The Godwulf Manuscript

Book Description

Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he is ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. He is hardly surpised that his only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest.

The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows that if he doesn't finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked "D" -- for dead.

"Spenser is Boston's answer to James Bond -- irreverent, witty, worldy. His first-person recital of his detective work makes for fast, amusing reading." (The Pittsburgh Press)

Customer Reviews:

Great Start.......2007-09-28

This is where Spenser starts and it is perfect. The story, the character and the ending. If you are a Spenser or Parker fan here are the roots. Good Book.

Quick & Fun.......2007-05-12

I spent a couple years gradually acquiring all the books in the Spenser series and now it pays off - I get to begin reading them! I finished off "The Godwulf Manuscript" over a couple evenings at work between calls. Spenser is your typical wise-cracking, hard-drinking, womanizing gumshoe in this first book in the Spenser series. Written and set in the early 1970s, it is a mirror on that time. Students frequently are part of radical, left-wing groups; lots of pot going around, everyone is wearing flares, etc.

Spenser is originally hired by the university to find The Godwulf Manuscript. One of his leads brings him to Terry Orchard, a troubled girl who was raised in wealth and now is a member of SCACE, a left-wing student group. He believes she might have information on who stole the manuscript. Later that night, he receives a call from her asking for help - he arrives to find her over the dead body of her boyfriend and obviously extremely high on something. So now he also has to try to prove that Terry Orchard has been set up.

His investigations take him to some strange places, including the apartment of a group called Ceremony of Moloch - at which place he has to once again rescue Terry.

This is a fun and quick read for anyone who likes the detective genre. Give Parker's Spenser series a try!

Promise but no punch........2007-05-09

This is the first of Robert Parker's books that I've read, and were it not for the general raves by Parker fans and the continued popularity of the Spenser character I might not be willing to read further into the series. Stylistically, I'd say the work is embryonic (at least I hope so), and the plot & characterization simply have nothing new to add to the detective fiction genre. I'm told that Spenser is quite the wit but that must develop in future books because although he occasionally has the witty quip here, there was nothing that really made me sit up and take notice. But I did pick up a copy of 'God Save the Child,' and I'm hoping for something more substantial as I read further.

Going back for a second read - this time as an audiobook.......2007-01-06

I've long since read all of the older Spenser novels (and when a new one comes out I snap it up right away) but I am enjoying a second time around with the older ones as audiobooks - I listen while commuting.

The Godwulf Manuscript is the first in a very long line of Spenser novels. The most essential parts of Spenser are here - wisecracks, details about cooking, his mostly unused office and a healthy interest in the opposite sex, Lt. Quirk (I'd forgotten he was Spenser's first "buddy" in a long line of buddies) and Spenser's self-depricating inner voice.

The Godwulf Manuscript is a much more "noire" style book than most of the rest of them - but then again it's not much of a surprise really - authors change over time.

Spenser, however, does not change. The book is set in 1973 and Spenser is 37 years old. He makes more references to feeling the effects of age in this book than I ever remember throughout the rest of the series.Yet, Spenser remains ageless, like James Bond, which is good - otherwise the last Spenser book would have featured a 70 year old Spenser. While it might have been interesting, I like the ageless (or very slowly aging )Spenser better.

The audiobook was well-read, although the product description is misleading. It is not a 6 hour read. It would be more accurate to call it a 5 hour and 15 minute read.

I give this one an A.

The Beginning: Raw, with Signs of Promise.......2006-10-19

As with any other Spencer novel, "Manuscript," the first, is fun, uncomplicated, and a quick read. The plot is a little goofy, in that a rare manuscript is stolen and held for ransom from a Boston-area university as an indirect effect of a professor's dangerous liaison with a wayward and impressionable student. It sets a nice backdrop, however, against which to introduce the private investigating hero of the entire series, to hint at his failings and strengths. His cockiness and irreverence are quickly apparent and add flair to what otherwise might be formulaic.

Anything "Manuscript" lacks in polish it makes up for in promise. It the seeds and signs of the Spencer formula to come (he is handy with his fists, he likes to cook, is a snappy dresser), but is missing many of the familiar elements of the other novels. There is no Hawk and no Susan; Spencer is sloppier about what he eats and how often he works out; and while his attitude towards ladies isn't exactly insensitive, let's just say he isn't concerned about the appropriateness of availing himself of women (a mother and daughter team, no less) who might be desirous more due to vulnerability and despondency than actual attraction.

A real fun aspect of this novel is the glimpse it offers into the early 70s (when this was written, although it feels earlier): everyone smokes, especially at work; problems are aided by a shot of whiskey, especially at work; and women are meant to be protected first and hit on second. It feels especially dated when Spencer drops references in his metaphors. The book is a real throwback to the pulp fiction elements that seem cliched by today's standards: mafia guys who clean their fingernails with stilettos and who are named Sonny; "get in the back of the car" moments; and roughing people up to get confessions out of them. It's great fun, but don't look for any heavy lifting.

Robert Parker: Three Complete Spenser Novels (The Godwulf Manuscript / Mortal Stakes Promised Land)

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Robert Parker: Three Complete Spenser Novels (The Godwulf Manuscript / Mortal Stakes Promised Land)
Robert Parker
Manufacturer: Wings
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Godwulf Manuscript (A Spenser Novel)

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The Spenser companion: The "Godwulf manuscript" to "Small vices", a reader's guide

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The Spenser companion: The "Godwulf manuscript" to "Small vices", a reader's guide
Dennis Tallett
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GODWULF MANUSCRIPT (SPENSER, NO 1)

Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GL2C5Y

Book Description

A bright, defiant, energized team of super-powered teenagers from different worlds join forces to form a legion of passionate activists that crusade to leave their mark on a complacent society that has forgotten how to fight for change.This volume features an all-out brawl between the Legion and the evil agents of Terror Firma in the Fifth Dimension in order stop galactic destruction.But victory will not come without great sacrifice for this young team of heroes.

Customer Reviews:

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

Waid continues to make us interested, showcasing the tensions in the Legion between selling out to the man, the power struggle between Cos and Brainy, a dead member, and a nasty alien invasion, spearheaded by superhumans, that the older generation fails to believe in.

Darker than the first.......2006-07-02

Unlike the first volume that had single issue stories that served as intros for different legionairres this book is one continous arch. The Legion faces their first major super villains and the rift between Cosmic Boy and Brainiac 5 causes some in-team fighting. "Death of a Dream" is an excellent title because the Legion sees first hand it isn't all retro code names and fancy flight rings. There is a lot of violence, destruction, and angst in these issues and it ends with significant losses.

While there is still some character development, especially for Brainiac 5, there aren't as many humorous situations as the first volume (for obvious reason). Still, it is a solid volume with lots of battles so I recommend it.

Book Description

A mysterious maze
Eleven-year-old Holly Wade and her twin siblings, Judy and Crockett, are sent to live with their grandparents in the small town of Dimsdale, Massachusetts when their father is declared missing in action in Vietnam. Dimsdale is nothing like Boston; there are only two other African-American children in the entire school. Even worse, Grandpa and Grandma Wade live in an old junkyard! While exploring one day, Holly, Judy, and Crockett wander into an overgrown hedge maze—and find themselves transported back in time to Dimsdale’s past. Can they right an ancient wrong and free the town of Dimsdale from a witch’s curse?

Customer Reviews:

You'd be my queen.......2007-01-14

Here's a fun game. Just off the top of your head, name me as many children's fantasy books starring African-Americans as you can come up with. "The Wizard of Earthsea" doesn't count. Go! How'd you do? Many come to mind? My bet is that if you were able to think of anything it was either a book by Virginia Hamilton or one of the five million books out there in which a contemporary black character is taken back in time. Maybe you also came up with "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm", but that's more sci-fi anyway. This is unacceptable. Fantasy is a huge genre of children's fiction. How hard could it be to write a couple good books with black characters? Whatever the case may be, thank God for Andre Norton. A fabulous fantasy/sci-fi author who flourished in the 1970s, Norton's legacy is all but lost in libraries today. Once in a while, however, a lucky child or adult stumbles on a Norton title, like "Lavender-Green Magic" and is rewarded with a richly textured tale of good vs. evil. Containing African-American child heroes, it's a great relief to see these books getting a much deserved reprint after all this time.

The year is 1970 and Holly Wade has never felt worse in her life. Her father's been reported MIA in Vietnam, she and her siblings are being shipped off to live with their grandparents in the country, and the bus she's riding right now is making her nauseous. With a bad mood hanging over her head already, Holly tries not to enjoy anything that occurs to her once the family arrives at Dimsdale where her grandparents live. Still, it's hard not to find the junkyard her family runs pretty cool. Everyone's nice to the Wades and there are even mysterious stories about a witch who cursed the Dimsdale property long ago. It isn't until Holly discovers a mysterious scented pillow, however, that she and her siblings get caught up in a time traveling mystery where magic and witchery play a very big part.

Norton plays hard and fast with more than one childhood love in this book. Hedge mazes are a big part of the plot and they are particularly cool. But a book that has hedge mazes AND a junkyard? Double trouble. The book handles racism in an interesting manner, with Holly expecting it at every turn and never finding what she fears. Nothing in this book ever strikes the reader as dated either. Quite frankly, the only reason you might think that this book wasn't written today are the brief references to Vietnam and Korea. And what with kids today having parents sent off to Iraq, this gives the story an unexpectedly timely attitude.

Yet what I particularly liked about the book were the characters. Holly makes for a very interesting heroine since you spend half the book wishing she'd stop being such a jerk. When she allies herself with a particularly nasty witch of the past, the reader has the painful task of watching as she makes a bad situation for herself even worse. Fortunately she has two smart siblings who never let their elder stray too far from reality. The grandparents are wonderful people to know and the book is filled with homey descriptions of their life and day-to-day jobs. In the back of the book are recipes found in the book for such truly interesting scented delights as rose beads, tasties for tea, sugared mint leaves, and pomander balls. Don't be too surprised should you find your kids rushing out to buy a mortar and pestle quicker than you can say "lavender blue".

The pen and ink illustrations included in the novel are all courtesy of artist Judith Gwyn Brown. She's probably best-known for illustrating that Christmas classic, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", more than anything else. Here her fine-lined drawings prove to be truly timeless. The book may be a 70s period piece, but these characters could've stepped out of any era. It's a great pity that "Lavender-Green Magic" isn't better known today. Still, if you find that you know people who'd like some black characters in their kids' fantasy tales, this is a necessary read.

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Thou shalt be queen
Lavender's Green Dilly Dally, Lavender's Blue Dilly Dally
BEAUTIFUL MAGIC
A Norton novel for the junior readers

Lavender Green Magic
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0441474438

Customer Reviews:

Thou shalt be queen.......2005-07-19

Here's a fun game. Just off the top of your head, name me as many children's fantasy books starring African-Americans as you can come up with. "The Wizard of Earthsea" doesn't count. Go! How'd you do? Come up with many? My bet is that if you were able to think of anything it was either a book by Virginia Hamilton or one of the five million books out there in which a contemporary black character is taken back in time to the era of slaves/Jim Crow. Maybe you also came up with "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm", but that's more sci-fi anyway. This is unacceptable. Fantasy is a huge genre of children's fiction. How hard could it be to write a couple good books with black characters? Whatever the case may be, thank God for Andre Norton. A fabulous fantasy/sci-fi author who flourished in the 1970s, Norton's legacy is all but lost in libraries today. Once in a while, however, a lucky child or adult stumbles on a Norton title, like "Lavender-Green Magic" and is rewarded with a richly textured tale of good vs. evil. Containing African-American child heroes, I am of the opinion that this author deserves a little re-publication immediately.

The year is 1970 and Holly Wade has never felt worse in her life. Her father's been reported MIA in Vietnam, she and her siblings are being shipped off to live with their grandparents in the country, and the bus she's riding right now is making her nauseous. With a bad mood hanging over her head already, Holly tries not to enjoy anything that occurs to her once the family arrives at Dimsdale where her grandparents live. Still, it's hard not to find the junkyard her family runs pretty cool. Everyone's nice to the Wades and there are even mysterious stories about a witch who cursed the Dimsdale property long ago. It isn't until Holly discovery a mysterious scented pillow, however, that she and her siblings get caught up in a time traveling mystery where magic and witchery play a very big part.

Norton plays hard and fast with more than one childhood love in this book. Hedge mazes are a big part of the plot and they are, first and foremost, very cool. But a book that has hedge mazes AND a junkyard? Double trouble. The book handles racism in an interesting manner, with Holly expecting it at every turn and never finding what she fears. Nothing in this book ever strikes the reader as dated either. Quite frankly, the only reason you might think that this book wasn't written today are the brief references to Vietnam and Korea. Otherwise it feels particularly savvy and up-to-date.

But what I particularly liked about the book were the characters. Holly makes for a very interesting heroine since you spend half the book wishing she'd stop being such a jerk. When she allies herself with a particularly nasty witch of the past, the reader has the painful task of watching as Holly makes a bad situation for herself even worse. Fortunately she has two smart siblings who never let their elder stray too far from reality. The grandparents are wonderful people to know and the book is filled with homey descriptions of their life and day-to-day jobs. In the back of the book are recipes cited in the book for such truly interesting scented delights as rose beads, tasties for tea, sugared mint leaves, and pomander balls. You'll find your kids rushing out to buy a mortar and pestle quicker than you can say "lavender blue".

The pen and ink illustrations included in the novel are all courtesy of artist Judith Gwyn Brown. She's probably best-known for illustrating that Christmas classic, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", more than anything else. Here her fine-lined drawings have a timeless feel to them. The book may be a 70s period piece, but these characters could've stepped out of any time. It's a great pity that "Lavender-Green Magic" isn't better known today. Still, if you find that you know people who'd like some black characters in their kids' fantasy tales, this is a necessary choice.

Lavender's Green Dilly Dally, Lavender's Blue Dilly Dally.......2003-06-22

When their father is reported missing in action in Viet Nam, Holly, Judy and Crock find their entire world changed. Their mother is forced to take a job where she cannot keep them with her and they are sent off to stay with their grandparents in a small New England village.

Near their grandparent's home is an overgrown garden shaped into a maze. Compelled to explore, they discover that it is a door into a bubble in time.

While Norton's books for younger readers tend to be more didactic than her books for young (and old!) adults, she makes an effort to include touches that her older readers would appreciate and enjoy. In this book which deals with magic, mystery and time travel, she tucks in a message about tolerance and accepting responsibility for one's actions. She also does not provide a pat happy ending (which children often see through and reject in books meant for them) but she does offer hope to her young characters that their situation would improve.

BEAUTIFUL MAGIC.......2002-04-19

FROM THE COVER: A World of witches, rare herbs, and a curse are quickly discovered by Holly and the twins, Judy and Crock, when they move away from their comfortable home in Boston to live with their grandparents at the rural, rundown "Dimsdale place".... Inspired by a dream - or was it some kind of supernatural command?-the three children set out to explore the neglected, overgrown garden at the edge of the property, where they find and enter a secret house - and another century!!!...

A Norton novel for the junior readers.......2001-12-30

The characters and settings were a bit simplistic making the novel more suited to the junior reader. Ethnic characterizations however, are the weak point of the novel and some readers might find them politically incorrect.

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LAVENDER-GREEN MAGIC
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Thomas Y. Crowell First Edition
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SRLOI2

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LAVENDER-GREEN MAGIC

Manufacturer: ACE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GXZFNS

Average customer rating:

Lavender-Green Magic

Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0441474411

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Lavender-Green Magic

Manufacturer: ACE BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GU6RYM

Average customer rating:

Lavender-Green Magic
Norton Andre
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M67SHA

Lavender-Green Magic (Ace Fantasy, 47440)

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Lavender-Green Magic (Ace Fantasy, 47440)
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0441474403

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LAVENDER-GREEN MAGIC
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UH107U

Average customer rating:

Lavender-Green Magic
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The simple sauces are great

A good starting point

Somewhat disappointing.

Simple, delicious Chinese recipes

It really is easy

Chinese Cooking Made Easy: With Simple Sauces and Dressings (Wei-chuans cookbook)
Mu-Tsun Lee , and Wei-Chuan Publishing
Manufacturer: Wei-Chuan Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Quick & Easy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Chinese | Asian | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0941676269

Customer Reviews:

The simple sauces are great.......2006-02-19

I've made extensive use of pages 6 through 9, which cover sauces, marinades, and salad dressings. I appreciate the way that many of the recipes that follow provide examples and variations on the sauces.

The flavors and results from the recipes in this cookbook are great, and the pictures and illustrations can be a big help to beginners. But, after some experimentation to figure out exactly how I prefer to make a black bean sauce and a spicy ketchup sauce, I haven't found myself going back to this cookbook much.

People looking for recipes for specific, common Chinese-American foods might get more use out of another Wei-Chuan cookbook, Chinese Cooking for Beginners, ISBN 0941676307. It covers Crispy Salad with Chicken (a.k.a. Chinese Chicken Salad), Chinese Roast Pork, Hot & Sour Soup, Beef with Broccoli in Oyster Sauce, Moo-Shu Pork, Sour & Hot Shrimp, Shrimp Foo Yung, Shau Mai, and Almond Jello, among many others.

A good starting point.......2005-04-11

The key to this cookbook is correct expectations. As mentioned, you won't find a recipe in here for General Tso Chicken, etc. What you will get is a basic introduction to how to make authentic tasting dishes by seeing how various sauces are made, etc. This provided a great starting point for me to be able to improvise all kinds of dishes, soups, etc.

If you are looking for a cookbook that will walk you step by step through Moo Goo Gai Pan and Moo Shu Pork, you probably want to look elsewhere.

Somewhat disappointing........2005-02-03

I was hoping to replicate many of the dishes I buy at my local chinese restaruant: Kung Pao Chicken, chow mein, chow fun dishes, and a variety of veggie and lamb dishes. This particular book though is full of heavier meat recipes; roast chicken, stewed duck, peking duck, smoked duck, various preparations of chicken legs and breasts, pork chops, and beef steaks. There ARE a few dishes like I was looking for: chicken w/ black beans, curry beef, ground meat in lettuce, spicy shrimp w/ cashews, but they are fewer than I'd hoped. The soup selection has only 3 choices and does not include Hot & Sour soup. "Fried Noodles" are the only noodle recipe. There are no Chow Fun recipes. There are almost no vegetable dish recipes except for detailed info on boiling or stir frying specific veggies (which is good info, but it's not a dish, it's just prep).

More minor problems are: they don't use english abbreviations for quantities even in the English text. They use "T." for tablespoon instead of "tbsp". Many recipes reference "wine", but so far I have not found what kind of "wine" they actually mean listed in the intro How-To section.

Overall I find it lacking in terms of common "chinese lunch special" type dishes, or Szechuan dishes (as best I can tell from reading anyhow). Some of these dishes may be in here, but they're called "spicy" this or that instead of the names you'd see them listed on a menu as. This may or may not be more accurate, but I'd rather have commonly understood names instead of technically accurate names.

I'm caucasian. I'm also Californian and near San Francisco so I've been eating chinese food all my life and love it, but I'm far from literate in what differentiates Szechuan from Mandarin, etc. Therefore I find this book a little less informative than I'd hoped. I would probably not buy it again for the relatively few recipes in it I will ever cook, but the section on squid dishes and a couple others is enough to keep me from trying to return it.

Simple, delicious Chinese recipes.......2004-02-11

This is an excellent cookbook for those who are not familiar with cooking Chinese dishes. What I like most about this book is that the majority of recipes don't call for ingredients that are hard to find. Since I don't live anywhere near an Asian food store, this is a big plus for me. In addition, I'm a vegetarian and my husband is a big meat eater. This book has several vegetarian recipes in the back, so it satisfies both of our palates. To date, I have 18 Wei-Chuan cookbooks and I put this one in the top 5.

It really is easy.......2003-03-13

I have been looking for a basic Chinese cookbook that I can use everyday and this one is it. It has many stir fry recipes and they are mostly homestyle items I remember from my childhood (e.g. beef and oyster sauce; corn soup). There are also some restaurant dishes (e.g. Peking duck; stir fry meat wrapped in lettuce) that require more time and expertise. The recipe for tofu and egg drop soup is worth the cookbook alone. I love this soup and I did not realize how easy it is to make until now.

This is a great reference book that is perfect for beginners. It explains ingredients in the beginning of the book, with small sections on preparation of seasoning sauces and salad dressings.

One word of caution: if you do not live near a good Chinatown or an Asian grocery store, some of the ingredients are hard to find and the book does not offer substitutes.

This is the best cookbook I own because the dishes are realistic enough that I will actually make them. This book is amazing!

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