Unscrambled Eggs
Nadia Brown
http://www.nadiabrown.com
Publish America LLP
P.O. Box 151 Frederick, MD 21705
www.publishamerica.com (301) 695-1707
ISBN: 1413781691, $14.95
Aaron Paul Lazar, Reviewer
www.legardemysteries.com
Unscrambled Eggs is a lyrical album of profound poetry. It glistens with quiet reflection entangled with sentiments of abandonment. Forlorn, lost, adrift on a sea of real emotions – Nadia Brown speaks with words not often combined. Take, for example, the following stanza from "Deprived."
My Crayola lips
plum of eyes, cello of body
are sick with need.
Crayola lips. Cello body. Sick with need. In thirteen short words we sense the image of a woman painfully alone and uncomfortable in her body. In the last stanza, we are assured of this stinging vision.
A rousing verse,
a mangled rose, a sigh of jazz
all sings your absence
Nadia Brown's imagery is strong and unexpected. The combinations of words are surprising, refreshing. These are not common poems. The tang of gritty despondency permeates the pages, in spite of the artistic composition. There is no pretense here. No false polish, cute rhyming schemes, nor purposeful cadence. In such an environment, only the imagery stands alone, spilling honest visions on the page.
Among the sixty verses lies another favorite, "There Were No Bells."
She said there were no bells,
only her clam hands
and fretful feet rattled in the eve.
The sirens would not go off
nor did her knees faint
from the tie-dye of bliss
She felt no quakes,
no bumble bees,
no panic sharks reeling
in the pint of her belly.
Not once did her shoelace hair
curl like ringlets
not once did she hear bells.
Uncommon pairings, curious verbs, and a splash of liberating spirit develop as the poetry travels through time. As Ms. Brown works through emotions of despair, a stronger woman evolves. The work sings of survival while painting distinctive images of the world.
Examine these vivid phrases from "Fishing for Salmon."
a laundry of birds gather
in a fold like sheep
like a fistful of jellybeans in a bottle
and:
there is some wind
flossing back and forth between homes
This unpretentious yet moving collection of poetry will earn a place of honor on your bookshelf. Don't be surprised if you are drawn to reread it over and over again.
No Evidence
Nancy Sanra
Bella Books
PO Box 10543, Tallahassee, FL 32302
ISBN: 1594930430, $12.95, 161 pages
Arlene Germain
Reviewer
The Phoenix Detective Agency's latest case sends Tally McGinnis and Cid Cameron to northern California coast in the search of a serial killer. A difficult task under any circumstances, their efforts are further impeded by a highly questionable local sheriff's department and a threat of seriously damaging political fall-out. Nonetheless, Tally begins the arduous task of determining exactly how, why, and by whom Johanna Haskall was murdered. As the mystery deepens, family secrets and seemingly inexplicable personal motives arise to further blur the lines between what appears to be and what actually is the truth. To share anymore would no doubt spoil the exciting adventure awaiting the reader. However, let it be said that the lyrics of that old song, "Somebody loves me…I wonder who…." will linger in the reader's mind throughout the journey.
There are many authors who write in the mystery genre. Too often they tend to overlap to the degree to which they sometimes seem indistinguishable. Nancy Sanra does not fall into this category. Her tightly written story begins quickly and rockets across the chapters. This is a novel which truly involves the reader. One can empathize with Katie as she continues, albeit reluctantly, to recognize that Tally's profession demands so much more than just time and effort; it demands a little piece of Tally's soul with each heartbreaking case.
Sanra knows her characters well, and it is with a deft touch that she brings the subtle facets of each to the page. Reading No Evidence is like spending time with old friends. The reader is comfortable within the setting and with these women who have carved out a business for themselves that very often tests them to their limits. The secondary characters exceed the stereotypical depictions often seen in lesser novels. Once confronted with the murderer, the reader is presented a chilling portrait of a savage psychopathic individual who will stop at nothing to accomplish his vision of his reality. This novel is the fourth in the Tally McGinnis series and is the best entry thus far.
This reader has enjoyed the previous novels, but No Evidence displays a growth in this writer's craft. The dialogue is crisp, at times sardonically humorous, and extremely readable. McGinnis' three main characters have developed into personable, stalwart, yet sensitive, women. The plotline is realistically developed and races across the pages. It is truly a book one cannot put down. Strong, independent, and likable women are exemplified in the characterization of professional partners, Tally and Cid. Tally's relationship with Katie, the receptionist and third partner in the Phoenix Detective Agency, has evolved over time, and the presentation here is very satisfying for those readers who have followed it throughout the previous novels. Fast-paced action scenes, characters consumed by self-doubt and a twisted sense of love, and intrepid and tenacious detectives add to the hard-boiled detective genre created by the author. No Evidence is an entertaining and rewarding way to spend a few hours. This reader eagerly awaits the next in the series.
Hook House and Other Horrors
Sherry Decker
Silver Lake Publishing
http://www.silverlakepublishing.com
ISBN: 1933511095, $12.95, 165 pp.
Paul Bates
Reviewer
HOOK HOUSE and Other Horrors by Sherry Decker is an utter delight for fans of mystery and horror. It is a combination of traditional structures brought up to date to reflect twenty-first century sensibilities--as if Sherry regularly shared afternoon tea with the spirits of Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Bronte and Alfred Hitchcock just prior to sitting down at her word processor.
"Hook House," the lead off and title tale is a traditional gothic story about a creepy old house, its malevolent spirit and the generations of tortured souls it has ensnared and corrupted, told compellingly from the perspective of the most recent victim to be embraced by the writhing tentacles of the familial curse. Brilliantly, it keeps the reader on the edge of his chair waiting to see if the heroine will extricate herself or become the next casualty as it slowly unfolds its cloying petals.
"Hicklebickle Rock" is a stark murder mystery evocatively told from the perspective of a precocious eight year old girl whose reality consists of a sadly dysfunctional family and an ancient spirit living in the middle of a secluded bay. Realism walks comfortably hand and hand with dark fantasy.
"The Clan" is an amusing account of an escalating dispute between suburban neighbors, one of whom happens to be a vampire, and the other a witch.
An eight year old telepath gets a harsh lesson in life's hidden dangers one summer Sunday morning after church, when all she really wants to do is pee in "Heat Waves."
A series of interviews by a tabloid journalist with an otherworldly serial killer, "Chazzabryom" is both a mystery and a portrait in black, with chills and humor eclectically blended. Two stories here, one of the demon possessed man who sucks out his victims eyes, and one of the journalist who is drawn into the demon's web.
"Shivering, We Dance," will leave you cringing the next time you hear the Tennessee Waltz. A tale of best revenge, served cold to be sure, but not quite as tasty as those goodies from the delicatessen for the perpetrator.
"Gifts from the North Wind," is a haunting tale of resurrection magic, with a bittersweet flavor akin to Borges The Circular Ruins." Quietly understated, it is a real delight.
A disturbing tale of insanity, guilt, compulsion, desire and hallucination, "Twisted Wishes, Twilight Dreams," is chillingly reminiscent of Poe's Tell Tale Heart.
"A City in Italy," is hard to describe without giving anything away - a wonderfully composed point-of-view exercise playing on the nagging doubts of a surviving twin on her way to oblivion.
"Jessica Fishbone" is another poignant account of a surviving twin, but one of realization eventually overcoming denial.
"Tarissa," a rip roaring tale of a witch's revenge rounds out the collection with a peal of thunder and a sizzle of lightning.
All but one of these short fictions have been previously published in such distinguished periodicals as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, City Slab and Book of Dark Wisdom. It is easy to see why.
Love is Strong as Death
William F. Powers
Infinity Press
1094 New DeHaven Street, Suite 100, West, Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713
1-610-941-999 1-877-BUY BOOK
www.buybooksontheweb.com
ISBN: 0741429381, $16.95, 293 pages
Bernadine Fawcett
Reviewer
"Love is Strong as Death" by William F. Powers joins the Shakespeare's & Dickinson's love story classics of our time. It is a poignant and deeply moving dissertation storied to explore love, life, the Catholic religion and human's frailties in order to discover the true meaning of our existence here on earth. The layered truths may hopefully help others to understand and accept with unconditional love the tragedies that emanate from lost souls moving with hope towards a final redemption and acceptance from themselves and from God.
Powers' book presents a historic account of the Catholic church which aids inquisitive intellectuals to understand why the church had tolerated deviance amongst its priests, plus many other important life issues from which Dr. Powers drew upon his own priesthood's experiences before leaving the church to join in matrimony with his beloved Ann. I am proud to have been a former student of a professor who obviously sees beneath the surface of life. However, I found myself disliking, but comprehending the conflicts of Dennis, the main character, but enjoying the basic premises presented in the book.
William Powers' other published books are: "Free Priests: The Movement for Ministerial Reform in the American Catholic Church", "Alive and Well: The Emergence of the Active Nonagenarian: and Tar Heel Catholics", "A History of Catholicism in North Carolina".
Monster
Frank Peretti
WestBow Press
Nashville, Tennessee
ISBN: 084991180X, $24.99, 451 pp.
Brenda Daniels
Reviewer
I was given Peretti's book This Present Darkness as a birthday gift. After reading this supernatural thriller I was hooked. The suspense in Peretti's books make for exciting and gripping reading. Monster is no exception and the element of the supernatural is intriguing.
Peretti writes in simple, short sentences with plenty of dialogue to keep the story active. He reveals just enough information, as the story progresses, to keep the reader thinking. Many chapters end on a cliffhanger which keeps the pages turning. For example on page 257 we read "He didn't leave. He took another step toward them. They're going to kill him. Honest to God, they're going to kill him!"
The main characters in the story are Reed, Beck, Cap and Sing. Reed and Beck in particular grow and change through their experiences. Peretti also introduces them in enough detail that the reader genuinely cares what happens to them. This draws the reader further into the story.
The book will easily be enjoyed by the general reader, from teens through to adults. An interview with Peretti features at the end of the book. In it Peretti admits to being a Christian and to including Christian themes in his books. An evolution/creation theme does form the basis for Monster. However, this in no way confines Monster to a Christian-only audience. It will have wide, general appeal, particularly to those who enjoy suspense with a supernatural flavour to it.
Peretti succeeds in entertaining his reader and maintains a high level of suspense to the very end. The underlying theme of creation versus evolution is played out in an interesting way. The simple plot has its pros and cons though. It makes for a forceful story. However, I believe an intelligent audience could cope with a slightly more complicated plot.
Peretti is also the author of This Present Darkness, Piercing the Darkness, Nightmare Academy, Hangman's Curse, The Oath and The Visitation. An excerpt of The Oath is included in this edition of Monster and looks set to be another great thriller.
A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists
Rachel Cohen
Random House Trade Paperbacks
New York
www.atrandom.com
ISBN: 0812971299, $14.95, 363 pp.
Cassandra Langer
Reviewer
Dazzlling, captivating, everything you ever wanted in a book that deals with sex, race, politics and American celebrities from the Civil war to the Civil rights movement. A Chance Meeting takes thirty American writers and artists ranging from Henry James and Matthew Brady through John Cage and Marcel Duchamp and ending with a series of notes that offer insights into the creative process itself.
Rachel Cohen makes enormous leaps of the imagination in this book. What results is a masterpiece of literary criticism. Cohen links an immense chain of artistic consequences and speculates on what may have taken place between creative people over time and in particular historical circumstances. She gives the reader a sense of intimacy and makes one feel totally in touch with the artists and writers she has selected to include; William Dean Howells and Annie Adams Fields and Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and William Dean Howells, W.E.B. Du Bois and William James, Gertrude Stein and William James, Henry James and Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett, Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz, Willa Cather and Mark Twain, Carl Van Vechen and Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane and Charlie Chaplin, Langston Hughe and Zora Neale Hurston, Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore, and many many more fascinating people and relationships.
I have rarely read a more innovative, balanced or graceful book. If this sounds like a rave--it is. Cohen is one of the most elegant prose writers I have read in years. Her takes on all of these major cultural figures are generous and sound. In each meticulously researched and written chapter she gives us a dazzling array of overlapping and cross referenced nuances that relate each and everyone of these writers and artists to each other. Sometimes it is through history and other times through aesthetics. Each artist seems to be boiled down to his/her essence. What Cohen has done is make us feel as if we are that "fly" on the wall listening to conversations among this group of immensely creative people. She shows us how creative people fit into each other's lives and cross pollinate each other. She even shows us the dark and underside of creative interaction, i.e. Hart Crane and Katherine Anne Porter.
If you walked down a street in your historical imagination of New York City you could expect to meet many of the people she has included in this book. What is impressive is how she has managed to rise to the challenge of making this a thoroughly balanced book in terms of representing heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, black, white, male, female, national, and international figures. My hats off to her for pulling in off in a manner that seems effortless. Only those of us who have been confronted with such a challenge know how difficult it is and how often efforts of this kind end up looking akward and out of sync.
For anyone even vaguely interested in American culture, art and artists, literature and the rise of modernism this is a must read, must buy book and you can probably get it discounted. It is a book that you will want to read again and again and again.
School for Hawaiian Girls
Georgia Ka'apuni Mcmillen
The Permanent Press
4170 Noyac Road, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
ISBN: 157962121X, $26.00, 199 pp.
Coletta Ollerer
Reviewer
We are introduced to one generation of a native Hawaiian family, Sam and Bernie (Bernice), and then we skip a generation and meet the third generation, Moani and Puanani, Bernie's granddaughters. The reader given a glimpse of the real lives of native Hawaiians. Sam and Bernie are children of poverty. Their father was a drunk who died when they were young. "I (Bernie) pretended I wasn't relieved the morning Sheriff Pua told Mama that he had found Papa's body in the middle of Government Road . . . . He fell in a puddle of water and couldn't get up." (p53) Mother did the best she could. Sam is an uneducated but skillful businessman who has achieved financial success and is quite wealthy. Bernie lives with him and his sixth wife.
With a prosperous great uncle, Moani is more privileged than her Hawaiian peers, traveling and studying abroad. With generous financial assistance from him she has led a very comfortable life. "You watch, I (Bernie) told Sam. She'll come back thinking she's better than us." (p50) In addition she has her great uncle's business savvy and succeeds in operating a successful kayak service for tourists when she returns home. Puanani is retarded as a consequence of a childhood accident. Moani loves Pu and takes her from her institutional residence to live with her.
Most of us have an idyllic view of life in the islands. We picture beautiful scenery, carefree natives living out their happy lives. This books takes a different view. These people are minorities in their own land. Their relaxed lifestyle served them well before the advent of the white man but now they can't keep up unless they have the appropriate business skills and drive. Sam has both but he comes up short in the ethics department. One family member referred to him as, "that son-of-a-bitch." (p 190)
Sam and Bernie have another sibling, Lydie. At age 16 she fell in love with an Hawaiian and became pregnant. Her mother insisted she give up the baby. Lydie acquiesced, but one day she is found murdered in a cane field. Sam knows who did it and seeks revenge. The murder haunts Sam and Bernie. Moani finds out about it many years after the fact and begins to question them. They resent her intrusion into their past. Bernie says of Moani, "Damn that girl--asking about Lydie when Sam told her to leave it alone. Digging up our private business . . . ." (p49) Moani is not one to be put off. She goes forward.
This short novel is captivating. The story is told from the point of view of several characters making it especially effective in stepping up the pace in a riveting account of generational conflict, have vs have-nots, stresses of dealing with the mentally challenged, culture clashes and Christian/pagan antagonism. Georgia produced a good read for her first novel. I am looking forward to the next.
The Eye of the Wolf
Margaret Coel
Berkley Prime Crime
Penguin Group
375 Hudson St., NYC, NY 10014
ISBN: 0425205460, $22.95, 336 pages
Boulder, Colorado author, Margaret Coel calls the wolf a wonderful animal. "It's always two looks ahead," of everybody else, she says. Using the wolf as metaphor, she gets the villain in her mystery novel THE EYE OF THE WOLF at least two looks ahead of both readers and main characters.
The 11th in her series featuring the Boston Irish priest Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer, Vicky Holden as the crime solvers, THE EYE OF THE WOLF takes the reader to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. There, traditional enemies, the Arapaho and Shoshone, share the land. Father John serves an Arapaho parish. Vicky works with an Arapaho law firm. The two are close friends.
As EYE OF THE WOLF opens, someone has killed three Shoshone college students on the Bates Battlefield, where in 1874, Shoshone scouts led the United States Cavalry to an Arapaho village. The soldiers slaughtered everyone living there.
Animosity between the Shoshone and Arapaho, two very different peoples with diverse cultures, has smoldered since. Father John fears the worst when he sees the latest bodies at Bates, all posed like dead warriors in old photographs. Someone wants to encourage the hatred. Why? And Who?
He, his parishioners, and the police suspect Frankie Montana. This Arapaho trouble has often fought with Shoshones in bars,. Because he drifts around the reservation drinking and crashing at drug houses, most decent people of both groups despise Frankie.
His mother, Lucille, begs Vicky to become Frankie's lawyer. Lucille believes he's innocent. Because Lucille is a friend, Vicky agrees to take the case. However, she, too, believes Frankie is guilty. He concern is to get him a fair trial.
Frankie asserts he did not commit the crime, but will not talk to Vicky or the police. As he eludes them out of sheer terror of jail, Father John finds a fourth Shoshone victim at Bates.
Looking at the evidence against Frankie, Vicky begins think he may not be the killer. So does Father John, after talking to people in the parish. But, then who is? Can Father John and Vicky find the person, and prove his or her identify to the police?
Or--is the murderer like the wolf--two looks ahead? Will that give him or her time to kill again? Worse, have Father John and Vicky made a mistake to believe Frankie? Is he really the killer? Will he prove it by shooting one of them?
Their gamble on Frankie brings EYE OF THE WOLF to an end that one one could possibly expect. But the conclusion makes perfect sense, because Margaret Coel writes with understanding of Arapaho and Shoshone history. Through that history, she reveals the killer.
Also through that history, she also makes EYE OF THE WOLF more than just another mystery with an explosive ending. As the story unfolds, she presents two Native American groups that get little attention from novelists. Working closely with people who live on Wind River Reservation, she makes sure her depiction is accurate.
So EYE OF THE WOLF is not something like, or just like a wolf, it IS a wolf--two looks ahead of everybody. Readers will not only enjoy a gripping mystery, but they'll also learn something about other people and their lives. They'll receive the lesson through rich, well-developed and believable characters, quirky little subplots, lively dialogue, and solid description of locale.
Interpreter Of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
Mariner Book
Houghton Mifflin
Boston & New York
ISBN: 039592720X, $13.00, 198 pages
Dan Schneider, Reviewer
www.Cosmoetica.com
Were Jhumpa Lahiri in a writing group I ran I would tell her the stories that comprise Interpreter Of Maladies, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, make for good first drafts, generally, but that, of the nine short stories, six of them exist simply because the characters are Indian, and Lahiri feels this makes them a compelling enough subject. It's for this reason, including her prolixity, which includes mainly a need to overdescribe everything from Indian food stuffs to toe nail polish, that I felt that reading the book was like being an attendee at a zoo: 'Ooh, see that- they are Punjabis; and there's a Bengali; and, oh, look at that weird Muslim!' If these characters were named Anderson, Klein, or Mills there would be no reason for most of Lahiri's tales to exist, because the equivalent American activities, and how they are rendered, would bore most good readers silly. This is not to say that Lahiri lacks talent- she has it, and it shows in the book's first two, and last tales, but a Pulitzer Prize worthy book this is not. Yet, alack, because she has been feted so early in her career, and for such a manifestly mediocre book (I'd give it a passable 65-70 out of 100), the woman has absolutely no incentive to improve as a writer. Granted, I, like all great writers, seek improvement from some well within, but those who merely have that potential, well, there are alot of variables, and those for Lahiri bode ill. Add to the fact that, at the time of the award, she was an attractive young woman from a chic ethnicity (Indian) and it takes no genius to see that the award was granted for who she was, not what she wrote. Of course, if editors nowadays actually did what they are supposed to draw their paychecks for they would have returned her manuscript with a polite note saying she had potential but these stories needed to be reworked, and depth needed to be added.
Too often Lahiri's tales work on just one or two levels, tops. And she is not such a poetic prose stylist that that lack of depth is compensated for by her spellbinding eye's insights. A Temporary Matter, the first tale, has moments, but is too long. It is about the dissolution of a marriage, which comes to a head during a series of enforced blackouts on their block, and there are enough universal touchstones that the couple's ethnicity is not an issue. But, there is too much listing of foodstuffs and over description that the 22 page tale could be cut by two thirds, and be much better for the denser prose and heightened descriptions. When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine is also a solid tale, but with a weak end. It follows the travails of a Bengali man who dines at the house of a family in America, during the Pakistan-India war of the early 1970s, the independence of Bangladesh, and the memories of a little girl who relates them. Yet, even this passable tale Lahiri's overdescription kills. Here's Mr. Pirzada's reaction to news coverage of the war: 'As he watched he had an immovable expression on his face, composed but alert, as if someone were giving him directions to an unknown destination.' Not a bad sentence, out of context, but in the tale the character's situation has been thoroughly portrayed and this comes off redundant, not to mention self-consciously 'mysterious'- and this infects all of her tales. Imagine a tale of a lonely woman who finally marries her beloved, and then a sentence says, 'And she was happy, beyond all measure of joy she could have aspired to.' Well, aside from stating the obvious you'd be overstating it, with overdescription, to boot. Good writers know that detail and length do not equate with excellence.
Then come six forgettable tales that, if of Americans, would never have seen print. This is the 'zoo effect', as I call it. The title tale, Interpreter of Maladies, follows an Indian tour guide, who also interprets at a doctor's office, dealing with a returning Indian clan to the homeland, and his impressions of them, especially his hours-long infatuation with the mother. There are some moments that a better writer would have expanded to highlight emotional depth, but Lahiri misses them in favor of prolixity, a number of 'collapsible scenes' which, if excised, or merely skirted over, would have had the same effect on what the tale is about, with less overdescription. A Real Durwan is a pointless 'slice of life' tale, Sexy is a paint-by-numbers tale of a mistress who comes to her senses that, at 27 pages, is about 20 pages too long, Mrs. Sen's is even more vapid than A Real Durwan, and This Blessed House is a tale told just to show how funky culture clash can be when Indians move in to a place larded with Christian iconography. Of course, nothing of any depth is revealed within. The penultimate tale, The Treatment Of Bibi Haldar, is a plain old silly tale, the details of which elude me only a few hours after reading it. I would say this makes it the worst in the book, but I honestly cannot recall a thing about it.
That leads into the best and last tale, The Third And Final Continent, the only tale that can be said to be a good to very good story, about a man whose first room in America, in 1969, is with a weird old centegenarian woman enraptured with the moon landing, and her national pride in the achievement. The ending, after she has died, is very good, and suggestive that Lahiri could become a good, if not great writer. Now, refer back to what I said in paragraph one about rewarding writers of promise, not accomplishment, too soon. Cross your fingers, I guess.
This is because the six stories that tank do so because of a very workshoppy approach to writing- that is to describe everything as if it were of import. Length does not equal intellectual nor artistic heft, yet I can imagine tales like this setting banal hearts atwitter with their loving descriptions of mustard seed and saris. Good writers know to tell only what is needed to serve a tale, and if a good writer gives a lot of detail it's usually because he or she is writing of a tale where such description adds to the milieu or the personae of the characters. This is not so with Lahiri. Her writing is not original, because if you merely change the tales' characters' names you have the same stories told by a Sandra Cisneros, or an Amy Tan, or an Alice Adams before that. That is, she's the New Yorker writer/flavor of a year- a purveyor of stock ethnic exoticism. In short, the only original thing in Lahiri's overall mindset is something outside her own control, which is her ethnicity. Thus, most of the tales come off as slight variations on a theme of didactic lamentations of loss, an Indian History 101 lesson, or an Indian ethnic cookbook. Such may please a stomach, but not a mind. She makes mere zoo animals to be gawked at of her 'exotic' characters. Her tales also lack true passion, are too suffused in redundant details, are void of most poetry, a probing intellect to dig deeper under the banal veneer of life, and her endings are rather banal and dull.
Lahiri needs to grow up, and move to a more universal realm, as well dash the impulse to safely genericize her tales to a workshop/New Yorker mold, and take real artistic and narrative risks, or else she will be 'another of those writers from the millennium who were only published because of their ethnicity, not their talent.' Thus seems to have been the case with the rather cold reception of her follow up novel. This pattern happens over and over. A raw writer is feted for mediocre work, made into an icon of something they are really not, and this delimits their potential future audience, artistic growth, and publisher interest after their still mediocre follow-ups do not do well. The public is fickle and you can only fool them once or twice with generic pap. Then they move on to the newer flavor. The old flavors, however, are often dropped after a third or fourth book fails to make money, and are swiftly forgotten about- pariahs in an industry that cares not of real talent and nurturing writers of great scope and vision, and which has killed all midlist writers, yet is content to toss a hundred bad chic/hot/hip writers against a wall and pray one sticks with a moneymaking career, as that is initially easier, but far more costly- in true economic and real artistic senses- over the long run, to writers and readers. My advice: start counting your change, Jhumpa!
Isn't That Bigamy?
Mike Vogel
Lulu Press
3131 RDU Center Drive, Suite 210, Morrisville, NC 27560
ISBN: 1411634241, $12.95, 216 pages
Dave Riley
Reviewer
POD (Print On Demand) is a burgeoning model of producing and distributing books that sneering pseudo-academic reactionaries summarily dismiss. They claim that the majority of POD books are amateurish in execution and frankly, they're right. But POD gives decent writers an opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise be given to hone their skills while producing a respectable artifact/product. Mike Vogel's Isn't That Bigamy? is proof.
While walking home from the swank restaurant where his girlfriend dumped his philandering ass, Stan Smith unwittingly witnesses a mob hit. Federal agent Becky Li trots Stan off to a small town in Utah, where he'll supposedly escape the deadly wrath of the crime boss (who acted as hitman for old time's sake) against whom he's slated to testify. To avoid the suspicion of the presumed naive townies, Becky poses as Stan's wife. Only she's a lesbian and Stan has irritated her from the beginning of their ill-fated relationship. And polygamy is the norm in Tamarin, Utah.
An out of the ordinary situation demands unique characters, and Vogel competently fills the bill. Stan Smith's witty though somewhat acerbic womanizer provides an effective foil to Becky Li's self-sufficient lesbian gun nut. Throughout the tale this mismatched duo interact, both willingly and unwillingly, with a roster of vivid idiosyncratic characters that includes a crime boss who uses the language and strategies of a calculating CEO; a hulking hitman that unabashedly smokes women's cigarettes; a prototypical aging eccentric hippy mayor and his enigmatic daughter.
Vogel's success lies in guiding the reader through familiar terrain embellished with quaint elements that make the terrain seem foreign. The novel's quick pace is one of its major strengths. Events and descriptions mount at such a lively clip so as to immerse the reader before they have a chance to retreat. Despite the main characters possessing traits that might otherwise be annoying, Vogel manages to sculpt them into charming folks without sugar-coating their quirks. Even the mobsters are likeable in a likeable mobster sort of way.
I personally don't care one way or the other for a traditional narrative - whatever works, works. In fact I consider such time-honored elements to be overrated; they've already been done, and done well, by many great writers throughout history. I gladly weathered a few awkward bumps in the otherwise smooth and solid but intentionally off-center narrative of Bigamy. Given Vogel's description of the involved characters' physical locations at the murder scene, their ensuing behavior is implausible if not downright impossible. Toward the end of the book, Becky matter-of-factly reveals to Stan a personal reason for coaxing him to testify. Her previous actions or moods don't suggest a vested interest and her private motivation is never explained or mentioned again. Early in the book, Becky may have alluded to an as yet unspoken incentive but Vogel never makes this clear. And the fact that Becky is Asian could have functioned as a device that spawned a few more smart-ass observations about her reception by the relatively sheltered citizens of Tamarin. A cool cover makes up for such minutiae.
Isn't This Bigamy? doesn't so much as nudge any envelopes (unless you're a wuss that lives in a cave). But Mike Vogel's novel is well-crafted entertainment worthy of competing with the big boys.
4F for Freaks
Leigh Hobbs
Allen & Unwin, Australia
ISBN: 1741140919, $12.95, 96 pp.
Deidre Rabel
Reviewer
Recommended Audience: 7-11 yrs old
From the author and illustrator of Old Tom (and winner of every major Children's Choice Award in Australia) comes this hilarious tale of a teacher faced with her worst nightmare.
Once again, Leigh Hobbs has created a wicked but loveable set of characters. 4F, including One-Eyed Eileen and her gang; Feral Beryl, Not So Nice Nora and Gretchen Smetchen with her pet parakeet, Patricia (to name a few) are not just oddballs, they're freaks! They have some pretty freaky antics that are sure to drive any teacher crazy too.
Poor Miss Corker is attending her first teaching job and first day with 4F as her class with only her Teachers' Handbook to help her. When that fails, she comes up with a clever plan that outsmarts them all.
As if the title isn't catchy enough? The moment you start reading this book you know its going to be another one of Leigh Hobbs' greatest creations.
Told in 3rd Person P.O.V, Hobbs (as with all of his Childrens' books) uses powerful but minimal words and concise but simple language to tell an action-packed, story. Also unique and true to his style, he conveys exploding emotion and creates powerful images with a few brush strokes that don't overcloud the text. Hobbs certainly has a knack for portraying human nature vividly. And, with inspiration from twenty five years of teaching, he has discovered a clever and humorous way of revealing how students intimidate their teachers.
Packed with loads of drama, conflict and suspense, this Childrens' Book is a real page turner, guaranteed to deliver a laugh on every page for both children and adults. And, to top it off, there's an exciting twist at the end.
A daring and satirical book, Hobbs has endeavoured where other children writers are too scared to. But, the book's eccentricity and crisp humour deliver to heights where it seems only few authors can. This is sure to be a big hit.
Networking for Career Success
Diane Darling
McGraw-Hill Professional Education
Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2298
www.effectivenetworking.com
ISBN: 0071456031, $7.95, 64 pp.
When you think of networking, what comes to mind? Do you think of attending a tradeshow to find a lot of people for whom to sell your products or services? Or maybe you think of meeting someone who will help you land that perfect job. While these are both legitimate reasons for wanting to network, Diane Darling's "Networking for Career Success" reminds us that networking is the art of building and sustaining mutually beneficial relationships. In other words, one should expect to give as well as receive.
"Networking for Career Success" is packed with powerful ideas and suggestions on how to network the right way. The author gives great advice on etiquette, preparation and execution. For example, she suggests packing a networking kit that includes index cards for notes, business cards and breath mints (among other things). She also drives home the need to build relationships and advises readers to be prepared to help others when asked.
Though the book is light on pages, it is heavy on sound advice for professional networking. Diane Darling has written an intelligent handbook that should be included with anyone's networking survival kit. Highly Recommended.
A Dirty Job
Christopher Moore
William Morrow
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
ISBN: 0060590270, $24.95, 400 pages
Gypsi Phillips Bates
Reviewer
Charlie Asher is a nice, likable and (except for his exceptionally over-worked imagination, common in a "Beta Male") normal guy. At least he was normal, until the day he accidentally walked in on Death--well actually, one of his minions, the dapper and cool Minty Fresh--and finds himself as one of Death's Little Helpers as well, collecting the souls from the newly departed and saving these souls from unscrupulous use by a set of female demons and their wicked lord. Once Charlie gets the hang of it, he finds out that it's not such a bad job, makes him a decent living and gives him plenty of time with his daughter Sophie. There's just one flaw. . . it seems that the Sewer Harpies (as Charlie comes to call the female demons) are growing stronger. So strong in fact, that there will be no other course of action than a ferocious battle for the world, between the forces of good and evil.
Charlie is alternatively helped and hindered on his path by the sort of wonderful characters only Moore could create. There's Lily, the wise-cracking teenaged Goth and "creepiness child prodigy" (who quickly became my favorite), and Ray, an ex-police officer searching for love on Asian dating sites. Charlie's sister Jane -the Alpha Male that Charlie isn't- gives Charlie strength and love--all the while looking better in his suits than he does. Even Charlie's daughter Sophie, who grows up before our eyes, has some odd tendencies--bad luck with pets, one very dangerous word, her own personal hounds from hell and the typical child's memory for things that one was not supposed to hear in the first place. Of course, one couldn't expect her to be completely normal, given her father (who was convinced he saw a tail on her six-month sonogram) and the influence of her unintentional hilarious babysitters, Mrs. Korjev (and her bears) and Mrs. Ling (and her wok). Even Charlie's enemies are wonderful; I adored the Sewer Harpies with their bickering, evil ways, puppet shows and continually amusing antics. In addition, Moore throws in a few return characters from other books which was a thrill for the Moore fan. I was especially glad to see the Emperor again.
Charlie's experiences as a soul collector are both funny and touching. As is so often the case with Mr. Moore, a surprising tenderness turned up on some scenes. There is one scene in particular (the cheese scene--read it and you'll agree with me), that made me step back and say, "Wow! I need to be sure I appreciate life to the fullest!". Terminal illness, hospice care, nurses, and death all received a reverential treatment at his hands--while still being funny in that twisted Moore way.
A Dirty Job has overtaken Lamb as my favorite Christopher Moore novel and rates a full five stars. Pick it up and join Charlie in the life of Death. It's a dirty job, sure, but somebody's gotta do it!
The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience
A. R. Cellura
Cedar Springs Press
2418 Cedar Springs S, Abbeville, SC 29620
ISBN: 0976056100, $34.95, 208 pages
P. Alex Mabe, Ph.D.
Reviewer
As findings from the U.S. Human Genome Project and similar microgenetic projects have seeped from press releases into popular culture, the notion that genes hold the key to understanding and treating such complex diseases as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness has become common place. We regularly hear news that the gene for some complex human condition or experience has been identified and thus the assumption is made that this gene has predetermined our lives in some specific way. This book disputes this simplistic view of genes' influence in our lives, and provides a more credible model of the genome as intricately connected to an environment that reciprocally relates to its niche-experience. The essence of the book is its portrayal of this niche-experience that cogently argues that the genome not only expresses itself in human experience but also is a function of a complex human ecosystem that operates at the molecular, physiological, psychological, and social levels. The stated objective of the author then is to build bridges that will connect scientific disciplines that for most the part have either ignored the other or have constructed models that artificially negated the influence of the other.
The methodology used to persuade the reader of the influential nature of the niche-experience was more illustrative than inductive. That is, arguments are well articulated but the "data" provided are a sampling of illustrations rather than cumulative evidence systematically constructed to confirm a theory. The development of the author's thesis begins with a brief overview of key microgenetic components and processes as we have historically come to understand them. I would anticipate that for those of us with relatively little knowledge of microbiology this section will be viewed as quite taxing and frequent trips to the annotated glossary provided at the end of the book can be expected. Nevertheless, the labor of this early chapter is necessary for the development of the book, and the reader is rewarded with some fascinating illustrations of the interplay of genomic expression and regulation with various diseases as they have transpired and evolved in the context of biopsychosocial historical events. Subsequent chapters further develop the reader's understanding of the niche-experience from the genomic environment to adaptive somatic networks to broad biological adaptive mechanisms (i.e., homeostasis, the stress response, and allostasis) to psychosocial adaptation. Again, the illustrations provided are both interesting and compelling in regard to the reciprocal nature of biological and psychosocial components and adaptive processes. The concluding chapter provides a relatively good summarization of the primary thesis of the book along with interesting case illustrations that describe quite diverse outcomes for individuals with similar biological vulnerability for psychiatric disorder. The impact of the concluding case illustrations, however, was limited by the author's editorializing regarding the biological bent of current psychiatric care.
As a book intended to build bridges across the divides of diverse scientific perspectives on human experience, this work aptly argues and illustrates that genes do not unilaterally dictate the course of our lives. Moreover, what is provided is a compelling theory of the genome that is part of a complex environmental niche that is characterized by a dynamically interplay of genetic material, biopsychosocial events, and organism response. What now is needed is an inductive development of data that places the theory on harder empirical ground.
The Tenth Circle
Jodi Picoult
Atria Books
ISBN: 0743496701, $26.00 U.S./$36.00 Can., 387 pp.
Maryan Pelland
Reviewer
For some, hell is a concept; for others, hell is inside ourselves where we confront personal truths. In the The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult explores dark places in perfect suburban lives. It's easy to understand her best-seller status. Her latest novel's twists and suspense will satisfy the most adrenaline-addicted reader.
Picoult's writing has matured. In Plain Truth, an early book, she explored the suspicious death of an unwed Amish mother's baby, nailing the battle between self and culture but filtering it through a soft lens. An occasional faulty detail pulled us out of the plot. Like this – a character, cruising a Wisconsin highway in early June muses about seeing corn in full tassel. Not going to happen in June, and anyone who knows that snaps right out of the story. There are no such slips in The Tenth Circle.
As the book opens, we get to know Laura, Daniel and Trixie in reminiscences and well-crafted conversations. All looks pretty normal, but a pointed uneasiness lurks. The novel, like a proverbial onion, unfolds in layers. The more we delve, the more Picoult shows us.
Laura and Daniel are role models of perfect middle class family life. She's a college professor; Daniel is a successful graphic novel artist, a stay-at-home dad who dotes on his daughter. We meet Daniel in a prologue reliving a parent's horror – his baby daughter is missing. We're shown that this is only the first time Daniel has to cope with the loss of his child. Trixie, a great kid, good student, pretty-as-a-picture, rebellious, and 15 years-old, will be gone again. Another layer.
Daniel grew up in an Eskimo village where his mother was the only teacher. He was the only white child. For children, different is terrible. For Daniel, the teasing was bad, but his self-inflicted feelings of exclusion from the clan were intolerable. With fists and rage he lashed out against his own demons, but held everyone else at fault. Stealing, drinking, fighting – then committing an unforgivable crime against his best friend, Cane. Daniel runs. From Alaska and from himself.
In Boston, buried in his art of creating graphic novels, he meets Laura, balm for unhealed wounds. She ends up pregnant and intimidated by his dark side. To win her for keeps, he clamps down on his wild streak, blanketing himself in middle-class normalcy like it's one of those protective bunny suits hazmat teams wear. He never wavers and, for fifteen years, life is uncannily right. Then that layer peels away and Trixie's tragedy sets fire to Daniel's fuse again.
"Daddy, he raped me…."
Those words ignite an explosion of action, emotion, confrontation and terror. Nothing is what it seems. Picoult must have set her keyboard on fire as she wrote. The energy and tumble-down acceleration is extraordinary. We follow 15 year-old Trixie on a 4100 mile Odyssey to strip away the final layers for that sense of closure critical to a good read. No lame gimmicks – real truths show the Stone family in sharp, unflinching detail.
Picoult's chapter transitions are intriguing with frame-by-frame segments of Daniel's graphic novel as an effective bridging device. Alternating between Picoult's plot and the graphic novel is fun, a place to catch your breath.
No novel is perfect, but it's tough to pick at this story's continuity. I wasn't aware of misplaced details. Picoult's complexity put me off at first. She's fond of omniscient point-of-view and, until I caught the rhythm of switching between her places, times and characters' thoughts, I felt disoriented. Was I inside Daniel's head or Laura's? Was it the present or the past? The author, herself, calls the project a "massive undertaking," and the research had to have been extreme. It shows with richness and texture. I tripped over minor pacing bumps at the beginning, but in the end, that complexity made the story as engaging as a fine game of cat's cradle.
Keeping Employees Accountable for Results
Brian Cole Miller
AMACOM
ISBN: 0814473202, $17.95, 145 pages
Roger E. Herman
Reviewer
Easy to Use Handbook
Accountability is essential to individual and organizational success, but few leaders know how to make it happen. Consequently, accountability remains at too high a level - far away from the people who really should be accountable for their work. Managers spend far too much of their valuable time chasing after details, progress reports, and hope-it-got-done worries. If there were a way to calculate the value of managerial time wasted because of our accountability deficiency, the cost would be astronomical. If you could calculate the cost to you, personally, it would far exceed the price of this book.
Miller presents his advice in a design that's easy to grasp - complete with anagram. He offers a SIMPLE system: Set expectations, Invite commitment, Measure results, Provide feedback, Link to consequences, and Evaluate effectiveness. Each of these components is explained in its own chapter, following the same format. The principle is presented, followed by an explanation of why it is important, then the how-to. Examples and checklists (good ones at the end of each chapter) strengthen the book's value.
You will gain a considerable amount of worthwhile knowledge, technique, and advice reading this book from cover to cover. However, the strongest benefit will come over time as you use this volume as a reference book, a handbook to return to for refreshers and reinforcement.
Idea: copy relevant items from the end-of-chapter checklists and use them as daily reminders that you're doing what must be done to build and maintain accountability. This is a book you'll want to keep close to your desk as an important companion. PS - the principles will work in non-business situations, as well.
The Bungler's Paradox: In Search of the Nexus, Book 1
R.M. Wilburn
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd. -515, Parker, Colorado 80134
ISBN: 1598001140, $14.95, 244 pages
Meet Buggy Crenshaw. She is a writer--soon to be twelve--who often writes letters to Ernest Hemingway. She has an older brother, a secretive mother, and an inventor father who incessantly blows up the garage. For that matter, her father's last fiasco got him and his family on a fast track out of town.
Thus, the Crenshaws move to Lloyd's Hollow, a little town where the magic of imagination blossoms in the air. Here Buggy makes friends with Veronica and Sid on the first day of school.
Buggy soon finds that the Greater Good and the Darkest Evil are ever battling each other, and the Apocalypse will soon be upon the world if a collection of prophecies called "The Appendices of Souls" is opened and read under certain conditions.
Things get funky when the trio seeks information from a mystic living in, or over, a swamp; the trio gets the information it seeks and then some. Things get even funkier when the signs of the Apocalypse coalesce and Buggy, along with her friends, must face the Darkest Evil in a final showdown.... Or is this showdown just the beginning?
The Bungler's Paradox is a great story for kids--big, small or just young at heart. Buggy, Sid and Veronica present characters younger readers will relate to in a heartbeat while the storyline presents predicaments full of mischief and laugh-out-loud hilarity. Buggy's quirky line of thinking also revs up the good time while R.M. Wilburn's amusing voice shines through and through. In one word: COOL!
The NAZI Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini
Chuck A. Morse
iUniverse, Inc.
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595289444, $15.95, 155 pp.
Jim Talboy
Reviewer
This describes a "playbook" being followed today, a historical method, almost to the letter by some latter day Moslems who are direct heirs of the German Nazi regime. These direct ties are usually footnotes, but in this case, the author has pinned the entire case against the Nazi-Moslem link, who was "lost" or at least remained unrecognized until this very timely book. This book is a biography of Haj Amin al-Husseini and the subsequent Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism.
This biography contains much of the same vernacular being used today by the same kind of media which Adolf Hitler employed to cover and deceive his enemies. This book describes a leadership path from the original Brotherhoods and Moslem associations until today's leadership from Egyptian through to Hamas in Palestine. It has photographs of al-Husseini and Hitler, his Nazi-Arabic troops, and then at his funeral, among other "dignitaries," the late Mr. Arafat. Today's national socialist leadership has now been exposed as what it is a direct, unpublicized German Nazi lineage.
Thus Chuck Morse lays out, in one breath practically, literal parallels with Hitler's mystical "living space" and the Arabic equivalent that necessitates complete military triumph worldwide. Here we find the same obscenity that fueled Hitler's dream and driven onward by means of propaganda. It makes one wonder how this highly relevant story might have escaped the attention of the world, but is now another point and pursuit for persons who study communication or media theory.
What al-Husseini relied on were the same "orchestrated" riots we've seen employed recently as even prior to the cartoon flap. Other lists of recent rioting can be apprised in a much different view after reading this biographic account of a master propagandist and his latter day brotherhoods. These riots and "outrage" are a recognized piece of a "playbook." Today's most perplexing question, or rationale behind Iran, are resolved in terms of frankly whether or not "they" ought to be trusted diplomatically. Morse has laid out this public relations playbook in plain practical terms with a new historical pivot. This book will explain the "big lie" method. For other readers, it will show the reverse, or big "omission" as it were, and leave them wondering about who, what, where, and how these historical people have not been so recognized before.
What is most frustrating, after reading this book published three years ago by an independent publisher, are such prescient comments Morse made then as "Spain being missed the most" by Islamacists, and now recently we've begun reading articles about Arabic children's books making such wishful statements.
This phrase "carefully orchestrated" has been the strategy behind riots and blood libel. Morse shows this to be part of wider strategy and gives enough names, dates, and references to satisfy any missing links. He is able to trace these tactics from times prior to al-Husseini and then we can plainly see how these have been implemented today. There is no excuse to support Nazis of any stripe or nation, but after reading this book frankly, there will be no excuse to have supported the present Islamacist regime in any manner except perhaps this thread was not ever delineated so well until this particular book. You will share Chuck Morse's astonishment over what are serious historical omissions in this admirably clear, effective 155 page book.
Ann's Bookshelf
Miss Webster and Sherif
Patricia Duncker
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 0747582777, $29.95, 244 pages
"She was marched across the atrium to yet another security gate. The guards stood at ease, watching the shifting line of passengers, their hands on their machine guns".
Our first meeting with Elizabeth Webster is entirely uncharacteristic. She is uncertain, lost, and soon in tears - an "abandoned, fragile old lady" in a foreign airport, and unable to speak the language. Nothing in these first few pages prepares us for the fiercely independent, tough old bird, fluent mistress of modern swearing as well as Classical French, who emerges from these pages a short time later.
But Elizabeth Webster has been ill. It was not a stroke, or a heart attack, she just "came to a dead halt", was "beached", "crash landed in a desert". It was nothing anyone could really explain, but her doctor - an ugly man with hideously deformed hands, who is equally as eccentric and stubborn as Elizabeth - diagnoses a complex form of breakdown, something only the patient herself can explain and cure. He prescribes a journey, far away, to somewhere totally unfamiliar, but to a place where her beloved French language is spoken.
So, Elizabeth Webster travels to Morocco. And there, her strength returns and she again becomes "Miss Webster" - sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, authoritative, and confidently dismissive of terrorism, bombs and politics, yet suddenly a little more open to new experiences. She is a wonderful, funny and believable character, very much in the mould (as she herself suggests) of Agatha Christie's Miss Marples, but she lives in the 21st Century world of rock concerts, mobile phones, computers, xenophobia and terrorism.
In Morocco, in the strange desert landscapes and in the unfamiliar culture, Elizabeth Webster encounters people whose lives, unexpectedly, will change her own. Back in her English cottage, and back amongst the neighbours she either loathes, ignores or wars with, she suddenly becomes landlady to a young Moroccan man who turns up on her doorstep and who, to her own surprise, she invites to stay.
Sherif is an enigma. He has come to England to be a foreign student at the nearby university but has not yet been formally accepted. Elizabeth Webster helps him to negotiate the initial hurdles, experiences first-hand some of the racism he will encounter in the local community, and becomes a sort of eccentric aunt to him. She is protective but aloof as she learns, not without difficulty, to share her house, her meals and her time with this charming stranger.
And Sherif, polite and thoughtful as he is, remains a stranger: even, at times, not seeming to recognize his own name. Elizabeth Webster becomes increasingly aware of this and she notes Sherif's seeming lack of contact with his home and family and his deep absorption in TV news reports of war and terrorism, especially in his own Muslim world. It bothers her, but not seriously until, after a bizarre accident and news coverage of the fall of Baghdad, she decides to surprise Sherif by taking him home to Morocco for a brief holiday. The results are surprising, plausible but not always believable, and an interesting resolution to the story; and Patricia Duncker is a fine enough story-teller to carry it off.
Miss Webster and Sherif is a funny and absorbing story. Patricia Duncker's descriptions of the desert landscapes are superb and her accounts of life in a modern English village (seen, of course, from Miss Webster's point-of-view) are caustically realistic and wry . With great skill, Drunker smuggles in some of the most serious issues of our time without ever becoming ponderous and, as one would hope from a Professor of Creative Writing, this book is beautifully written, imaginative and enjoyable.
The Tent
Margaret Atwood
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 0747582254, $29.95, 155 pages
This book was not at all what I expected. I can't remember what I had read about it, but I was looking forward to enjoying another collection of Margaret Atwood's short stories, like Wilderness Tips or Bluebeard's Egg. Instead, this is a collection of brief flights of imagination which are, as the media release says "smart and entertaining fictional essays...chilling and witty, prescient and personal, delectable and tart."
There is no doubt of Margaret Atwood's inventiveness and skill, and individually many of these pieces are very funny. However, this is a book to be taken in small doses, because the cumulative effect is brittle, joyless and decidedly uncomfortable.
One piece, 'Voice', describes the writer's impression that her artistic 'voice' is attached to her like "the translucent greenish membrane" which balloons our of "a frog in full trill"; and Atwood's accompanying drawing shows it as plant-like tendrils on which a small heart blooms. It is an interesting conceit, but this writer's 'voice' threatens to take over her life. It becomes her public persona - it is the voice people want, not her. Margaret Atwood's 'voice' is certainly strong and distinctive throughout this book, but is it her only voice? Other books would suggest not. And even if it is, does she not have a choice about that? Perhaps the attractions of being wanted for that public voice outweigh the disadvantages. As the writer in this particular piece notes, she and her voice sit in a hotel suite, rather than just a hotel room, "because it's still nothing but the best for us".
It is a pity that the title piece of this book, 'The Tent', is placed so near the end, because only after I had read it did the framework for all the pieces in the book become clear; and only then, too, did the words and shapes on the distinctive red and black cover ("designed by Atwood and Wood") have some meaning. The tent of this short story is a fragile shelter, a place to which "you" retreat from the threatening demons of a hostile world. As a sort of magical protective ritual, you must write constantly on the paper walls of your tent in order to protect your loved ones and to keep the demons at bay. The parallel with what any writer does when they retreat into their paper world and erect barriers of words is clear; and that most of the pieces in this book deal with various ills is also clear; but by using the impersonal 'you' Atwood includes us in this story. Perhaps if I had read this piece first I would have found the whole book less disturbing. But it is more likely that it was Atwood's intention to disturb the reader. Certainly the world she describes in this book is our world, and the demons are our demons.
Margaret Atwood has always been concerned with the demons which threaten our world but her early warning system is never polemic - she never harangues us. Instead, she makes imaginative extrapolations from things which she sees already happening, and suggests what the outcome might be if we do nothing to stop it. So, The Handmaid's Tale was like an early warning to women of the dangers of letting men control technological development. And Oryx and Crake was her most recent vision of the possible future of our brave new world, its bleak outlook well tempered with ironic humour.
There is still plenty of this humour in The Tent, but the overall mood is darker and less optimistic. The final two stories in the book appear to offer a lifeline - a baby survives a cataclysmic disaster in a treetop; a bulb is planted in the dirt from which new life may come - but this lifeline is so fragile and comes so late that by the time it is thrown the world may seem to be so drowned in mud that you will already have given up hope and accepted your fate. That, however, is not Margaret Atwood's way.
Many of the pieces in The Tent have been published before, in small magazines; in journals; as limited editions; and as part of fund raising schemes for disaster relief groups or wildlife funds. Collected together in a book like this they are likely to find a larger, more diverse, readership. The Tent may not be what many readers expect, or want, of Margaret Atwood's 'voice', and it may not change the world, but at least she is doing what the increasingly desperate leaders of 'Take Charge' command: "Well", they say as imminent disaster seems unavoidable "do the best you can". And Margaret Atwood's best is always worth reading.
Ann Skea, Reviewer
http://ann.skea.com
Bethany's Bookshelf
How On Earth Did Jesus Become A God?
Larry W. Hurtado
Eerdmans Publishing Company
255 Jeferson Avenue, SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
0802828612 $20.00 www.eerdmans.com
How On Earth Did Jesus Become A God?: Historical Questions About The Earliest Devotion To Jesus by Larry W. Hurtado (Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland)is an informed and scholarly study on the perception of Jesus in the early Christian movement. Investigating the absurdly quick infatuation which so many Christians adopted after the death of Christ, and His inclusion into what became the Christian faith, How On Earth Did Jesus Become A God? delves into many ideals focused on the Christian historical significance and progression of it's central personality. How On Earth Did Jesus Become A God? is very strongly recommended and thought-provoking reading for all seminary students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the evolution of the Christian faith in general, and the role and perception of Jesus of Nazareth within that evolving theology.
Creation vs. Evolution
Ralph O. Muncaster
Harvest House Publishers
990 Owen Loop N, Eugene, OR 97402
DVD $19.99 1-877-307-0662
Creation vs. Evolution: What Do Current Scientific Discoveries Reveal? this superbly produced 135-minute DVD by Ralph O. Muncaster (founder and executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Christian Faith and established Christian author) deftly address the ongoing argument between the validity of creation over that of evolution. Painstakingly researched and knowledgeably presented from the perspective of a renowned Christian scholar, Creation vs. Evolution educates its viewers with respect to creationist supportive studies consisting of microbiology, physics, probability analysis, and cosmology. Enhanced with computer animations and illustrative graphics, Creation vs. Evolution is a thorough and well-produced documentation of creationist viewpoints and counterarguments, and is highly recommended to all students and leaders of the Christian faith dealing with the issues of creationism and intelligent design.
Harbors Of Heaven
Jeffrey Johnson
Cowley Publishing
4 Brattle St, Cambridge, MS 02138
156101267X $14.95 www.cowley.org
Harbors Of Heaven: Bethlehem And The Places We Love by Jeffrey Johnson (Pastor of Peace Lutheran Church) is an encouraging story of pilgrimage, shrines, sanctuaries, and the land that Jesus called the Kingdom of God. Drawing upon favorite Biblical texts, outstanding poetry from numerous poets, and the self-reported accounts of the authors interesting childhood, Harbors Of Heaven delves into the psychological attachment which we all so seemingly have to places that have special meaning for us. Very highly recommended to those students of the Christian faith wishing for a greater understanding of their faiths encouragement toward the importance and reflection of relationships with all, Harbors Of Heaven enlightens the reader and gives rise to inevitable, thoughtful introspection.
Isaiah
Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.
Crossway
1300 Crescent St, Wheaton, IL 60187
1581347278 $27.99 www.crossway.com
Isaiah: God Saves Sinners by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. (Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee) is an expository commentary of the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. As an informative and inspirational companion to the studying this great Biblical prophet, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners offers a "reader friendly" and accessible understanding of Isaiah's writings, and is to be given especially high praise for its remarkable analysis. God Saves Sinners is commended to students of the scriptures as an invaluable and irreplaceable commentary and reference.
Where Jesus Walked
Ken Duncan
Integrity Publishers
108 Milky Way, Shippensburg, PA 17257
1591453445 $24.99 kfrypr@comcast.net
Where Jesus Walked: Experience The Presence Of God, with photography by Ken Duncan, and excerpts from the Holy Scriptures, the disciples, and many other known and important writers, is ideal as a coffee table book for Christian households and church school libraries. Where Jesus Walked introduces the reader to the rare vicarious experience of walking, traveling, and feeling where Christ himself once lived, taught, prophesied, healed, and died. Where Jesus Walked is very strongly recommended to all non-specialist general readers with an interest in Christian historical documentation, as well as those following the path of faith in Christ Jesus.
Praying: The Rituals Of Faith
Lucinda Mosher
Seabury Books
445 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016
1596270160 $16.00 www.churchpublishing.org
Praying: The Rituals Of Faith by Lucinda Mosher (an academician, theologian, and a member of the Diocese of New York Episcopal-Muslim Relations Committee), is a thoroughly "reader friendly" introduction the many faiths composing contemporary American neighbors and neighborhoods. As an interfaith guide for Christians Prayer: The Rituals Of Faith will provide an informed understanding of their neighborhoods of varying faiths. Praying: The Rituals Of Faith focuses on public, family, and personal worship, with an insightful discussion of how different faith may become more apt to join together for a collective service or prayer, thus enhancing the relationship and practice as an enlightening and educating experience. Praying: The Rituals Of Faith is very strongly recommended to all Christians with an open mind for exploration and interfaith unity among their fellow community members to address social needs and issues through cooperative community based efforts.
His Cross Never Burns
Alethia W. George
The Local History Company
112 North Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15332-2849
0974471534 $19.95 1-412-362-2294 www.thelocalhistorycompany.com
His Cross Never Burns: The Life Of The Reverend Samuel Williams George by Alethia George is an informed biographical look into the inspirational life of the great Reverend Samuel Williams George. As the wife of Reverend Samuel George, Alethia has produced His Cross Never Burns as an intimate telling of the man's commitment and the strength which he received from such incredible devotion to his faith. His Cross Never Burns is very strongly recommended reading, especially for those in study of African-American, history, the Civil Rights movement, and Christian living, as Reverend Samuel Williams George has been committed to his faith, family and church for the full of his inspiring life.
How The Bible Was Built
Charles Merrill Smith & James W Bennett
Eerdmans Publishing Co.
255 Jefferson Avenue S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49503
0802829430 $12.00 www.eerdmans.com
Knowledgeably co-written by the late United Methodist Minister Charles Merrill Smith (1919-1985) and is long time friend and award winning author of several young adult novels, James W. Bennett How The Bible Was Built is a superb introduction to just how the Bible did come to be as we know it today. As an in-depth exploration of what influences, ideas, concepts, people, and visions were inspiration for the gathering and writing of the Bible, How The Bible Was Built offers readers a greater understanding and premise to work from when viewing the unfathomable records of such a holy and influential scripture. How The Bible Was Built is very strongly recommended to all students of the Holy Bible (be they clergy, laymen, or theology students) for its casual and easy-to-read formatting, filled with educated and invaluable understandings from first page to last.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography
Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 074324348X, $25.00, 335 pages
During his career as a college basketball coach Bob Knight has collected three NCAA titles, 11 Big Ten titles, and, up to the start of this season, 854 victories, placing him second on the all time wins list behind Dean Smith. Already a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Knight's place in the collegiate basketball history is already assured no matter how his present coaching stint at Texas Tech finally plays out.
Acknowledged by his admirers, as well as those who loathe him, as a brilliant coach, Knight's career has been marred by a series of incidents that have cast a cloud over his accomplishments. In "Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography" Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisier look at how irrational behavior and bizarre temper tantrums have been as much a part of Bob Knight's story as winning basketball games.
Nothing new, Knight's penchant for losing control and berating officials, players, the press and even college administrators can be traced back to his days as a young head coach at Army. The reason Knight's behavior was tolerated and even condoned underscores everything that is wrong with athletics. Although we would like to believe otherwise, in all too many situations from Little League to the pros, winning is everything. The most outlandish and unacceptable behavior has often been deemed acceptable or at least it has been tolerated as long as the victory tally keeps climbing!
Knight's antics became more outrageous as he became more successful. The youngest coach in history to reach the 100 and 200 win levels, the University of Indiana's boy wonder won his first NCAA title at age 35. Unfortunately, Coach Knight's emotional outbusts generated as much print as his team's victories.
Tom Boswell of the "Washington Post" once wrote, "To call Knight a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality would be understatement. It took Jekyll several seconds of gasping and fang-growing to become Hyde. Knight can do it in a flash."
Time and again, in practice, at court side, during press conferences, while traveling in the team bus or airplane, and even in restaurants, Knight has shown just how accurate this assessment of his volatile personality is.
Much, perhaps too much, has already been written about Knight's notoriety so perhaps another book really isn't necessary. Delsohn and Heisler draw on the a number of these previous volumes including Knight's biography ("Knight: My Story"), but they have also interviewed 145 sources including former players, colleagues of the embattled coach, and sports writers.
By showing a step-by-step progression from his days as a player through the glory days of coaching at Army and then IU, the authors show how Knight's problems were exacerbated by the reluctance of league officials and college administrators to stand up to him.
Like the undoing of another legendary Big Ten coach, Ohio State's Woody Hayes, Knight eventually went too far and his tumultuous tenure at IU ended in 2000.
Now in his middle 60s, the enfant terrible of college basketball has moved on to the state of Texas where he was offered a coaching position in 2001. Knight has turned the Texas Tech floundering program around and he certainly will eclipse Dean Smith's 879 career victories this season or next, but has he changed? Even his harshest critics say he has mellowed but the outbursts still apparently occur.
Like one of his fellow coaches who acknowledged Knight's technical ability in one breath and then finished by saying he would never want his son to play for Knight (because of the abuse he doles out to his players), I have to think there may be more important things in life than winning a basketball game. How one treats other people should count for something!
Mr. Knight has vilified the media on more than one occasion, but, no doubt, he is laughing all the way to the bank as this latest installment of what has become the long running Bobby Knight Saga plays out.
Golfing With God
Roland Merullo
Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1565125010, $23.95, 277 pages
Henry "Hank" Fins-Winston is in heaven, which is pretty remarkable considering he was a golf pro on earth. Although in his past life he was a failure on the professional circuit, Hank was an exceptional teacher, which explains why the pro has been called in to help iron out some quirks in the Almighty's game.
To this end, God and Hank play some heavenly courses in paradise and on earth. Not long into their golf tour, Hank realizes that he is the one being taught some important lessons about fearing failure, seizing second chances, and about using one's God-given abilities to improve oneself.
It's not often one gets a second chance but Hank does in this amusing and uplifting story that focuses a philosophical light on life, faith, and our role in this world and the next.
Calling golf a solitary journey where man struggles against himself in communion with nature, Merullo says, "It soon became clear to me that golf, with its heartbreak and exultation, was a kind of metaphor for the spiritual adventure…that foolish-looking game, holds a secret within it, a mysterious series of life lessons."
With a touch of humor, Merullo shares with his reader some of the life lessons imbedded in this challenging, frustrating and, yes, glorious pastime.
Improbable
Adam Fawer
HarperTorch
006073678X, $7.99, 447 pages
Dubbed a "the thinking man's" thriller and sporting a high tech, eye-catching cover, "Improbable" features a brilliant mathematician and compulsive gambler who is also prone to crippling epileptic seizures. When David Caine agrees to test an experimental medicine to alleviate his condition, he discovers the drug has some unnerving side effects.
Not only does he have inexplicable visions of the past, present, and future, but Caine can now foresee the consequences of his own actions and the probability of various outcomes. Unable to keep his extraordinary powers a secret, Caine's life becomes a nightmare as others wish to use him and his special ability.
A fascinating blend of mathematical concepts and suspense, it is exceedingly likely that "Improbable" will capture the fancy of a wide range of readers - not just those who love unusual thrillers.
Bob Walch
Reviewer
Buhle's Bookshelf
How To Be Pope
Piers Marchant
Chronicle Books
85 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
0811852210 $10.95 www.chroniclebooks.com
How To Be Pope: What To Do And Where To Go Once You're In The Vatican by Piers Marchant is a humorous approach to informing the reader of everything to do with being the Pope, and knowing the Vatican City. As a highly informative and instructional reference for the holy city and positioning, How To Be Pope is well written to cover every imaginable detail of being elected Pope, including the answers to questions like: who does my laundry?; can I keep a pet?; how do I make phone calls?; which hat do I wear when?; do I have a special wave? and many more interesting and fun facts. How To Be Pope is very highly recommended to all visitors of the Vatican City, as well as to those expecting to become elected as the next Pope.
Orthodox And Wesleyan Scriptural Understanding And Practice
S. T. Kimbrough
SVS Press
575 Scarsdale Rd, Crestwood, NY 10707
0881413011 $17.95 www.svspress.com
Orthodox And Wesleyan Scriptural Understanding And Practice, expertly edited by S. T. Kimbrough (Associate General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church) is an essential introductory collection of essays addressed to issues of scriptural authority and interpretation of the Orthodox and Wesleyan traditions. As an intricate and deep study of the four main sections: Orthodox Scriptural Understanding and Practice; Mutual Learning between Orthodox and Methodists; Wesleyan Scriptural Understanding and Practice; and Liturgy and Scriptural Interpretation, Orthodox And Wesleyan Scriptural Understanding And Practice is an scholarly and accessibly organized resource which is highly recommended to ecumenical students of Orthodox and Wesleyan theology, rituals, sacraments, and history.
The Limitations Of Scientific Truth
Nigel Brush
Kregel Publishing
PO Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501
0825422531 $14.99 www.amazon.com
The Limitations Of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions by Nigel Brush (Assistant Professor of Geology at Ashland University in Ohio) is an in-depth study of the limitation of the physical sciences and their ultimate inability to answer particular question which only the revealed truths and fundamental faith of Christianity can address. As a highly informed analysis of theological and scientific contemporary conflicts, The Limitations Of Scientific Truth is an extensively researched and ably presented discussion of solidification for Christian beliefs not liable to be compromised by the progressive discoveries of the scientific method. The Limitations Of Scientific Truth is very highly recommended reading for students and practitioners of the Christian faith regardless of denominational affiliation.
Seven Angels For Seven Days
Angelina Fast-Vlaar
Augsburg Fortress Publishers
PO Box 59304, Minneapolis, MN 55459
1894860306 $16.99 www.afcanada.com
Seven Angels For Seven Days by Angelina Fast-Vlaar (a retired college instructor and mother of five) embodies the author's experience during an eventful and problematic camping trip through the Australian outback with her late husband, Peter.. Following Angelina and Peter through their endlessly engaging true-life adventure involving a near-death path and an overly difficult struggle with reality, Seven Angels For Seven Days brings readers swiftly into an experience in which God was the only one to turn too as the trip developed into hazards, loneliness, depression, and grief. Seven Angels For Seven Days is very highly recommended reading both as a biographical non-fiction readers and for its ultimately encouraging message regarding the divine grace of God.
Making Your Dreams Your Destiny
Judy Rushfeldt
Castle Quay Books
c/o Augsburg Fortress Publishers
4001 Grantz Road, Suite E, Grove City, OH 43123-1891
1894860330 $17.99 www.afcanada.com
Making Your Dreams Your Destiny by author, speaker, and corporate communications consultant Judy Rushfeldt is an inspirational guide to releasing the restraints that so many woman have, preventing them from contentment, fulfillment, or true enhancement of life overall. Enhanced with Notes and concluding with "Peace with God", Making Your Dreams Your Destiny is nicely organized into the following twelve sections: The Message of the Boxes; Daring to Dream; Your Spiritual Birthright; The Nurtured Heart; The Restored Heart; Embracing Change; Unfolding Vision; Discerning Your Passions; Defining Mission, Vision and Goals; Dream Thieves; Conquering Fear; and Run to Win. Making Your Own Dreams Your Destiny is particularly commended for self-help, self-improvement supplemental reading lists.
The PAPA Prayer
Larry Crabb
Integrity Publishers
5250 Virginia Way, Suite 110, Brentwood, TN 37027
TC Public Relations (publicity)
333 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2116, Chicago, IL 60601
1591454247 $21.99 www.integritypublishers.com
The PAPA Prayer by Larry Crabb is an intriguing theological interpretation of the contemporary and traditional prayer. Presenting the reader with four significant guidelines, Present yourself to God without pretense, Attend to how you're thinking of God, Purge yourself of anything blocking your relationship with God, and Approach God as the "first thing" in your life, hence the PAPA, The PAPA Prayer diligently and tactfully guides its readers to an effective and subversive modern style of prayer. The PAPA Prayer is very highly recommended to all Christians searching for a more innovative and creative approach to practicing their faith and their prayers in the coming of a modern age.
Damage Control
Dean Merrill
Baker Books
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
TC Public Relations (publicity)
333 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2116, Chicago, IL 60601
0801065658 $12.99 www.bakerbooks.com
No one does more damage to the message and image of Christianity than Christians themselves. Damage Control: How To Stop Making Jesus Look Bad by Dean Merrill offers an intriguing interpretation of societal perspectives which so frequently render Christ in poor view and how Christians might assist as His earthly ambassadors to improve His image and redeem His position with respect to the broader world. Introducing the reader to a remarkable understanding of what might be the cause of people's interpretive and illusive vision of Christ, Damage Control reminds its readers that each individual can validly make a difference in the minds of others and their often negative view. Damage Control is very strongly recommended to all Christians, regardless of their denominational affiliation, who witness the pains of noting the declining popularity of their faith and Savior, and wishing to help as much as possible to remedy that loss of stature and status through becoming a positive influence.
Stop Reading And Start Proclaiming
Douglas Leal
Resource Publications
160 E. Virginia Street, #290, San Jose, CA 9511201
0893906301 $23.95 www.amazon.com
Stop Reading And Start Proclaiming by professional actor, director and management consultant Douglas Leal is an instructional compilation of basic strategies and techniques to be heard when expressing verbal proclamations and sermons to groups in private or public settings. with it's easy-to-follow format, Stop Reading And Start Proclaiming consist of an introduction and ten chapters devoted: Working on Storytelling; Working on Preparing the Text; Working on Voice; Working on Physicalization; Working on Intention; Working on Emotion; Working on Being Real; Working on Stage Fright and Other Annoyances; Putting It All Together; and Living the Word with Your Life. Stop Reading And Start Proclaiming is very highly recommended to all clergy and laity searching for an effective and "user friendly" workbook that will potentially make their speeches and oral presentations truly accomplished when proclaiming Scripture.
Meditations For The Grieving
Richard L. Morgan
Herald Press
616 Walnut Avenue, Scottdale, PA 15683-1999
0836193202 $9.99 1-800-759-4447 www.heraldpress.com
Sometime in the course of their life, everyone experiences the phenomena of grief for the loss of a loved one. In Meditations For The Grieving, Richard L. Morgan has compiled series of meditations, each of which is passed upon a passage of scripture, that will prove helpful, insightful, thoughtful, and accessible for anyone having to deal with the coming of death into their circle of family and friends. Ideal for dealing not only with the passing of a loved one, there are meditations to help in the days, weeks, and months that follow, and meditations to inspire the mourner into moving on into the rest of their lives. If you or someone you care for is grieving a loss, the Meditations For The Grieving can be of immeasurable comfort and help in such a time of sadness and change.
The Eleventh Commandment
G. Vaughn Smith
Thirsty Turtle Press
PO Box 402, Maggie Valley, NC 28751
0972903860 $24.95 www.thirstyturtlepress.com
The Eleventh Commandment: A Story of Success is the testimony of a man who suffered terrible loss and contemplated suicide, but chose instead to search for understanding of God. He read the New Testament of the Bible from cover to cover ten times over the next fourteen years, and discovered the dichotomy between organized Christianity versus the documented teachings of Jesus Christ. Now he presents what he has learned to the world at large. A passionate Christian who believes that strict adherence to Jesus Christ's teachings is sadly all too lacking in today's modern church; for example, the author points out that Jesus' saying "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery" implies that those who divorce and remarry are violating one of the ten commandments, yet most Protestant churches freely allow remarriage after divorce. The Eleventh commandment exhorts against how Christianity is misused to pursue personal and political agendas today - Jesus' teachings are not about electing people who will change the laws to force others to live as we demand, nor is it about accumulating wealth and living in personal comfort and complacency. Written with the intent to help bring enlightenment to both individual believers and organized religious institutions, The Eleventh Commandment is a passionate book about personal belief, individual actions of faith and charity, the transformation of turning over one's life to God, and how God is the one and only source to turn to for help in times of need.
Being Single in the Church Today
Philip Wilson
Morehouse Publishing
4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112
0819222070 $17.95 1-800-877-0012 www.morehousepublishing.com
Written by a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Being Single in the Church Today: Insights from History and Personal Stories recognizes that an increasingly greater portion of modern society and those attending church are single, and examines the implications for church society and ministry. Discussing the situations for churches in Britain, Ireland, Europe, and America, Being Single in the Church Today looks plainly at issues of sexuality, the difficulty of finding a suitable partner, the shortage of single Christian men that puts single Christian women at a distinct disadvantage, interviews with numerous Christian singles about their experiences and perspectives, and much more. Supported by a careful gathering of statistics, Being Single in the Church Today does not fall back on a preachy tone or closed-minded attitudes, but honestly and realistically approaches how the church can best adapt to help single people nurture their faith.
Church Conflict
Norma Cook Everest
Abingdon Press
PO Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801
0687038014 $15.00 www.abingdonpress.com
In State Of Becoming: From Contention To Collaboration by Norma Cook Everist (Professor of Church Administration and Educational Ministry at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa) is a seminal and thoroughly "reader friendly" study on the issues and dealings of conflict within church. Informatively engaging readers from first page to last, In State Of Becoming deftly covers commonly controversial issues affecting the church and effective, practical, and tactics with which to avoid, ameliorate, or positively assist in resolving disputative issues for the betterment of the churches larger interests. In State Of Becoming is very highly recommended to the clergy and laity of the Christian congregation for the coordination and progression of the church through its many likely and inevitable controversies.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs
David W. Behrens & Alicia Hermosillo
Sea Challengers
4 Somerset Rise, Monterey, CA 93940
0930118367 $35.00 www.amazon.com
Knowledgeably co-authored by Nudibranch enthusiasts David W. Behrens and Alicia Hermosillo, Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs: A Guide To The Opisthobranches From Alaska To Central America is an informed and informative study of the intriguing world of underwater slugs. Introducing the reader to and intricate undersea life form, Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs covers in thorough detail the individualistic attributes of the many little creatures and species of Nudibranchs the authors have co-operatively discovered and extensively studied. Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs is very strongly recommended to all readers with an interest in underwater sea-life, as well as those studying the Pacific Coast ecosystems, as Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs contains countless details and up-close pictures of every given species of the peculiar little creatures.
Fishing Lure Collectibles
Dudley Murphy & Deanie Murphy
Collector Books
PO Box 3009, Paducah, KY 42002
1574324926 $29.95 www.amazon.com
Fishing Lure Collectibles: An Encyclopedia Of The Modern Era, 1940 To Present by Dudley and Deanie Murphy is an in-depth illustrated compendium showcasing the great variety of fishing lures which have been developed from 1940 to the present time. Featuring the many intricate details and specifics which characterizes each of the presented lures, Fishing Lure Collectibles introduces the reader to literally hundreds of lures along with such details as their name, date released, length, a color photograph, short notes, and a price value, Fishing Lure Collectibles really delves into an unknown analysis of the world of fishing lures and their historical background. From the Glitter Bug released in 1944 to the Redhorse Spearing Decoy in 2003, Fishing Lure Collectibles truly is the ultimate guide and encyclopedia of fishing lures since the year 1940, and is very strongly recommended to all collectors of lures, as well as general fishermen.
Hardcore History
Scott E. Williams
Sports Publishing LLC
804 North Neil Street, Champaign, IL 61820
1596700211 $24.95 1-217-363-2072 www.sportspublishinglcc.com
Very highly recommended reading for all dedicated fans of professional wrestling, Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story Of The ECW by journalist and sports enthusiast Scott E. Williams is an impressively informed and informative history Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1992 and Extreme Championship wrestling in 2001). Drawing from a wealth of original research based on interviews with wrestlers, fans, business partners and officials of the company in order to obtain an comprehensive understanding of the peculiar fall of the ECW company (including as to whether their rival WCW was behind it), Hardcore History is an uncompromising and revealing study of the rise and fall of the ECW.
Chaos And Harmony
Trinh Xuan Thuan
Templeton Foundation Press
300 Conshohocken State Road, Suite 550, West Conshohocken, PA 19428
1932031979 $22.95 www.templetonpress.org
Chaos And Harmony: Perspectives On Scientific Revolutions Of The Twentieth Century by Trinh Xuan Thaun (Professor of Astronomy at the University of Virginia since 1976) is an exploratory study and survey of the extraordinary advancements which modern science has made possible in the progression in understanding so many mysteries that engaged the minds and curiosity of so many scientists over recent decades. With the application of modern science, Chaos And Harmony inspects the philosophical and theological implications of astrological and astrophysical breakthroughs and past perceptions. Chaos And Harmony brilliantly explains in an elaborate format the intricacies and answers to many sought questions and misunderstandings, and is to be given high praise strong recommended for students of astrophysics, astrology, as well as readers with an interest in the theological or philosophical perspectives which the sciences may substantially counter and/or support.
Voices of the New Arab Public
Marc Lynch
Columbia University Press
61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023-7015
0231134487 $24.50 1-800-944-8648 www.columbiaedu/cu/cup
Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today boldly reveals that the era of monolithic Arab opinion are over. Examining how Al-Jazeera and other satellite television stations have revolutionized Arab journalism and politics by breaking state control over information, Voices of the New Arab Public particularly focuses upon the Al-Jazeera era in context of the challenges facing modern Iraq. Political science professor Marc Lynch offers a fascinating study of the history, present day, and future of new voices flourishing in the middle east.
Infamous Scribblers
Eric Burns
Public Affairs
250 West 57th Street, #1321, New York, NY 10107
158648334X $27.50 1-877-782-1234 www.publicaffairsbooks.com
Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism is the eye-popping true story of how raucous and undisciplined American journalism once was. Feuds, partisanship, and outright lies often colored journalism of the era. Some founding fathers, such as Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Sam Adams, were leading journalists, others, such as George Washington and John Adams, passionately disdained journalists; and Thomas Jefferson was a skillful manipulator of journalists. Infamous Scribblers is divided into three sections: "The Role of Authority", "The Approach of War", and "The Tumult of Peace", all tracing the contentious relationship between the founding fathers and journalism throughout the birth of America. Highly recommended for American history shelves, and an absolute "must-have" for public and college libraries.
Permeable Border
John J. Bukowczyk, et al.
University Of Pittsburgh Press
2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4
0822942615 $34.95 www.uofcpress.com
A perfectly unified co-authorship of seminal scholarship by the team of John J. Bukowczyk (Professor of History and Director of the Canadian Studies Program at Wayne State University in Detroit), Nora Faires (Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo), David R. Smith (History Instructor and Academic Advisor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Randy Williams Widdis (Professor of Geography at the University of Regina) who have expertly collaborated to present an informed and informative history of the Great Lakes significance in America's modern trade in the Preamble Border: The Great Lakes Basin As Transnational Region, 1650-1990. A work of impeccable scholarship and painstaking research, Preamble Border is a seminal benchmark reference for the significant activity on the Great Lakes for trade between its most active years of 1650 and 1990. A work of impressive originality and very strongly recommended to any reader with an interest in the history of the Great Lakes region, Permeable Border provides an excellent documentation of the Great Lakes trading patterns and influences.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Cellura's Bookshelf
Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel
Rebecca Goldstein
W.W. Norton & Co.
ISBN: 0393051692, $22.95, 296 pp.
Even among literati, Kurt Godel is hardly a household name although in 1999 he was celebrated by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential scientists of the 20th century. Picking up where Douglas Hofstadter (Godel, Escher, Bach; Vintage Books, 1979) left off almost three decades ago, Rebecca Goldstein provides, in elegant prose, a highly readable, though sometimes necessarily abstruse, account of the great mathematician/logician's life and work.
Dr. Goldstein brings impressive credentials to this task. She received her PhD in the Philosophy of Science at Princeton; close enough to Godel's academic home at the Institute for Advanced Study, to have hobnobbed with him at faculty-grad student functions. A prize winner in her own right for her novels (e.g. The Mind-Body Problem, Random House, 1983; Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics, Houghton Mifflin, 2000), she is the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, sometimes referred to as the "genius award."
Goldstein follows Godel's life (1906-1978) from his precocious childhood, when he developed an "anxiety neurosis" that led to life-long paranoiac ideas of heart failure and poisoning; his doctoral student days in Vienna as a closet Platonist (ideas are realer than real) among dedicated Positivists (If you can't measure it don't bother me.); his flight from Hitler's demonic grasp in 1940; his close friendship with his colleague at the Institute for Advanced Study, Albert Einstein, who said he went to his office "just to have the privilege of walking home with Kurt Godel."
In this new age of polemics one might think that mathematics, or at least simple arithmetic, would be the last bastion of certitude. The mathematician's credo begins plainly enough: One plus one equals two - now and forever. Godel demonstrated that it was simply not possible to prove the consequences of this assertion or indeed any systematic assertions from within that system; there would always be one or more statements that might be true but beyond proof, hence the system's provability must be considered incomplete. The logic may be familiar to you as The Liar's Paradox: All Cretans are liars. I am a Cretan. It would follow then that since I am a Cretan, I am a liar. But, if I am a liar and I made the statement "All Cretans are liars." then the statement I made about all Cretans being liars must be false. However, if it is false and I am not a liar then the statement "All Cretans are liars." must be true, and on and on it goes, in what logician's refer to as a "strange loop." In 1930, Godel, in his typically understated manner, presented his "Incompleteness Proof" using a parallel symbolic system (Godel numbering) to a mostly distracted audience eager to get home. Not long after the revolutionary implications of Godel's proof became apparent and the dust still hasn't settled.
It seems sad, though I doubt the old man would have thought so; he died in an anorexic whisper of 65 pounds, refusing to eat, living instead on the ideas that immortalize him. His epitaph might have been:
But, every error is due to extraneous factors (such as emotion and education); reason itself does not err.
-Kurt Godel- (From the frontispiece of Incompleteness)
Incompleteness is well worth reading, even by literate math phobics who will find no formulas within. Rebecca Goldstein has done a masterful job of presenting complex principles of logic and the exotic life of the man that produced them. Readers might also want to read Palle Yourgrau's A World Without Time (Perseus Books, 2005) for more on the relationship between Godel and Einstein, particularly Godel's stunning insights into special relativity and the concept of time. For another angle, the contrast between the handling of Godel's mental illness and that of an indigent psychiatric patient, there is A.R. Cellura's The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience (Cedar Springs Press, 2005).
A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Godel And Einstein
Palle Yourgrau
Basic Books
ISBN: 0465092934, $24.00, 210 pp.
It's about time.
Beyond the apocalyptic sense, we might be running out of time; not the 'time' handed down from a Homeric Cronos or from Ecclesiastes (For everything there is a season…) or Prufrockian events (There will be time, there will be time. To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet…).
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (GTR) introduced a much more elemental, modern and counter-intuitive idea of 'time' that melded a constant (the speed of light) and a mass-curved geometry into spacetime, whose effect was, nevertheless, relative! In GTR, the temporal space from "here" to "there," from "now" to "then," massively complicated, shrinks and expands in the tangled warp. At least it did until Kurt Godel in his searing analysis added new, astonishing wrinkles befitting his place as a preeminent mathematician, erstwhile physicist and most celebrated logician since Aristotle.
Palle Yourgrau, the Henry A. Wolfson Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University has devoted a great deal of his academic career to understanding Godel and particularly what most of us take for granted – the concept of time – which Godel believed was the key issue of philosophy. In A World Without Time, Yourgrau continues the explication of Godel's insights into GTR that he explored earlier with his Godel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Godel Universe (Open Court Press, 1999).
Godel and Einstein were colleagues and close friends at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ, where both had been given safe haven from the Nazi scourge of the 1930s. Together, they walked to and from their offices together talking philosophy, politics and especially relativity theory. As Yourgrau describes it, on one of these walks Godel pushed beyond Einstein's arbitrary conception of a relativistic universe. In GTR there could be a universe whose rotation on its axis would make time stand still.
Yourgrau provides fascinating detail about the lives of both men, describing their academic roots in mathematics, physics and philosophy with particular emphasis on the cross currents between Kantian and Leibnitzian traditions, Newtonian theory, the work of Russell and Whitehead, Wittgenstein and Hilbert, and the development of Positivism in the heady atmosphere of Viennese culture; their special relationship in Princeton; the elements in the development of Relativity Theory. But, Yourgrau's central emphasis is the exegesis of a Godelian Universe where time freezes, like winter's ice, into a place one might visit just as possibly as a trip you might take to Chicago, if you could go fast enough! In a rarely recognized subtlety, Godel's idea also challenges the bedrock of science – the concept of causality.
As Yourgrau points out, Godel preferred fairy tales (his favorite: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) to prosaic accounts of experience. But, a Godelian Universe that permits time travel, though obviously controversial, is not so easily dismissed (cf. physicist Julian Barbour's The End of Time, Oxford Univ. Press, 2000; philosopher Steven F. Savitt's Time's Arrows Today (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995) and mathematician Amir Aczel's Entanglement, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001).
Yourgrau's account does a superb job of bringing Einstein and Godel, 20th century titans, down to earthy, everyday circumstance. Particularly, there is Einstein's loosey-goosey lifestyle and the pathetic contrast between Godel's soaring intellectual achievements and lifelong paranoiac fears resulting in delusional, fatal self-starvation. (In this connection, see also A. R. Cellura's The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience, Cedar Springs Press, 2005). Rebecca Goldstein's recently published Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (W.W. Norton, 2005) is also well worth reading.
Some of us wonder what a world that can escape the pitfalls of continuing scientific advance will be like a thousand years from now – a world far beyond the flat earth of Homer and the Ptolemaic conceptions of earlier eras, or our own. Will it be a world without time?
A.R. Cellura, EdD, Reviewer
www.cellura.net
Cheri's Bookshelf
Picking Up the Pace
Kimberly LaFontaine
Intaglio Publications
P O Box 357474, Gainesville, Florida 32635-7474
available from StarCrossed Productions
ISBN: 1933113413, $15.95, 212 pp.
Depressed over a recent breakup with her boyfriend, but elated over a job promotion, Angie Mitchell agrees to go to a party where she meets a singer who has just finished a stint in the Peace Corps. Finding herself attracted to Lauren has turned Angie's world upside down.
When her boss promotes her to the crime beat for the Tribune, Angie finds herself in way over her head but refuses to back down. Her current assignment becomes risky not only to the subjects of her articles but also to herself.
Angie loves her job as witnessed in the following scene where she and her boss Tom discuss their plans. "They started throwing out ideas, argued over how they would best be presented with maps, graphics, or photographs. Half an hour later, they had worked themselves into some sort of frenzy – as near physical arousal as anyone can get over a job" [p. 27]. LaFontaine shows their excitement by comparing "throwing out ideas" to "physical arousal." The goose bumps and flushed face in the next sentence only add to the enthusiasm. LaFontaine uses imagery to evoke the emotion she strives to portray. The reader gets the impression that Tom and Angie are having sex when they are actually just doing their jobs. Who wouldn't want a stimulating job like that?
Kimberly LaFontaine shows promise in her debut novel, Picking Up the Pace. It will be interesting to follow her career and watch her progress as she continues to strengthen her style and find her voice. The story is plausible, the plot well-thought out albeit a bit contrived at times, the characters are real and likeable, and the pace is up to speed. However, LaFontaine uses "the reporter," "the singer," "the brunette," and other descriptive terms instead of their given names too often, that it becomes bothersome. To compound the problem, there are instances where the point of view switches mid-scene, further taking the reader out of the story. For example, in this particular scene we are in Angie's head, "She didn't remember much after that last glass of wine. She would have to pump him [Jimmy] for information" [p.22]. Then in the very next paragraph, "He [Jimmy] showed up a few minutes later, a bag of groceries in his arm. He smirked at the sleeping reporter and quietly began preparing an early meal in the kitchen. He knew it would have to be bland" [p. 22]. Angie couldn't possibly know what Jimmy is thinking. There are authors who don't stick to the rules of POV, but they do it flawlessly. I didn't find that the case with Picking Up the Pace.
In another instance, the scene break is so abrupt the reader gets lost for a moment and loses the momentum. One minute you have Angie and Lauren on their way to a restaurant, which ends with Lauren teasing Angie, "I guess you'll just have to wait and see" [p. 91]. Then you turn the page and Angie is in the airport with her dad.
LaFontaine has left room for a sequel, to further explore and define Angie and Lauren's relationship amidst varying plots. There needs to be more characterization and less job description if the reader is going to connect with the characters. The plot captures and holds the reader's interest, and invests the reader in their outcome. With a little more sharpening of her craft, LaFontaine can correct the minor flaws of Picking Up the Pace and possibly emerge as a strong addition to the writers of lesbian fiction.
Picking Up the Pace is a fascinating look at the life of a reporter. Anyone who wants an intimate glimpse into a journalist's work will enjoy this first novel by Kimberly LaFontaine.
Under the Gun
Lori L. Lake
Renaissance Alliance Publishing
Regal Crest
4700 Highway 365, Suite A, PMB 210, Port Arthur, TX 77642
available from StarCrossed Productions
ISBN: 1930928440, $22.95, 490 pp.
In the second gripping police drama in Lori L. Lake's Gun series, Under the Gun delightfully picks up where Gun Shy left off and sets the stage for the third novel, Have Gun We'll Travel. Once you make the acquaintance of Officer Desiree (Dez) Reilly and her partner and lover Rookie Officer Jaylynn (Jay) Savage, you won't be able to get enough of this dynamic duo. The two cops are as different as night and day in appearance and personality. Always the macho cop, Dez, affectionately referred to as "tall, dark, and dangerous," maintains a tough impenetrable shell and demeanor to hide her fears. "[Jaylynn] liked the fact that there was a defensive fortress around her taciturn partner, but that the tall cop had let her find the few chinks in the armor so that she had free access to come and go as she pleased" (p. 378). Dez contains her emotions until the breaking point, while Jay is not embarrassed or afraid to show her feelings. "It occurred to [Dez] that one major thing she liked about Jaylynn was how alive she was. She took on life with zest, whether she was investigating a crime, talking on the phone, eating something tasty, making love, or crying at a sad movie" (p. 271).
Under the Gun begins with Dez seemingly happy and hopelessly in love with Jay, the vivacious, light-haired bundle of energy, but at the same time, she is petrified of losing her, which is making her miserable. Jay is proving to be an excellent officer, but her impulsive streak has Dez worried, since Jay repeatedly ends up in harm's way. It's understandable that the introspective Dez, who withdraws and equates letting her guard down with being weak, is afraid of losing the one person who understands her, tolerates her moodiness, and who adds meaning, love, and joy to her life. Lake explores their evolving relationship with rich detail while Dez goes through the biggest transformation of all.
Dez is so adept at concealing her inner turmoil that even she is not aware she's doing it. Having suffered serious traumatic events in her life including the loss of her beloved father, also a police officer, and her partner and close friend Officer Ryan Michaelson, Dez snaps and ends up suspended with her only alternatives being to see psychiatrist Marie Montague, or be kicked off the force. Reluctantly, the skeptical secretive Dez works with Marie. Can Marie save Dez from self-destructing, and going to a very lonely and isolated place where she denies her heart's desire for fear of loss and rejection? Will the astute psychiatrist help Dez learn to bridge the gap in all of her severed relationships, including the ones with her mother Collette and her brother Patrick?
Can Marie help Dez believe Luella, Dez's landlady and chief nurturer, who tells her, "You can't hold onto someone so tight that you choke the life out of them" [p. 280]. Luella tries to convince Dez that loving and losing someone is painful, but avoiding love to avoid pain is not the answer. She also tells her surrogate daughter, "You are a strong person, Desiree Reilly, and you deserve to love and be loved. But you have to make a choice to take the chance" [p. 280].
Lori L. Lake's completely satisfying action/romance novel will engage a full range of emotions that will leave the reader wanting more. No stone is left unturned as all the loose ends are tied up. The psychological journey of the characters' growth and development, particularly Dez's, is just as intriguing as the crime drama, murder investigation, and police work. Every character, no matter how small their role, has a place and reason for being in the story. Lake does not rush through her narrative, but with the perfect pace, 490 pages go by in a blink.
I recommend Under the Gun for the strong characterization, loveable characters, and absorbing plot. Anyone who enjoys a realistic look at police procedurals, romance, and psychological drama, will love following the story of Dez and Jay. Lake paints a vivid picture that allows the reader to jump into the story and become a part of Dez's world. It is not surprising that the sequel, Have Gun We'll Travel, is a finalist for a Golden Crown Literary Society 2006 Goldie Award. Under the Gun is a page-turner; read it and you will see what I mean.
Cheri Rosenberg
Reviewer
Debra's Bookshelf
King Nicholas and the Copeman Empire
Nick Copeman
Ebury Press
Random House UK
ISBN: 0091899206, $19.24, 274 pages
Twenty-five-year-old Nick Copeman's accomplishments were few and decidedly unimpressive before he became King. Unemployed and still living with his parents in the coastal town of Sheringham, Nick spent his days watching schlock TV--Zena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica--and playing Connect Four or grabbing meals with his friend John Painter at Roy Boy's Truck Stop. But all that changed when Nick and John paid 29 pounds apiece to legally change their names to, respectively, Henry Michael King Nicholas and The Right Reverand [sic] Baby Face Archbishop of Fantaberry. Having thus become royal, HM King Nicholas determined to look and act the part.
He details in King Nicholas and the Copeman Empire how he and Baby Face set about acquiring the trappings of their new stations--the crown, the vestments, the stationery and trailer-turned-royal residence--and the various adventures the two had after adopting their new personae. Most dramatic among these was the pair's successful infiltration of the Pride of Norfolk Awards, an annual black-tie event held in the Ramada Norwich Hotel, at which King Nicholas managed to get himself photographed for the local society pages. Not all of their schemes were as successful, or as above-board: the King and Archbishop also collected for charity, the money going mostly toward keeping them in snacks, and they sold a number of peerages over the internet for large sums of money. You won't be surprised to learn that the whole enterprise ended rather badly.
We are apparently to understand that the events described in King Nicholas are true, that Copeman and Baby Face really did engage in imaginative fundraising and generally make themselves unpopular in Sheringham with their stunts and affectations. Their prank is amusing--apart from the illegal and/or immoral among their undertakings--though not laugh-out-loud funny. The one joke of the book, that Copeman's something of an idiot who makes an ass of himself, often unwittingly, wears thin after a while. Still, the book is a nicely written and unusual read that will appeal to readers who like a good caper.
A serial murderer with a mathematical bent is stalking Oxford in Guillermo Martínez's cerebral mystery The Oxford Murders. The crimes begin shortly after our narrator, an Argentinean student whose name we never learn, arrives in England to study at the Mathematical Institute on a year's scholarship. He soon meets Arthur Seldom, a celebrated logician whose latest book on logical series has attracted an unexpectedly wide readership. Seldom's chapter on serial murders, in particular, seems to have inspired the recent killings: with each murder the killer leaves behind a symbol--the first, a circle, appears in a note addressed to Seldom himself--as if he is challenging the mathematician to work out the logic of his series before he kills again.
The Oxford Murders is a smart, quiet book, with its focus on ideas rather than action, or indeed character: the book's principals are more than two-dimensional, but they are not fully fleshed out. While our narrator acclimates himself to life in England--acquiring a girlfriend and blending into Oxford life in general--he and Seldom discuss mathematical theory, the Pythagoreans, and of course the murders themselves. Martínez's writing (the book is translated into English from its original Spanish) is for the most part transparent, but one finds the occasional perfect turn of phrase: "The conductor tapped briefly on the music stand, pointed his baton at the lead violin and the solitary first line of the piece that opened the programme made its way tentatively in the silence, like a curl of smoke rising." Although the book's plot depends in part upon coincidence, its mystery is satisfying. Certainly it is unlikely that readers will figure out precisely whodunit before the book's end, although the clues are there to be found. The Oxford Murders is in fact intelligent and satisfying enough to merit a second read-through, so one can more fully appreciate how the author has hinted at the crimes' solution.
The Grail Conspiracy
Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore
Midnight Ink
ISBN: 0738707872, $14.95, 337 pages
In the deserts of Iraq, shortly before the U.S. invasion, Satellite News Network reporter Cotten Stone stumbles upon an archaeological dig, its crew scrambling to leave the site and get out of the country while there's still time. Cotten's brief encounter with the chief archaeologist of the dig, Dr. Gabriel Archer, sets in motion the dramatic series of events to follow--events foretold in the Book of Revelation that may culminate in nothing less than the Second Coming of Christ.
Given its subject matter, The Grail Conspiracy will undoubtedly be compared to Dan Brown's bestseller, perhaps even dismissed as a DaVinci Code knockoff. The books do tread some of the same ground--a secret organization, millennia old, a religious conspiracy--but the similarities between the books don't go very deep. It's fair to say, however, that readers who liked Brown's book should enjoy The Grail Conspiracy as well. It's a well-written page-turner, with a complex plot and fleshed-out, likeable characters. (The good and near-good guys in the book are more fully developed than their adversaries.) My one complaint is with the book's denouement: after stumbling about in ignorance for the better part of the story, the authors' protagonists--Cotten and her priest friend John Tyler--figure out the bad guys' rather complicated plans much too quickly, and the final conflict between the forces of good and evil in the book is not as dramatic as one would have hoped. Cotten and John, that is, get off a little easy. That said, I'd read another book by Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore in a heartbeat. And happily I'll be able to do just that. The Grail Conspiracy is the first in a series of Cotten Stone mysteries (I'd sooner have called them religious thrillers). The next installment in the series, The Last Secret, is due out in September of 2006.
If You Could See Me Now
Michael Mewshaw
Unbridled Books
ISBN: 1932961208, $23.95, 240 pages
One afternoon in the mid-1990's author Michael Mewshaw got a call he'd been half expecting for some thirty years: a woman in America--Mewshaw was living in London--had reason to believe that he was her biological father. The woman, Amy, was almost right: Mewshaw's name was in fact on Amy's birth certificate, and he'd been involved with her mother at the time of Amy's birth, while he was in college at the University of Maryland. But Mewshaw hadn't fathered the baby whose adoption he wound up being instrumental in arranging. Mewshaw's role in Amy's early life nevertheless left him feeling almost paternal toward her, and he wanted to help Amy reconnect with her birth mother.
In his memoir If You Could See Me Now Mewshaw chronicles his involvement in Amy's search for her biological parents, but his story is far from a straightforward account of his attempts to track down an old girlfriend. Amy's quest is rather the peg on which Mewshaw hangs an account of his life, or that part of it that bears on his relationship with Amy's mother. While detailing his efforts on Amy's behalf, Mewshaw writes about his fractured identity as a child, the result of his parents' divorce and his strained relationship with both father and father figure, and about his complicated history with the woman he calls "Adrienne Daly," his college sweetheart. Mewshaw's unpacking of that relationship, his attempts to uncover the truth behind Adrienne's pregnancy and behavior decades after the fact, make for a surprisingly compelling story that at times reads like a mystery.
Mewshaw does not identify Amy's mother by her real name in the book: as a public figure she would not welcome exposure as a former unwed mother. But he does provide a great many details about Adrienne that will send readers running to Google, most tantalizing among them that Amy's mother served as Undersecretary of State during the Reagan and Bush administrations. One wonders whether these same revelations won't send Adrienne running to her lawyers, as she will surely not be pleased with her presentation in the book. Adrienne is the clear villain of the piece, painted by Mewshaw as a calculating and disingenuous user of men, a woman lacking in maternal warmth, who valued--who continues to value--her own convenience over the life of her daughter. One can't h
