Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within
Shuja Nawaz
Oxford University Press
Pakistan
9780195476606 $34.95
A.H. Amin
Reviewer
Crossed Swords is the latest addition to the list of books dealing with Pakistan Army. Written with an eye on the Western audience by a Pakistani who has settled in USA the book is a welcome addition to books on Pakistan Army. It contains some new sources and some new information. Unfortunately most of the information is anecdotal and the narrators are extolling their own performance.
The author's viewpoint is somewhat subjective as he is a brother of one of the ex chiefs of Pakistan Army General Asif Nawaz.
The book contains some factual errors, some possibly typing errors, expected from Oxford University Press Pakistan which has a reputation of doing this. Some errors are however historical and factual and were entirely avoidable. On page 8 3rd Light Cavalry of Meerut fame is written as 3rd Light Infantry and on page 9 becomes 3rd Light Cavalry. On page 22 Ayub Khan is placed in Assam regiment though Ayub's battalion officer Joginder Singh specifically stated that Ayub Khan was in Chamar Regiment in WW Two. On page 426 Naseerullah Khan Babar is promoted to lieutenant general and similar fate befalls Major General Sarfaraz Khan on page 223. 13 Lancers becomes 13 Cavalry on page 305. On page 470 he changes the ethnicity of Sardar Balakh Sher Mazari a Baloch Seraiki by calling him a Punjabi, an honour that no Baloch would like to have.
A far more serious error Shuja makes while discussing the ethnic composition of Pakistan Army on page 570. He states that Sindhis and Baluchis are 15 percent of Pakistan Army. This is a serious distortion of history. The term Muslim Sindhi and Baluchi abbreviated to MS & B was given to Ranghar/Kaimkhani/Khanzada Rajout recruitment in Pakistan Army in 1950s. The aim was to rationalise the recruitment of Ranghars in Pakistan Army. Later the usurper Zia in order to appease the Sindhis created the Sindh Regiment but Sindhis as far as my research reveals are far less than Ranghars/Kaimkhanis/Khanzada Rajputs in the army. The Ranghars are a significant class in fighting arms being some at least 35% of armour and distinct from Punjabis. The Baloch are hardly represented in the army. As a matter of fact the Pakistan Army has such a reputation in Balochistan that no Baloch would like to join it. All thanks to General Musharraf, Zia and ZA Bhutto's policies.
These are expected errors and more so from Oxford University Press Pakistan known for changing authors photograph with those of their uncles on jackets of books as they did with Colonel M.Y Effendi in his book Punjab Cavalry published by Oxford University Press in 2007. The old prince narrated to me the sad story when I met him and was also quite cheesed off by the fact that the princess running the Oxford Pakistan is too arrogant to meet any author or to even discuss anything on telephone.
The above errors are insignificant. However Shuja has made some assertions which can be classified as serious errors or even distortion of history. On page 71 he asserts that calling off of Operational Venus by Pakistan's civilian government was one of the reasons why the 1947-48 war failed. I state this because the sub title of the chapter is " Why the War Failed". On the other hand he fails to point out the major fatal decision when the Pakistani government refused to allow the armoured cars of 11 PAVO Cavalry to assist the tribesmen in breaking through to Srinagar. Those who are not familiar should know that the main reason why the tribals failed to take Srinagar was because Indian armour counterattacked them and destroyed them at Shalateng. This fact was discussed by Brig A.A.K Chaudhry also in his book. Operation Venus plan came much later. At that time the Indian Army was well established in Kashmir and well poised to meet any threat. Very few participants of the Kashmir War have left any written accounts of their war experiences. General Iqbal who participated in the war and later on rose to the rank of full general and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, long after the Kashmir War made one very thought provoking remark about the Kashmir War in an article in the Pakistan Army Green Book 1992. This particular publication was sub titled 'Year of the Senior Field Commanders'. Iqbal wrote, 'During 1948 Kashmir Operations I saw one senior officer sitting miles behind the frontline and counting availability of mules and rations. He had relegated the fighting to a senior battalion commander. In 1963 once Major General Fazal I Muqueem Khan in his book The Story of Pakistan Army. Fazal thus wrote, 'To the Army's horror, Pakistan during her greatest hour of triumph in Kashmir agreed to accept the ceasefire... it was difficult to understand why Pakistan let that opportunity pass. Was it assumed weakness; or as a result of pressing advice; or from misplaced chivalry towards an unfriendly neighbour in distress? Whatever the reason, Pakistan's reluctance to accept the risks of continuing the war, cost her Kashmir at that time. It was a risk worth taking."
The Pakistani attack force collected for Operation Venus consisted of about six infantry battalions and two armoured regiments. To oppose this the Indians had two infantry brigades (50 Para Brigade and 80 Infantry Brigade). In addition there were two armoured regiments in the same area i.e. Central India Horse and the Deccan Horse. In addition the Indians also possessed more than 10 other armoured regiments which were not in Kashmir but in Punjab or Western UP and could move to Kashmir. We shall see in 1965 how Pakistani armour functioned and the reader can keep that as a yardstick in order to appreciate how Pakistani armour and infantry would have behaved in Operation Venus; had it been ever launched! Fazal does not explain how capture Of Beri Pattan bridge would have led to complete collapse of Indian hold over Kashmir, apart from temporary severing of the line of communication to Poonch. Greater part of the Central India Horse was at Nowshera close to Beri Pattan while Deccan Horse in Chamb-Akhnur area was also within striking range and the battle would have been a hotly contested affair! Shaukat Riza did not take the extreme viewpoint similar to Fazal's when he wrote his book on Pakistan Army. He merely said that 'On December 30 both sides saw the wisdom of cease-fire'.
Lately in an article General K.M. Arif adopted a more rational viewpoint, when he stated that the Kashmir War of 1948 was mismanaged simply because Pakistan was not in a position to fight it successfully summing it up by stating, 'It is too hazardous a risk to fight a war on ad hoc basis'. There is no doubt that Pakistan was in a favourable position to win the Kashmir War at least till the first week of November. Mr Jinnah exhibited great Coup de Oeil when he ordered Gracey to employ two brigades and advance with one brigade each towards Jammu and Srinagar. But Mr Jinnah was unlucky in possessing no one like Patel and his Prime Minister and his entire Cabinet proved to be an undoubted failure at least as a war cabinet! Mr Jinnah's decision not to have a Pakistani C in C although taken in the best interest of the country and the Army as Mr Jinnah saw it ensured that the British acting C in C procedurally blocked the execution of Mr Jinnah's orders in October to attack Kashmir. Pakistan was unlucky in having a man like Iskandar Mirza at the Ministry of Defence. Mirza did not advise Mr Jinnah correctly and the fact that he had hardly served in the Army and did not understand military affairs further ensured that Mr Jinnah and the Prime Minister remained as ignorant as they were about military affairs as they were when they were in high school. It is incorrect to criticise Liaqat for Operation Venus since in December 1948 the Indian position was much more secure than in 1947. Liaqat can be criticised for not ever visiting Kashmir while the war was on and for not standing by Mr Jinnah in pressurising Gracey in October 1947 to order the Army to attack Kashmir. Had a Pakistani C in C been appointed even in December or in March 1948 the Indians may not have held on to Poonch-Nowshera area at least. Had Major Masud been allowed with his armoured cars on Domel-Baramula Road despite Ghazanfar Ali and Sher Khan's objections; Srinagar may have been captured by the Tribesmen by first week of November 1947. The Indians were lucky in having comparatively more regular army officers who led from the front and is evident from higher officer casualties among Indian Army officers above the rank of captain vis a vis the Pakistan Army.
The treatment of 1857 is also very superficial. The author states that the Bengal Army which rebelled some 80 % were Purbias (page 7), but fails to point out that the vast majority of cavalry which led the rebellion notably at Meerut i.e 3rd Light Cavalry which actually captured Delhi was Muslim and mostly Ranghar Muslim. His use of the term British for the pre 1858 period is also factually incorrect as India till 1858 was ruled by the English East India Company using mostly its private Bengal Army, Madras Army, Bombay Army, its private European regiments and some regiments on rent from British Army to conquer ventire India.
In discussion of Martial Races Theory the author totally ignores the fact that Punjab Loyalty in 1857 to the British was one of the main reasons why martial races theory was evolved. This is a simple point noted even by British writers like Philip Mason. The author also fails to note the politically important fact that the English East India Company's army was the knight in shining armour which saved the Muslims of Punjab and settled areas of present Pashtun NWFP from the Sikhs who were using Muslim Mosques as stables gunpowder magazines and plastering their walls with cowdung. Perhaps this fact did not suit the martial races ruled by a 10% minority, the Sikhs in the Punjab and settled Pashtun areas for more than four decades in Punjab and some two decades in modern NWFP's settled districts.
The author talks about martial races theory and thinks that martial races theory was all about Punjab and Frontier as it is now but perhaps does not know that one of martial races theory's most famous exponent Major General Macmunn regarded the Khanzada Rajputs of Firozpur Jhirka as the finest fighting race in India.
The author also fails to note that the Sikhs were in majority in the fighting arms till First World War and were reduced to a minority by being replaced with Punjabi Muslims after First World War because the Punjabi Muslims were regarded as phenomenally loyal, even against Muslims by the British. Thus the author conveniently ignores two important developments of WW One i.e the Singapore rebellion of 129th Light Infantry by Ranghar Muslims and the tribal Pashtun mutinies against British as a result of which tribal Pashtun recruitment was reduced to the gain of Punjabi Muslims.
In discussion of Ayub Khan the author totally ignores allegations about Ayub's tactical timidity in Burma. This incident was discussed by three writers of the time. Major General Joginder Singh of Indian Army who was Ayub's battalion mate, Sardar Shaukat Hayat who was an ex Indian Army officer and Major General Sher Ali Khan. In an article Brigadier Nur Hussain a reliable authority did state that Ayub Khan was close to General Gracey because they drank together.
The authors discussion of old officers is also partial. On page 31 he notes that Brigadier Gul Mawaz got an MC, a medal which many earned but fails to note that Major General Akbar Khan won a DSO which is higher in scale than MC. On page 33 he states that "Akbar Khan who gained notoriety in Kashmir....." Akbar Khan was the pioneer of Kashmir war but Shuja thinks that he was notorious. A strange assertion.
Mr Jinnah's historic decision of creating two infantry battalions of Bengalis is also not all discussed by the author. It may be noted that Ayub Khan refused to expand the East Bengal Regiment till 1966 as a result of which the Bengalis were further alienated for not being given the due share in the armed forces. This decision was reversed by Yahya Khan in 1966 but by then it was too little too late.
The authors analysis of origin of officer corps is also superficial. He fails to note the 50 % ranker quota that the British kept for Indian rankers in the officers selected for IMA Dehra Dun in order to keep the Indian officer corps slavish and backward.
The author does note the fact that Pakistani SSG captured Indian War Plan on Samba Kathua road before the war actually started but fails to note the fact that it was Pakistan's Military Intelligence led by Director Military Intelligence Brigadier Irshad who refused to give any serious thought to this discovery and dismissed it as an Indian ruse. This was revealed to this scribe in an interview by Major General Naseerullah Khan Babar in March 2001.
The most serious distortion of history committed by Mr Shuja Nawaz is on page 226 when he gives the credit of 25 Cavalry's action of 8th September 1965 at Gadgor to Brigadier Abdul Ali Malik. The authority he quotes is Farouk Adam, then a very junior officer and not in 24 Brigade Headquarter.
It must be clarified that a good military historian or analyst's prime motivation in all writing has been to endeavour to write "what men did" rather than what "they ought ideally to have done" or what "someone later with the benefit of hindsight tried to portray, what they had done". Thus the analysis of Chawinda Battle done with pure loyalty to service without any inter arm rivalry or nationalistic motivation. Pure and unadulterated military history filtered dispassionately separating fact from fiction and myth from reality. History as Frederick the Great once said can be well written only in a free country and ours has been continuously under civil or military dictators since 1958.
I maintain as one great master of English prose said that "all history so far as it is not supported by contemporary evidence is romance"!
Battle of Chawinda was thus not romance! What many in this country wrote and was outwardly military history was essentially "Romance"! Inspiring, superhuman but a myth promiscuously mixed with reality! Chance plays a key role in battle and at Chawinda chance played a very important role! Nisar, when he deployed 25 Cavalry did not know what was in front of him! KK Singh Commander 1st Indian Brigade also did not know what was in front of him! This mutual ignorance saved Pakistan on that crucial day! Later heroes were created! I repeat "Heroes were created"! The hero had to be from the Salt Range however! At least Shuja Nawaz wants it this way!
What were the key facts? Most important tangible fact was "casualties"! These were deliberately hidden since these would have let the cat out of the bag! Everyone would have discovered who really fought and who got gallantry awards on parochial, regimental or old boy links! How many were killed in the biggest military blunder "Operation Gibraltar"! This is Top Secret! How many infantry men died at Chawinda? Again no mention of any figures! The real motivation here is not national interest but to preserve or more important to "guard reputations"
Now lets talk about the broad front deployment that Shuja Nawaz refers to. There is no doubt that the "broad front deployment" was done by Nisar and Nisar alone and Brigadier Abdul Ali Malik had no role in it. It is another matter that Nisar also did not know what was in front of him. It was like Jutland when both contending fleets were running towards each other at express train speed. Why Nisar behaved as he did and what actually happened even today is hard to understand, whatever anyone may claim now with the benefit of hindsight!
Shuja Nawaz here in his 600 page book offers no tangible proof that the actions of 25 Cavalry had anything to do with what Brig A.A Malik told Nisar. Nisar was told to "do something" as clearly stated by an authority no less than Pakistan Army's official historian Major General Shaukat Riza, apparently not from Jhelum or from North of Chenab by a twist of fate. There is no doubt that Nisar did something without the least clue of what was in front of him. The important thing is that Nisar did something rather than getting paralyzed into inertia and inaction! The "Do Something" order by Brig A.A Malik to Lt Col Nisar CO 25 Cavalry should not have been glorified to something higher by Shuja Nawaz simply on authority of an article written by a person who was a company 2IC in an infantry battalion of 24 Brigade and that too only in 1992. This is a serious historical failing. At least in a military historian but is the Oxford University Press Pakistan run by professionals. One may ask Colonel M.Y Effendi.
The same words of Brig A.A Malik " Do Something" were repeated by Nisar in his article published in Pakistan Army Journal in 1997. Perhaps Shuja Nawaz did not read all the accounts of direct participants. Perfectly excusable as he is based in USA. But not good military history certainly. The fact is that the 25 Cavalry on 8th September 1965 was functioning in a vacuum. Brig A.A Malik had no clue about armour warfare and Nisar had no higher armour headquarter to guide him. 24 Brigade had two infantry units, one which had been overrun and dispersed on 8th September i.e 3 FF and 2 Punjab which was at Chawinda. The crucial action took place at Gadgor few miles north of Chawinda in which 25 Cavalry faced the entire Indian 1st Armoured Division. This was an extraordinary situation and Nisar acted on his own best judgement since Malik had abdicated to Nisar by stating that he should do something. It is another thing that Nisar also did not know what was in front of him and acted boldly and unconventionally. Had he known what was in front of him he may have been paralysed by inertia and inaction! But this is speculation and some part of history always remains unfathomed and hidden! Nisar acted through sheer reflex and deployed his unit in an impromptu manner. The fire fight which took place at Gadgor between 0900 hours and 1200 hours was a pure tank versus tank affair. 25 Cavalry versus two leading tank regiments of Indian 1st Armoured Division! Thus the Indian Armoured Corps historian stated "The Armoured Brigade had been blocked by two squadrons of Pattons and in the first encounter had lost more tanks than the enemy had... the worst consequence of the days battle was its paralysing effect on the minds of the higher commanders. It took them another 48 hours to contemplate the next move. This interval gave Pakistanis time to deploy their 6th Armoured Division... in fact the golden opportunity that fate had offered to the 1st Armoured Division to make worthwhile gains had been irretrievably lost" (Refers-Pages-393 & 394-History of Indian Armoured Corps-Gurcharan Singh Sandhu-Vision Books-Delhi-1990). Thus the Indians acknowledged "This regiment's (25 Cavalry) performance was certainly creditable because it alone stood between the 1st Indian Armoured division and its objective, the MRL canal". (Refers-Page-395-Ibid).
This is not the only source. Major Shamshad a direct participant has already stated on record that SJs were awarded to some officers for an attack in which not a single man was killed on both sides! Here he refers to Major Farouk Adam. This reminds me of an incident in armour school Nowshera in 1991. I was an instructor in Tactical Wing. The Senior Instructor in charge of the Young Officers Tactical course asked us, " Should we give an Alpha Grade". My lone reply was that no Sir, since Armour School gives Alpha to sons of generals only. This was a norm then. The Infantry School where I did the junior tactical course but later on it started giving alphas after 1985 to oblige some sons of generals. But that is how Pakistan Army is.
The historical fact remains that 25 Cavalry was part of 24 Brigade but all that Nisar its CO did on the crucial 8th September at Gadgor was based on his own judgement. On 9th and 10th September no fighting took place as Indians had withdrawn their armoured division to the crossroads. On 10th September, 6 Armoured Division took over and 24 Brigade was a part of 6 Armoured Division. On 8th September there was a vacuum and Nisar acted in a situation which can be classified as one characterised by "absence of clear and precise orders"!
Shaukat Riza's book is basically a compilation of existing facts. It has historical value since Riza was allowed access to official records. Shaukat had no axe to grind. Shuja Nawaz by his own confession is a close relative of A.A Malik.
Shuja also forgets Brig A.A Malik's request to withdraw when Indian tanks had crossed the railway line on 16th September and occupied Buttur Dograndi and Sodreke. This fact was brought to light not by the much criticised Shaukat Riza but by the then GSO-2 of 6 Armoured Division Major (later General K.M Arif), first more bluntly in Pakistan Army Green Book-1993 and again a little tactfully in his recently published book Khaki Shadows.
Thus no connection with 3 FF, an infantry unit which as far as I know suffered more casualties than any other infantry unit at Chawinda. 3 FF fought admirably but was launched thoughtlessly as brought out by Major Shamshad in his letter published in Sept 2001 DJ and consequently suffered enormous casualties at Sodreke-Buttur Dograndi area. Shamshad was the tank troop leader in support of 3 FF when it disastrously attacked Buttur Dograndi. In opinion of Shamshad, the attack had failed not due to any fault of 3 FF but because of poor planning by Commander 24 Brigade.
Even at formation level Chawinda was not a big battle in terms of casualties since the Indian 1 Corps suffered less casualties than 11 Indian Corps in Ravi Sutlej Corridor.
A.A Maliks poorly planned counterattacks leading to bloody casualties for Pakistan Army were also discussed by Major General Fazal i Muqeem in his book on 1971 war.
On page 233 while discussing the main Pakistani offensive the author fails to point out that the Pakistanis had a 7 to 1 superiority in tanks and yet they failed. Further he fails to point out the fact that major failure of Paskistani 1st Armoured Division occurred ion the 4th Brigade where its commander Brigadier Bashir ordered its tank regiments every night to return to leaguer at their start point every night thus abandoning all territory they had gained during the day.
In the treatment of Chamb Operation of 1971 the most significant decision of Major General Eftikhar to switch from North to South is not discussed at all. This was one of the most landmark operational decisions in history of Pakistan Army. The author also fails to highlight the cowardly action of then Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan in not joining 111 Brigade on pretext of dealing with Shiekh Mujibs trial. This great warrior later rose to full general in Pakistan Army.
Shuja also gives no thought in his worthy analysis to Pakistan Army's launching a pre-emptive attack on India in September 1971. This if done in the words of Indian Commander Western Command General Candeth would have thrown all Indian plans to attack East Pakistan to the winds. (Refers-The Western Front -Candeth).
In the chapter dealing with Z.A Bhutto Shuja does not discuss the cadrisation plan proposed by ZA Bhutto and his tasking of Pakistan Army's Military Operations Directorate to implement it. This plan if implemented would have reduced the standing army in size and enabled the Pakistani government to spend more money on training. This plan was scrapped by Zia in 1977.
On page 471 Shuja glorifies General Kakar for having no liking for politics. He ignores the fact that Kakar was not groomed for higher ranks and was promoted because of ethnic biases. Simply because a Pashtun president was comfortable with a harmless compatriot. He also fails to note that General Kakar acted against Nawaz Sharif not because Kakar was a democrat but simply because he feared Nawaz as a threat to his chair of army chief. General Musharraf has himself acknowledged in his book that General Kakar was parochial and was favouring Pashtun officers. No compliment to an army chief who is supposed to be a much bigger man. No wonder that Kakar had been packed off to a backwater in Quetta by General Baig. Becoming chief was something that a man of Kakar's mediocre intellect could never have imagined but this happened only because of party baazi in the army and the fact that Ghulam Ishaq Khan wanted a Pashtun brother. Fair enough in a backward and tribal medieval society like Pakistan!
The author lauds caretaker premier Moin Qureshi's role in making the state bank independent but forgets Qureshi's most controversial release of advance to Bayinder Turkey for Islamabad Peshawar Motorway while also stating that this project was uneconomical. This gained nothing but total loss for Pakistan as Bayinder repatriated many million dollars without doing anything and later successfully sued Pakistan for huge damages in International Court of Justice at Hague.
On page 480 Shuja extols Talibans wild west justice in hanging Afghan President Dr Najeeb but fails to note the allegation that Pakistani agencies were suspected to be behind the assassination of Mulla Borjan the most popular and independent leader of the Taliban.
On page 481 Shuja quotes Benazir to prove that General Kakar was a brilliant strategist. What did Benazir know about strategy and what strategy did Kakar ever successfully execute other than removing a Punjabi Kashmiri president against decision of supreme court just to assist a fellow Pashtun president. What is Shuja trying to prove.
In discussing tenure of General Jahagir Karamat Shuja ignores totally the Ukrainian tank deal commissions. Nawaz Sharif the then prime minister tasked ISI to launch an investigation. Major General Zulfiqar then in ISI was tasked to investigate. He went to Ukraine and Azerbaijan and compiled a thick volume on the whole transaction and commissions taken. This was used by Nawaz later and one of the reasons why Karamat quickly stepped down. The information was given by a staff officer of major rank with DG ISI of that time and confirmed by an Intelligence Bureau officer.
As an officer who served from 1981 to 1993 how would I sum up the Pakistan Army. 1981 to 1983 a cheap emphasis on being good Muslim, growing a beard to get a good report from Zia. Further Zia used religion to get dollars. This was the basic motivation. Begs time saw for the first time a tradition of some criticism being accepted. Asif Nawaz time saw emphasis on starch but no change in the army. Kakars time saw parochialism par excellence with a chief at the head who used to count cherries in his garden and was upset when some guards ate some. A petty man elevated to the highest rank. Karamat I did not see in service and did not serve with so I cannot comment but is reported to be a mild man. Musharraf as I saw him as a major general was flashy, extrovert, egoistic but dynamic. The present army from what I learn from serving officers is again business as usual. Nothing much to write about. The agencies off course play the usual games for money and for their own naukri and Islam being misused for operational reasons.
The most serious criticism of Shuja's analysis is in treatment of Islamic fundamentalism in the army. Shuja on page 585 consoles the audience of his book that Islamic fundamentalism is still not a threat in Pakistan Army. Shuja ignores the more dangerous fact that the army has misused Islam as a slogan to mobilise the populace to achieve its narrow institutional agenda. This is more dangerous than being Islamist. Now this policy may go out of control. Right from Zia in 1977 the army generals used Islam as a slogan to fight a proxy war in Indian Kashmir and Afghanistan. Events may prove that this would be the undoing of Pakistan as it stands in its present form. Now Pakistan is perceived in the west as part of the problem and not the solution. Particularly its army and intelligence agencies are seen as the heart of the problem. India is continuously preparing for a war although a low intensity one and no solution has been achieved in Kashmir. Afghanistan is increasingly hostile and a strange but logical Indian-Russian-Iranian-NATO un declared strategic alliance has come into place in Afghanistan against Pakistan. All these are serious developments. The coming ten years may vindicate this assertion.
The Pakistan Army and its generals may be remembered in history as one of the reasons for Balkanisation of Pakistan. Not a good omen for Pakistan. The army's involvement in Pakistan's politics and government is now a serious reason of imbalance for Pakistan's political system. No hope appears in sight as we hear rumours that the agencies are still active in destabilising Pakistan's own elected government.
Shuja has burnt his midnight oil. He has compiled and collected all the facts in a nice way but his analysis has been shallow. We expected something far more profound than this. 600 pages written in vain.
Eckhard Gerdes
My Landlady the Lobotomist
Raw Dog Screaming Press
9781933293530 $22.95 www.rawdogscreaming.com
Connor Stratman
Reviewer
"Postmodern Werther: Eckhard Gerdes' My Landlady the Lobotomist"
I wrote a short story called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World," when I was a freshman in college. The story was about a failed relationship and the emotional turbulence that the narrator experiences because of it. He is subjected to his own personal hell, feeling that he has fallen in love with a ghost, an ephemeral being that he cannot grasp in own arms.
Of course, there's no use in hiding the fact that I am the narrator, and that every detail and every though contained in the prose mirrors that of the real experience.
Eckhard Gerdes, the great champion of contemporary experimental fiction, the frontrunner of the bizarro movement, read this story. Of course, the piece had no value in terms of formal innovation or pushing the lines of obscenity. However, in a letter from Eckhard, he told me that he was touched by the emotional directness of the work, that "we can shit, piss, and curse in public much readily that confess our true feelings…you risk sounding sappy and 'unreasonable,' and I think it is because you are risking this that you really gain something significant here."
I think exactly the same thing of Eckhard's new novel, My Landlady the Lobotomist. One can't help but be pulled into his narrator's sense of longing, a longing so strong that it is tangible; I could taste it on my tongue. The novel contains many elements familiar to his novels: otherworldly, debauched and fractured characters, non-linear narratives, long monologues dealing with the inner thoughts of the (anti) hero. But what's new in this work is, frankly, our author's emotional frankness. The novel—primarily—deals with single unnamed character, living in a small, boring town, teaching at a small college where the students are morons, and is in love with a married woman. The man is tremendously dissatisfied with and feels trapped by his society, his failing/failed marriage, his mind, and most of all, his life.
There are many passages which come dangerously close to being sentimental and lugubriously poetic (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that). Channeling Goethe's Werther (a personal favorite), Mann's Blue Angel and other brokenhearted artists, he strips his heart of any pretense for us to see. Indeed, "[t]he hardest thing in the world is to stand naked before someone else." (p. 46)
And that's precisely what I think Eckhard intended for this work to be: a literary picture of him naked before the reader. In the same letter he sent to me, he told me that he had had much time to reexamine his heart, which was still alive, to his surprise. That line really got me, I wanted to retort back immediately: but Eckhard, all of us have hearts! A naive thing to say, certainly. He said that for a long time that he wrote feeling as though he had a reader looking over his shoulder, but that now he feels more free than ever to set his emotions on paper. That speaks all the better for this novel, as it was written by a man who felt no inhibitions, no hesitation in its creation.
The man has no earthly idea how much I respect him.
So I urge you all, broken hearts, to read My Landlady the Lobotomist. Let it soothe you, scare you, comfort you. A truly astonishing novel.
Over By Christmas
William Daysh
Libros International
Marina Alta Centro de Negocios, Palau No.10, Denia, 03700, Alicante, Spain
Tel no. 0034 911875947
www.librosinternational.com
9781905988402, $19.99, 428 pages
Linda Ferguson
Reviewer
Over By Christmas is a breath of fresh air. At last, here is a book about life in the Great War from the Royal Navy's perspective. It is a "factional" novel in which the author uniquely brings to life many of the powerful, historical characters who were strutting the world stage at that time, making them integral to the fictional world he creates for the loves and lives of ordinary people both on the home front and at sea.
There is something for everyone here -- wonderfully descriptive accounts of explosive action at sea and on the beaches at Gallipoli, as well as strong characterisation, tender romance and a love triangle -- complete with betrayals -- on the home front. Over-arching all is the intriguing factual story of the British Prime Minister's obsessive love for a young society woman while his warlords are bickering among themselves and courting dire circumstances.
Over By Christmas is an absorbing read. I couldn't put it down and I highly recommend it to both male and female readers.
The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last
Bernard Avishai
Harcourt, Inc.
New York
9780151014521 $26.00
Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
Reviewer
Can peace be achieved in the Middle East? Political economist, Bernard Avishai, asks this question from the Israel's point of view in his newest book, The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last. He gives the answer is that peace is not likely until Israel becomes a secular democracy.
Although Israel is an open society, Avishai asserts that policies and institutions that were founded on the Zionist premise, following the post-Holocaust years, that Israel is a Jewish nation, are hampering the peace process. Working-class, Hebrew-speaking Zionists founded Israel through such groups as the Jewish National Fund, which bought and sold land; union-owned industries; a world-wide organization, the Jewish Agency, which raised funds for the nascent state; a Jewish defense force; and Labor-Zionist schools. In addition, after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, failed to approve a constitution. Hence, Israel operates on the Fourteen Basic Laws, approved in 1949; the granting of the Orthodox Jewish rabbinate official state sanction; the adoption of the Law of Return; and the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty, approved in 1994.
He claims that these organizations, designed for a different age, which still hold power today, are incompatible with a secular democracy. For example, placing Jewish settlements in pre-1967 Palestinian territory is a hold over of early Zionism and keeping the Orthodox rabbinate as the sole source to legitimate Judaism is a hold over from the British Mandate.
Avishai argues that Israel will become a secular democracy when it recognizes first, that it has boundaries, which are accepted on a world-wide basis. Second, the Knesset must pass a Bill of Rights guaranteeing all Israeli residents access, including Israeli Arabs, to an impartial state bureaucracy. The Law of Return must be abandoned and replaced with standards for immigration and naturalization. Third, the Israeli government must guarantee equality of property rights. Avishai believes that the land, which is now more than ninety per cent publicly owned, should be converted to private ownership and suggests that this happen through impartial auctions. Finally, there must be a true separation between church and state.
Who will have the power to form a coalition government that can abandon its legacy institutions? The outcome depends on the answer given to a number of internal conflicts, including, to what degree should Israel rely on its military strength to end terrorism? Should Israel withdrawal from lands that are part of its long religious history? Can a democratic Israel discriminate in favor of Jews, or to say it in another way, should Orthodox religious practice be state sanctioned and the Law of Return abandoned? Finally, who should have access to the wealth generated by the global market place?
Avishai believes that only Israel's centrist parties, such as the Kadima Party, which boasts Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, Haim Ramon, and Dalia Itzik as members, can persuade other moderate Israeli leaders and the voting public to abandon its outmoded institutions and out-of-date thinking.
The names of as many as twenty different political parties have appeared in some Israeli elections, so the "center" is both dynamic and illusive. Any coalition government must appeal to five classes of Israeli voters. The wealthiest group is made up of the Sabras, who generally have European origins. The second group is the Mizrachi Jews from North Africa. This group tends to be less wealthy than the first, naturally follow Jewish traditions and have an extreme dislike for Arabs because of the way they were treated during and after World War II. The newest constituency is the Soviet Jews who arrived in Israel during Glasnost. According to Avishai, they tend to be hyper-educated, hyper-secularized and hyper-nationalistic. The fourth population is the Israeli right wing. That is, the Ultra-Orthodox and those settlers who live on West Bank land, and finally, the Israeli Arabs.
Avishai concludes that once a powerful moderate core gives momentum to secular democracy, Israeli Arabs will have full voice in the government, access to land, education, and good-paying jobs. Educated Palestinians already feel a closer kinship to Israel then to other Arab counties and as part of the "system," Israel's Arab population will be much less likely to tear it down. Peace will prevail. Subsequently, the Economic Union and Israel will forge economic partnerships that can only benefit European citizens through Israel's place in the forefront of technology and pharmacology. Peace will also benefit Israeli citizens through secure boarders, capital investments, and greater mobility.
The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last is well conceived and well written. Whether you think that Avishai is a pie-in-the-sky dreamer for his naivety and linear thinking or a wise sage, he offers much material to ponder, particularly his perspective on the political, sociological and economic layers that have developed since the creation of the State of Israel leading to the reality that Israel finds itself in today. Peace and democracy are good things, so if Israel's internal dialogue does not come to some reasonable conclusion soon, then a country that refuses to be driven into the sea, may become swamped internally.
Elizabeth's Legacy
Suzanne Morris
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Rd. Lincoln, NE. 68512
0595398995 $23.95
JoAn W. Martin
Reviewer
Look Back with Longing was the first of the Clearharbour Trilogy. Elizabeth's Legacy follows as the second. Suzanne Morris is an expert at setting her characters in real places and times, weaving in historical events. The reader has the opportunity to renew the relationship with the characters of Look Back With Longing, a love saga filled with loss and betrayal.
Part 1 1931 – 1933 After seventeen years, Geneva and her daughter Emelye leave their beloved home in the Heights of Houston, Texas. Geneva realizes that there is no letting go of the past and to care so intensely about who will live in her house is foolish.
When Geneva and Emelye arrive in England, Tony's daughter by Jane is reluctant to welcome her half-sister and stepmother. Elizabeth has been injured in the car accident that killed her mother. Elizabeth's feelings of guilt are "like a vine creeping up the wall of an engine house." She notices immediately Emelye's well shaped, Texas tanned legs. Elizabeth wears black stockings to hide an ugly scar.
Their marriage has been delayed for years, but now they are together. Life has thrust changes upon them. Emelye has difficulty fitting into a new school – in England – not Houston. Elizabeth can think of nothing except her scarred leg. Can they cope? Could they make each other happy? Geneva longs for a sense of unity: " a trinity of past, present and future."
Morris' research is outstanding with hotels and scenes described, not only in Britain, but Lucerne, Monte Carlo, Venice, and Barbados.
Part 2 1936 – 1940: When Cynthia, Tony's mother, invited Emelye and Elizabeth to visit friends in America, Emelye is overjoyed. She is hoping to spend most of the time in Houston with James and Serena, best friends from her younger years. Her crush on James has not disappeared, but James is interested in Elizabeth.
Geneva is busy with three younger children and can't seem to stretch herself to deal with two twelve-year-old girls. Their visit to Houston reveals Morris' special ability to generate the city of Houston as a character in the story. Houstonians will recognize 1207 Heights Boulevard, White Oak Bayou, Hamilton Junior High and Reagan High School.
World War II intrudes on the lives of the Selby family. Their war related activities include procuring a gas mask for an infant, food and clothing drives, even the evacuation of London children to the country. Tony stays in London during the blitz, but Geneva deals with a difficult pregnancy and grief while attempting to run the country home. Tony and Geneva's marriage comes under a severe strain.
Part 3 1942 – 1944: James, Emelye, and Elizabeth have grown up and their "on again, off again" romances become the focus of the remainder of the novel. Elizabeth once again deals with the guilt of knowing that Emelye has been in love with James all her life. Although Elizabeth loves James, she refuses to consider marriage. With all the agony of love during a war, she hopes to remain friends. As a bridesmaid at James' and Emelye's wedding, "she wondered how long it would take her to be at peace with what she had forfeited."
Suzanne Morris' multigenerational saga covers fourteen years in which she captures the complexities of their lives. She writes accurately about fashions, manners, and events. Her many well-drawn characters' fit their daily lives into her timeline. With subtle foreshadowing, her plots and subplots are the threads to entice the reader to wait with anticipation for the third novel, Clearharbour. The three novels span more than four decades and two world wars.
Suzanne Morris admits she is fascinated watching human relationships play out, and she conveys this through characters that are larger than life on the page, yet are down to earth in a way that makes them fully believable.
You, My Love - a Diary in Verse
Richard Atwood
iUniverse, Inc.
Lincoln, NE
9780595465191 $11.95
Kaye Trout
Reviewer
Quoting from the back cover:
"You are into me like flame and fire as no other desire could know such gentle fury...like an undefined thirst incalculably uncontrolled, or passion spent in seeking a wild and wondrous rose."
You, My Love is the diary, in verse, of a young man's love for an older, married woman. If you, too, have had an overwhelming love for a beautiful woman, you may possibly understand and enjoy Richard Atwood's rich, poetic verses. How wonderful that love can inspire...even through the pain.
Survivor Moms: Women's Stories of Birthing, Mothering and Healing after Sexual Abuse
Mickey Sperlich, MA, CPM and Julia S. Seng, PhD, CNM
published by Motherbaby Press
(an imprint of Midwifery Today)
P. O. Box 2672, Eugene OR 97402
9781890446413 $34.95 survivormoms.com
Shari Maser
Reviewer
This heartrending and informative collection of women's stories and researchers' findings addresses a subject I previously knew almost nothing about. But the simple format and gentle presentation of stories and facts made an enormous amount of information easy to comprehend and process.
Survivor Moms is a courageous book that is sure to give many survivors hope and inspiration for their own journeys into motherhood. Friends and family who read it will also gain valuable insight and understanding of the challenges these women face.
Awareness is the first step to providing effective support, yet many maternity and postpartum care providers are as uninformed as I was about the prevalence and impact of sexual abuse. Thus, I believe that this book should be designated as required reading for anyone training to be an obstetrician, midwife, family practice doctor, labor and delivery nurse, doula, or childbirth educator.
A Full House – But Empty
Angus Munro
iUniverse
9780595437191 $20.95
Angus Munro is a fascinating man. He has a soft heart, an analytical mind, a good sense of humor and the business acumen of a Harvard business graduate. This says a lot for a man who keeps claiming to be a grade school dropout. There is definitely a message in Munro's memoir, one that could benefit business people and, more particularly, people in hospital administration. Indeed, Munro's book would be an excellent reading requirement for anyone pursuing a degree in the health care field.
A Full House – But Empty is a vivid account of one man's journey through a life that witnessed pain, sorrow and the basic struggles to achieve and maintain one's sense of pride and purpose against all odds. Angus was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He claims his sense of self-worth was first shattered at the tender age of three, when his mother abandoned the family (or was thrown out by the father). Growing up in the Depression years, with a single parent (his father), Munro is riddled with emotions that range from disillusionment to anger as he confronts a daily battle with his insecurities and feelings of inadequacies. But, despite what he claims as a meager background, Angus rises above his unusual upbringing to become a well mannered, dedicated and very respected administrator in the field of health care. Even the Harvard graduates could not measure up to this mere grade school dropout.
Munro is a true storyteller and his anecdotes are presented with both humor and sincerity that clearly reflects the man behind the story. He is a well-educated man, despite what he continually claims. As in the business world, Munro presents himself well in the printed word. Munro is a retired hospital administrator who once claimed Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as his home. He is a product of the environment of his childhood and the hard-working acumen and caring nature that his father both demonstrated and dictated to his family. Munro is a man of his times and, yet, in his simple, caring nature, he is somewhat beyond the times in that he displays a compassion for both work and life, a sentiment that has sadly gone astray in more recent times with the growing state of mass consumerism and self-aggrandizement.
A Full House – But Empty is a refreshing read, full of good tips for both business management personnel and sound advice for the general public. It is highly recommended by Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Allbooks Reviews.
Over By Christmas
William Daysh
Libros International
Marina Alta Centro de Negocios, Palau No.10, Denia, 03700 Alicante, Spain
Tel no. 0034 911875947
9781905988402 $19.99 www.librosinternational.com
P. Welch "Paul" (UK)
Reviewer
A thoroughly absorbing read.
This is a wonderful historical novel from first time author William Daysh. He takes as his background the first 18 months or so of the First World War. His characters are drawn from different strata of society, some real, some fictional, but all are well drawn and believable, and their dialogue convincing. They are caught up in the sweep of international events and personal emotions, and we follow their fate in these dramatic and terrible months. In the upper echelons of society we follow the British prime Minister, Asquith, trying to come to terms with the demands of the war at the same time as his feelings are directed towards a much younger woman. Churchill is there too, 'Jacky' Fisher and Lloyd George. The impact their direction of the war has on ordinary men and women is seen as we follow the fates of a father and son, Jack and George Royal, in the Royal Navy. Through their eyes we experience dramatic action on the high seas as the dreadnoughts of the British and German Navies encounter each other, and in some of the fighting in the Dardanelles. The author is very good at describing the action, and the pace is fast and exciting. And tangled emotions are not the prerogative of the upper class. We see how the relationship between George Royal and his best friend Bill are affected by the arrival of the rather mysterious Carrie, a triangle that is only resolved near the end of the story, along with the revelation about Carrie's past. This is a very well written book, pacy, easy to read, and it carries the reader along. The research for this book shows through, and also is the more convincing because of the author's own naval service. As the characters are so believable the ending is a very convincing and satisfying one. Highly recommended.
Bird's Horn & Other Poems
Kevin Rabas
Coal City Review Press
9780979584411 $10.00
As Dan Jaffe writes in his introduction to Kevin Rabas' poetry, "There is no art that does not in some way reflect the character and personality of the artist." The more willing the writer to look unflinchingly into his or her own reflection, the more powerful the resulting work. Anything less remains in the realm of technical skill. The art comes when the artist has the courage to face demons … and an angel now and then.
Kevin Rabas has looked keenly into that mirror. It's not always a pretty thing to see. This collection is marked by inconsistency, one poem a sound masterpiece, the next a flat note. But the scales weigh heavily in favor of word-music, and most of this collection is just that: words that convey rhythm and sound, an interpretation of music into verse and back again. The poet is, in fact, a jazz musician, and the transition between word and musical note is, all in all, seamless … or shall we say, rarely misses a beat?
Perhaps the highest note of the collection comes early on, in "Night Shirts That Shimmer to Dinner." Rabas combines jazz with the heart-searing pain of divorce, the stunning realization that a lost partner has actually lived a full life after a shared path has long forked in two. One feels the thrum of the music while reading. One feels the ache. The shock.
And when the annulment papers came in the mail,
no word from her in years, I knew she must've lived and lived and lived
on the blocks I once wandered and walked and knew, danced with the men
in the clubs, or danced while they played in the background, floated
dollar bills across bars to other friends, had talks with musicians…
…where music moves in the building as blood moves in the body,
and women can dance however they damn well please, and a man can
stand up and know
any damn thing his spirit can muster, can know the chord changes with
his heart,
can know the bar top and the saxophone face, and the drumhead, and the
cymbal dish,
and the touch of brushes when they are new, cat paw on Spanish tile quick,
delicate as the teardrops the sensitive get on the heart finger, the ring
finger, mine.
Take a deep breath here, savor. I had to. When you come across a poem that resonant, you almost don't want to read anymore. Just linger in the fine pitch of that moment and let it rock you.
But do. Read on. Rabas has much more to say. He brings us into the world of a jazz musician, but he also brings us into the heartaches and heartbreaks of life as all of us who dare to live know it. He lets us witness the small joys that make up a greater happiness in a life well lived, capturing greater meanings in such simple scenes as of a new father playing catch with his small son, learning how to lob a ball soft and easy so the little guy can catch it—and in that act showing that love is all about releasing oneself as center of the universe and putting the other at center. Rabas has achieved as much in his poetry. In his best works, he has had the courage to reveal his innermost self, yet made us, his readers, feel that it is our core that he has recognized and acknowledged.
Kevin Rabas teaches creative writing and literature at Emporia State University. He co-edits Flint Hills Review and writes for Jazz Ambassador Magazine (JAM). He is winner of a Langston Hughes Award for Poetry and other awards.
Andrew's Bookshelf
Naval Forces Under the Sea
Office of Naval Research and The Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society
Best Publishing
9781930536302 $62.50 www.bestpub.com
For those interested in the US Navy's undersea history and exploits, this book is for you. Loaded with old photos of men, submarines, and equipment, "Naval Forces under the sea" takes the reader back to the early days of the Navy's submarine and diving days; back to October 1900 and the USS Holland, the first commissioned submarine.
The book is more than just a dry recitation of submarines and incidents. The team of authors has carefully taken various important incidents and used them to explain the evolution of tactics, strategy, and equipment. Thus the September 1925 tragedy in which the M/V City of Rome rammed and sank the submarine S-51 in Long Island Sound (killing 33 of 36 crewmen) is discussed in terms of the salvage operation and how the Navy learned from the incident.
Far more than a coffee table book, "Naval Forces" also delves into the Navy's special forces and technical operations. SEAL operations, EOD (bomb-squad) operations, and their uses in Vietnam have earned a special chapter, as did the early Sealab research vehicles. A special section is dedicated to salvage operations, with such famous wrecks as the USS Normandie examined, as well as various hitherto-unknown deep-see operations.
Who would have thought that submarines, deep-sea rescue, or trips to the ocean floor could be so exciting? Read "Naval History Under the Sea" and discover for yourself!
United States Navy Diver
Mark V. Lonsdale
Best Publishing
19781930536272 $31.00 www.bestpub.com
This is an excellent book from Best Publishing in their series on the US Navy and deep-sea diving.
Author Mark Lonsdale, a deep saturation diver and trainer in his own right, has written a book that makes one think of the old Lloyd Bridges TV series "Sea Hunt" or the early Jacques Cousteau documentaries. Crammed with pictures of vintage equipment, old boats, and some determined early divers.
With Lonsdale being a diver himself, it is not surprising that equipment takes a prominent role in the story; he gives the reader an interesting eyes-on of deep-diving helmets, re-breathers, and assorted other items in a fashion that is interesting and understandable.
But this is far from a technicians story; Lonsdale has used recent current events to illustrate how Navy divers are used every day; he talks about them playing important roles in the recovery of JFK Jr's. small plane, Egypt Air Flt 990, and of course the challenge of TWA Flight 800 in Long Island Sound in 1996. Equally interesting is his re-cap of the 2001 project in which the turret and main guns from the Civil War's USS Monitor were raised.
Well written, interesting, and filled with color photographs, this pictorial book will appeal to both Navy and civilian enthusiasts of deep-sea diving.
Slaughter at Goliad
Jay Stout
Naval Institute Press
9871591148432 www.nip.org
While every American and Mexican schoolchild knows the story of the Alamo, few "Norteamericanos" know the story of the massacre that followed it, that of killing 250 unarmed Texan prisoners at Goliad.
Author Jay Stout's latest book "Slaughter at Goliad" brings this blot on the Mexican military into the harsh light of day. Exceptionally well-written, he brings his experience as a Marine combat aviator into the battle as he explains the fight in terms that every reader can understand.
Superficially, this is a simple story; after a one-sided battle won by the Mexican Army over a bunch of rag-tag Texan-American volunteers, some 250 prisoners were marched to Goliad. After 200 more prisoners were brought to the compound, where they were all massacred on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. It was one of the single largest losses of life in the history of the young United States, and the repercussions affected Texas, America, and Mexico virtually immediately.
Of special importance to the battle and to the book is Stout's examination of the personalities and politics involved. Stout portrays James Walker Fannin, the commander of the doomed unit, as an ineffective leader who misjudged his adversary, Mexico's infamous General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. As author Stout explains, rather than courage, it was Fannin's incompetence as a battlefield commander that put his men into a position where they had to either surrender or be killed – and it was equally Santa Anna's ego and short-sightedness that led him to execute Fannin and his troops.
Fully understanding Clausewitz's dictum that 'war is merely politics by another means', Stout goes on to explain how this massacre was integral into galvanizing American public opinion in favor of a war against Mexico.
Not to be forgotten is Stout's description of the boots-on-the-ground stories of Fannin's men. They came to Texas for various reasons, and with equally various and vague backgrounds, yet were integral to the Texan drive for independence. "Manifest destiny" started here, with men like those under Fannin's command, and Stout does an excellent job documenting it.
Neither pro-nor-con Mexico or America, Jay Stout has written an interesting and sophisticated battle history of a long-forgotten incident that helped Texas win their war of independence. This is well worth reading for both the casual and educational reader of both military and North American history. Ole!
No Atheists in Foxholes
Cmdr Patrick McLaughlin
Thomas Nelson
9780849919985 $19.99 www.thomasnelson.com
This is a thoughtful book on a very private and personal subject.
First-time author Patrick McLaughlin is a Lutheran pastor who has served two tours in Iraq as an active-duty Navy Chaplain assigned to both surgical shock trauma and mortuary affairs units with the Marine Corps – and prior to that, he served as President and Mrs Bush's chaplain at Camp David prior to – and during – the early stages of the war in Iraq.
As such Cmdr McLaughlin understands war, and its effect on the Marines who fight it. His book consists of fifty prayers he'd written in order to get him through some incredibly trying days – answering questions like "will I lose my foot", will I be OK" and "will I wake up again" from these young Marines must either challenge or reinforce one's faith in God, and this book opens a very private window into the war for the reader. One's political stance on the war is easily cast away when we read of his experiences outside the operating room as he writes "at these moments, the very real presence of God is felt among us."
But is there a prayer adequate when he gave blood to save a Marine, yet the surgery was unsuccessful? Probably not, for as McLaughlin writes "I stand quietly and watch as the priest prays over the body of this heroic Marine." Yet McLaughlin had another year of duty in Iraq, and those too-regular tragedies need to be pushed to the back of his mind as he readied himself for the next day.
This will be a difficult book to read for anyone who has a son, spouse, or daughter serving overseas as it describes in detail more of the war than the media will ever understand or the Marines or soldiers will share with a non-combatant. But it is highly recommended because now we know that our family members are in the good hands of Chaps McLaughlin and his fellow combat chaplains. You've written an awesome book, Chaps, thank you and Semper Fi.
Crescent Fire
David M. Salkin
Berkley Group
9780425214466 $6.99 www.Penguin.com
This is a fiction novel that reads like its been ripped from the front page of the New York Times.
Continued crisis in the middle east, an oil 'issue', Israeli-Palestinian problems, FBI-CIA turf battles; first-time author David Salkin has come up with a book that begins to rival the stories of Tom Clancy. A former Marine, Salkin writes knowledgeably and at times, humorously, on the Middle East, and his research and attention to detail is one of the reason the book is so readable. Set in the post 9/11 world, "Crescent Fire" could be either a fiction novel or the next headline in Newsweek – it's that good. Another terrorist attack on the United States? Read this book, and then decide if it's possible.
Highly recommended, Salkin has written a book that makes for excellent reading for anyone interested in current events.
Andrew Lubin, Reviewer
www.andrewlubin.com
Bethany's Bookshelf
The Last Love Letter
Amanda Easton
Publish America
P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705
1424198518, $19.95, www.publishamerica.com
A crush can take a long time to die, especially if it's never acted upon. "The Last Love Letter" is Amanda Easton's story about letting go and the law of attraction. She tries to write a final love letter to the object of her affections, but she finds it's nowhere as easy as it sounds. In the process she ends up discussing love, romance, sex, honesty, expectations, and other things sought along the road to companionship. "The Last Love Letter" is a first person dive into the subject, sure to enlighten and entertain anyone who would pick it up.
The Savory Secrets Of Dodi's Home Cooking
Howida (Dodi) Elhalogy
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 South Parker Road, #515, Parker, CO 80134
26342 Forest Ridge Drive, Condo Unite #4H, Lake Forest, CA 92630
9781432725570, $35.95, www.outskirtspress.com, 1-888-672-6657
Born and raised in an agricultural village near Tanta, Egypt (located in the middle of the Nile Delta), Howida (Dodi) Elhalogy began at the age of twelve to help her mother and five sisters prepare the family meals and the special dining occasions required by her father's position as mayor of the province. That is the background story of how Dodi became a culinary expert in the art of Middle Eastern cooking. Drawing upon her many years of experience and expertise, Dodi has collected a variety of her family's traditional style recipes and published them in the pages of "The Savory Secrets Of Dodi's Home Cooking: Middle Eastern Recipes Written In English & Arabic". These bi-lingually presented family recipes showcase a culinary wealth authentic dishes ranging from appetizers, suops, salads, and sauces, to rice dishes, main dishes, and desserts. "The Savory Secrets Of Dodi's Home Cooking" is enhanced for the kitchen chef with full color photography, a chapter of 'Helpful Hints'; as well as a section identifying the weights and measures used in the recipe instructions. From an Artichoke Soup, to a Bechamel Sauce, to a Shredded Fillo Dough with Ricotta Cheese, "The Savory Secrets Of Dodi's Home Cooking" offers 'kitchen cook friendly' recipes that would grace any dining occasion with an Egyptian flair.
Making Trouble
Lynne Segal
Serpents Tail
9781852429379, $15.95, www.serpentstail.com
The concept that a woman could be a man's mental equal was a radical idea before the 1970s feminist movement. "Making Trouble: Life and Politics" is a reflection on the 1970s feminist movement, how it developed during that decade, and experiments with the lifestyle of communal living, which had people share everything from their lovers to their children. "Making Trouble" is a thought provoking look at an underground culture, and is a worthy pick for any women's studies collections.
Conversations with Asenath
Sisi Theo
Xulon Press
2180 West State Road 434, Suite 2140, Longwood, FL 32779
9781602669024, $13.99, www.xulonpress.com
The ability to criticize the leadership of a country is so taken for granted in today's world. "Conversations with Asenath" jumps back to a time where that ability was not freely available, but some dared to speak on it anyway. A look at modern topics from the perspective of an ancient Egyptian woman and her brother, the perspectives expressed are done in a new and intriguing way to keep readers reading. "Conversations with Asenath" is a must for community library fiction collections and those who want something different.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Betty's Bookshelf
Easy Beading, Volume 3: The Best Projects from the Third Year of Beadstyle
Magazine
Kalmbach Books
21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612
9780871162410 $29.95 www.kalmbach.com
I love making my own jewelry and designing things for others, which means I'm always looking for new ideas and tips. Along the way, I've read stacks of books about jewelry-making, and I've discovered that not all books a recreated equal. Some have lovely projects with confusing directions, others are badly illustrated, and many are full of dull designs I wouldn't be caught dead in.
However, the folks at Beadstyle Magazine have never let me down. I'd already read and enjoyed the goodies in first two volumes of Easy Beading, so I was excited to get my hands on Volume 3. I wasn't disappointed, either. Volume 3 includes almost 100 projects (shown in full-color photos), along with supply lists, step-by-step illustrated directions, supply notes, design guidelines, and editor's notes and tips. A new feature in this volume is the icon at the beginning of each necklace project that shows the length of each necklace. There are also five pages of Shortcuts, the column of tips, tricks, and time-savers that have been sent into Beadstyle Magazine by readers (my favorite part of the magazine!)
The projects are divided into six sections (glass and ceramic; pearls and shells; metal and chain; gemstones; crystals; and mixed materials), so no matter what material you like to use, you should be able to find something you'll want to make. If you want to use the book's designs as springboards for your own ideas, be sure to read the editor's notes for additional angles.
I especially enjoyed the four designs included from the magazine's "Beads of Change" department, using beads made and sold by communities that support their local economy with their beading proceeds. The projects in Volume 3 use beads from Krobo, Ghana; the Erarn villages of Thailand; Kazuri Ltd., Kenya; and Gallup, New Mexico; and include information on where to purchase them.
Volume 3 offers more than just projects. There's a complete table of contents, a nice index, and a contributor list, too, as well as a full-color photo glossary of tools and common bead types, two pages of illustrated techniques (making plain and wrapped loops, using crimps, making various knots used in jewelry-making, and so on), and a guide to bead sizing. (It would have been nice to also have a resource list that rounded up all the contact information in one place, but I guess you can't have everything!)
A couple of practical touches worth mentioning are the hard cover that allows you to leave the book open to the page you're working from, and the glossy finish that wipes off easily, in case you put the book down on something sticky. (Ask me how I know…) I look forward to Volume 4!
Easy Beaded Jewelry
Susan Ray and Sue Wilke
Krause Publications
700 East State Street, Iola, WI 54990-0001
087349895X $21.99 www.fwpublications.com 1-800-726-9966
If beaded jewelry is your thing, you'll enjoy checking out Easy Beaded Jewelry, by Susan Ray and Sue Wilke. It may seem a bit pricy at $21.99 - after all, it is a paperback book - but it offers a lot of bang for the buck. From the memory-inspiring questions that begin the book's introduction ["What is your favorite piece of jewelry? Where did it come from? Who gave it to you or made it for you? Can you remember the event?"] to the handy appendices [bead types, sizes, and finishes; fittings and findings; jewelry lengths; artist contact information; and a resource list], you'll definitely get your money's worth.
The book contains 75 projects (including watches and amulet bags), which are shown in clear photos, accompanied by "What You Need [beads/findings]"and "Toolbox" lists and "What You Need to Know" directions that reference instructions contained in the front of the book. Each design also includes the designer's and lamp work artist's names, project's finished size, and time to complete.
In addition, there's an approximate cost listed with each project, although the cutesy format is a little annoying: "One-way ticket to London- More than $100." Thankfully, not all the projects are that expensive; many are a movie and popcorn" - less than $20. Helpful tips and snippets of beading lore at the bottom of the pages are a nice extra, along with 300 gorgeous (and inspiring) photos.
I especially loved the earring designs on pg. 36 [earrings being my favorite thing to make, since I don't have pierced ears and great clips are hard to find], as well as the chapter called "Finding and Storing Your Bead Stock". However, I must admit I have more of a problem storing my bead stock than finding it. I can't seem to pass a bead shop or craft store without popping in "just to look" and leaving with more stuff to store.
My quilter sister-in-law tells me she has the same problem with quilt shops and fabric stores. Good to know I'm not alone… and even better to know there's hope. I'm already using one tip from the book: store your on-the-go beads and findings in the lidded compartments of a "days-of-the-week" pillbox from the drugstore.
Metal Clay Magic: Making Silver Jewelry the Easy Way
Nana V. Mizushima
Kalmbach Books
21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI, 53187-1612
0871162202 $21.95 www.kalmbach.com
Metal clay is a fascinating substance that was developed in 1991 by Japanese scientists from tiny particles of precious metal (smaller than 20 microns) combined with an organic binder and water mixture. It is manufactured by two Japanese companies, Aida Chemical Industries [Art Clay Products] and Mitsubishi [Precious Metal Clay or PMC] and it handles very much like the clay you remember from childhood art classes. You can roll it out into thin sheets and cut it into shapes with a cookie cutter or knife, roll it into snaky shapes, extrude it, fold it into origami-style figures - the sky's the limit!
It's just as much fun as you remember and just as forgiving - as long as it's in the wet clay stage, if you don't like what you've made, you can squish it up and start over, as many times as you like. It stores safely at room temperature, too, and if it dries out, you can chop it up and reconstitute it with water. You can even repair or alter your work once it's dry, using a metal clay slip to stick pieces together. Scraps (and scrapped projects) that you don't want to reuse can even be sold, since they are actually precious metal.
However, the best part comes later, once you've shaped your clay into something that pleases you and it's dry (and looking pretty boring). Now, you fire it, and what emerges is amazing: a real, honest-to-goodness precious metal art object! Oh, it isn't shiny yet - it takes a bit of burnishing to remove the chalky white coating - but it's really metal. It's a bit like alchemy, except that you use clay instead of lead, and no magic wand is required. Really, it's so amazing, many people have to see it to believe it. (My scientifically-minded husband still isn't completely sure that I'm not pulling his leg when I talk about metal clay jewelry!)
Any time you take up a new craft, it's a smart idea to learn from a master, so that you don't waste your time (and money) reinventing the wheel. For metal clay, you can't go wrong turning to artisan Nana V. Mizushima, a certified teacher with the PMC Guild. Mizushima has demonstrated her projects on the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Network and her book, Metal Clay Magic: Making Silver Jewelry the Easy Way, is written in a very accessible DIY style.
Mizushima begins the book with a brief introduction to the materials, tips, and techniques you'll need to start out, and then goes on to give step-by-step instructions (accompanied by very clear photos) of over two dozen projects, including some using metal clay paper, another interesting product. The book is chock-full of photos, including a gallery of inspiring projects done by metal clay artists from around the US, as well as instructions for three different ways to fire your work, a list of resources, suppliers, and web sites, a suggested reading list, a glossary, and a full-page index. If metal clay interests you at all, here's the place to start.
The Dragon Done It
Edited by Eric Flint and Mike Resnick
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403, Riverdale, NY 10471
9781416555285 $24.00 www.baen.com
Q: What do you get when you toss mystery and magic into a blender?
A: You end up with The Dragon Done It, a cross-genre collection of seventeen short stories and two novelettes by some of the best writers around - Esther M. Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolfe, David Drake, Harry Turtledove, Eric Flint, Mike Resnick, and more - wrapped up in an attention-grabbing cover by Bob Eggleton.
It's all here, from werewolves and vampires to ghosts and fairy tale folks, in mysteries that (for the most part) will keep you on the edge of your seat (and possibly, still wide awake at 2:00 am). It served as a nice introduction to several authors I'd never read before, as well; I especially enjoyed Michael M. Jones's "Claus of Death" (featuring a down-at-the-heels Santa with a whole new look on life) and Randall Garrett's "A Case of Identity" (featuring the famous detective, Lord Darcy). Even though I didn't enjoy every story to the same degree, overall it was a worthwhile way to spend a few hours and confirmed once again that Baen is the best when it comes to choosing what to publish in science fiction. You guys rock!
Dragonwell Dead
Laura Childs
Berkley Prime Time
Penguin Group, Inc., 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014
9780425213865 $23.95 http://www.penguin.com
Charleston's Spring Plantation Ramble is the perfect place to enjoy floral beauty and food goodies while you network with South Carolina's finest, and Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is enjoying the show, until commodities broker Mark Congdon dies suddenly while drinking a glass of the tea shop's Dragonwell Sweet Tea, Theo's latest concoction.
At first it is assumed that a heart attack killed him. Instead, it turns out that he was poisoned. Was the glass of tea he took off the refreshment table meant for someone else, or had his outbidding several rabid orchid collectors for a rare plant pushed someone over the edge? Would someone kill for an orchid, or is there more going on? Theo may not have known him very well, but something in the tea killed him, and that makes it personal.
Then, someone torches the nearby B&B and tries to kill Theo and her sixtyish assistant and master tea blender, Drayton, while they're out in a canoe on an orchid hunt. OK, now it's really personal, and Theo is determined to find out who is at the bottom of all this. In the search for answers, though, she's overlooked a few important details, and they may cost her more than the relatively minor injuries she escaped with after the canoe trip. This time, what she doesn't know could kill her.
Laura Childs, author of the Tea Shop Mystery series, has a way with words that brings the warm, humid atmosphere and old money ways of Charleston to life. She can describe the somber atmosphere of a Charleston cemetery, the stillness of a Carolina swamp, and the chaos of a house fire well enough to make you almost feel as though you are there. Her characters are well-developed, the dialogue has an authentic southern ring to it (which I am very familiar with, since I was born and raised in the south by native southerners), and her plots and situations are usually very believable (although going over a waterfall in a metal canoe and surviving it with bumps and bruises and a canoe still stocked with paddles, baskets, aplastic thermos of tea, and Drayton's hat took some major suspending of belief).
Even better are her descriptions of the food that the south is known for. Whether she's taking you through the buffet line of a typical southernfund-raiser or seating you at the table with her heroine at an upper crust dinner, she describes everything so well, it makes your mouth water. Makes me downright homesick!
However, her best descriptions are saved for the tea shop food: teas, scones, muffins, sandwich spreads - yum! The book's jacket blurb says that Childs is a "consummate tea drinker" and it shows throughout her Tea Shop Mystery books, which drip with names redolent of the Far East. Assam green tea. Keemun. Hyson. Lapsang souchong. And not only does she name various teas, she tells what they taste like and what kind of food they go best with.
In fact, she gives Theo, Drayton, and shop baker Haley, the main characters of the series, a knowledge of tea beyond anything I even knew was possible. Heck, even Tidwell, the obligatory semi-friendly policeman that gets involved with Theo and the gang from time to time, knows more about it than I do! Tea is grown on almost every continent except Antarctica and often has overtones of fruit, spices, earthiness, even chocolate. Who knew? Well, now I do, thanks to Laura Childs.
A nice bonus in Childs' books (besides the free tea education) is a group of recipes in the back of each book, representing some of the food mentioned in the story. If your mouth watered when she mentioned a delicious scone or tea sandwich, chances are a recipe for it is also included. You can even plan your own tea party by using the Tea Time Tips that follow the recipes.
I read a lot of mysteries and since food writing and restaurant reviews are among my specialties, I especially like the ones that involve food and include recipes,. However, Childs' recipes are the only ones that have actually tempted me into baking something - successfully, I might add -and her books are among the few that I reserve as soon as I can hunt down the latest title. If you like mouth-watering mysteries, Laura Childs is the writer to choose.
Betty Winslow
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, Lies
Ginger Strand
Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
9781416546566 $25.00 www.GingerStrand.com or www.simonsays.com
Mention Niagara Falls and most people will think of honeymoons, cascading water, and, perhaps, daredevils challenging the falls in a barrel or balancing on a tightrope. In her new book, "Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, Lies", Ginger Strand radically alters that equation to also include radioactive mice, race riots, a missing Egyptian Pharaoh and bogus Indian myths.
In this morality tale about economic devastation, Strand holds the icon of kitsch up as the poster child of environmental ruin. As she delves into roughly 400 years of Niagara's history, the author shows that falsification, prevarication and omission have marred the true accounts of the once breathtaking landmark's past.
Far more than one of the world's more spectacular waterfalls, the story of Niagara represents the control of nature, the rise of electricity, the nightmare of industrial pollution and the birth of the commercialized wedding industry.
"I went to Niagara to think about nature," writes Strand, "but was soon enveloped by the far more complex back-story of the Falls." Continuing, she sees this landmark straddling the border between the U.S. and Canada as a monument to man's meddling rather than as something that celebrates nature's strength.
"On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to the ways America falsifies its relationship to nature, reshaping its contours, redirecting its force, claiming to submit to its will while imposing our own upon it," Strand says. "The irony is that, even though Niagara is the most recognized landscape in the world, we don't really see it."
The picture Ginger Strand paints in this idiosyncratic cultural portrait of this tourist Mecca is as fascinating as it is informative and upsetting. Thinking back to the falls, if you have visited them you'll wonder, "Why didn't I see that?" If you are planning a trip, after reading this book you'll go with your eyes fully open. The rainbow punctuated mists that rise up from the falls won't blind you to the truths the falling water hides!
Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial
Alison Bass
Algonquin Books
127 Kingston Drive #105, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
9781565125537 $24.95 www.algonquin.com
As a reporter for the Boston Globe, Alison Bass has covered some attention grabbing front page stories, but none have created quite the uproar that the piece on suicide rates among adolescents taking antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft has.
In "Side Effects" Bass tells the tale of a gutsy assistant attorney general who, along with an unlikely whistle-blower at an Ivy League university (Brown University), uncovered evidence of deception behind one of the most successful drug campaigns in history.
Paxil was the world's bestselling antidepressant in 2002. Pediatric prescriptions soared, even though there was no proof that the drug performed any better than sugar pills in treating children and adolescents, and the real risks the drugs posed were withheld from the public.
The New York State Attorney General's office brought an unprecedented lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Paxil, for consumer fraud. The successful suit launched a tidal wave of protest that changed the way drugs are tested, sold and marketed in this country.
Bass exposes the underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry as she lays bare the unhealthy ties between the medical establishment, big pharma, and the FDA. Many people will be disturbed by what they read in this book but the details behind the headline making case need to be exposed so this type of situation is not allowed to occur again.
In an election year it might be well to remember that between 1998 and 2006, drug companies spent a total of $1.2 billion on lobbying and political contributions in the U.S., according to the center for Responsive Politics.
That, and the fact that of the 13 drugs withdrawn from the market due to health risks since 1997, at least seven are now known to have been approved over the objections of FDA safety reviewers, may make you want to check to see where these drug companies are spending their money this time around!
Shadow Command
Dale Brown
William Morrow
10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022
9780061173110 $25.95 www.harpercollins.com
Dale Brown's new novel "Shadow Command" offers a mix of contemporary international conflict and futuristic military technology. In this new stand-alone follow up to the popular series featuring General Patrick McLanahan, the General's new "Aerospace Battle Force" has grown to a full task force that can be deployed in just hours any place in the world using their Black Stallion spaceplanes.
A thriller set in space, a struggle develops for control of this awesome unit among foreign and American politicians. At the center, of course, is McLanahan who must outmaneuver his own government, stymie the Russians, and stay alive long enough to preserve his very special defense unit.
Vintage Dale Brown, "Shadow Command" will keep the author's legion of fans totally engaged from page one to the novel's searing conclusion.
Just in time for the Olympic Games in China is" Survival Chinese Lessons", a thoroughly 'user friendly' introduction to common Chinese phrases that every visitor can use to make themselves understood. The author of this practical book/CD instruction manual is Joann Pittman, who has lived in the People's Republic of China for the last 23 years as an English teacher, Director of a Chinese language program, Educational Program Director, and as a cross-cultural trainer who has extensively studied and researched the Chinese language and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. A compilation of fifteen short, easy-to-learn lessons of essential phrases, "Survival Chinese Lessons" will teach the aspiring China-bound traveler how to express themselves in simple greetings, thanks, hailing taxies and asking for food. Enhanced with practice dialogues, learning techniques, expansion activities, and a Pinyin sound chart, "Survival Chinese Lessons" is a very highly recommended instructional for anyone seeking to vacation or do business in China.
The Koran Deception
Anonymous
Infinity Publishing
1094 New Dehaven Street, Suite 100, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713
0741438267, $10.95, www.infinitypublishing.com
The Koran has guided millions of human lives throughout history. "The Koran Deception" is a deconstruction of this holy book from the perspective of Christianity. Examining verses from the Koran side by side with other verses, "The Koran Deception" compares, contrasts, and harshly evaluates the Koran's message. A sharply critical look at one of the most influential religious books in history.
Metaphysical Maxims
J.R. Azizollahoff
Infinity Publishing
1094 New Dehaven Street, Suite 100, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713
0741447711, $10.95, www.infinitypublishing.com
Inner peace is something many desire, but few pursue seriously. "Metaphysical Maxims: Enlightenment Through Meditation & Morals" is a guide for those seeking tranquility, claiming that spirit and virtue are two sides of the same coin, and that living with morality is essential to finding meditative inner peace. A sold choice for any spirituality collection, as well as metaphysical studies supplemental reading lists.
Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire
Marianne O'Connor
Publishing Works, Inc. & Revolution
60 Winter Street, Exeter, NH 03833
9781933002590, $12.95 www.publishingworks.com
Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire is a hiking trail guide with a difference. From ghost towns of Monson Center and Indian Arrowhead Forest, to the UFO of Indian Head, to tales of Satan at Devil's Den Mountain, each hike is presented with a black-and-white map, and a scary story of its history. A handful of black-and-white photographs intersperse this spooky delight enthusiastically recommended for hikers in search of not just natural splendor, but also the unexplained majesty of the preternatural.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
Burroughs' Bookshelf
Urban Fey Book I: The Urban Court
Kimberley Long-Ewing, author
Rhea Ewing, illustrator
Lulu Press
860 Aviation Parkway, Suite 300, Morrisville, NC 27560
9781435717244, $19.95 www.lulu.com
Urban Fey Book I: The Urban Court is a truly unique fantasy graphic novel based on the idea that, in today's modern world, fairies would inhabit not only places of nature but representations of the modern human city as well. Traffic light fairies, electricity nymphs, dumpster bogeys and more need Fairy Lords and Ladies born from the collective consciousness of modern things to organize and guide them. Lord Neon seeks to consolidate the Urban Fey into a court worthy to represent their interests on par with the courts of the Jungle, Prairie, Mountain, etc. But it is a difficult task, as the naturally quarrelsome urban fairy nobility (from Lord Wall Street and Lady Opera to Lord Subway and Bodymod) are further set at each other's throats through interference from the Great Court! Sly trickster Coyote observes the unraveling chaos as Lord Neon and his allied rival Lady Hestia seek to stop and all-out civil war! The unpretentious black-and-white art style has a natural flow well suited to this captivating graphic novel, recommended especially for fairy and fantasy lovers. Bonus sketches and helpful tidbits such as how to stay on the good side of postal fairies enhance this splendidly enjoyable tale.
The Art And Making Of Star Wars Force Unleashed
W. Haden Blackman & Brett Rector
Palace Press International
180 Varick Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10014
9781933784250, $29.95, www.palacepress.com
Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon of global proportions. What began as inspired and inspiring science fiction action/adventure movie trilogy has expanded into novels, comics, video games, fan conventions, and memorabilia that seems to increase in popularity every year. The collaborative work of Star War's enthusiasts W. Haden Blackman and Brett Rectork, "The Art And Making Of Star Wars Force Unleashed" is a profusely illustrated compendium of information about the creation of the 'Star Wars: Force Unleashed' video game that takes place within the Star Wars universe between the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Rebel Alliance. The cutting edge of game design as applied to this Star Wars theme entertainment is fully described and illustrated with more than 300 conceptual artworks. Readers are provided with a virtual tour of the development process, provided with details of unused game concepts, story meetings with George Lucas as well as commentaries and interviews with other key members of the video game design teams. Enhanced with ten Character Cards, "The Art And Making Of Star Wars Force Unleashed" will proved to be an essential addition to the personal collections of dedicated Star Wars fans and enthusiasts as the Star Wars phenomena continues to unfold as a multi-faceted, multi-platform, multi-format entertainment.
Maggots In My Sweet Potatoes
Susan Madden Lankford
Humane Exposures Publishing, LLC
501 West Broadway, Suite A #386, San Diego, CA 92101
9780979236617, $45.95, www.HumaneExposures.com
America has the dubious distinction of having one of the largest prison populations on the planet. The result of two years of photography combined with interviews of prisoners and jailors, "Maggots In My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time" by Susan Madden Lankford showcases a photographic study of imprisoned women as they strive to deal with personal despair, desperation, alienation, and hope. Providing the non-specialist general reader with a window into the lives and circumstances of the incarcerated, "Maggots In My Sweet Potatoes" reveals the inherent weakness of a penology system that is breaking down under the burden of having to cope with overcrowding, under-funding, mental illness, emotional volatility, addiction, and the assorted stresses of life behind bars. A superbly executed study, "Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes" is especially recommended for inclusion into academic library reference collections and the supplemental reading lists of prison reform social activists.
Drift
Ronald Means
Xlibris
International Plaza II, Suite 340, Philadelphia, PA 19113
9781425790806, $19.99, www.xlibris.com
James Smith never wanted to be President, but things rarely turn out the way people want. "Drift: The Little President's Ordeal" is Jamie's tale of gaining the office and dealing with all of the problems and troubles that come with it. Dealing with terrorism, lobbyists, other politicians, and a nasty Speaker of the House, Smith's only comfort and ally is his first lady. A finely crafted story of the proverbial little man in the presidential office, "Drift" is a must for readers and community library fiction collections.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
From Sorrow to Dancing
Marcy Kelly
Xulon Press
2180 West State Road 434, Suite 2140, Longwood, FL 32779
J&J Consulting (publicity)
7 Corozal, Foothill Ranch, CA 92610
9781604776119, $10.99, www.xulonpress.com
The death of one's spouse... the loss of one's soul mate. "From Sorrow to Dancing: The Recent Widow's Handbook" is a guide for those who have experienced the tragedy of losing a dearly beloved husband, leaving them in the despair of loneliness. With advice and tips on overcoming the difficulties of being widowed, "From Sorrow to Dancing" is helpful guide to surviving the grieving process and moving on with one's life. A must-have for recent widows ,and for community library self-help collections.
The Contingency Man
Trudy Fong
Lulu
860 Aviation Parkway, Suite 300, Morrisville, NC 275660
9781435709416, $21.50, www.lulu.com
Financially cut off by his parents, Matt must face the terrifying reality of a day job in "The Contingency Man". Luck's not all bad, as he suddenly discovers he's a magnificent artist despite having no inclination to art whatsoever. Luck gets bad again as a fledgling actress forces her way into his life with little thought of Matt's needs. "The Contingency Man" is highly recommended for community library fiction collections and to anyone who wants a bit of an offbeat story.
Not All of Them About Zombies
Matthew Rowe
Lulu
860 Aviation Parkway, Suite 300, Morrisville, NC 275660
9781847997074, $13.95, www.lulu.com
Offbeat concepts have passed through everyone's head at one time or another. But what if one spared entirely too much thought for them? "Not All of Them About Zombies" is a compilation of stories by Matthew Rowe, touching on subjects such as the adulthood of Little Red Riding Hood, body swapping, facing ones dreams and fears, and more eclectic topics. As intriguing as it is hilarious, "Not All of Them About Zombies" is highly recommended for community library fiction collections.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Cheri's Bookshelf
Unleash the Poem Within: How Reading and Writing Poetry Can Liberate Your Creative Soul
Wendy Nyemaster
Sourcebooks Inc.
P.O. Box 4410 Naperville, Illinois 60567
9781402209444 $15.95 www.sourcebooks.com
Author Wendy Nyemaster takes you on an incredible journey in "Unleash the Poem Within"! With laughter, joy and tears she teaches us twelve different types of poetry from a sonnet to the prayer poem, along with the Poetry Posse, an awesome group of women who enjoy and are committed to the writing and sharing of their creativity in order to enhance their lives. Believe me this is not your high school or even college level teaching. Written for women by women this book guides you through how to release your creative spirit for self-expression as well as to find inner peace and to see the beauty around us. This novel also shows that we can experiment and find our own creative inner voice which we all have-we just need to find it. Nyemaster brings it down to the plain simple level of know how. Whether you write for yourself or even to be published this book will give you the teaching to ignite your creative soul.
How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business, fifth edition
Lucy V. Parker
Globe Pequot Press
246 Goose Lane PO Box 480 Guilford, Connecticut 06437
9780762744015 $18.95 www.globepequot.com
If you are looking for a concise complete manual for starting a home writing business you can't go wrong with this one. Author Lucy Parker takes you on a step by step journey in setting up your own business, in easy to understand terms. Parker covers all the bases including office equipment, making your business legal and selling yourself in a total of ten different chapters. Invaluable are the thirty worksheets throughout the book at the end of each chapter to help setup your business. Also key are Bibliography and the Source Directory at the back of the book. The Bibliography lists other helpful books for more information. The Source Directory lists valuable information you can find on the internet. In this fifth edition which is updated from the original 1994 edition you'll find a lot of key information on the internet that I'm sure the early editions lacked.
Painted Dresses
Patricia Hickman
WaterBrook Press
a division of Random House
12265 Oracle Boulevard Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
9781400071999 $13.99 www.waterbrookpress.com
Gaylen Slyer-Boatwright ---wife, sister, daughter, everyone's lifesaver-cheater. She sets out on a journey, a journey not entirely of her own making. It starts out in Boiling Water, North Carolina where she's attending her father's funeral. Gaylen finds out her and her sister Delia have inherited a quarter of a million dollars! Her sister is not able to care for herself (a little off in the head) and separated from her husband Braden her life is turned upside down. But this is only the beginning.
Gaylen decides to give Delia their father's house and returns to Delia's trailer to collect her things. While there Delia shoots her boyfriend's wife which sets the two women on the run as Delia's drug-dealing boyfriend is seeking to murder Delia. After many twists and turns they stop at their deceased Aunt Amity's mountain cottage. Which gives Gaylen a direction in this journey, seeing her Aunt Amity's artwork dresses painted to framed canvasses, Gaylen decides to return each piece to each family member seeking in return the silent truth as to why her mother had kicked her half-brother Truman out of the house when Gaylen was a child. Along the way she even goes to Angola Prison where her brother is incarcerated.
Author Patricia Hickman has done it again in "Painted Dresses". Hickman has an amazing way of bringing her characters to life. In this her new novel after finishing her awesome Millwood Hollow series Hickman takes you down south again in this modern day tale. From page one to the end you won't be able to put this novel down! The compelling teaching is as always outstanding. A teaching and story that you won't want to end. And be sure not to check out Hickman on YouTube!
The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size
Julia Cameron
Tarcher
a division of Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson St New York, NY 10014-3658
9781585425716 $19.95 www.penguingroup.com
"One day at a time" is more than a catch phrase for author Julia Cameron. A writer of several books on creativity she's got a hit in her latest "The Writing Diet". Not your typical writing or diet book. This book will teach you how to lose weight the creative way - by writing. Yes, by writing! Just by letting your creative juices flow you can reduce that excess weight, whether by journaling, playwriting, short stories or that great American novel. Cameron teaches us that by journaling or "Morning Pages" and using the "tasks" at the end of each chapter we'll get to the bottom of our eating habits and begin the "clean living" eating that will have us dropping our excess baggage in no time.
The author even teaches us that yes we'll slip up from time to time but that it's no reason to beat ourselves up. As Cameron teaches that if we stick to the diet plan it will pay off in the long run, yes we may desire the fast and sudden weight loss that we read about in the tabloids. But we need to grasp and stick to the slow and healthy weight loss that we seldom hear about.
This self-help book is exceptional! And since this reviewer is a writer I couldn't help trying it myself. Yes it's slow and steady but sticking with the seven simple tools Cameron outlines you'll be dropping sizes in no time. You'll learn what "HALT" stands for, suggestions for the all too difficult snack attack and sweet tooth to the culinary artist dates and even the bottom line about our obsession with food. Cameron does not claim to be a diet expert but has notice the changes and weight loss in her students when they put the obsessive eating aside and focus on creativity. Of course as with any "diet" (we use this term loosely here as this is no ordinary diet!) Cameron makes no promises. But take this reviewer's advice and step out of the box and give "The Writing Diet" a try.
Fatal Deduction
Gayle Roper
Multnomah Books a division of Random House
12265 Oracle Boulevard Suite 200 Colorado Springs, CO 80921
9781601420138 $12.99 www.randomhouse.com
Libby Burton is a twin from a very dysfunctional family. She doesn't get along with her sister Tori or her mother and grandmother especially since her father and grandfather are in prison two cops gone bad. Libby struggles to raise her thirteen year old daughter Chloe on her own. And now her Aunt Stella has died leaving a very strange last request. Aunt Stella left her estate to Libby and her sister but they must live in her house in Philadelphia together for six months.
The first morning after arriving finds Libby tripping over a dead body on the front porch with a crossword puzzle with Tori's name spelled out in block letters. Libby finds a friend and possibly romance with Drew Canfield who is also raising a thirteen year old daughter Jenna. The girls become fast friends leaning on each other as each deals with family problems as well. Chloe desires to know who her father is and Libby just can't tell her—she doesn't want to hurt her. Jenna just wants love from her mother who is Drew's ex-wife who is bipolar.
The puzzles continue to arrive four in all for Tori. Libby wanting to help but Tori is determined that it is nothing. But each puzzle contains a new threat, which could possibly spell death for Tori unless the case is solved. Libby wants so badly to be a part of her sister's life but they have such opposite lives. The biggest difference Libby is a Christian –Tori is not.
With mystery, suspense and a touch of romance author Gayle Roper has created the ultimate mystery in "Fatal Deduction". In this suspenseful mystery the characters truly come alive and leap off the page in this awesome page turning tale. Each page reveals more twists and turns with fantastic God teachings that will stay with you long after the last page and a surprise ending that will have you on the edge of your seat!
The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them
Including Audio CD
Jason Shinder
Sourcebooks Inc.
P.O. Box 4410 Naperville, Illinois 60567
9781402205026 $24.95 www.sourcebooks.com
Many actors, directors and other moviemakers forty-two in all come together for "The Poem I Turn To". The list of directors and moviemakers is amazing from Michael O'Keefe to John Lithgow to Mary Louise Parker and Daryl Hannah with small bios included on each one. Each one lists their two favorite poems and why they are favorites and how poetry has affected their lives. Also included is a small bio for the authors of the poems.
Author/editor Jason Shinder a poet in his own right has done an excellent job in bringing this project together. Shinder who has written over four poetry books and has been published in several publications is also the founding director of the YMCA National Writers Voice, YMCA Arts and Humanities and the Gibson Music International Program and currently teaches in the graduate program at Bennington College.
This project was compiled mainly in remembrance of actor David Coleman Dukes. Dukes who appeared in over 24 films including First Deadly Sin and Without a Trace is also known for his theatre work, TV and HBO with a way to remember him and support The David Coleman Dukes Theater Scholarship Fund at the university of Southern California.
From England's Shakespeare to Paul Celan from Romania and every country across the world is definitely a wide range of poetry represented here. See some old favorites and possibly some new ones. Excellent also is the CD included hear 30 of these favorite poems read by the moviemakers themselves. An excellent source for learning poetry for teens and adults alike this is one book that will be around for years to come with this amazing collection.
A Mile in My Flip-Flops
Melody Carlson June, 2008
WaterBrook Press a division of Random House
12265 Oracle Boulevard Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
9781400073146 $13.99 www.waterbrookpress.com
After her fiancee dumps her for his old girlfriend, kindergarten teacher Gretchen Hanover begins a self-destructive spiral. Hooked on ice cream and HDTV she spends her evenings and weekends in a vegetated state. Of course her Dad and his girlfriend Betty along with her best friend Holly try to convince her she must enjoy life again.
Than Gretchen decides to flip a house, she's watched HDTV enough it should be easy and she'll have the whole summer vacation to work on the house. Of course everyone thinks she's crazy including her contractor Dad. But reluctantly agrees to help anyway he can. Finally with the help of retired realtor Betty she finds a house on Lilac Lane that she can't help to want. As her Dad cosigns she's all set to begin. Her Dad has second thoughts after seeing the house that is just going to be too much to flip---but reluctantly it's too late to back out of the contract. So leaning heavily on her Dad and later his carpenter friend Noah Campbell the flip begins. But in the midst of the storm Gretchen's Dad has a heart attack. Gretchen doesn't know how she's going to finish in time before the loan comes due. Gretchen wonders if her flip is about to become a flop? What about the feelings she has for Noah and the baggage of a divorce and seven year old daughter? Will her Dad recover? Can Gretchen learn in time the lessons Noah has been teaching her on letting go and let God be in charge only time will tell or is there enough time?
Author Melody Carlson has done an amazing job on "A Mile in My Flip-Flops". Her characters are amazing as they leap off the page in this awesome page turner. The teaching intertwined within the pages is very practical to everyday life. So grab your flip-flops and old coveralls and join Gretchen in paradise on Lilac Lane.
Faking Grace
Tamara Leigh
Multnomah Books a division of Random House
12265 Oracle Boulevard Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
9781590529294 $12.99 www.randomhouse.com
Maizy Grace Stewart works part time for the lifestyle section of the newspaper with promises of fulltime and dreams of investigating reporting. For months she's waited but decides she can't wait any longer and comes across a part time position at the Christian company Steeple Side. Problem is Maizy doesn't think of herself as a Christian even though she was saved at camp when she was a teenager she hasn't walked the walk. But she needs the job to pay her bills so she decides to "fake it". Buying the book "The Dumb Blonde's Guide to Christianity", a Jesus is my co-pilot bumper sticker, a fish emblem for her car, and various pieces of jewelry all to sell herself to others that she's a Christian. She changes her name to Grace and goes for the job landing it on the first interview.
Once her mentor, friend, landlord, boss Tessie finds out she informs her boss wanting that exclusive story that slipped through her fingers to expose the hypocrisy of the so-called Christians at Steeple Side and who better to go after them but an insider like Maizy since she owes Tessie. After losing her job in Seattle – Tessie struck her neck out to get Maizy a job in Nashville.
But what Maizy finds at Steeple Side is all that's been missing from her life friendships, romance and that family feeling being so far from home. With God tugging at Maizy's heart can she really do the article that Tessie wants her to write? Will love and God win in the end?
Tamara Leigh has done it again! In "Faking Grace" this awesome chick-lit comes alive. The characters leap off the page and attach themselves to your heart. You can't and won't want to miss this awesome teaching on being a "cultural Christian", the truth shall always win in the end!
Skid: Occupational Hazards, Book 3
Rene Gutteridge
WaterBrook Press a division of Random House
12265 Oracle Boulevard Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
9781400071593 $12.99 www.waterbrookpress.com
What started out as a normal flight, the Atlantica Flight 1945 from Atlanta to Amsterdam is anything but normal. A woman with a mental illness that uses a pig as her guide dog (yes a pig on an airplane!), a prisoner handcuffed to an FBI agent, a dead eighty something woman with a hysterical daughter, a guy who looks like he'll throw up at any minute, a girl in a bright polka-dot dress, two love birds, a pilot of an airship that talks continually, a flashy lawyer, a man with soft caring eyes all thrown together with a brass airline attendant, a loud pilot, a lonely attendant, a strange acting ACL inspector, the calm pilot and a female captain who had landed a plane in the ocean of the Bermuda Triangle. Put them all together and you can't help but have one wacky hilarious novel!
Author Rene Gutteridge will have you in stitches as you read "Skid". From page one to the very end you'll be transfixed as the characters come alive in this awesome page turner. Watch out for Hank Hazard the man with the soft eyes and strong faith who may just turn out to be the key to the fate and life changing of everyone on board. Through all the hilarity you can't help but see the God teaching intertwined so watch out or "Skid" may just change your life!
Bella
Lisa Samson
Thomas Nelson Inc
PO Box 141000 Nashville, TN 37214
9781595546011 $14.99 www.thomasnelson.com
Author Lisa Samson was perfect to be chosen to write the novel adaptation of the award-winning movie. Set in New York City it spans the lives of two lost souls- Nina and Jose.
Nina has lost dreams of dancing stardom working at El Callejon restaurant which is owned by Jose's brother Manny a no nonsense man that is all business. Nina's relationship with her mother is strained due to her mother never moving on after the death of Nina's father when she was twelve. Than Nina finds herself pregnant by Pieter a waiter at the same restaurant and all he can ask is she going to get it taken care of? The day she finds out she's pregnant is the same day Manny fires her for being late to work two days in a row and the previous week had been out sick that Manny accuses her of being hung over instead of asking what is wrong. Manny rants and raves at her within ear shot of the other employees that all Nina can do is run away as far as she can from Manny. As she's leaving carrying her personal items she hears someone calling her name she turns to find Jose carrying a teddy bear she had dropped. Nina wonders why the "quiet one" has as the others call him suddenly coming after her. She only knows him as the chef and knows he's Manny's brother. Slowly Nina feels comfortable and feels she can trust Jose so she tells him about her past and now finds herself pregnant even going so far as to tell him who the father is. Jose didn't like Pieter before this and likes him even less now feeling Nina deserves someone better than him. Jose doesn't know why but feels somehow he has to change Nina's mind since she has already scheduled an appointment for an abortion.
Jose takes her to his parents place on the beach and the love of his family embraces her she feels at home. Jose finds himself so comfortable with Nina that he discusses his past. The reasons he no longer drives, his lost dream of being a soccer pro, and his four years in prison. In just a day's time two lives have been drawn together. Jose devises a plan a plan he wonders will Nina go for? This novel is totally awesome as Samson has a way of bringing her characters to life that they jump off the page into your heart. The story is spell-bounding as it captures your heart and soul. This reviewer hadn't seen the movie but I'm sure you'll find like me wanting to see it after reading "Bella".
Cheri Clay
Reviewer
Clark's Bookshelf
Alexander Hamilton: Young Statesman (Young Patriots series)
Helen Boyd Higgins
Patria Press, Inc
9781882859610 Cloth $15.95 and Paper $9.95
Often, when visiting books from our youth and recalling the wonderful hours spent as a child reading them, you feel the need to share those experiences with your children or grandchildren.
In 1942, Helen Boyd Higgins wrote Alexander Hamilton, Young Statesman and created a timeless tale of a youth raised in a far away land that only the imagination of the reader can envision. Tribulations and intrigue abound in a format designed to entertain and teach many life lessons. Young Alexander is bereft of a terrible temper and learns self control by many examples used by Higgins in her description of his rearing. The vocabulary is enriched by using words beyond the reader's comprehension, not to frustrate, but to expand a child's horizons. There is a dictionary of definitions at the end of the book which teaches new words. The audience for this book is 9 to 12 years of age. This story is of a young lad growing up in the Caribbean Islands, who yearns to come to America and be a part of the new land of opportunity by going to college to further his education.
The Young Patriots series is designed to 'Hook' kids on History. Other titles in the series include, Amelia Earhart, Young Air Pioneer, William Henry Harrison, Young Tipp, Eddie Rickenbacker, Boy Pilot and Racer, and Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Singer to name a few of the 14 books published thus far. Gifts for birthdays, holidays, or just plain old fashioned fun reading are always good books. A present of this type instills in our youngsters the desire to appreciate reading and to treasure exemplary literature. Reasonably priced, this collection will become the foundation of a cherished library.
Ghosts at the Table: Riverboat Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Roadside Hucksters, and the Living Legends Who Made Poker What It Is Today
Des Wilson
Da Capo Press
9780306816284 $26.00
2008 World Series of Poker starts May 30 and runs through July 17, 2008. The biggest event in poker today is described in this anthology of United States players from old western gaming in Arizona, Texas, and Nevada. We are swept along the trail from North Dakota and meander down the gold and silver rush towns to now ghost towns. As time passes in the twentieth century we are told of the exploits of Wild Bill Hickok and how he played poker with his six shooter. In response to a full house, Wild Bill said that he had 3 Aces over 2 sixes, when the other player said he saw only one six Hickok put his pistol on the table and said here is the other six. He won the hand!
This anecdotal form of writing is most interesting as Des Wilson takes us through the portals of moments when ghosts are visited in many poker parlors as he tries to imagine what it was like to have lived in that bygone era. Brief skirmishes are recounted as he tells of battles which were fought and the connection to poker is related in all of them.
His description of the gun fight at the OK Corral is wonderful, and the fact they all played poker the night before is fascinating.
The book seems to be two books in one; Wilson is so enamored with the WSOP that the second half tells of the personalities of the players of today. He does relate the formation of the event by Benny Binion at his famous Horseshoe in Las Vegas in 1970 and touches upon his ghost. Those players who will pay $10,000 to enter Harrah's Rio, the situs of the 2008 contest, owe their opportunity to play to the ghosts of the past and those of the present. Being lucky and getting good cards is only part of winning in Texas Hold 'Em, winning the gold bracelet is exemplified as being a paragon of the bluff.
The Body in the Gallery: A Faith Fairchild Mystery
Katherine Hall Page
William Morrow
0060763671 $23.95
Katherine Hall Page weaves another tale of intricate mystery in the world of modern art which includes lots of revenge and deception for her character, Faith Fairchild. Set in the quiet town of Aleford, Massachusetts, Beacon Hill District, the story unfolds to raise the question "What do a forged Romare Bearden, a Jane Doe corpse, and Pepperidge Farm gold fish crackers have in common?"
A beautiful dead woman is discovered in Aleford's Ganley Art Museum in a most unusual display. A killer is on the loose and Faith is soon enmeshed in the museum's murky past and present. She believes the dead body and a fake Romare Bearden are related.
Patsy, Faith's friend, has loaned an original Romare Bearden painting to the gallery and believes that it may have been switched for a fake. Since Patsy is already on the Board of Trustees at the Ganley museum, Faith would need to be on the inside also. Patsy arranges for Faith to take over the cafe in the gallery, as Faith's catering business has been affected by the declining economy. Using delectable sounding culinary delights throughout the story and additional nuances about classic and contemporary artists, Fairchild keeps you entertained.
Life at the museum does not stay calm for long!
When the killer strikes again, Faith is in imminent danger and swears she will let the authorities handle the heavy work, but the police are naive and have missed some very obvious clues. And so, she must use her own detective skills to find the thief and expose the killer. Katherine Page Hall keeps you mesmerized until the very end. This is a classic thriller which you cannot put down.
Living with Pigs
Chuck Wooster
Photographs by Geoff Hansen
The Lyons Press
9781592288779 $24.95
This definitely is not a book about children and what their mothers told them about their rooms looking like a pig sty. This is a book about animal husbandry and the raising of your own porkers.
Living with Pigs is wonderfully illustrated with photographic images by Geoff Hansen showing the many different breeds of pigs and their surroundings. We all relate to 'Babe' and the exploits of this cute piglet in the barnyard. Chuck Wooster tells tales about his pigs and getting them used to his barnyard for feeding. He snorts 'hello' to them and they 'snort and grunt' return affection.
This book shows that growing up to a shoat and then to a hog is an extremely fast project. In the span of 5 months a 20 to 30 pound shoat becomes a 250 pound hog! With tongue in cheek humor, Chuck Wooster, tells in a remarkably subtle manner the foils and accomplishments he had in the raising of his pigs. One day, three of his pigs were walking across the field to the reception tent for his sister's wedding. These devils were so smart they picked the lock of their enclosure and escaped to join the party.
How to construct enclosures, fences, and where to place a pig sty are only a few explicit instructions given. Hansen goes into extreme detail on the selection process of getting that first shoat. He writes about the gregarious nature of pigs and their need to socialize with other pigs. Pigs do not like to sleep alone or be by themselves at play. They need to be in a group of at least two or more to be content.
A drawback in the past was the fear of getting trichinosis from improperly cooked pork. Raising top quality porcini, organically, partially eliminates this problem and the other tip is not to feed your animals table scraps or garbage. The United States Department of Agriculture outlawed the feeding of garbage to pigs many years ago to stop the development of this disease. Using fresh vegetables from your garden or feed that is not medically treated are two of the tricks that Chuck employs in his organic system.
The chapter describing slaughter, rendering, and final cut-up is quite graphic, which might be a turn-off for the squeamish among you. However, that section can be skipped and the alternative is to take your hog to the butcher for finalization in your pick-up truck.
Cooking instructions, cuts of meat, and almost everything you want to know about raising your own porker are here in this book. It is one of the best books that I have read on the raising and care of animals.
Clark Isaacs
Reviewer
Daniel's Bookshelf
One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863
Eric J. Wittenberg, J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent
Savas Beatie LLC
P. O. Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
9781932714432 $34.95 www.savasbeatie.com 916-941-6896, 610-853-9131
I don't believe enough accolades could be mentioned for one history book depicting the period after Gettysburg for the dates from July 4 through July 14 1863. The book is most likely the definitive book covering the battles, skirmishes, with all the major players associated with the time period. The North's persisted pursuit of Robert E. Lee's army heading for the Potomac River. The author's Eric J. Wittenberg collaborates seamlessly with J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent covering the cavalry and the battles of Lee's hurried exit. One can't help but enjoy the well done narrative with such fine thorough detail. I sometimes would catch a breath and admire the work while gasping over the people who know this story with authority.
Each author offers an impressive background to bring this account some life and exhaustive information. Eric Wittenberg possesses a depth understanding of cavalry operations which illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the arm. J. David Petruzzi understanding of Gettysburg compliments the history. Michael F. Nugent has been on Civil War Circuits and is an expert on the Gettysburg Campaign. Wittenberg and Petruzzi co-authored Plenty of Blame to Go Around discussing Jeb Stuart's controversial ride to Gettysburg. One feature that should be mentioned are the Driving tours with GPS coordinates to go from start to finish the Wagon Train of the Wounded and the military operations. The GPS coordinates are a must for future books, where the terrain and locations of the battles, skirmishes and important sites have changed so much in these modern times. The book goes over General George Gordon Meade's conduct and pursuit after Gettysburg in a chapter of "Conclusion". It provides a balanced perspective at questions raised by Meade's abilities, battle conditions, and decisions he made whether holding back or struggling with his instincts of getting the tasks done under repetitive continuous battle fire.
I hope that this book is appreciated by readers seeking history writ
