Product Description
Are aging Miss Helen's bizarre sculptures, fashioned from beer cans and old headlights, evidence of artistry or insanity? South Africa's preeminent playwright Athol Fugard explores the backwaters of human creativity in this inquiry into the transformative power of art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An elderly iconoclast blossoms...
The Road to Mecca is a crucible for Miss Helen, the seemingly strange, eccentric widower holed up on her bizarre property in rural New Bethesda, South Africa. She is clearly different, as evidenced by her many sculptures and odd creations surrounding her house, which unto itself holds a myriad of eccentric charms.
She comes to odds when Elsa, a young woman committed to Helen surprisingly appears at her door and discovers Helen on the verge of giving up on life. Elsa's staunch commitment to Helen's unique beauty conflicts with Dominee Marius', a local preacher who stands on the side of the patronizing, yet caring Christian community.
The play is dynamic in it's a)exposure of isolated aging, b)Elsa's youthful/urban attitude vs. Helen's elderly/rural one, c)soul crushing Christian convalescence vs. a spirited iconoclastic artistic home, d)characteristics of artistic inspiration, e)creativity's essential place in daily life, f) the long journey of self discovery, among others.
A powerful conclusion as well demonstrates Fugard's unbound compassion and empathy for spirited life under South Africa's skies.

Thought Provoking and Stunning
Home sweet home: a place of love, refuge, and memories. For Helen Martin's it was also her life, her work and her Mecca. In the play "The Road to Mecca" Athol Fugard explores the question: Should we leave our Mecca, our spiritual fountainhead, when we can no longer take care of ourselves? The conflict between the three strong willed characters Helen, Elsa and Pastor Marius explores the question in the light of different religions, cultures, genders, ages and environments. Fugard said the play was suggested by the life and work of Helen Martins of New Bathesda, South Africa. The real Helen from age 50 to 75 transformed her house into a personal universe that enters the realm of archetype, symbol and metaphor. The house, furniture, windows and walls became a kaleidoscope of colored glass. In her garden she constructed over 200 figures: owls, Biblical figures, Buddhas, and ancient gods and goddesses. One South African scholar described her work as one of the most stirring experiences of his life and another called her one of South Africa's artistic geniuses. Fugard in his play shows Helen's creations as a glorious, makeshift oasis of creativity and life force and Elsa, his character, sees Helen as an example of freedom and transcendence. One powerful scene is when Helen, seated in her Mecca with dozens of candles playing off glittered walls and mirrors, tells Pastor Marius "I can't reduce my world to a few ornaments in a small room in an old-age home." The effect is stunning. The play is thought provoking and gives few answers. Helen is alive when it ends. Sadly, in 1975, the real Helen committed suicide. She drank caustic soda and died after three days I solitary agony. Her will included complex instructions listing in detail the ritual disposal of each of her sculptures. But today her home, known as "The Owl House" has been proclaimed a national monument and is a mecca for artists and tourists.

A Memorable Pleasure
A reclusive elderly widow (based on the late Helen Martins, whose South African home is now a museum) has created her own"Mecca" by decorating the inside of her home with candles and mirrors and by surrounding the house with an assortment of personally-sculpted mermaids, wisemen, peacocks and pyramids.Although her neighbors view Miss Helen as a crazy old woman, she has made friends with Elsa Barlow, a young teacher who has returned for a surprise visit.On that same day, clergyman Marius Byleveld has come to help Helen apply to a nursing home.Marius is fond of Helen and fears for her safety.Elsa is in opposition to a move as it would take Helen away from her art.

I was originally concerned that a drama focusing on an old woman's artwork would not translate well to a listening experience. How could I care as deeply about Miss Helen if I was not able to see the oddball sculptures she had created? Surely the vision of "a city of light and color more splendid than anything I had ever imagined" could not be adequately transmitted through the speakers of my tape player.I need not have worried.One of my favorite parts of the entirely wonderful listen remains the moment when Helen lights her room with candles -- music comes up and there is absolutely no problem seeing a room aglow in a growing light of imagination and art.Adding to the experience is a superb cast performing a well-written examination of what it means to be an artist, what it means to be older, and what it means to be shunned.Fabulous!

Top notch performances in a great play.
Excellent recording quality, an interesting listen. ... Read more

Product Description
This Pulitzer Prize-winner is a deeply touching and funny play about three eccentric sisters from a small Southern town rocked by scandal when Babe, the youngest, shoots her husband. Humor and pathos abound as the sisters unite with an intense young lawyer to save Babe from a murder charge, and overcome their familys painful past. A BBC co-production.

A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Ray Baker, Donna Bullock, Arye Gross, Glenne Headly, Sondra Locke and Belita Moreno. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Great!
I ordered this play for a colleague and it came in great shape and in a timely fashion.This was wonderful as I ordered fast service.Thank you!

Exceeded Expectations
I ordered this play script last Wednesday, 02/17, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see it waiting for me in my mailbox today, 02/22. I have heard some pretty negative comments about "you can't be too careful" ordering from Amazon because you never know when your order will -actually- get to you or what kind of condition it will be in.

Well, let's just say my expectations were far exceeded by this purchase. The script is in great condition, and I received it in a far less amount of time than I had assumed I would. Thank you for a quality script--I can't wait to start reading!

Crimes of the Heart
I was thoroughly pleased.The product was in very good condition and I received it immediately.

Crimes of the Heart
This play is a dark comedy. It's great for the acting student for analysis and scene study.

Will keep you interested until the end
Enjoyed CRIMES OF THE HEART, a play that won the 1981 Pulitzer
Prize for drama.

It was very well performed by L.A. Theatre Works, a company that
has done several other plays that I've enjoyed over the years.

This one is about three rather eccentric sisters from a small
Southern town . . . scandal erupts when Babe, the youngest,
shoots her husband . . . how it all ends is what keeps you
interested in what's happening.

Glenn Heady and Sondra Locke are particularly fine in
two of the main roles . . . and that's why I usually like these
productions so much; i.e., unlike typical books on tape (or CD)
that feature one or two actors, every L.A. Theatre Works has
several different actors for all the key parts.
... Read more

Product Description
By the time the Velveteen Rabbit is dirty, worn out, and about to be burned, he has almost given up hope of ever finding the magic called Real.Amazon.com Review
A stuffed toy rabbit (with real thread whiskers) comes to lifein Margery Williams's timeless tale of the transformative power oflove. Given as a Christmas gift to a young boy, the Velveteen Rabbitlives in the nursery with all of the other toys, waiting for the daywhen the Boy (as he is called) will choose him as a playmate. In time,the shy Rabbit befriends the tattered Skin Horse, the wisest residentof the nursery, who reveals the goal of all nursery toys: to be made"real" through the love of a human. "'Real isn't howyou are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens toyou. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to playwith, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'" Thissentimental classic--perfect for any child who's ever thought thatmaybe, just maybe, his or her toys have feelings--has beencharming children since its first publication in 1922. (A greatread-aloud for all ages, but children ages 8 and up can read it ontheir own.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (143)

My Favoorite Children's Book
This is a little love story with a philosophy.It has a lovely lesson for young and old. This will be a gift to a Grandmother who had not heard of it , to read to her Granddaughter.
PS I am 69 yrs old

colorful illustrations and good bedtime reading
this is a good length for a bedtime story -- the illustrations are very good too

displeased
I received my order in good time, however it was not what they described. The condition of one book (velveteen rabbit)was far worse than described, with pencil markings on the page, and the other book (mother west wind) had an inked inscription on the inside page . Neither of these conditions were mentioned in the description. I tried to contact the sellers via their phone number when I received the books, to alleviate any badfeelings with the purchase, and they never responded. There was an automated phone answer that did not even mention their business name and they never responded to my messages. I left messages on three consecutive days.I will not do business with them again. I had to call Amazon to get the situation rectified.

Pure Magic
I read this for the first time at age 49.What a beautiful, timeless story.Easily one of the top 10 childrens books of all time.

"New" but not so much...
The book was listed as "new," but pages are crinkled from having been thumbed through many many times. I absolutely love the illustration in this particualr Velveteen Rabbit, but am disappointed the pages are not fresh and crisp as it should be in a "new" book. ... Read more

Product Description
It's June in Montreal, and Dr. Temperance Brennan, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend in beautiful Quebec City. First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. The remains are probably old and only of archeological interest, but Tempe must make sure they're not a case for the police.

One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she'll spend the weekend in the crime lab. Something about the crime scene is familiar to Tempe: the stashing of the body parts; the meticulous dismemberment. As a pattern continues to emerge, Tempe calls upon all her forensic skills, including bone, tooth/dental, and bitemark analysis and x-ray microflourescence to convince the police that the cases are related and to try to stop the killer before he strikes again.

Told with lacerating authenticity and passion, D&#233jà Dead is both poignant and terrifying as it hurtles toward its breathtaking conclusion and instantly catapults Kathy Reich into the top ranks of crime authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (267)

Very detailed, but not what I was expecting
I bought this book because I love the Bones television show and this was the first book in the series that inspired teh show.I was expecting it to be a little more like the television show, with great character interaction as well as the technical crime mysteries, but the book tends to go very far into the details of the science, to the point where it is over my head and I have to reread a page twelve times to figure out what was going on.Perhaps the rest of the books are different since this was the first, but I am not sure if I am willing to read the second book.Good story either way.

Deja Dumb
This book isn't particularly well-written or compelling. That said, it probably would have been a decent read had it not been for the massive plot holes and maddening gaps in logic required to move this story forward. Every character in this story, no matter how well-educated or how good at his or her job, has to do ridiculously bone-headed things now and again just to keep things moving. And it's this that really turned me off as a reader.

From the police who stubbornly refuse to accept the glaringly obvious evidence that a serial killer is on the loose, to the woman with a doctorate in sociology who refuses to go to the police despite having a dangerous stalker, to the ME who goes to dig up a crime scene in the middle of the night, alone, and without forensic equipment the characters tend to come across as so mind-numbingly stupid as to eliminate all reader sympathy toward them. Of course, how else would you get an ME out of the lab and in the middle of a crime investigation? I'm sure there must be a solution outside of bumbling ineptitude.

Eventually, I cared so little for the characters that I just stopped reading.

Deja Dead
Kathy Reichs is an outstanding writer whose descriptions give clear mental images and whose thought patterns are intriguing enough to hold my attention for hours.This book was a first big seller, but it is very sophisticated as a forensic thriller.I really like her use of French throughout the book which gives it an even more educational quality.Thoroughly enjoyed!

A Character Driven Story that Sucks You In
Kathy Reichs gives us a stunning heroine to fall in love with in her first novel. Tempe Brennan is a forensic pathologist from the States who is working in Montreal. She's a flawed character (ex-alcoholic, divorced) and that just seems to make her more real. She's never quite gotten used to cutting up the dead, she's still a little squeamish, she's very believable, maybe it's because Reichs herself does the same kind of work, maybe that's why we cringe when she describes in the first person Tempe's reactions when she's on the job.

This is a character driven story (the best kind) that sucks you right in. I was as frustrated as Tempe when the good old boy, French Canadian cops wouldn't believe her about the serial killer business. I felt Tempe's fear when she was afraid, though I must admit she was a little reckless at times. and I sympathized with her when others doubted her.

I loved this five star novel and am going on to read more of the series.

Not enough like Bones
I am somewhat amazed that a TV series of the caliber of Bones came out of a book series that is just so-so.I guess it really is the difference in characters that the show is able to produce that the book just fell flat on.I don't have any desire to learn more about the book Tempe.She is boring. ... Read more

Product Description
This encyclopedia looks at the sexual habits, deviations and quirks of nearly 200 famous, notorious or otherwise distinguished people from all walks of life. Each entry describes the subject's fame and achievements, and within this context examines their sexual activities. The entries are preceded by over 50 lists of sexual characteristics in which the subjects of the biographies are listed under such headings as mother-fixated, masochists and sadists, and endurance and staying power. Characters featured include Henry VIII, Napoleon Bonaparte, Catherine the Great, Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin and Mozart. ... Read more

Product Description
Before Alfred Barr there was no museum in America devoted exclusively to exhibiting art by living artists on a continuing basis. Barr, an exacting intellectual, a man of unyielding principle, an influential tastemaker, and an inspired teacher, brought such a museum into being - The Museum of Modern Art in New York - founded in 1929, when he was only twenty-seven. But from the start Barr's vision of the scope of a museum went beyond painting and sculpture. And so the Museum exhibited architecture, machine-made products for the home, well-designed automobiles, films, posters, typography - all in addition to maintaining an innovative and busy schedule of shows of painting and sculpture. Through this concept of a museum and sculpture. Through this concept of a museum Barr was largely responsible for the way things look today: our cars, our houses, our furniture, our clothes, books, and advertisements. This collection of Barr's writing - many of which appeared in journals that are no longer in print or are otherwise accessible- is the first to enable us to survey the entire span of his contributions. The 35 pieces reprinted here, ranging over forty years.... witness the dramatic shifts in public taste as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism became familiar - to a great extent through the evangelism of Alfred Barr - and can watch the beleaguered Barr struggle with disgruntled artists, uncomprehending trustees, and a jeering press. --- excerpts from book's dustjacket ... Read more