Book Description
'Impeccably drawn....In prose at once word perfect and wildly imagined, Ward moves between the '50s and the '90s, laying out in vivid scenes how Caril Ann and Charlie built their twisted bond on desperate lust and deadly boredom....Astonishingly poetic yet palpable prose.' -Lisa Shea, Elle Liza Ward's spellbinding first novel is told from the very different points of view of three narrators mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and their efforts to heal the past. Based on the Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate murders in Nebraska in the 1950s, Outside Valentine examines the effects of violence and the power of love as the three voices interweave and show the lingering and devastating aftershocks of murder across three generations. Mysterious and disturbing, Liza Ward's first novel is, in the words of Anita Shreve, 'heartbreaking and unforgettable.'
Customer Reviews:
Another "In Cold Blood"?.......2006-11-04
Drab storytelling at its worst, but to compare this to Capote's In Cold Blood is to insult a truly great writer. Those who are so impressed with this amateurish work should go back and read no more than the first chapter of In Cold Blood and then reconsider your flattering comments.
The outstanding reviews of this mediocre work indicate that, aside from the classics, there remains a paucity of worthy literary fiction.
Incredible, haunting novel.......2006-06-17
As a writer of historical fiction with a deep interest in true crime stories, I took a chance on this novel after reading an interview with Liza Ward online. What I read was astounding beyond my expectations. The way the author takes one of the saddest murder cases of the 1950's and '60s and spins from its tragedy a hauntingly beautiful narrative will make this book a deserved classic. By combining the story of Caril Ann Fugate and Charles Starkweather--complete with narratives in the voice of Caril herself--and adding a fictional account of a couple brought together by one of the murders, Ward creates a story that is as much about the power of love and obsession as it as about good and evil. As a result, the book ranks among classics such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in its examination of morality and humanity. The language is rich, lush, and inventive, the storyline so perfectly paced that readers get lost in their journey through time. If you enjoy a suspenseful, well written story with historical relevance and intrigue, run, don't walk. Be prepared for the ride of your life.
Painful Redemption.......2005-11-21
Ward's debut novel is a bleak and stirring portrayal of how the effects of crime ripple through several decades afterward. The story is told from three perspectives--one, from the girl no one loved until she met Charles Starkweather; two, from the boy left an orphan after his parents were murdered; and three, from a local girl who's life was forever altered by watching the orphan boy and imagining his lonely life.
Her writing style is brief and thoughtful, and she is able to portray her three narrators in distinct fashions so that we can easily follow when one stops and another begins. Her characterizations are very real, and sadness is woven into an overall wintry, grey, and desolate background that is effective and powerful. There is a theme of abadonment and aloneness that permeates the novel; and although there is love and redemption at the story's conclusion, this is a chilly and scary walk through a story of true crime and its imagined effects on those touched by its wake.
a must read!.......2005-11-21
This book is incredible, riveting - I couldn't put it down! Such a wonderful novel loosely based on a true story of two murderers on the run. (think of the movie "Natural Born Killers" only with less murders)I love how the book is from three different points of view so that you can not only see how the murderers are feeling but also how their murders affect the lives of other people. Extremely well written, this book will captivate anyone. You won't forget it.
The tentacles of tragedy.......2005-08-18
Using the events of the Charles Starkweather crime spree in Nebraska in 1958, Liza Ward builds a contemporary tale of the aftermath of the crimes and the lingering effects of the tragedy on surviving family members. In alternating chapters, we meet each of the narrators, Caril Fulgate, Starkweather's partner-in-crime who refuses to accept the blame for her actions, Lowell Bowman, whose parents were murdered by Starkweather and his wife, Susan, a girl abandoned by her unstable mother and desperate for connection with Lowell, the only person she imagines might understand her loss.
We first meet Lowell after he has been married to Susan for twenty-two years; his life is unraveling, despite determined efforts to avoid confrontation with the past and the senseless loss of his parents. Back and forth through the years, from the actual events, to Susan's fixation on a boy who may identify with her own abandonment, to Lowell's current crisis, all are entangled in Starkweather's random violence. The author connects the damage of childhood trauma, as it reaches out to poison the future, the futility of flight and the dangers inherent in loving a broken person. Ward's own intimate connections to Starkweather's killing spree give the story a personal touch, believability. Her prose is both lyrical and clinically frank, depending on the narrator, either gently examining Susan's youthful yearning for the orphaned Lowell, his internal agony in as a functioning husband-parent, or Caril Ann's sly observations as Charlie's companion.
One of the most chilling narratives is the voice of Caril Fulgate, when she speaks of Lowell's mother, Jeanette, in the final moments before her murder. The woman talks about her son, how much she loves him, begging the girl to help. But Caril remains implacable. Her very passivity translates into Starkweather's dementia in his efforts to please her. The two are emotional ciphers, firmly entrenched in their victimhood. The horrific crimes are narrated from Fugate's point of view, her avowed helplessness belied by the senseless carnage, dispassionate descriptions that are a key element in the crooked route of Starkweather's mind. Thirty years later, Jeanette's son is crippled by his childhood trauma, but unable to connect his current family dysfunction with the past he hoped to escape. He has been running all his life.
Lowell has long been collecting treasures to be displayed in his New York gallery, comforted by antiquity and timelessness: "Sometimes it seems... that the only compensation for the living world, where things changed, were beautiful objects that stood the test of time". Understanding Lowell`s demons, Susan explains, "Your past becomes your family's past, and the things you don't deal with show up as your children's dirty laundry". The author has skillfully blended these characters, even Fugate's facile observations, creating a story that lingers long after it is finished. The icy Nebraska landscape, sprinkled carelessly with the blood of Starkweather's victims, is also the scene of redemption. It is those who carry the burdens of such senseless violence who speak most clearly in Outside Valentine, the missing haunting the futures of following generations. Luan Gaines/2005.
Amazon.com
In this author's popular Recluce fantasies--beginning with The Magic of Recluce--the classic theme of youngsters growing to adult power and responsibility is repeatedly retold in terms of magic skill. Past books focused on the apparent good guys--"black" magicians who use order-magic (cooling, healing, strengthening) and constantly oppose the White Order of chaos wizards whose talent is fire and dissolution. Young hero Cerryl has a natural bent for chaos, and for him the Whites offer the only game in town. Painfully, he learns about balance: order-magic can be deviously used for destruction, chaos can cleanse and anyway requires order-control if it's not to destroy the user. This moves interestingly away from simplistic "black is good, white is bad" magical color-coding ... but although Cerryl is a decent, ethical white wizard, the Order remains unpleasantly tyrannical--for example, an instant life sentence of slave labor for the equivalent of expired license plates. The magic training is interesting if repetitive (apprentices practice firebolts by zapping blockages in the public sewers), but Modesitt's real story lies in waiting for Cerryl to become a full mage of the Order and perhaps confront its injustices in the massive sequel, Colors of Chaos. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
L.E. Modesitt's bestselling fantasy novels set in the world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Rich in detail, Modesitt's Recluce books are a feast of wonderous marvels. Booklist notes, "Modesitt's elaborate and intelligent working out of a system of magic and a system of technology parallel to it is becoming more the lifeblood of the Recluce books with every new volume. . . his saga continues to gain in popularity." The White Order is the story of Cerryl, a boy orphaned when the powerful white mages killed his father to protect their control of the world's magic. Cerryl, raised by his aunt and uncle, is a curious boy, attracted to mirrors and books, though he is unable to read. When he is old enough, Cerryl is apprenticed to the local miller. The miller's daughter teaches Cerryl to read his father's books, and it seems that the talent for magic has been passed from father to son. When Cerryl witnesses a white mage destroy a renegade magician, the miller realizes the boy will not be safe there, so Cerryl must be sent to the city of Fairhaven to find his destiny.Thus Modesitt takes one of the most enduring and mythic themes in fantasy and makes it his own. The White Order is a powerful new addition to the Recluce saga, guaranteed to add many new readers to Modesitt's devoted following.The White Order is the eighth book in the saga of Recluce.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
In The White Order, we start to see this world from the other point of view. A young boy has talents with Chaos magic, but must also undergo ordeals. Homeless and hungry he finds a place, and eventually enters the wizard society.
There, he has to master his powers or die, and even worse, survive the individualistic power struggles of the society he is now part of.
superb story.......2006-11-18
Modesitt writes yet another amazing volume in the Recluce Saga. This book weaves together elements of fantasy and science fiction exquisitley. Cerryl is very intruiging as are Jeslek, Sterol, and Anya. In a world were much is not as it seems Cerryl's struggle to survive is a work I would compare to J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. Cerryl's final task is the best ending out of the first eight of the volumes in the saga.
Speedy service.......2005-08-15
I ordered the books of the Recluce series that I was not able to get from the book store and they had no way to order it. All the books but one could be ordered from Amazon.com. The site had a link for me to order the one book as an used book. All the books from Amazon.com came within 2 weeks. I was very happy about it. Finished the 3rd book in series about 2 weeks ago and am waiting for the used book to arrive in order to continue series. All book that came directly from Amazon.com have arrived and I will recommend them (Amazon.com) to all my friends and relatives for those hard to obtain items. It is easy and very very fast on the delivery. I am extremely happy with my purchases and future purchases are anticipated with certain series.
To fans of Modesitt's Recluce Saga.......2005-05-10
This is for fans of Modesitt's Recluce Saga, best read after THE TOWERS OF THE SUNSET. Set several hundred years after Creslin settled Recluce, THE WHITE ORDER is first in a set that brings Recluce fans a balanced understanding of the White Order. This is one of the reasons Modesitt is a good author, because he doesn't present good verses evil in pure shades of black and white. Black, in the Recluce Saga, is order magic, and white is chaos magic. Good and evil are perspectives depending on where you stand--just like in real life.
Cerryl--the hero of THE WHITE ORDER (and COLORS OF CHAOS)--starts off as a young orphan being raised by an aunt and uncle who are so poor they need to hire Cerryl out to a lumber mill for his own support. Cerryl knows his father had been a renegade White, murdered by the White mages from Fairhaven. He does not speak of this to anyone for fear he too could be murdered. Cerryl has a bit of the magic himself but he uses it only in secret. When his aunt and uncle are murdered, the owner of the sawmill sends the boy to Fairhaven to be a scrivner's apprentice. The scrivner is not as kind as the family at the mill had been: Cerryl has to heat his bath water magically or use it ice cold. And thus he is found out. Luckily, Cerryl has a cover story of being a 'shirt-tail relative' of the family at the mill, so no one seeks further into his personal history and he is admitted into apprenticeship with the White Order. Now, this section of the book is slightly similar to the Harry Potter series while Cerryl learns the ins and outs of magic (he has two friends: another young man and a young lady), however this school of magic is not sweet and charming. In Fairhaven, a potential White mage of great power needs to hide his power from his jealous superiors. Cerryl is constantly tested with harder and harder challenges, each deadlier than those previous, until... you will have to read it to find out.
I have been asked why I read Modesitt. "He's boring" some say. One reviewer uses the term "pedestrian". Well, Modesitt's stories can plod on occasion--BUT!--this reviewer finds his books worth reading. Why? Characterization. Those of us readers who seek pure escapism in our entertainment require vivid characterization and Modesitt delivers. Yes, I want action, and Modesitt has that too, it's just strung out between showing-descriptions of characterization that this reader prefers over blocks of dry world-building info-dumps as presented by other well known authors. And, no, Modesitt's prose is not always tedious--he goes somewhere with his stories and rewards his readers for their patience (note to romance fans--he does do romance but not a lot of sex scenes). The style is solid, and a worthy read for fans of sword & sorcery who want extended entertainment.
Finally a stroy from the other side of the coin.......2004-05-10
While this wasn't really the most exciting book of the series, it was still one of the best. Mainly because of the alternative perspective that it gives the reader about Whites. This book chronicles the rise of Cerryl, who one day becomes the leader of the Whites in their fight against Recluce. This book makes it clear that all Whites aren't evil and that the school of white mages actually teaches and believes that it does more good for Candar than bad, and even the bad is only a necessary action for the future good of the people.
This book is very well written (as are all of Modesitt's books) and the characters are great. The story line is cool, with plenty of action as well as lots of intrigue within the order of the Whites (mainly counter play between Sterol and Jeslek). This book is definitely a valuable addition to the saga of Recluce. Modesitt continues to fill in the missing blanks of his multi-generational story.
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Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity
Rebecca Krawiec
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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"Virgins of God": The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity (Oxford Classical Monographs)
ASIN: 0195129431 |
Book Description
This book depicts the lives of female monks within a monastery located in upper Egypt in the period 385-464 CE. During this period, the monastery was headed by a monk named Shenoute; thirteen of his letters to the women under his care survive. These writings are fragmentary, only partially translated, little studied, and written in difficult-to-decipher Coptic. Despite these problems, Krawiec has used the letters to reconstruct a series of quarrels and events in the life of the White Monastery and to discern some of the key patterns in the participants' relationships to one another within the world as they perceived it.
Book Description
The Crucible of Race, a major reinterpretation of black-white relations in the South, was widely acclaimed on publication and compared favorably to two of the seminal books on Southern history: Wilbur J. Cash's The Mind of the South and C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Representing 20 years of research and writing on the history of the South, The Crucible of Race explores the large topic of Southern race relations for a span of a century and a half. Oxford is pleased to make available an abridgement of this parent volume: A Rage for Order preserves all the theme lines that were advanced in the original volume and many of the individual stories. As in Crucible of Race, Williamson here confronts the awful irony that the war to free blacks from slavery also freed racism. He examines the shift in the power base of Southern white leadership after 1850 and recounts the terrible violence done to blacks in the name of self-protection. This condensation of one of the most important interpretations of Southern history is offered as a means by which a large audience can grasp the essentials of black-white relations--a problem that persists to this day and one with which we all must contend--North and South, black and white.
Customer Reviews:
A masterpiece of history, literature and religion.......2000-08-29
An anchoress was a woman who dedicated herself to God by spending her life in a tiny cell attached to a church. A small window and a handmaid provided her only contact with the world. Often when an anchoress died, her cell was filled with dirt and became her tomb.
This anonymous guide was written for three anchoresses in western England in the first half of the thirteenth century. The author - believed to have been a Dominican friar - gives some advice on the proper daily routine for an anchoress to follow. Most of the book, however, deals with the inner, spiritual life - prayer, the love of God, and the way to resist temptation.
As translator Hugh White points out, `the extremity of the anchoritic life was the extremity not of a margin but of a peak.' Through this guide written for an especially devoted few, through it we get an idea of how ordinary medieval people viewed their God and their destiny.
The book is also one of the finest examples we have of Middle English writing. Rarely has belief been expressed in such vivid metaphor. A woman who prays while angry is a she-wolf howling to God; a liar `makes of her tongue a cradle for the devil's child and rocks it diligently, as if its nurse'; but repentance will cause Christ to return to the heart, just as a husband hurries back to his pining wife.
Ancrene Wisse is no mere historical document. When the author describes the excuses that people make for sin, or discusses the various types of flattery and slander, modern readers will recognise behaviour they witness - or engage in -- every day. From a seemingly bizarre ancient group comes wisdom for our time.
Product Description
One of the most unconventional memoirs ever written, penned by one of the most well-known spiritual healers of the Twentieth Century: Agnes Sanford.
This is the deeply personal, candid, unvarnished journal of a woman whose life fit the Christian mold, yet God powerfully used her as a healer. Her story is one of searching, seeing, and sharing to carry out God's Sealed Orders.
Sanford found God to be real. God found Sanford to be willing. From China to California, through the turbulence of a world at war, God's unlikely servant taught the power of prayer and the miracle of healing -- lessons as fresh and resonant today as they were when her books were first published.
In itself, Sealed Orders is a healing experience. The power of its instruction in the life of faith and power arises from the deep experiences of a remarkable servant of the omnipotent God.
Customer Reviews:
SEALED ORDERS, by Agnes Sanford--Awesome!.......2006-08-24
This spiritual autobiography resonated uniquely with my own journey, though it took place in the beginning and middle of the last century. Agnes Sanford writes completely from her heart, sharing her experiences, and even sometimes speaking directly to what the reader might be thinking. There are no false pretenses of who she is, but only the truth of the person Agnes, and of her life experiences and tremendous faith. SEALED ORDERS contains both the author's challenges and joys and everything in between, as well as educating on her experience with the culture of China and how it related to her whole life, spiritually, economically, and sensually (meaning senses).
I love this book and highly recommend it to anyone who is being called to the ministry of healing.
The Timeless Gospel.......2004-07-02
Agnes Sanford has written many books, but none as eloquent and polished as this one. Her life spanned an incredible time in the world -- she was a college student during WW1, a young housewife during the depression, getting started on her career at the start of WW2, and of course witnessed the cold war and social upheaval of the 60s and 70s. Reading the autobiography, one sees that she arose from the need of the turbulent times she lived in. From a "charismatic" Christian viewpoint, certain aspects of her life are incredible as her work was blessed in the framework of mainline conservative Christianity, not pentecostalism, although her works were of the kind claimed mostly by the latter. Even if you found her style in other books old-fashioned, you will find this book incredibly sophisticated!
Sealed Orders is astounding........2003-03-02
If you want to read a great autobiography, especially if you are interested in the spiritual, this is one of the best you'll find. Agnes shares her upbringing in China, and move to the United States, all the while being perfectly candid about depression and other personal issues. Through truth seeking, study and work, Agnes blossoms into a spiritual leader of great stature. She is especially interesting in healing, and becomes incredibly successful to this end. Inspiring!
Especially for women.......2002-08-31
Classic feminists (not of the NOW variety) will love this book, for they can identify with its author in many ways. Women who are not interested in worldly careers but are content to fulfil the time-honored role of nurturing will be inspired to imitate her. Of course, since she is a Christian, it is a given that a woman who follows her discipline is also a believer in Jesus Christ.
A look at the life of a remarkable spiritual mystic........1998-11-27
The spiritual autobiography, "Sealed Orders" by Agnes Sanford takes the reader on a journey from China to California. Sanford's parents were missionaries yet Agnes reveals that in the midst of religious activity, "I did not know Him yet," She certainly did come to know God, eventually, and became a pastor's wife. Her creative spirituality manifests during this phase with the dramatic church productions with which she took part: "The whole church was filled with an emanation, a radiation, of a spiritual power. No wonder people were moved to tears." Mrs. Sanford's travelling ministry flourished upon her move, with her husband, to a church in New England. She was on a "mission" to proclaim to the world that Jesus is alive, and his power is available for physical and inner healing. Agnes Sanford's story is certainly not a saccharine rendering of her life. Instead, one description summarizes the book this way, "A spiritual giant of this century finally tells her own story--unvarnished and transparent, exactly as the Lord would have it." Of course, for those reading the book because of interest in the "literary" Agnes Sanford, there is much to please you. Sealed Orders is a wonderful account of a fascinating woman who just set out to do a specialized work of God (healing), a work that she felt had been neglected. I find the closing words of the book to be mystically compelling: "And yesterday morning for the first time, as I looked out to the misty hills (for though I am too high for smog, there is often a fog from the ocean), I could see the light around the trees. I do not know what this light is. But I cannot imagine it or dream it into reality...for it testifies to my spirit of the Spirit of God permeating all the universe. So may the light shine until the very creature--the earth itself--its ugliness turned into beauty, becomes indeed the kingdom of our God and of His Christ."
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- Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society
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Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America
William A. Muraskin
Manufacturer: Univ of California Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Egypt | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0520027051 |
Customer Reviews:
Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society.......2006-07-18
Although it has been maligned by some authors, the black middle class has received scant attention from historians or social scientists. A few writewrs cite the very existence of the black middle class as proof that blacks can and will succees in America, but many more assert that black upward mobility is so limited that it may be regarded as an aberration. Little research has been done on these questions.
In this study of Prince Hall Freemasonry, an order founded in 1775, the author seeks to understand the social alienation of the black bourgeoisie, which he defines as a love-hate relationship between this group and its class peers, the white majority, and a corresponding ambivalence toward the black lower class, its race peers.
Freemasonry has served as a mechanism for social differentiation from the black masses; it has also provided a means to create solidarity and self consciousness among its members, affording social and psychological supports for a middle-class lifestyle and protection against rival lifestyles of the ghetto. Freemasonry has stimulated many successful cooprative efforts in such areas as business enterprises, intellectual pursuits, political activity, and philanthropy; and from its membership has come a number of leaders of the civil rights movement. The strength of the black Masonic movement, according to Professor Muraskin, is proof of the attactiveness of mainstream American values and culture for upwardly mobile blacks.
--- from book's dustjacket
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Batman: The Order of Beasts
daren white eddie campbell
Manufacturer: DC comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B000NSFKUO |
Books:
- Over Her Dead Body
- People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting bystanders and what to do about it
- Philip Roth: Novels 1967-1972: When She Was Good / Portnoy's Complaint / Our Gang / The Breast (Library of America)
- Red Bird (Prairie Winds Series #3)
- Rosie'S Walk
- Salon de Belleza
- Saul and Patsy
- Secret Rendezvous
- Sophie and the Rising Sun
- Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Melendys Family)
Books Index
Books Home
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