Product Description
On assignment shooting the covered bridges in Iowa, photographer Robert Kincaid falls in love with Iowa native Francesca Johnson during four days of love, magic, and beauty. By the author of Just Beyond the Firelight. A first novel. 35,000 first printing.Amazon.com Review
When Robert Kincaid drivesthrough the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into FrancescaJohnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-classphotographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience ofuncommon truth and stunning beauty that will haunt them forever.The romantic classic of the 1990's. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (397)

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
'The Bridges of Madison County' is well worth the read. A wisp of smoke this one. Simple without being simplistic. I cried, and I've seen the movie! - I knew how it would end.

From the first lines I was captivated:

'There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.'

Such featherlight poetry! I didn't expect this at all when I signed up to read Bridges. I knew it would be a passionate, torrid affair that spanned four days. But the passion in the prose! The straightforward yet poetic nature of the story. A single, clashing love caught in four days?

Waller manages it, without slipping into `telling.' He weaves between the viewpoint of quiet, confident National Geographic writer-photographer Robert Kincaid as he arrives in the south Iowa countryside in 1965 in his old Chevrolet pick-up truck, and the bold but unremarkable farm-wife (and Italian war bride) Francesca Johnson, who falls deeply in love with Robert while her husband and children are away at the Iowa State Fair.

The Madison County setting with its rustic bridges adds to the romance in this novel. I remember hearing about it as a child, but in those days I believed `literature' meant boring. If the lit critics were raving over The Bridges of Madison County, and the women were swooning over it, it must either be stuffy or cheap.

Neither! So much life in this one. What I appreciated most about the novel was the gentleness with which Waller penned it. He could have gone high-drama and excessive romanticism. Instead he opted for sincerity in dialogue and quiet elegance. A true and honest love story told frankly, sensually, tragically. An intense affair coupled with tender conversation and honest emotion. An entire life lived in four days; a story framed in the early 1990s and told through Francesca's children, her letters, journals, photographs - and of course, Robert and Francesca.

Highly recommended. It's a summer night in a rain shower.

don't be so harsh
Wow, I tend to agree with the other reviewer that people who are so extreamly harsh with their reviews must be terribly miserable people with perhaps, seriously unhappy lives, void of satisfying love or the ability to feel romance.

I am a reader of non-fiction history and never read a romance novel so I do not know anything about their content, but I chose to read this book after seeing the movie and found it a bit "poetic", but refreshing and I certainly didn't have the need to "throw it against the wall".Wow, what a reaction!

Sometimes you need a "walk down the lane of love" that apparently, few people never experience.Yes, middle age passion can happen, whether it does as passiontly as in this book, who knows.But it is a refreshing to read.So, lighten up and make a date with romance and enjoy the book for what it is. The sequel is an interesting trip too, a bit over-kill, but interesting.

I threw the book across the room .,,
I read this when it first came out and everyone was talking about it.I feel compelled to write a review now because I just came upon a list on the internet of The Worst Books Ever; in my memory, this by far is the worst book I've ever read -- a true time-waster, based on character development and likeability of main characters, writing style (horrendous), story development, emotions generated.This book was so bad, when I got about 3/4 of the way through, I hurled the book across the room and yelled, "Pap!", then I quickly ran to see if I'd damaged the library's book I had just thrown -- and to think I had been on a waiting list to read this book.This guy cannot write.And as a romantic story, it's cheesey and shallow.Other 1-star reviewers have pegged this for what makes it awful.As for me, this is the only book I've ever had such a strongly negative reaction that I literally tossed it.I'm pleased to see more people here voted this as a 1-star book than any other rating.Who says modern readers can't spot pap when they read it?

Simplicity Can Be A Satisfactory Choice
Just a few weeks ago, I spent some profitable time viewing Clint Eastwood's film version of The Bridges of Madison County. I've since written a Film Review for Amazon. It then seemed logical to read the book - which I've now done twice - and make a few remarks about it.

I quite like Mr Waller's book. I like its simplicity, the lack of clutter, and the conscious choice to impress the reader with a shorter story well told. It would have been OK to have added characters and tangential story-lines, fleshed out the detail, and told us more of Iowa and covered bridges and Summer vegetables. And too, I would have been pleased with more description regarding disparate mind-sets and life experience and local color. Mr Waller didn't seem to want to do all that. TBoMC is what it is.

One might suggest that denser material such as that of Tom Clancy and Stephen King is quality work within their respective genres, and that person would be correct. But then, so is just about any volume in the `Nancy Drew' series. And is anything more profound than Dr Seuss's The Butter Battle Book?

I've come to appreciate such simplicity in my middling years. I don't believe this `thinness' to which some take exception of necessity diminishes the quality of the writing or the satisfaction to be gained by its reading. Neither should it minimize the stature of the author.

If I had been editor, I might have advised Mr Waller to publish without the chapters: `The Beginning,' the `Postscript,' or the `Interview with "Nighthawk" Cummings.' These are not necessary, are actually somewhat distracting, and don't quite measure up in quality to the core of the book. Bets are even they were actually added last. TBoMC would have been a wonderful novella without those pages.

Ehhh, but it's all just my opinion anyway.

Four Stars is entirely appropriate though. This is a fine piece of writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Russell de Ville
27 March 2010

TERRIBLE.
Everyone in my family read this book. We kept passing it to one another with the intro, "you have to read this. It's TERRIBLE." Because we really wanted someone else in the house with whom we could discuss who TERRIBLE it was. And once we all read it, we spent many enjoyable meals talking about how much we hated it. So at least it fostered family unity. But the movie is much much better -- how often can you say that? ... Read more

Product Description
A columnist's examination of the celebrity affairs and sexual liaisons indulged in by the members of high society is seen through the experiences of a troubled writer, a mega-businessman, a famous underwear model, and others. Reprint. PW. K. "Amazon.com Review
The "Sex and the City" columnist for the New YorkObserver documents the social scene of modern-day Manhattan. Thereader gets an introduction to "Modelizers," the men who only haveeyes for models, as well as a more common species, the "ToxicBachelor." Reading like a society novel gone downtown and askew,Sex and the City is a comically sordid look at status andambition and the many characters consumed by the sexual politics ofthe '90s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (213)

used book
Book arrived in about a week in very good condition.Would buy from this seller again.

sex in the cty
I enjoy books so very much and Amazom always helps me find the books I want at a great price . I truely enjoy Amazon.

This is one case where the show was better than the book
I have the complete S&TC series on tape/CD plus the 2008 Movie and am anticipating the 2010 Movie and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE all the girls, guys, and locations in S&TC!So it was natural that I complete my collection by purchasing the book that started it all.I read the book from cover to cover in one evening (that's how easy it is to read) but I must say - this is definitely one case where the show is much better than the book.I can hardly believe someone would think this would have been good to make into a TV show - but I guess that's the genius of Darren Starr because Candace Bushnell's book certainly has no genius qualities about it.True, the show follows the book and the characters somewhat - at least for the first season anyway albeit not in the same context - but these people in the book --- they're so completely complicated and dark and kinda dumb and definitely NOT fabulous - but I guess that's Manhattan for you, not much of anything really 'funny' about it - just neurosis, shallow sex and lots of talk about models, bars and restaurants in New York and The Hamptons.I just wasn't that into it - the best part was comparing it to the show and knowing how much better it is in film than in print.

Sarah Jessica, Kim, Cynthia and Kristin made the story what it is -- FAB-U-LOUS!!!Certainly not this cheap rag of a book.I'm not disrespecting Candace Bushnell, I applaud her - I admire her for getting what she got out of this - who here could say as much?I just thought the show was executed a lot better than the book and I'm glad I only paid a penney for it.

Thrashy Sex in New York City Makes the Crazy Alluring
This huge seller has already been reviewed well at this Amazon site.I will therefore focus on the book's underlying themes taking a look at the dynamics of sex, intimacy and estranged living in America represented by the huge reflective mirror that is New York City. Candace Bushnell, a good, smart writer not only wrote this very hot sizzler but also her Lipstick Jungle novel. The major theme ofboth The City and Lipstick is that it is nearly impossible for a person to find balance in the frenzied, over-wrought, crazed, open 24-hour a day frantic city. Real intimacy and lasting relationships have no chance.However, prurient interests in off-beat, kinky, naughty and often all too-casual sex abound. In this atmosphere perverts mingle with the niave.

Sex in the City is a mega-hit multi-media bombshell. It spun off the TV soap that then sold even more books, made money as prime time TV property and then launched a movie with a sequel, sold more books and made syndication of the TV show more lucrative.It's companion "Lipstick" also became a highly touted TV soap but one with less attraction and appeal of the original "Sex" series.Lipstick Jungle's plot twist was not simply about failing relationships but also about the loyalty of 3 female friends who championed each other in the "City."Unfortunately the Lipstick TV script writing did appear as consistent as that of the original show and Lipstick was canceled early on.

The issues that Bushnell presents us are real.The sociology of America reveals that nearly everyone lives in an uprooted distant locality removed from family and kin, isolated from the traditions and culture of our origins in places where many people don't know their neighbors.The City, in this case the over seven million-person New York, magnifies the disrupted lives we all know and places us, the reader, in a mind-boggling whirlpool of its' Metropolitan economic activity.

The attraction of Bushnell's characters, all hungering for connection and validation, easily draw us into her stories.Virtually all of the characters live in various stages of depression trying desperately to make life better and is the one big theme that gets downplayed in the TV series. All of the characters have wounds so deep that they choose vices to mitigate their personal pain. One of the main character's, Carrie Bradshaw, can only embrace life with cigarettes and booze.A true broad in the New York sense, Carrie has a major drinking bouts with one really bad episode in which her desperate life crashes and she awakes to find her hair tangled with vomit.

Regular, sustained, drinking of alcohol is treated as the norm of New York life.All of the book's main characters live in an alcoholic haze without which they presumably could not make it.We are left with a question of what is really true.Is confusing, overpowering New York to blame for relationships that do not work or is it that booze and sometimes drugs destroy all possibilities of real intimacy? Perhaps it is both.

Hard core boozing is too often hidden from our sight by the media; the reader or viewer can never grasp the full fundamental meaning of compulsion and addiction.Only the insightful reader will peel back layers of illusion to get at the heart of reality. Do not blame the writer. Bushnell describes well. It is not Busnell's job to tell us the truth: Be enticed by the power of drugs and alcohol and kiss real love, sex and intimacy goodbye.The book could as easily been named Booze, Sex and the City.

Hex and the Critics
5 stars? It's almost like Candace Bushnell jedi-mind-tricked some of her reviewers. I don't get it. I read this book after a trip to New York. I had watched a lot of the show and found it really captivating, but I did NOT expect the book to be like the show. A book can stand alone... except when it can't. And this book can't. It is completely disjointed. I agree with another reviewer who said that it's almost like Bushnell is telling inside jokes for New Yorkers. She starts, stops, hops all over the place, starts again somwhere else. NONE of it hangs together. And I have to say, I'm pretty amazed that this book was selected as the idea for an HBO series. I found the writing very stilted and mundane. It was weird how the beginning and middle of the book featured a host of characters and then the end of the book was pretty much only about Carrie and Mr. Big. I felt like I had been handed the final half of a totally different manuscript! Don't read this book if you like story format, developed characters, or any kind of closure or ending for sure. ... Read more

Product Description
Editorial Reviews The publisher, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, June 15, 2001

Book Description

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Complete Edition, with translations and elaborate purports by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The Bhagavad-gita is the main source-book on yoga and a concise summary of India's Vedic wisdom. Yet remarkably, the setting for this best-known classic of spiritual literature is an ancient Indian battlefield.

At the last moment before entering battle, the great warrior Arjuna begins to wonder about the real meaning of his life. Why should he fight against his friends and relatives? Why does he exist? Where is he going after death? In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna, Arjuna's friend and spiritual master, brings His disciple from perplexity to spiritual enlightenment. In the course of doing so, Krsna concisely but definitively explains transcendental knowledge; karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and bhakti-yoga; knowledge of the Absolute; devotional service; the three modes of material nature; the divine and demoniac natures; and much more.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the largest-selling, most widely used edition of the Gita in the world.

Special Features

* Original Sanskrit text
* English equivalents for each Sanskrit word
* Elaborate commentary
* Complete glossary
* Complete verse index
* Complete subject index
* High readability
* Profuse full-color illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (111)

More Than You Bargained For
There a few things in particular I really appreciated - and you probably will too - about this version of the Bhagavad Gita.

1. The word-for-word translation from Sanskrit (the book's original language) to English. It helped me access the poetry and strength of the original verse, and to better understand the English translations.

2. This is not just the Bhagavad Gita. Clearly (and according to a biography read elsewhere) the author studied other religious texts in Sanskrit that go into the philosophy more in-depth than the Bhagavad Gita.The author had a guru who taught what his guru had taught him, who had taught what his guru taught him, back quite a ways. So, not only did the author study extensively in his lifetime, but he had the benefit of learning in a tradition of wise and dedicated spiritualists. So, what you get from this edition, by reading the explanations (called "purports" in the book) is access to this huge fount of knowledge about the tradition.

Finally, although some of the viewpoints expressed might not be easy for every reader to swallow (as some other reviewers have mentioned), I think it's worth it to set those aside for the time-being and see what revelations you can get from this great book. I've even asked people in the same religion as the author what they think about those seemingly off-key parts of the book, and have received some pretty satisfying answers. Anyway, it's a gem; don't judge too quickly!

Gita
The Gita is the Hindu telling of Krishna who is God.This version is extremely well translated to make it easy to understand. A wonderful story of Eastern religion.

Too Krishna-centric...
Objective analysis and much needed background info take second-place to Prabhupada's salesmanship.He habitually uses the purports (and occasionally the passage translations) as an opportunity to promote his own brand of Krishna-centric theology.

Prabhupada inserts his seemingly trademarked phrase, "Krishna consciousness," at any given opportunity.The word-for-word translations (not to be confused with the passage translations) offer some respite from this barrage, but they can be a pain to read given the grammatical differences between Sanskrit and English.

If you decide to get this, my advice is to read only the passage translations--and do that, even, with a grain of salt.I'm not sure if unadulterated translations of the Gita exist, but if you're looking for objectivity you wont find it in this read.

Work of the Divine.
I take it as an honor writing a review for this great book! Of course, one doesnt need to write a review for The Bhagavad Gita - the greatest philosophical classic mankind has ever seen. But I have no words to express my pleasure and gratitude about Swamiji's translation and commentary of the Gita in Bhagavad-Gita, As It Is. He conveys the Supreme knowledge and the message of the Gita in such an articulate, compelling manner, which easily drives one of today's generation which is clouded in materialistic world into following a spiritual path, ultimately leading to realization of the truth about himself and God, and the purpose of life. This is by far the best translation of the Gita available today. It makes me wonder, if anything else in this world seems important compared to the divine, enlightening knowledge one can obtain from the Gita. Swamiji's work on the Gita is undoubtedly the best for anyone who is yearning for the divine knowledge, and too add it up, Swami Prabhupada is a self-realized spiritual teacher from the disciplic succession beginning from Lord Krsna himself. This is a MUST READ for anyone who wants to know the truth about God, and who we are.

One of the greatest and most sucessful cosmic jokes of all time
MULTIDIMENSIONAL HOMELAND SECURITY - A SERIOUS , RIDICULOUSLY SHORT , COMMENTARY FROM A READER IN ECONOMICALLY BUSTED ICELAND.

Over the past years , there have been a series of tons of reviews on this book by tons of people , many of whom are extremely intelligent Krsna consciousness devotees , to put the term properly from the author's perspective , I use here Krsna , despite it's really Krishna and that the name of Krishna means 'sun'.
But unlike all the other reviewers of this book , who mostly reviewed for it's author , I have decided to dedicate this review , to another , far more famous , equally astonishing author who may not necessarily have to agree with this author's views on the content of the Baghavad - Gita , or the possibility of the actual existence of Krishna - Acharya S.
Ridiculous as this may seem and irritating and even infuriating to many devotees of the Krishna Consciousness movement, I have decided to dedicate this review , to Acharya S , author of the famous books Christ Conspiracy , Christ in Egypt the Horus - Jesus Connection , and the Suns of God , and Who Was Jesus under the title of Irish Murdoch. Unlike , inmy view , Krishna , and I emphasize that is strichtly my view , Acharya S. is for real. She is like the author of this book for real , and one who almost managed to achieve as many readers and fans of her works - or maybe she didn't , but I feel that one day she will certainly get there , despite that may not necessarily have been one of her many goals. So of what use is an otherwise most excellent and the world's ultimately authoriative translation of Baghavad - Gita , and full interpretation of importance to someone like me? Because I feel I am cetting closer to the truth about these so - called solar myths and their function and purpose in the modern world than many of their otherwise highly intelligent and aware modern - day interpreters. What purpose can a solar myth like Krishna serve to someone like me who represents the academic community? Well , for starters , I feel that mythical deities like Krishna or Jesus can be produced during altered states of consciousness and used as tulpas or thought forms - creatures which can be produced by means of extremely advanced forms of meditation and magickal or occult ritual , and which can be used to balance things out of things go haywire if a tulpa goes out of control. This may sound ridiculous to some but it is only one function of such myths. Do not laugh at my interpretation , you guys're probably gonna laugh at it anyway , particularly in light of all the tulpa - talk.
So I have chosen to approax the Baghavad - Gita as a sort of great , cosmic joke. It is a joke because it is filled with most meticulous and extensive humour like most jokes are , and if you choose not to take it too seriously you get the humour instantly in the end of the book. The Gita becomes your personal guide throughout the remainder of your life as you hear about it from others before you decide to pick it up and actually read it. And as a joke , it is one of the best jokes of all time in my view and one of humankind's history's all time greats. It is a seriously not meant to be so originally joke , unlike the famous 9 - 11 Comission report , which failed at every attempt to initiate a sense of humour in the viewer. There is all this nonsense from people who think that the Baghavad - Gita is of no use for modern man and of no use in the modern world. But it is really in your mind where Krishna and Arjuna engage on the eternal battlefield of consciousness , whose subject is nothing less than the liberation of the spirit per ce , and not just the spirit of the human being. There is every reason to believe that there is Baghavad - Gita type litterature on other planets , and that variations of the Baghavad - Gita and Baghavad - Gita like scriptures have been read there , as well as here. But since it's original translation many of it's author's interpretations such as there being only one sun in this universe have been thoroughly and meticulously debunked , and many others'wisdom still stands today. It was never intended originally to in the end be summarized as a single page interpretation on amazon.com and be declared as a great , cosmic joke. Perhaps 'the gods'will be talking about this interpretation in the author's afterlife for aeons to come from now , long after this great civilization has been forgotten and probably wiped out by yet another great flood of epic proportions. The Baghavad - Gita is serious in it's meticulous research into the nature of truth , meaning and human potential , where the terrestrial and celestial are interpreted as being merely reflections of the observer's condition.
I couldn't resist! ... Read more