I have never read Sense and Sesiblity, but have seen Emma Thompson's movie more than once, and feel that I had a good grip on the characters. So it was with mild indifference that I picked up this book in the library and sat down to read it.

Sense and Sensiblity, a reworking of Jane Austen's earlier attempt, called Elinor and Marianne, was about the love lives of the two oldest Dashwood sisters. If you have two neurons to rub together, you have already guessed that this book is about the youngest Dashwood, Margaret.

I had a little trouble getting into Margaret's character. Barrett, really two authors working together, tried to combine all of Elinor and Marianne, muck it about and flick it into the big giant pot called 'Margaret's Personality'. This was fairly well done, although the authors figured out what they were doing in about the fourth chapter.

This book, like most other Austen books and well-written sequels, was tremendously predictable, but still an enjoyable read. It had a very basic plot consisting of girl meets boy, likes boy, boy goes away, girl meets other boy, but still likes first boy, but there is a misunderstanding with first boy and girl agrees to marry second boy, but second boy is a little wanker, and first boy hunts him out, the engagement is cancelled and first boy gets second girl, and everyone is happy. So it doesn't sound simple when I write it, but it is, believe me.

So if you're into sequels, avoid Pemberley like the plague, and seek out this one instead. It's much more enjoyable, and the characters aren't written like total high-collared, empress-waisted idiots.

When I started this book, I was quite excited. But the beginning squelched that feeling in about 10 seconds. On the list of books that start of slowly, this is WAAaayy up there. Like number 1. Beware.

However, you can't let the VERY slow beginnings of this book stop you from continuing. Because if you stop, you'd be missing out on one of the best books I've ever read. Sarum is the long history of Salisbury, a city in Southern England. The story follows a handful of main families, the Wilsons (and Forests), the Porters, the Masons, the Godfreys, and the Shockleys. Of course the plot is altered each year, there isn't really a main story, besides the base plot of describing the lives of these families through Kings, invasions and economic change.

It would be impossible for me to outlines all the plots in this book, that's insane. But it's interesting to see the way people lived and thought and acted. By all accounts, it's a fairly accurate view of British history.

My only problem with this book was it's unfortunate ending. Of course it must be horribly hard to finish a history, when history continues every day. But I'm sure if I spent that long writing such a rich and detailed book, I could come up with a better ending that Rutherfurd has written.

But, looking past the weak ending and the snooze-inducing beginning, this is a book for anyone who loves history, or British history, and who knows a good book when they see one.

I believe there are a whole squadron of P&P sequels around, but I thought this one might be a good one to read. I don't know why, perhaps it was the pretty cover that mesmerized me. Anyway, I bought it and read it.

Tennant recaptures almost perfectly the style in which Austen wrote the original book, and for that I thank her. She also recaptures the feeling of the 18th Century in her novel. What she does not do, and what I feel was the biggect injustice to Austen's work was that Emma Tennant could not properly grasp her characters. They were only shadows of the original, and while I gave a fair amount of space for author's license, I feel that this book is not a fair representation of how Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth went about their lives after marriage

In this story, Jane and Bingley are well settled five miles away from Elizabeth and Darcy, and they have 1 child and one on the way. Lydia and Wickham have been cranking out children like clockwork, and now have four children under the age of four. But Lizzy is childless and spends most of the book whining about this, or her husband's lack of something she doesn't want him to lack.

BIG SPOILERS HERE!

Elizabeth finds out about a frenchwoman and her child whom Darcy took care of, and she silently decides that Darcy must be the child's father, and that the frenchwoman, now dead, was his first love. The old Elizabeth would not have hesitated to confront Darcy, but Tennant's Elizabeth just whines about it and tromps around in the rain.

I was shocked and appalled and almost at the screaming point at the end, when Elizabeth goes to Jane, who is ill, and finds out that the child was really Bingley's. BINGLEY'S? Never. I'm sorry, but it was not in Bingley's character to have a child and then leave it in Darcy's care. Or to have a child out of wedlock at all. It was an abrupt and sad ending, one which I didn't like, and after half-enjoying most of the book, this ruined it entirely for me.

When it comes to thinking about the future of the characters of a book or a movie, we all draw our own conclusions, and that is more than likely the best thing to do.

I picked this book up because I liked the cover. I had to be honest with you. But, it wasn't a mistake. This is one of the best reference books for this type of material that I've seen around (along with Teresa Moorsey's Paganism and Witchcraft books).

This book includes topics such as: Using Celtic Magic today, understanding it, the magical elements, casting circles, the different tools of the trade, a few different rituals, and more. And although I enjoyed this part of the book, it's not what I like most about it. The thing I enjoyed the most about this book is Conway's comprehensibe look at Celtic deities, history, religion, and even Celtic dress and ornamentation. There is an alphabetical listing of female deities from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, male deities from the same places, and Faeries. Conway also includes a few sample myths (or faerie tales) about the major deities.

Along with the look at the Deities, Conway also includes introductory spellwork, looking at herbs, colours, the Ogham Alphabet, and, to my great surprise and happiness, full Tables of Correspondance.

If your interest falls along these lines, I suggest this book wholeheartedly. It is published by the always-wonderful Llewellyn Publications, my source for many books on these subjects.

Microserfs is the story (i think it's a story, it may just be an re-telling of events) of a bunch of really weird Microsoft employees and their voyage from rats in the race to rats in a bigger race. It's a very oddly moving story, really, and although nothing is truly solved, you get the feeling of closure at the end of the book anyway. I find all of Coupland's books are somewhat like this. There is closure, but not in an everyday novel type of way. It's more of an everyday reality type of way.

All of Douglas Coupland's books make me think. About the future, about the past, about life and society in general. This one was no different, even with the pages of babble (entire two pages with the word 'money' cut and pasted, just to point out that when written enough times, a word loses meaning.) It's like a diary from the point of view of Daniel, who shares his email with us, his thoughts about his friends and family, and we have to face it, we all have pretty much the same thoughts about that sort of thing.

Anyway, my favourite part of the book was when Coupland started talking about Jeopardy categories. If life was a game of Jeopardy, what seven categroies would you have? Example: Daniel's would be:
1)Tandy Products
2)Trash TV of the late 70's and early 80's (hello three's company!)
3)The history of Apple
4)Career Anxieties
5)Tabloids
6)Plant life of the Pacific Northwest
7)Jell-O 1-2-3

I had to think about mine, and I think i've got them now...
1)Sitcom Television from 1976-present
2)Chocolate
3)Fear of the Future
4)Microwaveable food-products for under $5
5)All about Shakespeare
6)Cats vs. Dogs
7)The Art of the Long-Distance Relationship

Anyway, read this book and think about your categories. It's really quite interesting, you know.

Tip #1: Never NEVER buy a book out of pressure.

I started reading this with interest, because the back of the book made everything seem so interesting, and thought-provoking, and...and...

Tip #2: Always ignore the back of the book

I didn't like the main character, Oriel, or his weird, gay-lover-concubine, Griff. (Well, he wasn't actually a concubine, but there was sexual tension in there somewhere.) I forced myself to follow them through one badly-depicted scene to the next, where I deluded myself into thinking that things would....might...had to get better

Tip #3: When you're reading a book of this...erm...quality, never listen to the voice inside your head. It's wrong. Believe me.

But I had to finish it, I paid 2 pounds for it! (about $4.75 canadian). So on I slogged, until finally Oriel and Griff seemed to be making some promise! There was a girl that Oriel loved (that's Beryl), and he was about to become the king's successor (how the hell did we get here???). But no, it's not to be, because about five pages from the end, ORIEL BLOODY DIES! YES! He is stabbed by some evil guy we never cared about in the first place! And who, do you suppose, takes over for Oriel? YES! That's right! GRIFF the CONCUBINE! And who does he marry? BERYL! (the whole time I was thinking of Sailor Moon's Queen Beryl, instead of this character that I didn't like anyway). BLAH BLAH BLAH! ARGH! I spent two pounds on this book, in order for me to become completely sore of it. I was ready to throw it into the Canal when we got to Trevor (in wales). I wish I had.

Tip #4: Don't read this book!

The movie is good, I enjoyed it tremendously when it came out a while ago, but if you don't read the book, which is significantly different from the movie, you'll be missing on so many excellent and worthy characters, like Mother Francis, Clodagh and Fonsie! And they are definately worth reading about.

Usually when a book is really good, I can tell I like it because I never put it down. This book has over 500 pages.

I finished it in a day and a half

Oh, I missed a meal, stayed up until three am, ignored friends and family, but it was all worth it. This is now one of my favourite books that exist on the planet. It ranks up there with Pride and Prejudice, Wheel of Time, and anything Sweet Valley has to offer. (That's a joke, people)

I had never read a Maeve Binchy novel before, but I'm glad I didn't let this one slip through. Written in a beautiful descriptive way, Binchy gives life and unique personalities to every character, major or minor. You feel for them, sympathize with them, live what they're living as you're reading it.

It's about Benny Hogan, the sweet girl from Knockglen in Ireland who has to live with her self-image, her family and the small town she lives in. She and her best friend Eve, who was raised in the local convent then go off to Dublin to study at the University. It is there they meet Nan Mahon (hated her), and Aidan Lynch (my favourite character), and Jack Foley (a little flaky, but okay anyway), who Benny falls in love with. We follow Benny through her first year of University and everything that befalls her during that time. Unlike the movie, the book wasn't completely a sex-oriented thing. It was about life and how it's many ironic twists make you want to live forever one day and rip all your hair out the next.

I am going to re-read this book until it falls apart. The cover of my edition doesn't look like the picture above, unfortunately, I think the picture is of an audio edition. But that doesn't really matter. I say, if you're a sucker for coming-of-age books, then this is one book that should have perminent residence on your nighttable.

Ever since I got my first James Herriot book about 6 years ago, I have been enthralled with this man and the very simple life he led as a vetrenarian in Darrowby in Yorkshire, England. An autobiography in a way, this book, a compilation of many stories woven together, is a quiet, unassumming joy to read. There is nothing about this book I didn't like. In about 50 pages you can probably experience every emotion known to man. And I'm not an emotional person, usually, books don't make me cry, but this one did.

I guess coming from a man who had no prior experience writing, no other goal except to put down on paper his many experiences with the likes of Tricky Woo, the rich lady's dog, who bets on horses and sends over brandy at Christmas and suffers from the oddest condition of flop-bott. And I think that's the reason I enjoy these books so much. Coming from any other person, an experienced writer who never saw a cow in his life, much less had his hand buried in one up to the shoulder, would sound much too contrived and silly.

I have always loved animals, and this book made me see them in so much detail and life. It also made me feel a little pity for the vets that my older cat chops into mince-meat at shot time every year. If there's anything I do in my life, I want to see Yorkshire for myself. Because if there's one thing James Herriot does, it's love his home and the job he does it in.

My advice: Get your hands on any of Herriot's books. They are too special to be missed.

The premise of the book is this: Marianne Ransom is orphaned and trussed off to London, where through a series of complicated and rushed events, becomes the favourite companion of the Dowager Duchess Honoria of Davenbrook. There she is told she is descendend from a famous spiritualist. Then there's some stuff that happens and suddenly the book becomes a murder mystery about three pages from the end.

Oh, I didn't like ALL the characters, most of them were really weird, barely there, or completely annoying (Marianne). I only liked Roger Carlton, because he was the most cynical of the bunch, and had more wits then all of the others put together.

Michaels uses complicated plot twists that take away from the interesting plot idea. She uses flowery language to capture the Victorian-Era setting, but unfortunately that just makes me scream becuase I don't know what some of the words mean, and i'm not the type of person to stop reading and look them up. She'd be better off using normal language in Victorian style.

However, I was pleased at the end that Carlton got the girl, no matter how maddeningly annoying she is, she got an inheritence of two hundred thousand pounds. Which, is 20 years of Fitzwilliam Darcy's annual sum. (But that's pride and prejudice....) Anyway, this is a take it or leave it book. I'm sure many people enjoyed it, but the haphazard way in which a perfectly good plot was presented was not my style.

It's the story of Brian Boru, the king who brought together Ireland waaay back at the end 10th century. He accepted the Norse-Irish people and stopped fighting between the many tribes. He also had two wives, a druidess lover, and many many children.

It's a long read--over 500 pages, and like most books this long it's really fast in some places, like the end, and slow in others, like the beginning. ;) But don't get discouraged when you hit a slow part, becuase Llywelyn makes up for it in her beautiful and throrough description and likeable characters. Although I did get a little confused sometimes with Brian Boru's 12 brothers and passle of offspring.

For us females, the many descriptions of battles may be a little boring, but they're still well-written. Actually, everything is well written. There's only one problem that I had with the book: They said he would get to be with Fiona. But he doesn't! He's run through by some Norse guy! Aargh! Ahem...but that's pretty much okay, because he gets rid of Gormlaith, described as "six foot, red haired goddess of sensuality." But she's a bi*ch. She's a six-foot, red haired, goddess of PMS. I didn't like her. Brian Boru comes off as a little egotistical, but hey! He's King of all Ireland, so I guess that's okay. His first lover, Fiona, is pretty cool, talks to trees and all that. Then there's Deirdre, who's supposedly the most beautiful thing in the whole world, but is almost as looney as Ophelia. That's pretty nuts. But she breeds like a rabbit, and soon Boru has about 20 sons or something.

So, it's a good book. Although I've probably ruined it for you. Ah well, that's about it. Brian Boru is getting jiggy wit' it.