Customer Reviews (31)

Still good, weird writing at the end
Well, I've read the second book now.No waiting for me, as I just discovered the series.It was still good.The writing is still ...immersing.She separates completely the stories, and I did as others have done, and skipped to and fro to finish each story line, except for Raif and Ash.It was all worthy, all good, no problems, very exciting.

And that brings us to the end, the very end (not counting Angus Lok and the firehouse).Raif's bit.So, after all that build up, he kills the monster, it falls on him, and he's like "oh better get up!time to start a new nice life." and his pony runs to meet him and they ride off into the sunset, no problems.Like he just read the Sunday newspaper.Like that.In like 4 sentences.

A whole book of amazingness, and then wraps it up in a little bitty paragraph that makes no sense to what went before.THAT was SO weird.I'm not sure how to take that.Did she just get sick of it and want to go to bed?I dunno.Despite that, the whole damn book is written fantastically, so still gets 5 stars in my eyes. Looking forward to the next, that everyone says is "filler".That's ok with me.Still:Weird, almost contrived and unpleasant ending.

Fortress of Grey Ice
If you have never read this author, I highly recommend that you give her a try.Exciting, fast paced and deep character development.This is my second book by JV Jones and I will read everything she has written.The purchase of this book was seamless, quickly shipped and well received.

Book II...the quality of the story and the writing continues
Even better then the first book!

J.V Jones' 2nd book in the 'Sword of Shadows' series is simply a great fantasy/adventure read.

The story continues where book I left off and follows sequentially Raif, Ash and Effie; their stories take some interesting twists and turns throughout the course of this book. The terrain is the same basic bleak winter tundra (although spring appears to be coming) of the first book.

One of the many strong points of this novel is the deliberate pacing of this story and its telling. Then add to this a great basic story, plus an author's with the ability to weave a good tale, and you end up with a memorable fantasy work. And although different in various ways, this work, at times, conjures up memories of the writing quality and techniques found in George R.R. Martin's 'Iced and Fire' series and Joe Abercrombie's 'The First Law' trilogy. (see P.S. below)

The only niggling complaint would be that the map (and in fairness, the one provided is fairly good) could have provided a little more detail; details that give some names or markings as to where our protagonist were located during some of their journeys. I realize this is probably a 'personal' concern, but I've always liked to have a sense of position and of distance/proximity to other geographic locales when reading fantasy/adventure; it just makes the prolonged treks easier to visualize in my mind.

Conclusion:
A 2nd book in this series that is of the highest order; a great story, superbly told.5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

P.S.
I defy anyone not be moved to the point of being emotionally distraught by chapter 5 in this book. A subjective opinion...certainly; but read this one chapter and see how it affects you.

I really enjoyed this book
I enjoy fantasy books.Allot have underdeveloped and totally unreal characters.This one is not like that at all.I picked up this book at Wal-mart on clearance sale.I thought I might get through a chapter or two.I couldn't put it down.

So Much Potential Wasted in this Frustrating Book
A Fortress of Grey Ice had great potential. The author definately has a knack for developing characters who are interesting and complex and putting them in a compelling world.

But the potential is lost because the book is so weakly plotted, so poorly written and so tedious.

First off, as others have mentioned, there is too much narrative and too little dialogue. In the second half of the book I found myself skimming along reading the rare dialogue between characters and the first sentence of narrative paragraphs. In other words I was interested in the characters but bored by the tedious exposition.

Secondly, there are eight or ten main characters and, for the whole length of the book, with the exception of Angus Lok who flits from here to there, they have nothing to do with each other. The entire novel could have been broken down into ten short stories each telling the tale of a single character.

Third, the author has hopelessly screwed up the character of Raif. Perhaps she just can't get into the mindset of a young man but Raif, as written, is a muddle. I never for one moment believed that he would choose to go live with the maimed men. I think it was just a plot device to get him to the rift. Meanwhile he gives no thought to the Uncle who befriended him and saved him. Why doesn't he go look for his uncle? Because it would not suit the plot, that's why.

And we are supposed to believe that he would take part on a raid on his old clan and kill clansmen when, at the same time, he still holds clan honor so high that he won't speak a single word against clan, even to save himself? It makes zero sense. He would run first. Or kill himself. Anything before that.

Also, in the first book, it was made very clear that Raif has the gift of heart killing living things. But it was also made very clear that he was an average target bowman. Now, suddenly, even injured and out of practice, he can out-shoot the best bowman in the known universe? Why? Because it makes a dramatic scene? How? The Gods helped? Fate?

In the end the author creates compelling characters. But she doesn't let them talk. She doesn't let them interact. And she makes them act in ways that are radically out of character in order to further the "plot". It all adds up to 2 stars but it could have been a lot more. ... Read more

Product Description
What do you do when your life feels as busy as a three-ring circus?

Juggling Elephants tells a simple but profound story about one man with a universal problem. Mark has too much to do, too many priorities, too much stress, and too little time.

As he struggles to balance his many responsibilities without cracking under the pressure, Mark takes a break to attend the circus with his family.There he has a surprising conversation with a wise ringmaster. He leaves with a simple but powerful lesson: Trying to get everything done is like juggling elephants -- impossible.

So Mark begins to think about his work, family, and personal life the way a ringmaster thinks about the many acts in a three-ring circus. He discovers that managing his various acts can be fun and easy once he changes his attitude and follows his new friend’s ongoing guidance. Mark soon realizes:
• If you keep trying to juggle elephants, no one, including you, will be thrilled with your performance.
• A ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once.
• The key to the success of a circus is having quality acts in all three rings.
• Intermission is an essential part of any good circus.

Juggling Elephants is a wonderfully lighthearted guide for everyone who feels like they’re about to be squashed. It will help you better focus your time and energy, so you’ll be able to enjoy more of the things that are important to you. Above all, it will teach you how to run your circus, instead of letting the circus run you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Just right
This book draws you in, makes points clearly, and is short enough that you can spend some time reflecting on how to put the ideas to work in your own life. The extended analogy makes it easy to remember as you go through your day/week/month.I recommend it.

Quite original, entertaining approach, if very juvenile.
While most effective techniques are often the simplest one, I couldn't grin while reading this book. It definitely reads like a children book and even the most open-minded reader, cannot but feel treated with the condescendence usually reserved for children. To the author's credit he did not hid the juvenile tone, underneath fancy jargons, common to many self-help books published. So overall, for a change, I don't regret reading it, especially since it was quite a short read.

Choose the right ring at the right time
Jones Loflin and Todd Musig use a simple story about the circus to help us learn time management and life balance.Life is like a 3-Ring Circus, they say. One ring is your business, one ring is your relationships, and one ring is your self care.Rather than try to be in more than one ring at once (at your child's soccer game--relationship ring--while checking email and texting your co-workers--business ring), we should focus on one ring at a time and give it our full attention.There is no shortage of things we could be doing, so each thing we choose to do must serve a purpose in our overall plan. It is also important to remember the self-care ring, because if you fail to take time to renew yourself the other two rings will suffer. The storybook format makes it easy to read in about an hour.

CD Version Review - Something to Listen to Several Times Over Years
Juggling Elephants is another VERY short story book on organizing your life and becoming more effective, another in the genre that we've come to associate with Ken Blanchard, who has given it his blessing.This story, another collaboration of authors, is worth listening to several times spaced out over a long time period but certainly, in my opinion, not sufficient by itself to become life-changing.

The reason this genre sells so well, I believe, is that our lives are filled with information overload and we have extreme pressures to achieve financial security.Information overload has added extraordinary complexity to our lives, and the gradual erosion of middle class real income has added a general cultural sense that our lives are out of control.Even our unemployed are stressed out with out-of-control to-do lists and do not experience respite from information overload.Therefore, there is a need for this genre to help us to understand why our lives are so difficult and give us small but usually short-lasting bursts of hope.

You'll see that Oliver Wyman, the reader, is listed as "Contributor."I am a big fan of the excellent readers.Wyman didn't do an excellent job here, but that doesn't mean he can't be excellent in other situations.He just didn't do a good job with voices of characters, which was required for this book but not all books. I believe he'd be excellent reading books that don't require voices of characters.

The story is Ok.I'll never think of circuses the same way again!It makes sense because being a ringmaster requires talent, experience and even wisdom.This type of story could be reproduced in a sense for many types of jobs, but a ringmaster is a great example for the lessons of the story.

We're seeing more and more of these types of books being produced.They are always very short, teach using a simple story and stick to basic lessons that we probably already know but tend to lose sight of when we respond to the demands of daily life.They might even be a secular substitute for many people, although I am speculating when I say that.

Great Time Management Info!!!!
This was a very clear, concise and quick book to read. At the same time it was full of great ideas and ways to improve not only work productivity but also personal and family time as well. Reading this book made me step back and think about what is important and how I can effectively manage all the different areas in my life. It also helps you to realize time management and motivation can be utilized to improve your life as a whole and not just how well you perform at work. ... Read more

Product Description
'Early this morning, several hours before my arrest, I was woken by an earth tremor. I mention the incident not to suggest that there was a connection - that somehow the fault lines in my life came crashing together in a form of a couple of policemen - for in Tokyo we have a quake like this every month. I am simply relating the sequence of events as it happened. It has been an unusual day and I would hate to forget anything ...' So begins "The Earthquake Bird", a haunting novel set in Japan which reveals a murder on its first page and takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly - a young, vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator. As Lucy is interrogated by the police she reveals her past to the reader, and it is a past which is dangerously ambiguous and compromising ...Why did Lucy leave England for the foreign anonymity of Japan ten years before, and what exactly had prompted her to sever all links with her family back home?She was the last person to see the murdered girl alive, so why was she not more forthcoming about the circumstances of their last meeting?As Lucy's story unfolds, it emerges that secrets, both past and present, obsess her waking life. A novel imbued with the chill of "The Wasp Factory" and the shock of "The Sculptress", this is the debut of a major new talent. 'The sentences may be lean and spare, but the murder on the first page heralds a weight and menace to this story that's strangely chilling ...This is a very compelling debut' - "Elle". 'Fast paced and claustrophobic ...a subtle portrait of how jealousy blooms from nothing' - "The Times". 'Compulsively imaginative ...a beautiful and compelling novel' - Colin Dexter. 'You'll find this story still lurking in the dark corners of your mind long after you've put the book down' - "Face".Amazon.com Review
Penzler Pick, August 2001: A bestseller in England, Susanna Jones's first novel is one of those books that grips you while you read and stays with you long after you've finished.

Lucy Fly is an English woman working as a translator in Tokyo. When the story opens she has been arrested for the murder of another English woman, Lily Bridges, whose partial remains have just been found. As Lucy is interrogated, she tells of her childhood in Yorkshire, her ability with languages, and her escape from her drab life to the relative anonymity of living in Japan. She also talks about her friendships: with the Japanese women with whom she works and sometimes socializes; with Teiji, a photographer with whom she is having an affair; and with Lily, who comes from the same part of Yorkshire as Lucy and who reminds Lucy of everything she is trying to escape.

And yet Lucy is drawn to Lily. Lily is working as a bartender, but in England she was a nurse and, when the two of them go on a hike together and Lucy is hurt, she is made comfortable by Lily's attentions. Even as we listen to Lucy, we feel that she may be hiding something from us. She doesn't tell us a great deal about her affair with Teiji, for instance. In fact, she admits that she doesn't remember much of their conversations, although she tells us that they must have talked a lot since she knows so much about him. Also disconcerting is her strange habit of lapsing into the third person when talking about herself.

As she reveals what she knows to the police--and to the reader--they, and we, become increasingly uncomfortable. The more we know about Lucy, the less we understand about her relationships with Teiji and Lily. When we finally do understand some of what she is saying, we are shocked.

This little gem of a book is a startlingly good debut. --Otto Penzler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Compulsive
The Earthquake Bird is a compulsive read.The main character, Lucy Fly, starts out seeming quite normal (well, as normal as you can get when you're being questioned about a horrific murder by the police) but as the book progresses another side of her comes out and she becomes a very complex and intriguing woman.

The book is written in the first person narrative, but sometimes the narrator (Lucy Fly) starts talking about herself in the third person (e.g. Lucy is no oil painting).This device really works and it made me feel rather unsettled and was really effective in showing that Lucy has strange and hidden depths.The author has a wonderfully light touch, somehow managing to perfectly describe a person or place using only a few expertly chosen words.

One of the things I liked most about the book was how I felt transported to Japan and the streets of Tokyo while reading it.I learnt so much about the culture and geography.Lucy, as an English woman who has fled to Japan to forget about her past, was chillingly believable and surprisingly likeable.Her mysterious boyfriend and friend Lily were also very interesting and I found myself desperate to finish the book and uncover the truth behind the murder mystery.

This book has to be a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers or in-depth character studies of unusual and dark characters.The ending was very satisfying and also rather surprising.I can't wait to read another of Susanna Jones's novels.

Interesting but slow
"The Earthquake Bird" starts out well enough to hold you for a while, but as the book progresses it wears itself out. A huge mystery is set in the first few chapters in which a body has been found in Tokyo Bay, and our main character (Lucy) is undergoing questioning.Lucy goes through the entire book narrating much of her life in Japan and her friendship with the deceased. We are led to think this must have some sort of significance, and towards the end I was left waiting to see how this woman cracked. But the conclusion was very disapointing and I felt like I just read 100-some pages of nothing to do with the backbone of the story.

If you have some time on your hands give it a read, but I don't think it will leave you wanting more.

eerie
This book is highly recommended for those who are fond of psychological mysteries. If you like Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, I am pretty sure you will like this book.

Summary, no spoilers:

Lucy Fly is a 34 year old Englishwoman living in Toyko. She works there as a translator.

At the very beginning of the novel, Lucy is picked up by the Toyko police for questioning in the murder of her friend, Lily Bridges.

The story is told from the point of view of Lucy, as she backtracks to tell us the story of her upbringing in rural England, and the reasons she now lives and works in Toyko. As Lucy narrates, we are first introduced to her boyfriend, Teiji, and then to Lily, a young Englishwoman who has reasons of her own for her recent move to Toyko.

To say that Lucy is strange is to make a great understatement...and when Lucy starts referring to herself in third person you know something very weird is going on...

Highly recommended. Not only is this a good psychological mystery, this novel also gives you some insights on what it's like living in Japan.

Wonderful Debut
This is the stunning debut novel by Susanna Jones. The novel begins with an earthquake and an arrest for murder. This is the story of Lucy Fly, an English translator living in Tokyo. It begins at the end-the murder of her friend Lily and the disappearance of her lover Teiji-and guides the reader towards the truth of what happened to them. Jones jumps between the present-Lucy being interrogated by the police as a suspect-and what lead to these circumstances.
Living alone and utterly content with her life in Tokyo, Lucy meets Teiji one rainy night as he is photographing a puddle in Shinjuku. Teiji is lithe and obsessive and laconic about his past. Not understanding what he does with all of the photos he takes (Teiji claims nothing), one day Lucy sneaks into his flat and peers into the world he has recorded on film. Having opened the proverbial can of worms-and caught in the act when Teiji comes home-Lucy yields to an intense jealousy about the previous woman in his life.
This is compounded when Lily-an irritating, helpless nurse who befriends Lucy on the pretext of them both being from Yorkshire-and Teiji become involved on a trip that the three of them take to Sado Island. Lyrical in places, the novel is confident and insightful on the lives of the three main characters and on Japan itself. The earthquake-like ending will stay with you long after you have finished.

Eerie Psychological Suspense Novel, Great Debut
In this promising debut novel, Susanna Jones tells the story of a bright but disturbed British woman, Lucy Fly, who lives in Japan. Believing (incorrectly) that her actions during childhood caused her brothers death, Lucy stopped talking for three years and her family ignored her during most of her childhood. Escaping to Japan after leaving university, Lucy was content with her routine and a few friends.
The book is told through flashbacks as Lucy recalls events in her childhood and Japanese life that led to her questionning in a police station about the murder of a friend, Lily. As the story unfolds, you feel a sense of doom about the inevitable outcome.

As we learn more about what happened on the day in question and factors that caused these events, we are treated to a very interesting slice of Japanese life--what it is like to live and work in Tokyo, the relationship with her Japanese boyfriend, and a trip to lovely Sado Island in northwest Japan. The characters of Lily, the Brit expatriot bartender befriended by Lucy, is well developed and more minor characters such as the Japanese women in a string quartet that Lucy joins also add to the pleasure. The Japanese boyfriend, Teiji, is an enigma who speaks little and acts strangely, making a good match for Lucy, also a misfit.
This is a book that you dont want to put down, and and due to its short length, you can reach the surprise conclusion with much pleasure in a short time.

The only complaint I have is the unusual writing style that combines both first and third person narrative even in the same paragraph. However this does not take away from a thoroughly enjoyable first novel. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Product Description
Although Barbara Lynch was born and raised in South Boston, not Tuscany, many critics believe her food rivals the best of Italy. It has been praised by Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and Gourmet, and many more.

Lynch's cuisine is all the more remarkable because it is self-taught. In a story straight out of Good Will Hunting, she grew up in the turbulent projects of "Southie", where petty crime was the only viable way to make a living. But in a home ec class in high school, she discovered her passion. Through a mix of hunger for knowledge, hard work, and raw smarts, she gradually created her own distinctive style of cooking, mining Italian and French classics for ideas and seasoning them with imagination.

The 150 recipes in Stir combine sophistication with practicality. Appetizers like baked tomatoes and cheese and crisp, buttery brioche pizzas. Dozens of the artful pastas Lynch is famous for, such as little lasagnas with chicken meatballs, and potato gnocchi with peas and mushrooms. Lobster rolls with aoli. Chicken wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with melting Italian cheese. Creamy vanilla bread pudding with caramel sauce. Accompanied by Lynch's forthright opinions and stunning four-color photographs, these dishes will create a stir on home tables.

Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Barbara Lynch

Dear Amazon Reader,

Growing up in public housing in a tough neighborhood in Boston, I couldn't afford culinary school. Cookbooks like Waverly Root's The Food of Italy not only taught me about new ingredients and techniques but were an escape. (They also helped me bluff my way through my first cooking job.)Now I get to do what I love best: making people happy by feeding them really delicious food.

In Stir, I share my passion and my hard-earned knowledge. And of course, I give you my recipes, which the regulars in my restaurants have been clamoring for over the years. Some are almost embarrassingly easy, like Gorgonzola Fondue, Baked Cheese and Tomatoes, and Slow-Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Thyme. Others are a little more involved but oh-so-worth-it, like Chicken and Vegetable Soup with Caraway Gnocchi. There's plenty of weekday cooking, including Green Bean and Seared Shrimp Salad with Spicy Curry Sauce, which I eat all the time, and Lemony Breaded Chicken Cutlets, which my daughter Marchesa loves.

Then there are my pastas, which are my very favorite things, such as Chicken Meatball Lasagnettes(a favorite of Julia Child's) and sauces that pair well with both fresh and dried pasta, such as my signature Bolognese (I share my secret ingredient).

All of my recipes are written with the home cook in mind and so are full of the details that make a difference.I hope Stir will inspire you.

Enjoy!

Barbara Lynch

(Photo © Justin Ide)

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Recipe Excerpts from Stir

Roasted Fennel and Green Beans

Butcher Shop Bolognese

Creamy Vanilla Bread Pudding

... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Yum Yum!
My wife took out this book from a local library, and made a couple of the dishes.They were absolutely fantastic, and she was sad to return it to the library.Well, this was just before Mothers Day, so it was a hit when I purchased it for her (really for me too).

Barbara Lynch is Great
This is a great and simple cookbook that speaks to Ms. Lynch's great food in her restaurants.She will go down in history as one of the great chef's of her time.

Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition
My youngest son is THE Cook in our family.I like Italian food and flavors which he seldom makes.When he got it this book, he found a new and wonderful flavor to work and the results have been rave successes!

Entertaining, Unpretentious and Yummy
I got this book about a week and a half ago, and I like it so much that I've been lugging it around the house like a security blanket. I bought it in the first place because I ate at one of Lynch's restaurants. It seemed worthwhile to pay for the chance of recreating those gnocchi at home. Lynch is very generous with her most popular recipes - she gives up the secrets to a best-selling bolognese sauce, the gnocchi that every single reviewer of Sportello raves about, and the dish that pretty much made No. 9 Park famous. The recipes run the full cycle of seasonality, and many can be dressed up or down as you like. (Some are harder to dress down, but it seems that the key to dressing a lot of food up is serving it in small containers.)

Some of these recipes are very simple. The gorgonzola fondue isn't a whole lot more than melted cheese. The marinara sauce can be thrown together out of kitchen staples in under half an hour. A number of the soups (particularly the white bean and hazelnut and the spicy tomato) look interesting and uncomplicated. Tomato jam and tomato confit are on my experiment list for tomato season. Some of these recipes, by contrast, look like they would take a few hours a day for most of a week for a home cook to construct. Lynch likes olives more than I do, but she's the kind of cook who makes me wonder if maybe I'm just wrong about olives. She uses a lot more fat than I do, but I can see ways to trim it.

Best of all, Lynch has a charming willingness to draw back the curtain and expose the machinery of her work to the reader. Some of the recipes come neatly apart into building blocks for other recipes (the chicken soup could be a weekend lunch with whatever vegetables you have on hand thrown in), and she includes a few actual building block recipes (homemade pasta, chicken stock, tomato confit, cooked white beans, homemade ricotta). In many places, you have the option of using store-bought ingredients or making your own. The recipes are easy to follow: the results may look intimidating, but the instructions don't.

I think it is unlikely that I will ever make prune-stuffed gnocchi with foie gras sauce, but the chances have increased by an order of magnitude since this time last week, so who knows what will happen.

Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition
The flavors of both South Boston and Italy come to life in Barbara Lynch's first cookbook, //Stir: Mixing It Up In The Italian Tradition//. Lynch, a James Beard Award-winning chef, has crafted a book that includes not only the usual suspects in Italian cuisine, but also some uniquely original recipes, as well.

//Stir//'s chapters run the gamut from Starters And Small Bites to From The Sea; Chicken, Duck, And A Goose; and the quintessential A Passion For Pasta.Cleverly named, there are dishes both familiar (Fried Calamari with Spicy Aioli, Gnocchi, a Pappardelle with Tangy Veal Ragu) and exotic (Spiced Prunes, Chicken Meatball Lasagnettes, Poulet Au Pain).None of the recipes are overly complicated, making them appealing to even the modest chef, though Lynch's insistence on making and using fresh pasta dough may intimidate the lesser skilled.

Packed with a nice variety of recipes, and including an array of simple but useful tips ("start with the best ingredients," "season well and keep tasting"), Lynch's cookbook is a must-have for anyone looking to impress with their grasp of Italian cooking.

Reviewed by Mark Petruska ... Read more