Amazon.com
At over 800 pages, John Irving's Until I Find You is a daunting proposition at best. Anyone who finishes it will have acquired forearm muscles, sore shoulders, and not much else. The story is self-indulgent, repetitive and, ultimately, boring, that cardinal sin that readers can't forgive. Longtime Irving readers have stayed with him through a few hits and a miss or two, but this is an all-time low. We are accustomed to Irving's work as quirky, bizarre, and off-the-wall and have forgiven all by calling such high-jinks and characters "imaginative" or "absolutely original." The only thing original about this tome is the descent into soft porn.
Jack Burns, the hero of the tale, is four years old when it all begins. He is the illegitimate son of Daughter Alice, a tattoo artist and, guess what, daughter of a tattoo artist. She takes Jack on a pilgrimage to find his womanizing father, William, a church organist and "ink addict." By seeking out church organs and tattoo parlors, she expects to find him. She doesn't, and by now we have spent more than a hundred pages in Northern European cities doing an imitation of Groundhog Day. Same story, different day: a little prostitution for Alice, a few questions asked; alas, no daddy.
Alice and Jack return to Toronto so that Jack may enter a previously all-girls school, which will admit little boys for the first time. There begins another 200 pages of the girls and the teachers abusing Jack, over and over again. By now, he is five and is, for some unfathomable reason, eminently interesting to girls and women. His "friend" Emma keeps careful track of "the little guy," as she calls Jack's penis, looking for signs of life. The worst part of all this is that none of it is funny or sad or even clever. There are wrestling vignettes, of course, and prep school tedium, but no bears. Maybe bears would have saved it. There were funny parts in The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules as well as poignant, horrific parts in both of those and other Irving novels. This story is flat. The voice never changes; it just drones on.
Jack becomes an actor. First, he is a boy in drag because he is so pretty, then he takes transvestite parts. He and Emma, now a published novelist, live together in LA, which provides endless opportunity for name-dropping. His career eventually takes off and he gets recognition and awards, but still no daddy. Irving, it turns out, never knew his father, either. Perhaps this exercise will exorcise that demon once and for all and Irving's next book will be about something more compelling than a little boy's penis and his trashy mother's antics. If you do make it through to the book's snapper of an ending, you deserve to find out what it is on your own. Call it a reward. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns – his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents.
When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead – has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master or “scratcher.”
Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada and New England – including, tellingly, a girls’ school in Toronto. His real education consists of his relationships with older women – from Emma Oastler, who initiates him into erotic life, to the girls of St. Hilda’s, with whom he first appears on stage, to the abusive Mrs. Machado, whom he first meets when sent to learn wrestling at a local gym.
Too much happens in this expansive, eventful novel to possibly summarize it all. Emma and Jack move to Los Angeles, where Emma becomes a successful novelist and Jack a promising actor. A host of eccentric minor characters memorably come and go, including Jack’s hilariously confused teacher the Wurtz; Michelle Maher, the girlfriend he will never forget; and a precocious child Jack finds in the back of an Audi in a restaurant parking lot. We learn about tattoo addiction and movie cross-dressing, “sleeping in the needles” and the cure for cauliflower ears. And John Irving renders his protagonist’s unusual rise through Hollywood with the same vivid detail and range of emotions he gives to the organ music Jack hears as a child in European churches. This is an absorbing and moving book about obsession and loss, truth and storytelling, the signs we carry on us and inside us, the traces we can’t get rid of.
Jack has always lived in the shadow of his absent father. But as he grows older – and when his mother dies – he starts to doubt the portrait of his father’s character she painted for him when he was a child. This is the cue for a second journey around Europe in search of his father, from Edinburgh to Switzerland, towards a conclusion of great emotional force.
A melancholy tale of deception,
Until I Find You is also a swaggering comic novel, a giant tapestry of life’s hopes. It is a masterpiece to compare with John Irving’s great novels, and restates the author’s claim to be considered the most glorious, comic, moving novelist at work today.
Download Description
John Irving has won an O. Henry Award, a National Book Award, and an Oscar.
Until I Find You is his eleventh novel. He lives in Vermont and Toronto.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointed.......2007-09-27
After having read a fair number of John Irving's earlier novels, I was disappointed with the cardboard characters in this one and the endless elaboration on pointless details. Not once did I get to feel any identification with the main characters. I literally struggled through the 500+ pages of the hardback version.
Apart from Toronto, Maine and LA, the book describes scenes in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Zurich and Mr Irving has gone through great pains to insert local insiders info, rendering the book into something of a tourist guide. The author indulges here in a writer's trick to add interestingness to the novel, which I found irritating.
The subject matter is fashionable, and only that, and as thin as the paper is was printed on.
I would not recommend this novel.
Melancholic logorrhoea.......2007-08-10
I suspect that once you've reached a certain level of fame, publishers simply stop editing you. After all, whatever you write is destined to sell. Why rock the boat? It's clear that John Irving has reached that level. He's a great storyteller, and his characters are vibrant and interesting, but boy, is his latest novel, Until I Find You, in need of a decent edit.
The book presents an absorbing story which pivots around Jack Burns, a young actor and inevitable ladies man who spends his life unraveling the memories of his childhood. Irving cleverly presents us with a story in the first half which is presented as Jack Burn's childhood. It begins in 1969 with Jack and his mother Alice searching for his runaway father, the organist and tattoo junkie William Burns. The chase is entertaining enough as Alice and Jack go on a grand adventure which takes them through the brothels of Europe, tattoo parlours, and cafes. Jack's naïve perspective on the sometimes wild goings on is both charming and indicative of his later personality as he forms his own brand of understanding of the tawdry situation his mother puts him in. Although they remain close, they don't find William, and go back to Toronto so Jack can get an education at an all girls' school. As you might expect, his education is rather more extensive than a mother might like, and as his father's reputation has preceded him, Jack follows in his footsteps as he is regularly abused, coddled, and mentored into a combination of acting genius famous for his transvestite roles, and compulsive womanizer. As Jack ages, the plot line moves forward through Jack's almost accidental stardom, his long time friend Emma's fame as a writer, and above all, Jack's desire to find his father, and discover himself. All that is good, and there is much here to applaud, from the rich settings that Jack traverses, the well researched sense of place, the funky exploration of the world of tattooing and the interesting melding of the delicate with the rough. The book is populated with interesting damaged characters from Jack's mother Daughter Alice, the delicate Miss Wurtz at Jack's school to a host of dodgy and damaged tattoo artists, porn stars, wrestlers, crazy actresses, psychiatrists, a pregnant aerobics instructor and a few famous actors.
It's a great first draft. But there is so much extraneous material here. From the start of Jack's education, there's a continuum of catalogue-like name dropping that is beyond tedious. From the entire synopsis of the play Jack puts on at St Hilda's school, the complete plotline to Blade Runner, to a catalogue of Oscars won in various years, overviews of what various film stars were wearing at a number of both fictional and real events, the films Jack saw (complete with multi-paragraphed plotlines), to the complete story (so detailed as to be a story itself) of one of each of Jack's films; Irving spares his readers nothing.
Until I Find You never really achieves its promise, partly because it is so weighed down with irrelevancy, and the reader is therefore unable to give Jack the sympathy that such a myopically presented character deserves as he moves from 1969 to 2000. Clearly John Irving is a talented writer, whose extensive research is matched by his extensive knowledge. It's just a shame he doesn't have a trusted editor willing to insist that Irving cut the ridiculous quantity of fluff out of his latest tome. Jack is "a writer, , albeit one given to melancholic logorrhoea. A storyteller, if only out loud." (699). The same could be said for this Until I find You. The book simply doesn't realise its potential, either in terms of its characters or the force of its plot. Melancholic logorrhoea is an excellent description.
Magdalena Ball is the author of Sleep Before Evening
"There is so much beautiful writing here, soaring passages."
What I found in this Irving novel........2007-08-06
John Irving has long been one of my favorite contemporary authors. Having begun reading him long ago with 'Garp', and later discovering the beautiful 'Owen Meaney', I've followed his novels for many years, without much disappointment.
Certainly, as is the case with many authors, there are some works by them you like, and some you don't. However, some of the criticism of others for this novel really surprises me, and seems underserved. No, this isn't my favorite of John Irving's books...but I didn't expect it to be.
'Until I Find You' is full of the usual themes that John Irving has explored in past novels...the only child raised by a strong-willed mother...feelings of inadequacy...loss of loved ones...etc. You cannot read a John Irving novel without seeing these recurring trends, although each of his novels are different, they do carry similar traits.
This story centers on Jack Burns, beginning at age four, holding the hand of his mother, Alice, as they search many North Sea towns and cities for Jack's decamped father, William...whom Alice seeks to make him 'own up to his responsibility to Jack.' A skilled, but fledgling, tattoo artist at the time, Alice plies her 'portable trade' around Europe to earn their keep, while she and Jack migrate from place to place on William's trail.
Years later, Jack (as an adult, and accomplished actor) finds the truth of this 'quest'...as he seeks out his own truth as to why his father was never present in his life.
Other reviews will offer more detail on the plot, and with 200+ such reviews to choose from, I'll refrain from rehashing what has already been said, and just offer my likes and dislikes:
Likes: I enjoyed the tone of this novel, as I have other Irving works. He writes in a very 'somber' way about love and loss, and typically avoids grand 'Hollywood' endings to his novels, even if this one is about a movie star. I enjoy how human John Irving can make his characters, by placing them in extraordinary AND ordinary circumstances, by making them face disappointment, regret, anger, and loss, just as we all do in life. In a day and age where 'thriller fiction' completely misses the boat of characterization, I'm happy to see John Irving will still indulge me. The story is detailed, rich in 'geography' of Amsterdam and other European cities; and full of the wit, insight, and unique visions of life that lovers of John Irving's novels have come to expect.
Dislikes: It's hard to detail my one and only real 'dislike' without giving away much of the plot. Suffice to say that Mr. Irving's protagonist, Jack, got an education far earlier than I was really comfortable reading about. C'est la vie...John Irving does not write 'Little Golden Books'....and even though what I have referred to here is a 'dislike', as a friend told me, 'Keep going, it's worth getting to the end.'
Overall, I really enjoyed this read as much as I enjoyed 'Fourth Hand', 'Widow for One Year' and many other Irving Books. I don't know that John Irving will ever captivate me as much as he did with Owen Meaney again, but...this is a fine addition to my John Irving novel collection.
This Man is Delusional!.......2007-08-01
For an author that has been publishing books for 30+ years, you'd think he'd be able to create an identity of his own by now. But after his eleventh attempt, John Irving tries to write more like Dickens than ever.
The most obvious example: the length. Jesus Christ. If this book was any longer, I think I would have had a seizure and gone blind from irritation. I've heard him say while being interviewed, that a person either has the capacity to read long novels or doesn't. This is b.s. If the book is a good one, I don't care how long it is, I don't care if it's 5000 pages, I'll finish it. If the book is boring and indulgent, into the garbage it goes.
Second: the "peripheral" characters. Dickens was known for the endless amount of characters (mostly pointless) in his novels; so what does John Irving do? He puts about a thousand, trite characters in Until I Find You that have stupid names (Daughter Alice) and stupid tattoos (Rose of Jericho)... and they keep coming, and coming, and coming, and just when you thought he was finished, he throws in about a dozen more.
Third: the tone. Irving, no matter how modern and risque the plot, seems to write in a tightass, presumptuous, Victorian style. The main character in this book is an actor, a very famous one. The way Irving writes Hollywood, especially award-ceremonies, is completely ridiculous. I guess because he wrote one screenplay, he thinks he's got that field covered, as well.
I don't know what else to say. I'm just p.o.'d that I wasted so much time over this worthless book.
Follow the yellow brick road..........2007-06-25
This was the first John Irving novel (800++ pages!) I have ever read.
Yes it is repetitive and thus boring at times, and yes the hero's mother is the queen of dysfunction and visits that dysfunction on her little boy. There were times that I wanted to just quit, but for some reason I kept going back. I love Jack, I love Emma, and I like the Wertz very much. By the end I wanted Jack, Emma (that sweet Honey Pie), Heather, and William to go on forever.
Average customer rating:
- Disturbing Series of Murders
- A classic.
- Post War Dead Culture Intrigue
- Intricate Portrayal of Art and History
- Mesmerizing
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The Tattoo Murder Case
Akimitsu Takagi
Manufacturer: Soho Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Takagi, Akimitsu
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ASIN: 1569471088 |
Amazon.com
If you read mysteries for insights into other cultures and different periods, this excellent translation of the first novel by Akimitsu Takagi, who became one of Japan's leading crime writers, is an eye-opener. In 1947 Toyko, the limbs of a murdered woman are discovered in a locked bathroom. Her torso--covered with intricately beautiful tattoos by her late father, a highly controversial artist--is missing. A doctor finds the body, and his detective brother is put in charge of the case. They bumble around until the doctor's friend, jokingly called "Boy Genius," leads them to the murderer. Fans of golden-age mysteries by S. S. Van Dine and John Dickson Carr should enjoy this unusual combination of ingredients.
Book Description
Miss Kinue Nomura survived World War II only to be murdered in Tokyo, her severed limbs left behind. Gone is that part of her that bore one of the most beautiful full-body tattoos ever rendered by her late father. Kenzo Matsushita, a young doctor, must assist his detective brother who is in charge of the case, because he was Kinue's secret lover and the first person on the murder scene.
The Tattoo Murder Case was originally published in 1948; this is the first English translation.
Customer Reviews:
Disturbing Series of Murders.......2004-09-08
I like the post-war Tokyo setting of this story. References are made to the horrors and trauma of war suffered by former Japanese soldiers. It also describes the wide discrepancy between different groups of people as they hold onto wealth and status, or madly scramble to grab them. We also see glimpses of black market and yakuza life styles. The murders are creepy and disturbing, and the psycho-sexual world of tattoo customers is nicely underlined. I'm not sure I quite believe the Boy Genius as a viable character, but I'm going to read the other books by Akimitsu Takagi as they become available.
A classic........2002-06-25
Takagi's masterpiece combines the virtues of a mystery story that is in the same league as Conan Doyle's very best stories, with an intricate description and analysis of the effects of the second world war on Japanese society. The choice of the tattoo as leitmotiv was really a stroke of brilliance. On the one hand it plays a central part in the solving of the murder plot. Moreover, the taboo status that has surrounded the tattoo due to Western influences on the land of the rising sun, gives the (sexual) fascination of its admirers a metaphorical depth. As such, I disagree with a previous reviewer who saw Kenzo's ongoing fascination with Kinue as a manifestation of necrophilia. I feel it represents an expression of nostalgia to the pre-western "good old days".
In closing, the translator deserves some kudos for the excellent translation. The subtly inserted short explanations provide the novice with direct understanding with many concepts and the atmosphere of the original text has been carefully preserved.
Post War Dead Culture Intrigue.......2002-04-18
Akimitsu Takagi's The Tattoo Murder Case is a crime novel that fits comfortably into its genre. The nourish elements are all presenting the narrative. The troubled detective is following the trail of a crime that has inherent mystery surrounding both its perpetrator and its victim. But the novel is more enthralling than just these basic details. The detective, Kenzo, is locked in the culturally ruined Japan of post World War Two. The after effects of the Atomic Bomb are scattered throughout the narrative. This leaves a dark residual cast over all of the characters. The sense of a seedy underworld is revealed to reader as the narrative carries on. Another aspect that is uncovered is the sense that Kenzo is trapped in a necrophiliac relationship with the dead tattooed woman who has been stripped of her prized full body designs. This post-mortem aura surrounds all of the characters and draws parallels to the `dead' world in which they live. A strong commentary is made on the after effects of world war. Altogether it is a fantastically well crafted novel that will draw readers into an unfamiliar cultural moment and a mystery with uncertain outcome.
Intricate Portrayal of Art and History.......2002-04-09
Mythical and traditional history, present life and conditions in Japan, and ideals of beauty and art versus respectability appear embodied through the expertly designed tattoo on one of Takagi's characters. The Tattoo Murder Case is as intricately woven and colorful as the bewitching tattoo. The combination of the three tattoos create the mystery through illusion and provide the only clues to solve the case.
Takagi weaves together the cultural history of Japan and the reality of the recently defeated country. The art of tattoo and the ancient stories told through the art fascinate many of the characters and introduce the readers to an aspect of this country's culturally rich past. However, in present day, the practice of this art is illegal and hidden away in secret shops, and the art is not accepted in society. Bombed buildings and mentions of American soldiers and trucks illustrate the physical aspects of the defeat.
The actual detective in the story, Kyosuke Kamizu, steps forward rather late in the novel at a point at which the police and other characters involved are struggling with overwhelming frustration. The "boy genius" fills the role of a Sherlock Holmes character. Kamizu steps ahead of the other detective characters because he seems to fill both the characteristics of rationality and ideals of a romantic. Rationality and romanticism are both necessary in solving this case because it includes aspects of physics, illusion, and art.
Mesmerizing.......2002-03-08
In a concealed part of society in Japan where tattooed men and women still let their kimonos slip off to reveal their elaborate designs, Kenzo finds himself ensnared by the tattooed temptress Kinue shortly before her death. With beautiful snake imagery throughout the novel, from the cooler skin of a tattooed body resembling a "cold-blooded reptile" to the legend of the curse where the "snake eats the frog, the frog eats the slug, and the slug dissolves the snake," tattoos are disappearing from murder scenes with as much ease as a snake shedding its own skin. Obsessions abound as Kenzo and his police chief brother investigate, coming up with such suspects as Mr. Tattoo, also known as Professor Hayakawa, who persuades tattooed people to leave him their skins after their deaths; Ryokichi Usui, a member of the Most Wanted list; Takezo Mogami, the rich and overly-jealous lover of Kinue; and Tamae, Kinue's sister who disappeared during the world war. Finally turning to the "Boy Genius" Kyosuke, Kenzo and his brother are taught the importance of a good chess game and learn the secrets behind the locked room murder. The book tantalizes the senses with feelings of lust, intrigue in viewing banned tattoos, tastes of elaborate Japanese dishes, and the minds games between the killer and the investigators. The designs of the killer are as intricate and intriguing as the tattoos themselves; readers will be as "spellbound" by the novel as a "frog hypnotized by a voracious, gimlet-eyed snake."
Book Description
In 1970, Sara Ehrenreich boards a small plane and returns to New York City with much fanfare; she will be featured in Life magazine. She has not left Ta'un'uu–the South Seas island upon which she and her husband, Philip, were marooned during a storm–in more than thirty years. Sara doesn’t know that man has landed on the moon. She has never seen a ballpoint pen. Her body is covered, head to toe, in tattoos.
Flashback: it’s 1918 and Sara, a shop girl and aspiring artist, meets Philip, a wealthy member of the avant-garde elite. The two fall in love, marry, and collaborate to make art, surrounded by socialites and revolutionaries–until the Depression cripples not just Sara and Philip, but most of their patrons. When Philip is offered a job gathering masks from the South Seas, they jump at a chance to escape America’s sorrows, traveling to Ta’un’uu for what they think will be a week’s stay.
The rest is history–a history Sara records on her skin through the traditional tattoos that become her masterpiece and provide an accounting of her days. Narrated in vivid and starkly moving prose, The Tattoo Artist reminds us of the unforeseeable forces that shape each human life.
Customer Reviews:
tattoos, artists, who could ask for more?.......2007-07-20
well, I'm an artist and I have tattoos so I was drawn to this book....BUT, believe me, it's so much more than that. Anyone who loves Andrea Barrett's writing or "The Life of Pi" will love this book. Ciment is a visual poet with the ability to create a believable world from unbelievable circumstances; her writing has the clarity of waking up very suddenly from a dream in the middle of the night. I absolutely loved this book...another one for my personal library.
Loved It.......2007-05-06
This book is nothing like I expected it to be based on the title. In fact, the title is pretty much the only thing I would criticize because the book has nothing to do with the tattoo artist of contemporary culture.
This book is extremely well written, engaging from the start, and will leave you wanting more when the novel ends. I was impressed by the way Ciment weaves philosophical ideas into the character development, making this a deep and thoughtful story that will touch you in many ways. I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who's interested.
Fantastic story..........2007-01-22
I work in a library and this book wasn't checked out once in a year. So I decided to read it before it got relegated to the give away bin...well I'm glad I did! This was a riveting story. I'm not sure why but this book reminded me of Life of Pi, a favorite of mine. Maybe it's because of marooned theme. Tattoo artist was just different and full of imagery. I highly recommend it. I find that I'm still thinking about it after having finished it; a rare occurrence for me.
Mesmerizing novel.......2006-07-07
Exquisite writing that reminded me of Fugitive Pieces. I wish I could have read it in one sitting because it is consuming and transporting. As other reviewers mentioned, Ciment presents a unique vision in this novel. Not so much an exploration of the themes of art, home, cultural dislocation, but a dream of them. Hard to imagine being unmoved.
Images flew to my mind.......2006-04-11
What is home? What is culture? How adaptable are we - at what point can we no longer adapt? What is beauty and what is art - imagine a beach full of living drawings, standing side by side in welcome.
I love how the cover of this book is sparse as opposed to the story which filled my mind with amazing images - images that moved and a still life of moments to be remembered,pain, sorrow, joy and tenderness.
As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a book that will stay with the reader for a long time.
Average customer rating:
- What a ride
- Loved it !!
- Old West lesbian romance
- Big city girl meet the western frontier
- Lesbians in the Wild West Rock!!
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Innocent Hearts
Radclyffe
Manufacturer: Bold Strokes Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Customer Reviews:
What a ride.......2007-02-18
This is the first novel I ever read from this author and I loved it. It is perfect in character depth, conflict, resolution, stamina and any number of other areas. This novel is the rule by which all others are measured.Ms. Radclyffe has done a wonderful job of spoiling readers against authors of lesser talent.
Loved it !!.......2007-01-11
I loved it. This is my first Radclyffe and I can see why she's so popular. To me the queen of lesbian western love stories is Vada Foster & B. L. Miller's "Josie & Rebecca: The Western Chronicles" and I started out comparing this one to that. There are a number of similarities in the two. But, as the story continued I started to view it from another angle.
Besides being a delightful and sexy love story it is, as the title hints a very "innocent" love story. Both girls have no inkling of their sexuality until they meet and fall in love with each other and even then they're pretty slow at realizing their true feelings.
This factor gives the story an innocent ring to it and also a purity that is unusual for a book that has such sexy scenes. I would vote it as the book I would most like my gay-friendly hetro friends to read. It's a great book for lesbians and hetros alike. I look forward to reading the sequel and some of Radclyffe's other books.
Old West lesbian romance.......2007-01-03
Kate Beecher is a young woman who has literally been dragged from her pampered Boston existence by her father and mother out West. She is 19 and into photography/journalism. Her father and mother had been enticed by a friend of theirs who made the journey and promise a decent life for all of them. Kate is reticent to make the trip and even more reticent when she finds it is a rough settlement and not all like the life she left in Boston, until she meets Jessie Forbes. Jessie is the owner of a huge ranch outside town since her father died. Jessie is very butch and causes a lot of eyebrows to go up when she comes to town, but they seem to accept her for what she is. Jessie is a cattle rancher, and takes a lot of pride in maintaining the ranch that her father built. She takes a shine to Kate and soon a mild flirtation begins to happen. Meanwhile, Kate's parents notice that Kate has no interest in the young man they have picked out for her. They see her spending all her free time with Jessie, whom they see as an improper woman, wearing men's clothes and doing men's work. Kate is falling hard for Jessie and Jessie falls hard for Kate. The romance is hot and the story is good. Radclyffe does a great job, departing from her usual genre.
Big city girl meet the western frontier.......2006-09-03
Kate Beecher leaves Boston with her family and treks across the county to land in Montana.
Kate is inspired by the beauty of the land. She's a little confused by the gun toting, Stetson and pant wearing Jess Forbes.
Jesse is a rancher and breaks horses as a past time. She notices Kate. Even saves her from an accidental stampede.
When a life threatening illness spreads thru the territory, they combine their efforts to help all they can. Their feelings getting more interesting as time goes on.
I love a good western romance. Kudos!
Lesbians in the Wild West Rock!!.......2006-07-22
This book blew me away. Where else can you get the wild west, suspense and lesbian romance? Three of my favorites. I just recently discovered Radclyffe. Have I been missing out!!! She is fantastic and her books are all great. My shelf is quickly filling up with her name. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Promising Hearts, Innocent Hearts sequel.
I read this book in 2 days. Radclyffe keeps you thirsting for more. I fall in love with all of her characters.
Jessie and Kate will capture your heart. In a time where women don't wear pants, vote or have a say in anything. Two women fall in love. Jessie, a ranch owner who carries a gun and tames wild horses meets Kate a determined and feisty woman who has just arrived from Boston with her parents. They want Kate to get married(to a man). Not that anything else would enter their minds. What follows shows why Radclyffe is so amazing and special.
Like all her other books I've read, these characters grab onto the readers heart take them on an adventure, stop and start it a few times(no defibulator needed in this story, see Fated Love) and leave the reader feeling warm and satisfied.
What I love to do is get my crystal light, cuddle with my cat, Kali put on some smooth jazz and RR(Read Radclyffe).
ENJOY!!!
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Book!.......2007-03-09
(I am b.rothermel's daughter). My aunt gave me one of her multiple copies of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay for my fifteenth birthday, and I LOVE it! Emily and Cornelia are perfect mirrors of my best friend and me, who are both dying to travel abroad together. What makes this book so great is that it all really happened, which encourages my friend and me even more. If they did it, we can, right? (Of course, the whole trip cost them a little over eighty dollars...) This book is one of those I'll read again and again, because it puts me in a lighthearted state of mind like an Elizabeth Enright or Eleanor Estes book does; it has that old-fashioned charm. P.S.--Thanks, Karen Bramblet--I was so happy to learn there's a movie! I'll be sure to watch it!
You will LOVE/LOVE/LOVE this book!.......2007-01-31
I found this book in the tiny public library of my small Texas town in 1946 when I was ten years old. Years later I hunted down a used copy for my four daughters to read and still more years later I'm hunting copies for my 8 granddaughters.
One of those granddaughters has her 14th birthday in a couple of weeks, and I came to Amazon today expecting to have to buy a used copy, not realizing that it has been reissued. Hallelujah!
So few books of this genre are truly interesting and truly funny. Most of them consist of anecdotes that leave you thinking, "I guess you had to be there". Not this one. Those two girls were disaster-magnets. I think only David Niven's "The Moon is a Balloon" has made me laugh out loud as many times, and it's a much longer book.
The writing is seamless and authentically witty, the line drawings are almost Thurberesque in the way they stay in your mind's eye forever after.
This is a true American classic. Don't miss it.
Heartwarming and hilarious.......2007-01-26
Having first watched the black-and-white movie based on this book, I was eager to meet Cornelia and Emily again inside its pages, and was not disappointed. The story of two young girls taking their first trip abroad, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay is the true story of their adventures, ranging from heartwarming to hilarious. Some memorable incidents: Emily throwing a deckchair over the side of the ship to "save" a man who fell overboard and inadvertantly hitting him with it instead; the safety pockets which both girls' mothers insisted they wear beneath their clothes (to keep money and stuff in) and which mystifies their dance partners by swinging beneath their skirts and hitting them; Cornelia's bout with measles, and how she and Emily get off the ship without being quarantined; spending the night in a brothel which they have mistaken for a genteel ladies' hotel . . . and many, many more. Be prepared to laugh and laugh as you read this great book.
Average customer rating:
- it was ok, the manga was betther though.....
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Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood
Masashi Kishimoto
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Naruto, Vol. 12
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The Naruto Saga: The Unofficial Guide (Mysteries and Secrets Revealed)
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Naruto, Vol. 2
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Naruto Anime Profiles, Volume 1: Episodes 1-37 (Naruto Anime Profiles)
ASIN: 1421506033 |
Customer Reviews:
it was ok, the manga was betther though............2007-09-11
the book was pretty bad.....it was basically just someone writing with a picture every 5 pages..... and they only wrote up to when zabuza dies. i recommend the manga, because this one was nothing special, and the manga rocks! the anime is pretty good too, so don't waste your money on this.
Average customer rating:
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Kutless - Hearts of the Innocent
Kutless
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1423419731 |
Book Description
Note-for-note guitar transcriptions with tab for all 12 tracks off this alt-Christian rock band's fourth album: Beyond the Surface * Changing World * Hearts of the Innocent * Legacy * Promise of a Lifetime * Shut Me Out * Smile * and more.
Book Description
A Senator's Personal Vendetta, a High-Powered Conspiracy, and the Framing of an Innocent Victim
Home from the Korean War, Lane Temple convalesces from his physical and emotional wounds and begins to practice law again. When his best friend, Coley Thibodeaux, offers Lane the possibility of running for his seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, Lane and his wife, Catherine, decide that he should do it, and begin his campaign.
But powerful enemies rise up and devise a plot to put their own handpicked man into Thibodeaux's place as well as satisfy Senator Catelon's long-standing vendetta against Lane Temple. The conspiracy they plot frames Lane in a land deal involving rights-of-way for Eisenhower's Interstate system, and Temple is sent to serve time in one of America's worst prisons.
Determined to see Lane freed, Coley enlists the aid of Maria Genero, a wealthy lawyer from New Orleans who has inside connections. But the mysterious disappearance of a key player in the setup threatens to unravel their efforts.
Customer Reviews:
the best.......2002-03-26
this is the best book i ever read i cant wait to read the first & second one to the series hoping that they are just as good
Average customer rating:
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Heart So Innocent
Cross
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0671677004 |
Customer Reviews:
such a wonderful book.......2002-10-16
I couldn't stop reading this book. It is very good I recommand it to anyone who is even slightly romantic.
Average customer rating:
- "Innocent Heart" brings life and love to the South
- Innocent Heart is tale of survival, finding love
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Innocent Heart
Erica D. Adams
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:
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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer
ASIN: 1413710425 |
Book Description
Brace yourself for an emotional roller coaster ride. This novel consists of humor and suspense and is definitely a tear jerker. It tells of a married man who falls in love with a single younger woman. Fate brings them together and carries them through the obstacles life offers. Rose, abused by her ex-husband, finds a way out of her marriage. Darren, a middle-aged farmer, denies his feelings for Rose. Two lovers bound together in spite of what they can or can't have. Darren's wife, Marlyana, has a deep dark secret of her own. If the truth were revealed, it would change everything between Darren and Rose. She discovers Marlyana's secret and buries it deep inside, saving it for a rainy day. Rose doesn't realize that rainy day never comes until it is too late! For better or for worse? You be the judge.
Customer Reviews:
"Innocent Heart" brings life and love to the South.......2004-05-26
The plot moves quickly from an unhappy marriage to a happy affair to a conclusion that will satisfy the heart of any reader of romance novels. The heroine, Rose, is an abused wife as the story begins. Following a particularly abusive scene with her husband, Curtis, Rose spends the night asleep under the pines in the nearby woods. She wakes up to the sound and sight of Darren, tall and handsome, wearing a shirt and jeans that emphasize his masculinity. Ms. Adams has her heroine say to the reader that his jeans "hug" his body. It is love/lust at first sight!
Soon this idyllic situation is complicated by Rose's discovery that Darren has a wife. Marlyana, the wife, is both beautiful and kind, giving Rose breakfeast, sympathy, and any help she might give her.
Darren always appears when Rose needs him most. Once when Curtis finds her and tries to kill her, Darren appears with a gun and orders the scoundrel to leave Rose alone forever; again when Rose is admiring a butterfly, Darren appears to share the tender, innocent moment; and another time, Darren offers no resistance to be lured into a romantic tryst in a Jacuzzi surrounded by flowers, perfume, and candles.
Eventually, Marlyana is involoved in an affair of her own, and there follows a series of accidents, hospital bedside confessions, and confrontations of rival lovers. The pace of the story is fast, the plot engrossing, and the scenes excitingly presented. Here is an adult romance novel not to be missed by the devotee of this genre.
Innocent Heart is tale of survival, finding love.......2004-05-24
"Innocent Heart" is about surviving an abusive relationship and learning to love again. It is intense and provocative; Erica Adams definitely has a future in writing novels.
Rose Hill accidentally becomes pregnant and marries her childhood sweetheart, Curtis. Everything is fine until the baby is stillborn.
Rose becomes a prisioner in her own home, not allowed to work or visit neighbors in fear of what Curtis might do. One night after Curtis almost kills her, she runs away. She collapses under pine trees and awakes to see a tall, handsome man standing over her.
His name is Darren, and she has fallen asleep in his field. Darren takes her home where he and his wife, Marlyana, feed and comfort her.
Rose moves in with her mother until she can get on her feet, and it seems that she sees Darren everywhere. She learns that he has a marriage in name only and both are very attracted to each other.
Will they find happiness together or will fate lead them to a different path?
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- Virgin: Prelude to the Throne
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- Zorro CD: The Legend Begins
- A Blade of Grass: A Novel
- A Summons to Memphis
- Adventures in Wood Finishing: 88 Rue de Charonne (A Fine Woodworking Book)
- Alaska Bear Tales
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