Birthdays Books

This growth chart is actually better than I expected. Having a diehard Thomas fan, I looked all over for a Thomas growth chart. What I found was either this or a tapestry one. I was a little concerned because it was made of cardboard, but the growth chart is actually very sturdy. My son loved the cool pictures of Thomas & friends as well as the stickers that came with it. There are also 4 slots to insert photos of your child. My only complaint is that you hang the chart from a small hook at the top. So unless you secure the bottom yourself, it tends to swing side by side, especially since my son loves to touch it. I used double side tape to solve this problem. Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase!

This growth chart is very sturdy. It is made up of heavy cardboard sections that fold accordion-style. There are plenty of stickers for marking growth and even places for pictures along the way. My son's room is a Thomas theme and he loves this chart.

Too Many Cats is the newest engaging title in the "We Both Read" series from Treasure Bay. Written and designed by Sindy McKay to promote shared reading by parents and children, each two-page spread features an intermediate-reading level narration on the left and a simpler, "easy-reader" read-aloud line on the right for little ones. The engaging, tale featuring the whimsically illustrations of Meredith Johnson, Too Many Cats is the tale of a young girl or starts finding way too many cats in her house is amusingly told, and young people just beginning to read and sharing the book with parents can chime in with simple lines like "...a red cat." "Three cats!" "Four cats?" "...a yellow cat." A recommended shared reading experience with kids of kindergarten age.

This is the third book my daughter and I have read from the We Both Read series. This particular book is helping her learn her number words and gives us something fun to read together. She has requested that we purchase more books from the We Both Read series and they are on their way. She is waiting somewhat impatiently for them to arrive. I'd buy it again.

I loved the aztec inspired illustrations by barabara lavallee! The rounded faces and beautifully shadded clothes & objects are delightful.
Two girls go through the mexican market and buy birthday gifts for their mama - counting in spanish & in english.

One by one they guy 10 gifts - a ceramic sun, 2 doves, three bells, 4 pinata's, etc.

It's a glorious celebration of the charm of pueblo markets.

It's also great fun for you and your child to count along - uno dos tres, one two three, and at the back of the book there is a pronunciation guide.

I think it's always a positive thing to challenge the little ones with new words, and this book will open up new avenues of understanding - we can count in other languages!

While the words and verse may be simple in this children's Spanish counting book, Pat Mora uses the sounds of the words to convey the senses of the Mexican market. Stars twink, twinkling, castanets click, clicks, bells ring, ringing. The vibrant colors and use of shading to create textures in the illustrations also reflects the wares of the Mexican Market.

My five year old nephew loves this book! Tractors and other construction machine help make a cake. The book contains lots of pictures of the cake and the machines as the cake is being made.

It's his favourite book and he loves the Mighty Machine series.

Recommended.

The narration sounds like a cake recipe, and the illustrations show trucks, but Who Made This Cake? is neither a cookbook nor a truck book. Instead, readers gain an entirely new perspective of a fleet of construction vehicles in action baking a relatively large cake from scratch. In another twist from the ordinary, the vehicles and their operators are all miniature versions of their true sizes, while the cake and the ingredients are drawn to scale. Adults and children alike will enjoy guessing the true functions and names of construction vehicles that are not usually depicted as sucking up cake batter from a bowl and pumping it into a pan. Mixed into the merriment are economics lessons based on human, capital, and natural resources that go into the production process.

A very pretty and sensitive book about pregnancy and birth (does not deal with conception). It is told from a second person point of view, as though the child being read to was the infant. The author focuses on the feelings of the mother while she was carrying her baby: what it felt like when the infant kicked, how the infant was fed, etc. Includes good in utero descriptions and drawings. Lacks multicultural drawings.

This adorable book on how we all came about, is one of my favorites when it comes to children's books. My kids never get tired of hearing the story, I think partly because they love to be talked about, and because the author and artist really convey those special moments of pregnancy and birth that "speak" to children-(as well as the adults!) The first time I read it to my boys, ages 2 & 5, I had to make a real effort not to cry! It's a beautiful-TRUE story, and makes a wonderful gift for an older sibling-when there's a new addition to the family! It brings back wonderful emotions for Mom and Dad, and helps the older child realize that the love Mommy and Daddy have for the new baby is exactly the same as it is for them. Great book!!!

This is quite simply the best work of fiction I've ever read. Ok, yes, I admit, Harry Potter is a very close second and yes, I do think that the widely used "Harry Potter for Adults" is accurate enough.

This is a book that the reader may have to put a bit of work into - it is very long, heavily footnoted, and quite complex. The footnotes are a great enrichment to the world of the story, but they could be skipped I suppose. I personally enjoyed them. The payoff for the investment in time and attention is an immersion in a world that is at once historically accurate, but with an open door through which magic and the fairy world flows out to merge and change the nature of reality.

I also enjoy the 'nonfiction' occult genre. I think this book will appeal to readers of that genre as well. It draws upon such a wealth of mythos and folklore that an occultist will recognize that Ms. Clarke is obviously well acquainted with magical practice, folklore, and history...could she at times be modeling some of the book after Doreen Valiente's Magickal Battle of Britain (an account of a real magickal battle) and could it be that her stuffy magical societies reflect a bit the Golden Dawn with A. Crowley coming in saying I don't want sit around and talk, talk, talk about it, I want to DO IT? Oh yes, I DO think so. :) So, if you have been studying the history of the occult, I really, really think you will enjoy this book even more with that knowledge.

This lady has really done her research well. I look forward to the movie, which I understand is in pre-production now.

I do recommend you get the hardback. It is a beautiful book and to me enhanced the read, as it is a treasure for me as I love the look and feel of this particular book. I'm not sure if a paperback could hold up, my experience with books this thick is that they do not for me.

I'm on my second copy now. My first copy was borrowed, loved, and never returned.

This evocative tale of English magicians who become associates and eventual rivals/enemies is one of the most impressive literary debut-novels in any genre, ever. Every atmospheric detail is rich and crucial; there is nothing that is not essential to this mesmerizing, often frightening tale. Clarke's graceful-yet-tight writing is to be venerated--she has composed a masterwork to rival that of Tolkien, though in a much different context, of course. Each character, even the most minor, comes to life in a way that mirrors the famous "cathedral statuary" scene at the book's beginning. Much can be said about plot and subplots, but it suffices to reiterate that this is a book about two English magicians who become associates and, eventually, bitter rivals. That should imply enough to get you to buy it NOW.

This should be read by anyone who admires excellence in fiction/historical-fiction, etc. More than just a fantasy, JS&MN is (or will one day be regarded as) a true English-language classic. Without question. Now, let's see what the author has got next, because the little 'Ladies of Grace Adieu' book was ~not~ a good follow-up. Indeed not.

Pros: Immerses the reader in the nineteenth century, but still manages the fantasy elements very well. Pulls off the writing style perfectly. Has well drawn characters.

Cons: The pacing is a little off. Begins very slow, but has a rushed ending.

If you are a reader who has to love a book from page one, then you may have a bit of trouble with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It is certainly never bad, but one is left with the feeling that the story hasn't quite picked up yet for the first 300 - 400 pages. If you are willing to stick it out, however, then this book is certainly worth the trouble.

Once Clarke manages to get all the interlinked plots and subplots going, the story is full of interest. Magic, done up in a polite nineteenth century style, abounds. Clarke creates a rich alternate history complete with stories of magicians that stretch back to the middle ages. The scholarly Norrell is set on bringing magic back to England in his own very modern way. Norrell is a fascinating character, especially when juxtaposed against the much more vibrant Strange. The characters in general are very well drawn and even side characters like Stephen provide a good deal of interest.

Somehow, Clarke has found the perfect balance between writing in a nineteenth century style and writing in a way that will please modern audiences. One gets the feeling that her book could be read by people from either time.

Though the ending is a tad bit rushed, it creates a high degree of excitement. This book is recommended to anyone looking for something different in the world of fantasy. 5+ stars.

There are few novels that can walk the line between the fantastic and the real, where the outstanding becomes inseparable from the common-place, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is one of these books. Susanna Clarke has succeeded in creating a 19th Century England full of magic and mystery, while still being anchored in the realities and histories of 19th Century Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. The novel can best be described as an alternative-history. In this world northern England was once ruled by a magician-king, referred to, among other names, as the Raven King. He is responsible for bringing magic to England, ruling for over 300 years before mysteriously disappearing.

The novel opens long after the departure of the Raven King, magicians are nothing more than glorified scholars, pouring over books about magic, unable themselves to preform any. Magic is gone from England and no one really understands how or why. The great acts of magic performed by the Raven King and the other great magicians has long been sequestered to books and fables. However, an old man appears and performs an extraordinary display of magic, sending all of England into an uproar.

The characters in the novel, on the surface appear rather stereotypical. Mr. Norrell is an old, scholarly magician bent on preserving tradition and pouring over his numerous tomes. His pupil, Jonathan Strange is young and brash, eager to push the boundaries of magic, to experiment rather than read about magical pursuits. However, as the novel wears on you discover each as a depth of character unlike their outward persona's. Each is driven by different fears and passions, and they both have much more in common than they realize.

The novel's greatest strength lies in how believable and tangible the world Mrs. Clarke portrays is brought to life. The novel is littered with footnotes outlining interesting facts and fables (some of which span multiple pages). These are never tedious and all serve to annunciate the "believability" of the story. In this fashion she reminds me of another great English author, J.R.R. Tolkien who went through great pains to add color and depth to his world, expanding upon small details, evening creating a language of his own. Mrs. Clarke also has a keen sense of mixing humor with drama, adding the right touch of levity at appropriate times. Her humor is very much like that of Jane Austen, poking fun at the social dilemmas gentleman and ladies found themselves in during the 19th century, where morality and social acceptability ran counter to emotions.

The novel is broken into three volumes, each segmented into many chapters, with few running more than twenty pages. This does a good job of making the 846 page novel easily digestible. This is Susanna Clarke's first novel and pacing is one issue she has yet to master. The novel lags during a few places (notably during the beginning and end of volume I), and the ending seems to flow in a torrent. However, it is very easy to get lost in the prose, which is succinct and well constructed. Her descriptions of magical acts are particularly well written, with metaphors that precisely illustrate the events at hand in perfect detail.

In the end this is a tremendous novel, one of the best constructed literary worlds I've had the pleasure of exploring.

It's hard to fathom why so many of you love this book, to say nothing of the inference that A.S. Byatt would appreciate it. I gave up around page 200, as this was too simple a work, and too tiresome for further perusal. Having just finished a couple of really well written novels, I can also say that there was nothing special about the author's prose whatever...Who is reviewing this work-fans of Harry Potter? Finally, if you want to read an intelligent, throw-back kind of novel with real drama, well drawn characters and a truly epic feel, pick up Palliser's "The Quincunx". Light satire and pale imitations of Jane Austen do not a classic make.

It seems that Guterson has several types of readers for this novel. There are those who come to it for the sake of the place. (And what a beautiful place it is.) There are those who come to it for the sake of the period in history. (And what a wrenching, fear-driven time it was....) And there are those, like me, who come for the weaving of the tale. The story is masterfully told, and I absolutely loved rain as a motif in this novel. It's a book that made me question whether I could ever be a novelist; if I can't write as well as Guterson, I don't want to write at all.

For years I almost picked this book up, and finally did this year. I had just completed a dud of a thriller, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box and was looking for something intelligent with a good reputation. I bought Snow and I couldnt put it down. A story so well thought out and developed, I wished I had bought it years before. I'm not big on courtroom novels (which is why I always passed on it), but this novel is so much more than that. In Ishmael, Guterson has wrought one of the most human, heart-aching genuine characters in recent memory. Bravo!

What I enjoyed most about this novel was Mr. Guterson's facility with descriptive language. I just loved the snow storm--though I also thought he had his characters moving around in it entirely too much--and I liked his casually elegant way of getting into his characters' heads and hearts to explain their histories.

So why only 3 stars? Because I was ultimately unconvinced by the book. By that, I mean that he wasn't as successful as he should have been in intertwining the book's themes of war, family, and racism (especially the latter). By the time the book ended, I didn't much care about the outcome. That's why I wasn't bothered by its truncated, too easy ending. The event that facilitates the ending was extremely contrived, and even drawn out too much.

Mr. Guterson has some serious talent, though. This book just didn't awe me as much as I thought (based on other reviews) that it would.

The clearest thing I'll take away from my reading experience of "Snow Falling on Cedars" is simply how fast it took me to race through it. I like to take my time reading books - especially if I find them enjoyable - but I found myself speeding through the chapters of David Guterson's debut novel at an alarming rate. It was nearly impossible to put down thanks to the clear yet sophisticated prose, the intriguing and well-paced "whodunit" aspect of the story and the slow unraveling of both the minds and motivations of the characters, which is exceptionally well done. So yes, I definitely recommend this book!

When the novel first opens, we are introduced to a range of people living on San Piedro, an isolated island in the Pacific South-West. All somewhat enigmatic at first - to the reader, as well as each other - we are gradually drawn into their lives, childhoods, relationships and personalities, as the community is drawn together over a particularly controversial murder case. Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for the murder of the well-respected fisherman and war veteran Carl Heine, due to bad-blood between the two men, and the fact that Miyamoto was (by his own admission) the last man to see Heine alive, out on his fishing boat.

But it soon becomes clear that there is more to this trial than first appears: it is the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and there is an unspoken assumption that Miyamoto's Japanese heritage jeopardizes his chances of being acquitted. A large pile of evidence speaks out against Miyamoto, and his stoic demeanor does not help matters either, despite fighting on the side of the Allies in the War. From this starting point, Guterson draws in a wide range of characters related to the case: wives and family members of both the accused and the deceased, lawyers, witnesses, community members and figures from the past. Most prominently is the character of Ismael Chambers, a journalist investigating the case, who has his own particular link to Miyamoto - or rather, Miyamoto's wife Hatsue, a young woman who in her teenage years chose duty to her people and culture over a love affair with Ishmael. Embittered by her rejection and his experiences in the war, Ishmael cuts himself off from the people around him. Yet Ishmael discovers certain facts pertaining to the case that have a tremendous bearing on its outcome - should he choose to share them.

Guterson draws on the racial hysteria against Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the American government's decision to force Japanese citizens into interment camps for the duration of the War as the historical background for this novel. All over the island of San Pierdro runs distrust and suspicion, as well as bitterness in many Japanese families for the lack of support shown by their neighbours during their deportation to the mainland, and the fact that when they returned home, their lands and jobs had been lost. The main irony of the piece is of course that Carl Heine himself is of German descent, and therefore just as worthy (or rather, unworthy) of suspicion and prejudice as any Japanese citizen on the island.

It seems a shame to give away too much of the tapestry of relationships, prejudices and intrigues that go on in the small island community, as most of the enjoyment derived from this novel is discovering and sorting them out by yourself. There's always more than meets the eye to every single character, and no one is entirely faultless, nor entirely innocent during their lifetimes. Most poignantly of all is the theme of `chance versus choice' that runs throughout the story. Whether it be the war, a particularly nasty snow-storm or other impersonal forces, all of the characters are seemingly thrown to the winds of fate. When entities like prejudice and racism become so large that they cloud judgment and become a way of life, what hope do individuals have to overcome them? Guterson attempts to answer this question through the use of the courtroom drama and the personal lives of his protagonists, and manages to make the answer both optimistic and bittersweet, particularly in his final paragraph.

There are only two more things I need to note: first that San Piedro itself is brought to life through Guterson's poetic-prose, which is as beautiful as you'd expect from a book titled "Snow Falling on Cedars." The island becomes a character in its own right, in all its natural beauty: the scent of the cedar trees, the vast strawberry fields, the markets and enclosed houses - it's all there. Second is the characterization of Hatsue Miyamoto, who is potentially the most intriguing and important figure in the entire book. Guterson has no trouble characterizing a member of the opposite sex, and Hatsue holds a fascinating place within the novel, as a young woman caught between her regard for the white Ishmael and her loyalty to her own culture and upbringing. As a young girl she struggles with her appearance and her restlessness, and even though she manages to find a sense of serenity in her adulthood, we get the sense that she will always be striving between her desire to be an individual, and to take what is deemed her rightful place in her culture's society. Even though she does breaks Ishmael's heart during the course of the story (disrupting what many would consider a classic "star-crossed" romance), yet we are never led to despise her for this - in fact, we sympathize with her decision and understand it. In short: she's wonderfully complex and layered - much like the rest of this novel.

Compelling and hard to summarize, this book struck me most for its amazing organization and its beautiful prose. Set on a fictitious Island, this book examines post WWII prejudice against Japanese Americans, covers a murder trial, and examines love and passion. The only fault I had with it is that at some times the descriptions of the things going on in the book struck me as a bit perverse.

Kitchen Confidential is a must read for anyone who has ever set foot in the backrooms of a restaurant. Bourdain captures the environment with all its stresses, off-colored language and cooking pride. Kitchen Confidential reads similar to a feature on VH1's Behind the Music as Bourdain battles with his own demons and finds success after many years of debauchery. I have been a fan of Bourdain's No Reservation on the Travel Channel for quite awhile and now as an author. The book lead me to another Bourdain project called the Les Halles Cookbook which has inspired me to spend more time in the favorite room of my house, the kitchen. Thank you, Tony!

I had such a fun time reading this book! I think the afterword was lame...make no apologies Bourdain!

It has been over 20 years since I worked in the restaurant business, but reading Bourdain's book brought back a lot of memories of what the business and the many characters who inhabit it are like. I found Bourdain's book to be very entertaining and reflects much of what I remember about the world of food preparation and service. Bourdain's management style is quite different from my own and I am not sure that I would want to work for the guy, (or have him work for me), but he is a great writer and accurately depicts the life in the biz.

I love how Anthony Bourdain can add sophistication to the grueling and raw life hidden behind the walls of our favorite resurtants. I worked in a kitchen growing up and it's amazing how universal some of his stories and lessons truely are! I LOVED IT!

It's amazing where writing talent is found. I originally discovered Bourdain via his "Les Halles Cookbook" -- one of the funniest cookbooks I have ever read. And then slowly, I began to remember -- hadn't this same guy written an earlier book, much more scandalous?

Well, this is that earlier book. You may not care for the tales it tells, or think very highly of the author, but the man writes like a god! Most of his best jokes are on himself, and all of the wimped-out sissy mistakes he made on the way to becoming a member of The Brotherhood, and its storyteller.

One of his bottom lines: "This stuff is EASY. My cooks are all recent immigrants from Latin America who had never tasted anything better than a taco in their lives. If they can learn, so can you."

It is also, for me, quite amazing to really sit back and think about a gang of five or six guys who actually manage to serve dinner to 600 people! Not once, but day in and day out! For this, you don't want no inspiration, you are not in the market for genius, man, you are a member of the freeping army/ballet corps, and everything depends on precise execution of tasks you have done a kazillion times before. (Oops, I slipped into quasi-Bourdain mode there.)

This book is really a lot better than Orwell's pretentious "Down and Out in Paris in London," especially when you learn that Orwell was basically a middle-class guy who volunteered to go slumming, and left when he got tired of it. This is not the case with Bourdain. This is HIS LIFE, and I for one really appreciate his gusto, his zest, and his willingness to work hard for what he wants.

Enjoy, enjoy (and don't order fish from a restaurant on Monday!)

MY WIFE WAS THE READER,AND SHE LOVED IT.SHE ALREADY PASSED THE BOOK ON TO A GOOD FRIEND,WHO ALSO THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT.

Life is interesting. Put a little humor into everyday occurrences and
this book will make you laugh. It starts out talking about people's
necks. Women's purses make another good topic. Family, love, relationships, and more --about being a woman.

Excellent book! I got the book and the audio. I started to read the book and it seemed a little slow in capturing my interest... but I was going to read it any way. Then I had to travel so I took the audio... And let me tell you... it was wondrful. You just have to hear her talking. You have to hear her as she expresses herself on each of the issues she talks about. These are issues I and perhaps other women have forgotten about in years but today laugh or cry about. This book has a mixture of humor, aging, comedy; women's health blended in a memoir about Nora Ephron. You can read the book but you don't really know where she would place the pitch, pace and power of her words until you can hear her. Its like having her talk to you herself. Both book and audio are great. I recommend it... especially if you were born from 1950 on and if you have had a chance to either live in New York or just visit it from time to time... you will enjoy it!

I didn't care for the attitude of book. It was a quick read and I did laugh at some of Ephron's stories but overall it wasn't I book I liked much.

She should feel bad about wasting the readers' time with trite drivel. Don't waste your precious time.

How fortunate I was years ago when the film, The English Patient, was two weeks from release and a friend said, 'Oh, the movie is based on the novel. I think you'd like it....' I bought the book the next night and stayed up late reading it. Ondaatje sees the world through a poet's eyes, and he gives us artistic renderings of people and places in a rich time in history. This novel would definitely be included in my list of Top 20 favorites. Ondaatje is a writer's writer....

Ondaatje's prose is lyrical and poetic. More than anything, Ondaatje creates an atmoshpere that is as much a presence in this book than any single character. The story delves into the lives of four people living in a war-damaged Italian monastery as World War II ends. Hana, a nurse, attempts to nurse the English patient back to life. Caravaggio, Hana's childhood friend, and Kip, a skillful bomb difuser, make up the rest of the cast of characters. Beautifully and evocatively written but slow at times.

To Hana the nurse, English patient is `a white lion'. I've come to expect movie characters to bear a marginal resemblance to those of the novel from which they are extracted. Seldom do the people in the novel voice anything resembling the clever lines from the film. Ondaatje describes brilliantly his story settings and the psychoanalytical introspections of his characters like an omniscient Nanny narrator.
Some of this book's visceral content presents itself as juvenile voyeuristic, not to be confused with the sort of obligatory 'adult content' that's required to provoke a publisher to finish reading a manuscript submission.

While the main storyline describes some heroic coping mechanisms adopted by it's characters to survive their various war-induced neurosis', the English patient suffers physical and emotional wounds which will kill him. maybe it should have been called 'The Great Escape'. Except that the author seems to have wanted a title that would be hemorrhaging irony. The critics called Ondaatje, 'poetic'. And his skill with words may be described as accomplished. he has been researching the writings to the Royal Geographic Society by explorers of the Libyan Desert. We have a glimpse into "the tact of [Ondaatje's] words." "In the desert to repeat something would be to fling more water into the earth."
"Here nuance took you a hundred miles." AND
"A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands knowing it is something that feeds him more than water."

I know the feeling of being enveloped in the 'emptiness' of the Mojave Desert, which sometimes can belie the impression that there maybe is nothing, maybe never was nor ever will be anything to come back to.

In reviewing Michael Ondaatje's recent novel DIVISADERO, I remarked that his narrative technique involved writing short fragments, loosely connected in theme but jumping around in subject and time, and leaving it to the reader to connect them. Such an appeal to the imagination is rare and gratifying, and the results are complex and evocative. If I try to forget the movie, the same could be true of the earlier ENGLISH PATIENT, although here Ondaatje is dealing with a subject of greater historical resonance -- the Second World War in Egypt and Italy -- and the interplay of personal narrative and hard fact is more difficult to bring off than the largely private scale of DIVISADERO.

Both books are about people recovering from trauma. In DIVISADERO, the scarring was psychological; here, it is physical as well. The setting is a ruined Italian villa north of Florence, just after the German retreat. It had been used as a temporary hospital, but now only one patient remains, the supposed Englishman of the title. He is attended by Hana, a young Canadian nurse, who has seen so many men die that she can no longer weep the recent death of her own father. She is joined by David Caravaggio, an old friend of the family, a professional thief recruited to work in intelligence, who has had his thumbs cut off during an interrogation. And camping in the garden is Kirpal Singh (Kip), a Sikh bomb-disposal expert, who has only his rigid self-discipline and skills to protect him from disaster. The English Patient himself is an unrecognizable figure, burned all over his body, brought out of the North African desert by Bedouin tribesmen. It later becomes clear that he is not English at all, but a British-educated Hungarian count, Ladislaus de Almásy, an explorer of some renown.

Each of the characters is gradually opened out. Caravaggio is the least fully realized emotionally, but he becomes increasingly significant in the back-story. Conversely, Hana's history needs little filling-in, since we see life in the villa mainly through her eyes and feel through her skin. Her relationship with Kip is one of the loveliest things about this rich book, and the Sikh's character is developed in considerable depth, especially as he finds a purpose to his life during his training in England. His work as a bomb-disposal expert is described in always fascinating and sometimes breath-stopping detail.

But the most space is devoted to Almásy's time in the desert, his years of patient exploration of the Great Sand Sea and the Gilf Kebir in the 1930s, his passionate but intermittent affair with the wife of a colleague, and his activities during the war itself. These things are dug up gradually, as shards of memory, some relatively objectively, some under the influence of morphia, some that might even be hallucinations. The events of the thirties emerge most clearly, but more recent happenings must sometimes be pieced together from the briefest of references. I am not sure that a fully coherent scenario would ever emerge from reading the book alone, or that it was intended to.

Here, of course, I have to mention the 1997 movie. Anthony Minghella, the director, has in fact written such a scenario, connecting the fragments into one persuasive interpretation of the novel. Largely focusing on Almásy's story, he has tidied the narrative and greatly compressed the time-frame to create a combination of war story and grand romance with the epic sweep of Tolstoy or Pasternak. The movie is filled with such unforgettable imagery and such strongly-acted characters that his version cannot easily be put aside. But the fact that Ondaatje approved this adaptation does not make it the only possible one, and it is now much harder to enjoy the open-ended quality of his story-telling in its own terms.

For those who have seen the movie, the greatest pleasure in the book may come from the elements that Minghella played down: the stories of Hana, Kip, and Caravaggio, and Ondaatje's quiet portrayal of life in the ruined villa. Consider his description of a bonfire of weeds that Hana would gather and burn "...during the late afternoon's pivot into dusk. The damp fires steam and burn, and the plant-odoured smoke sidles into the bushes, up into the trees, then withers on the terrace in front of the house. It reaches the window of the English patient, who can hear the drift of voices, now and then a laugh from the smoky garden. He translates the smell, evolving it backward to what had been burned. Rosemary, he thinks, milkweed, wormwood...". It is simple writing, but a passage that excites the imagination, involving all the senses, creating its own images in the mind. The whole book will do the same, if you are lucky enough to be able to come to it without preconception.

Few books are felt as much as read, but "The English Patient" falls into this category. Like the film, it is hauntingly beautiful, but for different reasons. The story of people haunted by love and war, their damaged souls converging at a villa in Italy, remains, but the focus and method in which the story is told on paper is spellbinding and stunning.

The passages are like water moving to and fro over rocks, shifting back and forth in time so that the beauty beneath can still be seen, but as a shimmering mirage in the desert. It is a strange instance where it is almost recommended that you see the film first in order to see more clearly in your mind the characters as their stories unfold.

Whereas the film focused more on the burned Almasy and his memories of the unending African desert, where he would meet the enigmatic and beautiful Katherine Clifton, sealing the fate which would leave him a charred and hollow shell of his former self, Hanah is the centerpoint of Ondaatje's lovely poetic prose in the novel. You can almost feel the ghosts hovering over each character as Ondaatje paints a masterpiece with words.

Deeply romantic and lyrical, it is the same story, but a more impressionistic and less linear portrait of love and loss. The book is like a delicate flower just beneath the waters, its beauty evident but achingly kept just out of reach. The film brought the flower into the sun so we could enjoy its texture and fragrance in a more real fashion. Both are magnificent, just a different picture of the same flower.

If you love the film, you must read the book. It is a hauntingly beautiful novel different from anything else you'll ever read. A masterwork of rich and evocative prose that will touch the heart, an organ of fire.