Review of All Things Wise and Wonderful (Paperback)

My first experience with the late James Herriot's inspirational books took place in a bookstore in Singapore, in the 80's. I was barely 14 & had not heard of this writer/vet. But as soon as I started reading All Things Wise and Wonderful - my very first JH book, I knew I had to get the rest of the series.
Through his poignant, funny, sensitive and Yorkshire-accented writing, I relived his world as a practising vet. His was a world where decent, civic minded people lived with much love & respect for their pets and farm animals.A world where I wanted/want to be in.
It is true how one book reviewer put it: every chapter will have you either laughing out loud or shedding a quiet tear. To this day, I still remember some of his stories that touched my heart.The courtship years when a young JH was trying to impress Helen (who eventually became his very supportive wife); the timid little black stray cat, who with her last breath, would placed her one surviving kitten into the hands of a caring family; the endearing 'beggar' dog; the bored, pampered & misunderstood pet dog of a wealthy spinster...I could almost touch and see JH's characters through his vivid writing.I even felt his pride when his daughter also became a vet, & his son a doctor.
I am sorry that there were not more of his wonderful tales.



Click Here to see more reviews about: All Things Wise and Wonderful (Paperback)

Review of Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (Hardcover)

I have studied B and C for more than 25 years and this book is hands down the best on the subject. Engagingly written, well-researched, and chock full of surprises for anyone who thinks they know the real story of these two Texas misfits.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (Hardcover)

Review of This Way to Paradise--Dancing on the Tables (Paperback)

The title itself explains a lot of the intentions of the author, which mainly consist of relating his experiences as an expatriate in the lovely town of Lindos on Rhodes Island.

What separates Willard Manus' book from others of the genre--such as The Island of the Second Vision by Albert Vigoleis Thelen, which relates Thelen's sometimes surreal experiences on Mallorca from the early '30s to the days of the Spanish civil war--is that Manus includes some juicy gossip about people who are in no way unknown, such as the Pink Floyd band, novelist Richard Hughes and film director Hans Geissendorfer.

The entire change the village, Greece and the world suffered from the early '60s to the late '80s can be experienced reading this book and this atmosphere of change can be felt chapter after chapter. The tone of the book subtly moves from the unencumbered times before the Greek dictatorship of the Junta to the wild times of flower power to the almost senseless times of the '80s .

Personally, I would have liked a less superficial way of dealing with the Greek folk culture and a cover that depicts a little more of the reality of the '90s in Lindos than the almost idyllic image from the late '70s. But this book makes a wonderful read!

Overall, I would say it is two thumbs up, and it is surely one of the few books that I have encountered that urged me to read it from cover to cover in one sitting.

- Alf B. Meier(This report first appeared in IslandMani...)



Click Here to see more reviews about: This Way to Paradise--Dancing on the Tables (Paperback)