can't leave you till you leave it in the world of the dead for quite a few days sometimes it can be weeks. Also it can change into any creature, some of them you may never know there names. The only down side to it is that soon as you turn of age it settles or stops changing and when it settles it settles with your future.

This book is not just a book but it is a trilogy where you can't stop turning the pages. Though through the book there are several sad stories that will rock your boat but as you may know that that is it's just figure of speech. Any way these books are the best books I've ever read because you keep waiting on the climax but then you realize that either it's never going to come or you have done passed it up. This also makes you want to read more. My mom literarily had to make me put it down to eat.

Though I would recommend this book for people from 6th grade through 9th grade anybody could read it and still have the same emotions

Maybe even more. The unfortunate thing about this book is that smaller kids will not be able to read it for the few gruesome scenes plus the large vocabulary.

I could connect this book to several people in my life. Such as will's dad and mine because they tell you the words they need to with out beating around the bush if his father hadn't then will would not know what to do plus he would see his father die with out even knowing it was his father

In the end this is a very good book the best I have ever read because it is very serious but you still enjoy the adventures at the same time.

Silver Compass(oops wrong title).......2007-04-19

Great book for all young readers everywhere. From Lyra's adventures to armored polar bears to walking into a new world. A great anventurous story about a young girl, in a world so much like outs, yet so much different.In a world where she knows everywhere, but doesn't know anywhere. A great book for recommending!
=)P3-R4ìîï

Average customer rating:

A page turner with heart. And soul.
A trick and a blessing
Englander's Great First Novel
Incredible Human story
Gripping and beautifully written

The Ministry of Special Cases
Nathan Englander
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
On Chesil Beach: A Novel
Divisadero
Kalooki Nights: A Novel
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories

ASIN: 0375404937
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Book Description

The long-awaited novel from Nathan Englander, author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Englander’s wondrous and much-heralded collection of stories won the 2000 Pen/Malamud Award and was translated into more than a dozen languages.

From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence--and denies a checkered history that only Kaddish holds dear. When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort.

Nathan Englander’s first novel is a timeless story of fathers and sons. In a world turned upside down, where the past and the future, the nature of truth itself, all take shape according to a corrupt government’s whims, one man--one spectacularly hopeless man--fights to overcome his history and his name, and, if for only once in his life, to put things right. Here again are all the marvelous qualities for which Englander’s first book was immediately beloved: his exuberant wit and invention, his cosmic sense of the absurd, his genius for balancing joyfulness and despair. Through the devastation of a single family, Englander captures, indelibly, the grief of a nation. The Ministry of Special Cases, like Englander’s stories before it, is a celebration of our humanity, in all its weakness, and--despite that--hope.

Customer Reviews:

A page turner with heart. And soul........2007-06-28

What is a parent's worst fear? We have heard about the horrors of Argentine mothers in the 1970's marching with their missing children's photos. Photos of their children taken from them for no other reason than they were students. This wonderful book brings this shameful history to life through the very flawed and human family at its center. If you don't weep at the final scene between father and son, you are made of stone.

A trick and a blessing.......2007-06-27

I picked up Ministry of Special Cases at 10 p.m., figuring I would plow through 20 pages before falling asleep. Captivated by its peculiar melancholy and its ability to maintain a precise balance between optimism and resignation, I didn't stop turning pages until I got to the last one.

If you choose books for their clever and detailed plots, Ministry will disappoint you. But if you revel in complex characters and writing that transports you to a particular time and place, then Ministry will suck you in and keep you mesmerized.

The book works on many levels. For starters, it evokes the horrors of Argentina in the post-Peron period. But it goes far beyond historical fiction, interweaving themes of love--among family members, co-workers, and even strangers-- with topics ranging from class differences to Jewish alienation to loss and futility. At its core, it's a novel about the absurdity of existence. Englander manages to squeeze an epic into a few hundred pages, with a style that is unembellished yet poignant.

My only quibble with the book is that Pato, the family son, functions mostly as a literary device, exemplified by the opening graveyard scene in which he is serving as a counterbalancing weight for Kaddish's gravestone defacement. That image recurs throughout the book, as Pato mirrors and reacts to his parents but does not emerge as a fully realized character himself. We feel his parents' anguish when he is disappeared, but we don't miss him as a person.

But such flaws are minor, and do nothing to diminish the lyricism and the humor, which manages to stay on the sober side of slapstick. Any author who can spin phrases like "the seam where the seedy underground was sewn to the seat of power" and "if everyone believes the same lie, isn't it, maybe, the truth?" is worth your time.

Ministry of Special Cases will crawl into your head and haunt your dreams--if you can sleep after you finish it.

Englander's Great First Novel.......2007-06-15

Oh man, is this a great book. You can read elsewhere to hear a synopsis of the plot, so I will simply state that the book concerns a family of Argentine Jews--the Poznans; Kaddish, Lillian and their son Pato--who also happen to be outsiders during the years of terrible political upheaval in the 1970s when thousands of innocents were disappeared.

In my estimation, the issue at the core of this novel is the nature of truth. Treading through territory previously explored by Julio Cortazar in his excellent story 'Blow-Up', Englander raises the problem of the necessity for information to be shared and agreement be reached in order for knowledge to exist. It is through this particular epistemological quandary that Englander is able to illuminate the insidious genius of the Argentine military junta's program of disappearances. By altering the historical record and using fear tactics to ensure the denial of witnesses the government was able to absolve themselves from their numberless crimes. How can you charge the abduction of an individual who cannot be shown to have ever existed? These notions of altering the present by erasing the past are elaborated further through the character of Kaddish and the 'respectable' Jews who hire him to chip away their parents' names from their headstones in the cemetary of the now defunct Benevolent Self--the congregation of gangsters, prostitutes and other low-lifes. And I almost forgot about the nose jobs! Kaddish arranges nose jobs for the whole family in payment for his services. Not only does this serve to 'erase' the family's link with their Jewish forebears, but it also removes their missing son's image from his mother's face.

The Ministry of Special Cases is also a story about families. The truth that Englander has created through this mother, father and son is astounding. The mythic struggle between a father and his son and the no less mythic love of a Jewish mother are all there and all ring wholly true. It is ultimately the family's refusal to accept the government's revised version of events that will keep their son alive, if only in their own minds.

This is one of the most beautiful, lyrical and heart-breaking books I have read this year. Englander's language is transcendent and his ear for a specific South American Jewish manner of speech is pitch perfect. You will not be disappointed.

Incredible Human story.......2007-06-10

Very unique story with unforgettable characters. Excellent writing and very enjoyable book.

Gripping and beautifully written.......2007-06-06

This book blew me away: It was intense, historical, funny and deep. Once you start reading, just try putting it down. I know I couldn't. I just wish Mr. Englander had more novels in bookstores. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one.

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O 25th Anniversary Edition

Average customer rating:

profound
Special
Darling and meaningful!
for anniversary gift
Lives up to its predecessor by far

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O 25th Anniversary Edition

Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Missing Piece 30th Anniversary Edition (Ursula Nordstrom Book)
A Giraffe and a Half
Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back
Falling Up
The Giving Tree

ASIN: 0060256575

Book Description

The missing piece sat alone
waiting for someone
to come along
and take it somewhere....

The different ones it encounters - and what it discovers in its helplessness - are portrayed with simplicity and compassion in the words and drawings of Shel Silverstein.

Customer Reviews:

profound.......2007-04-01

This was a gift to me after a divorce. The content is simple yet profound and I love to share it with my children in hopes that they too will know that relationships are at their healthiest when people are whole and complete, rather than half of a whole like a friendship necklace (to the chagrin of tweeners everywhere!) ;) I now share this with others who are going through relationship troubles or struggle with their self-worth.

Special.......2007-03-18

A person who was one of the most influential in my life gave this to me as a gift. After reading the book, the gesture impacted me that much more. I buy this for anyone that means something to me. This type of book should be shared by all. Silverstein is a master who I still feel isn't talked about enough.

Don't forget 'The Missing Piece'!

Darling and meaningful!.......2007-02-05

I LOVE this book. What a simple way of viewing the process of breakups and of finding meaningful relationships! Great for readers of all ages.

for anniversary gift.......2007-01-10

This is a wonderful children's book, but I also gave a copy as anniversary gift. It was well recieved.

Lives up to its predecessor by far.......2007-01-05

The Missing Piece is one of the greatest stories I've ever read, it just floored me the first time I read it and my entire family has fallen in love with Shel Silverstein.

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O follows perfectly in those footsteps...where I could relate 100% with the Missing Piece, I think the Big O is slightly more feminine in nature, but both fable the woes of searching for meaning in our lives and what happens to us when we find it.

As a sidenote...there definitely seems to be some sexual connotation with the Big O, and while I find the stories completely safe for my 5 year old, I think they offer a lot of great underlying tones for adults as well.

Average customer rating:

Slainte, Mr. Forsythe!
Great book
Is this the end for Michael?
Terrific third (but hopefully not final) Michael Forsythe novel
Harlequin does Bonnie and Clyde

The Bloomsday Dead: A Novel
Adrian McKinty
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Dead Yard: A Novel
The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel
Bad Luck and Trouble
The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
The Color of Blood: An Irish Novel of Suspense

ASIN: 0743266447

Book Description

In the heart-stopping finale of the Dead trilogy, tough guy Michael Forsythe -- bad-boy antihero of the critically acclaimed Dead I Well May Be and The Dead Yard -- returns to his native Ireland, where a dangerous and beautiful old flame forces Michael to look for her daughter, who has mysteriously disappeared in Belfast.

Laying low in South America, Michael has been running security for the Miraflores Hilton in Lima, Peru, juggling temperamental tourists, irksome dignitaries, and the occasional lady of the night. But Michael's colorful life in Lima comes to a violent halt with the arrival of two Colombian hit men who trap him in one of the hotel's rooms and force him at gunpoint to take a call from Bridget Callaghan in Ireland.

Michael and Bridget have a lot of history. For one, they used to be lovers. For another, Michael killed Bridget's husband. Bridget offers Michael a terrible choice: come find my daughter, or my men will kill you -- now.

Michael arrives in Dublin on Bloomsday, June 16th, the date that James Joyce's Ulysses takes place -- but whether this coincidence augurs well for him or foretells his end can't yet be known. In the span of this single day, he penetrates the heart of an IRA network, is kidnapped, escapes, then worms his way into the criminal underground in search of the missing girl. Never certain who to trust, Michael keeps his revolver close at hand -- and doesn't hesitate to use it -- outsmarting at every turn any number of determined would-be assassins.

Before the day is out, on a windswept ocean cliff, Michael finds himself face-to-face with the kidnappers as well as the lovely and murderous Bridget. It is there that he must finally confront a series of shocking truths -- not just about others but, above all, about himself as well.

Riveting, violent, witty, and lyrical, The Bloomsday Dead is vintage McKinty. Packed with crackling dialogue and one-of-a-kind characters, here is an unforgettable new crime novel from a master of literary suspense and the author of The Dead Yard, which Publishers Weekly named one of the fifteen best novels of 2006.

Customer Reviews:

Slainte, Mr. Forsythe!.......2007-05-15

In this, which the dust jacket says IS the last of the Forsythe series, Michael Forsythe is forced to return to Ireland in order to help the woman he fell in love with and whose fiance he killed in the first book of the series.

When we first see Forsythe in this one, he is in Peru, heading up security for a hotel. For a moment--just one brief one--it seems he may have found some peace after all, a place where he can use his skills but not in overtly violent ways. But then, and quickly, it all goes to pot, and Forsythe is given a choice: return to help me look for my daughter, or die after this conversation.

Forsythe returns for more than one reason. He wants to help Bridget find her daughter, who has been kidnapped. He wants to see Bridget again. He wants a chance at getting rid of the albatross he's had hanging around his neck for years: Bridget wants him dead, revenge for the fiance he killed in her presence all those years ago.

The hunt for Bridget's daughter takes up a big part of the book, of course, but so do other things equally enthralling. For one, Forsythe is MUCH more in tune with who he is in this book. In the first book, he was an angel of death who didn't really much twig to the fact that he trailed doom wherever he went. Now, though, he's very much aware of it. Very much prepared to go where that takes him. He hurts people, kills them, and loses very little sleep over it. He's never lost a lot of sleep, but now he loses none.

The tension between Forsythe and Bridget makes this novel stand out even more than the previous two. Forsythe seems to encounter people who want him dead or in incredible pain every few pages or so, and it's a wonder he can keep his head straight through all the beatings and chases. I must admit that at first I thought "he can't possible be upright after that kind of beating" and "he can't possibly be thinking straight after getting the crap kicked out of him" several times in this one, but one of the things that becomes clear here is how Forsythe compartmentalizes and uses pain to move forward.

All in all, this was a satisfying third novel. I will miss Mr. Forsythe, but the end of this one seems natural, not contrived.

Now--on to another McKinty (a non-Forsythe one)!

Great book.......2007-05-12

This book was great it was just as good as Dead I Well May Be and i cant wait to read the dead yard, its the most violent books ive ever read and i love it
Adrian Mckinty is a great writer and i will read every book he writes

Is this the end for Michael?.......2007-05-07

I had great misgivings about the third
(and final?) installment of the series
featuring Michael Forsyth, but am here
to report Bloomsday Dead was wonderful.
The audio narration was spot on, with
the suspense stretching me out until
the final scene. The ending seemed
abrupt, in the middle of the last CD
of the audiobook. I was surprised, as
normally the audiobook goes to the
very end of the last CD. Dare we
hope to see more of Michael in the
future?

Terrific third (but hopefully not final) Michael Forsythe novel.......2007-03-31

Very enjoyable novel, performed by a great reader (in the audiobook version). Read or listen to the other two books, _Dead I Well May Be_ and _The Dead Yard_, before you read this one. I hope this won't be the last Michael Forsythe novel!

Harlequin does Bonnie and Clyde.......2007-03-14

Little spoiler bits alert...

I listened to this as an [...] download, as I had McKinty's previous books. Gerard Doyle continues to wear the skin of Michael Forsythe...he's amazing.

The first half of this book was vintage McKinty and it was wonderful. The conversation about Ulysses with a fellow plane passenger was hilarious; I was laughing out loud. The witty and sarcastic one-liners are very much in evidence, though some didn't seem as fresh this time around. Gerard Doyle even sounds older as he reads the older (but not much wiser) Michael. He's 40% of the magic of McKinty's books, IMHO. But by the second half, I had figured everything out. It was pretty plain what was going on, who the mystery person was, who Siobhan was, etc., but I still wanted to speed ahead to see if Michael makes it out alive. I was half-way hoping he'd go out in Bonnie and Clyde style, but instead, McKinty chooses to experiment with what would happen if Scorsese wrote a Harlequin romance. After it was over, I slumped in my chair and said, "What?! She's combing the kid's hair?!"

The wit, the lyrical language, the very graphic violence are the hallmarks of a McKinty book and they are fully evident here. Not as funny as the first book in the trilogy, not as bite-your-nails intense as the second book, but there were small chuckles throughout the book and a fair amount of pacing back and forth. The writing was just as beautiful. However, once Michael has his first conversation with Bridget, it's as if McKinty's mind was being pulled elsewhere and he just wrote to get it finished. Why did Michael not ask Slider who the boss was?

An unsatisfying end to the trilogy, but still some of the best books you'll ever read.

Average customer rating:

we LOVE Olivia
Books are more than just words....
The best Olivia book
Olivia...and the Missing Toy
Disappointing Next Installment

Olivia . . . and the Missing Toy

Manufacturer: Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Activities & Toys | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Olivia Forms a Band
Olivia
Olivia Counts
Olivia's Opposites
Dream Big

ASIN: 0689852916
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Amazon.com

Olivia, like many young pigs, experiences life very intensely. She is utterly obsessed with having her mother make her a red soccer shirt (even though the team color is green), until, of course, she discovers that her favorite toy, her very best toy, is missing, at which point she becomes utterly obsessed with finding it. She looks under the rug, the sofa, and the cat. She shouts accusingly at both her younger brother Ian and her baby brother William, who responds with an unsatisfactory "Wooshee gaga." That night (a dark and stormy one), she hears a horrible sound emanating from behind a closed door, and, in a dramatic scene illuminated by her flaming candelabra and showcased in a fold-out spread, she sees the family dog Perry chewing her favorite toy to bits. As devastating as this is to a passionate young pig, "even Olivia couldn't stay mad forever." She sews up her dismembered toy and falls asleep that very night cozied up with both it and the toy-wrecking Perry. The New Yorker cartoonist and Caldecott Honor artist Ian Falconer (Olivia, 2001) fills his pages with delightful visual stunts, such as the time-lapse drawings of Olivia waiting and waiting and waiting for her mom to sew her soccer shirt and the exaggeratedly scary shadow the toy-eating dog casts on the wall. Olivia fans will rejoice to see their favorite pig being her usual extreme self. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

Customer Reviews:

we LOVE Olivia.......2007-03-27

this is just another great olivia story. my children love the slightly spooky part (when olivia finds the missing toy and the culprit) and i love the toy as repaired by olivia. falconer is a genius.

Books are more than just words...........2007-02-24

My son absolutely loves Olivia and the Missing Toy, as do I. Some reviewers have mentioned that they felt Olivia is spoiled and ungrateful in this book. I will admit that she is a bit high strung, however, we have taken it as a perfect opportunity to talk about just that sort of thing while reading the book. The sole purpose of reading to your child does not have to be getting from one cover to another. It is a time to talk about the things you read as well. Point out the things that the characters do and talk with your child about how you feel about their actions. Don't just read the words. Talk about the pictures and the faces the characters are making. If you think Olivia has upset her mom, point that out to your child with the pictures. Ask your child questions about how they think the characters are feeling. Books can be so much more than just words on paper.

The best Olivia book.......2007-02-11

I have to say, I completely disagree with those who have said this is less good than the other Olivias, and/or just the story of a spoilt little pig/girl. For me, this is a far more complex story: it's all about the complexity of family, and the addition of ANOTHER COLOR is the best metaphor I've encountered for what happens to relationships when it's more than two people involved. Personally I feel that those who think the heart of the book is Olivia's lack of manners aremissing the point: so much attention is given to the mother's facial expressions, which show us all we need to know about what that mother thinks of the father's spoiling response to the loss of the toy. I should also say that my 2 yr old daughter really loves the book, for reasons that have nothing to do with being spoilt: she loves (as do I) the way that when Olivia asks her baby brother, Ian, "WHERES MY TOY?", Ian replies, "Wooshie Gaga". This moment of comic genius is alone worth the price of the book.

Olivia...and the Missing Toy.......2007-01-10

We all love Olivia! All the books are great...I highly recommend them! This one was too funny!

Disappointing Next Installment.......2006-11-04

We read this in the bookstore before purchasing it and I'm glad that we did. Now, we LOVE Olivia. We think she's just the best, most self-assured little pig out there and we read her other two stories daily. This one, however, did not sit right with me as a parent. There is nothingg to learn from this book, nor is it any fun to read. It's just about a spoiled rotten self-centered little pig who doesn't have any manners. I absolutely love the illustrations; they are just as good as any of the other books, but the storyline really left a bad taste in my mouth. Olivia didn't even redeem herself at the end, or I probably would have purchased the book.

Stick with the other two Olivia books and wait for the next one to come out, hopefully Ian Falconer will have given Olivia some manners and compassion back and it will be something fun and enjoyable to read.

Average customer rating:

Missing You
A Beautiful Ending
A Tidy Wrap-Up
1-800-Where-R-You #5: Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You)
Disappointing end to a great series...

Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You, Book 5)
Meg Cabot
Manufacturer: HarperTeen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Adventure & Thrillers | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Love & Romance | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Being a Teen | Social Issues | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Safe House (1-800-Where-R-You)
Code Name Cassandra (1-800-Where-R-You)
The Princess Diaries, Volume VIII: Princess on the Brink (Princess Diaries)
Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (Heather Wells Mysteries)
When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You)

ASIN: 0060874309
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Book Description

Ever since a walk home on a particularly stormy day, Jessica Mastriani has had an ability like no other. She became known worldwide as Lightning Girl—a psychic who could find the location of anyone, dead or alive. Jess finally had no choice but to embrace her newfound talent, and ended up lending her skills to the U.S. government.

But her work for them has taken a terrible toll, and Jess resurfaces months later a shadow of her former self, her powers gone, Lightning Girl no more. Her only hope is starting over in a new place, a big city where nobody knows her. It's only when Rob Wilkins unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep that she's forced to face her past. Rob, all the way from back home, needs her help. But how can Jess, her powers gone, find anyone, let alone the sister of a man she once loved . . . when she can't even find herself?

Missing You, the fifth and final book in the 1-800-Where-R-You series

Customer Reviews:

Missing You.......2007-06-20

As is tradition for these books, I finished this one in less than a day. And it is probably the best one in the series. Jess is 19 now, and I can definitely tell she's grown up. She handles the problems better, and the ending is one of the bests. I couldn't think of a better way to end this series. :P

A Beautiful Ending .......2007-05-20

This series is one of my all-time favorite Meg Cabots. I've learned to grow to love all the characters in this story- Jess, Rob, Ruth, Doug, her entire family... You can't help but like them and admire them for everything they've gone through. Plus, Rob and Jess are just great together.

And I know there was a huge gap between the fourth one and this finale, but I have to say, this series ender was better than anything I could have imagined. It was funny and über romantic. I found myself laughing, getting butterflies, even shedding a tear or two... all the good stuff that you could possibly ask for. It was highly satisfying, and at a different pace from the previous books. More mature somehow.

Apparently, Jess has apparently taken a few years off to work as a field agent of sorts, finding missing people amidst war in the Middle East. That is, until the trauma from the violence she was witness to caused her to lose her powers and subsequently attempt to lead a normal life as a college freshman. But then Rob turns up at her doorstep, the ex-love-of-her-life asking for her help.

It was gut-wrenching to see Jess messed up and not herself, and slowly finding her way back. Not to mention, you empathize with a lot of the decisions and doubts she has, which culminates in a highly satisfying and thoroughly enjoyable book worthy of a series finale. No regrets, it's been a great ride with 1-800-Where-R-You. :)

A Tidy Wrap-Up.......2007-05-16

I kind of thought that the ending for 1-800-Where-R-U #4 was all we were going to get for this series, but I was pleasantly surprised by the final book. The hiatus of the series corresponded well with the hiatus in Jess's life - she went off to help find people in Iraq, to New York City, to Julliard. A lot's been going on her life and there've been some changes. The Jess we know is still there, but grown up a bit, and she's been seriously affected by the events in the last couple of years. I don't know how closely her experiences and reactions parallel those of soldiers in Iraq, but I like that the war influenced the direction of this book. The characters are all still solid and entertaining, but a little more mature. Jess's new problem-solving style left me grinning and Rob is still a great counterpart to Jess, with hinted at depths yet still so very much a guy. I also liked Jess's resolutions of issues with her mom and the friendly sort of relationship Jess seems to have developed with Dr. Krantz.

1-800-Where-R-You #5: Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You).......2007-02-21

Awsome book i loved it, i couldn't put it down! a must have for meg cabot fans!

Disappointing end to a great series..........2007-02-15

I had my misgivings when I saw that this book was set several years after the rest of the series and starred a "more mature" Jess. But hey, isn't this series so great that you wouldn't even notice these things?
Yes, the series is very, very good. But this book is not so good, at least by those standards.
This book seems to focus mostly on the romance between Jess and Rob and how Jess has been changed by the war. This did not work for me because (a) Jess was one of the best characters in teen books the way she was, and I don't appreciate that being sacrificed so Ms. Cabot can explore the horrors of war, and (b) for me, action is preferable to romance... and the action here is pretty much sidelined. (Spoiler: Jess has her powers come back with very little warning or explanation, quickly finds Rob's sister and solves the problem, and then the problem doesn't really show up again until a bit later, where there is a token bit with Rob defending Jess from the bad guy. Hello? Jess shouldn't need defending! She defended HIM in the last book!)
I was not at all satisfied, and I still think that there should have been a book or books set immediately after Sanctuary... I mean, even if it had to end this way, there was ample opportunity to explain what was happening to Jess in a bit longer than part of a chapter, and to have more fun doing so.

Books:

Books