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must read
This is a must read! fascinating look at life and religion. It is rare that I find a book that I want to re-read. This is one of the few. ... Read more

Product Description
The stories of the sly-witted Brer Rabbit are presented in a lavishly illustrated edition that features his adventures in the Briar Patch with his woodland rivals, Brer Bear and Brer Fox. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first accessible contemporary commentary of the twelfth-century treasure of Zen Buddhism, the Blue Cliff Record. Much as Coleman Barks breathed new life into the works of the great Sufi poet Rumi, David Rothenberg now brings us vividly poetic new versions of the enigmatic koans and riddles from this classic Zen Buddhist text. Here is a lively feast of words and images designed to stretch and open the mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not a particulary good book for someone interested in zen
First of all, this book doesn't contain any translation of the blue cliff record, so if you buy just it and don't have a translation of it, you will be lost as to what the autor is talking about.

And the author just made up some poetry about what he read in each of the hundred cases of the blue cliff record, poetry that doesn't seem particulary significant from the point of view of zen. After all, the blue cliff record is a book about zen.

If you are interested in zen (I don't know why would you buy the blue cliff record if you weren't), don't buy this book. Buy instead either Thomas cleary's translation or katsuki sekida's translation with comentary of the blue cliff record, or both.

Incoherent distortion of the Blue Cliff Record
This book shows what you get if you take a coherent and challenging Zen classic and slice and dice it and distort it willy nilly to fit some sentimental New Age preconceptions of what is "spiritual."

If this writer had any inkling of Zen, he would not dream of treating a classic expression of the teaching like the Blue Cliff Record in such a cavalier way.

Maybe the writer should ponder a Zen saying: "I would rather suffer the torments of uninterrupted hell, than to portray Zen as mere sentimentality and blind people's eyes."

A highly recommended addition to Buddhist Studies reading
Blue Cliff Record: Zen Echoes by David Rothenberg (poet, philosopher, musician, and Contributing Editor to "Parabola" magazine) is a selection of one hundred classic Zen Buddhist koans originating in a 12th century Zen manuscript. Ancient, poetic ponderings meant to stimulate insight and deeper awareness fill this treasure store, aptly and meaningfully translated into English. "Take my hand and come circle the One Certain Mountain/We'll sadden ourselves not to death, but to life." Blue Cliff Record is a highly recommended addition to Buddhist Studies reading lists and reference collections.

Gorgeous, Succinct, Mindbending
The scholarly translations of the Blue Cliff Record (all that's been available until now) are dense with confusing imagery and obtuse commentary from another century. In this lovely and tasty version however, Rothenberg has found the meat and given it to us shorn of the accumulations of centuries, without throwing away any of the succulent parts! And it comes beautifully designed and illustrated to boot. Highly recommended! Here's one of my favorite ones:

Case 37: This Triple World

Don't wait around when lightning strikes
When thunder comes there's no time to hide

there are ghosts before you, they won't go away

Once the arrow leaves the bow, it will not come back.
The moonshadow strikes the archer at night.

There is nothing in the triple world
Nothing one, two, three times or more.

The white clouds are a ceiling.
the stream plays the world like a lute,
one pluck, three strings, no one sings along.
All the tones may be clear,
but when you hear them, you're mute.

When the rain has passed, the river is deep.
Dragging in mud, dripping in water,
run from the thunder, no time to sleep.

Eighty four thousand verses,
eighty four thousand to go. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Trans Pacific Trimaran
Product in good condition as described, service was quick and delivered well inside orodicted time scale ... Read more

Product Description
Rare images illustrate the essence of this pivotal era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic!
"The Victorian Scrapbook" is a marvelous book!You can see the Victorian era from advertisements of food, fashion, photography, newspapers, household items, cleaning supplies, toiletry items, cigarettes, music, scrapbook supplies, flower seeds, puzzles, toys, reading materiel, sports, bicycles, traveling, post cards, Christmas cards, souvenirs, and the military.Each page has wonderfully colored pictures with descriptions describing how these items affected the era.A wonderful book - I recommend.

Nice coffee table book to skim through
Although this book was interesting, I had hoped for a little more readable vintage material. The handwriting that was used to describe the page theme was difficult and tiring to read. I would have been happier if it was a lower price as there are not many pages to the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

a very pleasant surprise
I remember trying to read this years ago and somehow never managing to really get started.
However the time was right to try again,and I was surprised at how easy it was to read and how witty and finding that the wit in no way cheapened or distracted from the 'historical'aspect of the story.
It was also a pleasant surprise to find that there is a sequel; *the walled orchard*,of which I'm about to get stuck right into.
So,give it a go,you might just surprise yourself.

Not typical Tom Holt, but a must read commentary on democracy in action
The only reason I give 4 stars is that Goatsong has a slower pace and is slightly more cynical (if that's possible) than other Holt titles I've read, but it was definitely worth the time. Be aware it's not a rollicking good time like Who's Afraid of Beowulf or Expecting Someone Taller. But I fully intend to make my children read this book during the next Presidential campaign and then discuss it with them every time a political diatribe from one party or the other (further) pollutes the media.

If you're a classical scholar, you will need a sense of humor and self-deprecation to enjoy this book. If you've been forced to study or actually enjoyed studying the classics in high school or college, you should still remember enough to get at least some of the jokes. I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of them, but I loved Eupolis' interpretations of classics like the Odyssey--from a child's perspective. I also enjoyed Eupolis' apologetic explanations about actually liking or admiring people it was politically necessary to villify.

There is a definitely eerie resonance with the current political situation, and the rabid anti-war camp would probably love this book and only retain what seems to support their beliefs. This book has a lot more to say than that, and the speech by Cleon about killing all the males in Lesbos is a masterpiece--how many people will really get it, I wonder? Did I? There are so many layers of brilliance here that I can't possibly list them all. Since I'm not a classical scholar, I probably missed some of the major points. But really, this book is so good it will always be relevant about democracy and western politics.

Tom Holt is a master of satire and parody. You may not always agree with him, but I hope everyone who reads Holt's work ends up a little wiser, more open-minded, and self-honest than when he or she started.

This book is great fun!
Wow! I just finished reading The Walled Orchard series, and it was incredible! I don't think any other book has made me laugh this much before. Yet, this book is not all about jokes. Behind the jokes, I feltthat there was a pretty strong message. Tom Holt is a genius of a writer. Ican't wait to get more of his books. I think that anyone and everyone wouldlove this book.

Goatsong:a shrewd historical primer on Athens' foibles
Well researched and screamingly funny, Goatsong parades a century of literary, political, and philosophical heroes before the unsympathetic gaze of a goatherd and finds them wanting.Eupolis of Pallene, an up and coming playwright, usually finds them wanting in courtesy, dignity, and heroics, but he manages tosketch such legends as Aristophanes, pericles, and Alcibiades so perversely that the reader transforms fundamental assumptions before realizing that the book in fiction, and comic fiction at that.

Eupolis descrbes and lampoons the institutions of chorus selection, legislative debate, and marriage with little historical and cultural relics which further deter one from suspending disbelief, but even he dows nto escape his own boil-lancing mirth.If one hasn't a sense of the absurdity of the Peloponnesian War-era Athens by the end of this book, at least a few thousand laughs will have elapsed in the process ... Read more