Books

Dust to Dust
Garden of Thorns
The Eighth Continent: Tales of the Foreign Service
The Known Stranger
Distant Revenge
Damning Evidence
Atlantis: A Novel About Economic Government
Sweet Ebony Blues: Pretend You Can't Remember Her
Just Another Shade of Blue
Those Who Trespass Against Us
I Seek You
The Rock Street Five: The Mystery of the Computer Disks
N'ice Shows
Summer People
Cold Fish and Dalai Lama
Sacrifice
Sarah's Suspicion
The Sugar House Mystery
Murder on the Canterbury Pilgrimage: A Geoffrey Chaucer Murder Mystery
Fatal Impeachment
The Charters Affair: Being a Reminiscence of Dr. John H. Watson
Ortega Night
Swanson
Portrait of Victorine
Murder for Glory

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Average customer rating:

Survivor (for real!)
An interesting time in history
Devastation to land, Native Americans, buffalo grass, and mismanaged government programs
A must-read for understanding 20th century America
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survivied the Great American Dust Bowl

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Timothy Egan
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Natural Disasters | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

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

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Suite Francaise
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
The Echo Maker: A Novel

ASIN: 0618773479

Book Description

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, "The Worst Hard Time" is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.

Customer Reviews:

Survivor (for real!) .......2007-06-27

I was not expecting the story that unraveled as I listened to this audio book. The author used the ecological disaster of the dust bowl to tell the story of the policics and cultural mind set of the time. Facinating!
All I could think of while listening is what would these current day whiney little SUV driving soccer mom's do if caught in a time warp and set down on the prairie of the 30's. This wasn't 12 weeks of Survivor on CBS - this was SURVIVOR for real.

An interesting time in history.......2007-06-27

I have not read this book but as a youngster I experienced this period in time. I am saving the reading for a planned summer RV trip, and am looking forward to read how others experienced this period in our lives.

Devastation to land, Native Americans, buffalo grass, and mismanaged government programs.......2007-06-25

Noticeably lacking and disappointedly are the high school and college history textbooks in their attention to the devastating effects in the personal lives of homesteaders, who broke for the unclaimed land of the panhandle and many of the middle states of the heartland of America. But in Egan's book, specific details chronicling the lives of immigrants and easterners arriving in what later would become known as the dust bowl show a government bent on 1) eliminating the food of Native Americans to solve the "Indian Problem, 2) increasing wheat production to meet global food needs with a guaranteed governmentally subsidized program, the results of which were hundreds of thousands of acres of buffalo grass plowed under, and 3) a continued governmentally organized agricultural program of controls amid guaranteed wealth for huge farms to leave the ground fallow. The obvious criticism of governmentally controlled programs, part of the book's features, raises questions about slap-handled decisions tantamount to the destruction of the environment and the irascible attitude of those today draining the aquifers under the former dust-bowl region at a rate of extinguishment within just a few more years, the consequence of which predictably will be another of the devastating scenes across America of a repeated "worst hard time." Egan's dedication, as in his other books, to carefully researched details, extensive endnotes, and actual quotes from those, who were and are witnesses to what becomes an archive of information on the subject, guarantees the reader with the sure knowledge of what textbooks written for history classes have left out.

A must-read for understanding 20th century America.......2007-06-20

This is an excellent piece of 20th century American historical writing that deserves a place on the shelf next to John Barry's fine books on the influenza epidemic and the 1927 Mississippi flood.

Like Barry, Egan does a tremendous job of making the reader aware of the unique confligration of events that helped this tragedy occur. In the case of the dust bowl it includes such seemingly unconnected things as Catherine the Great's resettlment of German-Russians; the final, dispicable U.S. acts of Indian exploitation; and the stock market crash.

Egan goes Barry one better however in the way he portrays the humanity of those involved. Just like a novelist, he uses the death of one of the characters' poor baby as a tragic turning point in the story.

The problem with the story is there is no satisfying resolution. The problems with the high plains remain unsolved, from what I understand, and things there could be building up to another future tragedy due to over-use of underground water.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survivied the Great American Dust Bowl.......2007-06-13

Bought as a gift for mother in law. She called within two days of receiving it saying she couldn't put it down after she started reading it. She loved it and is loaning it out to friends and family. Can not wait for my turn.

Average customer rating:

A lame Mystery....Martha Grimes can do BETTER!
Dust
The OLD Richard Jury, Please!!
Is this becoming a serial?
A Henry James Lover, I am not ...

Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery
Martha Grimes
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British Detectives | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

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

The Old Wine Shades (Richard Jury Novels)
Water Like a Stone: A Novel (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels)
A False Mirror: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries)
What Came Before He Shot Her
At Some Disputed Barricade: A Novel

ASIN: 0670037869
Release Date: 2007-01-02

Book Description

Coming in January—Richard Jury returns to the back streets and back rooms of London in The New York Times bestselling series

When an old friend pulls Richard Jury into the investigation of a wealthy bachelor's murder, Jury's not sure what's more perplexing: the circumstances of the fellow's death, the conflicted stories of the man's past, or the motivations of the case's lead detective—the beautiful and forbidding Lu Aguilar. What Jury is sure of is that he's in over his head, both with the inscrutable and challenging Aguilar and the false leads surrounding the once-charismatic Billy Maples, last seen in a club named Dust.

A web of clues draws Jury to the trendy Clerkenwell galleries, clubs, and hotels, to the dark stories behind Maples's family, and to the Sussex town of Rye, where Billy had temporarily taken up the tenancy of Lamb House, the charming home where Henry James composed his three masterworks . . . and a place with secrets of its own. With Melrose Plant investigating Lamb House, Aguilar interceding, and the appearance of Maples's mysterious young nephew, Scotland Yard's finest—and now infamous—will need every bit of his intelligence and quiet charm to crack the case.

Customer Reviews:

A lame Mystery....Martha Grimes can do BETTER!.......2007-06-02

My good friend gave me this novel to read. She told me that she wasn't very excited with the story, but since she knew I had read a number of Martha Grimes novels, she thought I might find "Dust..." an enjoyable read. I thanked her and read the novel over the next 3 or 4 days. In summary all I can say is that it was a struggle to get through this novel and I was a bit disappointed in Grimes. It wasn't a terrible read, but it wasn't a great read either and I'm glad I didn't shell out the $20 plus dollars for it.

I'm not sure what has happened to Martha Grimes writing skills, but it seems to me that several of her latest novels have been real duds. I have enjoyed many of her earlier novels, and I certainly do wish that she would get serious and start creating well-written stories that she certainly has the talent to create.

There are numerous reviews that give a detailed account of the story, so I'll be brief. In the story "Dust" Benny Keegan opens a door and finds a man that has been murdered. Benny immediately seeks help. Enter the main character, Richard Jury. As Jury works the crime he meets Lu Aguilar, a detective with the police. Jury uncovers several interesting people that are linked to the victim, but still he's having a difficult time solving this crime. This part of the story was interesting, a few surprises, and even a bit humorous and I was beginning to enjoy this story, but then the story started to fall apart.

I didn't care for the ending and I won't go into it, because it will spoil your read. Sorry, but overall I was disappointed in the book, however if you are a real Grimes fans you may enjoy the story. There are interesting chapters and it's not a terrible read. For me it's an easy beach read.

Now for some good NEWS. If you are a mystery fan I highly recommend Robert L. Saunders, novel The Monopoly Factor. This is not your typical stereotyped mystery and Mr. Saunders is a fantastic writer of mystery. This story is an incredible, refreshing tale of murder, corporate deceit, with a sprinkling of romance and humor. A powerful story that I believe you will find worthy of your time and money. Regards and have a great summer!

Dust.......2007-05-23

I have been a Martha Grimes fan since "The Man With a Load of Mischief". May I suggest that Ms. Grimes reread that title, "The Old Fox Deceiv'd", "The Five Bells of Bladebone", or even "The Stargazey"? She seems to have lost her sense of humor. While the storyline makes for a reasonably good mystery, readers expecting her usual mix of humor and mystery will be disappointed in "Dust". I found the sex gratuitous, and totally out of character for Inspector Jury. Not that he is a sexless protagonist, but I sense that Ms. Grimes is getting bored with Jury, Plant, Trueblood et al. She tried to kill Jury off once and apparently couldn't bring herself to do it. Maybe it's time she moved on to someone else. The charm of the "pub mysteries" has always been the wonderful blend of humor, wry observation and mix of wonderfully off-beat characters coupled with a good old-fashioned murder mystery. I was sorry to see this title succumb to cheap thrills.

The OLD Richard Jury, Please!!.......2007-05-15

I have been a devoted reader of Martha Grimes - the Richard Jury series as well as her other novels. She is an excellent writer and in reading her best works one becomes completely drawn into the worlds she creates.

Dust, however, allows only a few fleeting moments into the familiar world of her earlier Richard Jury mysteries. The plot is potentially interesting but quickly becomes so fettered with sub-plots, meanderings and gratuitous sex that the reader soon is underwhelmed. I felt an ongoing hunger throughout the book for the OLD Richard Jury and his coharts. The ending is atrocious - almost an insult to the reader who has persevered
to the bitter end.

Is this becoming a serial?.......2007-04-30

I'm not quite sure what Martha Grimes is up to with her last two books. I was thoroughly enjoying THE OLD WINE SHADES until I got to the end and still did not know "Who done it?"!!! She picks up part of that story in DUST, but there is still no resolution. She is quite an adept storyteller, but I have to say I am upset with her in her ploy to seemingly link each book to the next. DUST, the story of the murder of a young heir to a fortune, was quite entertaining until the end when, AGAIN, we were left up in the air. I have to admit that I really read Grimes these days to see what Cyril the cat is up to, but the books should really go back to her old formulas and at least give her readers some satisfaction at the end of each book. If you really love classic mysteries, go back and read her older books. They are much more satisfying!

A Henry James Lover, I am not ..........2007-04-25

... however, I have been following Martha Grimes and her Inspector Jury novels since the very beginning. I have been thrilled by the new offering, "Dust". It came as a shock to me to see Jury swear and use bad language for the very first time! While being happy to see that Jury is also developing quite into a ladies' man, I have to say that I did not care enough for English literature to follow up every speck of detailed information regarding Henry James and his great writings. Neither was I sufficiently thrilled by the ending of the book (I always end up comparing Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George), and I found the ending quite curious. Can't wait to see who will be capturing Jury's heart, if that's at all possible ... and please, let him nail that old scumbag from the last book pretty soon.

Having said all that, I would love to see a little bit more character development around Jury and his friends ... or will they ever stay the same?

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp

Average customer rating:

Connecting Childen to History
Children of the Dust Bowl
Readable for ages five (with help from parent) and up.
Children of the Dust Bowl
American History Comes Alive for Kids and Adults

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
Jerry Stanley
Manufacturer: Crown Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

School & Education | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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

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

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

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

Children of the Great Depression (Golden Kite Awards (Awards))
Potato: A Tale From The Great Depression
Out Of The Dust
Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930s (Golden Kite Awards (Awards))
Dust for Dinner (I Can Read Book 3)

ASIN: 0517880946
Release Date: 1993-07-13

Book Description

Illus. with photographs from the Dust Bowl era. This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school--until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.

Customer Reviews:

Connecting Childen to History.......2005-09-09

this book is an excellent companion to the historical ficiton book "Bud, Not Buddy." By reading aloud sections of Children of the Dustbowl, teachers could build some of the background knowledge that would help children understand how the daily lives of the average person changed as a result of the Great Depression and the 5-year drought in the Midwest.
Given the devastation of Hurriicane Katrina, this book also offers insight on what can happen when large numbers of people must migrate because of weather-related disasters.

Children of the Dust Bowl.......2005-09-08

The book appeared to be new, no marks, and sent immediately.

Readable for ages five (with help from parent) and up........2002-04-04

The writing in this book is excellent, flowing evenly from page to page. Many of the photographs within are pure art, having been taken by Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, and others. These two people are the Pieter Bruegel and Thomas Hart Benton (depicting plain, everyday folk) of American photography. This book relates a small chunk of American history, to be sure, but more than that, it relates universal themes of the human condition. Overall, the book relates the brutal conditions of the dust bowl, the migration over the mountains and desert, taunting and prejudice from settled Californians, and eventual attainment of excellence, as revealed by the construction and maintenance of the Weedpatch School, which eventually became a model school in the community. My 5 1/2 year old enjoyed reading every page, and found particular mirth in the unusual daily chore that the dust bowl children did with their cows. The description of this unusual chore is worth the price of the book. What was this daily chore? One way to find out is to borrow or purchase this book.

Children of the Dust Bowl.......2000-07-26

I am a student at St. Lawrence University, and doing a summer fellowship about the works of John Steinbeck. This book, while written as a children's book, is a valuable look at the Arvin Federal Emergency School, the conditions of the Dust Bowl, American attitudes about the poor, and Leo Hart, the man whose vision for a "broader curriculum" among his students was so influential and inspiring.

Stanley treats the same material in short form in an article in The American West (1986).

American History Comes Alive for Kids and Adults.......1997-08-05

We don't often think of discrimination being directed against whites in the United States, but that was the case for many "Okies" who migrated to California in the 1920s and 30s. In the community of Weedpatch, CA--a small farm town near Bakersfield--the children of the white migrant farmworkers were not allowed to attend school with the other children in the community.

This book tells the story of the man who fought the community and the powers that be in order to start a school for these kids to make sure they got a decent education. His achievements exceeded his ambitions, as the school was a well deserved success. Many of the students went on to greater things, something that would have been hard to imagine before.

"Children of the Dust Bowl" was written for kids, but anyone interested in this unique time in our country's history would enjoy it.

I had to priviledge of being a student of Jerry Stanley's at Cal State Bakersfield, so I am somewhat biased in my praise for him and his work. This book deserves all of it, though. It is an excellent work in living history and well worth your time

Out Of The Dust (Apple Signature Edition)

Average customer rating:

Billie_Joe's escape
back to the prairie
Out of the dust
It was Great but not Exellent!
Great use of free verse poetry

Out Of The Dust (Apple Signature Edition)
Karen Hesse
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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

Historical Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Classics | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

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

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

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

The Giver
A Guide for Using Out of the Dust in the Classroom
A Single Shard
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
Walk Two Moons (Summer Reading Edition)

ASIN: 0590371258

Amazon.com

Like the Oklahoma dust bowl from which she came, 14-year-old narrator Billie Jo writes in sparse, free-floating verse. In this compelling, immediate journal, Billie Jo reveals the grim domestic realities of living during the years of constant dust storms: That hopes--like the crops--blow away in the night like skittering tumbleweeds. That trucks, tractors, even Billie Jo's beloved piano, can suddenly be buried beneath drifts of dust. Perhaps swallowing all that grit is what gives Billie Jo--our strong, endearing, rough-cut heroine--the stoic courage to face the death of her mother after a hideous accident that also leaves her piano-playing hands in pain and permanently scarred.

Meanwhile, Billie Jo's silent, windblown father is literally decaying with grief and skin cancer before her very eyes. When she decides to flee the lingering ghosts and dust of her homestead and jump a train west, she discovers a simple but profound truth about herself and her plight. There are no tight, sentimental endings here--just a steady ember of hope that brightens Karen Hesse's exquisitely written and mournful tale. Hesse won the 1998 Newbery Award for this elegantly crafted, gut-wrenching novel, and her fans won't want to miss The Music of Dolphins or Letters from Rifka. (Ages 9 and older) --Gail Hudson

Book Description

Introduce your students to a Newbery Award winning book with this engaging teaching guide. Includes an author biography, chapter summaries, creative cross-curricular activities, vocabulary builders, reproducibles, and discussion questions.

Customer Reviews:

Billie_Joe's escape.......2007-06-03

I thought that this book out of 10 was a 10.It was a great book and I just hope that after reading this book review that you will want to read it, too.I hope that everyone will read this book(if they like my book review about it).Well this book was my favorite book that I've read so far and i hope that you will love it, too.

back to the prairie.......2007-06-02

Out Of The Dust (Apple Signature Edition) is the 2-year diary of an adolescent Oklahoma girl, Billie Jo. Each 1-2 page entry is a prose poem that relates the dust-bowl setting to the lives of Billie Jo, her family, and community.

Karen Hesse's free-verse prose is serviceable, reminiscent of Masters' Spoon River Anthology (Signet Classics). It serves simply to control the flow, tempo, and idiom of the narration.

Through most of the book, I feared that the story would seep away into despair and inevitability. Instead, at the end I recognized the toughened and tangled strands of Billie Jo's life rising from the dust in a perfect metaphor of the prairie sod.

For a completely different, but equally wonderful treatment of this metaphor I recommend PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country.

Out of the dust.......2007-05-30

I think Out of the dust is a good book because its full of sad moments and happy moments. Also it shows how tough it would really be to loose your mom, and how you should charish the talent you have and all the good things in life. This is because she has a gift of being able to play the piano and she is asked to play at many places. But once her hands get burnt she sort of gives up on the piano for a while. Then she takes the time while her hands heal to start to play again. Also it is just a really good book and I like how the whole book is made of poetry. There is nothing that I do not like about the book, except her mother and brother dying, but that is what makes the book good, is all of the sad and good parts. Also the suprises. Overall this is an amazing book

It was Great but not Exellent!.......2007-05-30

This book was good in ways and bad in ways. It was good because I understood it and I read it fast. It was also realistic where you can see yourself in her shoes. It was easy to imagine the things she has been through because it was life like(I know it was a true story). It was great to read I followed it all the way through and did not get lost once. The only bad part about it was that it was sad at some points and in my opinion it was kind of boring. To me it felt like a biography of her. But really other than that I loved it. I also like that it was told from a kid when books are told from a kids point of view we see what they see and it is easier to relate and compare yourself to them.

Great use of free verse poetry.......2007-05-27

OUT OF THE DUST is a winner of the Newbery Medal given for outstanding literature for children. However this is a book best read by students at least in middle school or adults. The book is structured as a journal written in free verse by a young teenager named Billie Jo living a life of spirit breaking trials in dust bowl Oklahoma. Hesse includes an appendix she calls "after words" which has some useful information concerning the historical setting of the novel and how she came to write the book. As a former Oklahoman myself I was a little disappointed Ms. Hesse has never actually lived in the state but her research is sound and this is an effective and haunting work.

Average customer rating:

4 and 1/2 Stars
Lack of suspence ... boring
Not what I expected...better
so, so
Underwhelming...

Dust to Dust
Tami Hoag
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

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

Ashes to Ashes
Guilty as Sin
Cry Wolf
Dark Horse
Dark Paradise

ASIN: 0553582526
Release Date: 2002-03-26

Amazon.com

Minneapolis has more than its share of interesting cops (Lucas Davenport of the John Sandford thrillers, for one), and Tami Hoag's homicide dicks, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, join the club in this thoughtful and surprisingly moving novel of dirty cops and cover-ups. Internal Affairs investigator Andy Fallon is a suicide--or is he? The word around the department is that Andy, son of Iron Mike Fallon, an old hero of Sam's, killed himself because Mike turned his back on him when Andy told him he was gay. Or maybe it was because a lover dumped him, or even (snicker, snicker) a perverted sexual practice gone wrong. That's the gossip, but Sam feels he owes it to Mike to investigate.

Sam is a familiar type in this genre, and his self-awareness is almost painful at times. "You're a stereotype. The tragic hero," he's told by Amanda Savard, the strong-but-vulnerable Internal Affairs lieutenant whose determination to keep the Fallon case closed foreshadows her personal history. "The twice-divorced, smoking, drinking workaholic," Sam agrees. "I don't know what's heroic about that. It reeks of failure to me, but maybe I have unrealistic standards." But Sam's droll sense of humor is matched by his deeply ingrained crap detector. When Iron Mike apparently kills himself too, you can almost feel its needle vibrate. Then Sam and Nikki open another closed case, this one almost two decades old, and find the connections that threaten to unravel past crimes and future promises. Hoag is a writer very much in command of her craft: the pacing excels, the characters are complex and interesting, and the details well worked out. Readers will look forward to another Kovac and Liska adventure. --Jane Adams

Book Description

Sorry. The single word was written on a mirror. In front of it hung the Minneapolis Internal Affairs cop. Was it suicide? Or a kinky act turned tragic?

Either way, it wasn’t murder. At least not according to the powers that be. But veteran homicide detective Sam Kovac and his wisecracking, ambitious partner Nikki Liska think differently. Together they begin to dig at the too-neat edges of the young cop’s death, uncovering one motive and one suspect after another. The shadows of suspicion fall not only on the city’s elite, but into the very heart of the police department.

Someone wants the case closed–quickly and forever. But neither Kovac nor Liska will give up. Now both their careers and their lives are on the line. From a murder case two months old to another case closed for twenty years, Kovac and Liska must unearth a connection the killer wants dead and buried. A killer who will stop at absolutely nothing to keep a dark and shattering secret . . .

Customer Reviews:

4 and 1/2 Stars.......2007-03-29

Tami Hoag has evolved into a writer that doesn't feel obligated to give you a a fuzzy warm ending. She writes for the sake of the story.

The characters in Dust to Dust are believable and likeable whether they're the good or bad guys. In fact, some of her bad guys are so well crafted that becomes the hook to keep the pages turning. This book delivers smart detectives that don't go doing stupid things that frustrates readers. These characters behave consistent to how they are developed and overall the story unfolds logically, piece by piece. Since many have synopsized the story before me I'll just add that the book built nicely to its end.

Lack of suspence ... boring .......2007-03-28

This was my first reading of Ms Hoags and she was recommended by my son . To me the book didn't hold my interest and was boring from start but I gave it fair chance by forcing myself to read to page 130 , To me there was no suspence and her details were just to drawn out and detective Kovac reminded me of the old columbo (Peter Faulk ) detective on TV .

Not what I expected...better.......2007-01-03

Okay, I like Tami Hoag so I expected a good book, but I thought I was in for an adventure tracking down a serial killer. What I got was a real investigation into what may or may not have been a crime to begin with. The two prime characters, Kovac and Liska were terrific characters. smart and competent. No serial killers, but some serious bad guys. And then there was Amanda Savard. As I was reading this novel I was wondering about a sequel and what part she would play as the main investigating officer. I loved her and her demons and the way she dealt (if you can call that dealing) with them. I also liked the way her relationship with Kovac developed. This was an excellent read, one that held my interest throughout. It was a little slower than some of Tami Hoag's other works, but that was only for a lack of violence not a lack of intelligence. All in all, I would say this is one of the finest mystery/thriller books I have ever read. A better than average Tami Hoag book, and an average Tami Hoag book is usually very good. An easy 5 stars.

so, so.......2005-09-29

I didn't think the book had very much suspense to it. It seemed like the she tried to focus your attention on other characters to avoid discovering the truth but she wasn't very good at doing so. I figured what was going on before the end of the book.

Underwhelming..........2005-06-20

This is my first Tami Hoag novel so perhaps my perspective is skewed, but this one just somehow felt unfocused. The pacing is wildly uneven, as is the style. I tend to prefer the more stripped-down narratives so to me the by-play between Liska and Kovac seemed completely superfluous. Also, for a police mystery that hinges on cause and manner of death there is virtually no forensic element, which strikes me as odd...

Average customer rating:

The dust doesn't know
Good, but not Fante's Best
and the little dog laughed
A Pleasure to Read.
common man in an un-common surrounding.

Ask the Dust (P.S.)
John Fante
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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

The Road to Los Angeles
Wait Until Spring, Bandini
Dreams from Bunker Hill
Hunger
Journey to the End of the Night (New Directions Paperbook)

ASIN: 0060822554
Release Date: 2006-02-07

Amazon.com

This book is another sterling recommendation from the Saltzman workshop. The under-appreciated Fante's second outing details the adventures of his alterego, Arturo Bandini, as the struggling young writer tackles Los Angeles in the late 1930s. And take it from personal experience, tackling L.A. as a destitute young scribe some decades later isn't much different. In other words: Fante gets it right and sets it down in his Chianti-steak-and-potatoes style, with prose both simple and rich. This Black Sparrow edition has a bonus: Charles Bukowski's great preface on how Fante stacks up against writers that were at once more famous--and far more anemic.

Book Description

Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.

Customer Reviews:

The dust doesn't know.......2007-06-20

Beautiful, melodic language and a poignant character drive this novel, and I can see how those who might identify with Bandini and/or like the Hunter-S.-Thompson-style of story telling (seemingly aimless wanderings and interactions) would get something out of it. Not enough happened for me though, and I am not particularly driven to read any of the other Bandini stories.

Good, but not Fante's Best.......2007-06-07

"Ask The Dust" seems to be John Fante's most popular novel, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps its because it's the title mentioned most by Charles Bukowski. It started out strong up until the Earthquake bit, but from there on out it seems as if he was just trying to find ways to finish the book. Still, most of it is excellent writing (The conclusion to chapter 14 highlights what Fante is really capable of... truly profound powerful writing!.) However, both "Wait Until Spring..." and "Dreams from Bunker Hill" supercede "Ask..." by a substantial margin. The best aspect is how Fante, like Bukowski later did, paints a fantastically vivid picture of a bygone era in Los Angeles. Overall worth adding to your collection for any Fante, Bukowski, or Los Angeles history fan, but please read Fante's other books-- they are far superior. I sometimes think that "Ask..." gets most of its praise from Bukowski loyalists. Just remember: Blindly following what Bukowski thinks about something goes against everything he stood for! Happy reading!

and the little dog laughed .......2007-06-03

Ask the Dust didn't revolutionize writing. It didn't create a new genre. There are others like Hamsun, Bukowski and many more that have written in this genre or style, but for me Ask the Dust stands taller than all the rest.

This book is such an emotional roller coaster that from one minute to the next you will alternate being choked up and depressed, to laughing out loud, to reveling in the hero's triumph and then right back to choked up and sad ready to start the ride all over again.

I enjoy this genre immensely, but Fante's Ask the Dust is the only one that I find myself continually pulling out of my book case to peruse the pages for nth time. Just seeing the book conjures up those emotions I remember from my first reading. The only bad part about reading this book was the knowledge that I would never be able to read it again for the first time. That was my only disappointment with this book.

Ask the Dust is just a really good book. I have recommended it to all my friends and loaned it out numerous times (thankfully it has always found its way back to me, so far) and have found that it gets generally very good reviews from those that I know. Now I'm recommending it to you.

A Pleasure to Read........2007-05-14

This book had me laughing outloud so many times, I almost thought it was a comedy. I enjoyed reading it so much that I didn't want it to end.

common man in an un-common surrounding........2007-01-26

if this was 1939--u wold read this like it was a newspapeeer article--but its not--& we dopnt. but yet---i think u can " GET IT " if u get it.Just read it--and then tell me otherwise--i know u will agree!!!!!!!!111111

Woodshop Dust Control: A Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Own System: Completely Revised and Updated

Average customer rating:

This is a good book
Complete it is not
A complete guide
Great Book on Dust Control and Collection Method
Details, details, details

Woodshop Dust Control: A Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Own System: Completely Revised and Updated
Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Manufacturer: Taunton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Cleaning, Caretaking & Relocating | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Setting Up Shop: The Practical Guide to Designing and Building Your Dream Shop
Small Woodworking Shops (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
Setting Up Shop, Completely Revised and Updated: A Practical Guide to Designing and Building Your Dream Shop
Smart Workshop Solutions: Building Workstations, Jigs, and Accessories to Improve Your Shop
The Bandsaw Book

ASIN: 1561584991
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Book Description

Woodshop Dust Control provides all the information woodworkers need to protect themselves from wood dust -- a serious health hazard. With over 100 color photos, this completely revised edition includes charts and graphics, up-to-date information on the latest products and examples of actual shop systems.

Customer Reviews:

This is a good book.......2007-06-08

Very detailed, Easy to read, very helpfull in setting up shop.

Complete it is not.......2007-05-07

Basically what I found is just when the book was getting into enough detail to be useful the section would end.

The book is fine if you haven't ever read an article on dust control. But a two page section on dust control from sanders right at the end of the book??? Come on give us a little meat here. Little detail is given on how to control dust with jigs or with equipment that doesn't have dust control.

I gave it 2 stars because I found it wasn't technically detailed enough to be useful and very vague in areas that really needed attention. Took me 3 hours to read it..I'll put it on the book shelve where ironically enough it will probably gather dust.

A complete guide.......2006-11-21

A very good starting point for anyone interested in woodshop dust control. Does a good job covering the hazards and methods of control of sawdust. It then goes on to describe methods for designing and installing a central dust collection system.

Great Book on Dust Control and Collection Method.......2006-07-04

This book provides a complete and detailed writing on the methods for woodshop dust control methods. It covers different strategies for controlling dust from simple respiratory protection devices(masks), shop ventillation and air filtration and dust collecting machines (portable and central units).
It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each method for different situations and how to optimize each strategy for a given situation. Great and interesting book. Written in practical and easy to understand manner.

Details, details, details.......2006-03-26

Very good book. Unfortunately it brings up all the little details that I would have preferred not thinking about. Most people probably don't realize how dangerous dust is, and the author covers all the bases. After reading this book, you will have no excuses...

Average customer rating:

Gentle and Endearing Style
Straddling 1947
A success
A taste of India
A Powerful, Beautifully Written Novel Of Two Women & India

Heat and Dust
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Manufacturer: Counterpoint LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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

Staying On: A Novel (Phoenix Fiction Series)
Out of India
The Conservationist
The Siege of Krishnapur (New York Review Books Classics)
Moon Tiger

ASIN: 1582430152

Book Description

A profound and powerful novel, winner of the Booker Prize

Set in colonial India during the 1920s, Heat and Dust tells the story of Olivia, a beautiful woman suffocated by the propriety and social constraints of her position as the wife of an important English civil servant. Longing for passion and independence, Olivia is drawn into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in gang raids and criminal plots. She is intrigued by the Nawab's charm and aggressive courtship, and soon begins to spend most of her days in his company. But then she becomes pregnant, and unsure of the child's paternity, she is faced with a wrenching dilemma. Her reaction to the crisis humiliates her husband and outrages the British community, breeding a scandal that lives in collective memory long after her death.

Customer Reviews:

Gentle and Endearing Style.......2006-09-04

Heat and Dust concerns itself largely with the love affair of Olivia, the wife of a minor English imperial official Douglas Rivers with the local prince, the Nawab, as related by the granddaughter of Rivers and his second wife when she travels to India 50 years later. The granddaughter's experiences are quite similar to Olivia's, in fact one wonders whether she is conscously mimicking Olivia.

India's impact on these English is strong and not necessarily beneficial. The extremes of weather, exotic food, languages, religions, indeed the heat and the dust overwhelm. A particularly interesting character is 'Chidi', a young Englishman temporarily turned Hindu mystic.

Jhabvala is an enormously accomplished author and screenwriter with an intriguing background. Born to Polish parents in Germany, moved with them to ondon to escape Hitler, and married an Indian architect and lived in India from 1951 to 1975 and now resides part-time in NYC. Jhabvala won the Booker Prize (best book by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in the English language)

Told in a gentle, open and endearing style.

Straddling 1947.......2005-05-31

The British experience in India is a subject that has been given thorough literary treatment during the past century, and most of these books have tried to highlight some aspect of the cultural contrast between east and west. E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India" is perhaps the most comprehensive of these, but Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's "Heat and Dust" makes an admirable effort to contribute to the Forsterian legacy by updating the milieu to a post-independence setting while keeping one foot firmly in the past.

The novel concerns a young English woman, the narrator, who arrives in Bombay intending to make it her home for a while and to reconstruct the story of the doomed marriage of her grandfather, a law officer named Douglas Rivers, and his first wife, Olivia, from a collection of intriguing letters that Olivia had written to her sister Marcia. From the beginning Jhabvala splits the novel into two parallel narratives, alternating between the Riverses in 1923 and the narrator in India fifty years later, who presents her adventures, thoughts, and reflections in the form of a journal.

Olivia Rivers is a bored housewife who has little to do besides playing the piano and chatting with the other British officers' wives until she becomes enamored with the charming Indian prince, called the Nawab, who governs the district Douglas serves. A living emblem of amoral corruption and aristocratic gluttony, the Nawab dwells in an ancestral palace that arrogantly overlooks the wretched slums of the neighboring town and supports an entourage of servants and sycophantic companions including an effeminate Englishman named Harry. Jhabvala employs these elements to shape a dramatic arc that leads from extramarital attraction to adultery and finally to Olivia's disgrace following an ugly scandal for which she could never be forgiven back in England.

The narrator's analogous existence within the pages gives the novel an even broader context; she too falls in love with an Indian man, although a much humbler one, a meek clerk named Inder Lal. She also observes that India is a magnet for Europeans in search of a certain spirituality that they have failed to find in Western religions; in particular she meets a young Englishman who has become a Hindu ascetic, calling himself Chid, but who cannot handle the hardships of a land of such disease and poverty. The novel's title refers to the general climate of the region of which the narrator writes, a scorching exacerbation of the hopeless squalor in which the vast majority of the population lives.

I am aware that Jhabvala has written screenplays based on classic novels, including Forster's, for the Merchant-Ivory film team, and I confess that I somewhat expected "Heat and Dust" to be a pastiche of Forster, but I was pleased to find that Jhabvala, although like Forster a lucid and elegant prose stylist, has a distinctive literary voice, specifically in her shrewd eye for the particularities of Indian culture. From the suttee stones, morbid monuments to Hindu widows who have immolated themselves in their husbands' funeral pyres, to the British cemeteries memorializing the soldiers fallen in the 1857 mutinies, "Heat and Dust" is a valuable tour through 1920s and 1970s India.

A success.......2005-03-10

I've read this book twice, and each time I had the same feeling about it. Very satisfied.
one could feel the heat and dust coming from the story as if he were living with the characters.
Ruth Jhabvala is very talented in describing every little detail and makes you live inside the scene, especially when she comes to describe the state of India and the crowed, disgust, infections, and poverty.
I really felt disgusted reading some lines that I had to stop for a moment thinking of what I've just read.
What I liked the most is having two parallel stories separated by two generations.
The first woman is the narrator who travels to India to discover more about the scandal of Olivia, and unconsciously she follows the same path
claiming that India changes whoever lives there and finally the two characters experience the same end.
The language of the book is simple and fascinating I think everyone would enjoy it .

A taste of India.......2005-03-08

Olivia Rivers, married to Douglas, a civil servant in India, caused a scandal in 1923 in the small town of Satipur when she eloped with and Indian prince. In the 1970s, Olivia's step-granddaughter goes back to the heat and dust of Satipur to solve the mystery of the outrage caused by Olivia's flight.
Mrs Jhabvala's novel sounds like a warning. Both Olivia and the narrator do not seem to withstand India because they are fine and sensitive people who come to love the country very much, too much perhaps. Indeed there are many things to love in India: the landscapes, the history, the music and the physical beauty of men and women which may become a danger to the European. The characters in this novel are immersed by the Indian culture - and in Olivia's case, destroyed by it - they seem to be softened by an excess of feeling for India and finally they are dragged over to the other side. But according to Mrs Jhabvala's description of India - the smells, the sounds, the poverty, the filth, the beggars and cripples - it is difficult to imagine that Europeans can be as totally immersed in that culture as were both Olivia and the narrator. Is it plausible at all that such a foreign culture can be powerful enough to lead one to perdition?

A Powerful, Beautifully Written Novel Of Two Women & India.......2004-04-17

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's powerful and beautifully written novel of an "outrageous" Anglo-Indian romance in 1920s Khatm and Satipur won the Booker Prize in 1983. The author has crafted parallel tales of two young women, distantly related and separated by two generations. Anne, the story's narrator, travels to India to discover more about the mystery surrounding her grandfather's first wife, Olivia.

Douglas Rivers, an upper echelon English civil servant, married and brought his adored wife, Olivia, with him to India in 1923, during the British Raj. She was a beautiful, spoiled and spirited young woman, who found it difficult to adjust to life in the British colonial community of Satipur. Feeling suffocated by the inbred group she was forced to socialize with, Olivia longed for independence, intellectual stimulation and a more passionate life. She hoped that a baby would solve her problems but found it more difficult to become pregnant than she had thought. Shortly after their arrivel in India, Douglas, Olivia and some of the more important members of the community were invited to the palace of the Nawab of Khatm and she was immediately intrigued by the handsome, charismatic prince. He courted her friendship aggressively and then the friendship turned passionate. When faced with a crisis Olivia was forced to make life altering decisions which would have far reaching effects and cause scandal throughout British India and England that would last for generations.

Anne stays in the town where her grandfather and Olivia lived fifty years before. Trying to piece together the puzzle that was Olivia and discover what motivated her to change her life so drastically, Anne visits the places her "step-grandmother" frequented and interviews people who knew her or knew of her. She also reads the letters and journals that Olivia wrote so long ago, and oddly enough, Anne ventures into experiences similar to Olivia's adventures, but more acceptable in our modern time. Anne's spiritual and sensual journey in the 1970s parallels Olivia's as the color, heat, exotic landscapes, and people of India penetrate her western upbringing. Anne writes in her own diary: "Fortunately, during my first few months here, I kept a journal, so I have some record of my early impressions. If I were to try and recollect them now, I might not be able to do so. They are no longer the same because I myself am no longer the same. India always changes people, and I have been no exception."

This short and delicately written novel packs a powerful punch and paints an extraordinary portrait of British colonials in India, with their sense of cultural and moral superiority over the local population. However, even more compelling and unusual, is the story of two women, generations apart, who follow similar paths under the spell of India.
JANA

Average customer rating:

Great Book!
I loved it, my daughter loved it!
Delightful and imaginative storytelling.
Fairies abound
Very Nice!!

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg
Gail Carson Levine , and David Christiana
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Ages 9-12 | Children | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

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

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

Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
In the Realm of the Never Fairies: The Secret World of Pixie Hollow (Disney Fairies)
Fira and the Full Moon (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
The Trouble With Tink (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
Beck and the Great Berry Battle (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

ASIN: B000HEYVQ8

Amazon.com

Seasoned fractured fairy tale teller Gail Carson Levine provides the captivating back story of Tinker Bell and Co. in this lavishly illustrated addition to the Neverland canon. Freckled and eager to please, Prilla is a brand new fairy, born of a baby's laugh. Upon her arrival to Neverland, she is dismayed to discover she has no talent for any of the fairy avocations. Tinker Bell (a pots-and-pans-talent fairy) takes Prilla to see Mother Dove, whose single blue egg holds the secret of the island's eternal youth. But before the wise bird can advise Prilla, Neverland is shaken by a terrible hurricane. Mother Dove is thrown off her nest, and the precious egg is shattered. Immediately, Neverland folk begin to age.

The island's only hope is for some brave fairies to take the egg pieces to Kyto the dragon and ask him to restore it with his fiery breath. But first, the fairies must collect treasures with which to bribe the evil dragon. Mother Dove chooses Prilla to be part of the fairy team to undertake the quest for the egg. Can one little no-talent fairy help save Neverland from certain doom? While Fairy Dust is unabashedly based on Disney's Peter Pan, Levine's companion version feels wonderfully fresh and original. The charming maxims of Levine's fairy world (fairies say "Fly with you," instead of "Pleased to meet you," and need dust made from Mother Dove's feathers to fly) along with David Christiana's sumptuous illustrations breathe new life into a beloved classic. --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

Fairy Haven is abuzz with news about its latest arrival, Prilla. It's bad enough that she has no idea what her special talent is, but some of her behavior is remarkably, well, human. Prilla is heartbroken that she does not seem to fit in. She desperately needs help from Mother Dove, the most important creature in Neverland, who created and cares for the magical egg that prevents all who live in Neverland from growing old and dying. But tragedy strikes as the island is hit by a hurricane, and the Never egg is destroyed. Mother Dove must pick three fairies to set out on a dangerous quest to repair the egg. She chooses Rani, the best water-talent fairy; Vidia, the most selfish, but fastest fast-flying-talent fairy; and, to everyone's surprise-Prilla. The three embark on a journey filled with danger, sacrifice, and adventure. The fate of Neverland-and their world as they know it-rests on their shoulders.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book!.......2007-05-15

This is another in the Disney Fairy series. My seven year old loves these books!

I loved it, my daughter loved it!.......2007-03-27

I read this to my five year old. She absolutely loved it! We read all the other fairy books and they kept referring to the quest, so we read it and it was so fun!
I love Vidia! She adds so much to the book and plucks feathers from the sacred mother dove, and that just adds to her character. I also love RANI and what she does to save the egg.
VERY cleverly written, although the ending with prilla was a little disappointing, overall, it was a great read.
The illustrations are GORGEOUS! It is a beautiful book to have, even if you never read it.

Delightful and imaginative storytelling. .......2007-03-23

I loved this book. My 7 year old daughter and I are reading this together, but I couldn't wait and finished it on my own. Don't worry, I will continue reading it with my daughter. This is a lovely story. While I agree that it is too sophisticated for most 5 year olds, I strongly disagree that the ending was too simplistic.The story deals with real issues. The story tells how Prilla, a new fairy to Neverland, struggles to find her talent (which all the fairies have and are grouped by) and her place in Pixie Hollow. Her talent is getting human children to believe in fairies. As she discovers her talent and place in the fairy world, she uses her talent to save Mother Dove. This is the a real climax. Although I resisted, I had an urge to clap as I read. It's a beautiful book. The illustrations only enhance the verbal imagery. The story can be used to encourage discussion with a child about things other than fairies.....such as.... How do you choose your friends? What makes a hero? What is your talent? What dreams do you have?

Fairies abound.......2007-02-01

My daughter loved this. She loves fairies and this is a great addition to her collection.

Very Nice!!.......2007-01-11

We bought this for our niece and it looks like a wonderful book! A MUST for thr fairy lover!!

Average customer rating:

Horrifying & Brilliant
Fall of an aristocrat
Not the best.
Scathing Waugh
What Is Left After A Handful of Dust?

A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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

Decline and Fall
Vile Bodies
Scoop
Brideshead Revisited
The Loved One

ASIN: 0316926051

Amazon.com

"All over England people were waking up, queasy and despondent."

Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy as nimbly as Evelyn Waugh, who employed the conventions of the comic novel to chip away at the already crumbling English class system. His 1934 novel, A Handful of Dust, is a sublime example of his bleak satirical style: a mordantly funny exposé of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars.

Tony Last is an aristocrat whose attachment to an ideal feudal past is so profound that he is blind to his wife Brenda's boredom with the stately rhythms of country life. While he earnestly plays the lord of the manor in his ghastly Victorian Gothic pile, she sets herself up in a London flat and pursues an affair with the social-climbing idler John Beaver. In the first half of the novel Waugh fearlessly anatomizes the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. Everyone moves through an endless cycle of parties and country-house weekends, being scrupulously polite in public and utterly horrid in private. Sex is something one does to relieve the boredom, and Brenda's affair provides a welcome subject for conversation:

It had been an autumn of very sparse and meagre romance; only the most obvious people had parted or come together, and Brenda was filling a want long felt by those whose simple, vicarious pleasure it was to discuss the subject in bed over the telephone.

Tony's indifference and Brenda's selfishness give their relationship a sort of equilibrium until tragedy forces them to face facts. The collapse of their relationship accelerates, and in the famous final section of the book Tony seeks solace in a foolhardy search for El Dorado, throwing himself on the mercy of a jungle only slightly more savage than the one he leaves behind in England. For all its biting wit, A Handful of Dust paints a bleak picture of the English upper classes, reaching beyond satire toward a very modern sense of despair. In Waugh's world, culture, breeding, and the trappings of civilization only provide more subtle means of destruction. --Simon Leake

Book Description

A HANDFUL OF DUST satirizes that stratum of English life where all the characters have money, but lack practically every other credential. Murderously urbane, it depicts the breakup of a marriage in the London gentry, where the errant wife suffers from terminal boredom and becomes enamored of a social parasite and professional lunch-goer.

The depravity and polished savagery of these characters offer an opportunity for Waugh's rapier wit and subtly to "show us fear in a handful of dust."

"Waugh's technique is relentless and razor-edged...by any standard it is super satire." (Chicago Daily News)

Customer Reviews:

Horrifying & Brilliant.......2007-05-11

A Handful of Dust has to be one of the most disturbing books I have read. Waugh's satire is incisive and merciless. Calling this work "tragicomedy" is misleading. While comedic in the early stages of the novel, the dark subject matter ultimately dominates and subdues any elements of humor.

Waugh paints too convincing of a picture of the empty and meaningless world of the aristocracy of England between the Wars. Another reviewer brought up a comparison of PJ Wodehouse - honestly I never would have made any connection between the entertaining farce of Wodehouse and the stark portrayal by Waugh. Where Wodehouse is good-natured, Waugh is pitiless. But therein lies the difference between the two authors, for Wodehouse is just entertainment. Waugh forced me to look under the cover of the seemingly apathetic or depraved aristocracy to see how good manners and money mask a vile depravity that consumed the souls of its victims.

In some respects, the portrait is not too different from that of the Dedlocks and their social circle portrayed in Dickens' Bleak House - a self-important, detached cultural elite that is effectively preyed upon by an outer ring of semi-noble and mercantile parasites. But where Dickens allows even the vapid Lord Dedlock a core of nobility, Waugh denies nobility to all his characters. It is not just shocking to middle-class sensibilities, but to human sensibilities.

Ultimately it's a novel that I'm glad I read, but I will never be able to read again. This is unfortunate, particularly because I invested in this fine Everman's Library edition rather than a disposable paperback.

Fall of an aristocrat.......2006-09-20

Yes, a bleak picture of a decaying world. "Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy..."--or between satire and tragedy--as well as Waugh. For all of Tony Last's faults, however, he is the more sympathetic character. His wife comes across as decidedly immature and amoral. Interesting portrayal of religion in this novel: the Church of England is already marginalized, of questionable relevance. Indeed, the whole life of prayer and sacraments seems to make no sense to the main characters, who of course are all nominal Anglicans. Last himself is a church-attender. This was, of course, before the era of C. S. Lewis and Austin Farrer--and the general revival of religion in Britain and America after the Second World War. A solid, important novel--sad, though, and, yes, bleak.

Not the best........2006-09-11

Don't go into this or any other Waugh novel expecting Wodehouse or you'll be extremely disapointed. They write about the same people, in a similar style, and in the same period. Waugh just falls short. Despite all the reviews to the contrary Waugh just doesn't measure up. If you're interested in this type of writing I recomend skipping this one alone and picking up another Jeeves and Wooster story.

Scathing Waugh.......2006-09-08

Here Evelyn Waugh savagely satirizes an English couple who "play" at assuming wealth and status. Tony Last imagines (goes through the motions) of being a country squire at his feudal estate Hetton Abbey; he becomes so enamored in this that he fails to notice that his totally bored wife Brenda is having an affair with the vacuous John Beaver. When he finally wakes up to the situation, Tony, unable to face it head on, flees England for the jungles of South America where he is eventually taken prisoner by a half-lunatic trader who forces him to read Dickens to him for the rest of his life.

Part farce (the scenes with Tony in South America) but mostly cutting satire, Waugh attacks those people who have the outward signs of good breeding but who lack any inner moral decency that would make them respectable members of society. Tony, like a child following the tenets of a romantic hero, does all the things he believes a country squire must do - only they are meaningless rituals and empty of any significance. Brenda's selfishness and lack of moral bearing are illustrated with her abandoning Tony for the unscrupulous wastrel Beaver. The most biting attack on her character occurs when she hears that "John" has been killed; when she realizes the name refers to her own son and not to John Beaver, she is relieved and takes it as proof of her love for Beaver. Waugh also attacks the English divorce system, which results in a scathingly funny scene involving another woman planted in Tony's bed to "prove" infidelity. Waugh's satirical barbs are leveled with gentle and impassive blows, which only add to their effect. It's a masterful performance, a funny and devastating novel.

What Is Left After A Handful of Dust?.......2006-08-12

In A HANDFUL OF DUST, Evelyn Waugh continues to poke at the rotten underside of British upper class immorality with some very sharp barbs, not all of which are satiric. With the publication of this book, Waugh was already well known as a man whose themes could not hide a bitter sense of despair that all was not right with post war Edwardian England. In DECLINE AND FALL and VILE BODIES, Waugh showed himself full of despair that England had lost its moral way, if not its moral compass. But with A HANDFUL OF DUST, he adds to this an anger towards unfaithful wives that is disturbing to read.

The novel begins, as so many of Waugh's other works, with a feckless young man who seems content to drift in life. Here it is John Beaver, who begins a friendship with Tony Last, a man who seems mired in the roots of his Victorian forebears. Last has a mansion that he prizes above all else, even over his lovely, but bored wife, Brenda. When Last invites Beaver to stay for a visit at his house, Brenda sees in Beaver an opportunity to cure her boredom. She quickly seduces Last. For the first half of the book, Waugh is content to play out the seeming harmlessness of the affair. Waugh's wit and satire are strangely muted, only because he uses Last, Beaver, and Brenda as ready targets as symbols for all that he saw as wrong with a jaded and irrelevant British upper class. However, in the second half, with the death of Brenda's young son in a riding accident, Waugh sharpens his bite so that what he writes is less satire than a howl of existential bile both at a cuckold who refuses to see what is right in front of his nose and at a wife and mother who cares less about the fate of her dead son and more about continuing her affair. Such bitterness had been lacking in his earlier novels. By the end of the novel, Waugh returns to his previous level of acrimony with the weird fate of Tony Last who is doomed to recite the novels of Charles Dickens to a madman in a Brazilian jungle.

The reader feels a conflict with the inharmonious flow of satire and irony. Waugh lambasts an entire generation of Bright Young Things, none of whom are as bright as they imagine, but all are doomed to play out their lives in a universe devoid of meaning. A fitting end is the endless repetition of Dickens sounding and resounding in some tiny mudball of a hut for the gratification of a lunatic who may be more sane than most of the novel's other characters. This formless buzzing of noise is what is left after a handful of dust disappears in the breeze.

Books:

Books