Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
Ahmed Rashid
Penguin Group (USA)
9780670019700 $27.95 544 pp.
A. H. Amin
Reviewer
Ahmed Rashid acquired fame and became darling of the west when his book on Taliban was published in 2000 or so. Descent into Chaos is another bestseller as far as publishing statistics is concerned. It is a tragedy that the West, guardian of the present worlds intellectual property projects what suits its political and social interests and stifles what it finds "politically unacceptable". Seen in this background what Ahmed Rashid writes is acceptable to the west. Possibly because what he says fits hand in glove with western perceptions about how to shape the future.
As normal the book has some factual errors. Some insignificant some not so insignificant and some which not have escaped the sagacity of a known Afghanistan hand like Ahmed Rashid.
The Ghilzai revolt started not in 1701 as stated on page 7 but in 1709. The Durranis did not move the capital to Kabul in 1772 as stated on page 7 but in 1774 if we agree with Sayed Qasem Reshtia a great Afghan historian or 1775 if we believe Louis Dupree who is concerned the most reliable western historian. On page 8 Ahmed Rashid states that the British tried to conquer Afghanistan three times. This is not correct. It happened twice if we include the English East India Company and once if we include the Second Afghan War of 1878-80. In the Third Afghan War it were the Afghans who tried to attack India and miserably failed and the British launched some very local offensive actions at Spin Boldak and Khyber Agency to push back the Afghans. On page 9 Rashid promotes Major General Naseerullah Babar to lieutenant general rank. On page 11 he states that for first time in 300 years the Afghan capital Kabul fell in non Pashtun hands once Ahmad Shah Masud captured it. This is quite incorrect. The first time Afghanistan's capital fell in Non Pashtun hands was once the Persian Qazalbash Nadir Shah captured Kandahar the then capital of Ghiljai Pashtuns on 24 March 1738 some 224 years before 1992 and Kabul on 29 June 1738 again some 223 years and some 10 months before April 1992. In any case we must remember that Kabul was a Hindu province for a long time in twelfth century and a Mughal Indian province for some 200 plus years long before 1992. On page 17 Rashid states that the Pakistani FC managed Pakistani artillery and communications. This is factually incorrect. The FC hardly has any artillery and the Afghans did not require any training in communications. In any case the Afghans had a much larger number of ex Afghan Army gunners with Mujahideen quite capable of handling all types of artillery guns of Soviet vintage available in Afghanistan. Rashid seems to be very friendly with US officials who throughout his narrative keep on telling him so many things, like on page 18 US officials tell him that Al Qaeda was responsible for USS Cole. On page 34 Rashid states that "the British conquest of Northwest India was aimed solely at providing security from marauding Afghan Baloch and Pashtun tribes". This assertion is factually incorrect. The British company English East India Company's conquest of North West India comprising modern Pakistan was done in response to invasion of Sikhs of British territory in 1845. At that time the Sikhs were controlling all major Pashtun cities like Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, D. I Khan etc so the question of the Pashtun, Afghan or Baloch simply does not arise. Musharraf was not commissioned in the field artillery as stated on page 45 but in the "Self Propelled Artillery". On page 45 Rashid states that in 1971 Musharraf commanded an SSG Commando unit which went behind the enemy lines. In 2002 I interviewed Musharrafs Commanding Officer in 1971 Brigadier Iqbal Nazir Warraich who confirmed that Musharraf was a sub unit commander under him and Musharraf's sub unit was not used behind enemy lines. On page 52 Rashid states that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was the ISI's investigative arm. This is also factually incorrect. The NAB was an independent public body which was not independent and not connected to ISI in any organizational sense. On page 73 Rashid calls Burhanuddin Rabbani a Panjsheri Tajik which is not correct. Rabbani was from Badakhshan province. On page 79 Rashid states that the ISI chief (Mahmood) was forced to resign. This is incorrect. Mahmood was simply removed and never resigned and to date draws his pension from the army to which an officer who resigns his commission is not entitled. On page 186 Rashid reduces the distance from Kabul to Kandahar to 190 miles which is not correct. On page 193 Rashid states that the Mazar Kabul line was financed by World Bank. This is not correct since this electric transmission line was a gift of Government of India to Afghanistan. Karachi port had not serviced transit trade for Afghanistan since 1950s as stated on page 192 but for a long time before that dating back to the Kalhora, Talpur and British times. There was a famous incident of a ship carrying armaments for Afghanistan by the British so that King Amanullah was militarily weakened against Afghan rebels in late 20s. On page 259 Rashid states that the ISI was meeting Taliban leaders in Command and Staff College Quetta. This is quite funny and ridiculous. Why should the ISI meet insurgents in an academic institution with which it has no connection rather than in a safe house. Probably Rashid was trying to be humorous. On page 261 Rashid indicates that Afghan ministers gave up their foreign passports. My inquiries while permanently based in Kabul from June 2004 till to date indicate that this assertion is not correct. On page 274 Rashid places the Mahsud tribe in North Waziristan whereas Mahsud's main area is South Waziristan Agency. On page 275 Rashid states that a murdered man's body was found in military handcuffs. This is a unique discovery . My inquiries reveal that there is no such object as military handcuffs. The military buys handcuffs from the open market. On page 331 Rashid states that the Afghan Tajikistan border is 750 miles whereas my inquiries reveal that it may be about a 100 mile less.
Factual errors done with we move on to the more serious assertions of Rashid. On page 4 Rashid dismisses Mullah Omar as a itinerant preacher who could not claim the pedigree of Karzais. On page 13 Rashid again ridicules Mullah Omar for being born without social status or pedigree. I find this distinctly snobbish coming from the pen of a leftist Ahmed Rashid. Probably in his old age he has become class conscious. On page 6 Rashid states that easy to pass through the country has been impossible to conquer. Now this is a relative statement. For more than 200 years most parts of Afghanistan were provinces of Mughal and Saffavid Empires. The Mughals actually had a Hindu Rajput Governor in Kabul.
On page 19 Rashid passes sweeping judgment on Talibans when he says that Osama Bin Laden had a clear strategy in mind to isolate them from the world. A more balanced and scholarly approach may have been used. Rashid cites no supporting sources.
Some of Rashid's conclusions about Pakistan are quite accurate. Like Pakistan as a state being grappled with an acute sense of insecurity. The army's monopolization of power in Pakistan in the name of national security. His analysis of the Pakistani military mindset is penetrating and brilliant. His exposure of of the military links of the likes of Maliha Lodhi and Shaukat Aziz is again a breath of fresh air. Rashid's revelations about the Pakistani intelligence agency ISIs negative role in Pakistani politics is bold and accurate to the dot. One may not agree with how the USA downsized the Afghan intelligence. My inquiries reveal that some of the most brilliant officers of the indomitable Khad were removed just because the American advisors wanted to severely reduce Russian influence. Rashid's analysis of US firm Louis Burger is incomplete and not wholly correct. Louis Burgers failures in delay in building of schools was because of unprofessional sub contracting procedures and because of the fallacious policy of hiring only Afghan NGOs to do the job instead of commercial firms. Most of these NGOs were owned by political appointees and haphazardly formed to siphon the fruits of US aid. I saw the whole process myself as the Vice President of an Afghan NGO which was building schools and clinics for Louis Burger in 2004 and 2005 in Helmand, Ghazni and Kunduz. Rashid does not have his facts correct when he states that Louis Burger had just 9 schools and 2 clinics ready in end of 2005. The number was much larger than this. Even in this case some Afghan NGOs like CDU did extremely well.
Rashid's conclusion that the ISI was no longer in control of the monster of extremism that it created are valid but incomplete. What about the CIA and the Saudi intelligence the real fathers of extremism?
On page 223 Rashid states that Pakistani artillery gave covering fire to Taliban militants infiltrating Afghanistan. This is an illogical and implausible assertion. The Talibans do not need covering fire because a very large part of Afghanistan Pakistan border is unmanned. The most important stretch in Helmand and Nimroz has hardly any Afghan NATO or US presence at all.
Rashid is harsh on the Americans, the Pakistanis as well as the Afghans. However he presents no tangible recommendations to remedy the situation.
His analysis ignores some important ground realities. First that the USA came to Afghanistan to achieve certain strategic objectives. Its aim was not altruistic or missionary. Thus the low per capita aid figure to USA. The US objective at least till 2008 has been to maintain control of about 15 plus military/air bases . The US troop strength is far below the minimum necessary to even ensure security in Afghanistan.
The control of Afghanistan still lies with the pre 1992 bureaucracy trained by the Soviets. This includes the army, the civil services, the police which was a real bastion of the leftists and above all the foreign ministry and the intelligence . All despite various reductions and purges by the USA and NATO. The Northern Alliance cadres on whom the USA tried to rely did not have enough trained and educated recruits. Thus the important division in all Afghan Government in between the Maslakis ( professionals) and the Wasta dars (those who came without sufficient qualifications).
Rashid also ignores the fact that Pakistan's Islamic extremism is not the result of a sudden flight but a logical result of misuse of religion by all major Muslim leaders since 1858.
Rashid's subject matter is vast and the complexities with which he is trying to deal are vast in magnitude and their dimensions. Rashid's analysis is subtle and thought provoking but marred by his extreme bias against the Taliban. This leads him repeatedly to make pre conceived statements and sweeping judgements.
Nevertheless Rashid's analysis is thought provoking and can be immensely instrumental as a catalyst in inspiring more research on the subject. My fear is that Rashid's present work is more a commercial venture with one eye on audience in the west. This is not the idealistic Rashid reporting from Kabul for the Far Eastern Economic Review. But as they say "things do not change, we change".
One may not agree with Rashid's assertion about Central Asia being the new bastion of Al Qaeda. With Russia fast moving in and re-asserting it may be more difficult for the Al Qaeda to gain ascendancy in Central Asia. The provisional centre of gravity of the Al Qaeda lies in non state actors in Pakistan and the Arabian Gulf. It is going to be a long bloody war for the USA to alter this particular strategic situation.
Hunted Mate
Kari Thomas
Black Lyon Publishing
P.O. Box 567, Baker City, OR 97814
9781934912034 $6.00 www.authorkari.com
Amy J. Ramsey
Reviewer
An ancient prophecy was foretold by the Shifter Goddess Azina centuries ago and bestowed upon all of the shifter species. It contains vital information about future events of an impending war between Shifters and Humans. No one had insight on when the prediction would be fulfilled, except that it would take place some time in the 21st century. The prophecy predicted that Goddess Azina will claim a chosen one as her direct descendant, a female born bearing the mark of the Shifter Goddess. The chosen one will be raised and trained in the ways of the Goddess. When the time comes, the reigning Wolf Prince will claim the chosen one as his mate. After the union between them is consummated, then the powers that the chosen one inherits from the Goddess will also become his. Together they will possess absolute power to reign over the entire world of wolf clans and combine forces with the other shifter species.
The cat and wolf shifters are natural adversaries and for now, both shifter clans abide by a truce that will, sooner or later, end in war once the truce is retracted. Logan, Prince of the cat shifter clan, is a morally honest man who is best known for his brutal and unmerciful reputation. He's been summoned by Damian, Prince of the wolf shifter clan, to repay a life-debt. During the meeting, Damian informs Logan that the prophecy has finally come to pass. Damian is the chosen wolf Prince and as collection for the debt, Logan's job is to fetch the chosen one and bring her back to him. Her name is Tara Stuart, Logan is to guard her with his life and make sure no harm comes to her, since she is merely human; others are willing to kill Tara in order to claim the power for their own greed.
Tara knows her destiny; it was planned by the Goddess before she was born. Her parents have strictly prepared her for this event since birth, but her true desire is to lead a normal life and to marry a human man, that's the reason for her ongoing rebellious behavior. Along with her exquisite features, Tara exhibits a kindhearted, compassionate and selfless manner. Unfortunately, the results of her rebellious acts have cost her everything; her family, her destiny and her faith. Unable to deal with her situation, Tara leaves home with few belongings and her rescued cat (which she almost ran over) to seek a new life elsewhere.
Unbeknownst to Tara, Logan is watching her every move. Neither of them knows that their fates would be forever changed, the moment he revealed his identity to her. Logan is caught in the midst of completing his obligation to Damian and his increasing passion for Tara. Will Logan be able to claim the one he loves or will he transport her into the arms of a stranger just to fulfill a prophecy? Will Tara be able to come to terms with marring a strange half man, half beast or will another wolf shifter attain her powers…..only the Goddess will know what their fates will be.
Hunted Mate is an immensely enjoyable read. Kari Thomas adds a fresh new twist to the realm of the shifter world. As a reader, I look forward to other tales involving Logan and Tara's experiences. I recommend this e-book to anyone interested in the paranormal romance, shifters, fantasy and supernatural genres.
Kari Thomas was born and raised in FL, but now living in AZ. She was blessed with an over-active imagination and was destined to be a writer. Her first published story was serialized in the N. FT. Myers, FL Newspaper for seven weeks. Temptation Unleashed was first released in 2006. Hunted Mate was re-released June 2008. Upcoming books are "Seducing the Hero", "Her Heart, His Soul", and "Prey for the Wolf". For more information regarding Author Kari Thomas, visit her website at www.authorkari.com.
St. Boniface and Its Jews
Ladislas and Nathalie Gara
Dr. Jacques Grunblatt and Hilda R. Grunblatt, translators
Melrose Press Limited
St. Thomas Place, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4GG, UK
1905226578 16.99 British pounds, www.melrosebooks.com
Beth Brody
Reviewer
St. Boniface and Its Jews, a French historical novel written by Ladislas and Natalie Gara, is now available in an English translation through Melrose Books (www.Melrosebooks.com). The book was translated by my great-uncle, the late Dr. Jacques Grunblatt, M.D., and his wife, Hilda, of New York state. The novel was successful when it was first published in 1947, most likely for its colorful characters and intriguing WWII story. Until now, it has been mostly unknown to English readers. This new edition includes an introduction by Dr. Martin Wasserstein, PhD., an American professor of psychology and anthropology, and a glossary on French names by the translators.
The novel is set in Vichy France in 1942, during German Occupation and the peak of Nazi expansion in Europe. The Garas, a Jewish couple, moved from Paris to Vichy France at that time. Their lifelike characters exhibit courage and resourcefulness in an effort to survive. It was several years before the Allied forces--the U.S., France, Russia, and Great Britain with Australia and New Zealand --won the war. The historical forces which shaped that time are beyond the scope of a book review. To focus, I will touch on characters, plot, and aspects of translation. I hope my description piques the interest of other readers.
There are many characters in St. Boniface and Its Jews: townspeople, farmers, French government officials, clergymen, schoolteachers, children, and a pet dog, Lion. The officials enforce the standards of the Supply Agency which rations the area's agricultural products. The farmers barter and try to organize for less rationing and taxes. The German army looms on the horizon, ready to put down any rebellion. Abuzz with any news, the characters meet at the schools, parishes, and shops of their little town. Within this milieu, lives the central character, Mrs. Hermelin, who owns a boarding house. Through her, we meet neighbors, travelers, and refugee Jews.
Other memorable characters include "the Hindu Mummy," a thin film actress with a fancy turban, a classical musician, and a Russian officer's wife. Some portraits are poignant--a young woman leaves an abusive husband for a lover who is already married. A spinster, teaching in a parochial school, loses her faith in life and commits suicide. Several characters personify both irony and humor. Longeaud, the schoolteacher and the mayor's secretary, lectures on the dangers of alcoholism, yet he runs for cover with a contraband flask. Tibor Veres, the journalist, weathers a series of disasters in his cottage. He endures smoke, rats, an exploding lamp, and a neighbor's scolding whenever he ties to get water. Through it all, he maintains an almost ridiculous optimism. When he learns how to light a furnace, he exclaims,"they're amazing these country folk...absolutely amazing!" [p. 68]
The plot in St. Boniface and Its Jews has a mosaic pattern. Each numbered vignette within the chapters contributes to the story as a whole. There is a repeating theme: scenes at Mrs. Hermelin's boarding house. Scenes take place in various rooms, out of linear sequence. To puzzle us, characters from one scene show up in another. We pay attention, unsure which details may be relevant. Without revealing the end of the story (ominous and frightening), eventually the puzzle pieces fit together. Though the mosaic structure is modern, we have seen it in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. There, separate tales, like tiles, cluster around a common theme, or destination. As the French say: Plus ca change; plus c'est la meme chose. The more things change; the more things stay the same.
My knowledge of French is limited, so I cannot comment on the translation per se. As an English reader, I appreciate the ways in which types of language and diction identify the characters. We hear the bureaucrat's "Synthetic Voice," [as in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"], the refugee's Yiddish, and the farmer's dialect. Public discourse differs from private conversation. An official letter granting a travel visa (alas too late) conveys the stuffy tone of regulations. The dialogue between friends at a cafe by the sea flows briskly. The interior monologue as a woman reminisces to piano music fits the drawing room scene.
The Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, showed how our understanding of a word is related to its context. The authors of St. Boniface and Its Jews contrast urban and rural contexts in a chapter titled, "Bernard Bloch learns the two meanings of 'binette'." Apparently, the word 'binette" can mean "face" or "hoe." This compression ( 2-4-1) could be useful to the refugees in St. Boniface. Like Paul Revere's warning "one if by land, two if by sea," the refugees' signals alert each other to their surroundings. Communication could be clear and compact, or opaque and roundabout depending on the political risk. Local expressions and double entendres are described in the translators' footnotes. There, too, we find historical references to Girondists, Jacquerie, etcetera.
Anyone interested in French literature, European history, and Jewish studies will gain fresh insights through reading St. Boniface and Its Jews. The authors' first-hand experience of the German Occupation during WWII brings authenticity to this work of fiction. The translators' travels in France inform the naturalistic dialogue. French provincial landscape and culture comes alive in these pages. The charming characters of St. Boniface illumine a dark period of human history.
The Nazi "Final Solution" nearly destroyed European Jewry, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped people, and any artists and writers who opposed it. Yet, there was resistance in many countries which gradually, through the generations, comes to light. The French Resistance of everyday people--villagers and farmers--helped stop the Axis armies in WWII. St. Boniface and Its Jews expands our view of this harrowing time. I believe the novel would make an excellent film in the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice, and Life Is Beautiful. I recommend it highly.
All the Stillness of the Wind
Donald James Parker
Sword of the Spirit Publishing
9781234567897 $12.95
Cheryl Ellis, Reviewer
www.allbookreviews.com
Whether seeking personal peace, finding the path to redemption or satisfying a need for knowledge; your journey could begin by reading this book!
A 'parable' is an avenue used to get a point across, by telling a fictional story, allowing the listener to make their own conclusions. It usually pertains to a moral or spiritual idea. Jesus was famous for his use of parables, and I believe that this fictional story would best be described as a modern day parable.
Jeremy is dating Maria and coincidentally, his father, Paul is dating Maria's mother, Lisa. The women are devote Christians, who know their futures lie with men of similar beliefs. Jeremy has already studied the theory of evolution and concluded that there must have been a creator. The men set out to research religion and it's many viewpoints, with special focus on Christianity, the arguments for and against. They share their newfound knowledge and acceptance with the
women, as their beliefs are discussed or debated.
The comfort level and bantering conversations between the four characters made me laugh, as I learned right along with them. Throughout their search, they 'weed through', accept or reject different viewpoints on what man must do, to inherit eternal life. Along the way, they discover there are numerous ways to reconnect with God and inner peace, by way of music, prayer and more.
The couples celebrate their first Christmas together, the happy memory quickly shattered by a horrific accident, which would shake even the strongest of believers' faith. It is then that we learn about grace, "the ability to forgive people for messing up" and about the five steps of grieving. This is one of the many times that Satan feeds our anger and, only once he has been renounced, is the burden lifted. Love and faith are a true believers path to a good life, and the key to the much believed in, Heaven.
The author, Donald James Parker, has told a brilliant version of a parable, and shown us a way to begin the search for truth. It is easy to read and identify with, not heavy on scriptures. He provides a few web sites as well as scriptures for future research.
Donald James Parker, graduated for Dakota State University with a degree in secondary education, then went on to study computer programming. After 25 years of IT work, his passion for writing took over, the outcome to our benefit, is a book series involving two generations of the Masterson family. One never knows what the future holds, but I am sure more books are to follow. He is currently working on other books "engaging the cultural climate of the 21st century."
To review this book was incredible timing. Either divine intervention or just plain coincidence, as it came to me in a time of many questions. It has had a positive influence on my life, by encouraging me to reconnect with my roots and beliefs, on my own search for peace.
I highly recommend reading this book
Gaming for Love
Nancy Weaver
Time and Chance Publishing
149 Freedom Avenue, Staten Island, NY 12816
9780974827421 $15.95 298 pages
Christina Francine Whitcher, Reviewer
http://www.CFrancine.bizland.com
Tessa liked being married, but fate made her a widow. Now, she found herself searching for another special man. The men she'd dated however left her wondering if there were any good men left. Sierra, Tessa's good friend, suggested she close the vagina bar until the right man proved himself. At this point, Tessa wonders if there is a right one. Then, Sterling Cole happens along leaving Tessa struggling with her own rule.
Gaming for Love is straight forward about what goes through today's men and women's minds. The book doesn't leave real thoughts or actions out. For those who want a modern love story about a modern woman in a modern world. Candid.
Endings
Barbara Bergin
Sunstone Press
Box 2321, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2321
9780865345195 $28.95 (800) 243-5644
Connie Gotsch
Review
"Endings" by Barbara Bergin, published by Sunstone Press appears to chronicle the responses people make to life altering situations somewhat beyond their control, but to which they have also somewhat contributed. Then again, maybe the story deals with the fabrications people spin to rationalize the life choices they make.
Stunned by the loss of her husband and two children in a freak automobile accident, Dr. Leslie Cohen has sold her medical practice, abandoned friends, hit the road as a locum tenens orthopedic physician, and stopped forming long term relationships.
Through a series of flashbacks triggered by events, characters and plot points, the reader learns, or seems to learn, why love terrifies Leslie. She was tailgating her husband, Chris, as they headed for a family holiday. The driver ahead of him slammed on his brakes, Chris hit his, and Leslie plowed into him, killing him and her children. Guilt and consumes her, especially since she had Chris had hit a difficult point in their marriage.
Many books on the theme of carelessness at the worst moment resulting in painful loss, would lead Leslie into a nice, comfy small town, where friendly people would wrap her in warmth. Next Leslie would go through personal growth and transformation. She would find herself in the company of a handsome man with whom she shares much, but would fight her growing love for him. His patience would win her over. She would work through her grief, forgive herself for her part in the accident, marry the hero, and go into practice with the doctor whom she has come to relieve as a locum tenens.
"Endings" sets up that possibility. Leslie heads to Abilene, Texas, to substitute for Doc Hal Hawley who is preparing to have serious cancer surgery. Then almost to town, she slides into a fishtailing horse trailer driven by Reagan, the man who ends up her love interest. That could set "Endings" on the predictable course, love marriage, more children, happily ever after. But using this twist and many others, Barbara Bergin slowly turns the story's plot to a very different kind of growth and closure for Leslie.
So cleverly does the author disguise this arc in the predictable moonlit nights and kind souls one would expect to try to help Leslie, that the tale ends with a surprise that leaves the reader shaken and wondering just what Leslie's part in her own tragedy was, or just what happened on the road that day tailgating Chris, and what transpired afterward, considering the state of their marriage.
Barbara Bergin supplements her clever plot line with elegant character development and description of locale. An orthopedic surgeon herself and a horse woman, she takes the reader both into the operating room and the rodeo area with equal vividness. Her medical descriptions never turn gory. Her description of love has just the right amount of steam.
"Endings" is not a book that will give the satisfaction of a happy conclusion, but it will leave the reader considering just genuine people really are, and what they might or might not control in their lives.
Change We Can Believe In
Forward by Barack Obama
Three Rivers Press
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House)
1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
9780307460455 $13.95
Don Q. Lamb
Reviewer
Who Obama Is and What He Stands For
Anyone wanting to know more about who Obama is and what he stands for should read this book. The first two-thirds provides a clear and comprehensive statement of what Obama would do as president to get the country back on track. Described are the concrete, specific actions he would take to create new jobs, achieve energy independence, provide universal health care, and make college education affordable to all. The last third consists of seven of the best speeches he has given during this presidential campaign. They remind us of his ability to inspire. From the Iowa Caucus Night speech: "Thank you, Iowa. You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided; too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night -- at this defining moment in history -- you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do...you came together as Democrats, Republicans, and independents to stand up and say that we are one nation; we are one people; and our time for change has come."
Change We Can Believe In was put together by Obama for America. Net proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to charity.
The Quest for Historical Israel: Debating Archeology and the History of Early Israel
Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar
Brian B. Schmidt, editor
The Society of Biblical Literature
Atlanta, GA
9781589832770 $24.95
Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
Reviewer
Suppose knowledgeable archeologists were brought together to settle once and for all the question of the veracity of the history presented in the Bible. We might expect some to argue for higher-biblical criticism; the idea proposed by Julius Wellhausen in the latter third of the nineteenth century that the Bible had multiple authors and editors, who weaved the Bible together for their needed political ends. Others might argue that archeology supports varying degrees of the biblical text; making it a reliable historical source. A third group, the Minimalists, might well declare that the Bible completely lacks an historical basis.
In The Quest for the Historical Israel, renowned archeologists Israel Finkelstein, Professor of Archeology at Tel Aviv University and co-director of the Megiddo excavations and Amihai Mazar, Professor of Archeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who excavated in Tel Batash and the Bet She'an Valley, debate how and where archeology supports or contradicts the history presented in portions of the Old Testament. Brian B. Schmidt, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Asian Cultures at the University of Michigan, as the book's editor, offers summaries of the points made by each of the archeologists as they interpret the archeological record. However, there are no once-and-for-all conclusions.
Finkelstein and Mazar face off in six debates spanning the time from Israel's earliest history, the patriarchs; through the conquest of Canaan, and the divided monarchy after the rule of King Solomon (Did he really live?). Unfortunately, both Finkelstein and Mazar are close to the center of the archeological spectrum and so their interpretations are similar and the debate lacks the spirit we might expect from at least one author having an extremist position.
The first debate puts a spotlight on the accuracy of the Old Testament; per se. Finkelstein takes the position that the Iron Age history described in the Bible, which covers the period from Joshua through II Kings, is generally factual. Mazar believes that the Bible contains much literary creativity and often reflects the ideology of the writers. Yet, he is willing to concede that there are many blocks of text that are historically accurate and might even preserve pre-Israelite material. He is also of the opinion that archeology confirms some of the history portrayed in books from Judges through II Kings.
Another debate covers the authenticity of the existence of the Jewish patriarchs, who by tradition lived from about the seventeenth to fifteenth centuries B.C.E. Finkelstein says that these stories could not have been written by someone with knowledge of this time frame because camels were domesticated and used as beasts of burden well after the life time of the patriarchs. The same is true of the City of Gerar (mentioned eight times in the Book of Genesis), established by the Philistines about 1200 B.C.E., or nearly half a millennium after the patriarchs lived. In fact, Finkelstein asserts that much of the descriptions about people and politics during the life of the patriarchs reflect a much later time period, possibly the eighth or seventh centuries B.C.E., than portrayed in the Bible. Masar acknowledges that the Old Testament was passed down orally and therefore one is bound to find missing, lost, distorted and changed stories. Therefore, it is quite likely that writers wove together early history with their present-day politics and geography. In short, both accede that the likelihood that the patriarchs lived the lives described in the Bible is remote.
Both Finkelstein and Mazar fall somewhere between accepting the existence of Kings David and Solomon and rejecting them outright. Finkelstein discards the idea of a tenth century B.C.E. united monarchy, but is willing to accept the possibility of a unified monarchy a century later in Samaria, ruled by Omri and his descendents. Yet, the Omride Kingdom was not a grand territory, but rather a marginal chiefdom. For him, the books of Samuel and Kings cannot be regarded as straightforward history. Mazar recognizes the historicity of a united monarchy. One prominent reason is the discovery of a tenth century B.C.E. Campaign List of Sheshonq I of Egypt, which names many cities he conquered in Judea's hill country. From this, Mazar concludes that Egypt invaded Judea because of the existence of some political entity requiring Egyptian intervention. That political power was Solomon's Kingdom.
Finkelstein ends his debate with the idea that biblical history and archeology are two very different disciplines because the Bible is not history in the modern sense of the word, but rather a fascinating tale of the relationship between a people and their God. Archeology, which ostensibly offers an objective look into the past, is itself not free from biased interpretations and modern trends. In addition, archeology might provide general knowledge, but it lacks the ability to answer many essential questions about the past. For Finkelstein, the truth about Israel's past, if finding the truth is at all possible, can only come about by using a variety of sources, such as, archeological finds, the Bible, and Near Eastern records, in combination with each other. Mazar concludes by noting that it makes no difference if this or that biblical persona ever lived or not because the importance lies not in the life, but in the spirit and values portrayed in that life. "What matters is what these stories symbolize; their heritage persists even if they were not actual historical realities."
The publisher of The Quest for the Historical Israel, The Society of Biblical Literature, makes publications available for scholars in the fields associated with critical investigation of biblical literature. As such, neither the authors nor editor take the time to define important terms used throughout the book, such as Iron Age II, Levant, Cisjordan, and so forth. This is a minor distraction. To their credit, however, the authors do provide a map of Iron Age sites; offer a thorough index, as well as an index of biblical passages and an extensive list of publications for further reading. The Quest for the Historical Israel contains noteworthy debates that shed light on many portions of the Bible with Israel's heretofore discovered archeological record as construed by two renowned scholars in the field. The Quest for the Historical Israel is a worth-while read for all who are interested in biblical archeology.
The BFG
Roald Dahl
Puffin UK
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
014034019X, $4.99, 208 pages, reprint edition
Galen Trine-McMahan
Reviewer
Sophie is living the dreary life of an orphan when one night she awakes to see a giant in the streets of London. Upon hearing her with his giant ears, he kidnaps her and takes her back to his cave in giant country. The giant introduces himself as the BFG (big friendly giant), a vegetarian runt among giants who spends his time collecting and distributing sweet dreams to children in the night. Because Sophie witnessed the giants, the BFG says she must stay. Sneaking away is out of the question, because the other nine giants that roam outside the cave are ill tempered human eaters, twice the size of the BFG. As time passes and Sophie bonds with the BFG, she hatches a plan to get rid of the nasty giants (BFG excluded) once and for all. Sophie and the BFG cook up a special prophetic nightmare for the queen of England, explaining the giant situation, and sneak into her palace. Upon waking from her dream, the queen sees Sophie and realizes her dream must have been more than just a dream. She agrees to meet the BFG, and with the aid of the air force the queen helps them capture the carnivorous giants and drop them into a large pit where they spend their remaining days eating disgusting vegetables. The BFG becomes a writer (under the alias of Roald Dahl), and Sophie moves into the cottage next door.
It was strange to reread one of my favorite childhood novels later in my life. While the writing seems simplistic, Dahl no doubt has the ability to captivate children with his imagination. The BFG's language is at times as questionable as Dr. Seuss', but seems a sure way to catch and keep the attention of the young reader. With humor ranging from sophisticated fart jokes (whiz poppers) to grammatical puns (Greeks from Greece is all tasting greasy), your children will surely be reading something with the humor and plot of their age. Young Sophie's courage and intelligence allow her to work with others to triumph over the savagely evil. If able to loosen up to the flowing imagination of Dahl, you might just enjoy reading this book as much as your children will hearing it.
Looking for the Big Rock Candy Mountain: A Review of Riding Toward Everywhere
William T. Vollmann
Ecco
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
9780061256752 $26.95
Jessica Erica Hahn
Reviewer
I imagine William T. Vollmann has big, swingin’ cajones. This writer, this guy who openly admits to smoking crack, salivating over prostitutes, and elbowing through war zones, now makes no pretense of his joy when French kissing a woman with a shopping cart by the side of the railyard. Then he up and hops a freight train with his pudgy buddy, Steve, who’s antisocial towards other train yard transients, but a true, sincere comrade. Vollmann doesn’t meet wild hoboes, get roughed up by skull-knocking cops, or come close to the Big Rock Candy Mountain (that paradise with whisky streams and cigarette trees). What Vollman does in his newest publication, Riding Toward Everywhere (New York: Ecco, January 2008), is open his convoluted mind by taking us on a quest to nowhere, essentially, and then show us his crusty heart by sharing thoughts on a bit of everywhere. At first sniff, it may seem a book about riding freight trains reeks of testosterone, but Vollmann shows us a lot of heart.
Vollmann’s inner workings are not for the faint at heart. “There is a saying among some bloggers: I think I just vomited a little in my mouth. That’s how I felt,” writes a blogger for Oregonlive.com after reading Riding Toward Everywhere. However, lovers and haters can agree on the fact that William T. Vollmann is a prolific, recognized writer. Whether it was nature or nurture that led him to the pen, he’s got a touch of the godly gift in writing. He’s penned seven novels, three collections of short stories, an epic discourse - seven volumes of over 3,000 pages - about violence (Rising Up and Rising Down), a study of global poverty (Poor People), and a series of stories about Nazis and Soviets (Europe Central). The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, and Spin all have pieces he’s written. Folks at the National Book Foundation, the PEN Center USA, the Whiting Foundation, and The Spectator (who run the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize) have bequeathed both blessings and literary awards to Vollmann.
After the accolade came Riding Toward Everywhere, a reflection on America and life while hopping freight trains. Reviewers had a heyday. Vollmann’s writing, like licorice, had a flavor you either liked or disliked. Compared to the books before, this one “…certainly falls short of Vollmann’s best” (Steve Weinberg of The Seattle Times). Wesley Yang of The New York Sun compares this book to the others as “a minnow swimming alongside…[the] whales.” Riding Toward Everywhere is, arguably, a very good read. Dig a little deep, and the captivating aspects of this book include Vollmann’s angry polemic about the American government, his honesty about not being a hobo, his archetypal quest to find a paradise, and ultimately, his naked exposure of psyche. But the first thing we notice about this book is its gripping hook, the freight train setting.
Road stories are in our cultural blood, from the time we’re kids chanting, I think I can! I think I can! in cahoots with The Little Engine, to when we’re in our twenties and orgasm over Kerouac’s On the Road, to when were able to recall Paul Theroux’s first book about a great train ride. We enjoy an armchair adventure with a book in the lap; even better when the tale is about a train and a questing spirit. Traveling the American heartland can’t help but subconsciously remind us of forebears who immigrating here once upon a golden time. When Vollmann tells us the view out of his boxcar one eve “was so perfect in its night-incarnation, being not merely my past but the vanished American West itself where I would have homesteaded with my pioneer bride,” who wouldn’t want to be in that boxcar too? If only we could toss off some of our restraints! We start to see that “Rivers, roads and tracks are life itself,” as Vollmann does. As a nation, there’s a steady love-hate relationship with the fellow who wanders the country: we love his spirit, but we hate his long hair; we want his news, even the report from the train yard, but we’re drawn to news of catastrophe almost to exclusivity.
God help the traveling bard with a boring - albeit realistic - story to tell, or he might find his reviewers “can’t help feeling relieved when its time to hop off” (J.R. Moehringer of The International Herald Tribune). Hmmm. There’s a crude saying about situations where if you can’t shit, then get off the pot. Wesley Yang of The New York Sun warns: “…if you manage to make it all the way through, [it] is a pleasure to put down.” The sounds of straining are ugly, as is the diarrhea of diatribe from critics. After riding 3,500 or so miles on freight trains myself, I believe our man Vollmann tells it like it is: train hopping means waiting for hours or days, feeling aches and pains from lack of sleep and rough rides, having glimmering revelations that fade within seconds, ruminating over freedom or grumbling about the lack of it, and occasionally seeing another train hopper.
Vollmann never ever claims to be a hobo, tramp, or transient (“I never rode the rails for financial reasons, or even to get from Point A to Point B”). We know he’s a successful writer, so it’s almost unimaginable to chose the boredom of waiting for hours by the “unlikely beauty of freight cars,” eating crap food, and experiencing the doldrums of hanging out with his travel-partner, Steve (“a droll and unretiring fellow,” writes Steve Almond from The Boston Globe). Readers who want shady vagrant characters, a man pinched in the coupler between two train cars, a Rambo cop with a swinging baton, and some mulligan stew around a fire in the jungle down by the river, need to read elsewhere. First-person freight riding narratives packed with adventure are to be found: read Jim Tully or Ethel Lynn, Jack Black (the writer) or Jack London. It’s 2008 and Vollmann doesn’t have a cell phone. He doesn’t even drive a car! He’s a hermit (“I own a place without a telephone, and because it is in a bad neighborhood I never raise the blinds”) but he’s able to crawl across the national backyard from the belly of a great big train, which is quite cool for a man of his caliber and cognizance.
The point of Riding Toward Everywhere is about self-exploration through running away, and the vehicle happens to be a freight train. The reader who gets hung up on the train yard setting might be up for a surprise because the truth is less exciting than preconceived notions. Benjamin Alsup of Esquire is one of those readers who expect pearls out of boxcars. He moans that “…once [Vollmann] does catch out, nothing happens. There is no revolution…No promised land. … At the end, he’s right back where he began.” Vollmann, let’s not forget, is one prolific writer and genuinely smart man. It’s a pleasure to know that he geeked out on train history and know-how for this book, including almost 200 citations for his facts and sixty-six black and white photos of the environs. You’re not going to tell him he’s wrong. His biggest fault is smacking of voyeurism; a hobo he meets flips him the bird when Vollmann tries to get acquainted. He doesn’t ride trains for a living; he’s matter of fact that he will take a passenger train or an airplane home. But like Tom Wolfe riding with Merry Pranksters, our man has an authentic interest in this other world, and that counts for something.
Those who are a bit sick of the Republican regime, who sometimes just want to get the fuck away, might want to read this book. Right from the start, Vollmann tells us: “I am my father’s son.” His was the kind of father who snarled over even the smallest abuse of power, even at the local bakery, when he snorted to his son about the commands of the baker: “Give some people a little power and they turn into Nazis, don’t they?” Vollmann nurtures both a deep love and sick disgust towards America, feelings which many readers resonate with. Our author wishes to be in some other time, out of the ridiculous here and now of Republican America. Vollmann claims “riding the rails is time travel.”
Vollmann places a Mark Twain quote at the beginning of his book, about rather being an outlaw than a U.S. President. But our author, although a man whom I’d want on my side in an old-fashioned street fight, is not an outlaw, but a man who wants both hearth and highway: “Who am I in my yearning for America[?] I cry over and over: I’ve got to get out of here?” He says he’s “at home nowhere and never anything but lost.” This reminds me of the porch scene in Carlos Casteneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan, where he looks all night long for that place of power, of rejuvenation. Vollmann is coming close - at least he knows a sense of “infinite freedom” on a freight train. The clincher is in the removing of the roots, of taking any train, everywhere: “I didn’t care about whether my predestined train went to the mountains; I simply wished for its magic to carry me away from here.” This story then, is for people who also “want to catch out for the stars,” far from “Plastic America,” and find that slippery Grail. Vollmann’s destination is vague (“I never cared much where we went”) and his character self-effacing (“I am a microbe hitching a ride upon an elephant’s trunk!”), but that’s okay because the story isn’t going to the end of the line. We’re privy to a selection of Vollman’s personal goings-on in his “rattleclank journey through life.” This train bumps along while the high speed MAGLEVs of the world clock by a good 500 miles per hour faster. It’s like the tortoise and the hare, or John Donne who wrote: “And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam/Carrying his own house still, still is at home, / Follow (for he is easy pac’d) this snail, / Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.”
Vollmann searches for an elusive destination which he calls “Cold Mountain,” akin to the hobo heaven of the Big Rock Candy Mountain. This is an unidentified place, person, or idea. The angst and the fear over never finding Cold Mountain propel the search, and keep the rhetorical questions a-wheeling in the brain. “And what if Cold Mountain exists nowhere on this planet, not even back then, and what if there is no Last Good Country, either? What if the closest approach to everywhere is merely getting out?” He’s not taking the reader on an anthropological safari filled with strange American flora and fauna, or hosting a Guthrie-esque hootenany on the rails, but exploring a meditative essay on life and death (“…for it can be argued that each journey is a quest for death”).
It can be argued that love is the path to Cold Mountain. Vollmann asks, “Do you think it’s true that most men who ride freights do it to go to a woman or get away from a woman?” He finds himself in the train yard two days after his wife “expressed her wish for a divorce.” She’s certainly not enjoying this ride, but she and variations of her wisp in and out of the pages. More importantly, we glimpse a middle-aged man’s quintessential fear: “What if Diesel Venus, the goddess who waits for me on Cold Mountain, never existed except back then?” Did he miss her, or does she thunder towards him, just around the bend? His heart is burned but beating.
In the end, the reader sees the figuratively naked person among the train cars in the American panorama. Vollmann muses: “Where would I like to slide to? If the rest of my life were summer, and I rode toward everywhere, how would the world open before me?” Instead of become a train hopping expert in the peak of his game, he “would rather just clickety-clack along toward everywhere, taking heed from Heraclitus that since one cannot cross the same river even once, I might as well let my travels be quiet, smooth and lovely.” It’s interesting to note Heraclitus, a philosopher known for his melancholia, his belief that everything is in flux, and that there is a yin-yang duality to existence. In this world, a love-hate relationship fits perfectly. There’ll be readers who cannot and will not find it within themselves to enjoy Riding Toward Everywhere, as there will be those who resonate with the author’s words and ideas. We might agree on certain sensibilities Vollmann has: “I ride freight trains in the belief that I can trust myself, that I deserve to be trusted even to be a reckless fool if circumstances so turn out - and, after all, if I am dead as a result of my own folly, I am no worse off than if I died safely and soberly.” We, too, want to trust ourselves. We vibrate to that culturally ingrained maxim. As readers, we want to trust our authors. I think we have something here. If we get beyond the hook of the setting, we see Vollmann as he is. And it’s not the big, swinging balls that we see, but rather something unassuming and soft-skinned, and ultimately, totally human.
Saving Faith
Patrick M. Garry
Inkwater Press
6750 SW Franklin Street, Suite A Portland, OR 97223-2542
9781592992645 $17.95 www.inkwaterpress.com
Dr. Michael Hollister
Reviewer
Saving Faith is a rare accomplishment, a philosophical novel of ideas with an allegorical structure and popular appeal. The style appears to be plain, but "Everything is more than it seems." Cast in the form of a mystery, it evokes the fundamental mysteries of life, combining popular with high art. The narrative is poignant in tone, humanistic in perspective and rich in ironies, similes and wit.
Patrick Garry has emerged in the tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Flannery O'Connor, allegorical writers with moral visions that have a striking clarity and power when contrasted to novels by even the best postmodernists, such as Thomas Pynchon or Don DeLillo. Garry is strongest where the New York postmodernists are weakest, in vision—in showing us ourselves with historical perspective, an objective sense of proportion, psychological insight and spiritual depth.
The young narrator is Jack, an orphan who grew up in an institution, one of the many young people today who were conditioned to feel unwanted in a society dominated by narcissistic adults. "In the orphanage we were all mistakes," he observes. The opposite of most Americans in the past, with their great expectations, he has no expectations at all: "The key to finding love, I figured, was to find someone who didn't want to be in their own home." What he misses most about the orphanage is "being around people who believed, despite the odds." To survive in the cynical and corrupt world outside the institution, he learns, a person must be able to place faith in something, however unlikely. Love, in particular, depends upon faith.
At the center of this novel, giving birth to its allegory, is an otherwise unidentified patient called Faith Powers, who demonstrates the powers of faith by reviving the lives of those around her while herself remaining comatose. Jack's personal life seems empty until he happens into the room of Faith, where he meets the nurse who keeps her alive, befriends a disgraced journalist who uses her to revive his career, and gets involved with a confused modern woman who talks to Faith as if praying, or talking to the best part of herself. As he gets to know the people who care about Faith, Jack compares them to orphans with unrealistic hopes.
Insightful satire and wit display the range of Garry's fiction. His greatest appeal as a writer, beyond even his talent for allegory, is his overall perspective and elegiac tone, both here and in his deeply moving previous novel In the Shadow of War. His writing has a soul. It is redemptive and sustains a loving spirit of compassion, sacrifice and transcendence.
African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism
Alicia A. Kent, Ph.D.
Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
9781403977977 $68.95
Jessica M. Safran
Reviewer
African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism is a must-read for those in academia as well as those who wish to hear the repressed voices of the African, Native, and Jewish American cultures come to life. This book is also for those who can appreciate the works of ethnic authors and their contribution to modernism. Kent helps to redefine the definition of modernism using the literatures of African, Native, and Jewish Americans. She provides a way for the reader to put into perspective what the modern era looked like to those branded "primitive" or "traditional." This book encompasses the prominence of these literatures within the discipline of English, and establishes these ethnic groups' fiction writing a strong place within modernism.
Kent demonstrates her knowledge of multicultural literatures and her respect for the oppression that each ethnic group endured, and uses that understanding to provide an interesting way of relating these three ethnic groups to each other. Kent is no stranger to the writing practices of multicultural literatures. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan. She teaches classes in Native American, Jewish, and African American Literatures, as well as literary analysis. In addition, her previous publications include, "Mourning Dove's Cogewea: Writing Her Way into Modernity," "Native American Feminist Criticism in the Contact Zone," and "Migrant Modernities: Fiction by African, Native, and Jewish Americans. However, African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism is her best contribution to the world of ethnic literature and modernist texts.
Kent focuses on making these ethnic groups' voices be heard through their writings, instead of being interpreted and demonstrated through the ways others see them. She accomplishes this through her interpretation of how these three ethnic groups, African, Native, and Jewish American authors, came into their own as modernistic writers. There is no reason why these authors should not be considered while discussing modern texts. By taking the writing of these authors, and conceptualizing them to stand on their own accords, Kent allows the reader to be immersed into their worlds, without the crude interruption of the viewpoints of others. In five chapters, Kent demonstrates to the reader that African, Native, and Jewish American literatures have a strong place among modern texts.
She starts the book with a strong introduction that lets the reader know that she is going to be using ethnicity and race to discuss modern texts, "African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism focuses on what modernity would look like when viewed from the vantage point of those culture labeled 'primitive." Kent goes on to demonstrate this task by breaking the book into three subsequent chapters. Kent not only analyzes each ethnic group's works, but also uses historical context to provide evidence for her analysis.
"African Americans: Moving from Caricatures to Creators, Charles Chesnutt, and Zora Neale Hurston" is an intriguing chapter that provides the reader with a clear view of how African Americans overcame the migration of their people, and the oppression of both their views and works, and became one of the most prominent voices in multicultural literatures. Kent evaluates Charles Chesnutt and Zora Neale Hurston to convey this transformation. According to Kent, African Americans fought their way up from being used as caricatures, and overcoming slavery, to creating great works that are read in many classrooms today.
"Native Americans: Moving from Primitive to Postmodern, Mourning Dove, and D'Arcy McNickle," is another chapter that explains to the reader how, just like the African Americans, the Native Americans too had to overcome hardships and the injustice of stereotypes. However, they too managed to overcome the adversity, and migration of their people, and are now considered among the top of multicultural literatures. Kent focuses on the works of Mourning Dove and D'Arcy McNickle to express her knowledge of these authors in regards to the Native American cultures, and how they were able to use their oppression to form beautiful works of art, through their writings.
"Jewish Americans: Moving from Exile to Authorship, Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska," is a chapter that gives the reader an opportunity to view the Jewish Americans, in the same regard as the African Americans and Native Americans. Kent analyzes the works of Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska to convey her message in this chapter. Jewish Americans too had to overcome great oppression, the sting of stereotypes, and the painful memories of their displacement. However, like their brethren in literature, the Jewish Americans use these injuries to create great works that are revered among today's modern texts.
What makes this book, unique in the world of literature, is that Kent demonstrates the connection among these three ethnic groups using the turn of the century's migration, dislocation, and displacement as her argument for these groups' works being considered among modern texts. For, like other modern writers, these writers faced "a crisis of representation," but the crisis resulted from the need to respond to racist and anti-Semitic depictions of these ethnic groups. In the historical section of her book, Kent includes visual examples of some of these representations; she also examines how these writers re-wrote these images.
After reading this book, the reader should accumulate a respect for multicultural literature among the rest of modern texts, a strong voice to be heard after overcoming pain, oppression, and negation. Kent reiterates the role of these ethnic groups' works among the rest of the works in the modernist world. One influential quote, in Kent's book, that demonstrates the justification she provides for each ethnic groups' works states that, "By claiming their new role as fiction writers, these novelists implicitly reject the role of de facto native informant and instead forge new literary forms that not only add to the cadre of literary expression but also expand the form of the modern novel itself."
Through her expertise of African, Native, and Jewish American literatures, her admiration for these three ethnic groups and her knowledge of modern texts, Kent effectively argues that the works of these three ethnic groups belong among the works of other modern authors. Not only does she provide a clear, authoritative viewpoint, but she also incorporates historical context and images to provide evidence for her claims. It is a book that will not only cleanse one's pallet with a fresh taste of modernistic views, but a book that will leave the reader with a newfound conception of the correlation between African, Native, and Jewish American literatures and their impact on the literatures of the early twentieth century, as well as today.
Trudy's Promise
Marcia Preston
Mira Books
Ontario, Canada
9780778325334 $13.95
JoAn W. Martin
Reviewer
Trudy fell in love with Rolf in spite of his intense determination to leave East Berlin. When he crossed the newly constructed Berlin Wall, in October, 1962, she recognized that he loved politics more than he loved her and their son, Stefan. Rolf's friend, Wolfgang, told her that she, as the wife of a defector, was under suspicion and could be arrested by the notorious "stasi" communist any day.
Trudy left her baby with Gisela, her mother-in-law, to crawl through a dangerous tunnel under the Berlin wall to search for her husband in West Berlin. Did he survive his attempted escape? Unable to find him, she suffers in agony, missing her child. She walks the Wall, hoping to find a gap to at least see her son. Her efforts to get Stefan and Gisela out of East Germany take her to America, but even President Kennedy is unable to help her.
She returns to Berlin and tries every way to get back to East Berlin to be with her family. Now her son and mother-in-law are out of reach. Vicious armed guards patrol the wall and will stop at nothing to prevent passage over the wall.
Marcia Preston learned first-hand of the agony of relatives and friends split by the Berlin Wall. Germans were unable to see their families in 1970 when she first visited. A whole generation grew up never being with their people after the wall was built in the early 60s. Nearly thirty years would go by before the hated obstruction came down in 1989.
The author offers readers a glimpse into a frightening period that few writers have chosen to explore. Trudy's story is Marcia Preston's first book with a foreign setting. She says, "It is a personal story of a mother's love."
Margaret Mahler: A Biography of the Psychoanalyst
Alma Halbert Bond
McFarland
Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640
9780786433551 $45.00
Kathi Stringer
Reviewer
Margaret S. Mahler - Larger then Life
To the outside world, Mahler was a gifted researcher and analyst who had authored many groundbreaking papers and books that revolutionized how we view child development. Her insight was heralded as the golden key to understanding child pathology. Many of us came to love Mahler through her innovative work and her words. And now, after decades of research, author Bond (who worked for Mahler) has given us a look of the woman behind the mask.
As Bond's lens focuses on Mahler, we begin to see into the dark depths of this complex woman. We are exposed to her quick temper and intolerance of anything less then perfection. She was a woman on a mission. We discover there were myriad conflicting interviews and memos--many hated her, but many loved her, as well. And all the while, whether they loved her or hated her; they surrounded her and basked in her status as a "living legend."
It is said, "Eyes are the mirror of the soul." Bond relates how in infancy Mahler had the ability to stare down her wet-nurse with the eyes of a lynx so she would continue to cradle her. A lynx has the ability "to immediately tell truth from error," according to author Bond. The infant Mahler was born equipped with the observation tools she needed to fulfill her destiny.
Bond begins with Mahler's birth in Hungary and parallels her life with the relentless advancement of Hitler's war machine. Her mother was only a teenager when she became faced with the pregnancy of an unwanted child. Years later, her mother gave birth to another daughter, whom her mother favored. To emotionally survive, Mahler became attached to her father, and she idealized and emulated him on an intellectual level.
We see how Mahler overcame early academia hurdles at a time when girls were not allowed in high school. But in typical Mahler fashion, she found a way. She left home, completed her studies, became a medical student and earned her diploma. Later in analysis, her bungling analyst rejected her and said she could not analyze her, which was a requirement in Malher's profession. It nearly cost her a place in the coveted Vienna analytic community. Mahler had shared her all only to be horribly rejected. This seemed to be another piece of Mahler's life that impacted the formation of her developmental concepts.
As Hitler unleashes his storm troopers, Mahler escapes with only the clothes on her back, leaving her family behind in peril.
Far away in America, Mahler eventually secures grants to begin her research and her conceptualization of the pre-Oedipal phase, namely "symbiosis," the four sub-phases of "separation-individuation," and then "on to object constancy." These developmental blueprints emerged from years of research done by a team that observed mothers and their children. Theory formulation, of course, did not happen in a vacuum and the author makes clear that Mahler's concepts grew out of intellectual conversations with her colleagues. She didn't like to think alone and surrounded herself with professional peers and friends. Bond implies that this served as a sort of "trial symbiosis," a need that was unresolved from the relationship with her mother.
Bond illustrates for us how Mahler's arrested developmental framework from her childhood was perhaps the original template for her theories, which was reflected in her research. It was if she knew where she was headed all along - driven by instinct and insight from her own unfinished developmental business. Mahler seemed to oscillate between the symbiotic libidinal pull and the resolution of the rapprochement crisis. Bond sprinkles bright commentary throughout and correlates Mahler's own developmental snags and milestones to Mahler's theories.
The author brings us ringside to the embattled personal, brilliant, and complicated life of Mahler through photos, memos, interviews, data, her professional publications and more. She depicts Mahler much like a courageous explorer who discovers the world is indeed round and then, in certain elite professional circles, is snubbed for it.
To my surprise, author Bond includes a chapter on highlights from a film interview with Mahler as she candidly dispenses concerned advice to new mothers. Many of the questions directed at Mahler were challenging, e.g., in addressing the importance of the mother-infant dyad, she was asked, "What about mothers that have to work and are not available to their children all the time?" Good question, and as is well known, theories formulated within a nice tidy framework can often be impractical in actual application. The interview questions challenged Mahler, but she unfailing responded to the "what ifs" with clarity and an almost uncanny personal insight.
All in all, Bond shows us how the name of Margaret Mahler became bigger then one woman. Her theories seem infallible, unlike the woman behind them. It brings to mind a saying I recall: "Keep your heroes afar because if you get to know them, then you will find out they are really human after all." I think the Dr. Sam Vaknin said it best, "For she was Eve, no less, in the field of child psychology and therapy." Kathi Stringer, author of the book "5150, The One Who Flew Into the Cuckoo's Nest"
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story
Robert C. Gallagher
Ballantine Books
The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10019
9780345510860 $13.00
Kevin Coolidge
Reviewer
The Elmira Express
I love the Twin Tiers in the autumn. The days are still warm; the nights cool, giving birth to vibrant fall colors. The hills seem almost alive, and the threat of colder weather is a promise on the wind. Fall in the Twin Tiers ushers in a revered tradition. When it's autumn in America, it's time for football. Across the land, in big cities and small towns, in large stadiums and rural high schools--the sights, sounds, and colors of the game are all around us. The common thread is the game, and the athletes that practice and play it with heart and determination to the very best of their abilities.
Few players have shown more heart or determination than Ernie Davis. Davis was born on Dec. 14, 1939, in New Salem, Pa. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and his father was soon killed in an accident. He grew up in poverty in Uniontown, a coal-mining town 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, where caring grandparents raised him.
At 12, Davis moved to live with his mother and stepfather in Elmira. He went on to become Elmira's favorite son, both as an outstanding athlete and as a respected and well-loved citizen. Ernie's talent bloomed, and the honors came early and often. He led Elmira Free Academy to a 52-game winning streak in basketball and as a Syracuse sophomore helped the Orangemen gain their only national football championship.
As a senior in 1961, he became the first African American athlete to win the Heisman trophy and was the number one pick in the 1962 NFL draft. And then, suddenly, he was gone. He was diagnosed with leukemia the summer before his rookie season. He never played in the NFL, but succumbed to the disease less than a year later. Though Ernie never played a game for the Cleveland Browns, they retired his number 45, worn only in practice.
Davis was easily recognized as a great athlete, but his high school coach, Marty Harrigan, summed up what many felt for Ernie Davis when he said, "Everyone knew Ernie's athletic greatness, but few realized what a great human he was. His concern for his fellow man, and his affection for children, was sincere."
I think this is what moved me the most when I read The Express, The Ernie Davis Story by Robert C. Gallagher. There are lots of talented professional athletes today, and most of them are more than willing to inform you just how gifted they are, but the media exposure never changed him. "Ernie was the same kid at the end as he was at the start," said Jim Flynn, his high school basketball coach.
Ernie believed he was fortunate to be so gifted and never took his ability for granted. He worked hard both on the field and in the classroom. "Ernie was always the first one on the practice field and the last to leave." Many athletes, assured of a college scholarship, would have coasted in class, but "Ernie worked hard when it wasn't popular to get good grades. The teachers loved him. He never would excuse himself from work and say he had too many outside activities." Ernie intended to play professional football, but he knew that career expectancy in the NFL was only a few seasons, so he wanted to be prepared for another career when he retired from football. He believed that education would lead to social and economic success.
Syracuse University experienced its greatest football success during Ernie's career. The Orangemen became the national champions and winners of the Cotton Bowl. Four days before the game, Ernie pulled a hamstring while practicing place kicks. It was doubtful right up until game time whether he could play. Before leaving the game in the fourth quarter, he scored two touchdowns, including a then Bowl-record pass play, scored twice on two-point conversions, and intercepted a pass that led to Syracuse's final touchdown.
He was voted the game's Most Valuable Player. Davis was to have received his MVP award at the awards banquet that night. But when bowl officials said that only white players were invited to the dinner and that Davis would have to leave after picking up his trophy, the Syracuse team refused to attend.
It was Ernie's performance against the University of Pittsburgh that same year which inspired the nickname "The Elmira Express." Elmira Star-Gazette sports writer Al Mallette coined the phrase. Penn State coach Joe Paterno had this to say about Ernie Davis: "He's the kind of runner you hate to coach against; you can't instruct a boy to tackle a man if he can't catch him."
It was December 1961 when Ernie won the Heisman trophy. Winning the Heisman is a significant accomplishment regardless of the year or player, but it was a significant racial breakthrough at a time with segregation was just beginning to become a social issue. Today, black players often win the award, and it might be hard for his contemporaries to appreciate his achievement.
When he was in New York to receive the Heisman, Davis was treated with media coverage usually reserved for national heroes. President John Kennedy was in the city at the time and asked to see Ernie, a visit that thrilled him. "Imagine," Davis said, "a president wanting to shake hands with me."
Ernie was the number one pick for the 1962 National Football League draft following his senior year. The Washington Redskins had the initial selection, but soon traded him to the Cleveland Browns, who signed him to a three-year no-cut, no-trade $65,000 contract with a $15,000 signing bonus, a new record for a rookie.
The next summer while training for the upcoming All-Star game, Ernie awoke with swelling in his neck. A trainer sent him to the hospital, and doctors soon discovered the leukemia. At the time, Ernie and the public were told only that he had a "blood disorder". He wasn't told it was leukemia until October, after he had been in and out of the hospital. "Either you fight or you give up," Davis said in remembering how he felt when told the news.
The disease went into remission, and Davis kept planning on pro football. He practiced with the Browns. Coach Paul Brown, heeding the advice of medical people who warned him of the risks, did not play Davis. The next spring, Davis noticed more swelling and entered the hospital again. Two days later, on May 18, he died in his sleep. In Elmira, more than 10,000 citizens passed the Neighborhood House on May 21 where Ernie lay in state. Flags in the city were flown at half-mast. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, also the burial place of Mark Twain.
Universal Pictures has finished production on the film adaptation of Davis's life. The movie is slated for release Oct. 10. The book is available now. Stop by your local bookstore or library and check it out. You can catch Kevin tailgating at From My Shelf Books in Wellsboro. Stop by or tackle it online at www.wellsborobookstore.com
The Winter War: Russia's Invasion of Finland, 1939-40
Robert Edwards
Pegasus Books, LLC
45 Wall Street, Suite 1021, New York, NY 10005
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company
9781933648507 $26.95 www.pegasusbooks.us
Richard N. Larsen
Reviewer
Russian foreign policy hasn't changed a lot since 1939. Author Edwards calls it "forward defense," while others call it "Finlandization," but simply defined as an attempt to exercise control the internal affairs of a neighboring nation without possessing it or colonizing it. The truth is, nothing much has changed since the winter war of 1939 with Finland and the August 2008 war with Georgia.
Russia's invading army, fresh from defeating Japan was thought by many to be the best in the world, outnumbered the Finish army nearly five to one in troop strength, and technical superiority, took 105 days in the cold of winter to put finis to the plucky Finns.
Much of Europe, already engaged in what we call World War 2, did not act upon the actions of Russia and Finland, but likely the weakness shown by the Russian military gave Hitler a chance to shelter and convert Finland to an ally. The Russian weakness against Finland likely led Hitler to attack Russia in 1941, in what we now call Operation Barbarossa, the German attack which ended at Stalingrad.
Mr. Edwards tells a great story of mistakes, alliances, battles and outcomes so well that when I finished Winter War I actually think I understand European politics prior to World War 2. This is a very readable book, well drawn conclusions and as an added bonus, it helps us understand forward defense in Georgia in another Olympic year 2008.
Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers
Brian Cole Miller
AMACOM
1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
9780814409336 $17.95
Mark Nash
Reviewer
Who hasn't been to a meeting where you don't know a soul? Setting the stage for a great meeting takes finesse and Brian Miller's new book. Getting people to break the silence and feel comfortable can turn a "have to" meeting into a "want to". And, don't think for a minute that this is one of those "up close and personal" technique books, it's a power-packed guide for managers, team leaders and facilitators to warm up groups before moving them into difficult territory.
Chapter titles are: Activities for Grouping People, Icebreakers for Introductions, Activities Best for Small Groups, Activities Best for Large Groups, and Activities Best for Huge Groups. Additional features include acknowledgments, an introduction, about the author, index and an appendix.
With over fifty tied and true step-by-step examples by an author who knows, Mr. Miller is the principal of Working Solutions, Inc a management training and consulting firm and the author of three additional management books. No one gets anything out of a meeting in which participants are listless, uncomfortable, or uninspired. If you are looking to perk up your meetings, pick up a copy of this book and raise your meeting productivity exponentially.
Christmas with Norky: The Adventure Begins
Steve Allgeier
Illustrated by Beatrice Favereau
Visikid Books
1350 E Flamingo Rd, Suite #50, Las Vegas, NV 89119
9781933156255 $17.99
Peggy Tibbetts, Reviewer
www.peggytibbetts.net
Santa is far too busy delivering presents to keep up with his Naughty & Nice List. So he calls on his flying friend Norky, who is part penguin and part eagle – a Peneagle. Norky's special job is to look for kids doing good deeds and practicing kindness all year round. However, Norky knows that no kid is perfect. That's why he created the "FIX-IT" card, which gives a kid a second chance in case he has a bad day.
Allgeier's rhyming verse brings to mind The Night Before Christmas with a gentle lesson about doing your best. Favereau's attractive cartoon-like character illustrations make this an inviting tale for pre-schoolers who love to make Christmas last all year long.
Norky also has a companion website where kids can join the Norky Adventure Club, view photos of the live-action Norky character, and check out Norky gear.
This first book in the Norky adventure series makes a great gift for kids who are crazy about Christmas.
Restless Astronomy, poems new and selected
Michael Gilmore
Dalton Publishing
P.O. Box 242, Austin TX 78767
9780981744308 $12.95
Robert Stikmanz
Reviewer
"Michael Gilmore's long anticipated Restless Astronomy assembles the poet's first collection in over two decades. The volume includes both older poems, such as the lovely, "Minotaurian Architecture," retitled from his 1981 chapbook, Lyrika, and newer pieces appearing for the first time in print. Subjects range broadly, from love to loss, to parenting, to past relationships, the passing of heroes, and encounters with the world. Throughout, Gilmore writes with delightful wit and invention.
"...He dreamed as he stood in the darkness
Water falling like miniature hooves
During those first rains
On the skylight"
("Minotaurian Architecture")
The poems vary from narratives of several stanzas to short, deceptively offhand pieces of under a dozen lines. Most often, the voice is straightforwardly that of the poet in autobiographical, even confessional, mode. Other times, especially in those poems where emotion flows nearest the surface, he dons the mask of a historical or mythic figure. By turns playful and sober, the poet examines incidents of the life he has lived and other, emblematic lives of his imagination.
"...This new device I'm going to call a centrifuge
It's what I built when I thought of you
You make my head spin, and within
What is heavy separates from the light"
("After Reading Freud Rutherford Addresses His Secretary")
Wistfulness, at times melancholy, pervades these poems, captured in the same self-ironic tone whether he writes as swift Achilles or as himself. The poet or his ciphers have taken hits, paid dues, survived proverbial slings and arrows, and had time enough to reflect on missed opportunity. However, even when the subject is darkest, the language is deft, original.
"...Each of us in the squad
Suffers the solitude
Of a desert Byrd or Amundsen
"We are wandering Trappist monks
Huddled over our sacred text
Out-of-date topographic maps..."
("The Messenger May Be a Witness Against You")
Characterized by unexpected imagery and sly, often sidelong, eroticism, Restless Astronomy charts a poet's trajectory across the mental, emotional, and physical spheres of his life. These poems rise from the page with confidence, grace, and strange beauty— moving out of the realm of the personal to that of wider experience."
Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist
Nancy Goldstein
The University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor MI
9780472116249 $35.00 www.press.umich.edu
Shari Maser
Reviewer
It was an unexpected pleasure to read Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist. I learned and laughed a lot.
With the popularity of Barack Obama, community organizers like Jackie Ormes are getting newfound, and well-deserved, attention. The African-American community has a long history of individual activists effecting change, and this illustrated biography profiles one such quiet leader, whose influential artwork was published in African-American newspapers such as The Pittsburgh Courier between 1937 and 1956.
Jackie Ormes was a cartoonist, political satirist, and doll-maker whose work was clearly a reflection upon her times. It is evident that she also purposefully used her artistic talents to influence society by promoting civil rights.
When middle school, high school, and college students are assigned research papers about historical figures, they often gravitate to the most famous (and infamous) characters. Yet this book is appealing enough, with its extensive collection of comic art, to open their minds to examining history through the story of someone less well-known. Reading Ormes' biography is sure to inspire them, as it demonstrates how effectively one person can impact the issues she cares about. Doll collectors and history buffs will also appreciate this fresh look at 20th-century African-American politics and culture.
The Lucky One
Nicholas Sparks
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
0446579939 $24.99 www.HachetteBookGroup.com
Annie Slessman
Reviewer
You can bet if Nicholas Sparks put a book out there, it is going to sell. This scenario is due to his expertise as a storyteller extraordinaire. His latest work, The Lucky One will be touted by readers as one of his best works. Having written books like Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, readers know what they can expect when they buy a Nicholas Sparks book…great characters, great storyline and an electricity that stays with you long after you have finished reading the story.
Sparks main character in The Lucky One is ex-marine, Logan Thibault. Logan has served three tours of duty in Iraq and believes his survival is due to a lucky picture he found of an unknown woman. Once he completes his tour of duty, he walks from Colorado to Hampton, North Carolina in search of the woman in the picture.
Once he arrives in North Carolina, he takes a job at a dog training facility where he meets Nana, the elderly owner of the facility, Elizabeth, her granddaughter and her young son, Ben. Elizabeth, he discovers is the woman in his lucky picture.
The storyline stays true and builds to an exciting climax. There are stories within this story that adds story interest. Sparks knows how to build a story and keep a reader anxiously turning pages.
If you are a Nicholas Sparks fan, you won't be disappointed with this work. If you have never read Nicholas Sparks, this work is a great starting point.
Nicholas Sparks is the author of fourteen best selling works of fiction. Several if his works have been adapted to movies. Sparks and his family lie in the Carolinas.
Voodoo Laws
Jim Michael Hansen
Dark Sky Publishing, Inc.
218 S. McIntyre Way, Golden, CO 80401
0976924374 $13.95 US www.darkskypublishing.com
Wanda Maynard
Reviewer
What a burst of exploding suspense! This swift moving work of fiction will cause hidden emotions to rise to the surface leaving you panting for breath.
Bryson Coventry, our brave detective from homicide division, was on a mission to find a murderer or murderers before another innocent person fell prey to voodoo. Through determination he must find the evil and stamp it out before it's too late. In his quest to solve the mystery, will our hero wind up a victim himself? The edge of the seat excitement kept my nerves on end as I read on to see what could possibly lay ahead for him. With every page I turned anticipation grew along with adrenaline. Danger lurked like an unseen shadow in a dark corner that was ready to pounce at any given moment.
Jim Michael Hansen is not only an Attorney, but also a very talented Author. His immense ability to bring out compelling tension hooked this reader from the first line to the last with his hottest creation, Voodoo Laws. This triumphant book, to me, is a superb thriller and an outstanding read.
Andrew's Bookshelf
Leathernecks
Merrill Bartlett & Jack Sweetman
Naval Institute Press
9781591140207 $60.00 www.usni.org
If you google "Books – Marine Corps", they provide "about 286,000 listings in 0.19 seconds." So does the world need yet one more book describing the heroics of Marines since 1775? The answer is a resounding YES!! if the book is as good as this one.
When one walks around the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C. he or she is treated to a history of the Marine Corps when reading the inscribed battles… the French & Indian Wars…the Boxer Rebellion…Belleau Wood…Guadalcanal…Chosin…Fallujah… Authors Merrill Bartlett and Jack Sweetman have collaborated to give us the same tour around the Memorial, but with all 233 years of Marine lore added. "Leathernecks" is simply one of the finest illustrated histories of the Marine Corps published.
The difference between this book and the many others is both the depth of detail and its readability. Finding a balance between an academic book and an ooh-rah flag-waver, the authors present not only the Corps battle history, but the equally important story of the men who built it. Traditions are not created overnight, but are earned over generations; a fact of which the authors remind the reader with 280+ old photos, maps, and illustrations, many of which are published for the first time.
While the casual reader likely knows of the Marine Corps 10 November 1775 founding, it's Bartlett and Sweetman's "Leathernecks" that provides the background information that the 10 Nov. act of Congress chartering the Marines "…that two battalions of Marines be raised…" was in response to a petition by the residents of Passamaquoddy, Nova Scotia who wanted to join the newly independent United States – and these same Marines were to be used to capture the British Naval base at Halifax.
While Marine Corps lore in recent years has been built on such land-locked fights at Chosin, Khe Sanh, or An-Nasiriyah, prominent naval historian Jack Sweetman has teamed with Marine historian Skip Bartlett in a way that emphasizes the sea roots of America's pre-eminent sea service. Describing the first landing (and victory) of the Continental Marines back in March 1776, when an eight ship convoy sailed to seize Nassau, The Bahamas. The Marines captured "fifty-eight cannon, fifteen mortars, more than sixteen thousand shot and shell…," as well as establishing a tradition for those hard-chargers following: the Bahamas governor complained that the Marines "helped themselves to his liquor."
Drawing on a collection of rare photographs and illustrations from the depths of Marine and private archives, authors Bartlett and Sweetman personalize the early days of the Marine Corps that makes one understand the institution today. In addition to describing the battle in Veracruz, Mexico after the Marine landing in April 1914, they have a picture of LtCol Wendell Neville, Col John Lejeune, Col Littleton Waller, Maj Smedley Butler, and Maj Randolph Berkley; all China, Philippine, and Cuba hands, sitting together on a Mexican veranda: Butler-two Medals of Honor, Lejeune and Neville –commandants, Waller –lost the commandant's position 2x due to politics…what Marine alive today would not want to discuss counter-insurgency with these men? If it is the institutional ethos that drives the operational, it is fair to say that this was the generation – and these were the Marines – who were responsible for the birth of both.
The authors made a considerable effort to present the Marine faces behind the battles, many of which were fought in the halls Congress. Shortly after Gen. Alexander Vandergrift (aided by the familiar names of BrigGen Merritt Edson, LtCol Victor "Brute" Krulak, and Col Merrill Twining) beat back President Truman's and the Army's plan to reorganize the American military, Gen Vandergrift added the equally familiar LtGen Roy Geiger and future commandant Gen Lemuel Shepherd to analyze amphibious warfare in the atomic age. Their report initiated the movement of the Marine Corps into "Vertical Envelopment" – helicopter assaults – which was the beginning of a doctrine that the Corps saw as the key to its future. Battles are easy to analyze, it is the men who fight the battle that make or break the story – or the battle – and authors Bartlett and Sweetman present them superbly.
"Leathernecks" ends with a discussion of the war on terror, with emphasis on the current fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The battles and counter-insurgency operations are discussed candidly and accurately, no small feat when so many of the participants are available for interview.
There is an old adage to the effect of the world being divided into two groups: those who are Marines and those who wish they were Marines – and after reading "Leathernecks", both groups will understand why the adage is so true.
The Border
David J. Danelo
Stackpole Press
9780811703932 $24.95 www.stackpolebooks.com
Is the Mexican-American border defensible? Should it be? These are questions that our politicians in Washington should be asking, but are not, so former Marine David Danelo drove the 1,951.63 mile border from the Gulf of Mexico's Boca Chica, Texas to Border Field State Park on California's Pacific coast, and he asks the questions for us.
Danelo took three months driving along both sides of the border, and his interviews and observations illuminate the growing divide on the crisis, and also whether or not the real crisis is immigration or narcotics. Talking with citizens of both Mexico and the United States in the major border cities of Matamoros – Laredo – Ciudad Juarez – Nogales- and San Diego, he personalizes the situation with a series of interviews with Border Patrol agents, local sheriff's, church groups, Minutemen, various American and Mexican citizens, and even a couple of Mexican teenagers who were about to be deported.
It is when talking to these young men, and a Mormon couple in Arizona, that Danelo cuts to the heart of the matter "why do Americans hate us so much," the teenager asks, "why do they pay us so much to work for them, and then kick us out?" An interesting question, to be sure, and especially when posed to an American couple who run a restaurant in Arizona; they find themselves torn between obeying American immigration law, yet seeing that not only do American teenagers refuse to work as busboys and dishwashers, but that the work they offer provide hope, dignity, and survival to otherwise impoverished individuals. These are good questions, and ones whose eventual answers will help provide solutions to the problem.
But the immigration question is not a simple one, and Danelo touches on its many facts. The issue is a combination of economics, narcotics sales, cultural change as American demographics change from Anglo to Latino, and perhaps one of a slowly failing state (Mexico) whose citizens are fleeing by the hundreds of thousands for a better life. Similar to situation in Iraq, where peace came only after the Iraqi government became engaged with their own citizens, the Mexican government needs to become more engaged in resolving those conflicts that otherwise send its citizens fleeing north.
The first 535 copies of "The Border" printed should be delivered to our congressmen and senators. This is a book that discusses immigration without a political slant, which makes it a rarity in these days of Lou Dobbs-led hysteria. "The Border" is an impartial, honest, and well-written recap of the situation on the border; now let's hope those 535 books are delivered to Washington before election day; Danelo asks all the right questions; now let's see if anyone can provide a thoughtful answer.
Flying for her Country
Amy Goodpaster Strebe
Praeger Security Int'l
9780275994341 $39.95 www.prager.com/PSI
It is an accepted part of today's military that women pilots today fly helicopter gunships into combat, as well as virtually all the other planes in the American air fleet. To read Amy Goodpaster Strebe's book "Flying For Her Country" brings the reader back to those bad old days when women were known as "gals", their temperament and qualifications to vote were hotly debated, and college was considered a waste of 4 prime child-bearing years.
Ms. Strebe shoots those myths right out of the sky with "Flying For Her Country" as she recounts the stories of the American and Soviet women aviators in WW2.
The American WASP's grew to a program with one thousand pilots who flew 78 different aircraft some 60 million miles. Founded by famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran, her pilots flew every American fighter and bomber ranging in size from the tiny scout planes to the massive B-29's.
The Soviet women pilots were no less competent, and in fact were formed into their own fighter wing. Strebe describes how Marina Raskova, the first famous Russian pilot, commanded a unit flying combat missions against the Germans.
"Flying For Her Country" gives the reader an excellent view of how difficult it was for women to be allowed to fight for their country. Despite the dangers of flying (with the WASP's losing 38 killed), the WASP's were not officially members of the American military – the WASP's regularly chipped in to pay the freight charges incurred in shipping a body of one of their killed members home. Strebe recounts the problems and prejudices these patriotic and professional women encountered through the tenure of their service.
If anything, the book is far too short. Greater detail on both the American and Soviet pilots would be welcomed – as would have sections on their English and German counterparts. In all, this is a book that will be read with great interest by both pilots as well as those looking to understand how American society has changed in the last 60 years.
Fire Mission
Earl J. Gorman
Red Desert Press
9780615205946 $19.95 www.firemissionnam.com
While there are many book from Vietnam veterans about their time in 'Nam on bookstore shelves today, there are too-few good ones. "Fire Mission" is one of the few good ones.
Author Earl Gorman was a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam in 1965-1966. An artilleryman, his was a slightly different view of the war; at times he was stationed out in the field with an infantry unit as a forward observer where he lived and worked with a 'grunt' unit, and then later was based back on the gun line responsible for a battery of 105mm howitzers.
Gorman is an excellent writer with a grasp of detail. "Fire Mission" (an artillery term) lets the reader begin to understand the mindset of a Marine officer trying to maintain his moral balance in the midst of a brutal war. He comments on his disgust in seeing VC bodies being displayed for American civilian and military visitors from Saigon, yet keeps his humanity as he meets and builds a relationship with a Vietnamese mother and daughter.
Commenting on the politics, Rules of Engagement, his superiors, and his times in combat, former 1st Lt Gorman blends the sarcasm and accuracy of a young Marine with the poignant observations and recollections of an older citizen soldier; one who has done his duty to his country yet hopes that others may not have to follow in his footsteps.
Well done, Sir!
One Weekend a Month
Craig Trebelcock
Booklocker.com
9781591138921 $17.95 www.booklocker.com
This book is the Iraq War's answer to frustration and cynicism we saw so many years ago in the movie **MASH**
First-time author – and decorated veteran – Craig Trebelcock has written a highly revealing and irreverent 'memoir' of the 2004-2005 war in Iraq. Drawing on his extensive time on the ground during both the 2003 invasion as well as 2004-2005's poorly-planned and led post-invasion occupation forces, Trebelcock shows the reader how the Marines and soldiers tried to succeed in spite of the odds against them.
A JAG officer (lawyer) and Civil Affairs officer in real life. Trebelcock writes about the war through the eyes of an 8-man civil affairs team (Team Jaguar") made up of Reservists. As a reservist himself, he experienced the disdain the regular Army hold for Reservists, despite this being the first war in which Reservists played such an important role as combatants.
Writing on his experiences in Iraq through the fictional persona of Major Trevanthan, the team leader, Trebelcock describes the incompetence and disinterest he and his team encountered through their year in Iraq. From senior officers only interested in their next promotion to officers too interested in paperwork to learn how to actually lead troops in combat, it is no surprise that not only did the Iraqi people quickly learn to think of America as an occupying power, but also that it's no surprise that 2004-2005 are considered two wasted – and unnecessarily bloody years.
For as bad a light as "One Weekend a Month" portrays the REMF's in the Green Zone and back in Washington, D.C., it shines a brilliant light on the efforts of the American Reserves and National Guard; the citizen-soldiers who answered their country's call. They gave the mission 150 % of their effort, blood, and dedication, even if their superiors did not. Highly recommended.
Andrew Lubin, Reviewer
www.andrewlubin.com
Bethany's Bookshelf
Shadow of Forgotten Love
Norma Gatlin
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd. #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432724863, $16.95, www.outskirtspress.com
Sometimes immortality is overrated. "Shadows of Forgotten Love" is a story of the romance between mortal woman Elizabeth Rains and her potential lover in Immortal vampire Anthony Devonshire. Yearning for even the slightest time with Elizabeth, Anthony is willing to do anything. A fantastical blend of fantasy and romance, "Shadows of Forgotten Love" is a solid piece of writing, highly recommended.
The World I Imagine
Debbie Jordan
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Road #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432718619, $11.95, www.outskirtspress.com
Is true peace truly possible? "The World I Imagine: A Creative Manual for Ending Poverty and Building Peace" comes to readers with a simple message, that ending poverty and ending peace are two goals in the same, and if one is gone, the other shall fade as well. Peace can't coexist with poverty, and within, Debbie Johnson puts her mind to work and tries to put forth answers to the many questions that the world asks. "The World I Imagine" is food for thought for any reader who wants to work towards a better world.
Never Assume
Patricia McGuire
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Road, #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432717179, $11.95, www.outskirtspress.com
First impressions are something so many make the error of going off of when evaluating others. "Never Assume: Getting to Know Children Before Labeling Them" is a book focusing on the demeanor of children and how to understand them. With educated writing from a behavior pediatrician, she discusses the temperament of children and how to deal with it to better understand the children for whatever one is trying to do. "Never Assume" is a solid child psychology manual, highly recommended.
Brain Matters
Elizabeth Nelson
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Road, #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432722012, $19.95, www.outskirtspress.com
Depression is beatable. "Brain Matters" is Elizabeth Nelson's story of her fighting through her depression over her life time. She fought the severe depression that denied her the very ability to get herself out of bed. She hopes to share her story and her advice to those who offer suffer from the ailment on how they can overcome their depression and resume living their life. With much encouragement and wisdom, "Brain Matters" is highly recommended.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
Grand Central Publishing
237 Park Ave, New York, New York 10017
9780446407410 $19.99
This is the true story of an abandoned kitten who lived an extraordinary life. Dewey not only inspired a struggling single mother, he also transformed a sleepy library and the inhabitants of its depressed Iowa farm town and ultimately captured the hearts of animal lovers around the world.
After surviving the loss of her family farm and an abusive husband, Vicki Myron became a librarian and landed in Spencer, Iowa. Her major task was to try to raise the spirits of the library's patrons who were deeply mired in the farm crisis of the 1980s.
When a nearly frozen kitten was dropped through the library's night drop box, Vicki found a symbol to rally the small town's citizens. Receiving permission to adopt the kitten as the "resident" library cat, the new arrival became a local celebrity and began to change the attitude of the local residents.
Named by the townspeople, Dewey's antics but a smile on their faces and he brought people in from the surrounding area to see this remarkable feline. When he died two years ago at the age of 19, Dewey's obituary appeared in over 250 newspapers and was announced on the national television evening news.
The heartwarming story of this extraordinary cat will put a smile on any reader's face and might be a nice change-of-pace from the dire headlines that have recently captured the front pages of our newspapers.
Swan Peak
James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas. New York, New York 10020
9781416548522 $25.95 www.simonsays.com
The seventeenth novel in the top-selling Dave Robicheaux series finds the righteous, complex, and humanly flawed Louisiana lawman in the Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana.
Hoping to enjoy a little R & R fishing in Montana, Robicheaux, his wife, Molly, and a friend, Clete Purcel, have their vacation marred by a series of murders. The execution style killing of a college student and the rape and murder of the boy's girlfriend set in motion a chain of events that not only ruin the trio's holiday in the bucolic Rockies but also nearly get them added to a rapidly expanding "victims" list!
With two Edgar awards already sitting on his fireplace mantle, Burke might have elected to rest on his laurels, but the Missoula, Montana, writer hasn't lost his deft touch. As good as any of its predecessors, this latest Robicheaux adventure won't disappoint Burke's legions of fans.
Twisted
Andrea Kane
William Morrow
9780061236785 $23.95
Andrea Kane launches a new romantic thriller series with the introduction of Sloane Burbank, a former FBI agent and trained hostage negotiator who is now working as an independent consultant.
Specializing in training law enforcement personnel and private organizations in crisis resolution, Sloane has her own "crisis" closer to home to deal with when a childhood friend mysteriously disappears.
Joining forces with her ex-lover, Derek Parker, the FBI agent in charge of the case, Sloane and Parker uncover a complex situation that involves a number of grisly murders in Chinatown. With more women disappearing and others turning up brutally murdered, the investigation quickly turns into a hunt for a crazed killer.
When she becomes the target of the madman, Sloane will need to use all of her considerable skills to avoid becoming his next victim. Andrea Kane has built her reputation on intricate and accurate plots; with this new series she takes her writing to the next level with a complex and thoroughly captivating heroine. Sloane Burbank will surely appeal to more readers and swell the numbers of Kane's fan club!
Bob Walch
Reviewer
Buhle's Bookshelf
Treading Lightly
David A. Anderson
Pensive Press
205 Bluffwood Drive, Danville, KY 40422
9780970905727, $15.00, www.pensivepress.com
The key to a better tomorrow is not as complicated as one would think, but in fact, far simpler. "Treading Lightly: The Joy of Conservation, Moderation, and Simple Living" is a call to solving the world's energy and environmental issues by simply living a simpler and more Earth-friendly life. Saying that standard of living doesn't have to fall, but much wiser decisions must be made, "Treading Lightly" offers newer and more innovative ideas for readers who are concerned about the state of the environment.
One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!
Eric Yoder & Natalie Yoder
Science, Naturally!
627 A Street NE Washington, DC 20002
9780967802015, $9.95, www.sciencenaturally.com
Science can be a highly entertaining and appealing subject, if presented right. "One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!" is a collection of simple science experiments to get children motivated and excited by science. Encouraging critical thinking skills, it teaches children to think quickly and scientifically. "65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science" is a highly recommended purchase for science teachers who want to introduce a bit of extra fun into the classroom.
Me, Myself, and I
Sandra McLeod Humphrey
CSS Publishing Company
517 South Main Street, Lima, OH 45804
9780788025600, $13.95, www.kidscandoit.com
The time between young adulthood and childhood, a time where you're just stuck in the middle. "Me, Myself, and I: Youth Meditations for Grades Five Through Eight" is a collection of solid and inspirational advice for children in these years. Offering a Christian perspective for Christians growing up and dealing with the strange middle time in their lives, the advice is solid and should help kids deal with the coming problem of becoming teenagers. "Me, Myself, and I" would be a great gift for religious tweens.
God's Strategy for Tragedy
Ben Godwin
Deeper Revelation Books
PO Box 4260, Cleveland, TN 37320-4260
9780942507454, $14.99, www.deeperrevelationbooks.org
God has a plan for us all, but where does tragedy fit into them? "God's Strategy for Tragedy" is the story of Ben Godwin and the tragedy of a severe bicycle accident. He was ruled a cripple, but a miracle from God, as Godwin dubs himself, allowed his bone to heal and him to regain his ability to walk. Devoting his life to the lord, he hopes to inspire faith in readers, explaining how miracles can still happen in the modern day. "God's Strategy for Tragedy" is a must for those who want to still believe.
More Than The Gift
Larry Robinson
Aventine Press
750 State St., #319 San Diego, CA 92101
159330546X, $13.95, www.morethanthegift.net
Giving is something cherished by many as charity, but what does it really mean? "More Than The Gift" is an examination of the purpose for giving for Christians. It's more than the gift, it's the thought, the motive, and the relationship between the giver and the receiver. Composed in a work book format that allows readers to read along and write down their own thoughts, "More Than The Gift" is an educational and thought provoking look at the practice of gift giving.
Doubt After Doubt
Rob Jacik
Lulu
860 Aviation Parkway, Suite 300, Morrisville, NC 27560
9781435719637, $21.95, www.lulu.com
Many believers are full of questions, ending in doubt. "Doubt After Doubt: Doubting the Christian Faith" is Rob Jacik's collection of thoughts on his doubts about Christianity, after being raised a Catholic. He speaks on many subjects on the road of embracing modern paganism, including the contradictions and misuses of Christianity, and the universal dilemma of worldly evil. "Doubt After Doubt" is food for thought for anyone questioning their faith.
One has to consider the source when taking advice on any subject. "Inside Scoop: Articles About Acting and Writing By Hollywood Insiders and Published Authors" is a collection of works from people who do know what they are talking about. With writers talking from many positions in the wide reaching label that is show business, it also contains biography listing the writer's credentials. A valuable resource for a Show business wannabe who wants to be smart about his career, "Inside Scoop" is a must.
Withstanding the Lie
Roger & Nicole Brewer
Privately Published
95 Ross Road, Rockfall, CT 06481
9781419695506, $15.99, www.withstandingthelie.com
The lie that everyone will accept you for who you are – a lie, that although inspiring, is still a lie. "Withstanding the Lie" is a collection of anecdotes, short fiction, essays, and other writings from the father daughter team of Roger & Nicole Brewer. Honest and upfront, their words tell people how the world is and inspires them deal with the harsh realities that life puts in front of them. "Withstanding the Lie" is worth reading for anyone who feels they are a minority in their environment.
As seniors age there is a need to keep their intellect stimulated. One of the best ways to do this is through simple puzzles and exercises. "Senior Smart Puzzles: Book 2" is another compilation developed by author Lindy McClean providing hidden objects, same/different, mazes, and other stimulating exercises that are as fun as they are effective. Enhanced with full page black-and-white illustrations of each of the games and exercises. Of special note is the concluding section of 'Solutions' for each featured puzzle. "Senior Smart Puzzles: Box 2" is especially recommended for activities directors of Senior Citizen Centers, Assisted Living Facilities, and Nursing Homes. Also highly recommended is the first volume of "Senior Smart Puzzles" (9781419646881, $10.99) by Lindy McClean.
Start Talking
Mary Jo Rapini & Janine Sherman
Bayou Publishing
2524 Nottingham, Houston, TX 77005-1412
KSB Promotions (publicity)
55 Honey Creek NE, Ada, MI 49301-9768
9781886298316, $14.95, www.starttalkingbook.com
Talking to one's child is a dying art that parents need to rediscover. "Start Talking: A Girl's Guide for You and Your Mom about Health, Sex, or Whatever" is a book to help mothers and daughters reform that bond that has so often been lost. Focusing on teenagers and the smorgasbord of changes that come with that age, it tackles everything from the first period to virginity to yoga to most importantly, how to deal with boys and everything that comes with them. "Start Talking" is highly recommended as reading for both mother and daughter, sure to forge quite the bond between them.
The Sign Of the Grail
C.J.S. Hayward
C.J.S. Hayward Publications
530 East Indiana, Wheaton, IL 60187-5562
9780615202198, $40.00, www.cjshayward.com
Down through the centuries, the Legend of King Arthur has been used as an icon for so many literary works in the western world. "The Sign of the Grail" is a collection of memorable literary works by C.J.S. Hayward centering around the Holy Grail and what it means to orthodox religion, as well as those who follow those teachings. Tackling diverse subjects such as iconography and an earthly paradise, he pulls no punches when dealing with many of the topics laid out through the legends. "The Sign of the Grail" is a unique, scholarly, and thorough examination of the Grail mythos, granting it a top recommendation for academia and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in these subjects. Also very highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library collections are C.J.S. Hayward's other deftly written and original literary works, essays, and commentaries compilations and anthologies: "Yonder" (9780615202174, $40.00); "Firestorm 2034" (9780615202167, $40.00); "A Cord Of Seven Strands" (9780615202174, $40.00); ""The Steel Orb" (9780615193618, $40.00); "The Christmas Tales" (9780615193632, $40.00); and "Hayward's Unabridged Dictionary" (9780615193625, $40.00).
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
Duck
Nic Bettauer
Above the Line Publishing
468 N. Camden Drive #200, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Noelle Brown Public Relations
ncbrown7@earthlink.net
1891803239, $19.98, www.duckthemovie.com
Hope can come in the strangest of packages. "Duck" is a novelization of the critically acclaimed independent film. Arthur is down on his luck and his only friend is a duck named Joe. Trying to make something of his life, he soon learns that the duck has more to offer him than the occasional annoying quack. Hope for life and hope for the future are the name of the game, and "Duck" is a brilliant novelization of an excellent film.
None of the Above
Joseph Farah
WND Books
c/o Midpoint Trade Books
27 West 20th Street, Suite 1102, New York, NY 10011
9781935071013, $16.95, www.wndbooks.com
"None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year to Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote" comes at voting readers with a powerful political message – that sometimes the best choice is to not make one. Saying that rejecting the two party system will further American civil rights, help purge corruption, and other benefits, that a revolt of this magnitude is needed to put America on the right track, not a Democrat or Republican in the White House. "None of the Above" offers a new and fresh message, food for thought for anyone who is sure of who they are going to vote for in November.
As If We Were Grownups
Jeff Golden
RiverWood Books
PO Box 3400, Ashland, OR 97520
1883991730, $12.00, www.riverwoodbooks.com
Honesty is the best policy is what we're told as children. But how many follow this policy? "As If We Were Grownups: A Collection of 'Suicidal' Political Speeches That Aren't" looks into the harsh reality of American politics that many simply attack listeners with an array of feel good cliches and everything they simply want to hear. Inside, are an array of speeches from politicians that are frighteningly honest, and while many campaign managers fear them, have proved highly effective on their respective campaign trail. "As If We Were Grownups" is enthusiastically recommended reading, and a 'must' for those who demand more political honesty in their politicians.
My Life as a Bush
John Morgan
Creation House
c/o Strang Company
600 Rineheart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746
McCain & Co. (publicity)
1318 Riverwood Dr., Nashville, TN 37216
9781599794594, $14.99, www.georgebushimpersonator.com
Everybody has their imitators, and some make a career out of it. "My Life as a Bush...and my heart for imitating Jesus" tells the story of a man who has made quite the name for himself impersonating our commander-in-chief. He tells many stories of his life in times and goes to spread on the words of another man he tries to thrive to imitate, free of charge – Jesus Christ. A story from a man with an interesting career with a powerful message, "My Life as a Bush" is a highly recommended and intriguing read.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Cheri's Bookshelf
A Guitar and A Pen: Stories By Country Music's Greatest Songwriters
Robert Hicks, John Bohlinger and Justin Stelter
Center Street a division of Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue New York, NY 10017
9781599950648 $23.99 www.centerstreet.com
Who else could write stories to tug at your heart strings or lift your spirits than some of Nashville's great song writers! After all we've seen how country songwriters can write three and a half minute songs that become great but what can they do with a blank piece of paper and a pen and this book "A Guitar and A Pen" proves that they can do it. This book is a collection of twenty-five short, short stories written by some of Nashville's best. After all who best to write these brief stories than the greatest storytellers – Nashville song writers. The book opens with a Forward written by who else but Vince Gill and goes on from there with stories by such writers as Charlie Daniels (Curtis Loach), Kris Kristofferson ( A Rock a reviewer favorite), Tia Sillers (How I Stayed a Boy), Gary Nicholson (Whitey Johnson), Dony Winn (Shiny, Like New) , Hank Ketchum (The Clock Struck Nine), Janis Ian (Of Guitars and Righteous Men), Don Cook (Born and Raised In Black and White), Bobby Braddock (Cybersong) and Tom T. Hall ( The Day Jimmy Killed the Rabbit also a reviewer favorite) as well as the authors Robert Hicks (Gathering Together) and John Bohlinger (A Big Batch of Biscuits). This is an awesome blend of fiction, non-fiction and humor and also included is a short biography of each writer.
The authors spent six years compiling stories and searching for a publisher and as luck would have it found Center Street. This reviewer loves the quote by one of the authors Robert Hicks in an interview with Carrie Runnals "Nashville is a small town in many ways; even more important, it's one of the most accessible places on earth for the creative. Many of the contributors in this book are not only colleagues but also life-long friends." Be sure to check out the rest of the interview at www.wordstomouth.com
Whether you are a fan of country music or a reader of short stories this is one book not to be missed. Co-writers Robert Hicks, John Bohlinger and Justin Stelter have certainly delivered as they have done an amazing job of compiling an awesome group of stories. So sit back and enjoy "A Guitar and A Pen" and check out the other side of some of Nashville's greatest song writers!
The Bride Bargain
Kelly Eileen Hake
Barbour Books
PO Box 719 Uhrichsville, OH 44863
9781602601758 $10.97 www.barbourbooks.com
Clara Field determined to care for herself and her Aunt Doreen Edgerly, are on their way out West to Oregon leaving behind their unhappy lives of the East. But when things got rough for them on the wagon train the trail boss leaves them behind to fend on their own. Stopping in Buttonwood they find they are two days behind the wagon train and can't possibly catch up before winter.
Josiah Reed owner of the General Store sets up a deal with the two ladies to care for his home and help with the store in exchange for a place to stay until Spring. Having no other choice Clara agrees.
While in Baltimore Josiah's son Saul is making plans to come to Buttonwood to watch Josiah's store so that he can go back East to attend the birth of his first grandchild. Saul is determined to return to Baltimore to his medical practice and to raise the orphan girl Midge that he has taken in to raise after the death of her sister.
Plans and deals are made between all players as all have ulterior motives of their own. See what happens when all set their own dreams and desires aside and allow God to set forth His plan to the amazement of all as love blossoms between unlikely characters.
In this amazing tale that can't be put down the author does an outstanding job in the lives of her characters as they leap off the page and into your heart. Determination is key in this unique tale of romance set on the Oregon trail as the West was being built. God-teaching abounds as all must learn that God is in control. And it's nothing short of amazing what young author Kelly Eileen Hake has accomplished in her twenty-three years. Check her out at her website at www.kellyeileenhake.com you'll see that this accomplished author is not afraid of hard work or seemingly impossible goals and just like her character Clara in this novel "The Bride Bargain" is definitely no exception.
The Twelfth Window: The Cychaea Series Book One
J. M. Norwood
