The Dreamland Chronicles

Book Description

You've been to Disneyland... You've seen Westworld... You've read Dreampark... Now, in the 21st century, experience your wildest fantasies come true in Dreamland! Beyond rides, beyond robots and simulations, beyond illusions, lasers, and holograms, Dreamland takes you out of your body and into computer-generated "worlds" where anything you can imagine is possible! Ride the open prairie with Jessie James or Billy the Kid, in Frontierworld. Sprout gills and experience an undersea adventure in Oceanworld. Hunt Dinosaurs and meet the missing link in Primalworld. Play beach blanket bingo with Frankie and Annette in Surferworld. Fight a dragon and rescue a fair damsel from the Black Night in Fantasyworld, the oldest and most popular of the Dreamland Programs. You'll have the time of your life! If you survive... The Dreamland Chronicles an onmibus collection of William Mark Simmon's three Dreamland titles...In the Net of Dreams, When Dreams Collide, and in print for the first time, The Woman of His Dreams.

Customer Reviews:

Well Worth Reading.......2007-03-16

This book was great. Good story line and char. I would recomend this book to friends and will read it again.

WARNING:THIS BOOK IS TOO FUNNY FOR WORDS.......2003-09-06

Well I just got done reading this book and must issue the following warning to those who read this.DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE: a)trying to go to sleep. This book will upset your sleep patterns and you will regret this.b)lacking any form of a sense of Humor. If you don't got it, you won't get it.c)under any way shape or form driving.It could kill you and that's not good.d)taking any medication or suffering from recent surgery in the abdominal area. Too much laghfter could split stiches or cause a reaction with medication. If your not suffering from any of the afor mentioned things then read on.
One prepare for many puns.Lots of puns. Some like to hide in wait and ambush you, while others stir themselves over a long period of time. Prepare for a massive assault on anything and everything. Nothing is safe from being used. Even Fed Ex gets hit at one point. Enjoy this book and have much fun for several hours/days/weeks or however long it takes to fininsh.

A exquisite read.......2003-03-14

I bought a first printing (only Printing) of "In a Net of Dreams" at an airport magazine stand. Little did I suspect it would be my all-time favorite book. Only tape holds my poor battered copy together.

So when I discovered this compilation, I had to have it. And it was worth it.

Sc-fi, Fantasy, Comedy, Drama, pop-culture references, and bad puns, this series has it all. And wraps it up with engaging, well developed characters.

Why are you still reading this? Order this book now. And pray with me that there will be another sequel.

And now for something completely different..........2003-01-20

At first I was daunted by the task of reading this brick that deforested half of Equador, but as soon as I started reading the book I could not put it down. I knew I would enjoy it from the moment I saw those first three quotes: two from Shakespeare - The Tempest and Hamlet - and one from Monty Python's flying circus: "And now for something completely different." This was my type of humor. And as for humor this is probably the best book to read for that. That is if you like puns. Wm. Simmons knows how to use the right amount of puns, and doesn't go overboard, though I am sure that is tempting. As I read I was drawn into the world of the game and of the story. Part of the reason I loved it was because of the characters who were believeable and lovable... and in some cases not so loveable. I wanted to know what would happen to them. I almost cried when... well, that would give some stuff away. The story was the best part. I lost myself in those books (though in the middle of math that might not be a good thing) and read them constantly. After I finished each book, it would seem like I was waking up from a dream, or another world. And then I fell right back into the dream in the next book. Wm. Simmons is a wonderful story teller, and those who read this book will not be disappointed if they are looking for a book that has a serious plot with lotsa laughs.

To read, perchance to dream...and laugh.......2002-12-06

Wm. Mark Simmons, the fastest pun in the West, is back, and he's done it again! "Woman of His Dreams" crowns the Dreamland Chronicles trilogy after a long wait by his fans. I have loved and laughed through all of the adventures of Ripley and his cohorts, and this latest installment is the best yet. Simmons' trademarks are strong characters, thought-provoking philosophical twists of plot, lots of action, and truck-loads of wit. Even though familiar with his style, I still was not prepared for the finale. I found myself watery-eyed at the last page, and sad to see it end. This is a book I have given to friends and had them call me in the middle of, just to tell me it's the first time in years they've laughed out loud while reading a book. Simmons may or may not have screenplay experience, but his novels read like movies, extremely visual. Now...if only Spielberg would read them...

Average customer rating:

Don't read it in bed
Lots of Interesting History
One of History's Bitter Pills
The seedy side of NYC at the turn of the century
Coney Island setting and Yiddish jargon make this worthwhile

Dreamland: A Novel
Kevin Baker
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060934808
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Amazon.com

Kevin Baker's Dreamland is the kind of novel that begins with a two-page list of characters and ends with a nine-page glossary. In between, this vast, sprawling carnival of a book takes in Coney Island and the Lower East Side, midgets and gangsters, Bowery bars and opium dens, even Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. It is, in short, a novel as big, lively, and ambitious as Gotham itself, and if you can stomach some of the more garish local color, it's every bit as much fun. Set at the turn of the century, in a New York as polyglot as any city on earth, Dreamland opens with an act of misplaced--and very stupid--compassion. Eastern European immigrant Kid Twist intervenes when villainous gangster Gyp the Blood is on the verge of murdering a young newsboy for sport. But surprise: that's no street urchin--that's Trick the Dwarf, self-proclaimed Mayor of Little City and a Coney Island tout, who dresses up as a boy, he says, as "a way I had of leaving myself behind." Trick hides Kid Twist in the hind parts of the Tin Elephant Hotel; Kid Twist meets Esther Abramowitz, impoverished seamstress and labor agitator, then falls in love; Trick woos Mad Carlotta, a three-foot beauty who thinks she's the Empress of Mexico; and Freud and Jung sail for America, where they squabble about psychoanalysis. There are also a few subplots involving police corruption, Tammany Hall, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire--but who's counting? Suffice to say that it all really does come together in the end, and you won't be bored for one step of the way. Baker served as chief historical researcher for Harold Evans's The American Century, and it's clear that he put his time there to good use; Dreamland is full of vivid historical detail, from Lower East Side slang to the lyrics of popular songs. If this is middlebrow entertainment, it's middlebrow in the same way as Dickens: extravagantly plotted, elegantly written, and compassionate to the core. --Mary Park

Book Description

A dazzling masterpiece of literary historical fiction, Dreamland delivers a sweeping yet intimate portrait of immigrant New York in the early part of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

Don't read it in bed.......2007-09-14

This seems to be a well-written and interesting book that conveys the atmosphere of the period. (I bought it because I was interested in the amusement park, Dreamland.) HOWEVER, it contains a lot of very disturbing violence such as animal abuse, sadistic killing and crippling of people, the portrayal of horrific poverty, sweatshop workers, child labor, etc., etc. Was the lower East Side of New York in the early 20th century really like this? Perhaps it was, but I found this book too disturbing to read before going to sleep. I read about a third of it and had to put it aside. I hope to work up my courage to pick it up again.

Lots of Interesting History.......2007-09-03

I love a book that can allow me to envision the sights, sounds, and smells of another time and place. Dreamland is wonderful that way. The book tells the intersecting stories of two rival Jewish gangsters, a carnival dwarf, a sewing machine operator, a Tammany politician, and (strangely enough) Sigmund Freud. The ways that they are connected are many and complex; however, let it suffice to say that you'll come away from the book with a new appreciation for the hardscrabble life led by most turn-of-the-century immigrants in New York City. To be perfectly honest, my favorite portions of the story were those involving Esse, the sewing machine operator. I found her struggles with her family and her role within the burgeoning garment union fascinating, and I kept hoping (idly, I know, with her working at the Triangle Factory and all) that she would somehow escape and make a better life for herself. So few of those factory girls ever did. And I loved the descriptions of Coney Island, back when it was a pleasure-seekers paradise.
The only drawback, as I saw it, were the parts involving Freud. They sort of disrupted the story of a city and a generation teeming with life. Freud doesn't enjoy his visit to Dreamland--probably because (I think) he takes dreams way too seriously--and every time the story jumped to him I found myself dreading his analysis of his latest dream about public urination.
But overall, it's a great story, especially for those casually interested in turn of the century American history!

One of History's Bitter Pills.......2005-09-18

"Dreamland" is a far-fetched surreal presentation of some of America's uglier history.

New York in 1909 was, like Deadwood in 1876 or the fictional island in "Lord of the Flies", a laboratory enabling observers (especially future observers) to authenticate the depths of degradation to which we all can sink. As always, the catalysts are poverty, inequality, and an absence of real law and honest law enforcement. People unfamiliar with the background of Baker's spectacular novel will marvel over what a variety of characters would do, and did, for a nickel.

The cast is authentic and the many plots are NOT disjunct, but integrate at levels that are sometime subtle, e.g., the only partial validity of Freudian theory as a screen through which to interpret Baker's panoply of hideous human behavior.

Some critics deride the lack of historical authenticity, but most of Baker's history simply isn't susceptible
to authentification. This wasn't war or presidential politics or international relations: it was mostly filth and heartbreak, and historians, by and large, weren't watching. For example, a deranged killer depicted by Baker known as Gyp the Blood is said by several historians on record to have been electrocuted at Sing Sing in 1915. At least two others place him in the midst of an assassination in New Orleans six years later. And, some, like Baker, imply that Gyp's real name was Lazar Abramowitz, but several others say he was really Herman (or Herschel) Horowitz.

Anyway, if "Dreamland" interests some readers in things like the origins of the women's labor movement, the decline of Tammany, the origins of popular entertainment or the class struggle in America, it will have served an admirable educational purpose. If not, it's fantastic prose and in no way a waste of time.

The seedy side of NYC at the turn of the century.......2005-06-06

In the well-researched "Dreamland," as its name suggests, Kevin Baker gives us a surrealistic portrayal of the seedy side of New York City at the beginning of the 20th Century. Through various (often strange) characters, we are introduced to Jewish immigrants, gang life, corrupt politicians, the introduction of unions and the feminist movement, and the disturbing things that used to pass for entertainment at Coney Island. Baker also effectively depicts the deplorable living and working conditions of immigrants in New York during this era, and the appalling circumstances of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Less effective is a fictitious visit from Freud and Jung to New York, where the former worries that his being Jewish will prevent his teachings in psychology to be taken seriously.

In scene after scene, Baker focuses on the outright evil that exists in some people. The author doesn't mince words or spare the reader instances of cruelty. In one minor scene, for instance, a particularly vicious main character forces a peddler to feed poison to his beloved horse, upon which his livelihood completely depends. The business owners are, for the most part, despicable, making their workers slave 14 hours a day, six days a week, in the most vile conditions imaginable at meager wages.

While some reviewers didn't like the uncertain end, I had no problem with it. Baker reminds us that better days are ahead, and that individual human dignity must never be lost. Perhaps Baker tries to do too much in this book, but "Dreamland" makes a powerful statement, and I recommend it to anyone interested in this part of our history.

Coney Island setting and Yiddish jargon make this worthwhile.......2005-05-21

Having read SOMETIMES YOU SEE IT COMING, one of the best baseball books I've read, I was interested to know if the Kevin Baker who wrote DREAMLAND and PARADISE ALLEY was the same person. It's the same guy, but Baker has the chops to do both, as he is the chief historical researcher for the NEW YORK TIMES.

As I began to read, I was immediately reminded of several other books. AMERICAN TRAGEDY, THE ALIENIST, THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, and even CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The setting is New York City with Coney Island featured most of the time. There are gangsters and factory girls and Tammany Hall politicians and they all speak their own unique language, some Yiddish and Bowery slang. Thankfully I checked out the back of the book. Sure enough, there was a glossary. You'll be paging back and forth for the entire read.

There really isn't any main character, but Esse Abramowitz; her brother "Gyp the Blood;" Esse's lover Josef Kolykia, alias "Kid Twist;" and Tammany Hall politician Big Tim Sullivan do most of the heavy lifting. Trick the Dwarf tells the story. There is a dramatis personae provided at the beginning to help you keep track.

The plot begins when Kid Twist saves Trick the Dwarf's life at a Rat Bating by nailing Gyp the Blood with a shovel. For the rest of the book, Gyp the Blood is out to get Kid Twist. A subplot involves Esse Abramowitz's increasingly involvement in the Labor movement. She also works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co., and if you're up on your history, you know what happened there.

I was a bit disappointed in the ending. Trick the Dwarf suggests what MIGHT have happened to the major actors, rather than telling us. There's also a subplot involving Sigmund Freud that seems to be included just to add some historical credence. As Baker tells us in his acknowledgments, Freud really did visit America in 1909, but his conflict with Carl Jung doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with anything.

Despite my misgivings, I heartily recommend this book for the Coney Island atmosphere and the Yiddish jargon alone.

S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands (Call of Cthulhu Horror Roleplaying)

Average customer rating:

Besides being a game accessory, it's a very nice guidebook
Fun book, nice to have read.

S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands (Call of Cthulhu Horror Roleplaying)
Sandy Petersen , and Lynn Willis
Manufacturer: Chaosium Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Art Of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos

ASIN: 0933635532

Customer Reviews:

Besides being a game accessory, it's a very nice guidebook.......2000-04-30

This is an accessory to the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, detailing numerous monstrous creatures from various Lovecraftian mileaus. It features a size comparison chart and wonderful art throughout. The Guide can quite easily be used by a non-gamer fan of Lovercraft as there are no game-specific statistics, only narrative. Overall, a well-done book.

Fun book, nice to have read........1996-10-01

The Guide is a book based on H.P. Lovecraft's novels. The creatures in those novels are given shape as they are drawn out and described here. Beutiful full page drawings accompany each creature, and a passage of the original text as well. I liked it a lot, the drawings are real nice and the descriptions are fun to read. By the way, Cthulu fans may be interested in this, H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulu, get it?

Average customer rating:

Could have been much better
Could have been much better
Starts off strong, then runs out of gas
The Aliens Are Here
A Review of a UFO Cover-up

Dreamland: A Novel of the UFO Cover-Up
Hilary Hemingway , and Jeffry P. Lindsay
Manufacturer: Tom Doherty Assoc Llc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0812535022

Customer Reviews:

Could have been much better.......2005-11-30

MJ-12, Roswell, alien abductions, missing time, hypnotic therapy, extraterrestrial/human hybrids, captured aliens, conspiracies to left and right; all this and more can be found in "Dreamland", written by Ernest Hemingway's niece and her husband and published in 1995.

The heritage from Hemingway is very apparent from the first to the last page, even though Hilary and her husband never are even close to Ernest's literary achievements. The sentences are often short, descriptions of the environment are few and insufficient, and more than once the text feels extremely unrealistic when the most spectacular events imaginable are met with not much more than a shrug of the shoulders from the main characters. Writing fiction about the supernatural and the paranormal is a difficult art to master, and Hemingway and Lindsay fail miserably from page one.

Any reader with basic knowledge in UFO history will recognize much from the story. The excitement is therefore somewhat killed, since it's often not very hard to figure what will happen next. At the end the story is twisted quite interestingly, however, that doesn't take away the fact that the rest of the story has been extremely dull.

But this is, again, if the reader has previous knowledge of UFO history. For the "normal" reader, who has never heard of things taken for granted by sceptical ufologists, the book is sure to offer several interesting moments. Hemingway and Lindsay have used more or less everything offered by lesser sceptical ufologists and added a story about a man and his wife who are caught in the line of fire between the American military and peaceful extraterrestrials.

But, the main problem with the book is that is just feels uninspired. The sections about alien abductions feels as if they were taken right out of any Budd Hopkins book, and the argumentation regarding the Roswell incident is just plain awful. The credibility is reduced, and thus the entire reading experience is ruined. This is too bad, because a skilled author is very likely to have been able to make something good out of the whole mess.

Could have been much better.......2005-11-22

Starts off strong, then runs out of gas.......2004-12-14

As has been noted, this novel cranks up the intensity level straight out of the gate. There's quite a bit of familiarity with the UFO/Abduction scenarios as reported and the authors initially make good use of the lore.

Still, some things nag at the reader: The characters are not developed beyond that of two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs to varying degrees. Most egregious example is that of the Noo Yawker psychiatrist Carol Blum, relocated to Los Alamos for some unknown reason.

She's a real pain in the neck, a complete caricature of a fast-talking, obnoxious and smarmy Manhattanite. You can forgive yourself for feeling glad when she's murdered near the end. With her abundant "'tude," you'll wonder why someone didn't off her previously.

The lead characters, Stan and Annie Katz are similar smarmy transplanted Noo Yawkers, the authors having seen fit to outfit them with a de rigueur Volvo wagon. Completely unbelievable is how Annie goes from hardened UFO skeptic to full-on True Believer after just one meeting and hypnosis session with a MUFON investigator.

Of course ... there are the evil shadow government types after Annie and her husband, led by the malevolent Colonel Wesley. All through the book I was really hoping that Wesley'd finally get those particle beam weapons up and running and vaporize the aliens to their own Kingdom Come, but it's not to be. The ending takes a left turn into New Age Twinkie John Mack/Richard Boylan territory. The aliens you see, are here, I guess to help us somehow? They have to take fetuses for some strange reason from pregnant women during abductions to preserve their own species it would seem. And all they want to do is return to their home planet, but they can't because of the evil US government and the machinations of career military types within MJ-12.

Now in my book, if something comes out of the skies like a thief in the night and prods and pokes and removes ovum, fetuses, other genetic material, etc. without consent, I'd say they'd be a pretty good candidate for aiming particle beams at 'em. But no... The aliens are *nice* and are led by the doll-like "Mr. Boojum" whom, like E.T. only wants to go home. Awwww...

How do they do it? Well, Mr. Boojum is from a collectivist space hive society that is like some super-Stalinist galactic gulag: Individual aliens are bred for specific tasks and cannot or are not permitted to know information outside their own school-to-work programming. So for some strange reason, this civilization beams information to Annie so that the aliens can manipulate Stan to build this weapon, which could be transformed into a propulsion device by means not explained. Why they can beam information, but not just send another ship is not explained.

So finally at the end, Annie gets her baby back, Mr. Boojum gets his propulsion system and all that are still alive are happy. It's like a regular "We Are The Off-World" singalong... As the other reviewer wrote, perhaps it'd be best to come up with your own ending. Mine has the aliens disappearing in a flash of light, never to return...

The Aliens Are Here.......2004-05-04

I just finished reading a new book entitled DREAMLAND by Hilary Hemingway (Niece of Ernest) and Jeffrey P. Lindsay. The cover labels the book as a Novel of the UFO Cover-up. As such it involves Area 51 and the events at Roswell some forty years ago.

Some forty years ago a spacecraft crashed on a small farm in Roswell. The government moved in and confiscated everything. The wreck and the surviving crew were held by the Government. Aliens and humans worked together with the aliens providing new technology and the humans helping to repair the ship. Much of the non-linear developments of the last forty years are a result of this cooperation. But now things are coming to an end. The ship is almost complete and the military does not want to lose this source of technology. Hidden agendas abound among the main players in a chess-match like series of moves and countermoves, all leading to the book's conclusion.

A well-written tale that manages to bring in just about all of the serious UFO research. We learn very little about how the aliens think (a plus as they remain more alien) except for dream sequences where a character observes through an alien's eyes. If you like UFO stories that don't get all hokey but stay in the realm of known science, then you will probably enjoy this book.

A Review of a UFO Cover-up.......2002-01-09

It was a good book. Great Imagery!

Average customer rating:

Batman: Dreamland
Alan Grant
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

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ASIN: B0006RIBZI

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The Dreamland Chronicles Book Two

Manufacturer: Blue Dream Studios
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback
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The Dreamland Chronicles Book One

ASIN: 0978916832

Product Description

With over 3,000,000 readers worldwide...the Award Winning Epic Fantasy The Dreamland Chronicles continues to wow readers of all ages. Alexander Carter has found a key that takes him back to the land of his childhood dreams. Now every night he enters Dreamland...a magical world filled with Dragons, Fairies, and Giants. In book two, Alex and his friends embark on a quest to find the king and Queen of Elves. But first they must escape the Dragon Lord Nicodemus' prison.

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Dreamland, A Novel of the UFO Cover-Up
Hilary & Jeffry P. Lindsay Hemingway
Manufacturer: New York: A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1995
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O3PUZI

Average customer rating:

Dreamland: A Novel of the UFO Cover-UP
Hilary and Jeffry P. Lindsay Hemmingway
Manufacturer: NY Forge 1995.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LTO8M6

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Dreamland: A Novel of the UFO Cover-Up
Hilary; Lindsay, Jeffry P. Hemingway
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000P0TRCC

Average customer rating:

Dreamland: A Novel of the UFO Cover-Up
Hilary; Lindsay, Jeffry P. Hemingway
Manufacturer: Forge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTS180

Book Description

She thought she was in love....American Lola Laforet is swept away in a whirlwind wedding to a handsome Frenchman and finds herself the chef/owner of the Hotel Riviera, a gemlike retreat snuggled up against the blue Mediterranean. In their first blissful year as newlyweds, her life seems to be a dream come true. But then charming Patrick Laforet disappears one day with nothing more than a wave goodbye........until real romance beckoned on France's Cote d'Azur!Six months later, Jack Ferrar, an American expatriate living on his boat, drops anchor in Lola's harbor and teaches her the true meaning of attraction. Lola is very attracted yet wary. Is he another rogue, or a man to be trusted? When various shady people-all claiming ownership of the Hotel Riviera-and the police appear, Lola and Jack have to track down the mysterious Patrick. And along the way, they fall in love. With great food, wonderful sensuality, and lush scenery, Elizabeth Adler holds you under her spell and transports you to one of the most romantic places on earth.

Customer Reviews:

Great Summer Read.......2007-08-28

I read this book on vacation and found it enjoyable. It was a romance and a bit of a mystery. The main character is a woman whose husband took off on her and then the authorities believe she may have killed him. In comes the handsome stranger and mother figure to assist her. There was definitely a mystery, not a sit on the edge of your seat book but enjoyable light reading.

Another great read from Elizabeth Alder.......2006-04-17

I really wonderfully warm, romantic, slightly mysterious read with great characters. I really enjoyed reading this, and was sad to see it end! I would defiantly recommend this book to everyone.

Curly, Carrot-Top Chef With Jasmine & Cream. Beauty I Dream........2005-12-07

Dis iz da place if you want to explore:

Sensitive, sauntering sensuality, babbling beauty (as in the symbolic brook, not the flapping mouth)... globetrotters taking up residence anywhere around or in (Yacht) the Mediterranean. The "Home" in your feet baring beaches in Saint-Tropez.

At the end of last August I began reading my first Elizabeth Adler novel, THE HOTEL RIVERA. Most reviews of Adler's novels praise them as pleasantly fluffy, romantic suspense set in exotic getaways. To me, THR definitely has an artistically melancholy, literary feel. I was happy to discover that it didn't down-track into the typically dark or depressing enhancements of "lit-er-a-ture." It edged there at times, with good taste, but thankfully it never fell torturously into the sordid, sourest swamps of despair which too often permeate a book touted as "A Great American Novel."

Almost didn't pick up the book, even though the beginning pages (Amazon's handy "see inside this book") were a good capture due to the vivid feel of the hotel and the main character being a chef (reminding me of Claire Johnson's BEAT UNTIL STIFF, see my review). It appeared that THR might work easily into a culinary mystery series, though I didn't know if it would manifest a murder in the plot, and, as Amazon's buying pages indicated, Adler's available published works appeared to be single mainstream novels slanted to the commercial literary end.

While pro & conning THE HOTEL RIVERIA, I began getting ideas (oh no, not that surge again) for book jacket blurbs for my mystery pilot, dealing with its mainstream angle. What cinched my "Yes" choice for THR was the picture of Adler on the back flap. She photo shoots as a happy-go-lucky, genuinely warm, unjaded, unhyped person. I thought, "No one can look that honestly, easily happy and write an alcoholic-hazed, classic downer."

At the end of November, I returned to finish reading THE HOTEL RIVIERA, hoping it would ease the escape-fiction-addiction panic I felt after finishing my ARC of Pence's RED HOT MURDER a coup among mystery series, while I was waiting for delivery of Barbara Workinger's SHOOFLY PIE TO DIE (see my review of the pilot, IN DUTCH AGAIN). I had no doubt that Shoofly would fill the Royal Gorge gap of finishing one of those fiction winners so far beyond the best they don't have to race.

I was not in the mood for the typically melancholy/sensual, sing-songy voice with "what-is-this-life" questioned in every other word, which often underlies classic literary fiction. However, I did anticipate pleasantly the globetrotter ambiance of THE HOTEL RIVERIA, with its tangy tinge of "no-place-like-home" underlying the glitz, glamor, and goodies. I knew I would feel pampered to receive, from the cush of my easy chair, travel tidbits like, according to Adler, in France one must arrive at a lunch destination before ten to two; yet, in Italy one (if you're a woman) can get lunch anytime. My eyebrows scrunched slightly as I recalled the seated-through-ages, daily siesta, a religiously rendered habit of a 2-4 pm pause (if my recall is correct on time-frame), when all keepers close shop, as my Italian college prof had confirmed was still a practiced luxury in his country

(Okay already; that particular university sojourn when I was majoring in Foreign Languages occurred at the end of the 60's; I don't know if the afternoon siesta is currently in action throughout Italy. How should I know at this point in my life, in which I'm stuck on a Godot pause, and where/who the Heck IS that guy?)

Actually, it was "Thank God" easy to slip into THR's sauntering, simmering lifestyle. I was intrigued by the contrast in strutting-through-life venues of the good guys Vs the losers (who would kill their spouses to secure a high-life, designer-garbed, jet-setting, globetrotting routine, doing nothing of consequence except beauty maintenance, and wallowing in empty "pleasures"). The losers in THR were so misguided, and edged with such ennui they never developed enough charge to quite feel "Evil," which, from my perspective is a characterization coup for an author to accomplish in this case. Great job getting the dark-side of the jet-set right in their lazy ways, Adler.

Even so, smoky, slithering hints of embedded evil worked through the plot and edged every word and page with a low-ebb, nearly subliminal terror. When that sense of unease underlies a life of "ease"; and when a heightened sensuality is deftly slathered throughout the plot, the effect poofs a feather-tic-bed with tiny pins and nails. I suppose that's why the sensuality in this novel was so melancholically unsettling (which is a good carry-the-reader-onward ploy for escape fiction)... until Lola snuggled into Miss Nightingale's cottage (snuggling is good, too).

Arriving at Mollie Nightingale's classic Cotswold cottage felt like going "heel-clicking" home to Kansas, with The Riviera, Saint-Tropez, and globetrotter "Destinations" contrasting as an off-set Oz. In a way this novel is a kaleidoscope of lifestyles which ooze from more style than life; to life in style; to more life than style; to life, love, and cozy contentment in which style is so natural it would be termed "shabby-chic" in Architectural Digest. I'll take that! Done did.

Of course the kaleidoscope of potent and penetrating edges of this range-of-emotion and scenic rapture richly succeeded in giving a sensually-paced, engrossing read of high entertainment. Please take any bumbling review prose on this novel as high praise (no underhand intended) rather than as subtle intimations of criticism. Adler paints Mona Lisa masterpieces with words. Don't doubt it. Any reader of her work is guaranteed to be immersed in an easy flow around wealth in exotic environments; to wallow in complex emotional fluctuation; to revel in deep, dark mystery; and to take possession of vivid, visceral characters.

One of my favorite lines, due to its cheering effect in context, was spoken by Miss. Nightingale:

"Good riddance to bad rubbish."

I've never read or heard that expression posed or placed more "thumbs up" perfectly.

Maybe one could say that THR is less a story and more a sensual feast. Yum. Its type of sensuality is graceful, delicate, engaging all five senses rather than relying exclusively on simmering, slithering sexuality, as the word has come to mean.

Elizabeth appears to have a sensual soul with Architectural Digest class, dichotomized with a surprising quick-charge capacity to pack the action, as exposed especially through the novel's resolution. Wow. Those spicy-go scenes were hot, fast, gritty, and riveting. Loved the "old" lady speed demon with highly honed driving skill trying to save the day, with a bit of help from unexpected sources.

As an added bonus to the action-packed scenes in the novel's resolution, the reader was given a soothing awareness of the growth and intimacy gifted through the rigors of loss and death. Through the apres-denouement, quiet, wind-down scenes, tentative answers were posed for souls who are so restless any feeling of HOME is fleeting; its seeding flounders on the hard, dry granite of ungrounded pleasure and unearned or un-manifested glory.

Somehow the concluding contemplations in THR reminded me of a short story I wrote in the early 70's (my first rejection from Atlantic Monthly), titled, "I Can Wait."

The story revolved around a 5-yr-old boy, Tommy John, who was the dramatization of an author trying to rid herself of impatience, and playing with literary wings by putting her difficult personality into a young boy instead of a girl. I had asked myself what would be the best "thing" to help slow the restlessness, to release the painful, nervous pushing of time. I wanted to help others, along with me, escape the rush, absolutely, before it was too late. Sadly, I realized what would work in ultimate, final effect.

Throughout the story I spotlighted Tommy's youthful exuberance as it rushed to repeat, "I can't wait `till..." I dramatized his speeding, nervous character by not allowing him to settle into in any single moment. The closest he came to alighting in the present, the warmest spot in the boy's heart was fueled by visits with his bedridden grandfather, who once paused perfectly to say:

"You have to stop once, Tommy John, to start living."

When the grandfather peacefully expired, from one soft breath-to-the-next, with the boy's hand resting in the large, wrinkled palm of his elder, the boy said through tears, "Please stay, Grampa. I can wait."

Adler can do Literary Classic with just the right limelight twists to blend it successfully into the high entertainment sought in escape novels. THE HOTEL RIVERIA got me through the overwhelming grieving process of having finished the intensely satisfying read of Pence's RED HOT MURDER, to be published February, 2006. As noted, blessed with an ARC, I've already read RHM; I'll will post my review as soon as it's finished and Amazon's buying page is set up to receive Customer Reviews. I can wait.

Now I know why I paused in the reading of THR. A time was coming when I would desperately need its final quarter of pages of sensually sauntering style.

Pence, Adler, Workinger, and Johnson. All 4 are authors of consequence with dramatically different literary voices. All 4 know and show where the heart lives, as they reveal a variety of riveting road-maps to The Source.

If the eyes are the window to the soul, the great voices of literature provide gateways there; for a moment in time, between the pages of a novel, words breathe and dance in the fertile mind of a reader.

Ching, ching, ching, ching, clop, clop, clop ...

Iiii''''lllll be hooooommmme for Chriiiistmas ...

In all seasons, I'll be reading good books by the glow of lamplight, or through the perfect slant of sunlight,

Linda G. Shelnutt

P.S. Tis the season; see my review of MISTLETOE & MAYHEM, by Joanne Pence & 3 other fabulous authors. Also, in ironically intriguing contrast to the warmth of lamplight and printed words, see my review of THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE, Marshall McLuhan.

It's not Tolstoy, but it's fun........2005-04-04

Okay, right off the bat, I need to acknowledge that this is escapist fiction. It is almost as substantial as cotton candy. To make no bones about it -- this is a beach book if there ever was one. A book written purely for reading, preferably at sunset, in an adirondack chair on a dock while sipping cold chardonnay. The plot is no more than a wisp of romantic gossamer, so much so that I'm not even going to bother to describe it, but, the place is enchanting, the characters are agreeable, and it ends with a fairy-tale wedding on the French Riviera. Along the way, there's a little bit of suspense, lots of discussion about delicious food (the main character is a chef), and a fair amount of romance. And, every now again, there's nothing wrong with reading a book with no pretensions to literary merit, just because it's fun.

Lola Sleeps With a Chicken - How Romantic!.......2004-03-17

I knew right away that I was going to have problems with this book when in the very first chapter, Lola (the main character who runs a small hotel) and Jack, a mysterious stranger, look at each other through binoculars at the same time, and are able to see the color of each other's eyes! Nonsense.

The story involves the mystery of Lola's missing husband, Patrick, who, being French, is naturally a complete womanizer. Lola is suspected of his murder and is helped by Jack and Miss Nightingale (a hotel guest and a retired British headmaster of a school for girls - another sterotypical chartacter), in solving the mystery of his disappearance. Naturally Miss N.'s deceased husband was a Scotland Yard Detective whose Miss Marple type wife helped him solve his big cases. Somehow one of the characters figures out exactly where Patrick is and who he is in cahoots with. How the character does this is unknown, since there is absolutely no way she could figure it out with the clues she is given. A happy ending is had by all (except the chicken).

Lola has a pet chicken, named Scramble, who lives in her house and sleeps in her bed. Obviously the author knows nothing about chickens. They are stupid, dirty and smell, and you certainly can't housebreak them! Lola's house must really be disgusting.

Book Description

AAA Essential French Riviera is packed with full-color travel information, tips, maps and more. The innovative cover format includes an expansion flap on both front and back covers. Cover 2 and its facing page and cover 3 with its facing page depict frequently used maps throughout the French Riviera. The expansion flaps make these maps bigger and more detailed than those of the competition. The cover appearance has been created with a distinctive new design while still allowing the new formats to integrate with existing titles on the shelf. Each title now has an atlas integrated into the body of the book, up to 30 pages of full-color atlas maps - no need to carry extra maps! Regional maps assist travelers with planning and getting around. This guide includes history and travel information about the French Riviera's popular sights and little-known treasures. Points of interest include the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Maeght Foundation Museum, the Oceanographic Museum and many others. Specific attractions within Barbados' cities and regions include national parks, environmental areas, shopping centers, museums and more. The "Essence of the French Riviera" section suggests, "The charms of the Riviera are so varied that most visitors are at a loss to know where to start. First-time visitors soon fall under the region's spell while those who already know it remain enchanted, returning year after year." Sections in the AAA Essential Guide books include: Viewing - Historical timelines and happenings, local features and weather, the essence of the locale, famous people and other data such as transportation and money. The 10 Essentials - If you have limited time in the city/country, these are the 10 experiences you shouldn't miss The Top Ten - The Top Ten points-of-interest with detailed descriptions and photos What to See - Broken down by city or region, gives detailed information and maps on What to See Drive / Walk - Scattered throughout the What to See section are recommendations for drive trips or walk tours Where to: Eat and Drink, Stay, Shop, Take Children and Be Entertained -Descriptions, photos and lots of details on restaurants, lodgings and shopping. And for those traveling with kids, there are Take Children activities specially targeted to their interests. Entertainment for you or the family can be found in Be Entertained. Practical Matters - Tips, lists, guidelines for planning, packing and preparation. Also on currency, weather, travel documents, airports, customs, time zones, driving signs, electricity, telephones, hospitals, health cautions, clothing sizes and more!

Riviera Off Season & On: Hotels, Restaurants, Activities, and values town by town.

Average customer rating:

Well written, well researched
Informative, readable and attractive
I loved this book and found it to be factual and helpful.

Riviera Off Season & On: Hotels, Restaurants, Activities, and values town by town.
Doris Lehman
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0312147260

Book Description

The Riviera is one of the world's most popular summer resorts, but it does not shut down after the summer months are over. In fact, the off-season offers savvy travelers the opportunity to enjoy the unique culture, cuisine, and natural beauty of the region with smaller crowds, cooler temperatures and lower prices. The Riviera Off-Season and On guides you to the best of more than fifty towns on the southern coast of France, including Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice, St. Tropez, and Beaulieu-sur-Mer:Accomodations, from luxury hotels and resorts to quiet hideawaysRestaurants and cafes, with an emphasis on regional cuisineActivities, from water sports to hot-air balloooningRegional culture and off-season festivities, such as the wine fairs of brignoles and cassis, and the baroque and jazz festivals of Monte CarloTips on planning a trip, packing, and traveling throughout the Riviera

Customer Reviews:

Well written, well researched.......2000-07-25

You get the sense that Doris Lehman has spent a substantial amount of time in the Riviera and writes from personal experience. This book is very readable and the illustrations, by her daughter, Amy, are delightful. I have never visited the Riviera but, I sometimes like to read travel books so I can vicariously visit certain destinations. I definitely got the vicarious experience from this well written travel guide. She covers a lot of territory and I feel that Lehman's style compares very favorably with larger travel book operations such as Frommer and Foder. In fact, she has a personal touch that makes her book preferable. I highly recommend this book.

Informative, readable and attractive.......2000-01-17

Well presented and warmly researched broadly based survey; hand-drawn illustrations are delightful and wonderfully evocative. Perfect volume from which to plan itinerary from home, or to make trip adjustments on the road.

I loved this book and found it to be factual and helpful........1998-09-05

The Riviera off-season and on was a very helpful source of information for my vacation to the Riviera. I used it both for hotels and restaurants and was not disappointed once. I loved the boxed in stories and found the illustrations very charming. I recommend this book for anyone going to the Riviera.

AIAA Fifth Annual Structures and Materials Conference (Palm Springs, California, Riviera Hotel April 1-3, 1964)

Average customer rating:

AIAA Fifth Annual Structures and Materials Conference (Palm Springs, California, Riviera Hotel April 1-3, 1964)
unknown
Manufacturer: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KFUH26

The Conference Record of the Twentieth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialist Conference - 1988 (Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 26-30, 1988, Volume 1)

Average customer rating:

The Conference Record of the Twentieth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialist Conference - 1988 (Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 26-30, 1988, Volume 1)

Manufacturer: IEEE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000E7KUBS

Average customer rating:

The Conference Record of the Twentieth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialist Conference - 1988 (Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 26-30, 1988, Volume 2)

Manufacturer: IEEE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000E7KUB8

De L'Hotel-Palais En Riviera (Le Septieme Fou)

Average customer rating:

De L'Hotel-Palais En Riviera (Le Septieme Fou)
Michel Saudan , Sylvia Saudan-Skira , and Yolande Blanc
Manufacturer: La Bibliotheque des Arts (FR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Arts & Photography | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

History | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2881740014

Average customer rating:

Grand Hotel Riviera (Narrativa)
Carla Cerati
Manufacturer: Frassinelli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Italian Books | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 8876844996

Average customer rating:

Strong Starter
Wordy
Inscrutable
Charming and very much of its period
Good introductory Bowen novel

The hotel
Elizabeth Bowen
Manufacturer: Popular Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

ASIN: B00089270Y

Customer Reviews:

Strong Starter.......2007-02-28

This book taught me so much.... about writing, about the subtlety of emotions, about sensitivity and courtesy, about behavior. This was Bowen's first novel, and it's a powerful beginning. I always felt it was the least obtuse of her works, and that the later books all needed more editing, someone to say, "Elizabeth, what are you talking about?" In "The Hotel," her writing is idiosyncratic..., but one always understands what she's trying to say. I have so many highlighted lines in this book that I recall in various circumstances; Bowen seemed to have been an extremely keen observer. For instance, this line, about two very close friends who told each other everything: "They had pinned down the most slippery, ethical subtleties for absorbing, tireless analysis. Everything they said to each other was so TRUE." Or in regard to friends of the heroine's glamourous friend: "Men and women of supreme distinction and beauty, they never appeared in person, were never described and so were never allowed to diminish." Granted the heroine, Sydney, is somewhat neurotic, as another reviewer mentioned. And she's not the only one. One of the males is described: "He feels spikes everywhere and rushes to impale himself." That's just great! The actual narrative of "The Hotel" isn't the important part; it's the writing about people, how they speak, how they think, their motives, their actions. If you're the type of person who analyzes behavior, your own and others', you'll enjoy reading this book. If you like clever writing with tongue in cheek, you'll find lots to smile over.

Wordy.......2005-05-20

This is possibly the most boring book I've ever (nearly) read. A group of English people, mainly women, are spending the English winter in an hotel in Italy and trying to fill their days with inconsequential chatter and hints of malicious gossip. The conversations are tediously wordy and mostly about nothing of any interest, between people with few brains and less charm. I gave up half way through as I felt it was a pure waste of time and eyepower!

Inscrutable.......2002-08-07

I have read D.H. Lawrence, Henry James and E.M. Forster and understood their characters' motivations and personalities. This book had whole paragraphs that were so convuluted I could not follow them. I liked the descriptions of the peripheral characters and understood them. Overall the book was boring. "Room with a View" is far superior -- romantic, lovely and touching. This is my second Bowen and I don't plan to try another.

Charming and very much of its period.......1999-05-04

The novel's storyline is fairly divided among several well-to-do British guests staying at a hotel on the Italian Riviera in the 1920s--mostly concerned with the subtle nuances of their emotional interactions with one another, the narrative eventually comes to settle on the neurotic Sydney (a young travelling companion to an invalid cousin) who has become overly attached to the beautiful and manipulative Mrs. Kerr.

Though is far from Bowen's best, this is a wonderful read for anyone who has enjoyed the many novels of this period cocerning genteel Englishmen abroad--Forster's ROOM WITH A VIEW, von Arnim's THE ENCHANTED APRIL, and Woolf's THE VOYAGE OUT. The style is deceptive: you can get much more out of this on a second read than the first time round.

Good introductory Bowen novel.......1998-12-23

Not the greatest novel in the world, but a good introduction if you would like to read Bowen. The lack of any real resolution to the plot is kind of disheartening and leaves the reader with a feeling of nothing being accomplished. Bowen writes about subtle emotions well, but throws out too many at the reader at once. The novel seems more of an intellectual excercise in form rather than a real literary accomplishment.

Average customer rating:

Hotel Riviera (India)
R. K. Laxman
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0140107967

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