Landscape Design
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
100 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
0810942534 $75.00 1-212-206-7715
With 630 illustrations, many created just for this book (430 of which are in full color), Elizabeth
Barlow Rogers' Landscape Design: A Cultural And Architectural History offers dazzling,
panoramic
beauty to complement its extensive commentary on landscapes throughout history, ranging from
Stonehenge and the Forbidden City of Beijing to Versailles and New York's Central Park. This
comprehensive survey, with its intelligent text and breathtaking photographs, is highly
recommended
to anyone interested in the history of landscaping since the dawn of humanity.
Once And Future Myths
Phil Cousineau
Conari Press
2550 Ninth St, #101, Berkeley, CA 94710
1573241466 $24.95 1-800-685-9595
In Once And Future Myths: The Power Of Ancient Stories In Modern Times, author Phil
Cousinaeu, (a longtime student and colleague of Joseph Campbell) views mythology as a living
phenomenon with immediate impact in daily human life. Through understanding the nature of
mythical stories, Cousinaeu explains, we are better able to understand what drives us to work,
love,
create, and dream. Integrating psychology, history, and mythology into a unified gem of insight,
Once And Future Myths includes such topics as "How the Myth of Time that we are living
determines our quality of life" and "How the Myth of Creative Struggle teaches us to embrace
failure as a learning experience." Once And Future Myths speaks directly to the human need to
find
meaning to our lives.
The Tao Of Tango
Johanna Siegmann
Trafford Publishing
2333 Government Street, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8T 4P4
155212410X $12.00 www.trafford.com
The Tao Of Tango is emphatically not a dance book (although the author Johanna Siegmann has
learned the Tango so that the reader never has to) but rather the ultimate self-help book on the
way
men and women view relationships. Written specifically to be accessible to both genders, The Tao
Of Tango includes physical exercises to heighten the senses. Author Johanna Siegmann compares
male and female energy, also known as Yang and Yin, to archetypal Tango dancers, and from this
draws insight for the reader to ponder long after he or she finishes this slim book. Fresh, unique,
and
definitely a brand new twist on the Tango.
A Cup Of Christmas Tea
Tom Hegg & Warren Hanson
Waldman House Press, Inc.
525 N. Third St., Minneapolis, MN 55401
0931674085 $14.95 1-888-700-7333
Elegantly composed by Tom Hegg and beautifully illustrated by Warren Hanson, A Cup Of
Christmas Tea is the heartwarming story of how a man's reluctant visit with his elderly aunt in
quiet
comfort of her home creates within him an unexpected joy and a renewal of the holiday spirit. The
author was requested in 1981 by his pastor at the Westminister presbyterian Church in
Minneapolis
to write something for the church's 125th anniversy. Tom Hegg composed this wonderful story in
just three days by drawing from the memories of Christmases he had spent with his grandparents
and
a great aunt. Written in verse, Hegg's story is timeless and timely -- and not to be restricted to the
month of December, but enjoyed all year round as a personal and family favorite!
Vatos
Jose Galvez, photographer & Luis Alberto Urrea, poet
Cinco Puntos Press
2709 Louisville, El Paso, TX 79930
0938317520 $19.95 1-800-566-9072
Vatos is a joining of the photographs by Jose Galvez and the poetry of Luis Alberto Urrea. The
word "vatos" is Chicano street slang for "dude, guy, pal, or brother". The poem comprising the
text
is Urrea's "Hymn to Vatos Who Will Never Be in a Poem", and is an evocation of Chicano
manhood
and a shining spotlight on Chicano men who are typically ignored or misrepresented by the
surrounding culture, from migrant workers and barrio homeboys to blue-collar husbands and
social
activists. Jose Galvez's memorable, black-and-white photographs throughout Vatos bring its
reverberant poetry to life, creating a unique visual and cognitive experience. Highly
recommended.
Active Retirement For Affluent Workaholics
Peter Silton
N.P. Financial Publishing
PO Box 48891, Los Angeles, CA 90049
1882758072 $19.95 1-310-471-1353
In Active Retirement For Affluent Workaholics: Planning For The Life You've Always Wanted,
Peter Silton shows readers in their 50s through their 70s all about how to plan for, stay active
through,
and
enjoy their retirement and the senior life they's always aspired to. Readers will learn how to do a
rebirth (Kaneka), use money wisely (Wenjen); and begin a new life path (Ken-Tao); as well as
keeping physically and emotionally fit; expand their hobbies and artistic pursuits; develop and
maintain interests and relationships; control their finances and manage their estates. Here is
practical,
life enhancing advice on staying as active in retirement as when working with an earlier career,
including travel, mentoring, volunteering, and enjoying what their affluence can accomplish in
their
behalf. Active Retirement For Affluent Workaholics is especially recommended for those seeking
early retirement, or have had retirement thrust upon them because of workplace rules, health
issues,
or life-long ambitions which were deferred until their retirement years.
In Signs Of Weakness: Juxtaposing Irish Tales And The Bible, Varese Layzer surveys and
analyses
both the practical and the theoretical difficulties of determining "influence" in ancient writing. To
do
so focuses on the relationship between the oral and written, literacy and literature, and the
disciplines of Irish Studies and Biblical Studies. Signs Of Weakness is an impressive, original,
scholarly student that matches Samson, Jonah and Esther with three heroes from early Irish
literature, ad Layzer explores their weakness and heroic strengths, gender and power, frailty and
ambiguity. The comparisons illuminate each tradition and showcases the literary and emotional
wealth of these two ancient narrative traditions for today's readers. Enhanced with a glossary of
Irish
terms, and index of Biblical and Ancient references, an index of early Irish texts, and an index of
authors, Signs Of Weakness is very highly commended to students of literature and mythos.
The Classic M1 Garand
Jim Thompson
Paladin Press
PO Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306
158160260X $20.00 1-800-466-6868
The M1 Garand was the first and only full-power, semiautomatic infantry rifle issued to Allied
troops during World War II. Rugged, durable, and able to withstand environmental stress in the
field, this military weapons went on to become the most popular high-powered target
semiautomatic
in the world. The Classic M1 Garand is a profusely illustrated, up-to-date guide for M1 Garand
enthusiasts and collectors. Author Jim Thompson explores the M1 Garand's tactical, development,
and industrial history, and offers an insightful examination of its perceived "flaws", as well as
presenting expert advice on buying parts and parts kits. Thompson also provides information on
the
M1's World War II and postwar delivery chronology -- useful as a general guideline when
restoring
an M1. Very highly recommended to both users and collectors, The Classic M1 Garand also
offers a
wealth of answers to common questions about the M1, as well as detailed instruction on expert
procedures for maintaining this classic weapon.
Take Back Your Marriage
William Doherty, Ph.D.
Guilford Press
72 Spring St., New York NY 10012
1-57230-459-6 $21.95 1-800-365-7006
Plenty of titles provide marital advice; but few so clearly outline the outside forces which tend to
drive couples apart as William Doherty's Take Back Your Marriage, which tells how to stick
together in a world which pulls people apart. Family therapist Doherty says today's divorces are
the
result of conflicting demands on time and money - troubles which can be overcome by determined
couples. This tells how.
Two Roads To Wisdom?
Bo Mou, Editor
Open Court Publishing
Box 388, Ashland, OR 44805
0812694341 $34.95 opencourtbooks.com
Collections strong in philosophy or Asian studies will find Two Roads To Wisdom? to be a fine
survey of Chinese philosophy's history and its contrast with Western analytic traditions. Leading
philosopher in both traditions contribute to this comparative exam of Chinese and analytic
philosophy and the methodologies which differ.
Digital McLuhan
Paul Levinson
Routledge
29 West 35th St., NY, NY 10001-2299
0415249910 $16.95 1-800-634-7064
The author worked with McLuhan at the end of the 1970s and here explains the public's
fascination
with and perceptions of McLuhan and his theories. Chapters provide modern links between these
theories and the experiences of the computer world in modern times, developed after he died in
1980. Essential for any who would apply McLuhan's perspective to modern times.
Roswell
Karl T. Pflock
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, NY 14228-2197
1573928941 $25.00 1-800-421-0351
Karl Pflock believed that UFOs are real; that some were intelligently controlled vehicles from
another planet. His focus in Roswell provides a different look at the phenomena associated with
Roswell, New Mexico, than one might anticipate from his prior beliefs, outlining a different theory
about Roswell and charting his journey from hopeful agnostic to Roswell skeptic. A 'must' for any
UFO buff.
Storybook Mentors
Brenda Waggoner
Cook Communications Ministries
4050 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, CO 80918
0781435021 $17.99 1-719-536-0100
In Storybook Mentors: Grown-Up Wisdom From Children's Classics, licensed professional
counselor Brenda Waggoner applies the theme of mentoring wisdom to fifteen classic children's
stories. The stories are grouped into three categories: Children As Mentors (Anne of Green
Gables -
Imagination; A Little Princess - Hope; Heidi - Grace; Pippi Longstocking - Free Spirit; Pollyanna
-
Optimism); Friends As Mentors (Charlotte's Web - Sacrificial Love; The Little Engine That Could
-
Confidence; Black Beauty - Humility; The Secret Garden - Coming Alive); and Elders As
Mentors
(The Velveteen Rabbit - Becoming Real; Mary Poppins - Mystique); Little Women - Nurturing;
The
Giving Tree - The Joy of Giving; The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe - Redemption; Make
Way
For Ducklings - Homemaking). Each begins with a brief summary of the story (called "Crux of the
Classic"); with each chapter making application of the mentor's truth to women's spiritual lives,
and
concludes with a section that connects the classic tale with Biblical truth ("Words of Old").
Unique,
engaging, informative, and inspiring, Storybook Mentors is widely recommended reading for
parents, teachers, counselors, youth workers, tutors, and anyone else with the responsibility for
nurturing a young mind.
Anti-Wrinkle Treatments For Perfect Skin
Pierre Jean Cousin
Storey Books
105 Schoolhouse Rd., Pownal, VT 05261
1-58017-368-3 $16.95 1-800-722-7202
In ten minutes with the use of a blender, anyone can whip up skin-replenishing recipes using just
a
few natural ingredients from the market and Pierre Jean Cousin's Anti-Wrinkle Treatments For
Perfect Skin. Over forty recipes for masks, cleansers, and lotions use fruit and herbs and provide
excellent formulas for treatment.
Creative Solutions For Unusual Projects
Scott Boylston
How Design Books/F&W Publications
1507 Dana Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45207
1-58180-120-3 $31.99 1-800-289-0963
This sourcebook is packed with tips on how to approach new and unusual projects in graphic
design. Templates and formats for projects include quick fixes and solutions for common
challenges,
with sketches and instruction covering almost thirty projects from start to finish. A 'must' for any
active designer.
Journeys Across The Rainbow
Dale Colclasure and David Jensen, eds/
Rainbow Pride Press
6525 Gunpark Drive, Suite 150-117, Boulder, Colorado 80301
0970398808 $17.95 1-303-267-2155
Journeys Across The Rainbow: Inspirational Stories For The Human Race is a collection of nearly
eighty uplifting short stories, contributed from around the world. The stories especially focus
upon
the core themes of coming out of the closet on the matter of one's sexuality; addiction and
recovery;
spirituality; business; love; HIV and AIDS; and rising above the turbulence life throws at one.
Contributors of particular note include Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson, the first openly gay police officer
in
the L.A.P.D., and Dan Jinks, producer of the film American Beauty. Powerful, stimulating, and
openly candid, Journeys Across The Rainbow is an assembly of vignettes to be remembered.
Chronicle Books
85 Second St., San Francisco CA 94105
1-800-722-6657
Two excellent titles are highly recommended picks: their subjects are uncommon and both
general-interest libraries and art library holdings will find these important. Michael Barson and
Steven Heller's Red Scared! (0-8118-2887-5, $22.95) covers the Communist menace as seen
through popular cultural icons and the media. The collections of posters, advertisements, and
media
presentations in color throughout provide a powerful visual survey of the ways in which
Communism was presented to the public eye. Jim Sherraden, Elek Horvath and Paul Kingsbury's
Hatch Show Print (2856-5, $35.00) traces the evolution of show posters for entertainers,
examining
links between show poster art and the American entertainment industry from the early 1800s to
modern times. Nashville's long-time Hatch Show Print is the focus of this examination, which
blends
a survey of popular culture with an examination of letterpress and print evolution. Both are
exceptional.
Watson-Guptill
770 Broadway, 8th Fl., NY, NY 10003
1-800-451-1741
These excellent titles are recommended picks, offering unique perspectives not typically
duplicated
in competing titles. Roger Walton edits Music.com (0-8230-8347-0, $39.95), which covers music
website design and promotion. Art mingles with music in a title which explores how sound images
are translated to a computer/visual medium, with examples of albums and sites in full color on
every
page. The Institute of Store Planners and editors of VM&SD Magazine present Stores & Retail
Spaces (7496-X, $35.00), a lavish display of notable stores and their uses. From superstores and
mall stores to small retail displays, this focuses on the fine art of presentation in the retail world.
Maggie Toy edits The Architect (1652-8, $29.95), a fine celebration of the world's best female
architects. A wide range of styles and approaches is featured in this portrait of over thirty of the
world's most distinguished. Mary C. Henderson's Mielziner (8823-5, $45.00) provides a fine
treatise
on the master of stage design, acclaimed as a scenic and lighting designer in the 20th century. Five
decades of work contributed to the heyday of modern theater and are covered in an intriguing
survey
of his many talents.
The Religion/Spirituality Shelf
History Of Christian-Muslim Relations
Hugh Goddard
Ivan R. Dee
1332 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60622
1-56663-340-0 $16.95 1-800-462-6420
This history covers changing relationships between Muslim and Christian worlds, examining how
the
two largest religious communities have interacted over the ages. Hugh Goddard's History Of
Christian-Muslim Relations is a fine survey with an emphasis on changing relationships and ideals
on
both sides.
The Muslim Jesus
Tarif Khalidi, editor & translator
Harvard University Press
79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
0674004779 $22.95 1-800-448-2242
The Muslim Jesus: Sayings And Stories In Islamic Literature is the English translation of the
largest
collection ever published for a western readership of the sayings and stories of Jesus as found in
Arabic Islamic literature. A unique and invaluable resource for the study of Jesus's role and
position
within an Islamic context, The Muslim Jesus documents how the Islamic movement assimilated
the
figurehead of Christianity and its implications for contemporary intersectarian relations and
ecumenical dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Tarif Khalidi's informative introduction and
commentaries place the sayings and stories within an historical context. This compendium of
some
300 sayings and stories of Jesus are arranged in chronological order, revealing how the image of
Jesus evolved throughout a thousand years of Islamic history and lore. The Muslim Jesus is an
indispensable and greatly appreciated addition to Islamic Studies.
What Did The Biblical Writers Know And When Did They Know It?
William G. Dever
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
255 Jefferson Avenue, S.E. , Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
0802847943 $25.00 1-800-253-7521
What Did The Biblical Writers Know And When Did They Know It? uses archaeology to
reconstruct what ancient Israel must have been like, in an attempt to shed light on the historical
background of biblical scriptures. Written in clear language for general readers, What Did the
Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? examines the Iron Age of ancient Palestine
(1200-600 B.C.) and more. Author William Denver draws upon his extensive experience and
expertise as a professor of archaeology and anthropology, and his 30 seasons' worth of
archaeological expeditions excavating in the Near East. From his own experiences, logic, and
interpolation, he successfully turns historical evidence into a vivid living world.
2,500 Biblical Questions & Answers
Kathryn M, Snelson
Dorrance Publishing Company
643 Smithfield St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
0805948910 $21.00 1-800-788-7654
This outstanding resource reference provides a lay reader's collection of trivia-type questions
organized around Biblical history and facts. from Biblical descriptions of politicians and birds of
the
air to thoughts on love, charity and Pauline names, chapters are organized by topic, provide
question
and answer formats for easy browsing, and are packed with Biblical quotes and history. 2,500
Biblical Questions & Answers is a lively, well researched collection.
Journey To Self-Realization
Paramahansa Yogananda
Self-Realization Fellowship
3880 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90065-3298
087612256X $14.00 yogananda-srf.org
In Journey To Self-Realization: Collected Talks And Essays On Realizing God In Daily Live,
Volume III, (and newly issued by the Self-Realization Fellowship) we are treated to more of
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) keen spiritual insights ranging from the deepest mysteries
of
creation to the practical art of balanced living in a complex and contemporary world. Also very
strongly recommended for students of religion, spirituality are the two earlier volumes comprising
this outstanding trilogy: Man's Eternal Quest and The Divine Romance.
The Needlecraft Shelf
25 Gorgeous Sweaters
Catherine Ham
Lark Books
50 College St., Asheville, NC 28801
1-57990-172-7 $24.95
Knitting basics and sweater creation titles are usually beyond novice-level skills: not so with
Catherine Ham's 25 Gorgeous Sweaters, which encourages novices to use easy techniques to
seam,
assemble, and block knit garments. Plenty of professional tips and techniques are included in this
book, which offers 25 diverse patterns designed for new knitters.
American Quilter's Society
Box 3290, Paducah, KY 42002-3290
www.aqsquilt.com
Two quilting guides are recommended picks for avid quilters. Sue Nickles' Machine Applique
(1-57432-778-X, $22.95) provides three selected techniques in a sampler which covers invisible
applique, template and starch applique, and raw-edge fusible applique. Over thirty patterns and
instructions make it easy to follow. Joyce Jones' Uncovering Traditional Quilts (758-5, $19.95)
provides piecing tips and techniques, showing how to explore combinations of piecing techniques
and how to use squares and rectangles to easy advantage. Both are fine guides.
Martingale & Company
20205 - 144th Avenue NE, Woodinville, WA 98072-8478
These excellent quilter's guides provide a range of projects and approaches for aspiring quilters.
Lidna Kemshall's Color Moves (1-56477-341-8, $24.95) covers the basics of transferring prints
onto
fabric, featuring five projects which cover the step-by-step techniques necessary for such
transfers.
From working with transfer mediums to creating original designs, this is packed with tips. Beth
Ann
Williams' Colorwash Bargello Quilts (358-8, $24.95) covers the basics of blending fabrics into
quilts, using ten projects as examples on how to blend quilts and colors. Use the plans for
blending
and arranging the fabric colors and textures to understand how bargello quilts work. Carol Doak's
Easy Paper-Pieced Baby Quilts (330-2, $24.95) presents a dozen new designs for childhood baby
quilt themes, teaching how to use cutting charts to create easy projects. Color photos accompany
patterns and descriptions. Judy Murrah's In The Studio With... (300-0, $24.95) provides twelve
quilted projects packed with tricks for adding color and movement to quilts. From initial designs
to
playful finishes, this presents her signature style.
The Literary Shelf
Stories For An Enchanted Afternoon
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Gold Gryphon Press
3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802
19308460092 $24.95 1-800-888-4741
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has authored more than fifty novels, won numerous awards, and is an
effective, talented, and experienced storyteller. Stories For An Enchanted Afternoon showcases
her
best short fiction in the field of science fiction and will serve to introduce her to a whole new
generation of readers. The stories comprising this outstanding anthology include: Skin Deep;
Echea;
Coolhunting; Going Native; Millennium Babies; Harvest; Strange Creatures; Monuments to the
Dead; Spirit Guides; Burial Detail; and The Gallery of His Dreams. Augmented with a foreword
by
science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Rusch's Stories For An Enchanted Afternoon
truly
lives up to its title!
Victims Or Villains
Malcolm J. Turnbull
Popular Press
Bowling Green State Univerity, Bowling Green, OH 43403
0879727845 $21.95 1-800-515-5118
Malcolm Turnbull's Victims Or Villains: Jewish Images In Classic English Detective Fiction
addresses Jewish characters in the classical English detective story, from Conan Doyle onwards.
Inevitably, Jewish characters in these stories have been stereotyped as moneylenders, fences,
underworld operatives, saboteurs, or even power-crazed megalomaniacs. Victims or Villains uses
countless examples in literature to follow the evolution of the Jewish caricature, in relation to
anti-semitic sentiment in British society. Also analyzed are the reevaluations of Jewish
stereotyping
after 1930, both due to the literary development of the crime novel and to the international events
of
World War II and the Holocaust. Studied crime writers include Baroness Orczy, Sydney Horler,
R.
Austin Freeman, Ngaio Marsh, and S.T. Hayman, while the writing of Golden Age "giants"
Dorothy
L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Anthony Berkeley Cox are examined in detail. A fascinating
subject,
and very highly recommended for students of popular culture, as well as fans of the detective
story
genre.
Lord Of The Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
Houghton Mifflin
215 Park Avenue South, NY NY 10003
0618129022 $20.00 1-800-225-3362
This thick paperback packs in all three of Tolkien's classic fantasy books under one cover, making
it
a highly recommended pick for any newcomer to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The adventures
of
Frodo and the hobbits and elves of the kingdom receive new life under one cover: one book to
find
them all....
Classic Era Of American Pulp Magazines
Peter Haining
Chicago Review Press
814 N. Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610
1556523890 $39.95 1-312-337-0747
Peter Haining's Classic Era Of American Pulp Magazines provides a beautiful, illustrated history
of
the rise of the pulp magazine, which grew from the 19th century dime novel incarnation to comic
book realms. Chapters provide beautiful color photos of pulps of all genres, along with a lively
history of their social influences and transition points. Highly recommended.
Shank's Mare
Ikku Jippensha
Charles E. Tuttle Company
364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436
0-8048-1580-1 $16.95 1-800-526-2778
Students of Japanese literature will find Ikku Jippensha's Shank's Mare to be an outstanding comic
novel and essential to a thorough study of Japanese literary history and culture: Thomas Satchell
provides the English translation of this story of adventure and discovery. The original was issued
serially in 1802: this will appeal to modern readers.
University of Missouri Press
2910 LeMone Blvd., Columbia MO 65201
1-800-828-1894
Collected Works Of Langston Hughes V. 4 (0-8262-1342-1, $29.95) is a college-level critical
examination presenting Hughes' novels Not Without Laughter and Tambourines To Glory, and is
recommended reading for any studying the body of Hughes' works. Dolan Hubbard edits these
two
short novels, which are recommended reading for any in-depth study of Hughes' achievements.
Darryl Dickson-Carr's African American Satire (1325-1, $34.95) is also recommended for
college-level audiences; this studies the role and purpose of satire as a literary genre in
African-American writings. Afro-American literature and the history of satire are concurrently
studied in chapters which argue that major works by Hughes, Ellison and other should be viewed
as
satires in order to fully appreciate their meaning.
Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia
Gregory Eiselein & Anne Phillips, Eds.
Greenwood Press
Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007
0-313-30896-9 $95.00 1-800-225-5800
College-level students of Alcott's works will find the Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia to be a fine
reference examining the biographical details of Alcott's life and family. From her place in 19th
century history and publishing achievements to her adult and children's writings as a whole, the
Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia provides an excellent reference.
San Francisco Beat
David Meltzer, Ed.
City Lights
261 Columbus Ave., S.F., CA 94133
0-87286-379-4 $19.95 citylights.com
Interviews with makers of San Francisco's "beat scene" are captured by Metzer, himself a Beat
generation artist, in San Francisco Beat, a oustanding and informative collection of recent
interviews
which relate what happened. Ferlinghetti, Everson, Rexroth and other major literary figures of the
times reflect on experiences and philosophy.
The Uncommercial Traveller And Other Papers 1859-70
Charles Dickens
Michael Slater & John Drew, editors
Ohio State University Press
11030 S. Langley Ave., Chicago IL 60628
0814208754 $50.00 1-800-621-2736
Volume 4 of The Dent Uniform Edition Of Dickens' Journalism, The Uncommercial Traveller
And
Other Papers 1859-70 is a significant literary event for Dickensian studies. Like the earlier
volumes of Charles Dicken's work, the articles and writings of thise literary compendium of
Dicken's
writings is enhanced for academia and Dickensian scholarship by a list of abbreviations, a
prefance,
introduction, acknowledgements, as well as "Note on the Text and Illustrations", select
bibliography,
"Dicken's Life and Times 1859-70", a list of illustrations, glossary, index, and four appendices:
The
Great International Walking-Match; Prefaces; Descriptive headlines added by Dickens to articles
in
the volume which were included in UT1; and Complete listing of Dickens' known journalism,
December 1833-August 1869. Highly recommended.
Kori
Heinz Insu Fenkl & Walter K. Lew, Eds.
Beacon Press
25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108
0-8070-5916-1 $23.00 www.beacon.org
There has been major growth in the popularity of Korean-American literature lately, and Kori
represents the first anthology to provide a comprehensive collection of 20th century works by
Koreans from the 1930s to the 1990s. Prominent Korean-American scholars and writers edit and
present the 16 entries in this excellent and recommended collection.
Understanding May Sarton
Mark K. Fulk
University of South Carolina Press
937 Assembly Street, 8th Floor, Columbia, SC 29208
1570034222 $29.95 1-800-768-2500
Understanding May Sarton is a comprehensive study of the poetry, fiction, and memoirs of May
Sarton, a pioneering feminist whose literary works were underappreciated during her lifetime.
Author Mark Fulk explores Sarton's writing as speaking to both genders and all sexual
orientations,
not just female or lesbian readers, and delves in a literary analysis of the true spirit of Sarton's
intent.
Covering all of Sarton's work, from her initial poetry celebrating women's sexuality to her
coming-out novel and her final novel and volume of poetry about the advancing onset of age.
Recommended for American literature, feminism, and women's studies reading lists,
Understanding
May Sarton is a superb reference and resource.
The Health/Medicine Shelf
Faith And The Placebo Effect
Lolette Kuby
Origin Press
1122 Grant Ave., #C, Novato, CA 94945
1579830056 $23.00 OriginPress.com
In Faith And The Placebo Effect: An Argument For Self-Healing, poet, cultural critic, activist,
and
one-time professor of literature Lolette Kuby raises a prophetic voice of protest against the
narrowness of conventional medicine and in support of the power of faith in the "placebo
response".
Kuby writes with the authority and power of her own first hand experience with breast cancer of a
spectacular placebo healing, and offers a well sustained and articulate argument for self-healing
through the mind alone. Kuby shows that the placebo effect is a common denominator across all
treatments for illness which triggers an innate, mind-based, self-healing capacity. She clear
demonstrates how readers can consciously trigger the placebo effect, through direct faith in the
inner
source of all healing. Faith And The Placebo Effect is challenging, informative, and highly
recommended reading for students of alternative medicine and the psychology of healing.
Family and professional caregivers of Alzheimer's patients now have a unique and very book
which
can identify appropriate activities for various levels of Alzheimer patients. Almost 300 pages
outlines
the activities for both daily and special occasion celebrations, with tips on how to ask the patient
for
input, resource lists, caregivers' anecdotes, and more. Invaluable.
Caregiving Sourcebook
Joyce Brennfleck Shannon, Editor
Omnigraphics, Inc.
615 Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226
0-7808-0331-0 $78.00 1-800-234-1340
Caregiving Sourcebook adds to the publisher's ongoing reference series, providing basic consumer
health information for caregivers and including tips for not only general care, but meeting the
challenges of specific kinds of conditions. From legal issues and financial information for
caregivers
to the effects of caregiving, Caregiving Sourcebook packs in practical details.
The Headache Sourcebook
Joel Paulino, M.D.
Ceabert J. Griffith, M.P.A.S.
Contemporary Books
4255 West Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood, Illinois 60712-1975
0737305452 $17.95 1-847-679-5500
The Headache Sourcebook was written not only to help people in pain, but to dispel myths about
headaches, such as the false assumption that nothing can be done to alleviate recurring headaches.
In
non-technical, easy-to-understand language, this book seeks to educate the lay reader on what
headaches are and aren't, their causes, and how to manage and overcome their pain. With detailed
lifestyle measures, self-care techniques, and information about drug and alternative treatments,
The
Headache Sourcebook is designed to help effectively assist headache sufferers find better health.
Highly recommended for the twenty million people in the U.S. who are estimated to be
experiencing
headaches at any one time.
Advance Care Planning
Park Ridge Center
211 E. Ontario, #800, Chicago, IL 60611-3215
0-945482-05-1 $4.95
Pamphlets and small booklets usually aren't featured here, but Advance Care Planning: Raising
End-of-Life Issues is an exception, recommended as a pocket communication guide for physicians
involved with terminally ill patients. From understanding family communication problems and
code
objectives to common pitfalls and conflict resolution, Advance Care Planning provides physicians
with clear guidelines.
The Carpal Tunnel Helpbook
Scott M. Fried, M.D.
Perseus Publishing
Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
07382-04552 $15.00 1-800-242-7737
Dr. Scott M. Fried's The Carpal Tunnel Helpbook provides an effective, non-surgical program for
the management of carpal tunnel syndrome and other types of related nerve problems, providing
the
latest information on early symptoms of problems and suggestions for modifying home and work
situations. Pain management exercises and suggested medications are at the heart of this practical
self-help guide.
How To Stop Heartburn
Anil Minocha, M.D. & Christine Adamec
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
605 Third Avenue, 4th floor, New York, NY 10158-0012
0471391395 $14.95 1-800-225-5945
How To Stop Heartburn: Simple Ways To Heal Heartburn And Acid Reflux is a guide to relief
from
acid reflux, commonly known as "heartburn," a condition which affects more than 60 million
American adults at least once a month. Chronic heartburn can bring about severe medical
problems,
including cancer. But heartburn and its brutal consequences can be prevented and minimized with
simple treatments and lifestyle choices. Written specifically for the non-specialist general reader,
How To Stop Heartburn clearly and succinctly explains the serious consequences of untreated
heartburn, and immediate advice concerning it. All the latest treatment options are covered, from
nutrition and lifestyle changes to antacids, drugs, surgery, and alternative remedies. How To Stop
Heartburn is a "must" for anyone confronted with periodic gastronomical distress!
The Johns Hopkins Consumer Guide To Medical Tests
Dr. Simeon Margolis
Johns Hopkins Medical Publications
632 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
092966163X $39.95 1-800-462-6420
The Johns Hopkins Guide Consumer Guide To Medical Tests offers the non-specialist general
reader a wealth of accessible detail on what one can expect from the hundreds of life-saving
medical
tests available today, ranging from routine screenings to mammography to cutting edge genetic
tests.
Written in plain English for the lay reader, this invaluable, "user friendly" guide is up to date and
extremely easy to use. The Johns Hopkins Consumer Guide To Medical Tests is a comprehensive
and very highly recommended modern-day reference.
An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide To Headaches
Robert D. Milne, et al.
Future Medicine Publishing, Inc.
1640 Tiburon Blvd., Suite 2, Tiburon, CA 94920
1887299033 $23.95 1-800-512-HEAL
An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide To Headaches is a comprehensive guide to alternative
medicinal treatments of chronic headaches -- a common malady that afflicts 90% of men and 95%
of
women. Collaborative written by Robert D. Milne, Blake More, and Burton Goldberg to help
readers "say goodbye to headaches for the rest of your life," with multiple treatment options for
11
major types of headaches. The described treatments include herbalism and acupuncture, which are
free of the side effects common to conventional treatments. An Alternative Medicine Definitive
Guide To Headaches is essential reading for anyone who suffers from America's number one
health
complaint!
The Lyons Press
123 West 18 St., New York NY 10011
Two excellent horse care guides are practical introductions to caring for and showing a horse.
Barbara Burn's The Horseless Rider (1-58574-322-4, $19.95) provides a guide to riding, showing
and enjoying other people's horses. From analyzing a stable's qualities to taking different
approaches
with different horses, this is packed with invaluable, practical ideas. Susan McBane's The Perfect
Pony (302-X, $19.95) provides newcomers with tips on caring for ponies, from breeds and
choices
to housing, handling and feeding. Both are fine choices for the home reference collection.
Diet-Step 20 Grams/20 Minutes for Women Only!
Fred A. Stutman, M.D.
Medical Manor Books
3501 Newberry Rd Philadelphia PA 19154
0934232105 $25.95 1-800-343-8464
Dr. Fred Stutman's Diet-Step 20 Grams/20 Minutes for Women Only! is a "user friendly"
weight-loss and fitness guide written in response to the many other diets for women that spark
initial
weight loss but usually end with the weight being gained back. Diets in which most of the weight
loss is water, diets that cause the dieter's body to burn muscle protein, and diets that
unintentionally
prompt binging are all poor health choices. Diet-Step 20 Grams/20 Minutes for Women Only!
counters all of these problems with a two-step program that combines a high-fiber, low fat diet
with
a daily exercise plan of 20 minutes of walking. The goal is healthy, lifelong diet and fitness for
women, allowing even the occasional dessert.
The Railroading Shelf
Illustrated Encyclopedia Of World Railway Locomotives
P. Ransome-Wallis, editor
Dover Publications
31 East 2nd St., Mineola, NY 11501
0486412474 $34.95 1-800-223-3130
The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of World Railway Locomotives has been long unavailable and its
reprinted appearance will delight any interested in world locomotives who appreciate technical
explanations of trains. Experts in their field provide discussions of steam engines around the
world,
from operation and systems to the layout and routine of a running shed. Black and white vintage
photos and illustrations abound. Illustrated Encyclopedia Of World Railway Locomotives is a
true
railroading classic!
Steam To Spokane
Pentrex
Box 94911, Pasadena, CA 91109
2-56342-094-5 $19.95 1-800-950-9333
After years of being on display in Oregon, this antique steam locomotive was brought back to life
in
2001. Steam To Spokane is a full color video that provides excellent footage and train scenes
charting the locomotive's pull of 18 cars through the scenic Columbia River Gorge of Oregon, the
forests of Washington, and the scenic stops of the North. Fans of steam train videos who like
different angles and scenery will relish the varied presentation of this outstanding 60-minute
railroading video.
Prairie Whistles
Dennis Boyer
Trails Media Group
P.O. Box 317, Black Earth, WI 53515
091502490X $16.95 1-800-236-8088
Prairie Whistles: Tales Of Midwest Railroads is an engaging collection of railroading tales and
folklore from time gone by, filled from cover to cover with vivid anecdotes told by men and
women
who once labored to spread this historical mode of transportation. Prairie Whistles includes tales
from conductors, porters, carmen, tower operators, telegraph operators, and more to give a
picturesque, vibrant look into the past of the Midwest. Engagingly written by Dennis Boyer (a
member of several railroad historical societies), Prairie Whistle is a fascinating, informative
locomotive history and a "must" for all railroad buffs!
The Pets/Wildlife Shelf
The Daisy Sutra
Helen Weaver
Buddha Rock Press
P.O. Box 736, Woodstock, NY 12498
0970050283 $14.95 www.daisysutra.com
The Daisy Sutra: Conversations With My Dog is an incredible story of communication between
human and animal. Author Helen Weaver, who agonized over the failing health of her beloved
pet,
was torn between the options of euthanasia and hope for quality of life when she called an animal
communicator. Yet what she learned changed her life, as she began to understand and truly
empathize with the perceptions of her faithful companion. A "must" for dog lovers, The Daisy
Sutra
is a heartwarming and fascinating glimpse into the mind of the creatures whose loyalty we so
often
take for granted.
Choosing A Dog For Dummies
Chris Walkowicz
Hungry Minds/IDG Books
919 East Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster City, CA 94404
0764553100 $21.99 www.dummies.com
Chris Walkowicz's Choosing A Dog For Dummies is a simple, straightforward, easy-to-read, and
dependable introduction on how to decide which pet qualities you value most and are compatible
with your own particular life style; all of the practical steps to take in choosing a great dog for
you;
as well as all aspects of properly caring for your canine pet. Additionally, readers can find out
about
breed rescue, and there's an invaluable advice about selecting a "kid-friendly" dog. If you are
considering the acquisition of a canine companion for you or your family, read Chris Walkowicz's
Choosing A Dog For Dummies!
Blessing The Bridge
Rita M. Reynolds
NewSage Press
P.O. Box 607, Troutdale, OR 97060-0607
0939165384 $13.95 1-877-695-2211
Author Rita Reynolds draws upon more than twenty years of experience working with sick and
dying animals to alleviate their suffering in her new book, Blessing The Bridge: What Animals
Teach
Us About Death, Dying, And Beyond, a spiritual collection of stories about the animals that
touched
her life. This is more than a volume of advice for grieving the loss of a pet; Blessing The Bridge is
a
pioneer journey toward deeper understanding between animals and humans. With a nonsecular
perspective on death and renewal, inspirational stories, and unlimited compassion, Blessing The
Bridge is a memorable and gentle work of heartfelt emotion.
Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes
Daniel W. Gotshall
Sea Challengers, Inc.
4 Sommerset Rise, Monterey, CA 93940
0930118324 $24.95 1-831-373-6306
Now in a newly updated, revised and expanded fourth edition, Daniel Gotshall's Pacific Coast
Inshore Fishes continues to be the premier guide in its field. This fourth edition is enhanced with
forty-four new species along with a great many new photographs. Included are family descriptions
which previous editions did not have. Each species descriptions include up-to-date information on
sizes and geographic ranges. Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes is an essential and highly recommended
reference for ichthyologists, aquarium staff, and anyone with an interest in the varieties and life
cycles of fish dwelling in Pacific coastal oceanic habitats.
Creatures Of Habitat
Mark Gerard Hengesbaugh
Utah State University Press
7800 Old Main Hill. Logan, Utah 84322
0874214173 $19.95 1-435-797-1362
Creatures Of Habitat: The Changing Nature Of Wildlife And Wild Places In Utah And The
Intermountain West is an illustrated, exhaustively detailed account of the extremely fascinating
animals and plants to be found in the Utah and the intermountain west, ranging from the shorebird
that eats brine shrimp and flies nonstop each year from the Great Salt Lake to central Argentina,
to
the rare mustard plant just recently discovered on Mount Ogden. Creatures Of Habitat openly
discusses what is happening to this wildlife and its natural surroundings, emphasizing how the loss
of
its habitat is contributing to the decline and extinction of numerous species. With lists, guides to
wildlife viewing, and habitat maps, Creatures Of Habitat is an excellent reference for any amateur
animal watcher or natural world armchair traveler, particularly those who live in or near
Utah!
The American History Shelf
The Villista Prisoners Of 1916-17
James W. Hurst
Yucca Tree Press
2130 Hixon Dr., Las Cruces, NM 88005
188132544X $12.00 1-505-524-2357
The Villista Prisoners Of 1916-17 is a historical investigation of the capture, trial, and punishment
of
soldiers who followed the infamous Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Some were sentenced to hang;
others
were given life in prison. Their trials sparked a bitter and emotional debate about the culpability of
private soldiers who obeyed orders. Author Professor Hurst investigates all the circumstances of
Pancho Villa's lethal raid on Columbus, New Mexico, and the confusion of conflicting records on
the
fate of the captured Villistas. The only surviving trial transcript of the first six Villistas to be
caught
is used extensively. Thorough documentation along with extensive attention to detail make The
Villista Prisoners Of 1916-17 is an eye-opening examination of the aftermath to a turbulent
moment
in the history of the American West.
So, Ye Want To Be A Reenactor?
Brenton C. Kemmer & Karen L. Kemmer
Heritage Books, Inc.
1540 Pointer Ridge Pl., Bowie, MD 20716
0788417320 $17.00 heritagebooks.com
Brenton Kemmer and Karen Kemmer effectively collaborate in writing So, Ye Want To Be A
Reenactor?: A Living History Handbook, a straightforward collection of short, essay-style
instructions to putting together an excellent, realistic, accurate, inexpensive, and safe historical
reenactment. So, Ye Want To Be A Reenactor? features step by step help from experts, written in
a
style that those with even the most casual interest can immediately digest. Black and white
illustrations, photographs, and the occasional diagram pepper this book, and the appendices
contain
plenty of web sites, living history organizations, suggested reading materials, sample event
schedules, worksheets, and forms for recording research source records and military service
records.
A "must" for anyone interested in the fascinating performance art of recreating historical
drama!
We The People
Esther Rabchuk
Country Messenger Press
78D Cameron Lake Loop Road, Okanagan, WA 98440
096194076X $11.95
Rabchuk's refresher course on the Federalist Papers is only 80 pages, but packed within is an
easily-digested format and clear insights on the meaning of the Bill of Rights and Constitution
which
lends to classroom discussion as well as student pursuit. We The People is an excellent resource
for
any studying American history.
The River Jordan
Henry Burke and Dick Croy
Watershed Books
130 Warner St., Marietta, OH 45750
0964525224 $14.95 1-740-350-4292
The River Jordan: A True Story Of The Underground Railroad is the fictionalized account of a
true
story - the escape of the slave Jane and her seven children from a western Virginia tobacco
plantation, on land once owned by George Washington. All major characters and events are not
only
real, but also closely researched from newspapers and documentation of the time. Careful
attention
to detail and powerful imagery bring this near impossible journey of hope and freedom to vivid
life.
Highly recommended.
The Musicbook Shelf
Basic Music Theory
Jonathan Harnum
Quests, Ink
Box 73747, Fairbanks, AK 99707-3747
097075129X $24.95 QuestonsInk.com
In Basic Music Theory: How To Read, Write, And Understand Written Music, Jonathan Harnum
draws upon more than ten years of experience and expertise as a music teacher to present the
non-specialist general reader with a definitive and accessible introduction to music theory. At the
end of each short chapter a review has been placed to insure that the reader has understood and
assimilated the informative provided. Also provided at the conclusion of each chapter is a
"practical use" exercise. At the the end of each major section or "Part" is a comprehensive review
(complete with cross-referencing to the page number on which the information first appears).
After every few chapters and covering other topics are "interludes" ranging from ultra-brief
history of musical notation, how to practice, conducting, and a lesson in Italian musical terms.
Basic Music Theory is an ideal and highly recommended text for anyone of any background
wanting to become proficient in the reading, composing, and performance of written and notated
music.
How MIDI Works
Peter Lawrence Alexander
Hal Leonard Corporation
7777 West Bluemound Road, Milwaukee, WI 53213
0634020838 $29.95 1-800-637-2852
How MIDI Works by expert Peter Alexander is now in a fully updated and expanded sixth
addition.
Ably edited and deftly illustrated by Carol J. Whitear, this "user friendly" introduction and guide
assumes no prior experience or expertise on the part of the reader. The text is written in straight
forward English and covers all aspects of mastering the MIDI including understanding the MIDI
workstation, MIDI language of musical performance, computer language of MIDI, control
changes,
controllers for keyboard operations, the mixing board, recording features, sequencing, hard disk
audio recording, the computer as the hub of a MIDI studio, sequences and recording MIDI and
digital audio. A complete course in MIDI technology and operation, How MIDI Works is a
essential
reading for all who aspire to create music in this particular forum and would be a core acquisition
for professional and music school reference collections.
Santorella Publications, Ltd.
13 Pleasant Ave., Danvers, MA 01923
1-877-600-0049
Santorella Publications is a premier publisher of sheet music for use by music students, music
schools, and professional performers. One of their newest series is dedicated to thematically
traditional music for weddings. Aptly arranged by Jonathon Robbins, this new and outstanding
series
features: Promises: Wedding Classics For Piano (TS58, $12.95); Promises: Popular Wedding
Classics Piano Accompaniment (TS230, $12.95); Promises: Popular Wedding Classics For
Clarinet
(TS235 w/CD, $14.95); Promises: Popular Wedding Classics For Trombone (TS234 w/CD,
$14.95); Promises: Popular Wedding Classics For Saxophone (TS233 w/CD, $14.95); Promises:
Popular Wedding Classics For Flute (TS232 w/CD, $14.95); and Promises: Popular Wedding
Classics For Trumpet (TS231 w/CD, $14.95). From Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" to
Schubert's
"Ave Maria", to Pachelbel's "Pachelbel's Canon in D", each volume is compendium of superbly
presented music that will enhance and make memorable both ceremony and occasion.
Sell Your Music
Mark W. Curran
NMD Books
2828 Cochran Street, Suite #285, Simi Valley, CA 93065
0970677359 $19.95 1-866-712-6215
Written by a recognized expert in online music marketing, Mark Curran's Sell Your Music: How
To
Profitably Sell Your Own Recordings Online is a comprehensive, user-friendly, step by step guide
to
using the Internet in order to make money from your own music. Sell Your Music contains
extensive
interviews with independent musicians who have made thousands of dollars, as well as tips, tricks,
and techniques to reaching your target market and maximizing your profits while minimizing
hassle.
Highly recommended for all aspiring performers whether they are soloists or band members.
University Press of Mississippi
3825 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson MS 39211
These very different music titles provide solid insights into the lives of individuals who
contributed greatly to their genres. Richard Congress' Blues Mandolin Man (1-57806-334-5,
$18.00) provides a biography of the life and music of Yank Rachell, a 1960s blues mandolin
performer. This is his first biography, and one of the few books to discuss the mandolin
instrument's contributions to blues. David Freeland's Ladies Of Soul (331-0, $20.00) profiles the
rise and fall of seven female performers of the 1960s. Maxine Brown, Ruby Johnson, Carla
Thomas, Timi Yuro and others are revealed, from their struggles for success to issues involved in
their music. Both are very different, unusual accounts.
Tiny Ripple Books
Box 1533, Cranberry Township PA 16066
Two excellent music histories are recommended picks for fans of the musicians being covered.
Randy Schmidt edits Yesterday Once More (0-9675973-1-5, $24.95), providing over 45 articles,
interviews, essays, and reviews of the lives and achievements of the Carpenters. From their
recordings and performances to Karen Carpenter's health problems and death, this is packed with
musical insights which go beyond casual biographical sketches. Don Cunningham and Jeff Bleiel
edit
Add Some Music To Your Day (0-7, $19.95), about analyzing the music of the Beach Boys. Over
forty articles, essays and reviews provide critical analysis of albums and songs in a coverage which
will delight Beach Boys fans. Both are highly recommended picks.
Rip It Up!
Denise Sullivan
Backbeat Books
600 Harrison St., San Francisco CA 94107
0879306351 $17.95
Firsthand interviews blend with personal insights and notes on recommended readings in Denise
Sullivan's Rip It Up!, which focuses on some major 'rock and roll rulebreakers' across genres,
from
Ike Turner and U. Utah Phillips to Wanda Jackson, Teenage Fanclub, and Louvin Brothers. An
excellent, involving account.
The Travel Shelf
Backpacking California
Paul Backhurst, Editor
Wilderness Press
1200 - 5th St., Berkeley, CA 94710-1306
0-89997-286-1 $19.95 1-800-443-7227
Backpacking California is a "user friendly" compenium of tips from experts gather over thirty
years
of backpacking experience under one cover, with seventeen authors providing keys to over sixty
backpacking routes in California. Maps, trailheads, elevation and campsite information pack a
guide
which will prove essential for any planning a backpacking journey.
Chartering A Boat
Chris Caswell
Sheridan House Inc.
145 Palisade St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
1574091115 $29.95 sheridanhouse.com
An ideal introduction for the novice traveler, and an invaluable reference for the seasoned
charterer,
Chris Caswell's Chartering A Boat: Sail And Power provides a comprehensive explanation of
everything necessary for the successful selection and chartering of a boat whether for business or
for
pleasure, a day cruise or a round-the-world excursion. Whether the reader seeks to bareboat
(chartering solo), or with a skippered (crewed) vessel; or with a group (flotilla); there is a charter
to
suit individual interests and needs. Chartering A Boat is a completely "user friendly" compendium
of
advice on everything from selecting the right crusijng area to dealing with problems common to
chartering, to choosing good company, to paying the right price for services received. If you are
anticipating chartering any kind of vessel, your first step is to read Chris Cawell's Chartering A
Boat!
Alone Across The Arctic
Pam Flowers & Ann Dixon
Graphic Arts Publishing
203 West 15th Ave. #108, Anchorage, AK 99501
0-88240-539-X $15.95 1-800-452-3032
Alone Across The Arctic is a superbly written adventure story that makes for a fine armchair read
and tells of the author's solo trip across the arctic coast with sled dogs. From blizzards and a
melting
ice pack to encounters with polar bears, Alone Across The Arctic is travelogue packed with
ongoing
action and true-live adventure.
Colorado's Canyon Country
Mark Pearson
Westcliffe Publishers
P.O. Box 1261, Englewood, CO 80150
1565793870 $22.95 1-800-523-3692
Mark Pearson's Colorado's Canyon Country: A Guide to Hiking & Floating BLM Wildlands is an
absolutely gorgeous, full-color hiking guide filled with 51 easy-to-read maps, as well as
photographs, survival tips, desert etiquette, and instructions for how you can help with wilderness
issues. Each of the many suggested hikes is outlined on the maps and has its length listed, as well
as
its low and high elevations and its approximate difficulty. The paper used for printing is thick,
durable stock, for this book is meant to be taken on the road. If you're planning a hiking trip to
Colorado, get this book!
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Guide To Historic Philadelphia
Edward Colimore
Camino Books
P.O. Box 59026, Philadelphia, PA 19102
0940159678 $11.95 caminobooks.com
Edward Colimore's The Philadelphia Inquirer's Guide To Historic Philadelphia takes the reader on
twelve walking tours through city neighborhoods that have preserve history and culture through
the
generations. Walkers can visit buildings, streets, gardens, and parks that date back to the colonial
period and the Victorian era. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Guide To Historic Philadelphia is
arranged
in a logical, easy-to-follow format, and includes maps, touring and public transportation
information,
parking tips, recommendations for nearby restaurants, and more. Enthusiastically recommended
for
armchair travelers or walking tourists - for anyone who either vicariously or personally wants to
follow the footsteps of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin!
Following The Santa Fe Trail
Marc Simmons & Hal Jackson
University of New Mexico Press
1720 Lomas Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1591
1580960111 $15.95 1-800-249-7737
Now in a revised and updated third edition, Marc Simmons and Hal Jackson's Following The
Santa
Fe Trail: A Guide For Modern Travelers is written specifically to assist modern travelers who
enjoy
following the wagon tracks of pioneers. Following The Santa Fe Trail is packed with directions,
maps, anecdotes, historical information, and everything else necessary to follow the trail of
history.
Now that the Santa Fe Trail has been designated a National Historic Trail under the National Park
Service,it is bringing more public interest than ever to this fascinating pathway that transcends the
generations. If the Santa Fe Trail perks your interest to, then Following The Santa Fe Trail is a
must-read!
Word Dancer Press
8386 N. Madsen Ave., Clovis, CA 93611
Visitors to California as well as long time local residents will find David L. Durham "Place
Names"
series to be meticulously researched, accessibly written, "user friendly" and consistently excellent
guides to place names in the "Sunshine State", providing gazetteers of names, topographic
features,
and some details on who named the feature. California's Central Coast (1-884995-29-2, $14.95)
and
San Francisco Bay Area (35-7, $13.95) each one provides the traveler or tourist with easy
references and include longitude and latitude for each feature, making these excellent for hikers as
well.
Ulysses Press
Box 3340, Berkeley, CA 94703
$15.95 Each 1-800-377-2542
Updated editions of two classic "Hidden" travel guides from Ulysses Press are "user friendly" and
recommended picks for destination-bound travelers. Hidden Montana (1-56975-251-6) appears in
its
third edition to cover inns, tours, drives, and outdoors explorations throughout the state. From
Glacier Park to Yellowstone, this is packed with lesser-known byways. Same for Hidden
Wyoming
(255-9), which appears in its third edition to provide selective recommendations and reviews of
lodgings, sightseeing, and special dining experiences throughout the state. Send for the free
Ulysses
Press catalog for a complete listing of their outstanding and off-beat "Hidden" travel guides.
Treasures And Pleasures Of Rio And Sao Paula
Ron & Caryl Krannich
Impact Publications
9104 Manassas Dr., Suite N, Manassas Park, VA 20111-5211
1570231524 $13.95
Ron & Caryl Krannich's Treasures And Pleasures Of Rio And Sao Paula explores two popular
Latin
cities, revealing their shopping opportunities from gems and art to antiques and handcrafts. From
planning the trip to observing shopping rules of the region, Treasures And Pleasures Of Rio And
Sao Paula provides important information.
The Christian Studies
Shelf
Parables In The Eye Of The Storm
Stanley A. Ellisen
Kregel Publications
PO Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501
0825425271 $12.99 1-800-733-2607
A parable is a fictitious but true-to-life story designed to teach a specific spiritual, philosophical,
or
life lesson. Parables comprised about one-third of all of the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the
Gospels. Jesus crafted his stories to confuse His opponents, confront the uncommitted, and teach
his
followers. Understanding Jesus' parables is essential to the revelation of His life-transforming
message. Ideally suited for contemporary students of the New Testament, Parables In The Eye Of
The Storm specifically addresses this necessity with a chronological study of Jesus' parables and is
a
highly recommended addition to personal reading lists.
The Sermon On The Mount
Carl G. Vaught
Baylor University Press
PO Box 97363, Waco, TX 76798
0918954762 $14.95
Carl Vaught is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. In The
Sermon On The Mount, Professor Vaught provides a theological based exploration of the Sermon
on the Mount based on the assumption that the text cannot be understood apart from a
transformation of the human spirit. The stages of this transformation are outlined in the
Beatitudes.
It is against this background that Professor Vaught focuses on the perfection that Jesus demands
from his followers in dealing with all of the complexities of life including the practical problems of
murder, anger, adultery, divorce, retaliation, and response to enemies. The Sermon On The
Mount is
a welcome commentary whose lively and accessible text make it ideal for theology students and
non-specialist laymen alike.
Bethlehem Year Zero
Vision Video
P.O. Box 540, 2030 Wentz Church Road
Worcester, PA 19490
1563644312 $24.99 1-610-584-3500
Bethlehem Year Zero is a stunning new take on the Christmas story, presenting the events of
2000
years ago as if they were breaking news in the present. Based on research and the best resources,
this outstanding video looks closely at the political turbulence of ancient Rome and its tyrannical
occupation, with real political analysis of an emerging threat to King Herod's rule. Divided into
six
15-minute segments, Bethlehem Year Zero is an exciting and sobering view of the birth of Jesus
Christ and its far-reaching implications.
Eyes Wide Open
William D. Romanowski
Baker Book House
Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
1587430096 $12.99 bakerbooks.com
Eyes Wide Open: Looking For God In Popular Culture is an easy-to-read, highly engaging guide
for
interpreting and evaluating popular culture from a Christian perspective and framework. William
Romanowski (professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College, Grand Rapids,
Michigan) offers a practical, analytical, and Christian-based approach to movies, music, and
television programs, enabling the reader to engage the media that so saturates modern life.
Romanowski's illuminating examples range from Casablanca to Titanic, from The Simpsons to
ER,
from Bruce Springsteen to Amy Grant. Eyes Wide Open is informative, rewarding, insightful, and
strongly recommended reading for parents, pastors, teachers, and teens.
"A Hard Saying"
Francis J. Moloney
The Liturgical Press
PO Box 7500, Collegeville, MN 56321
0814659535 $29.95 www.litpress.org
In "A Hard Saying": The Gospel And Culture, Francis J. Moloney (professor of New Testament
at
The Catholic University of America) carefully examines how the Christian Churches inevitably
domesticate the message of the Gospel as they shape their own cultures and how the Gospel
always
acts as a "thorn in the sid" to such domestication. Moloney surveys the gospel message impact on
such issues within the Christian community as the role of women, discipleship, marriage, celibacy,
literary criticism, the Eucharist, health care, resurrection, and the Spirit -- and how the living
voice
of the Gospel is allowed to be heard. "A Hard Saying" is very highly recommended to students of
theology, as well as contemporary Christian life and thought as reflected in the issues of our
day.
Search And Rescue
Patrick Madrid
Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
192883227X $14.95 1-800-888-9344
Search And Rescue: How To Bring Your Family And Friends Into (Or Back Into) the Catholic
Church is the first practical volume to provide specific help to Catholics who want to win back
friends and relatives who have become inactive in the Catholic faith. The message is that
rank-and-file Catholics need not be biblical scholars or learned theologians to operate as effective
spokespersons for the Catholic Faith and still win souls to the Catholic Church through the use of
prayer, friendship, and common sense. Search And Rescue is highly recommended for anyone
seeking effective strategies for apologetics and evangelization with respect to friends, colleagues,
neighbors, and family members.
Separate And Peculiar
Isaac R. Horst
Herald Press
616 Walnut Avenue, Scottdale, PA 15683
0836191463 $13.99 1-800-245-7894
In Separate And Peculiar: Old Order Mennonite Life In Ontario, author Isaac Horst, an Old Order
Mennonite, thoroughly explains the customs, beliefs, and culture of his people in Ontario - both in
English and in Pennsylvanian German. This bilingual presentation shows the Mennonite
community
through the eyes and story of a typical boy, Menno Martin, who matures over time at home, on
the
farm, in school, and at church. Eventually he marries Grace and becomes a preacher. Vivid
language
and eyewitness detail bring to life what it is like to live in an Old Order Mennonite community,
from
barn raising, quilting, and butchering day to youth singings and being baptized as a member of the
church. With black-and-white illustrations, a glossary of typical Mennonite terms, and a
captivating
point of view, Separate And Peculiar is strongly recommended reading for anyone with an interest
in
the Old Order Mennonite community.
The Friendship Of Women
Joan Chittister, O.S.B.
Sheed & Ward
7373 South Lovers Lane Road, Franklin, WI 53132
1580511015 $17.95 1-414-529-6400
Joan Chittister is a Benedictine sister, founder and executive director of Benetvision: A Resource
and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality. A theologian, social psychologist, and
communication theorist, she skillfully explores the sacred dimension of friendship through the
perspectives of faith, tradition, Scripture, and the experience of women in The Friendship Of
Women: A Spiritual Tradition. The almost lyrical text is enhanced with the stunning icons of
Benedictine oblate Marcie Bircher and showcases the wisdom of such women as Lydia, Prisca,
Phoebe, Martha, Veronica, elizabeth, Anne, Mary Magdalene, and those who gathered at the foot
of
the Cross. Sr. Joan teaches the reader about friendship as it is embodied and exemplified in each
of
these women's lives, and within a context of the Christian experience. The Friendship Of Women
is
very highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in women's contributions to the
health
of the Christian community and the legacy of the Christian church with respect to our ordinary
lives
and relationships.
The Space/Astronomy Shelf
Dark Moon
Mary Bennett & David S. Percy
Adventures Unlimited Press
One Adventure Place, Kempton, IL 60946
0932813909 $25.00 1-815-253-6390
Mary Bennett and David Percy impressively collaborate in Dark Moon: Apollo And The
Whistle-Blowers to address little know (and often scandalous) aspects of NASA's Apollo mission
to
land a man on the surface of the Moon and return safely to Earth. This unique and meticulously
researched inquiry specifically addresses such questions and issues as: Whether or not NASA
faked
the Apollo record; was Neil Armstrong really the first man to step foot upon the Moon; that a
second craft was going to the Moon; the apparently "live" television broadcasts from the Moon
were
actually pre-recorded; that the Lunar Surface Camera had no viewfinder; that lighting was used in
the Apollo photographs but no lighting equipment was taken to the Moon. Other fascinating and
documented information is presented such as why the Soviets did not expose the American to
these
issues; whether Yuri Gagarin was actually the first man in space -- or did other Russian
cosmonauts
die in previous attempts; and that potentially lethal radiation is prevalent throughout deep space.
Dark Moon is enhanced with an extensive bibliography and an exhaustive index making it an
excellent and recommended text for academia as well as the interested non-specialist general
reader.
Space Shuttle
Dennis R. Jenkins
Voyageur Press
123 N. Second St., Stillwater MN 55082
0-9633974-5-1 $39.95 1-800-888-9653
Collections strong in space science or astronomy will want to include this history of the NASA
program and its missions: unlike coffee-table competitors, Dennis R. Jenkins' Space Shuttle offers
one of the most comprehensive coverages available, providing a wealth of insights into the politics
and science of the NASA shuttle program. Black and white photos throughout.
New Cosmic Horizons
David Leverington
Cambridge University Press
110 Midland Avenue, Port Chester, NY 10573-4930
0521658330 $29.95 cambridge.org
In New Cosmic Horizons: Space Astronomy From The V2 To The Hubble Space Telescope,
David
Leverington reveals the fascinating history of space-based astronomy from the launching of the V!
rocket in 1946 down to the present day. Here are all the triumphs of the space experiments and
spacecraft designs that have produced the spectacular astronomical results in the last half of the
twentieth century. Profusely illustrated and with a comprehensive, "reader friendly" text ideal for
both astronomy students, astronomy professionals, and the interested non-specialist general
reader,
New Cosmic Horizons will prove to be an essential, core addition to any personal, academic or
community library reference collection.
An Intimate Look At The Night Sky
Chet Raymo
Walker & Company
435 Hudson Street, NY, NY 10014
0802713696 $26.00 walkerbooks.com
The text comprising An Intimate Look At The Night Sky combines practical information with an
intellectually stimulating writing style that challenges the readers' imagination and takes simply
stargazing to a whole new level. Award-winning science writer and columnist Chet Raymo
elegant
and informative narrative offers a celebration of the night sky that will imbue the readers with a
personal connection to the wonder of the heavens as it enlarges their concepts and appreciation of
a
universe that stretches to infinity. Enhanced with black-and-white photography and star charts, An
Intimate Look At The Night Sky is an engaging, lyrical, soundly science based, and very highly
recommended collection of essays that blend history, mythology, religion, literature, and
astronomy.
The Psychology Shelf
Good Grief
Deborah Morris Coryell
The Shiva Foundation
551 Cordova Road, Suite 709, Santa Fe, NM 87501
0966069781 $15.00 1-800-720-9544
Author Deborah Morris Coryell, who has worked in the health field for more than 25 years and
has
written numerous books on wellness, now takes pen to paper in order to shed light on the process
of
healing from grief and loss. She observes that "We only grieve for that which we have loved and,
the
nature of life being transitory, love and loss are intimately connected," among many other hidden
truths about the essence of grief. Eloquent and poignant, Good Grief: Healing Through The
Shadow
Of Loss is a touching journey toward understanding the regret that makes us human.
This Child Of Mine
Martha Wakenshaw
Harbinger Press
2711 Buford Road, PMB 383, Richmond, VA 23235-2423
0967473608 $12.95 1-800-247-6653
Four-year-old Jackson witnessed the attempted murder of his mother. He ran to call the
emergency
number like the medics at his pre-school had said -- but the phone was dead. He was found in the
back yard, clawing the fence, splinters were under his nails. Martha Wakenshaw, a
psychotherapist
specializing in play and expressive arts therapy with children, took this youngster who told her
that
"If you really want to kill someone, all you gotta do is punch them in the heart", and helped him to
once again become a child who could laugh, play, share, and be at peace. This Child Of Mine: A
Therapist's Journey is a personal (as opposed to a coldly clinical) account, not about
sensationalized
child abuse, but about the healing relationship between therapist and child -- and how it works or
fails despite all efforts. Wakenshaw describes her sessions with Bailey (who has to kill the Bad
Guy);
Candace (who loves cats and wants a new home); Raymond (beaten but loves to play); and many
more. Here revealed is the pain of failure, the frustrations with "the system"; and the transcendent
joy arising from the resilience of the tiniest human spirits -- children who evoke the child and the
parent in all of us. This Child Of Mine is strongly recommended reading for anyone considering
psychotherapeutic work with children of any age, circumstance, or background.
The Dream Frontier
Mark J. Blechner, Ph.D.
The Analytic Press
10 Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, NJ 07430
0881632244 $49.95 1-800-926-6579
Mark Blechner's The Dream Frontier showcases a century's worth of accumulated wisdom on the
examination of dreams and cognitive neuroscience. Drawing upon the knowledge and
contributions
of Freud, Jung, Sullivan, Erikson, Aserinsky, Kleitman, and Hobson, the result is a deftly worded,
analytical, scientifically credible yet personally meaningful understanding of dreams. The Dream
Frontier delves deep into dream phenomenology as well as their psychotheraputical value, while
raising unanswered questions about unconscious mental life. A fascinating and lucid book and
recommended for students of the psychology of dreams and dreaming.
Where The Roots Reach For Water
Jeffery Smith
North Point Press
c/o Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, NY, NY 10003
086547592X $13.00 1-888-330-8477
Where The Roots Reach For Water: A Personal & Natural History Of Melancholia is the
powerful
story of one man's life with melancholia, written in his own words. Author Jeffery Smith was
working as a psychiatric case manager in Montana when he started to suffer from clinical
depression. His affliction was so severe that his prescribed antidepressants became inefficient at
any
dosage. Smith openly and candidly writes of what happend to him after he gave up his
medications
and changed his life in order to accommodate his depression. Poetic, saddening, but also written
with quiet strength and will to live in spite of hardship, Where The Roots Reach For Water is an
unforgettable memoir and fascinating reading for students of psychology, as well as the friends
and
family of anyone suffering from a similiar condition.
W.W. Norton
500 - 5th Ave., New York NY 10010
Two excellent psychology titles are recommended picks for health collections. Michael Foster
Green's Schizophrenia Revealed (0-393-70334-7, $32.00) discusses the extent of schizophrenia
symptoms, from the influence of genetics and how the brain works to treatments, biological
versus
social influences, and the latest research on the condition. An excellent overview of schizophrenia.
Christopher Martell, et.al.'s Depression In Context (70350-9, $32.00) covers strategies for action
in
the management of depression. It's one of Neil Jacobson's last contributions to the study of
depression and here he works with Martell and Michael Addis in presenting behavioral
approaches
to treating depression.
The Black Studies Shelf
Atlas Of African-American History
James Ciment
Facts on File
11 Penn Plaza, New York NY 10001
0816037000 $85.00 1-800-322-8755
This excellent atlas of facts should be in the holdings of any serious Afro-American reference
book
collection: Atlas Of African-American History uses black and white and color photos, almost
seventy maps, and numerous graphs to provide a visual understanding of Afro-American history
and
events, both boxed highlighted topics making it easy to browse and read
about special topics. Highly recommended.
Sentimental Confessions
Jocyelyn Moody
University of Georgia Press
Athens, GA 30602
0820322369 $40.00 1-800-266-5842
An original, scholarly study of evangelicalism, sentimentalism, and nationalism in early African
American autobiographies of "holy women", Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives Of
Nineteenth-Century African American Women analyses the life writings of Maria Stewart, Jarena
Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Nancy Prince, Mattie J. .Jackson, and Julia Foot. An assistant professor of
English
at the University of Washington, Joycelyn Moody reveals how these 19th Century black women
authors appropriated white-sanctioned literary conventions to assert their voices and to protest
the
racism, patriarchy, and other forces which created and sustained their poverty and enslavement.
The
reader is provided with a series of invaluable insights as a neglected chapter of American literary
history is recovered and showcased. Sentimental Confessions is a very strongly recommended
addition to personal and academic collections for Black Studies, Women's Studies, and American
Literary History collections.
The Self-Help Shelf
The Bounce Back Quotient
Linda Nash
Prism Publications
KSB Promotions (publicity)
PO Box 16873, St. Louis, MO 63105
0963670220 $12.95 1-800-701-9782
In an uncertain world with increasingly high rates of employment turnover, The Bounce Back
Quotient: 52 Action Oriented Ideas by Linda Nash is truly invaluable. Written specifically to
reveal
the hidden patterns that predict which individuals and companies succeed and which fail in the
modern economy, this book offers a self-diagnostic test. The test consists of 52 statements; after
reading each one, the reader writes a number that corresponds to what extent that statement is
true
for him or her. The results reveal how likely the reader is to "bounce back" from abrupt,
unpleasant
changes - and they show what weaknesses in the reader's innate adaptability need the most work.
With its helpful insights, warnings, and candid advice, The Bounce Back Quotient is a "must" for
anyone who truly believes in preparing themselves for the unexpected!
You Can Beat Depression
John Preston
Impact Publishers
PO Box 6016, Atascadero, CA 93423
1886230404 $14.95 1-805-466-5917
Clinical psychologist John Preston reveals that clinical depression differs from normal sadness in
five
distinct ways: depression is more intensely painful, last longer, interferes with normal day-to-day
functioning, is destructive, and is often a cluster of symptoms involving problems in social
interaction, behavior, thinking, and biological functioning. In You Can Beat Depression: A Guide
To
Prevention & Recover: 3rd Edition, Dr. Preston recommends a series of self- help actions to
promote emotional healing when afflicted by clinical depression: accept that it is normal to have
painful feelings; express your feelings to at least one other person; stay in contact with supportive
friends and/or relatives; maintain a realistic perception of your life and yourself; engaging in
problem
solving which promotes growth. This guide will enable readers to recognize when and how to
help
themselves (and when to turn to professionals for treatment). Also offered is an up-to-date
consumer guide to medications; material on the prevention of depression; brief therapy
interventions,
exercise, and other non-medical approaches. If you suffer from clinical depression, or know of
someone who does, then give a careful reading to John Preston's You Can Beat Depression.
The Cookbook Shelf
Best Of Czech Cooking
Peter Trnka
Hippocrene Books
171 Madison Ave., New York NY 10016
0-7818-0805-7 $24.95 1-718-454-2366
This new and expanded edition of an ethnic culinary classic provides a solid and important
introduction to a cuisine which all too rarely receives its own book outside of general European
cooking. Three new chapters to this edition of Peter Trnka's Best Of Czech Cooking add focus on
pork, mushrooms and drinks, while the remainder is filled with Czech basics. No photos, but the
recipes are easy enough without them.
Tea-Time Recipes
Jane Pettigrew
National Trust/Trafalgar Square, dist.
PO Box 257, Howe Hill Road, North Pomfret, VT 05053-0257
0-7078-0287-3 $22.95 1-800-423-4525
Any seeking to re-create the splendor of an English traditional tea will welcome Jane Pettigrew's
Tea-Time Recipes, which presents such classics as a Yorkshire Curd Tart, Sussex Apple Cake,
and
Lakeland Coconut Tart. Recipes are gleaned from regions across the U.K. and while color photos
pepper Tea-Time Recipes, its value lies in its excellent recipes for sweets.
The Best Of The Ark And More!
Nanci Main & Jimella Lucas
Nanci Main & Jimella Lucas Publishers
PO Box 95, Nahcotta, WA 98637
1558685952 $24.95 arkrestaurant.com
Located on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwestern Washington State, the Ark Restaurant has
achieved a national recognition as representing the best in American northwest regional cuisine. In
The Best Of The Ark And More!, owners/chefs Nanci Main and Jimella Lucas draw upon their
more
than twenty years of experience and expertise to present a compendium of their best recipes.
From
Calamari Dijonnaise; Tea Smoked Halibut; and Cranberry Chicken Salad; to Italian Herb Rolls;
Marinated Lamb Chops with Rosemary Sauce; and Vanilla Cream Cheesecake, The Best Of The
Ark And More! recipes are enhanced with introductory vignettes and illustrated throughout with
color photography spreads. Of special interest is the section on "Ark Basics" with recipes for a
variety of diverse sauces, relishes, and dressings. Also not to be missed is the section devoted to
"Recipes That Create Community". The Best Of The Ark And More! is an enthusiastically
recommended addition to any personal or professional cookbook collection!
Brilliant Food Tips And Cooking Tricks
David Joachim
Rodale Books
400 South Tenth St., Emmaus, PA 18098
1579543014 $29.95 www.rodale.com
In Brilliant Food Tips And Cooking Tricks, cookbook editor David Joachim draws upon the
expertise of leading food experts across the county to compile a superbly presented,
comprehensive,
home-cooking reference book that will prove invaluable for the family kitchen. Featured are more
than 5,000 professional kitchen tips and more than 900 recipes that will enhance anyone's culinary
skills and dining pleasures. From Angel Food Cake to Zucchini, the range of recipes is quite
literally
alphabetical in its presentation! If you only have time or room for one more cookbook, make it
David Joachim's Brilliant Food Tips And Cooking Tricks!
The Complete Vegan Cookbook
Susann Geiskopf-Hadler & Mindy Toomay
Prima Publishing
3000 Lava Ridge Ct, Roseville, CA 95661
0761529519 $19.95 primahealth.com
A vegan diet is one drawn exclusively from the vegetable kingdom and excludes all animal meat
products including seafood, eggs, dairy, and honey, as well as any vegetable product which is
processed using animal ingredients. In The Complete Vegan Cookbook, Susan Geiskopf-Hadler
and
Mindy Toomay effectively collaborate to present more than two hundred mouth-watering recipes
enhanced with a wealth of "kitchen wisdom" for the benefit of the kitchen novice -- as well as the
experience chef! From French Lentil Salad with Fresh Basil and Mint; Cauliflower in Coriander
Cashew Sauce; and White Beans with Tomatoes and Chipotle Chilies; to Skewers of Baby Squash
and Tempeh in Pineapple-Ginger Marinade; Granola with Dried Cranberries and Apricots; and
Banana-Date Freeze, The Complete Vegan Cookbook is a "must" for the vegetarian
bookshelf!
Enjoy!
The Best of Bridge
Stewart House Publishing, Inc.
1180 Medical Court Suite A, Carmel, IN 46032
0969042515 $19.95 1-866-574-6873
Hand lettered by Norm W. Hodgins and enhanced with superb color photography, Enjoy!: More
Recipes From The Best Of Bridge showcases a wealth of wonderful recipes for all occasions,
domestic and festive. From Eggs Ranchero; Curried Seafood Cocktail Puffs; Armenian Spinach
Salad; and Sesame Broccoli; to Apricots 'N Ham; Cantonese Chicken; Short Ribs in Beer; and
Chocolate Poundcake, Enjoy! offers a cornucopia of culinary delights that will please any palate
and
satisfy any appetite!
Verdure
Gioietta Vitale & Robin Vitetta-Miller
Clarkson N. Potter
060960435X $18.00 randomhouse.com
Drawing from the cuisines of Northern Italy, Verdure: Simple Recipes In The Italian Style
showcases one hundred nutritious and delicious recipes celebrating the best of fresh seasonal
produce. From Insalata di Faioli Caldi con Prezzemolo (Warm Bean Salad with Parsley);
Minestra
Fredda di Cetrioli (Cold Cucumber Soup); and Cipolline All 'Agrodolce (Sweet and Sour Small
Onions); to Timballo di Patate con Parma Cotto (Potato Gratin with Ham); Spinaci Saltati All
'Olio
D'Oliva (Sauteed Spinach in Olive Oil); and Zucchine Trifolate con Olio D'oliva & Prezzemolo
(Sauteed Zucchini with Olive Oil and Parsley); Verdure offers a true taste of classic Italy for an
outstanding and memorable American dining experience.
French Lessons
Peter Mayle
Knopf
280 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
0-375-40590-9 $24.00 1-800-726-0600
Peter Mayle returns to France in his latest book, French Lessons, which focuses on French cuisine
and culinary experiences. Here he travels from Provence to all corners of France, exploring small
restaurants, village markets, food festivals and vineyards alike. Recommended for anyone with an
interest in French culture and cuisine, French Lessons is a delightful armchair read of encounters
with the French and their foods evolves.
Cooking Around The Calendar With Kids
Amy Houts
Snaptail Press
PO Box 305, Maryville, MO 64468
0930643127 $12.95 1-660-582-4279
Cooking Around The Calendar With Kids: Holiday And Seasonal Food And Fun is a 121-page
compendium of advice and recipes that will enable parents to involve their children with a love of
cooking. Amy Hout is an experienced children's author and former preschool teacher who shares
her
considerable expertise in showing parents how to help their children follow directions as they
cook
together in the kitchen including the practice safety and proper food handling methods; choosing
and
preparing seasonal food for great taste and careful economy; practice good table manners;
establish
family traditions; foster cooperation and a willingness to share; prepare tasty foods from other
cultures; and generally enjoy the preparation of food while learning about the background of the
recipes and menus of various traditions and holidays. Cooking Around The Calendar With Kids is
a
welcome and recommended addition to family and community library collections!
Blue Ribbon Preserves
Linda J. Amendt
HP Books/Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, NY, NY 10014
1557883610 $18.95 penguinputnam.com
State Fair prizewinner Linda Amendt's Blue Ribbon Preserves reveals the culinary secrets for
making
award-winning jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves, conserves, butters, curds, syrups, vinegars,
sauces and more. This compendium of just under three hundred delicious recipes is enhanced with
a
complete canning guide that includes the very latest methods and safety precautions for
preserving.
From Cherry Cider Jelly; Apple-Apricot Sauce; and Caramel Apple Butter; to Nectarine Jam;
Coconut-Pineapple Conserve; and Dilled Green Beans, Blue Ribbon Preserves offers something
for
every taste and every table!
The Law/Justice Shelf
Legal Forms For Everyone
Carl W. Battle
Allworth Press
10 E. 23rd St. #510, New York NY 10010
1-58115-090-3 $24.95 1-800-491-2808
Attorney Carl Battle's Legal Forms For Everyone will appeal to both consumers and business
owners, providing a wealth of legal forms also available on an accompanying CD-Rom. From
starting a business and leasing a home or office to changing names and handling bankruptcy, this
is
packed with checklists, forms and instructions on how to use them.
The Fiction Shelf
A Sky So Close
Betool Khedairi
Pantheon
299 Park Avenue, New York NY 10171
0375420967 $23.00 1-800-726-0600
This story of a girl growing up in wartime Iraq sparked controversy when it was published in the
Middle East: now English readers have a chance to experience Betool Khedairi's A Sky So Close,
a
coming of age story of an Iraqi childhood. The result is a series of insights on contemporary Iraq
which no history coverage could hope to match for depth.
Himalayan Dhaba
Craig Joseph Danner
Crispin Hammer Publishing Company
5640 Imai Road, Hood River, OR 97031
0970640595 $24.00 1-541-806-1190
Craig Danner's debut novel, Himalayan Dhaba, is set in a remote Himalayan village. It is the story
of
a female American doctor running a small hospital, and who searches for the ghost of her
husband.
Meanwhile, a wounded traveller is kidnapped, and the waiter in the local dhaba finds a love he
never
imagined. This rich, original story spans the length of a year, and its complexities shift from
poignant
to fast-paced action at the turn of a page. Fascinating and involving, Himalayan Dhaba is a
unique,
bright new work for those who are tired of the same old, retread stories stories and settings.
Chosen Prey
John Sandford
Putnam
375 Hudson St., New York NY 10014
0399147284 $26.95 1-800-847-5515
In John Sandford's Chosen Prey, an art history professor, writer, and secret killer is loose in the
form
of one James Qatar, whose initially innocent hobby turns into a platform for death. It's up to
Deputy
Lucas Davenport to head the investigation into why, how and who - with time running out.
Highly
recommended.
Crossword Connection
Nero Blanc
Berkley Books
375 Hudson St., New York NY 10014
0425179508 $12.00 1-800-847-5515
P.I. Rosco and crossword editor Belle are an unlikely team, combining puzzles and crime solving
with the uncertainties of married life and danger. In Nero Blanc's Crossword Connection, it's a
crossword puzzle that holds the key to a series of deaths in a riveting and recomended
mystery.
The Things I Know Best
Lynne Hinton
Harper San Francisco
353 Sacramento St. #500, San Francisco CA 94111-3653
0-06-251727-9 $20.00 1-800-272-7737
Lynne Hinton's The Things I Know Best is set in North Carolina, where a home which has housed
generations of the Ivy women is affected by a special gift which sparks changes and tragedy. A
twin
sister's experiences and predictions spark conflict and love.
Mutant
Peter Clement
Ballantine Books
1540 Broadway, New York NY 10036
0345443373 $19.95 1-800-726-0600
Peter Clement's Mutant is a medical thriller that is packed with suspense: an activist warning of
new
DNA strains and environmental problems investigates a powerful company's genetic
breakthroughs,
and individuals leading disparate lives are drawn together in the survey of genetically modified
foods
and dangers from bioengineering. An absorbing and highly recommended thriller.
Fans of the old-style pulp mystery/detective fiction will relish Donald Wanderi's Frost, an
outstanding collection of imaginative and superbly written short fiction revolving around the
adventures of Professor Frost, a picky investigator who chooses only the most challenging cases,
and is aided by a beautiful female sidekick. Swift action and unpredictable plots in true pulp style
mark a fine selection of of terrific and original adventures by a mastery storyteller.
Business To Kill For
Mike Brogan
Lighthouse Publishing
648 Woodland, Birmingham, MI 48009
0615115705 $19.95 1-810-753-8318
A business conglomerate worth $1 billion is the focus of Business To Kill For, a nerve-wracking
suspense thriller. Standard business practice turns savage when a shadowy alliance conspires to
take
over the corporation - by murdering two CEOs who control it! Painting a cruel, ruthless portrait
of
escalating competition in corporations, Business To Kill For takes the cutthroat bottom line just
one
small step further, into a realm of terror and danger that simply won't let you stop turning the
pages.
Her Word Of Honor
Stan Shartle
Minerva Publishing Co.
1001 Brickell Bay Drive, Suite 2310, Miami, Florida 33131
1930493215 $17.95 1-305-358-1560
Stan Shartle's Her Word Of Honor is a brilliantly written, skillfully crafted story of passionate love
during the 1940s, as the raging World War II in Europe separates two 'star-crossed' paramours,
Diane and Curt. Absence from one another and the horrors of war leads them to the most
miserable
depths each can humanly experience; can their love ever bring their souls out of the eternal abyss?
Her Word Of Honor is a heart-rending, torrential, emotional read.
Passage
Connie Willis
Bantam Books
1540 Broadway, New York NY 10036
0553111248 $23.95 1-800-726-0600
One of the most outstanding novels to appear this year, Connie Willis' Passageris a riveting blend
of
detective story, science fiction and spiritual coverage. Psychologist Dr. Joanna Lander works with
another in researching near death experiences of patients, hoping to uncover their meaning. It's
not
until she begins a more personal involvement that answers slowly evolve; though perhaps not in
time. The characterization is outstanding, the tension delicious, and the story thoroughly
unpredictable up to the last page.
Pagan Dances Of Caherbarnagh
Bridget Horan O'Mahony
Educare Press
P.O. Box 17222, Seattle, WA 98107
0944638287 $14.95 educarepress.com
Pagan Dances Of Caherbarnagh is a splendidly written novel revealing the soul of Ireland and the
breath of America. Written with resounding emotion, author Bridget O'Mahony's covers the
heart-wrenching loss of leaving one's country, family, and identity for a glittering future hope in a
far-off land. A moving, fiery tale of drive, determination, and the uplifting vigor of the spirit,
Bridget
O'Mahony's is highly recommended reading from first page to last!.
The Business Shelf
The Inventor's Kit
W. J. Scott Murphy
Blue Dolphin Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 8, Nevada City, CA 95959
1577330641 $39.95 1-800-643-0765
The Russian scientist who invented the video game Tetris was unable to secure the rights to it,
and
so he never saw a dime of the millions of dollars his brainchild generated. If you have a great idea
but want to avoid such an unfair fate, then you'll find Scott Murphy's The Inventor's Kit: A
Complete Workbook For Filing U.S. Patents, Trademarks, And Copyrights to be the perfect
reference. Divided into three parts, Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, this book has
everything
to help new inventors navigate the often confusing realm of intellectual property ownership:
actual
forms, instruction sheets, samples of completed forms, and even help lines. The Inventor's Kit also
answers countless common questions, including 'What can and can't be patented?' and 'How do I
do
a patent search?' A very highly recommended reference and workbook -- especially for anyone
with
a marketable idea. Better to spend $39.95 now than miss out on $3,000,000 in the future!
A Practical Guide For Policy Analysis
Eugene Bardach
Chatham House Publishers
c/o Seven Bridges Press
135 Fifth Avenue 9th Fl., NY, NY 10010
1889119296 $12.95 sevenbridgespress.com
Eugene Bardach's A Practical Guide For Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path To More Effective
Problem Solving is a treatise on analyzing policies for any business. Bardach offers a very
carefully
written and informative text, enhanced with extensive suggestions, examples, explanations,
footnotes, and in-depth problem-solving plans. Intended to help the reader learn the management
skills of an executive, A Practical Guide For Policy Analysis concentrates an amazing amount of
versatile wisdom into a mere 102 pages. A recommended guide for anyone who must learn to deal
with high-stakes or high-stress daily crossroads.
The Mirrored Window
Judith Langer
Paramount Market Publishing, Inc.
301 S. Geneva St., #109, Ithaca NY 14850
0967143942 $49.95 1-888-787-8100
In The Mirrored Window: Focus Groups From A Moderator's Point Of View, Judith Langer
(senior
vice president of Langer/Roper Qualitative Research Division) draws upon her more that twenty
years of experience and expertise to cogently clearly explain the role and performance of the focus
group as an important aspect of the marketing process. With the use of examples drawn from a
variety of different industries (including parts of an actual transcript from focus groups for
Playboy
Enterprises), Langer illustrated the client's role, offers tips for controlling rambunctious groups,
and
how to energize groups that lag or get distracted from the targeted issue or presentation. The
Mirrored Window is essential reading for all aspiring marketing professionals and is a core
addition
to any Marketing or Business School reference library.
Confessions Of Shameless Self Promoters
Debbie Allen
Success Showcase Publishing
131 W. Sunburst Ln., Tempe, AZ 85284
0965096556 $14.95 1-800-359-4544
In Confessions Of Shameless Self Promoters: 68 Marketing Gurus Share Secrets, Strategies, And
Unique Ideas That Will Take You To The Next Level Of Success, Debbie Allen presents a
coherent
explanation of self-promotion and why it works in the business world. She goes on to show the
reader how to build a strong referral base of shameless fans; give away one's services or products
in
order to create more business; how to network as a means of showcasing expertise; why brand
identity and business is crucial to success in today's competitive marketplace; the use of unique
direct-mail strategies to make anyone stand out from the crowd of competitors; cutting-edge
Internet marketing secrets to high-profile a business; acquire a wealth of media attention; even
why
the readers themselves should write a book for self-promotion -- and having written one, how to
market it. Confessions Of Shameless Self Promoters is packed with useful, usable, practical and
effective information, strategies and tactics that would benefit any entrepreneur regardless of the
nature of their service or product.
Amacom
1601 Broadway, New York NY 10019
Four excellent guides provide important details on company growth and models for change.
Gustav
Carlson's Do You Dot-Com? (0-8144-7103-X, $17.95) blends humor with insights and advice
from
a business man who jumped into the online arena and learned some hard lessons from his
experiences. From how business managers can make the transition to the dot-com world to
etiquette
and fashion, this covers the basics of being in business in an Internet world. Deborah Bouchoux's
Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property (0601-7, $29.95) provides a guide to
trademarks,
copyrights, patents and trade secrets, discussing how the manager or owner can identify a
company's
protectable assets, and how it can use them to generate more income. An excellent, practical
application for business owners. Michael and Deborah Dobson's Enlightened Office Politics
(7065-3,
$17.95) discusses six different types of power in the office and how to handle five common
political
personality types. Discussions of office politics, underlying etiquette rules, and unspoken work
environment lingo and rules will provide office workers with a set of insights and guidelines.
Nirmal
Pal and Judith M. Ray edit Pushing The Digital Frontier (0644-0, $27.95), providing a set of
insights
into e-business changes. From managing technology to new business associations in an e-world,
this
provides important keys to understanding the rapidly changing world of e-commerce.
Online Operator
Bernard Kamoroff, CPA
Bell Springs Publishing
Box 1240, Willits, CA 95490
0917510208 $18.95 1-707-459-6372
Any business large or small which would venture into Internet realms should have Online
Operator:
it covers all the basics of internet business and transactions, from local and federal tax laws and
domain names to online copyrights, international laws and exporting, fraud, and home-based Net
businesses. Outstanding.
The Science Shelf
Turning Numbers Into Knowledge
Jonathan G. Koomey
Analytics Press
PO Box 20313, Oakland, CA 94620-0313
0970601905 $34.95 1-510-547-7860
Jonathan Koomey is a Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a position he
has held since 1984. He got tired of explaining again and again what he describes as the "tricks of
the trade" for using data and numbers to the analysts he would hire. Out of this frustration arose
Turning Numbers Into Knowledge: Mastering The Art Of Problem Solving, which teaches the
reader the neglected art of critical thinking. More than a mere proficiency with basic calculations,
the
mastery of analyzing numerically-based data requires an understanding of how people use
information, the importance of ideology, the art of storytelling, and acknowledging the
distinctions
between facts and values. Turning Numbers Into Knowledge is the first comprehensive guide
available to the general public on these and other related and essential skills. Here is a
compendium
of tools, tricks, and tips for solving problems in the real world, an essential ability for making
independent judgements about the assertions of others by generating cogent and compelling
analyses
of one's own. Very highly recommended.
Cooperative Gene
Mark Ridley
The Free Press
1230 Avenue of Americas, NY, NY 10020
0743201612 $26.00 1-800-223-2336
Evolutionary history is considered in Mark Ridley's Cooperative Gene, a superbly presented and
insightful survey of the evolution of complex beings and genetic influences. Among the unusual
contentions here: gender may be an evolutionary fluke, our mutation rate is higher than a living
system can have, and being single is one of the biggest risk factors in human life. And there's
more!
Riveting.
Science Of Illusions
Jacques Ninio
Cornell University Press
512 E. State St., Ithaca, NY 14850
0801437709 $25.00 1-800-666-2211
Jacques Ninio's Science Of Illusions is a fascinating and informative survey of the science involved
in
illusions and their presentation makes for a lively coverage which documents different types of
illusions and how they are generated. Grids, afterimages, reference points and adaptation methods
are all considered in chapters which are intriguing and filled with scientific insight.
Significant Others
Craig Stanford
Basic Books/Perseus Books Group
Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
0465081711 $28.00 1-800-242-7737
In Significant Others, Craig Stanford thoughtfully considers the ape-human continuum and the
quest
for human nature as he persuasively argues that the gap between apes and humans is very narrow,
and not a vast unbridgeable realm. Stanford's argument draws close associations between apes
and
humans, considering their complex societies, social groups, and communications. An intriguing
study.
Beauty And The Beasts
Carole Jahme
Soho Press
853 Broadway, New York NY 10003
1569472319 $25.00 sohopress.com
What impulse lures some women to abandon home and career for a harsh world studying primates
in
jungles? Carole Jahme's Beauty And The Beasts examines the psyche and methods of women who
have pioneered primate studies, and who have followed Leakey's venture into the world of
primatology, as field scientists. The intriguing question of why the majority of primatologists are
women makes for added intrigue as chapters examine these women and their work.
Roadside Geology Of Massachusetts
James W. Skehan
Mountain Press Publishing Company
Box 2399, Missoula, MT 59806
0878424296 $20.00 1-800-234-5308
James W. Skehan's Roadside Geology Of Massachusetts will please residents of Massachusetts
and
any with a special affection for its local geology, providing a geologic history of the mountains
and
rocks of the state. An organization by area makes it easy to locate the part of Massachusetts
which
is of particular interest, while geologic facts assume no prior scientific knowledge - lay readers
will
relish this guide.
The Photography Shelf
Under The Spell Of Arabia
Mathias Oppersdorff
Syracuse University Press
621 Skytop Rd., #110, Syracuse, NY 13244-5290
0815607008 $39.95 1-800-365-8929
In the early 1970s the photographer and author Mathias Oppersdorff traveled to Saudi Arabia and
the Middle East, hampered by his lack of Arabic language skills and the common Islamic attitude
against photography and travel. Oppersdorff managed to gain unusual access to areas usually
closed
to Westerners despite these major barriers, and his photos provide a unique portrait of Arabia's
lands, peoples, and culture. Under The Spell Of Arabia is very highly recommended for both
Islamic
art and Arabian history collections.
The Metaphysical Studies
Shelf
When God Winks
Squire Rushnell
Beyond Words
20827 N.W. Cornell Rd. #500, Hillsboro, OR 97124
1582700516 $16.95
When God Winks ponders serendipity and coincidence, presenting the view that coincidence is
actually a spiritual 'nudge' approving of direction and pointing out courses to follow. When God
Winks is more than just a philosophical or spiritual analysis: it tells readers how to locate and
consider the crossroads in life which offered new direction and meaning. Highly
recommended.
Illustrated Egyptian Book Of The Dead
Dr. Ramses Seleem
Sterling Publishing
387 Park Avenue South, NY, NY 100016
0-8069-2659-7 $24.95 1-800-805-5489
There have been different editions of Illustrated Egyptian Book Of The Dead, a true spiritual and
metaphysical classic; but this one from Stering Publishing provides a new translation by Dr.
Ramses
Seleem of the first two chapters, extracts from the entire book selected with modern audiences in
mind, and color photos and illustrations of both Egypt and ancient Egyptian relics. A gorgeous,
gift quality edition offering new insights.
Love And The World
Robert Sardello
Lindisfarne Books
Box 799, Great Barrington, MA 01230
0970109741 $16.95 1-413-528-8233
Love And The World: A Guide To Conscious Soul Practice draws the definitions for a new type
of
psychology: spiritual psychology, "an active practice that develops embodied, conscious soul life
to
make that life open and receptive to spiritual realms. This is done as an act of love toward
ourselves,
others and the world." Author Robert Sardello takes the theories of psychology to another level,
recreating psychology based on the anthroposophical writings of Rudolf Steiner. Love And The
World presents the ultimate goal of spiritual psychology through the many types of love, including
love as friendship, love as grieving from loss, love as knowing a soulmate. The result is an
insightful,
profound book on the hidden depths of the human mind's interaction with the heart and soul.
Don Juan And The Art Of Sexual Energy
Merilyn Tunneshende
Bear & Company/Inner Traditions
One Park St., Rochester, VT 05767
1879181630 $15.00 1-800-246-8648
Followers of Carlos Castaneda will find much different about this coverage, which covers sexsual
energy developmental practices in the ancient Toltec-Mayan traditions. A woman's viewpoint is
also
represented as the author reclaims her power and achieves balance between masculine and
feminine
influences in her life. The first-person account is packed with her explorations and
experiences.
The Computer Shelf
Photoshop 6 WOW Book
Linnea Dayton & Jack Davis
Peachpit Press
1249 - 8th St., Berkeley, CA 94710
0201722089 $49.99 1-800-283-9444
Beginners through advanced users will find Photoshop 6 WOW Book an excellent collection of
details and tools about the latest Photoshop program, providing plenty of hands-on application
tips
and instructions for restoring photos, combining images and blending art, and more. An
accompanying CD-ROM provides tutorial back-up, layer styles, and custom presets. Highly
recommended.
Pure COBRA 3
Fintan Bolton
Sams/Pearson Technology Group
201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290-1097
0672318121 $49.99 pearsonptg.com
Fintan Bolton's Pure CORBA 3 is a premium, code-intensive reference for professional
developers.
It focuses on the core specification for CORBA 3 and contains: conceptual overview of CORBA
3,
CORBA techniques programming reference that contains thousands of lines of commercial-quality
code examples in both C++ and Java (the two most popular languages among CORBA
developers),
and concise reference to the most important parts of the specification. User Level: Professional,
944pp.
The Linux Cookbook
Michael Stutz
No Starch Press
555 De Haro Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94107
1886411484 $29.95 www.nostarch.com
The Linux Cookbook: Tips And Techniques For Everyday Use is a complete hands-on guide and
reference for using Linux for everyday activities ranging from working with text, images, and
sound
to productivity and networking. The step-by-step format makes it very easy for the novice to find
what they need -- and fast! The more than 1500 {"recipes" show readers how to accomplish
everyday tasks using all the free, Open Source software that comes with Linux. Readers will learn
how to connect to the Internet, create posters, schedule automated reminders, archive entire Web
sites, send and receive faxes, use spelling and grammar checkers, scan images, and more. If you
are
new to Linux and seeking to accelerate your learning curve, then get yourself a copy of Michael
Stutz's The Linux Cookbook!
Information Today
143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford NJ 08055
1-800-300-9868
Three fine guides to computer use and research are recommended picks. Randolph Hock's Web
Search Engines (0-910965-47-1, $24.95) appears in its second edition to provide a key to
understanding the differences between search engines and their results; from Google and
AltaVista
to Excite, Lycos, and Yahoo. From filters to searchable databases and different methods of
searching, this will appeal to advanced information seekers. Judith Siess' OPL Sourcebook
(111-7,
$39.50) provides a technical guide for independent and small libraries who need keys to using
their
limited staff and budgets. From outsourcing online searches to issues in technological
development,
this will appeal to the working librarian. Sheri Lanza's International Business Information On The
Web (46-3, $29.95) provides keys to using Web sources to gather information on businesses
around
the world. From identifying overseas buyers and foreign suppliers to locating potential jobs and
partners, this is packed with the basics of how to conduct a fruitful investigation into overseas
businesses. All are excellent.
Color Harmony For The Web
Cailin Boyle
Rockport Publishers
33 Commercial St., Gloucester MA 01930
1564966038 $30.00 rockpub.com
Cailin Boyle's Color Harmony For The Web is a "user friendly" guide to linking artistic color
schemes with on-line applications, showing how to translate a knowledge of color to web
limitations
and applications. Color examples of polished, finished results are liberal embellishments in a guide
very specific about how to achieve the best results.
Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood
World Wide Webfoot Press
PO Box 36, Palo Alto, CA 94302-0036
0970885164 $29.95 1-877-749-3357
Kaitlin Sherwood's Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5: Get Through Your Electronic Mail
Faster is the ideal "how to" guide for getting the most out of the Eudora 5 email software.
Readers
will learn how to organize and priortize messages automatically; cut down on junk email and
mailing list messages; navigate through your messages quickly; discourage jokes and chain letter
emails from friends; get fewer and more meaningful responses to their own emails; reduce the
number of follow-up messages; and generally improve a company's email culture and practices.
The "user friendly" text is enhanced with a glossary and an index. If you are using Eudora 5, give
a careful reading to Kaitlin Sherwood's Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5 -- it will save
you substantial amounts of both time and aggravation!
USB Complete
Jan Axelson
Lakeview Research
5310 Chinook Lane, Madison, WI 53704
0965081958 $49.95 www.Lvr.com
Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Jan Axelson's USB Complete: Everything You
Need To Develop Custom USB Peripherals continues to be an excellent and highly recommended
"how to" guide and reference for anyone seeking to develop devices and software that
communicate
with USB. This new edition explains what developers need to know about version USB 2.0
specifications and its new high speed of 480 Megabits per second. There is also an added example
application code in both Visual C++ and Visual Basic, information about new controller chips and
development tools, as well as expanded coverage of the USB support under Windows. The value
of
this highly recommended text is enhanced further with the author's extensive web page with
articles,
program code, and other links of special interest to USB devlopers at
http://www.Lvr.com/usb.htm
Inside AutoCAD 2002
David Harrington, et al.
New Riders/Pearson Technology Group
201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290-1097
0-7357-1148-8 $59.99 newriders.com
This new edition of Inside AutoCAD 2002 the best-selling classic by the collaborative team of
David
Harrington, Bill Burchard, and David Pitzer provides rock solid information on the latest changes
and enhancements to the past two AutoCAD releases. Inside AutoCAD 2002 gets readers up to
speed fast by clearly outlining what is new from the previous versions and showing how to apply
these improvements to real projects. Inside AutoCAD 2002 explains how to use dimensions,
explores 3D modeling, teaches how to plot, and uncovers dozens of other features just waiting to
be
utilized. From Attributes to Xrefs, Inside AutoCAD 2002 details the features that put readers on
the fast track to AutoCAD success. 1264 pp. (1 CD-ROM)
The Theatre/Cinema Shelf
Smith & Kraus
177 Lyme Rd., Hanover, NH 03755
1-800-895-4331
Two outstanding acting guides will intrigue actors of all ages, providing different approaches to
understanding plays and scenes. Dorian Dunas' Scenes I've Seen... (1-57525-292-9, $11.95)
provides a casting director's original scenes and interpretive notes, presenting short dramas and
interpretations of their presentation. Alexis Greene's Women Who Write Plays (262-7, $19.95)
interviews 23 women who write plays for the American stage, covering a range of topics from
play
styles and special challenges to relationships between life, art and culture. Both are excellent,
providing many insights into the acting process.
The Antiques/Collectibles Shelf
Warman's Sports Collectibles
Tom Mortenson
Krause Publications
700 East State St., Iola, WI 54990-0001
0873492471 $21.95 1-800-258-0929
Warman's Sports Collectibles is an exhaustive value and identification guide designed to help
anyone, from amateur to veteran collector, quickly and easily understand the fascinating hobby of
sports collecting. This comprehensive and reliable guide covers a wide variety of sports
memorabilia,
including items tied into auto racing, baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, figure skating,
football,
golf, hockey, horse racing, Olympics, soccer, tennis, and wrestling. Each sports field has its own
chapter. Collecting tips are provided, with in-depth historical background on each type of sport,
facts, dates, and figures. At 352 pages with a massive 1,500 black and white photos, Warman's
Sports Collectibles is the superior visual and informative aid for any collector looking for just the
right item!
Collector Books
Box 3009, Paducah, KY 42002-3009
1-800-626-5420
These new arrivals are important keepsake guides for both antique dealers and avid collectors:
they
blend fine photos with the latest price information for specific categories of items. Anna M.
Feldmeyer and Kara Holtzman's UHL Pottery (1-57432-261-3, $16.95) is packed with color
photos
of different UHL pottery styles, from handturned pieces to miniatures and production pieces
which
will surely be familiar to many. B.J. Summers' Pocket Guide To Coca-Cola Identifications, 3rd
Edition (244-3, $12.95) lends to garage sale take-along toting as it describes a range of
Coca-Cola
promotional products, packs in color photos, and includes the latest prices. Catherine Thuro's Oil
Lamps 3 (089-0, $39.95) may prove a specialty item but any collector of oil lamps will find this
invaluable. Actual patent models are pictured, with catalog illustrations and ads aiding in the task
of
identifying and dating lamps. Black and white and color photos of lamps abound. Patsy Moyer's
Modern Collectible Dolls Vol. V (226-5, $24.95) provides color photos and histories of all types
of
modern dolls, from plastic and ethnic dolls to cloth, composition and tourist dolls. Price values
provide a fine guide and key to ranges. Racing Collectibles (228-1, $19.95) covers everything
from
track programs and cereal boxes to postcards, steins, replicas and more. Color photos pepper an
identification and value guide for all kinds of car collectibles. Don't miss Collectible Glassware
From
The 40s, 50s, 60s (236-2, $19.95), which appears in its 6th updated edition to cover a wide range
of
patterns and types, Florence's Depression Glass (246-X, $19.95), which appears in its 15th edition
to blend color photos with insights on Depression era glasswork; and John Slusser's Antique
Radios
(229-X, $19.95), in its 5th edition providing identification and values to many antique styles. All
are
important references for collectors.
The Biography Shelf
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Tahir Shah
Arcade Publishing
141 Fifth Avenue, 8th Fl., NY, NY 10010
1559705809 $25.95 1-800-759-0190
Sorcerer's Apprentice provides the autobiography of Tahir Shah and his apprenticeship to Hakim
Feroze, an Indian master conjurer. Spirituality and tricksters blend with travel and insights into
Indian culture in this revealing, involving memoir which makes for a riveting read.
The Publisher
Frank Brady
University Press of America
4270 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706
0761818898 $29.50 1-800-462-6420
Frank Brady's The Publisher is the life story of Paul Block who was a newspaper mogul,
advertising
executive, and political apologist. The core of this comprehensive and meticulous biography is
Block's involvement in the history of newspaper publishing and national advertising -- and his
influence on the politics of his day which spanned the Gay Nineties, the Jazz age, and the years of
the Great Depression. Biographer Frank Brady places Bock within the vivid and dramatic settings
of
his time as he re-creates the story of Block as a friend, advisor, or opponent of such men as
Calvin
Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Alfred E. Smith, Jimmy Walker, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here
also is the personal side of Paul Block's childhood as the son of an immigrant ragpicker who
eventually came to live in an opulent suite at the Waldorf Towers and a mansion in Greenwich,
Connecticut. The Publisher is a superbly presented biography of an influential American who lived
through "interesting times".
George Eliot
Kathryn Hughes
Cooper Square Press
150 Fifth Ave., Suite 817, NY, NY 10011
0815411219 $19.95 1-800-462-6420
George Eliot: The Last Victorian is an intimate biography of noted author Mary Ann Evans, who
is
perhaps better known by the pen name of George Eliot (1819-1880). Some of Ms. Evans' most
famous works include the novels Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and Adam Bede. This informative
biography focuses quite closely on Evans' life, including her friendships with Dickens and
Trollope,
and the controversial scandal of her relationship to a married writer George Henry Lewes.
Biographer Kathryn Hughes also scrutinizes the Victorian society that Mary Evans lived in and
wrote so much about. Even Queen Victoria enjoyed books by George Eliot, but you don't need
royal blood to enjoy this intriguing and meticulously presented biography.
Spirit Of The Wind
Lew Freedman
Epicenter Press
Box 82368 Kenmore Station , Seattle, WA 98028
0945397933 $14.95 EpicenterPress.com
It was 1958 when a twenty-four-year-old George Attla limped to the staring line of the Fur
Rendezvous World Championships sled dog race in Anchorage, Alaska with a team of dogs
borrowed from family and friends in his hometown of Huslia, Alaska. Three days later he won
with a
record-setting victory -- the first of many championships won by the man who would become the
greatest spring dog "musher" of all time. An athabascan Indian from a tiny Koyukuk River village,
Attla was diagnosed with crippling bone tuberculosis as a child, a disability that resulted in a
permanently fused knee. Unable to work with his father on the family trap line (as Attla boys were
expected to do), George began work training the family pups as a young boy. The dogs became
his
life, and "mushing" his life's work. Spirit Of The Wind: The Story Of Alaska's George Attla,
Legendary Sled Dog Spring Champ is the inspiring biography of an unusual man who overcame
all
manner of obstacles and impediments to fulfill his life's dream, and in doing so, became a true and
authentic champion!
A Clever Base-Ballist
Bryan Di Salvatore
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
080186562X $18.95 1-410-516-6939
A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life And Times Of John Montgomery Ward is the riveting tale of John
Montgomery Ward's life and historical baseball career, from his expulsion from Penn State
University for stealing chickens, to pitching baseball's second perfect game in 1880, to becoming a
member of the New York Giants. More than just a biography for baseball history buffs, A Clever
Base-Ballist also paints a bright, engaging picture of American life at the turn of the century. For
baseball enthusiasts and millennium enthusiasts alike, A Clever Base-Ballist does not
disappoint!
Things In Heaven And Earth
Thomas G. Alexander
Signature Books
564 W. 400 N., Salt Lake City, UT 84116
1560850450 $18.95 1-800-356-5687
Things In Heaven And Earth: The Life And Times Of Wilford Woodruff, A Mormon Prophet is a
fascinating, detailed, meticulously researched and comprehensive biography of a remarkable man,
his
life, work, thought, philosophy, and contributions. Biographer Thomas G. Alexander (Lemuel
Redd
Professor of Western History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah) has made an important
and
seminal contribution to the study of Wilford Woodruff's personal life and contributions to the
development and expansion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Things In Heaven
And Earth is important reading for student of Mormon history in general, and the lives of the
influential men who lead and shaped its activities, theology, expansion, and organization. Also
very
highly recommended is Thomas Alexander's Mormonism In Transition: A History Of The
Latter-Day Saints, 1890-1930.
Prisoner Of The Word
Le Huu Tri
Black Heron Press
P.O. Box 95676, Seattle, WA 98145
0930773608 $25.95 1-206-363-5210
Prisoner Of The Word: A Memoir Of The Vietnamese Reeducation Camps is the chilling but
accurate memoir of author Le Huu Tri's years as a prisoner of Vietnamese so-called "reeducation"
camps, which were actually forced labor camps in which starvation, nonexistent medical care, and
execution were all too common. Yet perhaps the most insidious facet of these camps was the
authorities' ruthless control of information, rumors, and lies, which were manipulated to control
not
only the prisoners, but the general populace. Prisoner Of The Word not only describes a part of
Vietnam's modern history; it is a cautionary tale of the dangers of "spin control" in any and every
government of the world. Highly recommended reading.
Lost Black Sheep
Robert T. Reed
Hellgate Press
PO Box 3727, Central Point, OR 97502
1555715494 $24.95 1-541-245-6502
In Lost Black Sheep: The Search For WWII Ace Chris Magee, Robert Reed reveals saga of an
extraordinary man in a real-life story of war and peace, crime and punishment. Chris Magee was
one of the legendary Black Sheep Squadron under "Pappy" Boyington's command. He grew up
with
stories of World War I aviation heroes and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. After
the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Chris transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps and went to the
South
Pacific where his personal bravery and skills as a combat flier earned him the Navy Cross and the
respect of his peers. After the war ended Chris spent the next twelve years as a black marketeer,
bootlegger, volunteer fighter pilot for Israel, courier for a covert American group involved in
Latin
American politics, and finally a bank robber. In his middle years he turned his life around and
became
a respected journalist. By age 70 he was living in retirement in a rustic apartment on Chicago's
North Side. Then Chris found an envelope slipped under his front door with a note that compelled
him to revisit parts of his past he thought long buried. Several of Magee's letters, poetry, and
other
writings are woven into the text (including a short story titled "Keep Moving". Lost Black Sheep
is a
fascinating, superbly written biography of a very unusual American unusal life.
The CD Music Shelf
Esperanza II (cdmusic)
Carlos Villalobos
Higher Octave Music
23852 Pacific Coast Hwy., Suite 2C, Malibu, CA 90265
HOMCD 10387 $16.98 higheroctave.com
In Esperanza II, Carlos Villalobos presents and showcases the Spanish nylon-string acoustic
guitar.
Villalobos wrote all the compositions, plays nearly all the instruments, samples a multitude of
ethnic
songs, and produced this impressive project in only fourteen days from start to finish. The pieces
comprising this outstanding and highly recommended CD album include; La Sombra (0:49); Mi
Tierra (4:45); Esta Noche (3:31); Brande Nicole (4:40); Rio (4:02); Marina (4:10); Mysterioso
(5:09); Azul Tropical (4:37); Recuerdos (4:47); Foreign Affair (4:40); and Goodnight (3:06).
Canyon Records
3131 West Clarendon Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85017
Four excellent Native American cds continue to expand this publisher's growing catalog of
traditional and modern Native music. Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike work together in Bless
The
People, providing five long tracks of four harmonized peyote songs; the musical prayers of the
Native American Church. The Sioux and Navajo harmonizers provide ethereal, beautiful music.
The
Black Lodge Singers' Weasel Tails's Dream: The Tradition Continues provides a new collection
dedicated to the group's late grandfather Jim Weasel Tail, providing the family's singing and
drumming tribute to his memory. Todi Neesh Zhee Singers' For All Eternity provides traditional
Navajo two-step and skip dance songs: social Native sounds about love and honor. The singers
recreate these songs with the help of Cody on Native flute in this exceptional, diverse collection.
For
a sampler of Canyon artists, try Voices Across The Canyon, which provides songs by Nakai,
Cody,
Burch, and others. From traditional Native flute to pow-wow rock, modern songs and traditional
chants, this outlines some of the best works of Canyon artists.
Musical Revelations
Joan of Arc
Chacra Alternative Music
3155 Halpern, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada H4S 1P5
This music cd focuses on the story of Joan of Arc, capturing the drama of her experience in music
for audiences interested in history and high drama. From Hildegard von Bingen's In Evangelium to
the classic Pavane, haunting in its style, Musical Revelations provides a range of composers and
styles all centered around the Joan of Arc theme.
The Gardening Shelf
Wild Berries Of The West
Betty Derig & Margaret C. Fuller
Mountain Press Publishing Company
Box 2399, Missoula, MT 59806
0878424334 $16.00 1-800-234-5308
Mimi Osborne illustrates Wild Berries Of The West, a comprehensive, "user friendly" guide to
over
a hundred berries and fruits of the western U.S. Color photos pack a guide which includes tips on
both medicinal and culinary use, Native American lore, and berry history and cultivation. An
excellent, practical reference.
Trees Of Golden Gate Park And San Francisco
Elizabeth McClintock & R. Turner Jr.
Heyday Books
Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709
1890771287 $18.95 heydaybooks.com
Trees Of Golden Gate Park And San Francisco is a 'must' bible of detail for any San Francisco
resident or enthusiast who wants to know more about the city's urban forest and landscape.
Chapters
are packed with details ranging from early San Francisco landscape history to the evolution of its
parks. The presentation is based on the writings of botanist Elizabeth McClintock, and presents
the
stories of almost two hundred different trees located in Golden Gate Park. No color photos, but
the
depth of text and detail doesn't need them; the b/w line drawings are enough.
The Plantfinder's Guide To Daisies
John Sutton
Timber Press, Inc.
133 S. W. Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, Oregon 97204-3527
0881924970 $34.95 1-800-327-5680
John Sutton's The Plantfinder's Guide To Daisies is a well-rounded compendium of one of the
most
popular and well-known garden plants. Horticulturalist John Sutton not only offers the reader
extensive information on the history, botany, and propagation of the varieties of daisies, from
sunflowers to dahlias to annuals, but also many tidbits and subtle details especially useful to
gardeners - such as variations of flower head and foliage, and which daisies make especially good
cut flowers. The Plantfinder's Guide To Daisies is enthusiastically recommended for anyone
interested in raising a flower garden with daisies.
The Artbook Shelf
Mark Rothko
Hatje Cantz/DAP Publishers
155 - 6th Ave., New York NY 10013
3775710272 $55.00 1-800-338-2665
American artist Mark Rothko's artworks represents the very foundations of the Abstract
Expressionist movement, and his key works are here presented in full-page color, introduced by
essays from his contemporaries. This superbly produced volume with its exquisite presentation
considers all of Rothko's works and contributions and is an essential acquisition for any serious
collection on the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Yale University Press
Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040
1-800-987-7323
Students of architecture and art library collections with strong architectural holdings will want to
consider David Brownlee, et.al.'s critical retrospective of the achievements of Venturi, Denise
Scott
Brown and their firm in Of The Ordinary (0-300-08995-3, $60.00). The husband/wife design
partners rejected modernism in favor of a different approach to urban building: their achievements
and backgrounds are considered in a fine collection of essays supplementing many color images.
The
Metro Museum of Art and Corning Museum of Glass's collaborative Glass Of The Sultans
(08851-5,
$65.00) charts twelve centuries of Islamic glass masterworks. Authors Stefano Carboni and David
Whitehouse provide the first comprehensive study of these works, packing in full-color photos of
Islamic glass masterworks along with introductions to Islamic history, culture, and art.
Outstanding.
Axel Ruger's Vermeer And Painting In Delft (09189-3, $14.95) provides an excellent catalog
accompanying a major London exhibition. The focus on painter Vermeer and his Dutch town of
Delft pairs history and artistic insight with color photos of his works.
American Folk
MFA Publications
295 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
0878465952 $40.00
Folk art is of ongoing interest, and American Folk accompanies a major ongoing exhibition of folk
art at the Museum of Fine Arts, gathering over 50 objects from across the country and adding
background history and enough biography for even newcomers to appreciate their significance. A
gorgeous presentation.
The Audiobook Shelf
Death In The Off-Season
Francine Mathews
Books On Tape
PO Box 7900, Newport Beach, CA 92658
0736636005 $64.00 1-800-959-8273
The scion of Nantucket's oldest and wealthiest family is found dead one foggy night in a cranberry
bog. But what brought Rusty Mason home in the first place? Ten years earlier he'd fled an
indictment for securities fraud and was never seen again -- until now. In her first case, Merry
Folger
soon discovers that Rusty's made his share of enemies -- most of them in his own family. Now she
must undo a decade-old tangle of betrayal, blackmail, and violence. Death In The Off-Season
showcases Francine Mathews' talent for creating a gripping mystery that reaches out to seize the
attention of her readers and just won't let go until the story is brought to its surprising climax.
This
complete and unabridged audiobook edition is superbly narrated by the vocal talents of
Bernadette
Dunne, and presents a flawlessly recorded, highly recommended "theatre of the mind" experience
for
anyone who loves a well told "whodunit".
Oufkir was the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco's closest aide: she was adopted by him
and
raised to be a companion to his daughter. She lived a life of luxury, but when her father attempted
to
assassinate the King, she and her siblings and mother were immediately imprisoned in a penal
colony
- for twenty years of isolation and pain until their escape. Edita Brychta's voice captures the
realistic
autobiography of Oufkir's life. High drama, covered by a sense of reality.
Audio Renaissance
5858 Wilshire Blvd. #200, L.A. CA 90036
1-800-266-2834
New releases from this publisher provide excellent choices for leisure listeners. Robert Ludlum
and
Philip Shelby's new Cassandra Compact appears in three forms: as an abridged cd set
(1-55927-660-6, $39.95), as an abridged cassette pack (658-4, $24.95; both narrated by Frank
Muller) and unabridged (659-2, $39.95), narrated by Paul Michael. This thriller about a threat
from
a lethal plague which might be stopped by the Covert-One team provides swift action and
adventure
whether in abridged or unabridged format. The audio renditions make the story come alive and
keep
listeners in suspense for hours. Tara Bennett-Goleman's Emotional Alchemy (690-8, $26.00) is
narrated by the author, appears in compact disc, and shows how most troubles fall into ten basic
emotional patterns. She use 'schema therapy' to help listeners identify the self-destructive patterns
and replace them with healthy awareness. Diana Von Welanetz Wentworth's Send Me Someone
(668-1, $17.95) appears abridged, with the author's own voice telling of a couple's 25-year
romantic
marriage and the events which transpire when one dies of cancer and promises to remain active in
the survivor's life. A true, inspirational story. David Nichol MD and Bill Birchard's One-Minute
Meditator (654-1, $17.95) is narrated by Dr. Nichol and tells how to relieve stress through
meditation - in as little as one public minute. Dr. Mark Epstein's Thoughts Without A Thinker
(666-5, $17.95) tells of psychotherapists who use Buddhist teachings in their work. Epstein here
argues that the traditions of the East help patients heal from their problems. Jeffrey J. Fox's Don't
Send A Resume (656-8, $17.95) tells how to use contrarian methods to gain employment. Here's
a
collection of daring attempts which may not appeal to traditional job seekers, but which invites
innovation - with the author's narration powering his message. Julie Stav's Get Your Share
(679-7,
$24.95) also features the author's voice as it informs women on how to strike it rich in the stock
market, and how to stat an investment club. Financial planner/broker Stav helps women with
hands-on techniques and tried advice. All are excellent.
Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas
James Patterson
Time Warner Audio
1271 Avenue of Americas, NY, NY 10020
1-58621-099-8 $24.98 1-800-759-0190
In Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas, Katie has found the perfect man - but suddenly he disappears,
leaving only a diary behind. The diary is a love letter written by a new mother to her baby son
Nicholas, and Katie learns about her new love as she struggles to understand his two different
lives.
Becky Ann Baker's voice is clear and evocative, capturing the emotion in this meaningful
story.
Texas Bound IV
Various Readers/Writers
Southern Methodist University Press
Box 750415, Dallas, TX 75275-0415
1-800-826-8911
A book/audio combination provides an excellent package of stories written and read by Texas
authors and actors. Texas Bound IV (0-87074-458-5, $17.95) provides an excellent set of
literary
and cultural reflections on Texas, pairing short story writers such as C.W. Smith and Larry L.
King
with narrators from Randy Moore to Larry Hagman. Kay Cattarulla edits Texas Bound Book 3
(459-3, $12.95), which provides a further meaningful set of stories about people who come to
terms
with love, race, myths and time in towns across Texas. Both promise special appeal to Texas
listeners and readers.
The Last Camel Died At Noon
Elizabeth Peters
Blackstone Audiobooks
PO Box 969, Ashland, OR 97520
z2760 $88.00 1-800-729-2665
An enigmatic message scrawled on papyrus and a cryptic map trigger a desperate expedition to
find
a lost couple who have been missing in the war-torn Sudan for more than ten years. Egyptologist
Amelia Peabody, her husband Emerson, and her son Ramses, are in dire straits on the
sun-scorched
desert sands when their last camel dies as they are deep in Nubia's vast waste land. Their very
survival depends on Amelia being able to solve a mystery as old as ancient Egypt and as timeless
as
human greed and revenge! The Last Camel Died At Noon is a superbly written mystery by
Elizabeth
Peters given a flawless narrative performance by Susan O'Malley is a technically excellent eleven
compact disc audiobook format from Blackstone Audiobooks. The Last Camel Died At Noon is
also
available in a nine 90 minute cassette audiobook format as well (2760, $62.95).
Random House Audio
1540 Broadway, New York NY 10036
1-800-726-0600
Five new audios are highly recommended picks, providing excellent detail and action. Blair
Brown
narrates Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grownups (0-375-41883-0, $29.95), a fine
unabridged
story of a grandmother who questions her outgoing life. Her end-of-years questioning leads to
new
revelations for her and her family. James Ellroy's Cold Six Thousand (41915-2, $49.95) features
Craig Wasson's unabridged narration which not only brings to life but captures the full depth and
complexity of Ellroy's story of a Vegas cop who becomes involved in the cover-up conspiracy
around Kennedy's assassination. Sue Grafton's P Is For Peril (40416-3, $25.95) pairs Judy Kaye's
Broadway acting background with the story of Dr. Dowan Purcell, who has been missing for over
two months by the time Kinsey gets the call to get on the case. Kinsey runs into a maze of
questions
as she probes the murder. D Is For Deadbeat (40354-X, $18.00) also features Judy Kaye's
dramatic
and experienced voice as it tells of Alvin, who hires Kinsey to delivery $25,000 to a teenager,
with
murder in the picture. Adriana Frigiani's Big Cherry Holler (41921-7, $25.00) is narrated by the
author and provides a sequel to Big Stone Gap, which is best appreciated by fans of the prior
story.
Spinster Maria's marriage to the town pharmacist involves the close-knit small community as she
searches for happiness and meets a handsome stranger. All are highly recommended leisure
choices.
Clipper Audio/Recorded Books
270 Skip Jack Road
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
1-800-638-1304
These unabridged audios are especially suitable for library lending: they feature durable plastic
binding which can withstand lending needs, their covers are colorful attractors to their contents,
and
a variety of experienced narrators lend color to the results. P.C. Doherty's Spy In Chancery
(1-84197-204-5, $48.00), for example, blends medieval history with mystery and drama as Paul
Matthews lends a smooth and calm voice to the story of Corbett, who finds himself drawn into
international politics and a spy's dangerous efforts. Julia Llewellyn Smith's Travels Without My
Aunt
(224-X, $72.00) is narrated by Anne Dover who brings to life Smith's story of finding inspiration
in
Graham Greene's writings, to retrace his footsteps to see if the places described in his novels are
truly bizarre. Her travels to the corners of the earth come alive under Dover's audio hand.
Anthony
Burton's Railway Builders (227-4, $48.00) receives the author's own powerful narrative style as it
provides a history of the building of the railways in Britain, from those responsible for design and
financing to builders. British rail fans will be particularly interested in this survey. Roderick
Jeffries'
Two-Faced Death (8986-4, $56.00) receives veteran Patrick Tull's experienced style as it tells of
police inspector Alvarez, who is ordered to locate a smuggler and investigate a suicide. Can
murder
be involved? Trevor Baylis' Clock This (233-9, $64.00) follows the life of inventor Baylis and
receives Gordon Griffin's fine, appealing voice as it tells of how Baylis became a full-time
inventor.
His creations helped change the world, and his enthusiasm and ideas come alive under audio
treatment. Barbara Erskine's Whispers In The Sand (214-2, $102.00) receives Briony Sykes'
warm
and moving narration as it tells of Anna's grandmother, who takes nile cruise. Anna decides to
retrace her journey and finds mystery, intrigue, possible romance and danger as she learns of love
and a dangerous momento. Anthony Holden's Shakespeare: His Life And Works (234-7 $98.00)
provides an unusually racy version of Shakespeare's personal life, with Paul Matthews adding the
high drama and intrigue to this colorful rendition. Fans of the bard will enjoy this spirited
treatment
of his life and times. Anne Perry's Resurrection Row (6088-2, $58.00) enjoys a spirited narration
by
Davina Porter, who brings to life this fourth in the series of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries.
Inspector Pitt's investigation of a cab's stiff results in many puzzling findings.
Recorded Books
270 Skip Jack Road, Prince Frederick, MD 20678
1-800-638-1304
Four new releases by this company present durable library packaging and veteran narrators. John
Sandford's Chosen Prey (5984-1, $82.00) pairs Richard Ferrone's professional, brisk acting voice
with the thriller of James, who fancies himself an artist but finds himself drawn to murder. Can
Lucas
track him down before his strange passions lead to more deaths? Lisa Scottoline's Vendetta
Defense
(5446-7, $88.00) pairs veteran Barbara Rosenblat's excellent and practiced style with the story of
lawyer Judy Carrier, who defends an 80-year-old accused of murder. Tony admits to the killing -
and
claims it's part of a justified war - and Judy finds herself in the middle of a feud. Barbara Taylor
Bradford's Triumph Of Katie Byrne (5314-2, $72.00) also pairs Rosenblat's practiced voice with a
moving plot: this about a teen's murder and a survivor's career and thoughts years later. Can she
overcome some haunting memories of the past to go on with her life? Veteran George Guidall's
treatment of Robert ludlum's Cassandra Compact (7151-5, $74.00) will appeal to any interested in
solid thrillers. His acting career lends to enhancing the action in this Covert-One novel of an
American intelligence officer's alliance with a Russian colleague. All are recommended listener's
picks.
Bantam/Doubleday/Dell Audio
1540 Broadway, New York NY 10036
1-800-726-0600
Two fine leisure choices offer excellent abridged information. Nora Roberts' Brazen Virtue
(0-553-52812-2, $25.00) features Carolyn McCormick's extensive theater background which adds
high drama and mystery to this story of Grace, who finds her sister living in a grungy
neighborhood.
When she discovers her sister is supplementing her teacher's income by acting as an at-home sex
operator, she is worried - when her sister dies, she is frantic. Excellent suspense. Michael
Capuzzo's
Close To Shore (52769-X, $25.95) provides a true story of terror, with narrator Len Cariou's
impassioned voice recounting the summer of 1916 when a lone white shark terrorized the New
Jesey
shore. Shades of Jaws, couched in reality. Fine drama on both fiction and nonfiction
narrations.
Simon & Schuster Audio
1230 Avenue of Americas, NY, NY 10020
1-800-223-2336
Four new leisure listen arrivals are highly recommended picks, providing plots which are hard to
put
down and narrators who are highly skilled at their art. Dennis Boutsikaris reads Jeffrey Deaver's
Blue Nowhere (0-7435-0640-5, $26.00), which tells of a sadistic hacker who specializes in
infiltrating computers and luring his targets to their deaths. It's up to a questionable homicide
team
to match wits with the brilliant computer murderer. Melinda Haynes' Chalktown (0456-9, $26.00)
enjoys a smooth and compelling style in the voice of Leo Burmester as it tells of a small village of
Mississippi folks who communicate only through the chalkboards hanging from their front
porches.
A teen is determined to understand this mystery even as his family recovers from tragedy. Jude
Deveraux's Summerhouse (0454-2, $25.00) enjoys a narration by Karen Ziemba as it tells of three
best friends about to turn forty who plan to share their lives and hearts at a summerhouse retreat.
Can their venture change the past and the course of their lives? Stephen Frank's Networth
(1826-8,
$18.00) enjoys an excellent emphasis by its author as it tells of how modern stock investors can
understand how the Internet works and how different businesses operate within its systems.
Listeners interested in high-tech investments will find this revealing. All are excellent listens for
leisure audiences.
Audio Editions/The Audio Partners
PO Box 6930, Auburn, CA 95604
audiopartners.com
These excellent unabridged mysteries are perfect for listeners who want the full enjoyment of an
unedited version paired with narrators who bring the story lines alive. Robin Bailey, for example,
brings to life Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mystery Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
(1-57270-209-5,
$29.95), in which Poirot's retirement is marred by the brutal murder of wealthy Ackroyd. It's up
to
Poirot to investigate the controversial events. Her Murder On The Orient Express (211-7,
$29.95),
another Poirot mystery, comes alive under David Suchet's experienced hand, telling of an
American
businessman's murder aboard a luxury train in the middle of Europe, and Poirot's investigation of
passenger motives. He also puts his skills to work in her Murder In Mesopotamia (213-3,
$29.95),
this one pairing Anna Massey's vivid and dramatic voice with the story of a nurse who faces a
frightened wife at a desert excavation run by her husband. Her death adds validity to her fears and
it's up to Poirot to consider the motives of the entire team. Christie write as Mary Westmacott to
produce her Absent In The Spring (199-4, $24.95) mystery, spiced with Ann Bech's acting skills
and
telling of a middle-aged Englishwoman who finds herself stranded in an Iraqi train station. Her
experiences lead her to new life questions. Georges Simenon's Maigret And The Toy Village
(215-X, $21.95) pairs Andrew Sachs, recently named a British Reader of the Year, with the
Maigret
mystery surrounding Paris neighborhoods and an old sailor's murder. Sachs lends perfect diction
and
acting drama to the mystery. Donald E. Westlake's Fugitive Pigeon (217-6, $24.95) pairs Nick
Sullivan's smooth and clear style with a funny mystery revolving around Poole, a bartender/couch
potato running from two hit-men. He becomes associated with a series of odd relatives in his fight
for freedom. All are exceptional recommendations for listeners who appreciate well-woven
mysteries, unedited and spiced by veteran actor/readers.
Highbridge Company
1000 Westgate Dr., St. Paul, MN 55114
1-800-847-5515
Sylvia Browne's Past Lives, Future Healing (1-56511-480-9, $18.95) presents the psychic's
examination of how health and psychological problems have foundations in unresolved past lives.
She provides real-life stories of people who have changed through understanding these previous
lives. Geraldine Brooks' Year Of Wonders (488-4, $29.95) pairs Stina Nielsen's smooth and clear
voice with the story of an isolated village where a housemaid becomes a healer and heroine during
the 1666 plague year. Excellent historical background supports a moving novel of survival and
controversy.
The Ethnic Studies Shelf
New Americans
Michael Barone
Regnery
1 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20001
0895262029 $27.95 www.regnery.com
America has long been known for racial diversity, yet as waves of immigrants continue to arrive,
many wonder if that diversity has been overwhelmed by differences. Political historian Michael
Barone says that the new Americans can be interwoven into American life as easily as they have in
the past - and in New Americans he deftly outlines assimilation lessons of the past which can be
applied to modern times.
The Genealogy Shelf
Genealogy, The Internet, And Your Genealogy Computer Program
Karen Clifford, A.G.
Genealogical Publishing
1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202
0806316365 $24.95 1-800-296-6687
Karen Clifford's Genealogy, The Internet, And Your Genealogy Computer Program is a
researcher's
essential guide to using the computer to uncover genealogical records and local history.
Newcomers
to the subject will be pleased with the focus on how to get started, how to use traditional
genealogical research methods in conjunction with the computer, and how to use a genealogy
computer program to manage and retrieve data. Information is specific and provides exceptional
keys to using the computer for historical research and storage of records.
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
Jaguar Hunter
Lucius Shepard
Four Walls Eight Windows
39 West 14th St., #503, NY, NY 10011
1568581866 $15.95 www.4w8w.com
Fourteen short stories, including a novella new to print, provide a fine collection of Lucius
Shepard's
skills in Jaguar Hunter, and outstanding anthology headed by a Nebula-winning title story. From a
war of the future and wind spirits to a woman's end of life, this is filled with diverse plots.
Dancing Suns: Book One Of The Zaddack Tales is the epic journey of Serall, who may be the last
human in the universe, and her psychically linked Zaddack, an alien cross between wolf and
leopard.
Together, Serall and her Zaddack must seek the answer of a mystic prophecy, in order to find the
Chosen Ones and lead them to the land of the blue sky. Exotic and vibrant, this alien tale of the far
future is a superb taste of danger, adventure, and odyssey. Also very highly recommended is
Karen
Daniels' science fiction opus, Mentor's Lair (1892323214, $16.00).
Empty Cities Of The Full Moon
Howard V. Hendrix
Ace Books
375 Hudson St., New York NY 10014
0441008445 $24.95 1-800-847-5515
Complex and deeply woven is the plot of Howard V. Hendrix's speculative fiction novel, Empty
Cities Of The Full Moon. which revolves around a bio-engineered virus which changes society
and
its survivors. Biology, religion and fantasy and horror blend in a complex story of changes which
affect the meaning of 'human being'.
Baen Books
Box 1403, Riverdale, NY 10471
Time traveling agents Travis Fox and Ross Murdock return in Andre Norton's newest science
fiction
work, Time Traders II (0-671-31968-X, $19.00), here attempting to survive stranded on far-off
planets. This contains two stories: Defiant Agents and Key Out Of Time, providing fine adventure
and struggles under one cover. L. Warren Douglas' Sacred Pool (31956-6, $24.00) presents
young
Pierette, the image of a lost witch mother, and a female deity who lives beside an ancient pool.
Magic and reality entwine in a world where both exist side by side, and where a possible young
sorceress may follow her mother's footsteps. One of the best, most highly recommended picks of
the
summer is Doranna Durgin's A Feral Darkness (31994-9, $6.99), which tells of Brenna, a dog
groomer who finds a building darkness on her land, a lost hound who adopts her, and a couple of
mysterious strangers who threaten her land and possibly her life. The mystery and fantasy slowly
draw together, bonded by supreme characterization, to make for a story which is almost
impossible
to put down.
Dreamthief's Daughter
Michael Moorcock
Warner Books
1271 Avenue of Americas, NY, NY 10020
0446526185 $24.95 1-800-759-0190
In the past the counts of Germany have allied with different forces, but as nazism envelopes
Germany, the family legend about supernatural powers draws one Rudolf Hess, Hitler's oldest
friends, to a battle which will change his life. In Michael Moorcock's Dreamthief's Daughter
fantasy
blends with elements of history to make for a changing, unusual setting.
Book Of The Dead
E. Hoffman Price
Arkham House
Box 546, Sauk City, WI 53583
087054179X $32.95
Over a period of almost 60 years E. Hoffman Price, a writer during the pulp magazine era,
befriended great writers from Lovecraft and Derleth to Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Williamson.
He
kept diaries and letters of his cross-country trips and encounters and in Book Of The Dead
provides
a set of fascinating biographical essays on his experiences and relationships with the authors,
offering many insights and personal encounters.
The Language Studies Shelf
English Express Deluxe
Knowledge Adventure
19840 Pioneer Ave., Torrance, CA 90503
$899.95 teacher editions, $2995 network versions 1-310-793-0600
English Express Deluxe is a multimedia English-as-a-second-language (ESL) education tool
designed specifically for classroom instruction. Meant for ESL students in grades 5 and up,
English
Express Deluxe uses real-world topics and multicultural themes to reinforce vocabulary and
grammar, learn contextual clues, and increase self-confidence. Top quality photographs, video
clips,
interactive activities, and opportunities for both oral and written language development
complement
an excellent aid to language learning. Delivered on two copies of a four CD-ROM set, along with
four teacher lesson guides, teacher training materials and a User Guide with reference materials,
this
software covers over 21 everyday topics, such as Health, Workplace, Community, and School.
Ideal
for ESL teachers and classrooms, this strongly recommended learning aid is not to be overlooked
--
especially in schools with strong multicultural student bodies. System Requirements (Power
Macintosh): System 7.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM, 3MB free hard disk space, 14" monitor,
256-colors, double-speed CD-ROM drive or faster, microphone for recording, mouse, keyboard,
and printer. System Requirements (Windows 95/98): 486/66 MHZ computer or faster, 8 MB
RAM,
3 MB free hard-disk space, 14" monitor, 256 colors, double-speed CD-ROM drive,
MPC-compatible sound card, microphone, mouse, keyboard, and printer.
The Library Science Shelf
Adaptive Technologies For Learning & Work Environments
Joseph J. Lazzaro
ALA Editions
155 North Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL 60606
0838908047 $48.00 1-800-545-2433
Now in an expanded and updated second edition, Joseph Lazzaro's Adaptive Technologies For
Learning & Work Environments continues to be a superbly presented survey and explanation of
the
latest advancements in library staff and patron assistive hardware and software, along with
essential
information on how to implement them, and how to provide vital training and technical support
for
them. Detailed chapters identify options for library patrons with visual, hearing, motor, speech,
and
learning disabilities. This is now supplemented with new chapters devoted to keyboard
commands,
built-in accessibility utilities, and Internet/Intranet accessibility. Of special interest is the chapter
devoted to PC hardware, software, and peripherals providing the library staff member with all the
basics needed to work with many different forms of adaptive equipment. More than two hundred
products are evaluated, ranging from screen readers to voice command, to word predictors.
Adaptive Technologies For Learning & Work Environments is an indispensable, comprehensive,
user friendly, and highly recommended reference.
Information Literacy Instruction
Esther S. Grassian and Joan R. Kaplowitz
Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
100 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013
1555704069 $55.00 neal-schuman.com
Information Literacy Instruction: Theory And Practice is an exhaustive textbook (450 pp.) with a
CD-ROM supplement. Educator Esther Grassian and Librarian Joan Kaplowitz's purpose is to
provide the reader through an in-depth discussion of the theory and practice of library instruction.
Chapters range from basics to advanced studies. The basic topics in parts I and II include the
history of user education, the psychology of active learning as applied to library teaching, critical
thinking skills. The advanced topics of part III include assessing needs, setting goals, selecting
instructional modes, handling copyright issues, designing electronic teaching materials, dealing
with
local politics on campus or elsewhere, and much more. The CD-ROM has a wide variety of useful
materials: instructional mode web pages, an interactive database to select among modes,
PowerPoint
presentations, handouts for training or personal use, checklists and more. Information Literacy
Instruction is very highly recommended for students of library science and practicing librarians,
especially in our contemporary age where technology marches ever on!
The Civil War Shelf
Littleton Washington's Journal
Douglas Lee Gibboney, editor
Xlibris Corporation
436 Walnut Street, 11th floor, Philadlephia, PA 19106
0738862061 $16.00 1-888-7-XLIBRIS
Littleton Washington's Journal is the assembled character study of Littleton Q. Washington, an
ardent secessionist who served as a lieutenant in the Confederate Army at First Bull Run, and later
worked with Judah Benjamin for the balance of the war. Though aptly edited by Douglas
Gibboney
for reader accessibility, and with informative historical notes, Littleton Washington's Journal is
almost entirely Littleton's story in his own words. Highly recommended for Civil War buffs
interested in seeing the Civil War from the perspective of one of its many soldiers.
A Southern Boy In Blue
Kenneth W. Noe, editor
University of Tennessee Press
Conference Center Building, Suite 110, Knoxville, TN 37996-4108
1572331267 $18.00 1-865-974-3321
It's not general known, but of the approximately 100,000 Southerners who joined the Union
forces
and fought against the Confederacy in the American Civil War, more than 40,000 were
Tennessee,
especially the Appalachian counties of East Tennessee. A Southern Boy In Blue is the personal
memoir of Marcus Woodcock, a young man from Middle Tennessee who at the age of 19,
donned a
Federal uniform and fought as part of the 9th Kentucky Infantry. Deftly edited by Kenneth Noe, A
Southern Boy In Blue is a first hand account of participation at the battles of Stone River,
Chicamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign, the siege of Corinth, and the Battle of
Perryville. In three years Marcus rose from the rank of private to first lieutenant. He wrote his
memoir in 1865 and vividly described the battles, camp life, and the politics of the times. A
Southern
Boy In Blue is a welcome and invaluable addition to the growing body of eye-witness Civil War
literature.
Atlanta Will Fall
Stephen Davis
SR Books
104 Greenhill Av., Wilmington, DE 19805
0842027882 $17.95 1-800-772-8937
Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Bandits is a sharp overview of
the
entire Atlanta campaign during the American Civil War, from Dalton to Jonesboro. The battles
are
described and the strategies analyzed, with detailed evaluations of the three major generals
involved.
In particular, author Davis argues that between the Confederate leaders Joe Johnston and John
Bell
Hood, it was Johnston who lost Atlanta due to overcaution, while Hood got the bad rap. Atlanta
Will Fall is strongly recommended reading for Civil War buffs.
The Feng Shui Shelf
Fast Feng Shui
Stephanie Robers
Lotus Pond Press
415 Daity Road, Suite 4-144, Kahuilui, HI 96732-2398
1931383030 $16.95 lotuspondpress.com
In Fast Feng Shui, professional feng shui consultant Stephanie Roberts demystifies the application
of
nine feng shui principles to arranging one's home. Readers will learn how to discover the areas of
their home where feng shui will be most effective for them as based upon their personal issues and
goals; getting rid of clutter in order to advantageously shift their energy; attract money, romance
and
opportunities through removing obstacles and activating their home's "power spots"; improve
cash
flow, enhance creativity, and reduce stress through fast and easy feng shui based changes; make
changes more effective by utilizing personalized embowerments; and the effective use of feng shui
as
a path for personal growth and self-discovery. Invaluable and highly recommended reading for
metaphysical students with an interest in interior home design, Fast Feng Shui is enhanced for the
reader with 108 "Quick Tips" and more than 180 affirmations and visualizations for empowering
and
activating feng shui changes.
Sell Your Home Faster With Feng Shui
Holly Ziegler
Dragon Chi Publications
PO Box 1036, Arroyo Grande, CA 93421
0971065284 $15.95 1-866-372-4660
Internationally trained Feng Shui consultant Holly Ziegler shares her expertise and experience in
Sell
Your Home Faster With Feng Shui, a unique and practical guide for the non-specialist home
owner
seeking to enhance and expedite the sales potential of their home or condominium. Ziegler
explains
how to clear clutter so that the buyer can focus on what's important; how to view a home with
"Feng Shui eyes" and use Feng Shui tips in every room of the house from attic to garage. Zigler
also
draws upon her considerable expertise in real estate negotiations to coach the reader in how to
price
wisely and be a smart seller, the seller's responsibilities reading "disclosure, dealing with home
inspections and termite reports; the escrow process, when to use a real estate agent and how to
select the best, avoiding common seller mistakes, and more! If you are in the market to sell your
home, then begin with a carefully reading of Holly Ziegler's Sell Your Home Faster With Feng
Shui!
A Master Course In Feng-Shui
Eva Wong
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-4544
1570625840 $26.95 shambhala.com
A Master Course In Feng-Shui is a complete, illustrated, and systematic course for home study in
the ancient practice of Feng Shui. Readers will learn how to apply feng shui principles to evaluate
the external environment, use a geomantic compass to chart patterns of energy within a building,
plan the usage of space, match occupants to a home or apartment, decide upon the appropriate
placement of furnishings and furniture, improve the feng-shui of an existing structure with
countermeasures, enhancers, and renovations, build a new house from scratch, as well as selecting
or
designing an apartment, business suite, or retail space. A Master Course In Feng-Shui is
enthusiastically recommended reading for students and practitioners of feng shui principles to
enhance their accommodations and their personal well-being.
The Humor Shelf
Fresh For '01...You Suckas!
Aaron McGruder
Andrews McMeel Publishing
4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111
0740713957 $10.95 1-800-826-4216
Fresh For '01...You Suckas! is a collection of cartoon strips featuring the political charged but
always interesting world of Huey, an African-American city kid displaced into the unfamiliar
world
of white suburbia. A richly multilayered comic strip of great humor and keen insights, Fresh For
'01...You Suckas! will provoke thought and improve racial discourse while provoking a
laugh-out-loud response from the reader. Aaron McGruder has quite evidently tapped into his
own
experiences as a long black facing growing up in Columbia, Maryland to give his characters and
their
observations a true to life dimension that is wonderfully facilitated by his compelling sense of
satire.
The Anthropology Shelf
The Flying Tiger
Kira Van Deusen
McGill-Queen's University Press
3430 McTavish Street, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 1X9
0773521569 $27.95 1-800-387-0141
In The Flying Tiger: Women Shamans And Storytellers Of The Amur, storyteller/folklorist Kira
Van
Deusen draws upon her expertise and experience in the oral traditions of the peoples of Siberia
(especially in the Amur region) to present more than fifty traditional stories she recorded from the
people of the taiga forest in the Russian Far East. The stories bridge culture, history, and
spirituality
to reveal the lives of the storytellers, their adaptation to the environment, relationships with
animals,
and even their sense of humor. Readers are also provided with descriptions of the lives of the
people
of the Amur in the 1990s, a period of rapid and dramatic transition. The Flying Tiger is an
impressive work that is especially recommended to students of shamanism, storytelling, folklore,
Russia, indigenous cultures, women's studies, and ancient traditions.
The World History Shelf
Facts About The 20th Century
H. W. Wilson
950 University Ave., Bronx, NY 10452
0824209605 $95.00 1-800-367-6770
Facts About The 20th Century is a single-volume reference that combines elements of a
chronology,
encyclopedia, and almanac. Ranging from the trivial to the essential, and from local to global
information, this is a "user friendly" and accessible record of all countries' history in the 20th
century
and the worldwide events destined to shape the future. With 1,020 pages organized around the
focus
of "who, what, where, and when," Facts About The 20th Century covers everything from Nobel
Prize winners to World War II. Enhanced with a comprehensive subject index, Facts About The
20th Century is very highly recommended for both school and community library world history
reference collections.
Sicilian Twilight
Gerard Gefen
Vendome Press
1370 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2003, New York, NY 10019
086565221X $50.00 1-888-330-8477
Sicilian Twilight: The Last Leopards is a coffee table history book showcasing the cultivated and
decadent lifestyle of Sicilian nobility who were absolute lords of their domain down to the waning
years of the 18th century. Gerard Gefen's meticulous research and narrative skills provide an
informative, insightful, engaging test which is superbly enhanced and documented by the
photography of Jean-Bernard Naudin. Among the 275 illustrations (with 182 being in full color),
there are period documents and 19th century photographs, as well as new photos of gardens,
palaces, jewels, table settings, and other luxury items typical of the daily life of Sicilian nobility.
Sicilian Twilight is very highly recommended reading and would make an excellent "Memorial
Fund"
acquisition for both academic and community library collections.
Voices In The Dark
William Patrick Patterson
Arete Communications
773 Center Blvd., #54, Fairfax, CA 94978
1879514990 $19.95 gurdjieff-legacy.org
Voices In The Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices In Nazi-Occupied Paris 1940-44, is a
unique and fascinating history of what it was like to live in occupied France during World War II.
It
was a time when there was never enough food and fuel, firends could be informers, and even
small
infractions could led to lethel consequences at the hands of the Nazis. Here are the stories of
ordinary citizens, solders, statements, truth seekers -- and the pwerful but little recognized
influence
of the pseudo-occult in the ideology of what came to be called the "New European Order. Author
William Patterson has included actual transcripts of the wartime meetins og G.I. Gurdjief in Paris
during those dark and dangerous times.
Royalty Who Wait
Olga S. Opfell
McFarland & Company
Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
0786409010 $39.95 1-800-253-2187
Once the primary form of political governance, today there are only seven European monarchies
still
intact. All of them are constitutional monarchies which have survived the disappearance of four
European empires and sixteen European kingdoms during the last two centuries from the
Bourbon
kingdom in France which ceased to exist in 1830, down to the Greek kingdom ending in 1973.
Ex-kings still consider themselves to be kings, along with their extended family groups of princes,
dukes, and counts. Two world wars caused the greatest attrition in monarchies, leaving exiled
heads
of royal families to seek their fortunes in business, and some still managing substantial estates.
Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads Of Formerly Regnant Houses Of Europe is arranged in the
chronological order in which these kingdoms disappeared and profiles twenty-one heads of the
formerly royal houses of Europe's nobility. All are set in historical perspective and recount varied
life
styles, occupations, and interests of the current monarchial inheritors. At the end of each chapter
is a
chart or set of charts depicting the line of succession to the headship of a royal house. Royalty
Who
Wait is a unique and highly recommended reference for students of royal European heredity and
genealogy.
Diamonds Famous & Fatal
Leo P. Kendall
Barricade Books
185 Bridge Plaza North, Ft. Lee, NJ 07024
1569802025 $30.00
In Diamonds Famous & Fatal: The History, Mystery & Lore Of The World's Most Precious Gem,
Leo Kendall shares his fascination for the ways in which diamonds have influenced the history of
the
world. All the major diamond finds of the centuries are chronicled, examined, and described. A
wealth of anecdotal and historical stories of outstanding diamonds are dramatically recounted and
range from the Koh-i-Noor (dating back to at least 1526 and which affected the course of the
Mogul
Empire and finally ending up a part of the British Crown Jewels) to Henry VIII's diamond collar,
the
collection of Louis XVI, the Romanov gems, and more. Here also are the stories of such
luminaries
in diamond history as Cecil Rhodes and such diamond mines as the DeBeers. If you have an
interest
in the history, legend and lore of diamonds, the give a careful reading to Leo Kendall's Diamonds
Famous & Fatal!
In Tibetan Buddhism, the dakini or "sky-dancer" is a semi-warathful spirit-woman who manifests
in
visions, dreams, and meditation experiences. Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle In
Tibetan Buddhism persuasively argues that this phenenomena cannot be adequately explained in
terms of Jungian psycology or feminist goddess theology as a psychological "shadow", a feminie
savior, or an objectified product of patriarchal fantasy. Author Judith Simmer-Brown (professor
and
chair of the religious studies department at Naropa University) reveals that the dakini symbolizes
levels of personal relations, the sacredness of the body (both female and male), the profound
meeting
pint of body and mind in mediation, the visionary realm of ritual practice, and the empty , spacious
qualites of the human mind itself. Dakini's Warm Breath is thoughtful, insightful, stimulating
reading and strongly recommended for Buddhist studies and library reference collections.
The International Studies
Shelf
The Follies Of Globalization Theory
Justin Rosenberg
Verso
180 Varick St., NY, NY 10014-4606
1859846114 $23.00 1-212-807-9680
Justin Rosenberg's The Follies Of Globalization Theory is an intelligent and fiesty criticism of
modern globalization theory. Author Rosenberg, who won the 1994 Isaac Deutscher Memorial
Prize
with his previous work, The Empire of Civil Society, and again spares neither wit nor word in his
harsh evaluation of the stagnation of the globalization paradox. Rosenberg's contention is that the
more erudite globalization theorists try to be in presenting their arguments, the more amorphous
those arguments become. Written to be entertaining as well as erudite, The Follies Of
Globalization
Theory offers deep thought and scathing warnings about an issue that literally circumscribes the
world.
Human Rights, Equality And Democratic Renewal In Northern Ireland
Colin J. Harvey, editor
Hart Publishing/ISBS, dist.
5824 NE Hassalo St., Portland, OR 97213
1841131199 $52.00 1-503-287-3093
In Human Rights, Equality And Democratic Renewal In Northern Ireland, editor Colin Harvey
has
gathered ten knowledgeable and articulate contributors to survey several key aspects of the Good
Friday Agreement of 1998 which marked a significant departure from the incrementalism and
dominate political logic of British constitutionalism. The contributors include Gordon Anthony,
Andrew Evans, Colin J. Harvey, John Jackson, Stephen Livingstone, Christopher McCrudden,
Kieran McEvoy, Linda Moore, John Morison, and Mary O'Rawe. Human Rights, Equality And
Democratic Renewal In Northern Ireland is a benchmark publication and strongly recommended
for
students of the political complexities of contemporary Northern Ireland.
FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions". In Writer's Handbook Of FAQs: 2001-2002,
Doris
Booth (founder and Editor-in-Chief of Authorlink.com, an outstanding online resource for
editors,
agents, writers, and readers) draws upon her considerable expertise and professional experience to
answer the most frequently asked questions about every aspect of publishing. From preparing and
submitting a manuscript, to points of industry etiquette, to marketing and profitability, every
aspect
of publishing is defined and explained. Writer's Handbook Of FAQs is invaluable, highly
recommended reading for any aspiring author seeking publication of their work -- and would aptly
serve as a curriculum supplement text for writing and publishing classes and workshops.
How To Write A Romance For The New Markets...And Get Published!
Kathryn Falk
Genesis Press
315 Third Avenue North, Columbus, MO 39701
1885478461 $18.95 genesis-press.com
In How To Write A Romance For The New Markets...And Get Published!, Kathryn Falk draws
upon her many years of experience and the expertise of hundreds of romance authors to provide
aspiring writers with information, advice, and examples of how to get their romance writings
polished and published. All the elements of writing romances are covered, along with a survey of
the
new markets in the romance genre including: African American; Time Travel; Christian;
Multi-Cultural; Asian; Unusual heroines; humor; Hispanic/Latino; romantic suspense; magic;
science
fiction; fantasy; and erotic. The informative and comprehensive text is enhanced with a number of
invaluable appendices including the Etiquette for Manuscript Submission; Romance Publishing
Houses; Agents and Agencies; Romantic Times Magazine; Romantic Times Conventions and
Lady
Barrow Tours; and "Recommended Books". If you are an author seeking to succeed in the field
of
romance stories and novels, then begin with a thorough reading of Kathryn Falk's How To Write
A
Romance For The New Markets...And Get Published!
Solid Gold Newsletter Design
Sheryl L. Roush
Creative Communications
PO Box 2373, La Mesa, CA 91943-2373
1880878046 $29.95 1-800-932-0973
Sheryl Roush draws upon more than 25 years of her experience within the graphic design industry
to
present Solid Gold Newsletter Design, a compendium of 253 tips, tolls, and techniques for
transforming any newsletters into an effective means of communication. Editors and publishers
will
learn how to promote an organization, communicat a message, and effectively market products,
services, businesses, ideas, or causes through the use of a competent, "reader friendly" newsletter.
Here is a complete guide to crating profiles of target audiences, writing content that hooks the
reader's attention, the practical techniques of design and layout, producing a professional looking
newsletter, as well as nine powerful shortcuts that come in very handy when dealing with
deadlines.
Very highly recommended, especially for the novice newsletter editor or publisher, Solid Gold
Newsletter Design is enhanced with a bonus section on additional marketing materials including
brochures, display ads, fliers, posters, mailing envelopes, postcards, catalogs, magazines,
booklets,
presentations and training materials, web marketing, and "PowerPoint Slide" presentations.
The Gaming Shelf
Northern Hinterlands
Bill Coffin & Kevin Siembieda
Palladium Books
12455 Universal Dr., Taylor, MI 48180
1574570587 $20.95 palladiumbooks.com
The latest addition to the Palladium Fantasy RPG series, Bill Coffin and Kevin Siembieda's
Northern
Hinterlands, now in an expanded and revised second edition. The Northern Hinterlands holds
secrets
and challenges that have attracted some of the greatest heroes to ever walk the planet -- but few
of
them ever returned to tell the tale. This superbly presented gaming guide features maps and
descriptions, Bizantium's colonies of the Shadow Coast, Ophid's Grasslands and the Hinterland
forests, the people and places of Kiridin, lost treasure and magic, the "long winter", monsters,
adventure ideas and settings, and more! Northern Hinterlands is a "must" for all role game players
and enthusiasts within the Palladium Megaverse!
Twenty-First Century Blackjack
Walter Thomason
Bonus Books
160 East Illinois St., Chicago, IL 60611
156625132X $12.95 1-800-225-3775
Walter Thomason provides the reader with an innovative, practical alternative to card counting in
Twenty-First Century Blackjack: A New Strategy For A New Millennium. This remarkable and
effective betting system is easy to learn, simple to apply, immune to casino harassment, and more
profitable than ordinary betting. This system has been successfully vetted in numerous field tests
by
gaming experts pre-disposed to be skeptical of Thomason's approach. Easy-to-read, Twenty-First
Century Blackjack will help the average play improve his or her chances at winning at Blackjack
-- and has much to commend it to even expert level players.
The Philosophy Shelf
Plato's Progeny
Melissa Lane
Duckworth
c/o International Publishers Marketing
PO Box 605, Herndon, VA 20172-0605
0715628925 $17.95 1-800-758-3756
In Plato's Progeny: How Plato And Socrates Still Captivate The Modern Mind, Melissa Lane
(University Lecturer in History at Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge) begins
with an account of modern responses to the trial of Socrates and the controversial question of
Socrates' relation to Plato. She explores the idea of Platonic origins in and for philosophy, as well
as
the Platonic foundations for philosophical politics. Plato's Progeny also explores the invocations
of
Plato as Lane persuasively argues that twentieth-century ideological battles have obscured the
importance of Socratic individualism, the nature of Platonic ethics, and the value of Platonic
politics
for a contemporary society. Enthusiastically recommended for students of philosophy in general,
and
the contributions of Socrates and Plato in particular, Plato's Progeny is an ideal and exceptionally
well written introduction and commentary.
Self, God, And Immortality
Eugene Fontinell
Fordham University Press
2546 Belmont Avenue, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458-5172
0823220710 $19.95 1-800-247-6553
Drawing upon the works of William James and the principles of American Pragmatism, Eugene
Fontinell addresses the question of whether or not we who have been affected by the scientific,
intellectual, and experimental revolutions of modern and contemporary times still hold a coherent
and consistent belief in an immortality for individual human beings. Self, God, And Immortality: A
Jamesian Investigation also examines the present relationship of reason to faith -- and if there are
justifying reasons for faith. Fontinell shows that, far from diverting attention and energies from the
crucial tasks confronting us here and now, belief in a personal immortality can be energizing and
life
enhancing, as well as stimulating co-operative efforts to create a richer and more humane
community. Self, God, And Immortality is emphatically recommended reading for students of
religion, spirituality, philosophy, and metaphysics.
The Hunting/Fishing Shelf
The 10-Minute Retriever
John Dahl and Amy Dahl
Willow Creek Press
P.O. Box 147, Minocqua, WI 54548
1572233036 $24.50 1-800-850-9453
The 10-Minute Retriever: How To M;ake An Obedient And Enthusiastic Gun Dog In 10 Minutes
A
Day is the perfect guide for training a good gun dog. With more than 30 years of retriever training
experience between them, John and Amy Dahl persusasive argue that ten-minute training sessions
are best for a retriever's attention span and accelerate the learning process. The 10-Minute
Retriever
is easy to use and highly accessible for rank novice dog trainers, yet contains tips, techniques, and
information intended for experienced trainers as well. Basic topics covered include how to force
fetch, how to arrange tests in the field, and how to humanely use an electric collar. Peppered with
true dog anecdotes, and enhanced with adaptations in training techniques for different breeds of
dog,
The 10-Minute Retriever is a "must" for any sportsman who wants his retriever to do more than
fetch the stick!
Sight-Fishing For Striped Bass
Alan Caolo
Frank Amato Publications, Inc.
P.O. Box 82112, Portland, Oregon 97282
1571882537 $25.00 amatobooks.com
Alan Caolo's Sight-Fishing for Striped Bass: Fly-Fishing Strategies for Inshore, Offshore and the
Surf is a superior reference guide for the sport. With full-color photography and artwork
illustrating
its topics of striped bass behavior, fly patterns, spotting the fish, angling strategies, tackle
equipment, and much, much more, this comprehensive book is a "must" for anyone who aspires to
land striped bass. Of especial interest are the individual color plates for flies and naturals;
combined
with the clear, forthright text, they help make the sport of bass fishing understandable to all. Alan
Caolo's Sight-Fishing for Striped Bass is also available in hardcover (157188257X $39.95)
The Education Shelf
Making Their Own Way
Marcia B. Baxter Magolda
Stylus Publishing, LLC
22883 Quicksilver Dr., Sterling VA 20166
1579220355 $33.00 http://Styluspub.com
Making Their Own Way follows the journeys of young adults who participated in a unique
longitudinal study of 101 male and female college students begun in 1986 by Marcia Magolda.
Drawn from over 300 interviews taken from graduation to their early thirties, we see through the
participants' own stories the role of higher education as a preparation for participation in
contemporary life outside academia. Magolda provides both observation and analysis as she
derives
a new framework for higher education designed to achieve better stewarding and fostering of
students during the journey of transformation and maturation attendant to the years of higher
education experience. An experience whose totality aspires to better prepare these men and
women
to assume leadership roles in the opening decades of the twenty-first century. Making Their Own
Way is strongly recommended reading for educators concerned with the holistic development of
their students and higher education's role in foster critical thinking, citizenship, and civic
leadership.
Smart But Stuck
Myrna Orenstein
Haworth Press
10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904
078901467X $19.95 1-800-429-6784
Myrna Orenstein's superbly presented work in Smart But Stuck covers the emotional aspects of
learning disabilities: a topic often omitted from coverages which focus on physical development.
From clues pointing to possible learning disabilities to treatment and therapies, Smart But Stuck
provides excellent background and advice.
The Human Sexuality Shelf
International Encyclopedia Of Sexuality, Volume 4
Robert Francoeur, editor
Continuum Publishing Group
Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121
0826412742 $125.00 1-800-722-4726
International Encyclopedia Of Sexuality, Volume 4 provides a technical, college-level
cross-cultural
sex survey and adds to a set on the subject. 60 leading sexologists and experts in the sexual
behavior
patterns of fifty countries provide essays which focus on different countries: this volume includes
Italy, Iceland, Cyprus, Nigeria, Paupua New Guinea, Philippines and many more.
Nature's Aphrodisiacs
Nancy L. Nickell
Crossing Press
PO 1048, Freedom, CA 95019
0895948907 $14.95 1-800-777-1048
Nancy Nickell is an educational writer, lecturer, research, and textbook author in the subjects of
food, nutrition, and alternative therapies, In Nature's Aphrodisiacs, Nickell's surveys and carefully
examines the latest research on natural aphrodisiacs for initiating, restoring, or augmenting human
sexuality for men and women. There have been folk lore and folk medicine with respect to
substances found in nature and thought to enhanced human sexuality. Nickell's explores the
question
as to whether or not there are scientific explanations or verifications for everything from oysters
to
powdered rhinoceros horn. Nature's Aphrodisiacs clearly separates fact from fiction, and
superstition
from science, as the non-specialist general reader is capably informed as to what genuine
aphrodisiacs really are, and what they can do when properly administered. Very highly
recommended for personal, academic, and community library human sexuality reading lists and
reference collections.
The Good Girls Guide To Bad Girl Sex
Barbara Keesling, Ph. D.
M. Evans & Company
216 East 49th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, New York 10017
0871319349 $21.95 1-212-688-2810
Barbara Keesling's The Good Girls Guide To Bad Girl Sex: An Indispensable Resource For
Pleasure
And Seduction is a book specifically written in response to a society that condemns female sexual
pleasure as "bad", and applauds female reservations to sexual impulses as "good." So, how is a
woman who has been conditioned to be a "good girl" to enjoy a fulfilling sexual relationship with
her
partner? The Good Girls Guide To Bad Girl Sex offers exercises, advice, and guidance to help
"good girls" learn to enjoy "bad girl" sex - i.e. learn to enjoy her sexuality without shame. Highly
recommended reading for both single and married women.
The Sports Shelf
World-Class Tennis Technique
Paul Roetert & Jack Groppel, editors
Human Kinetics
PO Box 5076, Champaign, IL 61825-5076
0736037470 $25.95 1-800-747-4457
In World-Class Tennis Technique: Master Every Stroke, Paul Roetert and Jack Groppel have
drawn
from some of the world's top experts in biomechanics, tennis techniques, and coaching to provide
the aspiring or practicing tennis player with a comprehensive guide covering every aspect of the
game as it relates to technique. An in-depth analysis of each stoke is enhanced with full color
sequence photographs. If you are an amateur player seeking a professional level of mastery, or an
aspiring tournament contender, give a careful reading to Roetert and Groppel's World-Class
Tennis
Technique!
Alpha Male
Sam Delucia
William Delucia Publisher
6250 Telegraph Road, #2106, Ventura, CA 93003
0970960107 $18.50 psycholifter.com
Sam Delucia's Alpha Male: The Path To Hardcore Natural Bodybuilding, enhanced with black
and
white photographs and sketches, is an intense bodybuilding guide by a self-professed "gymrat."
Written in deliberate reaction to the over-commercialization of bodybuilding, and the
supplement/vitamin ads that fill every bodybuilding magazine cover to cover, Delucia offers frank,
forward information about how effective supplements really are, how the bodybuilding
corporations
plan to make you into their customer-for-life, how to eat for power, and more. Alpha Male is not
a
book for the gentle-hearted, as its suggested motivations for a weightlifting partner include yelling
phrases such as "Worthless must have been on sale, it appears you stocked up!" (and that's one of
the more tame examples). However, even those who do not lift weights can find the author's
street-speak, no-holds-barred opinions informative, challenging, and highly entertaining.
The Sociology Shelf
Greek American Families
Sam J. Tsemberis, et al.
Pella Publishing Company
337 West 36th Street, NY, NY 10018
0918618762 $15.00 1-212-279-9586
Ably edited by the collaborative efforts of Sam J. Tsemberis, Harry J. Psomiades, and Anna
Karpathakis, Greek American Families: Traditions And Transformations documents Greek
American
family life at a critical juncture in the acculturation process of adjusting and assimilating into the
broader American society. The contributors include anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists,
historians, and clerics as they comment on Greek family life both past and present. Highly
recommended for students of cultural anthropology, sociology, and ethnic studies, Greek
American
Families is a compendium of sage and scholarly commentary offering challenging and thoughtful
speculations with respect to the future of Greek American families.
The Economics Shelf
Networks And Markets
James Rauch & Alessandra Casella, eds.
Russell Sage Foundation
112 East 64th St., New York, NY 10021
0871547007 $39.95 1-212-750-6038
In Networks And Markets, James Rauch and Alessandra Casella effectively collaborate to
assemble
contributions by both sociologists and economists to provide a coherent view of the role of
economic incentives and established channels of personal relationships in the economic
marketplace.
The focus is on how social networks are an essential precondition for successful markets, and
whether networks arise naturally out of markets as traders build reputations and gain confidence
in
one another through the history of their mutual dealings. Networks And Markets is strongly
recommended and informative reading for economists and sociologists, as well as non-specialist
general readers with an interest in how personal and professional relationships affect economic
transactions on a corporate and governmental level.
Crossing The Mainstream
Amitava Dutt & Kenneth Jameson, eds.
University of Notre Dame Press
310 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0268022674 $48.95 undpress.nd.edu
In Crossing The Mainstream: Ethical And Methodological Issues In Economics, editors Amitava
K.
Dutt and Kenneth P. Jameson effectively collaborate to compile a series of outstanding papers
authored by present and former colleagues, students and collaborators of Professor Charles K.
Wilber on the occasion of his retirement from the Department of Economics at the University of
Notre Dame. The contributors offer alternative methods of analysis and addressing ethical issues
and
unanswered methodological questions in their field. The issues addressed include the ethical
considerations regarding development, growth, globalization, consumption, and public policies.
The
specific topics range from the interrelation of economic growth and income distribution, to the
costs
of globalization for developing countries, to the assumptions that an increased consumption
translates into increased happiness in an affluent economy, to the implications of various
proposals
for Social Security reform. Contributors also examine the history of economics and contemporary
practice, including the current economic orthodox, the tension between foundationalism and
relativism, and the role of the National Science Foundation in creating an "economics cartel".
Crossing The Mainstream is strongly recommended reading for students of economic theory, as
well
as practicing and professional economists, whether in the private or the public sector.
The Parenting Shelf
Hey Kid: Letters From A Dad (parenting)
Alan Packer, edited by Dawn Packer
Integrity House Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 2108, Blowing Rock, NC 28605
0967277000 $9.95 1-800-915-1333
Hey Kid: Letters From A Dad is a collection of letters that author Alan Packer wrote to his
daughter, Dawn, while she attended college. He explains why he chose to go to Vietnam, reminds
her never to take American freedoms lightly, and admits his own faults for reacting badly to an
employee with a nose ring. Packer's honest, straightforward words aren't just endearing; they're a
useful model of how to communicate with teenagers and grown children - even if one doesn't
always
have the "right" thing to say.
Making Music With Your Child
Kia Portafekas & Karen E. Marlow
MMB Music, Inc.
3526 Washington Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63103-1019
1581060130 $12.95 1-800-543-3771
In Making Music With Your Child, Kia Portafekas and Karen Marlow effectively collaborate to
offer parents practical and innovative suggestions for teaching their children how to make and
appreciate all manner of music. Here are effective suggestions for imaginative music lessons and
practice times, stimulating a child's desire for music, and unconventional but successful ways of
teaching music with colors, movements, sound, and imagination. Making Music With Your Child
is
a "must" for all parents seeking to instill in their children a love of music, an appreciation for the
making of music, and an encouragement into acquiring the skills for the creation of music.
How To Help Every Child Become A Reader
U.S. Department of Education
Your Domain Publishing/JIST Publ.
8902 Otis Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46216-1033
1930780028 $12.95 1-800-648-5478
How To Help Every Child Become A Reader is a compendium of hundreds of practical tips,
research facts, information sources, and free materials designed to help parents and teachers to
instruction children in the skills of reading, as well as instilling in children a love for reading. Here
is
cogent advice on improving reading, creation of reading clinics and curriculums, Internet and print
materials to supplement reading programs, and more! How To Help Every Child Become A
Reader
is an invaluable resource for concerned parents seeking to establish and improve their children's
literacy skills based on the most current research and resources presently available on the
subject.
Parenthood In America
Jack C. Westman, M.D., editor
University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street, Madison, WI 53711
0299170640 $22.95 1-773-568-1550
Parenthood In America: Undervalued, Underpaid, Under Siege is a compilation of contributions
by
professionals engaging in research and discussions about "parenthood" as it is being experienced
in
the American culture today. After succinct and compelling analysis of the current stresses and
problems involved with parenthood, a body of recommendations emerge in behalf of having
family-friendly workplaces and decent child care options; family health care for all members;
programs aiding the development of children in addition to their physical health; recognition by
professionals of parental expertise regarding their own children; alternatives to vapid or violent
games and television programming; prioritization of family meals, talks, chores, and activities
within
the parenting schedule; valuing caring relationships above the accumulation of wealth or the
acquisition of possessions; an appreciation of cultural and religious diversity; and family support
in
community settings. Highly recommended for both child development professionals and interested
non-specialist readers alike, Parenthood In America is a welcome and much needed addition to
academic and community parenting studies reference collections.
Out East Of Aline
Rex L. Wilson
Uncommon Buffalo Press
1914 Stirling St., Rapid City, SD 57702
0964168847 $14.95 1-605-342-5085
Out East Of Aline: An Adoption Memoir is more than a biography. Author and retired
archaeologist
Rex L. Wilson writes from a child's point of view, remembering his own abandonment at an
orphanage at the tender age of four and a half years. He was adopted by an Oklahoma farming
couple a year later. Thus began his journey into the strange ways of his new home, the heartbreak
of
learning that his biological mother would never claim him, the unease of living in a community
where
adopted children were mistrusted as reform school candidates (at best), and finally, gradual
acceptance into his new way of life. Out East Of Aline is not only about adoption issues;
ultimately a
tale of perseverance, hope, and the joys of living. Recommended.
Why Is My Baby Crying?
Bruce Taubman, M.D.
White Hat Communications
Box 5390, Harrisburg, PA 17110-0390
1929109008 $12.95 1-717-238-3787
Previously published in a Simon & Schuster edition as "Curing Infant Colic," the White Hat
Communications edition of Dr. Bruce Taubman's Why is My Baby Crying?: The 7-Minute
Program
For Soothing The Fussy Baby has been completely revised and updated. Written by Dr. Bruce
Taubman, by an active staff member of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Why Is My Baby
Crying? provides a step-by-step, process of elimination approach to determining how to
understand
what your infant is trying to tell you. Written expressly for parents in clear, unambiguous
language,
Why Is My Baby Crying? explains what infant colic syndrome is and isn't, why some
well-intentioned advice is unwise to follow, and how to soothe the seemingly impossible child.
Highly recommended for pediatric and community library parenting book collections, Why Is My
Baby Crying? is a "must" for any new parents!
Baby Be Loved
Susan Ann Stelfox
Mason Publishing
100 North Whisman Road #3218, Mountain View, CA 94043
097052420X $24.95 babybeloved.com
Susan Stelfox's Baby Be Loved is written expressly for brand new parents. It's filled with daily
parent-child activities, from songs and exercises to special illustrations, to help stimulate a new
baby's senses and development for the first twenty-four weeks of life. All the information in Baby
Be
Loved is doctor-approved by consulting physician Nancy Iverson, M.D., and is excellent for
helping
new parents worry less and enjoy the special joys of parenthood more. Baby Be Loved in
excellent
and highly recommended reference for preparing mothers and fathers to be.
The Archaeology Shelf
When The Land Was Young
Sharman Apt Russell
Bison Books
c/o University of Nebraska Press
233 North 8th Street, Lincoln, NE 68588
0803289871 $14.95 1-800-755-1105
Sharman Russell's When The Land Was Young: Reflections On American Archaeology is an
extensive history of archaeology in America, written with sharp wit and practiced skill. When The
Land Was Young skillfully examines archaeology not just as the hunt for dusty relics, but as the
living, changing study of how people and creatures of the past once lived. Highly entertaining,
informative and enjoyable reading for archaeology students and non-specialist general readers
with
an interest in American archaeology.
In 1940, Anne Brusselmans was recruited by England to assist British soldiers trying to evade
capture by the German forces. She was credited with helping 130 U.S. and Allied airmen to
escape
capture by the Nazis during the war. Belgium Rendez-Vous 127 Revisited: Anne Brusselmans,
M.B.E. - Resistance, World War II is the dramatic, true and accurate story of a remarkable
woman
who risked her life to save lives in Brussels under German occupation. Yvonne
Daley-Brusselmans
is the daughter of this courageous woman and writes vividly of her mother who worked tirelessly
in
the Belgian Underground for four years, risking torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo. If
you only have time for one war time biography, make it Belgium Rendez-Vous 127
Revisited!
The Money/Finance Shelf
How To Get Up To $7 Worth Of Free Gas Every Time You Fill Up
Joe Stronsick
Across Land Books
Dept. A21, 5008 Pal Mal Avenue, Temple City, CA 91780
0970783000 $12.95 1-800-405-0348
Joe Stronsick is a leading expert on fuel economy. In How To Get Up To $7 Worth Of Free Gas
Every Time You Fill Up, he provides the consumer with a practical book of "tips" and insider
information that will literally pay for itself. Stronsick's advice for reducing fuel costs include a
simple
step you can do to your tires, what gasoline, oil, and spark plug you should really buy, and car
product scams that should be avoided like a plague on your wallet. How To Get Up To $7
Worth
Of Free Gas Every Time You Fill Up is a "must" for anyone who has a car, but doesn't have
money to burn!
The Insider's Guide To Managing Your Credit
Deborah McNaughton
Dearborn Financial Publishing
155 North Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL 60606
079312669X $15.95 1-800-621-9621
Credit management expert Deborah McNaughton shows the reader how to establish, maintain,
repair and protect his or her credit in The Insider's Guide To Managing Your Credit. The first half
of
this superbly presented "how to" book is on establishing credit, including information on the
various
types of credit, qualifying for credit, dealing with credit denials and credit reporting agencies, the
credit application process, and even the use of credit to make money. The second half of The
Insider's Guide To Managing Your Credit focuses on dealing with credit problems, working with
collection agencies, getting out of debt, and repairing damaged credit. The informative, "reader
friendly" text is enhanced with a section on "The Most Frequently Asked Questions and Their
Answers"; listings of "Federal Government Publications" and "Regional Offices of the Federal
Trade
Commission"; a glossary; and an Index. Highly recommended!
The Political Science Shelf
Defending America
James M. Lindsay & Michael E. O'Hanlon
Brookings Institution Press
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2188
0815700083 $24.95 www.brookings.edu
In Defending America: The Case For Limited National Missile Defense, authors James Lindsay
and
Michael O'Hanlon collaboratively offer cogent and practical recommendations on building an
effective missile defense system. Their suggested plan requires a critical change in the 1972 ABM
Treaty and highlights the so-called "boost-phase interceptors" for land, sea, or air. Preferring
extensive research and development efforts to a system rushed out the door, these authors make a
persuasive and fascinating case. Those who disagree with their views are even more highly
encouraged to read Defending America, for it is substantively important to know all sides of the
debate over this controversial, critical, and contemporary national issue.
Beyond Political Correctness
Michael S. Cummings
Lynne Rienner Publishers
1800 30th St., #314, Boulder, CO 80301
1555878636 $59.95 1-303-444-6684
Beyond Political Correctness: Social Transformations In The United States is a loud wake-up call.
Why does the political left staunchly defend divisive issues such as affirmative action, while
compromising on more central issues? This book takes a harsh look at what it means to be
"politically correct"; at the same time, it does not spare the metaphorical rod in regarding the
"self-serving, hypocritical right." Beyond Political Correctness is a scathing tell-all on how
conceptual sacred cows interfere with sensible politics. Author Cummings calls for U.S. culture
and
institutions, down to the family, to be transformed so that individuals may pursue their interests
without compromising the public good. His approach is controversial, yet persuasively argued in a
book that is meant to be challenged, debated, and closely reread. Engaging and
thought-provoking,
Beyond Political Correctness raises the most crucial questions in the hardball politics of Left vs.
Right.
Tethered Citizens
Sheldon Richman
The Future Of Freedom Foundation
11350 Random Hills Road, Suite 800, Fairfax, VA 22030
1890687022 $15.95 www.fff.org
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future Of Freedom Foundation and editor of "The
Freeman: Ideas On Liberty" magazine. In Tethered Citizens: Time To Repeal The Welfare State,
Richman traces the history of the modern welfare state and exposes how the state directed
compulsory redistribution of wealth and resources not only works to the detriment of the tax
payer,
but to the intended recipient of governmental largess as well. Articulate, iconoclastic, accessible,
Tethered Citizens is informative reading and a much needed expose of the harmful effects of a
welfare state upon the nation's economic prosperity, as well as the personal liberties and moral
character of its citizenry.
The Poetry Shelf
The Love Poems Of The Feminist
Fembah
Fembah Poetry
18393 Blue Ridge Mountain Road, Bluemont, VA 201355
0615115497 $6.95 1-540-554-8708 http://communities.msn.com/Fembah
The verse in The Love Poems Of The Feminist by Fembah is original, laced with humor, and has a
"march to the beat of a different drum" kind of feel that makes it truly memorable. Men At The
Zoo:
I saw a guy toss back his hair/like a lion with his pride/I saw a guy nuzzle his shoulder/like a horse
does to his hide//I say a guy kick his foot/like a bull for the chase/I saw a guy scratch his
back/with
an itchy rhino's grace//I saw a guy rub his stomach/like an ape does to his belly/I say a guy squat
and
smile/(a pig never thinks it's smelly)//Oh, men can be like animals/with wolf whistles and
catcalls/But
unlike our furry friends/they only manage to appall.
How To Paint Sunlight: New Poems
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
New Directions
80 Eighth Avenue, NY, NY 10011
081121463X $19.95 1-212-255-0230
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is one of the best and widely read of America's 20th century poets, who has
been awarded numerous citations, awards, and recognitions for his work. How To Paint Sunlight:
New Poems showcases for his legions of fans a new compendium of his work that demonstrates
and
documents a true literary master. Moored: A boat moored/In the deep shade/under a weeping
willow/in the bend of a river//As the light fades/so does the boat/with its willow/with its
river//Only
memory remains/of the lovers/in the bottom of the boat/moored to each other//They too/Gone
on.
The Priapus Poems
Richard W. Hopper, translator
University of Illinois Press
1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820
0252024435 $14.95 press.uillinois.edu
Very ably translated from Latin by Richard W. Hopper (who also provides an informative
introduction and commentary) for the modern reader, The Priapus Poems: Erotic Epigrams From
Ancient Rome is a superbly presented bi-lingual contribution to both antiquarian studies and to
our
appreciation for Roman popular epigrammatic (and often bawdy) poetry inspired by Priapus --
one
of Rome's minor fertility gods. 38: Whatever it is, I shouldn't hesitate/since I'm cocksure enough
to
tell you straight/I want your ass, you want to pluck my fruit,/if I get what I want, you'll get your
loot.
Russell Country
Bette Wolf Duncan
Hancock House Publishers
1431 Harrison Ave., Blaine, WA 98230
0888394810 $9.95 1-800-938-1114
In Russell Country: Western Cowboy Poetry, Bette Wolf Duncan treats us to a body of poetry
(with
superb black and white illustrations) that evokes the stories she heard as a girl growing up in the
southeastern Montana with its Indian caves, abandoned gold mines and homesteads, cowboys,
mountain men, and once great herds of buffalo. The Devil's Down In Cheyenne: The devil's down
in
Cheyenne./He's red-eyed, raw and mean;/with a whip unreal, two swords of steel,/and the wrath
of
hell between!//I've ridden bulls from Lethbridge/all the way to San Antone;/but that black,
black-hearted devil's/in a class all of his own.//He swallowed up a cyclone./It's in his belly
still./There's just one thought that devil's got;/and that one's shoutin' "KILL."//The devil's down in
Cheyenne;/and though I rode him well/I wasn't any match for/two thousand pounds from hell.//He
left me down in Cheyenne/in a crimson pool a' gore./The devil's still in Cheyenne--/but I don't ride
bulls no more.
Railway Poetry
Zolani Mkiva
University of Natal Press/ISBS, dist.
5824 NE Hassalo St., Portland, OR 97213
086980989X $12.95 1-503-287-3093
Zolani Mkiva is a practitioner of the oral tradition of South Africa called "praise poet" (imbongi)
--
the oldest literary tradition in the nation. Railway Poetry is a splendid little volume that showcases
both his talent and this remarkable oral tradition. 'Tis Hard To Bear: 'Tis hard to bear unmerited
reproof/To live a life misjudged, misunderstood;/To see our once warm friends now stand
aloof,/More credulous of whisper'd ill than good./'Tis hard when fate environs us with
wrong,/And
slander spreads, untouche'd by sense of truth;/And those who blame us know but half the
truth./This
we must bear, dissembling with the fear/That holds the soul subdued in patient thrall;/And trusting
Time to make the darkness clear,/We'll dream of sunshine though the shadows fall/The Light must
shine at last! Be of good cheer,/Our wrongs shall righted be, for God is over all.
Ably translated from the original Spanish by Jim Normington, and deftly edited by Jack
Hirschman
into a bilingual format, 500,000 Azaleas: The Selected Poems Of Efrain Huerta brings to the
attention of the American reading public a compendium of verses by a highly talented Mexican
poet.
With an original imagery replete with exuberant rhythms, Efrain Huerta probes the cultures of
both
Mexico and the United States as he ranges from the impact of racism in Mississippi to the political
corruption in Mexico City. Phantoms: Trees, houses, bridges: phantoms./There's a heavy weeping
mist,/stuck to the ground, thick, sterile,/monstrous and exhausting, a filthy mold.//Faces, legs, and
hands: phantoms./And a frigid animal under the skin of the soul.//It's a world of lead, this Ohio
world./Original dawn of lead and dirty petting.//Moans, kisses, laughter: Phantoms./Grey and
green
phantoms of desire and fear./It's like a phantom of my very self,/going off to die in the middle of a
dream, right on course.
The Library Video/DVD
Shelf
Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty
Bridgestone Multimedia/Alpha Omega
300 North McKemy Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85226.
1563710005 $12.95 www.aop.com
Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty: The Sage Of The Congressional Medal Of Honor is a 50
minute, full color documentary video detailing the fascinating history of the Congressional Medal
of
Honor from its inception down to the present day. 3, 393 men and one woman have been awarded
for heroism and extraordinary actions on the nation's battlefields. The youngest recipient earned
his
medal at the age of 12. Eighteen men earned the medal twice. 911 Medals of Honor have been
revoked (including the one given to William "Buffalo Bill" Cody). Above And Beyond The Call
Of
Duty is a strongly recommended addition to both school and community library collections, and a
"must see" video for all military buffs.
The Four Seasons
Bullfrog Films
Box 149, Oley, PA 19547
VHS $TBA www.bullfrogfilms.com
Directed by Barbara Willis Sweete, choreographed by James Kudelka, Antonio Vivaldi's The Four
Seasons is a superbly produced, 48 minute, full color video of a ballet set to one of the most
celebrated scores in classic music. The dancers are from the National Ballet of Canada with
Principal
Dancer Rex Harrington setting a standard of beauty and grace that serves as a testament to the
total
gamut of emotions conjured by Vivaldi's music as flawlessly performed by Canada's National Arts
Centre Orchestra. The Four Seasons is a strongly recommended acquisition selection for school
and
community libraries! School and community librarians are encouraged to visit the Bullfrog Films
website for a complete listing of their titles.
The Environmental Studies
Shelf
Green Profits
Nicholas P. Cheremisinoff & Avrom Bendavid-Val
Butterworth Heinemann
PO Box 4500, Woburn, MA 01801-2041
0750674016 $49.95 1-781-904-2500
Nicholas Cheremisinoff is a consulting engineer with more than twenty years experience in design,
research, development, manufacturing, and teaching. Avrom Bendavid-Val is Vice President for
Environment and Development at Chermonics International Inc. In Green Profits: The Manager's
Handbook for ISO 14001 And Pollution Prevention, Cheremisinoff and Bendavid-Val effectively
collaborate to cover the two tightly connected topics of environmental management systems
(EMS)
and pollution prevention (P2). Together they show how to implement an EMS (especially ISO
14001) so that it leads to profitable pollution prevention innovations, and how to identify and
implement pollution prevention measures within the context of a sound and strategic business
framework. Green Profits provides the information and tools enterprising managers can apply to
achieve the benefits of both EMS and P2 -- and do so in ways that fit within the corporation's
existing management systems. Nicholas Cheremisinoff and Avrom Bendavid-Val Green Profits is
a
highly recommended addition to academic, professional, and corporate environmental engineering
reference collections.
The Judaic Studies Shelf
The Witness Trees
Myra Skalrew & David Wolpe
Cornwall Books
440 Forsgate Drive, Cranbury, NJ 08512
0845345257 $19.95
Written by Myra Sklarew and translated into Yiddish by David Wolpe, The Witness Trees is an
amazing bilingual (English/Yiddish) compendium of poetry, eyewitness accounts, and a moving
historical narrative of Lithuanian Jewish history. The Witness Trees includes Dovid Kartz's
introductory essay on "Jewish Lithuania and a Shtel called Keidan", and David Wolpe's "The
Destruction of Keidan". This is followed by a Preface, and then Myra Skalrew's "Lithuania". The
Witness Trees is strongly recommended reading for students of Judaic and Holocaust Studies, as
well as anyone with an interest in Yiddish literature and translation.
Bearing Witness To The Holocaust 1939-1989
Alan L. Berger, editor
The Edwin Mellen Press
PO Box 450, Lewiston, NY 14092-0450
0773496440 $99.95 mellenpress.com
In Bearing Witness To The Holocaust 1939-1989, Alan Berger has brought togehter a
compendium
of outstanding articles drawn from particpants in the Nineteenth Annual Scholars' Conference on
the
Holocaust and the Church Struggle, held in Philadelphia, March 5-7, 1989. This benchmark
publication is divided into several sections: Survivor Testimonies; Philosphical Responses;
Religious
Responses; Literary and Artistic Responses; and The Aftermath. From Herbert Hirsch's Survival
and
Suicide: Primo Levi and the Crisis of the Twentieth Century, to Marta Rosenbloom's Bearing
Witness by Holocaust Survivors: Implications for Mental Helth Tehory and Practice, the work
comprising Bearing Witness To The Holocaust 1939-1989 is simply outstanding, rendering it an
essential addition to all Holocaust studies reading lists and reference collections.
Daughters Of Absence
Mindy Weisel, editor
Capital Books, Inc.
22841 Quicksilver Dr., Sterling VA 20166
1892123371 $26.95 1-800-758-3756
Aptly edited by Mindy Weisel, Daughters Of Absence: Transforming A Legacy Of Loss is an
impressive and revealing collection of writings of the children of Holocaust survivors. It is also an
homage to Holocaust survivors, intended as a gift from the children of those survivors to their
parents, and as a tribute to the millions who died. With moving, uplifting prose that recounts how
the daughters of survivors transforms a legacy of shadow into the artistic light of movies, art,
photographs, poems, novels, and lives, Daughters Of Absence is a powerful, life-affirming read
and
a strongly recommended addition to Holocaust studies reading lists and reference collections.
Reviewers Recommend
From Our House
Lee Martin
E.P. Dutton
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
ISBN: 0525945466, $22.95, 192 pages 1-800-847-5515
Brent Spencer
Reviewer
Lee Martin's memoir recounts the history of family violence with both courage and compassion.
There are no villains in this book, only the clear-eyed seeker's steady gaze on the subject. The
author's parents marry late, and from the beginning, the meek schoolteacher and the crude
blusterer
seem mismatched. Things go from bad to worse when Martin's father loses his hands in a farming
accident. Much of From Our House concerns his father's--and the family's--efforts to cope with
this
tragedy. Anger infects this family. "I had learned from my father's whippings," Martin writes, "that
the worst pain from physical punishment wasn't the lash on the skin, but the bruise that blossomed
and spread somewhere inside the soul." In the end, father and son come to a kind of
reconciliation,
giving the narrative a luminous yet uncompromising conclusion. From Our House treats the
conflict
between father and son, and the legacy of family violence, without simplification or vilification.
No
one is made to bear more than his or her share of blame. From Our House is that rare thing, a
loving
memoir that tells the truth.
Unraveled
Pandora Dash (aka Celia Ann Leaman)
Wordbeams
P.O. Box 23415, Portland, OR 97281-3415
ISBN 1-58785-028-1 $4.55 http://www.wordbeams.com
Strange things are happening on Gale Island. People who were behaving normally one minute,
turn
wacky the next. This is especially true for Millicent Snood, who finds herself driving on the wrong
side of the road and biting into newspapers. Her husband Pug is a real pain in ... well, he's not the
funniest person to be around. Their son Silvanus disappears with Pug's favorite ship. And her
sister-in-law turns out to be a what Millicent never expected her to be. Millicent's life keeps
disintegrating, which, according to the resident astrologer, is the fault of Uranus and Pluto.
It's impossible to do the complex plot justice. Unraveled is a caper with countless quirky twists
and
twisted quirks, and some amazing insights, e.g. "Men don't move in with their mistresses,
otherwise
there'd be no point." Despite (or because of?) their antics and theatrics, all the characters are
utterly
human and believable. I loved them all, except for the ones I hated with delight.
This new-age comedy is an irresistible brew. As an avid fan of Douglas Adams, probably the
funniest
author who ever lived, I highly and most amusedly recommend "Unraveled". Pandora Dash writes
with the same wayward sense of humor that turned The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy into a
classic.
The Near Death Experiment
Steve Glassman
Tropical Press
P.O. Box 161174, Miami, FL 33116-1174
0-9666173-7-1 $16.95 www.tropicalpress.com
April Van Camp
Reviewer
Steve Glassman's The Near Death Experiment combines dirty capitalistic enterprise with
wholesome, altruistic adventure. Bru Bruton is a hero who effectively wrestles Floridian captains
of
industry while conscientiously squelching the Freudian compulsions of his soul; the tension
between
both wars is equally brutal. Bruton's internal conflicts make Glassman's novel plausible, even
when
Bru confronts the diabolical dealings of government and commerce.
Bruton's humane credibility is enhanced by his relationships with lesser characters, particularly
Mrs.
Arbuthnot, a woman with "a rugged face" and "ferocious" dogs. Although these two folks meet
only twice, the altercation provides a toe-curling read and a narrow escape for the hero.
Juxtaposition of the two scenes demonstrates the spirit of the protagonist and the craftsmanship
of
the writer.
The Near Death Experiment is a compilation of crime, compulsion, copulation, comedy, and
consequence. The novel offers the reader an opportunity to investigate the seedy side of orange
juice production and explore the inconsistencies of human nature. Filled with violence and valor,
fornication and faith, the book pummels the emotions-truly a fun read.
New Century Voices
Sarasota Literary Society
New Voices Publishing
P.O. Box 4008, Sarasota, FL 34230-4008
ISBN 0-9702966-0-6 $9.95 www.unknownauthors.org
Patrika Vaughn
Reviewer
In this first annual anthology, the Sarasota Literary Society has gathered together a remarkable
collection of short stories, essays and poetry by some brilliant new writers.
True to its purpose of "promoting the reading, writing and publication of all forms of literature,
including experimental works and new genres," the book includes short-short stories by adults as
well as six stories by children the winners of the Society's annual contests: one for fourth grade
students, the other for writers worldwide.
The themes are current, such as the quiet rage so prevalent in our high-stress world, and these
writers know how to grab reader interest from the start. Examples:
"It was Stella Parker's sixty-third birthday and the gun felt unusually comfortable in her small,
strong
hand" (Two Car Funeral, Edward Wier).
"It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. I was supposed to be at home with my wife and son, not
in
this bank with a 9mm Glock. Then again, the heathens at the bank weren't supposed to send my
account to collections a week after I paid it up to date."(A Few Tense Moments, Steve
Kucinski)
And if you've ever wondered how kids see their lives, read the fourth graders who tell about their
day as a dog, a black bear, a crocodile - or the day a skunk got into the clothes dryer, or perhaps
the time machine story.
There are tales of other cultures:
"Rachmael had been apprenticed to a cigar-maker at the age of six, and cigar-making was all he
learned." (The Cigar Maker, Lester Ageloff)
"There were twenty-four pigs of each sex, thirty-five plump chickens of various colors, twenty
bows
with over a hundred bamboo arrows, five hundred white cowrie shells, six stone aces and five
straw
baskets of yellow and purple sweet potatoes." (She Wore Specked Chicken Feathers in Her Hair,
Ronald Anthony)
Looking for biblical tales? Try "The Seer" or "You can't Get to Heaven With Dirty Feet."
Or maybe romance is your meat, whether risque, sweetly reminiscent or merely dreamed. It's all
there in this anthology, as is life and death, vengeance and redemption, ghosts and gods, hope and
vision. Old themes. New voices. A potpourri of reading pleasure. Read it, join, enter the
contest,
submit your work at www.unknownauthors.org
Vigilante Justice
Michael LaRocca
Crossroads Publishing
ISBN 1-58338-603-3 Price: $3.95 download/$9.95 CD-ROM
www.crossroadspub.com/VJustice.htm
Todd Stone
Reviewer
Michael LaRocca can tell a tale. This one is a cop thriller that’s about more than the usual
story of tough men and women with badges and booze problems. Vigilante Justice is about cops.
It's about obsession and guilt and revenge and being eaten alive from the inside. And it's about
hard-hitting action.
Gary Drake is one of those most hated of cops in Internal Affairs. He's investigating his brother's
death, a death caused by smoking poisoned crack cocaine. What's an IA dick doing on a
homicide
case? Because there's strong evidence the dope came from a police drug locker, and Drake's
brother
is one in series of victims killed by the poisoned crack.
Someone, it seems, is solving the drug problem by killing off the users.
We follow Drake along a trail that winds from station house to sleazy bars as he pursues a case
that
jeopardizes everything he holds dear. It's a treacherous trail, and the serpents of crack cocaine
lurk
everywhere.
Drake has other problems, too. His Captain is ready to toss him off the force. Drake's prime
suspect
is his former mentor. Drake finds himself falling for his new and very attractive partner. And
Drake's doc gives him very, very bad news.
LaRocca's writing is admirable, smooth, engaging and intelligent. The author has his own way
with
words and a deep understanding of the human condition. His tough, but sensitive protagonist is
someone I would like for a partner when the going gets tough.
Vigilante Justice is well crafted. There's a fascinating plot with a tough crime to solve, but there
are
also richly drawn characters and well-written dialog. LaRocca weaves action and insight together
very nicely in this story. What are the costs, the story asks, of vigilante justice? Michael LaRocca
gives us a thought-provoking, pulse-quickening, and heart-wrenching answer.
I'd like to say that LaRocca is one of the "new breed" of writers making names for themselves by
publishing on the web, but that would be entirely too restrictive. LaRocca has won a string of
awards with his writing, and Web-savvy readers will already be familiar with LaRocca's shorter
speculative fiction (if you're not familiar with his work, get that way). But what LaRocca is doing
isn't new. It's some of those old concepts in the genre--like uniqueness without gimmicks,
engaging
social commentary without political correctness, and writing with a definitive flavor rather than
homogenized pabulum-prose.
LaRocca's Vigilante Justice is a good, fast, entertaining read that also makes even a jaded reader
stop to think; and feel. Vigilante Justice is available both as an e-book and in print. Pick this one
up.
Cousin Feely
J. B. Jones
CrossroadsPub.com
ISBN 1-58338-448-0 Download, 3.95; CD, 9.95; Paperback, 15.50
1950's Mainstream; cover art by Christian Moore
Priscilla A. Maine
Reviewer
Cousin Feely is as unique as its writing style. J. B. Jones has written a powerful, delightfully
refreshing tale of life, love, and prejudice in a small rural town. It runs the gauntlet of emotions,
dragging its readers through the highs and lows, and never slowing down until the end where you
find yourself wishing for more.
Bob Skinner Junior and his cousin, William Feely, are separated by six months in age, but tied
together by family, love, respect, and now and then, resentment. But even those fleeting moments
of
resentment are sandwiched between layers of love. Jones' characters are so well-developed you
feel
you've known them forever, and maybe you have. Whether you have or not, one thing is
certain--they will linger in your memory long after you've closed the book.
This is far more than a 1950s coming-of-age story--it's a tale of understanding, forgiving, courage,
uncommon wisdom, and so much more. If you read only one book this year make it Cousin
Feely.
KaeLF Skin
John Jurek
GreatUnpublished/Alternate Books
ISBN 1-58898-034-0 $15.00 greatunpublished.com Title No. 34
Betty Burton
Reviewer
John Jurek's technothriller KaeLF Skin is a scary tale told with a whimsical touch. In this debut
novel, amoral corporations, barely legal government agencies, naive would-be heroes, half-mad
and
sex-obsessed scientists, syncretic cultists and about a dozen other wild and fanciful types vie for
control of a new fabric with near-magical properties. The book reads like a cross between
Michael
Crichton and Janet Evanovich. It has Crichton's scariness and awareness of technology,
combined
with Evanovich's playfulness. You may laugh when you read it, happy to think that it is only
science-fiction, after all. But the next time you hear something on television about
nanotechnology
or "smart garments" you may find yourself breaking into a sweat.
The 24 Hour Business: Maximizing Productivity Through Round-the-Clock Operations
Richard M. Coleman
American Management Association
ISBN 8-8144-0240-2, $27.95, 1995, 195 pages, hardcover
Roger E. Herman, CMC
Reviewer
As more businesses move to 24/7 operations, round-the-clock scheduling will become an hotter
issue. This is not new. Some companies, some industries, have been operating with a 24-hour
schedule since the 19th century. Now the issue carries greater importance since workers are
increasingly concerned about work-life balance, career development, and alternative work
schedules.
The author of this book, Richard Coleman, is a consultant with over two decades of experience
helping a wide range of employers develop the Best Cost schedule that balances business needs
like
productivity and profit with health and safety requirements and employee desires. All these factors
must be taken into consideration, and there is an almost infinite number of designs that can be
applied.
Coleman's experience comes out early in the book. I was fascinated by all the factors involved in
determining the right schedule. My learning was enhanced by example after example from the
author's work that illuminated the reading. During the first few chapters, I felt like I was reading a
continuous commercial for Coleman's consulting firm, but this barrage eased as the book moved
into
the latter chapters.
While I am not by any means an expert in scheduling, I learned a lot from this book. OK, I didn't
know anything about scheduling before I read this book. However, I now have a healthy respect
and
understanding for what goes into developing a work schedule for a round-the-clock operation.
Human resource professionals, plant managers, and others with operational knowledge of staffing
and scheduling will gain considerably more than I did because of their familiarity with the
topic.
Coleman covers all aspects of shift work schedules, even including Circadian rhythms. It's all here.
Readers will learn how to better use time and human resources to maximize return on capital
investment and equipment. They'll learn how to achieve greater results without overstaffing,
certainly a serious issue in today's labor-scarce world. If your interest is in squeezing more
productivity from every hour of the day-without squeezing employees, this book is for you.
Ignore the 1995 copyright. The principles taught in this volume are high relevant, and quite timely
for what's happening in the early 21st century.
Life Is Not A Game Of Perfect
Robert J. Rotella with Bob Cullen
Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 14th fl., New York, NY 10020
0684842866 $22.00 1-800-223-2336
James Sullivan
Reviewer
By the author of Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect, this new volume relates to life in general.
Rotella,
a sports psychologist, says "My specialty is teaching golfers, tennis players, basketball players,
and
other athletes how to enhance their performance by thinking in the most effective way possible. I
help them make their minds as skilled and powerful as their bodies."
Now he takes his skills and applies them to men and women outside of sports. Rotella
distinguishes
between natural-born talents, like musical ability, painting skill, and sports agility, with what he
calls
'real talent.' By that he means the willingness to push yourself, to persist, and to not quit when the
going gets tough. This, even more than natural-born talent, is the skill that makes people
successful
in all walks of life.
He further emphasizes that you should do what you love, or learn to love what you do. In short,
you
must have or develop the right attitude towards what you do to lead the pack and achieve your
goals.
Most of this success advice has been heard before. Dr. Rotella, however, says it convincingly and
interestingly from a new perspective. This book is definitely worth the read.
Jurek's Bookshelf
Magdalenes
Channing Hayden
Writers Club Press - iUniverse
5220 S. 16th, Ste. 200, Lincoln NE 68512
ISBN: 0-595-17300-4 $21.95 www.iuniverse.com
Magdalenes engages the reader on many levels. As historical fiction, it is a well wrought portrait
of
New Orleans in the 1890's. The novel is plausible as romance genre, with its heroine Sarah Beth
LaBranche struggling for solo survival and self-worth, all the while fighting against the romance
interest that has so obviously beguiled here. But as a fallen woman in the seamy world of
prostitution and institutionalized eighteenth century social hypocrisy she is no flighty ing‚nue, and
one can understand her reluctance to encourage her proper gentleman doctor. For despite all her
pluck, courage and native intelligence and scholarly ambition, her charity and bravery in the face
of
sickness, depravity and despair, she remains all through it, an accessible, albeit expensive, whore.
This is no bouncy perky spunky Ms.self-conscious go-away-closer meets Mr. Blue Eyes.
Magdalenes could well qualify as mainstream fiction.
Our heart goes out to Sarah Beth LaBranche, not for her cleverness, her beauty, her photographic
memory and self-taught languages, classics and medical acumen for such pathology arcana as
phlyctenular opthalmia, but because she never denies her sense of her own place in the scheme of
things, despite her noble deeds. She has "made this life" for herself and will live it as best she can.
And she tends to those in need as she tends to those gentlemen who want and take. A young girl
thrust into and thrusted in the back alleys of New Orlean's Storyville red-light area, she rises from
the most depraved necessities to become a defacto leader of the demimonde: the little world on
to
its own of world-wise madams of the District. Still, a higher world beckons, not of mere surface
propriety and acceptability, but of simple decency, and she fights with committed energy to resist
the
embrace the good which she would contaminate and bring down by association, all at great cost
to
herself. It is no half-hearted or coy struggle.
Like all good stories, our preconceptions are turned on end. We can sympathize with this young
woman; see exactly how fate drove her to prostitution. There but for fortune could many a girl
have gone, then and now. Magdalenes is a morality play if nothing else; where conventional
wisdom
and truth spar for ascendancy before the jeering rabble that would stone the better of the two.
But
the contest is no "big easy" for the morally smug. "Magdalenes," says Sarah Beth to her almost
understudy Frances, "that's what most of the women in the District are..each one waiting for
Christ
to come around the corner and save her."
Technically, this book has the kind of commercial structure the book buying public likes. It has a
beginning, a middle, a denouement and an end. But it is about one hundred pages too long, a
common mistake for debut novels. Still it makes a promise at the outset to show innocence and
decency struggling against depravity and exploitation and moves unneringly toward deliverance.
But the outcome is ultimately foggy. Does Sarah Beth LaBranche really win in the end?
Romance
fans will see that she gets a decent man. Ok, we know where this is going from the back cover:
her
over-aptly named Monsieur le Docteur Cheramie. Frank's "dark strange penetrating eyes" will no
doubt gratify the romance fan. But can we the readers, romance devotees or otherwise, sanction
her
dubious prize after all that has transpired between them? Author Channing Hayden's abrupt
announcement on page 451: "The End of Book One" does not exactly fix an unsatisfactory
wrapup.
The story has been troubling all along, the breach too extreme to be resolved, and it doesn't really
finish clearly with the justice expected, which ought to be much more than just getting a (dark
mysterious) guy, especially after our heroine's persuasive feminist speeches. In that sense, the
book
is about one hundred pages too short.
But it's still a good yarn. The historical background of Storyville and New Orleans is rich and
detailed. The reader would profit with a street map at his side. The ante-antebellum New Orleans
of the 1890's is well past the horrors of reconstruction and carpetbagging, but the effects are
present. The fictitious account of staving off a Yellow Fever epidemic is a story unto itself,
especially set in the brothels and assignation hovels of the district.
Magdalenes employs dialogue fully and well, and the unabashed use of slave Negro dialect and
French Creole patois, while alarming at first, only comes close to being excessive; it never quite
becomes so obtrusive and tedious that it destroys its own charm, perhaps because Hayden has
such a
good handle of it. The device of Sarah Beth playing with the strands of her hair does however
cross
over. Such a personal tic can humanize a character, but it was hardly needed here, and certainly
not
in such excess. By the last quarter of the book it becomes comically obsessive and predictable.
But
these are quibbles. If overdone, it's a small price to pay for an otherwise truly heart warming and
entertaining novel.
John Jurek
Reviewer
Klausner's Bookshelf
Burning Down The House
Lev Raphael
Walker & Company
Oct 2001, $23.95, 290 pp. ISBN 0802733654
The State University of Michigan at Michiganopolis is a strange place to be. More so if you are
associate professor Nick Hoffman, wanting tenure while knowing that every faction of your
department despises you. The administration hates him because he's a net for trouble. In the years
he
has been teaching there he has been directly involved in quite a few homicide investigations,
beaten
up to many times to mention, and been the victim in an arson episode. His name has been featured
quite prominently in the papers but publicity involving the University has been negative. Although
Nick is trying to stay out of the limelight he just can't seem to manage it especially when the
voluptuous Juno Dromgoole comes to him for help. Someone is stalking her and sending her
threatening phone calls and letters threatening violence towards her. Soon the threats turn nasty
leaving them determined to find for themselves who it is conducting this reign of terror. Burning
Down The House is an intriguing amateur sleuth novel starring a very likable and vulnerable hero
who has the most amazing capacity to give of himself to those he cares about. The antics of the
college professor, human beings who are supposed to be an example, are so bizarre that they
come
across as believable. Lev Raphael has written another fascinating installment in the Nick Hoffman
saga.
The Long Good Dog
Carol Lea Benjamin
Walker & Company
Oct 2001, $23.95 ISBN: 0802733646
When the call came in the middle of the night Manhattan private detective Rachel Alexander was
already awake, suffering from insomnia. The caller paints a mysterious scenario that boils down to
wanting to hire Rachel. Intrigued, Rachel agrees to meet the three potential clients at night in
Abington Square. Accompanied by her partner, Dash the dog, Rachel meets three transsexual
hookers, Jasmine, LaDonna, and Chi Chi as well as the latter's daschund Clint. The threesome
wants
Rachel to investigate the murder of a peer Rosalinda since the police would not waste time on the
underbelly of society. Putting together tens and twenties, they give Rachel $6,000. She begins her
investigation by seeing a link between Rosalind's death and the gangland style murder of meat
plant
manager Kevin Mulrooney. As the prostitutes worry that the killer is coming for them too, Rachel
realizes she may have to go undercover as bait to catch a killer. The Long Good Dog is an
entertaining urban noir that shows a different darker side of New York City. The story line is crisp
and the investigation enjoyable while Rachel and Dash are strong characters. However, this
edition
of the Alexander mysteries belongs to the three hookers who paint a different type of cozy.
Brothers Of Cain
Miriam Grace Monfredo
Berkley Books
Sept 2001, $22.95, 336 pp. ISBN 042518198
In 1862, the War Between the States turns ugly as members of the same family may be fighting on
different sides. This is not the case for the Llyr family who is staunchly pro-union. Kathryn is a
nurse
in the Volunteer Sanitary Commission, giving aid to anyone who is wounded. Her sister Bronwyn
is
an espionage agent working for the Treasury Department. They are both watching the wounded
depart when a union private tells them that the Confederacy captured their brother Seth. Bronwyn
is
determined to free her brother before they can connect him to her and hang him as a spy. Their
superiors, including President Lincoln, recognize her determination and will let her try to free her
brother while she completes her real assignment in Richmond where her brother is being kept. She
has to somehow get the tobacco the English and French paid for out of confederate hands and
into
the buyers. This is needed so that the two European nations will think twice before enlisting on
the
side of the Confederacy. Spies, double agents, and treachery surround Bronwyn as she tries to do
her jobs while keeping her skin intact. Civil War buffs and fans of historical mysteries will not
want
to miss Brothers Of Cain, a novel that stirs both the blood and the intellect. It's obvious that
Miriam
Grace Monfredo has done meticulous research in order to give a realistic depiction of this phase
of
the war. Readers will believe they are part of the action in this historical espionage thriller.
A Deadly Arrangement
Denise Osborne
Berkley Books
Sep 2001, $5.99, 256 pp. ISBN: 0425181847
For five years, bicoastal traveler Salome Waterhouse rented out the Perfume Mansion in
Holyrood
off of Monterey Bay to artist Palmer Fordham. Because she feels the place has bad vibes, Salome,
a
practitioner of Feng Shui, has not entered the place in years. However, this morning she goes
there
because an anonymous person hired her to Feng Shui the place as a birthday present to Palmer.
Instead of her usual scenario, Salome finds a murdered Palmer in the house and immediately calls
her cousin Phyllis, chief of police. Phyllis arrives and takes charge of the crime scene while
treating
Salome with contempt and as the prime suspect. Phyllis always blamed Salome for inheriting the
Perfume Mansion, a place she covets. After feeling her cousin's negative vibes Salome knows that
she need some strong Feng Shui medicine to prove her innocence and to clean the evil that resides
in
her mansion. A Deadly Arrangement is a different type of police procedural-amateur sleuth tale
due
to the large amounts of Feng Shui incorporated throughout the plot. The story line is cleverly
designed but is disrupted by the swings back and forth in time. Salome is an interesting and
refreshing lead character and the cast's varying degrees of acceptance of her leads to greater
understanding of the protagonist and her practice. Followers of Feng Shui will feel the positive
vibes
emanating from this plot while other readers will say phooey to way too much Feng Shui.
Bloodroot
Susan Wittig Albert
Berkley Books
Oct 2001, $22.95, 304 pp. ISBN 0425181901
China Bayles is a self made independent woman who turned her back on her mother's Mississippi
family because she refused to conform to the old South's vision of how a woman should behave.
She
lives in Pecan Springs, Texas with her husband and stepson. She proudly owns the Thyme and
Sears
herb shop and is co-owner of Thyme for Tea teashop. She has no plans to return to the family
plantation of Jordan's Crossing until her mother calls her because she needs her help. When China
arrives at the old homestead, she learns that her great aunt Tullie, a victim of Huntington's
Disease,
has struck down the plantation manager in a pique of anger. China's mother argues with her
daughter that the irate manager walked out of the house enraged, but he has since disappeared.
The
police want to question Tullie about the spat. As China struggles to balance family loyalty with
her
legal responsibilities, she unearths secrets that should stay buried in the land that created them.
This
is a different China Bayles unlike the one readers have come to know and love. The audience sees
her as a true daughter of the south, fully cognizant of the rules, expectations and ties that bind her
to
a place she no longer can call home but has a hold on her loyalties. There are mysteries aplenty in
Bloodroot, some of them of the otherworldly kind. The author allows us to see, through the fist
person narrative, how a Southern woman copes with her environment. This is a wonderful reading
experience.
Seduction In Death
JD Robb
Berkley Books
Sept 2001, $7.99, 368 pp. ISBN 0425181464
They are two spoiled rich kids in their early twenties, whose goals in life are to have enough fun
and
thrills so they want wake up the next morning. They were overindulged all their lives, given every
advantage but in their twisted psychopathic minds, that is not nearly enough for such special
specimens as themselves. Kevin and Lucien devise a game with rules and points involving meeting
women over chat lines and using date rape drugs to live out their fantasies. Their first victim dies
of
an overdose of the drugs and Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD catches the case. She quickly
realizes there are two predators in their growing crime spree but they have gone to unusual
lengths
to cancel their identifies. Even with the help of her sexy and powerful husband Roarke, she is not
getting any closer to putting the monsters inside a cage. It is going to take more than fancy
footwork
to catch these perpetrators. Eve will need all her brilliance perhaps abetted by a miracle or two to
apprehend this duo. This long running series remains fresh and entertaining so that a person could
believe that this book is the beginning of the Eve Dallas-Roarke romantic mysteries. The plot is a
highly developed and fast paced futuristic police procedural with plenty of punch. Seduction In
Death is a fast breezy read and part of the enjoyment comes from hating the two antagonists who
do
not have one redeeming quality between them.
A Prince Of A Guy
Sheila Rabe
Berkley Books
Aug 2001, $6.99, 340 pp. ISBN: 0425180980
Best selling author of the Frog with the Glass Slipper, Dr. Kate Stonewall makes it quite apparent
to
her Seattle radio audience what she thinks of sports potatoes. After having been married to one
fanatic and thankfully divorced, Kate warns women about men who live, breath and die for
sporting
events. She particularly detests her radio station's sports guru Jeff Hardin whose higher rated
show
often bounces part of her advice show off the air. Resenting Jeff at work is bad enough, but
finding
that he has moved next door to her on Bainbridge Island is a calamity. Jeff wants more than a
neighborly relationship with Kate even as though she treats him like a swamp frog. Still she
acknowledges, though not to him, that he is quite good with her son, who adores him. As she
compares his habits to her Mr. Perfect, she finds herself dreaming more of slob-frog rather than
her
flawless prince. However, will she realize that there is room in her life for a man who she thinks
betting on the Niners is a tad less enjoyable than kissing Kate? A Prince Of A Guy is an amusing
romantic romp centering on opposites attracting to one another, making for an odd couple with
Jeff
being Oscar and Kate being Felix-ette. Though the story line never takes itself too seriously, the
plot
digs deep into the emotions of two people and that of their tentative relationship. Fans who derive
joy from a humorous contemporary romance will feel Sheila Rabe is a princess of a writer.
The Thunder Keeper
Margaret Coel
Berkley Books
Sept 2001, $22.95, 288 pp. ISBN 042518188x
Vicky Holden loves the land of the Arapahos, the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming,
but
she still leaves her home to take a job in Denver. The attorney needs to get away from the Jesuit
priest Father O'Malley because they both have feelings for one other that are inappropriate. She
also
has to get away from her ex-husband, who wants to reconcile, but he keeps falling off the wagon
and he is a mean drunk. In Denver, Vicky currently works on a mineral rights case on behalf of
the
Navaho Nation. However, she receives a call from Vince Lewis, a vice president of Balder
Industries, famous for their diamond minding operations. He tells her that he has information she
needs to know involving the Wind River Reservation, but before they meet a hit and run driver
kills
Vince. Back on the reservation, Father John hears the confession of a man who says his partner
killed a man in a place sacred to the Arapaho. The police rule the man's death a suicide but Father
John knows somebody killed him and there will be more deaths if the person isn't stopped. Vicky
and Father John are coming at the same problem from different angles, both of them putting their
lives in jeopardy. Fans of Aimee and David Thurlo and Tony Hillerman will definitely enjoy this
fast
paced mystery starring two likable, believable and colorful protagonists. The heroine is a role
model
for women everywhere and the hero not only understands the underlying concepts of justice, he
abides by them in his life. The Thunder Keeper by Margaret Coel is a definite keeper.
Angel Face
Suzanne Forster
Berkley Books
Aug 2001, $6.99, 326 pp. ISBN: 0425180972
Though a legend for his cardiothoraciac surgery which is on the cutting edge of the field, fortyish
Dr. Jordan Carpenter has all the problems that stereotype bachelors. However, he soon has a new
set of trouble when CIA Agent Edwin Truitt enlists his help in a matter of national security that at
first hearing sounds more like a FBI case concerning a serial killer. The culprit, a former
operative,
beautiful twenty-seven years old "Angel Face" has gathered information that could cause a world
war even as she targets doctors for death. Jordan is number four on her death list, making him the
next target. SmartTech's biopsychologist Angela Lowe is comparing the brain patterns of geniuses
and maniacs. She begins fieldwork by interviewing some of her subjects including Jordan. He
realizes she is Angel Face yet finds he obsessively desires her in spite of the obvious danger she
poses. She reciprocates his needs, but fears the threat he poses to her survival and the gaps in her
memory that might be more than just fantasized homicides and Angela does not want to kill the
doctor that she begins to love. Angel Face is an exhilarating thriller that never slows down as
readers, just like Jordan does, will wonder how the radiant Angela Lowe can be a cold-hearted
killing machine. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action and several twists that amplify
the
action and insight into the characters. The technology enhances the cutting edge of the plot so
those
fans of medical chills, serial kills, and romantic suspense thrills share an invigorating tale that
showcases Suzanne Forster's writing skills.
Death's Domain
Alex Matthews
Intrigue Press
Oct 2001, $23.95, 290 pp. ISBN 1890768375
When Cassidy McCabe was younger, she caught her best friend in bed with her first husband. She
was hysterical and threw Barbara out of the house, not thinking that Barbara would drive home
while being so intoxicated. Barbara died that night in a car crash and Cassidy easily blamed
herself.
Even though she is now happily married to Zach Moron, she still is haunted by the memory of
Barbara. On the anniversary of Barbara's death, somebody places an obituary in the newspaper
claiming Cassidy died in a car crash while drunk. She then receives an email threatening Zach's
life.
When Zach loans his car to a friend one night, the driver and car disappear. Other ominous things
happen to the besieged couple forcing them to once again don their sleuthing garb and hunt for a
potential killer. The sixth Cassidy McCabe mystery is definitely the best in the series because the
audience has come to know and care about the hero and heroine. Cassidy's antics with her cat are
amusing and serve to lessen the tension when it reaches a certain level. Death's Domain will
appeal
to romance reader because of the deepening relationship between the star and her husband. Alex
Mathews has written an entertaining novel that will keep readers guessing the source of the
couple's
woes.
Fire And Ice
Anne Avery
Lovespell/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $5.99, 362 pp. ISBN: 0505524422
Ten years ago Kate Mannheim fled the Grand House for New York vowing never to return. To
Kate the old mausoleum represents nothing but frightening bad memories of cold people even if it
is
her family home. Even her mother's burial when Kate was nine turned ugly due to her
grandmother's
nastiness about the deceased Sara. However, her employers are retiring and she wants to buy their
small bookstore, but needs her deceased mother's diamonds to do so. That is if the gems exist. So
here in the winter of 1933 Kate returns to North Dakota to obtain her mother's possessions from
the
Grand House. Though her spiteful grandmother just died, Kate quickly realizes that the current
matriarch Aunt Ruth remains as acerbic as ever, but her uncle looks very frail. However, Elliot
Carstairs' arms look even more inviting than when they were youthful lovers. As they rekindle the
flame, she wonders if she can trust him to help her find the missing diamonds? Anyone who can
place a gothic romance on the Northern Plains during the Great Depression is either a genius or a
lunatic. In this case, the taut period piece thriller shows why Anne Avery is a fan favorite. The
terse
story line achieves a high level of satisfaction because of the characters, their relationships, and
the
house (with its own personality) seem genuine to the point that readers can taste Kate's fear of
entering the mausoleum. Ms. Avery provides a powerhouse plot that will acquire for her many
new
admirers wanting her previous books.
Savage Honor
Cassie Edwards
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $599, 375 pp. ISBN: 02939800599
In 1784 Silver Creek, eighteen year old Shawndee Sibley wants to escape the family Silverleaf
Tavern where she serves whiskey to drunks. To keep her daughter safe from the low lives that
frequent her establishment, Jane insists that Shawndee dress like a young lad. Still, Shawndee
dreams of balls and fancy dresses. Shadow Hawk wants the alcohol stopped being served to his
people, the once proud Seneca. He concocts a plan and abducts the tavern owner's young son.
However, Shadow Hawk realizes that his plan needs revising because the boy is a beautiful young
woman whose courage and honesty touches his heart. As Shawndee revises her dream to star
Shadow Hawk, the townsfolk accuse her mother of witchcraft just like her grandmother who
burned
at the stake. Now it is up to Shawndee and Shadow Hawk to save her mother and his people if
they
accept the love that flows between them. Cassie Edwards provides an engaging Post
Revolutionary
War Indian romance starring two wonderful protagonists with responsibilities that conflict with
their
yearning for one another. The hero knows that by not saving the mother of his beloved the flow of
whiskey to his people will stop, but the personal cost is immeasurable. The heroine knows that
giving her heart to an Indian means eradicating forever her life long dream of high society and
ending her assistance to her mother's livelihood by supporting her beloved's prohibition. Together,
they make the plot of Savage Honor sing as the audience gains a delightful, dilemma filled
star-crossed lovers' tale.
Danegeld
Susan Squires
Lovespell/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $5.50, 358 pp. ISBN: 0505524465
During the Dark Ages in Dunford, Britain, Britta earned a reputation as a healer though followers
of
the new religion felt she was a disciple of the devil. Everyone feared her that is except for the
Saxon
warrior leader Offa. Five years ago he learned about Britta's prowess and raped her to gain her
powers. No one came to her aid and Britta fled to Devil's Island, a place everyone is afraid to step
foot on. When Britta needs supplies, she visits Dunford to offer healing services in exchange for
them. On a trip to the village, Offa forces Britta to heal his wounded men having just fought
against
Viking raiders. Included among the injured is Karn, the Viking leader. Offa tortures Karn to
obtain
information, but Britta manages to free and take him to her island. Both have suffered at the
hands
of Offa, but that is not why love has sprung up between the healer and the Viking. This Dark
Ages
romance needs to carry a label: not to be read by the faint of heart. The story line is loaded with
action and a deep depiction of the era including that of torture and cruelty that will give readers
the
shivers. Danegeld is graphically well written with strong characterizations representing a period of
violence between Saxons and Viking, and Christians and Pagans. Skillful scribe Susan Squires
shows
her ability to paint a very interesting saga worth reading by those who relish a crimson
Beowulf.
Darkness Demands
Simon Clark
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
July 2001, $5.99 ISBN 0843948981
It has taken John Newton a long time to make it as a true crime writer but he finally done it when
his
last book attained the hardcover bestseller lists. Now, he and his family have moved to the bucolic
village of Skelbrooke in the heart of England. John, his wife Val, their teenage son Paul, and their
preadolescent daughter Elizabeth have found their dream home and have become a part of the
village. Paradise ends when the first letter arrives demanding that John deliver a candy bar to a
particular grave in the nearby cemetery commonly called the Necropolis. John ignores the letter
and
his daughter is seriously injured. When the second letter arrives, John follows the instructions of
the
note and realizes other people have received the same memo as well. When the entity that is
sending
the letters makes his final horrific request, John decides to take his family and flee town if they
can.
This is definitely a very scary horror novel that preys on our most primal emotions and fears.
While
the reader never actually gets to see the entity inspiring terror in Skelbrooke, the author cleverly
entices the audience into imagining what it is and what it looks like. That is more terrifying than
any
description could be. Simon Clark understands the horror genre by terrifying his fans to the point
that the electric companies will treat him as a VIP because of all the profits made from adults
sleeping with the lights on.
Autumn Star
Lori Morgan
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $4.99, 313 pp. ISBN: 02939800499
In 1873, US Marshal John Morgan Caine had a personal reason to see that justice occurred,
vengeance for the murder of his sister by Bret Lawton and his men. Now a hero by delivering Bret
and company several hundred miles to San Francisco to stand trial, Morgan still feels lonely.
While
Bret and many of his gang are to publicly hang, English lady Lacey Ashton arrives in town to stay
overnight before continuing her journey to Portland to see her father for the first time in thirteen
years. She finds no room as everything is booked for the gallows spectacle, but Morgan gallantly
gives her his room, but in gratitude she desperately steals from him after someone stole her stuff.
She continues to Portland where she meets up with an obsessed Morgan still completing his trek
of
revenge and justice. As they begin to fall in love, her past and his quest seem tied together. This
makes their growing feelings seem moot as a permanent relationship between the idealistic
romantic
female and the realistic cynical male could never happen. Autumn Star is a captivating romance
starring two opposites in life's philosophy. The story line is captivating because of the diverse
thinking of the lead twosome. Fans of western romance will enjoy Lori Morgan's trek along the
Pacific Ocean states that provides a warm wonderful reading experience.
White Dove
Susan Edwards
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $5.99, 374 pp. ISBN: 0843948906
In 1859 in the Nebraska Territory, Jeremy Jones tries to impress his family and his beloved White
Dove by taking honey from a hive. However, he soon finds himself and an Indian lad in danger
from
a bear. White Dove saves his life. She beat Jeremy when they compete and taunts him by saying
that
he is not as good a warrior as she is. Jeremy realizes that the only way he will become husband to
his
beloved White Dove is to become a Lakota warrior because she believes her mate will be a great
warrior. To White Dove's shock, he asks her father to teach him and her father assigns her to train
Jeremy. Even more shocking, Jeremy takes to her teaching like a pro. However, will she ever
accept
him as that great warrior mate that Jeremy desperately wants to be? Susan Edwards "White"
novels
(see White Wolf and White Wind) have quickly become one of the more popular Native
Americana
romance series in the genre. Her latest tale, White Dove, may be the best of the group as the plot
provides her audience with a gender bender heroine and the only man who accepts her as she is.
The
return of the lead characters from other books in this series now shine in their own tale.
Secondary
characters making a brief appearance from previous and that adds a feeling of homecoming
especially since the story line is what fans expect from a Susan Edwards story: exciting, non-stop
action and romance. Still this Annie Get Your Gun rendition works because Ms. Edwards
describes
people readers want to meet and know.
Lord Of The Mist
Ann Lawrence
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
Jul 2001, $5.99, 391 pp. ISBN: 0505524430
In 1205 England, Lord Durand de Marle buries his adulterous wife Marion without shedding a
tear.
Durand struggles to even say a prayer for his spouse, but finally manages one while also asking
for
his own forgiveness for leaving her alone so often while he fought in battles. He plans to ignore
his
new baby daughter because he doubts he is the sire. He feels that his fifteen-year-old and
twelve-year-old sons are from his seed. Durand does find his child's nurse Christina quite
attractive.
She reciprocates as she sees a kindness inside of him. However, she is married to the odious
Simon
le Gros, an avaricious individual who wants his wife to insure that Durand's infant stays ill so he
has
need of them. Realizing an opportunity based on the obvious longing between his spouse and his
lord, Simon seizes the moment by accusing Christina of treachery towards King John. Only
Durand
who loves Christina stands in the way of her certain death. Though Simon the villain does not
have
one redeeming quality, readers will delight at hissing at this gross individual serving as the
counterpoint to the lead duo. The story line moves rather quickly, bringing alive the reign of King
John especially through the vivid secondary cast. Fans of medieval romance will find the
juxtaposition of Simon vs. Durand and Christina quite a spectacle that shows why award winning
Ann Lawrence's previous sub-genre entry, Lord Of The Keep, is so popular.
The Loner
Evelyn Rogers
Leisure/Dorchester Publishing Company
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0843948809
The lawyer's letter announced that his odious father Thomas McBride was dying and demanded
his
family come home to the Circle M Ranch in nearby Sidewater. If Tom's oldest son Stone wants to
inherit anything, he must return to this place he hates. Since he just lost his last coin in a poker
game, Stone decides it is time to go home. Instead of staying at the family spread, Stone rents a
room at Annabelle Chapin's boarding house even though she is the woman he once loved. Stone
constantly squabbles with his two brothers and sister, but also shares with them the distrust of
Tom's
second wife Clare. While struggling with his family and his stepmother, Stone skirmishes with his
own treacherous heart that beats faster and louder every time he sees Annabelle. There is also his
father o worry about him, a man who has hidden the truth about Circle M from his children. The
final novel to the Secret Fires miniseries ties up all the questions left from the three previous
novels
while telling a wonderful western romance. The story line is loaded with action and a twist or
two.
The lead couple is a cute duo making up for a decade of separation while the support cast
includes
family members and their spouses returning for the final engagement. Though THE LONER lives
up
to its name and can stand alone, new readers will find better appreciation of Evelyn Rogers' talent
by
reading the previous three stories first, written by other authors. By keeping the persona of
previous
lead couples consistent inside her plot, Ms. Rogers successfully closes with one of the year's best
Texas romances.
Love Lessons
Cheryl Holt
St. Martin's Press
Oct 2001, $6.50, 384 pp. ISBN: 0312978405
Gambling establishment owner James Stewart is used to women visiting him to offer money,
jewels
and their bodies to pay off the marker their husbands owe him. However, this visitor is different.
Abigail Weston offers to pay James to teach her about sex. James' younger brother Michael
informs
him that Abigail is the younger half sister of Lord Jerold Marbleton, a prig. Intrigued by a woman
for the first in years, James goes to the meeting place and demands she explain why she wants to
hire
him. Abigail tells him that her younger sister Caroline, who she raised, is on the husband market,
but
fearful of sex. Abigail wants to talk to her sibling with knowledge, but knows nothing. James
accepts
the job of tutoring Abigail in every thing she wants to know about sex but is afraid to ask. As they
fall in love, social and family pressures make a permanent relationship seem impossible. Love
Lessons is an erotic Regency romance that is fun to read though the plot moves at a leisurely pace
throughout the novel. The characters are a discernible group with easy to identify personalities.
However, readers are required to have an initial leap of faith that Abigail would have the courage
to
ask James for lessons, but once that jump is made, Cheryl Holt's tale will remind readers of Susan
Johnson's Seduction In Mind.
Biggie And The Quincy Ghost
Nancy Bell
St. Martin's Press
Sept 2001, $22.95, 224 pp. ISBN 0312265603
Biggie Weatherford is famous in Job's Crossing, Texas because her family founded the town and
she
is the richest person in it. Her notoriety has spread to East Texas because of her work in the DAR
and her knack for solving various homicides. Her twelve-year-old grandson lives with her and
adores his grandmother because life with her is anything but dull. Biggie's latest project is starting
up
a historical society in Job's Crossing. She, her grandson, and a few townsfolk travel to Quincy
(near
the Louisiana border) because their historical society is giving a four-day workshop on how to
preserve the local history. The hotel Biggie and company are staying at is supposedly haunted but
it
isn't a ghost they see from their windows. It's the body of the waitress who served them the night
before, a butcher knife in her chest. When the sheriff is suddenly hospitalized, he asks Biggie to
help
him in his investigation, a job she eagerly accepts. This story is written in the first person narrative
through the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old boy who has seen more tragedy and evil in his life than
most adults ever do. Although Biggie And The Quincy Ghost has a dark side to it at times, this
cozy
is full of homilies and charming stories about small town living both past and present. Nancy Bell
knows how to tell a good story with characters that represent the spectrum of the human
race.
Murder On The Waterfront
Michael Jahn
St. Martin's Press
Oct 2001, $23.95, 320 pp. ISBN 0312278578
Captain Bill Donovan is a very contented man, married to the woman he loves and having a one
and
a half-year-old son to raise. His job as a cop in the New York Police Department is very satisfying
except when he has to play politician and stand in for the mayor at a formal dinner that has
nothing
to do with catching the bad guys. Donovan and Marcy are bored to tears at he party given on a
cruise ship to raise funds for a third party conservative candidate for president. They sneak out
early
and go to another boat where a friend of Donovan and Marcy is hosting a party. The next
morning
Donovan returns to the second boat because a body is found on it. The man who is murdered was
the campaign manager of the presidential candidate. As Donovan digs into the dead man's life, he
finds more suspects that a dog has fleas. It will take a lot of hard investigative work to ferret out
who the killer really is. The Bill Donovan police procedurals are always enjoyable to read and
Murder On The Waterfront is no exception. Donovan's sardonic wit lightens up the complex story
line considerably especially when he and his partner engage in witty repartee. Donovan is a man to
admire as he has found his place in the world and is content to roll with the punches. Michael Jahn
humanizes his hero through his interactions with his wife and his son, and that, in turn, makes him
very endearing to the audience.
Blood
Patricia Traxler
St. Martin's Press
Sept 2001, $24.95, 352 pp. ISBN 031227484X
From the very first page there is a foreshadowing of blood and tragedy, but thirty-five years old
Norrie is the happiest she's been in her life. She is thrilled to have been awarded the Larkin
Fellowship at Radcliff where they pay her for one year to paint in a studio of her own and relocate
her to an apartment in Harvard Housing where she intends to do the brunt of her painting. Her
lover,
Michael, an accomplished writer, is married but he seems ready to leave his wife and children for
her. Having her own apartment, (her last one she shared with a roommate) allows Norrie and
Michael to spend a lot of quality time together there. The only fly in the ointment is Clara,
Norrie's
next door neighbor, whose possessiveness turns Norrie against her. When one of the Larkies who
happens to be Norrie's best friend is murdered, everyone on campus thinks Clara did it even
though
there is no evidence linking her to the crime. Blood is an erotic, dark and foreboding work that is
more about different relationships than a typical murder mystery. The first person narrative makes
the action up close and personal while allowing the audience an insightful view into Norrie's
thought
processes. The action, though there's not a lot of it, is pivotal to the story line. Patricia Traxler is a
very talented writer who exposes the dark side of the human psyche to the audience.
Murphy's Law
Rhys Bowen
St. Martin's Press
Oct 2001, $22.95, 224 pp. ISBN: 0312282060
Though her family is farmers in Ballykillion, Ireland, Molly Murphy received an education way
beyond the normal level for her station in life. When her mother died, her education and her
dreams
died too as Molly takes over running the house for her father and brothers. Now, twenty-three,
Molly flees her home when she accidentally kills the landowner's son Justin Hartley by shoving
him
away from her when he tried to rape her. He fell and hit his head. Molly reaches Liverpool where
Kathleen O'Connor, dying from consumption, offers a fresh start. Molly escorts Kathleen's two
young children across the Atlantic to their father pretending to be their mother. On the
overcrowded
ship, Molly meets the odious O'Malley who knows she is not Kathleen and the young kindhearted
Michael Larkin. At Ellis Island, Molly and her charges await approval to leave for New York City
when someone kills O'Malley. Molly and Michael who had public run-ins with the nasty victim are
the prime suspects especially since she was seen near the male dorm, the crime scene locale. Molly
knows she must prove her innocence though all the evidence makes her seem guilty. Murphy's
Law
is a superb historical mystery starring a delightful cast, but what make this tale so good is the
descriptions of the era. The ship voyage and the time on Ellis Island are so vivid; readers will taste
the salt air. The mystery is also cleverly conceived leading sub-genre fans to conclude that Rhys
Bowen is quite a talent (see her Evan Evans series if a reader has doubts).
Since You've Been Gone
Carlene Thompson
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $6.99, 432 pp. ISBN: 0312979797
When her cousin Molly informs New Orleans based mystery writer Rebecca Ryan that a beloved
"relative" has cancer, she returns to her hometown of Sinclair, West Virginia for her first visit
since
she left for college. Becca has the ability to "see" things others cannot and earned a reputation for
finding things and solving crimes as a child. However, the one time the sight failed her was eight
years ago when someone kidnapped and killed her younger brother Jonnie. While Becca drives
her
car in town, she suffers a vision of someone kidnapping a boy before crashing her vehicle. At the
emergency room Dr. Clay Bellamy, a person she once had a crush on, tends her minor injuries.
Becca learns that someone abducted Molly's son and her vision showed her the lad is alive but
frightened and sick. She wonders if history will repeat itself or will she save little Todd. As she
falls
in love with Clay, she wonders if he will accept the full Becca, visions and all? Since You've Been
Gone is a thrilling paranormal romantic suspense novel that persuades the audience that ESP
abilities
are al and some people have them. The characters seem genuine enabling the audience to suspend
belief in the "sight" if they so choose. The story line is filled with action, plenty of anguish and
angst,
and a foreboding clock that seems as if the key players are helplessly doomed to witness history
repeat itself. Carlene Thompson proves once again why she is so popular among fans and critics
alike.
Addiction
GH Ephron
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $23.95, 304 pp. ISBN: 0312266774
It has been a couple of years since the psychopath killed his wife as an act of revenge for Dr.
Peter
Zak's testimony against him. The forensic psychologist and teacher is regaining control of his life
and
is even seeing someone, albeit a bit sporadically. After Peter and a peer give a lecture to students
at
the Massachusetts Pearce Psychiatric Institute, psychiatrist Dr. Channing Temple asks for a favor.
She wants Peter to help her teenage daughter Olivia, who is withdrawing from the world.
Channing
already sees a psychiatrist, her mother's mentor Dr. Daphne Smythe-Gooding, but Peter
reluctantly
agrees to help for old time's sake, as Chaining was his college lover. However, instead of a
patient,
Peter finds Olivia holding a discharged gun with a dead Channing nearby. Daphne insists suicide
occurred because of the pressure on Channing due to her research and her clinic work being
challenged. Peter takes Olivia under his care even as he begins to apply his investigative skills as a
forensic expert to learn what really happened. The superb second Zak novel allows readers to
observe an intriguing type of mental illness while providing a cleverly designed mystery. The story
line is filled with action and a few twists to keep the audience alert. Peter is a wonderful character
struggling with his guilt while resolving to move on in life and the support cast further hones his
personality. With novels like this one and Amnesia, readers will quickly forget other sub- genre
authors as this writing team turns into an Addiction.
Ashes Of Aries
Martha C Lawrence
St. Martin's Press
Sept 2001, $23.95, 256 pp. ISBN 0312202997
Private detective Elizabeth Chase is still mourning the loss of a loved one while rebuilding her life.
She takes on more cases and studies the shamanistic arts with Tecuma Indian Sequoia. In addition
to
being a private detective, she is also a psychic. She has become so well known in solving police
cases, the San Diego County sheriff's department hires her to assist in their investigation of the
kidnapping of Matthew Fielding, the four-year- old son of multi-millionaire. Shortly after she
interviews the parents of the missing boy, a wildfire near their estate breaks out, burning their
home
and killing both of them. Further inquiries prove that the fire was deliberately set. Shortly after
that
incident, another arson occurs, burning down an apartment building and part of Fielding's
company
proving that whoever took the child and set the fire has a powerful grudge against the family.
Throughout their time of horror, Elizabeth's sixth sense insists that Mathew is still alive and she
feels
that she owes it to his dead parents to find him no matter what the dangers. After reading Ashes
Of
Aries, only the most hardened skeptic will refute the existence of psychic powers in select
individuals. The heroine accepts them in much the same way she accepts the color of her hair and
eyes. Though she has these powers, Elizabeth predominately uses ordinary investigative skills
because they are more reliable and steady then her sixth sense. The story line is totally absorbing,
the
plot is fast paced and action-packed while the characters, many of whom have appeared in other
works, add dimension to a very deep human drama.
Circle Of Stars
Anna Lee Waldo
St. Martin's Press
August 2001, $25.95, 500 pp. ISBN 0312203802
He was born to be a leader of the Druids, destined to save them and their way of life from the
New
Religionists by finding a new land were they could live and prosper. Madoc ap Owen Gwyneth
does
not know that his destiny was foretold before his birth because he was raised as the child of
crofters
who found him as a baby floating in the river. When he was seven they sent him to the Druid
Colony
in Ireland because his thirst for knowledge was great. Eventually, he traveled to Wales for further
teaching. There he learned that his birth father was the Prince of Wales and that his mother was
his
mistress. When his half-brother poisoned his father and took up the mantle of leadership, the
Druids
were hunted down and killed. The Archdruid gave Madoc a fortune in jewels to build a floatilla so
that he could find a place for them to call home. Eventually, ten ships with twenty men on each
sail
for what will be later called the new world, enduring hardship and trouble nearly every mile of the
journey. Circle Of Stars continues the story that began in Circle Of Stones and is every bit as
fascinating and enthralling as its prequel. Readers will be amazed to see the early influence of
Henry
II of England on the political and religious situation in Wales and Ireland and they will see a side
of
Thomas Beckett rarely seen in history books. Anne Lee Waldo has written an epic yet this
reviewer
believes there is more to the story to tell.
Fall Guy
Scott Mackay
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $24.95, 384 pp. ISBN: 0312281552
In Toronto's Chinatown, homicide detectives Barry Gilbert and Joe Lombardo search the
apartment
of murdered Edgar Lau for clues. The obvious evidence beyond the photographer's corpse is that
no
forced entry most likely means Edgar knew his killer and felt safe enough to allow he or she into
the
apartment. The cops also find an ammo clip with no gun and 3.5 million worth of heroine.
Photographs of City Councilor Roslyn Surrey in sexy poses spice up the investigation. Outside, a
glove is found hanging from a tree in the yard. Finally a witness saw Pearl Wu leave the scene of
the
crime. The coroner adds to the complexity of the evidence when he reports that Edgar suffered an
unreported bullet wound that, based on its healing, is three to four months old. The coroner also
finds inside the victim's intestines a balloon containing a key. With all this evidence the case
should
be a snap for the two veteran police officers, but instead each clue opens up a gamut of new
questions in this increasingly complicated case. The Fall Guy is no six million-dollar man, but
instead
a tremendous Canadian police procedural that never slows down as the detectives track clues that
seems to go everywhere and nowhere. The story line is superb as twists, turns, and new evidence
keep occurring with no end in sight. The two detectives are a warm pair who feels like neighbors
and the evidence indicates the lifestyle of the victim. Sub-genre fans will feel warm comfort
knowing
that talented Scott MacKay provides strong novels for reading pleasure.
Naked Came The Phoenix
Marcia Talley, editor
St. Martin's Press
Aug 2001, $24.95, 320 pp. ISBN: 0312251947
With the recent death of her father Hamlin Finch from throat cancer, Caroline Blessing decides to
help her mother Hilda deal with her grief. Though she knows that reconciling their differences will
be impossible because the only way to accomplish that is unconditional surrender. Still Caroline, a
cellist and wife of less than one year to a first term Tennessee Congressman, takes her mother to
the
exclusive Phoenix Spa. At the spa, Caroline's mother remains her usual obnoxious manipulative
self
though perhaps acting a bit more bizarre than usual. The owner of the spa Claudia de Vries, her
mother's college roommate, behaves even weirder than Hilda does. However, Claudia's behavior
becomes moot, as someone murders her. The police and Caroline conduct separate inquiries even
while other patrons die. Naked Came The Phoenix is an entertaining collaboration from thirteen
of
the leading female mystery writers on the market today. The story line is fun though the line up of
superstars tend to void pronouncements from the previous chapters. Still, the plot seems fresh due
to Caroline who is the one consistency throughout the who-done-it. For the most part the authors
provided strong entries that help make Naked Came The Phoenix a likable story. What else would
you expect from a who's who consisting of Nevada Barr, J.D. Robb, Nancy Pickard, Lisa
Scottoline,
Perri O'Shaugnessy, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Mary Jane Clark, Marcia Talley, Anne Perry,
Diana
Gabaldon, Val McDermid, and Laurie King.
The Weaver's Inheritance
Kate Sedley
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $23.95, 256 pp. ISBN: 0312276842
In 1447 Bristol, widower Roger the Chapman leaves his two-year-old daughter behind with her
grandmother to travel to Hereford. His mother-in- law wants Roger to bring home her cousin,
widow Adela, and the woman's son to live with them. Upon completing his trek, Roger learns that
Clement Weaver, assumed dead for six years, has also returned home. Clement's father, ailing
Alderman Alfred Weaver, accepts the man as his lost son. However, Alfred's daughter Alison and
her spouse Alderman William Burnett refuse to believe that Clement is alive. Their thinking might
have to do with the fact she is no longer the beneficiary of her father's vast estate when he dies.
Adding to the confusion is the bewildering murder of a fortuneteller. Roger, who has solved some
mysteries before, begins to look into whether this is the real Clement or an impostor and who
killed
the seer. The Weaver's Inheritance is the eighth Roger the Chapman medieval mystery and a
powerful historical who-done-it that keeps the star fresh while providing the audience a clever
who-done-it. The story line contains insight into the late fifteenth century, but the plot belongs to
the
hero. Roger seems so authentic as he still feels guilt and relief with the death of his wife two years
ago who died in child birth, but also has emotionally moved forward since The Brothers Of
Glastonbury. Kate Sedley has written another remarkable tale that her readers will cherish while
newcomers will search for the past titles.
Reef Dance
John de Cure
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $24.95, 384 pp. ISBN: 0312272979
In 1992, J. Shepard is tired of his depressing cases as an attorney for the Los Angeles County
Dependency Court Legal project. Each client seems helpless with no hope for the future for
himself
or herself and their children yet most will do whatever is required of them to keep their children.
Still
after today's session with the sovereign of filth, J. looks forward to riding the surf. However, he is
unable to sneak out as planned because he is assigned the media visible case of indigent and
ignorant
Sue Ellen Randall, who sold her baby. Sue Ellen and her husband want the infant returned, but the
foster parents, wealthy with White House connections Corwin and Kitty Danforth refuse to
surrender Nathan. J. wants out of the case because it reminds him of his own mother who
deserted
him thirteen years ago. However, he provides legal services to Sue Ellen. As he digs deeper into
the
dispute, he begins to believe in the naive innocence of his client. Reef Dance is a powerful legal
procedural that paints a different perspective on those mothers who sell their children. Readers
will
feel empathy towards Sue Ellen. However, the Danforths and their attorney are so tundra they are
a
wipe out, receiving no sympathy. The insight into juvenile dependency courts is breathtaking yet
shocking. Readers will enjoy riding the waves with John deCure and hope J. will return in future
dramas. However, the audience will feel disappointed that the talented author failed to surf a
Saving
Isiah type of wave so that the audience would feel genuine empathy towards both parties in the
dispute.
Second Chance
Sian James
St. Martin's Press
August 2001, $22.95, 240 pp. ISBN 0312272588
When she was a very little girl, her father walked out on her mother and her. Kate River's mother
had a nervous breakdown and was unable to take care of her. Instead, Kate acted more like the
adult
in their relationship, making sure her mother ate, bathed and got out of bed. By the time she was
seventeen, Kate was an adult taking full responsibility for her mother. Kate moves to London to
become an actress and over the years, she has had some success in her chosen profession. At
forty-three, she has lived with her significant other for several years, but the pair plan to marry
soon.
When her mother dies in Wales, she goes to the funeral alone because her lover is involved in a
crisis
with his ex-wife and their daughters. In the midst of the gloom, Kate meets her first cousin once
removed and falls in love with him. The only problem is that he is a farmer tied not only to the
land
in Wales, but to his wife and three children with one more on the way. Just when she thinks her
lot
in life will never get any better, a miracle occurs that gives Kate a second chance at a new and
different existence if she grabs it. Sian James is a born storyteller who makes Wales come alive in
the
imaginations of her readers. All of the characters are very complex and realistically portrayed. The
audience will empathize with them even though they might not agree with all the choices they
made.
Second Chance lives up to its title while inspiring the readers with hope for the future.
Killer Stuff
Sharon Fiffer
St. Martin's Press
Sep 2001, $23.95, 304 pp. ISBN: 0312278187
The past year has been rough on Evanston resident Jane Wheel. She amiably separated from her
geology professor husband and lost her job at an ad agency when a couple of clients left for other
firms. Over the years, Jane has been an amateur antique "picker" and with her ten-year-old son in
South Dakota at a dig with his dad, she tries to make a living as a wheeler- dealer. Jane borrows
her
next door neighbor's van as she always does when she makes the weekend rounds. When she goes
to
return the vehicle, Jane finds the murdered corpse of her neighbor Sandy Balance. Detective Oh
leads the investigation and Jane is the obvious prime suspect. Not only for finding the body, but
because everyone knows she passionately kissed Sandy's husband Jack. Other circumstantial
evidence also points towards Jane as the killer. Not one to sit idly by, Jane uses her skills in
finding
items for customers to uncover the clues that will lead her to the killer's identity before the police
arrest her. Killer Stuff is an engaging amateur sleuth tale due to the lead character seeming so real
even when she seeks to solve the murder. Though a bit too much collectibles is included in the
overall fine story line, the plot still gracefully moves forward. Still the tale belongs to the support
cast such as Detective Oh and Jane's Kankakee mom as they round out the case and Jane's
personality. Overall Sharon Fiffer has written a pleasant tale that balances character and plot quite
nicely.
The Surgeon
Tess Gerritson
Ballantine Books
Sept, 2001, $24.95, 336 pp. ISBN: 0345447832
Two years ago Savannah Trauma Surgeon Catherine Cordell informed first year resident Andrew
Capra that she was not recommending him for a second year residency. He went to her home and
pleaded his case and she politely but firmly refused to change her mind. He angrily tied her up,
raped
her, and prepared to kill her just as he did to three other women. She somehow manages to get
free
and kill him with the gun hidden under her bed. She survives the attack but Savannah flees to
work
in a prestigious Boston hospital. A recent spate of rape and murders similar to the ones done by
Andrew brings Catherine right into the middle of another nightmare. The perpetrator is focusing
on
her and unless the police can find out who he really is, Catherine will become his next victim. Tess
Gerritsen has written a medical thriller that discusses a woman's need to be vigilant against the
predators of the world. The story line is fast paced and enthralling in a Cook-Palmer kind of way.
The Surgeon is a multi-layered work with various and fascinating sub-plots seamlessly tying back
to
the main theme. Ms Gerristen has found her niche in the medical suspense genre.
Natural Suspect
William Bernhardt et al
Ballantine Books
Sept 2001, $23.95, 192 pp. ISBN 0345437682
The Hightowers of Hightower oil may be very rich, but they are not happy. The mother Julia is a
drunk; the son is a dilettante with a wife who has a single digit IQ; and the daughter believes play
is
weed. The patriarch, Arthur, never encouraged them to work, preferring they remain under his
control until he was ready to divorce his wife and disinherit his children. Before that could
happen,
Arthur is found murdered, frozen solid in the family's locked freezer. The wife is arrested because
the victim's blood was on her blouse and her pearls were found in his hands. She is a heavy drunk
who suffers blackouts and had no alibi. Julia hires a no name lawyer who realizes that there is a
lot
more to this case than meets the eye. Natural Suspect is one story line divided by chapters with
each
chapter written by some very famous writers in the mystery field including Leslie Glass, Michael
Palmer and John Lescroart. The chapters are numbered but no credit is given to the author
(except
for chapter one written by William Bernhardt) so readers will have a mystery trying to figure out
which writer wrote what chapter. The chapters smoothly flow into another, but with different
styles
making for an interesting puzzle inside a who-done-it that turns Natural Suspect into a fine
read.
Blood & Iron
Harry Turtledove
Ballantine Books
Aug 2001, $27.95, 503 pp. ISBN: 034540565X
By 1918 the Great War fought in North America and Europe led to the victory of the United
States
and Germany over the allies. With that success, the United States takes control of the continent by
taking territory from the weakened Confederate States and turning Canada into a colony.
President
Roosevelt facing a socialist reelection challenge led by Upton Sinclair sends venerable war hero
General Custer to apply tight military rule over Quebec. Unbeknownst to the President and the
General is that a rabid angry nationalist plans to kill Custer. Meanwhile in the Confederate States,
sergeant Jake Featherstone tries to stir support using demagoguery by blaming blacks and the
United
States for the abject poverty wracking his decimated nation. Due to his charismatic personality,
his
Freedom Party gains rapid support even as they splinter an already divided nation further. Harry
Turtledove continues his massive tome documenting an alternative historical time line with the
start
of a new series, American Empire. The story line of Blood & Iron returns survivors from the
Great
War tales struggling with a new era of "peace" in which it seems many people prefer a return to
the
recent days of war. The current tale is exciting and loaded with non-stop action. However, new
readers will struggle to gain a foothold as the events of the previous series impact this plot since
Mr.
Turtledove keeps his time continuum valid and reliable, but quite complex. Old fans will have a
field
day with the revised "Roaring Twenties".
The Next Accident
Lisa Gardner
Bantam Books
Sept 2001, $25.95, 388 pp. ISBN: 0553802380
Small town police officer Lorraine "Rainie" Connor and supervisory special agent Pierce Quincy
worked together, solving a case involving mass murders. Their relationship could have developed
into something more but Rainie felt she wasn't good enough for him and pushed him out of her
life.
Now they are brought back together once again to solve the biggest case of their career or die
trying. This case is up close and very personal for Pierce because his daughter is in an auto
accident
that was no accident and his ex-wife is killed. The local Virginia police finger Pierce as their prime
suspect. Pierce moves heaven and earth to protect his remaining daughter Kimberly with Rainie's
help. She wants to make sure that the man she cares about doesn't lose anymore people he cares
about. She also wants to see him stay alive so they can begin a future together. The Next
Accident is
a stunning work of romantic suspense with so many unexpected twists that the reader will not be
able to predict what happens next. Lisa Gardner has written a fast paced action adventure plot
while
never forgetting to create characters the audience so that the audience will feel strongly enough
for
them to survive and get it on together. Anybody interested in seeing how Pierce and Rainie first
met
should read The Third Victim even though The Next Accident is a stand-alone thriller.
Officer Of The Court
Bill Mesce
Bantam Books
Sep 2001, $23.95, 352 pp. ISBN: 0553801783
In 1943 in the Orkneys, two pilots find the murdered body of American army Lieutenant
Armando
Grassi on the empty beach. The Criminal Investigation Corps Captain Woody Kneece begins the
investigation of why a soldier stationed in Greenland was found on an island just north of
Scotland.
Woody leaves DC, stopping in New Jersey to talk with Staff Judge Advocate Major Harry Voss,
who recently worked with the deceased in Europe. Woody asks a surprised Harry to accompany
him
to Greenland and the Orkneys because the former says he is just a country cop not used to being
north of Chapel Hill. Though he hates returning to Europe and leaving his wife and two children
behind, Harry agrees to help with the investigation. They fly to Greenland where they begin a case
that soon turns quite dangerous for both investigators. The return of Voss (see the fabulous WW
II
tale The Advocate) is a reason for fans of historical and military mysteries to rejoice. In his second
tale, Harry remains a viable real person as the audience gets a glimpse of his family before he flies
across the Atlantic. The who-done-it is enthralling but the why is even more intriguing as Bill
Mesce
provides readers with another strong novel that paints World War II in an intriguing but different
light.
Incriminating Evidence
Sheldon Siegel
Bantam Books
Aug 2001, $24.95, 387 pp. ISBN: 0553801449
San Francisco District Attorney Prentice "Skipper" Gates III held a campaign rally for his bid for
reelection at the Fremont Hotel that ended late. He stayed at the hotel overnight only to wake up
with a male corpse sharing his room. The police arrest Skipper for murder and he then calls Mike
Daley, his former partner in the Simpson and Gates law firm to get him out of jail and defend him
in
such a way that this campaign and his future efforts at statewide office are not damaged. Besides
courtroom rivals in recent years since Mike is a defense attorney, the duo had bad blood when
they
worked together. Still, a reluctant Mike accepts Skipper as a client though he feels the man is
guilty
or at least hiding something. As the prosecutors pursue a death penalty conviction, accompanied
by
his partner, his ex-wife Rosita Fernandez, Mike begins making inquiries throughout the Bay area
to
learn what went down that night. Sheldon Siegel brings back the effective legal team of Daley and
Fernandez (see Special Circumstances) in another captivating legal thriller. The story line provides
a
wonderful tour of San Francisco inside a strong courtroom drama that enables readers to follow
Mike's thought processes. The Incriminating Evidence against Skipper and his attitude makes
Mike
and Rosita's work much harder and this much more enjoyable for the reader. Sub- gene fans will
want more tales from Mr. Siegel starring his dynamic duo, but perhaps Rosita can take the lead so
that the audience can understand her thinking better from more of her perspective than that of
Mike's.
Dark Dreams
Cory Daniels
Bantam Books
Jul 2001, $5.99, 436 pp. ISBN: 0553581007
General Tulkham and his Gnebile army recently conquered Fair Isle, home to the powerful T'EN
mage feared by mere mortals. To solidify his rule, he beds Imoshen, a female T'EN. Though part
of
the defeated race and now carrying the conqueror's child, Imoshen show no fear of the General.
Instead she tries to educate him that a castle is not a home unless the couple living there trust one
another. Tulkham wants to trust Imoshen, but fears her ability to read his mind or use her skills to
take control of his mind. His advisors add doubts about her fidelity and loyalty. Since he comes
from
a place where women are treated as lower than chattel as opposed to this isle where equality
exists,
he struggles with this paradigm switch also. The opposition leader, a male T'EN wants more than
just kicking Tulkham and his troops off Fair Isle, he demands Imoshen join his side. Cory Daniel
has
written an appealing epic romantic fantasy that rivals the best works of Norton and Lackey in
fashioning a make believe world that seems so real readers will use Mapquest or an atlas to find
directions to Fair Isle. The conflicts (internal and external) of the key characters add tension and
depth to the strong story line. Fans of romance and fantasy will enjoy this engaging tale.
Touching Evil
Kay Hooper
Bantam Books
Sept 2001, $6.99, 336 pp. ISBN 0553583441
There is nothing more frightening on the face of this earth than encountering the personification of
evil when it wears a human visage. The women of Seattle are very fearful because some
psychopathic madman is abducting women, raping and torturing them and cutting out their eyes.
There are at least four victims, two dead, one alive but without sight, and the last person
underwent
pioneering eye surgery where she was given the eyes of a dead person. Maggie Barnes, the police
sketch artist, has an uncanny way of getting victims to relive the crimes that destroyed them so
she
can draw a picture of the perpetrator. John Garrett, a very successful and powerful businessman,
is
the brother of one of the dead victims of The Blindfold Rapist. He is using all the resources at his
command, some of them very unique, to help Maggie and the police find the culprit. Neither
Maggie
nor John pays attention to the danger that surrounds them as they come even closer to unmasking
the killer. If they come out of this investigation alive, a glorious future awaits the two of them
together. Readers who liked Kay Hooper's psychic suspense Shadow series will love this work
which features characters from that trilogy who make cameo appearances. The romance plays a
secondary role to the action-oriented story line but there is plenty of appeal to readers who like
romance, paranormal and suspense in one great package. Touching Evil is an enthralling work
written by a natural storyteller.
Frontier Woman
Joan Johnston
Bantam Books
Aug 2001, $6.99, 470 pp. ISBN: 0440236770
In 1840 Texas, rancher Rip Stewart orders his youngest daughter Cricket to take his middle
daughter Bay hunting and not to return without a kill. Cricket knows that Bay is too soft to kill
anything, but they go anyway. During the hunt, Cricket finds a naked man bathing in the river
with
several of her father's horses nearby. After quite a tussle and with a lot of help from her three pet
wolves and some shaky assistance from Bay, they capture the horse thief. On the way home,
Cricket
suffers from the monthly miseries, using alcohol to ease her pain. She leaves the tied up prisoner
in
the barn for Rip to handle. The next day, Cricket learns that her prisoner is Texas Ranger Jarrett
Creed, who regained the stolen horses from the Comanche. As Cricket and Creed fight and
squabble
they begin to fall in love. However, he wants someone more feminine and she wants no man in her
life. However the catalyst of a deadly conspiracy hangs over their heads and when the Comanche
captures Cricket, it makes them both reassess their values. Frontier Woman is a reprint of a novel
from the late 1980s miniseries starring the ancestors of the modern day Bitter Creek tales. The
enticing story line remains fresh as Joan Johnston instills problems for her hero and heroine (i.e., a
cramping period while riding) that seem genuine while providing a taste of the Lone Star
Republic.
Fans of the Bitter Creek books will want to read this novel as well as the upcoming reprints that
tell
the stories of Cricket's two sisters.
In A Strange City
Laura Lippman
Morrow
Sept 2001, $24.00, 368 pp. ISBN: 0380978180
Nobody loves and appreciates Baltimore more than Tess Monahan, who has seen the city's
seamier
side and still thinks it is a beautiful place. The former reporter turned private detective would not
think of living anywhere else as her roots go deep into the city's soul. Every night on January
19th,
the visitor comes to Poe's grave, leaving behind a glass of cognac and roses on his final resting
site.
Ironically, the first and only time Tess goes to the grave to see the Visitor two men show up, one
killing the other. Earlier in the day, a wannabe client wants Tess to find out the identity of the
Visitor because he believes the Visitor hid money that belongs to him. The police think the victim
is
not the Visitor and plead for the client to come in so they can ask him some questions since he
was a
witness. Tess would like to stay out of the mess altogether but that proves impossible to do when
somebody leaves half a bottle of cognac and some roses on her doorstep. More incidents
concerning
the murder draw her deeper into the homicide than any other one she has previously investigated.
Laura Lippman defines Baltimore and her love for her chosen city shines brightly on every page of
IN A Strange City. People who read this book will definitely want to take a vacation to this city
to
enjoy its uniqueness. Ms. Lippman has created a complex and fascinating linear story line that will
leave the audience guessing on the who and why of the killing until the last chapter.
The Fountain
Emily Grayson
Morrow
Aug 2001, $21.00, 199 pp. ISBN: 0060184868
Two decades ago in New York, Will Combrey simply vanished while his teenage fiancee Casey
Stowe lovingly waited for him at the altar. Not long afterward, Casey's parents die in an accident.
Distraught, she marries Michael Beckett, her next door neighbor. He was her neighbor since she
was
born and his parents are delighted with their marriage plans and hers folks would have been
ecstatic
as well if they lived. Over the next twenty years, the duo shares a contented life raising twin girls
and
one boy. The girls are at college and the boy will start in the fall. Casey is also a highly regarded
teacher. Into her Eden returns Will, whose personal life consists of two divorces and no
meaningful
relationship today. He has come back to start over at the point where he feels he failed, jilting
Casey.
He wants her to return with him to his San Francisco home. The temptation is great as a part of
Casey always wondered what would have been if Will had married her. The Fountain is an
engaging
contemporary relationship tale centering on choices. The interesting premise is well designed, but
the problem resides with the key cast because this tale is not choosing between a devilishly
handsome "bad boy" and a steady mate. Will is pathetic instead of the confident cocky lover while
Michael has been near perfect to Casey for years. Throw in their three teens and readers will not
accept Casey's thought processes. Emily Grayson is a talented writer who entertains the reader
with
a well-written story line, but the characters fail to make the plot appear plausible.
Watch By Moonlight
Kate Hawks
Morrow
Jun 2001, $24.00, 224 pp. ISBN: 038081465X
In 1763 Dorset, England, though she is the daughter to the owner of the King's Shilling public
house, Bess Whately feels more like a slave. Depressed with her lot, Bess sees no future except
serving poor farmers ale. Her only prospect is a relatively intelligent boor, who would simply
leave
Bess grinding her life away working on a job and in his unappealing bed. Everything changes
when
Jason Quick enters her father's inn as he and Bess are immediately attracted to one another and
soon
falls in love. She quickly learns that he is a highwayman with the king's troop in pursuit. Will her
wannabe-rejected lover figure out who Jason is and then betray Bess by informing the soldiers
about
her so they can use Bess as bait to trap the adventurous Jason? If the answer is yes, will Jason
bravely, yet foolishly, try to free her? Watch By Moonlight is a romantic tale that retells the
classic
narrative poem The Highwayman (remember the ending is not happy together). The story line is
exciting, as Jason becomes bolder even as his circle of safety rapidly shrinks. Bess is a strong lead
heroine who wants love and something better than serving ale out of life. However the lead
couple
fails the believability test, as neither seems compassionate enough to even think of sacrificing
one's
life for their soul mate. Still, Kate Hawks provides a glowing Georgian tale that sub-genre fans
will
enjoy.
Once Bitten
Laurien Berenson
Kensington
Sept 2001, $22.00, 288 pp. ISBN: 1575666774
Life is finally come together for dog show owner Melanie Travis. Even though she was supposed
to
be getting married during Christmas, she has come to grips that this is not going to happen. Her
fianc‚ left for an unspecified time to find himself. She is delighted that her brother is getting
married
to Bertie, another person involved dog shows, in six weeks but she is horrified that her ex
husband is
going to be around for the same month and a half trying to win her back. When Bertie's wedding
planner Sara disappears leaving behind an ominous note, she asks Melanie for help in tracking
down
the missing woman. Before they can get very far in their inquiries, Sara's cottage burns down,
which
leaves behind the remains of a skeleton that can only be identified by dental records. When
Melanie
and company learn that arson caused the fire and that Sara remains alive though still out of sight,
the
group increases their efforts to find answers. Once Bitten, like the rest of the Melanie Travis
mysteries, takes readers into the colorful and exciting world of dog competitions. Long time fans
of
this amateur sleuth series will be ecstatic that Faith finally won enough shows to be considered
Champion by the AKC. Laurien Berenson has written another fine work in this delightful mystery
series.
Shooter's Point
Gary Phillips
Kensington
Oct 2001, $22.00, 240 pp. ISBN: 1575666820
In Las Vegas, mob courier, African-American Martha Chainey watches the heavyweight
championship-boxing match between Joaquin Muhammed and Tyler Jeffries. When Joaquin
throws a
phantom jab reminiscent of Lewiston, the champ goes down. The surprised referee starts the
count
only to quickly realize that someone shot and murdered Tyler. Riverhead Casino owner Victoria
DeGault hires Chainey to find the missing five million dollars in bets that she was holding that was
stolen while the champ was killed. Chainey begins making inquiries on the Strip and soon finds
friend and under card winner Moya Reese dead too. Though she stands to make $250,000 if she
finds the missing cash, the investigation is now personal. The second Chainey tale (see Cold
Hand) is
a delightful action-packed novel that goes the full fifteen rounds with plenty excitement
throughout
the tale. The story line moves faster than the speed of Leonard and the punch of Foreman.
Chainey
is quite a character as she nukes laws when she wants to accomplish something, especially if
money
is involved. Along with Chainey and a strong secondary cast, the who-done-it and why of
Shooter's
Point showcase Gary Phillips (see the Monk novels) ability to tell a knockout of a story.
Harvest Of Murder
Ann Ripley
Kensington
Oct 2001, $22.00, 304 pp. ISBN: 1575667754
Due to the success of her PBS gardening show and the demands of her husband and two
daughters,
Louise Eldridge finds little time for herself. That is why she looks forward to walking her dog
with
former Jefferson University ethnobotanist Dr. Peter Whiting when he walks his dog. Peter regales
Louise with fascinating stories about life in the Amazon. He claims a rain forest tribe has invented
a
fountain of youth through a plant they convert into tea. However, her walks end when someone
murders Peter in Ravine Park. Mt. Vernon District detective Mike Geraghy learns that Louise
walked her dog with Peter every night near the crime site. He interviews her while warning her
not
to get involved as she has previously done in homicide investigations. However, Peter's wife asks
Louise to help complete her husband's research. Though she agrees because her show is on hiatus,
Louise would have said no if she understood the danger she is in from several assailants. Though
billed as a gardening mystery, Harvest Of Murder reads more like an amateur sleuth medical cozy
though it never goes deeply into the science. The story line is shrewdly arranged so that the
audience
can comprehend the motivations of the key players, especially on the part of the scientists to
include
the victim. The heroine is a nurturing person whose family make her feel more like a neighbor to
the
reader who care what happens to Louise. Ann Ripley provides amateur sleuth fans and those who
derive joy from a not so scientific medical thriller an affable reading experience.
Every Move She Makes
Beverly Barton
Kensington
Sep 2001, $6.50, 384 pp. ISBN: 0821768387
After fifteen years of being locked up in the Donaldson Correctional Facility for the murder of his
odious stepfather, a crime he insists he never committed, the state of Alabama frees Reed
Conway.
Upon returning to his hometown of Spring Creek, his mother and his shy stepsister warmly
welcome
him. His mother works as a housekeeper to the in-laws of Senator Webb Porter, who resided on
the
bench when Reed was convicted of murder. Webb's wife Carolyn is very upset with the parole of
Reed. Webb's daughter, Judge Ella Porter, receives an unsigned "love letter" that is similar to the
ones Reed sent her fifteen years ago. Ella confronts Reed, but he insists he did not write nor send
the
letter and that the two he sent her fifteen years ago were out of rage at her father. Ella and Reed
fall
in love even as an unknown assailant begins a campaign of terror to frighten her so she will turn
to
her father so he can insure Reed returns to prison. Every Move She Makes is a breathless regional
romantic suspense novel with two star-crossed lovers having no chance of making it together due
to
a shared past and an unknown villain. The story line is crisp, but employs a questionable twist to
keep the villain out of the mind's of the reader though in plain sight. Still, sub-genre fans will
enjoy
Beverly Barton's exciting tale that never slows down for a moment.
The Very Daring Duchess
Miranda Jarrett
Pocket Books
Sep 2001, $6.50, 384 pp. ISBN: 0743417925
In 1798 Naples, English sea Captain Edward Winterworth meets Naples Signora Francesca Robin
at
her art gallery. They are immediately attracted to one another, but Edward acts nasty and
somewhat
aloof towards her believing she is just another local con artist scamming His Majesty's sailors.
When
Napoleon threatens Naples, the English fleet decides to evacuate the area. A half-English person
like
Francesca is in jeopardy if she remains behind when the French arrive. She knows she must leave
Naples immediately, but Admiral Nelson refuses to take her with the Navy, ignoring even Lady
Hamilton's plea. Edward volunteers to marry her so she can accompany him. Desperate, she
accepts
and once married they seem happy together until the Admiralty summons Edward back to
London.
There he learns that he now is a Duke and no longer part of the Navy because his aristocratic rank
requires him kept safe. A frightened Francesca runs away feeling inadequate to be the wife on a
noble, leaving it to Edward to prove he loves her and needs her by his side. Miranda Jarrett is
known
for her historical romances especially those set in the Colonial, Georgian, and Regency periods.
Her
latest tale The Very Daring Duchess centers on a typical Regency theme starring two likable lead
characters. However, the descriptions of Naples right before Napoleon provides a rare freshness
and
depth that turns this into a strong Regency romance that any fan of a historical tale will fully
cherish.
Letters To Callie: Jack Wade's Story
Dawn Miller
Pocket Books
Aug 2001, $12.95, 336 pp. ISBN: 0671521020
When baby Rose died on the trek west, Jack Wade could not cope with the loss of his little
sibling.
Needing to mourn by himself and rethink his values, Jack leaves his family and the wagon train in
Utah to head north. However, a new guilt wracks Jack and he feels despondent that he abandoned
his beloved sibling Callie. Still, he knew he could no longer remain with the wagon train because
he
was one of the prime supporters that persuaded the Wade family to go on the journey in the first
place. To ameliorate his depression, Jack begins to write letters to Callie that describe what he has
seen, how he feels, the nightmares he suffer over his losses including the women he loves, and his
dismal hopes for his future. Letters To Callie: Jack Wade's Story is more of a historical journal
that
tells the adventures and misadventures of the hero. Jack's life is exciting as he becomes a gambler,
deals with dangerous enemies, and falls in love. The companion piece to the powerfully
descriptive
The Journal Of Callie Wade is a stand-alone story that continues to portray the often-harsh life of
settlers and pioneers. This is Americana historical fiction at its realistic best. It will dawn on genre
fans that Ms. Miller is quite an artist painting the landscape of mid nineteenth century western
America.
Miami Twilight
Tom Coffey
Pocket Books
Aug 2001, $23.95 ISBN: 0671028294
Public relations specialist Garrett Doherty is just another transplanted New Yorker working in the
Miami office until he attends a company party. At the event, Garrett meets Cuban expatriate
Ernesto
Rodriguez and the two discuss the Yankees especially El Duque Hernandez. The next morning,
Ernesto calls and demands that he be given the "cream of the crop" as he plans to use Garrett as
his
PR man on his tierra grande project. With his company trying for years to gain Rodriguez's
account,
Garrett has pitched his way to the top with his unknowingly successful endeavor. Garrett begins
working on the Rodriguez land development case immediately and through his client he meets
Frank
Hedges and his wife, Magdalena. Doherty learns that many people believe that Rodriguez has
major
drug connections that are funding the project. Ernesto seems to be in hiding as if he is dodging
Doherty. In spite of that, the PR guru begins an affair with Magdalena, which leaves his head in
the
clouds (actually somewhere else further south) while all hell breaks loose around him. Miami
Twilight is an entertaining South Florida thriller that works because Tom Coffey invests a good
portion of his novel in insuring Garrett seems real. If that gamut failed, this book would have
tanked.
Readers believe in Garrett and his foolish affair that seems to have doomed him so that even El
Duque or Mariano will be unable to come in to hid rescue. Garrett must save himself or else,
making
the entire story line plausible and the novel a taut thriller.
The Tumbleweed Murders
Rebecca Rothenberg and Taffy Cannon
Perseverance Press/Daniel & Daniel Publishers
Sep 2001, $12.95, 240 pp. ISBN: 188028443X
Transplanted easterner Claire Sharples loves the San Joaquin Valley residing on a mountain in a
cabin where she feels snug and secure. She works as botany pathologist at the Citrus Cove
Agricultural Field Research Station. Her married supervisor Ramon has made it plain that he sees
her in a romantic light. Although she feels the same way, she is keeping their relationship on a
business level because she doesn't intend to get hurt by a married man. Ramon and Claire visit
Erasmo Campos, a fruit grower who has "dry rot" on his peaches. While there, the dogs dig up a
skull with eyeglasses nearby. She tells Jewell Scoggins about the discovery and the woman turns
deathly pale. Claire later finds Jewell dead. The medical examiner says she died because of a heart
attack but Claire wonders if the death is related to the newly recovered skull. As Claire
investigates,
someone tries to kill her by pushing her into a rapidly moving river. Still Claire is prepared to find
the answers to the newly found skull and how it relates to the Jewell's death. Although Rebecca
Rothenberg started this delightful amateur sleuth novel, after her untimely death Taffy Cannon
completed the tale. The visual plot is very colorful with much description of the area in which it
takes place. The characters are a zany and eccentric trio that readers will adore because they are
different. Ms Cannon pays the ultimate tribute to Ms. Rothenberg by brilliantly completing this
work
so that the audience not only fails to know who wrote what, but enjoys every page.
Keepers
Janet La Pierre
Perseverance Press/Daniel & Daniel Publishers
Sept 2001, $12.95, 240 pp. ISBN: 188028448
Port Silva is a small bucolic, visually quiet town in Northern California with a population of
25,000
which means everybody knows their neighbors to some degree. Patience Mackellar was married
to a
policeman when he caught a bullet and ended up in a wheelchair. Together they opened a private
investigation agency, but now that she is a widow, she continues with the business because she
enjoys it. She also has a junior partner, her thirty-year-old daughter Verity who just returned
home
after her three-year-old marriage turned sour and brutal. Their latest client is David Simonov,
whose
wife divorced him to marry his best friend Dev Costello. David also gave up custodial rights to his
daughter but now he thinks they may be in trouble and he wants them found. During the course of
the investigation, Verity bounces from one predicament to another nearly getting herself killed
trying
to locate Lily and Sylvia. Port Silva is the type of town anyone desiring to escape the big city
would
like to live in. Characters from the first book in the Port Silva series make cameo and recurring
appearances leading to a feeling of continuity to this series. Janet La Pierre has written on
entertaining character driven who-done-it that provides plenty of enjoyment for that cool fall night
reading.
Nobody Loves A Centurion
John Maddox Roberts
Thomas Dunne
Sep 2001, $22.95, 224 pp. ISBN: 031227257X
Though he is a Roman senator and his family are very influential due to their support of the
leadership, Decius Metellus flees town when his enemy Clodius is named as a Tribune. Decius,
accompanied by his slave, slowly heads towards Julius Caesar's camp in Gaul. When he arrives,
the
Proconsul Caesar is disappointed in that his niece's fianc‚ came with just one person. Decius gets
in
trouble with Caesar for interfering with the discipline meted out by the First Spear of the Tenth,
Centurion Titus Vinus to his men. However, someone kills Titus and Julius asks Decius to
investigate because the evidence points towards the victim's men including the son of a client of
Decius. As he begins his investigation, Decius prays that he can blame the Germans or the Helveti
for the slaying so good Roman soldiers can be freed. In the sixth SPQR Ancient Rome mystery,
John Maddox Roberts continues to provide an insightful fresh look into a bygone era. The current
tale, Nobody Loves A Centurion, provides a powerful glimpse at the Roman militia as well as
Julius
Caesar from a non-Shakespearean side. Decius remains a humorous individual who at first glance
seems to go with the flow, but in actuality is a deep caring person who gets involved. SPQR VI is
"excellentus."
Without Sin
Charles Smithdeal
Onyx
Sept 2001 $5.99, 368 pp. ISBN: 0451409981
Page Yarbrough thinks she is the luckiest woman in the world to be married to the Governor of
Mississippi and to have a lovely daughter with him. The daughter is so precious and beautiful that
at
eight years of age, she enters and wins beauty pageants. The golden couple is expecting another
child a son, but their joy turns to ashes when Page delivers a baby that is black. At first both think
the hospital made a mistake and a mix up of the babies born that night occured. When DNA
testing
proves that little Adam is Page's child but not Lucien's biological son, he divorces her and wins
custody of their daughter. It seems that nobody but her lawyer believes she has been faithful to
Lucien. With her attorney's help Page intends to prove it so that she can regain custody of her
daughter. This is a medical and legal thriller that is so cutting edge and frontier like in both genres
that readers will find the story totally stunning yet enthralling. The heroine is a fighter who will go
to
the wall and beyond fighting for her beliefs. Page gains the respect and empathy of the audience
who
root for her every step of the way. Charles Smithdeal is going to be a star in the thriller sub-genre
if
Without Sin is a sample of what he is capable of doing.
Married In Montana
Lynette Kent
Harlequin
Aug 2001 $4.99 ISBN: 037371002X
During a nasty storm in Paradise Corners, Montana, Deputy Sheriff Owen "Rafe" Rafferty takes
drunken teenager Bobby Maxwell home. Instead of a thank you for not allowing the inebriated
Bobby to drive, Rafe receives the riot act from his passenger's father, Robert "Boss" Maxwell,
owner of Walking Stones Ranch. Only Bobby's older sister Althea treats Rafe with any gratitude.
Rafe and Thea hit it off from the start to the surprise of both of them and quickly fall in love.
However, their relationship hits a nasty dilemma for the couple when Rafe needs to arrest the
troubled Bobby. This forces a distraught Thea to choose between her soul mate and her beloved
younger brother. Lynette Kent's Married In Montana is a fast-paced tale that is filled with angst
and
loving dilemmas under the Big Sky Country. The heroine is a wonderful person who deserves to
inherit the ranch she loves while Rafe does the right thing even as though he thinks he lost his love
of a lifetime by doing so. Though Boss Maxwell seems unreal to be even a character, the
remaining
secondary cast, especially the troubled Bobby, add depth and set the stage for the next two tales
in
this miniseries: Roxanne Rustand's A Montana Family and Ellen James' My Montana Home.
A Dad At Last
Marie Ferranella
Harlequin
July 2001, $4.50, 200pp ISBN: 0373650736
Connor O'Hara had no idea he was a father until very recently, but he is feeling all the paternal
instincts in one rush. Janelle Davis and her spouse Petey have kidnapped Connor's child Chase
demanding $5 million for the safe return of the baby. During the exchange, Connor gives the
money
to Petey, grabs Chase, and dives into the safety of the nearby vacant sugarhouse. Gunfire is
exchanged leaving Petey dead and an acrimonious Janelle in custody. Though Chase is safe,
Connor
wants to be part of his life. He needs to persuade Chase's mother Lacy Clark that he wants to
nurture and raise the child even as he wants her in his life too. However, everyone has much to
contend with beyond the dangerous abduction as secrets have been revealed with more to follow
and
Janelle still proves quite a threat to the well being of those touched by the expanding Maitland
brood. The twelfth Maitland Maternity tale is a strong romantic suspense novel that starts in first
gear and never slows down until the end. The story line is entertaining though readers might need
a
score card to keep track of all the revelations since the series began. Lacy and Connor are warm
lead
characters and the support cast adds the usual depth expected from this touching series. Marie
Ferranella augments what is turning into one of the better long running romantic series authored
by
different writers in quite a few years.
Baby 101
Marisa Carroll
Harlequin
August 2001, $4.50
Twenty-five years ago, recently widowed LeeAnn Larrimore serendipitously gave away her four
pre-school children, leaving them at Maitland Maternity. No one knows who left them except
LeeAnn who strongly felt she could not provide them with a proper home and trusted Maitland to
take care of them. LeeAnn wants to see her four children smile at her one last time before she
succumbs to cancer. Thus she sends a package containing the triplet's sweaters and Garrett's bear
in
hope they will seek her out at the hospice. Store owner and triplet Lana Lord hears a crying infant
in
the upstairs area of her store, Oh Baby. She finds Dylan Van Zandt and his baby Greg have
moved
in upstairs. Dylan explains that he owns the property that includes Lana's store, but has no place
to
safely keep Greg since his wife Jessie died. Because of dangerous renovations, Lana takes the two
Van Zandts into her home. She quickly falls in love with both of them, but is irate with Dylan for
not
fighting for custody of Greg when a powerful Texan claims he is the father. The Maitland
Maternity
series is an entertaining saga that combines elements of romance and suspense into fun to read
novels that center on the people impacted by the clinic. The current story Baby 101 is a fine entry
that sub-genre fans will enjoy even though it tears at the audience's soul with LeeAnn's plight and
the custody battle over Greg.
Montana Mavericks: Big Sky Grooms
Susan Mallery, Bronwyn Williams and Carolyn Davidson
Harlequin
Aug 2001, $6.50 ISBN: 0373834918
"Spirit of the Wolf" by Susan Mallery. In April 1886 in Whitehorn, Montana, Ruth Whitefeather
escorts young runaway Zeke Kincaid home though she knows his widowed father Caleb lives
there.
Years ago, the half- Cheyenne Ruth rejected Caleb's proposal of marriage. When he sees her with
his
son, Caleb wonders if he has a second chance at love or will Ruth reject him again. "As Good as
Gold" by Bronwyn Williams. In June, Caleb's sibling Will returns to Whitehorn to open a bank.
Will
worries that his older brother has not forgiven him for taking ranch money years ago. Meanwhile
Lizzy works the saloon because her brother paid off his gambling debt by "indenturing" her. Will
begins to protect Lizzy in exchange for bedroom privileges even as he admires her business
acumen.
"The Gamble" by Carolyn Davidson. By August, Will worries about his decadent cousin James so
he
insures his relative becomes Whitehorn's sheriff to give him esteem. That has little impact on
James'
fragile ego. When James rescues schoolmarm Kate Elliot from bandits, he quickly realizes she has
rescued him from a life as a black sheep by teaching him how to care and love for someone else.
All
three novellas are well written western romances that emphasize consistent characterizations
(what
you get in one-story remains true in another tale). The story lines provide complex relationship
dramas that showcase the collaboration and talents of Susan Mallery, Bronwyn Williams and
Carolyn Davidson. Readers will find late nineteenth century Montana appealing as seen through
the
eyes of the Kincaid kin in this warm anthology.
The Baby Cop
Roz Denny Fox
Harlequin Superromance
Jul 2001. $4.50. 299 ISBN: 0373709994
Desert City detective Ethan "Baby Cop" Knight lives up to his last name as a knight in shining
armor
trying to find safe homes for abused children. Some people will say Ethan is obsessed over safely
placing children while other swill say he is substituting for his desperate need of a family of his
own.
Whatever, to succeed at his chosen avocation, Ethan works closely with the Child Help Center,
whose current administration winks when the Baby Cop breaks the rules to insure a strong
placement. However, Ethan's relationship with the Child Help Center changes abruptly when
Regan
Grant becomes director of the Desert City branch. Regan buries herself in her work to forget a
recent nasty boyfriend experience. However, unlike her predecessor and Ethan, Regan believes
rules
are set for a reason and adherence is critical to performing a good job. She plans to stop that
rogue
cop from deviating from standard operating procedures. However, when Ethan and Regan meet,
sparks fly and soon love unites them, but she has demons that make a permanent relationship
impossible. Roz Denny Fox shows her vast skills with her latest super tale, The Baby Cop, which
digs deep into the impact of abused children on society. The story line works because Regan and
Ethan are caring, nurturing souls who see placements from different perspectives. Ethan is a bit
too
perfect even if he is quite a hunk, while Regan is loaded with demons that make her seem human.
Readers will demand more Desert City novels from Ms Denny, preferably one starring Ethan's
hunk
of a partner.
The Deadhouse
Linda Fairstein
Scribner
Sept 2001, $25.00, 414 pp. ISBN: 0684549046
When Professor Lola Dakota finally had enough of her husband's abuse she agreed to work with
the
New Jersey District Attorney's office to put him behind bars. They set up a sting operation using
undercover police officers masquerading as hitman. When they show Lola's husband Ivan on a
videotape of them "killing" her, he pays them their fee. The police arrest him. Unfortunately, later
that day Lola's body is found in the elevator shaft of her Manhattan apartment building. The police
declare it a homicide. Alex Cooper, New York's assistant district attorney is handling this
homicide
in conjunction with the police. With so many suspects and so little hard evidence, Alex has to
work
doubly hard to solve the case while avoid getting killed by some people who want to see her dead.
The Deadhouse shows how the district attorney's office and the police department work closely
together while trying to find the perpetrator of a homicide. Familiar characters from previous
books
in this series give the audience a feeling of being reunited with dear and cherished friends. Linda
Fairstein is a talented writer who sets up a story line with so many twists and red herrings that the
reader won't be able to rest until they find out who the culprit is.
Don't Cry For Me, Hot Pastrami
Sharon Kahn
Scribner
Sep 2001, $24.00, 298 pp. ISBN: 0684871556
Since the death of Rabbi Stu Rothman, Essie Sue Margolis runs the Temple Rita synagogue in
Eternal, Texas. Using a statistically invalid and unreliable sampling of the congregation members,
Essie Sue informs the board that the new Rabbi Kevin Kerstein has a very low approval rating. To
avoid the selection process of a new rabbi, the board including Ruby, the wife of the deceased
previous Rabbi, agree to a Caribbean Sea cruise. Ruby wins the raffle for a free trip, but wonders
if
she will be sailing with endless tsuris from the aggravation she expects from her companions. The
Bargain Tours cruise is filled with cut-rate reductions that makes this a trip worth forgetting
though
coincidentally the Captain happens to be Essie Sue's cousin. University Professor Gonzales was to
provide insight into the historical Jewish population in the area, but he dies while boarding the
ship.
Ruby finds herself embroiled in a mystery based on the professor's notes while two suitors, the
captain and a passenger she likes (who might just be a killer) pursue her. The third Rabbi's wife
mystery, Don't Cry For Me, Hot Pastrami, is an amusing who-done-it due to the internal
sufferings
and asides of Ruby. The story line is fun though a reader might wonder why Ruby puts up with
Essie
Sue, a professional nudnick. Essie Sue is as aggressive a character one will find in a cozy while
the
Rabbi needs to borrow some of her chutzpah so he will not continue to look like a putz. Fans of
an
ethnic who-done-it will enjoy this tale that requires noshing a bagel while reading it.
Nekropolis
Maureen F. McHugh
Eos
Sept 2001, $24.00, 272 pp. ISBN: 0380974576
In a future Morocco, slavery is legal, an institution deeply ingrained into the fiber of society.
Slaves
are jessed, given mind-altering drugs that make them loyal and eager to please their master.
Hariba,
born into poverty in the Nekropolis, actually lived with her family in adjoining crypts until her
brother was caught in the sin of adultery. He was flogged and sentenced to thirteen years in
prison.
Hariba fearing any deep emotion sold herself into slavery and was jessed to her new master
Mbarek.
She becomes a housekeeper in his home where she meets the biological construct Akhmim.
Despite
herself, and knowing any relationship between them is illegal, she falls for him. When she is
resold,
she runs away from her new masters, taking Akhmim with her. Unless they can find a way to be
smuggled into a country where slavery is illegal, even for Chimeras like Akhmim, the two risk
capture and death at the hands of the authorities. Maureen F. McHugh has written a literary
science
fiction novel that will be enjoyed by fans of Ursula LeGuin. The story line is riveting, but what
makes this work so very special is the way slavery is accepted by both slave and master alike. The
subcultures of the biological constructs raise interesting social and ethical issues, especially what
constitutes humanity. This is a novel that makes readers think and ponder their own values
system.
Ms. McHugh is going to be a giant in the science fiction genre.
Strip City
Lily Burana
Farrar Straus Giroux
Sep 2001, $23.95, 336 pp. ISBN: 0786867906
When journalist Lily Burana became engaged, she chose a different type of bachelorette party
than
the majority of Americans. Being a former stripper, Lily decided to do a final tour in homage to
her
former profession that is looked down upon by much of society, including his patrons. How will
her
fianc‚ react and will the glitter and high of the striptease reclaim Lily? Strip City is an engaging
autobiography that lays bare in a humorous manner Lily Burana's tremendous talent for stripping
not
just her clothes, but the mores of society. Ms. Burana uses humor, self-deprecating vulnerability,
and
tremendous amounts of pride to give a warm finger to the righteous while stripping naked to the
morality that many hide behind. Anyone, who enjoys a witty, frisky, and somewhat satirical look
from a writer who bares her soul by turning Matthew Arnold's "clothing theory of Man" (make
that
woman) into a deep look at life.
The Wolf Pit
Marly Youmans
Farrar Straus Giroux
Sep 2001, $24.00, 352 pp. ISBN: 0374291950
His Confederate peers call him Robin for singing "Who Killed Cock Robin?" as he bravely goes
into
battle with his enemy. His chain of command thinks he is a courageous warrior calmly willing to
die
for the cause. Instead, Robin uses the nursery rhyme along with family pictures, Psalms, and a
child's
novel to survive the horrors of war that eats at him every moment he breathes. While back in
Robin's
Virginia home, Robin's mother Aemelia notices abused but intelligent slave Agate Freebody on
the
trader's block. They communicate and Aemelia uses Agate's hidden money to purchase the brave
young woman. Aemelia frees Agate and the two become more like mother and daughter. As both
pray for Robin's safe return, Northern soldiers capture him and send him to infamous "Helmira"
prison in Elmira, New York. Meanwhile, the war goes on seemingly forever in spite of the
obvious
wishes of the two women. The Wolf Pit is a deep historical fiction novel with two parallel
subplots
that are tied together through Aemelia. Both of the stories are well written and dig deep into the
events of the Civil War that impacts, motivates, and ultimately shapes the key protagonists by
1864.
The tales of Robin and Agate share gloom and doom with some light of happier times with the
former's being in his past and the latter's in her future. Though the characters seem removed as if
the
reader sees them from the present looking back rather than walking alongside them in 1864,
Marly
Youmans provides a strong tale that clearly focuses on a pivotal point in American history.
Billy Strobe
John Martel
Dutton
Sep 2001, $25.95, 416 pp. ISBN: 0525946187
Though his father committed suicide after being convicted of criminal wrongdoing, Billy Strobe
follows in his legal footsteps. Billy leaves Enid, Oklahoma for UCLA law school on a scholarship
where he excels in his first two years. However, he gets involved with four rich students, who pull
an insider trading con. When they are caught the wealthy foursome plea bargain by accusing Billy
of
setting up the scheme. The affluent quartet receives probation while Billy goes to Soledad to do
three to five years. Billy quickly gets a taste of prison life as he meets other prisoners some
friendly,
some not so, and some outright dangerous. He soon becomes the jailhouse lawyer while
continuing
his schooling through correspondence classes. He particularly becomes interested in the case of
Darryl Orton. As he completes his degree and obtains a pardon as a second chance poster boy,
Billy
plans to clear his father's name and that of Darryl, both whom he believes are victims of a
horrendous system that he still believes is the best. Billy Strobe is an excellent legal thriller that
leaves readers wondering if this graphic novel is autobiographical as John Martel paints an
incredibly
vivid picture of prison. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action as the idealistic but
realistic
Billy survives prison and his return to society while working to prove that his father and Darryl
are
victims of the system that he admires. Mr. Martel is a marvelous author whose plot seems
distinctively real while probing the American legal system.
Shock
Robin Cook
Putnam
Sept 2001, $24.95, 384 pp. ISBN 0399146008
The only thing keeping roommates Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner from getting their
doctorates from Harvard is writing up and turning in their thesis. They learn that the Wingate
Fertility Clinic is willing to pay them forty five thousand dollars each for donating eggs so a
couple
can have a child. They agree to do so partly for humanitarian reasons and partly so they can buy a
house and then rent it out while they live in Venice for the next year, completing their thesis and
having fun. Upon their return to the United States both women want to know if their eggs were
used
in vitro fertilization to produce children. When the clinic claims confidentiality, the two women
assume new identities, change their looks and accept jobs working at the clinic. The plan is to
hack
into the computer records before disappearing into the night. It doesn't take the bright inquisitive
pair long to realize there are some strange things going on at the clinic and not all of them related
to
the standard fertility techniques. They decide to find out just what exactly is going on, an action
that
could kill them if they are not careful. Shock is an exciting medical thriller centering on cutting
edge
technology experiments conducted by people who want to milk a cash cow (no offense to the
cow).
Robin Cook's work is so frightening because the technology exists today for these experiments to
be
carried out by unscrupulous, unethical people. Mr. Cook's complex characterizations are brilliant,
as
all the people populating the novel seem real. It's easy to say Shock is going to be on every
bestseller
list.
The Absence Of Nectar
Kathy Hepinstall
Putnam
Sep 2001, $23.95 ISBN: 0399148019
In Texas Simon Jester saved the life of Meg Fender when the woman almost drowned. Not long
afterward, Meg married her savior. Meg's two children from her first marriage, fourteen-year-old
Boone and twelve year old Alice fear the abusive Simon, who once burned his stepdaughter with
a
hot spatula for saying hello to him. Boone and Alice believe Simon plans to kill them, but are
unable
to persuade their mother who is pregnant with his child. They wonder what really happened to his
first family, who allegedly drowned in an accident and why he collects books on changing
household
items into poisons. They even go so far as using a code to inform one another on what is safe
food;
meaning not touched by Simon. However, this evening everything comes to a head as their
mother
tells them to run. They flee to a Lake Shine island where Simon has helped his true love, mental
patient escapee Persely Snow, not yet aware of her link to the dangerous Boone. The Absence Of
Nectar is an electrifying thriller that shows Kathy Hepinstall is no one hit wonder (see The House
Of
Gentle Men). Alice tells the captivating story line, which allows the audience to understand the
helplessness and fear with no one to turn to for help that she lives with every awakening moment.
Thus, a suspense-laden thriller brings the reader inside the mind of the key player so that the
audience can taste what Alice tastes and sees how she feels about the other critical cast members.
A
great tale by a rising superstar who knows how to write.
Closing Time
Jim Fusilli
Putnam
Sep 2001, $23.95, 288 pp. ISBN: 0399147934
New York history writer Terry Orr turned private sleuth is after Raymond Weisz who killed his
son
by pushing the young child into an oncoming train. Terry's beloved wife also died when she tried
to
rescue her child. Terry still grieves his loss and writes in a journal addressed to his wife. Still he
believes that bringing Weisz to justice will give him closure. Because of this, Terry's
twelve-year-old
daughter Bella seems more like the adult at times in their relationship. While jogging in
Manhattan,
Terry finds the battered corpse of cabby Aubrey Brown. When he learns the man was a loner with
a
tragic past, Terry feels an affinity to the victim even though he loves Bella. Terry begins to
investigate who killed the African-American taxi driver. However, Terry is sidetracked when he
rescues his daughter and his wife's former agent from a bomb that exploded at the latter's art
gallery.
He has another case to investigate because the obsessed Terry feels he must get involved. Closing
Time is an engaging private investigative tale that feels more like an amateur sleuth story because
Terry has no experience whatsoever in his new line of work. Terry is a maudlin character while
Bella
is a cheerful individual who seems much older than the preadolescent she is. The story line centers
on Terry rather than on any of his three investigations, but that allows the audience a deep look
inside the emotional chopped meat of the hero's soul. Jim Fusilli has written a powerful character
study inside an engaging mystery novel.
The Association
Bentley Little
Signet
Sep 2001, $6.99, 438 pp. ISBN: 0451204123
Barry and Maureen left behind their hectic Southern California lifestyle to start over in Corban,
Utah
seeking a simpler pace. They buy their dream home inside a gated community called Bonita Vista
with a beautiful view and just about all the amenities anyone could desire. The only stipulation
they
are required to meet is to become a member of the Bonita Vista Homeowner's Association, which
the loving couple readily accepts. The first indication that this is not paradise occurs when Barry
and
Maureen host a yard sale and an agent of the Homeowner's Association write them up for
violating
the rules. As time passes, both Barry and Maureen chafe under fascist restrictions and soon notice
strange events involving the Homeowner's Association that seems to know everything they do and
enter their home without using a door. Worse are the inexplicable deaths and disappearances of
neighbors making the duet wonder how much danger have they agreed to when they signed the
dotted line. After reading The Association, most people will think twice about living within a
gated
community even with the added security. Readers will be shaken by this superb tale that will lead
to
higher electrical bills because of lights left on all night and an increase in 911 calls for every noise
not immediately explained. Bentley Little is a giant when it comes to making every day normal
living
seem so frightening.
She's The One
Sandra Kitt
Signet
Aug 2001, $6.99, 376 pp. ISBN: 0451203909
New York medical examiner Dr. Marvin Gavin calls information manager Deanna Lindsay
because
the morgue holds car accident victim Stacy Lowell who carried Deanna's card. At first Deanna
said
she did not know a Lowell, but soon realizes that the victim was someone she befriended under
nasty conditions six years ago. Deanna remembers she and Stacy vowed to help one another if the
need warranted it, but they had not seen one another in about five years. Deanna travels to the
Bellevue Hospital Morgue where she positively identifies the body as Stacy and meets Patterson
Temple also there to ID the corpse. Patterson wonders how an urban African-American and the
deceased mid- America White met as the two would seem to have occupied different ponds.
Surprisingly to both, Stacy named Deanna as guardian to her biracial six- year-old daughter Jade.
Even more shocking Deanna, feeling guilt that she was not there for Stacy, agrees to take little
Jade
into her home. Besides Jade and Patterson, Deanna's compassionate act brings the abusive former
spouse of Stacy, Marcus, into her life too. She's The One is a superb drama that digs deeply into a
variety of positive and negative relationships, including cross-racial and biracial. The story line is
simply superb because the key players, especially cynical Patterson, awed Deanna, and stunned
Jade
seem genuine and capably carry the tale. The support cast provides additional depth to the prime
protagonists while also propelling the plot to its conclusion. Fans who want a discerning, earnest
real life novel will find Sandra Kitt is the one to read.
Homicidal Intent
Vivian Chern
Dell Books
Sept 2001 $5.99, 400 pp. ISBN 0440237203
Well-behaved twelve-year-old Jason never gave his parents any trouble. Yet one day he walked
into
his school with a gun and calmly killed three people (two students and a teacher) and injured
another
student. He then calmly put the gun down and went over to table and grabbed some popcorn. The
city of New York is horrified that something like this could happen at such an upscale school. The
prosecutors want to try him as an adult but even they want to know what triggered this
unprovoked
attack. The lead prosecutor on the case asks his live-in fiancee, Tamsen Bayn to evaluate the
child's
parents. At the same time she agrees to help, she also plans to represent Grandines
Pharmaceuticals
with their new drug that is coming out on the market in a few weeks. While taking it, alcoholics
won't have the urge to drink. As people connected to Grandines start dying, Tamsen begins the
dangerous game of sleuthing which leads to a possible link between the two cases and a possible
acquittal for Jason. This is an exciting medical thriller in which appearances are deceiving and
what
you know probably will kill you. It is the tale of ruthless men who will do anything to attain their
goals and it is the story of one doctor acting as the Lone Ranger trying to stop them. Both the
heroine and the villains are believable helping make the story line reminiscent of the works of
Robin
Cook and Michael Palmer.
Midlife Can Be Murder
Jane Isenberg
Avon
Oct 2001, $6.50, 288 pp. ISBN 0380818868
Hoboken, New Jersey may not be the center of the universe but there are enough activities going
on
to keep Bel Barrett busy twenty-four hours a day. She's a full time English professor at the local
community college and is only a semester away from getting her Ph.D. In her spare moments she
works on her relationship with her significant other. If that isn't enough, Bel decides to get in
touch
with her Jewish heritage by attending classes that will lead up to her Adult Bat Mitzvah. In the
Hebrew class is her former student Ashley who begs her to help find out whether her friend's
death
was an accident or a murder as she rally suspects. Unable to say no, Bel enlists the help of her
friends who have worked with her on previous murder investigations. Together they launch an
operation that takes a lot of energy and nearly costs Bel all that she holds dear. The fifty
something-menopausal heroine is drawn very true to life and is so noble and charming she has the
audience rooting for her all the way. The secondary cast is just as well drawn as the star. The
characters make Midlife Can Be Murder feels more like a multi dimensional reading experience.
Jane
Isenberg has crafted a well-written mystery with enough red herrings to keep the best puzzle
solver
stumped.
An Unlikely Lady
Rachelle Morgan
Avon
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0380809222
In 1886 Last Hope, Colorado, Honesty McGuire needs to know who she really is. Three months
ago, the man she thought of as her father, Deuce McGuire, a renowned con artist, died. Before
his
death, he informed her that he was not her biological father though he loved her like she was his
daughter. Because several thugs are after Deuce and by default Honesty, she dishonestly puts up a
front that he still lives to keep herself safe. Undercover Pinkerton Agent Jessie Justiss, using the
alias
of Jones, seeks Deuce for abducting and killing the two daughters of San Francisco magnate
Anton
Jervais sixteen years ago. When Jessie meets Honesty, both lose the edge that made them so
successful as a detective and con artist respectively. Instead, love enters the relationship, but what
will happen when they learn the truth about one another? An Unlikely Lady is an amusing western
romantic romp starring two inviting lead characters that dance quite a tango between them to the
delight of the audience. The story line is humorous, but contains a wonderful investigative subplot
as
well as a warm romance between two wary "warriors". Rachelle Morgan shows her abilities to tell
a
gregarious story starring strong protagonists who hopefully soon will return during the story of
Honesty's missing twin sister.
Maybe Baby
Elaine Fox
Avon
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0380817837
With one year to go in her residency, Dr. Delaney Poole visits Harp Cove, Maine for the first time
because she wants to practice medicine there. The town with its winter population of five
thousand
seems perfect to Delaney. So she prays that the National Health Service agrees to allow her to
pay
off her medical debt to them by assigning her there for three years following completion of her
residency. Perhaps it is her elation over the town, but Delaney shares an intimacy with Sailboat
Jack.
One year later, Delaney and her infant Emily return so that the former can set up her medical
practice. However, she is stunned when Jack Shepard of Sailboat Jack fame enters her office due
to
an accident he just suffered. She is shocked to learn he is not from Cape Cod, but a local who
happens to be her landlord as well as her baby's father. Unable to cope, Delaney begins a series of
fabrications that soon prove the adage "oh what a web we weave when we first deceive"
especially
when love further obfuscates the situation. Any novel that can include a reference to the Silver
Surfer has to be admired even if Maybe Baby requires reader acceptance on why Delaney
escalates
her house of lies. Once taking that leap, readers will find the humorous story line quite genial even
with its serious undertone that rural America needs doctors. The lead couple is an alluring duo in
spite of the mendacious Delaney's growing fears of discovery. Elaine Fox furnishes the audience a
lively contemporary romance.
Foreign Body
Kathleen Taylor
Avon
August 2001, $6.99, 384 pp. ISBN 0380812053
This has not been an uneventful year for Tory Bauer and that is the biggest understatement of the
century. In a period of seven months, she has become involved in six homicide investigations,
began
and ended an affair with a married man, and became the co-owner of the Delphi Caf‚ when her
mentor and friend passed away. The new co-owner is a former stripper who drives her nuts and
she
fears to becoming romantically involved with her best friend because if things go wrong, she will
lose a relationship she deeply cherishes. Just when it looks like her life might be getting back to
normal, a girl dies in the Delphi's caf‚. Leaving a note behind, the girl, in her letter, accuses the
Reverend Clay Deibert of molesting her. The Reverend is married to Tory's cousin Junior and she
does not believe Clay would do anything so horrendous. She intends to prove this and winds up
getting involved in another murder investigation. Foreign Body is a laugh out loud amateur sleuth
novel that will appeal to anyone who likes an Agatha Christie like mystery with a twist of humor.
The lead and supporting characters have all appeared in previous works in this series so readers
will
feel as if they are revisiting with old friends. Kathleen Taylor has a dry sense of humor, which
comes
out at unexpected turns in the voices of the characters and helps make Foreign Body an enjoyable
reading experience.
A Matter Of Scandal
Suzanne Enoch
Avon
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0380818507
The Earl of Haverly, Dennis Hawthorne asks his nephew Greydon Brakenridge, the Duke of
Wycliffe to come to his remote estate in Hampshire during the London season. Needing an excuse
to
flee the females of the Ton including his mother, Grey leaves for Haverly Manor. However, he
fails
to rid himself of all his troubles as an entourage accompanies him. Grey's uncle has accumulated
bad
debts, but refuses to allow his nephew to pay it off. Instead he asks Grey to come up with a plan
to
help him with his financial crisis. Grey starts by raising the rents on the tenants including the Miss
Grenville's Academy. The schoolmistress Emma Grenville argues with Grey that tripling her rent
will
shut down the school, but he believes that is no loss as these finishing schools are marriage
brokers.
Still Grey cannot ignore how pretty Emma is when she makes a bet with him on whether she
could
persuade him that females deserve a formal education. When they placed the bet, neither one
expected her to be at the center of a school for scandal debacle nor for love to grow between
them.
A Matter Of Scandal is a refreshing Regency romance that completes Suzanne Enoch's gregarious
"With This Ring" series. The story line centers on the war of the sexes as Grey and Emma clash
over
female education as much as their love for one another. Through her shrewd characters, Ms.
Enoch
provides a perceptive perusal of the options facing aristocratic women in the early nineteenth
century England inside a strong romance that will delight sub-genre fans.
Crazy Thing Called Love
Cindi Louis
Harper
Aug 2001, $6.50, 368 pp. ISBN: 0380819783
Rumor among the lawyers is that Hanging Judge Jayda Tillman hates all males after her ugly
divorce
from her sleazy husband Adam Peterson. When Jayda moves into the apartment below him,
attorney
Jason McNeal claims to his sister that the new occupant will not cramp his style even when she
complains about the noise emanating from his abode. Not long afterward, they argue in court over
her sentencing of his client leading to her fining him for contempt. As Jayda and Jason become
acquainted in court and in their apartment building, they begin to fall in love. However, she still
hurts from her first marriage and though he is drop dead gorgeous Jayda rejects her heart's
demand
for a strong relationship. Though she sets his soul spinning for more, Jason rejects anything
permanent because he already has relationships with females, four younger sisters to raise. Cindi
Louis captivates fans of ethnic romances with a touch of the paranormal, intriguing court scenes,
and a bit of suspense to sweeten a delectable love story. The story line is fun because of the in and
out of court relationship between the "Ebony Man" centerfold and Her "Honoress". This Crazy
Thing Called Love will leave readers impatiently waiting for Jayda's friend Melissa Beacon's
story.
The Conquest
Edith Layton
Harper
Aug 2001, $6.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0380818639
Her teenage younger brothers always bring home wounded animals and ultimately Alexandria
Gascoyne ends up caring for the creatures. However this time it is different as they obtain her help
using their door and his horse to carry the wounded unconscious man into their home. With no
identification on him, the only thing Alexandria and the doctor she sent for know is that he is very
wealthy. When he regains consciousness under her nursing, he introduces himself as the Earl of
Drummond, Derek "Drum" de Macy. When Drum heals, he reluctantly returns to London, leaving
behind a now lonely Alexandria who misses their enlightened discussions. He craves to see her
too
so he sends for her though he knows his rank makes her unsuitable. As they fall in love, Drum has
an
unknown enemy who tried to kill him on that country road near his beloved's home and will take
other shots at it including at his most precious Ally. Fans of Edith Layton's C Regency books will
want to read The Conquest, a powerful tale that brings back characters from the previous novels
in
the series. Though better to understand the support cast by reading the earlier novels, this story
line
tells the tale of the intrepid lead characters so that the new readers have a stand-alone book. The
theme centers on love between social classes though some intrigue lingers throughout the plot.
Regency aficionados, especially those, who give an A+ to Ms Layton's C books, will cherish the
latest entry.
Down By The Water
Caroline Upcher
HarperCollins
Jul 2001, $25.00, 393 pp. ISBN: 0060185686
In Long Island Realtor Hope Collins-Calder has enough on her plate selling houses that she has
no
time to care for her children, the oldest being only eight. She knows she can obtain no help from
her
first husband, the father of her older two kids because he lives in California and even less
assistance
from her present spouse Eddie who resides more in Manhattan especially during the week. She
hires
nannies, but they seem to come and go rather quickly. Eddie obtains the services of a forty-seven
year English spinster with limited experience at best. English expatriate Annabel Quick accepts
the
job to flee her nightmares of a failed love affair and the death of her mother due to a fire. As
Eddie
and Hope have extra marital affairs, Annabel begins taking reasonable care of her charges and
suitors soon appear. Will Eddie run off with his assistant? Will Hope return to her first husband?
Will Annabel find happiness in America? Only one thing seems certain, the English nanny and her
three wards make a happy family together. Down By The Water is a well written relationship
drama
that works because Caroline Upcher never allows the story line to turn into a soap opera or a
cartoon style plot. Instead, the author cleverly provides a full perspective on the goings-on in the
Calder-Collins household to include that of the critical secondary players. This, in turn, allows the
audience to fully understand the desires and worries that motivate the key cast members. Ms.
Upcher adroitly furnishes an intelligently graceful tale that will make her a fan favorite.
The Grand Complication
Allen Kurzweil
Hyperion
Aug 2001, $24.95, 360 pp. ISBN: 0786866039
Reference librarian Alex Short finds work very boring as assisting customers is done more on an
assembly line with pneumatic tubes than on a one-to-one basis. He enjoys lettering and on rare
occasions, a customer's call slip is written in a historical style of graphics and he collects these
rarities with a passion. The young man prefers to "girdle" by writing observations in his little
notebook that he carries with him all the time more than he wants to have sex with his beautiful
French wife. Sixtyish Henry James Jesson III submits a library call slip requesting Secret
Compartments, an eighteenth century furniture book. The beautiful rarely seen-today writing style
catches Alex's eye and he breaks the rules by delivering the book to the requester. Henry offers
Alex
a job to complete a collection that contains a secret compartment with a hanging nail inside but
the
attached item is missing. Henry begins to follow the trail of The Grand Complication, a lost
eighteenth century watch, a search that could prove to cost him his soul. The Grand Complication
is
a different type of mystery one that seems so simple yet is so rich and complex. The library, Nic's
pop-ups, eighteenth century cabinets to conserve precious items, and Henry's Manhattan
townhouse
are filled with layers of detail weaved into the delightful story line. The investigation is intelligent
and adds to the strange relationship between Henry and Alex. Readers who delight in
well-written,
off beat literature will want to obtain Allen Kurzweil's first novel in a decade because few writers
enter the soul of his characters quite like this author does.
Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas
James Patterson
Little, Brown
Jul 2001;, $22.95; 266 pp. ISBN: 0316969443
New York book editor Katie Wilkinson believed that she found her soul mate in poet-house
painter
Matt Harrison. However, instead of a lifetime together, they share a year before Matt vanishes.
After
disappearing from her life, Matt mails Katie a diary written by his wife Suzanne. Katie cannot help
but read the journal that Suzanne has written to her and Matt's son. She explains how she was a
yuppie doctor in Boston until she suffered a heart attack in her mid thirties. Knowing she needed a
lifestyle change, Suzanne fled to Martha's Vinyard where she falls in love with Matt. They marry
and
have a child. As she reads, Katie begins to feel she knows Suzanne and Nicholas as old friends.
Still
even she wonders if she should try to see Matt one last time once she finishes the cherished diary
lovingly written by a mother to a son? Fans of James Patterson's powerful Cross mysteries will
find
Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas quite a departure for the popular author. There is a mystery of sorts
and plenty of suspense but in a different manner than usual for a James Patterson novel, but no
murders or crimes are committed. Still, the writer flexes his muscles as he provides a strong,
insightful, yet teary character study that looks closely at loss through the souls of Suzanne and
Matt
and the reactions of Katie. Using his usual switching from first to third and back to first case, Mr.
Patterson provides a warm, somewhat overly maudlin tale that will stir the audience to want more
dramas of this sort from a talented scribe.
The Texas Ranger
Diana Palmer
Mira
Aug 2001, $6.99, 374 pp. ISBN: 1551668432
Texas Ranger Sergeant Marc Brannon replaces fellow agent Judd Dunn on the investigation with
potential mob ties. However, his emphasis changes when the murder of Dale Jennings, a person
sent
to jail for a homicide two years ago and just recently released, occurs. Worse for Marc is that the
only woman he ever loved, investigator Josette Langley, believes senatorial candidate Bib Webb is
involved just as he was on the Jennings homicide conviction two years ago. Though it is
uncomfortable for both parties a reluctant Marc and Josette work closely together on the Jennings
murder case even as their love flares up threatening the city of San Antonio with its intensity.
However, she never forgave him for destroying her credibility as a witness two years ago and he
never forgave her for her efforts to unjustly hang a friend. Still, love is all around and between
them
if they can forgive the past and survive the present they may find a future. The Texas Ranger is an
interesting romantic suspense novel that provides the audience with an exhilarating investigation
starring two people in love and hate with one another. The story line is fun though Marc's
obstinacy
seems inappropriate for a clever detective with his glittering record. Still he is a hunk and Josette
is a
powerful female lead. Diana Palmer provides her myriad of romance fans with a stirring story that
readers of police procedurals will also appreciate.
Looking For Laura
Judith Arnold
Mira
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 1551668289
Three months ago in Winfield, Massachusetts husband and father Paul Driver died in a car
accident.
Though he did not want to marry her when she became pregnant, he finally did and his wife Sally
thought they had a pleasant but not passionate life together. Following a period of grieving, Sally
begins to go through his things. However to her shock, she finds love letters from a mysterious
Laura written to Paul. She rushes over to see the executor, Paul's best friend Todd Sloane about
the
letters and a life insurance stipulation. Like Sally, Todd is stunned to learn that Paul had a lover he
never told him about. Needing closure also, the two agrees to search out for Laura to learn more
about Paul. On the road to discovery, the two opposites begin to fall in love, but feel guilt as their
loyalties to the deceased Paul keeps both of them from taking the next step towards a permanent
relationship. Looking For Laura is a pleasant contemporary romance that will entertain readers,
but
is not quite at the level of quality expected from Judith Arnold. The story line contains an
interesting
dilemma as the lead protagonists find love with one another, but their mutual acquaintance though
dead lingers in the back of their minds. The problem with the tale is that Paul is written as a
cheater
rather than a person who deeply loved someone else while reluctantly remaining married for the
sake
of his daughter. Fans who enjoy a tale similar to It Happened One Night but not as good will want
to read this sad yet amusing romance novel.
The Wager
Metsy Hingle
Mira
Aug 2001, $5.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 1551668262
The car accident killed her mother Juliet and injured Laura Harte. Before dying, Juliet told Laura
to
see attorney Paul Shaw and to forgive her. Paul gives Laura a box containing newspaper clippings
about Andrew Jardine, who died five years ago in New Orleans and who turns out to have been
her
father. Laura is shocked because her mother told her that her father was a Richard Harte who died
in
Nam just after their marriage. Olivia Jardine won the Princess Hotel from Josh Logan's
grandfather
over sixty years ago. He is obsessed in his zeal to buy back the property, but Olivia refuses to sell
though the hotel is losing money. She asks Josh to go to San Francisco and persuade her "other"
grandchild to come to New Orleans. In turn, she offers Josh the same wager that won her the
Princess. He accepts the terms, but soon Josh falls in love with Laura and she with him. However,
once she learns the other condition of The Wager, she will probably flee back to California with a
bitter taste in her mouth. The Wager is an entertaining contemporary romance centering on the
human ability to weather emotional storms and adapt to changes caused by them. The delightful
story line is fun to read though Olivia's obsession with the Princess seems stretched even if it
serves
as the plot's prime catalyst. Laura and Josh are a fine couple and the secondary characters bring
New
Orleans to life, as Metsy Hingle shows she really knows the city. Fans will want Ms. Hingle to
write
a sequel or two after this joyous experience.
16 Lighthouse Road
Debbie Macomber
Mira
Sep 2001, $6.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 1551668300
Ian Randall was out at sea when his young wife Cecilia gave birth to a baby with a defective heart.
Not long afterward, Cecilia stands alone burying their daughter. Unable to cope, Cecilia and Ian
agree to divorce, but Cedar Cove, Washington Family Court Judge Olivia Lockheart denies their
petition. She believes the grief is coloring their decisions and both remain in love with one
another.
The new Cedar Cove Chronicle editor Jack Griffin attended the court on the day that Olivia
issued
her surprising ruling in the Randall case. He writes a laudatory editorial praising the decision. Jack
wants to start seeing Olivia, who he admires for her courage and conviction to avoid the easy
road
of granting the divorce decree. However, he has quite a road to travel, as she never recovered
from
her divorce. Meanwhile her mother interferes in her cases and her daughter drives her crazy while
her son joins the navy. This is a normal scenario for Judge Lockheart. 16 Lighthouse Road is an
enjoyable relationship cozy that looks at life in a small town, mostly through the women. When
God
created Eve, he must have asked Debbie Macomber for advice because no one does female
characters any better than this author. The story line is somewhat fragmented between the several
different subplots whose link is Olivia. Still, the cast is superb and the town seems so real that the
audience will stroll through the pages of this novel and want more Cedar Cove books in the
future.
On The Night Plain
J Robert Lennon
Henry Holt
Aug 2001, $23.00, 246 pp. ISBN: 0805067221
Since the war with Japan ended, Grant Person has given a great deal of thought about leaving his
family's remote ranch on the northern Great Plains. Grant who sees the haunting eyes of his
parents
and his younger brother Max daily cannot ignore the guilt of another sibling dying while serving
his
country in Grant's place. Unable to cope with the ghost, Grant takes the train east. After several
years away, Grant returns home to find his mother dead, his father gone, and Max abandoning the
dilapidated ranch to paint. Grant decides to try to make a go of the ranch using the money he
earned
over the last few years as a sailor. A year later, Max returns with his girlfriend Sophia. Not long
afterward, Grant and Sophia begin to fall in love splitting the siblings even more than when the
older
brother walked out several years ago. On The Night Plain is a perspicacious look at life on the
Great
Plains just after World War II. The story line paints a bleak picture of loneliness through the key
characters, the two forlorn Pearson brothers. Readers will feel the bitter cold and solitude while
trekking along the ranch. Once again J Robert Lennon has taken a dramatic twist from his
previous
novels (see The Light Of Falling Stars and The Funnies) by offering something new and different,
yet retains the engaging prose expected of him.
The Cottage
Sandra Steffen
Zebra Books
Aug 2001, $6.50, 351 pp. ISBN: 0821771302
Caleb Wilder knows he is a fool to fly a Cessna during a thunderstorm in the North Georgia
Mountains, but he has no choice, as he must find his runaway teenage son Danny. Cale realizes his
adopted child is hurting ever since his mom died a year and a half ago and Danny is seeking solace
by trying to find his biological father. Cale is lucky to be alive when his small craft crashes near
Dawson's Hollow where healer Miranda Sinclair and her friend Ruby McCoy rescue him. As they
attend to more than just healing his body, the women try to mend his soul and that of Danny.
Miranda and Cale fall in love, but a deep secret from her past ties them together on the one hand,
yet
probably prevents any future together. The Cottage is a deep relationship drama that digs inside
the
heart and soul of the key cast members. The tale centers on seeking panaceas in the past to heal
the
wounds of the present, but the answers may not provide the comfort Danny desires. The
characters
make the tale a delight for sub-genre fans, as the audience will feel Danny's pain, Cale's worries,
and
Miranda's nurturing everyone but herself. Any one who attains pleasure from reading a perceptive
contemporary tale will want to visit Sandra Steffon's The Cottage.
Grand Design
Karen Fox
Zebra Books
Aug 2001, $5.99, 352 pp. ISBN: 0821769030
Cynda Madison hates restoration projects as she wanted to simply paint, but a struggling artist
must
eat. She currently works for the Hope Springs Historical Society, which plans the major July 4th
festival to raise money for the restoration of the once glorious Chesterfield Hotel. Cynda cleans a
portrait of handsome Prince Dimitri Karakov, artist unknown. When she learns that Dimitri was
killed at the Chesterfield in 1889, Cynda is unable to resist learning more about the tragic figure
whose picture attracts her. In a hope chest, Cynda finds the painting's nameplate. Touching the
nameplate transports Cynda back in time to when the Chesterfield was in it glory. She tries to
warn
the arrogant Dimitri who ignores her admonition, but still hires her to paint his portrait. As they
fall
in love, Cynda worries that her beloved will die even while she is returned to her chronological
place
in time. The third of the five Chesterfield Hope Chest time travel romances, Grand Design, is a
delightful tale. The story line beguiles the audience as a modern independent woman deals with a
Victorian aristocrat and visa versa. The lead couple is fun to observe together though Cynda too
easily adapts to her new environment. The return of some characters from the first two tales (see
Pam McCutcheon's Enchantment and Paula Gill's Fire With Fire) augments the story with a feel of
a
summer homecoming. Karen Fox shows her diverse talent with this charming prince of a tale that
will send readers including this reviewer seeking the previous her novels and the series other two
books.
Hot Blooded
Lisa Jackson
Zebra Books
Aug 2001, $6.99, 464 pp. ISBN: 0821768417
The trip to Mexico was a disaster for radio psychologist Dr. Samantha Leeds. She manages to
return
to her home in Cambrai on the shore of Lake Pontchartain near New Orleans with a leg in a cast
and
the end of her relationship with David Ross. However, her answering machine has more than the
welcome home from her dad, it contains a message about paying for her sins and than there is the
envelop with the not "repent" note inside it. At about the same time, someone begins torturing
and
murdering prostitutes while simultaneously listening to Dr. Sam's New Orleans radio show. When
Sam limps back to work threatening calls start coming in to her show. Police Detective Rick
Bentz
realizes that Sam is the only lead to the killer, but is not sure of the connection. Neither is Sam.
Meanwhile Sam meets Ty Wheeler and begins to fall in love with him, but wonders if she can trust
him or will he turn out to be her latest male mistake and even worse, her stalker. Hot Blooded is
an
exciting romantic suspense tale with a strong emphasis on the suspense. The story line moves
rather
quickly forward, as Lisa Jackson takes no prisoners. Sam is a wonderful damsel in distress who
abhors that role. The killer is obsessed but clever even fooling an intelligent detective like Rick
Bentz. Sub-genre fans and those who enjoy a taut police procedural-thriller will delight in this
novel
and look forward to next year's sequel Cold Blooded that returns many of the cast members from
this tale.
No Man's Mistress
Mary Balogh
Delacorte
Aug 2001, $19.95, 336 pp. ISBN: 0385335296
Because he believed in her and wanted her to have a second chance without the baggage of
scandal,
the Earl of Bamber bequests Pinewood Manor to Viola Thornhill. She relocates and quickly loves
her quiet estate and rapidly earns the respect of her neighbors. However, her idyllic world crashes
when Lord Ferdinand Dudley arrives claiming the estate as his, having won it in a card game from
the present Earl of Bamber. He gives her one-week to vacate the premises, but she refuses saying
the present Earl of Bamber could not lose what he did not own. Though both agree to share the
disputed Manor until a final resolution can occur, each tries to force the other to depart from the
premises while waiting for the critical will. As they battle for supremacy, Viola and Ferdinand
begin
to fall in love. Still, the duo has demons that only this estate can satiate, making it impossible that
love or even a compromise can occur. No Man's Mistress, the sequel to More Than A Mistress, is
an
exciting regency romance that is fun to read because the lead characters are atypical of the
sub-genre's normal stars. The story line is pleasurable due to the antics of Viola and Ferdinand
trying
to trump one another. The return of Ferdinand's brother, the Duke Tresham, and his wife add a
friendly tone to the delightful plot that shows once again why Mary Balogh is one of the best
writers
of historical romances.
Moon Women
Pamela Duncan
Delacorte
Aug 2001, $23.95, 324 pp. ISBN: 0385335180
Life should get easier when children grow up and leave the nest. Fiftyish divorcee Ruth Ann
Moon
expects to enjoy solitude in her North Carolina home, but that is not the case. The family
matriarch
eighty-two year old Marvelle no longer can care for herself so either Ruth Ann or her obese sister
Cassandra has to take the elderly woman into their home. Ruth Ann's teenage and pregnant
daughter
Ashley has just left rehab and returns to the nest. Ruth Ann wants the best for her family, but feels
like the inside of a sandwich squeezed from the two generations above and below her. She needs
space, but even in rural Carolina, Ruth Ann finds her family pressuring her. Cassandra adds to the
problem because she desires to leave but lacks the courage to go. She also dumps on Ruth Ann,
who
sees a future of death, despair, and dependency. Though set in western North Carolina, Moon
Women describes the problems facing the baby boomers as the generation prepares for retirement.
Ruth Ann deals with elder care and teenage pregnancy and addiction problems among other
issues.
The story line uses too much colloquial speech that provides a regional flavor but at times the
vernacular slows down the plot. With the exception of Cassandra, the three generations of females
are all powerhouses though the bread generations are struggling with life and the middle
generation
confronts dilemmas caused by the outer twosome. Pamela Duncan takes a deep look at the
dawning
of the end of the Age of Aquarius crowd.
Black Water Transit
Carsten Stroud
Delacorte
Aug 2001, $24.95, 368 pp. ISBN: 0385335784
When Jack Vermillion returned home from serving his country as a marine in Viet Nam, he came
back with titanium for a spine and the drive to become successful as a civilian. Jack takes a tiny
shipping firm, Black Water Transit, and soon turns it into a multi-million dollar giant. Perhaps
because he has always been a workaholic, Jack's only failure is his son, a resident of the Feds in
Lompoc Correctional Facility. Frantic to help his desperate son leave Lompoc where he is choice
meat, Jack finds the avenue when US Army (R) Colonel Earl Pike hires Black Water to illegally
ship
a gun collection to Mexico. Jack cuts a deal with the Feds to move his son to a less secure facility
in
exchange for Pike and his collection. However, law enforcement organizations fail to
communicate
as New York State police officer Cassandra Spandau goes after Pike at the same time. The
subsequent shoot-out between the AFT and NYPD leaves several cops dead and everyone
blaming
Jack. Black Water Transit is an action-packed police procedural thriller written with intelligence
and
wit. The story line never allows the reader to blink as Carsten Stroud paints a strong but gloomy
look at a government's dirty tricks and Lady Macbeth levels of ambition; no one in authority
seems
to mind whether an innocent is grinded into chopped meat. Dark humor adds to the edge yet also
eases some of the tensions of this powerful plot. Mr. Stroud deserves sub-genre attention because
this is one terrific novel.
Crimson Creek
Dean Feldmeyer
Silver Dagger
Aug 2001, $13.95, 202 pp. ISBN: 1570721777
In Three Mountain Township, Kentucky, Methodist Minister Dan Thompson and Constable Ray
Hall attend the funeral of Geraldine Shrewbridge. Although the senior citizen peacefully died in
her
sleep, funeral director LeRoy Whiteker asks the two men to take a close look at the corpse of
Jonah
Haycatcher, who died when he fell off his tractor and was run over by the disk. LeRoy shows his
two visitors a bullet hole in the back of Jonah's head. Ray changes Jonah's death from accident to
homicide and begins an investigation into the man's background. He quickly learns that Jonah has
had a previous alias and had a belief that he was a reincarnation of the Prophet with Nineveh
being
DC. Because Jonah moved here not that long ago with his flock, the Children of the Lamb of
God,
Ray enlists Dan to help on the investigation in case religious questions surface. This case alone is
difficult enough, but the duo also has to contend with a DEA agent who is busting half the county
for growing weed. Crimson Creek is a warm regional mystery that focuses on life in Appalachia
Kentucky. The story line stars a warm protagonist who has fallen from grace and is exiled to
Three
Mountain Township where he regains some of his lost esteem. The who-done-it is entertaining,
but
the tale belongs to the various characters living in this hilly county as they make the constable and
the minister seem like real people involved in a murder mystery.
Kleopatra
Karen Essex
Warner Books
Aug 2001, $24.95, 385 pp. ISBN: 0446527408
The young Cleopatra shows her intelligence at an early age in spite of growing up in the decadent
court of her pitiful father Ptolemy. Her half- brother hates her out of jealousy for her
Machiavellian
skills (is that an anachronism?) and with the help of her lover Archimedes she raises an army to
help
her attain the throne she desires. However, Kleopatra's obvious intelligence and abilities fail to
keep
her from exile as the Romans rule the world, but she plans to conquer Julius Caesar (see the next
volume). This is an incredible fictional biography that contains a fantastic look at Ancient Egypt
and
Rome using historical tidbits to tell the story of Cleopatra, the early years. The novel turns a
legend
into a person while concentrating on the heroine's adventures, political machinations, and the
classical Greek culture that she wants to emulate. Fans of Ancient historical tales and Cleopatra
will
want to read this book, the upcoming sequel (the Caesar-Anthony years of her life) and Colin
Falconer's When We Were Gods as a companion piece. Ms. Essex capitalizes the H in historical
as
she provides a rich textured, fast-paced tale that should lead to the latest Egyptology boom.
Wait And See, Annie Lee
Michelle Curry Wright
Warner Books
Jul 2001, $23.95, 280 pp. ISBN: 0446526908
Obsessive Annie Lee Fleck is a perfectionist pessimist, a fatal combination when she sets her mind
on doing something. Not only does whatever she wants done must be 200 per cent flawless
regardless of cost, she performs a complete Murphy analysis to determine what could go wrong
to
insure that never happens. Annie Lee wants a baby in the worst way. She begins her overkill to
insure this happens, driving her beleaguered spouse to seek shelter and comfort elsewhere. Even
worse, Annie Lee begins to call the local Poison Control Center on a daily basis and sometimes
more
than that. She acts with the counselors as if she already has a baby though she is not pregnant and
her husband has moved from Pike, Colorado to Seattle to escape her latest obsession. This
marriage
appears busted unless they can find a common peak like the restaurant they both want to open.
Wait
And See, Annie Lee starts off as a hilarious satire that rips the basic tenets of society. However
about half way into the tale, the plot takes an unnecessary turn to cuddly capriciousness and loses
some of its edge. The story line overall is amusing due to the eccentric and likable characters
including Annie Lee (as long as she is not part of the reader's household). Michelle Curry Wright
shows the right stuff for those readers who want something completely different.
Even Now
Susan S. Kelly
Warner Books
Jul 2001, $22.95, 275 pp. ISBN: 0446527629
When he accepted the teaching position at a private school, former businessman Hal Marsh and
his
wife Hannah sell their Durham home. They relocate with their two children to Rural Ridge, North
Carolina so he can work in nearby Asheville. At a neighborhood gathering, Hannah meets her
childhood friend and heroine Daintry O'Connor, a banker married to an Episcopalian priest. Years
ago, Daintry and Hannah had a falling out that destroyed their forever friendship. Daintry cops a
rude cold attitude while Hannah at first is a bit more enthusiastic about seeing her old buddy. Still,
in
spite of Daintry's nasty aloofness, the move seems perfect for the seventeen years married couple
and their son and daughter. Everything changes when Hannah meets Daintry's husband, Peter
Whicker. Hannah and Peter are attracted to one another and plan on having an affair. However,
Hannah has doubts, not because of the moral issue of spousal fidelity, but because of the memory
of
what she once had with Daintry. Even Now is an intriguing look at the memories of a childhood
friendship juxtaposed against adult realities. The story line moves with purpose slowly forward
allowing the audience the opportunity to see into the souls of the key characters with an emphasis
on
the confused Hannah. Readers who enjoy a pleasant look at two women sharing a past, a present,
and a questionable future will find Susan S. Kelly's tale a warm reading experience.
Empire Falls
Richard Russo
Knopf
May 2001, $25.95,479 pp. ISBN: 0679432477
When the textile and logging industries deserted the town, Empire Falls, Maine began to more
than
decline. The small town appeared ready to die and remains in critical condition. Still, Miles Roby,
manager of the Empire Grill, finds sustenance for the soul by observing the eccentricities of his
repeat customers even as his wife divorces him to take up with one of his diners. Everyone in
town
dances to the tune of the matriarch Francine Whiting whose deceased husband owned the
manufacturing plants that once thrived in Empire Falls. Rich in spite of the closure of her prime
income makers, Francine owns the grill that she promises will go to "tap dancing" Miles. In fact
that
observation of being part of a dance ensemble performing to the music of Francine provides Miles
with the amused lament of what he could have been. No author today provides deeper looks at
small
towns than Richard Russo does. Empire Falls is an incredible character study that insures every
cast
member, including those making only cameo appearances comes in three- dimensional flesh and
blood and the key protagonists and several secondary players contain so much depth they feel like
neighbors. The story line centers on small town life mostly from the milieu of the diner. Many of
these observations come from Miles to include his self-deprecating introspection. All this makes
Richard Russo's character study tale so good that readers who relish a strong insightful human
drama will want this novel.
The Trouble With Tenors
Lorie Ham
AmErica
Sep 2001, $19.95, 232 pp. ISBN: 1588513807
After touring as a gospel singer for years, Alexandra Walters tries to stay as close to her home in
Donlyn, California as possible while earning money. With some help from her tenants, Alexandra
raises her little girl Jessica, who starts school for the first time soon. Her former husband Mike
Evans arrives with a new wife and demands that Alexandra hand over custody of Jessica to him
though he ignored his daughter for four years or else lose her in court. Alexandra agrees to emcee
the Singfest West Gospel Music Convention being held in town. Her former husband is one of the
performers until someone kills him. Knowing she has shown public displays of ire towards Mike
and
his spouse before, Alexandra realizes she is a prime suspect in spite of knowing the local law
enforcement officers. She begins her own brand of investigation into the murder of her ex
husband.
The second Walters' gospel mystery (see Murder In Four Parts Harmony) is an engaging cozy that
provides the audience with an intriguing look at the music industry. The who-done-it is fun, but it
is
the characters, especially the heroine, who makes The Trouble With Tenors worth singing its
praises.
Reality Check
Piers Anthony
Write Way Publishing
Sept 2001, $12.99, 215 pp. ISBN 1885173997
Chandelle and Penn have moved to Philadelphia for the summer so they can give their daughter
some relief from her rebellious fifteen-year old offspring. They rent a house unlike any other
anywhere on the planet because the home contains unique features. The back door leads to
different
times in earth's past while the front door enables travel to almost any city on the planet. When
their
granddaughter shows up, she is so enchanted and curious by the house that Lynn reveals the
secrets
of the house they know and love. Since Chandelle is uneasy about being alone in the house or
outside it, they arrange for Lynn's first cousin Lloyd and his Doberman Obsidian to stay with
them.
In the attic they find alien artifacts that allow them to understand any language and transmit a
sound
so if anyone goes missing it will be easy to find them. They keep finding out something new and
vital
about the house every day. The only questions left to answer are what is the purpose of the house
and what does it want with them. Adults and teens will definitely enjoy reading Reality Check, a
work that is pure entertainment. Readers will delight in solving the riddles of the house and
empathize with the characters, as they stumble the hard way into learning the different facets of
the
house. Piers Anthony has written a work that is fresh, original and fascinating, but readers need to
check their reality prior to entering the front page.
The Altar Stone
Robert Hackman
Goodfellow Press
8522 10th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Sep 2001, $22.00, 352 pp. ISBN: 1891761145
Professor Arthur Tomas of Arizona State University is a highly regarded archeologist whose mind
remembers every detail and fact involving his work. Perhaps he is so good at total recall because
Arthur has a great void. He cannot recollect one thing about his childhood including who his
parents
were. His memories about his preadolescent life consists of the police finding him wandering
around
in bad shape, placing him in a hospital, and then sending him to a boarding school when efforts to
find his family failed. Arthur looks forward to an upcoming expedition led by the renowned Dr.
Lansing to the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. Also going on the trip to the Rio Perra location is
Arthur's lover, Dr. Millie Holtz. However, Arthur is going to find more than just a few broken
pieces of pottery and some skeletal remains. He is going to confront his own unknown childhood
through creatures who once ruled and plan to do so again by possessing humans in The Altar
Stone.
Robert Hackman is no hack when it comes to writing a frightening yet entertaining horror novel.
The Altar Stone is filled with action, intrigue, and a powerful supernatural cast that exploits
humans
as host bodies to regain what they lost. Arthur is a strong hero, but has too many diverse
adventures
on his Amazon trek. Still, in spite of the unnecessary sidebars, Mr. Hackman gains possession of
the
minds of his readers who will enjoy this powerful one sitting tale.
The Girls From Hangar B
Kristin Campbell Nail
Goodfellow Press
8522 10th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Sep 2001, $22.00, 335 pp. ISBN: 1891761080
In 1943 across the United States, necessity being the mother of invention, the manufacturing side
supporting the war efforts advertises for women to fill blue-collar positions. Experience is
unnecessary. The companies want women with a willingness to work harder than the men the
females replace do. In Seattle, several women accept the challenge at the Boeing airplane factory
though their reasons for leaving home and taking the jobs vary. Four of these women share a
home.
Twenty-eight years old Amazon Annie Tosh left Coos Bay because she cannot sit still while her
siblings and her fianc‚ Howard fight the Axis powers. Mid twenties prostitute Sparkle Melody
sees
this job as a second chance if she can stay away from the Johns. African- American Birdie traveled
across the country to obtain work to feed her four kids. Teenager Gloria Westfall, a pampered
female, whose wealthy parents want to shield from the realities of war, needs to aid the war effort
n
order to prove something to herself. Together this group will learn that building planes is easier
than
constructing healthy relationships. The Girls From Hangar B is an appealing historical fiction
novel
that looks back at the home front during World War II through the eyes of several Rosie the
Riveters. The story line uses historical tidbits to paint a relationship drama between the four lead
characters as well as other people they meet on and off the jobs. Though not loaded with action,
readers who delight in this character study concerning the recent American past. The audience
will
treasure Kristin Campbell Nail's homage to one of the most influential periods in the women's
rights
movement.
Howl At The Moon
Polly Blankenslip
Goodfellow Press
8522 10th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Sep 2001, $22.00, 335 pp. ISBN: 1891761080
Devon Taylor fled relatively safe Minneapolis accompanied by her precocious six-year-old son
Jamie
to return to her family's ranch in Blanco Springs, Texas. The memories of Minneapolis and her
leering boss over the past year have made Devon weary and she feels her family ranch will be
good
for her and her son. Devon also feels a bit guilty about her mother being alone with the recent
death
of her father and feels the three generations will be good for one another. When they reach the
ranch, the duo receives a hero's welcome. While driving without a spare, a flat tire leaves Devon
and
Jamie walking home on a deserted back road when John "Buddy" Colton offers a lift. Devon
rejects
the ride, but he hurts Jamie and tries to rape Devon. She manages to stop him by knocking him
unconscious with a cane. Later she learns that he died from his injuries. As the sheriff investigate
this
case of self-defense, Devon struggles to recover from her feelings of insecurity that no where is
safe.
Howl At The Moon is a deep relationship drama centering on a disturbed individual whom feels
unsafe and inadequate due to the actions of others. The story line gets inside the damaged psyche
of
Devon who wants to remain hidden in her bedroom on the family ranch rather than face life's
dangers any longer. Though Buddy is a bit stereotyped in his ugliness, fans will appreciate Polly
Blankenslip's tale of a second chance to live life to the fullest on your only shot at it.
Diamond Lies
Johann Sorenson
Goodfellow Press
8522 10th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Sep 2001, $22.00, 330 pp. ISBN: 1891761099
In his parents' home, John and his fiancee Teri are playing a competitive game of Scrabble with
the
winner determined by whether zebu is an African animal. To obtain a dictionary, John unlocks a
forbidden room, his father's den. Teri pulls out a book, The Valley of the Rhinos, from a shelf.
Falling out of the tome is what appears to be a treasure map. They make a copy of the map before
placing it inside the book and returning it back on the shelf. John feels the map is probably not real
though he wonders if that is how his parents made their fortune. Even if it is genuine the idea that
success can only occur if one's true love accompanied you on the quest seems ridiculous to him.
On
the other hand, the adventure of a lifetime for Teri and him is an ocean away. He persuades Teri
that
as soul mates they should go on this trip, but promises they will return in time for their wedding in
two months. Perhaps they would reconsider their decision if they knew that the deadly danger
from
Barzon the poacher, other perils and meeting new people on this trek would have on their
relationship Diamond Lies is a superb romantic thriller that never slows down for an iota. The
story
line is fast-paced and loaded with action, romance, and escapades. The key characters including a
couple of folks met during the quest seem authentic and add to the feel that the reader is on an
African adventure. Johann Sorenson paints a vivid picture inside a strong plot worth reading by
the
Romancing the Stone crowd.
The Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara: Antrax
Terry Brooks
Del Rey
Sept 2001, $26.95, 384 pp. ISBN 0345397665
The last wizard of the age, Walker, gathers a merry band of adventurers to find the lost gemstones
of Shannara. They travel by the airship, Jerle Shannara to the land where the gems are supposed
to
be only to find the Isle Witch in an airship of her own with her reptilian allies. While the battle
ensues and the Jerle Shannara is taken over by the witch's reptilian force, the survivors escape
including Walker. Walker knows there is more in the Castledown than just the Shannara
gemstone.
Hidden in a vast under-underground complex is an artificially intelligent computer, built before the
apocalypse when science held reign and all the races were one. Walker wants the knowledge
contained in the computer but Antrax feeds on magic to power it and ward off intruders. Walker
sees that Antrax is a two edged sword and has to decide what to do about it before the Isle Witch
finds him. The Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara: Antrax continues the adventures that began in The
Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara: Isle Witch. It is a spellbinding epic even with a major flaw. The
plot
stops in the middle of the action, forcing the reader to buy or obtain from the library the last
installment to read what happened next. There are many characters in this book that are admirable
especially the Ares who acts bravely in spite of being so very scared of what is in front of and
behind
them.
The Alpine Nemesis
Mary Daheim
Fawcett
Oct 2001, $6.99, 320 pp. ISBN 0345421256
Hard news is scarce in the small town of Alpine, Washington. This forces Emma Lord, owner and
publisher of the weekly Alpine Advocate, to scramble to find a lead story for the front page. She
thinks she's going to have to settle for putting a story about public toilets coming to Alpine, but
thinks that stinks as a headliner. Soon the biggest story to hit the small town starts breaking. The
Hartquists and the O'Neills have been feuding for generations, but nobody expected that the
remaining Hartquists would kill the three O'Neill brothers and put them in the butcher's freezer.
Emma gets the scoop and her front page story thinking that all that's left is to watch the
Hartquists
react during the trial. However, the story is just beginning and the subsequent events that take
place
in the pretty bucolic town will change Emma's life forever. The Alpine Nemesis is an exciting
small
town mystery starring a likable heroine and a fully developed cast of characters. Readers are given
an inside look into small town living and how to run a weekly periodical. This is not a
straightforward mystery but a tale with so many layers that, in actuality, it is a complex and totally
absorbing read.
Murder In The Forecast
Valerie Wolzein
Fawcett
Sept 2001, $6.99, 272 pp. ISBN 0-449-0063176
At the moment Josie is content and has her world in order, living on one of the barrier islands in
Florida. She owns her own construction business and is involved in a deep meaningful relationship
with her significant other. All that changes when Hurricane Agatha is supposed to directly hit the
island. Before evacuating, Josie goes to get something from the house she is remodeling but finds
the owner dead with something of hers wrapped around his neck Since the police chief of the
island
dislikes her, Josie does not report the murder. When everyone returns home after the hurricane
passes, Josie finds the house and the body are gone. The victim's three daughters arrive on the
island
insisting something happened to their father. One of Josie's friends had illegal dealings with him
back
in New York and hated the man. Her boyfriend's mother, also on the island, was dating the man.
There are so many suspects and so few clues that even for an expert amateur sleuth like Josie
Pigeon, this is a difficult case to solve. Valerie Wolzein writes some of the best amateur sleuth
mysteries in the genre today. Murder In The Forecast displays a dry sense of humor (even during
the
hurricane), a colorful and atmospheric scenery, and best of all a believable plot. The author turns
Hurricane Agatha into the main adversary of the tale. The heroine is an independent feminist who
likes her work as a construction worker and makes the audience believe that she genuinely enjoys
it.
This novel and the other books in the series are must reading for mystery lovers.
Point Deception
Marcia Muller
Mysterious Press
Jul 2001, $23.95, 305 pp. ISBN: 0892966904
Almost thirteen years ago, Rhoda Swift's career in law enforcement seemed over before it started.
She was a rookie when she was the first officer to arrive at the site of the massacre of two families
including children. However, the blood samples needed to potentially identify the killer were
somehow lost and the first year cop took the blame though she knew she was innocent. Hard
work
has helped her overcome some of her loss of credibility with the Soledad County, California
deputy
sheriff department. Five days before the anniversary that started Rhoda's nightmares, journalist
Guy
Newberry arrives to write the definitive true story about the crime. October would have been
enough to raise fears, but with the New Yorker mucking around followed by a new murder,
apprehensions attain dangerous levels, as no one in the county trusts anyone else. Point Deception
is
an exciting police procedural that centers on collective guilt and redemption. The townsfolk still
feel
culpable for the deaths of the two families and the recent homicide while Rhoda sees a second
chance to prove her worthiness as a detective. The story line is cleverly designed to highlight
emotions and reactions and Guy brings in the right mix of romance and cynicism that strengthens
those feelings. However, most Marcia Muller fans will keep expecting for the great Sharon
McCone
to show up at High Noon. Rhoda is a good protagonist, but readers know McCone, and consider
McCone a friend, and Rhoda is definitely no McCone.
Season Of Storms
Susanna Kearsley
Jove
Aug 2001, $6.99, 434 pp. ISBN: 0515131113
In 1921 Italy, playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio writes what turns out to be his last play. Since his
beloved mistress Celia Sands provides him with the needed inspiration, he bestows on her the
honor
of starring on opening night in the theater on his estate Il Piacere. However, Celia vanishes on the
eve of her opportunity to attain stardom. The show never went on and whether he lost his
inspiration or his soul that night, Galeazzo never wrote another play Galeazzo's grandson decides
to
direct that play at the same theater that it was to first debut. He selects English actress Celia
Sands,
no relationship, because of her name. When she arrives at Il Piacere the modern day Celia feels an
immediate affinity to her namesake especially at night. Unable to let the past stay buried, she
obsessively begins to investigate what happened on that fatal night one day before this play was to
first be performed. Known for her background descriptions that feel like panoramic murals that
enhance her starring charcaters, Susanna Kearsley paints a multi- layered vista. The Poe-like past
counterbalances with the vivid energy of the present so that the reader is hooked in such a way
that
they feel they are on the grounds of the Italian estate in the now and in 1921. The modern day
Sara
is quite a card, as she knows that it is better to leave the past alone but cannot do it. Her
compulsion
turns Season Of Storms into a somber Gothic like novel that verifies why Susanna Kearsley is an
award-winning author.
East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon
Carole Bellacera
Forge
August 2001, $25.95 400 pp. ISBN 0765300796
Leigh is married to a senior congressman. They have three beautiful children and a fantastic home
in
Virginia. Yet Leigh is totally miserable. Her husband is always on the run and never has time for
her.
The little time they spend together is celibate because he's impotent at least with her. Her esteem
has
sunk to an all time low when a postgraduate exchange student from Denmark stays with them for
a
year. From the time they set eyes on each other, Leigh and Erik have a red hot molten attraction
for
one another. Leigh resists going to bed with him until she finds some condoms in her husband's
bag.
She knows then that he is cheating on her because she had her tubes tied years ago. Thus Leigh
and
Eric have an affair but have much to overcome, including another woman, if they want to make a
life
together. Carla Bellacera has written a fabulous relationship drama in which people make bad
decisions for the right reasons, a practice that leads to heartache for everyone concerned. East Of
The Sun, West Of The Moon is a beautiful love story that will appeal to fans of Belva Plain and
Laura van Wormer.
In 1800, drought has driven the buffalo away while the dryness makes wildfires frequent and
nearly
impossible to stop. In this environment, the Cheyenne and their rival the Pawnee vie for the
dwindling food and water supplies and tempers are quite high. Two Cheyenne leaders Grey Bear
and
Lone Hawk disagree on the future of their people. The intrepid Grey Bear wants war with the
Pawnee in a winner takes all deadly scenario even though he knows many of his people will die.
The
cerebral Lone Hawk realizes that the Pawnee share the misery caused by the drought so that he
wants both tribes to cooperate for the betterment of everyone. As a fire razes the Cheyenne, two
women Touches the Wind and Seeks Fire become involved in the leadership battle that will
determine the future of the Cheyenne. Cheyenne Summer is an exciting, action-packed, but deep
look at the Cheyenne. The story line provides an incredible glimpse at a way of life during a major
crisis. The characters seem genuine though Grey Bear's military response seems difficult to accept
when so many bellies are empty. Still Vella Munn paints an awesome landscape with strong
portraits
that show she is quite an artist when it comes historical fiction.
Gargoyles
Alan Nayes
Forge
Aug 2001, $24.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0765300109
Amoreena Daniels is a brilliant pre-med student needing a scholarship to attend med school so she
works extraordinarily hard towards that goal. However, her idyllic world collapses when she
learns
her beloved mother Geneva suffers from cancer. Worse, Geneva used her small available cash to
pay
for Amoreena's education, leaving her without health insurance and little hope for the high cost
treatment that might save her life. However, to the rescue is Meechum Corporation's Women's
Clinic who pays Amoreena fifty grand to serve as a surrogate mother. Soon her saviors come
under
suspicion for illegal medical practices by the once naive Amoreena. Whatever is inside her womb
is
growing at a humanly impossible rate and feels like it is ripping her up. When she complains, the
clinic staff insists nothing is wrong and this is normal. Amoreena rejects the explanations even as
she
begins to receive weird warnings from female strangers. She vows to learn the truth not yet
knowing
how dangerous that endeavor is. Gargoyles is a well-written medical research thriller that, though
it
adds nothing new to the genre, will excite readers. The story line is loaded with action as even a
person with Amoreena's background is caught up in the questionable activities of Meechum,
leaving
the audience to wonder about the average individual who gives God-like trust to the profession.
There will be no naysayers to Alan Nayes' strong look at the ethics of modern day genetics
claiming
the betterment of humanity justifies the means.
In The Country Of The Blind
Michael Flynn
Tor Books
Aug 2001, $27.95, 428 pp. ISBN: 0312874448
In Denver realtor Sarah Beaumont and her architect explore the possibilities of the old vacant
house.
They quickly find a reference to a late nineteenth century gunfight in which an innocent bystander,
Brady Quinn, a former owner of this house, was the only victim. They also find a list of other
seemingly unrelated events from the second half of the nineteenth and throughout the twentieth
century. Finally, there is the word clilology, but neither knows what it means. Unable to resist,
Sarah
begins to investigate the death of Brady. That leads her to Babbage's analytical machines, 1880s
computers. Soon her methodical research brings her to the attention of the Babbage Society, who
control the world, but are split over how far to use their powers and what to do with Sarah. This
is a
reprint of a late 1980s science fiction tale with a revised afterward, providing stronger insight and
support to cliology so that those readers wanting more science and math will have that too. This
reviewer, who never heard of cliology before, remains uncertain whether the afterward is satire
like
that of Professor Putts' R&D articles from the 1970s or the real thing. The story line is intriguing
and well written as the Babbage Society forecasts the future and uses any means including
assassination to alter the dynamics of their prediction and change what will happen. With the
exception of Sarah, the characters represent plot devices to enhance Mr. Flynn's theories yet they
are
cleverly interwoven into the tale. Fans of classic style science fiction will want to read In The
Country Of The Blind.
The Chronoliths
Robert Charles Wilson
Tor Books
Aug 2001, $22.95, 301 pp. ISBN: 0312873840
In the twenty-first century, American expatriate Scott Warden wastes his life enjoying the
pleasures
of a Thailand beach community while ignoring the needs of his wife and daughter. However, his
wastrel life abruptly ends when the monolith suddenly appears in the nearby forest, destroying
trees
and dispensing high levels of radiation. On the artifact is an inscription celebrating a military
victory
that happened sixteen years into the future. A second pillar lands in downtown Bangkok,
destroying
the city and killing many of its residents. Once again a military victory that occurred in the future
is
commemorated with a plaque. Other Chronoliths land all over Southeast Asia, causing havoc and
sending Scott and his peers fleeing across the Pacific back to America. In Baltimore, Scott meets
physicist Dr. Sue Chopra, who is studying the Chronoliths. She believes that the future is reaching
back through time to create its past. Scott, now working for Sue, wonders whether the linear
inevitability of the future with its conquering warlord Kuin can be stopped by the present
choosing
the path to the future? When it comes to a thinking person's science fiction novel, genre fans
know
Robert Charles Wilson is one of the best. His latest tale, THE CHRONOLITHS, is a strong story
focusing on the time-space continuum with the future seemingly stretching its hand into the
present.
Mindful in many ways of the basic theme behind The Terminator, readers will accept the time
travel
premise and not care that it appears conceptually flawed. Mr. Wilson provides a powerful
appealing
story line that hypnotizes the audience into a one sitting read.
The Folk Of The Fringe
Orson Scott Card
Tor Books
Aug 2001, $12.95, 272 pp. ISBN: 0312876637
America as we know it has been destroyed by a combination of nuclear and biological weapons.
However, the final death is caused by a collective cultural lack of belief in anything non material.
Amidst this manifest destiny of death and destruction remains a few oasis of civilization when a
fringe survivor group forges a society along the expanded shores of The Great Salt Lake. With
this
background, awesome award winning Orson Scott Card provides five interrelated tales about the
efforts of these few to reconstruct civilization anchored by religion. Each story is well written and
paints an optimistic future on top of a gloomy present and a dead past. The cast seems genuine
adding to the reality of a doomed future America. Fans need to understand that this fabulous
anthology is not a story a night collection because the theme makes the short stories seem more
like
chapters of a fantastic science fiction novel though each entry can stand alone. Mr. Card once
again
proves he is the ace of genre writers.
The Rover
Mel Odom
Tor Books
Jul 2001, $25.95, 416 pp. ISBN: 0312878826
In spite of being a lowly Dweller, over-achiever Edgewick "Wick" Lamplighter serves as the
Third-Level Librarian in the Vault of All-Known Knowledge. Even more incredible is that this is a
member of a race that is considered beneath the purebreds (Dwarves, Elves, and Humans) plans
to
one day becomes a Second-Level Librarian. Wick's only weakness is his love of adventure books,
which sometimes gets in the way of his work. Wick is assigned to deliver a package to the
Customs
House. However, instead of a quiet stroll, Wick soon fights evil attackers, but loses when
someone
knocks him out from behind. Sent off to sea without a choice, Wick is going to have one
adventure
after another as each deadly scenario leads to the next. He no longer lives his life in a book;
instead
Wick struggles just to survive. The Rover is a fun to read fantasy thriller that never slows down
for
a moment as the half-pint sized hero fights several deadly foes. The story line never takes itself
too
seriously and the characters are likable so that the audience enjoys the toboggan speed of the
adventures. The Potter crowd and discerning adult fantasy afficionados will gain much pleasure
from
Mel Odom's opus.
The Forge Of God
Greg Bear
Tor Books
Aug 2001, $16.95, 480 pp. ISBN: 0765301075
In 1996, Jupiter's sixth moon Europa suddenly vanishes. The media plays the disappearing act for
a
few weeks, but as usual that fades from their blip screen as they believe the public is apathetic
towards some obscure moon. Scientists come up with numerous theories, but each have gigantic
holes as no one knows what really happened. Most astronomers remain astounded that a relatively
large object is missing sort of like a cosmic David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty
disappear. In Death Valley, three Texas geologists find what seems as the first error of US
Geological Survey charts they have ever come across. A very large unmarked mound not shown
on
the maps rises from the desert. The trio agrees that there is no way that this "mountain" could
have
been missed. Next they find an ailing alien who needs darkness to live who bears very bad news..
How will the human race react to what appears to be an encounter of a negative kind. Though
The
Forge Of God is well written with an engaging premise, the book falls short because talented
Greg
Bear never decides between a classic invasion tale and a psychological reaction plot. Instead,
readers
are left with pieces of both, but neither is complete. The story line is fast-paced and entertaining
and
fans of invasion earth novels will find overall enjoyment. However, this reviewer was left with the
disappointment of feeling shorted. Exploring the different mindset of how earthlings and the aliens
respond to the end days of human life would have been unique and captivatingly refreshing,
something that the audience will keep expecting until the novel is finished.
To Tame A Wild Heart
Tracy Fobes
Sonnet
Aug 2001, $6.50 ISBN: 0743412788
In 1796 Scotland, the highwaymen chase after the carriage bearing the Duchess of Argyle, her
little
daughter Sarah, and their servants including another child. Trying to outrun their pursuers, the
carriage goes off the side of a cliff. Everyone seems dead, but a local farming family finds a little
girl
wandering the moors. In 1813, through the sale of a family ring, the Duke of Argyle hears about a
feral female with an uncanny ability to talk with the animals. She is the right age and name to be
his
little girl Sarah. She possesses a panflute, which makes the Duke believe he found his daughter.
He
persuades her to accompany him to their home while asking his current heir Colin Murray to help
him polish Sarah. If Sarah is the daughter of the Duke, Colin has much to lose, but that cannot
stop
him from losing his heart to her. She draws him into her world searching for the unicorn that she
insists saved her life when she was injured during the nasty carriage incident years ago. To Tame
A
Wild Heart changes Mowgie's gender and adoptive species (from wolves to humans) while
placing
him in a Regency Pygmalion. The story line is exciting, amusing, and fast paced as readers
observe a
tale on manners sort of like The School for Scandal. Though some fans will feel the subplot
involving a unicorn search is unnecessary, it is well written and adds a charming twist to the
novel.
Still, this is Sarah's story and she engages the audience whether she wanders the moors or the
ballrooms.
The Mutant Files
Martin H Greenberg and John Helfers, editors
Daw Books
Aug 2001, $6.99, 320 pp. ISBN: 075640004X
As noted by the editors in their introduction, this book is not a story about the X-Men. Instead
this
sixteen-story collection contains tales about regular people with uncommon extra abilities usually
in
normal settings. Poor choice in title aside, each contribution is well written and remain inside the
basic theme. Though the story lines are all entertaining, the key to The Mutant Files is its
characters,
who amazingly seem like real people though the tales are short and the powers are uncommon.
Superb anthology worth reading by the X-Men crowd and especially by those science
fiction-horror
fans who relish well written tales about normal people with an unusual power usually occurring in
a
common milieu. This is extraordinary entertainment.
The Prince Of Shadow
Curt Benjamin
Daw Books
Sept 2001, $23.95, 464 p.. ISBN 0756400058
Thebin, once a powerful mountain kingdom, becomes too complacent and its enemies, the slave
trading Harn, easily take over the country, kill its king, queen, and princess. The seven princes
were
sold into slavery and the youngest Llesho was sold to the owner of Pearl Island. When his teacher
Lleck died, he was made aware that his brothers lived and he vowed to find them and take back
the
throne of Thebin. He petitioned his master to allow him to enter gladiator training and while
learning
this new skill, he came to the attention of some powerful people who recognized him. Llesto went
from being a slave to a symbol and rallying cry for the Thebin cause, making alliances and enemies
of power including governors, witches and gods along the way. Curt Benjamin has written a
wonderful novel that is part fantasy, and part sword and sorcery intrigue. The Prince Of Shadow
has
a varied cast of characters that are complex, much more so than usually seen in the genre. The
plot
has so many twists and unexpected turns that the reader will eagerly turn the page to see what
happens next. This is the start of what promises to be a grand series.
The Golden Sword
Fiona Patton
Daw Books
August 2001, $6.99, 432 pp. ISBN 0886779219
Camden DeKatherine never questioned his role in his family's empire as everyone served the
Flame
including him. That belief ended on his twelfth birthday when his father died. His older brother,
Alec, now the Duke, shut him out and Cam felt like a stranger in his own home. He found
comfort
in the Wind who called to him and realized he was that Aspect's Chosen. Cam's Uncle Celestus
saw
that his nephew was born to serve the Wind not the fire. He realized he found the fourth and last
person he needed to form a circle consisting of all the Aspects. He persuaded Cam's family to let
the
boy stay with him while they mourned the loss of their patriarch. At Tavencroft, Cam was
accepted
for the first time for who he truly was but he knew that he was involved in a heretical conspiracy
that would either kill him or set him free. Fiona Patton has created an imaginary world where the
religious, metaphysical and political aspects of life are intertwined to form the bases of a person's
identity. Branion is an island nation that has been led by the same ruling family for the five
hundred
years of its existence, but what Cam and his cohorts plan to do is change the existing order or die
trying. Cam is not an easy person to understand, but when the true nature of his character
becomes
apparent the reader will be with him heart and soul. The antagonist has many redeeming qualities
but
his obsessive need to prove his theory right turns him into the villain of the piece. The Golden
Sword
is a fantasy novel that will appeal to many readers on several levels.
The Plutonium Blonde
John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem
Daw Books
Sept 2001, $6.99, 352 pp. ISBN: 0756400066
By 2057, technology enables people to drive hovercrafts and teleport to different places. The last
private detective in the world Zachary Nixon Johnson, knows that HARV is a computer
projection.
However, that does not stop him from playing backgammon with it, talking with it or listening to
it.
When HARV informs Zach that they need an infusion of capital to pay the rent, he reluctantly
takes
on the case of BB Star, ex stripper and now the CEO of ExShell, one of the most powerful
conglomerates in the world. BB has a doppelganger named BB-2 an artificially intelligent android
that is angry, psychotic and dangerous. She has a plutonium core, which makes her a powerful
weapon that must be deactivated if BB is to survive. Even knowing that the press will hounded
him,
thugs will beat him, and he will look like a fool, Zach takes on the case rather than face living on
the
street. Abbott and Costello meet a futuristic crime noir is the context underlying the amusing The
Plutonium Blonde. When HARV and Zach are talking to each other, especially during their
numerous crisis, readers will laugh until they cry. It is impossible to believe HARV, the real star
of
the book, is only a hologram projected by Zach's computer because he seems so human. The
mystery is fun too, but the entertainment and uniqueness of this tale are the relationship between
the
two stars (that is Zach and HARV not BB and BB-2).
Here Be Monsters
Christopher Stashoff
Ace Books
Sept 2001, $6.99, 288 pp. ISBN: 0441008518
Gregory Gallowglass and his finance Alouette are meditating in their own private chambers. She
sees a thick mist near a river that is the gateway for men and monsters to enter and kill
Gramarye's
population. Gregory, a telepath as strong as Alouette, peeks into the mist and comes to the
conclusion that she had a foreseeing. They make arrangements to find out what is going on and
put a
stop to it. Gregory's brother Geoffrey and Prince Alain, the heir to the throne, follow them.
Behind
the latter duo are the fiancees of Geoffrey and Alain, Quicksilver and Cordelia Gallowglass. When
Alouette gets separated from the group, she finds and teams up with Quicksilver and Cordelia
who
are following the men in case they need help. Both groups are beset every step of the way by
supernatural creatures who try to harm them or scare them to death. Everyone agrees there are
too
many monsters in one small concentrated area. They believe somebody is creating them and that
someone must be stopped if they can ever find him. While the quest is a very serious undertaking,
the characters other speak in puns, which constantly catches the reader off guard and leaves the
audience off balance even when the approach is fully recognized. The tone of Here Be Monster is
akin to the Xanth books by Piers Anthony, making it a delightfully amusing fantasy romp.
Empty Cities Of The Full Moon
Howard V. Hendrix
Ace Books
Aug 2001, $22.95, 448 pp. ISBN: 0425008445
In 2032, mankind learns the real meaning behind the saying "the road to hell is paved with good
intentions." Medical researchers seeking a biological solution to mental illness engineered a
special
virus. However, instead of being a panacea, the virus destroys 99% plus of the earth's population.
Major cities like New York are annihilated as urban history is over. Most of those few who
manage
to survive the worst disaster in humanity's existence are not the same. They have been changed
into
wer- people worshipping the full moon. Thirty-three years later, a small group clinging to the
technology of the past decides to learn what specifically caused the disaster three decades ago.
They
travel the eastern ghost towns of what was once BosWash and beyond. As they trek along
America's
Atlantic Coast, no one knows exactly what they will find, only that the quest has begun. Empty
Cities Of The Full Moon is a fantasy tale that employs scientific elements like a science fiction tale
would use to trigger the catalyst that is the key to the tale. The story line predominately
concentrates
on two arcs (2032-2033 and 2065-2066), but also floats back to 1999 and 1966. The plot is not
linear as the action shifts between decades, adding geometric degrees of complexity to an
elaborate
story. Though this is this reviewer's first taste of a Howard V. Hendrix novel, it is not going to be
the last as this book is reminiscent of the sterling Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero, but
much more complicated.
Deathday
William Dietz
Ace Books
Sep 2001, $21.65, 368 pp. ISBN: 04410085777
In 2020 in what seemed like a blink of an eye, New York City, Moscow, and Beijing were easily
destroyed. Not much more than a weekend past and the invaders conquered the earth. More than
three billion humans died starting on what became known as Black Friday as the alien Sauron
race,
using superior weaponry, easily win the war. Any human who survived the weekend of terror has
a
struggle ahead as slaves of the mighty Sauren race. UN Security Officer Jack Manning ends his
vacation once he learns that the nations of the world lost to the brutally efficient Saurons. The
leadership Zin faction of the conquerors have no mercy immediately directing their Kon soldiers
to
kill any opposition no matter how slight. In that environment, a captured Jack labors in the mines
of
his enemy before being reassigned to a massive temple building construction project. He patiently
waits to escape, but the opportunity never seems to surface. Deathday, the first tale of William
Deitz's alien invasion series, is an exciting non-stop action thriller though most of the book occurs
after the Saurons win. The fast-paced story line is exciting and the insight into the Sauron caste
system is cleverly intermingled into the plot so readers begin to understand the conquerors. This is
what makes this a must read for sub- genre fans. William C Dietz provides more than just an
opening gamut of a military science fiction thriller along the lines of V. He provides a deep social
and psychological study of humanity and the Saurons that make the invasion seem devastatingly
real
and leave breathless readers waiting for Earthrise.
World Fall
Douglas Niles
Ace Books
Sept 2001, $14.95, 368 pp. ISBN: 0441008550
The world is composed of seven circles with the last one known as Earth and the fourth one
called
Nayve, a bucolic poster world. Harmoniously co- existing with no knowledge of war in Nayve are
druids, fairies, elves and other creatures. Three centuries ago, it was foretold that Nayve was
going
to come under attack so the druid Miradel called a dying warrior Natac from Earth so he can
assemble an army and then fight a war. Although they were victorious, Miradel was killed and
was
sent back to the seventh circle where she had to live seven lives before she was allowed to come
back to Nayve and Natac. In this time and place, the realm of the lord of the Death threatens the
circles. Karlath-Fayd, whose minions are the souls of people who died by violence, wants to
extend
his dominion. To that end he has under control, although they don't know it, the evil arcane dwarf
Zystyl and the leader of the harpies in the sixth circle known as Overworld. Miradel and Natac
team
up once again with their allies, both old and new to stop the latest threat to their world. In this
second installment of the Seven Circles Trilogy, readers will become reacquainted with friends
(and
enemies) they met in Circle At Center. Douglas Niles so eloquently describes each circle readers
will
have a vivid visual image of each land. Fans of Tolkien and Brooks will love this epic fantasy and
eagerly await the next book in this series (which can't come too soon for this reviewer).
Dreamer
Steven Harper
Roc
Sept 2001, $5.99, 368 pp. ISBN: 0451458435
People can enter the Dream, a mental plane of existence where thoughts are communicated to
others
though their bodies might be light years apart. Only the Silent may actually enter the plane of the
Dream, but they can also take over the mind and body of another Silent if that person is willing.
On
the planet Rust, a new phenomena surfaces when teenage Sejal has the ability to take over the
mind
and body of Silent and non-Silent alike, up to eight at a time. Agents of the Children of Irfan look
for Sejal because they know if knowledge of him reaches the other Silents or the public at large,
the
ancient history Salem witch trials on Earth will look like a picnic. When they manage to locate
and
get Sejal to leave Rust, human and other species that can enter the Dream State have already
learned
about this unique individual. All have a use for him but the only people willing to listen to Sejal's
wishes are the children of Irfan and even they doubt he should be allowed to live. Dreamer is a
fresh,
original story that will interest readers who want something different. The plot has so many twists
and turns that nobody will be able to predict what happens next. Steven Harper has created a
clever
concept tightened by the issue of the needs of the majority vs. the rights of one (similar to killing
or
exploiting instead of isolating Typhoid Mary) and weaves an exciting tale around it. Let's hope
Mr.
Harper is not silent about the Silent in the near future.
Grave Peril
Jim Butcher
Roc
Sep 2001, $6.99, 384 pp. ISBN: 0451458443
It has been a tough two weeks on Harry Dresden, Chicago's only known wizard (check the phone
book if you are a nonbeliever). It seems he and his good soul partner Michael Carpenter, a knight
with a holy blade, have spent the previous fourteen evenings fighting terrifying ghosts that crossed
the barrier between here and Nevernever land. When Harry finds the same barbed wire on a
human
being's soul that he found inside a ghost, he knows he is fighting a dangerous enemy who breaks
all
the known rules of supernatural physics. This foe can enter homes without permission, wreck
havoc
on holy land, and tie mortal and spirit together with otherworldly barbed wire. While Harry gets
ready for battle with this unknown superior creature, he also struggles to uncover who is
destroying
the barrier between earth and Nevernever and must deal with the Vampire Court whose leader has
summoned him. Book three of the Dresden Files, Grave Peril, is a great supernatural who-done-it.
The key to this tale and its predecessors (see Storm Front and Fool Moon) is that every character
and situation feels genuine. For instance, readers will feel what technology-machinery impaired
Harry feels when he removes the barbed wire from the soul of a friend. Anyone who enjoys an
offbeat but cleverly written urban fantasy will want to visit the Windy City's only advertising
wizard
because few horror, fantasy, or mystery tales get any better than this wonderful plot that smoothly
combines all three genres into one novel.
Pride Of Kings
Judith Tarr
Roc
Sept 2001, $14.95, 464 pp. ISBN 0451458478
It is not generally known but on the day that Richard the Lionhearted was crowned King of
England, he turned down another crown, which would have bound him to Great Britain in the Old
Way. Richard chose the mundane over the mystical, leaving the island vulnerable to the evil spirits
on the other side of the veil. An innocent cleric is duped into opening the door to let unholy evil
into
the world. Only the ruler of Great Britain can close the door. Arslan, born of a Provence lord and
a
fire spirit is sent to John Lackland in England. John must put on the mantle his brother rejected.
Arslan is very persuasive as are the other guardians and John proves his right to use the mystical
forces to protect the land. However, he must do it secretly so Richard does not get wind of his
plans
and think he will try to overthrow him. John, using all the magic at his command, closes the door
but
the curse is not over yet. Danger lies in the form of Prince Philip of France, the mystical king of
his
land, who will willingly sacrifice the living to further his ambitions. Judith Tarr has shown a John
and
Richard unlike those found in Shakespeare or Robin Hood. Using actual historical events, she
weaves a different version of their actions during a troubled time. Pride Of Kings is an epic
fantasy
work of alternate history that thoroughly enchants the reader with a powerful drama, mystical and
earthly intrigue (both deadly), and vivid pageantry.
Harriet Klausner
Reviewer
Hodgins' Bookshelf
Last Seen In Massilia
Steven Saylor
St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
0312209282 (hc) $23.95, 0312977875 (pb), $6.50, 299pp, 1-888-330-8477
This is the eighth book in author and history scholar Steven Saylor's `Roma sub Rosa' series,
literally
translatable as `Rome under the Rose Bush', but figuratively as, perhaps, `Rome Confidential' or
`The Hidden Rome'.
Ideally, the previous volumes should have been read before this; in practice in my own case they
were not, for this book was "discovered" in isolation on the "new" or "just out" shelf in a local
public library, with no immediate indication that seven roughly homogenous volumes had
preceded
it.
Failing one's absorption of 1st century B.C. (or B.C.E., "before current era") history from Saylor's
other seven volumes or any comparable source, it would be worthwhile to arm oneself with a
Roman history reference book when sitting down to digest "Last Seen in Massilia".
Concerning the title, Massilia was the Roman name for an ancient town originally named Massalia
by its Greek founders, reports Saylor. Either way, the French of today call it Marseille; it is said to
be their premier Mediterranean seaport, and their second-largest city.
"Last Seen in" refers to the missing (adoptive) son, Meto, of the series's protagonist, Gordianus
the
Finder, a self-described "old man" - in essence he is a private detective - who travels from his
home
in Rome to Massilia in search of the lost son.
The great complication for Gordianus's quest is that Massilia had staked her future on loyalty to
the
"wrong" or ultimately losing Pompeian party in a Roman civil war, shutting her gates against the
eventual winner, Julius Caesar. There is no free entry to the city, an already ancient Greek
city-state
enclave within Gaulish territory, for the place is now under siege by Caesar's forces although he
himself is campaigning in Iberia - now divided between Spain & Portugal.
Gordianus, travelling with his somewhat dense or naive son-in-law, Davus (an interesting name,
given that the Romans had no letter u and would have written it `Davvs') maintains an essentially
neutral political stance in this book. One gathers that, in the previous volumes of the series, he has
become personally acquainted with both warring sides' leaders. He thus manages to get along with
both factions despite perilous moments when, typically, he is taken for the other side's spy.
Gordianus seems to make a habit, with other family members, of being sole survivors of disasters.
In
this volume, he and Davus alone survive a tunnel flood, to arrive in Massilia; references to
previous
events indicate that he and Meto had been the only survivors when Catilina and his entire military
force had perished around them, in battle. These and some other highly convenient but improbable
turns (or perhaps I means `stretches') of events may tend to strain a rational reader's
credulity.
He first "gets along" with the besieging forces of Caesar, encamped outside Massilia's walls; then,
having found his way to the city, he next does so with the Massilians he discovers slowly starving,
inside.
Throughout most of the tale, Gordianus lives within the city. There he becomes acquainted with
many interesting persons who often have their own agendas, and who accordingly either try to
help
or to hinder him in his quest to discover the truth about his missing, possibly dead son.
The book laudably contains, where forewords and prefaces are often to be found, a page
containing
a general map of the eastern Meriterranean area indicating the locations of Massilia, Rome, and
Carthage's ruins; and also a large-scale map zooming in on Massilia herself, showing various
features
(but no streets) mentioned in the story.
One might wish for comparable information shedding light upon the numerous references to Sulla,
Marius, Catilina (note: not Catalina), Pompeius/Pompey, and other important Romans of the era.
It
would have been helpful also to have included a Dramatis Personae, letting the reader keep
straight
such personalities as Meto, Zeno, and Milo (although, praise be, no Cato seems to be
mentioned.)
Ancient Romans and Greeks were much given to interpreting abnormal events in terms of entirely
too numerous gods' whims and whimsies, wraths, and so forth. For this reason, many of us prefer
reading even mediocre modern prose over such classics as have survived from ancient times;
trying
to enjoy yarns laden with, and heavily dependent on, outmoded, unbelievable, thoroughly
discredited
myth becomes simply too burdensome to repay the effort demanded. Saylor has necessarily
allowed
the old ways to infect his modern work to a limited extent, for the sake of realism. That need
seems
a particular disadvantage inherent in attempts to bring such ancient times to life for readers'
edification; apparently realizing this fact, Saylor has kept superstition within bounds.
Alas, in concert with his editor Saylor has allowed occasional, more or less conspicuous
modernisms
and Americanisms to creep into his storytelling. For instance, after he has accurately mentioned
the
heavy armaments of that pre-gunpowder time - machine-bows, torsion artillery, catapults, and the
like - twice on page 30 he suggests they "fired" their missiles, but these were, in fact, launched,
flung, hurled, or otherwise propelled by, in the end, muscular exertions. Firearms employing
chemical propellents were unknown; even "Greek fire", a short-range predecessor of the
flamethrower, would not be developed (in the Byzantine Empire) until seven centuries later.
On page 58, twin towers flanking the city gate a short distance away are said to stand "a little
ways
off"; while on page 59, when Gordianus became nauseated he "felt nauseous" (which in standard
English would suggest he felt revoltING, nearly to the point of inspiring vomit in others - as
opposed to revoltED, nearly to the point of experiencing vomit, himself.)
There also are other grammatical errors such as, on page 165, "[Massilia] was older than Rome ...
older even than their mutual [should be `common'] enemy, Carthage;" and, on page 180, "The
Roman never stop [sic] grinning;" or, on page 209, "There were twice an many woman [sic] as
men."
To err is human, it's true; I for one am gravely human in this way. At all events the people
involved
here have also demonstrated their humanity by having a certain man's injured leg, referred to as
his
left on pages 75 and 176, become his right on page 187.
If Last Seen In Massilia remains a gripping tale, it would be yet more so without the distractions
caused by technical imperfections, of which only about half of those noticed are listed here.
As in all sequential novels, it would be greatly preferable for the reader to begin perusing the
series
with its first book, following through in the natural sequence to take advantage of the
backgrounds
which earlier volumes build for later ones. Just why a book such as this is not clearly named on its
cover, "Roma sub Rosa, Volume 8: `Last Seen in Massilia'" (thus making the situation clear to
readers, and likely selling more books, too) is difficult to understand.
A Flame For The Fire
Nigel Tranter
Hodder & Stoughton/Trafalgar Square, dist.
PO Box 257, Howe Hill Road, North Pomfret, VT 05053-0257
ISBN: 0340696710, $11.95 1-800-423-4525
Making this 69-year-old reviewer feel like like a proverbial spring chicken, A Flame For The Fire
was published when he was 89 and appears to be Tranter's 85th book or thereabout (by the
hardcover's list; the paperback lists fewer.)
Whether or not he's still writing three years later, his record looks secure. That's just as well, for I
feel honestly obliged on the whole to pan this work, any discourtesy to an elder
notwithstanding.
Only a more experienced Tranter reader would know how typical this book is of his style. His
constant genre may well be Scots history. This particular example appears to verge on
non-fictional
status, although its sensationalistic, perhaps publisher-imposed title seems fictive if not both
meaningless and irrelevant to the tale (unless it refers to the protagonist's sister's flaming red
hair).
At least to a reader unversed in Scottish history, the tale's principal characters and chief events
seem
historical. Servants, rank & file soldiers, and the like are apt to be invented characters, though, for
lack of busybody biographers and historians who might constantly have rushed about to record
such
details. Also likely fictions, on the same ground, are much of the sparse dialogue and various
intimate scenes.
Tranter thus seems to write fairly straightforward history, "fixed up" here and there to improve
continuity and add human interest. That may well mean it doesn't have a high enough invention
quotient to make this work a novel. "A somewhat dramatized history" may be a better
description.
I find his writing style often so flat that you might (and I at times did) sleep on it. It may have
been
Tranter's celebrity and following, or perhaps a lifetime contract with H & S, that got this
sometimes
dull book published - but hey, to be able at all to do what he does or did at his age seems wellnigh
miraculous!
A Flame For The Fire culminates in the battle of Flodden Field, Scotland's greatest disaster, at
which
both the protagonist and his liege-lord, King James IV, are among the more than 10,000 Scottish
deaths versus fewer than 5,000 English ones. It rained during the battle, and the impetuous Scots
in
a masterpiece of disorganization and confusion came slipping, stumbling, often tumbling headlong
down a sodden escarpment, losing many weapons in the process, to collide haphazardly with their
English enemies. The fiery title remains an enigma to this finale, unless as an abstract reference to
the ardency of the Scottish spirit(s).
A mid-book episode held greatest interest for me, explaining how two such disparate populations
as
the unruly Celtic Highlanders, with their Viking infusions among the numerous island populations
especially, and the Germanic Lowlanders ever coalesced into one nation.
It seems that James IV was a clever (if promiscuous - in passing through the countryside, he
would
collect "favours" from local chieftains' daughters and other men's wives as if they were postage
stamps) statesman. He assembled a rather makeshift battle fleet, largely using fishing boats armed
with cannon pilfered from castles, and sailed to demonstrate before a coastal Highland fortress,
cowing the natives with one complete but unshotted - firing only blank charges - salvo from his
whole fleet. In a subsequent parl under flag of truce, he represented himself as a friend come to
show the power with which he could help the Highlanders defend themselves. As they stared
nonplussed, he quickly knighted a number of their most important chiefs to bring them, with their
subordinates, onto his side. Within an hour or so he had almost singlehandedly and without
bloodshed achieved union! Given that very few of his fleet were real warships or permanently
armed,
it was a truly impressive "con job".
I now have the impression of knowing how that union was brought about, but the event as told by
Tranter becomes a dramatic anticlimax; his account may be historically sound, but the episode
draws
to a limp end.
If anyone out there has a Scottish dictionary, it would be good to know the meaning of small-t
"tranter", a noun omitted by my best English and American dictionaries, but used at least twice by
big-T Tranter. At first it seemed a hunting dog; then it seemed a servant of some sort.
Elsewhere the work is written in standard English, with Middle English words scattered into the
dialogue to "antique" the atmosphere.
If this book really states true history - as its flat narration implies - it makes as easy a way as you
may find to better your education. There's that to say for it, certainly; but it's no great display of
how
to write an electrifying historical novel, supposing that was Tranter's aim.
No Great Mischief
Alistair MacLeod
McClelland & Stewart, Inc.
481 University Avenue, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2E9
ISBN (hardcover) 0771055676, $32.99 Can.; (paperback) 0771055706, $17.99 Can.
1-800-788-1074
Alistair MacLeod (Ph.D., Notre Dame) is an erudite Professor of English at University of
Windsor,
Ont. who produces about one fiction book per decade. It should come as no surprise, therefore,
that
when such works do appear, they may be eagerly awaited and soon recognized as works of the
Literary genre; in fact as capital-L, or High, Literature.
Perhaps one must be prepared to spend a decade in honing a work, to attain great Literary status?
At all events, MacLeod recently received both the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary
Award - world's richest literary prize - and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, or DLitt, from
York University, Toronto for the novel reviewed here.
No Great Mischief is MacLeod's first novel, his previous books of 1976 and 1986 having been
collections of 14 short stories in all. Whatever the glories he has won, therefore, his bookshelf
remains quite modest.
This 1999 work's title is explained in the dust jacket's front flap as follows: " ... the 1759 battle at
Quebec [was] won by the English General Wolfe with the help of [Scots] Highlanders whom he
once recommended as soldiers because it was 'no great mischief if they fall'." With implicit
revulsion
at the thought, MacLeod has evidently come to look at his kinfolk through Wolfe's lens of their
expendability.
For me, an important point is that the new work at last shows the abstruse difference between two
important classes of fiction. A novel designed to grab the solvent-if-not-necessarily-erudite
reader's
attention on the first page, indeed within the first line or first sentence, may perhaps be roughly
typified by the first line in my unpublished "See Atlin and Die", running something like this: "A
sudden snap, a bright spurt of blood, and with an oath he flung his knife ..." This is what Literary
snobs dismiss as "genre" writing, regardless of which genre name applies, and the actual quality of
its writing.
In contrast I've long tried to get a feeling for the Literary style, and at last MacLeod's book
provides
at least a part of it.
However literary (with a small l) a book such as "Atlin" may internally be, High Literature simply
does not start off with a bang or even a "sudden snap", much less with a spurt of blood. Instead,
High Lit. begins reflectively and with no setting of "hooks" to catch readers. Indeed, if the
following
rule doesn't yet exist, it should probably be formally propounded: a first line simply cannot aim
simultaneously at both commercial success and Literary pretensions. A corollary: it's doubtful that
a
big-L Literary work will ever become a Best Seller.
Count on it, then; the first chapter of MacLeod's Literary novel begins Literarily. After a
Roman-numeral "I" imprinted upon a probably Celtic design resembling a square, grey lace doily -
itself scarcely an emblem for an action tale! - the text begins, "As I begin to tell this, it is the
golden
month of September in southwestern Ontario. In the splendid autumn sunshine the bounty of the
land is almost overwhelming, as if it is the manifestation of a poem by Keats. Along Highway 3
the
roadside stands are burdened down by baskets of produce and arrangements of plants and
flowers."
... and so forth.
It was in fact while reading that passage, after long puzzling over the enigma of what makes a
work
big-L Literary, that the scales fell from my eyes in an epiphany I now share with readers who have
suffered through similar quests for Literary enlightenment. Now, if only I could grasp with equal
clarity what the first word in "trade paperback" means!
Apart from the apparent necessity of originality (so as to avoid all genre labels other than the
Literary one, itself), it appears that thousands of evocative words must be written before anything
really definitive may actually happen, in a work of Literary standards. Perhaps nothing much may
EVER happen, in highly purified High Literature.
In the present case, in the first 14 pages with a word count around 4,000, MacLeod's protagonist
has driven from Leamington(?), Ont. to Toronto to visit his hard drinking, bedridden brother, with
whom he shares part of a bottle of brandy as well as some family lore or reminiscences.
Oh, all right, perhaps driving a car is a "happening" or "action", in a way - but, inasmuch as no
accident or outbreak of road rage occurs, it is about as stirring and as significant as the sight of
grass
growing or paint drying.
Sharing a drinkie is likewise "nothing to write home about", at least when neither participant hits
the
other with the bottle or even chokes on his firewater. Describing commonplace activities at
length, it
seems, is OK in High Literature.
Don't get me wrong; the telling of this thin tale fragment is of top quality, and it's a valuable read
on
that account, but beyond that ...
A friend has remarked on No Great Mischief as follows:
"I was attracted to this book by comments of reviewers.. but I was dissapointed in its Literary
qualities..or lack thereof. My approach to good literature is to read it slowly to absorb the
nuances
and lessons to be learned. There was no lasting value to the work of MacLeod... so I did a quick
read in 3 days.. looking for redeeming qualities.. the only one being an interesting story line.. and
perhaps a minimal historic perspective."
It's not everyone's cuppa tea, then, even if academics love it. I quote the point of view above,
though, without entirely endorsing it. I've found lots of Literary nuances and lessons in MacLeod's
work. I just think an actual, gripping story is really (but I don't say too) slow to emerge.
The quintessential Scots-Canadian MacLeod soon got me, as a history buff, grubbing through an
old
Britannica for fresh insights on "the (Scots rebellion of) '45", and on Bonny Prince Charlie or
Charles Edward, alias "The Young Pretender" or "The Young Chevalier", depending on one's
politics relative to the mid-18th century. It seems, by the way, a trifle curious how strongly the
Scots
cling to ancient traditions; 200 years after that rebellion, a Scottish-Canadian teacher I had was
still
having her classes sing the not particularly attractive paean, "Charlie is m' darlin' ... The Young
Chevalier". ("The Skye Boat Song" about related events has "a bonny air to it", but the "Charlie"
tune I find dreary.)
Apart from MacLeod's account of the doings of his protagonist's great-great-great-grandfather
who
left Scotland in 1779, near the book's beginning there is nothing I, at least, can honestly describe
as
an interesting story line.
Somewhat idly, therefore, I wondered whether there are quite enough "greats" in MacLeod's
dynastic study? Even if one assumes a constant and seemingly generous 25 years per generation
throughout, given the elapsed time of 220 years between 1779 and 1999 the remote forebear
MacLeod describes would have lived roughly NINE generations earlier.
This sort of trap is but one lying in wait for even the most careful novelist or other writer; as an
unrelated example, a recent TV biography of Napoleon said French soldiers used rifles against the
mediaevally equipped Mamelukes at the one-sided Battle of the Pyramids, whereas almost surely
the
smooth-bore musket was still in general use. Who would normally have thought of such a fact,
you
ask? Well, a writer MUST do so - but we all fail at it, sooner or later. All that said, however, I
admit
I've digressed.
Within No Great Mischief, things do eventually happen, in flashbacks. The most striking is the
loss
of family members attempting to cross rotting spring ice one more time, from the mainland to the
sea island where the father had up to that point acted as the local lighthouse keeper. Memories of
that dreadful accident have subsequently haunted the survivors.
Whereas MacLeod generally writes in fine Literary style (which we might compare to wearing
best
Sunday clothing which does not, however, much alter the person under the finery), one's reading
of
his work is too often disturbed by his use of incomplete sentences.
Like this.
An incomplete sentence may very occasionally appear in even the best writing as a figure of
speech,
if there's a reason for it - but in my view it should never be overdone. Three or four such usages in
the course of an entire novel (except if embedded in directly quoted dialogue such as "Hey, you!",
or
in simple onomatopoeia such as "Crash!") might be okay ... but, like salt in cooking, at some point
enough becomes damned well enough, and an excess serves only as an irritant.
It seems curious that a Literary writer and English professor should lay himself open to such a
rudimentary criticism. Yet a home truth is that "Pobody's nerfect," present company at this end
included.
The Highland Scots virtually define "clan", clannish", and related words. MacLeod's book makes
strong use of the concept. It remains unclear to us outsiders, though, just how "clan" differs from
"family".
When such a book leads one into thinking and research, it means time well spent. The committed
and fully capable lover of Literature will almost surely find the entire reading of this work an
engrossing pleasure.
The Unknown Shore
Patrick O'Brian
W.W. Norton, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
039331538X $13.95 U.S.; $16.99 Can., 313 pages; map. 1-800-233-4830
Admirers of the great (no exaggeration there) English-turned-Irish, latterly French-domiciled
writer
known to the world as the late (alas) Patrick O'Brian are likely, by a broad margin, to be most
familiar with his wonderful naval historical novel series featuring the seagoing characters, Captain
Jack Aubrey and his close friend and habitual ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin. Fewer may be
aware
that O'Brian grew by steps into that calling, so to speak, from a literary beginning in historical-
and
biographical-truth studies.
Whereas O'Brian published several earlier works of differing natures, the book now under review
is
recognized as his second navally based novel, the first having been "The Golden Ocean". O'Brian
had yet to find his eventual winning formula.
Both those early naval books were based on the historical events, and often on the historical
personages too, of Captain George Anson's epic circumnavigation of the world in 1740-44.
O'Brian's eventual duo of chiefly invented characters, Aubrey and Maturin (the former's early
naval
exploits being closely modelled upon those of one Thomas Cochrane), are strongly foreshadowed
in
the present work by midshipman Jack Byron, an historical character who lived to become an
admiral
and grandfather to the poet, Lord Byron; and his probably more fictional best friend and
quasi-adoptive neighbour lad, Tobias Barrow who, like the later Maturin, is a proficient naturalist
and dissector. "Toby", thanks to the latter skill and a great deal of medical knowledge or what
passed as such in those days, as imparted by his foster-father, becomes his ship's surgeon's mate or
assistant surgeon, whereas the more mature Maturin will be warranted full surgeon.
Why this emphasis on medical/surgical practice? O'Brian's father was also a "physical gentleman"
who likely taught his son much that was later to appear in such novels, and standard advice to
writer
is, "Write what you know."
On this and other grounds, one suspects both Tobias and the later Stephen of being O'Brian
self-portraits, closely resembling one another and probably also the author whose photo appears
on
the rear flap of the book's dust jacket. To both fictional men are imputed `ill' looks - not meaning
sickly, but only unattractive - pale green eyes, and so forth.
Other echoes, this time of a political, Tory-vs.-Whig rivalry between parties more recently
respectively named Conservative and Liberal, and resembling today's rivalry between Republicans
and Democrats in the USA, also make The Unknown Shore evoke the later Aubrey-Maturin
series.
On the other hand the young Jack Byron of Anson's day cannot possibly be the Jack Aubrey who
reached the same age early in Napoleon's era, some two generations or more later. By the same
token, and despite so many striking similarities, this book's Tobias (Toby) cannot be the Stephen
of
O'Brian's defining, later series. Did O'Brian somehow lack ability to devise wholly new characters,
though? One may well ask, for why else didn't he do so?
All historical fiction must recognize various historical truths, but particularly while he was `finding
his sea legs' in this sort of writing O'Brian tended to stay very close indeed to recorded major
facts.
Whereas later on O'Brian was to invent, more or less out of whole cloth, adventures and exploits
for
his Aubrey-Maturin team to experience, his earliest two novels of this genre stick to essential facts
of the historical Anson expedition almost "like glue".
More importantly, such minor details as he may have been obliged to invent lie very close to what
we know of lifestyles, thought processes, manners, speech, and the like, of the times depicted.
There
are however important differences between what may acceptably be served up to modern readers,
compared with the standard writing style of 2 1/2 centuries ago. As an example of how an actual
novel looked a few years after Anson's circumnavigation, the interested reader should study Henry
Fielding's 1749 novel Tom Jones in its original version. In short, The Unknown Shore may be
described as a fairly modern dramatization of history, and possibly as `not quite a novel'.
A professional writer may feel passionately intrigued to determine at just what stage the transition
may be made from writing somewhat fictionalized history (or biography, i.e., the history of an
individual), to genuine, if still history-based fiction. Now,`genuine fiction' may seem an oxymoron,
but `true-to-life fiction' is a high accolades for fine writing, and it might be a cheap trick to pass
the
historical record off as a product of one's vivid imagination in order to receive such admiring
recognition. At what point, then, does one move out of the realm of history and into that of
fiction?
Admittedly, a more typical reader may feel much less interest than this but, to speak a little more
for
us others, an historian's work involves chiefly painstaking research and accurate, persuasive
reporting of facts; a `pure' novelist's involves chiefly creativity and persuasive personifications
spun
out of thin air; while a writer of historical fiction, or an historical novelist if you prefer, works
both
sides of the figurative street simultaneously.
Using that `street' metaphor one more time, it is as if O'Brian had grown up on the historians' side
of
a throroughfare, then had begun moseying slowly across to the novelists' side as first the
companion
volume, "The Golden Ocean", and then the present book were being written.
After introducing a Scots personality and allowing him a few words in his natural voice, O'Brian
switches to English with an awkward apology to say that dialects will never do - although in his
own
later books, and even in a sentence later in the present work, he forgets and succumbs to the
undoubted charms of dialect; note my mention of "looby", hereunder.
As The Unknown Shore is read, its family resemblance to the Aubrey-Maturin series creates an
uncanny feeling of de'ja` vu despite many differences. One of those points of familiarity involves
the
sensations of freshness and frequent, generally unexpected hilarity. There is nothing quite like an
O'Brian sea novel, in its amusement quotient!
Great sailing ships were extremely complex, dynamic structures, of which O'Brian speaks with
great
authority. A less than familiar reader of such tales may be obliged either to keep a nautical
disctionary at hand, however, or else to be prepared to let a certain amount of naval jargon wash
over his or her head without overmuch worry as to exact meanings.
There is rather more sexual innocence in The Unknown Shore than in the later Aubrey-Maturin
series. John `Jack' Byron, 1723-86, was a teenager at the outset of Anson's great adventure of
1740-04, and although Toby may have been of a similar age, he was even less worldly. (This Jack
had already served in other Navy ships; in those pre-child-labour-law days, nothing was thought
of
going to sea before puberty.) What probably matters more, though, is that this book was written
before the sexual revolution had put an end to the formerly common assumption of, as well as
respect for, continence in youth. By comparison, Jack Aubrey of the later series is sexually
experienced and even an adulterer at the outset of the later series featuring him.
The present tale begins at home, in England. Then the protagonist duo makes for Portsmouth,
where
their squadron is marshalling. En route, they pass via London where the naive, previously
untravelled, absentminded Toby becomes lost and is set upon and robbed although - and this
could
easily have been the outcome - he is not murdered.
While Jack bemoans the absence of his friend, who is really expert in his way, it turns out that
their
expected places in the flagship have been given to Irishmen - the protagonists of O'Brian's
preceding
novel, "The Golden Ocean".
That serious setback is somewhat mitigated, though, by news that Jack is appointed into a much
less
glamorous storeship, the "Wager", an old and unweatherly (that is, unable to sail close to the
wind)
Indiaman whose hold is largely stuffed with trinkets and other trade goods, as well as a train of
field
and seige guns with which to attack Spanish land forces and installations ... and by a place as
Surgeon's Mate opening up for Toby in the same vessel, if only the strayed and now mugged
(pardon the modernism) Toby can be found in that enormous city!
All goes even better than one might have expected after such an unpromising start, but another
point
of similarity between Toby and Stephen Maturin has emerged that, for somewhat different reasons
although both are absentminded, a general opinion develops that neither is fit to be let outdoors
alone.
After numerous delays, creating apprehension that the fearsome rounding of Cape Horn must be
attempted too late in the extreme southern navigation season, at last Anson's squadron sets sail
from
the St. Helen's anchorage in the shelter of the Isle of Wight, roughly opposite Portsmouth with its
more famous Spithead anchorage.
A brutal, protracted voyage as far as Madeira follows, but it is described by O'Brian only in
outline.
By now the squadron is perhaps a further four weeks delayed, through a combination of calms or
adverse winds and shortage of, in particular, experienced and healthy crews. (It was wartime, and
even old pensioners had been dragged out or retirement and sent aboard the ships. Some had not
yet
emerged from their beds in sick bay; while still other men were felons released for the purpose
from
assorted prisons!)
By now Toby has proved his worth in caring for the sick, having a particularly deft touch in
extracting teeth, and he has for the most part won his sea legs. He is entrusted first with minor
surgery, and then with more and more important work until finally the regular surgeon is called
out
of the "Wager" altogether, never to return.
The voyage undertaken by Anson's expedition faced hardships far beyond those affecting the
Spanish enemy, who had originally invaded most of South America - all but Brazil, assigned by
papal fiat to Portugal - against minimal military resistance by the native peoples, and who had
subsequently enjoyed the use of their own ports to replenish their ships' supplies on both east and
west coasts of the continent.
It seems puzzling that the British, at that time at war with Spain but at peace with Portugal (and
having already taken on fresh stores at Portuguese Madeira), failed to seize the further
opportunity
to reprovision at, say, Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil; for Rio lies over twice as far beyond Madeira as
the
latter does from Portsmouth. Perhaps, though, the aim was to go undetected as much as possible
by
the Spanish. Whatever the reason for Anson's not taking on fresh supplies somewhere upon the
Brazilian coast, it was not so very far beyond, where only Spanish ports existed, that the first
signs
of scurvy began to appear.
That scourge of far-ranging sailing navies, which we now know as simply a vitamin-deficiency
disease, was not then well understood even though people somewhat vaguely recognized the
importance of a varied diet. The fact that the surgeon of the "Wager", reckoned to be the best of
his
trade in the squadron, supposed scurvy to be a disease of the imagination would be of little help;
many men in all of the expedition's ships were fated to die or be incapacitated by the disease -
perhaps even more than would be afflicted by accidents in the cruel weather off Cape Horn.
Although he did not much allow scurvy to slow him down, Toby too lost teeth to the ailment -
surely proving once and for all to the openminded that something other than imagination must
have
been the cause!
The Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, around 60 degrees of south latitude,
is
infamous as a zone where winds blow right around the world without the retardation of passing
over
land masses with, in particular, their high mountain ranges such as the Andes. A similar distance
from the North Pole traces a path through Siberia, along the northerly limits of the Canadian
provinces, and touches Greenland; from this analogy it will be obvious that the high southern
latitudes, too, can be bitterly cold, at least aboard a vessel whose arrival is badly timed to exploit
the
local summer, such as it may be.
After an excruciatingly long seige of attempting to beat, or rather batter their way, westerly far
enough to have cleared the Horn and entered the Pacific, Anson's ships turned north - only to find
they were still in the Atlantic, and must repeat that awful process!
At last the "Wager" made her westing in company with the other surviving ships, but then lost
contact with them. In an onshore gale, and given her unweatherly characteristics and depleted,
exhausted crew, she drove ashore and was wrecked on a Chilean island around 48 degrees
south.
Much of the drama up to that point and afterward revolved around shipboard personalities, as one
might expect. Two ship captains had by this point died, to be replaced by their immediate juniors.
Thus a somewhat inexperienced, belligerent Lieutenant Cheap, of all names, became commander
of
the "Wager", where things went from very bad indeed to still worse until a state of mutiny or
insurrection developed after the ship's loss. As one may guess, therefore, under dreadful
conditions
the story became largely one of group (or faction) as well as individual survival against savage,
nearly impossible odds.
Here we have essentially a straightforward recounting of history during which O'Brian falls into a
rather didactic mode, rather compactly relating a great deal of detail but providing few dramatics
in
the form of invented dialogue. After the middle of page 219 there is no further use of quotation
marks (") until "We must try to edge across" appears slightly over eight pages later, low on page
227. This passage seems more the work of the historian O'Brian than that of the novelist he was
becoming.
On the other hand, someone - perhaps the expedition's survivors or their editors of long ago? -
seems to have coloured historical facts when they describe extreme privations including
starvation,
yet indicate that the men affected still carried on working. Experiences with partial starvation
suggest that a victim, through having consumed all available blood sugar, fat reserves, and even
much muscle mass, may run so entirely out of energy (much like a motor vehicle's fuel tank's
running
dry) that little beyond the functions of internal organs can continue. Finally even these may shut
down for lack of resources, resulting in death by famine.
Eventually, if I may follow the expedition's chief historical aspect through, the flagship
"Centurion"
alone would complete her voyage around the world and back to Britain, Still under Anson's very
able command. She had by then wreaked considerable havoc on the Spanish, and captured an
outstandingly rich prize in the galleon carrying gold from Manila in the Philippines to Acapulco,
Mexico (although, in a rare error, O/Brian seems to reverse the galleon's route. It may also be
remarked that a few minor errors occur in this Norton edition, the worst being a change from a
Scottish term of reprobation, `looby' - apparently meaning clown, dunce, or jerk - to `lobby',
which
makes no sense at all in its context.)
The "Wager" story is a largely separate one, and enough of it has now been revealed about the
adventures and trials of her people to give an adequate idea of "The Unknown Shore"'s contents;
for
it is important not to give away the entire plot, but rather to leave matters in a somewhat
mysterious
state so as to encourage a reading of the actual book.
Larry's Party
Carol Shields
Random House of Canada, ISBN 0670873926, $36.95 Can.
Vintage Canada, 0679309519, $17.95 Can. 339 pp.
Penguin USA 0140266771, $12.95 339pp.
Besides now being Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg, the distinguished Canadian author
Carol Shields has been winning literary awards since 1965. (She must surely have got her start, it
seems evident, before market conditions made a breakthrough all but impossible to those lacking
celebrity, in the last quarter or so of the 20th Century.)
"Larry's Party" is not her most acclaimed novel; that distinction belongs to "The Stone Diaries",
which took the 1993 Governor General's Award, the 1995 Pulitzer Prize, and at least one other.
"Larry's Party" is however a more recent work, and so may be familiar to fewer readers.
It would be intensely unfair to say without qualifiers that there is no action in "Larry's Party" or,
as
to that, in nearly any other novel. Let us imagine instead a scale of activity levels, on which this
Shields book would rate perhaps ten percentage points above zero - but far, far below those
violent
James Bond or Schwartzenegger-type action dramas, which belong well above 90% on the same
scale.
(A very Hollywoodish videotaped Schwartzenegger epic to which I've recently been exposed
featured everything up to and including an atomic blast near the Florida keys, and a thug-hero
who
impersonally "wastes", at a guess, a hundred men; perhaps more. No doubt hordes of anonymous
bit
players got "knocked off" numerous times each, to make that production.)
These examples aren't extremes. One could imagine more focus on suffering and flying body parts
in
a shoot-'em-up, while it's possible to be more inert than the people Shields describes - but a spread
of 85% or so on the activity scale between an action novel and a literary one shows that the two
styles can and perhaps must contrast very strongly.
A recent article in "The Atlantic Monthly" makes a point that high-hat publishers and academics
now
divide fiction books into just two black-or-white classes, Capital-L Literature on one hand, and
"genre" on the other. The determinant is the absence or presence, respectively, of action. Given
our
invention of the sliding action-scale with its shades of grey, though, whereas Shield's "Larry's
Party"
isn't bereft of action, the novel does occupy a position within what we must now see as a
moderately
broad territory in which the Literary predominates.
Better to illustrate the point, let me summarize the first hundred pages of "L's P", spanning five
chapters and just beginning a sixth.
Larry appears inauspiciously at the outset, physically inept and mentally mediocre in the
highschool
he has quite recently left. He has however had a half-dozen early affairs with a series of girls who,
after the first, are known only as "rescue ships". Such a scorecard might seem commonplace
today,
but it was unheard of, especially for a dullish, nerdy guy, by those of us who grew up before the
sexual revolution. Anway, Shields mentions those experiences only tangentially. They can't really
be
classed as "action events" except in a very attenuated, indirect way.
Larry will, however, mature and slowly shed his awkwardness as the tale progresses.
Chapter 1 describes just 15 minutes in 1977 when, after some sort of public gathering, Larry, who
works for a Winnipeg florist, mistakenly walks off with someone else's Harris tweed jacket,
deciding
not to return it because he is rushing to a hot date with his compliant girlfriend, Dorrie. He dumps
it
instead, so as not to appear as a thief. Both he and the man whose jacket it was are thus the
losers. It
may be argued that there's SOME action here - Larry DOES steal, walk, and dump - but we fail
to
meet Dorrie at this time, or to see any action directly involving her.
In this book, Shields routinely jumps at least one year ahead between chapters. Thus Ch. 2 leaps
to
1978 to portray a sequence after Larry and Dorrie have married, she already "with child". Their
wedding, and the birth of a baby boy some 5 months later, again presumably involved "action",
but
they are not described. However, in this chapter there does occur an actually described, pivotal
event. It is the couple's honeymoon trip to England where Larry becomes enamored of hedges,
specifically those used in mazes. Later, he will emulate them as best he can on the small lawn of
their
modest home back in Winnipeg, although Dorrie (who suffers from morning sickness) dislikes this
strange new enthusiasm of her husband's.
By Ch. 3, set in 1980, the baby is already a toddler. Now we learn, in a flashback, something
extraordinary about Larry's parents, originally from England. His mother had invited her in-laws
to
dinner and had served homemade, imperfectly preserved beans, which had killed her
mother-in-law
by botulism poisoning. Larry's parents had then moved to Canada to start a new life, gravitating
to
Winnipeg where suitable work existed. There's no doubt about it; although accidental, the
poisoning
was action, an event - but told in attenuated, long-after-the-fact style.
Then follows Ch. 4, 1981, with nothing to report that I recall.
At the end of Ch. 5 set in 1983, though, Larry is horrified to hear that a backhoe has dug up half
his
maze, Dorrie's constant irritant.
Ch. 6, set a year later, begins with a reference to "his first marriage", suggesting there has in the
meantime been a divorce proceeding, of which we know nothing. Once again, a description of
action
is avoided!
Upon close examination such a book is not truly inactive or eventless, but noteworthy things seem
to crop up only once per ten or even twenty pages - depending on what one considers
"noteworthy",
of course. More generally, "Literary" may describe a work which may contain a LITTLE action, a
LITTLE romance and/or sex, etc. ... but it probably uses such `impurities' too sparingly to be
dominated by them. A good way to avoid their domination is to scatter events sparsely - and even
then to mention them only briefly and en passant, with no real focus. This is how "Larry's Party"
tends to come across to me.
With his second wife Larry will live and prosper in Chicago, but after some time she gets bored
with
marriage and decides on a separate life in Europe. He next takes up residence in Toronto with a
rather casual girlfriend he never marries.
Many readers must inevitably find "L's P" boring, but this is where a taste (cultivated, if need be,
like
that for dill pickles or durian) for High Literature comes into play. Many of Shields's ideas are
beautifully expressed, but often they could still be summed up a` la Shakespeare as "much ado
about
nothing", or anyway about not a great deal.
There's a world of difference between this work and, say, "War and Peace", firstly because Larry
and
his wife are very ordinary folk even though Larry excells at what he does - floral arranging as an
initial job, then horticulture, first as a passionate hobby, later as his definitive profession - and
secondly because nothing here compares even remotely with Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
Ironically, the action content of the great Tolstoy epic probably makes it mere "genre" fiction, and
thus "inadequate" as High(-falutin') Literature.
Score a huge win for genre novels, in that case!
La Shields is not one to shy away from the infamous f-word. She breaks whatever may be left of a
traditional stereotype by putting it chiefly into the mouth of Larry's first wife. At least initially
Dorrie
also seems an eager practitioner of the sexual art that word denotes, although before breaking up
her
marriage she goes out on a sex strike to blackmail Larry into buying a more pretentious
house.
To be honest, even I, once a quasi-lumberjack, felt taken aback by Dorrie's rough tongue. How
the
world has changed since I began writing, when one editor (even then an unusually oldfashioned
one,
though) took me to task for "gratuitous sex" in my first novel! At all events, nowadays even High
Literature may embrace untold obscenity and get away with it.
Romance, being "genre", remains OUT, but the term does raise a point. If romance may ultimately
lead to f***ing, "L's P" nearly begins with it, only here it lacks intimacy. That unimpassioned
approach abandons all opportunity to build up a palpable, even overwhelming sexual tension - the
hallmark of a romantic novel and perhaps also of a real romance, that unforgettable life
experience.
Here we have yet another sacrifice, then, to that bloodless god, Literature.
This work is definitely adult reading, partly because of the patience it demands, partly because of
the
adult issues (such as employment) it discusses, and often because of its copious sexual but, to me,
not very sexy allusions.
As a massive instance of the lastmentioned, Chapter Seven is with reason entitled "Larry's Penis,
1986". Readers' responses to such material are highly personal, but I can imagine some being
turned
on, others turned off. Some, alas, may now to lay hands on the book and skip the first six chapters
altogether - surely a serious mistake. However it's viewed, to me the chapter is bizarre but not
awfully sexy, although a woman reader might perhaps see it otherwise ... or does it really satire
male
proclivities?
At all events' I don't seem to recall Larry's penis as having any actual adventures in the chapter; it
only receives very concentrated discussion, I think, thus carrying the Literary spirit to a new level,
one located perhaps a handspan below his umbilicus.
Larry's great triumph is in finding a truly offbeat profession, maze-maker, in which he manages to
prosper quite remarkably despite his unpromising beginnings. If there is one fault here it is that
success so readily falls into his lap. The fact that it all begins virtually by happy accident tends to
show how our world often works, though; this is where a by-chance fair-faced girl with by-chance
big breasts may become a Marilyn Monroe. Thus chance gives Larry his big chance; success
brings
celebrity, granting him yet more success.
If I say this is no action novel, I mean it. Shields has taken a very leisurely look at a twenty-year
timespan in which she makes few if any references to such external events as war, and in which
not a
great deal happens to her fictional characters, either, unless you count much reflection and
description, and many technicalities concerning mazes, leavened by a fair amount of palaver
among
the drama's assorted personae. I am reminded of William Golding's Literary "Rites of Passage"
trilogy, in which months are spent aboard a sailing ship at sea, yet with nary a storm nor a sight of
land, all the way from Biscay to Australia; a tale in which, indeed, almost nothing substantive
occurs!
The title "Larry's Party" remains enigmatic almost to the end. There is however a Table of
Contents
which early informs us that the final Chapter Fifteen is named "Larry's Party, 1997", toward which
everything, from Chapter One, 1977, onward may be seen as a twenty-year buildup. (Certain
years'
being missed in the narrative explains the mismatch between 20 years and 15 chapters, by book's
end.)
When Larry at last throws his party, Shields invokes a couple of rather gauche contrivances. First,
Larry learns that both of his former wives will, by wild coincidence, be in Toronto at the same
time -
and, with his girlfriend's concurrence, he succeeds in getting both of them to his "do". I
considered
that stretching probabilities, right there.
As someone else has since pointed out after seeing "L's P" on stage, moreover, an invited guest
brings along a Spanish character we haven't so much as heard of until nearly the book's end - and
who hadn't been seen onstage until the final scene - whose sole evident function is
oh-so-conveniently to take the girlfriend off Larry's hands. With apologies to Saddam Hussein, is
this not the mother of all Literary contrivances?
The tale has the ploy working, though, leaving Larry and Dorrie (who still has the Winnipeg
house,
complete with Larry's half-maze) free to get back together again; for, given such a miraculous
de'nouement, all is forgiven, and everyone will live happily ever after.
Summing up, if you've read your way through Marcel Proust's "A` la rechereche du temps perdu"
or
even Count Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina", you'll find "Larry's Party" a breeze - but if your
highest
attainment is, say, "Hollywood Husbands", you may find Shields's work too slow to finish.
The Spice Islands Voyage
Tim Severin
Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.
19 West 21st Street, #601, New York, NY 10010
ISBN 0-7867-0518-3, $25 US. 1-800-788-3123
The Spice Islands Voyage - The Quest for Alfred [Russel] Wallace, the Man Who Shared
Darwin's
Discovery of Evolution be of special interest to biologists and scientific historians, to those who
have seen the Far East, and to those who simply appreciate the beauty and/or romance of "those
faraway places with their strange-sounding names", whether seen or unseen hitherto.
Author Severin seems an inspired writer at the Conradian beginning of this non-fictional work's
first
chapter, "The Fever Victim". The entire volume is in fact most attractively produced, with its 34
colour photos (plus a big, romantic wraparound dustjacket photo depicting the author's
native-style
boat in semidarkness, perhaps by moonlight or harbour illumination, but more likely at dawn) and
with numerous wonderful black & white hand sketches using watercolours to make shades of
grey.
Its graphics alone might justify the book's price, but it is what Severin writes that brings
everything
together and gives it meaning.
Books "in search of", pursuing "the quest for", and "retracing the steps of" such-and-such a
person
are no novelty. Despite the gorgeous setting of this one, for an habitual reader a sense of "de'ja`
lu"
may develop, not through overfamiliarity with the individual "sought", or with the geographic
location, but rather with the work's overall concept and form. For me "The Spice Islands Voyage"
specifically evokes memories of an "in search of Joseph Conrad" volume I read six or eight years
ago.
Chapter 1 is reminiscent of Conrad's own works such as "An Outcast of the Islands" or
"Almeyer's
Folly". I feel half-convinced that had Severin wished, he might have picked up entirely where
Joseph
Conrad left off. As to the need for an ability to write fiction - well, Conrad himself seems often to
have fictionalized rather thinly from real acquaintances at first or second hand. For instance, one
Olmeier is said to have been Conrad's apparent model for Almeyer; yet Conrad is an honoured
novelist.
In the present case, Severin's quest is to follow in the footsteps of a most unusual, perceptive
Victorian-era British naturalist, Alfred Wallace, 1823-1913. Wallace, who was forced to quit
school
at 14, was the all too modest co-discoverer of the principle of species evolution based on survival
of
the fittest. Charles Darwin generally receives the sole credit for that earthshaking development,
and
was not a working partner with Wallace; they were in fact on opposite sides of the world, at the
time. However, the principle could justly have been named something like the Darwin-Wallace
Law,
or Principle.
Wallace failed to "scoop" Darwin when he mailed his seminal essay to Darwin himself. Darwin
had,
with far more resources at his command, made much the same discoveries a decade or so earlier,
but
had failed to publish them. At all events, Wallace still gets more than a page in the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica". He is, amongst other things, the undisputed author of "The Wallace Line" passing
between Kalimantan (old Borneo) and Sulawesi (old Celebes), near the Equator; and between Bali
and Lombok, somewhat farther south.
This Line, as Wallace astutely observed, divides Asiatic native fauna on its west side from
Australian
native fauna to the east. His was an interpretation only an observant and analytical scientist on the
spot could have made ... and Darwin was living a pampered life in faraway England.
Unlike the more aristocratic and well educated Darwin, in fact, Wallace was a humble, but in
essence "born", field naturalist who was ready, even eager to cope with the most primitive
imaginable conditions in his pursuit of scientific knowledge and insight. That he lived to age 90
seems a miracle, considering the risks he took and hardships he endured.
As a foundation of his tale, Severin tells us how his tall, gangling subject, while weathering his
latest
bout of malarial chill and fever in Ternate, Maluku (which we tend to call the Spice Islands, or the
Moluccas), Wallace was suddenly inspired to create the theory of evolution out of his
observations
of natural diversity, his mind having been fertilized by important hints in scientific books
formulated
by Lamarck, who believed that environmental conditions had over the eons created such forms as
the giraffe's long neck; and more especially by Malthus, who believed that less-advanced human
populations (it was Wallace who extended this idea to other species) would be held in check by
warfare, pestilence, etc., while the fitter populations might still multiply.
Such, then, was the genius Wallace whose footsteps Severin decided, in this instance, to trace -
"in
this instance" because Severin had previously published over a dozen analogous works, several
with
such "questing" names as "Tracking Marco Polo", "The Jason Voyage: The Quest for the Golden
Fleece", and, "The Ulysses Voyage: Sea Search for the Odyssey". For him this was simply the
latest
in a goodly list of such ventures, although he no doubt was in the habit of throwing himself
wholeheartedly into each.
The brilliant but self-effacing Wallace, the "Fever Victim" of Chapter 1, was the first European to
explore and live in many remote locales in the Far East, not infrequently doing so among Stone
Age
cultures. Severin's quest found those cultures generally changed quite radically as a result of,
above
all, the Indonesian government's policy since the mid-20th century of educational homogenization.
However, his pursuit of Wallace into remote byways, often preserved in fairly pristine states by
being lightly populated (as against heavy overpopulation in Java), helped produce this book's
stunningly beautiful artwork by Leonard Sheil, one of Severin's associates and crewmates in the
project. Sheil's wonderful sketches bear such titles as "Great Bird-winged Butterfly", "Warbal
beach
hut", and "Coast of Kei Besar"; if they don't create that yearning to go and see the originals for
yourself, nothing ever will!
Incidentally, Besar means "Big" (there also is a Little Kei) in bahasa Indonesia, the lingua franca
of
those many hundreds of islands, each of which may also have its own language. As one example
of
the country's internal differences, the word for water in bahasa Indonesia is, as a seeming paradox,
"air" - although this isn't pronounced "err", as is our word, but rather "ah-ear"; whereas in bahasa
Bali, the Balinese language, the word for water is "yeh", pronounced like a breathy "yea".
Many of the illustrations, both drawn/painted and photographed, show Severin's striking,
14.3-metre/47-foot, native-built monohulled exploratory yacht. To make his boat as much like
Wallace's vessel of 140 years earlier as possible, he'd had her traditionally built at Warbal in the
island group called Ke - Wallace's spelling for the simple "K" sound; or Kei - local spelling as used
by Severin; or again Kai - governmental spelling as determined in the remote capital, Jakarta,
where
functionaries apparently may be none too familiar with distant local customs.
The "Alfred Wallace", Severin's prahu (or perahu, meaning simply "boat" and often pronounced
"prow") kalulis - apparently an adjective from the local language or dialect - was a
square-but-tilt-rigged ketch using such native materials as split bamboo. She was built, moreover,
by
purely native methods, involving NO measurements(!) but rather a vast amount of tradition,
experience, chitchat, and piece-fitting. Symmetry was achieved, in part, by splitting treetrunks and
refining the halves into planking, one slab to port, the other directly opposite, to starboard. Such
boatbuilding methods must have developed in the absence of metal fasteners and fittings; they
therefore seem to use no bolts, screws, or even nails, and originally must have been made without
metal tools either. Rather, they are "trenailed" or pegged together with wooden dowels, driven
home
with wooden mallets.
Nonetheless, Severin then outfitted the "Alfred Wallace" with modern devices that would have
left
Wallace both gasping and bankrupt: a wind-powered electricity generator, a satellite
navigation/communication system, a 9-horsepower outboard motor, and an inflatable liferaft.
Although the sails may appear at a distance to be of traditional woven-rattan matting, in fact they
are
of (khaki-coloured) recycled sailcloth from North Sails, the Acknowledgements section says. (A
"last minute addition" to the crew was Bill, a sailmaker, who presumably recut the high-tech
fabric
to create a more durable simulation of the island's traditional sails, although I find Severin unclear
on
this point.)
Next, large, black patterns representing geckos - common house lizards of the tropics, named for
their thrice-repeated nocturnal call, "Geck-aw" (at least in their southern Thai dialect) - were
painted
onto the canvas.
The boat being of a type specific to the island where she was built (contrasting with, for example,
the smaller, narrowly lateen-rigged, spidery, gaily painted bamboo-outrigger dugouts typical of
Bali), the "Alfred Wallace" superficially seem the ideal conveyance in an area with so much sea;
certainly, she's romantic enough. However, she may have gone unballasted, and in our "developed
world" that omission would represent unheard of bravado in a sailboat of her size, given the risks
of
capsize.
Severin's book is far from a treatise on sailing, though, let alone on naval architecture. For all we
know, there may have been inside gravel ballast. Alternatively, perhaps the sails were dropped and
"the iron topsail was hoisted" (meaning that the motor was started), whenever the sailing grew
tricky.
Yet just 9 hp. to propel a 47-footer against a foul gale, say in attempting to claw off a dangerous
lee
shore, sounds very meagre indeed; I've crewed in a ballasted, fibreglass 42-foot ketch equipped
with
a 57-hp diesel - despite which, progress against heavy headwinds and headseas was slow under
engine power alone.
Severin, by the way, calls his boat "small". My guess is that he may therefore call great ships "big
boats", as in the former TV series, "The Love Boat", whereas I recall a coastguardsman's defining
a
boat as "a vessel small enough to be carried on a ship's deck." To me a 47-foot boat is quite
substantial, thank you; it is about as long as many a suburban house, or as an 18-wheeled highway
hauler. Much smaller vessels, too, have often crossed great oceans.
Well, enough about sailing, about Severin's boat, and about nautical terminology. What really
count
are the party's explorations and any lingering, 140-year-old memories of the man for whom they
quested, the boat being only a means to those ends.
Parts of "The Spice Island Voyage" amount to a biography of Wallace, and to some extent also of
that luminary's family and fellow scientists. About Wallace himself, it strikes home on page 42 that
he "had to write book reviews ... to make ends meet"!
Wallace first encountered one of his associates, Henry Walter Bates, in a library where they
discovered they had a ridiculous amount in common, including shyness, scientific interests, owlish
spectacles, and poverty; they even looked enough alike to be mistaken for one another. This
contact
would become important when Bates discovered animal mimicry (such as in the viceroy butterfly's
mimicking of the monarch, apparently for self-protection) - a principle which would strongly
support
the theory of evolution. Such tales at this, I feel, must intrigue any scientist or admirer of
scientists.
Wallace's is *travelling* biography, set amidst magical locales, sights, sounds, and other sensual
stimuli. The reviewer's problem thus is not to find enough to say, but rather to stem the flow of
words inspired by such an account as Severin's.
Taken all in all, this book makes a wonderful read - but oh, to have been there, and especially
aboard
the "Alfred Wallace"!
Pete Hodgins Sr.
Reviewer
Holbrook's Bookshelf
"Force Balance in the Earth"
It sounds so obvious that it should go without saying. Most people and most scientists would take
this as a given. Yet you will find this concept, particularly its mathematical expression lacking in
geoscientific literature of the recent past. What has happened? Does force balance not apply? Or
is it
already included in the considerations and used by today's scientists?
I find a striking contrast between the problem solving methods of our greatest scientists and those
that are working on related problems today. Galileo, Newton, Hooke, and Pascal all started with a
force-balanced premise. They reached their conclusions that are today's physical laws within a
force-balanced framework. There is physical symmetry in all their mathematical solutions. They
considered this to be a natural boundary condition and reached their separate individual
conclusions
therein.
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". "Stress is proportional to strain". These
quotes are familiar to most English speaking people. Both quotes are expressions of force balance
that are a general attribute of nature. This hasn't changed. Should we accept this and use it, or
ignore it?
Unlike my contemporaries, I have decided to apply rigorous force balance and mass balance with
my
working hypotheses. Most of the pieces (mathematical elements) were already well known. All I
have chosen to do is assemble those pieces under the same conditions that were used by Newton,
Hooke, and Pascal. Loads, stresses and pressures in the earth are 3-dimensional, so the composite
formulation is 3-dimensional. That formulation is also symmetrical and balanced.
A surprising thing happened when results were compared to predictions of this composite force
and
mass balanced mechanical system. Simply combining accepted physical laws under force and mass
balanced constraints worked! This is perhaps the easiest logical explanation for anyone to
swallow.
How was it overlooked?
The one new thing included was a definition of absolute in situ strain as part of the formulation.
Introduction of a new definition changes nothing about existing physical or mathematical laws.
But
it does provides a straightforward rock property means for the combination of physical and
mathematical laws. Volumetric strain is the formerly unused key.
All the other contemporary scientists had observed systematic strain indications as well. But they
had not specifically taken strain or global force balance into their formulations. They were
presuming
the hidden guiding hand of nature without specifically explaining or invoking it.
Today we have hundreds of partial explanatory formulations that are lacking in mathematical
force
balance and a specific definition of strain. Each explains some aspect of earth mechanical response
accompanied by some carefully crafted caveats. Each caveat is the author's expression of a
boundary
condition within which particular conclusions apply. Reading technical reports of these results
leaves
one with the impression that the earth is terribly complex, perhaps too complex, for ordinary
humans
to grasp.
How could it be possible that all these scientists could either overlook or not discover the most
obvious, mechanically consistent, choice of a scientific conclusion? My guess is that they weren't
looking for it. They were all looking for something that sounds unique and different that would
possibly be funded.
There is another bias that led contemporary scientists away from the obvious first choice. That
bias
is the appearance of scientific objectivity. One can be completely objective by examining data
assuming nothing, including physical laws. The conclusions of earlier great scientists would bias
their scientific objectivity.
The great scientists also examined data objectively. They presumed that the data reflected an
underlying order in nature. Their discoveries are very simple statements that reflect that order
through simple mathematics.
The force-balanced physics of the earth's sedimentary crust is as simple as it could be given the
three
dimensional restriction. This was found by accepting and using traditional physics, not trying to
re-invent or re-introduce it under a different identity.
Though Hooke, Newton, and Pascal were separately describing different phenomenon, each
phenomenon was a part of nature's order. Their laws were discovered empirically in nature and
therefore their mathematical conclusions were made under the constraints of nature. Their
physical
laws are natural companions.
