Customer Comments

What a great story. Even though this is only the "first third" of the tale, and one that is already a large tome all on its own, it reads like a thriller and you just keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. This is a "story within a story" and written as if you actually have knowledge of all the laws of physics for a nonexistant land...that is familiar but different and more ancient than our own. I can only hope the next book(s) live up to the first.

We took a trip to the Czech Republic this year to explore our own roots to that country, and it was heartrending to read Ms. Albright's tragic family account of her family and their exile. It really added a lot to our trip to have read her book for we toured Terizin and Lidice (which she describes in her own story). This book adds a lot of dimension and sense of place to anyone wanting to know more about the Cxech Republic and especially if you plan to visit.

I read this book just before making a week-long journey through the park with all it's spectacular wildlife and scenery on display. It was amazing how close this park almost "never was". The book is very well-written and has very readable narrative. My one criticism is this book lacks a map. Unless you are intimately familiar with the greater Yellowstone region you either need to provide your own map to orient yourself or just blunder along hoping it will all become clear by chance.

Why did it ever take me until I was 50 before I read a single book by Mark Twain? This book is long overdue on my reading list and Twain is now an author I will read more. I have seen several Mediterranean countries and regions which he toured in the book (written before he had mad his fame adn fortune with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn). He writes with such a tongue in cheek style that at times you suddenly realize he has just made yet another veiled joke about the people he meets, the passengers on his trip, and the sights he is seeing. I would recommmend this book to anyone who has toured or will see parts of the Mediterranean area...or who just wants to live vicariously thought his words.

I never knew that much about Billy the Kid before reading this book. Nor did I fully understand the incredible amount of corruption in the government and big landholders that lead to the creation of fueds between neighbors in the southwest. This book really filled in a chapter of history and the closing of the American frontier.

this author really loves his clouds. He makes you really appreciate all the artistry the Earth's atmosphere creates all day every day. While you learn about the science of clouds, you will be hard-pressed to not chuckle at his sly wit just a little...and find yourself learning to love clouds like the author does.

This book is a beautiful production of printing and artistry. Not only are the short selections chosen with care and oraganized by genera, but the full color printing and heavyweight paper make the book a pleasure just to hold and look at, let alone read. Bird and nature lovers will enjoy the content to be savored a page at a time.

Just as in "Corelli's Mandolin" the author gets off to a slow, inauspcious start to introduce us to the characters in the story. At first you don't really think much about the people...they are all a little odd or quirky, but even after some early violence and tragedy seem to doom the story (and some of the main characters) to a tedious end, you begin to realize that the story has begun to sweep you away. You find yourself liking the characters, their strengths and human frailties as they are reavealed over time. As the story closes and the characters end their parts of the tale, you find yourself mourning thier losses, cherishing their triumphs, and wishing you could hear them continue to speak to you. this is not a story to "speed read" but the chapeters are short and allow you to read them in-between other activities or as a "bedtime book" to be read a chapter at night.