Ted Hughes: A Literary Life
Neil Roberts
Macmillan
1403936056, 45.00 Brit. pounds
Ann Skea
Reviewer
"As a young man, Ted Hughes must have seemed blessed. He was extravagantly gifted, as his juvenile poetry shows, and was warmly encouraged by his family and teachers. From a socially and economically modest background in Yorkshire, he won a place at Cambridge, despite performing poorly in his entrance exam: his teacher persuaded the college to accept him because of his talent as a writer".
Such was the beginning of a writing life which eventually led to Ted Hughes being offered the most prestigious position for any poet in Britain, that of Poet Laureate. This was a position he occupied for fourteen years until his death in 1998. What made him such an honoured poet? And how did he overcome the huge personal traumas of the death of Sylvia Plath, and of Assia Wevill and her daughter Shura, and the resulting notoriety and animosity which dogged him for the rest of his life?
Neil Roberts's book, Ted Hughes: A Literary Life, does, to a large extent, answer these questions. But this book is not a biography, although Roberts has consulted biographies as well as many of Hughes's very personal letters to family and close friends. He includes a chapter on Hughes's poetic collaboration with Sylvia Plath and the influence of her work on his; and he bravely wades into the "Plath Wars", looks at many of the accusations made against Hughes, and presents an admirably informed and balanced view of their validity. Undoubtedly, there will be Plath followers who do not agree with him, but many of them are not inclined to agree with any favourable or balanced view of Ted Hughes.
Nor is Roberts's book a hagiography. Roberts offers a critical appraisal of most of Ted Hughes's work based on his own close reading over it over many years and on meticulous research amongst the many texts and manuscripts currently available.
Mostly, this book is an attempt to show how Ted Hughes's work was shaped by his experiences, especially those of his earliest years, and how a core of deeply held beliefs was consistently expressed by and in his poetry. It presents a well supported argument for Roberts's belief that "Nothing Hughes wrote which was not to some degree a report of his inner life had any value for him". All of which is consistent with the requirements of this series of books commissioned by Palgrave Macmillan to cover the lives and careers of "admired and influential English-language authors", and trace "the professional, publishing and social contexts" which shaped their writing.
An overview of the book can be found by reading the chapter headings on the publishers' web-pages at http://www.palgrave.com. There is a sample chapter also linked to this page which gives a good idea of Roberts's interesting, clear and lively approach to his subject.
Not everyone will agree with Roberts's interpretation of Hughes's views or with his analysis of the poems. And Roberts himself quotes Hughes's own words in a letter to Keith Sagar: "Finally, poems belong to readers, just as houses belong to those who live in them & not to the builders", by which Hughes implied that just as we furnish our houses according to our own taste, so our interpretation of a poem is a reflection of our individual response to it. Nevertheless, Roberts is an acute and sensitive observer of the language and rhythm of Hughes's poetry, and his discussion of many of the poems and most of the poetic sequences is perceptive and interesting.
In essence, this book is valuable background reading for any discussion of Ted Hughes's life and work and it invites a response from readers. Some (like Keith Sagar and myself) who are especially interested in Hughes's work, will respond by carrying on discussions with Roberts over certain points and taking issue with him over others. I, for example regret that Roberts has not considered my own detailed analysis of Birthday Letters and Howls & Whispers. It would, perhaps, have resolved some of the issues he raises about these sequences of poems. It is a pity that many academics (unlike their students) still regard Internet publication with suspicion and feel that they can justifiably ignore it. This is not necessarily true of Neil Roberts, who now says that he should have included my work on these sequences his discussion, and who does refer to other items on my web-pages in his book. Nor is it true amongst scientists, who have long accepted on-line publication in moderated journals as a very important way of presenting new discoveries and theories for debate and confirmation.
This aside, I mostly agree with Roberts's interpretation of Hughes's life and work, especially with his description of Hughes as a shamanic poet who, like Shakespeare, Blake, Yeats and Eliot, consistently drew for inspiration on his inner world. He mentions Hughes's use of memory and visualization, his concern about ecological issues, and he traces the shamanic pattern of some of Hughes's work. It is a pity then, that like others who have discussed Hughes's interest in shamanism, he does not follow this through and see that Hughes's purpose was not just self-healing but, through the shaping, structure and especially the publication of his work, an intentional channelling of healing imaginative energies into a society which sorely needs them. Hughes's very serious interest in the ancient occult, spiritual practices which were actively used by Renaissance poets was also part of this shamanic purpose and it, too, shaped his life and work.
Fable Farm # 1 Echoes of the Strange
Heather Beck
Sparklesoup LLC
P.O. Box 142003 Irving, TX. 75014 USA
1597489379 $7.95
Carol Butler
Reviewer
The first book in the Sparklesoup original series, Fable Farm aims to impress with four scary stories by Heather Beck. The first story in Fable Farm # 1 Echoes of the Strange is entitled "Revenge of the Mutant Fish". This fast-paced tale involves a boy, his uncle, two scientists, and one genetically-altered beast. In a beautiful location that is vividly described, the beast gets revenge on its creators. The contrast between the stunning scenes and the beast's anger can be understood by children and contemplated by adults. Filled with unexpected twists and brilliantly described feelings, "Revenge of the Mutant Fish" has commonly been called a favorite among readers.
With a tough act to follow the next story, "Troll Terror" does not fail to deliver. "Troll Terror" uses humor, captivating writing and plot, and vivid scenery to hook the reader. In this story a boy, his friend, and his sister are magically transported to a world where trolls rule. The threesome must work together to find a way out of the land. This is made all the more interesting by the tricky trolls they meet. The ending of "Troll Terror" is extremely creative, totally unexpected, and terrifyingly funny.
The third story, "Trapped in Sand" celebrates Egypt's rich past. Through a tour guide, Shelby, the readers learn a lot about Egypt's pyramids and their geographical make-up. When inside a pyramid there is an accident. Shelby and a tourist fall into a pit which reveals a secret civilization. The description of the people and the way they survive is impeccably written. What happens in the end is a total shock!
The last story, "Plant Sensations" proves that a creative writer can turn any subject into a captivating story. This story blends the ordinary life of small-town teenagers and a plant enthusiast from an exotic location. Dealing with bullies and past mistakes are made all the more difficult when plants come alive and attempt to destroy the town. This story feels so realistic even though it is a fantasy. The beauty of human nature shines through. The ending is quite a shocker.
The premier book in the Fable Farm series is excellent. The stories are flawlessly written and brilliantly told. The writing is smooth and realistic. A unique blend of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, Fable Farm # 1 Echoes of the Strange will hook you and leave you begging for more. Heather Beck is truly a talented writer who will have a bright future in the publishing business. I highly recommend the Fable Farm series and would encourage fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps to pick up a copy.
Brotherhood Of The Bomb
Gregg Herken
Henry Holt and Co.
New York, NY
0805065881 $19.95
Dan Schneider, Reviewer
www.Cosmoetica.com
In the world of historians, Daniel J. Boorstin stands head and shoulders above all lesser writers in that nonfiction genre, much as Loren Eiseley and, to a lesser extent, Stephen Jay Gould, reign supreme as literary craftsmen in the sciences. This thought was inescapable to me as I read yet another in a prolix series of books about the historic import of scientists. Since the two disciplines- science and history- often intertwine when reading books about the Manhattan Project comparisons of the writers of such books with the aforementioned trinity is inevitable, as well as very productive in the art of criticism. Thus, when I read the 2002 book, Brotherhood Of The Bomb, by Gregg Herken- an atomic bomb junky whose prior works (such as The Winning Weapons: The Atomic Bomb In The Cold War) were soaked in the topic, I had to groan, for Herken has absolutely no grasp of what makes for compelling nor imaginative writing.
When one reads the classics of Boorstin- such as The Discoverers, The Creators, or The Americans, one is engrossed by his novelistic techniques which can make the most well known tales of historical figures and cast them in a patina of freshness. When one reads the essays of Eiseley, gathered in classics like The Night Country or The Immense Journey, one is blown away by the elegant poesy and profundity of his sentences. When one reads the essays of Gould- from books like The Mismeasure Of Man or Bully For Brontosaurus, one is dazzled by his ability to thread together the most seemingly disparate things into a coherent idea. But, in Brotherhood Of The Bomb one is merely bored to nihility by Herken's turgidity and utter lack of insight into his subject matter, as well as the pointless epigraphs for the book's five parts.
The book follows the three nuclear scientists' lives named in the subtitle- Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller, including their careers and rivalries, mostly between the 1930s and 1960s. There is not only nothing new in this book, but even the rehashes have been explicated better. Who does not know of Oppenheimer's Left Wing delusions, harassment by the FBI, and associations with Communist sympathizers, despite never being a party member? And when Teller- the H Bomb fanatic, betrayed their friendship by testifying against Oppenheimer- thus getting Oppenheimer's security clearance stripped during the McCarthy era, well- again, there is nothing not known before revealed. The best books in this field are probably Richard Rhodes' The Making Of The Atomic Bomb and Dark Star; far better works than this forgettable book. That Teller was vilified while Oppenheimer's stature rose with his opposition to the Cold War arms race is also a well-trod path. Thus, the obvious area to explore in this dynamic was the middleman, Lawrence- a Nobel Prize winner, and his relationship with the two other poles. Instead, despite a brief bio, Lawrence's life remains largely unexamined- save for his seeming closer to Teller than Oppenheimer, as the book descends into an almost People magazine level recitation of known facts, with little illumination, petty gossip, and less gusto. The latter fact- gusto, is at least present in most People magazine profiles. Herken's book, by comparison, is arid, even mummified.
This is never more so than in the parts of the book that have to do with science. Herken has no ability to translate ideas and scientific curiosity into words that convey such to uninterested readers. In short, his work is the classic book that preaches to the choir. No wonder that critics with an interest in history and science have praised and awarded the book, because they know all the facts and are merely giggly over another work on a topic they see as neglected. As for the writing, though, much was needed to be done to improve its literary qualities. In a sense, it feels like a well written high school essay or a mediocre review in a law journal that was bloated to book length just to increase salability. The technical descriptions of the bomb and cyclotrons are-if not unnecessary, certainly far too distracting, as are the large cast of mostly irrelevant second and third tier characters whose digressions grind the book's narrative velocity to nil. Herken, who by day job is a curator at the Smithsonian Institute's National Air And Space Museum, shows why career catalogers do not make good writers. Like many bad prose fictionists, he errs in overdescribing things- thinking that the look on a face or the minutia of a theory adds to the drama of the tale. At 334 pages, with 94 pages of largely showoffy and useless notes, the book could have been cut in half with better editing, and still been an engaging read. The first hundred pages, which focuses a bit more on the three men, is the best part of the book- even if oft-told and mediocre. The rest of the book is a sheer waste of pulp.
Herken too often veers from the making of the bomb- the only reason anyone would care of these three intellectual bores, to try to exculpate Oppenheimer, so that the first atomic test is written of only in a few pages. This is like writing of Newton's theory of gravity and focusing on the worm in the legendary apple that was to fall onto the scientist's head. Yet, this is the state most writing- fictive or not, has devolved to in this day and age. The book won many literary awards upon its release, and Herken himself was awarded a hefty MacArthur Genius Grant to write the book. Yet nothing speaks more highly of the absolute lack of depth and insight the book displays than how Herken ends it, by reciting the well known dueling apothegms of Oppenheimer and Teller, where the former declares that 'Physicists have known sin,' only to have his rival retort, 'I would say that physicists have known power.'
Such summative words show that Herken, far from being an objective researcher, was more a kid in a- groan, please- candy shop, who tossed off this banal book to fulfill a childish obsession. There are no larger ideas nor any penetrating revelations that only this book dared to print. Perhaps such needless space consumption is ok as fodder for the Lowest Common Denominator blogs that choke the internet, but valuable publishing resources should not be wasted on such pap. If you agree, then click over to Herken's book's website Brotherhood Of The Bomb, or shoot him and email at gherken@brotherhoodofthebomb.com, and let him know that the waste of pulp is also a sin that his hero, Oppenheimer, would disavow, and to stay cyber. Do not do it for me, do it for Boorstin, Eiseley, and Gould. Better yet, do it for yourself….or the trees.
Trouble
Jesse Kellerman
G.P. Putnam's Sons
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0399154034 $24.95 www.penguin.com 1-800-847-5515
Third-year medical student Jonah Stem, finally escaped from the hospital after some 18 hours on the floor, forgoes going home to sleep in order to buy himself a new pair of shoes. Three A.M. finds him squishing wetly through Times Square on his quest, his sodden Rockport Walkers irretrievably soiled by spillage from a patient's burst peritoneum. And so it is that he finds himself in the right place to hear a young woman screaming. He bursts on the scene to save her from a knife-wielding attacker, surprising himself, surprising her even more.
Jonah is a good guy suffering under considerable stress at the outset of Jesse Kellerman's Trouble. The demands of med school--sleep deprivation, malevolent residents poised to humiliate him--are coupled with the obligation he feels toward his former fiancée, now chronically ill. Saving the life of a pretty woman in the middle of the night, it turns out, makes things much, much worse for him.
The storyline of Kellerman's book is a good one: what happens when a good Samaritan finds that the damsel in distress for whom he acted as hero isn't quite what she seemed? And Kellerman does a decent job of making us worry about Jonah as the danger into which he's stumbled slowly manifests itself. His story leads inexorably toward a denouement which, if predictable (Kellerman would in fact have been remiss if he hadn't brought his characters together as he did for a final showdown), is yet satisfyingly tense. Also, his principal characters are interesting: Jonah himself is likeable and more than two-dimensional; Eve Gones--the would-be victim--and Jonah's roommate are both defined by their unusual dialogue; and George, the father of Jonah's former fiancée, is an interesting, multi-dimensional character, despite that he only plays a small role in the story.
There are a couple of problems with the book, however: a Yale connection doesn't fulfill its promise, and the occasional scene doesn't quite make sense. (Why did Jonah punch his roommate in the stomach?) But the big problem is one of credibility. Two pivotal scenes--in chapters 14 and 25--are so ridiculous that one simply cannot suspend disbelief. Which is disappointing, because Kellerman's Trouble has a lot going for it.
Black Moses, second edition
E. David Cronon
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53711
029901214X $19.95 www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress.com
Marcus Garvey may be one of the most misunderstood historical black leaders in U.S. and worldwide history. Primarily known as the man who suggested all blacks return to Africa in the early 20th century, the controversial leader drew both praise and condemnation. In E. David Cronon's new book "Black Moses," we learn more about the Jamaican born leader, his impact on other leaders, and why many considered him a laughing stock.
In "Black Moses," Cronon delves into the birth and upbringing of Garvey. The book follows his attempts to meet and work with the revered Booker T. Washington, his many publishing ventures, and how he set the stage for future black organizations such as the NAACP with his own trailblazing organization, The United Negro Improvement Association. The reader learns of Garvey's business ventures, both successful and unsuccessful, the details of his deportation from the United States, and the circumstances surrounding his death. Through historical documents, it also paints a more accurate picture of the leader's legacy and clears up some misconceptions about him. For example, the author writes:
Ostensibly the Black Star Line was established as a strictly commercial venture, and Garvey did not intend, as his critics sometimes claimed, that the line would merely be the vehicle for the transportation of all Negroes back to their African homeland.
"Black Moses" is a motivating and well-investigated book on the legacy of Marcus Garvey. It would make an excellent reference guide, high school textbook, or college textbook for those wanting to explore one of the most important black leaders prior to the Civil Rights era. Cronon should be commended for putting together such a well-researched, unbiased book on one of the most misunderstood leaders in black history. Highly recommended.
The Moment of Astrology
Geoffrey Cornelius
Penguin Books Australia Ltd.
Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
0140193693 $28.00
Rose Glavas
Reviewer
I had to read this book though my involvement in an astrology book discussion group and am glad to have had the opportunity to do so.
'The Moment of Astrology' takes a thorough look at astrology through examining the arguments against, and attacks on astrology by various people and groups over hundreds of years. These relate particularly to the arguments of St Augustine from more than fifteen hundred years ago, Pico della Mirandola from more than five hundred years ago, and more recently of 186 scientists in 1975.
Geoffrey Cornelius is a consultant astrologer with a background in philosophy and divination and has been active in UK astrological education since the 1970s. The author is a past President of the both Astrological Lodge of the Theosophical Society and the Astrological Lodge of London, as well as a former editor of the quarterly journal 'Astrology'. He co-founded the Company of Astrologers in 1983.
I haven't read a lot of these types of books so was a bit worried that the language would be too technical or hard to understand – I was pleasantly surprised to find the language used was very easy to understand and flowed well. The style of writing was very smooth. Obviously you do have to have a good understanding of astrological theory and principles to understand the arguments in 'The Moment of Astrology'.
Some of the techniques explored include horary, katarche and an exploration of the use of symbol in the astrological chart. Cornelius also spends a couple of chapters exploring science and symbol – I found these fascinating and would recommend that anybody involved in astrology should read at least these two chapters. A thorough examination of the relationship between astrology and science is given, with exploration of various scientific experiments that have been held over the years (including the New York Suicide Study, the Vernon Clark Experiments, and also a look at Jung in relation to astrology. The Appendix is excellent and well worth reading to get full benefit of some of the arguments presented in this title.
This book gave me much more than I expected so I recommend 'The Moment of Astrology' to the reader who has a thorough understanding of astrological principles, who perhaps feels that there is something lacking in their technique, or for those that are looking for a different way to understand this complex subject.
Touch Of Fate
Christine Amsden
Twilight Times Books
P O Box 3340, Kingsport TN, 37664
1931201757 $5.50 www.twilighttimesbooks.com
Lynn Burton
Reviewer
Touch of Fate is a paranormal with elements of suspense and romance. Marianne Waters can predict the future. Unfortunately, it's cost her a marriage and almost her daughter, who inherited the "curse". When Marianne decides to move her and her daughter to a new city for a fresh start and change of scenery, she meets a group of women who share the same ability. She finally feels like she belongs, but only until one of the women is found murdered.
Marianne wants to find out who killed their friend, to find out the truth about how the predictions work, and unexpectedly gets involved with Derek Richards, the detective on the case. Derek is unsure of her abilities, unsure whether he believes in them or not, but unlike some, he at least tries to understand.
This story is a little hit and miss, but the desire to know what happens in the end makes it worth getting through. There are a lot of characters to keep up with which makes it confusing at times, but Marianne and Derek are well-fleshed out characters.
Driving Minnie's Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia
Lesley Choyce
Pottersfield Press
83 Leslie Road, East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia B2Z 1P8
1895900859 $19.95 LesleyChoyce.com PottersfieldPress.com
Mary Ann Archibald
Reviewer
Just outside the door to Lesley Choyce's office at Dalhousie University, I can see through a tall, thin sliver of window that he is at his computer. He is smiling, courteous, offers me a chair and returns to his seat behind his desk. He is wearing belted khaki pants and a denim shirt with a navy t-shirt. His hair is a curly array that frames his face. Beneath the casual attire, there is something that seems wired – a creative circuit, grounded in Halifax, amidst the city's wildlife, empty spaces, and ocean waves. Perhaps he has managed to tap the hydro power in the waters he surfs and tumbles in.
He plucks book after book off a tidy wall of shelves. About 60 books are authored by him. Some books are skinny, some thick, all of them a testament to process – that thing that drives a creative person to create whatever it is that's in their heart and mind to do.
A student needs to see him now, an urgent issue, possibly over a grade. He strikes me as the sort of teacher people consider a favourite, the kind that takes time to listen and soothingly explain things. Apologetic, confessional even. Choyce's latest book, Driving Minnie's Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia is based on true stories that read like bits of song where the line between past and present blurs.
The book begins in Choyce's childhood and we quickly meet his grandmother Minnie, who wears a floppy straw hat and escapes the mid-day heat on her farm by doing chores (snapping beans and shelling peas) early in the morning. She plays a baby grand piano (piana) and eventually advises Choyce that Nova Scotia sounds wonderful … all that coastline.
"The Minnie book" reminds me of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In part because the book is a reverie of the natural world through Choyce's eyes and the book defies easy categorization. Like Pilgrim, it can be read as a collection of short stories or narrated whole.
"I think the world needs more books like that," Choyce says. "Writers need to take a certain license to explore things in your life."
Choyce also cleverly side-steps another categorization in that the book is autobiographical, without being an autobiography. Gnarly. Dude. One might expect this book to be about Nova Scotia, and many parts of it are set here but the reality is that the stories are bigger than Nova Scotia.
From Driving Minnie's Piano:
Even after living here for more than twenty years I'm not one hundred percent sure that Nova Scotia truly exists. It looms large in my imagination and it may be more myth than fact.
The primary thread that knits Driving Minnie's Piano together is the concept that the past tags along with us into the present and future, connecting us to a larger time and place. Those threads surface unexpectedly in Choyce's book, like a displaced seal pup in the middle of a road late at night and weaves the reader comfortably back and forth through time and space, inviting us to journey with the author, from New Jersey to Paris, Tokyo and ultimately home. Weather connects continents through waves. Earthquakes move and split continents. The book is big and little at the same time.
Emotionally, we see how events with Choyce's family, friends and others shape his view of the world. In the physical sense, the book telescopes the reader over the soft mossy floor of the woods, geographical formations that cover several continents to the piercing sting of crushed ice in a January wave.
From Driving Minnie's Piano:
I'm travelling east now with serious intent, gaining speed, almost parallel to the wave whose back I am riding. Behind me the wave has begun to pitch forward. The crack of breaking ice mixes with the slurp of sea dragging up the softer stuff, a sound that might seem ominous if I didn't have speed as an ally.
But I'm free and feeling fine and temporarily indomitable as I slip through the vertical icefield, a wall of water filled with heirlooms, knick-knacks and memorabilia of the season gone by. Behind me the wave has grown hollow and the sun has allowed it to show its true colours of blue mixed with green commingled with those blazing diamonds. I'm a little too dazzled by it all and lose my focus, allowing my board to slow just a hair. I tip up on one foot and tilt back towards the maw of the wave but recover my balance quickly and shift my weight forward to increase speed.
All my early morning confidence is suddenly shaken as I realize the wave is spitting ice cubes from the lip now. All a body can do is tuck in low, keep one's head down and watch the wall get steeper and steeper up ahead. I decide to trust instinct over reason and stay tucked, assess the locomotive cave of sea and ice that is consuming me and hope for the best.
The best would be a quick trip back to sunlight but instead the sea decides to have its way with me. My feet are still dutifully planted on my board as the lip of the wave, dense with the memory of a brutal winter, takes a broadside punch at my wetsuit-hooded head. I feel myself cartwheeling forward into the drink and suddenly am reminded what freezing seawater does to the fully exposed human face. First, I feel the small razors of wafer ice slicing at me as I connect with the surface. Then I slip under and hear the magnificent stereo whump of a wave in triumph over a mortal surfer. I'm held under for mere seconds that expand exponentially in a world where time is truly mutable. Then I surface, gasping for good air and feeling the very identifiable pain of a short but volcanic headache brought on by a Canadian wipeout.
When the wave is through with me, I scramble back onto my board, paddle for the safety of deeper water and take deep clean gulps of air until I can focus again. Another formation of geese takes possession of the sky above and the young seal pops up again nearby to blink at me in innocent wonder.
The form his book wears is a baby grand piano, a u-haul, a surf board, drumlins, places and people. Interesting and funny people. More forms that wear these matters are skunks and lichen and the soft moss that covers stones, important stones. That is Choyce's story – or stories.
From Driving Minnie's Piano:
As I make my pitch of selected stone into the sea, I know that there is part of me sailing through the sky with this object, a stone somewhat less in size than a hardball but larger than a chicken egg. I follow the trajectory with my eye, and as I watch, it instinctively welds together all the things I've done right in my life, and diminishes somehow all the things I've done wrong. I hear the satisfying ker-plunk into the sea and then imagine it settling into the clear, pure north Atlantic water, drifting towards the bottom and settling in among other stones with headgear of exotic golden, brown and green seaweed. I've returned the stone to the sea from where it once emerged and I head on home, my lungs feasting on pure seaside air, feeling all the better for it, fool that I am.
You don't need to be a surfer to find that Driving Minnie's Piano is a satisfying read with deep insight into the human condition and those things that drives each of us: " ..whatever it happens to be, you must love the act of doing it. And you have to love the wave, love the words or love the beans. If there ain't love in it, it's not gonna snap."
Read it in a night, a weekend, a month, over the summer at your cottage or over a year but read it for the adventure and insight it provides. There is more coming up in the near future for Choyce fans, a couple of young adult novels will be published next spring and a new cd is in the works. You can listen to his band's latest song, Courage at Midnight on www.LesleyChoyce.com
I ask him what one book he would like to see made into a movie and like a magician on queue, he conjures a large manila envelope from somewhere behind his desk. In it are plans from IMX Communications, some of their film titles include Cadillac Girls, Margaret's Museum, and New Waterford Girl. One of their next films will be The Republic of Nothing, a novel Choyce penned in the 90s and high schools have picked up as part of their curriculum.
"We're in the process of doing the paper work for it," Choyce says. "There are good players and a good start."
Like a wave, Choyce says the The Republic of Nothing has taken on a life of its own. Choyce is hopeful the story will be filmed in Nova Scotia. A new edition of the The Republic of Nothing is expected in January with an afterward by Rush drummer, Neil Peart who made a connection with Choyce when Peart wrote Choyce to say he loved the book. The new edition will have a book club section for thought and discussion.
By the time our meeting is over and I've gathered my things, Choyce is in the common area just outside his office, he's talking and holding a piece of paper up to a couple of students that have gathered and the surf poet is all business again.
Dark Side of the Moon
Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
0312934343 $7.99
Mindy Paige
Reviewer
To all of the Kenyon Minions out there, it was a good read. To anyone not familiar with Sherrilyn Kenyon or paranormal fiction/romance you should give her a try. I am a big fan of the Dark-Hunter series, but I have been sightly disappointed in her last two books. This one makes three.
The story line was followed the same pattern as some of her other books, but had enough twists and turns to add some spice. I am however hoping she comes up with a few new insults to add to her dialog repertoire. The continuing sub-plots from the series are taking some unexpected paths that could really be interesting.
The series as a whole is excellent, but this book was not up to Sheri standards. The book was good, but not extraordinary like the first five. Compared to the rest thriving paranormal market, I will have to say that it still ranks in the top twenty-five percent. I will more than likely read it again, and I am still looking forward to the next book in the series.
The Breastfeeding Cafe: Mothers Share the Joys, Challenges, & Secrets of Nursing
Barbara L. Behrmann
The University of Michigan Press
839 Greene Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104-3209
047206875X $19.95 www.press.umich.edu 734-764-4388
Shari Maser
Reviewer
The Breastfeeding Cafe is perfect -- just like breastmilk! It contains all the essentials, including an intangible nurturing essence. This hearty smorgasbord of women's stories will nourish breastfeeding mothers just like breastmilk nourishes their babies. It will also fulfill lactation and childbirth professionals, as well as feminists.
Some people would call The Breastfeeding Cafe a scholarly work; others would call it a collection of intimate personal stories. Both descriptions would be accurate. Behrmann combines extensive research in the fields of medicine, sociology, history, and anthropology with anecdotal evidence cultivated from interviews with an amazingly diverse group of women. The result is a fascinating survey of breastfeeding in America today, and an in-depth examination of the ways in which breastfeeding is valued - and devalued - in our culture.
Mothers from all walks of life very openly share their experiences as breastfeeding women. Behrmann interviews mothers who planned their pregnancies and mothers who did not, mothers who gave birth in a hospital and mothers who gave birth at home, mothers of twins, mothers who are lesbians, mothers who are teenagers, mothers who have had breast implants, mothers who are employed in the corporate world, mothers who serve in the army, mothers who are college students, mothers who work minimum wage jobs, mothers who are immigrants, mothers who are highly educated, mothers who are former gang members, mothers of premature infants, mothers of babies who did not survive, mothers who have given their babies up for adoption.... Breastfeeding mothers are sure to see their own experiences reflected somewhere in these pages. Other women will get an accurate picture of the range of challenges and rewards involved in breastfeeding.
The focus is on exploring the physical, emotional, and cultural challenges and hardships that women have encountered as breastfeeding mothers; however, the overall message of The Breastfeeding Cafe is uplifting and encouraging. Behrmann's insights inspire hope for the future of women and babies, and for a cultural that is more supportive of breastfeeding and mothering. If The Breastfeeding Cafe were a restaurant, its master chef Barbara Behrmann would receive rave reviews for her varied menu, her socially conscious approach, her tantalizingly original recipes, and her fulfilling portions.
The Bard of Bethlehem
David James Trapp
PublishAmerica
P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705
1424133130 $19.95
Tami Brady
Reviewer
It is 5 BC. Terentius is a Celt living in Tarsus in Cilicia. A bard at heart, yet lacking the poetic talent to be so named, Terentius made his living as a musician. His life was rather uncomplicated, quiet, and lonely. He made beautiful music on his harp. Sometimes people listened and even gave him a few coins for his efforts.
Destiny it would seem had other plans for Terentius. A Jew by the name of Matthias came to the musician one day asking for lute lessons. Terentius agreed to do so as he secretly hoped that the man would teach him the psalms, beautiful and powerful works. Another important chance meeting was also in store for Terentius. A Celtic woman by the name of Bridicia. Bridicia was a fish peddler in Tarsus. Soon, she was also mate to Terentius.
Unfortunately, this joy was not meant to last. Terentius soon found himself on the wrong side of a powerful Druid Corvus. Corvus had cursed Bridicia to be barren when she refused his affections. This situation only got worse when Corvus murdered Matthias, thinking that his victim is Terentius.
The Bard of Bethlehem is a fresh look at the political and cultural environment in the days just before the birth of Christ. The interactions are quite true to life without any sort of sugar coating or modifications to appease modern political correctness. Well written.
Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams
Alexander McCall Smith
Canongate Books
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-4793
1841958239 $18.00 1-800-788-3122
Terry Mathews
Reviewer
Recommendation: There are not enough stars in the galaxies for this one. One of the universe's great gifts.
Sometimes, if we're very, very lucky, the universe presents us with gifts. Sometimes, those gifts appear in the form of a great piece of art, a film that touches the soul or a haunting melody still heard long after the turntable stops spinning.
Sometimes, the gift presents itself in the form of the written word. In this age of pulp fiction, it's rare to find a book with magic and stardust on every page. "One Hundred Years of Solitude," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, comes to mind. John Irving's "The World According to Garp" belongs on the list. So does "The Milagro Beanfield War," by John Nichols, and the little-known "Bridge of Birds," by the reclusive Barry Hughart.
"Dream Angus," by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, can take its place among these great works of otherworldly fiction. "Dream Angus" is a slim, small, 171-page retelling of the life of the Celtic god of dreams. How Smith has woven ancient stories among modern plotlines is nothing short of stunning. Angus is the love child of Dagda, an all-powerful god, and a beautiful water sprite named Boann.
"Water sprites are gentle; their sons are handsome and have a sense of fun; they sparkle and dart about, just like water," Smith writes.
Angus is an enchanted child. Birds hover around his head. Wild hunting dogs turn into fawning pups in his presence. When he's around, people have vivid dreams and in some cases, their dreams come true.
"In many ways, this was Dagda's greatest achievement, that he gave us this fine boy, who brought dreams to people, and who was loved by birds and people equally and who still is. For Dream Angus comes at night and gives you dreams. You do not see him do this, but you may spot him skipping across the heather, his bag of dreams by his side, and the sight of him, just the sight of him, may be enough to make you fall in love."
At first glance, this book seems deceptively simple. An Introduction and 10 short chapters make the reader think, "This will be quick and pleasant and I can get on about my business."
It takes only four pages or so to realize this trip will not be simple and it will not be short. It will take several readings to peel back all the story's layers. It will take weeks to completely appreciate the beauty of Smith's prose.
Alexander McCall Smith has offered the reading world a peek into a world of myths, magic and mystery. Let's hope his gift is opened, read and treasured by a legion of booklovers for many years to come.
Surgery and Its Alternatives
Sandra A. McLanahan, M.D. & David J. McLanahan, M.D.
Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
1575667398 $22.00
Victoria Kennedy
Reviewer
This is a book that should be on everyone's bookshelf. It's filled with information on what we can do to keep ourselves healthy. We are instructed about the necessity of a low fat, high fiber diet and advised as to what supplements will aid us. It talks about relaxation, exercise and other important strategies to help us avoid surgery, or cope with it.
Alternative treatments and surgical procedures for over 200 operations are discussed along with their advantages and disadvantages. The authors also provide summaries at the end of those chapters, which I found to be very helpful. All the phases of surgery, both before and after are explained along with what we need to do should we elect to have it.
I bought this book because I wanted to read about these surgeries, what they entailed and what my options might be, if any. It's better to have the information handy, because when a situation arises, you might feel pushed towards an operation and not know where to turn. I myself have been in situations where I was left scratching my head and trying to figure out what I should do. This is not a good feeling when it comes to something that could affect your whole life. Surgery and Its Alternatives helps take the confusion out of making a informed decision. It arms you with the knowledge that you wish your doctor would take the time to share. You might even learn that there is a viable alternative to the surgery and whatever the outcome, it is an invaluable aid in the healing process itself. I highly recommend it.
"This book uniquely and completely presents the panorama of possibilities for treatment of your disease. Significantly, you need not be limited by even one choice: if your first preference doesn't work, you can go on to one of the other approaches given here. Nothing is more important, however, than your simply becoming familiar with the full range of your healing choices and subsequently participating in the surgical process as an important member of your own surgical team." Taken from the forward by Dr. Bernie Siegel.
Andrew's Bookshelf
The Publicity & Public Relations Guidebook
Merilyn Towns Davis
Burning Bush Publications
0974203009 $ 29.95
"The Publicity & Public Relations Guidebook" is well-organized, well-laid out guide that places common-sense business procedures in a Christian setting and practiced in a Christian manner. But don't be put off by Ms. Davis's coloring her business with spiritual verses – this book is as 'hard-nosed' as any book advertised in Forbes or Business Week; the scriptural references act to serve as an effective motivational force for the reader.
There is no turning of the other cheek in this book; Ms. Davis advocates and describes how to ascertain and chase market share...how to "network"… defining your USP's – unique selling points…how to run a PR campaign, and many other important facets of owning and operating one's own business. Equally important in making a business successful (meaning 'profitable') in these competitive times, Ms Davis emphasizes the need for hard work, sweat equity, utilizing one's resources, and using the talents she quotes Matthew 25:14-30 as God having given each individual with which to succeed. This is a 'must read' for anyone who is in pursuit of an effective business and personal strategy.
Torpedo
Jeff Edwards
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Rd., Lincoln, NE, 68512
0595675239 $29.95 800 288 4677
Author Jeff Edwards is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer and Anti-Submarine Warfare Specialist, and he has used his years of Navy expertise to write an electrifying novel. In a style that reminds the reader of a Tom Clancy novel, Edwards combines an exciting story with technically precise, yet interesting descriptions of shipboard life and warfare on a Navy frigate.
With a story-line that could have been taken from today's New York Times, "Torpedo" combines politics, vengeance, antisubmarine warfare, and suspense in a novel of naval and air combat that encompasses problems in the Persian Gulf, problems in the Taiwan Straits, the same ineffective United Nations along with a NATO ally that has changed sides. Edwards alternates high-speed action with technically precise, clear-cut descriptions. He has created a believable plot and memorable characters and through his adroit use of current events, there is an atmosphere of realism that permeates "Torpedo." This is an extremely readable book for either the civilian or military reader – overall, it is an excellent book and highly recommended.
Blood Stripes: The Grunts' View of the War in Iraq
David J. Danelo
Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Rd., Mechanicsburg, Pa.
0811701646 $ 29.95 www.stackpolebooks.com
There are an increasing number of books coming onto the market now about the war in Iraq that have been written by various Marine or army veterans who fought there. "Blood Stripes" is one of the better efforts available today.
Written by David J. Danelo, a former Marine officer, and combat veteran of Iraq, "Blood Stripes" chronicles the efforts of four Marine infantry units fighting in the western desert towns in the Sunni Triangle. He follows these four squads of grunts as they leave from the United States and spend their seven month tour fighting the Fedayeen. Danelo writes with the clear and concise style of the combat veteran he is, as he brings the reader to the edge of their seat with his description of these young Marines walking a daily IED patrol, or getting themselves physically and emotionally ready to clear houses in Husabayah and Haditha.
"Blood Stripes" refer to the red stripe running from the waist to the cuffs on the dress slacks of a Marine non-commissioned officer, and these are the Marine leaders who are the subject of Danelo's book. A non-commissioned officer is typically 22- 25 years old, and whose ranks are corporal and sergeant. These NCO's are the lead characters; they are the "small unit leaders" who take their Marines into battle. Danelo tells their story powerfully; with the quiet authority of a Marine officer who has ordered such NCO's into battle, and has seen the bloody consequences of these ugly street fights.
Danelo does not dwell on the rightness or wrongness of the war. Instead he introduces the reader to the individual Marines, to their families, and to how they cope – both back home in America, as well as in Fallujah, Ramadi, and the other nasty little towns where the war is being fought – with the daily stress of heat, IED patrols, and combat. As we get to know the Marines and their girl friends and wives, Danelo gives us a glimpse of what these young men experience in combat in the narrow streets and back alleys of western Iraq.
"Blood Stripes" is Danelo's first literary effort, and it is well done indeed. This is not a feel-good book; not all the Marines return alive. But for a reader who wants to know what the Marines are experiencing every day – be sure to read this book.
A Spiritual Warrior's Journey
W.H. McDonald
First Books
Bloomington, In.
1414014503 $19.95 1-888-280-7715
Ostensibly a memoir written around the author's tour in Vietnam during 1966-1967, this book is far deeper and more thought-provoking than the usual Vietnam-era 'We wuz in Vietnam and you done us wrong" books that fill the marketplace today. As crew chief / door gunner on a UH-1D Huey helicopter, author William McDonald saw and experienced sufficient combat for him to win a Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, as well as 14 Air Medals; his combat exploits alone would make for an enthralling story.
But while fighting in Vietnam was a major part of McDonald's life, it by no means consumed him, as his book illustrates. "A Spiritual Warrior's Journey" is a collection of absorbing and charming vignettes and slices of McDonald, from early childhood through his marriage, to his active 'retirement' and subsequent return to Vietnam.
McDonald's story has an appeal to those who believe in a higher power, and to be more definitive, a compassionate higher power that assists and looks out for those human beings receptive to God's love and directions. His book is replete with stories of his life in which a higher power interceded to keep him alive, keep him fed, and keep him on what he believes is the right path in his life. And fortunately so, because his recounting of how poorly his mother treated him in his early years, and continued to treat him badly as he matured, is truly saddening. It would have been easy for the author to sink into the morass of drugs and alcohol as did many veterans of his era, yet it is clearly his belief in this higher power that kept his attitude and life far happier and more satisfied than most.
"A Spiritual Warrior's Journey" is a unique book, and one well worth reading. Written in a casual, conversational, and very personal style, it is surprisingly understated yet very positive : Yes, the author has had a difficult childhood, yes, combat in Vietnam was cruel, bloody, and merciless, but for those who can keep their eye on the bigger cosmic picture, you are not only not alone, but there is a higher power who always has your back.
Andrew Lubin, Review
www.andrewlubin.com
Bethany's Bookshelf
Gravity's Dream
Kate Light
West Chester University Poetry Center
West Chester University, West Chester, PA 19383
0978599705 $14.95
Gravity's Dream: New Poems and Sonnets is the third poetry collection of teacher and professional violinist Kate Light. Written with a gamboling, lyrical intensity that freely transitions from moment to moment, the poems - some free-verse, some crafted as sonnets, some approaching stream-of-consciousness narration - aptly express the chaotic confusion of surface thoughts in everyday life. "To You": I'm writing to you now. There was no "you" / except a kind of guess; that maybe someone / here or there would catch a drift / of wit or recognition, or, forgive my un- / worthiness, Inspiration. Taken for stiff / by some, undisciplined by others (all true, / all true?), I bow my head before / those judgment gods; & if now some small following lifts / that head back up (as I have said) by the tip / of the chin, looks into the eyes, looks in, / says, I accept these things as gifts, / then, okay, you're who I'm writing for, / far off, or near; who I'm here biting my lip / to be clear to. Yes, you. Yes, you.
Carmina Detroit
Dawn McDuffie
Adastra Press
16 Reservation Road, Easthampton, MA 01027
0977666735, $15.00 www.amazon.com
Carmina Detroit showcases nineteen elegant poems by Dawn McDuffie, which are nicely organized into four sections taking the medieval music of Carmina Burana as a model with the seemingly incongruous themes of Chance, spring, Love, and modern day Detroit. This very special limited (230 copies) letterpress edition is printed from handset Deepdene and Goudy Iopen types onto 80 lb. Mohawk Superfine archival text, is sewn by hand, and bound with Waussau Royal Fiber Rose endwrappers and features a cover of Classic Coumns in Safari. A teacher of creative writing at Detroit's Scarab club and Opera House, Dawn McDuffie is an accomplished poet, one whose word smithing skills fully justify recommending her work to the attention of serious scholarship and dedicated poetry enthusiasts alike. 'The Merry Face of Spring': Spring can't stop giggling./Flora, Goddess of flowers,/sets up court on the freeway medians,/and daffodils dedicate every song to her.
Hopeless Insomniac
Laura Riehman
Privately Published
PO Box 6693, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
0975422014, $10.95 www.laurariehman.com
Laura Riehman drew upon her own life experiences for the poems she wrote and collected together in a 64-page compendium she chose to title "Hopeless Insomniac". These are raw and intricate expressions of love, loss, betrayal and death shaped into verse. Riehman's writes in such a way that is both profoundly personal and experientially universal. 'The Road': The roads we have taken/the choices we have made/have brought us to where/we are today.//We're sure of the now/we fear the unknown/we often wonder–/what do we really know?/We don't have enough/we're always wanting more/were we ever really/very happy before?//It's all so unclear/What is right?/What is wrong?/Sometimes it seems/we're just wandering along.
They Stand Up In Broken Shells
Nita Penfold
Privately Published
5 Walnut Street, Melrose, MA 02176
1411666070, $15.00 www.nitapenfold.com
The winner of the 2006 Writer's Digest International Self-Published Poetry Book Award, Nita Penfold has proven herself to be a gifted wordsmith with an ability to convey imaged emotions that resonate with the reader and linger in the mind long after her book of poems is set back upon the shelf. Highly recommended to the attention of poetry enthusiasts, "They Stand Up In Broken Shells" is a slender 88-page volume that clearly documents her skills and abilities as a poet. Of special note is the autobiographical information on the last two pages. Readers will look eagerly toward her next volume of memorable verse. 'Small Town Woman': drives with the breaks on/slow, pulling against/the automatic transmission/she worries that she might hit/a tree, might scratch the fender/might crash into a thousand pieces/flying through the air//the pain becomes unbearable/she waits at the railroad crossing/too long/she perfects her timing
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
Wake-Up Call: The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow
Kristen Breitweiser
Warner Books, Inc.
1271 Avenue of the Americas, Room 913, New York, NY 10020
0446579327 $24.99 www.twbookmark.com 1-800-759-0190
This book chronicles the author's transformation from a "suburban diva whose priorities included changing her decorative pillows with the seasons" to a nationally known activist who was named Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year. After her husband's tragic death in the World Trade Center terrorist attack Breitweiser embarked on a quest to uncover the truth about what happened that unforgettable morning, why it happened, and how to stop it from ever happening again.
From the founding of the Jersey Girls ( a group of other 9/11 widows) to appearances before Congressional committees investigating the attack, Breitweiser became a thorn in the side of the politicians who wanted to gloss over the event and keep the details hidden from the public. As she evolved from a well-behaved 9/11 widow into a confrontational, political pit bull, the author challenged the Bush administration to provide the answers to questions they would have preferred to avoid. Using tough, non-nonsense prose, Breitweiser analyzes the events of 9/11 in a way that no politician or historian could, thus offering an intelligent and emotionally charged challenge to the "official" story.
Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports
Brooke de Lench
Collins
0060881631 $14.95
An essential resource manual written by a mother primarily for mothers, this is a must read for any woman whose child or children are or will be involved in any type of organized sports program. The author addresses a variety of topics ranging from ensuring playing time, communicating with the coach and dealing with overly competitive parents, and how to add balance to youth sports, to more serious issues like protecting kids from injuries, steroid use and childhood obesity.
De Lench offers practical advice mothers can use to avoid getting sucked into the crazy vortex of competitive youth sports. She suggests ways to make the youth sports experience safer, saner, and less stressful. Packed with real life anecdotes and information from experts, this book provides constructive, practical, and forward-thinking advice to help mothers understand the critical role they can play in putting the words "fun", "game", and "play" back into the culture of youth sports.
Fleeing Fundamentalism: A Minister's Wife Examines Faith
Carlene Cross
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
PO Box 2225, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2225
1565124987. $23 1-800-722-7202 www.algonquin.com
Carlene Cross' description of her failed marriage to a minister and the subsequent reassessment of her faith is the focus of this no-holds barred memoir. The story of a Montana girl who attended Big Sky Bible College and fell in love with and married the eventual minister at the Calvary Baptist Church in Seattle won't thrill members of the Religious Right. After having three children, the couple's unhappy marriage disintegrated. The author sought a divorce, went back to school, and moved her life in a new direction. As she flays the fallacies of fundamentalism, Cross delivers a gripping story of an unhappy woman who experienced faith lost and faith regained. Without self-pity, she offers a very candid appraisal of what went wrong in her life and why.
Indian Yell: The Heart of an American Insurgency
Michael Blake
Northland Publishing
PO Box 1389, Flagstaff, AZ 86002
0873589076 $21.95 www.northlandpub.com 1-800-346-3257
In this engrossing historical study, Michael Blake skillfully weaves the factors involving twelve significant conflicts into a gripping narrative that illuminates the undercurrents of conflict between nations during America's westward expansion. Shattering many of the stereotypes of the Indian Wars, Blake eloquently reveals the true characters of the people involved, as well as the passions and agendas on both sides that accelerated seemingly benign issues into horrendous conflicts.
Covering the period from 1854 to 1890, this well-illustrated account of the horrors and shame of war within our borders marks the passing of one way of life and the beginning of another. The bitter memories of this conflict still haunt the American West. Grounded in meticulous research and written with an uncanny understanding of American Indian culture, Blake's soulful profiles of the participants, both Indian and cavalry, reflect the passion of a storyteller who cares deeply about his subject matter.
Explaining why he wrote this book, the author said, "Despite the excruciating dilemma of studying the past, I believe history has the capacity to provide more insight about our behavior, both as individuals and a race, than all the therapies humankind has devised." Blake also wrote the bestseller "Dances With Wolves" which has sold more than five million copies and been translated into 25 languages.
Outlaw Tales of Oregon
Jim Yuskavitch
Twodot/Globe Press
0762741287 $10.95
In this paperback Jim Yuskavitch provides ample proof that the stories of regional miscreants can be just as fascinating as those of nationally recognized villains. This collection of "True Stories of Oregon's Most Infamous Robbers, Rustlers, and Bandits" looks at such desperados as train robber Dave Tucker, gunfighter Hank Vaughn, the infamous DeAutremont brothers and the bank robbing McCarty gang. You'll also find an account of the high plains range war fought in 1905 between Oregon cattle and sheep ranchers as well as the horrific slaughter of Chinese miners in Hell's Canyon in the late 1800s.
Bob Walch
Reviewer
Buhle's Bookshelf
Ultimate Italian Trivia
Scott Paul Frush
Marshall Rand Publishing
PO Box 1849, Royal Oak, MI 48068
0974437484 $14.75
Written by trivia enthusiast and history buff Scott Paul Frush, and featuring a foreword by Chairman Emeritus of the National Italian American Foundation Frank D. Stella, Ultimate Italian Trivia: A Treasure Trove of Fun and Fascinating Facts is a collection of over 1,600 amazing trivia tidbits as educational as they are fascinating. From "What is gnocchi di patate?" (potato dumplings) to "What is Michelangelo's last name?" (Buonarroti) to "For what reason does Italy have scarce mineral deposits and fossil fuels?" (geographically, Italy is too young a continent to have them), the questions range from near-common knowledge to brain-busting obscure. A smattering of black-and-white photographs and additional resources such as a bibliography, the Italian national anthem in English and Italian, a list of Italian publications including where to find them online, thumbnail region profiles and more round out this "must-have" for trivia buffs fascinated by all things Italian.
Free Speech 101
Joseph Vogel
WindRiver Publishing, Inc.
72 N. WindRiver Road, Silverton, ID 83867-0446
1886249318 $12.95 www.WindRiverPublishing.com
Free Speech 101: The Utah Valley Uproar Over Michael Moore, is the story of the conflict generated during Michael Moore's 2004 Slacker Uprising Tour when author Joseph Vogel, then head of student government at Utah Valley State College, dared to extend an invitation for Michael Moore to come and speak. In the center of fiercely a conservative, passionately Mormon state, Moore's liberal and anti-President Bush views were harshly despised by a vociferous portion of the community. The result was offers of bribery, death threats, and legislative pressures aimed at preventing the UVSC from using student fees to fund an allegedly "viewpoint neutral" program to hear Michael Moore's words. Of course, no similar opposition was raised against conservative Sean Hannity's pro-Bush visit and speech. Vogel himself and many others passionately believed in the importance of free speech, and that true patriotism and being an American meant listening to all points of view before making a decision. The hard-fought battle just to allow Michael Moore to speak, and its outcome, is accounted in vivid detail from an insider's point of view - an author who knows well the history of religious persecution against Mormons for practicing their beliefs, and therefore questions why so much intolerance against free speech exists in the state of Utah to this day. Highly recommended.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
Burroughs' Bookshelf
A Fearless Guide to Starting a Profitable 5K Business
Marilyn Sweet
Cherry Creek Press
3850 Paseo Del Prado, #28, boulder, CO 80301
0978572009 $16.95 www.5kbiz.com
Author Marilyn Sweet, who has personally started eight businesses on less than $5,000 over the past twenty-five years and achieved sufficient success to retire from her day job as a psychologist, presents A Fearless Guide to Starting a Profitable 5K Business: Create Immediate Income by Investing $5,000 or Less. Written in a no-nonsense, down-to-earth style, A Fearless Guide to Starting a Profitable 5K Business covers how to minimize overhead as much as possible, low-cost marketing strategies that work, creating a "quality corporate image" on a shoestring, how to decide when to grow a business or keep it small, solid policies that avoid common traps and pitfalls, how to handle the emotional side of getting a business off the ground, and much more. Enthusiastically recommended for any budding entrepreneur, not just those on a tight budget; A Fearless Guide to Starting a Profitable 5K Business is filled cover to cover with efficiency strategies that will prove invaluable to all small business owners regardless of the amount of their starting capital.
Written by CEO, management strategist, and four-time recipient of the NEO Success Award for business growth Kenn Ricci, Management by Trust is a no-nonsense guide to the value of treating one's employees in an open and trusting manner. Management by Trust reveals that such practice is fast becoming a requirement to success in the evolving working world; chapters covers means to foster and tap into the power of a trust, from setting the right tone with a mission statement to solid compensation strategies and letting everyone in the organization know what everyone else earns, to honest and straightforward employee reviews, and much more. An excellent productivity-building management guide and supplement for the twenty-first century.
Advertising: Industry in Peril
John Michelet
Olympian Publishing
13500 SW Pacific Highway, PMB 522, Tigard, OR 97223
0977898202 $14.95 www.olympianpublishing.biz
Award-winning advertising industry insider of 35 years John Michelet presents Advertising: Industry in Peril, a no-nonsense guide to the difference between effective and utterly worthless advertising. Advertising: Industry in Peril discusses why sales are not a measure of advertising success, the massive cost of ineffective advertising, and common problems and blunders plaguing the advertising industry from mentioning the competition too often (thereby giving the competition free advertising!) to producing "onezies" rather than coordinated ad campaign. The highlight of Advertising: Industry in Peril are the fifteen expert points to creating better advertising, such as "Make a Big Promise and reasons to believe it", "Demonstrate", and "Put messaging before entertaining". In an industry with little certification, where "on-the-job training" (i.e. "learn the hard way") is the norm, and there are few official distinctions between trained professionals and amateurs sporting business cards, Advertising: Industry in Peril is an absolute "must-have" for anyone seeking to create successful ads, whether independently, for their own small business, or as a branch of a larger business, and especially vital for anyone responsible for reviewing or approving ads for a corporation.
From the Ground Up
Francine Watkins
Selling Edge Publishing
PO Box 785, Oceanville, NJ 08231
0977999505 $14.95 www.directsellingedge.com
Written by expert salesperson Francine Watkins, whose credentials include service as a department head to a Fortune 500 company, From the Ground Up: The Lift You Need to Succeed in Direct Sales is a no-nonsense guide to a career in direct sales that can promote financial, professional, and personal freedom. Written for salespeople and sales mentors of all skill and experience levels, From the Ground Up covers basic selling and closing techniques, how to curry prospects' affinity and trust, secrets to making an entertaining and persuasive presentation, and much more. Selling directly to the customer is a special and subtle art; whether one is just starting out or a seasoned veteran looking for additional tips, From the Ground Up is an invaluable resource of time and experience-tested advice. Self-guided exercises and sample solutions to real-world problems round out this superior "how-to" book in its field.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
The Fit Traveler Senior Edition
Kari Eide & Lissa Mueller
Publishers Design Group
PO Box 37, Roseville, CA 95678
KSB Promotions (publicity)
55 Honey Creek, NE, Ada, MI 49301
1929170254 $17.95 www.publishersdesign.com
Physical fitness expert Kari Eide and A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer Lissa Mueller present The Fit Traveler Senior Edition, a guide to staying healthy and sticking to quality exercise regimen while traveling, whether for a local visit or around the globe. Written especially with the needs of older travelers in mind, who could be more at risk for bone fractures among other differences, The Fit Traveler Senior Edition provides detailed instructions with black-and-white photographs for exercises that can be performed anywhere, anytime, from wall push-ups to a wealth of exercises for the legs, arms, shoulders and much more involving a simple stretch band - included with the book! The spiral binding allows The Fit Traveler Senior Edition to lay flat for easy reference to exercises while performing the regiment. A first-rate health and fitness care aide, and as invaluable to stay-at-home seniors who cannot afford expensive exercise equipment or gym memberships as it is to travelers.
Explore Costa Rica
Harry S. Pariser
Manatee Press
PO Box 225001, San Francisco, CA 94122-5001
1893643557, $22.95 www.ecocostarica.com 1-800-729-6423
In "Explore Costa Rica", Harry Pariser draws upon his considerable experience and expertise as a travel guide writer to compile one of the best and most 'user friendly' guides to what Costa Rica has to offer the business traveler and vacationer. Now in a newly expanded and updated fifth edition, "Explore Costa Rica" is a 668 information packed compendium that is enhanced with the inclusion of 38 maps, 30 color photos, and 80 black-and-white images. All types and price ranges of accommodations also include some of the best nature lodges to be found anywhere in Central America. Recreational resources and recommendations ranges from whitewater rafting, surfing, horseback riding, snorkeling, and scuba diving, to birdwatching, hiking, whale watching, canopy climbing, and ballooning. Complete and 'visitor friendly' background information is provided for Costa Rican animals, rainforests, history, and culture. In addition to travel basics for neighboring nations, "Explore Costa Rica" also features volunteer opportunities, language schools, environmental organizations, and covers transportation by car, bus, plane, and ferry. Enhanced with the addition of thousands of thematically appropriate websites, phone and fax numbers, and access to internet updates, "Explore Costa Rica" is an invaluable and superbly organized resource for planning any sort of trip to or within one of the true gems of Central America.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Cheri's Bookshelf
Arbor Vitae
Susan X Meagher
Brisk Press
470 W 24th St. #15-I, New York, NY 10011
0977088502 $16.00 www.briskpress.com
Gay or straight—it's easy to fall in love with Clancy O'Connor and Abby Graham in Susan X Meagher's sizzling romance—replete with family drama, compelling character journeys, incredible sex, and unforgettable characters. "Arbor Vitae" is a thought-provoking page-turner, from the author of the popular series, "I Found My Heart in San Francisco."
We meet Abby five years after Will's death—as she is starting to come out of mourning. At forty-five, Abby—who was sure that her late husband was probably her last love, finds herself attracted to the landscape architect she hires. Clancy is an honest and open hard worker. She has a heart of gold and exudes enviable self-confidence. Abby may be a straight wealthy widow and devoted mother, but she can't resist the charming and mature twenty-nine-year-old. What starts out as friendship morphs into so much more as the women connect in the most primal way despite a vast array of differences. The ensuing courtship enriches Abby's reason for living, beyond that of the love of her family, friends, and her charity work.
Meagher captures Abby's concerns about her immature seventeen-year-old daughter Hayley, doting twenty-five-year-old son Trevor, and the rest of her family and friends, so well, that I get goose bumps just reading it. The angst Abby goes through while dealing with the issues that come up when a sea change like that occurs is distressing, but watching her transformation from a mother who consistently puts other's needs before her own to a mother who is also a woman in love, is what makes "Arbor Vitae" satisfying and real.
Abby has more to lose by embarking on a lesbian love affair than her young girlfriend. Clancy is out and quite comfortable in her own skin—she makes no apologies for being gay—which in itself is refreshing. Life is difficult enough without throwing a wrench in the mix, but with love, hope, patience, perseverance, and humor, Clancy and Abby strive to have the life they deserve—together.
For readers who enjoy the psychology and fluidity of sexuality; exploring lesbian love from different perspectives; and witnessing two women from different worlds, at different stages in their lives, as they come together, I highly recommend that you read "Arbor Vitae" by Susan X Meagher. Not only is it more book for your buck, but the story is just great and 461 pages goes by in a blink!
Combust the Sun A Richfield & Rivers Mystery
Andrews & Austin
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
430 Herrington Road, Johnsonville, NY 12094
193311052X $15.95
In a succinct film style narrative, with scenes that move, a character-driven plot, and crisp dialogue worthy of a screenplay, Andrews & Austin have successfully crafted an engaging Hollywood mystery. The added bonus is an unpredictable romance between two intelligent and witty women who have a fantastic sense of humor evident on every page, even as danger lurks at every turn. Richfield and Rivers are destined for each other, as if by cosmic command. Combust the Sun doesn't follow the structure of traditional lesbian fiction, yet Andrews & Austin are able to sustain the sensuality/sexuality amidst utter chaos.
Someone is killing Marathon Studio's bigwigs and Teague Richfield, an ex-cop turned screenwriter, ends up in the middle of the mess. After having lunch with the smashingly handsome Barrett Silvers, head of development at Marathon Studios, who had launched Teague's writing career, Barrett ends up in Intensive Care, and Teague finds herself in peril while being pursued by thugs.
In the meantime, Teague's mom introduces her skeptical daughter to a psychic astrologer, Callie Rivers. Teague is immediately hooked on Callie: "The door swung open to reveal a drop-dead gorgeous blond…I followed her trail of orgasmic perfume pretending to check out the floor-to-ceiling glass that provided a nice view of the river, but mostly I was checking out her fabulously small, tight ass…" (p. 46-7). Teague wonders: "What in the world do we have in common other than my intense desire for her: Maybe that's why God gives us desire, th keep us sexually hooked on one another until we have time to figure out we have other things in common" (p. 69). The mutual attraction occurs early in the novel, without the usual build-up, barriers, and finally earth-shattering consummation of the relationship as in most typical romance novels, but this rollercoaster romance works because real life isn't always neat and predictable.
Teague voices insecurity familiar in the industry: "As a screenwriter, I vacillated between the certainty that I would never be able to write the stories I was given and the fear that I would never be given any stories to write" (p. 19). Getting her break after bedding studio executive Barrett Silvers doesn't exactly bolster her self-esteem, but she's in, so to speak. The fact that her best friend is a basset (basket) hound named Elmo and she is haunted by the prospect of never finding her soul mate, Teague laments what she's missing by living alone, "That moment in the night when fears and frailties take over was the reason God created coupling. It was why the passengers on Noah's Ark didn't proceed up the plank single file. God didn't create couples merely for procreation, because mankind can too easily circumvent the Divine plan with petri dishes and test tubes. God created couples for that moment between 'news and snooze,' that moment when there is comfort in an icy bottom up against a warm belly and the sounds of rhythmic breathing in the night" (p. 32). Teague may be a sarcastic, self-described "psycho" in love with a psychic, but rationalization will not curb her appetite. Human imperfection is especially cute on Teague as her admirable strength, sense of justice, and fierce protectiveness of Callie are endearing traits. And the 41-year-old offers beauty tips too: "I brushed my punked auburn hair straight up. When gravity takes the body south, brush everything north" (p. 32).
The humor is without question the fun part, the mystery is the hook, and the love interest is what I enjoy most. Teague and Callie fighting in public is a classic. At the height of their loud argument, "A tall, thin waiter swished over to us and brandished his pad and pencil. 'Do you two need more time...or would that just make things worse?'" (p. 138).
Andrews & Austin convince me that it's possible for Teague to fall so completely, madly, and deeply in love with a psychic at first sight, and that if Callie Rivers has special powers, then it must be true, or else life is full of some very incredible coincidences.
I could write a book about all that I found clever, witty, and just plain funny amidst the action, adventure, and mystery, but luckily, they already wrote it! Every page has something that tickles my funny bone. I love the truisms they included as it increased my hope for romance, survival, and justice for the main characters. Even a person who doesn't put faith in psychics will wonder about that after reading Combust the Sun.
Combust the Sun will leave you waiting impatiently for the sequels Stellium In Scorpio (2007) and a third book in the Richfield & Rivers Mystery series entitled Venus Besieged, which will be out in 2008. A mystical romance Mistress of the Runes (2007) is also on the schedule. If you long for a fun diversion in your life, you enjoy action sequences that keep you on the edge of your seat, a who-done-it that will keep you guessing, and a stay-tuned for the next episode type of book, then Combust the Sun is for you.
Cheri Rosenberg
Reviewer
Christy's Bookshelf
Inspirational Readings and Poetic Rhymes
Evelyn Horan
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705-0151
1424117925 $24.95 www.publishamerica.com
Evelyn Horan has proven herself an author of many talents, one who writes fiction for children and young adults, as well as nonfiction and poetry. This book is exactly what the title says: inspirational. Ms. Horan has compiled an anthology of short stories, essays, and poetry dealing with humanity, nature, and religion. Of particular interest to this reader was the interesting and delightful poem about a pioneer's journey along the Oregon Trail. Also, a short story about a German immigrant's voyage to America and her experiences once she arrived. A vast array of human emotions are explored with eloquence and great insight. Poems are in abundance and are exceptional, some of which were written by this author as a teenager. Absolutely a must-have, must-read.
Millennium Babe: The Prophecy
Betty Dravis
Xlibris Corporation
International Plaza II, Suite 340, Philadelphia, PA 19113
0738845108 $21.99 US www.Xlibris.com
David Wetterman is building his own celebrity status as a jokester weatherman, but loses control during one newscast and mysteriously predicts a babe will be born on the first of the third millennium, blessed by and under the protection of God. At first, David tries to think of ways to spin his "spell" but then begins to believe his own prophecy. And he's not alone - word quickly spreads and David becomes a recognized celebrity known as the Prophet. With world leaders clamoring for the millennium babe to be born in their country, he goes on to predict a computer program designed by Andy and Ellie Dunbar could possibly foretell the birthplace of the baby. As the news spreads, the world is split between chaos and euphoria, fear and acceptance. But when the bad guys step into the picture, hoping to snag the millennium babe, the Prophet, with his former director, present girlfriend, Bitsy Blodgett, finds himself in a whole world of trouble.
Betty Dravis introduces a wonderful cast of characters with Millennium Babe, ranging from the weatherman turned Prophet to the President of the United States, each with their own agenda as regards the millennium babe. This fast-paced, thrilling read will keep the reader entertained and turning pages, absorbed in a compelling plot.
Never Fear
Scott Frost
G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Group
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0399153403 www.penguin.com $24.95 US www.penguin.com 1-800-847-5515
LA Detective Alex Delillo has sent her daughter off to college and is expecting her biggest worries will center around an empty nest. But before she can feel the first pang, she receives an incomplete fax which turns out to be from a half-brother she never knew about, whose dead body is discovered near where three young women were murdered 17 years earlier. Unknown to Alex, her estranged father was and remains the primary suspect in those prior murders. Although her brother's death is ruled a suicide, Alex suspects otherwise. With the help of her subordinate Detective Dylan Harrison, Alex begins to reconstruct her brother's hours preceding his death, and every avenue she explores leads her back to her father and the three women who were murdered 17 years ago.
Never Fear is a fast-paced mystery with plenty of twists and turns and red herrings at every corner. Single mother Alex Delillo is a fresh character, a gutsy woman with issues struggling to protect her college-aged daughter while chasing bad guys.
Vanish
Tess Gerritsen
Ballantine Books
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
www.ballantinebooks.com
0345476980 $7.99 www.randomhouse.com 1-800-726-0600
Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles is shocked to find a live body in her morgue. The woman is rushed to the hospital, where she is treated and placed in a room. Homicide detective Jane Rizzoli goes into labor while apprehending a criminal and rushes to the same hospital. Before Jane can deliver, she's being held hostage by the woman presumed dead and another man. Maura and Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, frantically try to identify the woman, but federal agents seem to be everywhere, blocking their efforts. Jane is eventually rescued, but the mysterious woman and her accomplice are executed. However, before the woman dies, she whispers a secret to Jane, which will lead Jane to her own gravesite.
Gerritsen's written a fast-paced thriller dealing with immoral government officials and imported sex slaves. Favorite characters return, i.e., Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli. Gerritsen's portrayal of Jane's ambivalence over her status as a new mom is realistically portrayed, as is Mila, the woman at the center of the mystery. An excellent read.
Christy Tillery French
Reviewer
Dustin's Bookshelf
100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories
Michael A. Arnzen
Raw Dog Screaming Press
5103 72nd Place, Hyattsville, MD, 20784
0974503126, $12.95
100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories is a collection of minimalist horror; stories as short as a few sentences, but hold a depth of entertainment value as a novel. Michael A. Arnzen is a Bram Stoker Award winning writer, poet, and professor with a Ph. D in English. In this collection of (that's right, 100) short stories, Arnzen has proven himself a leading figure in "flash fiction." Creating and destroying worlds and characters at a whim, Arnzen leaves them bloody and broke, proving repeatedly that he is a true master wordsmith of the macabre. Down the following story for a shot for a tasty example:
"Brain Candy"
He was a goner. So I shot him in the face and his head burst like a flesh pinata, spraying the zombie kiddies with its brain candy. This slowed them all down as they raked inside the emptied husk of fruit on its shoulders. Then they tore at one another for the morsels on one another's shirtsleeves and collars. The whole sick scene almost looked like a birthday party from my distance. I took my time picking them off, one by one, from the rooftop.
Arnzen accomplishes in just a few sentences what it takes other writers hundreds of pages to pull off. If you're new to the name, to the genre, or to the movement, 100 Jolts is a great place to start.
The Fall of Never
Ronald Damien Malfi
Raw Dog Screaming Press
5103 72nd Place, Hyattsville, MD 20784
0974503177, $17.95
Lonely Kelly Rich returns to her hometown in Upstate, New York to visit her younger sister who was subject to a violent attack. Reunited with her estranged family, she fights to contain her emotions involving the past; all the while investigating the attack upon her sister and the mysterious events unfolding around her. The Fall of Never is a twisting tale of nightmarish reality written with the silver-tongued style of a true authority on subtle horror. Ronald Damien Malfi has an elegant voice and a feral imagination, a lustrous quality lost in the majority of today's fiction. The Fall of Never is a must read for fans of intelligent, enthralling fiction.
Sick: An Anthology of Illness
John Edward Lawson – Editor
Raw Dog Screaming Press
5103 72nd Place, Hyattsville, MD 20784
0974503118, $15.95, 2003, 296 pages
With a stunning lineup of topnotch horror writers and filled with engrossing stories of filth and disease, Sick: An Anthology of Illness is among the best horror anthologies of the 21st century. Edited by the multitalented John Edward Lawson and published through the remarkable independent publisher, Raw Dog Screaming Press, Sick is an infectious page-turner that keeps the reader lusting for more. Stories such as Ronald Damien Malfi's "Discussions Concerning the Ingestion of Living Insects," Michael A. Arnzen's "On the Filthy Floor," and Mark McLaughlin's "A Night to Remember With Mocha Sumatra" could sell this book by themselves, but let's not play favorites here: the writers inside this anthology have an array of talent that keeps Sick fresh, while other anthologies fail with monotonous voices of quiet boredom. Each individual story brings a new world after the collapse of the previous, populated by characters as real as us, and at the same time, as surreal as our dream-selves. We unknowingly fall deep within the realm of the unreal, and see it as we see your mirror image: familiar yet different with every reflection. An example for those who doubt, the opening paragraph of Efrem Emerson's "Paraquat Syndrome":
I've been turning orange lately. A really sick kind of orange, know what I mean? So I decided to see a doctor. Having a rather low and undocumented income, I went to this neighborhood clinic I saw advertised on the lower Wendell Jeffrey Boulevard…down in the hood. It was a narrow storefront space sandwiched between Birdman's Appliance Repair and the Jumpin' for Jesus Thrift Shop. The waiting room was filled with the usual assortment of low-budget trailer trash, non-English speaking minorities, and other Third world riff raff. Sick: An Anthology of Illness is a truly striking work of horror fiction from a variety of talented authors, each conveying their own voice and style that molds this anthology into one of the best in print.
The Nature of Monsters
Ronald Damien Malfi
5 Story Walkup
3659 Mecklinburg Place, Decatur, GA 30032
0978676106 $20.00
Ronald Damien Malfi's The Nature of Monsters is a vivid piece that proves the author can move freely and successfully between genres, with a voice that is clever and appealing.
Robert Crofton is a twenty-something Kentucky native who moves to Baltimore, bent on writing a novel. Our protagonist's simple ways clash and conform with the socialite scene introduced by old friend Rory Van Holt (a well-off Golden Gloves winning prizefighter) and his circle of friends which includes Rory's beautifully melodramatic, opium smoking fiancé, Donna. Though dramatic, The Nature of Monsters has its share of theatrical comedy produced by Nigel Sweeny, the artist and alcoholic cousin of Robert who must constantly be placed under a watchful eye due to an arrogant personality that regularly lectures those within earshot. As Robert Crofton falls deeper into the elite party lifestyle, slipping further away from his simple existence, a story of love and resentment unfolds along with the uncertainty of yesterday and tomorrow.
The Nature of Monsters is a continuously enjoyable read. Through strong characterization we feel the apprehension, the want, the need and the desperation in an environment written by a man who produces truly original, creative and entertaining literature. Ronald Damien Malfi has proven once again that he is a genuine storyteller.
Dustin La Valley
Reviewer
Gary's Bookshelf
Gordorn Solie Something Left Behind
Gordon Solie, Robert and Pamela Allyn
Florida Media Inc.
801 Douglas Ave, Suite 100, Altamonte Springs, Florida
0976306212 $19.95 www.floridabookstore.com
When you think of professional wrestling announcers one name comes to mind: Gordon Solie. I remember growing up, friends of mine and I every Saturday watched his broadcasts. He made it so much fun to tune in especially when he interviewed so many of the wrestlers who were so much taller than he. Fans of the sport may be a bit disappointed because this is not a behind the scenes expose tell all book. It is an autobiography that reveals a very talented writer, which many readers may find very surprising. Robert and Pamela Allyn have collected many pieces through his long career. There are poems filled with symbolism, short stories, and thoughts and essays on many subjects. The book is also filled with many interesting pictures of the man and the many famous people he met.
Kill on Command
Glen Barger
Tate Publishing
127 East Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, Oklahoma 73064
1598861026 $14.95 www.tatepublishing.ocm 888 361-9473
The author has a disclaimer that tells why this book is classified as fiction. I see why he makes the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. Though it is treated as a work of fiction, I know very well that much of it is true. What he shows is how citizens are influenced to go to work for our government as a covert operative to conduct assainations of anyone our secret organizations decided should be taken out. Barger includes the President Kennedy murder and shows there is no way one man alone could have done it. This is the reason President Gerald Ford proposed legislation to end this kind of behavior.
I found this book to be very disturbing.
Terrorist
John Updike
Alfred A. Knopf
c/o Random House
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
0307264653 $24.95 www.aaknopf.com
I've read many of Updike's wonderful books and I just loved this one for several reasons. He masterfully creates conflicts between his characters that move the story along while showing the evolution of a terrorist. I especially loved the way he focuses in on present day social issues the same way he did in his "Rabbit Angstrom" novels. Updike is a sheer pleasure to read with prose that flows and well defined characters. He is one of our finest writers.
Creepers
David Morrell
CDS Books
425 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017
1593153570 $7.99 www.davidmorell.net
Something strange is going on in a run down hotel in New Jersey. A reporter and several other individuals investigate. What they find makes for the chilling suspenseful tale that ranks on the level of Stephen King. Morrell churns the story until its final shocking conclusion.
Blue Screen
By Robert B. Parker
Putnam
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
0399153219 $24.95 www.penguin.com
The newest Sunny Randall tale includes characters from the author's Jesse Stone series. Parker is a master of the mystery novel and here he shows why with the combination of his two series
The Jury Master
Robert Dugoni
Warner
Hachette Book Group USA
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
0446617075 $7.99 www.twbookmark.com
I had a lot of confusion with numerous characters because of the similarity of their names and there are so many to keep track of. At any rate the story is very good about a close confidant of the president who supposedly commits suicide in a park. The author reveals a covert plot that is all too plausible. I would love to see the author's next book with a few less characters. Even so, I did enjoy this thriller.
Star Trek Voyages of Imagination
Jeff Ayers
Pocket Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
1416503498 $21.00 www.simonsays.com
Ayers tells everything you ever wanted to know about all of the books of Trek that have been published for almost 40 years. I like this companion that reveals things about how the books were published, authors of each story, short story collections, and comments by some of the authors themselves. Any fan of Trek will love this great book.
The Christmas Thief
Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark
Pocket Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
07432972250 $7.99 www.simonsays.com
I love how the two masters of suspense have taken characters from their novels and combined them into this fun novel geared to Christmas time. I found the writing to be fast paced and a great story that can and should be read anytime of the year, not just for the holidays.
The Stonehenge Gate
Jack Williamson
Tor
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
0765347954 $6.99 www.tor.com
Williamson, one of the living legends of the genre of sf, shows why he is still one of the best in the field with this most recent novel. He tells his story from beginning to end with an easy to follow style that flows briskly along until the final page.
Writes of Life
Robert Yehling
Koboca Publishing
Tampa Fl
0974499773 $10.95 www.KobocaPublishing.com
Writers are always asked, "Where do you get your ideas?" This author shows much comes from every day occurrences in an author's own life. Yehling teaches people how to train themselves to keep notes of things they can use in nonfiction and fiction. This is a great resource for anyone trying to break into the field.
500 Flowers
Roger Camp
Dewi Lewis Media
0954684346 $25.00 www.dewilewismedia.com
The pictures of flowers of the world are just awesome. The backdrop of black only heightens the bold colors of all the lavish pictures of different types. In the back there is an index of the pictures on white backgrounds that lists each of the types. It is easy to see why many of us have a love affair with the plants we grow.
Gary Roen
Reviewer
Gloria's Bookshelf
When Darkness Falls
James Grippando
HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St., NY, NY 10022, 212-207-7000/800-242-7737
0060831138 $24.95 www.harpercollins.com
As this novel opens, the homeless man known as Falcon, for the third time in eighteen months, has climbed atop a bridge in Miami and declares his intention to jump. Each time he is successfully talked down. Sgt. Vincent Paulo, who despite his recent blindness continues to work as a crisis negotiator with the City of Miami P.D., although now primarily teaching at the Police Academy, has again succeeded in preventing Falcon's suicide. Falcon is jailed on a number of charges resulting from this latest incident, and Jack Swyteck, an attorney and the son of Florida's former governor, has agreed to defend him pro bono. But then, this man whose place of abode had been an abandoned car, comes up with not only Jack's fee, but the $10,000 cash bail as well. After he is freed from jail, a body turns up, found in the trunk of that very vehicle. Falcon is the prime suspect, and he runs.
Jack and Theo Knight – the latter a black high school dropout 'with the brawn of a linebacker and the height of an NBA star" – whom Jack had successful represented long enough to overturn a death row murder conviction, make an unlikely duo as protagonists, along with Vince Paulo. The book goes on into hidden agendas and deadly secrets in standard thriller fare. But a much more important story is being told here: that of the "Desaparecidos," the 'disappeared ones' of Argentina of the late 1970's and '80's, with tens of thousands of people having been abducted – tortured and/or killed – by the military junta which had taken control of the government, with ramifications extending to present-day Miami, Florida. These elements are drawn together by the author, but I have to say that the tale didn't really work for me on either level.
The major portion of the book deals with a hostage situation with the suspense rising till nearly the conclusion of the book, with all the aforementioned major characters involved. The references of those frightening times in Argentina with ramifications to the present day are all interesting and horrifying, but the book was a disappointment for me – I had read this author in the past and enjoyed his writing, but not this time. However, YMMV.
The Blood Spilt
Asa Larsson
Delacorte Press
1745 Broadway, 24th fl., NY, NY 10019
0385339828 $22.00 www.randomhouse.com 800-726-0600
The first two brief chapters of The Blood Spilt describers a murder, one as it is being committed, from the p.o.v. of the murderer [the only such chapter so written], the second as her body is later discovered, hanging by a chain from a church organ loft in the Swedish mountain town of Kiruna, the victim having been done awful, pointless violence as well. Thus is the reader introduced to the world of Asa Larsson and her protagonist, Rebecka Martinsson, an attorney who has been on extended sick leave after an incident during which she killed three people in that same town, Kiruna, where she was born and raised. The murder of the woman, Mildred Nillson, a priest, is reminiscent of that of a male priest murdered in the area in the past. It was in the a ftermath of that earlier killing that Rebecka's traumatic event took place, his murderer one of those she shot. Her firm's attempts to establish a professional relationship with the Church following the woman priest's death reluctantly brings Rebecka back to Kiruna for the first time since those killings nearly two years prior. The question arises whether Mildred's murder was committed by someone 'who'd been keeping a scrapbook after the first murder and decided to make a sequel of their own,' or was entirely unrelated to the earlier event. Mildred was known as Kiruna's foremast local feminist, with a passionate, indomitable personality, and had made many enemies. Rebecka inevitably ends up involved in the investigation.
This new book by Asa Larsson, in a translation by Marlaine Delaroy, contains wonderful descriptions of the Swedish countryside, particularly its forests, as well as those of inner landscapes and reminiscences of times past, of loved ones lost, whether parent or spouse, and a she-wolf known as "Yellow Legs," whose story is like a running theme throughout the book. The scenes become palpable: "At first the thoughts in your head are like a tangled skein of wool. The branches scrape against your face or catch in your hair. One by one the threads are drawn from the skein. Get caught in the trees. Fly away with the wind. In the end your head is empty. And you are transported. Through the forest. Over steaming bogs, heavy with scent, where your feet sink between the still frozen tussocks and your body feels sticky. Up a hill. Fresh breeze. The dwarf birch creeping, glowing on the ground. You lie down. And then the snow begins to fall." And, later on, "The snow has completely gone. The ground is steaming, quivering with longing for life. Everywhere things are crawling, chirruping, crackling and playing. Leaves burst open on the aching trees. Summer is coming from below like a green, unstoppable wave." The Blood Spilt is not a book of pulse-pounding suspense [until the final pages, at any rate], but exerts a more subtle pull as it moves toward the horrifying resolution. It is a well-wrought, disturbing and beautifully written novel.
Cross
James Patterson
Little, Brown
1271 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020, 212-364-1100/800-759-0190
0316159794 $27.99 www.hachettebookgroupUSA.com
The main characters in this book are Alex Cross, Michael Sullivan and John Sampson. Alex, the protagonist in this very popular series by James Patterson, after three years of private practice as a psychologist, became a full-time Washington, DC homicide detective before joining the FBI, working primarily as a profiler. Michael Sullivan is a serial killer/rapist/mob hitman, nicknamed The Butcher. John Sampson is Alex' former partner from his cop days, and still his close friend. The book opens with the murder in 1993 of Alex' wife, Maria, as she greeted him when he came to pick her up after work – she died in his arms, and he has never stopped grieving for her. Since her death, he has continued to work for the FBI, raising his three children with the help of 'Nana Mama,' Alex' grandmother.
Fast forward to 2005. In order to devote more time to his family, Alex quits the FBI, returning to private practice, but remains available as a consultant. Things change when the police are told by a mob guy trying to broker a plea bargain that he can give them information on Alex' wife's murderer, but the man is killed while in jail before he can divulge that long-sought information. Alex feels he may finally be able to catch the man who has managed to elude capture for over a decade, and he and Sampson go on the hunt.
Cliches abound – the psychopath who was abused as a child, who feels nothing but a rush as he adds victims to an ever-growing list. The acts themselves will bring a grimace, at least, to the reader's face. Michael Sullivan is a man who enjoys his work.
Cross has already topped the bestseller list, and it is a fast and pretty enjoyable read. Nonetheless it felt somewhat bloated to this reader and I thought the book, and the sadistic acts committed in it, could have been edited a bit more.
Sinners and Saints
Eileen Dreyer
St. Martin's Paperbacks
175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010-7848
0312998740 $6.99 212-674-5151
In what can only be described as prescience, Eileen Dreyer's Sinners and Saints takes place in a New Orleans that is bracing for a hurricane, what would be the earliest ever to hit that City. The book was published days before New Orleans was struck by Hurricane Katrina, a devastating event from which it is still trying to recover, and it was obviously written much earlier than that. Reading it now is an eerie experience.
Chastity Byrnes is a 26-year-old former trauma nurse in St. Louis, now "one of two new forensic nurse liaisons at St. Michael's, her job being not only to save patients, but preserve any viable forensic evidence that might prove a possible criminal or civil case. She made sure abuse victims didn't fall through the cracks, rape victims got better treatment from the hospital than they did from their attackers, and unknown patients were identified. She helped police and hospital personnel work more efficiently together." And she needs to call upon all of those skills when she receives a call one day from a brother-in-law she didn't even know she had, the husband of a sister she had had no contact with for ten years, ever since the day that sister and their mother left their home without a word. She is told her sister has gone missing, and five days later finds herself in New Orleans, having agreed to try to help in the search for her sister, Faith. [The third sister was called "Hope."] Chastity is the survivor of an unspeakably horrendous abusive childhood [her accusations against her father having resulted in his incarceration], the effects of which have barely diminished over the years. She finds she has to "protect herself from old sins and older secrets." Each time she thinks she knows all of the secrets, she finds more are yet to be unearthed.
The writing is wonderfully evocative, most strikingly in its descriptions of New Orleans. On Jackson Square: "Chastity stopped at the edge of the square, enchanted. She wasn't really a mystical person. She'd given up her faith with her virginity, long before she could comprehend either. If she could, though, she thought, she might look for it again here in the dark, where the trees dripped shadows and the church bells tolled into the night. Where usually raucous voices quieted to a murmur, and the only real lights were the candles that flickered on the psychics' tables. If the re was magic, she thought, it was here." The ominous presence of the impending storm is a living, breathing thing - one cannot help but feel the winds and the lashing waters that surround Chastity throughout the novel, embodying her worst nightmare from the scarred days of her nightmare-filled world from her earliest memories. The suspense builds as Chastity continues her search. People to whom she speaks are killed, and her own life is in danger. Chastity and her friends, Kareena, a New Orleans nurse who helps her, and Kareena's cousin, James, a survivor himself although of entirely different circumstances, a cabdriver who Chastity hires as a chauffeur, among other things, are terrific creations. Recommended.
Gloria Feit
Reviewer
Gorden's Bookshelf
Misquoting Jesus
Bart D. Ehrman
HarperSanFrancisco
10 East 53rd Street New York, NY 10022
0060738170 $24.95
Ehrman chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His book reads like an informal discussion between the professor and an entering freshman class over coffee in the commons room of the student union. This is an introductory book that authoritatively lays out the questions and gives reasonable answers but not with the technical details that would make the narrative too dry for the layperson to read or understand.
'Misquoting Jesus' is a must read for anyone who thinks they know and understand the New Testament. The logical detailing and analysis of the problems working with ancient manuscripts and non-mechanical copying are recorded in a clear and easy to understand manner. If you believe in a literal reading of the scriptures or if you don't, the book relates clear questions the individual must answer.
'Misquoting' is an enjoyable read for anyone who likes history or has religious questions. It doesn't detract from the religious value of the New Testament. It just points out the humanity of the authors and those copying the texts for the future. Many literalists will dislike the discussion. Those objecting to Christianity will find questions but no support for their opinions. 'Misquoting's' greatest strength is that it asks the right questions.
Lost Christianities, The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Bart D. Ehrman
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
0195141830 $30.00
A common parlor game is to have someone whisper a sentence to a person and have them pass it on to another until a final person in the chain says the sentence out loud to everyone. The game shows how a simple sentence can be changed to a completely different one by just repeating it a few times. Studies, in recent years, have shown the accuracy of eyewitness accounts to vary dramatically from person to person. One person sees a man with a green hat and another sees him with a brown one. This is human nature. It is how we see and communicate. What happens when over a dozen people witness the life of a person? You get stories that are both different and the same. You get stories that change when they are repeated over and over with the good parts becoming larger and more complex. You get blended tales when a third person hears what two others have said. You get the burst of variety that marked the beginning of the Christian faith.
In 'Lost Christianities,' Ehrman looks at the variety of faiths that developed out of the dozens of eyewitness accounts of Jesus and how later groups changed them with their own biases. He examines how stories developed and changed as the different Christianities fought for prominence. He talks about men struggling to develop a coherent faith.
The old saying 'all is fair in love and war' is nothing when you add religion to the equation. Everything goes when faith is in question. Slander, forgeries and selective re-writing of history are just the beginning of the fight if a person's faith is probed.
Today many people have been in churches that have self-destructed from infighting between members and possibly the clergy. When we consider history we never consider the events that happen today can show us what occurred in the past. What happens if in the past there is not just a single collection of books considered sacred and there are dramatically opposing ideas about Christ and what he taught? The infighting would be terrible. But the examination of those various beliefs and arguments would also tell us more about the original events.
In 'Lost Christianities,' you find out that the founders of the Christian faith were no different from people today. You also can see how the various forms of early Christianities forced, blended and re-wrote itself into the current mix of Christian faiths. 'Lost Christianities' isn't for the true believer but for those wanting to explore a deeper understanding of how religions change and adjust themselves. A religion is like any other growing thing. It adapts and changes so it can grow. For those willing to explore, they can find a rich tapestry of historical change by reading this book. It is highly recommend for those looking for more and willing to question.
Lost Scriptures, Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament
Bart D. Ehrman
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
0195182502 $30.00
Curiosity is what killed the cat and is what made me read 'Lost Scriptures.' 'The Da Vinci Code' and numerous other contemporary stories refer to books that never made it into the bible. 'Lost Scriptures' is a pretty good collection of whole books and fragments that date back to the time the biblical texts were written. You can read first hand the stories referenced by so many other works.
This collection is filled with stories that make you wonder. 'The Coptic Gospel of Thomas' is a collection of sayings by Jesus. Many are just parables that have no context so all you can do is wonder on what the stories mean. 'The Gospel of Phillip' has the fragment that talks about Jesus' love of Mary. 'The Shepard of Hermas' with its revelations…
This is a reference book for those who are curious. Ehrman does preface each manuscript with a short explanation of the story and how it fits in with others and the bible. The translations are readable but the technical nature of the material makes this book best for serious students.
Variable Star
Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson
Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
076531312X $24.95
"I do not want you to try and do the literary equivalent of a Rich Little impression of Robert Heinlein. I want you to take his outline and write the best damn Spider Robinson novel you're capable of" (p. 316). That instruction to Spider Robinson from Robert Heinlein's literary executor helps explain why, the whole time I was reading Variable Star, I felt that I was not reading a Robert Heinlein novel. Heinlein fans, expecting a Heinlein clone, will be puzzled, but not disappointed. Robinson fans will be delighted. Fortunately, the two categories are not mutually exclusive. If the strongest criticism I can come up with is that Spider Robinson is not Robert Heinlein, that must qualify as a "thumbs up"—at the very least.
When Robinson catalogued the personal retainers of the world's richest quadrillionaire, I was surprised to find (p. 45) that it included "several personal psychiatrists," given that Robinson could have been echoing my own conclusions when, in "Too Soon We Grow Old," he forecast a day, "When the so-called 'science' of psychology collapsed under the weight of its own flawed postulates." But the quadrillionaire turned out to be thoroughly despicable, and that may be why he, rather than the author, validated psychoquackery. Or it could simply be that Robinson faithfully recorded a passage from Heinlein's outline.
There are scattered allusions to Heinlein characters and concepts. The book's first reference to "the Prophet" had me wondering if it was supposed to mean Mohammed. But later passages made clear that the prophet in question was Nehemiah Scudder, Heinlein's "First Prophet," a character Heinlein found so repulsive that his plan to write a whole novel about the Prophet's reign had to be abandoned out of insurmountable nausea. Robinson stops short of equating Scudder with George W. Bush. But he makes clear that it was the egocentric stupidity, theocentric insanity, and theofascist absolutism of the Bush Gestapo that opened the door for and in effect created a Nehemiah Scudder. Also, Robinson's ending echoes Heinlein's somewhat right wing attitude that the only good antagonist is a dead one.
Robinson strays from science fiction into fantasy when he has characters lightyears apart communicate telepathically. It was precisely because telepathy neither diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance, nor is subject to the light-speed limitation of all other means of communication, that Einstein rejected it as pseudoscience. And the story's introduction in the final chapter of a faster-than-light starship likewise violates the known laws of physics. But without such concepts, neither a suitable ending for Variable Star nor any Star Trek episode could have been written. In science fiction, the only form of prostitution is buying an audience (and simultaneously dumbing America) by pretending that the story's fantasy concepts exist in the real world, as the current TV series, Medium, and Ghost Whisperer do in every episode. Robinson did not cross that line.
Variable star is excellent science fiction. Forget the Heinlein connection, and read it as good Spider Robinson.
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Sam Harris
W. W. Norton
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
0393035158 $24.95
It is now 14 years since the publication of Mythology's Last Gods. Yet religion continues to exist, even though MLG falsified religion as definitively as the first photographs of the Martian surface falsified the "canals" myth. An obvious explanation is that, for a book to have any influence, it first has to reach the masses. MLG sold 2,000 copies, insignificant among the millions of god addicts who have no awareness that all claims of a god revealing its existence have been traced to Tanakhs, Bibles and Korans that assure their readers that the earth is flat.
It is two years since the publication of The End of Faith, and its failure to wipe religion from the face of the earth is even more incomprehensible, since copies in print have reached 400,000, placing it among Amazon's top 75 bestsellers. It takes a different approach from MLG, and perhaps that is why it has reached a larger percentage of America's 100 million nontheists (of whom only half have come out of the closet and admitted to pollsters that they are not god addicts, causing Harris {p. 17} to cite nonbelievers as 17 percent of the population rather than the more accurate 33 percent). MLG showed that the Bible is fiction, containing more than 1,000 pairs of statements that are mutually exclusive and therefore cannot both be true, and that religion should be rejected because everything about it is a Big Lie. The End of Faith shows that religion is antihuman and, if not restricted to funny farms where it belongs, will exterminate the human race. With 400,000 people made aware of that reality, how have religion's intestinally challenged and economically self-serving pushers (there's a third kind?) managed to keep such information from being assimilated by America's 200 million Christians (one billion worldwide)?
The answer is manifested in an incurable god addict's review for Midwest Book Review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, number 7 on Amazon's bestseller list compared to The End of Faith's number 74. The addict, in a desperate attempt to justify the afterlife belief that nullifies his terror of death and gets him through the day without having to be institutionalized and diapered, denigrated Dawkins as an adherent of "the religion of science" (oxymoron). Truly, there are none so blind as those who will not see. And because they will not see, they are pursuing policies that contribute to humankind extinction, in the conviction that a deus ex machina will intervene to save us in the last act. As Harris writes (p. 26), the result of incompatible beliefs about what happens after death is "an unending cycle of murder and cease-fire…. Add weapons of mass destruction to this diabolical clockwork, and you have found a recipe for the fall of civilization."
Sam Harris is not a biblical scholar and, other than devoting a few paragraphs to the virgin birth myth (pp. 94-97), he accordingly makes no attempt to demonstrate that the Bible contains 19,000 factual errors. But he is aware (p. 45) that, "The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat [and said so, unambiguously, in 14 places] and to whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology." And he recognizes (p. 16) that, "The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology, and art even to be entertained … for there is no more evidence to justify a belief in the literal existence of Yahweh and Satan than there was to keep Zeus perched upon his mountain throne or Poseidon churning the seas."
Unfortunately, Harris demonstrates his own scientific illiteracy when he writes (p. 41) that, "There also seems to be a body of data attesting to the reality of psychic phenomena, much of which has been ignored by mainstream science." NEWSFLASH: Every source cited in Harris's endnote supporting that observation has been thoroughly examined, evaluated and annihilated by adherents of "mainstream science," particularly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. There is no more evidence to justify a belief in psychic phenomena than to justify a belief in religion. I suggest that he take out a subscription to Skeptical Inquirer—pronto. And his belief that, "the church managed to transform Jesus' principal message of loving one's neighbor and turning the other cheek into a doctrine of murder and rapine" (p. 85), shows an appalling ignorance of what a fatuous, xenophobic, hate-ridden, egocentric psychopath the hunchbacked dwarf from Capernaum really was. Fortunately, those examples of Harris's inability to distinguish between valid and invalid sources do not nullify his observations about the anthropocidal effects of religion.
Harris begins his book with an anecdote about a young man who boards a crowded bus with a bomb underneath his overcoat. He waits until the bus is full before triggering the bomb, so that the number of innocent bystanders murdered will be maximized. His parents express pride that their son has gone straight to heaven without passing GO and without collecting $200, while simultaneously sending his victims to hell for eternity for belonging to a non-identical belief system. The neighbors celebrate the death of an alleged martyr, and give his family gifts of food and money. Harris asks (p. 12), "Why is it so easy, then, so trivially easy … to guess the young man's religion?" He acknowledges in an endnote that such behavior is also typical of Hindu terrorists in Sri Lanka, but he sees the answer that immediately springs to mind as so obvious that there is no need to spell it out.
Harris refutes the philosophical doubletalk that "ethical truths are culturally contingent in a way that scientific truths are not" (p. 170). He devotes little space to the Inquisition, since even most Catholics now see it as a low point in church history, even though no pope has seen fit to confess that what is recognized as evil now was equally evil then. But he annihilates the Big Lie that the Holocaust was perpetrated by nontheists (pp. 100-106). In fact, Nazism was an extreme form of Catholicism. That good Catholic, Adolf Hitler, claimed that, in exterminating Europe's Jews, he was "doing the Lord's work." His Final Solution was the culmination of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism.
Harris is devastating in his condemnation of both Islam as a religion in which mere belief in its doctrines constitutes endorsement of terrorism, and Noam Chomsky's virtual declaration that the atrocity of 9/11/2001 was America's own fault. America has certainly committed atrocities (My Lai comes to mind). But to compare America's bombing of an al Qaeda chemical weapons site in Sudan with al Quaeda's massacre of 3,000 American civilians, as Chomsky does (pp. 139-144), is nothing short of insane. And while Harris is circumspect in his criticism of Mohandas Gandhi, going barely beyond calling him a religious dogmatist (p. 202), he assuredly does not treat him as the sacred cow that Western civilization has made him.
Harris notes (pp. 22-23) that, "some of our most cherished beliefs about the world … are leading us, inexorably, to kill one another…. It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books…. We have the misfortune of having many such books on hand, each making an exclusive claim to its infallibility…. Intolerance is thus intrinsic to every creed." And even most moderates would agree that, "Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them…. Certain beliefs place their adherents beyond the reach of every peaceful means of persuasion, while inspiring others to commit acts of extraordinary violence against others…. If they cannot be captured … otherwise tolerant people may be justified in killing them in self-defense. This is what the United States attempted in Afghanistan" (pp. 52-53). Afghanistan, not Iraq, where acts of war against the United States did not originate, as all but Bush's yes-men acknowledged.
Harris does not fall into the politically correct trap of praising religious moderates. He writes (p. 20) that, "While moderation in religion may seem a reasonable position to stake out … it offers no bulwark against religious extremism and religious violence." And (pp. 14-15) he recognizes that moderates "imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others…. The very ideal of religious tolerance … is one of the principal forces driving us to the abyss." He backs up that conclusion with the observation (p. 44) that a surgeon who attempts to suture a patient with a prayer, or a pilot who tries to land a passenger jet by chanting Hallelujahs, "will be swiftly delivered from the provinces of private faith to those of a criminal court."
Harris recognizes (p. 22) that, "Moderates do not want to kill anyone in the name of God." But he also recognizes that moderates' endorsement of extremists' "freedom of religion" is what enables the extremists to perpetrate their atrocities. The belief that, "certain fantastic propositions can be believed without evidence," (p. 29) is "something that most Americans share with Osama bin Laden." Given the refusal of moderate believers to comment on George Bush's delusion that his/their god instructed him to wage war, why do they have no trouble vilifying Osama bin Laden for having the same delusion?
Despite the fact that (p. 19), "even the least educated person among us simply knows more about certain m
