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Volume 6, Number 2 February 2007 Home | MBW Index

Table of Contents

Bogstad's Bookshelf Cowper's Bookshelf Dunford's Bookshelf

Kaveny's Bookshelf Klausner's Bookshelf Laurel's Bookshelf

Shelley's Bookshelf Shirley's Bookshelf Taylor's Bookshelf

Vogel's Bookshelf

Bogstad's Bookshelf
Eifelheim
Flynn, Michael
Tor/Forge Publicity
1403 Flatiron Building
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
0765300966 $25.95 1-888-330-8477

History revised: Remote and Recent

Flynn here offers us a most recent novel in a mode somewhat unusual for him. Flynn takes us much further back, to the currently popular era of the Black Death 600 years in the past but both afford us an arresting revision of many contemporary assumptions about human nature.

Flynn tells a convoluted historical tale. His plot is set work in two eras. The first is current time in which partners and lovers, a male and a female are, respectively, historian and physicist. Is assertion is that only because they lived and worked in proximity, and sometimes talked to each other about their work, were they able to solve an historical mystery. The ‘modern' pieces are revised from work he published as a short story, one about a historian who is researching the disappearance of a city in what will be present day Germany.

The city Oberhochwald suffered more than depopulation due to the Black Death. It seemed to have disappeared altogether, and his research suggested alien-first contact, and as a side note, the possible explanation for some of the more peculiar Gargoyles on European churches dating from the 14th century. In the novel, he adds the ‘backstory', largely as it occurs in 1348-9 in the middle of the plague years, explaining how Oberhochwald become Eifelheim, a place that was razed to the ground, and that ground avoided up into the 21st century.

Immersed in questions of church doctrine, his hero, Father Deitrich lives in this small village as he is escaping the possible punishment for supporting earlier peasant rebellions in the face of church sanctions. Yet his sympathies for the plight of the downtrodden lead him to the support of an odd band of ‘strangers' who look like big grasshoppers, operate within a genetically class-based cultural form, and are, in some cases, fascinated by his religion. Yet Deitrich cannot prevent tragedy for their little band of intergalactic castaways any more than he can for the village which houses them, or the bodies and souls of those aliens who choose religious conversion.

One cannot say that this is exactly a romp through the 14th century, but the flavor of village life, the internal conflicts Oberhochwald's people, the abuse, the unfaithfulness of wives and husbands, the crises of faith and the sympathies of kind women all enrich the sort of ‘what if' scenario that could easily become cliched. Flynn is known for his careful historical and scientific scenarios. In this novel, his present-day protagonist employs state-of-the-art research but also conveys the now-familiar persona of someone who can almost live in the past. His partner, a brilliant, impatient young woman, escapes the everyday into physics theories of alternative universes. But it is perhaps the drama of the aliens, whose bodies cannot achieve nourishment on earth, that is the most compelling element of the narrative. They are at once rendered not very human and human enough to arouse pathos in the 14th century humans around them and the 21st century humans who uncover their existence. As usually, Flynn's content and form render his work both engaging and engrossing.

This work should be read for the kind of defamiliarizing vision that allows us to rethink contemporary and historical understanding of deep moral questions. Which beings possess souls worth saving and cherishing? Can we sacrifice any beings in order to valorize others? How do we halt the onset of horrors like plague, and war? What is the value of one person's efforts? So one can read the novel for the mystery and art but one enjoys it for the thoughts it provokes.

The Wreck of the River of Stars
Michael Flynn
Tor/Forge
1403 Flatiron Building, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
0765300990 $27.95 1-888-330-8477

While trading in Middle System out past Jupiter, the aging craft, The River of Stars, is plagued by a tragedy of errors. For years, she's courted crisis, surviving on a shoestring budget, minimal supplies and equipment, carrying whatever cargo and passengers are to be had. Captain Hand has assembled a crew of misfits introduced first by their work designations. This is largely a novel of character. Ship's ghosts, human and otherwise, also play a central role. Hand is soon one of the ghosts, joining the list of dead mates and enemies and the long lost years of elegant travel under the outdated ‘magnetic sails' of the ship's ‘glory days'.

A series of technical failures might be overcome or prevented by a functional crew. Instead nostalgia and personal triumphs or failures from the past control their actions. Previously managed by Hand, the crew's flaws are destructive under his successor, the self-absorbed First Officer Gorgas. Two of the four ‘new' Farnsworth engines malfunction and there is barely enough time, material or people to repair them. Precious resources are cannibalized in an ill-conceived attempt to also ‘resurrect' the magnetic sails. The ships navigational systems can't account for the sails, resulting in costly course corrections.

Flynn layers the personalities and disasters in this complicated story with his usual attention to detail. One can find the precise, if understated, point at which this or that tragedy could have been avoided and who was at fault. Finally, it is inevitable that no one is making reasonable decisions. The sum is a sad but fascinating series of character studies and explosive (literally) group dynamics in an arena where technology is critical to human life.

Flynn is a very accomplished writer, capable of creating both a detailed and a fast-paced story. This book includes many technological references, both to ‘future' technologies provided in very realistic detail and to the science behind them. There are many mysteries about characters, their relationships past and present, the physical sources of disasters and the crews' many oversights and errors. But each of these is eventually ‘tied up' with an explanation that emerges usually in a conversation about something else. For example, we find out why the cable on the magnetic sail was cut by engineer Bhatterji several chapters after it has killed another unsuspecting crewmember. And like many other tragedies in this story it is the result of inattention and lack of communication rather than outright maliciousness.

Each of the characters is fascinating as a study of fortitude but also of self-destructive tendencies. In fact, this is one of the best pictures of ‘office politics' gone awry that I've read in a long time. The infighting and blind spots are so typical of many human organizations that most readers will experience a little deja-vu, despite the alternative time-space of the actual events. The mysteries keep the reader's attention as much as the technical details of the ship's history and problems. On the other hand, while the work as a whole is very enjoyable, parts of it are dragged down by details of character development and the novel shows some evidence of sloppy editing, for example, the extremely colloquial phrase, ‘isn't in it' or ‘wasn't in it' appears far too often. The work will appeal to the more cerebral end of the SF reading community, as it's little action-adventure and lots of character analysis.

In the Country of the Blind
Michael Flynn
Tom Doherty Associates
0312874448 $27.95

A newer, edited version of a first-novel published in the 1980s, this recent effort by the author of the space-exploration series, Firestar, Lodestar, Rogue Star, Falling Stars, strikes many chords for a modern reader of SF. The most pervasive of these is the sense that someone or some group is controlling our destiny and that this control is possible. A second is the concept that history is predictable and malleable. The novel also extends the use of computing back into the 19th century, where a group is formed out of people who believe in Ideons, later called memes, ideas that one can foist upon the less discriminating public and therefore use to manipulate them.

The existence and effectiveness of this ‘Cliological' (history as a science) group is accidentally discovered by a young, upwardly mobile black woman, Sarah Beaumont (p.19). She finds several abandoned ‘Babbage' (p. 45) engines in a building she is considering as a real estate purchase. She begins research on the previous owners of the building and decides that she might name her apartment-complex after one of them, Brady Quinn (p.13). In researching Quinn she discovers the existence of an organization bent on controlling American society, and with its roots before the Civil War. Enlisting the help of several friends, she continues her research, only to find that she and her friends have become targets of some relentless enemy (p. 52). She is attack, friends of hers are attacked, killed or kidnapped and, in anger, she creates a computer virus that searches the web for instances of these societies' manipulations and has them sent to police offices and newspaper offices. In doing so, she plunges into an even more complicated set of intrigues, being taken-in by the ‘good' Cliological group and having to change her identity.

This novel takes a lot of attention. The ‘current' narrative is interspersed with glimpses of the historical figures who founded Cliology (p.31) This is how we discover that the group has split into two over the issue of how much self-aggrandizement is allowable. But it turns out two groups are not enough either. Because of Sarah's actions, they are able to deduce each other's existence but then find that there is at least one more, based in Europe. Sarah plans to flee for her life and is ‘rescued' or enlisted by Red Malone (p. 63). Thus the novel presents the reader with a complex of plots and subplots and hasn't quite overcome its origins as a series of novelettes, as several competing Cliological societies try to eliminate their rivals.

One can almost chart the breaks in the several stories, while Sarah Beaumont is the one character who connects almost all the current-time scenarios and she connects them by being the target of assassins, one of which almost succeeds (p. 365). Yet the story is full of philosophical arguments to delight the classical reader of SF, as the various groups justify and adjust their practice of Cliology. This novel is not an easy-reading experience, and is therefore a conceptual delight.

The novel is followed by almost 50 pages of charts, graphs and explanations (which were originally printed in Analog, along with earlier versions of the story. They reveal that the science of history is not quite a fantastic subject. In fact, the book ends with a bibliography of Memeology, the ‘real' name for this science. It references historical, philosophical and mathematical texts.

Janice M. Bogstad
Senior Reviewer

Cowper's Bookshelf
Massage For A Peaceful Pregnancy
Gordon Inkeles
Aracata Arts
PO Box 800, Bayside, CA 95524
0974853542, $19.95 www.arcata-arts.com

From the first month of pregnancy through full recovery from child birth, massage provides a positive, hands-on role for the father and involves him in the birth of his child on a day-to-day basis. "Massage For A Peaceful Pregnancy" by massage expert Gordon Inkeles provides a thoroughly 'user friendly', step-by-step, profusely illustrated instruction manual for a program of massage that is ideal for use at home and at birthing centers. Each page of this superbly produced manual features photographic illustrations and anatomical illustrations of real massage during pregnancy, showing just how massage strokes work on the human body. "Massage For A Peaceful Pregnancy" features a basic massage for the whole body; addresses special ailments of pregnancy such as morning sickness, circulatory problems, lactation stimulation, etc.; presents a complete ten minute head massage and a complete back message for late pregnancy; and even offers a day-to-day recovery program after birth to minimize stretch marks and ease the mother back to normal. Enhanced with check lists, the 'do's and don'ts' of massage, and valuable health tips, "Massage For A Peaceful Pregnancy" is a strongly recommended for anyone who is expecting a child.

Mex Tex
Matt Martinez
Bright Sky Press
340 South Second Street, Albany, TX 76430
1931721696, $29.95 www.brightskypress.com 1-866-933-6133

A savory tour-de-force of authentic and profusely illustrated Tex-Mex cuisine, successful restauranteur whose family has been in the restaurant business from more than 80 years, Matt Martinez draws upon both his family's history and his own experience and expertise running the El Rancho restaurant in Austin, Texas, to compile and organize a fabulous compendium of delicious and "kitchen cook friendly" recipes that will provide any meal time occasion with that true Tex-Mex taste! From Chile Con Queso (and how to roast your own peppers for it), to Summer Sangria, Creamy Enchilada Sauce, 20-Minute Taco Meat, Tortilla Pizza, Huevous Rancheros, Mexican Coffee, Sweet Potato Eggnog with Dark Rum, and so much more, "Mex Tex" is a very highly recommended addition to family and community library cookbook collections – and a 'must' for gourmet club member culinary reference collections!

Finding Hope
Marcia Ford
Skylight Paths Publishing
PO Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091
1594732116, $16.99 www.skylightpaths.com 1-800-962-4544

The daily drum beat of corporate scandals, malefactors in the government, domestic violence, foreign wars, famines, poverty, and crime all too often result in chronic depression and a feeling of hopelessness. One antidote is Marcia Ford's "Finding Hope: Cultivating God's Gift Of A Hopeful Spirit" which encourages the reader to draw strength from the Divine and overcome the challenges, fears, and distresses assaulting our every day lives. Drawing from Hebrew and Christian scripture, and the contributions of spiritual teachers of all traditions, "Finding Hope" addresses such key issues as dealing with disappointment, recovering from loss, overcoming hopelessness, real and imagined threats, putting things into perspective, and utilizing prayers and meditations (a part of each individual chapters along with real-life examples of coping) to transforming our attitudes and enhancing our appreciation of the joys of life – even during dire times at home or abroad. "Finding Hope" is strongly recommended reading and a welcome addition to personal and community library Self Help reference collections and reading lists.

A Woman Milking
Marcia Slatkin
Word Press
PO Box 541106, Cincinnati, OH 45254-1106
1933456493, $17.00 www.word-press.com

Crisp, articulate, deftly woven and engagingly presented, Marcia Slatkin's poetry reflects the conditions of hard physical labor, deep connections to animals, and intimate appreciation with respect to the rhythms of life. "A Woman Milking" is an enthusiastically recommended compendium of her distinctive verse that will aptly serve to introduce and document her very special talent as a word smith capable of reaching into the minds and hearts. 'Mated': She comes home drenched/and reeking of buck./tossing her head, she stalks/toward feed like a queen.//The other does gather and cling,/nuzzling his smell, grunting/the gossip of hunger//as up she springs,/leaping rocks like sunrise,/beaming.

Mary Cowper
Reviewer

Dunford's Bookshelf
Yes, Master
Michael Earl Craig
Fence Books
303 East Eight Street #B1, New York, NY 10009
0977106462 $13.00 www.fencebooks.com

The second book by author and farrier Michael Earl Craig, Yes, Master merges autobiography, creativity, and poetry into a free-verse collection of short, often comical, and sometimes wistful poetry. Often pausing amid reflections to astutely contemplate the role of everyday objects, from an anvil to a soft black derby to marvelously designed wristwatches, Yes, Master observes the mundane and reveals that the whole of daily life is much more than its seemingly ordinary parts. "Glass of Vodka": Allen was at a barbecue. / He was checking out Gary's wife / through the bottom of a glass of vodka / from which he was drinking. / He thought: What is the word / for when a nun rolls a boulder / away from the mouth of a cave or tomb?

The North Shore
Gunnard Landers
Privately Published
1050 Hadley Avenue, #203, Oakdale, MN 55128
0878392254, $14.95

When Chief Investigator Favor Martin's resolves a twenty-year old murder in a small Minnesota community, he also finds that he must try to minimize the damage to innocent people and the threat of destabilizing their families with what he has discovered. "The North Shore" is a superbly written novel set against a background of the wild and magnificent beauty of the Lake Superior shoreline, populated by deftly drawn characters who react in surprising ways that are as unanticipated as they are problematic. A highly recommended example of a regional novel with universal themes, "The North Shore" is part mystery, part thriller, and part iconic presentation of such basic human issues as love and self preservation, of innocence, of evil, and a truth that can destroy.

From Where The Rivers Come
Richard Solly
Holy Cow! Press
PO Box 3170, Mount Royal Station, Duluth, MN 55803
0977945812, $14.95 www.holycowpress.org

"From Where The Rivers Come" is a compendium of poetry by St. Paul, Minnesota writer Richard Solly showcases an undeniable talent that has earned him four fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, the Loft-McKnight Award, and the Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship from Iowa State University (where he graduated summa cum laude with a Master's degree in Creative Writing). Currently a senior acquisitions editor for Hazelden Publishing and teacher of creative writing at the Loft Literary Center, "From Where The Rivers Come" is his first published collection of poetry and clearly documents him as an authentic and original American voice in contemporary poetry. 'Why A Poem Ends In Death': Every poem ends in death./Every revelation brings death to what existed before it./Ever pen fills with rain to record afflictions/and can't imagine what lies ahead of its nib/as it journeys down the path of a sentence/to the end of ink. Inside the poem, the poet seeks/his own dissolution in the sky and grass. He's not/summoned out of the tomb, but into it./To create sunlight where there is none./He dies for this joy.

The Book Of Were
Wayne Clifford
The Porcupine's Quill, Inc.
68 Main Street, Erin, Ontario, Canada, N0B 1T0
0889842817, $16.95 www.sentex.net/~pql

The superbly crafted and enthusiastically recommended poems comprising Wayne Clifford's "The Book Of Were" are based on old engravings representing were-animals and were-folk, changelings at the edges of our known worlds and ordinary lives. One very nice touch is the inclusion of animal images accompanying the poems. 'How Sin Evolves': The medieval catalogue of character defects/was meant to drag man's dialogue up near where God expects,/until America's analogue brought home the sin's effects.//The sloth proves neither strifeful brute, nor sanguine, but sincere./The problem of so slow a life is simply being here./Since sleep can make the stay more brief, the less there needs to fear.//So blessed be sloth, the mossy beast, who's camouflaged in grace,/that even when he's shot beneath, his claws hold him in place;/his vision upwards thus bequeaths suspension of god's face.

Michael Dunford
Reviewer

Kaveny's Bookshelf
The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary
Peter Gilver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner
Oxford University Press
0198610696 $25.00

The Ring of Words is one of the most captivating works I, Phil Kaveny, have come upon in the last decade dealing with J.R.R Tolkien or any aspect of his work. I was quite surprised at the way this handsome; somewhat petite in physical appearance, and well illustrated book grabbed my attention. It is a book that asks to be read. But this only refers to the physical appearance of The Ring of Words. In terms of its intellectual content it is petite like a pocket battleship, no space is wasted and everything means business and can hold its own against any contenders.

I spent the late morning and all of the Winter Solstice afternoon reading The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary from cover to cover in a single sitting. I was glued to it; could not put it down. Occasionally I would look out the window of the sixth-floor reading of room of our Philosophy & Religious Studies Department and watch the shadows of the barren trees extend along the banks the lazily meandering Chippewa River. The river no longer gives any semblance of freezing, I suppose as a result of global warming. I was able to enjoy The Ring of Words unmolested because it is break time now between semesters and there were no students present here at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, no loud grossly personalized cell phones ringing, no iPods, no laptops, no Internet, and no television. I even read the book through the natural light that came through the tall narrow window that looks a little like an archer's slit. That is to say just like the ones we saw at Conway Castle when my wife and I visited Wales a handful of years ago. But maybe that's pushing things just a little bit too far. However I confess that is the kind of whimsical fantastic mood the book puts me into; it takes me away from the present, and makes me think of a world less ephemeral than the mundane and primary one in which we plod out and away our everyday existence.

Later that evening after I returned home, while the events of the morning and afternoon were still fresh in my mind, and their spell was not completely worn away, I found myself in need of a word to capture the afternoon. Not just any word, but just the right word to share this experience. I turned to the 1989 second edition of The Oxford English Dictionary Online (which we are quite lucky to have remote access to from our home through the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, McIntyre Library) and came up with adjective ‘delightful': Affording delight; delighting; highly pleasing, charming. Further its etymology is as follows.

"1530 PALSGR. 309/2 Delytefull, that moche delyteth, deliteux. 1553 T. WILSON Rhet. (1580) 3 marg., Oratours muste use delitefull wordes and saiges. 1590 SPENSER F.Q. I. iv. 4 Goodly galleries..Full of faire windowes and delightful bowres. 1659 D. PELL Impr. Sea To Rdr. Avij, What delightfuller thing canst thou read than a Theam or Subject of the Sea. 1667 MILTON P.L. I. 467 Rimmon, whose delightful Seat Was fair Damascus. 1779 COWPER Lett. 31 Oct., Was there ever anything so delightful as the music of the Paradise Lost? 1848 DICKENS Dombey xxxv, That delightfullest of cities, Paris. 1870 LOWELL Study Wind. (1871) 1 One of the most delightful books in my father's library."

So how is it that authors: Peter Gilliver, Edmund Weiner, Jeremy Marshall, all currently senior editors at The Oxford English Dictionary, were able to produce such a delightful book? It's in three sections, Tolkien as Lexicographer, Tolkien as Word Wright, and Word Studies, are followed by an epilogue which assesses Tolkien's influences on the English Language. I think the answer lies in the way book starts in a time other than the present and lacking all of the annoying accouterments of modernity which I was free from when I enjoyed the book on that magic afternoon, which now seems as long ago as it was when eighty years ago an-out-of-work twenty-six year old English world War One veteran J.R.R Tolkien, in need of a job to support his family, was hired to work on The Oxford English Dictionary. By 1918, the OED was and ongoing project stretching across the previous sixty years since its beginnings. In 1857 The Philological Society of London formed a committee to embark on the project to compile a dictionary of all English words.

What gives The Ring of Words part of its particular flavor are the 15 half-tone Illustrations which convey a sense depth of time and place and take us into the world where Tolkien worked as a subaltern for approximately two years. Figure 1 takes us to the dictionary room interior of the Old Ashmolean building in Oxford which opened in 1683 about the time that Eau Claire, Wisconsin was founded as trading post in what was then Louis Fourteenth's New France, (incidentally my wife, and I have visited the Ashmolean building a score of times on our travels in the last decade). Figure 2 shows a four-by-six slip in Tolkien's own handwriting showing his work on the entry ‘warm' and reminds of us of a time when intellectual work was done by hand rather than though multiple electronic augmentations. Figures 4a and 4b show how Tolkien's entry (in his own hand) on ‘wain' progressed from dictionary slip to its etymology printed dictionary entry in the first edition (1926) of The OED, which, incidentally, to my eye seemed to be a perfect match for the Online OED version. Just to see the examples of work in Tolkien's own hand, which I suppose has become mundane for generations of Tolkien scholars, is a real treat to those of us who do not have easy access to primary sources of his material.

But of course The Ring of Words is not really about the two years that Tolkien spent working for the OED, even if the first section concentrates on his contributions to the letter ‘w'. Rather it is about the effect that experience had on the development of his life's body of work. It is also about the way he used the OED as a resource to enrich his work not simply by lifting the words out of context but rather fitting them to his needs through a kind of natural process of linguistic development. As show by the list of one hundred or so words he worked on mostly starting with the letter W (15 out of 100 entries, some of them on multiple, related words, in this book's lexicon start with ‘w', but ‘w' was Tolkien's ‘letter' when he worked on the dictionary).

I, Janice Bogstad, was asked by Phil to focus on the Word Studies but want to place them in context. While the first section and illustrations chronicle Tolkien's OED work, the second p. 45-86 are the three editors' endeavor to help us understand how Tolkien worked to transform his lexicographic and philological knowledge into the momentous work that became Middle Earth, from the humble beginnings of The Hobbit, through the to-become-famous Lord of the Rings and even the twelve books of the History of Middle Earth published after his death. In a very real sense, these two sections are literary criticism, and in fact the authors discuss the senses in which literary criticism has grown out of philology. In another, they are preparation for the third section, Word Studies, where these experienced scholars treat Tolkien's specialized evolution of words
Because I review so many works of criticism, theory and reference for such a range of publications, from Publisher's Weekly to Medieval Feminist Forum and Collection Building, I find myself asking of each book a number of similar questions, even though I don't always include the answers in the actual review. This is how I tell what kind of book I'm looking at and how well it does what it sets out to do. All of these questions are very relevant to The Ring of Words, written by three lexicographers from the modern OED project, one which brings the OED into the oh-so-malleable present, and even into the potential futures through their ‘science fiction and fantasy supplement' in progress, both of which changes in the nature of the OED are made possible by its electronic form, but more on that later.

Who is the intended audience for this book; Not only who will read it but who will understand it and WANT to read it? How will this book be used: Not just what can it be used for but how can it be enjoyed? Does it tell me anything I didn't know or more importantly, that a general reader would not know? Sometimes those answers are the same and others very different. How accurate, factual and accessible is it?

The Ring of Words is two books, really. Two chapters are on the order of a critical biography, and the last, a reference book. If we ask who is intended to read it, the two parts will yield different answers because the methodologies that inform them are different. But yet, methodology is a large part of what this book is all about. It attempts to show us what Tolkien may have thought about the words he used to create his world of Middle Earth, but in the course of this process, also how he thought, as lexicographer and inventor of words, or wordwright, as the second chapter is entitled, and also as scholar, literary author, mythographer, and philosopher of the spirit. All three sections of the work are accessible to a general reader, but they will, of course, be read very differently by all of these readers and with different levels of interest. For me, the primary reaction is to want a longer list of words from Tolkien's Middle Earth, which one hopes, will be forthcoming (perhaps based on the success of this book).

And then some readers will use this book in very different ways. For example, for me it confirms a suspicion I've had since the second edition of the OED, which came out just a little to late to resolve a difference of opinion with my dissertation advisor, the noted classicist and medieval literary scholar, Dr. F. LeMoine, over whether I could use Foucault's term ‘episteme' in my dissertation on women and science fiction. She asked me to remove it as there ‘was no such word'. I did so, of course, as it wasn't in the first edition of the OED, but it WAS in the second edition and I dined out on that story, respectfully told, for some years. And from that point, I begin to suspect what may be to some a subtle (but is to me profound) change in the definition of a definitive dictionary of the English Language. The OED is in the process of a total change in focus. Both the mechanics and the conceptual framework of the OED are expanding. New words are added and accepted more readily and we certainly teach the nature of ‘authoritative' renderings differently. For example, the authors of this book document a more expansive idea of what will and can be included, partially, I could argue, because the electronic medium itself so greatly facilities such kinds of malleability but yet it is just the sort of minds that know the basic need for an OED who also have the potential of stemming the tide of highly-accessible misinformation that has become the Internet. For by creating such a thing as a ‘science fiction and fantasy supplement' they both turn their methodological talents to documenting a different kind of usage, a contemporary sub-creating. They show an understanding that many will want to use a ‘shared vocabulary supplement', which could be one of many. And of course Tolkien's influence both on the dictionary itself and on the English language, just as the authors argue, is manifest in the fact that this first supplement is one on science fiction and fantasy, the latter of which he somewhat rescued from obscurity and relegation to a children's genre and the former of which, as evidenced by such works as the ‘closed series' television program Babylon Five, derives from the very fantasy, mythology, and history out of which The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings sprung.

Comments on Word section: Readers of this review deserve a glimpse of the wonderfully creative entries on Tolkien's specialized creation of words and languages that then give rise to Middle Earth. The first question is ‘how were words chosen' and it is not directly addressed by the three authors. There are 100 entries so I assume they started by setting that limit. There are the usual candidates: Hobbit, which is the longest entry, and of course elf, dwarf, man, dwarf, and orc. Some postdate Tolkien's book – Tolkien and Tolkienesque, for example, which have been used to describe his work and that of other modern fantasists, and which convey a pretty precise meaning for those who've read and enjoyed even The Hobbit. One feature that becomes quickly clear is that the definitions are not uniform. They don't address the same sorts of things for each word represented. For example, while many entries attempt to find a actual historical source for Tolkien's terms, some focus on OE, ME or Old Norse history of the words, some focus more on Tolkien's ‘rules of transformation' and creation of different languages, and still others take a more sociological approach. They vary in length from a third-of-a-page for ‘dumbledore' to nine pages for ‘hobbit', but average about 1.5 pages per word. And most are firmly grounded in the idea that the authors are providing us with Tolkien's use in such a way that it will be understood by a contemporary reader with a general knowledge of the literary work in question. In some cases, they tell delightful stories in an of themselves, making reference to actual words, the cultures and dialects from which they came, and the conditions under which Tolkien evolved them, including quotations from his own letters and public lectures. Take for example ‘hobbit'. We get the OED definition which includes the explanation that up to the point of his death Tolkien was not willing to stay that he invented the word. Then we read about subsequent discoveries of the term in a list of names of folkloric creatures found in the second and third editions of a small-print-run publication called The Denham Tracts (you will need to read the book to find out what and where they are found), and then how translators have dealt with it in languages from Swedish to Czech, and finally how the word has come to be used in our language. Another favorite of mine is ‘ent and etten', partially because these are among my favorite creatures in the saga. They began with an Anglo-Saxon word and are used as "one of the key examples of Tolkien's linguistic imagination," (p. 119). And the meaning and sense of ent comes from the idea of giants in our far past, just as hobbit does from ‘little people'. But there is also the Old English terms ‘eoten' and ‘ent', and "an eoten is a being hostile to humans (p. 119). Of course there is a lot more to chart how Tolkien went from a complex of related words in different languages to create the enigmatic and laconic ents. There there's ‘weregild' from ancient Teutonic and Old English law that Tolkien attaches to Isildur's failure to destroy the one ring. And each term addressed brings together both sources and evolutionary transformations that led Tolkien to create languages and then out of them the land that would make them possible. While it could be a challenge to read the individual words and their entries, I did not find it so, and neither would anyone with even a mild interest in Tolkien.

As you can see, there many useful things one can say about this book and it will be used by many, and different, reasons by scholars, Tolkien-focused and other kinds, general readers, Tolkien completists and even users of the OED and its online edition and supplements. Therefore it seems to us that the book is not only a must for academic, but also college, school and public libraries. As a matter of fact the same thing can be said about the OED Online. I think this is particularly true in this modern age in which my colleagues inform me that even on the graduate level it's necessary to assign texts with progressively more rudimentary registers of meaning which they are then demanded to teach with a kind of didactic and false-analytic confidence. The kind of confidence which would assume that words are now as the always were and mean what they always meant. A kind of false confidence which would deny the possibility of what Norman Cantor labeled Diachronic Philology in his Chapter "The Oxford Fantasists" in his 1991 Inventing The Middle Ages in describing Tolkien's lifetime project. The Ring of Words in its entirety is a testament to a great man who did not accept any reduction of expectation that his readers would accept a more complicated text, and that they would enthusiastically embrace that complication, whether on the general level or progressively more subtle ones, depending on their interest, background and abilities. He wrote for and speaks to many readers and this critical work takes off from his insights on how language comes to mean for a wide range of people who may not have thought about it before.

By Philip E. Kaveny Dr. Janice M. Bogstad

Part 4 Dionysian Hedonism and the counter Culture and still more about the sexual revolution in at U.W Madison in he Late 1960's

I wish the Flipside could include two color photos of one taken in 1968 and the taken in 1972, because I think that they would really help part four of this article make sense. But for now, unless we get a really big grant which we so richly deserve to make this rag all color, I will just have to rely on my words to make the picture your minds.

The first photo is of this hopeless pathetic pasty skinned fat guy he weighs close to four hundred pounds. He has short hair and a mustache and he is has a beer next to him and he is sitting in his mothers back yard. That's me I am twenty four years old, and it was taken in 1968. When the picture was taken I had been drinking very heavily for the last five six years, and I have been reduced to earning my living as a remittance man. That is to say I got small amounts of money from my family members to stay out of sight, and in return they got to have the fun of humiliating whenever it took their fancy. Not the kind of job that looks very good on ones resumes, but it was the best job I could get at the time. You might remember I mentioned that I had one hundred and three or four job interviews and no takers until I got my bartender's job in May of 1969.

This situation was pretty bad but was yet to reach to bottom out. But it did, when my mother's sister Cleo Sammis (1914-2002) fired me from my dog sitter's job. One of my sources of income at that time was taking care of her sixty pound female Dachshund Machen when she and her husband would take a road trip to The House on The Rock and then whoop it up by having dinner at a supper in Dodgeville club afterward. I was fired for growing that same mustache, which I then shaved to get back on the dole with her as a clean-shaven dog sitter.

Perhaps there was a good reason that some of my class mates from my Madison East High School class of 1962 , who would now be known as (mean girls), to have nominated me as "class member most likely to commit suicide at my fifth high school class reunion in 1967. My wresting coach was heard to have said, something like this, never have I seen man degenerate more in such a short time his life. Well I guess I disappointed a lot of people because I did not drink myself to death. I think that was because inside the image of that pathetic fat guy in that photo was a champion and a kind of shadow warrior for the noble causes, even if that my shadow warrior was trapped inside a great big jelly doughnut, at the time that photograph was taken.

Well I am alive now and my life is much better I have not had a single drink since I quite forever on Feb 2nd 1971, so on all counts I have been clean and sober for nearly thirty six year. Well what happed? How did I survive? I have some sisters of mercy to tell you about who helped me remember who I was. The first was Cleopha Dunn 1885-1969 who was critical in my developing self-determination, when most of the rest of the family was wondering what institution I was going to end up.

Strangely a lot of myself determination seems to be expressed in the length hair, and the presence of facial hair. Later in this article I promise I will tell you about my half million-dollar beard, which I still wear. What I mean by that is the beard that I have worn since 1971 cost me half a million dollars and was worth every cent of.

Sisters of mercy

My first sister of mercy was a blood relative and my sainted grand mother. I was always my Grandmother's, who was a full-blooded German's, favorite. She married my full blooded Irish Grandfather in 1906 as a trophy husband, and as a result stoically, lived through the poverty, and living hell of Irish family alcoholism. Its worse around Christmas and it really does take all the fun out of family dysfunction. The details of it play out, if you are forced to live through them, in a way that would make the John Houston movie production of the James Joyce novella The Dead seem like a musical comedy. Maybe Grandma Dunn knew what I was up against and loved me unconditionally, whether I looked like Apollo or a great big jelly doughnut.

By the time I visited my Grandma on her death bed in Sept, 1969 I had gotten a job, got laid a few times and grew back a great big handle bar mustache. At that time I was informed by my aunt Cleo that not only would to be forever black balled as a dog sitter, but that I was persona non-grata in her home in one of Madison's fashionable west side suburb. Strangely enough thirty years later the only thing stood between me inheriting that fashionable west side home, and her entire half million dollar estate according to her will was my thirty year refusal to shave off, my half million dollar beard.

On her death bed my grandmother informed me that my mother, rich Uncle Pete, and my Aunt Cleo wanted her to beg me to shave off my great big handle bar mustache for her impending funeral since she was near death from leukemia. She said, however, that she actually loved no matter what I looked liked and that she though that great big handle bar mustache was an improvement, and made me look like Grover Cleveland one of the hottest presidents in American History. I remember that my uncle Pete who made it big in international finance and leg breaking, made me charge a four hundred dollar size sixty suit to his account, this was when four hundred dollars meant something so I could look presentable as one of Grandma's pall bears. I guess I should not have washed and dried that same four hundred suit it in the Jiffy Speed Laundromat afterwards because it shrunk down to a size forty two and ended up in a rag rug my mother made.

Another sister of mercy was Maureen Frazier- Mckiernan who was perhaps the most beautiful and powerfully ethical women I have ever met. Though she was mostly Irish with green eyes and blood hair and looked like one of Woden's daughters, and just by the way was a member of Mensa. Maureen was a member of University of Wisconsin's most exclusive sorority and it was from her that I learned that women to had sexual appetites, or to put another way sexual pleasure two way street Maureen Married my best friend of a lifetime in 1972 and I was their best man. I never had sexual intercourse with her, what I had was much better, Maureen reminded me that I was human with a kiss.

It happened this way: it was New Years Eve of 1968-1969, in the process of accompanying me buddy Bob Mckiernan on his round as a security guard at one of last Madison's major industrial employers. In the process I nearly cut my hand off in the middle of my forearm when I was roaring drunk, and playing with huge industrial saw. I managed to pull my hand away only just in time otherwise for the last thirty seven years we I would had a nick name like Captain Hook, or something. Since the factory was deserted for New Years Eve the only time of the year it was closed, Bob let me sleep it off for a couple hours in the factory nurses office, and then suggested we crash a party.

Actually it was more like a Visigoth raid than a party crash, Maureen had been dating some guys who were naval academy cadets, and Bob and I sort of livened up the party, and in the process drove them off. I remember at new years I grabbed Maureen and gave her a rather rude and drunk kiss, and she returned it with even greater gusto, and held me so tight with my arms pinned to my sides that I could not get away. Her sub text was really very simple I can stand up to you; you are human, worthy no stop being an asshole. In a way she gave me back my humanity and I never kissed a woman that way again. However there was a time when I averted what might have been a fatal confrontation with a motor cycle gain who out number us by about ten to one by kissing there gang leader the same way, and then just walking away . That was always my father's side of the family's motto always run away. Maureen died of M.S in 1991 after ten year heroic struggle. In 1993, as a solemn tribute to her great soul, and with her husband at my side I scattered her ashes on Lake Monona in the spring of 1993. I think she is of the reasons I am now in religious studies

A Miracle in my life

Here is where I pay tribute to another sister of mercy who I thought I loved and nearly married before I new what love was. Cathy survived but she was a nearly a causality of the old system. The one in place before the revolution, and may well be in place again. She came from private school and went to another private university fell in love with a guy who used her, lost her self respect, had twins and a miss-- carriages, and I met her in the Madison's bar scene and some how we expected to be miracles in each others lives, but that's not what happened.

"Cathy 1969"
Cathy exploded in my arms like a startled flock of birds in a cemetery. She filled my life with love's first murderous madness and flew away with the morning, leaving the taste of ashes in my mouth.

I would love to have sex, but we don't have enough people.

I suppose I should at least say something about the orgies since we are talking about Dionysian Hedonism. Maybe Woody Allen Said it best when he is cast into the future in his very funny 1973 film Sleeper in which Woody Wakes up two centuries later and asks to have sex with Dianne Keaton and she says. She would love to have sex, but we don't have enough people. Another funny line I once heard in person was. "I would love to have sex but I would have to miss my psychiatrist appointment" I guess what it breaks down to is if it's not funny it's not worth talking about. The other problem is that its difficult to talk about what happened 1969 then not knowing what is happening not knowing what is happen know in 2006

The Second Photo was taken in the summer of 1971 shortly after I got my first full time civil service job with benefits, a job which I held until 2000. I have been sober for six months, my shoulder length hair is blowing in the wind, and my beard is very large and red, I am wearing black mirror shade wraparound sunglasses, my skin is no longer pasty, and I have a suntan and I weigh a hundred pounds less than the guy in the first picture. I have canceled all remittances from my family and they are sure I am hell bent because the shadow warrior inside of me is fighting his demons and out trying to do some good in the world. I have yet to find out what love really is but that will happen in a handful of months later when I meet the woman I am now married to who anybody who knows me will know.

So what happened how come lady death scratched her name of my dance card the tomb stones fell away from my eyes, and lady grace gave me a ride home? Well okay here is what I think happened it all started with the arts for me. Their were powerful artist forces which the chaos of the late sixties released and cultural space was made for an artistic counter culture that people were willing to bust there asses for. Make no mistake about it that traditions still drive The Flipside and are making it look a lot better. Not everything in the world is about making money. In the last thirty five years I have been a serious film maker, community radio, and television producer and playwright and given more guest lectures, than I can count. My most recent lecture was for a religious studies course on battlefield technology in the Hebrew Bible. I have probably written a million words for publication, and the word from my oldest friends is that my work is getting better, thanks, I might add, to the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire office for Services for Students with Disabilities and the staff members who insisted that I get a full evaluation of my strengths and weakness, and directed me towards services which make those things that are hard for me possible, to feel this way at my age is a real hoot.

Philip Kaveny
Senior Reviewer

Klausner's Bookshelf
Bounty On The Rebel's Heart
Karen Wiesner
Whiskey Creek Press
PO Box 51052, Casper, WY 82605-1052
9781593747398, $15.00

When investigative reporter Rebel Porter disclosed on the radio the proof he found that Giles Jameson, head of the top secret international covert Network operations is corrupt, he did not fully anticipate how far and dangerous his adversary is until his wife is murdered. Reb goes into hiding while Giles offers a substantial reward for anyone who brings his head to him. Giles also is in hiding as his work for sixteen years to destroy the Network from within may have crumbled with Porter's efforts to destroy. Rebel's father was the man who killed his father, Senator Porter. Network operative Natalie Francis masquerades as Reb's former lover, investigative journalist Adrienna Kelly in order to locate Reb and obtain his evidence against Giles and her organization. When Reb first sees her in the woods, he considers killing her, but fails to do so and instead falls unconscious just outside his remote farmhouse as he is ill. She carries him inside and nurtures him back to health, but once he starts to recover he wonders what Adrienna's agenda truly is as their last parting was not amiable. As Natalie falls in love with her patient, she wonders if she could leave the tentacles of the Network, who only allows escape via death. The third Incognito Series book (see NO ORDINARY LOVE and UNTIL DEATH DO US PART) is a terrific suspense thriller filled with superb characters and plenty of plausible exciting twists that keep the audience reading to learn what happens next especially to Reb and Natalie. Though BOUNTY ON THE REBEL'S HEART can stand alone as a fabulous action-packed tale, fans will want to know how Reb and Giles got to the points where both are hiding. Karen Wiesner has another triumph in a winning series.

Taming Him
Kimberly Dean, Summer Devon, Michelle M. Pillow
Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
1056 Home Avenue, Akron, 44310
1416536000 $14.00

"Fever" by Kimberly Dean. Delia Jenkins is very ill with a high fever, but comes to work at Lloyd Security Systems because she has only been there two months and fears losing her job as she has a project budget due today; she adheres to "presentism" instead of absenteeism. Her peer Robbie informs the boss Jackson Lloyd that he is taking her to bed. Not long afterward, a drugged ailing Delia is awakened by a compassionate touch. As she feels better she sees her hero nearby nursing her though she wants him to provide her a different type of 104 degrees fever. "Perfection" by Summer Devon. Metcher Corporation's experiment with phermones made Bryan Hartigan irresistible to women, which proves a curse as he can go nowhere without a woman chasing his body; stalkers are the norm. He only recently learned from Dr. Nathan that his only escape is to find Ms. Perfect. However as he seeks her he also has to elude women and an apparent group that want to steal his essence even if it means killing him to do so. At a restaurant he meets Allie the waitress, who is turned on to him, but for the first time in months he is turned on too. "Taming Him" by Michelle M. Pillow. Maggie Stewart is driving by herself when she sees an alien spaceship lands nearby. She thinks of fleeing before she becomes an alien abduction statistic, but then she sees the hunk Vladei. He kidnaps her, but on his vessel he treats her like no human ever has before. Instead of a prisoner or a slave, she is a queen given regal pleasure by her king. These three erotic romances contain delightful storyline, hot hunks, and fully developed (not just their boobs) females who keep each tale focused. Sub-genre fans will enjoy these "everyday" sirens teasing, tantalizing, and taming their testosterone men.

Continuum
Portia Da Costa
Black Lace
0352331208 $7.99 http://www.blacklace-books.co.uk

Joanna Darrell is bored with her office job at Perry McAfree, but that is no excuse for breaking the company's number one rule to treat the client sweetly; she just failed having called the Vale Associates representative a "sad bastard" before slamming the phone down. As she waits for her boss Halloran to rip her apart and probably fire her, she fantasizes about having this hunk service her as his aristocratic apocalyptic reputation with women is legendary. Freelance computer specialist Kevin Steel notices her ecstatic expression that he has once before placed on her face when they made love, but since that ecstatic interlude she has said no to his advances. Instead of sacking her, Halloran and the Human Resources Chief Davidson tell her she needs a vacation as she has worked too hard. They send Joanna to Whiteoaks, a place with the latest relaxation therapies. Joanna soon finds the place caters to her deepest erotic fantasies where pleasure and pain are part of the same CONTINUUM while several studs provide major appetizers but only a steely hunk can be her master. Joanna is an interesting protagonist who as the back cover of the book states becomes "Alice in a decadent wonderland". She keeps the erotic tale focused as it runs the gamut of bondage. With the exception of Kevin, the hunks are interchangeable though the protagonist can tell them apart by a look or feel of their one-eyed dripping plunger. Sub-genre fans will enjoy this heated erotic romance as Joanna takes quite a torrid vacation.

Then Came Faith
Louise M. Gouge
White Stone Books
P.O. Box 2835, Lakeland, Florida 33806
097851372X $14.99

Although the combat of the Civil War officially ended at Appomattox, many people still push their cause. Juliana Harris is the offspring of two rabid abolitionists and she was an Underground Railroad participant. At the invitation of Miss Amelia Randolph she has come to New Orleans to teach the former slaves to read and write. At the dock upon arrival, she meets gallant knight Andre Beauchamp; he is warm to her until she mentions the name of Randolph; he loathes anything northern. The war has changed the world as Andre once knew it. The former Confederate naval officer saw his affluent world die along with his father; his mother is teetering into insanity and when lucid is in denial. His slaves are freed though three of them, Aunt Sukey, Gemma, and Cordell, remain with him as his equal. Andre and Juliana are attracted to one another, but she believes slavery is an abomination against God while he feels he and his family were kind owners providing a way of life to the ignorant slaves. Louise M. Gouge provides a terrific historical novel that takes a deep look at the impact of slavery just after the end of the Civil War. The key to this insightful tale is that none of the three prime perspectives (slave-owner, abolitionist and slave) is treated with disparity, but instead each symbolizes the negative effect slavery had on people. Most readers will support Juliana's position yet wonder about how former slaves like Gemma and Cordell will cope in a hostile environs while Andre comes across as human and caring though his righteousness on owning slaves will feel like an atrocity to much of the audience. THEN CAME FAITH is a strong portrayal of the immediate aftermath of outlawing slavery in the Deep South (ironically it was still legal in the Border States that stayed with the Union).

Bit by the Bug
Michelle M. Pillow
Cheek Books
0352340843 $12.95 http://www.cheek-books.com

Beatrice Matthew believes she should go on separate vacations with her adult daughters; the current trek is with New York based photographer Katarina in Vale, Colorado. There Kat meets wealthy Vincent and Mimi Richmond who offer her a strange deal. In exchange for having a showing of her photos at prestigious Faux Pas, they want her to date (perhaps even deflower) their thirty-five years old reticent reclusive son Vincent III. Though she has a boyfriend back home, actor Jack Knight, she agrees to date the heir. Kat visits Vincent's place of work, the DJP Scientific Department of Entomological Research where she meets his assistant Margaret as she quits saying he is difficult. Vincent thinks Kat is Margaret, as he fails to recognize she is not his assistant in spite of seeing pink hair for the first time. She tells him she is not his assistant; they negotiate a deal leading to his hiring her though she is a camera bug not a creepy-crawly bug. As they become acquainted over bugs, make that insects, they fall in love. However, she knows she owes him the truth but fears he will reject his beloved "Butterfly". BIT BY THE BUG is a wonderful erotic romance starring an absent minded professor and the artist who falls in love with him. The amusing story line is funny, whimsical and hot from the Vail opening to the final revelations. Sub-genre fans will enjoy this fine heated contemporary due to the lead couple while seeking other pillow romances.

Plague of the Dead
Z.A. Recht
Permuted Press
0978970705 $14.59 www.permutedpress.com

The Morningstar Strain virus was first seen in Africa and Anna DeMilio of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is the foremost authority on it. Nobody heeded her plea to quarantine every person anywhere who comes down with this illness. Now it is out of control spreading globally, but also when one dies they are reanimated. Egypt is lost to the reanimated so the United States makes a stand at the Suez Canal, but thousands of carriers break through the front line. Only luck enables Special Forces General Shannon and some of his squad along with a Red Cross volunteer Julie to escape by ship to America where like the rest of the world the virus owns the metropolis areas to include much of suburbia. Anna desperately continues her research hoping to find a miracle elixir while Shannon and his remaining force wonder how to fight an insurgency from within. This first book in the Morningstar Trilogy contains a fresh unique twist to the zombie mythos with an Ebola like virus that reanimates its dead victims. Z.A. Recht has created characters that seem real especially the medical researcher and the general as neither is used to failure, but that seems to be their common thread at this time. PLAGUE FOR THE DEAD is apocalyptic fiction at its thrilling best.

The Fair Folk
Edited by Marvin Kaye
Ace Books
c/o The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
044101481X $15.00, 448 pp. www.penguin.com

"UOUS" by Tanith Lee. Unable to handle being the stepdaughter and stepsister since her dad died, she turns to a handsome fairy prince for solace; he grants her three wishes, but expects remittance. "Grace Notes" by Megan Lindholm. Bachelor Jeff enjoys his lifestyle until the anal brownie insists that cleanliness is Godliness. Needing help to rid himself of this cleaning freak, Jeff turns to Maisy to help him evict the nuisance. "The Gypsies of the Wood" by Kim Newman. In rural late Victorian England, two children disappear in the woods leading to a search for them. They are found, but the boy has aged into an old man while the girl behaves like a young child. "The Kelpie" by Patricia A. McKillip. The artists' colony contains talented individuals jealous of one another. Ned and Emma seem to desire each other, but both fears the ridicule of failure until the kelpie step in. "An Embarrassment of Elves" by Craig Shaw Gardner. Wuntvor, wizard sidekick, and his friends attend an elven party where Fritz and the dark riders crash the gala. "Except the Queen" by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. The fairy exiles the two sisters, Meteora and Serana, forcing the siblings to live in the human smog city. Though each swore not to intervene, they get involved with two teens under magical assault. THE FAIR FOLK is a fun fairy driven fantasy anthology containing six charming stories that sub-genre fans will enjoy, yet feel somewhat unsatisfied as if each entry fell a bit short. The contributions are suburb when the plot dwells on cross species miscommunication, but feels pressing at times to insure the inclusion in a significant way of the supernatural entities. Not the best work of these renowned authors, but readers will enjoy hobnobbing with the FAIR FOLK.

I Love Claire
Tracey Bateman
Faith Words
c/o Warner Books, Inc.
1271 Avenue of the Americas, Room 913, New York, NY 10020
0446696072 $12.99 www.twbookmark.com 1-800-759-0190

Novelist Claire Everett has moved past her cheating ex husband Rick to become engaged to kind hearted Greg Lewis. She thinks he is nice especially to her four children. However, she has some doubts about marrying Greg because she feels inadequate to being a pastor's wife as she knows it took to long too turn the other cheek towards Rick and his new wife and her ambition to be interviewed by Oprah. External factors also enhance her hesitation as her agent dumped her while she struggles to change genres and now Greg is talking about canceling their Hawaiian honeymoon because of a ministry opportunity. Symbolically she cannot afford the wedding dress she chose so she takes odd jobs in the neighborhood. Finally her seventeen year old daughter Ari seems in the midst of her first real romance; her fifteen year old son Tommy is skateboarding with the rowdy and dangerous; and her preadolescent boys Jake and Shawn are locked into electronic gaming and couching. The third Claire Everett tale continues to focus on her struggles between being a working mother, caring for her offspring who bring new issues to their relationships, and her fiance's chosen vocation. Though most of her sting is gone as she is no longer feels acrimonious especially towards Rick (that evolution was completed in the previous novels LEAVE IT TO CLAIRE and CLAIRE KNOWS BEST), Claire's insecurities make for an interesting look at a middle age changeover.

The Motive from the Deed
Patricia Wynn
Pemberley Press
P O Box 1027, Corona del Mar, CA 92625
0977191338 $26.95

In 1715 supporters of James Stuart the Pretender have begun a coup to dispose King George I. In reaction to the open hostilities, the monarch assumes all Roman Catholics advocate the placing of the Pretender on the throne so are exiled from London to reduce assassination possibilities; other freedoms like free speech and press are curtailed so that any opposition is suppressed with those who complain spending time at Newgate for seditious activity. Without the benefit of a trial, Jeremy is dispatched to Newgate for printing subversive pamphlets. He denies ever doing this treasonable action, but no official heeds his plea. In fact his plight turns worse when he is accused of homicide though he swears he is innocent. His sister Mrs. Kean believes her sibling so she turns to her friend the Blue Satan to help her prove Jeremy's innocence. In their third Georgian thriller, (see BIRTH OF BLUE SATAN and SPIDER'S TOUCH), Mrs. Kean and her associate the aristocratic highwayman Blue Satan work on a whodunit that is personal as her sibling is heading to the gallows unless they can prove more than just his innocence. Thos is a timely tale with the Bush Administration ignoring basic civil rights especially of foreign citizens which is similar to the dissolution of rights in 1715 England (the Peter Zenger "Freedom of the Press" trial occurs in Colonial New York in 1734); in either time innocence or guilt is irrelevant once incarcerated. THE MOTIVE FROM THE DEED is a superb historical mystery with current relevancy.

The Scarlet Trefoil
L.A. Kelly
Revell Books
c/o Baker Publishing Group ,
PO Box 6287 Grand Rapids MI 49516-6287
0800731565 $12.99

Tahn Dorn is a happy man because he is marrying the love of his life Lady Netta Trilett. Sold into slavery as a child and forced to commit all kinds of heinous crimes including murder, Dorn can't believe that a noblewoman like Netta forgives him just because he turned from evil and embraced the Lord. He makes sure her carriage is well guarded when she goes to her bridal party hosted in honor of her by her closest friends. A feeling of foreboding comes over him as he watches the carriage drive away and when she fails to return he goes to find her. He finds the carriage empty and the guards dead; he can't track her because rain washed away all other signs of an attack. When he arrives at the meeting spot arranged by a young boy the bandits he defeated in Alastair led by Burle torture him to near death and only a miracle saves Netta and Dorn from Lord Trent who wants them dead. Trent knows Dorn is the rightful heir to the legacy he stole. The saga of Tahn Dorn comes to a close in THE SCARLET TREFOIL, a trilogy that takes the hero from the occupation of a criminal to the beloved of the powerful and Trilett family. Netta sees the changes in her beloved as he grows closer to God with each experience. L.A. Kelly has given her audience an enthralling tale of action and redemption as she uplifts the spirit by delivering the message that forgiveness for sin is never beyond reach of the person when true repentance occurs. This book and the two previous novels in the series come highly recommended.

Soul Siren
Aisha DuQuesne
Delta Trade Paperbacks
c/o Bantam Dell Publishing Group
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
0385340745 $13.00

Personal assistant to R&B diva Erica Jones, Michelle Brown loves her work even the dirty aspects as she hero worships her employer as much as the singer's fans do. However, her job mostly is to eliminate or at least contain scandal; though it is not an easy job as Queen Erica who loves to sing as much as she loves sex. Known in the media as "R&B's angry young woman", Erica sleeps with anyone of either gender that touches her circle, which is how she began her rise to the top and now to maintain her seat on the royal R&B throne though she enjoys the activity. The dynamics abruptly change when an unknown person begins killing Erica's lovers. Michelle does her best but the link to homicide is too strong to brush aside. To insure Erica's is not a victim like some of her industry's soulmates, former cop Jill Chandler is hired as a bodyguard. She believes the serial killer has to be part of Erica's most inner circle as some of the victims were not known until their deaths as lovers of the diva. Jill plans to uncover the identity of the culprit though that means placing herself in jeopardy especially if she becomes one of Erica's lovers. Though none of the prime female trio is a likable individual as each goes after what they most desire without considering the costs to others, SOUL SIREN is an exciting erotic whodunit. The story line is told in the first person by Mish so the audience sees Erica, to a lesser degree Jill and even less than that the support players through her Canadian eyes looking out mostly on the New York R&B scene. Fans of sex and murder will appreciate this solid drama.

Strip Poker
Lisa Lawrence
Delta Trade Paperbacks
c/o Bantam Dell Publishing Group
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
0440336651 $13.00

In London, the hottest parlor game amongst the affluent is strip poker with stakes going higher than just removal of clothing as FOD (F**K on demand) can be anted up. Family friend and strip poker hostess Helena asks international courier Teresa Knight to help a client of hers. Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Janet Freeman Marshall, is on the shortlist as High Commissioner in South Africa unless the scandal of sex poker surfaces to derail her. Someone is blackmailing Janet and other customers of Helena. Teresa accepts the exciting case as she thinks back to having played her first game; actually it was stripped gin rummy, in Africa. She soon joins the games going undercover to observe first hand more than just male gorging rods though she especially loves bluffing a male opponent into the buff. However, before she determines who is extorting the most important British black female politician, someone raises the stakes from blackmail to murder. Combining an erotic background with deep tragic social issues especially confronting Africa inside an investigative tale, STRIP POKER is a terrific thriller that never slows down from the moment that Helena hires Teresa to uncover the identity of the extortionist. Teresa is a fabulous heroine who seems increasingly addicted to the card game as much as the adrenalin rush of stopping a killer from stripping away lives. Though some might ridicule the notion of strip poker clubs, Manhattan has had mixed gender wrestling clubs with sexual wagering so a sex cards scene seems plausible especially as written by extremely talented Lisa Lawrence. This is a royal flush erotic mystery.

The Sword
Jean Johnson
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214400 $14.00

The eight brothers, four sets of twins, live in exile on an island where no one else resides. These powerful mages especially fear females for the prophecy claims if the eldest falls in love, the brotherly octet is doomed. Yet the most powerful of the siblings, the youngest Morganen has brought a woman from some remote dimension in his belief she is the one for the oldest Saber and will somehow turn the first omen on its head. American businesswoman Kelly Doyle cannot understand how she ended up a prisoner in the middle of a medieval reenactment when she was moments earlier caught in a deliberately set fire in order to kill her. The brothers free her and like any good drill female sergeant shaping up slovenly male recruits she soon takes over the island, forcing the guys to clean up the castle, the grounds and their act. Saber tries to avoid her out of his fear of what will happen, but Kelly confronts him. As they fall in love, seven of the brothers expect disaster with only Morg thinking otherwise even as an enemy plots to use the newcomer to destroy the eight. Enchantments, amusement, and eight hunks and one bewitching woman make for a fun romantic fantasy as Saber insists he's not in love while Kelly thinks about modern conveniences that she took for granted. The story line is humorous and magical as the lead pair falls in love while the ill behaved siblings anticipate the worst and an unknown adversary plots to do so. Jean Johnson opens her mini series with a delightful charmer.

Good Things
Mia King
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425213714 $14.00

In Seattle, TV show host of the successful Live Simple, forty years old Deidre McIntosh feels on top of the world. Her show is on a five year run that looks like it will continue indefinitely and she shares a terrific apartment with a close friend. On top of that her investment portfolio is blooming. Her world crumbles rather quickly as her show is canceled, her investments tank, and her friend moves in with his gay lover. She had no job, no money and no place to live as she can no longer live in her current abode. She meets Kevin Johnson, who offers her his vacation home in rustic Jacob's Point. Thinking this will buy her time to regroup, she travels to the backwater town. Though feeling like a fish out of water, Deidre brings in income by selling gourmet goods to Lindsey Miller, owner of a local eating spot. After a few months of hiatus, Deirdre has a plan to get back on the air in Seattle, but that means leaving behind friends particularly Kevin, who is beginning to own her heart. Deirdre is a combination energizer bunny-Pollyanna as she believes she will be back on top of the game shortly. The story line focuses on her I will return; but the second time around she has a new dilemma, Kevin. During her five-year stay at the top, she had no personal life and assumes that is the norm. Will she pick career or love in spite of Kevin insisting she can have both, Deidre thinks otherwise. Though perhaps too sweet, GOOD THINGS is a fun contemporary romance that fans who enjoy a lighthearted fare will appreciate.

Sheer Pleasure
Maggie Shayne
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214583 $14.00

"Leather and Lace". Kayla pleads with her prim and proper roommate Martha Jane Biswell to model their latest Leather and Lace lingerie; reluctantly as a favor she agrees because she needs the money and hopes her former boss Clark make that Richard Gable of Gable Brothers Department Stores would not be there. She wanted him, but he fired her replacing her with his bimbo niece. Due to illness and the stupidity of his sibling Richard attends the show and is captivated by the new model Valentine. "Awaiting Moonrise". Following up on a rumor of werewolves in the Bayou though she expects to find a previously undiscovered animal species, Dunkirk University Cryptozoology Professor Jenny offers herself as human bait to lure the creature into a trap. However, though animal magnetism ignites her and her prey, Samuel is no ordinary animal or human. "Daydream Believer". In Pinedale, Celestial Bakery owner Megan Rose has a vision of the missing woman Sarah Dresden so she calls Police Chief Skinner. When she is proven right he sends Detective Sam Sheridan to investigate Megan. These three well written fun novellas are reprints from previous anthologies in which Maggie Shayne was one of the contributors. Though two are supernatural romances and the other a traditional contemporary, the entries are fun to read as each one stars an interesting female protagonist and the hunk salivating over them.

Moon Awakening
Lucy Monroe
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214265 $7.99

The King demands that Lord Reuben send one of his daughters to marry the merciless Highlander Laird Sinclair. He selects Jolenta, his fourteen years old offspring from his second wife Sybil; however his spouse suggests fifteen years old Abigail though the suggestion is monstrous as the lass is deaf. Sybil's plan is to hide the flaw until the barbarian consummates the marriage. The Baron says no as he does not want war or harm to come to his daughter in case the highlander considers her an abomination; Emily volunteers to Sybil's euphoria and Ruben's consternation. Neither Reuben nor his female family members realize that Sinclair is more than just an aristocrat; he is the chieftain of a werewolf pack. However, Lachlan Balmoral, laird and leader of a rival werewolf pack plans to destroy his enemy who has caused havoc to all the Highlanders. He abducts Sinclair's sister Cait and his fiancee Emily. To his chock Emily accepts his wolf essence without a blink and turns his rage into love, but Sinclair is not one to sit idly by when someone takes a possession from him. He plots to kill the Balmoral and Reuben clans after taking their women, and has a traitor within to abet his endeavors. MOON AWAKENING is an electrifying supernatural historical romance starring a courageous highly moral female and the werewolf who falls in love with her. The story line is fast-paced from the opening eavesdropping to the final confrontation with evil. Lucy Monroe brings to life a unique medieval Scotland filled with the paranormal, the romantic, and the intrigue as she provides a clever tale of yore that deserves sequels starring Cait and the stepsisters.

In the Stars
Eileen Cook
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
042521396X $14.00

Sophie Kinnock cannot believe that her boyfriend of six years, anal Doug Chase, dumped her for a tall blond bimbo Melanie the melons. She decides she wants him back, but first must rid him of the model. Upset she meets kind hearted Nick McKenna at the laundry room and thinks he is cute if you like your men shorter than you. However, he helps her with her convoluted plan to regain Doug starting with her faking being a psychic since the melons believe in readings. Shockingly Sophie proves successful as people flock to her for her forecasting skills except the teacher-munchkin who assisted her at the start. She becomes famous working radio readings. However, Sophie begins to reassess her goal as she finds she loves being with Nick; however he has Cathie so morosely listening to her conscience she refuses to try to break up his relationship, as she did when she attempted to chase melons from her former boyfriend. IN THE STARS is an amusing often satirical contemporary romance that lampoons the psychic world. The story line is refreshed by the short hero who must gaze up into the eyes of his beloved. Part of the fun is learning about Cathie (read the novel to learn just how strong a hold Cathie has on Nick). Readers will enjoy this humorously whimsical tale of love is IN THE STARS.

Kink
Saskia Walker & Sasha White
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425213994 $14.00

"Sex, Lies, and Bondage Tape" by Saskia Walker. Following the Clayton Warren concert, Kelly Burton sneaks back stage to obtain an autograph from the rock star for her injured friend who could not attend. She quickly feels like a shocked voyeur as she catches the hunk with a gay lover. However bouncer Tommy Sampson assumes she is a groupie for the pleasure of anyone backstage. They soon share a kinky night of hard and soft rock and roll, but though she wants round two they failed to exchange information. "Watch Me" by Sasha White. Most people use coffee to wake up in the morning; Bethany Mack prefers sex, but her spouse Grant has been too busy so he neglects her carnal needs. Though she loves Grant, she begins to perform bad girl acts for strangers. When Grant learns of her performance for a roofer and a bus passenger, he becomes upset and determined to punish his wife by keeping her sexually satisfied whenever he is home because she will only be the bad girl for him. The sex is fiery kink as the female protagonists in both contributions know what they want and go after their desires. The men are willing partners. Though some of the scenarios seem implausible like the bus (then again there is the When Harry Meets Sally restaurant scene), fans of erotic romance will enjoy the kinkiness of the SW twice the fun (and heat).

Chasing Stanley
Deidre Martin
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214478 $7.99

In Manhattan dog trainer Delilah Gould is walking Sherman the Golden Retriever, Shiloh the Cairn terrier and Belle the Mutt when she notices the most handsome hunk she has ever seen in her life. With one look Delilah understands love at first sight as she wants to run her fingers through his wavy black hair and gently kiss his hypnotic warm brown eyes. Of course the guy with the Newfoundland canine is okay too though he seems untrained as Stanley the dog disobeys his commands. Delilah intercedes and meets Stanley the hunk and his owner NHL star Jason "yes that's my real teeth" Mitchell who was just traded from Minnesota to the New York Blades. Reluctant at first, Jason soon realizes that Delilah is good with Stanley so he hires her to help his canine adjust to the Big Apple. However, as he pursues Lord Stanley's cup, he falls in love with the dog trainer who proves more difficult than opposing hockey teams. She reciprocates, but while a field officer in command when it comes to her four legged pals, she is reticent when it comes to the two legged stick in the middle types. Different religious beliefs and personalities make for a delightful sport romance as the lead female protagonist uses a BODY CHECK on her beloved who ignores FAIR PLAY when it comes to her by getting her CHASING STANLEY not him. The story line is faster than a slap shot especially when the canines play matchmakers. Though several secondary players deserve time in THE PENALTY BOX for tripping up the story line, hockey fans will enjoy the romance between the hot ticket superstar and his dog trainer.

Broken Borders
Don Bendell
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425212572 $6.99

Though he drank a few at a stop-off at the Denver airport, Army's Criminal Investigation Detachment (CID) Major Bobby Samuels remains alert noticing a Mexican passenger acting slightly strange. He informs his subordinate Captain Bo Devore and soon afterward a flight attendant as he realizes the person is not Mexican, but Middle Eastern. The plain clothes military police investigators thwart a hijacking, but the plane crashes in the Rockies; they insure everyone, except the hijacker, survives until help arrives. However, the two CID agents also learned from the information the deceased terrorist carried of an Al-Qaeda plot to sneak into the country from the porous Mexican border two backpack nuclear bombs to detonate at the same time in two American cities. Thus their mission has changed from investigating a potential Iranian agent at the Monterrey, California Defense Language School to uncovering the whereabouts of the dirty bombs and their holders before the terrorist acts occur. BROKEN BORDERS, the sequel to the exhilarating CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DETACHMENT, is a superb thriller that provides the audience with a deep look at the work of the CID as part of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This time the fight is stateside (as opposed to the first tale whose setting is in Iraq). The story line is non stop action from the Colorado crash until the final confrontation as heroic Major Samuels and Captain Devore try to avert a 9/11 repeat as Don Bendell makes a strong case to plug the leak at the Mexican border not because of the vast majority of illegal entrants seeking economic opportunity, but to prevent a monstrous atrocity on American soil.

Lucy Blue, Where Are You?
Louise Harwood
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425213587 $14.00

In London Lucy Blue decides she needs a new life as her job is no fun, her family is drowning her, and her boyfriend Teddy is definitely not for her. She breaks off with Teddy and takes off for a New Year's Eve mini vacation away from friends and family in Scotland mostly to reflect introspectively. However, on the way home, a snowstorm grounds all flights leaving Lucy stranded in Scotland. She accepts an estimated fourteen hour drive with a stranger willing to take her with him to London. To Lucy this is extraordinary as she never goes anywhere with strangers let alone sleep with one, but she did. Back in London she assumes her one night stand is her secret as she plans to return to her rut except for Teddy until she sees the shocking train-station poster: "Lucy Blue, Where Are You?" Should she or should she not is the question. This is a fun English chick lit tale starring a confused lead female struggling with a life that is tedious. Lucy Blue is a fascinating protagonist though her musings seem real as she vacillates but that also feels overly long when reading as her inner introspection slows down the plot. Still this is a solid look at a young woman pondering whether to take chances in order to bring excitement into what she deems is a dull life sentence of ennui.

The Lost Madonna
Kelly Jones
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214192 $7.99

In 1999 Charley Stover, Dean of an American university in Florence, Italy invites art historian and restorer Suzanne Cunningham to teach a course there. She reluctantly accepts, but also thinks back to November 1966 when she was backpacking in Italy at a time when the Arno River flooded Florence. Suzanne stayed to help with the restoration of invaluable art from the Renaissance while falling in love with her partner on saving masterpieces, Stefano Leonetti; however their tryst ended poorly and she has not returned to the center of her heartbreak until now

Preparing for her class, she reads a book that shocks her with the claim that Duccio di Buoninsegna's late thirteenth century masterpiece Madonna and Child was lost during the flood. Suzanne knows otherwise because she personally restored this precious work of art alongside of Stefano after the torrent. Unable to resist she begins a search to trace THE LOST MADONNA starting with looking for the man who still holds her heart. Using the infamous flood of 1966 as a basis for this thriller, Kelly Jones provides her audience with an electrifying tale of suspense filled with twists until a final confrontation. The story line in many ways an amateur sleuth investigative thriller as the heroine seeks her former lover and through him hoping to learn what happened to the painting they restored. THE LOST MADONNA is a one sitting novel as the art is cleverly intertwined into a delightful investigation led by a lead character whose need to know surpasses her fears of what she will learn.

Mona Lisa Blossoming
Sunny
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214336 $14.00

She never fit in to human society and now she knows that it is because she is three quarters Monere, a Mixed Blood with great speed, incredible strength, acute hearing and the ability to shapeshift. Drinking blood is a by-product of her heritage as a child of the moon. She has two lovers Amber and Gryphon, Warrior Lords who willingly will die to protect the new Monere Queen of New Orleans. Unlike the rest of the Monere, Mona Lisa can walk in sunlight, but like her people she also can live for centuries. She has powers that are unique to her including a special healing and has the prowess of all the mighty Queens. Halcyon, the High Prince of Hell, loves Mona Lisa and thanks to his healing skills, she survives the attack of Mona Louisa of Western Mississippi. However to live he must take her back to his abode and survive what awaits her there. This erotic fantasy will appeal to Laurel K. Hamilton's fans because Sunny has constructed a fascinating feudal society living amidst modern day mortals yet hidden in plain sight. Mona Lisa is growing into her powers, but as the first ever Mixed Blood ruler she has enemies including her mother and many she does not know about. Although she can be cruel as needed, Mona Lisa uses compassion and justice to command respect and loyalty. Sunny is blossoming into a star well worth reading.

Causing Havoc
Lori Foster
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214230 $7.99

SBC heavyweight champ extreme fighter Dean "Havoc" Connor has learned to ignore pain, but not because of the devastating holds of opponents. His life lessons came when he and his sisters became orphans. He was separated from his siblings leading to his dependence on no one, growing up tough and refusing to take bunk from anyone. Dean tastes havoc for the first time since his family was torn apart over two decades ago when he receives a letter from his sister Cam, whom he vaguely remembers as a small girl, begging him to visit her and his other sibling Jacki. Between fights, Dean travels to his hometown of Harmony, Kentucky where he meets a close friend of his sisters, sassy Eve Lavon. They team up to prevent Jacki from making a monstrous marital mistake, but when he tries to court Eve she rejects his advances. The octagon seems like a school playground compared with keeping his family safe and winning Eve's love. Lori Foster is at her best CAUSING HAVOC with this delightful combination family drama, romance, and a bit of a mystery that all blends together into a wonderful contemporary. Though Dean and Eve are the lead characters, the changing relationship between the fighter and his sisters make the tale work as Dean wants to avoid entanglements, but Jacki and especially Cam will not allow him to do so. A secondary romance between Jacki and Gregor enhance the novel with apparently Dean's manager next on the fight (make that romance) card.

Deadly Advice
Roberto Isleib
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214745 $6.99

Psychologist Dr. Rebecca Butterman is finally getting over the trauma of her divorce caused by seeing her husband having sex in their bed with another woman. She has a clinical practice and writes an advice column for an online women's magazine. One day when she comes home, police cars are at her next door neighbor's house. She finds out from the investigating officer that her neighbor Madeline committed suicide and left a note on her computer. Madeline's mother, Isabel Stanton asks Rebecca to watch her late daughter's cat until she can place it with someone. She also asks the psychologist to find out if her daughter really committed suicide because she doesn't believe it. Not quite sure why she is doing it, Rebecca starts investigating and finds out that Madeline had a very erotic blog and secret love life. A forensic linguist that Rebecca asks to analyze the blog and the suicide note determines that different people wrote each of them. When Madeline's neighbor on her other side is bludgeoned, Rebecca believes the incident is linked to Madeleine's death and her nosing around almost costs Rebecca her life. DEADLY ADVICE is a fine amateur sleuth mystery that has advice questions and answers throughout the book. They give credence to the heroine's career as an advice columnist with a psychology degree because her answers are always realistic. Rebecca is a strong-willed woman who is making a new life for herself after the debacle of her divorce. The only quibble is that the protagonist behaves like a trained cop, following the same path as a homicide detective. Could this mean police officers and psychologists think alike? Judging by the bickering between the sleuth and the shrink they act like two sides of the same coin. Readers will love this mystery because they know "dating can be deadly".

Sweet and Deadly
Charlaine Harris
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214621 $7.99

It has been six months since her parents died in a car crash and Catherine Linton has returned to Lowfield, Mississippi in the hopes that familiar surroundings will help her healing process along. She is angry because her parents were murdered when their car breaks were deliberately loosened and she wants vengeance for their deaths. She also knows in her heart that the culprit is someone from Lowfield responsible because her parents never locked their car or garage. One day while target shooting at the run down tenant house on her land, she sees the bloody body of a woman who is later identified as Leona Galles, who was her father's nurse more than three decades ago. The sheriff discovers evidence that she was a blackmailer but treats her homicide as a separate incident that isn't connected to the deaths of Catherine's parents. When a reporter dies while investigating the homicides, Catherine believes the same person killed all four people and in a dangerous moment sets out to prove it. Long before Charlene Harris wrote the Sookie Stackhouse tales, she wrote this mystery and it shows the talent that in future years will make her a superstar. Readers get a picture of living in a small town in the Deep South in the 1950s when everyone knows their neighbors and murder is an aberration. Even a quarter a century ago, Ms. Harris was a genius at creating characters who are easy to understand and of course the identity of the villain comes as quite a shock. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining southern gothic mystery.

Dragonwell Dead
Laura Childs
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425213862 $23.95

In Charleston, South Carolina, the annual Spring Plantation Ramble gala begins as the city's affluent open their gardens to the public. A festive atmosphere permeates the entire town as flower shows and rare plant auctions are everywhere. Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning loves the annual event that symbolizes spring to her and not just because business booms which it does during the festivity. She just loves the flowering of Charleston that the Ramble represents. This year she has the added pleasure of selling her new brew, Dragonwell Sweet Tea. Theodosia and her master tea blender Drayton provide the tea stand as a favor to the Broad Street Garden Club at the Carthage Place Plantation where a rare plant auction occurs. Commodities broker Mark Congdon has the high bid for a rare monkey-face orchid for $900. Mark is euphoric over his win, but almost immediate his body goes into a violent fit with foam coming out of his mouth. In spite of Theodosia's CPR efforts he dies. Everyone assumes it is a fatal heart attack until Sheriff Billings' report states cause of death is unspecified toxin. Mark's widow Angie asks Theodosia, who has solved some mysteries, to investigate her husband's death; she reluctantly agrees as her tea is considered the prime suspect by many. As always with a Tea Shop Mystery, readers will appreciate Theodosia's investigation as this time she has the motive of clearing her tea's reputation. The story line is fast-paced as the heroine makes inquiries including out of state that frighten a killer who believes the shop owner may be getting to close to reading the tea leaves. Fans of the series will enjoy this amateur sleuth's latest exploits while savoring the Indigo Tea Shop's recipes with some tips to improve your brewing techniques.

Memory
Bennett Davlin
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425207056 $14.00

Near Manaus, Brazil, Harvard graduate student William Terrel spends time with the dangerous Yanomano tribe when he stupidly steals a powder the natives use in rituals. Nearly dead, he is brought to St. Augustine's Hospital in Manaus where Dr. Costas performs an MRI whose results stun the physician. In New England, medical researcher Dr. Taylor Briggs seeks a cure to Alzheimer's that is killing his once brilliant mother and he fears will one day him. When he sees an email of Terrel's MRI, Taylor decides immediately to visit the ailing man, whose brain's activities make no sense. In Brazil, Taylor learns that Terrel died and was cremated, but Dr. Costas, assuming he is from the American consul, gives him the deceased's backpack. Inside Taylor finds a strange powder as he brews tea. He soon "hallucinates" about his father's car. Not long after that in New England he sees a painting by S. Jacobs of a man wearing a coat that reminds him of his dad. After meeting the artist Steph, he has memories of girls being killed that are not his; he believes the powder has enabled him to "recall" the memories of a serial killer genetically linked to him. This exciting thriller will grip readers from the first memory that Taylor envisions when he loses his shoe in the muddy bank of a river while still in his Manaus hotel room. The story line is loaded with twists of memories that can become difficult to follow for the reader and the hero who finds red herrings, death, and love; the latter is a fascinating concept as Taylor ponders if he is in love or is he feeling someone else's memory. Suspense fans will enjoy Bennett Davlin's tense thriller that focuses on what is a real memory (I have seen the movie so cannot comment on it).

Close to You
Kathryn Shay
The Berkley Publishing Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0425214508 $7.99

Secret Service Agent C.J. Ludzecky is assigned to protect the wife and children of the Vice President. When the father of the Second Lady has a heart attack, she heads to the family lake house to be there for him. C.J. is one of the agents sent to escort and protect Bailey O'Neil whose spouse VP Clay Wainwright accompanies his wife and children to see his in-laws. C.J. finds s three of Bailey's brothers and their mom friendly and nice. The fourth sibling Aidan is another story altogether as C.J. is attracted to him and believes he wants her too. However, as the father of the Second lady recovers from Myocardial infarction as best he can, C.J. knows she must not let her heart get in the way of her mission, as terrorist groups would love to kill Bailey or any family member for that matter; whereas Aidan wants her as much and is not concerned about ruthless killers at first. CLOSE TO YOU, the sequel to SOMEONE TO BELIEVE IN (Clay and Bailey's romance when he was a senator) is a delightful contemporary romance with a late suspense caused by a kidnapping attempt. The story line is character driven as the O'Neil clan comes home to insure Pop is okay with the siblings all having differing personalities (Bailey's nicknames of her brothers seem so apropos). The lead couple is a delightful pairing as she takes her job seriously while he takes her seriously. Readers will enjoy Kathryn Shay's appealing tale wondering whether C.J. will call in that marker she earned.

The Secret Magdalene
Ki Longfellow
The Crown Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, #B1, New York, NY 10019-4305
0307346668 $24.95 www.crownpublishing.com 1-800-726-0600

Although the daughter of a privileged affluent Jewish aristocrat Mariamne is unable to overtly display her love of learning as females do not obtain a formal education. Thus she secretly studies whatever she, her personal slave Tata, or her father's ward Salome can borrow without anyone knowing. After becoming ill, she began hearing voices in her head that she assumed were prophecies even as she fully recovers from her ailment. When her father catches Salome alone with a young male guest and no escort, he becomes irate and tosses her out with nothing except the clothes that she is wearing. Though he has no evidence except a nebulous guilt by association, he also accuses his daughter of the same outrageous behavior and exiles her to his brother-in-law's house with an admonishment to never see Salome again. Instead Mariamne and Salome, dressed as males, run off to Alexandria, where they study in the library. Eventually Salome meets John the Baptizer while Mariamne finds herself attracted to Yeshu. The latter two share a love and the premonition of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Providing a female perspective to the birth, death, and rebirth of Jesus, readers see a unique viewpoint from that of THE SECRET MAGDALENE. Mariamne and Salome are terrific protagonists, who besides a retelling of the major events in Jesus' life enable the audience to obtain a look at the restricted lifestyle of even a wealthy female in the Holy Land. Though the action is limited, readers who want to a wider feminist glimpse of the last days will want to read Ki Longfellow's fascinating biblical tale.

A Bigger Life
Annette Smith
NavPress
PO Box 35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935
1576839958 $12.99 www.navpress.com 1-800-366-7788

In Eden Plain, Texas, hair stylist Joel Carpenter knows he messed up badly when his high school friend Leslie, who left town almost a decade ago, returned home to help her parents. She and Joel had an affair, which their spouses find out about; this led to Kari divorcing him and sharing custody of their young child Colton; he gets him on weekends like several of the other fathers do. He hopes to make it up to her by being the best dad to their son, but deep down he prays to the Lord, although he distrusts organized religion, that Kari takes him back. However, he soon has other issues to contend with when Kari informs him that she is dying from cancer; they both know Colton must come first. Kari tries to forgive Joel's transgression that devastated their marriage and persuade him to turn to God so that he can forgive himself. However, her comforting message from Psalm 51:17 and kindness from the ex-husbands' posse and others fail to relieve Joel of his anger over why bad things happen to good people at a time when Colton desperately needs his dad because he cannot comprehend what is happening to his mom. Told from the perspective of Joel, A BIGGER LIFE is an enjoyable inspirational family drama that grips the audience from the lead character's opening comment that though his roommate Abe is also a hair stylist, neither are the "stereotype" gay and never slows down as other prejudical notions are shattered. Joel is a terrific protagonist struggling with a battered belief system at a time when he prays to the Lord to save Kari's life and his son needs to believe in him. The support cast augments the understanding of what Joel feels and disbelieves until friends help him find hope on a personal plane with Jesus.

Best New Paranormal Romance
Edited by Paula Guran
Juno
c/o Wildside Press
9710 Traville Gateway Dr #234, Rockville, MD 20850
0809556537 $12.95

"The Shadowed Heart" by Catherine Asaro. He is the last empathic starfighter, but his soul has been devastated with all he felt as his comrades died; she is the native who healed his body, but can she restore his heart. "The Hard Stuff" by Paul Barnett. Disabled in combat, he takes out his feelings of inadequacy on his loving wife until he learns how much she gave up out of love for him. "Follow Me Light" by Elizabeth Bear. The public defender loved the crippled attorney, but she married someone else as he was disinterested in a relationship until he realized how much he lost. "Magic in a Certain Slant of Light" by Deborah Coates. The scientist lives her life to a precise cosmic order until she loses her beloved Jeff and turns to magic. "Calypso in Berlin" by Elizabeth Hand. Nymphs know men love and leave them, but she plans to be with her mortal forever. "Fir Na Tine" by Sandra McDonald. They were college lovers who went different ways in life after graduation, but neither forgot how their love was hotter than the sun. "A Maze of Trees" by Claudia O'Keefe. To know one will never go home while adjusting to totally alien environs seems too harsh, but for the bathrobe that provides memories and subsequently solace. "A Treatise on Fewmets" by Sarah Prineas. The College of Magic professor arrives to rid the garden of the monsters, but neither she nor the owner's nephew yet understand a different form of magic is needed to send the pests packing. "Single White Farmhouse" by Heather Shaw The rural cuddly farmhouse and the hunk San Franciscan building meet and fall in love over the Internet. "Walpurgis Afternoon" by Delia Sherman. In the middle class urban neighborhood, a Victorian house is now owned by two resident witches who plan to bring the magic of love to the locals. "A Knot of Toads" by Jane Yolen. Upon the death of her father the scholar returns home to learn what killed him, but finds no allies as no one, even her former lover, is quite like her memories of them. "A Hero's Welcome" by Rebecca York. They were the best of friends until the war made them the worst of enemies, but the hostilities are over with each needing the other yet distrusting one another. These twelve short stories live up to the title as each is an enchanting romantic fantasy. Fun to follow though the format does not allow the paranormal elements to feel believable, readers will appreciate the acute yet quirky tales of mystical love.

The Lying Tongue
Andrew Wilson
Atria Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
0743293975 $24.00 www.simonsays.com

Adam Woods has graduated from a university in England and with neither get a job nor a girlfriend to tie him down, he travels to Venice to tutor a sixteen year old boy in English. When he arrives his clients tell him they sent their son to New York City to avoid a scandal but they tell him that reclusive author Gordon Grace, who wrote one book that was a mega-seller, needs a companion and an aid. When he obtains the job, Grace tells him his duties and that he is not to spend most time away from the run down palazzo. Since he wants to write a book, he agrees to his employer's terms. As he gets to know his employer, he realizes he would make an excellent subject for a biography but the man refuses to spend time talking about his past. Adam starts investigating his life first in Venice and then in England where he learns salacious things about his employer. He has enough proof to blackmail the author into helping him write the biography but Adam doesn't know is that Gordon Grace is a sly and clever opponent playing with him as the subject, one that could turn deadly at any moment. This is Andrew Wilson's first fiction novel and it is a masterpiece of Hitchcockian suspense mindful in some ways to the characters of Shaffer's play Sleuth. Neither Adam nor Gordon are likeable characters but the storyline is so compelling that readers are fascinated by the two amoral antagonists and the lengths they will go to order get what they want.

White Blood
James Fleming
Atria Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
0743299388 $25.00 www.simonsays.com

Naturalist Charlie Doig loves traveling the globe seeking new discoveries that support Darwin's theories almost as much as he enjoys discovering new women; however Charlie also appreciates his respites at his family "Pink House" near Smolensk, Russia. In 1914, the Academy of Sciences sends him to Turkistan, but the war breaks out throughout Europe leaving him without funds and at least for the moment ending his latest pursuit to prove Darwinism is the only religion. His travels has delayed his plans to one day wed his beloved Cousin Elizaveta, but by 1917, he brings her into his home as his wife after her fiance was assassinated. As civil war breaks out against Tsarist Russia, many come to the Pink House for refuge. When Bolshevik Prokhor Glebov arrives, Charlie recognizes the cunning ruthlessness of the Marxists; he believes they will prove in the short run victorious as the barbarians always take the early triumphs because they understand survival of the fittest means innocent people must die. He also understands social Darwinism that in the long run civilization will return to defeat the barbarian Bolsheviks because they will prove to be the truely fittest, but Charlie doubts he will be there to see it. This is a superb historical thriller that uses Social Darwin theories to provide a powerful look at the survival of the fittest in Russia, which proves by 1917 to be the Bolsheviks as only the ruthlessly strong survive. The story line is action-packed whether Charlie is having adventures in the Far East seeks exotic species or at his Pink House where the prime three groups that make up the Russia struggle to rule converge. Genre readers will appreciate the contrasts between the competitors as each believes they will triumph in a brave new world.

Cloud Watcher
Lilith Saintcrow
ImaJinn Books
PO Box 545, Canon City, CO 81215-0545
1933417188 $14.00 imajinnbooks.com

Anya Harris feels all alone in the world as she flees the Dark fires that no one else seems to see. Her only companion as she runs from "the persuasion" is Shell, who depends on her for his well-being as he apparently is a "downs syndrome" person. In Santiago City, she knows she needs a job that will enable her to also keep Shell safe. Instead she meets Watcher Jack Gray, whose centuries of dedication to Circle Lightfall may not redeem him for the atrocities he committed. Jack realizes she is the witch who he has waited seemingly forever to come into his life. He must protect her and her ward with his heart and soul as the Dark has followed her here. Used to having no one protect her back or someone steal her heart, Anya rejects his efforts to keep her safe; still her presence gives him some hope of redemption for the evil he did before he became a Watcher. The Lilith Saintcrow "Watcher' romantic fantasy (see DARK WATCHER, STORM WATCHER, and FIRE WATCHER) is a terrific tale starring two interesting protagonists. Anya trusts no on except Shell who is almost totally dependent on her. Jack has waited forever for his soulmate to bewitch him so has begun to lose faith that he will ever meet her. When they do meet both are stunned, but he knows he first needs to keep her safe because her skills make her special and worth millions, but to do that he also must protect Shell. CLOUD WATCHER is a strong entry in a terrific series.

Winged Darkness
L.F. Hampton
ImaJinn Books
PO Box 545, Canon City, CO 81215-0545
1933417196 $14.00 imajinnbooks.com

On the planet Da'tarn the illegal crystal asberylite, banned in much of the Alliance because of its addicting lethal quality, was found by the miners. Pirates led by Synika raided the planet and took much of the ore for its value to put the holder in a sexual daze. They killed many of the planet's inhabitants and took others to sell as slaves. For five months, Mona de'Lacy and her crew aboard the ship the Solitaire have been chasing the pirates because they killed her husband and son. Needing repairs, the Solitaire is forced to land on Valtar, a planet inhabited by a winged vampire like race who need blood to survive. Their leader Lord Zurellius takes one look at her and knows she is his soul mate. He intends to go with her to find the pirates because they took his brother and his wife and he intends to rescue them. Zurellius is no ordinary Valtarian because he drinks predator blood which gives him extraordinary powers but also turns him into an ancient who has killing rages that he has under tight control for the moment. He fears he will one day lose control making him wonder if Mona is better off without him. L.F. Hampton has written a fantastic futuristic romance involving a species that has vampiric like powers. The hero is afraid of what he has become since he drank predator blood but by doing what is forbidden, he turns into an excellent ruler who brought his people back from the edge of extinction. The heroine sees him when he turns yet though the changes shock her, it doesn't destroy what she feels for him. In between chasing space pirates, this couple finds the time to bond for a lifetime.

The Wrong Christmas Carol
J.A. Ferguson
ImaJinn Books
PO Box 545, Canon City, CO 81215-0545
1933417145 $14.95 imajinnbooks.com

Gabby D'Angelo and Mike Archer are the objects of their landlord Mr. Shepard's match making efforts but it has been two years and neither has made a move on the other. When Gabby's car gets stolen at the mall, she returns home in a cab; Mike helps her bring her packages to her apartment and waits with her until the police arrive. When they do, they tell her they found her car and her baby Carol who is wearing a hospital ID bracelet. There is only one problem with that scenario: Gabby never gave birth and Mike knows that because he has seen her almost everyday for the last year and knows she was never pregnant. When he calls the hospital, the people in charge confirm Gabby gave birth to Carol on Christmas at midnight. Social services case workers insist Gabby should keep the baby until they find her parents. Mike has them take DNA tests and the results show that Mike and Gabby are Carol's parents. As both adults get closer to the infant, they open their hearts to each other until a misunderstanding threatens to destroy their fledging relationship. Little do they know that in addition to their landlord's meddling, they have a guardian angel trying to rectify a mistake so everyone could be happy. J.A. Ferguson's romance really puts readers in the mood for Christmas. The audience feels happy, contented and satisfied after reading this book about two people who fall in love with a baby and each other. Both the hero and the heroine are decent likeable and heartwarming people; the kind that deserves to have good things happening to them. This is an enchanting paranormal romance.

Hannibal Rising
Thomas Harris
Delacorte Books
c/o Bantam Dell Publishing Group
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
0385339410 $27.95 1-800-726-0600

His father was Count Lecter and with his wife and their children lived in the family castle in Lithuania; their idyllic life ended when Hitler's troops swept through the land. Hannibal's family moved into their hunting lodge while Quislings served the Nazis who took over the castle and the estate while looting the treasures. For five years the Lector family barely survived on whatever they could hunt, fish, or scrounge. In 1945, Hannibal watched his parents die in a bombing raid. Hannibal and his beloved sister Mischa, who adored her older brother, camped at the lodge. When she is also killed in a horrific way, he blocked it from his mind and became mute. He eventually returned to his family castle which had become a state run orphanage until his uncle takes him to France. There Hannibal and his uncle's wife Lady Muraski connect on a primal level. When a Vichy shopkeeper insults his "aunt", Hannibal kills him as he begins to remember what happened to Mischa and how he will avenge her death. Hannibal's brilliance is demonstrated at an early age and it is that coupled with the personal horrors of war that torment him and turn him into the FBI number one most wanted. While hating the man he becomes, readers will as always be fascinated in a macabre way with him as he deals with one constant trauma after another. However, in spite of the allure that Lecter possesses in this prequel, HANNIBAL RISING is not quite at the level of excellence Thomas Harris has achieved with this character's books mainly because the support cast, key in the other tales, seem one dimensional mostly evil with none behaving remotely heroic. Still fans of RED DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS will enjoy learning how mankind created the monster.

The Blood Spilt
Asa Larsson
Delacorte Books
c/o Bantam Dell Publishing Group
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
0385339828 $22.00 1-800-726-0600

Three years have passed since Rebecka Martinsson killed three men in self defense and saving the lives of children, but she has not gotten pass the trauma. She cannot sleep and rarely goes to work. When one of the layers at her firm asks her to accompany him to Kiruna, a place she has avoided, she reluctantly agrees to help him try to win the church as a client. When their business is completed, Rebecka decides to stay there in order to confront her demons. She makes friends with a person who has a man's body but a child's mind. When church officials ask her to get the key to a murdered priest's locker, she does; before giving it to them she copies his papers and hands them to the police, which enables her to find peace for the first time in years until another priest is killed and she begins to wonder if another serial killer exists in the area. The first book in this series won Sweden's Best Crime Novel Award and readers will agree that THE BLOOD SPLIT is worthy of at least further nominations. This is a literary crime tale with a cast of memorable realistic characters. The audience will feel sorry for Rebecka who has suffered much trauma due to the priest killings. Asa Larsson follows up the terrific SUN STORM with an excellent thriller.

Griffin's Daughter
Leslie Ann Moore
Avari Press
P.O. Box 11325, Lancaster, PA 17605
1933770015 $18.95

All her life Jelena has known prejudice because she is half elf and the Soldaran Empire believes elves are soulless evil demons. The Duke of Amsara, who is her uncle, keeps her out of sight; her only friends are her foster mother Claudia and her cousin Magnes. When her uncle sells her to another noble as his concubine, the two cousins run away seeking Alasiri, the land of elves. Attacked by bandits, they are rescued by Ashinji Sakehera, who has dreamed constantly of Jelena. He takes the twosome to Kerala Castle where she heals from injuries and Magnes returns home to face his irate father for abetting the escape of his cousin. Jehena's blue fire attracts the attention of the Nameless One, an evil entity who wants the Key and the talisman so he can return to the living. A group of elves have plans for Jehena and Ashinji to use them as expendable pawns to defeat the Nameless One. They believe destiny will save this pair especially if they marry but to persuade his parents to allow him to wed a half-breed seems unlikely in spite of love and even if the realm is at stake. This is the opening tale of what looks to be a great epic fantasy. Refreshing the saga is prejudice so overwhelming that even with a world at stake few bend let alone move past their bias. Jelena is a fascinating protagonist used to being the subject of scorn and de jure and de facto discrimination because she is half elf, which has enabled her to become independent and brave as she faces the ridicule of others. Fantasy fans who read this author's first published tale will demand Moore adventures in the Soldaran Empire and beyond.

The Killing Moon
Chuck Hogan
Scribner
c/o Simon and Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 14th fl., New York, NY 10020
0743289641 $25.00 1-800-223-2336

Don Maddox left Black Falls, Massachusetts on a community scholarship with the promise of returning to provide five years of service. He finally did come home fifteen years later to attend the funeral of his mother. Everyone assumed he would leave again as a town without an ATM cannot keep its young any longer. However, Don fools the townsfolk when he decides to stay, which leads to speculation. Though with no law enforcement experience joins the police force renowned for their corruption and abuse; most locals conclude he must be dishonest too perhaps with drugs. However, his traffic patrol during the graveyard shift runs ugly when a murder occurs. Soon the Massachusetts State Police arrive to investigate the homicide and more at the same time the former police chief Pinty is trying to persuade them to look at his department and no one can figure out where the loose cannon Don fits, not even Tracey Mithers who is falling in love with him. The small town cast make for a strong gripping and sinister thriller as readers learn who the bad guys are and what Don's secret agenda is. The ending is expected from the moment the readers follow Don's first shift driving the blue lights, but no one will care as fans will be hooked from that onset to learn what is going on in Black Falls under THE KILLING MOON.

Through These Doors
Dwight Alexander as told to Gail Nash Tunnell
Word Association Publishers
205 5th Avenue, Tarentum, PA 15084
1595711252 $14.95

His mother called Dwight Alexander while he was in Tulsa attending a business seminar five hours from his Texas home with the stunning news of the car wreck. His wife Tina died on impact and their two young sons are critically injured. Grant was flown to the East Texas Medical Center with a head injury; Collin was flown to Mother Frances Hospital with traumas from the neck down. He had no time to grieve for his spouse or leave roses as his first priority is his children. As his sons live in surgery rooms, he prays that God will provide two miracles. This is true account of the Alexander tragedy and ordeal with prayer being the father's solace even with loved ones and hospital staff rallying around him and his kids. Throughout his personal horror, Alexander never lost faith in the Lord though he did not understand why his wife so young had to die and perhaps his sons too. THROUGH THESE DOORS is an inspirational true story that will turn cynics into believers with its low keyed journal of turning to God though never knowing whether his boys will live.

Reading Between the Lines
Rick Hamlin
Howard Publishing Co., Inc.
3117 North 7th Street, West Monroe, LA 71291
1582295786 $12.99

In New York her best friend wannabe actress Dorothy Hughes persuades flutist Elizabeth Ash to accompany her to a rummage sale. Elizabeth buys a few used books including a fascinating Regency romance by Harriet Mueller. However, the love story that hooks her is not part of the published novel, but instead written in BETWEEN THE LINES by a former reader to her "Darling" along the margins. Elizabeth feels the couple seems very familiar and wants to give the book back to the husband. Casting director Jim Lockhart has moved on somewhat past the death of his beloved wife by diving into his work at Babcock, Crier, and Nelson and turning to prayer. The vocation keeps the loneliness away while asking "Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me. Make haste to help me. Rescue me and save me. Let thy will be done in my life" This provides him some solace. He casts Dorothy Hughes in a commercial and she introduces him to Elizabeth. Both will agree that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Rotating perspective between Jim and Elizabeth, READING BETWEEN THE LINES is a warm second chance at love tale starring two likable but fearful individuals. Readers will sympathize with Jim who mourns the loss of his beloved spouse who was too young to die from cancer and lonely Elizabeth too afraid to take a chance on a permanent relationship. Readers will enjoy their endearing courtship filled with doubt, fear, and love.

Mia the Meek
Eileen Boggess
Bancroft Press
PO Box 65360, Baltimore, MD 21209
1890862460 $16.95 1-800-637-7377

As she begins her freshman year at St Hilary's High School, fourteen year old Mia the Meek decides she will change her image from scaredy cat to extrovert. She knows it will not be easy because she needs to ditch her glasses and remove those rail lines on her teeth, but Mia the bold will go forth and do social things hopefully with Jake, the impetus for her need to change her image as a hunk like him would never notice a nerd like her. Her biggest problems besides her younger brother are her mom teaches English at the school so academic and behavioral expectations are beyond the stratosphere. Shockingly she wins the election for class president defeating the most popular female at St. Hilary's in the process. More stunning Jake seems to like her. However, as Mia becomes increasingly "bootyilicious" she makes new friends and begins to leave behind her old pals who were always there for her nerd or not, but mostly finds she enjoys athletic contests with her new neighbor terrible Tim. They are the most fun. Mia the terrific is a delightful protagonist who takes chances and makes mistakes, but keeps trying. Middle school readers will enjoy her escapades as she lands in one fiasco after another. MIA THE MEEK is an amusing character driven look at crashing into the high school in crowd.

Jade Tiger
Jenn Reese
Wildside Press
9710 Traville Gateway Dr. #234, Rockville , Md 20850
080955674X $12.95

In Hunan Province, China, the intruders attack the Sanctuary of the Jade Circle, but instead of fighting back, her mother sends her twelve year old daughter Shan Westfall to safety. She also leaves her beloved offspring with the protection of one of the five jade statues, the tiger. Sixteen years later, Shan searches for the four missing statues (the crane, snake, leopard, and dragon) to complete the circle; as well as seeking information on her mother. Thus her quest takes her to Risley University in Upstate New York where she comes upon a kung fu expert beating up archeology Professor Ian Dashell. She intercedes and though a tough fight she prevails over her foe. Courageous though no athlete, Ian joins Shan on her mission that takes them into danger in Europe and Hong Kong. On their global trek, the soulmates struggle to survive a malevolent enemy while searching for this evil who destroyed the Jade Circle, but needs the last animal to complete his nefarious plans. JADE TIGER is a stupendous romantic fantasy starring a nerdy male professor and a warrior woman. The half Chinese half-American Shan is an improbable yet stupendous superheroine out of the Lara Croft School of kick butt women. Readers will admire her spunk, skill and tenacity as she lands in one precarious situation after another. In some ways her soulmate Ian is even braver as she was trained for this from childhood while he is not Indiana Jones, but his strength of spirit insists he stand by his beloved, which enables her to overcome her doubts that she might succeed when her mom failed. Jenna Reese writes an enchanting saga.

Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the "Happiest" Time of Her Life
Allison Moir-Smith
Plume
c/o Penguin Group, USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0452288037 $14.00 www.us.penguingroup.com 1-800-847-5515

With runaway brides making the news psychotherapist Allison Moir-Smith's reference book is timely as a guide to coping with the demands on emotionally engaged females starting with the lifetime commitment relationship while also keeping your day job. The book is easy to read while avoiding dumbing down or accusations. The opening two chapters set the tone for "The Happiest time of My Life" and "The Fantasy vs. the Reality of Being Engaged". Both debunk the mythos that everything comes up rosy for a future bride. The rest of the book is broken into the three stages of engagement starting with four sections involving the "Ending", three on "Bridging", and one on the "Beginning". This tome is an ideal present for the bride (and to a degree the groom) as it intelligently guides the reader through reasonable and not so reasonable fears of what is a major life decision. Whereas everyone in the inner circle including those recently graduated from the engagement marathon expect the woman to be euphorically elated ignoring their own trepidations, trials and tribulations; this book wisely does not assume this must be happiest time of my life.

The Garden of Ruth
Eva Etzioni-Halevy
Plume
c/o Penguin Group, USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0452286735 $14.00

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