Tread Not On Me: A Johnny Cypress Mystery
RC Burdick
Publish America
P.O. Box 151 Frederick, MD 21705
www.publishamerica.com
ISBN: 1413766153, $19.95 (301) 695-1707
Aaron Paul Lazar
Reviewer
Seminole Detective Johnny Cypress is at a crossroads. Fiancee Holly Canton, daughter of the local sheriff of Palmetto County, has asked him to retire from the force. As much as she loves him, she's determined not to lose a second husband in the line of duty. Two years later, after several unsuccessful attempts to take down brutal drug lord, Carlos Santiago, Johnny capitulates and plans to devote the rest of his life to Holly and her thirteen-year-old son, Colin.
Life doesn't cooperate, however, when Santiago stages a massacre on Sand Key, targeting Johnny. Holly and Colin are slaughtered in the crossfire. Johnny and his loyal police dog, Rex, are gravely wounded.
Enter Enola, the strong, steadfast Seminole nurse who rescues Johnny and Rex from certain death and secrets them off to a tribal village to recuperate. A natural beauty and empathetic spirit, Enola contributes to Johnny's recovery with more than her knowledge of medicine. Armed with cunning tribal methods and the help of the village elder, Johnny struggles to beat the death sentence imposed by Santiago.
Meanwhile, something's rotten in the sheriff's office. No one knew about Johnny's trip to Sand Key except the sheriff and his coworkers. Johnny suspects each in turn, until his investigative powers flush out the culprit responsible for leaking the information to Santiago and his band of killers. As he heals emotionally and physically, Johnny plots to take down Santiago's empire. The climax is replete with tension and nail biting action - the perfect and righteous revenge.
There is much more to this riveting novel than a clever plot and magnetic characters. The prose is smooth and engaging, the dialogue is natural, and the sense of place is immediate. The Florida waterways come alive with gators, mosquitoes, buttonwood trees, exotic birds, and thousands of slow moving streams that snake beneath the mossy overhangs. It is with a sense of acute nostalgia combined with satisfaction that the reader turns the last page. Burdick possesses a rare talent - and is my new favorite writer. This book, much like its predecessor, The Margaret Ellen, A Karen Cobia Mystery, lingers in ones life for days after completion, leaving only one question to be answered. When will the next Burdick book be released?
Arthur & George
Julian Barnes
Random House
ISBN: 0224077031 A$49.95 360 pages
Ann Skea, Reviewer
www.ann.skea.com
In his autobiography, the celebrated writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that after the death of his first wife in 1906 he was "for some time...unable to settle to work until the Edalji case came suddenly to turn my energies into an entirely unexpected channel".
The channel into which he turned would have been very familiar to his most famous creation, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, but solving real crimes, tackling real cases of inadequate police investigation, and fighting real cases of wrongful conviction was not something Conan Doyle would normally do. He was a writer who was renowned for creating imaginary crime scenarios and controlling an imaginary cast of characters. And he resented being identified with Holmes, as frequently happened. Nevertheless, when the Edalji case came to his attention, he saw an injustice which he resolved to remedy.
So, he brought his intelligence and his imaginative powers to bear on an actual case in which a young, myopic, half-caste solicitor, George Edalji, had been wrongly convicted of maiming and killing a neighbour's horse. Edalji suffered three years of his seven year sentence of penal servitude before being released without explanation and, most importantly, without pardon. Without that pardon, he could not be reinstated as a solicitor and his life was ruined. Conan Doyle, having read the details of the crime, the trial and the sentence, applied his Holmes-like detective skills to the case in the belief that Edalji was completely innocent.
For the time that it took to obtain George Edalji's pardon, Arthur (as he is called throughout this book) turned from writer to sleuth. In effect, this is what Barnes has done too. He has used his own considerable skills as a novelist, and his own intelligence and wit, to delve into the archives and examine the historical evidence in order to create a novelistic presentation of fact. And one can see the contemporary relevance of this story in the continuing power of the media to sway public opinion (this is the way in which Arthur Conan Doyle chose to challenge the authorities); and also in the continuing power of government bodies to fudge the issue and wriggle out of blame in order to avoid compensation payments.
Readers who are familiar with Julian Barnes's work will recognize his ironic sense of humour, his understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, motivation and vagaries of his characters, and his unique story-telling skills. Arthur & George, however, is very different to his usual work.
Barnes has approached his novelistic presentation of fact in short, alternating chapters which present George Edalji, then Arthur Conan Doyle, first as small boys, then as young men, then as complex adults. So, we follow the men through their early lives and learn about their different family backgrounds, their studies, their everyday experiences and their personal traits. Not until half-way through the book do their lives become entangled. This is a difficult and daring method of introducing the story and, for me, it did not altogether succeed. I found that jumping so briefly and so often between two such different men was uncomfortable and disorientating. And the appearance of Inspector Campbell of Staffordshire Constabulary introduces a long saga of police ineptitude and outright prejudice which, although based on fact (or perhaps because it was fact), became so predictably unpleasant that I found it hard to read on. Only when Arthur Conan Doyle finally stepped centre stage and began acting like his famous detective did I find the story becoming gripping.
The story of Arthur and George is an interesting story. It is interesting, too, to read about Arthur Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism and to follow the sceptical George to the huge gathering of 6,000 spiritualists at the memorial meeting which was held for Arthur at the Royal Albert Hall. Arthur had "passed over" but his empty chair was centre stage and many people attested to his presence.
Maybe, as the blurb on this book suggests, Barnes's new excursion into fictionalized history in Arthur & George will draw new readers to his work. Popular and fashionable as this new merging of fact and fiction is, however, it seems to me that it hampers Barnes's true imaginative and inventive skills. I hope he feels this way, too, or at least does not confine himself to this particular "entirely unexpected channel".
Connecting Hearts, second edition
Val Brown & MJ Walker
Blue Feather Books, Ltd.
P.O. Box 5867, Atlanta, Georgia 31107-5967
ISBN: 0977031802, $16.99 284 pages
Cheri Rosenberg
Reviewer
Connecting Hearts by Val Brown and MJ Walker is a poignant story about two women living on different continents. Denise Jennings (DJ) is a reclusive British poet who lives with her Aunt Sara. When Sara is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease or Motor Neuron Disease, DJ is searching for answers on how to help her aunt who is like a mother to her and is the only family she has left. In desperation, Denise contacts an American nurse Miranda (Randa) Martin who works for an Internet health information service. DJ not only gets medical advice, compassion, and friendship, but she gets so much more.
In a character-driven plot with terminal illness as the backdrop lurks a beautiful love story of two women brought together by fate. One is strong-willed and fiercely independent while the other is nurturing and caring. One is a reclusive poet who protects her privacy and the other is a registered nurse who wears her heart on a sleeve. Randa is the most honest person Denise has ever known and it frightens her a little. Will the nurse be able to help the poet through a difficult time in her life as her aunt is dying, and more importantly, will the poet accept her help? When love knocks on her door at a vulnerable time will Denise accept that she can still revel in happiness even though she is surrounded by sadness?
Despite her diagnosis Sara remains stoic and an inspiration of hope to us all. Her bravery and her unconditional love for her niece are palpable, heroic, and commendable. While it is sad to watch her whither away, there is also happiness that she has left a lasting impression on this earth. Denise realizes how truly blessed she is to have this fine woman in her life and is understandably devastated to be losing her.
Brown and Walker have done an excellent job of portraying all aspects of terminal illness including the necessity of making a living will before the need for one arises, the toll it takes on loved ones, and the importance of making necessary arrangements. The authors manage to convey the difficulty, without falling into unnecessary melodrama and cliche's. With all the hype of the Terry Schavio case, Connecting Hearts portrays a timely topic and stresses the importance of writing advance directives while a person is still healthy and mentally capable.
The authenticity whereby the authors use dialogue in the form of emails between DJ and Randa before they meet in person rings true. DJ's poetry also adds significantly to the enjoyment and beauty of this novel. In an accurate assessment DJ tells her agent, "Not long ago, somebody said to me that reading poetry was a way to make us stronger and wiser without causing us any pain…What I mean is that hurt and pain, and even desire, do have a function. If these feelings can be expressed through verse, then maybe you can touch others. You can show people they are not alone" [p.63]. DJ shows her love and compassion through her poetry. Randa reveals her emotions through her actions and words. She is a compassionate nurse who not only preserves the dignity of her patients but when she cares deeply about someone, there is no mistaking her affections. Denise has a lot to learn from Randa in that department.
As in all stories that deal with terminal illness, and Connecting Hearts is no exception, the reader knows Sara is going to die from the very beginning and yet when it happens, the tears flow anyway. But, Connecting Hearts is also uplifting and so romantic that the reader can feel good about this book long after it is finished. Romance lovers will delight in Randa's impression of her first kiss with DJ. She exclaims, "I feel like I've been branded, and it was just by a kiss!...The songwriter who said, 'a kiss is just a kiss' never got one from Denise Jennings!" [p. 133]. This well-written engaging story is riveting, enjoyable, witty, and bittersweet, as well as real, honest, and gritty. Learning about the lives of the three brave women as the story unfolds, makes it is easy to be enamored and intrigued by DJ, Randa, and Sara.
If you want an inspirational, sweet, and romantic love story with snappy dialogue, a clever story line, meticulous editing, loveable characters, enchanting emails, and beautiful poetry, then Connecting Hearts is the five star read for you. It will touch a special place in your heart.
Zahrah the Windseeker
Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu,
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0618340904, $16.00 320 pp.
Chi Mogbo
Reviewer
These days there is a lot of wonderful young adult fantasy in bookstores. Nevertheless, Zahrah the Windseeker is still one of a kind, for it is the only young adult fantasy novel out there that is African from its very center. In the world of Ginen (which in Voodoo, is the name of what slaves imagined Africa to be…since many could not remember…but in this novel, Ginen is a whole other world), Zahrah is dada (in Nigerian culture, this is a child literally born with dreadlocked hair- these children are believed to hold special powers). When Zahrah learns that she has special powers, this realization leads her to the adventure of her life.
Okorafor-Mbachu draws from the myth of the Flying Africans (in South Carolina, a group of Africans were rumored to have, instead of living a life of slavery, flown back to Africa). In this case, it goes even father because Okorafor-Mbachu herself is Igbo (a Nigerian ethnic group), just as those Africans of the Flying Africans Myth of South Carolina were. The fascinating thing is that aside from African American and African myth and culture, Okorafor-Mbachu blends in elements of the fantasy genre. There's a hilarious homage to Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the novel's got magical creatures and beasts that easily rival those in Star Wars world, and there are science fictional elements that are really fascinating - like computers that grow from seeds.
Zahrah the Windseeker is a fresh and new type of fantasy and Zahrah's adventure is will definitely raise your heart rate! The novel is for ages 9 and up. It's the type of novel that both children and adults can enjoy- this speaks of both the story and sophistication of the writing. I can't wait to read her next novel.
The Last Refuge
Chris Knopf
The Permanent Press
4170 Noyac Road, Sag Harbor, NY 11063
ISBN: 157962118X, $25.00, 287 pp.
Coletta Ollerer
Reviewer
Sam Acquillo is a unemployed divorcee living in a cottage he inherited on the shores of Little Peconic Bay on Long Island. He watches the bay from the screened in porch of the house as he sips Absolut. "I didn't have a strict rule about drinking during the day, just a general guideline -- no hard liquor before noon." (p159) One day he notices that his cranky and demanding neighbor, Regina Broadhurst, has not been seen around. He perceives a strange smell coming from the direction of her home and investigates. "She was in the bathtub. Black and swollen, face down in the water." (p8) He calls the authorities. Since the only relative she has is a feisty and argumentative young man named Jimmy Maddox, Sam asks if he himself might be the administrator of her estate. He suspects foul play in her death but the authorities are not interested. He insists on an autopsy.
Sam is a former amateur boxer with an anger issues. He is an engineer and had worked for a firm which paid him handsomely but one day at a board meeting words were exchanged. "I wasn't speaking to him anyway, but to Mason Thigpin . . . . He said something back, which I don't remember either, though I think it's in the DA's file. I do remember lurching across the table and grabbing Mason by the fat Windsor knot he had clinched up around his throat. I remember pulling back my right fist and hearing Louise Silberg yelping in my ear." (p181) Sam thought it best to tender his resignation. That combination of anger and boxing skills proves on occasion to be problematic but comes in handy as he sets out to discover why anyone would want to get rid of Regina Broadhurst.
Sam is a crusty middle aged guy, shaped by his childhood in a dysfunctional family. These factors spill over into his adult life but he strives to be a good guy. He is a loner and he likes it that way. Nonetheless, a number of women show an interest in him: Rosaline, the 40ish daughter of an elderly attorney whose knowledge of local events is of great value to Sam in his investigation and Amanda, the wife of the town banker. He is smart, too, and this natural intelligence allows him to dig successfully into the secrets surrounding the death of Regina. He is regarded as a threat by the bad guys and they import a goon to discourage his efforts. Some real estate schemes are uncovered with the assistance of Jackie Swaitkowski, a young attorney and very colorful long time native of the area.
This is a story of small town overly ambitious self-seekers who band together with some city people to achieve the hoped for financial jackpot. No more financial worries if this scheme goes through. But along comes Sam.
Orso the Troll Who Couldn't Scare
Brad Thiessen, author
Jeremy Balzer, illustrator
CDS Books
425 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017
ISBN: 159315142X, $16.95
Everybody knows trolls hide under the bridge and when you cross, they jump out and scare you to death right?
Right. Except, well, there are trolls, and then there's ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN'T SCARE. He's the main character in a picture book with story by Brad Thiessen and illustrations by Jeremy Balzer. The team has created a charming tale and setting, for people aged 3 t0 8, but the story's sure to delight anybody.
Orso Troll lives with his father under a bridge. Mr. Troll takes great delight in frightening people out of their wits, but Orso would rather spend the day climbing trees, walking in the meadow, playing with the animals he meets in the forest, and talking to clouds.
The day Orso turns eight, he sits in front of his birthday cake wishing he could share it with some troll friends. But though gentle with him, his father explains that trolls don't have friends. They're only good for one thing, scaring people. "You have me," Dad points out, when Orso feels alone.
For the reassurance, Orso gives his father a big troll hug. That tickles, and his dad begs him to cut it out. Trolls don't give hugs, though Mr. Troll finds himself enjoying the one he's gotten.
The next day, Dad takes Orso under the bridge, to learn to scare the world. But poor Orso can't even try. Running home, he cowers on his bed. His dad accepts that Orso is going to be a nontraditional troll. Together, they try to think of other things trolls might do, besides frighten everyone. Nothing comes to mind.
Next morning, two human children, Lizzy and Jacob, meet Orso in the woods. Orso tries halfheartedly to frightens them. He almost succeeds with Jacob, but Lizzy laughs.
What happens next brings a startled response from Mr. Troll, a big change in both Orso and Mr. Troll's lives, and something very special on Orso's next birthday, when he turns 9.
ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN'T SCARE empowers children.
Brad Thiessen suggests even the smallest youngsater make a big difference in a loved one's life, even if that person is a grown up.
The author also breaks stereotypes found in traditional stories about creatures such as trolls. He depicts girls as strong, and guys as flexible and willing to examine the lives they are leading.
The troll characters have the gambit of moods. They grow and change, as good characters should in a story.
Belief in trolls dates back thousands of years, especially in Scandinavia, but Mr. Thiessen tells Orso's story in 21st Century language. Illustrator Jeremy Balzer sets the tale in a world neither ancient nor modern. His pictures are spooky in a fun way. They catch Orso's feelings from the joy he gets while swinging on a tree branch, to the terror he experiences when his father roars at the driver of a horse and wagon.
The effect gives ORSO THE TROLL WHO COULDN'T SCARE a timeless sense, and a sense of the harmless fun found in a scary, but make believe, Halloween costume. It delivers the gentle message that being truly mean is not necessary--even for a troll. There is another way to get through life. Everybody, even a three-year-old, can find it.
The Book of Ancient Revelations
Hugh Fox
Ecce Nova
PO Box 50001, 15-1594 Fairfield Road, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8S 5L8
www.eccenova.com
ISBN: 0973164891, $17.95 143 pages
Rose Glavas, Reviewer
www.astrologyrealm.com
"The Book of Ancient Revelations" certainly wasn't what I expected when I first got it. Going by the title I was expecting something along the lines of Nostradamus! (Alright, you can stop laughing now!)
Just because this book wasn't what I expected doesn't mean to say that I didn't enjoy it… I did. Anybody with an interest in historical artwork, myth, epic literature, astrology and geography and, of course, history, will get something out of this title.
Hugh Fox is one of the foremost authorities on pre-Columbian cultures, with over seventy books and hundreds of articles and stories published, including: "The Gods of the Cataclysm", "The Mythical Foundations of the Epic Genre: The Solar Voyage as the Hero's Journey", and "Stairway to the Sun". He has a Ph.D. in American Literature, and is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of American Thought and Language, Michigan State University.
Being an astrologer I was particularly interested in the author's journey in following the Sun around the globe until finding its resting place… the Tropic of Capricorn. He describes his journey like this:
"…. I also knew (because I had done it before, in 1961), that if I began to follow the Sun south, across the curve of the earth, trying to get beneath it, so that it would be directly above me at the apex of the sky at noon during the winter, I would end up in Mexico City, I would end my journey at the Tropic of Capricorn, the northern House of the Sun, …". p. 92
This particular passage caught my eye because in our age of computer simulations, program, etc, the average person has lost contact with the actual events that shape the perception of life. For example, as an astrologer I have a software package that tells me where the planets are in the sky at any particular moment. Although using this method to draw up a birth chart is probably much more technically accurate than going outside and looking at where they physically are, or calculating them manually, some of the magic and awe of nature is taken away by using modern methods of understanding the world around us.
On another level I was interested in finding out more about the possible ritual deformation of shamanic 'rejects'. Also, 'waterworld' interested me as I have not heard of this mentioned in any other myths. The waterworld is described as a world between the earth and underworld.
Even though I don't feel qualified enough to rate this book, I am qualified to find it fascinating. The only problem I has with "The Book of Ancient Revelations" was figuring out how to pronounce some of the words - I feel this is important because the author was trying to link different words as part of his theory, and pronunciation is important as part of this.
As mentioned previously those of you with an interest in - and good understanding of - history, astrology, shamanism, historical artwork or in the evolution of modern civilization will find something in this interesting book to get your attention.
The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well-Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense & Sensibility
Natalie Tyler
Penguin Putnam Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
ISBN: 0141001925, $16.00 299 pages
Gypsi Phillips Bates
Reviewer
The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well-Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense & Sensibility is a wonderful resource for the die-hard Austen fan as well as Austen newbies. Ms. Tyler takes each book in turn, gives a synopsis of the plot and places it in historical context and in the context of Austen's life. She then explains those details that might be abstract to those not familiar with Regency culture, such as entailed property, the importance of walking and the attitude toward marriage, making the reader comfortable with the novel. She includes illustrations, interviews, quizzes and delightful bits on the side such as "10 Surefire Ways to be Vulgar", a table of average income and "Sense and Sensibility: A Checklist". In addition, she finishes the book lists of movie versions, book spin-offs and sequels and shows Austen's role (her "legacy") in our century.
An Austen fan from way back, I found this a truly delightful book. Ms. Tyler is humorous as well as informative and her enthusiasm for Austen is apparent. This is a must-have for Austen fans, no question about it; the resources provided in The Friendly Jane Austen further the enjoyment of reading Austen's novels. It is also an excellent book for those that have just started reading Austen. With this book by your side, you can't fail to see just how wonderful Jane Austen was, and still is.
The Secret Love Story in Shakespeare's Sonnets
Helen Heightsman Gordon
Xlibris Corp.
ISBN: 1413493742, $27.89 (hc) $17.84 (pb); 158 pp.
William Hart
Reviewer
Another book about Shakespeare and his work - why? Well, mostly for the fun of it this time, I think. Because Professor Gordon has contributed to our library shelves not another scholarly tome, valuable though they are, rather she takes us on a rollicking voyage deep into the court life surrounding Queen Elizabeth I in order to prove her main thesis: that William Shake-speare was a pen name adopted by Edward De Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, and that the sonnets were written in large part to Queen Elizabeth I and her love child by De Vere, Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton. The pen name, according to Gordon, was a ruse needed to shield the Queen and her out-of-wedlock progeny from public exposure. Elizabeth's pose as the "Virgin Queen" protected her person and her nation from continental power politics. She used her status as an always eligible bride to keep the European monarchs forever off balance--since at any given time, it seems, one or two was hoping or planning to marry her.
I have been a moderately serious student of Shakespeare's work for many years, and the arguments of the anti-Stratfordians, who argue that Shakespeare of Stratford was not really Shakespeare the author, have annoyed me all that while. I have found underlying almost all such claims the elitist notion that a humble middle class lad from a country town in Stratford would have lacked the education and breeding to have written the plays most of us acknowledge as among the very greatest achievements in Western art. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find nary a whit of elitism in Dr. Gordon's approach. She bases her case primarily on biological facts known about De Vere, which she carefully matches with very similar details presented in the sonnets. Gordon's literary detective work is impressive.
In the course of her extended argument, 64 of the sonnets are reprinted in modern spelling, then paraphrased by Dr. Gordon, then analyzed in the manner mentioned. I might quibble with this or that biographical fact or with a given paraphrase of a sonnet line, but Gordon's careful tracing of the biographical correspondences in the end genuinely shook my faith in my long held position regarding Shakespeare's personhood. I began to believe that the precocious courtier who graduated from Oxford at age 14 and was already writing accomplished, witty verse, might indeed be the immortal bard I so admire. I feel like a traitor now, and it is all Dr. Gordon's fault.
I must though thank her whole-heartedly for the numerous detailed sketches of Elizabethan court life, especially regarding the loves, the losses, the pregnancies, the hurried marriages, the betrayals, and the tragedies. One of the greatest tragedies painted is that of Edward DeVere, hungering for the immortality that his writing skills had earned him, but destined to forfeit the credit to a hayseed who may not even have been an actor, merely an out-of-town stockholder with a similar name.
If you like Shakespeare and enjoy having fun, travel with Dr. Gordon on her voyage to a bright but dangerous time 400 years ago, when love was pursued with a passion we see rarely these days, and often concluded in tragedy. Meet the virgin queen who may have been promiscuous. Meet Ann Vavasor, the court's great beauty whom few men could resist, and Anne Cecil, the chaste beauty whom De Vere married when she was fifteen, then doubted was faithful, probably unjustly. And meet the male members of the court, from Philip Sydney to Walter Raleigh. Of these, Edward De Vere turns out to be the most interesting. He ended life with three legitimate daughters and two illegitimate sons, spurned by the queen he'd loved perhaps too well, lame from a sword fight, disillusioned by court intrigue--and, saddest of all if Gordon is right - denied the fame that he'd rightly earned with his magical pen.
Ayesha: My Queendom Come
John Brinckman
Trafford Publishing
6E-2333 Government St., Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
www.trafford.com 250-383-6864
ISBN: 141203776X, $24.00 or CDN $28.80 312 pages
Gordon Isfeld
Reviewer
The battle between good and evil is a tale as old as storytelling itself. And the debate over whether one can exist without the other - or whether the two are actually one in the same - has been raging for nearly as long.
These themes are revisited yet again in a new book, "Ayesha -- My Queendom Come," by Canadian writer John Brinckman. And while the debate never reaches a conclusion - nor could it - the author uses the good-evil conundrum to spin an entertaining and thought-provoking tale of death and deception.
"Ayesha" is not a murder mystery, however, although lots of people meet their demise over the course of 300 pages. We know who is doing the killing from the onset. Rather, the book takes the premise of "She" - H. Rider Haggard's 1888 novel of an immortal white queen, Ayesha - and recasts it in the form of a modern-day tragedy.
The story begins in Ottawa where a troubled young girl named Hattie discovers a copy of "She" in her local library. One passage gives her a strategy for escaping the economic and social confines of her life. In it, Ayesha decides that a rival must die, even if her only sin was to stand between the queen and her desire.
"That made good sense to the young girl and she adopted it as a moral maxim," Brinckman writes. "She made changes to the Lord's Payer, including the words, 'O Ayesha, my queendom come.' She said this prayer at night before going to sleep and it was a comfort to her."
It also sets her on a path that inevitably leads to her undoing. Along the way - through numerous changes of identity and location - she manages to accrue a small fortune, always at someone else's expense. Eventually, she arrives on a Caribbean island in search of new prey. She finds much more, including a tribe that sees her as the reincarnate of a beloved former leader - her queendom has come, or so she believes.
Threading through the novel is the story of Theodore, a former police inspector who falls in love with Hattie - oblivious to her true character and crimes, past and future. Their fateful reunion much later leaves him no wiser. "I have never run into an evil woman," he tells a Caribbean waiter years earlier. "But Theodore, the mystery of evil is that what you calls evil, maybe is not evil to some, but good? Who knows for sure what is the difference."
Although this is the first novel by Toronto-based Brinckman - the founder and publisher of "Old Fart" magazine - he maintains the flow of plot and character development with few stylistic diversions, while drawing readers into a world of bikers and money launders, cocaine dealers and cannibals. There's also a generous offering of sex, voodoo practices and (Brinckman being Canadian) ice hockey.
Such as wide swath requires a lot of infilling, and it's here that the book benefits from Brinckman's extensive research. While too much information can mask a weak narrative, this isn't the case with "Ayesha." In fact, the rich descriptions are a welcome respite that allows to the story line to settle in the readers' mind and build anticipation for the events ahead - of which there are many.
Given all this promise, you'd expect the ending would be "in the words of former CIA director George Tenet - a "slam-dunk." Instead, Brinckman ties things up too quickly and too loosely - abruptly depositing readers at their destination with too little explanation.
I'm told the author is reworking some of the book. Perhaps he would consider recasting the last chapter as well. Still, the journey itself is an entertaining one.
How About It, Writer?
H. Charles Romesburg
Lulu Press
Morrisville, North Carolina
ISBN: 1411628624, $22.95, 190 pp.
It may seem odd, perhaps even uninspired, for writers to search for opening sentences from a book of listings. But Romesburg's book provides lots of inspiration when crafting openings, closings, titles, and transitions in your writing. This unusual guide lists thousands of suggestions for adapting previously published sentences into exactly what you need for essays, articles, sermons, op-eds, theme papers, reports, and dissertations. (The opening sentence of this review is an example of this adaptation technique, taken from his sample sentence "It may strike you as odd, perhaps even unjustified, to speak of light pollution and social well-being in the same breath.")
The book also offers 18 ways of opening an essay and a dozen miscellaneous tips on writing, such as "How To Decide Whether Or Not To Use A Comma After An Introductory Phrase In A Sentence," "Don't Be Afraid To Put Short Details In Parentheses," and "How To Cite An Anecdote Or Fact When You Can't Put Your Finger On Its Source."
The strength of this work, however, is clearly the author's painstaking research into the structure of a good sentence. His alphabetized listings are comprised of sentences borrowed from essays appearing in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Harper's Monthly Magazine," "The Literary Digest," and other respected publications from the 1800s and 1900s.
Although the material is presented for all kinds of writers at all levels of experience as "your first point of reference for getting out of mental blocks," it should prove most useful for college students and new writers who seek help getting started on writing projects. A university professor of forestry who often cites his own environmental writings as examples in this book, Romesburg is donating proceeds from sales to no-kill animal shelters.
50 Harbor Street
Debbie Macomber
MIRA Books.
225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9
ISBN: 0778322084, $7.50 378 pp.
Martha Robach
Reviewer
As is true in most small towns, there is much going on beneath Cedar Cove's tranquil exterior. Cedar Cove, Washington, is the setting for Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series. This is the fifth book of the series, whose titles are merely street addresses, with more books to follow. Possibly the most frightening event that occurs in 50 Harbor Street is that Roy and Corrie McAfee are receiving anonymous messages which hint at remembering something in their past. And as it turns out, they have a lot to recall.
Cecilia Randall is pregnant after losing her first baby to a heart condition. Since her husband is in the Navy on submarine duty, this is a lonely, worrisome time for her. Linnette McAfee, the daughter of Corrie and Roy McAfee, is having second thoughts about Cal Washburn, a horse trainer, after finding that the young doctor who has caught her eye seems more attracted to her neighbor, Gloria Ashton. Charlotte Jefferson, freshly married to widower Ben Rhodes, is faced with some unpleasant surprises about his son. Zachary and Rosie Cox's clean-cut daughter Allison is in love with Anson Butler, a resentful trenchcoat-clad misfit who may also be an arsonist. And this is just a sampling of the residents' lives that are followed.
A list of characters is provided at the front of the book for easy reference if the reader becomes confused. I'll admit I referred to it more than a few times, perhaps owing to the fact that this is the first book of Ms. Macomber's Cedar Grove Series I have read. The reader is moved from character to character in little snippets, creating a morning over-coffee gossipy atmosphere that I'm sure the author favors.
For me, the first half of the book was confusing because of this, and the plot development seemed stagnant. I enjoyed the second half of the book much more as each individual plot began to develop and I became familiar with the characters and what was going on.
This is a series of books which will appeal to women. It has an eager reader base, as Ms. Macomber apologizes, in a forward to the book, that she can only publish one book a year. 50 Harbor Street is designed to be read in a series. I would not recommend it unless all the books in the series are read, or the reader is going to face the same problems I did.
At the end of this book, many plot lines are left unfinished. The McAfees do find out who is sending the mysterious notes, and their daughter Linnette begins a romance with one of men she has been torn between. But the romance of Anson Butler and Allison Cox is left hanging when Anson leaves town under the suspicion he burned down another character's restaurant.
I know Charles Dickens, along with many other authors, wrote in a serial format. I can remember how eagerly as a child - and this will date me - I followed the "Spin and Marty" episodes on the Mickey Mouse Club in the 50's, as well as the sequence of "Davy Crockett" tales. And, more recently, who can forget the fervor that started over who shot J.R. on the "Dallas" television show? However, I would prefer to get new installments weekly or at the most monthly instead of a book a year. And it does seem that an inordinate time is spent bringing the reader up to speed. In the case of 50 Harbor Street, this process takes up the first half of the book.
So, although I ended up enjoying 50 Harbor Street very much, I would strongly recommend reading the books which precede it in the series. And I personally would prefer to wait until the entire series is finished before I read 50 Harbor Street in order to have the satisfaction of coming to the "end" of the story rather than waiting a year for a sequel.
Mystery of Madera Canyon
Ed Kostro
http://www.publishedauthors.net/EdKostro/bio.html
Booklocker.com
ISBN: 1591136229, $11.95
My name is Bonafacio Martinez. My classmates call me 'Bony.' So begins the narrative Mystery of Madera Canyon. Young Martinez is an Arizona treasure hunter who enjoys going into the desert or mountains to hunt for treasure and until just lately he has had little luck in finding much other than a few old Apache arrowheads and a lot of animal bones. Even though twelve year old Bony has not yet traveled much of the world his hero is Indiana Jones. In fact Bony intends to be a famous archeologist.
After locating his first real treasure Bony decides to keep a journal. The journal provides the grist for the narrative. Bony and his part wolf/dog Lobo have lots of adventures. For his twelfth birthday Bony's dad agrees to take him out to Madera Canyon where legend says a ghostly figure of an Apache Woman, is to be found during a full moon. Bony not only likes digging up bones, he also likes bird watching. When Bony's dad drops Bony, Lobo and Bony's new birthday binoculars and bird book off at the canyon parking lot; Bony has little notion what escapades awaits. Forest Ranger Lou Thieman helps Bony choose The Vault Mine hiking trail, myriad humming birds, Snickers bars, nacho chips, Milk Bones for Lobo and before long Bony recognizes more time has passed than he realized. A Boy Scout Memorial to scouts who got lost on the trails and died during a snow storm cause Bony a moment of sadness.
When Lobo takes off down the Super Trail Bony has no choice but to follow, and, that is when the problems begin. A chance meeting with two coatis ends without incident. Racing after an elusive Elegant Trogon proves a big mistake. Bony leaves the trail and soon finds himself … lost and without his compass. It is late afternoon and Bony has a definite problem. With night fast approaching; Bony is a tad spooked to locate the el Diablo hummingbird sitting and shrieking nearby.
Elf owls, trying to sleep on the cold hard ground, darkness and an active imagination all begin to take their toll on Bonafacio's thinking. A voice speaking in Spanish sounds in the darkness, Bony and Lobo are attacked by Screech Owls, and a concealed book in a hidden cavern add to the mystery. After the night he has had; Bony has quite a story to tell when he finally reunites with his father and Ranger Thieman. Moreover, he has found a real honest to goodness treasure.
On the pages of Mystery of Madera Canyon Writer Kostro has produced an excellent fast paced narrative sure to please middle grades boys in particular. I will be using the book with my fourth grade for our 'after lunch, reading to kids time.' I particularly like the use of Spanish words, descriptions of various birds and animals to be found in the Arizona locale, and non preachy or threatening manner of showing youngsters how easy it is to get off the known trail and lost when out in areas such as are described in the narrative.
Kids in the target audience of 8 - 12 often think they are larger than life and indestructible. Bony and his dog Lobo allow youngsters the comfort in knowing that it is okay to be afraid, okay to feel sadness at the deaths of others and okay to be faced with situations for which there may be no real explanation. Bony kept his cool and made it to safety … a good lesson taught. Mystery of Madera Canyon provides discussion starters for talking about what to do if lost and alone in the darkness.
Mystery of Madera Canyon is a superior choice for home library pleasure reading, the school book shelf and the home school reading program. I was sent a paperback copy of the book for review. Don't read it on a dark and stormy night!!
Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.
Everyone Worth Knowing
Lauren Weisenberger
Simon & Schuster
100 Front Street, Riverside, NJ 08075
www.simonsays.com
ISBN: 0743262293, $16.29 367 pages
Mona Lisa Safai
Reviewer
Is everyone really worth knowing?
Lauren Weisenberger is a talented writer who knows how to transform gossip into literature. In her newest novel, she offers her readers a taste of the glamorous New York life consumed with wealth, the cool and superficial sophisticates, and glorified with sexual appeal. EVERYONE WORTH KNOWING is a story that filled with friendships, family, ambition, secrets, exclusiveness, and realizing who is worth knowing.
Bette Robinson works as an investment banker with her best friend, Penelope at UBS. One evening, Penelope calls and exclaims she and her boyfriend, Avery, just proposed after 8 years and they are now engaged. Although, Bette wants to be happy for Penelope, she knows that Avery is not good enough for her. The next day, she quits her mundane job without any plans and only her unemployment check to rely on. Her flamboyant Uncle Will suggests she work as a PR agent for prestigious planning firm, Kelly & Co. Once she begins, her life takes a rollercoaster ride into the gossip columns and she loses nearly every ounce of privacy. According to New York Scoop and Page Six, she is dating the hottest playboy, Phillip Weston, has gone to a drug rehab center, and needs to become a better dresser. Kelly encourages her to be seen with him as much as possible because it is good publicity. Despite Phillip's arrogance, and obvious love of his bachelorhood, Bette continues to stay and succeed in her job.
Bette builds relationships with her coworkers, which in turn, jeopardizes relationships with Penelope and her family. Her pseudo-relationship with Phillip also becomes complicated because she meets Sammy, a bouncer at Bungalow 8 and aspiring chef. She is certain he is the man for her. However, she cannot explain her circumstances to him because she is supposed to be dating Phillip. Her parents, a throwback from the 1960s, are confused and shocked because of what they have seen in the papers. They do not know what to believe. Are the revealing pictures of their daughter true? If so, why has she chosen to lead such a promiscuous life? They always thought she would be involved in working for non profit organizations to save the world.
The papers and gossip columns continue to worsen and disseminate more targeted information about Bette. The twist is that the columnist is someone she knew from high school. She revealed herself to Kelly. In turn, Kelly insisted that Bette position herself in places to gain greater publicity for the firm. With more media attention, Bette becomes more valuable. Kelly shores up Bette's loyalty and participation by assigning the annual Playboy party of the year to her. Her involvement in this party also adds the necessary climax to self-discovery.
In EVERYONE WORTH KNOWING, the storyline resembles her last novel, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. The characters are believable, interesting, and fun. Although, the chapters are unbalanced at times, they tend to work off each other nicely. Weisenberger demonstrates her ability to create an exclusive atmosphere, filled with eccentric, and somewhat crazed characters in New York City. Unfortunately, I felt the ending was a little rushed and too perfectly tied in a bow. I sense more novels to follow in the same genre.
Other than that, her style pleases and entertains anyone who seeks a good juicy read. She illustrates that happiness and success are about more than being on the VIP list, surrounded by the glitter and glam, or even about of the fast paced life in New York City.
Peals of Wisdom: Surviving Against All Odds, Book Two
Marie Davis
A Better Be Write Publishers, LLC
P.O. Box 1577, Millville, NJ 08332
ISBN: 0976773260, $21.95 329 pages
Patricia Moore, Reviewer
www.mooreliterary.com
At last! The second volume of the Pearls of Wisdom series continues with the release of Book Two Ms. Davis has again gathered autobiographical stories written by everyday people over the age of fifty, in which the "Fabulous Fifties" - the rock-'n-roll era - plays a major role during their formative years.
In Book Two, we find Leigh Anne, Sandra, Emily, Dolores and Lynetta Marie, and, at the end of the book, we are delighted to discover an update on the writers from Book One. I must make one comment here for clarification. I noted during Book One that the writing did not seem to be the caliber of Ms. Davis's other books. Then I remembered she had made a statement in Book One that these were stories from everyday people, not professional writers. The stories are written in their own words. Ms. Davis merely edits for content, continuity and, of course, spelling and grammar. Most importantly, the storytellers are not relating the culmination of a well-planned fictional endeavor. They are merely telling us the truth of what it was like for them growing up "when times were simpler."
That said, let's look at Leigh Anne's Story, whose life was certainly not simple. What started out as a wholesome, garden variety, farm-raised traditional life, quickly dissolves into the sordid night life of the Dallas underworld. Thinking she has found her rescuer, she trustingly enters into a marriage that results in physical and mental abuse, but gifts her with four beautiful children. Even after finally making the right decision to terminate her disastrous marriage, struggling through the trials and tribulations created by her children and a couple of stabs at a relationship with other men, she settles into a comfortable life without male companionship, but never giving up on her dreams.
Sandra, on the other hand, tells a delightful tale of life as a train ride. After weathering her disastrous first marriage, she finds her soul mate, and relays to us the sometimes hilarious and always stressful life with "his, hers and ours." She never lets life get the best of her and, even when she becomes a widow, she experiences his love reaching out to her from beyond, releasing her to continue without him. So, she joyfully gets back on the train.
Emily, as well as telling us her intriguing story of misplaced loyalty and dreams of a knight in shining armor, also gifts us with samples of her own creative poetry (which I hope she seriously considers publishing, separately).
Now, we get an up-close and personal insight into a different culture with the story of Dolores, a Latino born in a border town in South Texas. I, personally, was intrigued with Dolores's descriptions of the Latino mindset. She was raised, along with her brothers and sisters, by a very strong-minded woman, who ruled with an implacable adherence to tradition, always with an eye to "what will people think." Dolores, in her pre-school years, overcomes a physical affliction affecting her legs, simply by her mother's indomitable spirit and instinct. Dolores's turbulent teenage years includes mental domination in her first relationship; the gut-wrenching decision to put her out-of-wedlock son up for adoption; and a Prince Charming with feet of clay; but her marriage remains strong, in spite of it all.
Lynetta Marie, through the pain of the loss of her adored father to divorce, the mental, physical and sexual abuse from her stepfather, the unfaithfulness of her first husband, and the loss of her second husband to alcoholism, unfailingly faces each day with expectations of all the good things yet to come.
As with Pearls of Wisdom: Surviving Against All Odds, Book One, each of the women in Book Two faced down their troubles and eventually stood up to their tormentors, determined to make the best lives for themselves and their children. Again, I look forward to reading more of these real-life accounts collected by Ms. Davis.
Good fun. This is just the kind of book a beginning reader will love. The entertaining full page pictures show details of the story and then some. The main character is a creature innocently experiencing life to its fullest - just like many a first grader. In the first story Bye-Bye, Mom and Dad, Little Critter decides to tell his Grandma and Grandpa a scary story, only it was too scary for them so everyone had to check for monsters under the bed. And since Grandma and Grandpa were still a little afraid, Little Sister and Little Critter decide to sleep with them in bed that night. In Just a School Project, Little Creature can't think of anything for the Science Fair. He builds a rocket ship, but it just sits on the ground with him inside. And when he digs for dinosaurs bones in the back yard, all he finds is a dog bone. But then he stumbles upon caterpillars and his Science Project is born. The book is nicely laid out with pictures on every page and one or two controlled vocabulary sentences per page. The collection contains seven stories ranging from driving a dump truck, to training for a big race. Early Reader, Ages 4-7.
This Lifetime on Earth
Sandy Andrew
BookSurge, LLC
5341 Dorchester Road, Suite 16, North Charleston, SC 29418-5618
ISBN: 141960726X, $13.99, 154 pages
Tami Brady
Reviewer
This Lifetime on Earth outlines the concept of Universal Learning. Universal Learning encompasses all of the lessons learned and life events that an individual experiences during a particular life. The framework of Universal Learning is twelve universal laws: emotional control; love; karma; action and effect; preordination; incarnation characteristic; protection; time; guidance; learning, restoration; and free will. These laws act as guidelines for an individual during his or her life journey to find out who they are, why they were born, and how they can achieve success during their life on Earth.
This Lifetime on Earth is extremely well written and intriguing. The author has organized the information contained in this book in such a way that even the most complex portions of this concept are easy to understand. Moreover, this work is also presented in a broad-minded manner that urges the reader to use his or her own personal interpretation of concepts such as God to fully comprehend the purpose and potential usefulness of the material presented.
Atwood's Bookshelf
Echoes of Armageddon, 1914-1918
B. Cory Kilvert, Jr.
Author House
Bloomington, IN
ISBN: 1418456594 (e-book)
ISBN: 1418456586 (paperback) $17.50, 239 pages
It would not be an exaggeration to call B. Cory Kilvert, Jr. the Shelby Foote of "The Great War." The attention to detail in Kilvert's book, Echoes of Armageddon, 1914-1918, is so striking, there is sometimes the sense (as was the case with Foote in relation to the Civil War) that Kilvert was not only circling high above the battlefields, marking every troop movement of every battle, but that he was also a fly on the wall, listening firsthand to the blustering European heads of state who started the catastrophe now known as World War One.
Kilvert wasn't actually there, but he had a few other advantages at his disposal that give his book a tremendous sense of time and place: a massive personal library containing thousands of books on British military history, medals from eight British soldiers and officers killed in the war, and an insatiable curiosity which compelled him to uncover the details of their lives and deaths.
The result is not only a masterpiece of organized information on the prelude to and significant battles of World War One, but because each chapter focuses on the life, military career,, and death of a single man, this global tragedy is given a face. Eight faces, to be exact. Knowing that Private Albert Armitage, who was married for a mere two months before the war began, fathered a child he never met, or that the mother of Captain William Thomas Payne-Gallwey became a recluse after her son's death, brings the massive carnage of the war to particularly tragic but comprehensible terms. Each chapter ends, not only with a photo, but with a moving and almost poetic account of Kilvert's visit to each man's grave or memorial.
Although Kilvert's book is a masterpiece on many levels, it's not exactly a piece of great literature. Kilvert is a passionate researcher, not necessarily an exceptional writer. He is, however, a straightforward and eminently readable one, and his book, while not claiming pretensions to literary grandeur, reverberates with so much immediacy that it distinctly deserves a place on the shelf with the greatest books on "The Great War."
Paper Poppies: A Memoir by Marianna Vekhova
Translated from the Russian by Natalia Klukovkina
Cladach Publishing
P.O. Box 336144, Greeley, CO 80633
ISBN: 0975961918, $12.99 176 pages
A good memoir brings a single life sharply into focus; when that life illuminates a turbulent historical context, the results can be enthralling. Marianna Vekhova's memoir, Paper Poppies, is such a book. Orphaned and hospitalized with spinal tuberculosis during the second world war, four year-old Marianna experiences first-hand the question that swirls through the Soviet hospitals and sanitariums where she spends her childhood: "men fight, but why should children suffer?" Her book, while not exactly answering that difficult question, painfully illustrates it in breathtaking prose.
The memoir is generally linear, but flashbacks weave in and out, giving the sense that young Marianna, strapped to a hospital bed, has little to do but ruminate on the confusing and difficult events of her young life. These memories are always rendered by the author in stunning detail: during her evacuation from Moscow, she had passed a "bombed train looking like a long animal with a broken spine. Its red sharp tongues of fire ran under the lifeless black cars and the heavy darkness of the sky, the sky that might hide our death as well."
Her recollection of a youthful victory celebration is equally compelling. The girls in Marianna's ward craft paper poppies, hold them adoringly before a portrait of Stalin, then hand them to a weeping veteran commander, while repeatedly singing the following words:
for our dear Stalin, she plucked a flower bouquet;
thanks to the great Stalin for our happy childhood!
After she is cured and released into the care of her grandmother, Marianna gains painful insight into her parents' tragic lives. Like the writings of Solzhenitszyn, this section of the book bitterly illustrates the cruelty of the Soviet system. In the last few chapters, Marianna finds solace for her emotional pain in Russian Orthodox Christianity.
Paper Poppies is not only a daunting portrayal of the great Soviet Bear through the eyes of a child, it is also a poignant testament to the resilience and possibilities within the human spirit.
Mothers Speak . . . For Love of Family
Rosalie Fuscaldo Gaziano
Durban House Publishing
7502 Greenville Ave., Suite 500, Dallas, TX 75231
ISBN: 1930754736, $15.95 166 pages
When I learned that Ms. Gaziano had been awarded "National Mother of the Year 2002" by National Mothers, Inc., in part because she had raised five incredibly successful sons, I thought her book, "Mothers Speak . . . For Love of Family," might a brag rag or a "how-to" book. It wasn't. When I learned that she was somewhat religious, I thought the book might preach. It didn't. While reading through it, I often thought the book was about to descend into the saccharine. It never quite did. In fact, reading this book tore down every preconception I had: it is simply one of the most inspirational, down-to-earth books on the subject of mothering and family that I have ever read.
This is no "how-to" book but a montage of personal stories culled from Gaziano's year of speaking with mothers across America, her own personal experiences and those of her friends and acquaintances. Divided into seven chapters including "Love is a Choice," "Keeping the Balance in the Day to Day," "Crisis, Forgiveness, and Change," Gaziano deals with some solid issues. For instance, should mothers of young children work outside of the home? You would think that a book celebrating motherhood and family would give a firm and resounding no, but Gaziano never provides cut and dried rules or even suggestions: she simply tells how others worked it out. She herself, busy with five little boys and yearning to write professionally didn't simply stop writing but found a way to work it around her busy schedule.
In the chapter entitled "Rituals and Rites That Bind," she not only describes her Italian-American son's wedding to a Bavarian bride, but also how her own (Christian) faith was renewed by attending the Bat Mitzvah of a friend's daughter. Gaziano writes: "this was the faith of the Jewish people, but it was a rite of passage befitting us all . . . all of us can rejoice as others give witness to their own heritage." She also quotes the Koran: this is not a book about a single religion but about what all families share, regardless of their religious beliefs.
"Crisis, Forgiveness, and Creative Change" was a particularly inspirational chapter. Here, Gaziano tells some very serious stories: women, overextended, divorced, and/or severely ill, overcoming deep personal crises. This chapter is a testament to will power, love, and a willingness to change.
Interspersed throughout the book are two things that tie everything together: artwork celebrating motherhood and Gaziano's gentle, wise narrative. Reading this book is like having a reassuring talk with an older, experienced mother who makes you feel that however daunting the task of motherhood may be, love of family will always triumph.
Kathryn Atwood
Reviewer
Bethany's Bookshelf
40 Weeks Devotional Guide to Pregnancy
Jennifer Vanderlaan
Birthing Naturally
14 Natick Street, Colonie, NY 12205
0976554119 $15.95 www.birthingnaturally.net
40 Weeks Devotional Guide to Pregnancy is a week-by-week inspirational resource of selected devotions and prayer guidelines for Christian mothers-to-be. In addition to quotes from scripture specially chosen to support the faith of mother and unborn child, 40 Weeks Devotional Guide to Pregnancy includes information about the development of an unborn baby, recommended exercises, advice for staying comfortable, and many other pregnancy health tips. A clear, steadfastly faithful, and highly recommended guide for Christian expectant mothers.
Celebrating the Rest of Your Life
David Yount
Augsburg Publishers
100 Fifth Street, Suite 700, Minneapolis, MN 55402-1210
0806651717 $12.99 1-800-328-4648 www.augsburgbooks.com
Theologist and syndicated columnist David Yount presents Celebrating the Rest of Your Life: A Baby Boomer's Guide To Spirituality, a matter-of-fact guide to opening one's eyes to the future, considering both practical matters such as making financial safeguards, and matters of the soul, including the intimidating task of making peace with one's mortality and eventual death. Encouraging the reader to accept God's grace in order to more fully experience the richness of life, Celebrating the Rest of Your Life is a profound yet plain-spoken testimonial sure to resonate with readers regardless of individual faith. Highly recommended.
For Such A Time As This
Sharon Warn Decker
Tate Publishing, LLC
127 East Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK 73064
1933290579 $13.95 1-888-361-9473 www.tatepublishing.com
For Such A Time As This: Encouraging Words And Inspired Poetic Writings is a compendium of inspired and inspiring Christian poetry by Sharon Warn Decker that, simply put, deserves the widest possible readership among those who appreciate well crafted verse in support of the general theme that life is too short to let any opportunity to appreciate that life just slip by, or to permit the omission of any opportunity for the expression of love and appreciation to family, friends, or God. A Taste of the Divine: There once was a man with a lovely locket who found/he had a hole in his pocket./Out dropped the locket and was lost to the man not protected/from the hole in his pocket./We are like that today for starts, not protected from/having a hole in our hearts./That we could mend so easily for sure, if we turned to/Jesus and made our lives pure.//Say yes to the Savior above and forever have a life that/is protected from the vile./Ever worshiping our Savior the King, with the heavenly/angels on golden wings/who sings the praises of the One who started all of this/because of His desire for you./Now that you know whom you owe your salvation to/come to Him without ado.//"Come and dine," the Master calleth, "come and dine."/You can sup with Him most any time./He fed the multitude and turned the water into wine./Won't you come to Him and dine? Come and receive your/spiritual wine./Forever be with Him and have a taste of the divine.
Xulon Press
380 Crown Oak Center Drive, Longwood, FL 32750
1-407-339-4217 www.xulonpress.com
Publishing a diversity of books covering a wide spectrum of subjects and genres, Xulon Press is the world's largest Christian publisher with more than 2,500 titles published to date. Among their most recent and very highly recommended releases are "Life In The Skillet, And Lessons Learned Along The Way" (159781430X, $13.99) by Harold Fanning. This is a lively anthology of humorous life experiences as lived by a Baptist boy-turned-minister growing up in a rural Southern community. A master storyteller and pastor of the Shoal Creek Baptist Pastor's Conference, Fanning has a flair for telling stories that make you smile even as they provoke you to thought and reflection. "Wake Up And Smell The Truth: A Look At Our A Nation's Founding Principles And The Failure Of Liberalism" (1597814296, $13.99) by the Reverend David Berman presents clear and logical arguments that will enable the reader to articulate their Judeo- Christian beliefs on many of the key political, cultural, and social issues of our time. Andre Teissier-DuCros' English language translation of French author Jacques Caubet's "The Fifth Rung On Jacob's Ladder: The Thousand Century's Saga Of Religion And Science (159781-444- X, $15.99) provides the reader with an informed and informative historical survey of the scientific and technological progress achieved by the Judeo-Christian nations, and the breakthroughs in bridging the disciplines of science with the concepts of theology.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Betsy's Bookshelf
Ripples On A Pond
Madge Swindells
Allison & Busby
c/o International Publishers Marketing
22841 Quicksilver Drive, Dulles, VA 20166
0749083670 $25.95 1-800-758-3756 www.internationalpubmarket.com
Ripples On A Pond is the story of Temple Minnis, a placid, privileged, picturesque, affluent village that behind a smooth facade there lurks an old and ugly secret. Thirty years earlier the villagers had conspired to plan and conceal a murder. But now Melissa, a local novelist who discovers that she is dying, is having pangs of conscience and writes the story of what happened so long ago. The result is that lives are turned upside down as members of the village must now face up to their past. Author Madge Swindells is clearly a writer of great storytelling skill and an original imagination as she brings a tale of memorable characters and unexpected plot twists to life in the mind's eye of the reader. Highly recommended reading!
Dear Enemy
Jack Cavanaugh
Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55438
0764223100 $12.99 1-800-328-6109 www.bethanyhouse.com
Nurse Annie Mitchell saw firsthand the atrocities of war and concluded that the German soldier was inhuman and thoroughly depraved. But when a rogue rescue mission ended in tragedy, a bereft Annie finds herself a captured prisoner behind enemy lines in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. Her captor Karl Hausmann doesn't fit her stereotype of the brutal German soldier. In the days following her capture, Annie must reconsider everything she thought she knew about her enemy. Dear Enemy is as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking reading. Jack Cavanaugh has once again demonstrated his mastery of engaged and engaging storytelling. Other also highly recommended works by Cavanaugh and published by Bethany House include: Whiles Mortals Sleep (0764223070); His Watchful Eye (0764223089); and Above All Earthly Powers (0764223097).
Lives of the Sleepers
Ned Balbo
University of Notre Dame Press
310 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0268021856 $15.00 1-800-621-2736 www.undpress.nd.edu
Award-winning poet Ned Balbo presents Lives of the Sleepers, a collection of free-verse, monologue-style poetry centering on the themes of those who sleep and dream. Dark and moving, sometimes morbid, yet also haunting in its search to understand the human mind, consciousness, emotion and expression, Lives of the Sleepers is profound and memorable. "A Tragedy": A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions / Scaled down for the suburbs and a cast / Of gifted amateurs: two "honors" kids, / Lovesick eighth-graders not long disappeared / For whom the worst was feared, and now is over, / Dragged up from the river, final words / Slipped under rocks impossible to miss: / My mother tried to break us up forever - / Her mother! - Now we're going to a place / Where, at last, we'll always be together... / You poor kids. Snapshots fade, the news moves on, / And though we dread the solace that you sought / And found, still more we fear not to have loved / As deeply, nor as recklessly, as you.
Never Wink at a Worried Woman
Lynn Johnston
Andrews & McMeel
4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
0740754440 $10.95 1-800-851-8923 www.andrewsmcmeel.com
Never Wink at a Worried Woman is the latest compilation of "For Better or For Worse" newspaper comic strips, following the daily life of the Patterson family - parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and friends. Unlike the majority of comic strips, in which the family (and its children!) never age and remain bizarrely the same from year to year, "For Better or For Worse" embraces the realism of advancing years and the toll that changes in the seasons have on life. In Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Elly and John are carefully beginning to think about retirement, while Elizabeth approaches adulthood, Micheal and Deanna try to balance the demands of being new parents, and baby Meredith is bursting with curiosity about the world around her while Grandpa Jim strives to maintain his dignity despite the toll of age. The warm, soulful humor of the comic retains a fresh, empathic charm, all needed more desperately than ever in today's era of sarcasm, shallowness and sound bites. Highly recommended.
Thanks For Tuning In
Richard Ruelas
Boffo Books
c/o University of Arizona Press
355 South Euclid Avenue, Suite 103, Tucson, AZ 85719-6654
0975282204 $21.95 1-800-426-3797 www.uapress.arizona.edu
Thanks For Tuning In by Richard Ruelas (a native Arizonan and metro columnist for "The Arizona Republic") is the story of Bill Thompson who as "Wallace" created Arizona's most celebrated children's television show which was on the air for 35 years -- longer than all other kid's shows in the nation. Readers will learn about a wide-eyed college dropout who grew up the scion of a wealthy family in update New York who decided to reinvent himself out West. Here are also revealed behind-the-scenes details of Thompson's beloved children's show and its characters -- some of which were based on Thompson's own childhood experiences. A welcome and highly recommended addition to the growing library of books about influential and popular American television programming of the mid-20th to late 20th century, Thanks For Tuning In is quite candid about the end of the show, including the deterioration and reconciliation of Thompson's friendship with his partner Ladmo.
The Enlightened Kitchen
Mari Fujii
Kodansha America, Inc.
575 Lexington Avenue, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10022
4770024932 $24.95 1-800-451-7556 www.kodansha-intl.com
Written by the wife of a Buddhist monk who has taught temple cuisine for over twenty years, The Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan is a cookbook of the traditional fare that has its roots in Japan's Buddhist temples. Emphasizing natural and healthy ingredients such as fresh seasonal vegetables, and the staples of grains, and tofu, these creations are simple and elegant delights, delicious without undue extravagance. All recipes are animal-free, making The Enlightened Kitchen especially ideal for vegetarians and vegans. Full-color photographs throughout and straightforward instructions clearly show the reader how to prepare such mouth- watering delicacies as Shiitake Mushrooms Stuffed with Tofu, Sushi Rolls (prepared entirely without fish), Buckwheat Crepes, Kenchin Style Vegetable Soup, and much more. Highly recommended.
Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer
Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell & Bonnie Garcia
Fleming H. Revell
c/o Baker Book House
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
0800730550 $14.99 www.bakerbooks.com
Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead is more than a cookbook - it's a guide to healthy and succulent home-tested alternatives to commercial microwave dinners and fast food. All of the recipes are designed to be prepared in quantity and frozen ahead of time, for a simpler lifestyle that saves both money and time. An introduction walks readers through the basics of the "Don't Panic" method of shopping for, cooking and freezing meals in advance, and recipes include South of the Border Queso, Old-Time Beef Stew, Beef Pita Tacos, Frozen Fruit Salad, and more. Ingredient lists offer recommended amounts to create servings for 3, 6, or 9 people, allowing great flexibility in quantities prepared. An excellent and practical cookbook for families in today's hectic world.
The Coming to America Cookbook
Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5773
0471483354 $14.95 1-800-225-5945 www.wiley.com
Written by an instructor at King's Cooking Studio in New Jersey and a registered dietitian, The Coming to America Cookbook: Delicious Recipes and Fascinating Stories from America's Many Cultures offers delights from Mexican, Irish, Chinese, Moroccan, Turkish, Ethiopian, Nigerian, and more cultures, immigrants from whom have come to America over the course of centuries and shared their individual cooking traditions. Recipes such as Oh-So-Hot Salsa, Korean-Style Short Ribs, The Best Baklava, Fried Bananas with Cinnamon and much more reflect a wide range of mouth-watering international morsels to please any palate. A brief introduction to the different cultures featured and a kid-friendly tone distinguish this varied and delightful cookbook.
The New Southwest Cookbook
Carolyn Niethammer
Rio Nuevo Publishers
PO Box 5250, Tucson, AZ 85703
1887896783 $17.95 www.rionuevo.com
Master cook, wild-food expert, and award-winning author Carolyn Niethammer presents The New Southwest Cookbook, a recipe guide to recent innovations in Southwest cuisine. Sample dishes bursting with original flavor include Anasazi Bean-Dip Boats, Tequila and Citrus-Grilled Chicken with Mesquite Honey, Crayfish-Corn Risotto, Pumpkin Flan, and much more. A brief introductory guide to basic Southwest ingredients, an index for quick and easy lookup, and a short list of recommended restaurants and resorts round out this tempting and flavorful compendium.
The Everything Cooking for Two Cookbook
David Poran
Adams Media Corporation
57 Littlefield Street, 2nd floor, Avon, MA 02322
1593373708 $14.95 1-800-872-5627 www.adamsmedia.com
Written by a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, The Everything Cooking for Two Cookbook features 300 recipes for making relaxing, romantic recipes for two people that do not create immense portions or require an excess of kitchen time. Mouth-watering recipes such as Japanese Spicy Tuna Tartar, Mustard-Crusted Filet Mignon, Easiest Scalloped Potatoes Ever, Oven-Roasted Baby Artichokes, Mexican Hot Chocolate Float and more combine flavor, variety and convenience. A brief introduction will prime novice cooks in the basics of kitchen equipment, and an index allows for quick and easy lookup of favorite recipes. An excellent and practical meal preparation guide for couples.
500 Cookies
Philippa Vanstone
Ronnie Sellers Productions
81 West Commercial Street, Portland, ME 04101
1569065926 $14.95 1-800-625-3386
500 Cookies: The Only Cookie Compendium You'll Ever Need is a compact-sized hardcover cookbook of almost every cookie type imaginable. From Scottish Shortbread to Fruit & Nut Refrigerator Cookies, Fortune Cookies, Vanilla Crescents, and much more, the recipes include "base recipes" and flavor-filled variants for a jamboree of cookie variety. Easy-to-use, and featuring color photographs throughout, 500 Cookies is a "must-have" for anyone who enjoys diversity in dessert!
Lebanese Food
Cassie Maroun-Paladin, author; John Peacock, photographer
New Holland Publishers
c/o Sterling Publishing Company
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810
1845371879 $35.95 1-800-805-5489
Featuring gorgeous full-color photography, Lebanese Food offers a medley of over 180 traditional recipes featuring the rich taste of Lebanese cooking. From Lentil Soup with Spinach to Green Bean Stew with Lamb, Bread Salad, Lovers' Shortbread, Melon Seed Mead and more, the recipes are simple to prepare and capture the exotic Mediterranean atmosphere with easy-to- acquire ingredients. A superb addition to any cookbook collection of flavorful regional cuisine.
Weber's Real Grilling
Jamie Purviance
Weber
c/o Sunset Publishing Corporation
80 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025-3691
0376020466 $24.95 1-800-643-8030
Featuring over 200 recipes each with a color photograph, Weber's Real Grilling is a gorgeous grilling cookbook that emphasizes simplicity and fun. In addition to step-by-step recipes, Weber's Real Grilling is packed with tips, tricks, and techniques from safety precautions for meat preparation (including a chart that compares USDA temperature recommendations with those of professional chefs for cooking meat rare to well-done) and basic instructions for using charcoal, lighting a gas grill, and the tools every griller should own. Recipes range from Grilled Shrip Cocktail to Hot Tenderloin Sandwiches, Tandoori-Style Chicken Kabobs, Acorn Squash, Red Chile Rice, Pineapple Sundae with Caramel and Toasted Almond Brittle and much more. An index rounds out this highly recommended cookbook for grillers of all skill and experience levels.
The Storm Gourmet
Daphne Nikolopoulos
Pineapple Press, Inc.
PO Box 3889, Sarasota, FL 34230-3889
1561643343 $9.95 1-800-746-3275 www.pineapple.com
The Storm Gourmet: A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals without Electricity is a unique cookbook to creating nutritious gourmet meals without a heat source or refrigeration. A valuable resource for when power is down, when one is without a refrigerator, or simply when one wants to use less energy, The Storm Gourmet is packed with shopping lists for the ideal emergency pantry, more than 70 recipes using nonperishable and shelf-stable food items, suggested menus for balanced meals, a guide to growing a storm-proof herb garden, and tips for weathering storms. Dishes to prepare include Greek-style Bean Salad, Savory Ham with Dijon Cream, Black Forest Tarts, Mock Sangria, and much more. An index for quick and easy reference complements this excellent guide to living healthy and well under simple conditions.
Betsy L. Hogan
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
Vengeance Is Mine
William W. Johnstone with Fred Austin
Pinnacle
0786014466, $6.99 432 pages
Vietnam vet John Howard Stark's uncle and neighbor have been gunned down by illegals using their ranch property as a conduit into the U.S.
When the West Texan tries to put a stop to the border crossings, he finds the local authorities no help. Waging a one man war against a powerful and deadly Columbian drug cartel, Stark discovers he's not only taking on the an ex-special forces hit man but also his own government.
As he has in the past, Johnstone delivers a double dose of blood, guts and gore!
The Society
Michael Palmer
Bantam
055358362X, $7.50 461 pages
Focusing on the lethal implications of managed care, Michael Palmer's eleventh medical thriller offers a portrait of a compromised healthcare system corrupted by profiteering managed care executives and a madman out to exact revenge.
When a serial killer targets managed care personnel, one of the prime suspects is surgeon Will Grant. A member of the Hippocrates Society, a group of doctors opposed to the insurance industry's immoral cost cutting policies, Grant has been outspoken in his criticism of the big corporations.
Although she's not convinced Grant is not the killer, rookie detective Patty Moriarity realizes she'll have to work with the physician to track down the killer.
"There are no fabricated stories or unsubstantiated facts in the novel," explains Palmer. "I hope (the novel) will raise awareness of the plummeting morale among many physicians, the shortcuts being necessitated in patient care, and the need to look long, hard, and fast into the possibilities of a new way of delivering and financing health care."
"Society" scores on both counts - it is a riveting thriller and does achieve the author's goal of increasing the awareness of the problem.
Lazybones
Mark Billingham
Avon
006056086X, $7.50 420 pages
When a serial killer begins targeting convicted rapists recently released from prison, the police are torn in two directions. On one hand,
there is little sympathy for the victims, but allowing this manner of vigilante justice isn't acceptable either. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is given the task finding the methodical killer and ending the rampage.
Billingham creates an interesting and disturbing moral dilemma in this thriller as he muddies the issues that separate the victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.
Signs in the Blood
Vicki Lane
Dell
0440242088, $6.99 370 pages
North Carolina resident Vicki Lane uses her home state as the setting for her debut mystery. Elizabeth Goodweather's husband has passed away and the widow now lives alone in her Appalachian home. Tending her small herb and flower business keeps Elizabeth busy but her fragile peace is shattered when Cletus Gentry vanishes while hunting ginseng in the hills.
Cletus' mother is convinced her son has been murdered. When Elizabeth agrees to retrace the young man's wanderings, she doesn't realize her investigation will set her up as the target of a killer who haunts the coves and hallows near her small farm.
A haunting psychological suspense story rich with local color and atmosphere, "Signs in the Blood" marks Lane as a new talent with plenty of writing savvy. A second Elizabeth Goodweather novel, scheduled for release next year, will continue the adventures of this very fetching character.
Guardian of the Dawn
Richard Zimler
Delta
0385338813, $14.00 403 pages
With two well received novels to his credit already, Richard Zimler, an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Porto, Portugal, transports his reader to India in this prequel to "Hunting Midnight".
Set against the Spanish Inquisition, "Guardian of the Dawn" focuses on Tiago Zarco, a young man living in Goa in 1591. Raised in a Jewish family who fled Portugal to preserve religious freedom, Tiago's life is turned topsy-turvy when his father is accused of an act of blasphemy and arrested by the officials of the Inquisition.
To avenge this act of betrayal and bring his father's tormentors to justice,Tiago must give up all he holds dear - his faith, his sister, and his Hindu girlfriend.
A sweeping historical adventure which combines mystery with a tale of faith and love, "Guardian of the Dawn" characters captivate the reader from page one.
The Shattered Rose
Jo Beverley
Zebra
0821779346, $6.99 415 pages
Upon his return from the Crusades, Galeran of Heywood returns to England only to discover his rival, Raymond of Lowick, has designs on Galeran's land and his wife. Although he's weary from the long campaign, Galeran must marshal his strength for one more battle and the stakes are much higher this time; his castle and his loved ones are the prize.
Beverley's previous 25 historical romances have garnered a wide and appreciative fan base. As this latest novel illustrates, the much lauded writer continues to be at the top of her game.
Bob Walch
Reviewer
Buhle's Bookshelf
The Life of St. Edmund King and Martyr: A Facsimile
University of Toronto Press
10 St. Mary Street, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4Y 2W8
0712348719 $100.00 1-800-565-9523 www.utppublishing.com
The Life of St. Edmund King and Martyr: A Facsimile is a stunningly beautiful recreation of the classical illuminated manuscript detailing the Anglo-Saxon King St. Edmund's life, as once penned by a fifteenth-century abbey monk. The 120 illustrations, script, and appearance of the original work is stunningly recreated, along with a list of illustrations and an introduction. Notably absent is any separate transliteration of the text into modern vernacular prose; the reader is left to his or her own devices to either read the text as-is or seek a translation of the archaic English. A truly stunning compendium, that is as close to the precise look and feel of an ancient manuscript as reasonably possible.
Mapmaker's Eye
Jack Nisbet
WSU Press
PO Box 645910, Pullman, WA 99164-5910
0874222850 $29.95 1-800-354-7360 www.wsupress.wsu.edu
Mapmaker's Eye is the amazing biographical chronicle of the adventures of David Thompson, a Canadian fur trader, explorer, and cartographer respected as a hero in Canada yet largely unknown in the United States. From 1801 to 1812, Thompson established two effective trade routs across the Rocky Mountains in Canada and surveyed the 1,250 mile course of the Columbia River. Following his exploration days he transformed the mathematical notations from his dozens of journal notebooks into the first accurate maps of the northwest quadrant of North America. Some of his mapwork was even used by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Award-winning author Jack Nisbet presents Thompson's story in detail yet fully accessible to lay readers, along with a handful of black-and-white and color illustrations. An amazing epic tale of a life rich with discovery and analysis.
Saunders Mac Lane
Saunders Mac Lane
A K Peters, Ltd.
888 Worcester Street, Suite 230, Wellesley, MA 02482
1568811500 $39.95 www.akpeters.com
Saunders Mac Lane: A Mathematical Autobiography is the personal memoir of the late Saunders mac lane, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century. His life story takes the reader on fascinating and informative journey through the most important milestones of the mathematical world of the last ten decades. Saunders provides the reader with a glimpse into his "life and times" through a blending of professional observations with highly personal commentary. He recounts his experiences in pre-war Gottingen (where he studied under David Hilbert and witnessed the collapse of a great German academic and cultural tradition under the political pressures of a brutal Nazi regime). He reflects on his work with Samuel Eilenberg and the impact of their creation of a new mathematical language and theory. Here is the personalized and deftly written story of a century of extraordinary accomplishments and tragedies that will inform and inspire future generations of aspiring mathematicians and is therefore an essential addition to all college and university library collections.
Zane Grey
Thomas H. Pauly
University of Illinois Press
1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820-6975
0252030443 $34.95 1-800-545-4703 www.press.uillinois.edu
Zane Grey: His Life, His Adventures, His Women is a superbly integrated account of one of America's most popular authors of the western novel. Soundly documented and a seminal piece of biographical scholarship by Thomas H. Pauly (Professor of English, University of Delaware) fans of Zane Grey will learn that he was a disappointed aspirant to major league baseball, an unhappy dentist, and took up writing at the age of thirty. His personal life was as colorful as any of his novels which made him the most successful American author of the 1920s, a popularizer of hunting and fishing, an early conservationist and wilderness protection advocate, and a significant figure in the early development of the film industry. He became a world traveler and a man whose marriage was critical to his literary success. But his domestic relationship was stressed by long separations, deep depressions, and multiple affairs with women. Enthusiastically recommended reading, Zane Grey is an impressive biography of a complicated and multifaceted man that is as engaging and entertaining as it is informed and informative.
Ben Franklin: America's Original Entrepreneur
Ben Franklin (Adapted by Blake McCormick)
Entrepreneur Press
c/o The McGraw Hill Companies
Two Penn Plaza, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10121-2298
1932531688 $26.95 1-877-833-5524 www.entrepreneurpress.com
Ben Franklin's autobiography has been adapted and edited by Blake McCormick to showcase one of the best business stories arising from America's colonial period. Ben Franklin was a superb entrepreneur, inventor, and writer who influenced not only the political, but the cultural, social, and business climates of his day. In "Ben Franklin: America's Original Entrepreneur " the reader is provided with insights and illustrations as applicable as business models today as they were more than two hundred years ago. Enthusiastically recommended reading -- especially for anyone aspiring to success is the business world whether as an individual entrepreneur or as a member of a corporate team.
Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life in Pictures and Documents, with CD
Fortress Press
c/o Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209
080063764X $25.00 www.fortresspress.com
Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life in Pictures and Documents, with CD is a gorgeous tribute to Bach's life and musical contributions to Western Civilization. Internationally recognized biographer and filmmaker Hans Conrad Fischer offers a religious perspective upon Bach's works, claiming that it is only through Bach's profound Christian faith that the message and essence of his music can be understood. Bach himself wrote three letters at the end of many of his music manuscripts: "SDG", meaning "Soli Deo Gloria", or, "for God's glory alone." In addition to chronicling Bach's life and faith, the text enhances dozens of black-and-white and color portraits, photographs of locales and artifacts, maps, manuscripts, and more. The accompanying CD offers a "musical journey" of Bach's works; samples of 17 of his compositions, from 1 1/2 minutes to 8 1/2 minutes apiece, allows the listener to experience a range of Bach's auditory creations. Highly recommended for lay readers interested in experiencing Bach in a multiplicity of media.
How Can One Sell The Air?
Eli Gifford, Michael Cook, Warren Jefferson
The Book Publishing Company
PO Box 99, Summertown, TN 38483
1570671737 $9.95 1-800-695-2241 www.bookpubco.com
Chief Seattle, leader of the Seattle Native American tribe called the Suquamish, gave an eloquent speech to Isaac Stevens, the Territorial Governor on January 10, 1854 during treaty negotiations. His impassioned and moving plea to respect the "Sacred Web of Life" has been translated world wide and is a rallying cry for today's environmental protection movement. Now in a newly revised edition, How Can One Sell The Air?: Chief Seattle's Vision presents his timeless insights drawn from three of his most often quoted speeches, some of which had been included in the Seattle tribe's oral tradition and to which they gave their official endorsement for authenticity. This expanded addition for a new generation of readers is enhanced with background information on Chief Seattle, the history of the region at that time, and the culture of the Suquamish then and now. The informed and informative text is enriched with rare historical photographs (many from the Suquamish Tribal Archives) of 19th century tribal village life. How Can One Sell The Air? is an essential addition to any personal, academic, or community library Native American Studies collection.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
Burroughs' Bookshelf
Tetched
Thaddeus Rutkowski
Behler Publications
22365 El Toro Road, #135, Lake Forest, CA 92630
1933016167 $13.95 1-800-830-2913 www.behlerpublications.com
Written by a finalist for an Asian American Literary Award, Tetched is a coming-of-age novel from the first-person perspective of a biracial narrator, who grows up in rural America yet escapes the repetition of country life for new experiences in the city, pursuing a college career. Far from his father's floundering struggles with alcoholism and unfulfilled art career, and his mother's confusing brand of Eastern wisdom, the protagonist struggles to live life on his own terms, a difficult task indeed - until he learns how to put the past in perspective. A vibrant story of self- discovery and learning what it means to become a well-adjusted adult.
Late In The Standoff
Tracy Daugherty
Southern Methodist University Press
PO Box 750414, Dallas, TX 75275-0415
0870744984 $22.50 1-800-826-8911
Tracy Daugherty's distinctive and highly recommended fiction draws from the cultural and social forces that shape and influence the intimate behavior of otherwise ordinary people. Late In The Standoff comprises a novella and five short stories feature people caught up in conflicts where solutions and resolutions arise from unexpected quarters. In "Power Lines" a young man's sexual awakening in Midland, Texas, coincides with lessons about heroism and loyalty during one hot summer that is suddenly seared with violence. In "The Standoff", a retired politician and his asthmatic grandson rediscover their bond on a trip to a small Oklahoma town where the old man has been asked to settle an "Indian dispute". In "Cotton Flat Road", a brother and sister life the lid on their differences as he discovers her secret life across the tracks in the Texas oil town they grew up in. "Lamplighter", "City Codes", and "Anna Lia" round out this impressive and literate anthology showcasing a major talent by an author whose "day job" is directing the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Oregon State University and is on the MFA faculty at Warren Wilson College.
Pseudonymity, the New Testament, and Deception
Terry L. Wilder
University Press of America, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
0761827935 $41.00 1-800-462-6420 www.univpress.com
Written by an Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek, Pseudonymity, the New Testament, and Deception: An Inquiry into Intention and Reception is a monograph written to address the question: "If pseudonymous works exist in the New Testament, what can be said about their intention and reception?" Topics covered include scrutiny of disputed New Testament letters and the role and authority of the Apostle in the early church. An extensively researched and documented account that draws as heavily upon logic as it does upon biblical expertise to scrutinize New Testament passages that may have been written under a pseudonym for specific purposes, Pseudonymity, the New Testament, and Deception is recommended for intermediate to advanced Biblical scholars and college library shelves.
Caesar's Messiah
Joseph Atwill
Ulysses Press
PO Box 3440, Berkeley CA 94703-3440
1569754578 $14.95 1-800-377-2542 www.ulyssespress.com
In Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy To Invent Jesus, author Joseph Atwill (Jesuit trained, founder of the Roman Origins Institute in New York City, and co-worker with Robert Eisenman on the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls) advances the controversial but intriguing theory that Jesus of the New Testament Gospels was basically an invention of a Roman emperor for his own imperial purposes. If correct, this would reveal a new understanding of a two-thousand year old series of events with respect to our understanding of Christian origins. Atwill closely compares the writings of first-century historian Flavius Josephus with the New Testament Gospels and comes to the conclusion that the Romans directed the writing of both the Gospels and Josephus' "War of the Jews". The purpose of the empire was to present Jesus as a "peaceful Messiah" who would serve as an alternative to more revolutionary leaders who were creating havoc in first-century Israel and threatening the suzerainty of Rome. If Atwill's investigations are sound, it could well mean that the Jesus portrayed in the four Gospels was written not by Christians, but by Romans meaning to usurp the Christian movement for their own political purposes. Caesar's Messiah is controversial, thought-provoking, challenging, and altogether fascinating reading.
I Hid It Under The Sheets
Gerald Eskenazi
University of Missouri Press
2910 LeMone Boulevard, Columbia, MO 65201
082621620X $29.95 1-800-828-1894 www.umsystem.edu/upress
The 1930s, 40s, and early 50s were the age of Radio. This is when most of America would tune in nightly for their favorite comedies, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, adventure, news, culture, and entertainment programs for children and adults. This was the ultimate era of "theatre of the mind" entertainment that took place in front of the glow of a radio dial. I Hid It Under The Sheets: Growing Up With Radio is Gerald Eskenazi's personal account and recollection of radio's broad impact on his generation and explains how and why it became such a major factor in shaping American and Americans during the years of the Great Depression, World War II, and the first decade of what was called the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union had the power to exterminate the human race in a nuclear holocaust. I Hid It Under The Sheets is a simply fascinating, original, and highly recommended contribution to mid-twentieth century American Cultural History library reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
The Diaries Of John Gregory Bourke: Volume Two
Charles M. Robinson III, editor
University of North Texas Press
PO Box 311336, Denton, TX 76203-1336
1574411969 $55.00 1-800-826-8911 www.unt.edu/untpress
Edited and annotated by Charles M. Robinson (history instructor at South Texas Community College and a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association), The Diaries Of John Gregory Bourke: Volume Two: July 29, 1876-April 7, 1878 is the next published installment of the personal journals of John Gregory Bourke who served as cavalry lieutenant in Arizona from 1872 up to the evening before his death in 1896. A noted ethnologist who wrote extensive descriptions of Native American tribal life and customs that he observed first hand, he illustrated his diaries with both sketches and photographs. This second published volume opens as General Crook prepares for the expedition that would lead to his infamous and devastating Horse Meat March. The diary faithfully recounts the manifold hardships the troops and their officers endured. The diary then continues with the story of the Powder River Expedition and culminates in Bourke's eyewitness description of Colonel Ranald MacKenzie's destruction of the main Cheyenne camp in what become known as the Dull Knife Fight. With the main hostile chiefs either surrendering or forced into exile in Canada, field operations came to a close and Bourke finishes this second volume of his memoirs with a retrospective of his service in Tucson, Arizona. Enhanced for the modern reader with extensive annotations and a biographical appendix on Indians, civilians, and military personnel named in the diaries, this outstanding series continues to be a seminal and strongly recommended contribution to American Frontier History and Native American Studies reference collections and supplementary reading lists.
Captain Jack And The Dalton Gang
John J. Kinney
University Press of Kansas
2501 West 15th Street, Lawrence, KS 66049
070061415X $17.95 1-785-864-4155 www.kansaspress.ku.edu
Captain Jack And The Dalton Gang: The Life And Times Of A Railroad Detective by John J. Kinney chronicles the true story of his great-grandfather Jack Kinney, the chief detective for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad and his armed and violent confrontation with the infamous Dalton gang. Researching old journals and newspaper accounts for details of the controversial forty-minute battle at Adair in the Indian Territory on July 14, 1892 between Captain Jack and his posse with the nine-member outlaw gang known as the Daltons -- as well as other exploits in the life and career of the man who also served as the chief detective for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, a Texas Ranger, and a U.S. deputy marshal who worked for "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker on the lawless American frontier. Captain Jack And The Dalton Gang is a superbly presented, engagingly informative, biographically oriented, rivetingly entertaining story of outlaws and the lawmen who pursued them. Highly recommended reading!
Minnesota Grit
John Koblas
North Star Press of St. Cloud
PO Box 451, St. Cloud, MN 56302-0451
0878392157 $12.95 1-888-820-1636
Minnesota Grit is the remarkable true story of Northfield, Minnesota, and how its ordinary citizens mobilized to break a notorious gang of robbers. When the James-Younger Gang tried to rob Northfield's bank, the citizenry turned against them so fast that two members of the outlaws were killed moments later, and ultimately only Jesse and Frank James escaped the posses, their power broken for the rest of history. Painstakingly researched, and illustrated with a handful of black-and-white photographs, Minnesota Grit tells the true tale with rousing intensity and accuracy, including the story of the "Magnificent Seven" who captured the Younger Brothers at Hanska Slough. An exciting portrayal of a legendary episode in American history.
Minnesota's Capitol
Michele Hodgson
Afton Historical Society Press
PO Box 100, Afton, MN 55001
1890434671 $24.00 1-800-436-8443 www.aftonpress.com
Enhanced with more than one hundred color and b/w illustrations, Minnesota's Capitol: A Centennial Story by Michele Hodgson tells the story of Minnesota state house located in St. Paul. Architecturally designed by Cass Gilbert, this impressive building took nine years to build from groundbreaking to dedication. It's magnificent dome was modeled after St. Peter's in Rome and utilized marble from Italy, Greece, France, and Africa, while the granite for the Capitol's foundation came from neighboring St. Cloud, Minnesota. Gilbert commissioned some of America's leading artists to decorate the building (including the sculptor who would later create the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.) as well as featuring the talents of local artists such as painter Douglas Volk and sculptor Catherine Backus. Highly recommended reading, Minnesota's Capitol is as engaging and entertaining as it is informed and informative.
Wrigley Field's Last World Series
Charles N. Billington, author; George Brace, photographer
Lake Claremont Press
4650 N. Rockwell St., Chicago, IL 60625
1893121453 $16.95 www.lakeclaremont.com
Wrigley Field's Last World Series: The Wartime Chicago Cubs and the Pennant of 1945 is an in-depth analysis of the Cubs' greatest year in baseball history - with a summary of the causes of the team's decline in all the decades to follow. As World War II was coming to an end, the Cubs' were at their very best; Wrigley Field's Last World Series follows their efforts month by month until their crowning achievement of the World Series pennant. Yet after 1945, the Cubs' performance and success dropped dramatically, which author Billington attests to multiple causes, including disastrously poor trades, an sluggish and flawed system to "farm" new talent, the toll of wartime draft, and more. A skillfully narrated look at the year that was a monumental turning point, featuring a handful of black-and- white photography by George Brace. Especially recommended reading for Cubs fans.
Selecting and Using Hand Tools
The Editors of Fine Woodworking
The Taunton Press
63 South Main Street, Newtown, CT 06470
1561587834 $17.95 1-800-477-8727 www.taunton.com
The latest in the "New Best of Fine Woodworking" series, which collects the best articles from recent issues of "Fine Woodworking" magazine, Selecting and Using Hand Tools teaches the reader about buying the best tools, essential techniques such as four-squaring and using a marking knife in accurate joinery, applying edged tools or handsaws, getting the most out of tools for shaping and modifying, and much more. Diagrams and full-color photographs on every page walk the reader through procedures step-by-step, and the text explains hands-on tasks in easy-to-follow terms. An excellent resource for hands-on woodworkers of all skill and experience levels, from novice to advanced.
Carving Down-Home Angels with Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310
0764323261 $14.95 www.schifferbooks.com
The 46th carving instructional book by one of the leading caricature woodcarvers in America, Carving Down-Home Angels with Tom Wolfe is a step-by-step guide that walks the reader through the process of creating charming, folksy wooden angels with endearing elderly features. Full color photographs on every page illustrate the process, and a bare minimum of text instructs the reader in the simple steps, from carving a block to painting minute details. The instructional process focuses on creating a single "down-home angel", but several examples of variations on the theme point the way to applying the general techniques to original creations. An excellent resource for woodcarvers seeking to train their figure carving talent or even handcraft Christmas gifts and decorations.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
Strategies of Containment, revised edition
John Lewis Gaddis
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4314
019517447X $18.95 1-800-451-7556 www.oup.com
Now in a revised edition, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War is a revised and expanded edition of Bancroft Prize winner and Cold War expert John Lewis Gaddis' classic on understanding the history of containment as a policy, its role in bringing the Cold War to an end, and its possible value or pitfalls in the future. Originally published during the Regan presidency when the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Strategies of Containment includes a greatly expanded chapter eleven, about Reagan, Gorbachev, and the completion of containment, as well as a new epilogue. A welcome scrutiny of history with the advantage of post-Cold War hindsight.
Expertly compiled and deftly edited by Janet Rothenberg Pack (Professor of Business and Public Policy, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution's "Metropolitan Policy Program"), Sunbelt/Frostbelt: Public Policies And Market Forces In Metropolitan Development presents a number of contributions by scholars focusing upon the role of government policies and competitive market forces in shaping growth patterns in the five metropolitan areas of Chicago, Lost Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh. These studies (two in the Sunbelt and three in the industrial north) provide the reader with an insightful understanding of the federal policies and diverse market forces which have significantly affected development patterns in these cities over the last few decades. In addition to descriptive findings, Sunbelt/Frostbelt also proposes recommendations to policymakers and corporate stakeholders that would result in a more balanced growth in their respective cities and regions. A work of impressive and original scholarship throughout, Sunbelt/Frostbelt is especially recommended for inclusion in Regional & Urban Planning library reference and resource collections.
Starting Out: King's Indian Attack
John Emms
Everyman Chess
c/o The Globe Pequot Press
PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437
1857443942 $21.95 1-800-243-0495 www.everymanchess.com
Written by British chess Grandmaster John Emms, Starting Out: King's Indian Attack is an in-depth guide for intermediate to advanced chess players to the King's Indian Attack, a favorite chess strategy of the legendary Bobby Fischer, among others including world-class Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich. Starting Out: King's Indian Attack studies the fundamental principles of this tactic and its numerous lines. A wealth of notes, tips, warnings, suggestions, sample games and diagrams serve to enlighten the average player on the strengths and weaknesses of using or defending against this strategy. Highly recommended for any dedicated chess player seeking to improve his or her game against experienced opponents.
100 Problems in Celestial Navigation
Leonard Gray
Paradise Cay Publications
PO Box 29, Arcata, CA 95518-0029
0939837331 $19.95 1-800-736-4509 www.paracay.com
Even in a world with accurate and cheap GPS receivers, traditional navigation with a sextant, an almanac, and a book of tables is still an important skill - sometimes batteries go dead or electronic devices fail, especially in salt air! Written by experienced navigator Leonard Gray, 100 Problems in Celestial Navigation: Self Contained - With Answers is a compendium of realistic navigation problems, including excerpts of all required Nautical Almanac pages and sight-reduction tables, complete with answers and explanations. These problems cover all regularly encountered navigation situations, as well as those that are only occasionally used and often forgotten, such as backsight, shooting and unknown body, finding Venus in daylight, and storm avoidance. A superb manual for safely practicing and honing one's navigational skills.
Countdown To Crisis
Kenneth R. Timmerman
Crown Forum
c/o The Crown Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, #B1, New York, NY 10019-4305
1400053684 $25.95 1-800-726-0600 www.randomhouse.com
Countdown To Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown With Iran by investigative reporter and Middle East expert Ken Timmerman documents how the American intelligence community's arrogance, incompetence, and willful blindness have repeatedly kept us from dealing effectively or successfully with the Iranian nuclear threat. Countdown To Crisis reveals that the Iranian mullahs could already have enough nuclear material for 20 to 25 bombs; secret locations where Iran had been sheltering Osma bin Laden and Al-Qaeda forces who are collaborating with the Iranians to plain attacks against American and our allies; Iran's involvement in the 9/11 plot (including documents the CIA tried to withhold from the 9/11 Commission); an insider's account of how top Iranian leaders negotiated directly with North Korea's "Supreme Leader" to secure nuclear weapons assistance, and so much more. Every allegation is founded in documentation, every revelation is backed by evidence. Countdown To Crisis needs the widest possible readership it can achieve in order to end the political mismanagement that has so characterized the Bush administration's handling (and chronic mishandling) of the Iranian nuclear threat, the Iranian participation in global terrorism, and the brutality of the Iranian mullahs.
Fieseler Storch In Action
Jerry L. Campbell, Don Greer, David Gebhardt
Squadron/Signal Publications
1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010
0897474937 $11.98 1-800-527-7427
Number 198 in the outstanding Squadron/Signal Publications military aircraft series, Fieseler Storch In Action by Jerry L. Campbell showcases the slow-flying Fi 156 Storch which was designed by Gerhard Fieseler and Reinhard Mewes as a short takeoff and landing aircraft and was a very popular such model in the Germany military and governmental airforce during World War II. The Fi 156 Storch got its name from its stalky, long-stroke undercarriage and steel-spring, oil-damping shock absorbers in a reverse pyramid handing from the fuselage. Powered by an eight-cylinder inverted-vee air-cooled Arug As 10C engine providing 240 horsepower at take-off and turning, this fixed wing, fixed landing gear aircraft was versatile and saw a number of them passed along to Germany's Bulgarian, Croatian, Finish, Hungarian, Italian, Rumanian, and Slovakian allies fighting along side German forces on the Eastern Front. It should be noted that there are no reported incidents of the F1 156 Storch flying night harassment missions over the front lines on the Eastern Front. As with all of these Squadron/Signal titles, there is a profusion of historical photographs and line drawings providing the reader with a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of this remarkable aircraft. Also very highly recommended for military buffs and aviation history enthusiasts are two more new releases from Squadron/Signal: F-102 Delta Dart In Action (#1199) and MiG-15 Walk Around (#5540).
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Cassandra's Bookshelf
The Floating Girl
Sujata Massey
Avon Books
Harper Collins Publishers
10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022-5299
ISBN: 0061097357, $6.99 355 pp.
Pictures of what art historians and scholars have called "The Floating World," have changed a lot. Since I'm an art historian, critic and appraiser I like things oriental a lot and I read a lot of books with Asian culture as a central theme. That's why Sujata Massey's mystery The Floating Girl, a Booklist Editor's choice Selection, part of her Rei Shimura series is so entertaining to me. Half American half-Japanese, Rei is one of the most interesting female protagonists around.
Living in Japan and struggling to accept and be accepted in her adopted home, Rei becomes involved in the worlds of Anime (cartoons) and Manga (comic books). For your information, Many adults in Japan are curiously attuned to cuteness or Kawaii. Cuteness is everywhere and Anime and Manga are widely consumed, and in some cases highly regarded as art and literature. This appreciation is thought to have grown out of the Japanese wood block print tradition. This makes sense for anyone who has studied Japanese prints and knows the genre. Manga makes up nearly half of the book sales in Japan, much of it intended for adults.
These Anime and Manga usually feature malevolent gangsters and unusual girls who can be bratty, plucky, resourceful, goofy, vulnerable and brave. Recently the Anime craze has hit the United States through the films of Hayao Miyazaki, an animated film maker whose drawings, characters and storyboards are full of rich, strange characters drawn from Japanese mythology and filled with modern psychological realism. I bring this up because it seems to me that Massey, who lived and worked in Japan, has drawn on her knowledge and experience to create a complex novel full of subplots, and twists and turns as Rei Shimura takes readers on a colorful cultural tour of contemporary Japan and Anime and Manga culture, murder and the darker side of Tokyo.
I cite Miyazaki because the mysterious cartoonist that Rei is trying to find appears to be based on him. For those unfamiliar with Miyazaki's I would recommend his latest feature, Howl's Moving Castle which grossed 14.5 million in its first week at the box office. Massey's hipsters with their indoor pallors and outlandish outfits have an unnerving realism. In many instances they are pathetic.
Rei earns her living as a writer on art and antiques (and she sells them) at the Gaijin Times, a comic-style magazine aimed at Japanese youth culture. She is assigned a piece on the history of comic books to rev up sale of the magazine. During the weekend she tries to do some research and relax at the beach with her boyfriend Takeo. She discovers a Manga that is unusual and striking. It is a underground take off on a popular Manga involving Mars Girl. It involves time travel back to the distrubing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan. Rei soon becomes involved in the dark and weird side of Tokyo and along the way introduces the reader to the subtle culture of Japanese tea houses, cherry blossom festivals and the pornographic underground of Yakuza (gangsters), eerie male dancers, strangely dressed Anime wanna bes.
The action really takes of when one of the creatures Rei visits ends up floating face down in the river. The murder soon takes her deep into the heart of Japan's youth counter culture. She is soon floating through strip clubs, animation shops, and coffeehouses to get the true story and find the creator of the illegal Mars Girl comics.
She encounters Pokemon impersonators and giggly shopaholic school girls in search of the mysterious creator of the exquisite modern comic she wants to write about. She chases him down at a convention and finds that he is a Veronica Lake wanna be with a wave that falls over one eye, and dresses like Michael Jackson. Sujata Massey overlaps the various stories with the agility of one of Picasso's acrobats opening doors and closing exits in a hellish world that is beautifully written about if you don't mind dying. Rei comes very close in her quest to find both the cartoonist and the murderer.
I really enjoyed this book although I found it workman-like in its plotting and the sex scenes sort of proforma and dull but Massey more than makes up for these minor short comings with the richness of her portrayals, the absurdity of contemporary comic book culture, and the conflicts of old and new Japan.
Madeleine Is Sleeping
Sarah Shun- Lien Bynum
Harvast Book-Harcourt, Inc.
15 East 26th St., New York, NY 10010
www.HarcourtBooks.com
ISBN: 0156032279, $13.00
I like magic realism and I read a lot of books that stress creative imagination. "Madeleine" is a strange book to say the least. It is part fairy tale, mostly fantasy and darkly disturbing. It was a "National Book Award" and New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Awards finalist, and it won both the "Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. It is a debut novel by a young writer whose fiction first appeared in a number of well respected journals, i.e. "Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, and The Best American Short Stories." Given all these raves one would have expected a more together book.
The plot involves us in the life and dreams of a girl who has fallen mysteriously into a deep, impenetrable sleep. As she sleeps she dreams and takes us on a journey where she leaves home, joins a gypsy circus and becomes involved in an erotic triangle. The book has its moments of magic - "AND THEN A PLAGUE STRUCK, a drought descended, and Michel found God.
While outside his castle walls the pestilenced raged, Michel was struck by the face of the crucified Lord, preserved in a primitive icon that hung beneath the stairs. His fair face had been obliterated by tears and blood; His perfect body was desiccated and dotted with flies. Wracked by self-reproach, the prince vowed to destroy his own beauty; he surrendered himself and his lands to the monastery at Rievaulx, where he spent the rest of his days inflicting torture upon himself. And this is only page 9.
Bynum's prose reminds me of Janet Winterson, Joyce Carol Oates and assorted other writers who rely on magic realism to carry their plots--sometimes it works and often it does not. In this case while "curiosity prevails," for the author of this novel it doesn't always for the reader and often the "curtain" is not lifted and one gets bored with all the techniques hip-hopping around. The novel's black humor is often funny but many times absurd and the girl, the photographer, and the flatulent man do not really engage our sympathies. But Bynum makes her point when she concludes, "What terrible things we do, in our efforts to be admired."(251)
This is a fantastically baroque novel full of twists and turns. I like its daring and complexity and the fact that Bynum is not afraid of using lush, poetic imagery full of sensuous language. I think it is a novel that promises much but fails to deliver in the end. Still it's worth reading for the sheer beauty of the language if not the plotting.
Cassandra Langer
Reviewer
Christina's Bookshelf
Advertising Without An Agency Made Easy (Entrepreneur Made Easy Series)
Kathy J. Kobliski
Entrepreneur Press
2445 McCabe Way, Suite 400, Irvine, CA. 92614
www.entrepreneurpress.com 1-800-864-6864
ISBN: 1932531289, $19.95 216 pages
Have a business? Not sure if you can afford to advertise? Do you need to? This book shows you why you can't afford not to, and then walks you through easy steps. The author, Kobliski, shows you so plainly how to advertise that you suddenly feel in control again.
Kobliski wrote this book hoping to take some of the mystery out of the advertising process; to arm readers with material to remove the guesswork and frustration.
Content Chapter Headings:
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Define Your Business
Develop Your Brand
Public Relations
Maintain Your Customer Base
Define Your Market
Media Sales Reps
Interns
Co-op Advertising
Political Advertising
Radio
Radio Production
Television
Television Production
Whatcha Gonna Say? Radio and Television
Print
Direct Mail
The Internet
Outdoor Advertising
Transit Advertising
Be Your Own Agency and Keep 15 Percent
Tracking
Glossary
Worksheets
Index
Excerpts from the book:
From Chapter 15 - 'Print'
"Use the KISS Theory - Keep It Simple Stupid! Keep your main message simple and understandable. Then, use it over and over, in print as well as all of your other media ads."
From Chapter 17 - 'The Internet'
"Once you get people coming to your site, how do you find out who they are? How do you get to them? That's one of the biggest frustrations of the Internet."
"Nearly 80 percent of potential purchasers of goods and service believe that going to a company's web site is an important part of the decision-making process."
'Advertising Without An Agency Made Easy' provides:
Inside information and examples from advertising experts
Practical advice on branding media buying, copywriting and more
Strategies to save time and money
Worksheets to identify media outlets, track results and analyze your ad plan
If you're a small business, or one that just needs to save money, this is definitely a book to get your hands on. Kobliski teaches why advertising is extremely important to your business and then proceeds to show you how to do it yourself without hiring an expensive agency. She shares tips, tricks, secrets, and helpful worksheets. You'll go away thinking, "I can do this," and "Why didn't I think of that? It's so simple."
I found myself taking notes for my own little business endeavors. How could I help it? Kobliski's ideas are practical and methodical. The stepson what to do and how, along with the book's lay-out, makes this an "easy-to-learn" experience. Recommended. Contains everything you need to know about advertising successfully without breaking the bank.
Herb and Herbal Products Business Your Guide to Success (a 'StartUp,' 'Start Your Own' Guide)
Rob and Terry Adams
Entrepreneur Press
2445 McCabe Way, Suite 400, Irvine, CA. 92614
www.entrepreneurpress.com 1-800-864-6864
ISBN: 193215602X, $14.95 193 pages
Love herbs and want to be your own boss? Many people days are getting into herbs, vitamins, and back to nature. Problem is, not everyone has the time or inclination to grow herbs, or to create their own herbal products. If you are interested, though, this is the book to get. It will help guide your way. It's friendly, easy-to-use, and organized is such a way that is perfect. Rob and Terry worked hard to help readers decide if an herb business is right for them, to get reader's farm and/or business up and running, and to make it a success.
The Book's Chapters:
1. The Dirt on Herb Farming: What's It All About? (topics include 12 headings in all)
2. The Historical Herb: Getting to the Root of the Matter (topics include 19 headings in all)
3. H
