The entertaining volume, “Our Famous Women,”[I] will be, we think, a decided success. Thirty of the prominent women of the times are discussed most pleasantly in as many easy and appreciative essays. The papers are not critical or comprehensive, but gossipy, entertaining, and very well written. One finds in most of them exactly the facts they want about such favorites as Mrs. Burnett, Louisa M. Alcott, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Mary A. Livermore, etc. As far as possible, the writers have been wisely chosen from the ranks of the famous women themselves. The book will be worth a great deal to women who are trying to win position and a livelihood by their own exertions. Its heroines are striking examples of what bravery, earnestness, cheerfulness and faithfulness will do in a life. Another volume of Charles Scribner’s Sons’ new edition of “Ik Marvel” is out. “Rural Studies,” first published in 1867, has been revised and reissued under the title of “Out-of-Town Places.”[J] The book was not more timely fifteen years ago than it is now; perhaps it will be even more useful now, for the last fifteen years have taught us more of beauty and its uses than we had ever before had time to learn. Mr. Mitchell’s little book gives many capital suggestions to farmers and owners of country places about practical improvements. It is not a book for horticulturists, or for fancy stock or high-art farmers, but it will be very useful to people who by their own labor and planning are trying to beautify their homes. A good book on etiquette—and, as it often happens, a very ordinary one—is pretty sure of finding a wide circle of readers in America. A sensible, reliable guide-book into the mysteries of the best society has lately been published by the Harpers.[K] We like it. The writer knows exactly what her readers need and is competent to supply their want clearly and reliably. What more could be asked of the writer of a book on etiquette? Uncle Remus[L] has become the representative of a vanishing type of American life. It is a matter of congratulation that so much of his humor, shrewd sense and peculiar dialect has been saved to us in “His Songs and His Sayings,” a little book which, though we are apt to consider it merely humorous, really has much material for interesting study. The aim of the author was as he says: “To preserve the legends [of the plantation] in their original simplicity, and to wed them permanently to the quaint dialect—if indeed it can be called a dialect—through the medium of which they have become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family.” BOOKS RECEIVED. How the Bible was Made. By Rev. E. M. Wood, D.D. Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1884. The Exodus and Other Poems. By Rev. T. C. Reade. Cincinnati: Printed by Walden & Stowe for the author. 1884. Quicksands. From the German of Adolph Streckfuss. By Mrs. A. L. Wister. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1884.